Chapter Text
The pace of advancement at Tracen Academy was meteoric. Two years had passed in what felt like a only few short months, and though you still felt overwhelmed with the work at times, the results of your diligent instruction were plain to see around you.
Gold medals were framed and hanged all around your team’s instruction room, and your name had become synonymous with good luck and hard work. When the most recent semester at Tracen began, there had been an all-out battle between the newly enrolled horse girls to get placed under your tutelage—and those who made the cut were almost instantly catapulted into school-wide fame. Walking the open halls at Tracen was a dangerous gambit for you now: you ran the risk of getting trapped by over-eager juniors and bombarded with questions, or even worse—getting seen by your actual students indulging those juniors and giving them the precious time that your team’s girls jealously hoarded all to themselves.
All of that notoriety had gained the attention of your peers as well—other trainers and administrators had come to respect you, or more…
And in this moment, you were especially glad that none of your team’s girls could see you, sitting across from one of Tracen’s female trainers at the restaurant around the corner from your apartment. She had suggested the date, and after some casual chatting over dinner she’d revealed just how many hints of hers had appeared to have flown right over your head…
You could only sigh and shake your head, smiling and apologizing. She laughed.
“I figured you were just too busy to think too much about that sort of stuff,” she said with a smile, gently waving one of her hands in the air.
“Pretty much… those girls work me to the bone most of the time.” you confided in her, raising your eyes to meet her soft gaze.
“I get it! You definitely work harder than the other trainers out there. But… I’m glad that I worked up the guts to ask you out like this. You’re surprisingly genuine behind all of that success. Not arrogant or ego-centric like most of the hot-shots.” She praised you, cutely resting her chin on her folded hands.
“Don’t flatter me, now…” you replied, embarrassed. She laughed again. You felt the redness bloom on your face, and you forced yourself to look away for a second—your eyes meeting the restaurant’s front window just in time to catch a flash of white and purple moving past it on the sidewalk outside. Shaking your head, you looked back at the woman seated across from you.
“How about we do this again?” she asked. “Same time next week, maybe…”
“Sure! Here again?” you accepted, returning her smile.
“Yeah! I like it here, Not too far from the academy, and the food is great…” she said, rubbing her stomach appreciatively.
The cheque came and you paid for both meals, then walked her out the front of the restaurant into the cool evening air. Waving goodbye, she crossed to the other side of the street and began walking towards her apartment… wherever that was. You, meanwhile, turned right and started following the sidewalk back towards your place. It wasn’t far at all, just a few blocks away behind the restaurant.
That was the first date you’d been on in years, and it seemed like you nailed it—accordingly, every step you took on the way home was light and energetic, full of pride and excitement for what laid ahead.
But it didn’t last long.
As you made your way through a small metro park between blocks, a gentle tap on your shoulder startled you from behind. Turning on one foot, you found yourself staring right into a familiar patch of white hair floating in a sea of brown strands.
Sirius Symboli stared up at you from beneath those full bangs, her lips turned down in a disappointed pout. She was out of uniform, wearing her favorite green suit for what you assumed had been a night out on the town.
“Trainer-san…” she drawled dangerously, tilting her head and holding her chin with one hand while the other supported her elbow. “What was that all about, hm? Aren’t I good enough…?” she asked through an aggressive frown.
“Huh? Sirius?” you blinked, stepping back slightly. She’d come out of nowhere.
“That’s me, Trainer… but who was she?” Sirius questioned, tapping her jaw with one finger.
“What? Do you mean-” you began, only to be interrupted by the beautiful brunette horse girl.
“That woman you were with back at Torrino’s. She’s pretty, I admit… but I can’t see why you’d need more.” she continued, turning slightly to look into the bushes set along the sidewalk. “You know, I’ll get dinner with you any time. You only have to ask…” she said, shaking her head. You followed her gaze to break the tension.
You tried to reply, but you couldn’t find any words to say. Was she jealous?
Before you could summon a proper response, you caught sight of the same purple and white blur from the restaurant window moving somewhere behind the bushes.
“Hey, wait a minute—What was that?” you asked, starting to walk towards the line of tall shrubs. Sirius grabbed your shoulder and stopped you in your tracks. She reached out and placed a finger beneath your chin, gently turning your face back towards her.
“Puppy-chan…” she spoke quietly, causing a blush to light up on your face. “Don’t you understand that you’re mine?” she said, staring deep into your eyes. There was no hint of exaggeration or dishonesty in her gaze. She was supremely confident, and had no suspicion at all that what she had said might not really have been true.
Your mouth opened but no words came out.
She spoke for you.
“It’s okay… tonight, we’ll teach you that you don’t need anybody but us.” She said, taking a step closer, bringing her face right in front of yours.
“…Us?” you asked, too nervous and overwhelmed by the sudden switch to question anything else that she had said.
Suddenly, the clacking of heels on cement started up somewhere behind you and began to pick up speed. Sirius stepped out from directly in front of you, and you quickly turned around to figure out what was going on—but it was too late. Goldship was already airborne, her legs extended and on an unavoidable collision course with your face.
Her flat heels rammed your jaw with enough force to lay you out on the ground, and as you vision slowly faded out you heard her yelling at Sirius.
“Ours! Not yours! You promised to say it right!” she complained, indignantly stomping on the sidewalk. The last thing you heard was Sirius sighing, and the last thing that you felt was the two of them grabbing you by your ankles as they began to drag you away.