[Training] so i guess all the rumors are true

I get them all worked up and down on their knees, you see

Maeve has no clue what she's doing. None at all. Maybe she was hoping that there would be someone else here. Anyone else who could teach her something so she didn't have to look for him. So she didn't have to run to Ronin and ask him for help instead because she already told him that Sunjata was supposed to help her. That was before she came back. That was before she knocked on his door and was torn to shreds by his husband. The words still sting even now, but the stinging in her hand flares hotly as she shakes it out.

"Fuck..." The curse hisses between clenched teeth as she stares at the barely swinging punching bag. The Madame didn't even wrap her hands and the bruising covering her knuckles is evidence of that. She sucks in greedy breaths, irritation, anger, and hurt swirling in her belly with the threat of making her sick. It only makes her more furious and she hauls back with no real form or idea of how she's meant to throw a punch, but swinging her fist anyway. What had she been thinking?

They take my fingers in their mouths like it's poetry

Maeve

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

It’s already become a season with a multitude of things going on. So he’s tried to settle into some normalcy — things were normal for him now, weren’t they? Things were falling back into place in a way that seemed almost too good to be true. But there were the difficulties in dealing with the previous season, specifically regarding Nate and the incident which he’d also heard about. It’s already warm in Torchline, Sunjata already sporting a bit of a tan along his shoulders and through the ink and marks there, the sun bringing out the freckles that frame his scarred face. But there’s a lightness to his eyes that haven’t been there in what felt like ages.

So it’s with some surprise that Sunjata finds Maeve in the Slagveld, just as he’d found Locke not that long ago, punching at the bag and possibly ruining her hand while she was at it. He’s brought some materials to reinforce the bags that sat there — but he sets those bags down and off to the side as he enters, annoying his presence. “You’re going to hurt your hand if you keep that up.” He offers her, making a move to step toward her and grab the bandages off the wall upon his approach. “Do you still want to train?” He asks her, curiously, keeping some space between them because he doesn’t know how she’s going to react after the disaster with Nate he’d heard about.

SUNJATA

I get them all worked up and down on their knees, you see

Truly she should have known better. It should have occurred to her that he might be here. This was his place. Of course there was always a chance he might just pop in. She bristles instantly at his words. All of the hurt and anger flaring to life as venom gathers on her tongue, ready to lash out at him. Maeve spins, eyes red rimmed and dancing with a fire he's likely never seen from her. Definitely not directed at him. Her own shoulders and bridge of her nose are pink from working in the sun the last few days, trying to rebuild her life here so she might have a home again. "What do you care if I do?" She snaps viciously, words sharp as she eyes him, hands balled into fists at her sides. The hurt is evident in the way it twists her features, throat already growing tight just seeming him here.

Why does he have to look so good? So bright and healthy? Fuck, if they haven't switched places. "You don't have to pretend to care anymore, governor. I know I didn't mean shit. I was just a placeholder." She spits the words back at him because she knows that he knows. That Nate surely told him everything. Of the 'weird little girl' who dared to step foot on their doorstep. The whore who thought she had a place. It shouldn't hurt so much, but it does. She thought that they would at least be friends. That they could have something together. She knew that he was never going to pick her. Maeve had accepted that. Even if her heart hadn't fully caught up yet.

They take my fingers in their mouths like it's poetry

Maeve

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

She bristles immediately and he’s glad he’s kept his distance, honestly. There’s hostility in her tone as she lashes out at him and he simply remains there, taking it, watching her and waiting for her to start to calm down — if she would. Her hands ball into fists at her sides and Sunjata keeps his hands full of the bandage he’s initially brought over to wrap her hands so she could get her frustration out. Now, though, as she spits venom not unlike his cobra shift, he simply waits, watches, bristles a fraction internally with a heavy sigh as she recollects Nate’s words and spews them back at him.

“I wasn’t pretending to care, Maeve.” He begins, tentatively, testing the waters as it were. He doesn’t know how deeply she feels for him, he doesn’t know how far this rabbit hole will go. And all he has to offer is a quiet huff of a sigh, folding the bandages back up and leaving them in one hand while the other tears through his hair. “We both knew what it was.” He pauses, because he’s never been good at words and saying what he wants to convey, so all he can do is let his steel gaze scan across her before it rises back to her face, confusion glimmering in the depths there. “You helped keep me together when I needed it. And I… Don’t need it anymore. Nate’s back and things are good, I…” He sighs as he cuts himself off because it’s coming out quite awfully. “Thank you for what you did last season.” What else was there to say?

SUNJATA

I get them all worked up and down on their knees, you see

"It isn't about the sex!" Her voice pitches up higher than she wants it too, ringing out in the otherwise quiet of the Slagveld and she draws in a sharp breath, shaking her head as she paces a few steps. Maeve turns her back to him for a moment, hands running through her hair before they're dropping back down to her sides as she swallows thickly. She didn't want to fight with him. It was never meant to be a fight, but her heart aches. The wounds from Nate's words having barely stopped bleeding. Her shoulders slump forward and she turns back towards him, eyes glassy. "I thought we were friends, Jata... I- I thought that even after you would-" Maeve's words catch in her throat, struggling to push past her lips as tears threaten to spill down her cheeks.

"I was good to you! I helped with Kamaria, I helped you, I did everything I could to support you in that time. I thought that if anything we were friends. That at least I could have that." There isn't anymore heat in her voice. Just hurt. The words strained and tight as she looks over at him, icy green eyes swimming with tears just as his are swimming with confusion. "But you told Nate about me and you don't even care about what he said to me! How could you be okay with that? After everything I did?" She doesn't even know if she wants the answer to the question. If she really wants to know what he thinks. If he finds the things his husband said acceptable.

They take my fingers in their mouths like it's poetry

Maeve

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

Her voice raises in pitch and Sunjata watches her as she turns away from him, confusion lingering in the look that meets her back before he’s moving, stepping away from her toward the wall where the bandages sit along the wall, folding them up for the moment so he doesn’t have to sit there awkwardly hanging onto them as the conversation deepens. His arms fold across his chest and when she turns back to him, he’s peering back at her, waiting, working his jaw.

“I thought we were friends.” He says a touch quietly, his accent thickening on the words as he regards her. As for what Nate said to her? It sounded like tempers flared and flashed like adding water to a grease fire. “Of course I told Nate about you. He’s my husband. He came back and we agreed not to keep secrets between us. So yeah, I told him.” He doesn’t see the harm in it. “What I think happened is that both of you just… Spiraled a bit.” He was familiar with how that went. “And Nate’s always on edge, it’s how he is after everything he’s been through. So if he noticed you got snippy he was going to be snippy back.” He sighs, unfolding his arms and opening them wide in a ‘I don’t know’ kind of gesture.

His hands fall back to his sides and he works his jaw. “But, if it’s worth anything, I’m sorry about what he said to you.” As far as he knew, though, the fires had flared from both sides, too.

SUNJATA

I get them all worked up and down on their knees, you see

I thought we were friends. Those words help to temper the storm raging inside of her. It doesn't bring it to a halt completely. It doesn't even lessen the hurt, but it does something for the anger. She can breathe a little more evenly despite the tears that blur her vision. Maeve reaches up with bruised hands to wipe at her eyes, drawing in a breath that rattles through her lungs harshly. "It doesn't feel like we are right now, Jata." Maeve admits quietly, looking up at him as she chews at her bottom lip, trying hard to sort out her thoughts. She doesn't want to lose the only relationship he has with him over this. The thought of it scares her, seizing her already bruised heart in a vice grip, threatening to keep it from beating. "I don't want to fight with you, but... Fuck, Jata... You don't really think that about me, do you? All those things he said.."

There is an unmistakable tremble to her voice. Something that begs for just a bit of mercy on his part. She needs him to say it. She needs to know that she's not all that Nate said she was. That she's not nothing to him. Maeve doesn't need his heart. She doesn't need him to love her like that. He never will and she has someone else. Someone who wants all of her all the time, but she needs this. Just this one thing from him. That wasn't too much to ask, was it?

"It's not that you told him. I figured you would. Otherwise he'd hear it from somewhere else. Someone else. That's... That's not it. Look, I'm glad he's back for your sake, okay? I even said as much. I tried to be civil. I wasn't... I wasn't there to pick a fight with him or anything, but he was vicious. I didn't defend myself until he started in on me. He didn't have to be that way and you know it." Another harsh breath is drawn in as she pinches the bridge of her nose, trying desperately to keep it together. Maeve sniffles, dropping her head as she looks down at the floor, jaw feathering as she takes a moment. It's then that his apology reaches her, trying to soothe the wounds that Nate left behind.

"I'm sorry too... I- It wasn't how I wanted things to go. I wasn't expecting sunshine and rainbows and to be welcomed with open arms, but I definitely wasn't expecting that." Her voice is barely above a whisper, strained as she tries to keep it even as to not give away her emotions. Even if it was too late for that.

They take my fingers in their mouths like it's poetry

Maeve

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

As far as Sunjata’s concerned, it feels like they are. It’s only Maeve’s choice in his mind that determines whether or not they were still friends. So he takes a quiet sigh, watching her as her voice trembles when she asks him if the things Nate says are how he thinks about her and the Attuned’s brows draw together, inching closer a fraction. “Nate doesn’t speak for me.” He says simply. “I never said the things that he did.” His shoulders rise and fall in another shrug. He doesn’t know all of the specifics of what was said, but given the TLDR Nate had given him, it had happened just as he’d thought it had. Tempers flared and people tend to say shitty things when that happens.

Sunjata just hadn’t expected it to go so south so quickly, but neither one of them were helping the situation any and it continued to spiral out of control.

She continues and Sunjata’s head tilts as he focuses on her, all amusement and playfulness gone from his face – turned to something stony and quiet and considering, the face of a Governor, perhaps a face his father would’ve been proud of in how it didn’t share any emotions – just blank. “He didn’t have to be that way, sure, but I also don’t blame him.” Sunjata murmurs as gently as he can, knowing she’s going to hate that comment, but as far as Sunjata was concerned, it was true. “He’s… Been through a lot, Maeve. And he’s very protective of his home, can you blame him for that?” Not with all the things that had met him at the door there. All the riots and half dead bodies that had been dropped at his doorstep.

No, Sunjata doesn’t blame Nate. Nor does he fully blame Maeve. Again, he imagines it’s a misunderstanding – one that extends to him as well. “Truthfully, Maeve, I didn’t expect that you’d come back after Stormbreak wanting to stay with us until the Halenani was built. I figured you’d want to be with the rest of your workers in the Inn. That’s where the rest of them left my house to go to.” He raises a brow toward her, wondering if this would be received well or not either.

SUNJATA

I get them all worked up and down on their knees, you see

Maeve waits with baited breath, brows drawn and throat tight as he determines how the rest of this will go. Her heartbeat seems to thunder in her ears, drowning out all other sounds. If it wasn't for the way her eyes stayed locked on him, she likely wouldn't have even known that sighed, but the clear rise and fall of his shoulders gives it away as he draws in that heavy breath. Their eyes meet, but that usual warmth she's used to when he gazes on her is gone and Maeve knows that they won't likely ever have that again. Just something else she's going to have to accept.

Her head bobs in a slight nod and whatever remaining anger she held for him melts. Is it always going to be like this? Is she always going to be helpless against his soft spoken words? "Okay.." It's really all she can manage in response to him. They weren't his words. They were Nate's. Nate didn't speak for him. Sunjata knew her. He appreciated her. He still wanted her to be his friend. He still wanted her in some way. It was enough for now. It was something to build on.

Of course they can't just end it there. That would be too easy and nothing in Maeve's life is easy. It never has been. When Sunjata admits that he doesn't blame Nate, using a voice that's gentle and soothing as if she's a cornered animal willing to lash out at the littlest thing, it's all Maeve can do to fight against the bitterness coating her tongue. It isn't a surprise. Deep down Maeve knew that he'd side with Nate one way or the other. No matter how unjustified the reaction might have been. "No, I can't blame him for that, but I also can't understand how I'm a threat if you let me into your home and around your daughter in the first place. You told him about me. You told him everything. Does he not trust your judgement? It doesn't make sense to me, Jata." There isn't any heat in her voice. No accusation or fight. If anything she's fairly calm. The words even and soft as she looks at him across the short distance that separates them.

"They didn't have room for me." She shrugs her shoulders, dropping her eyes for a moment, bottom lip finding its way between her teeth. "And when we last talked... I guess I was just under the impression that the invitation still stood. Suppose that was my own naivete." Maeve sighs heavily, wiping the last of her tears away and finally meeting his eyes, icy green searching steel grey. "It doesn't matter now anyway. I'm not welcome anywhere near your home. I'm sure that extends to Kamaria as well if Nate has anything to do about it."

They take my fingers in their mouths like it's poetry

Maeve

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

Okay, she says and Sunjata isn’t sure if it’s an answer he seeks. He needs her to understand that he doesn’t speak for Nate and that Nate doesn’t speak for him unless stated otherwise. But it doesn’t feel like the time to bring that back up, not as the conversation doesn’t end – not as he picks a side because apparently there were sides to be picked. So he sighs as she dramatizes it, while he remains there working his jaw, waiting for a space where he can interject.

“It’s not that you’re a threat, Maeve.” Sunjata says bluntly, point blank, because that’s not at all how Sunjata viewed her and he’s sure that’s not entirely how Nate views her. “It’s that he and I finally have a chance to start over with our home and family and we want to enjoy it before it goes south.” Because it always does go south, doesn’t it? “We can touch again, his brother is there, my sister is there, my niece is back and we have Kamaria to raise. Together.” He reaches up to rub at his jaw as he takes a heavy sigh.

His gaze flits back along her face, knowing it’s not the answer she seeks, but it’s the only answer he has to give. “The invitation didn’t extend beyond Nate coming back.” He says quietly. Because Nate’s return and his family’s return meant that there was little more he needed in the grand scheme of things. He’d had it all. “And I can talk with the Innkeep and make sure there’s room for you. And Locke, if he wants it.” Because yeah, he’s found out about that too.

But then she goes and paints Nate as this controlling person once again and Sunjata huffs out a sigh, shaking his head, lips pursing as he considers just how to say it as he meets her green gaze. “He isn’t a villain like you’re making him out to be.” He says quietly, simply. “But if you want to try and repair the relationship between you two, I can talk with Nate about a meeting and I can be there to stop things from getting out of control?” He shrugs, at a loss to try and see how this might work out.

SUNJATA

I get them all worked up and down on their knees, you see

She does understand that. It's one of the few things in this conversation that makes sense to her, but things don't end there. They keep going. Sunjata keeps defending his husband and Maeve just listens. Parts of it are taken more easily than others, but Maeve tries to hear everything he says for what it is. Words of support for his husband, facts, clarifications, an attempt at a truce. Maeve draws in a deep breath, considering her words carefully, but once more she doesn't come up with more than one. "Okay." It's all she can give him again. Usually she has the words she needs. Usually she doesn't struggle to put her thoughts out there, but he makes it hard. Where there once was nothing a wall now resides, shielding them from each other.

Maeve doesn't know who built it and she's not sure she even cares.

"Don't worry about talking to the Innkeeper. Arrangements have been made." She doesn't say anything about Locke or the fact that she's staying with him now. It isn't really any of his business one way or the other. Just like his home life isn't hers. They aren't each others keepers anymore. That time has passed and with it the need for him to hold her secrets have too.

She shakes her head, brows knitting together as her lips press into a line, "I'm not trying to make him into a villain, Jata. I'm simply being honest about how I see things going. Nate said he doesn't want me around. Am I wrong for assuming that extends to Kamaria as well?" Again, there isn't any heat in her words. Instead it's a need for understanding. A longing to know where they stand. On what they do next. "I don't think that's the best idea right now." She says in response to his suggestion. Not because she doesn't want to try. Even though she isn't exactly keen on the thought of it, but because it would inevitably go south again even with him there as it's all so fresh.

"You should take the time to be with your family and make your new normal. I need to focus on rebuilding and getting my own family taken care of. Maybe... Maybe after that we can try again and see where it goes. I want to be friends with you still, Jata. I would like to at least reach a point of civility with Nate, but I don't know that we'd be able to right now." Maeve tells him honestly, letting out another breath and straightening her shoulders, refusing to shrink into nothing. She was stronger than that, damnit. This wasn't going to break her.

They take my fingers in their mouths like it's poetry

Maeve

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

There’s a moment where Sunjata simply stops to stare at her, almost as if he can see the gears working in her head while she offers another okay that he doesn’t know what to do with. But he isn’t done, not as she continues and Sunjata finds himself nodding to her. She’s made arrangements, that’s good. But she doesn’t comment on Locke which he finds relatively interesting, but he doesn’t respond in kind to that either. So he lets his gaze linger on her when he moves to interject. “Yes.” He says simply, bluntly, yet again.

“You are wrong.” His accented voice leaves him, thicker now as he lets go of the way he tries to temper it. “Nate and Kamaria aren’t the same person. And regardless of what you think Nate has a hand in, I do get to make decisions regarding my daughter, too.” What Nate says doesn’t always go, just as what Sunjata says also doesn’t always go.

But he offers her an attempt to clear the air between them and she doesn’t take it, Sunjata shifting his weight between his feet as he moves to fold his arms across his chest. “Nothing is going to get better if it isn’t talked about, you know. It’s going to be shitty, sure, but that’s how it goes.” He pauses, nose wrinkling a fraction with the memory that strikes him. “I spoke with Remi after he killed me in a dream. And things between him and I are better for it.” Sure they might not be friends so much anymore, but at least Sunjata could stand to be in the same room as the Lullaby. And if he could do that, then he’s sure that Maeve could do it with Nate when the only barbs between them had been venom and hurt feelings.

He sighs heavily, rolls back on the balls of his feet, before his arms unfold from his chest again. “I think it’d be worth it for the both of you. So if you change your mind, you know where to find me.” She could always send a letter to determine the meeting should she wish to see him. “For now, though, do you still want that training?” Because he’s still willing to help her with that, just as he is with rebuilding the Halenani, regardless of what she thinks he’s there for.

SUNJATA

I get them all worked up and down on their knees, you see

No, she doesn't comment on Locke because this isn't about him right now. If he wants to know he can ask. Maeve doesn't care to keep it private. It doesn't really matter who knows or who doesn't.

His accent grows thicker and she can feel his irritation with the situation rolling off him in waves, crashing against that wall that separates them now. It's fine that he's irritated. Just like it's fine that she's hurt. They both have shit to work through. That much is clear. Maeve looks up at him from beneath her lashes, arms still wrapped around her middle. She can feel the throbbing in her hands, the sting of broken skin over her knuckles and she does what she can to focus on that. "That wasn't what I was saying, Jata... I just wasn't sure if he would want me around her either. I'm trying not to make anymore waves, okay?" Maeve explains softly, brows knitting together as she regards him, searching for any semblance of the man she grew so fond of and coming up short in that moment.

"I didn't say I didn't want to. I just said not right now. I have other things I need to focus on. This talk can wait a week, can it not? I'm fairly certain he's not eager to see me anytime soon." She sighs, trying her best not to sound defensive. She isn't. She's just stating what she thinks to be likely given how things went. "I said I wanted to get to such a point with him. I just don't think it best to try at this very moment. Not with everything so fresh. That's all." Maeve doesn't think they'll ever be friends. Much like Sunjata and Remi, but they could try to be civil. For Sunjata. That's what it came down to.

The Madame is more than ready to move on from this conversation. To put the nastiness behind her. She's tired of fighting. Her own arms drop to her sides and she finally approaches him, steps slow across the floor before she stops about a foot away from him. "If you don't mind... I clearly don't know what the fuck I'm doing." It's her first attempt at a joke. A small one that maybe falls a little flat, but she tries to bolster it with a faint smile.

They take my fingers in their mouths like it's poetry

Maeve

daydream about me, and i know that you hate the nights without me

She goes to explain that she doesn’t want to make waves, yet the terms she’s used have already set Sunjata’s mind into the idea that she views his husband as someone that’s controlling of who and what Sunjata and the rest of his family does and sees. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. But he doesn’t want to argue the point and instead nods quietly. “Okay.” He offers her as a response before he’s rolling his shoulders a bit. “He isn’t the entire deciding factor, is what I’m trying to say.” Because he isn’t. It’s mutual.

But as she explains that she didn’t say that she didn’t want to do it, Sunjata only nods – refraining from mentioning how it sounded like she didn’t want to at all, refraining from speaking and ruining the moment for what it was and instead tries to focus on the idea of it happening if and when it happened. A sigh passes through his lips as he works his jaw and regards her. “Alright.” What else did he have to say to it? He wasn’t going to change her mind which was fine.

She steps closer, though and his gaze brightens a fraction. He nods to her yet again, finally stepping back toward the wall to grab the bandages to wrap their hands with, and he steps toward her with his hand extended. “First off, you want to wrap your hands so you don’t hurt yourself.” He says softly, letting his gaze flicker up to her face from her hand that’s already pained. “I can wrap them for you and then show you how I did it on my hands?” He asks, offering her a small smile, waiting to wrap her hand should she let him.

SUNJATA