Xaviers!

It's 5 am in the morning. Usual time for Nika to get up and quietly leave the room but not this time. ""<Time to wake up, your Highness!>" she loudly informs the sleeping Princess as she tosses a gym-bag onto the golden girl's bed so it lands on her legs. With no further explanation she's already out of the room, leaving the door ajar as she bangs her fist against Jez's door loud enough to wake up the occupants.

"Nnnnwh?" Katarina said, barely stirring from her bed, in something that might be English, might be Symkarian, and might be in the language of the Land of Nod.

It took a few knocking attempts before Jezabelle angered her door. No makeup, no glasses, just an oversized t-shirt and a serious case of bed head. “...buh?”

"Rec Center Gym, you have ten minutes." Nika says tersely and underhand lobs a small gym bag at Jez. "Be there with Katarina." she adds in a tone that doesn't leave much room to argue.

Katarina groaned. "Niiiiiikaaaaaa..." she said, sliding out of bed and just collapsing into a pile on the floor.

"No excuses! Put on the training outfits and get going! If you want privacy then you need to be able to handle yourselves in hazardous circumstances."

Jez squints down the hall at Nika, and then across the hall at Katarina, and the few other students who'd been roused by the racket.

"... if I send a copy and just try to get more sleep, that's probably not gonna work, right?"

"She'll probably just keep dragging Yous out here until she sure she has enough, or until you make so many you're just drooling on the floor," Katarina groaned.

"I told her she could just take a shower. This is cruel revenge. It's the toothpaste incident all over again."

Jez closed the door to her room before she emerged again with sneakers on, picking up the duffel bag to follow Nika's path.

"I'm not making any promises, I totally will go back to bed... toothpaste?"

"I ran out of toothpaste," Katarina explained, following Jez down the hall. "I do not know how; it was mostly full and then it was suddenly empty. I suspect Nika.

Anyway, we had to go buy some more, of course? Only I had never done so. Nika let me walk up to the counter in a store here and ask if they had any made fresh that morning," she grumbled.

"Oh, so she does have a sense of humour. Just at the expense of others." Jez held the door for Katarina as the pair headed for the Rec Center. She trusted that Katarina would keep her protector in line if things got out of hand.

"She is, at the end of the day, my friend. But she takes her job so seriously," Katarina sighed, walking past Jez and into the rec center.

"Well, Nika? What is it that was so important you woke us up before the sun had deemed it worthy to shine upon campus?"

Nika, in her own work-out shorts and loose-fitting shirt is stretching as the two come in.

"As I said, you want to sneak off and do... things by yourselves? Fine, you do deserve that much. But then it's my duty to make sure you're still safe so we are going to work out and I am going to teach the two of you some basic hand-to-hand combat and ways to leverage your mutations. Three days a week, two hours, starting now. There's padded gloves and shinguards in your bags, but for starters we'll do some basic cardio and weight training. Any questions?"

"I already know how to go gold and to use my emergency beacon," Katarina complained. "Nika, the fighting is supposed to be your job."

Jezabelle raised her hand. "... why couldn't we do this in the afternoon?

"You clearly need some more space and this'll ensure that you can hold your own until I can get to you. And we do this in the morning because I know you'll find excuses and justifications to weasel your way out of it if we don't. It's called discipline. Now, any real questions?"

"I'm not trying to shove you away, Nika," Katarina grumbled, crossing her arms and blowing some hair out of her eyes. "I am sorry if I make you...uncomfortable, but I still trust you to protect me."

Reluctantly, she opened her duffel bag and started looking around through it. "I do not even know what half of these things are supposed to do."

"... wait, you want the squishy flesh and blood girl to protect the girl made of metal? You want me to literally be a meat shield for a tank?"

"I think she's more concerned about kidnapping or something. Remind me to tell you about my Doom dreams sometime."

"You already did sacrifice one of you to protect Katarina. Who is not a tank but Crown Princess of Symkaria, Duchess of Aniana, Her Royal Highness Karkov; Heir Apparent to the throne and Golden Light of the future. If I was her governess I would be teaching you manners, but I'm her personal bodyguard, so I will teach you how else you can wield a knife. Dating her or... whatever it is you two are doing comes with responsibilities."

"Yes, let's announce my full title to the entire room, why don't we," Katarina grumbled. "I'm still supposed to be incognito."

"It's five thirty in the morning, nobody's here."

Jez started to dig around in the duffel bag.

"Golden light of the future... I'm gonna start calling you that Katarina. And what about you, Nika? Does this make you a knight?"

"A knight in leather armor. Though you should see her in full dress uniform."

The question (or Katarina's response?) actually seems to startle Nika out of her usual stoic body language some.

"Not... an official knight." she adds.

"Like a woman-at-arms? Oh, or a squire! Squire Novak, that sounds so good!"

"Aaaalright, that's enough chit-chat!" she claps her hands forcefully. "Fifteen minutes on the treadmill to get warmed up. Let's go!" she starts shooing the two towards the treadmills.

Katarina groaned, and stomped off towards the treadmill. "I don't suppose I could order you to stop doing this?"

"Oh, what harm could a little run do?" Jez stepped onto the treadmill and began to work her hair into a messy ponytail to keep it out of her face.

Katarina gave another theatrical groan, and the spoiled princess started jogging. Slowly.

Nika wanders past them with her arms folded behind her back and casually hits the speed-up button on both their treadmills before hopping on one of her own.

"I said warm-up, not casual stroll." she says with the hint of a smirk.

"Do not think you are going to get away with this, Nika!" Katarina complained, picking up speed.

Jez huffed softly, bouncing in the treadmill and pumping her arms as she picked up the pace. Surely the nerd should be out of breath by now, right?

"This is a matter of national security, your highness." she says, her smirk mostly hidden by the fact that Katarina is off to her side.

"Watch Jez. She's doing well. You're trying too hard, fighting against your own body. The more you stomp the more you're just pushing against the ground. You want to push forward, let your knees and ankles direct the force. And stop panting like a dog. Big steady breaths or your sides are going to start hurting."

Katarina turned her head to watch Jez on the treadmill. Bouncing up and down. And up and down. And up and down...

Nika looks like she's about to shout to get Katarina's attention and snap her out of her... revery. Instead she reaches over and cranks the treadmill to maximum speed.

Katarina yelped and started running as fast as she could, trying to keep up with the treadmill. It certainly distracted her attention, at the very least.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Jez protested, trying to reach over and slap the controls to a slower speed. "You can't do that, that kinda stuff hurts people's progress."

"Not paying attention impedes peoples' progress, not a mild prank to snap her out of being distracted."

Katarina slowed down as Jez turned down the button.

"You think you're pretty clever, Nika," she huffed, blowing some of her hair out of her eyes and trying to keep a semblance of composure. "Do not worry; I am sure there are some boots that need polishing or some bags that need carrying, and you will find out soon enough!"