Welcome to Gaia! ::

Things had been...off since she'd gotten back from the island. Three days, that's how long they'd all been gone, but to them, to her it had been considerably longer. Long enough for hope of rescue to dwindle and die. For a heart to ache for things that were out of reach, and then for the ache to fade. Long enough to let yourself do what it took to survive, to stay sane, whatever that might have been.

Making up on Deus' beach had been had been jarring.

So she was taking some time to figure it all out.

Down on the training field Peyton waited at one of the old picnic tables. There was a basket sitting next to her shoulder, the contents covered, and a bottle of water resting loosely in slender fingers. She was drawing idle lines in the condensation as she tapped at her phone, moving colored blocks back and forth across the screen.

Her jacket was draped across the bench at her hip, and her hair was drawn back in a loose french braid.

She'd heard him coming--well, she'd heard someone coming, and since he was the one she was expecting she wasn't at all surprised when he plopped himself down beside her to peer over her shoulder at her phone. Since it was only a game she didn't mind the noisiness at all, and continued shuffling blocks around even as he asked her about it. "I love hue, you gotta put the colors in order." She wasn't great at it, but it was a nice, calming time killer when she had to wait and she didn't want to think.

She'd had it mostly solved when he'd joined her, and after a few more moves a little heart appeared in the center, then a score screen. At this point she'd look up, arms folding on the table.

When they'd been on the island none of them had been at their best. Hair had been messy, clothing torn, and hygiene? Well, they'd done what they could with what they had. Here, home again, it was different. She blinked up at him, all those memories from the island rushing back all at once, until she cleared them with a very small shake of her head.

"Noko, that's your weapon's name?" Down to business, though there was the faintest hint of color high on her cheeks. "You've summoned them before?"

With the level completed the phone was pushed away and the screen cleared. Now that he was there it wasn't like she needed it anymore, there were other things to focus on. "Ah right, you're a bit of a gambler." As if she'd forgotten. Peyton rolled her eyes up to him, a slow smile creeping over her lips. It was so easy to fall into that easy comfort they'd had on the island. So easy to forget that they'd only really just met.

She gave an interested hum at the mention of his weapon not talking, glancing down at the leather band on his wrist. "Strong silent type. That's gotta be weird. Or maybe not," she said thoughtfully, lips pursing. "You're introduction to life as a hunter has been an interesting one." Which was a bit of an understatement.

"So what sort of risks do you like to play with?" It was said as she lay her palms against the table top to push herself back up to her feet so she could extract herself from the table altogether. Free of it, she'd tuck her thumbs into her back pockets, weight shifting onto one hip. The smile she shot him was challenging.

She gave a small snort at having her words shoved back at her, but that wicked little smile only grew wider. "Not out of the ordinary in the sense that strange s**t happens all the ******** time here, but you're hella new, and and we're getting a years worth of collective ******** slammed down on us all at once." Not even three months ago she'd been commenting to someone about how peaceful it'd been. She should have known better.

"Will you know? That's good to know." Like she wasn't already aware of that. "I'm not in the habit of taking it easy on people, so I hope you came down here expecting an a** kicking."

Her weight shifted as she brought her hands up though, palms up and shoulders shrugging. "But if you like high stakes, we could put a wager on it. I'll fight bare handed to make it a little more fair. What do you say?"

She couldn't school her features fast enough, and he didn't see, just for a second, exactly what she thought of that trade; eyes widened, pupils divulging, and her breath left in a too quick rush. Then the grin was back, every bit as cocky, and every bit as challenging.

"How about, if you last longer than ten minutes, I'll let you have your prize. But if you don't, you make me dinner. Something complicated and time consuming." Win-win, well, at least for her, but she could imagine he'd still be going all out to win. "And," are add as she started taking steps backwards away from him. "If you some how do manage to win, you can be the boss for an entire day."

She flashed that impish grin again as she slid into a ready stance. No weapons, for her, she even the playing field a little. "Come at me, bro."

The temptation to summon Warrick as Kade charged in and made a wide slash at her was strong enough to make her palms itch with need, but she resisted it. Even unarmed this wasn't exactly a fair fight, but closed the gap a bit, and that was the point of it. But still, she could feel the demon looming in her mind like an eager shadow, a low growl running like background static in her mind. He wanted to play, too. It'd been so long.

She was, without a doubt, the more agile of the two of them. Tiny, quicker even than hunter normal with the help of her weapon, and that made her a hard target to hit. He tried, though. The obsidian slicing through the air barely an inch from her stomach as she jerked back just out of reach of it.

"I should hope not," she smirked back at him, digging the toe of her boot in for leverage. "The harder you fight, the more value you place on the prize." It was, quite honestly, a nice little ego stroke for her.

With as much warning as he'd given her she lunged back at him. Darting past the length of the sword and invade the hell out of his personal space to prove that you didn't need a weapon to inflict damage in a fight. Her little fist came in from the side, low, to sink her knuckles into the side of his stomach. "But don't expect me to keep it clean, either."

Had it been almost anyone else, and had they not started this little match with heavy hints and and the playful banter, she'd have responded to the sudden sharp pain on her scalp with instant rage and vicious violence. However. The was not just any old training session, and Kade was not just any trainee.

He jerked her back, and she gasped before the force of it dragged a pain noise from her lips. Or maybe that came with the harsh drag of obsideon against her shield. It made her twist against his grip, pulling away enough to make a pocket of space between them large enough for her to work with.

The heel of her boot came down at an angle against his lower leg, and at the same time she'd pivot, her back to his chest, to fire the point of her bony little elbow up into the underside of his chin. Hard.