Disclaimer: I do not own Rock Howard or Terry Bogard- only Samantha Walker.

Prompt 4:

"Nnngh… Argh!"

THUD!

A momentary silence dragged on until a loud sigh escaped the mouth of the woman laying on the ground. Her eyebrows knitted in annoyance as she carefully propped herself up on her elbows. She hardly even begun making an attempt to exercise, starting with push ups, and she was already covered in a light sheen of sweat. With a grunt, she went back into push up position and held herself up before starting to lower herself. The pained sounds that escaped her lips escalated until she let out a scream as her palms slipped and body gave way, crashing back down onto the wooden floor.

Samantha bit her lip, trying to quell the anger bubbling inside her body. She was bed ridden for two weeks already, she figured she should have healed long ago- but it wasn't the case. Her arms and legs throbbed while her abdomen unpleasantly burned. She curled up on her spot on the ground, softly placing a hand on her stomach, which lightly growled.

The adolescent tried her best to extend her arm and reach out to the sofa for support to stand, to no avail. A painful, burning sensation coursed through her body with each stretch of muscle, Samantha gritting her teeth through it all.

"Dammit… Dammit!" Samantha cried out, slamming a fist onto the floor, banging it down multiple times. "I… I can't even get up to feed myself?! This is pathetic! Everything I worked for…" The aqua eyed girl squeezed her fist tightly, drawing nail marks on her olive skin. "I'm so useless… I can't even recover from a single beating!"

"If you keep pushing yourself the way you are, of course you're not going to."

Samantha bristled as she craned her neck, looking at the figure staring at her from above. "T-Terry… When did you get back?"

"Soon enough to hear you berating yourself." Terry Bogard kneeled down and observed the girl on the ground, her short hair sprawled all over. "Why are you beating yourself up so much?"

"I'm penniless, relying on the kindness of two strangers, and can't even take proper care of myself… I tried exercising to recover completely sooner to get out of your hair, but I can't even manage that! It makes me so… so…"

"Frustrated?"

"Yes!" Samantha curled closer within herself. "It does! I hate it! Hate it! There hasn't been a moment where I hadn't relied on myself in the past year and a half, and because of some jackasses, it was stripped away so fast…"

"It's not forever." Terry pat the girl's head and smoothed down some of her wild strands. "Besides, I'm sure you've had friends that helped you, right?"

Samantha thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. She couldn't lie, her friends provided her with shelter and at times, food when she really needed it, yet couldn't afford it. She eventually paid them back, but the fact that they even did something like that made her a very fortunate person. She could have died in the streets, were it not for them. "I guess you're right…"

"See?" Terry smiled slightly as he got up and headed towards the kitchen. "So stop beating yourself up over silly things, okay?"

Samantha managed to offer a lop sided smile. It only lasted for a few moments, until the girl loosened up and waved a weak arm frantically. "Wait, are you just going to leave me on the floor like this?!"

She could hear a faint chuckle coming from the other side of her. Her expression dropped as she slowly tilted her head on the ground, catching view of the other person in the room. She hadn't noticed him ever enter. Her cheeks slightly rouged from the embarrassment as her eyes narrowed and lower lip jutted out. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh…" Rock Howard still grinned, amused by the girl's predicament. "I'm here to help you up."

Samantha's eyes followed him as he walked up to her and kneeled down, placing a hand under her back and propping her up. He then lowered his hand towards her waist and held on, using his other arm to hold under her knees and picked up the girl with ease, heading to the room with her, placing her down on the bed and covering her part way. She stared at Rock for a while, the blond shifting uncomfortably from her gaze. "What? Is there something on my face?"

The slightly younger girl shook her head as she smiled slightly. "I was just thinking… I was wondering "Is this what it's like to be married?" or something corny along those lines. I'm not used to being taken care of, so it feels a little like being pampered rather than it being for my health." The girl said, her words innocuous.

But unbeknownst to her, the blond was actually extremely bashful, and the words were like a cold slap to the face, bringing the current situation to light. He was now temporarily residing with a girl his age. A person of the fairer sex, not just another one of the guys. His cheeks were now tinged pink as he turned around quickly. "O-oh. Interesting… Um… I'm going to help Terry finish preparing you a meal. Knowing him, he'd probably prepare something and it'd end up like charcoal. I'll be back with your food soon."

"Thanks, Dear." Samantha emphasized, a huge grin on her face. Rock stopped in his tracks, straightening up considerably. He turned around slightly, most of his face covered by the neck of his jacket. "Sorry, just wanted to give that a try, seemed kinda fun!" The girl laughed innocently as she shifted on the back rest of the bed slightly. "Thanks, to both you and Terry. I was starting to feel pretty miserable. I'll try to take it one step at a time instead of getting frustrated."

Rock nodded a little awkwardly to show acknowledgement as he left the room.

Then he let out a quiet sigh. What a predicament.

End Prompt 4: Frustrated.