3 Years

48 - Fights

Nini looked at her phone, a little disappointed that Ricky hadn't texted back yet. She was wondering why he wasn't answering on a matter that had such importance to their lives. Maybe he's just not near his phone, she reasoned. But the longer she thought about it, the less it made sense.

To distract herself and not drive herself insane, Nini began cleaning the house. It was a simple distraction that gave her something to do; plus, it needed to be done. She thought about cleaning her own room but realized that probably wouldn't help.

When Jayden came down from his room to play video games in the living room, he saw his mother grab the vacuum out of the closet. Oh no. She's gonna ask us to start a cleaning project. He went over to the TV to grab a controller.

Nini saw him out of the corner of her eye. "You're not gonna be able to hear it with this running," she said, plugging it into the nearest outlet.

Jayden shrugged. "Eh, no big deal."

Nini debated on whether or not to ask him to help but then decided to just do it herself because then she could prolong thinking about Ricky. Plus, she didn't like the way he did things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Holy shit."

"That was... that was good."

Ricky and Nia collapsed next to each other, panting and sweating. They had been at it for well over two hours now and didn't realize how much time had passed.

"What time is it?" Ricky asked, catching his breath.

Nia rolled over to where she had left her phone. "It's almost four hours later."

"What? How? That's never happened before."

She shrugged. "Don't know. I guess we just had more energy than normal."

Ricky stood up and threw his shirt back on. "When you did that, uh... I don't even know what to call it. The thing with your hand."

"Just a little something I picked up," she smirked proudly. "You think Noah's ok, right?"

"I'm sure," he shrugged. "We told him what we were doing." Once they gathered all their belongings, Ricky and Nia made their way back downstairs.

In New York, they would always go to the rooftop of their building for a workout or a secluded park to spar and stay in shape. On the run meant they had to be ready for anything, so they often practiced old exercises from military training. Obviously, they didn't have an obstacle course, but fighting each other worked just as well, especially since they were almost equal in skill.

Sparring each other always strangely took a weight off their shoulders. They couldn't explain it, but it was oddly relaxing; having to put their energy somewhere else helped. Luckily, no one ever came to the top of the roof.

Once they made it back, they found Noah in the living room. "Hey, bud. What are you doing in here?" Nia asked.

"Just watching TV," he said simply.

"Ooh, guess what?" Ricky said excitedly, walking down the hall.

"What?" Nia wondered.

"I got dibs on the shower first!" he yelled, running off and closing the door quickly behind him.

"Not fair!" she yelled, slamming her fist on the door.

"You snooze, you lose!"

"Daniel Alexander Scott, I demand you open this door!!"