Night Watch I: Eliza, Ward of Andrew

*Blasko’s POV*

Nikki was not the type to bounce around on his toes like a boxer, and apparently, neither was Eliza. You could see that he was definitely going to try and put Eliza down quickly, and now he felt kinda bad about it. I felt like this was going to be painful to watch as soon as it started. Nikki was circling Eliza in a crouch, and she remained facing him wherever he moved, a bit hunkered, a little tensed, but she didn’t really do anything. Ugh, fuck! It took discipline not to groan out loud. C’mon, Nikki! I didn't enjoy seeing anyone embarrassed, I wanted to get Eliza through this as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, Nikki didn’t draw it out too long. He went for a strong, right hook to try and knock Eliza out, which would have consigned her to the lookout and given her time to heal. But what actually happened didn’t make sense, and happened quickly.

Nikki’s fist stopped when it connected with Eliza’s face as though he had hit a wall, and he swore as a little squirt of blood shot out of one of his knuckles. As soon as Nikki struck her, his punch completely unblocked, Eliza lunged forward, grabbing Nikki around the torso, kneeing him in the groin, then lurching to deliver a quick right uppercut to the jaw before he went down. I had time to wave the red hanky and yell “Stop!” as I ran into the ring. Only a few seconds had passed since Nikki had tried to knock Eliza out, and now he was bleeding on the ground.

Eliza was kneeling next to Nikki, who was groaning, curled in a fetal position, and holding his nuts with his left hand. She was inspecting his right hand carefully. “It’s not broken, Nikki.” She started carefully feeling Nikki’s jaw.“Your jaw’s not broken either, though, open up-“ Eliza peered in Nikki’s mouth “-looks like you bit your tongue and it might bleed and swell a bit. No hard feelings?”

Nikki shook his head. “Aren’t you going to check and make sure my nuts are ok?” He grinned at Eliza, waggling his eyebrows, a trickle of blood starting to make its way out of the corner of his mouth .Poor fucker winced a little from having moved his mouth to talk. Eliza and I both snorted, Nikki was a good kid.

“Let me give you a hand, ok?” Eliza put an arm under Nikki’s shoulders, and another arm under his knees, then lifted him up, and carried him with ease to a bench. I think everyone who saw that was wishing Brendan didn’t close wagers before sparring started. Holy shit.

I looked at Ronnie, who had originally agreed to see how Eliza could use a sword if Nikki hadn’t knocked her out. Ronnie was a smart man. He shook his head vigorously, placing a hand protectively over his genitals. “No fucking way, man! Are you kidding? Are you fucking kidding me?" I looked around me, and every Watchman I laid eyes on shook their head, averted their eyes, or just took off. Well, everyone except Andrew, who had his arms folded across his chest and a smug look on his face. Shit!

Realistically, I needed to see Eliza engage in combat for more than 5 seconds, regardless of how bizarrely impressive those seconds may have been. Clearly, Eliza was some kind of hybrid, though I doubted it was obvious to everyone present...

Of course! “Ronnie!”

“I said no way! She’ll tear my scrotum off-“

“-I promise I won’t-“ Eliza chimed in.

“-Shut up Ronnie! Hot foot it, right the fuck now, to the West Wall, and swap with Pete. Tell him I need him to spar with Eliza. Now! That is a fucking order!” Ronnie’s eyes widened, just a little, as he nodded and took off.

I heard Otep telling Andrew to calm down and decided it was probably a good idea not to make eye contact with Andrew. It would only incense him further. Man, he had it bad, didn't he? Andrew had reason to get… worked up, if he was all goo-goo for Eliza, and he knew Pete was coming to spar with her. I hoped someone had Andrew under control, physically, before Pete got here. I really didn’t want to deal with Andrew being a dumbass. I imagined Eliza would probably be embarrassed too. Frankly, this might well be her moment to shine, we would see.

Notes

kudos to anyone that gets my dorky chappy title reference