XERIS' POV

"I have been trying to wake you up for the past five minutes." I said to her. She was impossible to wake up. Every day was the same with her. And every day she apologised. I watched her go to the closet and then the bathroom. While she showered, I decided to have my breakfast. I soon found myself in the training room. I expected her to be here in ten minutes, she usually took twenty minutes to shower and ten minutes to eat. I set up everything for today's training session as I waited. After a while I looked at my watch and realised she was late.

I decided to go after her. I walked into the apartment and saw her hunched over her food.

Thought she would be tired of Lumpum by now, I certainly am.

As I got closer I heard her mumbling to herself. I sighed, "Anytime today."

She jumped at this. Come to think of it, she had been jumpy since I woke her up. I looked down at her bowl and noticed she had barely touched it.

That's odd

I looked back up at her and words I never thought I would ever hear came out of her mouth, "I'm not very hungry today."

That's a first

I decided to leave and went back to the training room. Once I got onto the mats, I took off my shoes. We wouldn't be needing them for what I had planned. I stood there looking at the door waiting for her to come in. Once she finally did, she noticed me waiting for her and froze. I raised my eyebrows for an explanation, but all she did was apologise again and walk towards me cautiously.

Must have been a really bad dream

"Take off your shoes."

She did so clumsily, miraculously not winding up on the floor.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea

"Come," I said to her and she inched closer.

Is she scared of me now?

"Closer," I said a little louder. Again, she inched a few centimetres closer. I sighed and put my hands on my waist.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, genuinely curious. What brought upon this sudden behaviour.

She cleared her throat, "nothing. Nothing is wrong with me." Then she moved to stand right in front of me.

"Good. You said you wanted to learn everything. From today, I'm going to teach you some martial arts."

"Wait, what? No more exercising?" she asked surprised.

"This is a form of exercise. Besides, you don't need that much exercise anyway."

She had come a long way these past months. She had lost all the excess weight, and it wasn't just due to the oil thinning. She really did put in the work to lose the excess fat. She was able to keep up with me in certain areas, which was astounding, not that I would ever let her know that.

I enjoyed teaching her, she was a quick learner. Picked things up really quickly, maybe even quicker than I did. Admitting this was hard, but I see why our compatibility was so high. More and more things alerted me to that fact.

"So, what do I do first?" she asked, a little fear in her eyes.

"There is nothing to worry about, I won't hurt you. I'm going to make you stronger."

"Why? Cause I'm so weak?" she said with a hand on her hip. She noticed me look at her hand and quickly dropped it and stood up straight.

"If you didn't notice, I said stronger. I do not think you are weak. If you do not wish to learn, then we can go back to our mundane workout activities." I waited for her answer. She thought it over and made up her mind in all of three seconds.

"I'll do it."

That's my girl

"We'll start with basic moves and depending on how quickly you pick things up, we'll go from there." She nodded her head.

***

She was panting heavily while she lay on her back. She was better than I expected. But then again, she had been exceeding my expectations from the moment I met her. She had much more physical strength than I expected too.

"That was.... not bad," I commented while I grabbed a towel and handed it to her.

"Not.... bad?" she said breathlessly. "You whooped...my butt ...up... down....and sideways. Are you sure...you weren't taking...anything out on me?"

I realised a while ago that she didn't mean this as an insult. I decided to ignore it.

She struggled to get up.

"A little help would be nice," she said.

"It would," I said then started putting things away.

"That's not what I meant," she said to herself, though I heard.

She got up fully and started helping me. "Leave it," I said. I knew it was a waste of time because she carried on anyways. She was quite the stubborn one, always willing to challenge me.

"Was learning martial arts also forced on you?" she asked.

"Actually, it was one of the only things I chose to learn."

I noticed that she had stopped what she was doing and was looking at me. "How come?" her question was so simple, yet its answer the complete opposite, one I wasn't willing to give.

"Doesn't everyone think martial arts is cool?"

She sighed. "Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?" I asked with a poker face.

"You know what I'm talking about. You're always wiggling your way out of answering my questions when they have something to do with your personal life. I mean," she threw her hands in the air exasperated. "What is this? Aren't you supposed to be trying to convince me to...you know...make babies with you?" she said the last part while looking at the ground. She looked back up at me and continued, "I don't remember agreeing to it. So, aren't we supposed to get to know each other better? I don't know how it's done on Thanzor, but on Earth, we don't just decide to make babies with people we barely know. Well, at least, I don't."

She took a deep breath before continuing, "you aren't even trying. I know we have five long years with nothing but each other and Bulba to keep busy, but I don't want those five years to be lonely. I've been on my own for long enough and I don't think I can take it anymore." Her voice had gotten quieter with each word.

"You know what, never mind." She put down the mat she was holding and left.

I thought I had been avoiding her questions without her noticing successfully. Seems I had underestimated her observation skills. I knew that she was right. I just didn't know how to open up to anyone. Purit didn't count. He didn't need me to say anything to know something was bothering me. He just...knew.

I took longer than normal to finish up. She was right. I was supposed to be getting closer to her, but instead I kept her at a distance. She must have been lonely. Taken away from her family only to be locked up with me. I didn't want her to experience what being alone truly meant. I didn't want her to experience what I had gone through for most of my life.

I walked into the apartment and she was nowhere to be seen. I decided to take a quick shower and talk to her as we ate lunch. I walked out of the bathroom and saw she wasn't in the kitchen.

She must already be in the greenery

I walked to the greenery and found her waiting for me where we left off yesterday. As I approached her, she started asking questions about the tree she was looking at. Soon I was lost in teaching her and explaining the uses of the tree, my earlier convictions forgotten.

Then it was supper time. I thought she would be asking me questions but she barely said a thing, except to thank me for getting her food for her. She didn't look at me and all but acted like I didn't exist.

This was her new attitude towards me for the next few weeks. She still came to our training sessions and asked just as many questions in the greenery. That was the only time I heard her voice.

Why should it bother me if she doesn't want to talk to me? I'm happy she's finally learnt to keep her thoughts and questions to herself. This all works in my favour.

I thought this as she walked into the training room. Our lessons had advanced so fast that I had to keep my guard fully up around her. She took her shoes off, approached me and just stood there looking at me like a robot.

This scene was all too familiar. She reminded me of the shell of a person I was after losing Nala. I turned around, went to my spot then turned back to her.

"We're doing things differently today," I said while breathing heavily.

I caused this

"Today, you're going to try and take me down. Don't hold back. Don't be afraid of hurting me. Begin." I expected some hesitation. Big mistake.

She came at me with full speed. If not for my quick reflexes, her combination of swings and punches would have landed, and hurt. She wasn't holding anything back. She had gotten quicker and incorporated in some kicks at appropriate moments. Her movements were still a bit sloppy.

I took her down.

"Again!" I shouted.

Her movements were more aggressive today than they normally were, making her movements sloppier. Was she angry with me? She tried to hit me with a side kick which I caught and then swung her around where she fell to the ground.

"Again!"

She quickly got up and came back at me. We had been going at this for more than fifteen minutes, each time ending with her on the ground.

"Again!"

She stood up slower this time. I could tell she was winded and sore. All I did was defend. She wasn't ready for my offence.

"Are you taking it easy on me?" she asked, eyes wild. "Don't!" she yelled as she ran at me. With her renewed burst of energy, she landed her hits on me. She was fuelled with anger. I stayed on the defensive. I twisted her hand behind her back while I held her face down on the ground. I used my knee to keep her there.

"Easy. Your movements are too careless. You're only attacking without watching your blind spots. Do both or this ends." I said through my gritted teeth.

I stood up off her and stepped back while she stood up and dusted off. She looked at me, still breathing heavily. She was tired. Her movements had gotten slower. It would soon end. she recklessly attacked again not caring to defend herself. This just got on my nerves. I decided to go on the offensive. I tackled her and pinned her beneath me. I held her tiny hands at her sides with my own and sat on her while making sure not to let my full body weight crush her. Only then did I realise how much weight she had lost. She wasn't skinny, she was fit and healthy with nicely toned muscles. The fat around her face had all but disappeared to reveal the beauty hidden beneath. Her eyes were this light shade of brown, like golden honey. Her skin tone was a lovely shade of brown too unique to put in a category. It was a shade all on its own, unlike any I had ever seen.

"Do you plan on sitting on me the whole day?" she asked in a monotone voice.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She just laughed and turned her head to the side.

"What's funny?"

"Look who's asking the personal questions now." She turned to look back at me, her eyes lifeless.

I did this