There was one day a week Sky Bright had to herself. One day when she didn't have to go to school and she didn't have to go teach at the kids' music school she worked at for extra cash. And she hated it; because she was truly alone. Her parents stayed in America, with the Benedicts, and Zed had work – he worked at a small tea cafe as a waiter, where his dimples and charm got him more tips than a cat had whiskers. Sky hated any time apart from Zed, and to stop herself from dipping into his thoughts she often resorted to exercise. Since returning to England, Sky discovered she loved being active – nothing competitive, of course, but just things to do. She ran every morning and evening, and went to a self-defence class. That last Zed didn't know about – Sky didn't want him to freak out about a strange man regularly attacking her and expecting her to defend herself using only her human strength. She knew she should tell him soon, because one day she was going to fall over a mat or something and get a bruise, and Zed would see it and want to know how she got it. But she just didn't want to.

"Hey, Sky-baby!" Sky's self-defence partner Amanda jogged up to her. Sky was secretly jealous of Amanda; she had a classic figure, all curves and soft lines. Ironically, Amanda was seriously jealous of Sky's figure, her ballerina-like grace, her delicate limbs and perfect complexion. Both women hid their envy and smiled graciously at each other.

"Hello, Mandy." Sky smiled – she had been thinking of Zed, and wondering what he was doing, who he was talking to "How are you?"

"Cold!" Amanda was the kind of person who said everything with an exclamation mark. "Let's get inside!" they hurried into the sports centre where all the other women waited.

"God, don't you just hate men?" Amanda said as soon as they were warm "I found out my boyfriend had another girl at the posh part of London – he didn't even deny it! I told him we were so O.V.E.R."

"I wouldn't know," Sky smiled timidly as she always did when she talked about Zed "my boyfriend's pretty perfect."

"You have a boyfriend?" Amanda asked a little too curiously – no, Sky thought, I have a Soulfinder – "You never said. How long have you been going out?"

"Years. We met in High School when I lived in America – I was sixteen." She sighed, remembering her first sight of Zed Benedict. It wasn't exactly love at first sight – rather love at first thought.

"Really? Girl, you are in Looooooove!" whooped Amanda "Why didn't you tell me about him?"

"It never came up." Sky shrugged shyly.

"Do you have a photo?"

"Yeah, sure." Sky dug around in her bag and got out her purse – a whole side was dedicated to an image of her and Zed on holiday in Greece the year before. It was late evening, and the setting sun was casting a golden glow in the background. Sky was tanned, with sunburn over her nose and cheeks, but Zed browned perfectly, grinning like a maniac as he gave Sky a piggyback. A few metres behind, Yves was losing the piggyback race with a shouting Phoenix on his back, all four of them smiling so wide you'd think they'd won the lottery. I did win the lottery, thought Sky as she gazed at the picture, I won Zed.

"Whooooo!" called Amanda, flapping herself with her hand "Sky-baby, that's not a boy, that's a god! Girls, come and look at what Sky's got locked up at home!" before she knew it, all the women in Sky's class were gathered around the image, oohhing and fake-swooning at the sight of the Fabulous Mr Benedict.

". . . been looking in the wrong country!"

". . . don't make 'em like that in London!"

". . . is he for sale? I'd buy him!"

"Ladies! LADIES!" Chris the instructor bellowed, his voice breaking through the chaos surrounding Sky "I'm waiting." He rolled his eyes affectionately as the women filed into the gym room, still giggling and blushing at the sight of Sky's soulfinder "Now, today we're going to learn what to do if someone has a gun on you." Sky flinched at the word 'gun' and lay her hand over her heart – suddenly, it was beating so fast "Amy here is going to show you what to do. She's the victim, I'm the attacker. Watch." He raised his hands as if he were holding a hand gun and Amy, his assistant, stood ready a metre away. She waited, and when Chris blinked, she lashed forward, trapping his gun hand between her forearm and bicep and elbowing him in the face. Chris mimed falling over, his gun hand releasing, and Amy stood back and kicked the pretend gun away. Sky took a deep breath. She knew what was coming next – Chris always asked the smallest woman to go next to prove that anyone could do it, the brute strength like he had was not necessarily required.

"Sky, you demonstrate this time." She waved her forwards, and she obeyed, but in her head she couldn't get images of guns out of her head, the feel of it on her hands, against her own body as she pointed it to herself in a Casino in Vegas. She squeezed her eyes shut tight and opened them again, and she was in front of Chris, her feet ready.

"Ready?" Chris said, fake gun primed and set "Hit me!" Sky narrowed her eyes, then whipped into movement. Being the smallest, she was also the fastest, and she had an advantage over Chris in her Savant powers. She could see the cool shade of concentration around him, along with just that little glow of happiness. It made her feel more at ease, and gave her the confidence to do the exercise. She trapped Chris' massive wrist between her upper and lower arm and before she realised how hard she was hitting her elbow had slapped together with Chris' chin (she wasn't tall enough to reach any further). He stumbled back, half out of shock, and stared at her, rubbing his chin.

"Sorry." She finally said, after a few seconds of confusion – did I really just do that? – and she stepped back towards the other women with red cheeks and hunched shoulders.

"No, er, no that's, erm, that's good. In real life you won't pull your punches, so it's good to get used to hitting something." He stuttered "Gemma, how about you next?" at Gemma's wicked grin, he quickly backtracked "No more 100% punches, please! That's what the punch bags are for." Gemma's grin faded, but she still walked with a skip in her step. Gemma loved attack and defence, but mostly attack as it allowed her to vent about her job stresses and anger over a seven-year-long relationship that still wasn't joined in holy matrimony, but Sky only attacked when it was absolutely necessary, preferring to hide and run away any day. Anyway, Zed would be with her – he always was – he'd rescue her before any violence on her part was needed.

She walked out of the sports centre, as always, sweaty and exhausted. She split up with Mandy and started her steady run home, dodging speed-walking business people and glamorous shoppers with more bags than they could carry. It was just as she was getting close to home that someone caught her eye. It was obviously a woman – her tiny structure was visible even under her ratty, massively big black coat. Sky couldn't imagine why she was even wearing a coat in the first place – the weather was actually quite good, for a change. The woman was wearing sunglasses that hid her face, and a shapeless hat that hid her hair. But she was walking straight towards Sky, and there was something familiar about her – what was it? Sky was too far away to see her face properly – something so familiar about the way she walked and hid her hands in her pockets. For some reason, Sky's heartbeat was going faster than before. She felt her stomach tighten. Who was this woman, who's aura was tinted such a strange orange colour. She was getting closer, almost close enough to see her face properly, and the woman opened her mouth to speak –

"Hey, baby." A voice said lowly from behind her, and Sky jumped a mile high. Zed was behind her, jogging along with her in his jeans and shirt, grinning like a pixie.

"Zed." Sky breathed, looking back for the woman. She was gone, dissolved into thin air "You scared me."

"You look like you've worked hard enough." He explained "I'm here to relieve you."

"Relieve me? What?" Sky asked, but on one swift movement Zed had grabbed her and swung her onto his back, giving her a piggy back.

"Zed, I'm gunna sweat all over you!" Sky laughed and Zed bounced her up and down, his hands hot on the back of her thighs where he was holding her up.

"No excuses!" he whooped and started charging through the crowd, making Sky laugh and ruffle his hair lovingly.