A deep breath in, a deep breath out, a deep breath in, a deep breath out. Just outside the Sol Palace Silver was doubled within in a great stone courtyard, feeling the weight of a displeased stare. Training with Blaze was perhaps the most exhausting exercise Silver had ever experienced, once upon a time they'd had triweekly spars to assure their dominance over the ever emerging Iblis but today it was as though the trial was brand new. He remembered those training days well, tearing through a devastated city; tossing rubble and blocking flames with psychic barriers… but this body clearly didn't. He used to have the advantage over her, but this time where she had eaten healthily while he'd subsisted on rings…

Silver dragged himself to his feet, hands raised and palms open before his face. There was a crease to her brow, her hands crackling with orange embers. "You need to keep pushing, starting a proper diet will only do so much; you've got to work and hone your skills."

Teeth grit, Silver took a step forward and closed his right palm; a wave of psychokinetic energy aimed to ensnare Blaze missed as she sidestepped his capture zone. He tried to respond thrusting his left hand toward her and creating a psychokinetic wind, only for her to flip right of the blast. She got close enough and struck his ribs with a flaming palm, the heat hit him but it was the force that sent him flying; racing across the courtyard toward the southern wall. He threw his hands to his sides and braced, coming to a sudden halt in the air was almost as painful as just hitting the wall but it would give him the momentum to press forward. Crossing his arms in front of himself before throwing them to his sides he extended a great psychic grip across the centre of the courtyard only for Blaze to flip onto the eastern wall; pushing off of it and lunging toward him. He was prepared this time though, poorly but prepared. The cobbles of the courtyard began to rocket toward him, and thusly were heading her.

Being mid-leap Silver knew Blaze had few options, tearing the stones toward him with his right hand he cast a barrier with his left; prepared to block the bricks from hitting him but make certain they'd hit her. That'd been the plan anyway and Silver had thought it a right good one… until Blaze, albeit struck twice by the flying debris, latched onto Silver from his unprotected side with her flaming hands; thus allowing her not only to utilise his rapidly deteriorating shield but pull him back to the ground. Knowing he couldn't hesitate Silver thrust his left hand at her and managed to catch her in his grasp only for the very stones he'd pulled to hail down on them; in shock Silver immediately released Blaze as both were skelped by the raining shards. He raised his hand to catch, halt and drop the onslaught only for Blaze to be upon him; a hand gripping his chest fur and a flaming fist raised to strike.

With a sigh the fire was snuffed, she rose and moved the hand from his chest to reach out and help him up. He accepted the aid, slowly staggering to his feet; his fur bedraggled and splotched with grey singe marks. Blaze hadn't come out of this perfect, there was a tear at her shoulder where the cobblestones had impacted and a mark above her right brow but that aside she'd been basically unharmed. She was giving him one of her stern looks, a you know what's coming kind of look. She started, "You need to be aiming where I'll be, not where I am. You can't just keep reaching out and hoping you'll eventually catch me, you need to plan your movements in advance. You're also telegraphing each of your attacks far too much… is something the matter?"

Silver's hand lingered in hers; it wasn't the crushing grip as he might have received for acting this way in Crisis city but the concern was still there. He knew he'd have to pick his words carefully; otherwise things could get dicey in the next round. "I… I don't like fighting you Blaze," seeing the furrow of her brow he knew that was a poor start but he pressed on, "I-It's not because I don't think you're strong, far from it you're running circles around me. It's just that…I don't like being hurt by you and I don't like the idea of hurting you. We're not in Crisis city anymore, it's not like we have to fight to survive here."

Blaze sighed, taking his other hand in hers; "I understand that Silver, but it's naïve of you to think so short-sightedly. Eventually, something will come up and it's not as though we're only protecting ourselves now, this dimension is full of civilians; we need to be as strong as we can be for both each other and them." Silver's eyes closed as he took deep breaths, partially recovering and trying to accept that fact. His train of broke down however when she continued; "If it makes you feel any better we can do something more peaceful afterwards, how about a meal… just the two of us. An experience we could never have had to go with one we had so often. Does that seem fair?"

A triple barrelled combination of the hand holding, the use of the term naïve and the offer of what essentially amounted to a dinner date meant Silver couldn't meet her gaze for the redness in his face. "I thought naiveté was a thing you liked about me, but you're bringing it up like it's some kind of problem?"

She paused for a moment, "It's not a problem, I like it about you… it is very endearing," Silver couldn't help but shoot a half glance, Blaze to was now looking away red in the face. At least he wasn't alone in this, "But I can't let your naiveté get you into trouble. While you're in this dimension you're my responsibility, as harsh as it sounds I need to have you at your strongest. I know you can be incredible, you can be both strong and kind, capable of feats I could never perform... I want you to fight me so, if the time comes, you can fight with me."

"F-For you Blaze I'd do anything, you know that." He watched as the feline turned scarlet, her hands rapidly heating in his. The hedgehog taking a good half-minute to realise the weight of what he'd said. "I-I mean it's true but, I-I-

"Let's get started again." The grip was dropped; redness still to her white cheeks Blaze hands caught fire as she slowly stepped backwards. Silver, still not feeling stable on his feet, began to hover; not far above the ground but just out of reach were she to strike from a grounded position. He recalled what she had said, to aim where she was going and not where she was… that his attacks were much too telegraphed. He took her criticisms to heart, psychokinetic energy glowing about his person.

He kept his hands raised before himself, he didn't have to fight hard… he just had to fight smarter. That's all this was to this, he could stand to take fewer hits than her and he still wasn't entirely comfortable fighting her, but with his abilities neutralising wasn't too difficult. He crossed his arms before himself; the scattered cobles raced toward him and created an asteroid field style barrier. This took around a third of the courtyard's cobbles, the individual pieces creating a maze of rock difficult to penetrate. Blaze wasn't going to let this defensive act go unpunished, while the stones granted him potential offence and defence he was exerting a lot of his focus to hold them individually rather than in a cluster. She began to beat on the barrier with thrown flames, keeping up the pressure from a distance as she slowly approached, awaiting an opening.

That was until the now blazing hail of stone shifted toward her, pebbles coming directly toward her and a wall to her left… the only option was to dodge right! She leapt without hesitation, but she was certain this was a trap; as such jumping higher than she did right and taking a minor bashing from the oncoming hail… but as she watched beneath her his psychic grip hadn't been aimed for her. Or rather if it had he'd grabbed something else in the process, more of the remaining cobles were glowing teal; he had released the first stones as he threw them!

Shrapnel bounced toward her, a reverse hail of stones rushing passed and bludgeoning her. She was thrown to the air… but foolishly he had launched her back toward him! Flames grew on her person, glowing red at her fist, Silver's eyes flashed in shock as he tried to create a barrier… but he was just too late! The flaming fist contact with his chest, this time he met with the wall but holding himself in the air meant the force was relatively small. He braced against it and pushed off, psychic might and his limited physical power working together he flew back toward her palms open. She was falling, nowhere left to go, he had caught her! Teal light shrouded the entirety of her being; he fell to the ground as what little of his remaining energy surrounded her.

"I… I got you this time! I did-

Blaze had been burning away at his psychokinetic energy from the moment he captured her in his grip. It wasn't a technique she thought others could perform, if the likes of Sonic or Knuckles were captured all their strength lay in physical abilities. This was not the case for her. She'd dealt him a single kick to the side, non-flaming, and he was back on all fours. Her clothes were shredded; she could feel where the plates had deflected off her body. It hadn't been an even fight but the gap was certainly smaller than she thought, with a proper diet and some more training they would stand together as they once had. While his body seemed weaker when compared to her own his psychokinesis itself may have been stronger.

She crouched down, gingerly taking his hand and dusting the soot off his quills. He looked up to her, red in the face and panting; "Did you have to do that?"

She found herself quite distracted as she continued to leaf through his quills; "Hm? Well you wouldn't have learned if I let you off so easy, would you? You won't make that mistake again." The back ones were so long, she knew he should probably trim them but leaving some length might be nice. She was pulled from this distraction by the grumbling of his stomach beneath her, realising what she was doing the Princess pulled back. Both were more than a little red in the face, though she tried to assume Silver was embarrassed by his stomach or simply out of breath. "Right, yes Dinner." Blaze looked to her clothes and quickly realised they were much too damaged for public, they'd need to get something delivered or prepared within the Castle. She finally pulled away, supporting him via shoulder lift.

They managed to make their way through the castle relatively unnoticed, there was a stern look Gardon but Silver was much too tired to notice, Blaze shrugged it off and gave the order to send for food, a sewing kit and bandages. She made it into her room, quickly lowering him to sit on her bed… only for him to collapse backward, very nearly smacking his head off the wall. "H-How often are we going to do this? I don't think I could take it three days a week… not yet at least."

She sat next to him, making sure he was whining rather than properly injured. "Perhaps once a week, we'll wait until you're healthy at least before making it more frequent." She rested a hand on his knee, "It'll get much easier the longer that we work at it. Training is still important, even if the threat is less immanent."

"I know, I know. It's just… in a perfect world we wouldn't have to do this. We could just relax on a quiet… what day is it? I'm still not used to calendars." Silver admitted, slowly sitting up.

Before Blaze could answer there was a knock at the door; she left and returned with a platter of sandwiches, a roll of bandages and a sewing kit. "It's Monday and yes it would be nice but we're still not in a perfect world. We're in a world with issues now and your world is still devastated." Setting it down on her bedside table she returned to her prior position; "I assume we'll be working at it for some times, we've got two worlds to care for now after all."

There was a beat of silence, Blaze removed her jacket to begin sewing; Silver had just about caught his breath. "I wonder what we'll do when it is…"

She paused, "When what's what?"

He crossed his legs, allowing himself to fall back again… this time actually smacking his head before it met with the bed sheets. "When the worlds are perfect, when we've got no more fights to win and nothing left to fix. I don't know that I'll stay in the future, I can't leave it destroyed but by the time it's fixed… I don't know if I'll fit in. I guess what I'm saying is, when things are right, I'd rather stay here with you… but I'm not sure what we'll do when that time comes. We've been fighting most of our lives."

There was another pause as Blaze reflected on what he had said, she reached over retrieving a sandwich for herself and held one to him; "I guess it'll be more like this. The quieter moments, just enjoying each other's company. We'll probably be older by then, I don't know by quite how much but it'll be nice to relax, even I can admit that despite the seriousness of my position. But you're serious, when things are fixed you want to stay here?"

He took the sandwich but also gently pulled her arm back, prompting her into a lying position to; "Of course, I know you can't leave and while I want to save the future… I'd rather not be without you again. Besides, it's the choice of a place alien to me with you or one alien to me without you. There's not even a question of where I'd rather be, of course, it's with you. I don't want to leave your side again." Putting the sandwich in his mouth, almost the whole thing in a rather impolite manner (though Blaze knew he knew no better) he just about passed out as the taste of salmon.

She allowed herself to lie down beside him, nibbling the sandwich in thought. Swallowing she continued, "If… if you want to stay here with me I would certainly be accommodating and more than happy. But are you certain Silver? This is something you've been working toward for two lives."

He hadn't quite recovered from the taste, but there was no hesitation; "I'm sure. I've been thinking about it for a while and I think I'd like to spend my life here with you, when everything is calm and everything is fixed I want to be with you."

It was probably the tiredness, that compounded by the food he ate but Silver seemed completely oblivious to the effect his words were having let alone their perceived meaning. Blaze could feel the temperature rising, she tried to focus on the ceiling. "Well… we're together now and I certainly don't plan to leave your side. I'll fight until we no longer have to, that's a promise."

She looked to her partner only to find her had drifted off, of course… comfortable in a way he had never been before, he'd never really slept in proper bed; just destroyed remains, let alone a bed for a princess. She rose slightly, retrieving the bandages and scissors from the sewing kit and gently began to bind the wounds he'd left. Nothing had been too deep, he'd probably just have bruising, but it was best to be safe and cover what was injured. She was around halfway done when she felt herself yawn, perhaps training had taken more out of her than she anticipated. She looked to the chair in the corner, a well-sized and comfortable lounger, and then she looked back to Silver… comfort and warmth that didn't come from fire.

The choice was obvious; she lowered herself back down next to Silver, her right hand fell on the centre of his thick-furred chest. She knew it was early, the sun was still far from setting, but this was more important right now. Enjoying the quiet peace in a world imperfect but far better than the one they'd known, feeling his chest rise and fall she allowed herself to drift asleep.