[center][color=CFD3C6][img]https://i.imgur.com/QxwohJt.png[/img][/color][/center]
[center][h2]Christine Abigail[/h2][/center]
[center][color=007236][img]https://i.imgur.com/HQAIbb9.png[/img][/color][/center]
[center][@Hammerman][@Gentlemanvaultboy][@AtomicNut][/center]
[hr]
The training session had been an… interesting affair. The winning team’s princess, poor Bak, had been in a near ruinous state by the end, while the second place team was nearly unscathed as a whole. He didn’t count Annabelle’s effectively self-inflicted wounds, which had all healed on their own anyway.

Rurik’s team, however… well. Christine had done her job just fine. She’d even been one of those who’d gone after the exposed and helpless Bak. Rurik had done his ob as well… kind of. Not really. Oh, anyone he’d caught gunning for Christine had been stonewalled. Shut down entirely.

Before very long at all, they’d realized that aiming for Christine was useless. She herself was too powerful, and Rurik’s shield was just a nightmare to get past. Their only hope was an end-run to take out Vernon. 

Vernon had realized just as quickly that Rurik wasn’t all that concerned about him, nor was he very good at following orders. His best bet had then been to just stick as close to Rurik and Christine as possible and be defended by proxy. Yes, he’d quite thoroughly overestimated Rurik’s ability to give a shit, Christine or not, and just as thoroughly underestimated his ability to be a spiteful little prick.

When Christine had gone off to take her shot at Bak, the team had been temporarily split up. Annabelle had known she was one of the few people that could get through Rurik’s defenses and simultaneously shrug off his attacks… And he wasn’t even allowed to attack. So, Rurik hadn’t done either. As she’d charged him, he stepped aside, and to make sure she didn’t follow him, he’d set the ground he’d been standing on to explode.

Catapulting her right into Vernon.

[color=CFD3C6]“Oops.”[/color]

And that had been that.

As certain as Vernon was that Rurik’s actions had been purposeful, the guy wouldn’t admit it. At the same time, he hardly seemed upset by the outcome. It had certainly hastened his exit from the training session.

After shrugging off any admonishment or criticism aimed his way, Rurik took his leave of the area as soon as possible. The training session itself had ended up being mostly painless, but Vernon’s presence had made it distasteful enough all on its own. He just wanted to relax for the rest of the day, and hopefully with Christine for some of it.

[color=007236]“Hey, wait up!”[/color] A voice called after them. It was Vernon.

[color=CFD3C6]“Look, I already apologized,”[/color] Rurik said. Not that he’d meant it. [color=CFD3C6]“What more do you want?”[/color]


[color=007236]“Oh, it’s nothing to do with that,”[/color] Vernon replied. It was its own sort of lie. Rurik, either through negligence or ill will had humiliated Vernon. [color=007236]“I just thought I’d do you a favor. Clear the air if you would. I guess it’s more for Christine’s benefit, really.”[/color]

[color=CFD3C6]“Don’t you-”[/color] Rurik didn’t have to think all that hard to guess what he was getting at.

[color=007236]“Christine, my dear, did you know about Rurik’s reputation? I mean, I’ve heard it's quite prodigious in certain circles. If I had to guess, part of the reason he sleeps so much is because he’s always getting into fights! Good news is that he wins most of them, otherwise your relationship might be in jeopardy!”[/color]

[color=CFD3C6]“Vernon…”[/color] Rurik growled. It did nothing to stop the incoming flood.

[color=007236]“Oh, that’s right. He’s a bit of a gambling man it seems. His favorite wager is you! Bets your relationship on nearly every fight he gets into!”[/color] Vernon explained. [color=007236]“I just… got the impression you weren’t aware of all this. Figured it’d be good to get it all out in the open!”[/color]

Rurik pursed his lips. Well… he was right. Last he’d checked, Christine had never visited the little fighting ring he participated in. In fact, once he’d realized how many people were abusing it to try and get him to leave Christine, he’d tried to keep it that way. As far as he was concerned, the less she was involved in that garbage the better.

The only times it had ever come up were the two or three instances he’d actually lost and had “broken up with her”. . . for all of ten seconds before asking to get back together. 

For example…

[i] [color=CFD3C6]“So hey, I lost a bet and now we have to break up…”[/color] Rurik had told her. He’d then looked down at his wrist, where one might wear a watch and waited a second or two. [color=CFD3C6]“OK that should be good. Wanna go out with me again?”[/color] That had been the first time. [/i]

And then…

[i][color=CFD3C6]“Please don’t get mad, but it happened again. Which means I guess we have to break up again.”[/color] He sighed, feigning looking upset. It was about two months after the first time. [color=CFD3C6]“Damn, and we had that lunch thing planned too. Well, I don’t wanna mess up your schedule, so how about we do that anyway and we can talk about getting back together while we’re at it?”[/color] [/i]

It was hardly in the spirit of the wagers, but they’d never specified he couldn’t ask her out again right away. He’d always passed it off like he’d lost a simple bet over something like a coin-flip or something far less serious. He’d also never made it obvious just how many times it had been an issue, because he usually won, in which case there was no reason for Christine to ever hear about it.

That was the big issue. She liked fighting well enough, he doubted she’d be too mad about him getting into a lot of fights. Probably. But, now doubly so after Thobias’s scolding, the frequency of the bets made him think she might get offended. In his mind he’d only done it to shut people up… but… And then to top it all off he’d kept it from her.

And so he let out a sigh. 

[color=CFD3C6]“Well it’s pretty much like he says,”[/color] Rurik told her. [color=CFD3C6]“So… you mad at me?”[/color] He offered no explanations or excuses. He’d just let it play out.

“Oh, really?” Christine responded. “Rurik getting into fights like that… I didn’t think he was that kind of guy…”

Her expression wasn’t that of anger however. Instead, it was one of curiosity and light surprise.

“I thought he would be too lazy to get into fights out of his own will,” she said to Vernon with a smile. “But betting his relationship with me… I wonder why his opponents wanted to accept such a wager… Hmm, I guess because they wanted to date me, perhaps? That explains those couple times when Rurik broke up with me. So that was the bet…”

“But really, even if Rurik broke up with me, that doesn’t mean I’m going to date them, especially when most of them are just troublemakers and perverts.”

Ever since Christine entered Mephisto, she had been attracting quite the attention from the hornier male students. Since it was Mephisto, so a lot of students were troublemakers, there weren’t any shortage of boys trying to grope her breasts or look up her panties. Every day she had to repel them and assert her dominance. Only after that then the harassment lessened, she got the “Snow Princess” moniker, and she was accepted as one of the student council members.

Rurik wasn’t one of those boys, which made Christine appreciate him.

[color=CFD3C6]“Well… it was mostly them making the bet and me accepting,”[/color] he clarified. And then she basically said for him exactly why. He hadn’t seen much risk in it. How likely had Christine been to drop him for one of them just because he lost? Apparently, as he’d suspected, not very.

[color=CFD3C6]“So, that everything then?”[/color] Rurik asked Vernon. He could see the tension in the boy’s face. Clearly he’d expected at least somewhat more explosive results by blowing Rurik’s little “secret” into the open.

[color=007236]“Well… yes. I suppose it is,”[/color] Vernon replied, far less energetic than he had been when he’d first approached. [color=007236]“Enjoy the rest of your day.”[/color] Somehow Rurik doubted he meant that.

He waited silently for a moment as Vernon left and then he turned back to Christine. 

[color=CFD3C6]“So… I mean I get that finding out I was getting into fights isn’t really bad in your eyes… but as far as everything else goes… we’re good?”[/color] he asked her, now that they didn’t have the prying eyes of a witness.

“Yeah, we’re good!” Christine replied brightly. “Although I really prefer you to win in those matches. I would be troubled if they win and they actually decide to come to me and ask me to go out with them.”

Rurik did have to wonder why none of those people he’d lost to had ever gone up to Christine. Perhaps they just felt too awkward trying to ask out a girl who still had a boyfriend, even if they’d just managed to beat up that boyfriend. After all, if they’d truly though they’d had a chance, they probably wouldn’t have bothered with him in the first place.

[color=CFD3C6]“Well, don’t worry, I don't plan on that ever being a problem.”[/color] Today pretty much sealed it. Thobias had told him to cut all that nonsense out, but now he had his own definite reason to stop. He figured he’d still get into the odd fight here and there, but he’d be leaving Christine out of it. [color=CFD3C6]“And besides, I think I’ve already beaten most of the people who wanna go out with you anyway.”[/color] Some days it felt like he’d literally blasted his way through half the school… 

To be fair, not [i]all[/i] of them had been gunning for Christine. Some had just really, really wanted to fight and a punch to the jaw shut them up faster than trying to talk them out of it.

“By the way, Rurik…” Christine suddenly changed the topic of the conversation. “Are you going to participate in this year’s tournament? It’s okay if you don’t want to. I’m just asking, that’s all,”

Christine secretly thought that he might be a little more motivated for the tournament as he had been doing fights all this time.

It was a good thing Rurik didn’t smile often to begin with because he’d have certainly stopped then. The tournament. He had completely forgotten that was a thing. He’d even glossed over the fact that that was why there had been a training session. Of course Christine was gonna bring it up.

[color=CFD3C6]“I wasn’t planning on it,”[/color] he told her. [color=CFD3C6]“You go to something like that and people start having expectations of you and it’s a lot more hassle than just a few street fights here and there.”[/color] If he won, then he had to progress further and keep fighting, and if he lost then everyone would give him that disappointed look… like last time. No, it was best if he just stayed out of it to begin with.

“Alright then,” Christine responded, sounding slightly disappointed. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine with me.”

[color=CFD3C6]“Right…”[/color] Good, no pressure then. He then patted his pants pockets as if he was looking for something. [color=CFD3C6]“Ah. I think I forgot something. I’ll catch up with you.”[/color] And with that, he turned on his heel and jogged back they way they’d came.

Meanwhile, Vernon had rounded up his two lackeys and was making his way toward one of the exits to the school. A sudden, sharp whistle got his attention. He turned his head to see Rurik, standing by a large rock, placed decoratively next to a tree.


[color=007236]“What does this idiot want n-”[/color] And suddenly the rock jumped five feet into the air and Rurik slammed his palm against it, sending it flying at Vernon. His eyes went wide. But no, there was no way he’d go through with this. It’d be diverted or something at the last second. Rurik wasn’t insane enough to throw a rock that big at someone!

Yes, Vernon would call the fools bluff and stand his ground!

“BOSS! WATCH OUT!” Not that he got a say in the matter. His henchmen tackled him off his feet and threw him clear of the rock. He then new two things. One, he was lying face first on the concrete walkway, covered in dirt, and two… the rock hadn’t stopped and totally would have hit him. He looked up in time to see Rurik walking away whilst giving Vernon a middle-finger salute.


[color=007236]“Bastard…”[/color]

A short time later, Rurik jogged back over to Christine.

[color=CFD3C6]“Sorry about that,”[/color] he said. [color=CFD3C6]“Did you hear that crashing? Bak must have found someone to discipline on her way… to wherever the hell she was going.”[/color] Where even [i]did[/i] Bak go at the end of the day? He realized he had no idea. But then he paused for a moment and took a breath. [color=CFD3C6]“But actually that was me throwing rocks at Vernon because he made me mad,”[/color] he admitted. [color=CFD3C6]“Don’t worry, he’s fine.”[/color] Unfortunately.

He’d gotten lucky this time, but this whole awkward situation had spawned from him keeping things from Christine. A bit more honesty was called for, he decided. Well, at least with her.

[center][b]. . . A Few Weeks Later . . .[/b][/center]

She’d said it was fine with her if he didn’t participate, but she had kept dropping not so subtle hints ever since that she wanted him to join. After all, she was going to participate and wouldn’t it be so fun to be on the same team? And yeah, that had also told him it was going to be a team event. He wouldn’t have to do all the work alone, but that meant even [i]more[/i] disappointed looks if he even threw a fight.
Eventually he’d been worn down, like a stone eroded by water, and agreed. But they still needed a third teammate.

Vernon? Make it the same team as during training? He barely even entertained that thought. Annabelle would probably actually say yes, but also screw that. Thobias? Considerably more potential, but he still didn’t exactly like Thobias. Win or lose, he’d prefer this to be as painless as possible. Maybe that weird ninja guy, he had been useful before, and apparently was a student. He’d participated in training after all.

But how the hell did one go about finding a ninja? That was sort of there thing after all -- not being found.

He grimaced. He only really knew one other person well enough to ask. 

And that was how he’d wound up going to Bak of all people...