Chapter Text
Training.
Training is the one thing that unifies most explorers.
Be that the joint exercises held by Maki or the general day to day training that the teams were expected to partake in.
This does leave Zasp in an unfortunate position, being the one explorer whose teammate does not partake in the usual sparring, fighting and exercising. Even though he does take the time to exercise, he doesn't get the chance to improve his fighting style, just to become stronger.
The only real combat experience Zasp was getting was from their actual exploration. Battles in the Lost Sands, the marshes near the Wasp Kingdom, and all the fights through the Giant's Lair.
Even that wasn’t even against experienced combatants, all that did was, again, train his pre-existing skills. He wasn’t forced to try something new or develop new fighting styles, just use the ones he had more effectively. The only time he really had to think about a battle was with Team Snakemouth, and it was a long while ago.
Mothiva refused to- well, she didn’t have the time to train all that often. Her shows took up most of her time outside of exploring, so that left Zasp alone most of the time. He did want to train with her, but at the same time she was a celebrity first. He couldn’t ask her to put aside her job for some not-so-useful training.
Zasp did desperately need someone to spar with though. As the rest of the teams pulled ahead it was becoming increasingly prevalent how much their team was falling behind. Last time the teams got together it was an extremely disappointing showing from the two of them.
He was afraid that Mothiva had largely given up on her exploration career after losing publicly to Team Snakemouth.
Snakemouth…
The two of their teams didn’t really see eye to eye, especially Vi, but… they were really capable fighters…
- ~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•
“Isn’t that quest from Zasp? Why does he want US in particular?” Vi groaned looking at the quest with their names on it… literally…
Leif picked the quest off the wall and started to read it out. “I request a proper training partner. Mothiva is currently occupied and I don’t believe that anyone else could match me as a sparring partner excluding your group.” Leif flipped it over to look at the back, “He’s offering twenty berries with the note-”
“Twenty berries to beat up Zasp?? Alright then! We’re doing it!” Vi snatched the request from Leif’s hands to look it over by herself.
At the bottom of the note it says “The berries are for Vi because she will only agree to this if there is a reward involved”
Leif has a smirk on their face watching Vi read that part of the note before huffing. “Am I that predictable??”
“Zasp predicted your response almost perfectly so we don't think we need to answer that question.”
“Leif, please be polite…” Kabbu added, causing Leif to shrug.
“We were simply saying what was on the note.”
The team, after a bit more conversation, chose to officially accept it and head towards the training arena.
Zasp was waiting for them, leaning against a wall watching them approach and fiddling with his knives.
“Took me up on the request it seems? Did Vi come because of the berries?”
“No! Maybe I just wanted to spar-!” “ Oh yes, it was. The second she heard the reward was twenty berries, she immediately wanted to accept.” Leif interrupted, smirking.
“...Okay, yes, maybe I did. How’d you predict that, anyway?” Vi asked, crossing her arms in annoyance.
“Let’s just say I know who I’m dealing with.”
“You two, leave the arguing for when we’ve begun sparring.” Kabbu interrupted the two.
“Fine. You three ready?”
- ~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•
The first few sessions between the group went surprisingly well. The group was split into 2 groups of 2 and from what the rest of the teams in the area could tell they were having a good time. Zasp was teamed up with Vi at first, then Kabbu, then Leif, who he seemed to have the best pattern with.
A few more of these sparring sessions took place before Vi started to disappear from them in order to “pick up extra quests”, right after the singular session in which Mothiva joined. She would also leave the group right after, leaving just Kabbu, Leif and Zasp.
The three of them would take turns fighting for a while after that before Kabbu didn’t show up for one either, leaving only Zasp and Leif.
“What’s got Kabbu held up?” Zasp asked, causing Leif to shrug.
“Vi found a quest that needed 2 people, and we wanted to keep sparring, so here we are.” Leif said, preparing for another fight.
Leif moved onto the field, the rest of the team were the ones interested in pre-fight chats, not them. “Ready when you are.” Leif said, readying their stance.
Zasp nodded, before readying his daggers and lunging towards Leif.
They took a few steps backwards, and summoned an ice spike below his feet.
Zasp stepped to the side quickly before throwing two knives at Leif, who dodged them and responded with an Icefall.
Zasp blocked the attack with his forearms, before running forwards to throw a kick at Leif’s chest, but they summoned their shield in time.
Zasp waited for Leif to drop the shield, before throwing a smoke bomb at their feet and running behind them, delivering a knee hit on Leif’s back and pushing him forward onto the ground.
He walked towards them and extended a hand to help them out. Leif turned on their back, before taking Zasp’s hand and getting up.
The two of them went back to their teams after the fact but a few days later they spared again, and again, and again.
They started to take the chance to hang out alone from their teams. After sparing they would go out to places on their own, to recover after their fight.
They both made sure to make sure that they at least got out once a week.
~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•~✦~•
Months passed, occasionally other people would join them, Team Ant would join their sparring group once a month. Maki challenged them, the two of them lost but both sides agreed it was a good fight.
Eventually they started to hang out more outside of training.
Vi would come home to Zasp Leif and Kabbu attempting to cook something.
Mothiva would see Zasp and Leif standing together at the side of her concert.
Kabbu would find the two of them doing smaller quests out and about.
That was only what they were okay with them seeing though.
After long missions or hot days the two of them would head out. Sometimes to a cave at the edge of civilization, sometimes in some hotel room. The two of them were still not ones for conversation usually. So being able to talk freely with someone was nice, wings wrapped around each other allowing the world to go by without the two of them for just a moment.
Zasp didn’t know exactly when he caught feelings for Leif. The transition from being sworn enemies to being extremely close friends was sudden, and he didn’t notice at all. But he couldn’t bring himself to tell them, he would lose a very nice friendship for feeling Leif likely didn’t reciprocate. And so he stayed quiet, acting as if nothing had happened at all.
Leif was still unsure on if they even felt that feeling after… Leif died. They weren’t sure if they would ever want to move on after losing everything and everyone. If it wasn’t for Vi and Kabbu they probably would have sat around the ant kingdom capitol all day. This was different though, it wasn’t companionship alone that drove him to spend time with Zasp. It was a feeling they were too afraid to admit in fears of losing it all again.
So the two of them would sit together, wings wrapped around each other wishing the other felt the same.