Catch the Stars ||Keith Kogane||

50

Trip was up before the sun, and even before Harron. Too nervous to sleep, she'd settled for whatever few moments she could get and then rose to begin the day. The first day training with the new squad 11. Her stomach had churned every waking moment when the healers had told her Braut would be fine to train the next day. They had two days to get ready for the plan, and then squad 11 would be off to meet the paladins and the blade.

But today, she was standing in the mountain. The polished training rooms only got used for first line squads, and she was the first to enter this morning. The guards had practically stumbled to greet her properly when she'd arrived, not expecting anyone at this house.

After a few test runs with her sword and injured arm, she figured she'd fought battles with more pain than this. And then she waited for the others, warming up because she knew Harron wouldn't take it easy on her just because she'd been hurt a few days before. If anything, he would push harder.

"When have you ever beaten us here?" The voice came as a shock, but not enough to make Trip jump. It was Haylie, and that meant no doubt Harron was with her.

Trip didn't look away, afraid to ruin her balance. Both forearms pressed to the ground, one aching more than the other, holding up the rest of her body in the air. A warm-up Litarra had made her begin every morning with to make sure she was balanced. Inwardly and outwardly. She still didn't know what that had meant.

She exhales carefully, "that means you're slacking."

"Or it means you're worried," Haylie corrects her. Trip wobbles in her stance, wondering how Haylie could tell that without even seeing her face. Then she remembers that it's Haylie. Rolling her eyes, she begins to lower herself onto the ground, her injured arm aching at her use.

"We're about to fight Zarkon," Trip reminds her as she climbs onto her feet, "are you not worried?"

"If she was sane, she would be," Harron comments, not a few steps behind his wife as they enter their training room.

Haylie only grins in response, dressed in her training gear of shorts and a support bra. As Trip stretches out her arms, she wonders how long it would take the others to show up. Braut and Esmerelda. The newest members that they would have to teach to work with the dynamic of this squad.

Only one really worried her.

Braut hated her. Even more than he had in the past, before the challenge. She still didn't understand why he agreed to her offer, she had been prepared for him to tell her to go fuck herself. Would the two of them be able to work around their past? At least just for a single mission.

Haylie walks up to her, blue eyes wide and curious, "so did you tell the paladins about who you're workin with?" she questions and then shrugs, "I'm actually asking if you told Keith. He'll be livid."

Harron grunts from where he was setting down his shield and sword by the door, "if that covers it."

Trip scrunches her nose, "huh?" she questions, reaching an arm over her head to stretch while they waited for the others, "why would any of them care?"

"Because you're working with someone who's probably still planning to kill you," Haylie reminds her with an obnoxious eye roll, "and you didn't see Keith when he was actively trying. I think he hates him about as much as me and Harron do."

"Then he'll have to get over like you two are," Trip says, "they have bigger things to worry about. We all do."

Hayle hummed, turning on her heel so she could wander to the center of the training room, and Harron began to follow her. Trip knew the two of them were by no means happy about their new situation, but she respected the fact that they accepted her choices. They trusted her. She hoped she wouldn't let them down.