Charlie's Devil

11 - "Tie breaker?"

"You know," he says as we walk down the path of Ivory Gardens. "You're a lot more relaxed than you seem."

I laugh slightly and tuck a piece of hair behind my ear before linking my arm through his again.

"I know I look a little stuck up, Frazier," I say, my voice light and airy. "I just like to keep work and social life separate."

"Your work is very important to you, I take it?" He says, and I'm trained to find the hint in his voice that tells me something is off.

"Of course," I reply, just as we come to a stop at the end of the path. "There's only one thing more important to me than work."

He turns towards me, and gives me a small smile.

"And what's that?"

I allow him to connect our hands and lace them against his stomach. Why he always wears a suit is beyond me.

I respond with a smile.

"My family."

• • •

I swiftly moved out of the way, just as the blade thrown at me grazed against my shirt. Frazier smirked. I returned it, picked up the disposed of blade and tucked it at my thigh before lunging. I jumped just in time and his hands went under my thighs as I wrapped my legs around his neck and pulled, making us both land on the ground.

I stood again, and quickly pulled out the blade, but Frazier was faster, and he yanked on my leg. I fell to the ground head first and groaned slightly as he pinned me down, grey eyes shining, and I swiftly raised my knee and kicked him right in the balls.

As he groaned and cupped himself, he rolled off me, and I stood up, wiping a thumb across my eyebrow. I summoned him up again, bouncing on my toes.

He shook his head with a chuckle. "You're in for it now, Angel." I raised my leg and kicked him in the nose, and he stumbled back, hand going to his nose in pain.

I smirked slightly as the blood dripped down from his nose, and the momentary distraction made Frazier easily grab my forearms and twist me around in the air, so that I was turned away from him with my wrists on my back in one of his hands. He tightened his hold, and I winced sightly at the pull in my shoulders.

He put one ankle in front of my calves and pushed me slightly so i stumbled and fell to the floor, once again banging my head with  force. I groaned as he held a hand out to me.

"Tie breaker?" He asked, and i nodded, shaking my hands and cracking my neck slightly.

As he came towards me to take me down, I jumped out of the way. Skidding to a stop, he didn't see as I moved back to allow myself a run up. He realised too late what I was going to do, and I spun as I kicked him again, right in the chin. He stumbled back and fell to his knees, as now blood poured from his nose heavily.

I finally got out of fighting position and rested my hands on my knees, panting heavily as he did the same.

"Cristo." He swore, stumbling to a stand as he pulled up my face, examining the bump on my forehead with a worried crease between his eyebrows. "Mi dispiace tanto, amore mio." He apologised, and I pointed to his nose with a tired grin, still panting.

He sighed, his chest heaving as he to attempted to recover from our training session. "I have fought the supposed most dangerous men in the world, il mio petardo." He said, and I looked up to meet his gaze as he gently grazed his hand against where the bruise would form. He pulled away and took off his shirt to hold it against his nose. I looked away. The softness in his eyes melted the ice around my heart a little. "And I fail to match them to you."