AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

In a single gulp, Sania downed what was probably her fifth glass of water, or what she thought was water, and sauntered back into the dance floor. She didn’t care that her dancing didn’t match the music nor if the people around her were throwing her looks. She wasn’t here to be prim and proper. After that hell of a week, she was here to let loose and have fun and that was exactly what she was going to do. And besides, nobody knew who she was beneath that mask. The world was spinning and she could barely keep her footing as she danced to her own rhythm.

          WHEN HER partner shoots back in the nicest way possible, it irritates her even more. how dare she try to be the better person? “oh, i can see that,” she says, crossing her arms. sue isn’t the most athletic person either, but years of her life spent studying dance made her fit enough to at least cover the basics. “look, okay, i’m not ‘dissing’ your coping mechanism, i’m just saying it can get us into trouble. trust me, i’ve been there. have you ever had a personal trainer? these people are like those but ten times worse but with like, triple the pay.”

“You can complain all you want, as long as it doesn’t mean it’ll negatively impact you later. You know– extra exercise and whatnot.” He tugged the hem of his shirt up and wiped his cheek with it before he fanned his torso with the offensively cheap fabric they were forced to wear. At her request, Clement smiled and did a quick 360 turn.  “Sorry, unless you want me to strangle you with my shoelace I don’t think I can kill you that easily. I’m pretty sure a puddle of blood would be super suspicious even if I did have a knife. Unfortunately, you’ll have to live another day. Horrible, I know, but I heard they’re giving us cake for dessert today! I’d like to be optimistic, but I have a bad feeling ‘cake’ just means ‘fruitcake’.”

Sania looked defeated. The frown on her face made it seem as though the whole world was falling apart. Always overdramatic. She wouldn’t be Sania if she wasn’t. “I’m almost sure it’s a very dry marble pound cake. So I’d take that strangulation by shoelace please.” Now her frown was replaced by a small smile, relief flooding her at his presence. “How could you keep your cool through all of this, Clem? This is like the ninth circle of hell or something.” Sania stretched and shook out her arms to try and get some feeling back into them. “Do you think my parents hate me? They must. There isn’t a single bone in my body that isn’t clumsy, and they thought it was a good idea to train me to be a spy? Peak parenting right there.”

    the edge of his  foot  is  caught under the ledge of the hurdle and with one fell     swoop  and  a  sharp inhale, the man is sent flying across the obstacle course     like a boeing finally agreeing to the rules of gravity. 

    it  was  spectacular with the way he collided to the ground, the flooring barely     providing any give for the prince and the sparks that practically flew upon the     strike. quietly and gingerly, he rolls onto his back, groaning, as he presses the     back of his head into the floor. ode!

Gabbi narrowed her eyes, unsure whether or not Sania was kidding. “Uh, no. No no no.” she shook her head, an amused smile on her face. “You think Christian Grey invented BDSM? Hell no.” she answered. “It’s a real thing. And some people are very into it. Like, have you ever been inside a sex store? Shit’s everywhere.” she nodded, then looked across the room to gesture to the agent they were talking about. “I’m almost 90% sure he’s into it. He’s gonna, like, destroy the next person he fucks or something. Some Breaking Dawn shit, you know.”

“What?” Sania blurted out. “How could people be into that? That’s- That’s-” She leaned in towards the agent, and whispered, “that’s fucked up.” And looked around as if anyone would scold her for cursing just then. “You’re not messing witht me, are you ? I mean what kind of world do we live in for people to be into that?” This new revelation took a while to sink in. “And- and you think Agent Saint is one of those people? Not that- Not that I care. Honestly, why would I? But that’s literally the saddest thing ever. Can someone play Despacito?”

          IT’S ANOTHER day of training, and honestly, it’s been getting pretty boring. not to mention this girl she’s been paired with today for core workouts can’t even pull off a reasonable set of push-ups. when she stops, sue fails to suppress a judgmental scoff. “god, you’re so dramatic. and you got me saying that,” she says impatiently, shaking her head. “it’s just core, you know. at least stop whining, or they’ll make us do cardio again.”

Gabbi raised her eyebrows at the words that clumsily tumbled out of the other girl’s lips. For a moment, she didn’t know how to react or what to say, but she ended up just laughing. “Even if you did want to hump him - which you don’t, right… -” she rolled her eyes, “I wouldn’t really judge you. He is kinda cute, huh? In, like, a scary-looking, will-probably-choke-you-in-bed, into-BDSM kind of way.”

Sania burst into a fit of laughter that bounced off the Training Center’s walls at the agent’s words. “Will-probably-choke-you-in-bed, into-BDSM”, she repeated in between giggles. “You’re funny, Agent Eos. Real funny. Your jokes are hilarious.” Surely, she was kidding. Real people aren’t truly into that, are they? “You are kidding, right? He’s not into those things. Nobody is. That’s just for fictional people like Christian Grey, right?” But her smile faltered and suddenly Sania was insanely worried that such people truly existed. 

It was strange to have somebody openly complain about something; out of all the ‘friends’ he had back home, none of them seemed to have trouble doing anything. Ever. Sure, maybe one of them would gripe about how difficult Latin and Mandarin were to juggle at once, but their execution would evidently be flawless. This was.. this was starting to feel pretty nightmareishly real.  Besides the panting girl aside, they were out doing drills before the sun came out, dressed in clothes made of polyester, it seems. His ancestors would be fanning themselves silly by now.  “Sit ups are easier,” he spoke up, sitting down in front of the other as they took their positions with their partners. “You’re a lot faster than the girl at the end; she did two and claimed this was considered unconstitutional torture back in her country. I think they’re making her run laps now.”

Unlike her elder sibling, Sania was able to slip past guards unnoticed and actually venture into the great outdoors, growing up. One would think this has made her at least have the slightest bit of tenacity and robustness in her, but it seemed as though her clumsiness was seeded deep inside her and could never be erased. “Oh no, does that mean I have to shut up and stop complaining?” Her voice was small and frail, as she weakly pulled herself up from collapsing. “But it’s the only thing that keeps me going. But then I also refuse to run laps. I can’t deal with this! Quick, do you have a knife you can stab me with? You can just say I passed out and died.”

Sophia herself was also was close to quitting but the Italian shook her head and bent down. Every bone and muscle in her body told her to stop but she kept going before she tried to move the other royal. “No you’re too important to your family to die,” she said, tears in her eyes from the pain her body was in.

“Nonsense,” Sania muttered as she painstakingly got on her feet with the other’s help. She could barely feel her limbs and her throat was burning. “Thanks for the encouragement, but I’m not even heir to the throne. I’m sure they’d just be fine without me in the picture.” Hands on her hips, she heaved out breaths as she took in her companion. “Are you about to cry? Don’t cry! Just think about all the shopping we could do come the weekend! If.. we’re still alive-- No! We have to be positive. We’ll live through this and go shopping, yes? And maybe go to a spa and get a nice massage. Please don’t cry.” 

“It isn’t funny anymore, is it?” If he were with some other trainee, he would have doubled their load, but there was a preciousness to her, a child-like quality, that strangely brought out a certain softness to him. She was one of those rarities not even the devil would want to suffer. “Alright, give me three proper push-ups – just three, and I’ll have your training schedule clear up for the rest of the day.” His voice was gentler now. As much as he wanted to push her to near perfection, he also didn’t want to see her collapsing – especially not on her first day. Marcus was sure his superiors would grant him the request, given how unfit Sania seemed. He also was confident he’d have her medical records to back him. “Permission to correct your form through physical contact?” When she granted it, he got down on his knees without ceremony. One hand went underneath her abdomen to straighten her back, while the other went atop her glutes to level them down. Marcus was no stranger to the female body, so the physical contact wasn’t that big of a deal for him. It also helped that she had the frame of a prepubescent girl’s. “Now, unlock your elbows.” The large hand supporting her stomach carried the brunt of her weight up and down, so she was basically doing push-ups sans the effort. “Brace your abs,” he would whisper from time to time. “Contract your ass. Why aren’t you breathing? Breathe.” 

“Yeah, go wild,” the words escaped her mouth but she corrected herself immediately. Filtering her words was one of the things she needed to work on, especially since they were strictly required to speak to agents with utmost respect. “I-I mean yes. Yes, go ahead.” Sania was sure she was alright with him touching her. But the moment she felt his hand on her stomach, her heart started thrashing, and when his other hand landed on her bum, she felt as though she might just collapse again. It wasn’t that she found Agent Saint completely breathtaking (most especially when he wasn’t wearing his uniform and just lounging by the beach). No, that wasn’t it. It was because she wasn’t used to people having their hands on her, or so Sania forced herself to believe. She couldn’t think about anything else but how warm his hands were that she barely put any effort into doing the actual push up. Not that she needed to, really. Even bracing her abs proved difficult when all her stomach did was flutter every damn time a whisper escaped the agent’s mouth. It was only when he mentioned how she wasn’t breathing that Sania realized how long she’d been holding her breath, and how warm her face felt. Was she blushing? Was she actually flustered at a time like this? She desperately prayed that Saint wouldn’t notice. Suddenly self conscious, a nervous chuckle fell past her lips as she tried to find words to say. “Can’t it always be this easy?” But then her mind reeled of the implications of what she said. And all of a sudden, a stream of words that seemed endless came rushing out of her mouth. “Not that I mean I’d want your hands to always be there. I just- I just meant that I wished training was less painful and stressful. I didn’t mean- I didn’t mean anything else by it. Alright? Sir? Mister Agent Sir?”

“Okay, you’re even more dramatic than me,“ Gabbi commented, but she went ahead and sat beside Sania, wiping her hands on her leggings. “Fine, we’ll take a break and then we’ll do knee push-ups instead. We can start with full push-ups when you figure out how to not hump the floor.” she said with a playful smile. “It’s really not that bad. You’re just… not used to it. And you don’t know how to control your breathing.”

“Really?” Sania lit up like a Christmas Tree as she sat up and faced Eos. “You’re truly sent by the gods! Why can’t everyone be as nice as you are?” It was a pain to even raise her arms to push the stray strands of hair away from her face, but she did so anyway and fixed her ponytail. “Honestly? If I figure out how to hump a person instead of the damn floor I’m pretty sure that scary looking agent will let me off the hook most of the time.” The words tumbled out of her mouth, her tone nonchalant and the laughter that followed abruptly halting at her sudden realization. “Not that I want to hump- I- No- Don’t- don’t tell him I said that. Please?” Her cheeks flushed a bright red, and Sania wanted nothing more than for the floor to swallow her whole.

When Marcus underwent probation for a mission-gone-wrong, he was sent back to Fort Monckton to train cadets for a year. As expected, his trainees were already physically adept before entering the program. This was why, when he first started training Sania, he felt as if he were watching a peculiar creature in a zoo. Clumsy, maladroit, easy-to-run-out-of-breath Sania. She truly was a piece of work. “Quit being overly-dramatic.” Marcus was definitely amused, but he was able to seamlessly masked it with frustration. “It’s hard the first time, but it’s only because your muscles aren’t used to the effort.” He got down assumed a push up position beside her. “Come on, sit up, watch my form. Notice how my arms and legs are positioned? Make your body as straight as possible. If you find that hard to do, clench your ass and brace your abs. Then go down.” He made thrice the number of push-ups she did look as easy and as natural as breathing. “Now, you do it.” When he stood up, it was clear he didn’t break a sweat. "Give me another round. Remember to clench your ass and tighten your abs.”

“What am I, if not overly dramatic,” she muttered under her breath as she got up lazily and set her gaze onto the frustrated agent in front of her. Agent Saint seemed to be doing the push ups so effortlessly and Sania couldn’t help but marvel at how easy he made it seem. Clench your ass and brace your abs. The statement made her snort and giggle. Though the atmosphere in the place wasn’t one to encourage sprightliness and laughter, Sania couldn’t help but be her natural self. “Clench my ass. That’s funny.” She was still smiling when she assumed an even more awkward push up posture, her back arched downwards and her butt slightly raised. And then she was pushing her self down and up, grunting and looking every bit in pain as sweat ran down the side of her face. She was barely on her 6th when she said, “Mister Agent Sir.. Don’t be mad or anything.. But I think I’ll snap my whole self in half if we keep doing this.”

Gabbi watched the dark-haired girl, an amused smile threatening to make its way onto her face. “Sania. Sania,” she tapped the other’s shoulder lightly in an attempt to get her attention. “You did ten push-ups. I don’t even know if you can call them push-ups. You didn’t go all the way down,” she shook her head, fighting a chuckle. “Look, we’ll do this again,” she said, going on the front leaning rest position and motioning Sania to do the same. “Now when you go down, you got to try to make sure your arms are parallel to the ground.”

A little gentleness and motivation always got Sania’s spirits up. She pushed herself up once more and tried mimicking how Agent Eos did the push up. But her arms were weak and she was damn tired, making her collapse to the ground. “Do you have a knife or a gun somewhere in there? Do you want to just stab me in the neck or shoot me in the face and put me out of misery? We can say I died of being stupid and clumsy. I’m sure my parents will believe that.” Sania could not cling to her sprightly spirits anymore as she pushed herself up on a sitting position. “I’m sorry. I’m not really cut out for this. How do people even do this for a living?”

Jasper wondered the room, he was in all black not sure because it was the color of power or because it was purely the color the commanders decided on. His arms crossed over his chest. He saw a lot of potential but he wondered how many would take this all seriously enough to get to the point were they would be able to stand their ground to rejoin society.

“Why are you just laying there?” He barked coming to stand beside the person. “Do you think you will be able to lay there and live if you were attacked tomorrow?”

Sania could barely feel her limbs after a sparring session with a better-trained royal. She was struck on the rib, flipped onto the floor, hit on the face, and her body couldn’t take any more of it. “I literally just got slammed onto the floor about two hundred times. I think I ruptured my spleen and I’m ready to die.” Before, when she said she was ready to die, she was mostly kidding. Now she wasn’t very sure. The training is already killing her. “Honestly, just let them take me.” 

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand here’s my daughter – sania khan, princess of india! basically: think mia thermopolis!

[ naomi scott, 26, cisfemale, she/her ] — who’s that emerging from a private plane? oh, it’s sania aditi khan, princess of india! intel commends them for being affable & intrepid, so they just might do well here. watch out though, since they are also reported to be diffident & maladroit. i hope they won’t get themselves into too much trouble.

below are stuff about this tiny babie. like this or send me a message if you wanna plot!!