on the back of a hurricane that started turning (when you were young)

"We'll go again," Mel insists, "I can't just fail right out of the gate."Archie nods and her fist flies out. Instead of trying to dodge or parry, Mel's eyes go wide and her hands fly up to protect her face at the same moment that Lucius, eyes wide as plates, lunges forward.A stranger might think that Mel froze because she was afraid, but she didn't flinch when Jim’s knife sliced close to her face. That freezing wasn't a naive merchant's child's reaction to violence.It was an instinctual reaction. A way to protect the face from an action committed too many times before. Something a child who was raised to be the mouse, not to catch it, would do.And most importantly: Lucius saw it coming."What mierda happened back in Anguilla?" Jim demands.Lucius turns to Jim, stepping halfway in front of his sister. She bats him back with an annoyed look on her face, stepping forward to his side, but Jim can read his body language. He was trying to protect Mel from Jim.When Jim's voice comes out, it's more hurt than they usually allow it. "You don't think I would hurt her, do you?"(Training goes very, very south.)