The basement gym smelled of old leather and wet sand. It was a little past midnight and the neon tubes hummed in the humid air of a city that had not cooled down, as if they might give out at any moment.

Eilert struck the heavy leather bag. Not wild, uncontrolled pounding, but precise, monotonous hooks that sent a dull, hollow echo off the bare concrete walls with every hit. His knuckles were thickly wrapped, sweat streamed down his broad chest and made the scars on his skin glisten under the pale light.

said a voice from the side.

You leaned with your back against the chain-link fence of the octagon. You had already taken off your boxing gloves, but the wraps still hung loosely around your wrists. Your short hair also glistened with sweat, and in your eyes lay that restless, flashing spark that showed Eilert every time that you were already mentally on to the next fight.

Eilert paused, his fists still buried in the leather of the bag, and exhaled slowly. He looked at you with his steel-blue eyes, cool and unmoved.

he replied in his deep, rough voice, without a single muscle in his face twitching.

You snorted briefly, but a narrow, amused smile flickered around the corners of your mouth. You pushed off the fence, grabbed a water bottle, and tossed it to him without warning.

Eilert caught the bottle effortlessly with one hand, twisted off the cap, and took a deep gulp. The cold burned pleasantly in his dry throat. He watched you as you stepped closer and planted yourself in front of him – smaller than him, but charged with an electric energy that filled the room. Between you lay this wordless familiarity: hard, relentless, and forged from countless rounds in the same sweat.

He sets the bottle down on the bench beside your hip and taps the back of your wrist, once.