With Noa at work and Ainsley at school, Idirian was suddenly unused to the silence in his house. It was weird. It had never bothered him before, but now it made him feel…alone. He didn't particularly like the feeling and didn't want to sit in the house feeling it so he left and went to the gym. He could use a couple hours there brushing up on his boxing. He brought his headphones along as well. It was always easier for him to fall into a pattern if he had the beat of the music in his ears to work with.

Walking into the building, he looked around but didn't see any of the guys he'd met through the gym while he was growing up and getting into boxing. That was fine; he didn't mind working out by himself. Maybe before he left he'd find someone to spar with. He hadn't had much luck finding a decent fight as Polarite yet either. He was itching for a good fight, to see what he could do with this power that Chal had given him.

Damien had lended the use of his personal gym to Annie and her friends for the day so that meant he was going to the local gym in order to not ‘intimidate’ anyone as his oldest put it. Really she was such a strange kid sometimes. The gym wasn't overly full and there was a ring for those that wanted to test their skills against each other, so that is where he started towards. He figured someone would show up to test him and then he would get the work out he needed.

Idirian had started on his warmups, going back and forth with a punching back, when he noticed someone heading for the boxing ring. Before offering himself up as a partner, he took a moment to assess the guy. He looked at home in the gym, like he was used to the equipment, the atmosphere. He looked like he could handle himself in a fight. Perfect. Maybe he would be a challenging sparring partner.

He waited until the guy had stepped into the ring before making his way over there. “You waiting on someone or looking for an opponent?” he asked from the gym floor.

Ah…He knew someone would take the bait.

Damien assessed what would be his new opponent. So a big guy which meant most of his strength was going to be with his upper body, doesn't mean that he skipped leg day though. He looked like he was experienced with the gym and its equipment which was always a plus in his book. It meant that the man knew what his limitations and strengths were, not sure if he grew up in the streets like him but he did seem like he's seen and been through some s**t. That meant street smarts. Good.

Overall, this was an opponent he was going to enjoy sparring with.

Smirking, he shook his head, “Nah, looking for an opponent. Are you answering the call?” He was already getting into a ready stance, figuring he would get into position so that he could get started.

“Yeah, I am,” he said and climbed into the ring. He eyed the man’s stance, noting that he wasn’t new to sparring or fighting, either. Well, neither was Idirian. He settled into the stance that had long since become second nature to him, fists coming up to guard his face. Neither of them had put on wraps or gloves, which was fine with him. Just meant he’d probably be adding a few bruises to his collection. He idly wondered what kind of fighting style his opponent was trained in.

“Any rules you wanna play by?” he asked.

Rules? What did he look like?

“Nah, don't need that s**t. Any rules you want to play by?” He grinned, taking a stance that was somewhere between boxing and something else. Clearly he had a mixed style of fighting, it's what made him one of the favorites in his weight class for MMA. He started shifting from foot to foot, keeping his face guarded. He did note his opponent’s stance and figured he would be a boxer. Granted, the guy is a rather tall boxer but height didn't matter too much when it came to fighting. Sure the bigger they are, the harder they fall, but that only applies IF the bigger one did not know what they were doing.

Idirian grinned wolfishly. His kind of fight. “Nope.” Without waiting any further, he jabbed out with his right fist. This guy didn’t have the classic boxer’s stance, and the way he shifted his weight meant he was using some other fighting type, or a mix of them. Interesting. He wondered how they would fare as sparring partners. Part of him hoped this was going to be as fun as it looked. It would be nice to be able to fight out aggression and frustration with someone who was probably doing the same, and not have the fight be about anything other than a good natured no holds barred fight. No Chaos, no Order, just fighting.

Damien dodged the right jab, then reached out with his left followed by his right once he pulled the left hand back. Dodging that hit took more effort given the fact that his opponent was quite a bit bigger than him. That really shouldn't matter since he totally knows he could take the giant of a man down if he tried hard enough. Stepping back slightly with a smirk, he charged back in after a second, fist raised for a nice hit to the cheek.

Idirian grinned when his opponent dodged his first swing, dodging the guy’s left himself and barely missed getting hit by his right. Idirian was bigger than this guy, but he seemed to know how to fight despite his slight disadvantage. He let himself get distracted by the man stepping back and took the hit to his cheek. It rattled his brain a little but he shook his head and stepped forward, throwing a punch toward the man’s stomach followed by a hook to the other guy’s face. If he was going to have to explain a swollen face to his girlfriend, this guy should, too.

The stomach punch was easy to move from, but that didn't mean he was able to dodge the hit to his face. Damien staggered back a little, grinning and spitting out some blood from his mouth. Well, he supposed Rose would give him a look but this was…Thrilling. He responded back to the punch with a nice spartan kick to the mans middle, dropping down for a sweeping kick to see if he could knock him off of his feet. Boxers were mostly top heavy and their weakness: Those legs. Had this been Dmitry, he would be in more trouble. Either way, he was having a good time…Maybe might have to see if he could get the big guys contact information for more spars in the future.

Landing hits was always a wonderful feeling. He grinned as the man spat out blood from his punch. This was possibly the most fun he’d ever had with another person, not including time spent with Noa. He wondered if the other man felt the same. Oh, s**t! He stepped back but not quick enough to avoid the entirety of that spartan kick, and then he was swept off his feet and landed flat on his back with the breath punching out of him. “********,” he wheezed, coughing a bit as he sat up, still smiling. “That was fun.”

Damien laughed right on back, offering his hand to help the other up. “******** fantastic!” He ran a hand through his sweaty hair, the pain from the hit to his face starting to catch up to him now that the adrenaline was wearing off. “Name’s Damien…Yours?” He chuckled, shaking his head to clear it from that punch earlier. “Must be getting too old for this s**t if I'm getting affected by hits like that.”

Idirian took the offered hand as he stood up, rubbing his own sore cheek. “Idirian,” he said. “Are you saying my punches were weak?” he asked with an arched brow and a smirk on his lips. He’d been boxing since he was in high school, and fighting other kids and some grown men before that, so he knew how to hit. But if Damien thought he wasn’t hitting hard enough, what the hell had this guy been trained in? “What’s your style?” he asked. He’d guess some kind of martial art or MMA, but he could be wrong. He’d never paid much attention to other styles of fighting, just focused on what helped him and what he liked.

Idirian huh?

Interesting name.

Damien chuckled, “Nah, I'm old, seen some stuff, done some stuff, so my pain tolerance is higher than normal” growing up on the streets of Russia and the USA would give some hardcore experience for someone as young as he was. “Mixture of most things. Mostly street fighting.” He didn't need to ask what the other’s style was since it was clear that he was, in fact, a boxer. Since he liked the guy, he brought up his phone, chuckling at the picture of his wife, two sons and grown a** daughter before unlocking it. “I'd like to spar again sometime Idirian. Got a phone number?” Hell if they became pretty good friends he could invite him over for whenever he decided to host guys night at his house.

He just nodded; that made sense. “You don’t seem that old but I’ll take your word for it,” he said. Idirian watched as Damien pulled his phone out and did the same, smirking at the picture he’d saved of Noa on his screen. Quickly he pulled up his contacts page so Damien wouldn’t see. Mostly because Idri wanted to keep that picture to himself, and it was not normal for him to hand the thing over to someone else. (Besides Ainsley because sometimes…the kid was smarter than him when it came to technology, damn it.) “I’d like that, too,” he said and rattled off his number to Damien before lifting his phone in a gesture for the other man to do the same.

Noa would be proud of him, making friends. Internally, he rolled his eyes at himself but the thought still made him smile.