Chapter Text
“Eeeeeee!” Raya dashes into Namaari’s room and heads towards her bed and starts to jump on it, whilst Namaari was at her desk, doing Fang paper work as usual.
“Well someone’s in a good mood I hear,” Namaari chuckles as she continues to make dark marks in her paper, not moving her eyes from the sheet.
“Totally am! Ba told me that he is going to introduce me to my official sparring partner of heart! Isn’t that great?” Raya leaps off the bed and heads towards Namaari’s desk, leaning across it in attempts to get Namaari’s eyes on her.
“Ouch. I thought you loved being my sparring partner,” Namaari says lifting a hurt hand to her heart.
“Don’t be like that. You know I enjoy sparring with you,” Raya says genuinely. “I just....never really had a whole lotta friends in heart, and I’m hoping that this could be an opportunity to change that.” Raya continues. Namaari looks up from her work and smiles at her.
“Well, I am happy that you will finally have a friend other than me,” Namaari pushes her chair away from her desk and gets up to head to the restroom. Raya chuckles.
“Oooh...someone, perhaps, jealous?” Raya asks as Namaari brushes her teeth. Namaari squints at Raya through the mirror, and spits the paste out of her mouth.
“Of course I am. Because I don’t want anyone hurting you during sparring unless it’s me,” Namaari remarks with an eye roll and splashes water on her face. Raya giggles.
“I’ve gotta admit- I’ll miss sparring with you, but not really.” Raya walks over and throws her self across Namaari’s bed back first.
“Wha- why?” Namaari shouts from the bathroom after drying her face off.
“Because you were way too easy. Not much competition. Noi has kicked way harder than you ever have, binturi.” Raya put her hands behind her head comfortably and smirks at the talon memory.
“Oh please- I’ve beaten your puny ass tons of times. And I am great competition. And an even better fighter,” Namaari says pridefully. The only response she gets is snoring. “We’ll finish this in the morning,” Namaari whispers in response and cuts her room lantern and lays next to Raya.
~*~*~*~
“Lieutenant Andreas, at your service princess,” A large hand shakes Raya’s small one in comparison. Raya gave him a genuine smile, glancing over at Namaari who was with Sisu at the far side of the sparring grounds. Namaari gave her two thumbs up, to that Raya replied with an awkward smile.
“Nice to meet you Andreas,” Raya replied, letting go of his hand. She felt comfortable around him mainly because was around her age, but intimidated because he was freakishly tall and muscular.
“You two have fun,” Benja nods to them before walking off towards the palace.
“So, I hear you are quite the fighter. Let’s put that to the test, shall we?” Andreas took a few large steps back and took out his blade, twirling it. Raya smirked, because they were finally gonna get to the fun. She grabbed her sword off the ground and stepped back aswell, circling him like a shark.
“You can take the cover off your sword- you won’t catch me.” Andreas jeered with a wink, almost daring Raya to hurt him- which she wasn’t afraid of doing.
Raya dragged the cover off her sword. A ray of shine from the sun ram across it as she drew it out. She continued circling her opponent. He copied her circling, slicing the air with his sword to show off. Namaari and Sisu whooped and cheered for Raya.
“Ten jade Raya wins,” Namaari states, not taking her eyes off the two fighters about to duel it out.
“I dunno- this guy looks pretty good. Plus he’s a lot more built than she is. He might win...” Sisu replies, watching in awe. Raya made the first attack.
She clashes her her sword against his blade, causing him to stumble backwards a little catching himself.
“Off balance already, lieutenant? We just started,” Raya teased.
“Jeer all you want- I’m just getting started.”He replied. He swung for Raya’s neck, which she blocked with her sword and retracted it, flinging it towards him back to back. He was slowly loosing balance again walking backwards with every strike Raya offered up. He was great, but she was greater.
He backflipped into the air to avoid the sword clashes, and landed on his feet with a hand on the ground. He Swiped at Raya’s leg. She fell.
“Come on, Ray,” Namaari whispered to her self.
Raya used her sword to hoist herself back up before she clenched her sword and got into defense position. She jumped in the air, kinda like how she did during her dragon test, and hit his sword fast and hard. He blocked it and pushed her off, twirled his blade and thrusted again; he put a slit in Raya’s face. She yelped in pain.
“Is he aloud to do that?!” Sisu exclaimed to Namaari, who was just as worried as she was.
“Anything is aloud during sparring. Except death, obviously. Raya can handle it though,”Namaari leaned forward on her knees and continued to watch, eager.
Raya wiped the berry colored liquid oozing down her face, it stung to her touch.That’s gonna be a killer scar. She smirked; apart of her liked the pain. She swung her sword at Andreas’s blade again- 5 times in a row. She was determined to defeat him now. Especially because everyone- EVERYONE was watching.
“Gosh,” Andreas grunted as he struggled to block Raya’s slashes, one of them scaring his hand. The sound of clashing ringed through the air, along with kids of heart on the side of the sparring grounds chanting for Raya, most of the boys chanting for Andreas.
“Get her Andreas!” A few of his buddy soldiers hollered.
“You can take him Raya!” A girl from Raya’s youth class shouted. This gave Raya a rush good of adrenaline.
“Game over Andreas,” Raya whispers to him, him with a confused look, she ran towards him and jumped up in the air, getting her legs around his neck and shoulders and flipped him on the ground. She mimicked the move Namaari did on her during their spine showdown.
“Ahh!” He exclaimed in pain as his back thumped against the ground, head connected to it last. Raya stood over the lieutenant, pointing the tip of her sword to his neck.
“Huh. I guess I didn’t need a sword to defeat you, lieutenant. Funny how you said I wouldn’t touch you; I nicked your hand there,” Raya jeered, pointing to his scar. Andreas laughed and got up on his Elbows, throwing his head back. “Ego hurt?” She asked sarcastically.
“Yeah, lil bit. You’ve got mad skill, though. Your gonna be fun to spar with.” He nodded as he rubbed the back of his throbbing head. Raya laughed and grabbed his hand and arm to help him up.
Namaari watched as they both stared into each others eyes as she got him up. The way Andreas laughed at everything Raya said. The way Raya tucked her hair behind her ear when Andreas would compliment her. She never did that with Namaari. Why not?
“Dammit man! You really let a girl beat you?” Po walked over with 4 other heart soldiers. They were the ones rooting for Andreas. The way he said ‘girl’ almost sounded like a slur. Didn’t sit right with Raya. She squinted, clearly bothered.
“Didn’t let her do anything. She’s got a power of her own,” Andreas put a solace hand on Raya’s shoulder. I think he realized that the way Po conveyed his words wasn’t the best. She smiled at him, glad he had her back.
“You got that right. Excellent fight princess,” Po held his hands up in a gem form and bowed, the other followed. Raya sometimes forgets that she’s royalty. She never really let that dictate how she treated others though. “We gotta go though, Andre. General Auigo called us in for a early morning session,” Po walks off, the other guys follow.
“I’ll catch up,” he waved them off. Andreas had his eyes fixated on Raya. She looked over at him. She sensed she was being watched.
“What?” She chuckled.
“Here,” Andreas stuck a hand in his pocket and grabbed a bandage, gently applied it to Raya’s damaged face. He let his hand stay they for a while afterwards, on Raya’s face. Longer than Namaari would’ve preferred.
Namaari’s eyes widened. She was beyond jealous. A LOT of people knew that Namaari liked Raya; except for Raya obviously. And clearly, except for Andreas too. Almost Everyone from Heart and Fang knew not to get too close to Raya, because they feared Namaari would split their shins for it. Or so legends say.
“Why is he touching her.” Namaari asked; not really asking. Kinda stating.
“Why is who touching who- oh spirits,” Sisu noticed what Namaari was referring to and immediately feared for Andreas’s life, because she knew how Namaari was. She was fuming; her ears red with anger.
“Namaari, chill the fuck out. He probably doesn’t know about your little- thing for Raya.” Sisu tried to calm her heavy breathing friend down, honestly considering throwing her into a river to cool her off.
“Oh, well he’s about fucking know,” Namaari jerked up from the bench she was on and started walking towards the two fighters, in full anger mode. She knew she had to chill, but she couldn’t help how she felt. When she was angry, there was no going back. Sisu bolted after her, jumping in front of her and putting a hand on both her shoulders to stop her.
“NAMAARI. Namaari. Think this through. If you start a fight with this guy or KILL him, you could possibly wage war between Heart and Fang- AGAIN.” Sisu whispered, a few people now looking at them. Namaari was breathing hard, still looking and Andreas caressing Raya’s face. She wanted to be him.
Namaari thought it through though. And Sisu was technically right. It’s not worth it. She can’t let her own selfishness put her people in danger again. She calmed down and relaxed her hunched shoulders. She turned and walked off towards Hearts Palace- probably heading to Raya’s room to wait there for her. Sisu sighed hopelessly as she watched her get farther and farther.
Just because Andreas got lucky, didn’t mean he was safe from her. Namaari was far from finished.