I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemies eyes.

It had been a few days since Serenity has last seen Cade, in fact it was almost like the woman was avoiding running into him. Since he had been talking about dreams all she could ever imagine her dreams was a blurred version of his face. The dreams varied, some sexual - some not so sexual. The point was she was thinking about him and she didn't like it. The last man that had caused such a rise in her had been nothing like Cade, Theron had been awkward and cute... a sort of loveable person that Serenity couldn't help but try and protect. Cade on the other hand, oh she didn't even want to think about it anymore. Letting out a sigh that sounded more like a grumble than anything else, the woman entered into the teacher's dining room that suggested she didn't want anyone to notice her at all. The expression on her face made it even more obvious that if anyone were to come near her she would be likely to injure them.

Clad in her typical work clothing, Serenity grabbed some food from kitchen workers and made her way over to a table by herself. From the amount of talking that was coming from the other tables it seemed as though there were only about three or fourth other teachers in the dining room with her and the teachers in question were either much more involved in their own conversations or their own personal going on's to bother with her.

Finally having made herself comfortable at the table, Serenity set her cane down across it and picked up the sandwich that she had chosen taking a small bite out of the object. The teacher didn't particularly enjoy eating at the school, but it was an easier prospect then walking all the way back to her house to make her own food. Halfway through her sandwich, the woman set it down on her plate and let out another sigh - considering the events that had happened to her just a few days ago once more. Did he even like her in the first place or had he just been teasing her once again? The thoughts confused the woman, causing her to run a hand through her hair in a stressed out sort of manner. If he was teasing her and thinking it was some sort of game that they had kissed, she'd have to figure it out real soon.

Yet another night he filed under the regret end of his brain. Even if it was long ago, it still felt like it was no longer than a couple of hours earlier and he was having some sort of fever dream. That crossed yet another substance of his desire off the list, no more alcohol, no more drugs, and all that left was tobacco and that still left a foul taste in his mouth. His brain itched for more of the brand it so shortly got its return of, but Cade wasn’t having any of it. He couldn’t even cross the cemetery the same way he could pre-trip, that moment of seeing himself dead was still trapped inside his cranium. Even though Serenity was definitely something on his mind for the past while, she was unfortunately shoved aside for the worse side effects from the night. Although, a decided mind would have been helpful in the near future when he met up with the blind woman yet again.

Meals were usually taken back to his personal room. He’d rather not be bother by the causal chit chat going on around the Teacher’s lounge regardless of how many people were present. He preferred tranquility to ponder, but as fate would have it the illusive woman found herself in the ‘big boy’s’ cafeteria. Cade grabbed his usual meal from the counter without much trouble due to the lack of a line. He fixed his vibrant vest with one hand while displaying his tray in the other during his walk over to a neighboring seat from his trip sitter.

Despite his rigorously romantic mood on the morning of their make-out session, he still felt things were a bit awkward between the two of them. Sure he was all flirtatious and bubbly then, but he didn’t quite have the right mindscape. He just sort of road on the lust he felt for the moment. That didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t have those types of feelings for Serenity, but he had to admit he was trying harder than he should have. He gently placed his plate on the table even though he knew that his presence would probably be known by the woman far before his dish made contact with the surface. He released a throaty cough to announce his presence regardless.

“A student set my pants on fire today, I’m really glad that I have a water bender in my class now” he spoke sort of nonchalantly as he pulled out a chair and sat down in it. “In other news, turns out were-rhinos do not enjoy long division, especially when it’s on a test.” He patiently began to munch on his fries after going quiet for a bit. His head twisted around as he investigated a nearby table with a different set of teachers seated at it. “What the hell do people come in here to talk about anyways?”

She noticed the sound of his foot steps at first, it was indeed a strange way to recognize someone - but being blind did cater to those sort of strange things. She should have known too that he would have walked over to her, why did she think that he would just walk away? His cough didn't cause her to move her head up in his direction though, instead it remained in a position that would have suggested she was looking straight ahead if she could see. "You keep extra clothing in your classroom?" Serenity asked with an almost bemused sort of tone. He was more of a prepared person than she took him to be, the thought made her shake her head though and let out a light noise of amusement.

His continuation of the small talk though eventually caused Serenity to frown, moving her head in the direction that his voice was coming from now. Suddenly, it seemed as though the pitch of his voice seemed much more attractive to her. It really wasn't like anything had changed at all, he had the same voice as he always did. "Their lives and students. It's gossip mostly," Serenity looked annoyed as she explained this to Cade - intentionally cutting herself short so she wouldn't fall into the easy habit of talking with him.

Cade cusped his cranium as his co-worker continued the conversation. He really wished he was as collected and prepared as she was crediting him to be. The fact that certain accidents happened daily and he wasn’t prepared for any of it really made him seem somewhat careless and perhaps that was due to the fact he really was. Well, careless or indecisive, he couldn’t really decide on which. “Well, that would’ve saved me the trek back home in charred khakis. I can clone things so I don’t keep an extra pair of anything on me” he explained with a flick of his brow.

He switched his view back over to Serenity as she spoke once more. Her ‘vision’ seemed fixated on a certain area since they lacked too much movement. His gaze quickly got lost within them as he was reminded how they guided him through that rough time during the night that he’d much rather forget. His insides felt as though they were melting the longer he let himself fall into the trance. Luckily she couldn’t really notice his investigations. Although, he should probably say something before he misses the train of opportunity.

Cade’s eyes quit his opposite’s and wandered off to a table sporting three teachers who seemed to be deep into some sort of conversation. He focused on their lips, not exactly interested in eavesdropping, but more so intent on learning what they were so hooked in conversation over. “How about table far right, that raspy collection of voices. You hear it, right? What do you suppose they’re so into right now? I’d say their posture suggests gossip, but what about? My money’s on a problem student, how about you?”

Serenity nodded easily as Cade reminded her of his cloning ability, "Right, I almost forgot about that." She said to him simply, remaining quiet as the silence fell over them. Of course it didn't occur to her that Cade was staring at her, she could only go so far as to guess that he was either looking at his food or looking at the other people around the dining room area. As Cade spoke once more, Serenity moved her head in the direction that he had described - staying quiet as the man voiced his curiosities about the teachers just a few tables away from them. It had been awhile since she had to really focus on conversations so far away, but it wasn't like she couldn't do it anymore. After a few minutes, Serenity turned her head back toward Cade with a surprisingly polite looking smile.

"The woman over there is confronting the man about a incident that happened in the tavern last night, at least that's what the woman calls it. The other man had been there thought to watch the whole thing and apparently the man that the woman is confronting had kissed her without her permission and then somehow managed to cause a huge bar fight to happen." In truth, they were talking about lesson plans - but she figured why not try and mess with Cade just a bit? The whole story seemed almost untrue up until coincidentally one of the men who had been disrupting some of the woman in questions space caused the woman to put up her hand and push the man back a bit. Serenity of course, hadn't seen this - but she could hear the woman saying "Please, back up just a bit would you?" The words alone caused her polite smile to turn into a smirk.

Cade casually shrugged at her next comment, in regard to his powers. “Yeah, it’s a common thing that happens. Trust me” he rolled his eyes. While being able to clone whatever you wanted was a handy tool under a small group of circumstances, it was ever the first thing that popped into his mind. Granted, having to only buy one pair of clothes was definitely cost resistant and he did love his ability for those reasons. Only being able to do that, however, didn’t help him all that often and frankly people tended to forget his often useful ability. It didn’t bother him all that much though, only in fights with superiorly powerful gifted, ie dragons.

Serenity caught his attention once more though when she rejoined the conversation after apparently eavesdropping on the table they were in question of. “Huh, really? I don’t remember there being a bar fight in your kitchen. And frankly I look nothing like that guy” he answered as he pointed to the upstanding man. Her smile and the coincidently close in theme story about the people from the table far off gave her away so easily that Cade saw through her like an open window. She was hardly the world’s most renowned liar either. It was then that the smirk grew wide on his countenance. While the man taking his stance was a convincing coincidence, it was too close to being anything near the truth. Serenity probably didn’t realize or remember that he was a grade-A liar buster.

“What, would you like me to ask first next time? Would you like me to have your permission before I do anything spontaneous? If so, you are going to have a lot of boring birthdays.” Cade shook his head as he tried to get the depressing image of one of Serenity’s lonely birthday parties out of his mind. A horrid picture for anyone to be subjected to.

Surprisingly enough, as Cade caught Serenity in her lie - the woman's cheeks were colored deep red. She moved her head down as this happened though, as if attempting to actually hide her face from Cade this time. "I don't celebrate my birthday in the first place," The woman growled through her teeth - aiming a swift kick at one of Cade's legs under the table. "More like do not make it a next time, you're annoying enough to work with why would I possibly want to have you in any other areas of my life." Finally, she seemed to be making some sense to herself - despite the fact that every inch of her body seemed to argue otherwise. The memory of how she reacted to him rang clear in her mind and made the woman feel weak, almost like she had less control of her life.

"Better yet, next time you won't be catching me off guard," Her words then sounded more like a death threat than anything else. She had been exhausted from sleep deprivation when he had planted that kiss on her, she wouldn't allow herself to be like that anymore around him.

A few tables away, the three teachers that Cade and Serenity had been discussing before seemed to all get up at the same time to leave for whatever reason. The only other people left was another teacher on the opposite side of the room and the kitchen workers that were much more involved in their own conversations and making food than they were with what the teachers were doing.

Cade shook his head and sighed as she said she never celebrated her birthday. Really, he should have expected as much. It got him to wonder if she even celebrated anything, for that matter did she even feel joy or happiness. Surely she did, but if anything never showed it in public. One day though, he’ll figure out when her birthday was. Maybe bake her a cake, or clone one. Actually, scratch the cloning one plan, it’d probably taste horrible if he did. He forgot what his cloned food tasted like. In that instant he cloned a fry into his other hand, but before he could take a bite out of it Serenity unleashed her foot against his shin and the recoil launched his fry into the air. Perhaps fate was telling him something because he was certain that she wouldn’t have landed that hit otherwise.

After wincing over his poor tibia, his attention naturally found its way back to the woman opposite to him. “Well, if you want to get technical, we don’t work with each other. We are under the same employer, but we haven’t done anything cooperatively. I’ll have you know I’m a damn fine teacher. Either way though, most of our encounters have taken place outside of work, so I don’t see any real backing to your argument.”

Cade leant back into his chair and placed his arm over the head of the chair. Considering the amount of spite he was receiving from the female he was taking it all in stride. Perhaps that was the only reason he was able to tolerate her over others who have tried. It was sort of like fighting an aggressive child, just hold their head in place and they can’t run at you. “Catch you off guard? How long of a reaction time do you have? Being an ex-assassin I would hope it’d be faster than what you displayed the other day. Otherwise I’d question the legitimacy of your story.”

Serenity was getting so frustrated at this point she could have bitten her tongue off if she really tried. "I wasn't arguing, I was making a simple statement." Indeed, her words seemed to get shorter and shorter the higher her temper went. It was when Cade started to talk about her previous job, that Serenity resisted the urge to let her jaw drop. He did remember their conversation and he hasn't brought it up before.

Shaking her head the woman stood up for a moment and leaned forward, grabbing a hold on Cade's arm that wasn't resting on a chair. Her hand traveled up to his own as she went to sit back down again, her body tense the whole time. "How about I tell you another story then?" She started off in a slow and almost sensual sort of tone. "There was a man once that tried to kill me using a sniper rifle once. Would you like to know what I did to him when I caught him?" Serenity didn't bother to wait for Cade's response then.

Trailing her finger from the center of his hand down to his wrist, Serenity tilted her head in a curious manner. "I peeled the skin off his hands starting right here."

Given that Serenity’s back up statement lacked any substance to refute his side of the argument, Cade just laughed a bit under his breath. He knew that she wasn’t going to throw any reliable points back at him at this point. She was far too steamed and didn’t quite have the argumentative wit that he held. Either that or she had no real ground to stand on because she didn’t actually believe the words she was saying. Maybe he was reading too much into her or maybe she couldn’t quite think straight when in rage. He wouldn’t know why considering she seemed to have a tinge of rage no matter the circumstance. Though perhaps that was only because he was around.

Cade allowed Serenity to show and tell as she tried to spook him with simple little stories about shedding someone’s skin. Sure doing that to someone was incredibly painful and quite the image to imagine, but somewhat unorthodox. Such horror stories were past amongst his friends plenty of times over. His mouth formed an O as he gazed down at his hand and let out a slight whistle. He quit his lounging position and placed his arm on the table. “Funny that, I have a similar story.” He grabbed back at the hand that Serenity used to demonstrate. “There was a kid who wanted to kill me too, rival gang leader’s son. I don’t quite remember the either of the names it was a long time ago. We had a little knife fight, I ended up winning.” He gently placed two fingers over the woman’s index digit. “To stop him from challenging me again, I chopped off his fingers. One by one by one by one.” He pressed down softly on each of her finger’s joints on beat with his words.

“Just because you killed people doesn’t mean you can scare me. I’ve killed people before I even hit puberty, seen a lot too. Probably don’t have as big a body count, but I’ve had my fair share.” It wasn’t often that he got around to bragging about killing people. Sure it might have only been three and for self defense purposes, but it still counted. He was probably lending more toward that he was proud of that fact which he wasn’t entirely, but he never regretted it either.

Serenity's expression remained still as Cade retorted with his own story, she really never enjoyed talking with people. Word play was meant for people who actually enjoyed being diplomatic, Serenity on the other hand... well, it was easier just to beat the crap out of someone and move on. Why was she even bothering to play his game in the first place? It seemed as though every single time they had met, he had the advantage simply because Serenity preferred to speak with her hands as opposed to her mouth. Rolling her head to pop her neck, Serenity let out a light sigh. "Really, I just don't get these games you try to play with me."

The next instance though, everything happened so fast any person that blinked would have missed it. First off, Serenity moved her hand up so as to grab a hold on Cade's wrist and pulled fast. The action itself made it so that Cade would be forced chest first against the table with quite a bit of force. From there the woman practically jumped from her chair and onto the table, grabbing her cane and kicking her food out of the way in the process. The woman in question didn't take her time walking across the table, placing one foot under Cade's chin - Serenity then pushed him back, using his upper body almost like a surfboard until they landed and she placed her other foot on the ground next to his head so as to not completely break the man's windpipe.

Once she was grounded though, Serenity pushed her shoe into his throat then holding her cane in a manner that a teacher would hold a ruler between both of her hands. "I've tried playing your game and it's clear you have the advantage. I'm done with it, now we're playing my game."

Cade sort of laughed off her statement about not understanding his games and shoved another fry or two down his gullet not expecting her next action in the slightest. She was violent sure, but they were still on school property and there were plenty of witnesses standing around. Lucky for her that Cade wouldn’t press charges for an endless list of reasons. As he finished chewing, his chest was forced against the table which caused his potato sticks to launch half way across the room. Faster than he could process, the woman knocked both him and his chair over and in a quick flash had him compressed against the ground and a foot compacting his windpipe.

He gazed up at Serenity, given that her body was looming right over his body and swiftly began to analyze the situation. Both his hands were still free, so he had plenty of options still open to him. A simple reaction like twisting her leg or just throwing her off would be far too predictable. If he wanted to win the fight, then he would need to act outside of what a traditional or professional fighter would do. If she wanted to start a fight with him then she better expect to be fighting dirty. He had his hands at the ready, but didn’t move them just yet. Regardless of whether she could see, she could still sense their movements.

“Lucky you… I’m a frequent… player of both” he tried to voice with the inherent weight on his throat. In a speedy flash, the man put both his arms into use. One darted straight for the woman’s short and yanked them halfway down her thighs while the other latched onto the leg that was weighing down on him and tore it off and pushed it aside. With her sudden imbalance, reliance on one foot, and her shorts restricting her movements she was no doubt heading for the ground sometime soon. His panty pull wasn't as effective as he anticipated it to be, but he was hoping it worked out in the end. He used what little time he had left to regain his footing and hopefully prepare for whatever the assassin could throw at him next.

She knew that he was going to react to her in some manner, she just hadn't known in what way. When he pulled her shorts though, the woman let out a laugh that echoed through the room. It seemed as though when it came to fighting, Serenity lost all sense of decency. The distraction of her shorts had caused enough room for Cade to push her foot right back up at her, which caused Serenity to reel back for just a moment making her foot that had been originally on Cade's throat land in the middle of the legs of the chair that Cade had been sitting on. "Really, what an unorthodox way of trying to get in my pants." Serenity said through her teeth, the adjustment of her shorts only causing a few second delay.

Sure, Cade did fight dirty - but Serenity was relentless. Kicking out her foot that landed behind the chair, Serenity aimed the said chair at Cade. Judging from the distance between tables, there wasn't much room for the man to move to dodge both the chair and Serenity. With cane in one hand, Serenity didn't have much room either to gain speed against the gangster in question. Instead, she swung her cane at one side of Cade's neck and darting her other hand out in an attempt to grab a hold of Cade's arm.

Cade’s technique didn’t turn out as he expected, great. He was mostly reliant on that tactic yet the woman pulled up her pants like it was a mere brisk of wind that pulled down on it. For his sake, Serenity should stop wearing such tight shorts. His recovery would have to be cut short and ready for the woman’s next attack. He firmed his feet to the ground and swung his torso back into its upright position. Eyes focused back on his opponent, it’d be dangerous to let her get the better of him in this situation. “Hey, all I want to know is the colourful range of your wardrobe. If I gotta pull down some pants to do that then so be it” he answered with a swift shrug.

His eye first caught her leg going behind the chair he once sat on and instantly he knew that would be of no good to him. Backing up might put him far enough out of range, but the tables behind him made that a slight more difficult task. Tackling forward might put him into some risky business, but in that sense he could also land a couple punches himself. Without much time to really consider his options, he tackled forward swinging his arms around her torso and to grapple her. With that, he soldiered through a swing of her cane to the neck and her grabbing of his arm proved useless if he was actually able to grapple her. “What’s with the sudden fascination in my neck? It’s not even my most defining feature” he spoke slyly. With their two faces so close to one another, he quickly pecked at her lips for the sake of it. “I’ve never tried this on a woman before, so I don’t know how well this’ll hurt you” he explained as he began jerking his knee into her groin area.

"Well, you could have at least been a gentleman about it and asked first. Or is this your idea of being spontaneous again?" Serenity let out a bark of laughter then, finally a sense of true amusement creeping into her voice. This was though probably do to the fact that she was enjoying their fighting much more than she had been enjoying their talking. It was then that he had somehow managed barrel through the chair and both attacks that she had aimed at him, of course the man would be stubborn enough to manage something so ridiculous. Managing a breath, the next thing she knew Cade was throwing his arms around her that managed to catch one of her arms at an awkward angle and the other one not so much.

The peck on the lips didn't pass her notice, but as he began to push his knee into her crotch - the woman leaned forward once more so that their faces were almost touching. "Really, can't you be more creative than that." With those words, Serenity touched their lips once more - and then proceeded to bite down on his lower lip with enough force to draw blood.