Christian was having a go at a punching bag in the gym as Spud held it for him when Shane walked in. At first neither of them saw him, and he simply stood to the side and watched for a while.
"I can almost feel it through the bag," Spud chuckled.
"Almost?" Christian smirked, "guess I have to try harder."
"Just watch you don't pull something," Spud cautioned as Chris landed a roundhouse kick, almost catching his hand.
"I haven't in a long time," Christian said, "let's take a breather."
Spud looked relieved as he let go of the bag and shook his hands out. It was then when he looked up that he saw Shane watching.
"Hey," he greeted, making Christian turn to see who was there.
"Mind letting me have a go?" Shane's eyebrows rose, his eyes on Christian.
Christian glanced at Spud, then shrugged.
"Be my guest."
He made his way back over to the punching bag, taking his mitts off and throwing them to Shane. Spud took his leave, saying he was going to look for Daniel.
Christian and Shane circled to bag for a moment as Shane fitted the mitts onto his fists, then took aim. He took a few punches and kicks to warm up, Christian watching him closely.
"You know... I'm pretty damn sure that I've seen you before somewhere."
Shane said nothing, just started putting more effort into his attacks.
Taking a note of it, Christian pursed his lips thoughtfully.
"Is it that you don't want me to recognise you, or... you don't remember where I know you from?"
Shane spared him glance, but again said nothing.
"Ok," Christian sighed, "but at least I'm making an effort here. I bet they figure you're going to be a real hard case to crack here, right? You've obviously been here a while, and your attitude hasn't changed as long as I've been here. How long have you been here, Shane?"
Silence.
"Let me guess... three months? No. Five months? Six months? Am I getting warmer?"
Silence.
"A year?" Christian couldn't help but chuckle.
He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, just watching Shane for another while.
"It's fine if you don't want to talk about it. It's fine if you don't want to talk at all. I'll talk. You can listen."
He moved his hand a little as Shane began to advance to side kicks.
"As far as I remember, not many people we associated with took on apprentices any younger than 25," Christian mused, "so that pretty much cancels out you being on our side. Some of the older well-knowns like Racer or Munza or Kurt have been taking on youngins from the streets hoping to raise them as 'fighting machines' in their favour. Most of those haven't worked out of course..."
He stared at Shane thoughtfully for a moment.
"I could picture you in that position, but I can't see someone like Racer taking you in. He doesn't have the patience and wouldn't bother putting effort into that kind of establishment."
Silence.
"Manning maybe. I heard he was taking in some youngsters, though he might not have. And besides, if he ever did I didn't meet them. It could have been Ray..."
Shane stopped his attacks suddenly and stepped over to Christian. Placing his chest barely two inches from Christian's, he looked up into his eyes.
"You got a problem with me or what?"
"Honest curiosity here," Christian shrugged, staring directly back as if to take on Shane's challenge.
"I am not afraid of you," Shane said determindly.
"What are you going to do here Shane?" Christian almost crooned, "with the cameras, the security guards, the inmates... are you afraid of them, maybe?"
They heard heavy footsteps but ignored them.
"I'm nto afraid of anybody, which is more than can be said for you," Shane sneered before someone grabbed his shoulder and pulle dhim away.
"Break it up boys," came the voice of the gym guard.
Then Christian realised that his personal one was standing behind him.
"There's no problem here," he raised his hands in surrender, "we were just having a chat."
"I'll have to ask you boys to clean up and head on out," the gym guard insisted, "maybe we'll see you tomorrow."
Shane shrugged him off then went to throw the mitts down, grab his towel and leave the gym. Christian went to retrieve his own towel, before narrowing his eyes as the boy left.
A grin spread across his face as he finally recognised where he'd seen him before.