Chapter Text
Celine liked her schedule and life organized. Everything had a time and place. Tuesdays at 5:30 were scheduled for her to blow off steam by doing mat work in the top floor gym at Sunlight Entertainment. Despite being the CEO, It wasn't a private gym. Anyone who worked there could use it. But in the past decade Sunlight Entertainment had been in this building, the gym had been blessedly devoid of others.
Her luck was bound to run out at some point. So when Celine opened the gym door at 5:30 sharp she was startled and disappointed to see it was already occupied. The room was divided into two parts. One side had a wooden dance floor with floor to ceiling mirrors on the walls. The other side of the room the floor changed to mats with padded walls for martial arts practice. She had designed this gym and put it out of the way from the main floors where her singers and choreographers worked on purpose. What she had NOT originally had in the dancing portion of this room was a pole, and certainly not three. That apparently had changed.
The trespasser who was bold enough to ruin Celine's routine was also bold enough to have installed polls for herself to dance on. Celine stunned, watched as a lithe woman had her legs wrapped around near the top of the pole and leaned backwards arms outstretched, her long deep pink hair fanning out. No music played in the room but the dancer clearly had a beat she was following. when Celine looked past the long neck and sharp jaw she noticed ear buds in the dancer's ears. Well at least this trespasser was polite enough to not make her listen to some shitty club song. Celine continued to the padded side of the gym set her water bottle down and began stretching.
Celine couldn't help her eyes from catching the other woman's movements in the corner of her eye. The long fluid lines of her body as she scaled the pole and then spun around to a rythym that only she could hear. Focus Celine, she chastised herself. She was here to practice her sword work and recenter herself not oggle a pretty girl. It was unbecoming. That voice was less her own, but she had heard it in her own head for so long it might as well be. Celine moved on to practicing falls to finish her warmup.
Her eyes didn't stray again until she retrieved her practice swords from the weapons display. The trespasser had stopped her dance and was toweling off sweat that collected on her exposed collarbone. Celine licked her lips, and turned away trying to focus on her sword forms. She managed to get through two sets before a clear voice interrupted her.
"Can you just do pretty dancing with those or are you up for a spar?" The woman stood relaxed, arms casually crossed in front of her, a sharp smirk that cut at Celine's pride.
Celine straightened to her full height, and was disappointed to see she was barely taller than this woman. "I'm not really in the mood, for teaching childern lessons." Celine responded stone faced. The jab did not seem to have the intended effect of scaring off this trespasser. The cutting smirk grew, as the woman casually tossed her pink hair over her shoulder and approached the weapons rack. Long strong fingers wrapped around a bo staff, twirled it easily back and forth, but must have found it wanting because she placed it back.
"Funny, I'm always in the mood to teach my elders a lesson." The woman responded, as She selected a much thicker and heavier bo staff.
Celine bristled at the thought of this woman thinking she could best her. Celine might not be in her prime of her Idol days, but drilling and sparing almost religiously, it was how she kept her sanity after losing her bandmates. Maybe, she was in the mood to teach this woman a lesson. "There is a difference, between pole arms and pole dancing." Celine stated. She cracked her neck and shook out her arms, in preparation.
A low laugh greeted Celine's snark. That woman's laugh tingled down Celine's spine, and drawing her eyes back to that cutting smirk. Flexible fingers easily gripped the thicker Bo staff, as its twirled around. The trajectory of the staff quickly changed, drawing Celine's eyes to compact strong biceps. The staff planted firmly against the mat, now allowing the woman to quickly twirl around it before landing with the staff in front of her.
"I think I can find some overlap between the two." Her voice, dead pan but her smirk still cutting.
Celine felt her body burn with need for this trespasser. Need to shut her up, to put her in her place. Her place underneath me. Celine shook off that thought refusing to follow it as she focused. The two circled each other, Celine lightly reaching out with her off hand sword to feel out her opponent's defense. The cutting smirk loosened to just a Cutting jaw line, as she effortlessly parried each strike.
"Don't bore me. I wanted a challenge or at least entertainment." The woman's voice drawled at Celine.
The provocation worked. Celine tapped lightly with her off hand sword again, but this time when her opponent parried She went to drive her other sword hard into the woman's ribs, or what should have been ribs. The cutting smirk was back, as a pivot of the staff easily defended her from both swords. Celine jumped back to reset, then lunged forward in the blink of an eye. The sounds of wood striking each other as their practice weapons clashed rang out in a deafening cacophony.
Celine wasn't conscious of the predatory grin she sported in response to the cutting smirk. She didn't consciously notice her body was flushed with more than adrenaline as they traded blows. The occasional smacks of weapon against flesh, didn't cause any pause in the spar, just an increase in a grin or smirk depending on who landed the blow. Celine wasn't sure If they had been at this for minutes or hours, but She could tell her opponent was tiring. A thin sheen of sweat covered taught muscles and a delicious collar bone. This was her chance to go for victory. Celine knew her opponent, had noticed her use of her one sword to probe for weakness and distract while or the sword in the dominant hand would do fast and strong attacks. Time to switch it up. Celine poked at the pole dancer's defence with her normally dominating sword. The cutting smirk split the trespasser's face in half as the parry with her staff sent Celine's practice sword flying. Celine held her offhand sword against the younger woman's throat. The predatory grin on her face was unmatched as her eyes watched the throat swallow next to her blade.
"I was worried you would be all bark and no bite. Glad to see I was wrong." The words ambled out of the cutting smirk. The woman completely unperturbed by the practice sword by her throat, and losing the little skirmish.
Celine pulled her sword back, and raised are eyebrow in confusion. "Who are you?" Celine was certain she would have rembered a woman who smirked like a knife, and made Celine want to cut herself on it.
The woman tilted her head to the side, sharp eyes raking over Celine as She caught her breath from their bout. "Mira" she answered.
"No family name?" Celine found herself questioning. It was customary to state your family name, then given name. But customary seemed to not be something this young woman bothered with.
"Who my parents are or are not is barely relevant to me. It is certainly not relevant to a stranger who won't give their own name in return." The cutting smirk was evaporating into a bored face. Celine wanted the knife back. She wanted to say something to have the stranger's husky voice snark at her, and that gleaming grin cut into her.
She was also confused. She hadn't needed to introduce herself in a long time. She was the CEO of Sunlight Entertainment, whose very building they stood in. She had raised Ryu Rumi, the largest kpop star the world had ever seen. She was the leader of the famed Sunlight Sisters, until the sun had set on them. So not to be arrogant but she hadn't meet anyone in years, who didn't already know who she was.
The knife was sheathed in annoyance. The voice that had been deadpan or flirty before, sounded annoyed and hostile. "If you say anything close to, 'you don't know who I am?' I will literally scream. If I knew I wouldn't ask, and that kind of pretentiousness is such a turn off."
Celine startled, before saying in her calm clear voice, "Celine. My name is Celine. I suppose I can teach you another lesson next Tuesday." The knife was back. Celine liked how it cut.