Chapter 17
…
He was tired. Exhausted to the bone. His muscles burning, and lungs feeling as if they could collapse at any given moment. He was also sweating profusely, and he shielded his eyes by closing them when needed. Wiping the sweat clean, and that was about all the rest he allowed himself to get.
"Hyaa!" And he then swung his heavy sword with his heavy arm. "Hyaa!" Cried out with determination written in his blue, and swung again. And again. And dozen more times after that one until finally, he reached the point when having a longer rest was the only viable option he was left with.
Panting heavily, he still refused to sit, and waited for her to say something.
"You know, you look kinda sexy when panting and drenched in your sweat like that."
Even if dead tired, he still mustered a minuscule smile. Before he was rested enough to manage a sentence. "Thanks, I guess. And I'll totally take that as an invitation for a date."
She simply shrugged her shoulders. "You can if you want to," She said, and took a couple of paces closer to him. "So, what exactly are you doing?"
He straightened his back before answering. "Exactly what it looks like. I'm training," He said, and through conscious effort, his breathing was finally close to being even. "I'm trying to figure out what I lack the most as a fighter. Which weakness and flaws are most detrimental to my fighting ability," He said, and she expected him to look sad or disappointed, but instead he looked determined. Tired, but also determined.
"And so, you're training," She said, but his blue seemed to speak even more than that. Or she at least thought so.
"Well…" He started, and lowered his gaze to the ground. Before he set it back into hers, and the determination in his blue remained still. Only now, it was incredibly, incredibly soft in its nature. "To be perfectly honest, I'm trying to become stronger so I could protect people precious to me."
She smiled, if only a little. "Like Ren, Nora and Ruby, right?"
He briefly thought before answering. Then thought a little bit more still, and as his blue was still firmly set into her lilac, he suddenly realized something. A truth he perhaps was aware of, but hadn't fully grasped it up until now. "Them too, obviously, but…they're so far away, so far ahead of me, that honestly, at this very moment, I'm trying my hardest for you, Yang…Though I guess that's still very presumptuous of me, isn't it?" He felt sheepish, and averted his gaze from hers.
She paced even closer to him, and got hold of his hand. As she did, his sword slowly slipped through his fingers and fell down and into the thin layer of snow.
"Y-Yang?" He stuttered, caught by surprise, and his blue trapped into her intensly glowing lilac.
"…"
She didn't say anything, but most certainly wanted to. Her lips were partially parted, and she knew there was something she wanted to say, but as quickly as those words came to be, just as fast they disappeared. Leaving behind a fluttering heart and long awkward silence.
"…"
That silence persisted still, and when she realized her heart was fluttering, she felt embarrassed, and even blushed and looked away from his blue.
"…Pff!" He started to softly laugh, and she soon jabbed him in his ribs. That only bolstered his laughter, and she cocked her arm back, ready to punch him again, but didn't. Instead, after observing him briefly, she realized then and there that him being happy was precious to her.
"You stupid dork…" She quietly muttered, her blush deepened, and she again felt the desire to punch him, but just like before, she didn't. She simply let her gaze go astray.
And softly smiled to herself, and enjoyed the sound of his precious laughter.