I've just pushed the button for the elevator when I hear a single running footstep behind me.  I spin around, but not quick enough before he's tackled me around the knees and I'm falling.

My own fucking fault.  I should have been more alert.  Should have seen this coming after the argument in the hangar bay yesterday.  Encke yelled at us both to cut it out and get back to work, but of course Cain wouldn't leave it at that.

Something slices across my calf before I hit the floor.  I kick out hard and feel the satisfying one-two thud of both feet connecting with flesh.  As I flip over and start to get up, I expect threats, insults, and cursing in Russian.  Instead there's silence and excruciating pain in my right foot.

I look down and see my foot stuck to the floor with a knife.

I look up and see Deimos smiling at me.

Well, he's going to want his knife back, isn't he, especially since I already won one off him.  I let the pain show, groan, let out a few tears.  Reach for the knife weakly like I'm scared to actually pull it out.

He makes a grab for it and I catch his wrist, pull him closer, and punch him in the nose.  He reels back, which gives me time to yank the knife out.  It hurts worse than it did going in and that is really quite a lot of blood.

Thanks for the knife, asshole.

He pulls another one out of his jacket and starts to circle me.  He doesn't seem to be hurt like I am, but he's not so bold now that we're both armed.  I push myself back against the wall, still sitting because I'm not sure I can stand on my wounded foot, and ask, "Can't Cain even fight his own battles now?"

Deimos actually looks confused for a moment.  Then he snarls a harsh, rasping noise that it takes me a moment to recognize as the word "YOU!"

He throws himself at me again, knife raised.

"HURT!"

I grab him by the arms and swing him into the wall, but not quick enough to keep him from getting in a slash across my chest.

"ETHOS!!"

Enough of this shit.  I grab the hand holding the knife and twist it until the knife falls to the floor.  He bites, leaving bloody marks in the back of my hand, so I hit him across the face again, hard.

We struggle for another couple seconds and I'm kneeling on him, my knees pressing his shoulders to the floor and hands holding his wrists down.  He kicks and wriggles for a minute, then goes still and stares at me with a look of pure hate.

I open my mouth to try and set him straight about what happened, but it's just like when I tried to tell Encke.  I can't get a sound out.

Swallow.  Breathe.  Try again.

"D-Deimos.  Didn't mean it.  Asleep.  N-nightmare.  Wasn't...him I wanted to hit."

His eyes narrow and he tries to bite me again.

"YESTERDAY!"

Yesterday?  I didn't even see Ethos yesterday.  I spent all day in the fighter base level and slept in a storage closet.   Good thing since I woke up attacking the wall twice.

"What happened yesterday?" I ask Deimos.

He just glares.

"Fine.  We're going to ask him."

I quickly frisk the little shit, take away two more knives, haul us both to our feet, and frog march him to my room.

Ethos is sitting on his bunk, using his tablet and holding an ice pack to a black eye.  It looks painful but not serious.

I shove Deimos into the room and snap, "Ethos, would you mind telling your boyfriend I didn't do that?!"

Deimos catches himself on the dresser, pulls ANOTHER knife out of his boot, and runs at me again.

Ethos gasps and drops his tablet, then screams like a girl.  "DEIMOS!  What the HELL! STOP IT!!"

Deimos takes a half-hearted swipe at my legs, then backs up.  We both look at Ethos.

"Deimos, I TOLD you I walked into a door!  OK, so it was a door Porthos kicked open, but he didn't know I was there and it had nothing to do with Praxis, so just STOP!"

Deimos backs up until he hits the dresser, hops up on it, and looks back and forth between us.

I toss the two knives I pulled off him onto the floor so they slide toward him.

"Find out what actually happened next time, shitbag!"

He reaches a leg down to stop them and glowers at me with a blush.

"Sorry."

He kicks one back toward me.

"Keep."

I study him for a moment, then squat to pick up the knife.  And have a really hard time standing back up.

"Oh!  Praxis!  You're bleeding!"

My right boot squelches as I back out of the room and shut the door.

Oh.  Right.  That.

The head nurse gives me an evil grin when I crawl into medical.

"Well HelLOOO there!  Welcome BAAAACK! Heheh..."

I'm getting really tired of this place.