Rated: T - English - Romance/General - Reviews: 2 - Published: 05-13-15 - Updated: 08-27-15

id:11246497

The next lesson started less awkwardly than the first, if only slightly. Apparently, Rolf wasn't quite living up to expectations when it came to the actual training exercises, since the first words out of Theodore's mouth were:

"You want me to do what now?"

Shinon would have sighed and shook his head, if he'd had a hangover; if he was drunk, he'd've given him a good smack; if he was sober (a rare thing when he was teaching Rolf) there would have been yelling, a light shove, cursing, and insults.

Rolf was not Shinon.

"Shoot the arrows into the buckets," he smiled. "Two in each bucket. Missing means running two laps around the fort."

Theodore gave him an incredulous look: you expect me to do what now? How is this supposed to improve my archery? He understood that feeling all too well. He'd never had the guts to actually give Shinon that look himself, but he thought the same thing often.

In truth the exercise was kind. The buckets were relatively large targets, and they weren't a ridiculous distance away. The only hard thing about the exercise was the wind today, which honestly wasn't that bad. It would only help Theodore break his habit of shooting a test arrow to see how the rest would fly.

"We're starting here and working our way up to harder stuff. You need to learn to be accurate in wind– if you try shooting a test arrow in a fight, you lose valuable time and get yourself killed. Or, worse, it could accidentally shoot someone on your side. Are you going to shoot or not?"

Theodore raised an eyebrow, eyes flashing dangerously as he stared at his teacher. Those eyes were unnerving, like being stared at by an entire crowd out of one face; the green was mesmerizing, and the stormy grey was opposingly calm. The staring match went on for a few moments until Theodore broke it. His eyes flicked lower on Rolf's face, and then he could have sworn they went even lower, giving him a quick once over. He could feel the heat rising on his cheeks when those strange eyes met his again. He coughed, looking away to the buckets and doing his best to ignore his student's gaze.

"The wind's only getting worse– there's a storm coming. Shoot now or later, I don't care, but I'll make you run those laps in the rain if I have to."

Theodore raised an eyebrow, but nocked his arrow anyway. The wind picked up as the two stood there; Rolf continued focussing on the buckets, confident that the blush was gone but less so that it wouldn't return.

In then end, Theodore ran six laps. When Rolf sent Theodore home, he could have sworn the boy looked hesitant to leave; however, after he was given a wave and a promise to return the day after next, he simply put it down to confusing what he wanted to happen with what actually did. Not that it stopped him from walking into a door thinking about it. Or Oscar asking him if he was okay: "You seem a little zoned out."

Or Boyd from laughing his ass off when he walked into the door.