My fist pounded deep into the side of the punching bag, repeating blows over and over. I could feel my knuckles screaming for me to stop, but I only pounded harder… This seemed to be the only way to keep my frustrations from boiling over… My fist once again met the heavy bag, forcing the bag to sway on its chain links.

The first week of training had been completely miserable… Kaien had quickly given nearly all of his attention to Kyoko when his strength and skill seemed to outweigh me and Toga combined. He seemed to be too good to have only started training… Far too good. Frustration dug deep inside my body as I gave a few more punches into the bag, sinking my fists deep into the outer cover of the heavy bag.

Only when I started to see the flecks of red that were starting to appear on the bag did I force myself to stop. Both Toga and I have been training like this all week… Pushing ourselves to the point of bleeding, nearly having our bones crack under the strain… Sweat slowly dripped down my brow as I forced myself to step back, even as the still-swinging bag begged for me to continue.

I looked up, and quickly caught the sight of Toga. He was nearly drenched in sweat as he struggled with a large, heavy tire that was on the ground, forcing his hands to grip onto the edges before lifting it up onto its side. Only once he lifted it up did he push it over, rolling it down and making it fall with a heavy thud. Kaien told him to work on upper body strength… Apparently having to roll a 400 pound tire over and over again with nothing but his bare hands was the only way he could do it.

Sweat was glistening off of his shirtless body as he stood over the tire before grabbing just underneath and starting to lift it up again… I could feel his muscles flexing just under the skin, some of them twitching underneath the strain that he was forcing them under, all just to push that heavy tire over once again… My amethyst eyes tightened as I watched him struggle to lift it up, while knowing that this could easily have been the twentieth time that he's had to lift it…

Both of us were going to end up killing ourselves through these workouts that never seemed to end.

The tire eventually fell again with a heavy thud, leaving Toga panting softly, trying desperately to catch his breath, but he wouldn't give himself the chance as he gripped the edges, preparing to lift it again… His body shook with the effort and I could already see that his strength was beginning to fail him. He had already been doing this for hours… There was no need to make him do it any longer.

"Toga, stop," I finally groaned as I abandoned the punching bag and crossed the training room a little wearily to be by his side. Only when I stood beside him, pondering the idea of dragging him off of the tire myself, did he finally release the tire and let it fall flat onto the ground. He looked back at me, his blue eyes slightly dulled from his fatigue, and I knew that he was feeling the same as me…

"…Stop? And let Kaien-sensei think we're useless compared to him?" Toga growled softly as the venom laced his voice before he looked back to the heavy tire. He tried to brush a little sweat that was dripping down his face before he allowed himself to sit down on the heap of rubber. I could see his frustration just as plainly as I could feel my own…

The reason? I could hear it in the thin wall that separated our training room from the weapons room, where Kyoko had chosen to send his training hours. We could both hear Kaien's words as he told him to work harder, but we both knew that Kaien's eyes were set on only that student. We were hopeless, but Kyoko was not… We listened as Kaien told Kyoko to punch harder, helping him with his aim, before we heard the snap of the heavy chain that held the punching bag up, then the heavy thud of the bag landing, its days of training now probably ended.

Kyoko was much stronger than either of us had expected…

I stared at the wall a few moments as it turned silent in the other room, signaling that Kyoko's private training with their master was coming to an end. Soon Kaien Cross would be back with them, and only then would he see the blood and the sweat both of us had spilt… But I doubted if he would even give us a second glance.

"Sakura… If we stop now, he'll drop both of us. And I can't let that happen…" Toga murmured as he let himself lean back onto the tire, resting his back onto the rubber and probably slicking the rubber with his sweat. His tired blue eyes met mine as I looked back at him, and I could only frown in response… He heaved a heavy sign and let his eyes close, knowing that this might be the only chance of rest he will get before Kaien comes back to work the us to death.

I watched him, but knew there was nothing that I could say that would help. No matter what we did, he would only see Kyoko as his star student… And that was all it was ever going to be. "…Hey, Sakura. Before we die through training… Mind promising me something?" Toga suddenly spoke up, his eyes opening and gazing back at my face. The slightest smirk was crossing his sweat-slicked face.

I immediately blinked, confusion immediately stirring inside me. There was a hint of humor in his eyes, but it was dulled by the tiredness that ached his young body… Deciding to humor him, I gave a soft sigh and soon sat down beside him on the tire, looking down at his dull eyes. "Alright, sure. What?" I chuckled, my voice slightly rough from my own exhaustion.

The smirk grew faintly on his face before he lifted his hand and gently grasped mine. I could feel his trembling… Toga had been pushing himself hard for the last few days, and he never wanted to quit until I had to drag him out of the room or carry his unconscious body out… All I hoped was that he wouldn't push so hard to where it hurts him.

His eyes gazed back up at me as his thumb ran over the cuts on my knuckles, stroking them gently to try to ease the pain before he eventually started to sit up. "…Promise me that when we die that you'll wait for me up there? I'd hate to be lonely all the way to the end… And if I go first, I'll wait for you," he murmured softly, a gentleness touching his voice… I gazed into his eyes, the pools of pale blue soft as they met mine as he sat himself up to my level.

…I was stunned. Not only by his words, but by the gentleness… Toga was never a soft man. Even when he was younger, he refused help from everyone… except for me. For a moment, I was at a lost for words… But then I realized that no words were needed. The exhaustion wore away from my body as I let my fingers intertwine with his and felt my heart rise in my chest… I let the smile touch my face as I leaned in slightly, and saw him lean in as well, moving closer.

Delicately, while never breaking the gaze, I brushed a stray stand of black hair from his face and tucked it back. I could feel his warm breath on my skin… And I felt his hand touch my cheek, cradling it gently in his palm. My fingers slipped down his cheek before letting them slide into his slightly wet black hair, intertwining my fingers into his thick black locks…

"…I'll wait forever for you, Toga…" I let the words slide through my lips, and our faces only leaned in closer to each other. His breath was on my lips… But I wanted more than his breath. I wanted all of him. Every piece of him… My eyes stayed on his for a few moments more before they slowly closed, and I leaned in to press my lips against his, to find that he was just as eager as our lips brushed against the other and quickly closed the distance…

"What is going on?!"