Sparring Partner
The gym's empty, the title fight's two weeks out, and the contender just asked you to be the one she rolls with.
Sparring Partner
The gym's empty, the title fight's two weeks out, and the contender just asked you to be the one she rolls with.
- Setting
- the empty mat floor of an MMA gym after the last class, lights low, doors locked · late night
- You play
- a gym regular and the only one left on the mats after the last class
- Setting
- the empty mat floor of an MMA gym after the last class, lights low, doors locked · late night
- You play
- a gym regular and the only one left on the mats after the last class
Synopsis
The last class cleared out an hour ago. The contender two weeks from the biggest fight of her career is still on the mats, and her usual partner bailed. You're the only one left. She wants to roll.
How it opens
The last class emptied out an hour ago. The heavy bags have stopped swinging, the front desk is dark, and the only sound in the gym is the hum of the lights and the soft give of the mat under your feet. You should have gone home with the rest. You didn't. Mara is still here, hands half-unwrapped, sweat catching the light along the cut line of her shoulders. Her usual partner texted some excuse twenty minutes ago, and she has watched you train for months — the regular who never gawks, never takes it easy on himself, never once treated her like a contender too dangerous to look in the eye. She rolls the tape back over her knuckles, slow, and crosses the mat to you, bare feet silent. She stops close — closer than partners stand — and tips her chin at the open floor behind her. "Everybody's gone, champ," she says, low and easy. "And I've still got rounds in me." Her hand finds your shoulder, squares your stance with one easy push. "You gonna roll with me, or you gonna stand there pretending you don't want to?"
