I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 76 - Outclassed

The first round was a contrast of opposites. They started all four matches simultaneously, mostly for expediency. One of the fights was over within moments. Turner had been matched with Ayett, and it was a slaughter. Ayett was consistently at the bottom of the Novice class, in large part thanks to his own laziness. He seemed to run his life by the principle of putting in a minimal amount of effort for everything. Consequently, he was equally lacking in his academic performance as he was in his combat skills. Turner, on the other hand, was one of the top ten Senior Novices. So he literally wiped the grass with Ayett.

Two of the remaining three fights were pretty evenly matched. In each contest, the competitors were middle of the road. They were the sort of matches that could go either way – and in fact, had they been repeated the next day the result could well have been different.

But the fight between Chan and Everett was the one to watch. Both also ranked in the top ten, and their fight was faster and longer than any of the others. When Chan finally faux staked Everett there were cheers from the audience.

After giving Chan a few minutes to recover, the second round started. Chan and Turner had drawn the other two Novices, so while the outcome was pretty much a foregone conclusion, it was still fun to watch. During the second round, Janine stood up and started doing her stretches. It would be embarrassing to pull a muscle during a fight with a Novice!

Watching her mother, Rose was looking forward to seeing her fight. A lot of the people here would never have seen it, but Rose knew from first-hand experience just how badass her Mom could be. Abe was also watching on with interest. Rose supposed he must be feeling a little like she did when she saw Dimitri fight.

Speaking of Dimitri, he was standing next to Alberta, helping adjudicate Turner's match. Watching him, Rose had one of her occasional 'holy shit he's actually mine, and we're married!' moments. It's not that she forgot she was married – the gold band on her finger and the 6 foot 7 man in her bed reminded her every day. But sometimes it was hard to believe that they'd found their way through and were 'out' and openly in love. Feeling her gaze upon him, Dimitri looked over to where Rose sat on the grass. His Guardian mask on, she suppressed a smile when she saw him put his hand into his pants pocket, a momentary flash of red revealing what he was touching.

As expected the final Novice match was between Chan and Turner. Chan was probably the better competitor, but Turner was better rested given his first match hadn't been much of a fight at all. So it really could go either way. In the end, it was Chan by a tiny margin, but Turner had put up a bloody good fight. Shaking Chan's hand, he went to stand beside Everett – both of them swearing they'd be back to have another go next week or the week after.

They gave Chan a few minutes to recover, Alberta taking the time to introduce Janine and outline her career. Rose had to suppress a giggle as her mother's rather formidable accomplishments were described. Once she would have resented the list - seeing it as proof of a parent who'd had more interest in her career than her child. But now Rose knew better, and she was able to take pride in all her mother had achieved. Once Alberta had finished introducing Janine, she reiterated the rules of the fight.

Janine, for her part, looked relaxed. While a lot of Guardians would have their egos invested in a win, Janine knew it was more about the learning opportunity for the students. Not that she intended to lose, of course.

Now the final fight was on Dimitri was no longer required in an official capacity. Coming over to where Rose stood he pulled his hair out. Rose took off his hoodie passing it back to him. Putting it on Dimitri smiled "It smells like you. I like that," he murmured, standing behind Rose and wrapping her in his arms. "Eddie? Vika? Come here. I'll explain the fight."