Violet Eyes

23: The Festival

A few weeks had passed since the group escaped the compound with the help of a family of deranged shadow weavers. The days had mostly been filled with practicing of abilities and some exercise. The evenings had been used for Danny, Soul and Jack going out to buy food for the rest of them until the heat died down. It was about 2 pm and Nate and Danny were doing some mild sparring to help each other with hand combat.

"You're doing well, man. Except you keep pulling your punches, I can tell." Nate said to him after he blocked another of Danny's punches.

"Of course I'm pulling my punches, you're my friend I don't want to hurt you." Danny responded as he dropped his hands.

Nate chuckled in response, "You won't hurt me." He looked at Danny with a slightly patronizing look in his eyes and his tone matched.

Danny raised an eyebrow in surprise of Nate's demeanor. "Alright man, if you insist." Danny raised his arms again in a fighting stance. They both bounced on their toes for a moment before Danny jerked his fist forward, aiming for Nate's face. Nate quickly reacted and moved his head to the side a few inches and brought his arm up to divert Danny's fist. Nate then felt a hard jab in his side just under his ribs and he doubled over in initial shock before he quickly recovered.

"Oh! Okay, nice one. I'd try to send one back but I know you'd just dodge it." Nate coached his friend with a slight smirk on his face. He was secretly overjoyed that Danny was back, yet somehow different and he noticed. Something about his drive, when Nate first met Danny he was soft spoken and even somewhat meek. Ever since the Masamune incident, he had become more hardened.

"That was always my strength, but I need to have more than one strength." Danny said as he threw more jabs at Nate. He dodged one and thought why not and threw a punch back at him. Danny pivoted his body and narrowly dodged it before the momentum carried his fist into Nate's jaw.

Danny's eyes widened slightly, "Shit, I'm sorry dude, that was just a reaction!"

"Dude...nice hit!" Nate responded as he rubbed his jaw.

"I agree." Danny and Nate jumped slightly and turned to see Nyx leaning against the wall next to the door.

"How long have you been there?" Danny asked her as he wiped his forehead, he was breathing a bit heavily from the surprise.

"I don't know, five minutes?" Nyx responded as she shrugged her shoulders.

Nate chuckled once as he and Danny exchanged a look. "Uh, okay. So why are you watching us?"

"Right, like I'm expected to just ignore two sweaty guys fighting." Nyx was surprisingly direct. Danny cleared his throat quietly as he rubbed the back of his head and Nate, more or less, did the same. Nyx chuckled quietly, clearly pleased with herself before she brought her hand up and jerked her thumb towards the door. "Rhys wants to see us all." Nyx said as she raised her eyebrows. Nate leaned his head back with a groan and Danny wiped his forehead again with his arm. They walked into the next room where Rhys was waiting with Nerissa, Soul, Jack and Drake.

"Ugh, finally! Okay so, I have a plan for us to finally have some fun!" Rhys said grandly.

"Should I be afraid?" Nyx whispered as she leaned towards Nate.

"Yes." Nate whispered back.

"Hurtful, anyway..." Rhys said as he looked at the two. "My plan is this: there's a festival happening tonight in the city and we are going." Rhys lifted his arms like he had just announced a pizza party in a boring office.

"I'm sorry, but do you really think it's smart for eight fugitives to go to a public festival?" Soul spoke up as she lifted a finger.

"Oh come on! There'll be hundreds of people there and they'll all be drinking and enjoying the festival. No one will ever notice us." Rhys looked at her with some frustration. "Come on, guys don't be killjoys! Let's have some fun for the first time in months, years for some of us."