My Mentor Needs One Of Those Dumb Relationship Shirts

It really wasn't difficult to locate Carman. The warlock sent her coordinates to Jason regularly, in case of an emergency or Yetta wanted to find her. Which Yetta did, and walked towards the house. She was on Earth now, in her own home, and as Yetta knocked, she could hear the distant sounds of a movie playing. She decided to try the spare. Carman did always say to just…come in if need be?

The door opened easily enough, and Yetta went in, looking for her mentor. What she wasn't expecting was to see two exos cuddled up on her couch, simply watching some old age movie. One of them turned, and caught a glimpse of Yetta, who waved. Both exos turned towards her, and the purple one just sighed. "Come on in," she waved her forwards. Carman. The purple exo was Carman. Huh. Go figure. 

Oh shit. Carman was an exo?? Carman didn't even have any armor on! Yetta nodded, numbly, and went over. "Just dropping something off-"

The other exo got off of Carman's chest, looking at Yetta carefully. "Yetta?" she asked. The hunter was about to answer, but Carman answered for her.

"Yes." Turning back to Yetta, Carman eyed the bag of tea in her hand. "What's that?"

"My neighbor asked me to take this to you, and invite you over to her apartment at some point. The tea is her own original blend. Can't really find it in stores." Yetta shrugged, passing the bag to Carman and stepping back. "So uh…who's this?"

Carman looked from student to companion. "My girlfriend, Elsie."

"Ah. Cool. Hey wait-"

. . .

It felt like, after that accidental intrusion, Carman was training Yetta harder. Zavala had gotten the landlord replaced, and the new guy started repairs pretty quickly. Nobody was allowed to pay rent during this time, which Yetta counted as a blessing for Ms. Noble, who was constantly buying more yarn for her knitting projects. Instead, Yetta paid for barging in on an obvious date by jumping from platform to platform, while shooting, until her muscles screamed at her to stop. 

She'd begun training with Crow too. Apparently, Crow had asked to train with her more. There was only so much she'd learn from a warlock about being a hunter, after all. Crow didn't train her as hard, but often times she found herself distracted by him, watching him move around like he knew what he was doing.(side note, he most likely did). Whereas Carman trained her in general, Crow sparred with her, knife usually ending up at her throat as their ghosts healed any cuts and bullet wounds.

Those were the moments she was the most distracted by how close he was. Like now, as he called for them to spar again. Yetta shook herself out of her own head, picking up her dropped rifle. She had to find a good advantage point, before he got to her again. The stopwatch reset, as Jason so kindly let her know. She ran, before Crow could reach for her. If she just found a decent point-

Crow yanked her back, and she swung, fist connecting with his jaw. Yetta flipped, leaving his grasp. Her hands found her knives easily. She pulled them out. The sparring had begun. Her eyes tracked Crow, who ran towards her, his own knives pulled. 

Yetta swept her arms in the air, striking him in the shoulder as he passed. He swung his other arm up, and she gripped his arm, twisting it until she heard the bones break. What Yetta didn't realize was that the sliced arm was healed, and Crow yanked her hair back, throwing her to the ground. There was a sickening crack as the bones realigned, and Yetta finished catching her breath, sweeping her legs in an attempt to trip him.

She missed, and instead rolled to her feet, grabbing her sniper rifle. Jumping back, she shot at him, hitting him in the shoulder. "Quit aiming for the arms!" he called out to her.

"Aw, but why?" she mocked, swinging her rifle like a club and nailing him in the head. "I want to keep you from *arm*ing yourself!"

"Be serious, Yetta," he pleaded. "This isn't the time for puns!"

"It's always time for a good pun!"

He pinned her to the wall, and she kneed him in the groin. As he knelt in pain, Yetta ducked under his arms, not expecting him to catch her on the way down, flipping her onto her back. He pinned her there, expecting her to give up. Yetta stared instead, and finally, tapped the floor three times. She gave in.

As Crow climbed off of her, she mumbled to herself. "תתמקד, יטה. אל תסיח את דעתך שוב." She brushed hair out of her face, standing up herself. Crow was giving her an odd look. She'd been staring for far too long, hadn't she?

. . .

She technically wasn't supposed to be patrolling by herself, Carman had told her to wait. Yetta just wanted to look around, this was a fairly new area for her. Carman had eased up on Yetta recently, offering to take the hunter on patrols. Yetta, who was supposed to wait for her mentor, was also currently far away from the point that the two were supposed to meet up. She knelt on the dirt, covered with a thin covering of grass. Jason floated by her, and she gently held the small ghost in her hands.

"You were supposed to wait," Carman scolded from behind Yetta. Yetta turned, a hand on her knife. The older warlock scoffed slightly, kneeling beside Yetta. "You're still easy to sneak up on."

"I'd say I'm getting better." The exo snorted. They both knew she was. Half the time now, she caught whoever was in the shadows. She was still easy to sneak behind, and that alone would lead to her downfall. "I am, I was just distracted."

"Like how you are during your sparring matches?" Yetta looked over in surprise. "Crow told me. You get distracted really easily. What's going on?" Carman sat down, crossing her legs. "Did something happen?"

"Well, besides the fact that we have a new landlord, the old one has vanished, and my shower still doesn't work, nothing." Yetta was lying through her teeth, she knew there was more. And so did Carman. "Have you met up with Ms. Noble yet?" she asked, carefully dodging the question. She wasn't ready to admit why she kept getting distracted when sparring.

"I have not, no. The tea blend is excellent, by the way." Carman hummed. "Very delightful raspberry flavor."

It was Yetta's turn to hum. She kept watch on the ground under her, stormy eyes tracing over every potential hiding spot. "She's good at guessing what people like."

"She's your neighbor, correct?" Yetta nodded. "Hm. Is she a nice lady, or…what's her deal?"

"Just a nice old lady in need of some company. Her apartment got fixed first." Yetta raised her rifle sight to her eye, and fired, nailing the Fallen in the head. 

"Good job. That was a head shot." Carman clapped Yetta on the back, taking her own gun into her hands. "Your aim is getting better."

"So," Yetta started, changing the subject. "You have a girlfriend?"

Carman huffed. She knew that this was unavoidable. "Yes."

"Since fucking when?"

"Since fucking mind your own business." It was Carman's turn to shoot an enemy down, releasing the bullet shell, which clattered on the stones below them.

"Hm. You're dodging the question."

"And you dodged mine. 'Fess up."

"Fine," the hunter groaned. "I may have a small crush."

"Ooo, kinderguardian's first crush. And so early in your life too!" Carman teased. 

"Oh, fuck off."