"Again."
Right...hook...slide...throw...
"Again."
Right...hook...slide...throw...
"Again!" Draco growled, his footsteps halting beside one of the pairs. As they followed through the motion again, Draco leaned towards Reno who had his long sleeves wrapped around his torso, his bare upper physique drenched in sweat. They had been training for seven hours, and they were all terribly sweaty that they appeared as if they went swimming. "Your throw is weak." He shoved Reno aside, lifting his hands towards Bronsted who inhaled a sharp breath, his legs already started to quaver as if father approached him with his eyes sharpened. "Your throw is meant to purposely make your enemy land on his neck, snapping it instantly. If you do it wrong, he'll get up and beat the fuck out of you. Like this..."
"You're not actually—hold on Dad!" Before Bronsted could protest further, his father demonstrated the motion, but as he threw Bronsted towards the ground, he didn't follow through the entire throw and instead kept his grip locked, Bronsted halting in the air. He returned Bronsted to his feet and returned his attention to Reno who grumbled curses under his breath. "Is there a fucking problem, Moreno?"
"We're all fucking tired."
"Speak for yourself," they heard as a low growl from Lucius, which made Reno roll his eyes.
"Lucius is the only one of us who's never tired," Jake commented as he let his body fall onto the ground, his back slammed against the cemented floor of the indoor training arena. They had been sparring with one another, hand-to-hand combat, to improve their close range techniques, but Draco's movements and patterns were elite but unnatural, making it difficult for all of them.
Mostly Nate, who had to learn to adjust with his one arm, and who allowed himself to drop onto his back the moment he heard the thud from Jake. The domino effect continued, Reno falling next and Jules following shortly after. Eventually came Lori's turn as he let his body run completely numb and fell into the floor, and finally, Dante collapsed as well. Bronsted followed suit, and Draco observed all of them gasping for air, as if they were fighting for their lives.
Draco shook his head, his lip curled as he observed his sons in disgust. But the worst of them all was Eleanor, who had been unconscious for a while now. Although she was strong and agile, she hadn't been trained to such extreme in a very long time, hence she needed time to adapt to the strenuous activities while on barely any sleep.
Draco's eyes eventually landed on Lucius, and although he was proud of his straight spine with his palms on his hips, appearing completely fresh as if he hadn't endured an extremely exhausting training session, the rest of them were nowhere near his stamina and abilities.
"Troop bonding tonight," their father announced as he began making his way to the exit of the arena.
That caused a few ears to perk, and Lori to completely push himself to sit. "By that, do you mean we can..." He was ecstatic but didn't want to get too much of his hopes up. It had been a while since they had been allowed on the outsides. "...We can go clubbing...?"
All their eyebrows raised with hope. Draco narrowed his eyes suspiciously, examining all of the happiness that radiated from their faces before scoffing, "Fine." They all withheld their cheers, especially Reno who had to plant his palm over his mouth to hide it. However, Draco leaned towards them and pointed a finger in each of their directions. "No fucking scandals! Last time, you all had the police involved." He folded his arms. "The only reason I'm allowing this is to release the stress and unleash a bit of hormones; it helps get optimal training results."
The only one who complained was Lucius, who snorted, "I'm not fucking going clubbing, that's stupid."
Until his father faced him with a menacing glare across his golden piercing eyes. He huffed terribly loud that it appeared as if there had been physical smoke pushed through his nostrils. "It's an order."
"Fuck off." Draco's eyes widened from the disrespect, observing Lucius wave a dismissive hand, as if his father didn't have any authority over him. "You can go to that, how about that?"
"Lucius, it's not worth the fight," Reno grumbled through heavy breaths.
"You're only saying that because you're scared of him."
Draco lifted his chin, a smirk coiling on his lip as he observed the arrogance stretched across his son's face; a true heir of the Hercules. Lucius reminded him too much of himself, and it was no coincidence that he had been the one to kill his own father. He wondered if the cycle would repeat itself...well, it didn't hurt to find out.
It was a surprise to Lucius when his father raised both his fists, his knuckles wrapped in tape at either sides of his jawline. The confusion on Lucius' face eventually twisted to deluded agitation as he also lifted his fists, understanding exactly what was going to happen.
"I win," he announced, laughing as he continued, "I don't need to assist to any more of these ludicrous trainings."
"And if I win—"
"You don't have to finish your sentence," Lucius growled with a wide delirious smile, resembling of an excited beast that finally had the chance to devour his wanted target. He leaped into the air towards his father with his fist pulled back, prepared to launch an attack. "You're not going to fucking wi—!"
—1 hour later—
Dante scoffed, "You didn't need to do all that."
"How about you shut up?" Lucius snapped at his younger irritating brother who didn't have anything better to do but to watch him being treated by a grinning Sarah.
Although she didn't exactly want them to have to come to the infirmary, since it meant they were injured, needing to clean a wound on Lucius' abdomen meant gazing at his extraordinary physique without it being weird. Being able to touch along the lines of his abs or accidentally reach the shadows between each pecs, were what her and another nurses gossiped about during their days. As she was the head, she dealt with anyone from the Hercules family that visited, and she was certain the nurses would ask about it later, which they would all fond over.
Her grin instantly fell when Lucius snarled at her, "And what the fuck are you smiling about?"
"Stop being rude to everyone just because you're embarrassed of losing in less than an hour." That line from Dante was definitely not taken well by Lucius whose arm tightened, but as his fingers attempted to curve, the bruise across his bicep began to ache and he exhaled a short cry, squeezing his teeth together and leaning his head forward. His father had no mercy, getting as many hits as he could until Lucius was near knocked unconscious.
The worst about the both of them was that they had the same amount of self-destructive ego, that didn't let them admit defeat regardless of the dozens of pounding they received. Hence, even as Lucius choked on his own blood in his mouth, all he did was spit it aside and raised one fist, since his right arm ached terribly hard from a harsh punch he got onto his bicep.
"I don't think it was embarrassing," Jake chimed in, his arms folded as he watched the way Sarah was touching Lucius. "You looked amazing fighting him." That made Nate frown, glancing towards Jake who flinched when Lucius' death glare turned to him. Not because he was jealous of Lucius receiving those compliments, but because he was surprised at the amount Jake had been sharing to Lucius recently.
It had clearly taken the others by surprise, especially Reno who bursted out into laughter that caused Jake's grin to instantly vanish. Eleanor had placed a palm over her lips, muffling her hysterical laughter and even Bronsted had chuckled quietly. Jake tried to hide his face by turning away from them, but it hadn't been quick enough to make them not see the slight tint of pink that spread across his cheeks. "Jake thinks that he can compliment his way out of being killed by Lucius," Reno mocked.
"Jake thinks Lucius has a praise kink," Eleanor laughed as she wiggled her eyebrows.
"He's been a Lucius die-hard fan for the past week of training," Jules embarrassed further, before placing his finger on his chin and staring at Jake suspiciously. "Do you have a crush on him or something?"
That made both Nate and Dante chuckle, but it was not appreciated by Jake whose face beamed red, but not from humiliation but from irritation. However, as he glanced at the three of them that had made comments, his eyes only settled on Jules as he spat, "You're not very funny, has anyone told you that? Besides, weren't you tortured by all of them?" Most of their laughters paused as Jake pointed to Jules and hissed, "And now your friends with them? I think that's the funniest thing here; that you're a joke."
"Geez," Eleanor mumbled as she stepped away from Jake who had stepped a bit closer to them, "learn how to take a fucking joke."
Jules muscles instantly tightened, his face darkened as a sudden anger began swirling within the pits of his stomach. He had been teasing, but to have been thrown such a low blow was not settling well with his nerves, which was why he released the restraints of the urges and lunged forward with his fists clenched. However, before he could reach him, Reno had placed himself in between the pathway and his arms had landed directly around Jules torso, halting his trajectory. "Why are you getting so mad, Julian Dayne?" Jake broadened his shoulders with a lengthy condescending smirk toying on his lips. "You self-made clown!"
"He was fucking teasing, Jake." Reno involved himself, stepping in front of Jake before he could get any closer to Reno who was having a difficult time holding back Jules. Although they were the same height, Jules had more pounds of muscle than Reno, but he exhaled a sigh of relief when Jules finally stopped his fight. "Besides, you getting this angry over a stupid comment pretty much proves him right."
Jake's teeth gritted.
"Who doesn't have a crush on Lucius, let's be honest?" Lori was finally getting his mojo back after being embarrassed over and over again ever since he was ambushed at the bar. The training had been paying off, and that was why he felt comfortable enough saying that, and when all eyes turned to him, he raised his hand with a smirk and said, "I'm just kidding."
"You're not kidding," Nate snorted.
Lori tilted his head from side to side as he pondered, "Crush wouldn't be the right word since I'm not gay, but Lucius has the best body out of all of us."
"No he fucking doesn't." Dante's tone had been stern, a low groan escaping his lips. He planted his palms on his hips as he waved his hand in disappointment. "Why have you all become Lucius groupies?"
"You're right baby," Eleanor smirked as she approached Dante, reaching for his shoulder. "The one with the best body out of all of us is you." Nate rolled his eyes and glanced elsewhere; he still needed to get used to that. The only thing now was that he couldn't cause a scene since Dante and himself had chosen not to be together and to instead build a connection the right way. Thus, he sucked back in all the insults and glanced away from them. Thankfully, before Eleanor could plant her palm against him, Dante gripped her wrist and gently returned her hand back to her side, although he didn't say anything. She wasn't sure what was worst, being rejected or being completely disregarded.
Lucius had closed his eyes, as if he was restraining himself from bursting into flames and slicing the throats of everyone in his surrounding without any mercy. The only thing that did was zone out their voices, but he now noticed the heavy breathing of Sarah, who couldn't hide her desires starting to grow within her blood the more they spoke about Lucius and the longer she touched his flesh.
"Don't say all," Bronsted corrected with a sneer. "I wholeheartedly and unforgivably hate Lucius."
Nate's lips tightened into a line and he shook his head in disapproval. "Hate is a strong word."
Bronsted beamed, "Exactly why I used it."
If his eyes had been opened, he would've rolled them, but Bronsted had never been of interest to him. "I barely even talk to you, Bronze. You're so insignificant that I sometimes forget you exist."
"Doesn't even know my name," Bronsted scowled.
Lucius' lips curled in disdain. "They should've killed you instead of Molly."
Bronsted happily nodded his head. "And that is why I hate you."
"I don't hate Lucy bunny," Reno grinned giddily, noticing that Lucius had at least opened his eyes and acknowledged him. It was also a surprise that the narrowed eyes softened when he met the gaze of Reno. "I'm still a little upset that he killed Walker, but I don't hate him."
"I don't particularly hate you either, Moreno." That caused Reno's eyebrows to raise, his eyes unable to hide the sudden brightness that enveloped them. Tiny praises from the person that hated everyone was always a much better compliment than from anyone.
Nate planted a palm on his hip. "Well, if we're talking about people we hate, I hate Eleanor."
That caused a few of them to chuckle, but Eleanor furrowed her brows. "You hate me because Dante loves me and not you?"
"If that helps you sleep at night," Nate snickered, "then by all means, tell yourself that."
"You two are so annoying," Lucius growled. "But you," although it hadn't been violent, it still left a bruise on Sarah's wrist when Lucius reached for it and shoved her backwards, stopping her treatment, "are taking way too fucking long."
"I really think you should be checked for a little longer," Dante suggested, but the worry in his tone was evident, which warranted a displeased glare from Lucius.
Nate nodded his head, reaching for Lucius and pulling his shirt back upwards to examine his abdomen. The fact that he didn't shove him apart was also noticed by the others, who glanced at one another but didn't say anything. "Those marks are pretty harsh on your—"
"We're leaving." His voice had been deepened threateningly as he shoved Nate's fingers apart from him and violently pulled down his shirt. He stood to his feet terribly fast that the chair almost flew backwards, and he brushed past Sarah with such aggressiveness that she almost fell from her seat.
Before Nate left followed Lucius to the exit, he paused by the doorway and turned back, meeting Dante's gaze. Although Dante didn't seem irritated or saddened, it was a bit noticeable that he wanted to say something but the words were stuck at the tip of his tongue. However, his grey irises twinkled distinctively when Nate addressed him amicably.
"I'm heading out with him." That was all he said, but it was enough to form a small smile on Dante's lips; Nate evidently still cared about him.
"I can see that."
Nate paused for a second, looking down as he thought of something else to say. "Uh..." It was strange, since he used to speak to Dante as if it was nothing, either bashing on him or expressing love to him, admitting desires or shouting at him. However, in this moment, he felt eminently nervous, as if there were butterflies that roamed his stomach. There was even a slight giddiness, as if this was a new territory he could explore, and that was why he was determined to find something else to say. Eventually, he settled with a quick head nod followed with, "Are you coming to the bar with us?"
The same thing happened with Dante. The conversation was not at all awkward, but more so a new playing ground that he wasn't used to. Without realizing it, his fingers had found each other and he twiddled with his thumbs; he felt as if he was back to high school afraid to talk to his crush, but the way his heart thumped was definitely a feeling he relished. He slowly nodded his head, swallowed hard and replied, "Of course." He didn't mean to sound breathless, but that was how it came out.
"See you there." And with that, Nate turned and left the infirmary, and Dante was stuck staring at the doorway. This feeling was odd, the adrenaline rush filled with uncertainty of what was going to happen next, of who was going to make the first move, if there was going to be a first move.
But he liked it.
It had been such a long time since Dante crushed on anyone, but the giddiness even caused his cheeks to beam red, terribly red that he only realized when laughter surrounded him and the others were pointing at him. However, it did cause a sour look to pull Eleanor's face, and she turned on her heels as she headed for the exit. If they were going clubbing tonight, then it was her chance to woo back Dante, and she would do it, regardless of what it took.