Dresden had wanted to get out to the courtyard early, to catch Castiel for another spar. Four days after the initial beating, the bruises were prominent but the pain was starting to fade. He'd visited Ikisina the night before so she wouldn't worry, and she hadn't been too happy about the way he looked. But he'd expected that.

On a rare day off, he'd had too many other things to do in the morning and by the time he got around to the courtyard, Castiel was long gone. It was full of other legionnaire's, though, so he was sure he'd find someone capable of hitting the mark.

He stepped into the yard, squinting at the sun. He wasn't in his Legionnaire's uniform, but instead a simple pair of trousers and a loose sweater and undershirt. "Hey Drake, barely recognize you outta uniform," one of the men said, stepping up to him as he grabbed for one of the training swords. Pushing his hair out of his face, he shrugged.

"Days off feel like punishment after a while, don't they?" He smirked, pulling the sweater over his head and tossing it aside, rolling up his sleeves.

"Maybe for you," the guy leaned on the nearest wall. "Who kicked yer ass this time? The Commander?"

"Not this time," he laughed. "Just a more competitive spar a few days back," he said. "You here to train or talk?"

Another man came over to interrupt, leaning his weight on the wooden sword he'd stuck into the ground. "Drake, you sure you should be out here?"

"Why not?" He asked.

"Oh, you didn't know?" He turned his body to the side, motioning his head. The two soldiers looked and through the crowd he spotted her. Standing in front of one of the dummies, swinging at it. He felt like he did when he saw her on the day she'd kissed him.

Blue eyes lingered on her for a moment longer than they should, then he shook his head and licked his lips. "She's there, I'm here," he shrugged, twirling the wooden sword in his hands. "One of you gonna get your ass kicked, or what?"

The other two soldiers looked at one another, shrugged, and the one already holding the wooden sword walked with Dresden to an open area in the grass to begin their spar. But he couldn't help being distracted, and ended up knocked to the ground in no time, the wounds on the knuckles of his right hand already busted and bleeding again.

Before her eyes, the dummy turned into everyone she was angry with right now, even though some of these people were faceless. For starters, she took her anger out on the people who killed Baldovino. The funeral was behind them and now it felt like everything had just ended. Would people remember Baldovino the same way like she had? Would they forget the amazing father, loveable friend? The investigation wasn't really going anywhere and it bothered Scout endlessly. Then the dummy turned into Dresden. The stupid, handsome man that had managed to get her knocked up. One little misstep with such a big influence on her life. She punched the dummy in the face, allowing herself to really feel the anger she felt about the situation. On one hand she blamed him for everything, but on the other she knew that she had played just as much a part in this as he had. She thought back to the night she had visited him, hoe she had crawled through the window and hoe she had laid on his bed. The longing, the anger, the hurt. She had wanted to stay that night, but eventually she had left, aware of the consequences that staying would bring along.

Then the dummy turned into someone she didn't expect. It turned into herself. After a few swings, she realised she was beating herself up - literally - and with a shiver she took a step back. Breathing heavily, she wiped away some sweat with the back of her arm. She was angry with herself. She was better than this but she was making all kinds of stupid mistakes. She was a Kane. She needed to behave like one too. She needed to stop disappointing herself and others. She owed it to her family and her friends.

The woman walked over to the stuff she had dropped on the ground and crouched down, picking up the flask and taking a bit sip of water. Then, she sat down, leaning slightly against the dummy. From this place she could overlook the yard.

What's that about speaking of the devil and seeing his tail? As she was sitting, she saw Dresden sparring with some guy. He was on the ground, and he looked beat up. A frown appeared on her face. She wondered what had happened to him. It didn't seem smart to walk over there, so she remained seated, catching her breath.

The man sparring with Dresden reached a hand out, and Dresden took it, pulling himself back up to his feet. He brushed himself off and picked the sword up, but glanced over at Scout once more. Now she was sitting against the dummy, sweat on her brow. The tiniest bit of worry flashed through his mind, and scratched at his beard anxiously.

"You alright, Drake?" His sparring partner asked after waiting more than a few moments for them to continue.

Dresden glanced up at him, then stepped toward him so their conversation would remain between them. "I'd like to talk to the Marchioness," he began, chewing his lip. "Come over with me and stay close, ya know, so if anyone tries to make up anymore lies 'bout her and me, you can be my witness it was nothin' improper."

"Yeah, alright," he nodded. "I've got your back." Dresden nodded as well, but his feet felt heavy for a moment. He looked down at himself. There was no point in trying to make himself presentable. His pants and shirt were already dirty from the spar, his eyes were black, his left arm and shoulder were bruised, and his knuckles were bloody. All things considered, she'd seen him look worse.

Wooden sword still gripped loosely in hand, he walked over casually, nodding to a soldier or two who acknowledged him and prodded him about his raccoon eyes. As he approached, he kept his distance. Three feet or so. He bowed, and so did the soldier with him. "Lady Kane," he greeted her, then tossed his sword on the ground and sat, plenty of distance between them and speaking loudly enough that anyone nearby could hear. The soldier who had accompanied him remained standing, but lingered with his back turned slightly.

"I heard you were close to that Marquis who...uh," he didn't want to be terribly blunt about it, and he didn't really know many of the details except that his death had been strange. "Well, anyway, just wanted to extend my condolences. You...alright?"

She had averted her eyes by the time Dresden was coming over. Once more she used her arm to wipe some sweat off her forehead. The flask's bottom was facing upward again, the water pouring down her throat. She then wiped her mouth and smacked her lips. Two long shadows were cast over her, and she looked up, holding her hand over her eyes to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting them. Dresden greeted her and after throwing his sword to the ground, he sat down. The blonde man asked her if she was alright. He had heard about Baldovino's death.

Scout leaned back, putting her hands behind her to support her weight, and lifted her head to the side a little. "Smart move", she said, nodding towards the other soldier. The man turned around for a second, and Scout flashed him a genuine smile. "Good sparring there", she said, ignoring the fact that Dresden had asked her if she was okay. "Keep up the good work." She was the Lady Steward now, but she used to be a great soldier too.

"Thank you, Lady Kane", the man replied, not sure what to say and a bit uneasy with the situation, before turning his back towards them again. He was just there to be a witness.

She then leaned forward, grabbing her shins and facing downward for a bit. Then she looked up. "Thank you. I miss him. He was one of my best friends." She sighed and sat upright, pulling up her legs into a cross-legged position. "There's no use in pretending I'm fine. I'm going through all the stages of grief, but I'll manage." She looked from Dresden to the soldier and back. "Did he beat you up?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood, although she was genuinely wondering why Dresden was so bruised.

She spoke to the other soldier first. Smiled at him first. Complimented him. Dresden thought he understood. Surely she'd have to acknowledge them both equally. Surely doing so only helped to make the exchange less suspicious or strange. But it pulled at something in his chest. Dresden had never been a jealous person, but he knew how it felt all the same. The feeling disappeared quickly enough when she finally spoke to him. She still looked the same. Mostly.

The sadness in her words was apparent, though, and that made this all the more difficult. He wasn't someone particularly good with the kind of genuine emotion that it took to convey sympathies for the lost. All he'd ever known to do was suck it up and move on. That wasn't exactly fair or true, though. Sure, he'd moved on with his life when his sister had left him. But he thought of her often. He still wished she was around. He missed her. "You were a legionnaire. You're real strong, Lady Kane," he said, because nothing else came to mind. "You'll get through it. Even if you don't wanna do it without him. Gotta keep goin'." He looked away, to the left, to the yard full of soldiers. Some of whom looked away quickly when he caught sight of them. He sighed.

"This guy?" He hooked a thumb to the soldier still near them, made a face, and shook his head. "Not a chance he could do all this."

"I bet I could, Drake," the guy added, turning momentarily. "Someone else just got to you first."

"Keep tellin' yourself that, bud," Dresden huffed, chuckling. "Nah, it was a friendly spar with Marquis Andino," he said, returning his gaze back to Scout, which prompted the soldier to casually turn away again. Dresden rubbed as the still store spot on his abdomen, thinking of the shot the man's wife had also taken. "If you see him anytime soon, just know...I did get my shots in. Just happens they were a little less visible than these," he said, gesturing to some of the bruises.

His left thumb slid over the bleeding knuckles on his right hand and his blue eyes slid over her, but only for a moment. He'd tried to find out how Astor was doing from Annabeth, but that was about the time she'd remembered she was married and rushed off. "How is Lord Porter doing? I haven't spoken to him since...well, I wasn't aware that he was such a good friend of yours, Marchioness. He was very cross with me about the rumors."

As she sat there talking to the both of them, she realised that it was easier to talk to Dresden than it had been a little while ago. Less... feelings, although she wouldn't have called them feelings before. She wondered what had happened to him, why he was so beaten up, but it didn't effect her as much as it would have a month ago. Would that still be the case if she knew that he missed her?

She did appreciate it that he came to ask her how she was doing, and he was smart from making someone tag along while doing so. She also appreciated his words. The woman nodded, sliding her hands across her knees. "You're right", she said, not willing to get into her feelings and tell him all the things she was still thinking. His children were orphans now, living with an aunt or something. But most of all, she didn't get to say goodbye. The last time they spoke, she had told him what had happened between her and Dresden. He had told her that he'd be there for her if she were to get pregnant. Now he wasn't there anymore. She felt incredibly lonely without him.

Scout then shifted the conversation towards Dresden's bruises, jokingly asking if the other guy had beaten him up. She grinned silently while following the brief interaction between the two. "Lord Andino, huh?" she asked, shifting her weight a bit. She hadn't had the pleasure of meeting him yet, and she wasn't really up-to-date on the whole rumor situation. She worked with Annabeth, but their conversations had mostly only been professional, apart from Scout asking her about little Trixie once in a while.

It was only fair to say that she hadn't expected the mention of Astor. She raised her eyebrows shortly before they returned to their previous position on her face. "Yes, together with Baldovino he is my closest friend. We go way back." She didn't quite remember if she knew about the situation between Astor and Dresden. "He didn't like that? I'm sure he has his reasons." A sly smile appeared on her face, suddenly aware of the cards she should be playing here. She could make it seem like Astor was in love with her, without mentioning it literally, and without saying anything about the possibility of them getting married in order to cover up the pregnancy. "How have you been doing since the rumors? It's a shame people go around spreadin' lies just for the sake of it." They had a witness here to hear these words. Maybe that would help to put them to an end for once and for all.

At first Dresden had expected her to be angry when he approached her. To tell him to get the hell away from her, maybe. Not necessarily because she meant it, but for the sake of appearances. Instead, they were sitting and having a simple conversation, as careful as they had to be in dancing around certain subjects. It gave Dresden mixed feelings. He was glad to see her looking well, and glad to be speaking to her, but something still felt amiss.

"Yes, Lord Andino," he confirmed. This was a bit harder to convey. This situation between he and Scout had been true, but the one between he and Annabeth had not. How could he tell her that, though, without emphasizing that very fact? In the end, he settled on leaving the bits about Annabeth out. Even if Scout understood him, others might not, and he didn't care to create more rumors for Castiel. "He's a good swordsman. Better than me, obviously."

"And I'm not?" The other soldier turned around, and Dresden lifted his brows at him.

"No, you're not," he confirmed, shaking his head. Confirming that she had been best of friends with Astor for some length of time only made him understand the mans actions more. He'd been so angry that night he'd confronted Dresden about Scout, but he'd still placed far too much of the blame on Dresden. At least, the legionnaire thought. "No doubt he did. I've never known Lord Porter to be an unreasonable man." Astor had been a friend of his at one time, and really, he could have done much, much worse to Dresden if he'd wanted to. It didn't help that Ikisina had only further complicated things.

She didn't exactly answer about how Astor was doing, and that didn't bother him. He was more concerned about Scout. The question about how he was doing was much more complicated, though and just like he didn't really care about how Astor was, he wondered if she really cared how he was, or if she was simply asking to be polite. Either way, he wanted to tell her things. He wanted to tell her about Ikisina and how complicated all of that was. He wanted to tell her about Augustus and his soon to be promotion to royal guard, and he wanted to tell her how often he thought of that night in the tavern. But instead he smirked, and shrugged. "Some people ain't got much else better to do," he said. "But I'm alright. Just glad to hear it didn't do ya too much damage."

Standing up, he brushed himself off. "I won't waste anymore of your time, Marchioness. Just figured I'd make sure everything was alright on your end, given how much damage a baseless rumor can do."

"I'll have to meet him then, I need someone who's a match to my swordsmanship", Scout replied, bouncing her eyebrows twice to mock Dresden's skills. The other soldier chimed in again, making her smile once more. The two men had a funny dynamic.

She kept her lips sealed when Dresden said that Astor wasn't an unreasonable man. In one way he was right, but on the other hand, Astor acted harshly and suddenly without thinking things through. He could be unreasonable if he simply didn't take enough time to think things over. That's why she was also a bit scared of this make-believe marriage. Would he regret it? She'd allow him to do his thing on the side, but that was a whole other problem. What if he met someone he was truly in love with? He'd be throwing his whole life away just to keep Scout's future certain.

She was glad to hear he was alright although she did expect that he was keeping it more to the point than he would have if there wasn't a third party present to overhear the conversation. So Scout nodded, her mind wandering. Much to think about.

The woman looked up when Dresden lifted himself up. "Well, now, those are no manners. None of ya boys are going to ask me to spar or anythin'? What are we here for, then?" She smirked slightly, but she'd understand if the guy's didn't want to. Being near Scout seemed to be a dangerous thing nowadays.

"Ouch, right here," he said, pointing to his chest, as if to say her little joke had hurt him in his heart. Not that the two of them had ever sparred before. She had no idea what his swordsmanship was like, and vice versa, but he smiled all the same.

As he reached down for the wooden training sword, she asked about sparring. A grin flashed over his face. The last time she'd presented him with an option in the courtyard, he'd mistaken taken the former instead of the latter, which had led them into a world of trouble for some time. Now that it died down, it seemed the latter was his only option. Instead of immediately taking her up on it, though, he glanced around. His buddy met his eyes, looked at her, then laughed and shook his head. "Naw, I try and spar her, I'll end up lookin' like you."

He swiveled his head, then, looking to any of the other soldiers who had been close by. They either shook their heads or looked away, until Dresden seemed to be the only one left. He tried not to smile. "If you would like to spar, Lady Steward, it would be my pleasure to oblige. As it seems that...all of my fellow legionnaire's are too afraid to do so."

Moving away from the dummies and to an open section of the yard, the man Dresden had brought along with him and a few others turned to look on. Dresden bowed to Scout, and then lifted his sword. "Ladies first, Marchioness."

A grin formed on her face as the soldiers, one by one, shook their head and refused to spar with her. So her military past still did its rounds. Good to hear. She got back up on her feet and wiped her behind to get rid of any sand on her pants.

"I can only hope it's because they know what I'm capable of, and not because I'm a woman", she replied, looking around and winking at one of the legionnaires that was looking back at them. "Then I can at least hope we have a good crowd to sheer us on." Scout followed Dresden to the open spot and saw how some of the legionnaires took stance around them to see the sparring for themselves. A fun little swordfight with an audience, she liked that. She grabbed a wooden sword from the ground and twirled it around a bit to get the hang of it, to feel out its weight. Satisfied with it, she returned her gaze to the bruised legionnaire. She got into position and bowed her head, grinning a bit at his words before leaping forward straight away and taking a swing at his ribs. Bruised or not, he had agreed to this fight, right?

"A woman, a former legionnaire, a marchioness, and the lady steward," Dresden corrected her. "I think you're just a little much for them in general, Lady Kane," Dresden said as he watched her stand up and ready herself for the spar.

This was a little different than both of his recent spars. He couldn't act quite as he had during the spar with Castiel, but with Scout's experience, he knew he could be a little harder on her than he had been with Annabeth. Plus, Scout wasn't fresh off of having a baby, and she had enough authority to make sure Dresden didn't get his head lopped off if he landed a hit on her. She was hardly some fragile civilian.

He bowed back, blue eyes settling on her, the slightest smirk on his lips. The spar hadn't even begun and he was already feeling better. As she leapt forward, he jumped back, lifting his arms and moving his body just in time to avoid the impact and bright his sword around to block hers. With the wooden blades against one another, his under hers, he swept it upward, above their heads in a semi-circle until he could safely push her blade away while he stepped back. But as soon as they had reset, he moved in again, attempting to hit her in her dominant arm the way Castiel had done to him.

Her grin widened. It did sound good when her titles and achievements were said out loud. She wasn't just some lucky rich lady that happened to still be alive. She had fought for it, time and time again. Scout was a fighter, a soldier by heart and not a quitter through actions. A rush of adrenaline fuelled her. Whatever was thrown in her direction, she would conquer it. That's the way the Kanes lived.

Pure bliss rushed through her veins when she lept forward, trying to hit Dresden's ribs. Sparring made her feel alive. He was able to dodge the attack, blocking her sword with his and pushing it up. Her arms followed the movement, not resisting it so she'd spare energy. Now he moved, aiming for her right arm. The small woman jumped back with her right shoulder a little behind her, letting the sword cut through the air next to her. Then she swung her sword upwards, aiming for his arm that was now stretched out due to the movement he had made in order to try and hit her. "At least try a little!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Already he could tell that sparring Scout would be different. She was smaller than most and had to make up for her size with smarts. No energy was expendable when your opponent had the size and strength advantage. As she swung upward, he couldn't move his arm fast enough to keep it out of the way but as her sword came up, he tossed his own sword from his right to his left hand. The wood of hers connected with his right forearm, and man did it sting. The practice swords might be blunt, but they're heavy and nothing about blunt wood hitting bone feels good.

With his sword in his left hand, he brought it against hers and pushed it back toward her, toward her face. Regardless of hit or miss, he would take the moment of her re-set to toss his sword back into his dominant hand. His forearm ached, but it still worked. "We're just getting started, my lady," he grinned.