Post by charlirozzi on Nov 23, 2024 6:47:40 GMT -8
Levi Hall was at the compound during odd hours, as was almost always the case. After getting back late from a visit home, she needed to work off some of the extra weight her father had applied with his speech about responsibility and his disappointment in her actions.
It didn’t really make much sense, blaming her for things well beyond her control but then, he always had. So really she should’ve been used to it, instead she internalised that along with everything else.
Which is what brought her to punish a bad towards the back to the gym. As opposed to how most would approach it, she wasn’t landing kicks or punches. More so she was attacking the bag with her shoulders and knees, every smack against the rough exterior echoing out in the empty space.
"Well, fuck." Olly mumbled to himself as he approached the compound. He was hoping he'd have the whole gym to himself, students were supposed to be sleeping at this time of the night and this would've given me the solitude he was craving after a day spent with the Division recruits. He could hear those thuds booming through the wall, and the idea of turning on his heels and heading back to the Mansion crossed his mind.
There were no voices though, only the echo of heavy strikes against the bag. "Kids just don't stay quiet", he thought to himself, coming to the conclusion that whoever was training, was in there alone. And he probably could handle them.
He took one final drag of his cigarette and threw it on the ground, stomping over hit as he pushed the door open. "Nightfall." He said as he immediately recognized Levi Hall, identifying her with the name of her faction. His voice carried a slight shade of disdain, not so much for the young girl herself but for her camp and everything they stood for.
It took her a second longer than it should have to hear him, her brain switched off when she was this focused and so her hearing was delayed, drowned out a little by her body hitting the bag. It wasn’t a voice she recognised so when she straightened up and looked over she was surprised to see him standing there.
“Division.” She responded, since he had referred to her as her faction. He probably didn’t actually know her name, the thought occurred to her and made her laugh slightly. Which then made her worried that he would think she was laughing at him.
“Didn’t expect anyone to come here this late…” usually she managed to have the place to herself, which was how she preferred it. Pushing her hair back off her face and dropping her hands to her hips with a heavy exhale, she took a moment to catch her breath.
"And I thought Chris had tucked you in and read the bedtime story already at this time of night." His reply was immediate and caustic, accompanied by that sneering grin. Hostility was the standard setting for him, and anything related to the Night family only exacerbated those feelings. A rivalry tracing back to his days in the Academy, when he started picking on JJ night, a rivalry that continued for years and ended when Olly injured Chris' cousin. In HoW, he contributed to injure the founder of Nightfall and end his stint in the company, possibly his career too.
Without saying another word to her, he dropped his bag on the floor with a thud. Reaching inside, he found a used roll of medical tape and began to wrap up his right wrist. One quick look at it, and everyone could tell he wasn't doing the procedure correctly. The wrapping was too loose to efficiently support the joint, but then again, this wasn't his goal. He was more focused on covering the leather armband he wore on that arm, a memento of his recently passed away girlfriend.
He aseemed to be deliberately ignoring Levi, not speaking a word, not even looking at her. He just acted as he was alone in the gym, starting to unleash a flurry of punches to another bag close to the one Lei was using. Rights and lefts with no clear purpose nor technique.
She stood watching him for a moment, his tone and his words didn’t seem to bother her too much,
She was used to being spoken down to; oddly that was less awkward for her than when people were friendly or nice. She knew what to expect when it came to arrogant men, less so than she did with kind ones.
“Julian never taught you how to tape properly?” Her eyes were trained on the sloppy job he had done, regardless of the purpose if he really was there to work out, he was on the wrong foot. “Or how to target a bag apparently.”
She wasn’t being combative, it was the thinking out loud thing she did mixed with surprise that someone charged with training people apparently had less pedigree in that department than she did. She knew ten year olds who taped better than that, though she didn’t say that part out loud. Despite her confidence, her ears flashed a deep shade of red, giving away the blush to her cheeks she hid by pressing her cheek to the bag, driving her knee into it.
His presence was a distraction though, one she had counted on and so she released the bag and turned to face him fully. “I’m allowed to be here… we don’t have a curfew or anything.”
He threw one last punch before stopping and turning to Levi. Again, there was no finesse in his technique, it wasn't pretty to see but it carried an unexpectged strength with it, causing the bag to swing wildly as he took a step toward the trainee. A credit to her critique, Olly suffered the blowback of his own strike, holding the right hand with his left and stretching the fingers whilst rotating the wrist.
"What's your problem, Nightfall? Are my shoes tied correctly? Do you want to know if I brushed my teeth after dinner? I came here to train, not to listen to Chris Night's new charity case." He didn't know her, he didn't even know her name. All he knew was that her family was close to the Nights, and that was enough for him to assume the only reason why she was here was as a personal favor to her father, a way to pay off a debt of gratitude.
"Julian didn't bring me here to teach these kids how to throw a punch. I have my own set of skills I can help them with, when the time is right."
His gruff nature didn’t phase her, where she would usually blush or fall apart, the callousness of the way he handled her seemed to bolster her instead, critiques and dismissal a daily part of her life.
“My name is Levi.” She didn’t leave even a breath for him to interject. “And if you keep throwing punches like that you won’t have hands to teach anyone anything… if you’re gonna be sloppy at least be smart.” She pulled a roll of tape from her pocket and stepped forward, holding her hand out to take his wrist.
“Unless you’re too proud to accept help from a charity case?” Even when she spoke with an obvious disdain for his attitude there wasn’t an edge to her voice, softly spoken and timid in her tone. She kept her hand out waiting all the same.
Whilst she did, she looked him over again. It was fairly obvious to her, even without the research she did on all the trainers, that form and sustainability weren’t important to him. But that didn’t stop her from wanting to help anyway, second nature to her.
"Why would you care, when I clearly don't?" He didn't take his eyes off her as he asked the question, standing still in front of her. She still had her hands expecatnly stretched toward him, but he wasn't going to move.
"I've been doing just fine for four years without you teaching me how to tape properly, I survived countless fights in my 24 years without knowing how to hit a bag properly because, guess what? I don't fight bags for a living. There's what Chris can teach you, and then there's life. And his precious..." He stressed that word with an obvious sarcastic tone. "teachings won't help you there, Nightfall."
“Because someone has to care when you don’t.” She moved forward and took his wrist since he wasn’t moving, sliding a finger under the tape easily, showing how loose it was. “Chris has a lot to teach, a lot of it is about attitude and ethics when it comes to outside the ring, sure.”
She didn’t look up at him, instead setting the tape against his wrist and beginning to actually provide some stability using the tape, shaking her head as she spoke.
“And yeah, sure. You’ve punched a load of faces and other stuff and you’re doing just fine, right?” She pulled the tape tight before breaking it off, dropping that wrist and holding her hand out for the other one. “But just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t… that’s one of those precious teaching moments you’re so offended by.”
His eyes trailed to her hands as she grabbed his. She slid her finger under the loose tape, her fingertip brushing against the rugged leather of his bracelet which caused him to instantly pull back. But she helf a firm grasp on his arm, holding him in place.
He watched her movement, memorizing every single gesture she made so that he could eventually repeat them. He wasn't going to thank her for this, but he did learn something from her.
"I'm not offended, and I'm sure you have many other precious advices where this came from. For someone who cares." He jerked his arm away, getting free of her grasp. His eyes stayed on Levi, cold, dark, haunted by a profound sadness.
She sighed, shaking her head and finally looked up into his face. Taking a step or two back to ensure she left somewhat of a distance between them.
“You remind me of my father.” For the first time her tone had something other than the quiet timid nature she always carried herself with.
“So consumed by the things you’ve lost that you’re incapable of noticing the things there are to gain.” She tossed the tape towards him with another shake of her head and stopped down to pick up her stuff. “I’ll let you have the place to yourself.”
Olly kept his stoic demeanor, that cold, imperturbable and disengaged exterior he had been showing ever since stepping inside the gym. But her words hit close to home, he couldn't deny it. And he hated it.
They sounded so true, so innocent, so naive. He watched her as she walked away, the tape she tossed him lying at his feet after he didn't even try to catch it. The perfect symbol of this odd encounter, the last on a long list of lifelines she threw at him and he turned down.
Finally alone, he threw another right punch at the sack, the fist connecting with the rough material. He stopped, looking at his wrist. He couldn't feel that quick flash of pain the blowback used to give him.
He missed it, he needed it. He needed to feel that familiar sting, making it a tangible manifestation of that pain that had been accompanying him for the last six months.
Shaking his head, he ripped the tape from his wrist and went back to his routine. Left and right fists connecting the sack, more thuds echoing in the silence of the night.
It didn’t really make much sense, blaming her for things well beyond her control but then, he always had. So really she should’ve been used to it, instead she internalised that along with everything else.
Which is what brought her to punish a bad towards the back to the gym. As opposed to how most would approach it, she wasn’t landing kicks or punches. More so she was attacking the bag with her shoulders and knees, every smack against the rough exterior echoing out in the empty space.
"Well, fuck." Olly mumbled to himself as he approached the compound. He was hoping he'd have the whole gym to himself, students were supposed to be sleeping at this time of the night and this would've given me the solitude he was craving after a day spent with the Division recruits. He could hear those thuds booming through the wall, and the idea of turning on his heels and heading back to the Mansion crossed his mind.
There were no voices though, only the echo of heavy strikes against the bag. "Kids just don't stay quiet", he thought to himself, coming to the conclusion that whoever was training, was in there alone. And he probably could handle them.
He took one final drag of his cigarette and threw it on the ground, stomping over hit as he pushed the door open. "Nightfall." He said as he immediately recognized Levi Hall, identifying her with the name of her faction. His voice carried a slight shade of disdain, not so much for the young girl herself but for her camp and everything they stood for.
It took her a second longer than it should have to hear him, her brain switched off when she was this focused and so her hearing was delayed, drowned out a little by her body hitting the bag. It wasn’t a voice she recognised so when she straightened up and looked over she was surprised to see him standing there.
“Division.” She responded, since he had referred to her as her faction. He probably didn’t actually know her name, the thought occurred to her and made her laugh slightly. Which then made her worried that he would think she was laughing at him.
“Didn’t expect anyone to come here this late…” usually she managed to have the place to herself, which was how she preferred it. Pushing her hair back off her face and dropping her hands to her hips with a heavy exhale, she took a moment to catch her breath.
"And I thought Chris had tucked you in and read the bedtime story already at this time of night." His reply was immediate and caustic, accompanied by that sneering grin. Hostility was the standard setting for him, and anything related to the Night family only exacerbated those feelings. A rivalry tracing back to his days in the Academy, when he started picking on JJ night, a rivalry that continued for years and ended when Olly injured Chris' cousin. In HoW, he contributed to injure the founder of Nightfall and end his stint in the company, possibly his career too.
Without saying another word to her, he dropped his bag on the floor with a thud. Reaching inside, he found a used roll of medical tape and began to wrap up his right wrist. One quick look at it, and everyone could tell he wasn't doing the procedure correctly. The wrapping was too loose to efficiently support the joint, but then again, this wasn't his goal. He was more focused on covering the leather armband he wore on that arm, a memento of his recently passed away girlfriend.
He aseemed to be deliberately ignoring Levi, not speaking a word, not even looking at her. He just acted as he was alone in the gym, starting to unleash a flurry of punches to another bag close to the one Lei was using. Rights and lefts with no clear purpose nor technique.
She stood watching him for a moment, his tone and his words didn’t seem to bother her too much,
She was used to being spoken down to; oddly that was less awkward for her than when people were friendly or nice. She knew what to expect when it came to arrogant men, less so than she did with kind ones.
“Julian never taught you how to tape properly?” Her eyes were trained on the sloppy job he had done, regardless of the purpose if he really was there to work out, he was on the wrong foot. “Or how to target a bag apparently.”
She wasn’t being combative, it was the thinking out loud thing she did mixed with surprise that someone charged with training people apparently had less pedigree in that department than she did. She knew ten year olds who taped better than that, though she didn’t say that part out loud. Despite her confidence, her ears flashed a deep shade of red, giving away the blush to her cheeks she hid by pressing her cheek to the bag, driving her knee into it.
His presence was a distraction though, one she had counted on and so she released the bag and turned to face him fully. “I’m allowed to be here… we don’t have a curfew or anything.”
He threw one last punch before stopping and turning to Levi. Again, there was no finesse in his technique, it wasn't pretty to see but it carried an unexpectged strength with it, causing the bag to swing wildly as he took a step toward the trainee. A credit to her critique, Olly suffered the blowback of his own strike, holding the right hand with his left and stretching the fingers whilst rotating the wrist.
"What's your problem, Nightfall? Are my shoes tied correctly? Do you want to know if I brushed my teeth after dinner? I came here to train, not to listen to Chris Night's new charity case." He didn't know her, he didn't even know her name. All he knew was that her family was close to the Nights, and that was enough for him to assume the only reason why she was here was as a personal favor to her father, a way to pay off a debt of gratitude.
"Julian didn't bring me here to teach these kids how to throw a punch. I have my own set of skills I can help them with, when the time is right."
His gruff nature didn’t phase her, where she would usually blush or fall apart, the callousness of the way he handled her seemed to bolster her instead, critiques and dismissal a daily part of her life.
“My name is Levi.” She didn’t leave even a breath for him to interject. “And if you keep throwing punches like that you won’t have hands to teach anyone anything… if you’re gonna be sloppy at least be smart.” She pulled a roll of tape from her pocket and stepped forward, holding her hand out to take his wrist.
“Unless you’re too proud to accept help from a charity case?” Even when she spoke with an obvious disdain for his attitude there wasn’t an edge to her voice, softly spoken and timid in her tone. She kept her hand out waiting all the same.
Whilst she did, she looked him over again. It was fairly obvious to her, even without the research she did on all the trainers, that form and sustainability weren’t important to him. But that didn’t stop her from wanting to help anyway, second nature to her.
"Why would you care, when I clearly don't?" He didn't take his eyes off her as he asked the question, standing still in front of her. She still had her hands expecatnly stretched toward him, but he wasn't going to move.
"I've been doing just fine for four years without you teaching me how to tape properly, I survived countless fights in my 24 years without knowing how to hit a bag properly because, guess what? I don't fight bags for a living. There's what Chris can teach you, and then there's life. And his precious..." He stressed that word with an obvious sarcastic tone. "teachings won't help you there, Nightfall."
“Because someone has to care when you don’t.” She moved forward and took his wrist since he wasn’t moving, sliding a finger under the tape easily, showing how loose it was. “Chris has a lot to teach, a lot of it is about attitude and ethics when it comes to outside the ring, sure.”
She didn’t look up at him, instead setting the tape against his wrist and beginning to actually provide some stability using the tape, shaking her head as she spoke.
“And yeah, sure. You’ve punched a load of faces and other stuff and you’re doing just fine, right?” She pulled the tape tight before breaking it off, dropping that wrist and holding her hand out for the other one. “But just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t… that’s one of those precious teaching moments you’re so offended by.”
His eyes trailed to her hands as she grabbed his. She slid her finger under the loose tape, her fingertip brushing against the rugged leather of his bracelet which caused him to instantly pull back. But she helf a firm grasp on his arm, holding him in place.
He watched her movement, memorizing every single gesture she made so that he could eventually repeat them. He wasn't going to thank her for this, but he did learn something from her.
"I'm not offended, and I'm sure you have many other precious advices where this came from. For someone who cares." He jerked his arm away, getting free of her grasp. His eyes stayed on Levi, cold, dark, haunted by a profound sadness.
She sighed, shaking her head and finally looked up into his face. Taking a step or two back to ensure she left somewhat of a distance between them.
“You remind me of my father.” For the first time her tone had something other than the quiet timid nature she always carried herself with.
“So consumed by the things you’ve lost that you’re incapable of noticing the things there are to gain.” She tossed the tape towards him with another shake of her head and stopped down to pick up her stuff. “I’ll let you have the place to yourself.”
Olly kept his stoic demeanor, that cold, imperturbable and disengaged exterior he had been showing ever since stepping inside the gym. But her words hit close to home, he couldn't deny it. And he hated it.
They sounded so true, so innocent, so naive. He watched her as she walked away, the tape she tossed him lying at his feet after he didn't even try to catch it. The perfect symbol of this odd encounter, the last on a long list of lifelines she threw at him and he turned down.
Finally alone, he threw another right punch at the sack, the fist connecting with the rough material. He stopped, looking at his wrist. He couldn't feel that quick flash of pain the blowback used to give him.
He missed it, he needed it. He needed to feel that familiar sting, making it a tangible manifestation of that pain that had been accompanying him for the last six months.
Shaking his head, he ripped the tape from his wrist and went back to his routine. Left and right fists connecting the sack, more thuds echoing in the silence of the night.