A warrior's heart. (Xavier)

[Deleted]

Everything in the camp seemed to be out of balance. Campers were acting weird lately, some of them were starting to fight more, to train harder and bloodier. The infirmary seemed to have more of them in it day by day. some were happy with that, they said that finally the cohorts were taking seriously the trainings and the fact that they were roman warriors, not only kids in a camp playing to be little soldiers. But others were really concerned, why people couldn't see that the ones happier with the agressive actions used to be the ones that never agreed with certain stuff in the camp, that gods always annoyed them...

At least, Lilith McKinnon couldn't understand it. She could understand the need of a better training for some cohorts, like hers. She was in the fifth cohort and their centurions were kind of lazy, always having half time trainings and not really worrying to be acurate. If a member of the fifth cohort wanted to have a good trainning, it had to train by itself. And even by that method it would be difficult to get a real and fullfilling training as the members of the first or second cohorts could get, at least they got a feedback while they were training.

Lilith didn't care she didn't have a feedback while she was training, it wasn't as if she could really do something about it. Since she woke up from that horrible two-year nightmare, where Discordia had been playing with her mind so mercilessly, she had decided to finally train in a real way and be a good legionary. She had many things to thank the gods, specially both of her grandfathers, Mors and Apollo. She was going to make them feel proud of her.

She had been training really hard for about a couple of months, both with her bow and arrows, gift of Apollo, and her scythe, gift of Mors. But a couple of weeks ago, she had some kind of agrument with a person that she loved and cared for, Felicity Weingarten... Lilith considered her more than a friend, she considered a sister. So when she noticed she was acting weird, she decided to talk to her, that talk ended up in a bloody training where Felicity stabbed Lilith on the back. Lilith allowed her to do it, some thought it had been a foolish and weak action, really few thought the opposite.

After some weeks that Jason almost forced her to stay in the infirmary to let her wounds heal, she went back to her trainings. SHe started with easy warmups, only to keep in shape, but then she practiced her archery and then with her scythe. That very day, she was going to practice with her scythe, she felt her right arm was strong enough to use it, so she walked to the Fields of Mars. That place was perfect for it, although she could maybe end up hurting someone with her scythe, she thought that maybe she could find someone brave enough to train with her and her special weapon.

When she got there wearing her standard armor, she squizzed her ring and the scythe popped out from it. She swang it a couple of times, just feeling the wigth of it on her hands and meassuring the way her right back muscles reacted to the moves. As she did that, she looked for someone to train with. Suddenly she saw a lonely camper, he was training alone with a dummy, he seemed to be a master with the sword and shield. "maybe he would like to help me..." SHe thought and breathed deeply to get some courage and go and ask him to train with her.

"hey!... morning..." she smiled at him. "would you mind... well... help me with my training?" she felt some blush hit her cheeks, it was riddiculus, but he was a handsome guy and she didn't want to bother him.

[jimi]

Could it be possible to look any more ridiculous than Xavier during training? Probably not considering no one fought against a dummy that couldn't strike back and still held the shield in perfect balance with the sword. What was he protecting himself from anyways? Still, Xavier felt it necessary to always keep his shield arm strong and on point. He was left handed anyways, so often times he was using his shield for offense. It was getting cumbersome not having a sparring partner. His brother and sister were excellent training partners, but both of them were significantly more busy than he was, and he hated to bother either of them.

His shield felt like a part of him today, and he was glad that he brought it. Ever since the war, he was more focused on defense than ever, and that's saying something since Xavier could fight an entire match without going on the offensive. He was a brutal counter-attacker, and today, he was letting the dummy have it. His shield smashes to the face could stun the toughest of fighters and leave an opening that Xavier's strength would abuse. Though his siblings earned the reputation for being hot heads, but in battle, Xavier was as cool as possible. He never got impatient enough to start wildly attacking, and was content to wear down an opponent for an hour if necessary.

When he heard a voice behind him, he instantly knew who it was. He always paid attention to Lilith, though he didn't think she noticed him much. Why should she? Mars boys were dominant fighters, but love wasn't exactly Xavier's strength. He thought that maybe he could protect her and then she'd notice him, but in the war, he never got his chance. Now that he heard she'd been hurt at camp again, he felt even dumber. Now she was coming up to him and he wasn't going to let the opportunity pass him up.

In a final flury, his shield smashed into the dummy, shaking it's entire foundation before his right hand pierced it in a vertical slash, followed by a half spin that ended in a half ripped open dummy, and a sweating Xavier facing Lilith. As always, she looked exceptionally beautiful, but he had to push that notion aside. "Hey, good morning Lilith. I uhhh- didn't expect to see anyone else training this early." He looked down at her scythe, and it was strange to see her with a weapon. It's not that he didn't take her seriously, but he usually thought of the sweet Lilith, not the tough warrior.

"Sure, I don't mind helping you. Did you need help with technique, or a sparring partner?" Oh real smooth! He wanted to face palm so bad, but he held it together. Of course, that was the way to get a girl to like you. Offer to teach her how to beat people up, or go ahead and beat her up yourself. What a guy! Xavier was still cursing himself inwardly as he awaited her response, but this was going to turn into the art of war and romance if he could help it. He'd figure out a plan one way or the other.

Tag: Lilith!
Words: 556

[Deleted]

Lilith smiled at the ability he had with the sword and the shield. It seemed that he didn't only fought with his sword in the offensive, but also with his shield! there weren't that many warriors that could use both devices to fight in an offensive way, usually warriors used their swords for attack, not their Shields, but Xavier's technique was pretty good and in fact one that she could really use in her trainning. She needed to get better in the defensive techniques. Mors had given her the basics and she wanted him to see that she had been practicing for good!

When Xavier looked at her, she kept her smile at him. she wanted him to help her, not to be scared or annoyed by her. There were still some people that feared her only because Mors was her grandfather! foolish people they still thought that Mors was a heartless force of the nature, well he wasn't! but she wasn't going to focus on those ones, she didn't even considered them important in her life anymore. She was just going to focus on the people that she cared about and the way she was going to put the name of her grandfathers right on the top.

She smiled at him and nodded. "yeah, well... I know my cohort doesn't train much, but I need to do it, I don't want to be just another lazy 5th cohort girl" she said and then looked at how he looked at her scythe, she bit her lower lip. Maybe he didn't like the weapon, maybe he would not like to train with her due her choice of it. She breathed deeply and was going to explain about her choice of weapon when he told her that it would be nice to help her.

Her smile simply went wider, and nodded at him. "well, I was hoping you could help me being my sparring mate..." smiled at him and put the end of the handle of her scythe on the ground next to her foot and rested her right temple on the middle of the handle, right next to her right hand. "I kind of have the basic technique, I'm a fair one when defending myself, but when I'm attacking... I'm just like a rookie kid" She said and then looked at him, she didn't noticed but the blush was still in her cheeks.

She then moved and held her scythe in the stand that Mors taught her before and smiled at Xavier, her smile was now confident, ready for a match. "ok, then I'm on the defensive mode now Xavier." waits for his attack.

TAG: Xavier
WORDS: 457

[jimi]

Strange or not, there was something attractive about a girl with a weapon. "That's unfortunate that your cohort doesn't train enough. You're doing the right thing by seeking out training on your own. You know, we can meet here more often if you like. I'd like to spend more time with you." Okay, shut up now Xavier! He was going to blow this thing up by being awkward. Stupid, stupid boy!

He knew all about her background so he wasn't shocked to learn that she at least learned a defensive stance. He was hoping she'd want to work on offense so he could defend himself, but now she was waiting for him to attack instead. How could he possibly attack her? This was the girl he wanted to protect most in the world was asking him to attack her. "Lilith I- I would never want to hurt you." Well that could go poorly too, what if she took that as an insult? As if he was belittling her! No, he couldn't do that. She was a capable girl, and didn't need to be coddled.

Offense wasn't exactly his specialty, but he knew how to attack a scythe, that's for sure. His brother drilled him over and over, and he was going to show her now. He sucked in a deep breath, "Okay, here goes nothing. All for training purposes." He was never going to drop that shield. He knew that if she even scratched him it would make her sad, so while he was on offense, he'd forever be on defense. Ironic, seeing as he couldn't get past himself to tell her how he felt. Instead of doing what a normal, smooth guy would do, he was about to attack her.

With a lightning quick first step, he already closed the distance between them, his stance so low to the ground, it was hard to believe he could be balanced. He raised his shield up under her scythe, knocking it up and freeing some space for his sword arm. In a flash, his sword clanged to the ground and his free right arm wrapped around her waist, his body pressed against hers. "The balance was a little off to fight a sword and shield combination." He paused to take a good look at her, not used to being so close to her. "And I also really wanted to hug you., I hope you don't mind."

Tag: Lilith
Words: 430

[Deleted]

Lilith prepared for the first attack, her muscles were ready for it, she knew it would be difficult to even stop a hit of a Mars kid, but it wouldn't be more difficult as the time she was training with Mors and her cousin Gunnar... right? So she expected at least the same kind of thrilling combat that she had with Mors and Gunnar, but suddenly she saw into his eyes, he was showing something in them, was it fear? then he said he wouldn't want to hurt her. She frowned at him and then tilted her head. "listen... I know I would never defeat a Mars kid, but we are Romans and as romans we should train and fight, I need a good sparring mate..." she said and waited to see if that helped a bit.

She understood some men were still struggling with the idea of fighting against women, but hell!, they had already fought a war shoulder to shoulder, so why were some of them still frightened of hurting a woman, what? they thought they would end up crying after the broke a nail of theirs? that was riddiculus! She didn't have to wait long, he finally decided to help her and he was going to attack her. She smiled again at him and nodded. "ok, I'm ready..." She said looking at him and waiting for his moves.

She saw his first move, he was fast, maybe as fast as Gunnar was, only that Xavier didn't use the shadows to move, he did it on the ground like any other mortal! She moved a step backwards to keep some distance between them, her scythe was less effective if the enemy aproached to her ver much. Then she looked down and saw him in a very low stance, so she decided to make her move there, she would swing her scythe from up to down, hitting his back with the blade. She wasn't planning on killing him, just make him know that she could have done it.

But her ideas of winning so easily blew away when his shield went up and hit the spear of her scythe and she lost grip of it from her left hand, she cursed in her mind, she was dead! if it was a real battle she would be dead! If she had her daggers, then she could have grabbed one and put it in his chest or throat the moment he got closer, but she didn't have them... a Mercury guy stole them months ago and Ed hadn't found the time to finish the new ones, so... dead...

In a second she felt how his arm passed behind her waist line and his sword fell to the ground. She felt his body right against hers, he was so hot! and not only in temperature talking. She felt her heart beating fast. Then he talked, he tried to explain what had happened, and ended up saying something that quite scared her, because she didn't know how to react at it. "WHAT?!" she asked pushed him away. She was all red as a tomato. part of her wanted to hugs him back, tell him that she would love to try something with him, other part asked her if she had already forgotten Alistair, and both sides of her Yelled at her that Mors would kill Xavier if he knew what he had just done!

She looked at him and tried to say something coherent. "sorry... I wasn't expecting that..." still breathless and as a tomato. "May I ask... why... well why you wanted to... to do that?"

TAG: Xavier
WORDS: 614

[jimi]

The moment he held her in his arm, her body pressed against his, felt like it would last forever. He knew that it was too good to be true, and he somehow wished that he was god of time, so he could freeze this moment and just live in it a moment longer. Of course, time being time, it only made the moment feel like a blink when he started trying to control it. Everything started falling apart. She turned red, pushed him away, and was breathing hard. Great, he hugged a girl, ignored his training, and look where it got him. Shoved and humiliated. Should have quit before he ever started.

She screamed at him, and even though she said sorry only a moment later, the sting was still there weighing on his heart. Then she asked the most unanswerable question he'd ever heard. Is unanswerable even a word?! Okay okay, deep breath, Xavier was told that by someone, or he just made it up. He tried to gather himself, and search for something that resembled an answer. Should he be honesty? Yeah Lilith, I hugged you because you're beautiful and I didn't want to lose you in the war. He couldn't possibly let that come out of his mouth. "I'm sorry too, I don't know what got into me. I just had a moment, and I didn't mean to insult you. I know you're not just some girl that anyone can hug when they feel like it."

What. An. Idiot. Who says stuff like that to a girl? How could he possibly get the attention off of him? He looked at his sword on the ground, and in that moment, he felt exactly like the sword. Discarded, face first in dirt, pretty much hopeless. He looked at his sword and then looked at Lilith. "I don't blame you if you would like a different training partner. I wasted your time, and I'm supposed to be taking this seriously. I promise you, I know you're not just some girl who doesn't take her training seriously. You put your heart in everything you do, and I disrespected that. Can you forgive me?"

Well, that was the best offense he could offer. He was more of a defensive specialist anyways. What was he thinking? He was no good at this and he made no bones about it. He was at her mercy, and as a soldier, this was perhaps the worst place he could ever find himself.

Tag: Lilith!
Words: 439

[Deleted]

Faith was standing some feet away from Xavier, still kind of panting, her heart was beating as if she had just fallen into a deep hole, but she didn't feel like that. Her mind was thinking what would happen next, what if she had done something wrong? first guy she had liked, dumped her before they could even started dated, that was a record! a single kiss and he knew he was meant for another girl. After that Lilith had focused on her trainings, trying to get her mind away from love and Alistair. Well she succeeded on that, the Neptune boy hadn't been in her mind until that moment, and she remembered him not with love but as a mistake in her life!

Then she saw Xavier, there in front of her. she had asked him a really foolish question, well was it a foolish one? if he hugged her, maybe he liked her, but what if he didn't, what if he only wanted to play with her... "Lilith... you're really messed up... maybe the rip in your soul that Felicity made with her stygean iron sword isn't healed yet..." she thought when she heard Xavier's sword again. He looked at her and she could see how much she had hurt him, he was a Mars guy, they weren't meant to show love, so what he just did, was the closest thing for them to a 'I like you'... right?

She half smiled at him, but in a good way, not mocking at all. She found it nice that he would think that of her. Yes, no one could just hug her, but for some weird reason she liked being so close to him. She bit her lower lip once more and kept listening to him and his apologize. But when he mentioned that he would understood if she wanted other partner, she tilted her head and looked at him. She then breathed deeply and shook her head. She bented and grabbed his sword, then walked slowly to where he was standing.

Then she looked up and smiled at him. "I don't want another partner..." she handed him his sword and smiled a bit more. "I do apreciate you thinking in that way of me, respecting me and my ideas of training... but I must tell you that... I didn't find uncomfortable to be in your arm..." she turned red as a tomato again and looked down to the ground. "it's just that... I'm not used to that..." she looked up again. "so... why don't we... continue training and... after it maybe we could... talk?"violet she smiled again feeling her heart beating in her ears! What was she doing? risking her heart once more?!

TAG: Xavier
WORDS: 467

[jimi]

The greatest quality Xavier possessed as a warrior was his ability to see details that most people missed. Even in his panicked state, he could still see that as she was walking, her stride stayed even, which meant that she was still being fairly normal. Her slow, deliberate walk made him so jealous. Why couldn't be that smooth? He was freaking out internally, and she was smiling at him and holding his sword out to hand it back to him. How could she be so composed after his idiocy almost ruining things before they could begin.

"Thank you," he managed to get out as he took his sword back. He had to admit that it made him feel a little better to have his sword back in his hand. As a son of Mars, he could feel such a strong connection to his weapons. His sword was like an extension of his arm, and he was relaxed like a baby given their favorite stuffed animal. He got over himself little by little as she spoke too. He'd be lying if he said he didn't puff out his chest a little bit when she said that she didn't want any other partner.

Having regained all of his senses, he was a little surprised to see how deeply she blushed with her confession. Maybe she wasn't holding it together as well as he originally thought she was. "You're hope is that we're going to be able to concentrate on training while I wonder what you mean by all that?" He had to mull this over himself. Any solider who wasn't fully aware of the combat at hand was bound to get hurt, and possibly badly given the strength of the other campers.

He was kind of bummed to think that he was feeling okay with everything and it was going to be pushed aside for training. That shouldn't be a problem, right? The boy trained like a fiend, and when he wasn't training, he was mentally preparing to train. He just... didn't feel like training right now, and that was perhaps the scariest thought of them all. "Okay, let's train then. Am I still on offense, or would you like to try to hit me this time?" He raised his shield up from muscle memory, and readied himself in case her answer came in the form of attack.

Tags: Lilith
Words: 412

[Deleted]

Lilith looked at Xavier, right inot his eyes, those chocolate eyes were kind of mezmerizing, not like the eyes of a Venus boy, no... they had something in them, warmth and also bravery, something that Lilith couldn't really explain, but that made her feel safe, made her feel that she could talk to him if she wanted and that he wouldn't judge her or worse, hurt her. She breathed deeply and tried to keep that smile on her face, she didn't want to show him a dumb smile, she hated girls that smiled like that to the guys that had just talked to them in a sweet way.

He took his sword from her hands and put it in his hilt, she looked at it and then back at his warm eyes. She held her scythe on her left arm while he asked if she was really expecting them to train and concentrate on that while their hearts weren't in the training, well he had a point there, but being romans themselves, supossedly they should be able to do that, right? to focus their mind and hearts in a battle even when both mind and heart were ripped or shattered, or in love and in heaven... She knew he had a point but she wanted to keep him safe, from what? well from her, she was grandaughter of Mors and Apollo and both gods didn't seem to be really eager to let any guy to date her, so...

"We should be able to do that... right?" she asked and smiled again, she was trying to convince herself more than him, but was it really working? While he asked if he was still in offenssive, she saw how he lifted his shield and she couldn't not see how the muscles of his body worked as he moved. She sometimes hated her teen hormones, Romans shouldn't have them. She breathed deeply forcing herself to get back to the training and shook her head, she wanted to attack now. Maybe the adrenaline of attacking would get her hormones undercontrol.

"I'll attack now..." she said and then moved the handle of the scythe to get a good grip of it with both hands, then she used the blade as a hook and hooked his shield from the inside and pulled it down to the ground, then she moved the handle against his face, maybe she could connect a hit there, but she wasn't paying attention to his battle moves, but his simple moves, how his eyes looked at her, how his voice had just sounded in her ears, she was a lame Roman in that moment, because she tripped and fell backwards, losing balance and the grip of her scythe.

She hit her butt on the ground and sighed loudly. "ok... you're right... if we want to concentrate, we need to talk first..." she said not looking at him, she was ashamed of herself and her poor performace as a warrior. "I'm sorry I'm making you lose your time with such... lame performance."

TAG: Xavier
WORDS: 521

[jimi]

On any normal day, he'd be thinking about the possible openings he'd present against various weapons. Against a sword, it was all about the various angles, and easy enough to defend. A scythe presented a unique challenge because of the hook, but also didn't allow its user to be too quick because of the length, weight, and natural imbalance the weapon created. Had he been paying attention, he'd have seen her predictable attack. Once his shield was down, her entire body was exposed and unprotected. He made this very same kill twice in the war, but now, he just couldn't make himself think.

Even as he saw her raising the handle and aiming it directly at his face, he just couldn't move. So what if he got hit in the face, it's not like he didn't deserve it. Who goes around stealing hugs from nice girls whenever they feel like it? So fine, a little blood would be a small exchange for disrespecting her. Then suddenly, the grip on the scythe disappeared from his vision and he heard a light thud on the ground. Her sigh brought him back to reality as his concern for her grew. "Lilith! Are you okay?" He dropped both of his weapons and moved over to her, holding a hand down to help her up.

"No no, you stop apologizing right now. I let my guard down so easily and you could have taken my head off if you didn't fall. It should be me who's apologizing for being such a bad sparring partner." He was glad to hear that she didn't want to train anymore, because he was really just out of it. The prospect of talking about his feelings and emotions was equally scary though, and he probably just jumped out of the fire and into the garbage disposal. Now he would really get the chance to make a plumb fool of himself. "Okay, maybe we should talk then." Were they going to talk right here in the fields? What was he even going to tell her? He did have that chance meeting with her grandfather while he was training out here just a few days ago. He confided in Mors and they seemed to have a good understanding, but this was going to be an entirely different matter. He told Mars he wouldn't try anymore, but could he really hold true to that word?

Tag: Lilith
Words: 417

[Deleted]

Lilith felt really bad for how things were resulting. She was for sure a lame warrior and even more if she couldn't concentrate on the battle, training or whatever only because he had cute, warm eyes and a body of a god! She needed to get that out of her mind, she looked at him when he helped her to get on her feet, and breathed deeply. "I'm fine... thank you" she said and dusted the back of her jeans. It wasn't the first time she fell like that. SHe was clumsy and used to fall a lot so that fall wasn't her worst one. Yet her pride wasn't in best conditions in that moment.

Then she looked at Xavier when he tried to blame that on himself, she shook her head and without a thought, she put her fingers on his lips. "please... stop..." she blushed again and pulled back his hand, still looking inot is brown eyes. She felt her heart beating fast, but why? only a touch? "for two years I ddn't even went to train... so I'm not in my best shape to be a good warrior... ok? but it was... nice, sweet and reckless to let me move like that."

SHe smiled once more at him. then she looked around, fields of mars was almost empty, only a couple of campers at north and others at west, so it would be safe to speak there. She cleared her throat before speaking. She was nervous, she didn't know what to say, better said how to say it, because she did know what she wanted to tell him. She bit her lower lip and then breathed deeply, not losing eye contact. Her scythe was again a ring decorating her hand, so she started to play with it , she was really nervous.

"Xavier... I do like you... I just thought you didn't like me... because... well..." she bit her lower lip again. It was a habit that Mors had already told her to lose, when she was really scared or nervous, she tended to bite it too much, until she bleeded her lip. But she just couldn't change it, she did it without thinking of it. "I've always been kind of... weird. and you never ever said a word about it..." she smiled at him, her heart was about to pop out from her chest. Now she feared his answer, what if he told her that he didn't like her at all, that he only wanted to hug her... NO! he was no jerk!

TAG: Xavier
WORDS: 438