Their Ball And Chain

Adell was a bit taken back at first. Okay, she wasn't kidding about her fire powers being that much better then mine.. He was starting to think it really did have to do with what her other half was, that level of control was just crazy.

"All right, ready when you are."

"I understand. I'm ready."

Adell was completely focused on the task at hand. Like Ariana he took training very seriously, some might say to a bit of an extreme side of things. He shifted a bit more into a ready stance and waited.

Adell was getting the general idea of what Ariana was trying to do, focusing on dodging, but not only that but watching her back as well. He wasn't trying to be a pervert or anything but it was hard not to notice how attractive Ariana was and the way she moved. For the most part he tried to ignore that and focus on training and getting used to being in a limited range.

Adell was pulled rather violently but regained his footing quickly with his training and reflexes. "What the heck.." He then noticed the fire balls and that quickly shut up any other comments that had been forthcoming. It wasn't like the fire balls actually hurt or anything and they weren't hot enough to burn either of them(it would have to be much hotter to actually hurt Ariana he guessed, like sun/plasma hot or something)

Her control was a lot better. The only thing he had that Ariana might now, was the fact he could make his fire with explosive properties. But since he had Ki energy as well, it was almost redundant.

Adell was trying not to notice Ariana too much physically but she was making it damn near impossible and the latest incident hadn't helped. At all. He couldn't even take a cold shower because of the fact Ariana had to be nearby at practically all times for now.

"All right, got it." He kept his voice normal, forcing himself too. C'mon Adell, don't let your mind drift off to things it shouldn't..besides she'd kill you first.

"Got it."

Adell focused on the humanoid shaped fire, Ariana really could easily shape them into whatever. She was probably the closes thing to the 'Human Torch' he'd ever actually meet. It was meant more as a compliment but he got the feeling Ariana might not like that too much, not that he intended to bring something like that up anyway.

If they were as fast as Ariana, he'd have to use more skill then anything to get more hits in.

Adell found the presence of the chain constantly put him off balance, in a way. Before her was more used to fighting without the feeling of something around his ankles, but he needed for their sake, to pretend it wasn't even there. Otherwise when it came down to a real fight, it would be very easy to stray away from each other in the heat of a fight.

Only other problem is if someone figures out something is up and tries to separate us. They would have to worry about that later, since there wasn't much they could do about that part. Then he moved forward, making sure Ariana got the hint before going to strike the closes fire humanoid. He attacked it as if it was a real person, feinting, or otherwise keeping 'it' guessing to make it harder to dodge.

Adell was mostly focused on whatever enemy tended to be in front of him at the current time. That didn't mean, however, that he wasn't paying attention to Ariana since keeping an eye on her was part of the training. Only problem was, Ariana proved a bit distracting at times and it was never on purpose which he wasn't sure made it better or worse.

She didn't seem bad at hand to hand. Not as good as his mom but definitely not new to it at all.

The sensation of being used for all intents and purposes as a spinning clothline was a odd experience to be sure but he had been through and adjusted to stranger things. When you had people like Kieth, Tomoya a half-pint ruler of a Netherworld and his vassal(Laharl was still pissed Etna had a growth spurt and he was still tiny looking like an kid) among other things, then you tended to take things in stride.

When Ariana warned him and then began spinning, he went along with it, channeling Ki through his body to strike, mostly with kicks though as they provided him with much better reach. Punches required a bit more concentration then kicks, in this case.

"Yeah, once we get the gist of this down, it shouldn't be so bad.." Adell wondered for a moment if he would ever get used to being so close to Ariana, but guessing he would. After a time anyway. Adell was more wondering of something else. "I know its a bit soon to ask but if we're stuck together and you get called for a job, how would we go about it? Tell them up right, or say I'm there just to help you. I can easily think of people who might be pissed that would use the fact that seperating us, could hurt us if they knew."

I thought she hated my guts.

Hearing what Ariana said surprised him a little, but she was doing that more lately today. If it wasn't one little thing it was the other.

Adell actually smiled. "Heh, I won't mind that. It's been a while since I trained like that.."

* *

After about a week, things had sort of settled into a routine. Adell and Ariana would get some training done and by the time they finished, Adell would be ragged tired. The good news, each time he would get a bit better and it helped he was a bit of a stamina freak to begin with.

No jobs had come to Ariana just yet, and they weren't training so they were just taking it easy around the house with Yulina(she had dragged them to watch T.V. with her). For now, at least, things were peaceful.

Adell had noticed the odd change with Ariana when they were training, but he still hadn't quite figured out why she acted any differently in training then normal. After a bit though, he had given up trying to figure it out and simply dealt with it. At the least Ariana was acting a bit nicer to everyone now, Yulina was the most notable. Then again, you really had to be a complete jerk to be mean to Yulina in Adell's opinion.

He still hadn't gotten used to her sleeping in nothing but panties, though.

Yulina had also gotten a bit bored, so left for a moment, coming back with a brush, and then gently began combing Ariana's hair, as if nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. She had taken a liking to Ariana's long, red hair for some reason.