I told Destiny about the attack and her response was that I needed to train more. Not just with my weapons, but with actual fists. I can’t recall ever being in a fist fight, at least a fair one when we’re on equal footing, or Elias hasn’t already beat the guy up. Now I’m out here in the middle of nowhere and I’m supposed to get into a fist fight with my girlfriend. This sounds like the plot to a horror movie. When does Candyman jump out of the trees, or I guess that would be a Jason Vorhees thing.

“Alright, make a fist,” Destiny commands. “That’s pathetic,” she laughs.

“What?”

“Give me your hand,” she reaches out.

“In marriage? It’s all so sudden.”

She punches me in the shoulder. “No, I’m going to teach you to make a fist.”

“I know how.”

“You know how to hurt yourself.” She grabs my hand. “Look you’ve got your thumb tucked under your fingers. You’ll dislocate it, maybe even break it. You want to strike with your knuckles, not the whole fist.”

When Destiny said we were coming out here to train I thought she was going to teach me some martial arts or something. Instead, we’re just fist fighting. We could have at least gone to a boxing ring. Instead, she’s got me learning to throw dirt in people’s eyes because there isn’t enough time to make me a real fighter. I’m not exactly becoming a dirty fighter either; she’s been beating me long enough that the sun has started to set and the occasional lightning bug appears. She keeps complaining I’m sluggish but one of us isn’t gifted with vampire healing abilities and near unlimited stamina. At this point I’m just trying not to fall over and die. She’s not giving me a chance to take a break or breathe. Her excuse is that there’s no breaks in fighting, but this isn’t a real fight. No matter how many fights I get into, weapons or fists, I can never prepare for some kind of mist being spat in my face. For the umpteenth time Destiny knocks me on my ass and stares at me with disappointment. She doesn’t offer a hand getting up, so I just stare at her from the ground.

“You’re not getting it. Fighting is like sex,” Destiny looks down at me.

“Fighting is nothing like sex. Fighting is between two people who have a disagreement and sex is between two people that love each other. Or have a monetary exchange, sometimes just bored. Whatever, they aren’t anything alike.”

“You’ve never had sex before so you don’t get it.”

“I know enough to know that if sex is anything like getting beat up, I don’t want any.”

She takes a seat in the grass next to me. “Sex and fighting require that you’ve chosen a good partner.”

“You usually don’t choose your partner in a fight.”

“Oh, but you totally do. See, with sex you should know you can’t just take it whenever, same way you can’t just start a fight whenever. You should also avoid having sex with most people, even if they offer it to you. Same with a fight, you don’t need to fight every person around you, even if you’re challenged. You have to match your opponent's passion and rhythm otherwise you come up short.”

“You’ve really thought about this a lot.”

“Of course.”

“How do I know I’ve found the right partner,” I ask twisting a blade of grass between my fingers.

“You don’t. You just have to open up and trust your heart. Even if everything else tells you to pull away, follow your heart. Sometimes you’ll lose, but if you trust your heart, you win more than you lose eventually. Then you come to the last fight that you ever want or need.”

“Just trust my heart?”

“That’s all you have to do.”

"This is so stupid,” I sigh.

“Do you have a better answer?”

“Yes, let’s drop all the metaphors and just go for it.”

I don’t give her a chance to respond, I close my eyes and lean in for a kiss. Her lips meet mine and for a moment all of the metaphors and fist fighting are finished. I like this, moments of peace and passion between the two of us. I wish it could be this way forever.

“You’re still not a good kisser, but you kiss better than you fight,” Destiny leans back and lies across the grass. “There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“If you kiss one set of lips, you better kiss the other too.”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

“We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Perfect.”

“What if someone comes.”

“What if they do?”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I told you, follow through on your attacks. Stop pulling punches.”

“Drop the metaphors.”

“Alright,” Destiny shrugs.

Not a moment later she’s tossed me back and is straddling my chest. I don’t know why I’m so afraid all of a sudden. I’m anxious even if I’ve thought about this moment so many times before. It’s played out in my head thousands of different ways, and none of them were like this. This time her kiss doesn’t calm me, it makes my heart beat faster. I know what’s to come, I’m not ready. No, I’m ready. I trust my heart. I want this.

“I guess I’ll get to see if it really does get bigger,” Destiny smirks before planting a kiss on my neck this time.