Chapter 21
"You're improving." Jax commented shortly as I blocked his punch and got down to swipe kick his legs, just as he back flipped away.
"If I improved I would have hit you by now!" I replied getting back into position and waited for him to strike first. The man smirked and straightened his back, standing calmly as he put his hands in his pockets.
"That's enough of that for today, here this is for you." He said and handed me a piece of paper. Curiously I grasped the slightly crinkled paper and began scanning the page. As I read through it I realized it was a list...a list of exercises and work outs.
"I thought we finished all the muscle building already?" I asked with a slight groan, remembering the painful first few days of training.
"Just do what's on the list once a day and maybe you'll actually land a punch." Jax responded, not even bothering to cover the amusement in his voice. I gave the man a pointed look which caused him to roll his eyes, "Just do it."
I sighed and read over the list, grimacing at the pain I would be feeling after only doing it once. One thing on the list caught my attention and I raised my brow, "What's this mean? Parkour? What's that?"
"You don't know? I thought you were from America. It's pretty popular there."
"I am but I'm from Italy too."
"Where were you born?
"America."
"Where did you grow up?"
"America..."
"Forget Italy, you're American, and clearly a natural blonde."
I felt my eyebrow twitch and clenched my hands around the paper as I growled out, "Why you..."
"We'll go over parkour tomorrow, gives me something to look forward to." He answered with a small smirk, which managed to scare me a little bit...
I let out an defeated sigh and began reading over the list, I paled at what some of the things were listed. There was the basic muscle builders such as push ups, sit ups, and all that. But there were some odd ones such as the whole parkour thing, then there were some that just made my hand instinctively smack my head...
"I have to run ten laps around the whole town?!"
I will most defiantly be crawling home tonight...
"Should we go in order? Or did you want to start off with something different?"
"I hate you..."
"That's a shame, I find you quite amusing actually."
"Oh shut up!"
A chuckle was all that I heard as I began the list starting with the basics...100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats, 100 pull ups, 200 jumping jacks, 30 minute stretching, 100 lunges, 100 one handed push ups (then another 100 with the other arm), and finally 10 laps around the town. I did it all...and I expected the agonizing pain that I had went through during the beginning of my training...but it never came.
Don't get me wrong my arms and legs are kind of sore, but I'm still standing and controlling my breathing pretty well. I mean obviously I'm still panting a bit but it's nothing like the gasping fish I was in the beginning. In fact everything seems different...I have a thin sheet of sweat coating my body, but even that isn't as bad as when I first started my training. I even feel different. When I did muscle building at the beginning all I could think of was curling up in bed and not moving until Hell was frozen over, but now...I feel like I can keep going...
I want to keep going...
"So what's next?"
"Well it looks like the first two days of training wasn't a complete waste of my time after all. You're stamina has impressively increased, your strength and speed have leveled a great deal, and you almost seem determined. "
"Of course I'm determined! I need to work twice as hard just to catch up to everybody!" I remarked and then sighed, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"I thought maybe the Rain guardian had gotten in your head. What with that kiss today, and you are a hormonal teenage girl after all-" Jax was cut off as he dodged a rock that was aimed for his head.
"Who the hell are you calling hormonal?! And that was an accident, how do you even know about that?! Are you following me you sick pervert?!" I barked out and was about to throw my dagger next when an all too familiar red ball crashed into my back, knocking me down.
I groaned and hoisted myself up into a sitting position sending the man a blank stare, "That was uncalled for."
"So was the rock." He smirked leaning against a tree and caught his weapon with ease.
"Touche."
"I think that's enough for today, we'll meet same time tomorrow, now if you'll excuse me." He spoke and I watched his retreating figure until it disappeared in the tree line.
I stayed in sitting position and began contemplating the rest of my day, I have plans with Takeshi for later on but that still leaves me some time. I began to replay my entire day in my head when a statement I had said not even ten minutes ago echoed in my ears. Glancing around the area I heaved myself into a standing position and repeated my words.
"Have to work twice as hard...huh." I took the list out of my back pocket and unfolded the paper, "Twice as hard..."
I scanned the area and shrugged, it's not like I need Jax here if all I'm going to do is warm ups and muscle builders right? Feeling slightly proud of myself I began to do everything on the list a second time...and then a third...which led to some dagger training...which resulted in what I had predicted from the start.
I practically crawled all the way home...
"Never...again!" I gasped out as I hastily opened my front door and fell to the ground desperate for air to fill my empty lungs. I did everything on the list three times...to hell with stamina I'm done! Plus my phone died halfway through training so I lost track of time and completely forgot about hanging with Takeshi...
The sun was still out so I would guess it must be around five, my curfew isn't until eleven when dad is home, but seeing as he won't be home tonight I could probably even sleepover the baseball freaks house. The only problem is getting up and walking over there...now I have deep feelings for Takeshi, but nothing and I mean nothing is going to get me off that couch...you know when I get up to sit in it.
I just need to crawl to the kitchen and get the phone to tell Takeshi I can't make it, I can do this...
Once I calmed my breathing a bit I let out a small grunt as I shifted my weight and tried to close the door while still lying on the ground. It seemed like a good idea in my head but actually trying to do this without physically moving was turning out to be impossible. Oh well...I can just sleep here right?
"That doesn't look very comfortable."
A shriek left my lips as I sprung up into a sitting position with my arms supporting me from behind. Standing in front of me was the ever so cheerful Takeshi Yamamoto, he was wearing a pair of faded jeans with a white shirt and a green jacket.
He knelt down so we were eye level and closed his eyes while giving me a warm smile, "Yo Mira-Chan!"
"How did? When did? What are you doing here?!" I couldn't get a single thought out as I stared at the boys amused expression. I was covered in sweat, my hair a mess with some parts sticking to my sweat covered face, my muscles were shaking under the pressure I was putting them under to support myself and now thanks to Takeshi I was gaping like a fish trying to comprehend what was happening and what to do.
"Well I was worried when you never showed up and you weren't answering my calls. So I decided to check on you, on my way over I saw Reborn and he told me you might need help moving around today so he unlocked your door for me and told me to wait for you." He answered still cheerful as always.
"You...wait...Reborn has a key to my house?!" I exclaimed, but didn't have much time to dwell on that thought because that was the moment my arms gave out and I began to fall backwards. Luckily warm hands gripped my shoulders to steady me and I heard him let out an amused chuckle.
"You really do need help! You over worked yourself in training didn't you?"
I let out small groan that sounded more like a whine, but he knew he was right and laughed a little louder. I took this chance to admire his warm smile and happy expression, just seeing him this happy made warmth bubble inside of me and I could feel a smile tugging at my own lips.
"Now let's get you off the floor." He said and wrapped one of my limp arms around his shoulders and held my wrist to keep my arm there and then he wrapped his other arm around my waist to keep me stable, he then slowly brought us to a standing position and kicked the door shut.
As he began walking me to the stairs I looked into the living room to see the light from my tv was glowing and there was a half eaten sandwich on my coffee table. I furrowed my brows and and looked back at Takeshi's calm face.
"Takeshi...how long have you been waiting for me?"
He glance at me before putting on a thoughtful expression, "Hmm about an hour."
"I'm sorry...about all of this. My phone died, and I was going to call to let you know I couldn't hang out...I'm really sorry."
He smiled warmly at me, "Ma, ma don't be like that. Now we get to hang out right?"
"Looks like it." I began to let a small smile slip out until I realized we were already upstairs and standing in front of my bedroom door.
"Alright you grab your clothes and I'll start the water." He said before releasing our hold on each other and made sure I was steady before walking down the hall to the bathroom. I opened my door and grabbed everything I needed before meeting Takeshi in the bathroom.
He placed his hand under the water to test it and smiled before wiping his hand on his shirt, "That should be good."
"Thank you Takeshi, I'll make it up to you." I smiled at the boy and couldn't help but think back to what happened at lunch, my cheeks instantly reddening.
"Don't worry about it, I'll be downstairs if you need me."
With that he left the room and I began to slowly undress, my arms and legs were slightly shaking, showing how over worked my muscles really were. I quickly showered knowing just who was waiting for me downstairs, and then threw on a pair of gray sweatpants and a baggy black t-shirt. As much as I wanted to look good for Takeshi, my body was practically screaming at me to put on more comfortable clothes, my sore body won.
I left my hair down and once I was some what presentable I slowly descended down the stairs, my left hand gripping the banister the whole way down. I quickly spotted Takeshi on the couch silently absorbed with what ever was playing on the television. Making my way into the room, the boy peeled his eyes away from the screen and smiled at me.
"Feeling any better?"
"Much better, thanks to you." I answered and sat next to the boy to see that he was watching a baseball game. No surprise there...maybe he is a baseball idiot...
"You know Takeshi, there is a world outside of baseball, just saying."
He chuckled and leaned back into a more comfortable position on the couch, "What? It's a really fun sport!"
"You're obsessed."
"Am not."
"Oh yeah?" I grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned off the tv, causing the boys expression to change from happy to confused.
"What if I said baseball was stupid? It's boring, annoying, and-" A shriek slipped past my lips as I lept of the couch, just out of Takeshi's reach as he lunged to grab my sides.
"Ha!" I yelled in victory with a proud smirk, however it quickly disappeared as the obsessed boy pounced after my figure as I began to dart around the room trying to avoid his grasp. Shrieks and giggles left my lips every time the boy got close and for the first time today I felt at ease. He laughed merrily as he chased me around, too bad I was too tired from training so I decided to cheat. I ran to the kitchen and straight to the sink and grabbed the nozzle and aimed it right at Takeshi who abruptly stopped and held his hands out in defeat.
"Mira-Chan let's talk about this."
"Don't come any closer! This thing is loaded!" I threatened holding the nozzle with both hands as if it were a loaded gun. I watched as Takeshi laughed nervously but suddenly stopped and grew an impish grin. I suppressed a shudder as I watched an amused glint appear his caramel colored eyes.
"You know Mira-Chan...the water needs to be running before you can use that."
"W-what?!" I gasped and flung my hand to turn on the water, I succeeded, but not before Takehsi pounced.
However just as he tackled me I had the water running and gripped the nozzle out of reflex, which squirted water around the room before we both hit the floor with Takeshi straddling my waist. In an act of revenge I aimed the nozzle at the defenseless boy and sprayed him in the chest, leaving a soaked area on his shirt and before I could enjoy my victory he made a move for the nozzle.
We began wrestling for the weapon all the while both of us applying pressure meaning the water was spraying everything including ourselves.
"Damn it Takeshi I already took a shower!" I joked as he aimed water at my head, quickly realizing there was no way of winning, I let Takeshi straddle my waist again and put my hands up in defeat, "Truce?"
The boy stared down at me before he grew a devilish smirk, he began to slowly lean down and used his free hand to pin my hands above my head while the other held a firm grip on the nozzle. Warmth flooded my cheeks, and the sound of the water running was the only thing keeping me in reality.
"T-Takeshi..."
My face was suddenly very wet...
I let out little coughs and tried to shake my head to rid my face of some of the water this jerk just sprayed me with before sending a playful glare at the grinning jock.
"That was for insulting baseball, and now it's a truce." He answered grinning widely and got up returning the nozzle to it's rightful place and turned off the sink, while I sat up wiping my face.
A hand was placed in front my face and I accepted the help up and smiled when my feet were firmly on the floor. "I'll go get some towels, wait here." I said and carefully tread through the soaked kitchen and made my way to the bathroom closet and grabbed two towels before returning to the kitchen.
"Here you can dry off first." I said and handed him a towel while I began to wipe up all of the water once I was about halfway done I heard Takeshi call out my name and as I turned to face him a towel was placed on my cheek and began to gently rub the water off.
I sent the boy a curious look and he just chuckled, "I can't have you get sick when I'm supposed to be taking care of you."
I smiled warmly at the boy and without even thinking I spoke, "You're too cute Takeshi."
The baseball ace seemed surprised at my sudden statement and I turned pink as I realized what just came out of my mouth, "W-wait, I didn't mean-"
A small chuckle left the boys lips as he began drying my other cheek, "You're cute too Mira-Chan."
As my heart fluttered and my smile turned shy, a single thought ran through my mind...
I wonder if he'll ever call me Mira...?