"Yohua!"

Atlan gamboled up to the bulky tonawawta, giving him a toothy, goofy grin. The lean blond threw an arm around the other man's shoulders. Hooking his elbow around Yohua's neck, he tugged on the man gently. "Listen, I want to talk to you about this thing you have with Pixie..."

Yohua shoved off Atlan's arm with a raised elbow to the blond man's bicep. He didn't do it with impact, with intention to hurt, just to shrug the other man off. "Buzz off, Atlan. I've got nothing to say to you." Yohua hunched forward as if he could shrink his way out of the man's reach. His sandy-brown hair fell into his hazel eyes and he swept it back out of them with an irritated hand. He had a square-set jaw that held a rugged five o'clock shadow at all times. He seemed older than most of the other recruits, but the truth was he was about of an age with them. It's just whatever he'd been through in his life thus far had left its scars already. He hastened his steps to get out of range of Atlan. 

"Don't be like that!" Atlan called after him, trotting to keep up with him as he hurried away. "I just want all of us to be friends. We're going to have enemies enough out in the field without turning on each other." The affable tonawawta continued to keep pace with Yohua, even though the other man kept accelerating his pace until they were at a jog. "Did Pixie do something to you? Make you mad? Beat you at ranged weapons practice? Because, man, she beats me all the time. That's nothing to be ashamed of..."

Yohua wheeled around, teeth grit as he growled through them. "I'm not ashamed of anything!" He roared, hands clenching into fists. "She's loud and obnoxious. She's always in my way. I can't do anything around here without her stupid rabbit face somewhere in my view. I'm tired of seeing her!"

Atlan stopped for a moment, the gears in his head turning. All at once, he beamed, his eyes pinching at the corners slyly. "You like her.  That's what all this is about!  You have a crush on Pixie!" 

"Shut up." Yohua mumbled as he continued to out-pace the other man.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of man, we all fall for pretty girls sometimes! Like there's this really pretty xbr'aal..."

All at once, there was a surge of energy between them as Yohua spun on one foot, swinging his arm around to send his fist directly into Atlan's jaw. The blond-haired man staggered backward, caught off-guard as he stumbled and fell on his rump. He stared up at Yohua in bewilderment as he lifted a hand and rubbed at his jaw. Yohua advanced on him, aiming a kick at Atlan's ribcage, but the smaller man rolled out of the way. Other cadets in the yard saw the fight starting and began to break from what they were doing, forming a ring of spectators around the two young men. Different sections of the crowd started cheering for one or the other. Yells of "Get him, Yohua!" commingled with calls of "Don't let him do that to you, Atlan!" 

Atlan used his momentum from his roll to regain his feet, looking at Yohua with both confusion and concern. He hadn't intended to get into a fight with the bigger man. This was sure to land them both in solitary if they let it continue. He scanned the crowd as they gawked and jeered at the warring pair; the press would make it near impossible for him to escape this fight, because Yohua would be on him in short order. He turned back to the angry fellow recruit, holding up his hands in surrender. "We can just forget this entire conversation, Yohua. I won't say anything to anyone..."

Yohua was past the point of words. He let out another guttural roar, lunging toward Atlan, fist reared back to pummel the other tonawawta a second time. Atlan grimaced, closing his eyes and turning his shoulder as he ducked to try and lessen the impact of the incoming blow. Thud.  Yohua's fist hit something -- but it wasn't Atlan. Interposed between attacker and attackee was the tall, sturdy form of Xochitl. The white tigress woman stood facing Atlan, so Yohua's punch had impacted with her shoulder. She didn't even so much as sway.  Her tail flicked back and forth in irritation as she glared back over her shoulder at Yohua. 

"You all right, 'Lan?" She asked the blond-haired man. Atlan could only nod numbly.  Xochitl inclined her chin toward the perimeter where Pixie stood with Izco. "Get out of the way."

With that, Xochitl turned toward Yohua, her ears shifting back against her shoulder-length white mane. "So, you like picking on people smaller than you, hm?" She said, lifting her hands up as she fell into an easy fighting stance. She was no stranger to hand-to-hand combat; it was something her father had taught her early-on in her training as a huntress in Yak T'el. You couldn't always rely on words and weapons to win you the day, sometimes it was a hard fought battle of fists, fur, and claws in the mud. 

Yohua stopped as he watched her, looking between her and Atlan as the smaller man made his way over to Pixie and Izco. His green-gold gaze went to Pixie, in particular, and stayed there for a long moment.  Pixie stood there, one hand on Izco's shoulder as she worriedly looked on at the fight. As Atlan neared them, she moved both of her hands onto Atlan's shoulder as she inspected the darkening bruise on his jaw. Her leaf-green gaze went to Xochitl as the xbr'aal stood in the center of the circle, waiting. "Be careful, Xochitl!" The haress called out.

The tigress gave Pixie a confident smile, but her silvered gaze never left Yohua as the bigger man stood there. "Well?" She said, trying to prompt him to some kind of action or some kind of reaction.

Yohua looked at her, then at the crowd around them. His face shifted from angry to sullen. His shoulders slumped and he turned away from Xochitl, shoving his way roughly through the crowd.  The spectators didn't bother to stop him, letting him wade through them as he departed. Xochitl relaxed her stance, but her brow furrowed as she watched the man retreat. The crowd around her mumbled and grumbled, some amazed at how the conflict had ended and others disappointed they hadn't gotten to see an actual fight. Xochitl was just relieved that it had dispersed before any of the officers could be alerted.

Turning to her friends, she took Atlan's chin in one hand and inspected the injury to his jaw herself. "Nothing some ice won't cure." She assessed. Again, she looked back to where Yohua had escaped before she returned her attention to Atlan. "So what was that all about? It's not like you to provoke people into a fight."

Atlan sighed, shaking his head. "Just said the wrong thing at the wrong time, I suppose." He'd told Yohua that he wouldn't tell about his crush on Pixie and the man meant to stand by it. 

Xochitl gave him a long look; Atlan was a terrible liar, but if he was lying to them he probably had his reasons. "Next time, maybe pick a better conversationalist than the surly courtyard bully." She quipped, throwing an arm around the tonawawta's shoulder companionably. "Come on, there's nothing better for a few bumps and bruises than a few of Aunt Tii's Tacos."

Atlan brightened, beaming one of his characteristic toothy smiles. "Heck, yeah!"