The heat of the sun felt good against Tiberius' skin, the seemingly cloudless sky above a beautifully deep shade of blue. He gazed up at the sky in awe of how clear it was, his attention almost causing him to walk into an old lady. She moved at the last second and spoke angrily,
"Look where you're going! You youngsters these days!" Tiberius looked at her, his eyes apologetic as he said,
"Sorry, I was just looking at how beautiful the sky was." The old lady was unimpressed, she continued on.
"Sorry isn't good enough! What if you had hit me? I could have..." Before she could finish something shot from her mouth, her hands reaching out juggling whatever it was. After she caught it, she raised her hand up to her mouth. It was at that moment he realised she had just ejected her dentures from her mouth, a thick coating of drool rolled down her stubbly chin. Tiberius' face now looked as if he had sucked on the most sour sweet in the world, his eyes starting to pool with tears. The old lady wiped her chin and looked the young man dead in the eye. Trying his hardest, Tiberius could no longer hold it, bursting into a fit of laughter. The rage within the old lady was clear as she cocked her arm back behind her, flinging it forward with force. At the end of her outstretched arm was her handbag which was undoubtedly filled with an assortment of heavy items. He watched it approach, seeming to almost be in slow motion, before leaning to the left avoiding it. As she brought her arm back across he dodged it again, leaning back.
"I'm really sorry...i didn't mean to laugh..." The assault continued until Tiberius decided to turn and run away. He quickly built up a large distance between the two before turning to see her aggressively waving her fist at him.
How could I not laugh at that...Several minutes later his fathers dojo came into view, the long path to the entrance lined by stone lanterns either side. The grounds were massive, his father had used his winnings from the World Martial Arts Tournament to build it. The main building itself was large for a dojo but even bigger was the regulation sized arena behind it. He had spent many hours there sparring with his father and most recently Ally. She had impressed Tiberius with how quickly she learnt his fathers fighting style and deep down knew that he would unlikely ever truely pull away from her in strength. She was too dedicated and willing to push herself to extremes to allow that to happen. Deep down that pleased him though, it meant that he had to push himself just as hard to ensure that he didn't fall behind.
After getting to the end of the path he opened the dojo doors, greeted by the sight of Ally instructing what was clearly a beginners class. The poor form of those in front of him was a dead give away to the standards. While at first Ally had been solely responsible for beginner lessons, Tiberius convinced his father to let her instruct more advanced classes. More than anything it freed time up for Tiberius to do his
"other" hobby.
He walked across the back of the wall towards a doorway at the side, keeping an eye on Ally. She turned and looked at him and he spoke softly, trying not to be too much of a disturbance,
"I'm going to the garden, join me when you're done. We have a few things to talk about." He raised his hand in a soft wave before moving into the next room. He closed the door behind him to let Ally finish her class in peace, not wanting her to think he was spying on how she was training the beginners. To the right of the room he entered were a set of open double doors, a
picturesque garden framed between them. The smell of various flowers filled his nostrils as he approached the opening, it was a smell that soothed him, something that the center of the city lacked. He once again felt the sun on his skin as he returned outside, heading towards a bench that rested next to the central pond. The garden itself was in the center of the dojo, exposed to the outside world but framed on all sides by the dojo itself. Tiberius sat on the stone bench and leant back, stretching his arms out to his side. He took a moment to admire the beauty that surrounded him before lying on his back. He slowly closed his eyes and began to drift off, waiting for Ally to finish her session.
