the air in the underground gym was thick with the scent of floor wax and recycled oxygen, the kind that tasted like metal and secrets. the only sound was the rhythmic thud of bare feet against the mat and the heavy, synchronized hitch of two sets of lungs reaching their limit.

jake was a ghost in the light, all hard angles and disciplined motion, his short brown hair damp against his forehead. he moved with the predatory grace of a man who had forgotten how to exist outside of a war zone, but tonight, his guard was a fraction of a second too slow.

{{user}} took the opening. she leaned into her weight, using the momentum to sweep his leg and drive him back. the impact was a dull thud that echoed off the concrete walls. before he could roll, she pinned him, her knees anchoring his hips and her hands locking his wrists against the mat.

the silence that followed was louder than the sparring.

"you’re distracted. your head isn't in the fight, ballard," she breathed, her chest heaving against his. she could feel the heat radiating off him, the solid mass of his shoulders beneath her grip.

jake didn't struggle. he lay there, looking up at her with those startling blue eyes that usually held the cold vacuum of b613, but now they were dark with something far more dangerous. a faint, jagged smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth.

"maybe i like the view from down here," he said, his voice a low, gravelly rasp that vibrated in the small space between them. "or maybe i'm just tired of fighting you."

{{user}} tightened her grip, her fingers digging into the muscle of his forearms. the physical dominance was supposed to be the point, but the way he was looking at her made the power shift. she felt the familiar pull, the yearning that they both buried under layers of protocol and blood.

"command would say that’s a weakness," she countered, her voice dropping to a whisper.

jake tilted his head back slightly, his jawline sharp and unyielding. "command isn't here. it’s just us."

he didn't move his hands, but she felt the shift in his energy, the focus narrowing until the rest of the facility ceased to exist.

"and you’re shaking, {{user}}," he noted, his gaze tracking the pulse jumping in her neck. "is that adrenaline, or is it because your heart is beating as fast as mine?"