Sharon didn't immediately reply. It took her a moment to swallow her deep curiosity, and push back the frustration that tried to bud over the unbalanced exchange Lance had engineered.
She gave him a deep look that almost evolved into a glare, and remarked:
"You know about that painting."
The statement made Lance's gaze move away guiltily, with his smile holding on with great difficulty. Sharon looked at him some more, then took a breath, and looked at Jenny. The latter, despite the change of clothes, didn't look any less cheerful than before, even though her sunglasses were nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, if anything, the contrast between her brightness and Alex's foul mood only set off her energetic temperament even more.
She came to stop a few steps before Alex, and smiled brightly, seemingly oblivious to the thunder waiting to strike her:
"I'm back, brother Third. How do you want to test me?"
"Come at me to the best of your ability."
Jenny smiled brightly, then shouted:
"Hah!"
The cry was full of surprising power as Jenny stepped forward to close the distance just enough to sweep a high kick in an almost full split aimed to dislodge Alex's head.
Alex leaned back to let the small foot pass by his nose, only for it to stop after missing, rise up a little, and come down like an ax straight for his sternum. He moved his right foot back to spin his body out of the way with minimal movement. With a 'bam', Jenny's foot slammed into the padding on the floor, and she used the force of the rebound to transition into another sweeping kick, this time, aimed at Alex's stomach, with the leg she had been supporting herself with.
Her movements were so fluid that the force of her last kick made Sharon almost hear the air being displaced. Her performance was astonishing, what with her body which looked unable to handle a chicken. Her previously cheerful face sported a serious look, though her exertion failed to hit home.
With another step back, this time with his left foot, Alex pulled him out of her reach by the barest distance. He now faces the front again, and it was Jenny's turn to face him sideways. His eyes fell on her stomach, but he didn't go after the opening. And it closed in the next second as Jenny pivoted her left foot at the front to give more bite to her right foot which, after the small spin, she drove upward for a straight kick destined to make her heel meet Alex's chin.
"Hah!"
He leaned back, and finally stopped only passively dodging. He slapped the foot that stopped before his nose with his right hand, pushing it along the natural path with the least resistance and forcing Jenny to face him. His brown eyes flickered to the inner side of her knee she had exposed to him before being forced to face him.
"Hah!"
With another cry, she attacked again, and Alex either dodged or pushed her limbs to the side, disrupting her balance and forcing her to adapt.
When Leyna had shown Sharon around yesterday, she had said that the headquarters had everything except for places to reside, to shop, and to party. There were places to work, to eat, and to rest and relax. She knew that there was a gym floor, but she never would have expected it to be so extensive that it not only had workout areas, but it also had training spaces like the one where they were now.
But beyond that, it was Jenny who surprised her, with the exchange she was finding beautiful. She breathed in, and exhaled the question even Lance had noticed she had:
"Who is Jenny? From what I know, Alex Lenner only has two brothers, an obscure eldest one, and a famous second one. I never heard anything about him having a sister."
Lance glanced at Sharon from the corner of the eye. One had to look for that information to find what there was about Alex, or not. Nonetheless, he didn't say anything. He returned to watching the exchange in the middle of the tatamis, and smiled:
"It is because he protected her well. She is not his sister, but his cousin. But because they grew up together, they are less like cousins and more like a brother and a sister, especially since she used to follow him everywhere like a little tail."
Lance laughed at the recollection, his eyes softening with brotherly affection as he looked at the younger woman seriously exerting herself, totally unlike how he had looked ready to bicker with her earlier.
"Is that why she called him brother Third?", Sharon asked.
Lance responded with a soft chuckle:
"Hehe… Not everyone gets to call Alex Lenner like that. Actually, that is her exclusive right as his little sister."
The familiarity in his words and his manners made Sharon asked after glancing at him:
"Have you known her for long?"
The question pulled back Lance's attention from the exchange that had Jenny all sweaty by now, and he laughed:
"I told you I'm Alex's childhood sweetheart. We have known each other for almost twenty years, and Jenny is only just as old. I have known her… let's see… for thirteen years."
Sharon thoughtfully ruminated the information as she looked at the two cousins. Looking at Jenny's sweaty appearance, she couldn't help but recall her claim about the relapse she had avoided, as well as the search she had voluntarily put herself through by giving Alex her purse.
She pursed her lips, then stopped hanging on something that did not really matter to her. Instead, her eyes flashed, as she smoothly pushed the subject along another path:
"Since you have known Alex for so long, why were you so restrained around his uncles? Especially with his second uncle, even though he made himself approachable. He even knows your father. Are they that fearsome?"