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"Larke!"
She blinks.
Her vision instantly slurring back together, Larke finds herself in a room with Rachel Roth, the girl with dark tendencies. She looks right at her, eyebrows raised slightly in question.
Rachel frowns, "you zoned out. For like, five minutes. It was getting kind of scary."
Larke nods her head once, acknowledging Rachel's complain, but then she herself frowns slightly.
"Wait, why may I ask, were you watching me stare into the oblivion for five minutes? Personally I think that's kind of scary." Larke chips at a smirk, qnd Rachel laughs a little.
"Okay, okay, fine. Touché. But seriously, what were you thinking about? You looked, uh, extremely deep into the thought so..." Rachel trails off, picking at the blanketing on her bed. She sits against her pillows and back board, while Larke sits criss-crossed in front of her tightly. Just habit, it's not that she's threatened in any way.
"Oh, right. Well, I don't know. I don't really know. I mean, for all I know I could've just been thinking about how big this place is or something," Larke half-lies, as she doesn't really want to tell what she saw.
Yes, to the outside person it might seem like she's just spacing out, but to her, she jumps into another world, like a dream. She sees things she didn't expect to, and sometimes that scares her, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time though, it's like a nightmare.
"Oh, okay." Rachel responds quietly, taking a brief moment of silence to stare at Larke. Larke stares back, but the silence is not awkward. It's just a tired one; both girls, preferably from training.
Well, it's just Rachel that's tired from training. Larke keeps herself up at night with nightmares of the past, that resonate with daily sounds or certain objects, as she buries the unnerving, maybe horrifying thoughts deep until she's completely alone to deal with them.
Otherwise she just can't sleep; its a new place, still relatively new people, a new occupation even. And comparing that to her old one, sure it's ten times better, plus she might even have a little fun with it, but it doesn't come with nearly an eigth of the stress she had on her.
And to Larke's surprise, she hasn't seen or heard from anyone from the League of Widows, or any other League for that matter. And she doesn't know whether to be anxious or relieved.
"Well, uh, I think this morning's talk has been fun, but we should go get something to eat. I'm starving," Rachel says, and Larke nods almost immediately.
The girls slide off the bed, head out the room, and start the long hallways of the Titans Tower. They make it almost to the kitchen, but Larke stops, something catching her eye.
Or someone.
Rachel doesn't realize she's stopped until she reaches the end of the hallway, and stops, looking back at Larke. Then she recognizes where she's looking-- the training center.
She's looking for Jason. I knew it.
The psychic girl giggles slightly to herself, then heads down towards Larke. She steps beside her, and nudges her a little. Larke elbows her right back, knowing what she's getting at.
"Go!" Rachel whispers.
"No, it's rude. They're sparring, I shouldn't interrupt."
"Okay Larke, news flash: this isn't the League of Ninjas, or whatever they're called. Just go," Rachel deadpans quietly, giving Gar a friendly smile. He nods his head, scratching it too. Larke sighs, wanting to correct Rachel but stops herself, taking a couple steps into the room. She looks Jason up and down, her eyes sliding over his body easily. Rachel smirks. Larke sees Jason with a blindfold on, a wooden sword in hand.
Oh good God, what the hell is he doing now? The ex-assasin thinks, tilting her head slightly.
"Okay, on my mark, come at me. And don't hold back," Jason says calmly, his voice steady. He keeps a low, heavy-looking stance. Larke sees the small critiques she could tell him about.
Key word being could, and not should.
So she keeps her mouth shut, and decides to enjoy seeing Jason fail.
Gar nods, and Jason asks, "did you just nod?"
"Yeah. Got it, just uh... don't hold back," Gar responds sarcastically. Rachel nudges Larke again, and Larke shrugs.
"We'll see how this goes," she says aloud, loud enough for everyone to hear. As soon as she says it, the boys move.
"Go!"
It's a clash or two, then the wind sliding across the wooden blades, and Gar doesn't believe Jason's blindfold actually works, as he's got his blade across the green haired boy's chest.
Gar waves his hand in front of Jason, slightly concerned that he can see, but then slides away, realizing that Jason cannot, in fact, see.
And then, to Larke's surprise, they start to spar. Well, not like she learned how to, but a version that suits an egotistical teenage boy and a shy and true tigerboy.
They move slowly at first, but it becomes methodical and smooth as they go on. Each time the swords hit Larke restrains from blinking, her mind buzzing back and forth between what's real and what's not. Everytime the swords hit, her mind freezes, taking her back to the first time she ever sparred. The pain and misery she went through.
It hurts her, as her fingers start to physically feel shaky, so she lifts her arms and crosses them, hiding her hands. If she can't control it, she better hide it before someone sees it.
Another clash, and it brings her back to reality, and Jason spins himself in the air, lands feet first facing the wall, as Gar stands behind him semi-lazily. He takes two steps forward and hits him on the back of the head.
Jason flies upright, and Larke can't help but laugh. She stifles it, her hand flying up to her own mouth.
Jason spins on his heel, ripping the blindfold off of his face. He feels embarrassed enough that Gar just beat him, but it definitely doesn't help that Larke was standing there, watching him the whole time, and she just laughed at him.
"The fuck, man?!"
"What? You said, 'don't hold back'." Gar lowers his voice to imitate Jason's, which only makes Larke smile appear-- a rare sight indeed.
Rachel steps forward, onto the mat, followed by Larke.
"Do I need to get the hose?" Rachel asks, and Larke mutters something in aggreance.
"What's going on in here?" Dick's voice suddenly asks, and the man walks around the corner, coming into the sparring area. Larke's attention turns to him as she settles in her spot on the mat, feeling the mat beneath her socked feet.
"We did what you said, the blindfold thing. Fucking sucked!" Jason complains, and Gar taps his sword onto the ground firmly.
"He said don't hold back," He argues.
"Hey why do we even learn to fight like this man? Hey, it's idiotic, we have eyes." Jason deadpans, notioning to his eyes. Larke rolls her eyes at his blindness, and senses a wise aura take over Dick's demeanor. She already understands what he's about to say.
"In battle anything can be taken from you," Dick says, stepping forward. Close enough to touch all four of them, Larke notices.
"Your hands,"
Dick disarms Jason out of the blue, taking his sword.
"Your feet,"
He moves his wooden sword smoothly, twisting it against Gar's, forcing his to quickly point to the ground between his feet.
"And your eyes,"
Lunging, Dick takes a stab at Rachel's eyes, stopping a good distance away from them. She doesn't even blink.
"No matter what is taken from you, you must keep fighting and learn to win," he returns the sword to a regular position, only threatening the ground with it. "Alright get changed. Stacked scenarios in the tech room, five minutes."
And just like that, Dick Grayson is back to normal. Larke swallows, slightly bored at his talk with them.
"And breakfast," he adds.
But everyone seemed to understand the meaning, so they start to move. Gar and Rachel turn, walking out of the room. After all, Rachel was hungry before. Larke turns to walk away, as does Dick.
"How come you didn't say anything for Larke?" Jason asks, and Larke stops, looking to him expectantly.
From her view, Larke sees a frown is displayed over Dick's face, "Larke was trained by the League of Assassins. She's an assassin. She already knows what I'm talking about."
Jason looks exasperated, and quite boggled, already, and Larke knows Dick can't really say more to help Jason understand.
"I know how to fight without my hands Jason." Larke believes that is all she has to say, so she turns to leave once again.
"What about your feet?" Jason calls, trying to rile Larke up. It's been three months, and for the most part he's learned how to make flirting become annoying.
And when you get Larke annoyed, she pays attention to you. Jason plans to use that attention Larke would give him, and twist it into a likeability for him.
Larke stops at the doorframe, taking a slow inhale, back to Jason and Dick who both stare at her now.
"If you really want to see what I've learned to do, with or without my limbs, then I guess I'll see you outside."
Larke leaves not a moment later, knowing how the leave Jason thinking about her words, knowing it'll eat at him until he figures out what she means. Also, she knows damn well how to exit a room, leaving a mark on the people inside while simultaneously staying completely invisible to the naked eye.
Jason's face falls further, and Dick nods, knowing exactly what Larke just did. A smirk find his face as he swallows a small chuckle.
"Yeah, whatever. I could totally beat you," Jason brushes off the threat after a moment of hesitation, but Larke's already left the room with her chin held high.