tight circle, and moved along the line of the punch, pushing her back up against Cleese’s chest. In an eye blink, her left elbow came back like a jackhammer digging itself into his solar plexus. Cleese felt the air in his lungs rush out of him and then, suddenly, his sense of gravity abandoned him. Remotely, he felt her hip dig into his groin and he pretty much knew what was coming next—she’d draw him into that circle of hers, distract him with a nut shot and then try to hip-toss him.
The Warriors had already begun to relax when they saw Cleese’s feet leave the mat. They’d all sparred with Chikara before and they knew that these matches always ended up with her opponent flat on his back, flat on the ground.
It was as immutable as a Law of Nature.
Cleese rolled with the judo throw and then, halfway through, he twisted at the waist. As he came up and over her back, his mind quickly rifled through his options. He needed one that wouldn’t get him hurt or injure Chikara. As his mind raced for a solution, he had to admit it, he got lucky. His fingers caught hold of the waist of her pants and, as he continued to fall toward the floor, he dragged her with him. They both hit the mats and he clung tightly to her body, continuing with the roll until he ended up on top of her.
The furious look on Chikara’s face was priceless as she lay beneath him. Her eyes blazed with anger and her lips were drawn tight with frustration. It was obvious that ending up this way was not what she’d planned. In fact, it was the furthest thing from it.
Far off, he heard the Warriors collectively gasp. No one in their memory had ever bested Chikara in a sparring match. Not even the most elite of them.
'Hmmm,' he said with a smirk to hide even his surprise, 'impressive.'
Chikara wriggled under him and tried to shake him off.
'Get! Off! Of! Me!'
'No,' he said with a mischievous grin.
'With one word, Cleese, I could have these men tear you apart.'
'How? With more of your chop-socky stuff?' Cleese laughed and leaned in toward her. 'Somehow… I don’t think so.'
He bent down further until his face came to within a few inches of Chikara’s. Her eyes still burned, but in this position there wasn’t a lot she could do about it. Her hands lay trapped at her sides, pinned under Cleese’s muscular legs.
'Has anyone ever told you,' he whispered so only she could hear, 'that you’re quite pretty?'
Beneath him, her wriggling got more furious.
'No? Not lately?' He winked at her. 'Well, you are.'
Abruptly, and so none of the other fighters might see, he placed a kiss on the tip of her nose and quickly jumped off. The instant that he moved, Chikara fired off a knee-strike directed squarely at his nuts. Only his quick reflexes saved Big Jim and the Twins.
'Hey,' he said with a chuckle and wagged a finger at her. 'No fair aiming for The Boys.'
By now, she’d gotten back to her feet and was coming on fast. Her jaw was set firmly and her hands were balled up tightly into fists. Cleese had seen the look before. It meant someone was mad.
Once she’d gotten to within arm’s reach, she threw three quick punches at him. The left jab whistled past the side of his face. The right hook struck him just under his ear. The spinning, open-handed back fist slapped him across the face. His cheek pinked up immediately.
'How dare you!' she shouted through gritted teeth,
'Wait! Wait!' he said still laughing and rubbing the side of his face. He ran away from her and pulled two of her younger fighter’s in front of him.
Chikara stopped her advance and shot a quick glance toward one of her men. As one, the group moved toward him. Cleese had fought groups of men before, but they were usually drunk and sloppy. These guys were well trained and, he knew, each one of them would die for their leader. All she had to do was ask and, he suspected, she just had.
'Matte! Matte! Matte!' Cleese shouted. The group hesitated just slightly, but in that second Cleese started rattling off his explanations.
'Ok… I admit it. I cheated,' he said and then turned grinning toward Chikara. 'I apologize. I’ve been…uh… reviewing your fight tapes from St. Louis and saw you did that same thing in your fourth round. I figured what you were doing halfway through it and countered.'
The Warriors had come almost to within arm’s reach of him and a few circled to his left and right flank. Cleese kept them in his peripheral vision, but his main focus was on Chikara. He knew she could end this before it started with but a word.
Chikara stared at him open-mouthed and eyes wide. Then suddenly, she burst out laughing. The Warriors were confused by this evidently because their forward progress ceased. Cleese watched as they looked at one another and tried to figure it out. When he looked back, Chikara had dropped to a sitting position and tears from laughing had begun to stream down her face.
For a second there was an uncomfortable pause, but little by little the tension eased.
'Let this be a lesson to you, my Warriors,' Chikara said, raising her voice. 'A little research can go a long way.' She rose to her feet in that same weird way that she had when he’d last seen her and moved toward him. 'A little subtlety can work miracles as well.'
Cleese felt her come up behind him and touch him on the tricep. Gently, she led him away. For a brief moment, he focused on the feeling of her touch. He wanted, for reasons he wasn’t quite sure of, to remember what it felt like. With a small chill that ran up his neck, he realized that it had been a long time since a woman—any woman—had touched him in any way other than wanting to see him dead.
He’d forgotten how pleasant that sort of thing could be.
'Continue with your drills, Gentlemen,' she said. 'I want to have a talk with Mr. Research here.'
The group of fighters hesitantly broke off into groups of two and began practicing the throw Chikara had demonstrated. The bravest of them even tried their hands at the counter Cleese managed to pull off.
As he watched them spar, Cleese felt another slight tug at his elbow, then it released. The two of them moved off, away from the mats.
'You really think you are something…' Chikara said.
'Me? No,' he said. 'I just try to keep myself amused.
'I see…'
'By the way, I meant that ‘pretty’ remark.'
Chikara smiled again and her cheeks reddened. Then, a shadow passed over her face and she got a far-off look in her eye. It was pretty obvious past memories had reared their heads in her mind. It was also clear that not all of them were pleasant.
'Please don’t,' she whispered and her eyes seemed to glisten with wetness in the light. 'I… I can no longer allow myself those kinds of feelings.'
'Why?'
'Look, I like you… Please do not think otherwise, but…' for the first time he could remember, she was at a loss for words. As she stumbled for what to say and how to say it, she looked like a little girl trying to talk her way out of trouble. 'I have lost too much, Cleese, far too much,' she said and looked toward the floor. 'I cannot allow myself… I will not allow myself the luxury of starting over.'
'Hey, join the club, Sweetheart.'
Her look of surprise at his answer was almost comical.
'In case you’ve been too wrapped up in your own personal tragedy, a lot of people lost every goddamn thing they had when this shit all went down. Don’t think that you’ve got some kind of monopoly on pain and suffering. Sooner or later you have to let go of it. Sooner or later you have to let the pain die, too, because if you don’t, it’ll eat you up from the inside.'
Once again, Cleese saw Chikara’s eyes glimmer in the half-light and he reached out and gently touched her forearm. Her arms were a contradiction, cords of hard muscle beneath smooth soft skin.
'Look… I’m not asking you for anything that you aren’t prepared to give. I just thought we could talk once in a while; be friends.'
She looked up at him and a smile slowly unfurled across her lips. She ran her finger unhurriedly around her
