Walter sat in quiet meditation with the twin katanas laying in front of him. His head was bowed and his hair tied in a top knot. Slowly he pressed the weapons to his head and laid them back down, deftly he stood and unsheathed them both. In the early light o morning the open cliff was a good place to practice and out of the way. He hoped that he hadn't woken Angel up when he left this morning. He needed this break, he had cheated on Ree and even worse was living with temptation every day.

With silent effort he emptied his mind and concentrated on placing his feet for each movement and slowly made each strike with the blades perfect and slow. He rolled forwards across the grass and slid into a kick, balancing on his supported leg he stood still with his leg outstretched. Dropping his leg he flipped into a cross strike and down to a crouch. Slowly he backed up to the sheaths and replaced the blades, he dropped to his knees again and placed the swords to his head again. With silent contentment he went back into his meditation stance staring out at the sea.

Angel had woken up when Joker had started moving around. Him living with her had made her hyper aware of her roommate's moving around. She sat up and silently got dressed listening to his moving around, she could tell exactly what he was doing and where he was doing it. Shaking her head she followed him silently out the door her keys in her hand as she followed his monster truck to the cliffs.

Debating if she should just continue on her way, she decided against it and got out getting a chance to see him dance with the blades. She smiled softly watching him ignoring the small bit of envy at the smoothness in his moves, when he had placed the blades on the ground again she approached him silently.

"You move like a panther stalking its prey Joker, your form is very beautiful..." Angel said looking at him with a soft smile, "Sorry I followed you out here Joker... Its just you've been acting strange and I was worried."

"It's okay," His gaze didn't break from the ocean, "I have made a lot of changes in my life in the past few months since I've been back. It's hard adjusting to a new and calmer lifestyle, I have to force myself to remember that these people we are around army trying to kill me." He chuckled a bit and turned to look at her, "Sorry if I woke you, that truck isn't the most stealthy thing out here. I'll make sure to start driving my car, thing is more quiet then a mouse." He adjusted his sitting position and looked down at his swords. "You don't have to worry too much about me, just rattled about Tran showing back up. Hope that Brian doesn't do something stupid. We got a good thing going for us here and I can live in anonymity. It's a pain to start over, well you should know that good enough."

Angel nodded and sat down next to him, "It's fine, once I get used to having someone in my apartment you won't have to worry about waking me up. Running away from people has affected my jumpiness once I let them back in. I wouldn't worry about Tran, if he starts causing trouble I'm not against using my feminine wiles to change his mind."

She looked at Joker for a moment before turning her gaze back to the ocean, "You picked a nice place to get away... I forget Cali has places like this when you live in the city for so long. Your right starting over is a pain... there is a point that sometimes you just loose steam and you get tired of trying to get started up again doing what you love."

"Yeah unfortunately what I love got ripped out of me at a few thousand feet per second." He said coldly, "What I used to do meant so much to me I gave it everything, including my life, twice. Nearly cost Brian his life, my girl tore her hip up and got blown half to hell. It even took out half a block down town." He shook his head clearing it and demoing the sting in his voice. "Nothing can be done about it now though huh? I just need to work with what I got and be glad I have a few people around me still."

Angel glanced at him with a thin amused smiled, "Yeah that sounds like something you would do. So where is she now? I mean this is the first time I heard you mention a girlfriend. Not that I judge you'd make any woman happy, you're like a giant evil teddy bear."

She grinned at him, he was easy to tease about his habits and she hoped he didn't mind her calling him a teddy bear, as most guys with his build were. Angel always enjoyed his company for some reason or another, he had this good energy about him that screamed protector.

"I havent seen her a lot since I came back from," He paused to think about what to say, "Mexico. I just have realized that I'm a new man now and I don't think I can give her what she needs." He left out the fact that he had screwed another chick out of the equation. "Meh, I suppose what may be may be. So why did you follow me exactly? Keep me from hunting down that slut from the shop?" He elbowed her playfully.

Angel grinned and threw her arms around him, "You know she may have changed too. You should talk to her and see where things stand. And I was worried, I mean you've been tenser then normal after the garage drama, and you've never left the apartment this early before. You leave that ass to me," she said firmly, "She's bitched that I never take care of my own problems and I didn't back in San Fran I let my crew of merry mechanics handle my problems. But since I've got a bone to pick, I'm gonna clean that bitches clock and show her the new and improved Diablo."

Angel lapsed into a fit of giggles releasing Joker to flop back down beside him, "That is if you don't mind helping perfect all of this," she said motioning to herself.

"Depends," He looked at her, she was pretty cute. He wondered if she had any psycho ex's like Faye had. "There isn't much to perfect." He smiled, "Unless you mean fighting. That's probably the best thing I'm good at, drag racing would be a close second."

Angel blushed slightly, "You're a sweetheart," she leaned on his arm with a soft sigh, "Yeah fighting would be helpful. Last scrap I got into was with my sister years ago, there was hair pulling, kicking, and sadly on my part, when I mean to smack limbs in front of my face my brain translates that into biting. True story, our fight ended with me laughing my ass off and her looking at me like I had lost it. So you got a lot of work ahead of you, if you wanna work on me that is."

She figured it would be therapeutic to throw herself at something other then an engine block when she got upset, and some extra time with the very companionable Joker wouldn't be bad either. After her ex strong men were regarded with a decent wary sense, just because she was a sucker for guys who could pick her up and toss her around, didn't mean she was stupid enough to let just anyone do it.

"Give me a couple days, need to screw my head on strait before I train anyone else. Recently my students seem to attract trouble." He laughed -trouble- was an understatement for Brian and hell-to-pay was more likewise to Faye. "I need to talk to my current student tonight. I'll probably be home late tonight so don't worry about making dinner for two." He said and returned his gaze to the sea, he had a bad feeling in his gut that today was going to suck.

Angel nodded, "I'll leave it in the fridge for you then," she said softly, "Take all the time you need hun. It's not like I don't see you everyday and when your ready we can work things out."

She looked at him gently, it was odd seeing him like this. When they first met he was wide awake and bordering on a crazy person, but now he seemed subdued like something had snapped. It wasn't her place to pry, and neither was she going to try and figure it out. If he wanted to talk, he knew where to find her.

Shaking herself mentally she leaned her head against his shoulder, "I don't think I ever thanked you for anything. I mean you went to bat for me over the garage thing, and you had just met me, and now that you are rooming with me, you've been an awesome companion. I wish I had met you back in San Fran... I was different then too... but maybe if I had had someone like you to pre warn me about Deon... I wouldn't have walked myself into a situation I couldn't walk myself out of without loosing my business, my crew, and my life."

Her gaze was distant, sure she had regrets but dating him was the start of all the other regrets.

"We are all human, I've picked a lot of fights that I shouldn't have been able to finish but I did. I have too many scars to count from too many situations where I should have died. Some are still healing and some I'll have to live with the rest of my life. There is nothing to say that I could have warned you about anything or I could have helped, too many probabilities and too man eventualities that tie us all together. The best we can deal with is the here and now. Right now I'm here with two swords and beautiful woman talking about philosophy way too early in the morning." He shook his head and stood up then turned and offered her his hand. "You should go get some breakfast I'll be home in a few hours, I have a five mile swim to do and I highly doubt you can keep up without any gear." He eyed here up and down.

Angel snorted at that, "Hey now, scars have better stories then tats. I took the easy way of reminding myself who I am, you do the same thing just a little different," She said taking his hand with one of her tattooed ones, "Yeah I haven't swam laps in ages. Plus anyway I'm an underwater kind of person, I can't do the above water stuff. I'm really not hungry, I'm probably going to spend breakfast, carrying that engine in pieces to my car so I can take it to the garage and finally finish the damn thing."

She wrapped her arms around his middle as sighed softly, "Good luck alright hun? No matter what happens, you've done your best with what you've got and that's all that's gonna matter at the end of the day," Angel said patting his chest over his heart as she pulled away and backed up.

"I try to remind myself that on a near constant basis...some times I fail." He smiled widely and ran his thumb and index over his eyelids. "Okay I'll catch up with you later on then," He walked to his car and removed his Gi pants and top revealing his swim trunks. He grabbed his backpack and fins from his truck. "Another reason I came up here, no rocks down below." With a large smile he started a running launch off the 40 foot cliff face.

Angel couldn't help the hungry look she passed over his body. How she had missed what a looker he was, was a bit beyond her. He ran himself off the cliff and she was glad he was out of ear shot because the soft groan that slipped past her lips was slightly embarrassing.

Shaking her head Angel turned away walking back to her car, "I am completely and utterly fucked. Stupid fucking hormones."