"Good morning!" Isa sings as I walk into the kitchen. She had woken up earlier than I had, and was standing in the kitchen making pancakes.

"Morning," I say, smiling. "You're in a good mood today."

Isa blushes. "Yeah, well it's not everyday your crush that you think doesn't like you back becomes your girlfriend."

"Touché," I reply, walking over to help Isa with breakfast.

We sit down to eat, and I can't help but smile to think that this amazing girl is my girlfriend. Isa sees me and smiles back.

"So do you work today?" I ask, breaking the silence.

Isa shakes her head. "No. I was supposed to, but Lyla, one of my coworkers, needed me to take a shift next week, so she took my shift today."

"Okay then. You want to do some more training today? I'll ask Ced to make sure that the training room is empty," I say, already thinking about what Ced will say when he learns that we're together. He'll freak out.

Isa smiles. "Sounds good with me. What are we doing today?" She asks.

"Probably a little more self defense and hand to hand combat stuff, and then maybe some sparring," I reply. Of course, I wouldn't hurt her during sparring. I'd go easy on her.

"Okay! Sounds kind of fun, actually. I always wanted to learn how to fight."

I smile at her enthusiasm. "Well now's your chance. Let's go get changed. I'll text Ced and then we'll head over."

"Okay, but first," Isa says, leaning over the small table and pecking me on the lips, before grabbing some clothes and running off to the bathroom to change. I do the same, smiling all the way.

We're sitting in the couch, still in bed form, though I suspect Isa won't actually use that one anymore, when my phone buzzes. I glance at it.

"Ced said no one is there today, so we can come over whenever. Wanna go now?"

Isa snorts. "Ced said. And sure," she says, marking her book and putting it down.

I lock the door behind me, and grab Isa's hand as we make our way down the stairs. Isa glances at me, a faint blush visible on her cheeks. I swear, does this girl ever stop blushing? Not that I mind, she looks really cute like that, but still.

She studies her hands, and I look down to. For the first time, I notice a swirl of black flowers and vines snaking down her left hand and arm.

"When did this happen?" I ask, holding up her hand for reference.

"Oh!" Isa exclaims. "Brian wants to be a tattoo artists if he can. He was doodling on himself in a temporary tattoo pen, and offered to do a design on my arm. Isn't it pretty?"

I examine it. It is very pretty, and so detailed. Brian seems like a very good artist. "It's beautiful," I say. "But not as beautiful as you."

Isa blushes. I lean down and peck her nose, feeling her face get hotter as I do so.

"I'm not the only one who's pretty," Isa mumbles. "You are too. You're strong and smart and so beautiful."

This time I feel my face heat up slightly. Thankfully at this point, we were at Ced's and I didn't have to answer something that I had no answer to. Isa knocked on the door, which was almost immediately opened by Ced. He glanced at my slightly pink face, Isa and my hands intertwined together, and broke into a large smile.

"So, you got the famous Scarlet Wolf to blush. That's quite the accomplishment," he says to Isa, and she smirks, finally recovering from her flustered state.

"Don't know how I did it," she says. "All I did was call her beautiful. That's all I had to say to get the stoic, cold hearted assassin to blush." Ced smirks too now, looking at me.

"Love is in the air," he sings and I glare at him.

"Shut up," is all I say as Isa and I step inside.

"So when did this happen?" Ced asks, ignoring me.

"Last night, actually," Isa relies.

"Last night," he repeats, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up, old man," I say. "All that happened is I confessed to Isa and she said yes to being my girlfriend."

"Whatever you say," he says. "Well, go ahead and train away. I'll be in my office if you need me. I have finances to do."

"Bo-ring," I call over my shoulder as Isa and I walk into the training room.

I let go of Isa's hand and turn to her. "Okay. So, more combat training. You can already throw some good punches, so let's work on kicks. First of all, make sure you have a good balance, because if you're off balance and kick, you're likely to fall over, which doesn't do you any good. Next, aim for shins, crotches, and stomachs. Those are the spots it hurts to most to get kicked in. Besides that, I don't know what else to tell you. How about you try out a few kicks on the punching bag and I'll help you if you mess up."

Isa nods. "Sounds easy enough," she says as she walks to the bag. She kicks a few times, and I work with her. Before long, she's got some really good kicks. Literally, though her shoes are nice too I guess.

"You're really good," I praise. "Good enough that we can move on to something else. Let's work on getting out of holds. I hope you'll never have to use these, but you probably will at some point. Let's start with basics. A lot of this is more about not freezing than anything else, and stuff that I can't teach you, you just have to remember.

For example, if your walking and someone grabs you from behind, elbow them. Elbows are some of the sharpest parts of you body, so use them if you can. If someone's got your wrists pinned behind your back, like this-" I grab her hands in a tight grip behind her- "stomp on their feet. It hurts enough that they will either loosen their grip enough for you to pull out, or they'll let you go all together. Try it."

"Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you."

"Yup. Do it."

And she does. She stomps on my foot, and I hold back a gasp. She break free, and spins around to face me, grinning.

"Very good. Really, for stuff like this, like I said, I can't teach you too much. If someone grabs your wrist, twist toward their thumb like this," I say, miming the movement, before grabbing her wrist and having her do the move.

We keep practice until about one, when we break for lunch. We made sandwiches, and brought one for Ced too. We bring them to his office, and sit down in the extra chairs.

"So how was training?" Ced asks.

Isa smiles. "It was good. Apparently I'm a natural at stuff like this. We've been working on self defense today."

Ced smiles. "I remember working with Tala on that. She wasn't very good at first, but she wouldn't give up, and eventually got better. Now, she could beat most of the fighters in my competition if she wanted to."

Isa glances at me, wide eyed. "Wow," she says. "I knew my girlfriend was good, but I didn't know she was that good."

Ced smirks at the word girlfriend. "I just need to say that you two are adorable together. I can't believe it! My little wolf, all grown up!"

I groan. "You know Ced, even when we first met, I wasn't little. I was 14. You're very overprotective, you know?"

Isa smiles. "He's your adoptive father, Tala."

"Listen to your girlfriend," Ced says. "And yes, I'm your dad. I have a right to be overprotective of you."

I sigh, conceding. "Fine, whatever."

"Look at us!" He exclaims. "My daughter, her girlfriend, and my future daughter-in-law, and me. One happy family."

Isa blushes at the daughter-in-law part, but seemed happy too. I feel happy. Like Ced said. One happy family, something I haven't had in a while.