Kit's cheer was uninterrupted as he followed the other boy away from the tree, but the moment they'd settled upon a safe distance away from their belongings, his disposition changed at once.

It was as if a curtain had been pulled back, and the face revealed to have been behind was cold and hard. His green eyes burned with a similar fervor, his anticipation for this fight having been mounting since they'd made their promise, but it seemed Kit wasn't eager to waste even a single ounce of energy on anything unnecessary between them.

Rolling up the sleeves of his sweater, his left arm first and then his right, he addressed his opponent.

"Anything else goes, then. Except killing." Simple rules. With only one final amendment. "There are two ways to win: knockout or forfeiture. If you accept...then we can commence."

When was the last time he'd really fought someone? Their clash at the aquarium didn't count, not for true. And it had been several months since he'd been released from juvie. Even then, during his year in that place, he hadn't gone toe-to-toe with anyone who looked at him with the same fire behind their eyes that Vincent possessed. As though, if he was reckless, he could be reduced to nothing more than a smoldering shadow scorched into the earth's crust.

It made the blood within him boil like it was alive.