her family dojo has seen many faces over the years. weathered and sprightly, lax and ambitious, familiar and new. whatever the reason to seek the ancestral training methods of the cheng, the dojo is ultimately a congregation of people with the same goal: to become stronger. it's difficult to surprise her nowadays, yet surprise is exactly what shakes her when he sees lance's familiar face.

mimi was just wrapping up a spar, shaking things up with the younger, more arrogant clientele; and it takes all of her ardously trained self-control not to slam her first in the man's face.

mimi lowers her fists.

"what are you doing here?"

she doesn't exactly look happy.

[attr="class","mimi"]

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

mimi wants to erase that grin off his face. lance knows how to get on her nerves and he knows she has not forgiven him for his last brush with death. mimi, on the other hand, knows how devastated he had been with the loss of ava and their little girl. she was, too. still is. but she doesn't get to lose herself to grief when lance is even more likely to, at any given moment.

was he visiting their graves?

mimi's scowl relaxes. a little bit. "depends on who's asking," she offers, tentatively. a hand is suddenly running through her hair, letting out her frustration with a body language that doesn't yell blood.

"is it my age-old friend or the man who decided to throw away his life?"

[attr="class","mimi"]

LANCE VOLLANS

with a tilt of the head and a deep sigh, mimi motions for the rest of the kids to scatter. "it's good to see you, aave." the shedinja hovers quietly beside him, leveled to her height. she doesn't answer lance's question, though beneath her boiling anger she knows that she is glad for at least that much.

mimi's feet shift towards the double doors. "walk with me."

the outside of the dojo has its own handful of students, practicing with the training grounds' different meihua poles. mimi leads lance past them, towards the garden area she's started to make her own in the past couple of years of her on-and-off stay. a small bridge overlooks a koi pond that was once devoid of life.

"did uncle and auntie say anything?"


[attr="class","mimi"]

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

this is one of the times that mimi can't help but marvel at how strong lance's parents are. as he speaks, she nods. she agrees. but as angry as she still is at lance, his parents deserve none of her ire.

"i do love auntie's casserole," she concedes.

mimi lets the weight of her body fall by the pond, where she now crosses her legs. "you've been missing out." not only on the food, but on the years that have been eroding both their parents' physiques.


[attr="class","mimi"]

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS

a tilt of the head, the dazed wandering of deep eyes. mimi is looking at lance's expression when his armor begins to fall apart, leaving behind the sad and lonely man that tragedy brought back to her life.

a sympathetic hand rests on his arm before she knows it.

mimi gulps down through his confession. she knows what he's going to say without needing to finish the sentence. it doesn't make his words any easier to process.

"do you want to?"


[attr="class","mimi"]

[attr="class","seelie"]LANCE VOLLANS