"Ow!"

I landed on my back on the matted floor. I breathed so hard and fast, my chest was feeling sore.

"You're improving." Caleb said as he offered his hand to me. I was training with Caleb and his mom in their basement. He was home for fall break.

"You sure?" I took his hand and he pulled me up.

"Absolutely." Ms. Maria responded. She gave me a water bottle. "Your stance and positioning are on point, but you're still holding back."

"I can't help it. It feels wrong. I don't want to hurt anyone." I couldn't hurt something that didn't hurt me first and I was sparring with my best friend. He never did anything to me. I did better with the dummies and punching bag since I wasn't hurting anyone but even with all the sessions it still felt weird.

"We very much appreciate your nonviolent nature. You are a darling." She patted my head. "How about we take a break before we continue working with your staff, hm?"

I nodded. "Yeah, okay." I took more heavy breaths and we walked over to the bench. I wasn't doing much progress by myself in the basement with Ms. Maria on the screen. I couldn't get a good enough look at her positioning, and I managed to whack myself everywhere too many times to count. So, about once a week, Dad would take me over to their house to train in person. I still hurt myself, but my progress was faster and more precise and accurate. At least according to them. I wasn't sure until years later.

But anyway, this was the first time Caleb and I had actually sparred. He showed me some stuff sometimes whenever he came by but sparring in my room was a no go. I could not get a hit on him at all. Which of course was expected. When Ms. Maria had me practice with her, I could get a hit maybe every 20 or 30 times I tried if I dug deep and really tried to look at Ms. Maria as not my best friend's mom. I never expected much better in all honesty. I never liked training but learning to use my weapon was kind of cool and Ms. Maria was a great teacher. She was patient and fair. She understood that I wasn't a GUN student, that my heart wasn't in this. Still, she motivated me and told me a bunch of stories. She also encouraged me to not over do any of whatever she was teaching me which I was totally on board with.

"Caleb." Mr. Shadow appeared. "It's time for a challenge."

"Yes, Father."

They left for the matted floor, and Ms. Maria and I watched them for a few minutes. In a way, it's pretty amazing to see. Every movement was harsh but fluid. They were strong and steady but flexible. In other ways, it was frightening. Sometimes, there was blood, and I could hear the blows and possibly a crack. I would cringe for a second, wanting to step in and stop them but seeing how determined and disciplined they were, I knew this was just business as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just another day for them.

"How's your friend Connor getting along? He seemed to be able to play nursery rhymes on his cello naturally the last I spoke to him."

"Better." I smiled at Ms. Maria. "Your talks really help him. He doesn't feel too alone in all this."

She smiled a sad mom smile. "I'm glad. Truth be told, as painful as it was and is, it was nice to share my story with him."

"So, it helped you too? Even though it was so long ago?"

She looked at me funny before telling me, "This set of circumstances stays with you, the pain may dull with time but it's still very much there and may affect you in ways you may not even be aware of."

I thought for a sec. "I guess… that makes sense. This was big, like seriously big. His mind was gone, and we didn't know what the actual damage was going to be until he woke up."

"Mm-hm. A sad set of circumstances, truly."

"But he's getting better." I said quickly. "He can actually play medium difficulty songs now, slowly, but he's getting there. He's still working on getting up and down the stairs, but it looks like he should be able to do it completely on his own soon. So… whatever it is that… changes… i-it won't be so bad, right?"

She smiled a sad mom smiled and squeezed my shoulder. "It doesn't have to be, no. He has strength and such spirit." She looked down for a second. "And a family that loves him and friends like us. If anything happens, we'll be there to help sort it out, won't we?"

I nodded. "Mm-hm, just like we are now." I smiled and sat up right. But then I remembered something that happened earlier that week. I looked down at my feet and started to swing them.

"Is something the matter?" She tilted her head to look at my face.

"No, it's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I don't think it's serious, it's just… Connor asked me to not see him for 2 weeks." I remember being uneasy about it. I mentioned it to Mom and Caleb, but I didn't really want to talk about it.

"I see."

"Yeah, he says he needs a little time for himself."

"Uh-huh."

"It's just 2 weeks and he's been walking on his own so he should be fine." Looking back, I wonder if I was trying to convince Ms. Maria or myself that everything was fine. I didn't want to think the worse, but he was going through something major. Any little thing could cause a setback.

"Are you fine with this arrangement?"

I remember trying to smile but I probably just looked weird. I looked up at Ms. Maria.

"No, not really. It kind of came out of nowhere and totally threw me off. He did say he would check in every day though." At first, I felt hurt, but then I remembered it was only 2 weeks, 2 week and then I could go see him. Nothing big.

"I went through something similar."

"You did?"

"Yes, before Shadow and I began our romance, he said he was disappearing for a while."

"Disappearing?"

"Mm-hm. Out of the blue, he came and went. I didn't see him for a few weeks and I nearly destroyed my mind, thinking I must've offended him somehow. I thought he would be gone forever."

"So, what happened?"

"He returned after a few weeks and explained to me that… he had feelings for me." She smiled brightly.

"What?" Why would you do that to someone you have feelings for?

"He took the time he needed to mull over the situation."

"Couldn't he have done that without disappearing? Sometimes, Mom cleans when she has to make decisions on the seasonal menu."

"He didn't believe the conclusion would be as clear and he wanted to be sure. Sometimes, when making huge decisions, it's best to go as far from distractions as possible to reach clarity."

"I guess… Sometimes I pace when I have to pick what I want to do in the summer or when I have to choose a topic for a project."

"Exactly. Something must have presented itself to Connor and now he needs some time to sort it out."

I nodded in understanding. "Like what?" It had to be big if he wanted to be by himself.

She shrugged. "It could be anything. It could be a memory that he's struggling to pinpoint or reason with. It could be decisions on how to proceed with his schooling. Maybe he wants to surprise you with something."

"Awe," I smiled. "I like surprises." Out of all the possibilities, I liked this one the best.

"I know you do. The ones without robots anyway."

"Oh yeah, I guess they count as surprises too, huh?"

"Mm-hm. One of the worst kinds, but completely in our line of specialty. Speaking of which, I'd like to commission an order of matching slippers for me, Shadow and Caleb." Now that was definitely up my alley. I brightened up and sat up straight.

"You got it. What colors would you like and what sizes?"

"If you could manage classic black and red checkerboard for the holidays, that would be great. I'll send you the sizes later. Now," She stood up and I stood up excitedly. "How about we continue your training?"

I smiled and nodded. I didn't feel tired anymore. I was ready to do my best as fresh as I was before I stepped into the basement that day. I was probably going to accidently hit myself a million times again like always but that was okay.

Everyone: Kind of filler, kind of not. I had some writer's block. I wanted to spend some time with Maria and have some insight to training.

Next time, we see what's up with Connor.

Happy reading.