Moonlight Nocturne

"It's still a lot of things!" She frowns. "... That's why they all come live with you? Where do the people who don't have monster hunter powers live?"

"You said the vampire lady eats chickens! Maybe you met at the chicken sacrifice store! With like, pentagrams on the floor!"

Okay, she's mostly joking about that. She leans on him contentedly. "... I can still hunt monsters, right?"

 

"...huh? No, they come around 'cause they're family, Elena." Nick gives her a confused tilt of the head. "...and they're her boyfriend's chickens. They lay eggs and stuff, and he's always talking about trying to stay local for stuff, when you can. He has a greenhouse and everything."

"...hah. Yeah, you can. I mean. Would you listen to me if I said you weren't allowed?" He gives her a toothy grin. "Because I know I didn't."

 

"Oh," she says quietly. "... can I meet her? I've never been to a greenhouse before."

"... I'd have to sneak around." Smiling tentatively back at him. "... what did you learn first?"

 

"...uuuh. No promises. You may see her once election season comes around, though." He hums. "...and I started by learning how to throw a punch."

 

"... aw. Okay." She perks up. "... how do you throw a punch? The last time I got in a fight at school--"

She breaks off, flushing red. Um. She was trying to keep that a secret. Oops.

 

He grins, takes her hand and shows her how to shape a proper fist. "Don't tuck your thumb unless you want to break it, and put your weight into your punch. Wanna see?"

 

"Yeah!" She starts to climb down the tree, lowering herself from branch to branch with reasonable grace. This is fun. She pauses halfway down, looking up at him. "Um... is it a good idea to practice fighting here, if it's haunted?"

 

Nick grins, dropping to the ground, facing the tree trunk and falling into a loose fighting stance. "Hah. Yeah. Don't worry. Nothing's going to mess with us, not here."

 

She tries to imitate her stance, bouncing slightly with excitement. "Awesome."

Then... she'll try to go for a punch, with her fist like he showed her, darting in and aiming for his chin. Not too hard; more like tag than a real brawl, though she doubts she'll get to hit.

 

He sidesteps, circling around lazily, and ducks in to give her a quick push on the shoulder. "Gimme your best shot. Don't worry, I'm sturdy."

 

"Okay!" Then she'll try to hit him for real, frowning with concentration as she tries to duck beneath his guard and get in close. Her arms are a lot shorter than his, and she only comes up to the middle of his chest, so if she's fighting for real, boxing and MMA are no help at all.

She thinks she heard that it hurts bad if you get hit in the kidneys, though, so she'll try to dart behind him and suckerpunch him there. Or, um... where she's pretty sure kidneys are.

 

He feigns a strong defense, keeping her on her toes... but when she goes in for a punch he goes still. Her punch connects solidly, and he lets out a "whoof" of air, shaking himself a bit.

"Okay. Ow. Excellent!"

He darts forwards and turns. "Good place to aim, too. You've thought it through before?'

( Nick takes 3 bashing )

 

She flushes, coming around in front of him. "... are you okay?"

"Uhhuh. My reach isn't as long as yours, so I have to get in close." She watches a lot of MMA and swordfighting videos when she's supposed to be studying. "... I don't think I can reach your face, anyway."

"Most of the..." She hesitates, not sure if he'll be upset with her. "Most of the time I've been in fights with people my age, though. You're a lot bigger than they are. And you don't start crying just because you're bleeding."

She rolls her eyes at that last. What kind of wimp tries to bully a kid two years younger than them, and then starts crying when she punches him? She didn't even break his nose, he just bit his tongue when she hit him. Wimp.

 

"Absolutely. I'm tough." He chuckles. "I used to get in a loooot of scuffles. It's cool."

He tilts his head. "Did you start it, or just finish it?"

 

She shrugs a little. "The last time? He tried to hit me with a rock."

"People think I'll be easy to beat up or steal stuff from. I guess. Or they say... you know, stuff."

She tilts her head in turn, curiously. "Why'd you get in fights? People wouldn't pick on you."

 

"Uuuh." Nick grins weakly, going bright pink. "...I'm. Girls are pretty and they like me, and sometimes guys get mad because they think I'm trying to steal their girlfriends?"

 

Congratulations, you now have a twelve-year-old laughing at you.

Once she calms down, she hesitates, flushing. "... do you think Miriam likes me? She's ... um. Really pretty."

 

"..huh? Oh. Yeah, absolutely. She definitely thinks you're pretty cool." He grins. "Even more since you can throw a strong punch!"

 

Elena blushes more. So much. "... can I take her to the movies? If she wants?"

To be honest, she has no idea what's at the movies, but that's really not what's important.

 

"...what? Yeah. Of course. Uuuhm. She really likes action flicks? We watch James Bond stuff a lot."