Mercy Me

Feelings

FLASHBACK

Silence. Deafening silence filled the room, only broken by the sound of Katherine's breathing. The sat on a solitary chair in the center of the room, trying her hardest not to fidget. The door opened to reveal her father stood haughtily before her.

"Number Eight. The others have finished their training for today. Now you will begin yours. Number Two and yourself will be combat training together since neither of your powers affect your ability to defend yourself against assailants hand to hand." Reginald said, sticking his nose in the air.

Diego stepped from being him looking like he would rather be anywhere else. The fourteen year old boy was steaming that his father thought he needed more training. On the other hand, he knew that if anyone could help her with combat, it would be him. He had seen her fight and it was sloppy at best. At the very least he could help her defend herself. After all, Katherine was one of the only people in the house that he could stand to be around.

Kat had been raised differently from the others. Much like Vanya, she was kept under lock and key until time for a mission, then she was allowed out with the others in the public eye. The others did their best to include her in things, especially Five, Klaus, and Ben. Diego had never particularly spent a lot of time with her, he just noticed her in passing and kept her from being hurt during missions.

As soon as they were given the go ahead, they began sparring. By the end of the three hour session, Kat had recieved a split lip, a broken nose, and several places that would have certainly been bruises. Those had all healed almost as soon as they appeared, the flesh wounds only leaving blood as a reminder that they had even been there. Diego had recieved a nasty bloody eyebrow, a broken nose, and several potential bruises.

Reginald called time to stop, and both children collapsed to the floor in exhaustion athe moment he left. Kat managed to crawl over to Diego and sit up, pulling him into a sitting position. She looked at his face and cringed. "Can I heal you?" She asked.

She had ne er needed to heal Diego before, and she had no idea on how he would react to her simply reaching out and touching his face.

He nodded, and she gave him a warm smile. Her hands slowly raised to touch his cheek. Within seconds, his face was healed, and his nose fixed. Her hand moved from his cheek to his chest, where she felt heartbeat thumping. She focused on the power flowing through her hand into him, and he gapsed quietly as all of the pain he was feeling from where she landed her hardest punches had disappeared.

Diego looked up at Kat as she took her hand off of his chest and stood up, offering the same hand to help him stand. He graciously accepted it, rising to his feet, then dusting himself off. They wordlessly walked together upstairs, where Luther and Allison were waiting for Diego so that they could question him.

They were surprised to say the least to see the boy approach with Kat by his side.

"What were you doing downstairs with Katherine for three hours?" Luther asked bluntly.

Kat lowered her head and avoided his intense gaze.

"We were training. Dad wants us to work together and work on hand to hand combat." Diego explained with a bored expression.

"Like that's gonna help," Luther scoffed, "we all know she's useless in a fight."

Diego saw red at those words. "You know what? She seemed able to handle herself pretty well when she has handing me my ass a little bit ago. And even if she doesn't fight on missions, how many times has she saved your asses when you get hurt, huh? Do why don't you lay off her, Number One?"