He established pattern quickly in their daily schedule, just as he had the first time he had trained her.
After two days, she was remembering her old reflexes.
After five days, she was retaliating and countering his attacks and movements appropriately.
After a week, her body was getting used to the punishment and her bruises and was learning to be resilient.
After ten days, she showed him her emotions.
Slade adored that. He smirked behind his mask when he knocked her off her feet and she yelped, "Hey!" in an angry tone. He chuckled when he fought dirty and she shouted, "No fair!" like she was a little girl who'd been tagged back after calling no tag backs. Sometimes—and these were his favorite momens—she would look around and her eyes would light up. Not happily, not sadly, they would change from soft to hard to melancholy as she remembered something distantly.
He gave her food on the twelfth night and she devoured it. No matter how much food he fed her, Terra seemed unable to put weight on her emaciated form. As it was, she looked downright unhealthy.
The man asked her, "Terra, how much do you remember?"
The girl stopped eating at once, and pushed her food away from her delicately. She tapped the table and it rang like a musical instrument. Nervously she answered, "This sequence. You drag me out of bed, you make me eat, you kick my ass, you make me eat, you make me shower."
She did not finish her list.
"And then what, Terra?" he prodded, leaning down slightly over his apprentice. Her hands connected in her lap and twisted around one another. "What comes after showering?"
"Bed," she breathed, shutting her eyes. "After showering I go to bed."
He placed a palm on her head and pet her gently, fingers weaving and combing her hair, the pads of his digits gently massaging her scalp. Slade leaned in farther, letting his other hand rest on her shoulder as he loomed over her. The fingers of his gloved hand slipped under her collar, but only far enough to rub her clavicle, to feel her begin to shake and tremble. If only he hadn't been wearing his gloves he could have felt her soft, soft skin...
"You were so close, dear child," he sighed. His breath made her hair move, and he smiled softly, looking down at her in the reflection on the table. How convenient that she had pushed all of her dishes away.
Her eyes opened slowly, and she saw their image on the table. Slade was smiling faintly, and she could feel the older man's hot breath on her head. For her part, Tara could not get her lungs to work, could not force herself to inhale or exhale. His grey eye seemed unfocused, but the moment he noticed her eyes were open, that changed and he locked gazes with her. That lone eye glowed with quiet amusement and mirth as the hand on her shoulder inched slightly lower into her shirt until she was terrified his large fingers would slip under her bra too.
Slade must had seen her fear, because his hand withdrew from her shirt and his fingers closed gently around her neck instead. Not squeezing, not applying pressure. But he was holding onto her, and his eye told her that he could hold onto her very tightly if he desired.
"What comes after showering, Terra?" he asked again, in exactly the same tone. He was a teacher gently nudging his prized student to remember the most important question on the test.
But Tara already remembered.
"F... f..." she began so softly she was almost inaudible.
"Fucking," he said for her. The word echoed down the subway tunnels dangerously, then echoed inside of the girl's head. Her master's voice was powerful, commanding, overwhelming. There was a hint of amusement and a trace of cruelty within. "Fucking is what comes after your shower. And do you know what it is time for?"
"Sh-shower," she stammered.
"Good girl," he purred. "Go take a shower."
A/N: Yes this is going where you think it's going. Yes you should tell me how you feel in the form of a review.
Also, my apologies this chapter is short. Future edits may lengthen it slightly as they have lengthened other chapters in the past. Then again this is just for build-up.