Petrichor | SEQUEL to Gloves ||ON-GOING||

[003] Dawn

A/N: waaaah Ima sorry for not having updated in such a long time I got dragged off track by a thing called "art" and it has me in its clutches and im crying trying :')

enjoy the story~~

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At precisely 5:38 am, Gloves opens her eyes. She rolls out of bed, but still didn't fully avoid the bucket of ice cold water that drenches half of her body.

"Good morning~!" Kikyo calls out cheerfully, and Gloves rushes to put on her training equipment.

"Good morning, Madame." Gloves smiles, but could not hide the flush on her face when her stomach grumbles in protest for food.

"Three hours of training first, you know the rules." Kikyo chides as she escorts Gloves out of her room and down the hall. As they pass Illumi, he barely nods at Gloves before walking off. Still, that was pretty friendly of him.

"Gloves." Silva greets the scarlet-haired girl as she enters the training room. He looks over at his wife, and asks in a hushed tone.

"She didn't see... right?"

"No, you idiot. Why do you think I escort her every time?"

"Is something the matter?" Gloves calls out, only to have Kikyo and Silva shake their heads with a wave.

"Nothing. We'll see you at breakfast."

The doors slam and darkness fills the training room. Floodlights shine on Gloves' face as she instinctively closes her eyes. She is blind for the moment, but her other senses are sharpened and she jumps at the whistle of the darts.

Left, right, under, jump. The pattern is seared into her brain by now, and she quickly recovers her sight. The darts that are being shot at her were poisonous; although not lethal, the edges are extremely sharp and can cut through bone. Gloves knew first hand how much they hurt.

She heard a change, very slight and something that she definitely would've missed a few weeks ago. There's an anomaly in the pattern, something new, dangerous.

Her eyes go wide, and she performs the only maneuver the array of darts allowed, she leans back sharply into a bridge; misses her landing, and smacks her head on the cold steel floor.

The lights cut out sharply following her fall, and Silva's deep chuckle could be heard.

"So you found the new addition." He said, flickering another switch to turn on a set of dimmer lights.

Gloves winces from the floor, feeling a bump starting to form on her head.

"It was good that you dodged it, had you not, a very ... interesting poison would've been injected."

Gloves swallows her questions. She had learned very early on that questions were not to be asked, but the answers had to be earned.

"You may leave for now. This afternoon we will continue in closed combat training."

Gloves bows and silently exits the room, feeling cold sweat racing down her back. Already in the short time that she's been awake, that was the second time her life was on the line.

She looks up at a shadow in the hallway. It is Illumi, walking down the hallway with the same nonchalant expression as always. There was something about his gait as he walked towards a section of the estate that Gloves has not yet explored though, that draws Glove's curiosity.

Still, she manages to calm her heart and moves through the shadows back into her room. The first rays of sunlight are shining through the windows, and Gloves lets out an appreciative sigh. She loved the dawn; the warmth and light that had been denied to her for so many years is now her greatest treasure. She's especially happy with the huge window that faces the hills. She could pretend sometimes, when the wind blows and the grass dances in the breeze, that there's a figure with them; that Killua was running towards her.

Gloves turns towards the corner where she had placed Spork down that morning, only to discover with a sinking heart that the beetle was no longer there. She frowns, and decides to search for him once breakfast is over. She couldn't let herself become distracted... breakfast, is the most important meal.

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