Sick Heart: A Dark MMA Fighter Romance

Anya is sitting next to Irina. They are best friends now. Maart took over Anya’s training for the past month. He treated her like shit every day on the mat. He yelled at her constantly. He corrected her relentlessly. And he made her sit out a lot because she was no match for the older kids.

But after dinner, he took her aside and made her train four extra hours each night. So she is actually a very good up-and-coming fighter right now.

I think he took her aside to keep me away from her.

And it worked.

Until now.

Because tonight I have other plans for Anya. I saved half a bottle of last month’s Lectra and I will drink it with her tonight. Fuck him.

Finally, Maart is done talking and he calls the first two kids onto the mat. He starts with my group and nothing that happens with them is much of a surprise until he makes Jafari fight Budi.

Budi kicks his ass. Quickly and efficiently. And we have to pause things so Maart can go sew up a cut on the side of Jafari’s eye.

Evard gets his ass handed to him too. By Rasha, of all people. Which makes me chuckle a little. Maybe rooming with Paulo did her some good because she has a new look in her eyes when she takes Evard down to the mat.

But things don’t really get interesting until it’s time for the teenagers to fight.

There are only so many combinations you can use with these four. And two have been done. Peng fights Irina. She is not an easy opponent, but he’s a big kid and has at least twenty pounds on her, so he wins in the end. This means that Maeko should be fighting Paulo, but Maart calls Anya to the mat with Paulo instead.

“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath. “Yet another ass-kicking for Anya. It’s not really fair.”

Rainer leans into my ear. “Shut up, you pussy. She made a big deal about being treated like an equal last test, so this is what she gets.”

“He’s doing this on purpose.”

“Yeah. He’s doing this to make her a better fighter and to cure Paulo of his fear of taking down girls.”

“No. He knows it’s our last night together. And he wants to make sure she’s too fucked up to enjoy it.”

Rainer almost guffaws at my statement. “Stop talking to me, you dumbass. Just watch the fight.”

So I do. And to my surprise, Anya’s got moves. Not amazing moves, like Paulo does. But she pulls off the same fancy capoeira move I used to take down Pavo all those months ago. She doesn’t land it the way I did, so Paulo isn’t knocked out. And he takes her down less than a minute later and almost breaks her arm, but still. I’m impressed.

And neither of her eyes are black. She has a bloody nose, but Paulo really does hate fighting girls so he mostly grapples when he has to fight them. Maart will berate him later for that and I’ll probably have to talk to him too—just to drive the point home that you do not ever go easy on the girls in this business. They will kill you the first chance they get in the real fights.

But I’m relieved he didn’t punch Anya in the face. She’s had more than her share of that this camp and that means I can kiss her tonight and not have to worry about the pain.

Because yeah. I will kiss her tonight.

If I have to lose her tomorrow, I’m gonna make this a night to remember.

I am distracted by my thoughts and Paulo helping Anya up off the mat, but when I look over at Maart, he’s already watching me. Anya and Paulo bow to each other, then him, and he refocuses on his students, bowing back.

Maart points at Maeko, telling him to meet him on the mat. He has an uneven number of kids this time around so he has decided to test Maeko himself. It’s actually a long fight and I can almost hear everyone in camp reevaluating Maeko’s future.

His moves are impressive. He has really improved this time around. His fight with Maart—even though he loses because Maart will never throw a fight with a kid—is his best ever. He is someone else now. Whoever he was when he got here three months ago, that kid is gone and this one takes his place.

I watch Paulo as this all sinks in and read his mind. Does he need to worry about Maeko? Should he be afraid of some future fight with him? Even if it’s fifteen or twenty years away, the way my fight with Pavo was?

Fuck yes, he does.

The fight ends with Maart almost breaking Maeko’s leg, but after they bow, Maeko is smiling as big as I’ve ever seen him.