It was hot... She tried not to think about that as she flew over the pavement toward the woods. She was clad in shorts, a sports bra, socks, and trainers, sweat already creating a sheen on her skin. Her hair was thrown up into a high ponytail. She hadn't gone on her runs since the burns, which finally healed up. There were scars on her shapely legs, but they were surprisingly not bad... Then again, she had many scars that should be ugly but had patched over to become nothing more than faded.

The song blaring in her ear buds had her going at a steady beat, her feet rhythmic against the grass. Her breath came out in steady puffs as she disappeared into the treeline and created dust with her footfalls on the sandy path. She ran to vent frustration, to feel better, to try and heal her mind that was edging into madness more and more with every night she lacked sleep.

Xavia slowed to a walk after several minutes, arms up as she sought to simply breathe. And then when she could breathe again, she went to the course she had spent the morning setting up for herself. She climbed her way up onto a stump, wobbling some as she straightened her form up. She looked to the branch she marked with a bright piece of yarn, held her hand out toward it and willed it to stretch toward her.

She then leapt toward it, grabbing the branch and using her weight, and her mind, to help launch her to the next marked branch, repeating the willing of the branch so she could reach it... She did this twice more, but missing the next branch. She came crashing down into the pile of leaves she had raked up beneath said branch...

"Oof!" And the wind was knocked from her. She lay there for several moments, trying to regain her senses, and then rolled out of the pile to jog back toward the stump.

With the school year over, he was pretty free to spend his time training at the either the mansion or at Haven, depending on his mood and who was available. Most of the time when he cam here to the mansion, he was there for specific combat training but today, he was simply there for a little experiment. He'd been working on a couple ideas, a free day to test them out and the space to give it a try was all he needed. As much as he liked Haven and Inferno, it had to be the Mansion. 

There was just such a good feel to the place, like every bit of the grounds radiated sheer good cheer. The only problem, there wasn't anyone free for him to use the training rooms with, so he was stuck practicing outside. In the sun. During summer. It was basically his natural enemy but hopefully the two layers of sunscreen would last long enough to stop him turning into a lobster.

Dropping his pack and planting the practice staff in the ground in front of him, he tried to focus all his energy on it but a familiar figure in the distance kept distracting him. Was that Xavia? Running? Burns must have healed up nice if she was able to move that easily so soon. Artair couldn't help but have a little glow of pride, he done all the right things after all.

He hadn't talked to her since then and he was genuinely curious how she was doing. Seeing her head into a little wood, he figured he would give her a shout, see what was up with her. After all, if he was bothering her she could always ask him to leave.

Picking up the staff and pulling out a knife he wandered over, half focusing on one of his side projects. Taking its power and turning it into a scalpel. That was the theory at least. He still wasn't having much luck and honestly could do with the distraction.

She pulled the buds from her ears and the band from around her upper arm that held her phone, setting it on another stump, not wanting to wreck the device. Then she got back on the stump that she was using as her starter. She shook her arms and then beckoned to the branch. She leapt toward it again and started to swing herself to gain better momentum. This time, she let go when her feet were higher, flipping through the air until she could grab the next branch, and then... Got distracted by the appearance of one of the reasons she was training so hard. She missed the second brach and went down into the pile of leaves at the base of that tree.

Damn it.

Xavia grumbled and rolled to her feet, stalking back to the trunk. She was not about to make a fool of herself for any man, even one she genuinely liked. Besides, she felt pretty bad for having freaked out on him the last time she saw him.

Once he was close enough, he would see that the burns were, indeed much better. She wasn't even in much pain anymore. Her legs were still looking kind of gross but no longer angry red. DocProf might have also insisted on her letting him at least take the pain away because she was too stubborn to let him heal her completely. Otherwise she would be in a boat load of pain right now! She had been chomping at the bit for a good work out and hated being idle.

"Hi," she said, and she started shaking her arms out. She didn't seem miffed about his appearance, though she was kind of... Not looking at him. "Good to see you again."

Oof, that was one hell of a fall. What was it with him meeting this woman and some kind of physical accidents happening? He'd been starting over to help her up but she bounced to her feet pretty quick, couldn't be too hurt at least and as he got closer, the burn scars certainly looked better than the last time he'd seen them. Although he pointedly tried not to look at the rest of her, with how she was dressed it was hard not notice.

Walking up and leaning on the staff, he took a look around as she brushed herself off. A marked path on the tree branches and a raised platform to jump from half filled in the picture, but they were far too far apart to swing from between them without some kind of aid. Artairs was pretty fascinated by the set up, she must have been doing some kind of power training but what he had no clue how it worked or if it was helping. Power training was not something he was used to yet, his recent failures with the scalpel came sourly back to mind. Speaking of, he scattered the construct just as she started to address him.

"Same to you Xavia. Got to say you're looking a lot better than the last time I saw you, glad to see the burns healed up well enough." Thank god for that, burns were always the trickiest ones to deal with, if she had that much freedom of movement, something he'd done had gone right.

Nodding his head towards the branches marked with yarn, "I'm guessing those have something to do with your face plant. What you up too?"

"Had DocProf help a little, hurt too much and wanted to run. He healed my hand all t'e way, I wouldn't let him do my legs completely. Just take edge off. Very punny, by t'e way, wit' face plant t'ing. But no. I got distracted." She left it at that, not admitting it was his doing.

She then changed to the topic he brought up, "Just... Watch." It was hard for her to showcase her gift so much, she wasn't one to show off. Hell, even having gone on tour to sing had been rough on her.

She balanced on the narrow spot she was using to leap from, lifted her hand to beckon the branch toward her. It creaked with the movement and when she knew she could get to it, she bent at the knees and launched toward it, grabbing, and then swinging. The branch was then willed to help launch her to the next one, which followed the example of the first.

She moved with the grace of an athlete, though not perfect. The fourth branch kept eluding her, but this time, she threw her left hand and sent a vine whipping out to curl around it, and she stopped falling far enough from the ground to be able to grab on and swing like Tarzan only to grab the fifth branch shakily. She shook her hand to release the vine, and it withered away to nothing, while she lost her grip and fell for the third time.

"S**t!" She said just before hitting the ground harder than before. Xavia didn't think she was injured, but lay there panting and frustrated.

Doc still surprised him. He'd had no ideas the power worked that way and it was already a pretty impressive to start with. It was strange to think anyone would voluntarily stay in pain when they that kind of healing on hand for any serious injuries. To each their own he supposed.

Chuckling at the unseen joke he'd made, "Sorry, that was more a happy accident than me being clever. And for throwing you off while you were doing your thing."

He did have to see this. His natural curiosity was far to interested now and since she'd offered, surely there was no harm in sticking around. It was pretty damn impressive though, when the first branch started to shift and move, before she launched herself at them. Watching with a smile on his face, she looked like some kind of demented squirrel going from tree to tree. It continued looked impressive right until the moment she missed a handhold and came down way harder than before. That one must have hurt.

Quickly moving over and making sure Xavia was fine, he offered a hand up. "Alright there lass? That was one hell of a fall. Damn impressive up until that point though, not gonna lie."

With how frantic their last meeting had been he hadn't really unpacked any of his reasons for why he'd felt the need to talk to her. Sure she was good looking but surely if that was the only reason he'd have taken her up on her offer to sleep in the same bed. So what the hell was going on in his head and more importantly, did any of it really matter?

She pushed herself up, and looked at his hand for a moment before she accepted the hand up. She wasn't hurt much, if at all, but stumbled against him after wading out of that pile of dead leaves. Her eyes were kind of wide as she met his, and it took her longer than she would have wanted to say softly, "I am okay.... T'ank you..." Then she bent her head down, shakily taking a step back and letting go of his hand.

The moment hit her right in the gut. There had been some charge in the air. She backed up a few more steps and said, "I should not have asked you what I did when I was wit' you. I... Was stupid." And lonely, and so very tired, and... Attracted when she ought not to be. And that was trouble. She had to stop this nonsense, reaching out in the dark for stranger's hands.

But this was different enough to cause such unease... She had not felt like running away with the few others she allowed close... Not since her first meeting with Jupiter.

Her face kind of went through a myriad of different emotions before she launched away from him, running a few steps, then trotting, then slowing to a walk before turning round and saying, "Why are you here, Artair? You should know I am very messed up and not completely sane, and I act compulsively." She threw her hand up and moved back to the stump, climbing on.

She tried to will the branch toward her again, but her concentration was shot. Pressing her lips together, she moved back to the ground and grabbed her phone and ear buds.

Giving her a hand up and letting her dust herself off, he was glad she hadn't gotten hurt again and not only because if it kept happening, he would seriously consider being cursed. Waving off the thanks, he was just doing what anyone else would do. He just had to ignore the smell roses whenever she got too close. Like now.

"Xavia, you were in serious pain,had just had a pretty nasty experience and were running on no sleep. No one would think rationally in that situation, Christ I wasn't either." Nightmares and little sleep had made him a little loopy as well, he'd been borderline rude to her when he burst out laughing at the offer. Not exactly his finest hour, but he wasn't in the best way himself and in fairness, it had been so out of left field that his mouth had the thought before his brain could really think about it.

"I'm here because you're interesting lass and I like talking to you. You're more mature than most of the people I've been dealing with and it's honestly refreshing. As for messed up? That I can understand lass, I'm hardly a poster boy for a stable mental state." She needed to give herself more credit.

Well, this had been a mistake after all. He'd only p----- her off by the look of it and he was pretty sure she didn't need more bs in her life right now.

"Look, I can go if you want, it wasn't my intentions to mess with your training. I just wanted to see how you were and say I enjoyed our previous meeting, as weird and wonderful as it was." Retrieving the staff, he turned to head back towards his previous practice grounds. God he felt like an eejit. 

"No. I do not want you to go. What I want is what frustrates me and distracts.... And maybe confuses." She sighed and approached him, stopping within two yards of him. She wasn't angry at him, she was just over thinking, perhaps. She wasn't quite sure what to do. Assuming he should turn around, she was looking at him with a mixture of worry and just plain old tiredness.

"So I train to try and not t'ink about it, so I won't want somet'ing I can't even have." She shrugged and turned her head. "And even if what I want is close enough to touch, it will disappear."

Xavia closed the distance, "Come, spar wit' me. Winner gets somet'ing of choice. What do you say?" Her eyes regarded him seriously, wondering if he would do it or not. And would he ask what it was she was going to fight for?

OK? She'd lost him somewhere along the way. Turning back towards her, she was a lot closer than he'd been expecting. Jumping slightly, "Christ lass, nearly gave me a heart attack which for me, is more likely than you think." He was already on thin ice with it, didn't need an extra push towards one.

Disappear, touch? What the hell was going on here? And now sparring. This was going strange and he wanted an explanation. To get one, he'd just have to win. Hopefully she wasn't as well trained as some other people he'd met, but since she taught at the mansion, he wasn't hopeful about his chances. "Aye, I'll spar but how do you want to do this?"

Slamming the staff he still had into the ground and leaving it there, "I'm guessing we go to first touch to the torso? Weapons or bare fist? And do you want to use powers?" If she did, he was screwed. They were in a forest. Which she could control. That wouldn't end well for him.

"If you want a weapon," gesturing at the staff, "feel free to take that one. I have enough of my own."

"I did not mean to creep up on you. Sorry for frightening you." She eyed him, shaking her head a little because she did not know what to day other than she was sorry,

"Hand to hand... No powers, first one to hit ground t'ree times forfeits. You game?" She wanted to make it as fair as possible. If it was with weapons, she would be handicapped. If it was with powers... He would be. So the best option was no weapons, no powers.

Besides, she knew what she wanted if she won and she wanted to win her prize fair and square. And she would win. Assuming he replied with an affirmative to the rules, she would move to set her phone and buds out of the range of danger.

She moved to stand in front of him, maybe several yards apart from him. She went into that practiced, martial arts stance. Her eyes were now filled with challenge. That Come At Me, Brah! look. She did not ask nor tell what prizes would be. She was sure he had an interesting choice. "No dirty shots. No private parts, no head shots."

Seemed fair, put them both on relatively even footing, although his hand to hand training was...poor. Most of his came down either hitting them hard with what amounted to metal on his hand, or what amounted to wrestling. Which would get awkward. Pretty quick. "I'm game, puts us about as even as we can hope to be." If she was a trained as he though she was, he really hoped she went easy on him.

Grabbing the staff and depositing it out of the way, along with any breakables on his person, readying himself , he was prepared for this. She was an opponent now, and deserved the respect that entailed. 

Putting his hands up in a standard defensive stance and nodding at her, he was so glad for the extra rules. It was pretty much a universal rule that men had a certain, aversion, to getting hit in the more delicate parts of their bodies.

"I'm ready Xavia. Let's do this." He'd be happy to throw away one, maybe two to get an idea of her skill and movement. Knowledge in a fight was important, maybe more than skill. Hopefully.

She gazed intensely at him, started to circle, then launched toward him, dropping and thrusting her leg out. "Huah!" If connected, her shin would make contact with his, and she'd keep her leg moving in hopes of sweeping him off his feet. If he hit the ground, she'd grin at him and say, "One." Then hold her hand out to help him up.

If he stayed on his feet, she moved quickly to straighten her form and backed several steps away.

Christ she was quick. Her leg sweep nearly gave up the first point for free but he managed to just keep his balance and back off, adding more distance between them. Yep, she was better at this than him, he'd be lucky to get maybe one point.

Dropping low and charging, he was hoping to feint her into protecting low, at which point he'd surge up and tackle her in the stomach. If it didn't work, well he'd be a bit screwed. He'd be over extended and pretty easy to knock down. He just really hoped it worked.

She side stepped, pivoted, sending the side of her forearm toward his mid back, not with the intent to hurt, obviously, but with hopes it would help him go down for that first point. "Huah!"

Should she be successful, she'd offer to help him up in the aforementioned manner as before. If not, again, she would skip backwards a few steps until he recovered before launching toward him, leaping for a scissor throw.

A successful (if it was) scissor throw would have her wrapping one leg over his midsection, and the other around the back of his legs, and her legs would squeeze together. It was meant to knock a person off balance. And she would make sure if he went down, that she would be on top.