Patrolling with Frank and agent Neumann was really different that patrolling with agent West. This time, I was actually able to talk, ask questions and make commentaries without getting scolded or risking getting someone on a bad mood. Of course we didn’t talk all the time because during work, Frank seemed to become his strict and serious self, and was always telling me to concentrate and focus, which I really didn’t like because it reminded me of my old tutor.

On the other hand, training was really good, hard, but good. Once I got the idea of their training right, I was able to start putting it in practice, and even if I hadn’t improved one bit in these couple of days, I knew that if I continued like this, rather sooner than later I’d be onto something good.

Today was Saturday, the last day of my first week with Wolf and Neumann. Next week I'll be working with trainee Mercedes Wood and his tutor Emil Meyers, so since today we had half the normal worktime, once we finished our shift I asked Frank if he wanted to train with me for a while, which he eagerly accepted.

We did a whole routine of exercises, finishing with a little sparring session so I could take him through my thought process, which he had asked me to do because he had the impression that I was really fast minded. I’ve always been proud of my speed of thought that was the perfect duo for my pretty good reaction time, but now that someone had complimented it, it didn’t feel like self-praise anymore, but an actual quality.

- You have to try and quickly analyze your surroundings and opponent before you even think about fighting, and then memorize what could be an advantage or a disadvantage for you in case of an imminent battle

- That makes sense, so that’s how you passed your trial, huh? That’s impressive, I couldn’t land a single hit on agent Violet but she couldn’t land anything on me either, and she told me that I had a lot of potential and a really good style which I could aim for.

- On the bright side, you didn’t get head-butted and pass out

- Good point, that must’ve been painful

- I can’t really tell because I fainted almost instantly, but once I woke up I had a headache that lasted for a good couple of hours

We stayed in silence for a bit so I took this chance to ask something I’ve been wanting to ask him for a while but didn’t find the right moment

- Hey Wolf, do you know something about the other trainees? Since I’ll have to work with them for who know how long, it’d be good to know what to expect

- Mmm, sorry but I don’t know much about them, I only saw Allen once or twice here at the HQ’s but we never talked, every time I tried she rushed away, almost as if she was afraid of me or something. And I haven’t seen that guy Volkov since the first day, aside from last week’s meeting.

I was surprised when he mentioned Pat’s elusive attitude, mainly since she was the one who came over to me the day of the trials and the one who sked me to train with her, but didn’t give it much thought and made a mental note to ask her later.

- What a shame, I wasn’t worried about Pat… err, about Allen, but I really wanted to get some info about Volkov. I have the theory that he hates me for some reason.

- That’s weird, do you know him from somewhere aside the trials?

- Not at all, that’s why it is weird, I haven’t seen the guy more than twice and we didn’t even speak!

- Oh well, you can ask him on your time with him

- Yeah, I guess so

- And what about Allen? Did you knew her before the trials? I saw you two talking that day

- I also didn’t knew her beforehand, she just asked for an object I had with me at the time because she was curious, and we’d trained together a couple of times after work but that’s about it.

- Oh, train together you say?

A mischievous smile appeared on Wolf’s face and I was already imagining what was going through his mind

- Stop right there, is not what you think, we bumped into each other one day, we sparred and it was good training so we agreed to do it a couple more times. There’s nothing else to it.

- Yeah of course, just training – he winked at me and I realized that he had made up his mind and anything that I said from now on was pointless.

I was about to end the conversation or change the topic when an idea crossed my mind. I looked at him, giving him the same smile he gave to me a moment ago and asked:

- Hey, what about Mercedes Wood? You didn’t mention her

His smile instantly disappeared as a mixture of anger, embarrassment and fear took over his face, as I realized I had found a weak spot

- Ah, that girl. Yeah I’ve met her, unfortunately. From what I’ve heard she think she’s better than everyone else. We talked once and she said that I was a ball of muscles with no brain

- Hahaha, really? Did you say something back? – I wanted to dig a bit on this situation, since I was curious about something agent Neumann said the first day

- Of course I did – he said and a creepy smile took over his face once again – I said I couldn’t hear her down there.

It had to be the biggest cliché I’d ever heard, but I guess he wasn’t a very creative person like Pat and myself.

- Hahaha I guess she didn’t like that at all

- Oh no, not at all. She gave me a horrible look which I returned and then walked away, with her face red probably from the embarrassment of my response – he said triumphantly, completely ignoring the (probably) real reason behind her embarrassment

- Okay okay, so there’s something useful you know about her?

- My mentor told me she’s kinda good at her thing, and that I should ask her for help with my footwork. Can you believe it? Me? Asking her for help? No thanks. Besides, now I can ask you to help me with that

- That’s what I was hoping to hear. Thanks man, this week has been really fun and usefull, and I’m looking forward to the next one, three weeks from now.

- Yeah, I’m too. I wonder how much you will improve in this next weeks. You think you’ll be able to do an entire workout from beginning to end?

- I’ll do my best, but I cannot make promises I’m not 100% sure I’ll be able to keep. And what about you? Will you be able to not get dizzy looking at my feet while we fight?

- Oh don’t bring that up, just the idea gives me a migrane

We both laughed at ourselves for a solid minute, and once we were finished, I stood up and extended my hand towards him

- I have to get going, but I’ll see you around Wolf

- Yeah, I have to go too. See you Wagner.

I grabbed my stuff and was ready to leave when the door of the training room opened right in front of me and someone stepped into the room

- Oh sorry, I didn’t know there was someone in her

The person standing in my way was a girl at least a head shorter than me, with brown hair that stopped at her shoulders. Her little eyes with black irises the size of big raisins, her tiny round nose and little almost lipless mouth combined perfectly with her tiny self, but also highlighted the other two not so little parts about her, which were her… errr… front side curves…

Yes, I’m talking about her breasts.

- Don’t worry, we were just leaving. By the way we’ve never been formally introduced, I’m Theo Wagner, and it’s a pleasure.

- Oh, you are right. Mercedes Wood, pleasure is mine – her voice was happy and had a playful tone to it – and sorry but, what did you mean by ‘we’?

She moved her head because I was blocking her view, and saw that Frank Wolf was coming towards us. Her expression changed so much that it seemed a totally different person. Her cute smile melted and her entire face adopted a hostile expression.

- Oh, I should’ve known it was you when I saw this guy

This guy? Was she talking about me? How can anyone change her attitude that fast? And most importantly, why?

- Watch your tone with me, kid

I heard Frank’s voice, three times deeper than usual, which was already pretty deep

- I’m less than a year younger than you, muscle brain – her cute voice was now gone, replaced with an annoying shrilling tone instead

- What did you just call me?

- Want me to spell it for you? Are you that dumb?

I moved out of the way as Mercedes entered the room, looking daggers at Frank, and the same could be said for him.

- I… guess I’m gonna head out

I said while sneaking slowly through the door. I was ready to close the door and rush my way out of there before the tension between those two exploded, when my only two remaining brain cells after a week of training with Frank met at some point inside my head, revealing the truth to me. I looked back once more before closing the door, smiled feeling a bit embarrassed for not noticing when we were talking earlier, and said under my breath:

- So, that is Frank flirting…

I spent the rest of the weekend recovering from the week of intensive training and reading some stuff that agent Neumann had recommended to me about specific groups of muscles that, in her words, where ‘the ones that worked on should enhance your style the most’ and I wasn’t going to argue with her. Her recommendation was mainly focused on my lower body since it would help me with my footwork which was one of my already strong points.

Agent Neumann told me that, since I had just finished high school, it should be easier for me than how it was for Frank, since he had passed 2 years without studying and he had lost the habit. Frankly, I’ve never been a fan of studying, but since it was to improve my fighting I was really invested. I finished reading the first article she recommended right before going to bed on Sunday, which was really good timing to start putting it in practice the next day with my new partner and tutor.

I didn’t have the best image of Mercedes Wood, since the last time I’d seen her she was about to kill Frank Wolf, or get killed by him. Of course, the true intentions or feelings behind those interactions where completely ignored by the receivers, and probably the senders too.

Weirdly enough, it reminded me a bit of my relationship with Pat, but instead of hate and insults, we used laugh and sarcasm. And of course, neither of us has that kind of feelings towards the other... right? I mean, she is pretty and funny and cool and a good fencer and all but I don’t like her in that way, she’s just a friend and that’s it. Yeah. But, does she think the same way?

Whatever, I don’t know why I think about that, is not like it matters, so what if she likes me or vice versa, we are both White Police agents now, or well, trainees, which is worse because we have to focus on training more than anything else and we have no time for those things... Yeah, that’s it, we have to train… But what if we trained together?

- Stop! I have to focus, tomorrow is an important day and I don’t want to be late and give a bad first impression to agent Meyer – I said to myself out loud so I couldn’t ignore it – I at least can go back to my usual routine now

I turned around on the bed, and almost jumped when I found a ball of fur and fat staring directly at me from one centimeter away. Olive had jumped on the bed without me noticing and was staring at me. I grabbed her, laid on my back and lift her up in the air, holding her helplessly in the air above my face

- I need more friends. Don’t get me wrong, you are great company and Pat is pretty fun, but I need more people, maybe a group or something, somewhere I can belong, and I think that the trainees can be that group, if you ignore the fact that Wolf and Wood want to kill each other until they realize that it’s in fact the complete opposite, and the fact that Yuri Volkov hates me for some reason I don’t understand. Oh well, no one is perfect, at least it will be an interesting group.

I put Olive down again where she was, next to me, and checked my phone one last time before going to sleep to make sure there wasn’t any special conditions like last time. Luckily, the screen of my phone showed no signs of life, so I put it on my nightstand and closed my eyes, instantly falling asleep.

Next morning, even when I said that I wanted to go back to my old routine, for some reason I was eager to do some training with Frank, so instead of changing my routine again, I decided to keep it that way so I wouldn’t lose the rhythm and also because that was some extra time I could spend with Frank, hoping to get a bit closer than just ‘training/work partners’. Unlike what I was expecting, Frank wasn’t surprised to see me there, he told me that he was expecting me because ‘once you get hooked to this training, nothing else can fill that need’ or something like that. We had a good training session and we discussed a bit of what I’d read the night before, and he gave me some practical advice to accompany the theory, which I really appreciated.

- Well, I have to go, I don’t want to make my new partners wait

- Oh yeah, today you have her as your partner, right? – I thought he’d be cranky or mad because we were talking about Mercedes, but now that I had my ‘enemies to lovers’ theory, it sounded as if he wasn’t mad, but jealous.

- Yeah, I hope she’s in a better mood than yesterday tho

- Good luck with that smurf

- Come on, don’t be so harsh with her. Anyway, I have to go, but I’ll see you tomorrow morning

- Alright, take care

With that, I rushed to the changing room, cleaned myself up a bit and got dressed all in less than 5 minutes so I could get to the main lobby in time, where I was supposed to meet with Wood and Meyer for a new week with new people and, I hoped, new training.