NEITHER OF THEM , himself or zaiden , had been too surprised when they were informed that they were now in charge of training a newcomer , barely not a fledgeling , austin valdez. typically , sinclair wasn’t the one to jump at an order , or to take it too seriously — but this was something different. he was rather young , to be given such a task , to be placed in an almost equal position to zaiden ; it left him feeling the need to prove himself capable… worthy of it. & then he’d met austin , entirely sealing the deal to be a good boy for aleksander just in this one regard with his drive , even if it lay on top of a softer disposition.
lips pursed around his ever - present cigarette , playing with the smoke for a beat , enjoying the toxic sizzle against his tongue as eyebrows raised , sea green hues bright while that head tilted. after only a moment of hesitation , clair offered , ❝ improvement isn’t easily gauged in the beginning. the fact that you haven’t tapped out entirely speaks volumes. ❞ he paused , plucking the stick from his lips to ash it in the tray on the table before them , a light grin settling over his lips. ❝ it’s like that. he’s going to strip you down to your bones , because only then can we mold you into what we need for you to be. ❞ his grin grew just a fraction - the memories of the many , many ways one zaiden adrian hendricks had smeared his blood on the floor , over a century ago , flashing in the back of his mind. ❝ i’ll give you some advice — just be sure to listen. it doesn’t matter what he says , or what you want or don’t want to do. he says jump , you jump. he says stop , you stop. it’s methodical & harsh , but it works. ❞ hands rose , lanky fingers swopping over his own form , himself being the perfect example of the sentiment.
only then does he reach for his glass , nodding his thanks to austin as he brought it to his lips. he took a few heavy swallows , licking his mouth clean as he leaned back , other hand lifting to place his cigarette back in it’s dutiful place between his lips. ❝ has he flown across the room & hooked his legs around your neck yet ? the scary part of that is , he does all of the acrobatics while maintaining his top speed. you don’t even know what’s happened until after you’ve hit the floor. ❞
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” he mused as he took a sip from his glass, “what did Zade train you too?” Austin shot a smirk at Sinclair before fishing out his own cigarette. He was joking of course not realizing that he was completely right in his assumptions. It was nice having someone to smoke with again, not that he couldn’t smoke alone but there was something about having someone to smoke with, it was really just the companionship that Austin missed about leaving his friends behind.
And of course Austin knew that Sinclair and Zade weren’t his friends in the sense of the word. They were here to train him and he couldn’t let get too attached this early on. Plus everything that Sinclair was saying was correct and it made complete sense. He needed to unlearn all of the bad habits that he’d picked up at home so they could train him to the standard that Aleksander expected.
Austin watched as Sinclair took a slow sip of his drink, thinking over the death dealer’s words only for Sinclair’s next bit of advice to catch him off guard. Coughing slightly as he placed his drink on the table, just raising an eyebrow. “I haven’t had the pleasure yet no.” He knew that things were more than just friendly between Zade and Sinclair--to be fair apparently everyone knew. But as much as Austin wanted to comment on how that sounded more like rough foreplay than training, he figured that he’d be better off keeping those thoughts to himself for the time being. “Is that a move he does often?”
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