Training was exhausting.
The room was relatively spacious and smelled like iron and wood at the same time.
Makoto and Akio were fighting against Kaelis without weapons for practice, but Kaelis was way stronger than the two of them combined. Which makes sense, considering he's a professional assassin and the two boys were just rookies. He wasn't even fighting back, just defending. It was quite humbling to say the least.
Makoto had no issue with the instructions, he even landed a few hits to Kaelis' stomach, legs, or arms, even though it didn't do much.
Akio however hesitated, not wanting to hurt the assassin, which made Kaelis scold Akio.
"Hesitating in battle can be more reckless than just punching mindlessly around you. I hope you know that. Especially after what happened on the mission."
Akio nodded sheepishly.
"Come on. One more time. Try to hit me."
So they continued training for a while, Akio eventually landed a few hits as well, but they weren't strong enough to harm Kaelis.
"You need to work on your strength. Both of you. Either that or you're too scared to hurt me. Fear means hesitation. And hesitation on your part means an advantage for your opponent. In battle you should be calm and composed for that exact reason."
Kaelis wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead and and moved his hands up to his head to undo his ponytail. Even in a situation like this he still looked absolutely angelic.
"We're done. I hope you've learned something from today."
"Yes", both boys said in unison and bowed their heads in thanks.
Suddenly the door opened to reveal someone nobody expected.
Meki.
"Having fun, kids?"
"Ah what a surprise. Do you need anything, Meki?", Kaelis asked politely.
"Well, I brought some pastries for you three," Meki explained, showing the bags in his hands, not losing his laid back smile.
"You did? How thoughtful of you," Kaelis replied, still keeping his polite tone.
Makoto and Akio then approached Meki.
"Okay, so I got apple tarts, croissants, cinnamon rolls, brownies, and almond cookies. You can choose whatever you like."
The two teens looked into one of the bags in awe at the amount of tasty-looking pastries.
Kaelis then appeared behind the two, startling them with his sudden presence.
"May I get an apple tart?", he asked unabashedly.
"Sure, man. Take whatever you want," he said casually, before moving his gaze back to the boys. "You two as well. Take as much as you'd like. Let life give you a bit of joy for once."
Akio's expression turned into a frown.
*Joy... Joy is a way to escape reality. A coping mechanism. People aren't happy. They make themselves think they are, because they can't handle the truth. Happiness is nothing but an illusion. And you'd realize it sooner or later.*
*Because every good thing comes to an end eventually.*
Akio's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rustling, which came from one of the bags.
Everyone looked at the bag in confusion.
Suddenly the door to the training room opened again, revealing Kouya.
"Have you guys seen Ermina anywhere?"
They stared at Kouya for a second before looking back at the bag, then back at him, then back at the bag.
All of a sudden, the stoat jumped out of the bag with a brownie in her mouth, running away nimbly.
"Hey man! Not cool!", Meki complained.
Kouya immediately chased after her, but she was too fast, so he quickly ran out of breath.
"Maybe you should go back to training too, if you get out of breath so easily. I have plenty of time to train you," Kaelis commented, with a teasing edge to his voice.
"Eh- no thanks! I'm good!", Kouya instantly replied.
Kaelis blinked, before taking a bite of the apple tart.
"Well, if you say so."
Ermina then climbed up Makoto's legs and chest and settled in the hood of his jacket.
Makoto sighed, but let her do as she pleased.
"She seems to like you, kid," Meki said smugly, smirking.
"She probably just likes my jacket," Makoto argued, taking the brownie from Ermina.
Kouya scoffed in agreement.
"Yeah! There's no way she likes him more than me!"
Ermina chirped happily, as if to mock Kouya, who then grumbled unintelligibly to himself.
Kaelis then remembered something.
"By the way, Kouya, how's your girlfriend doing?"
Kouya blushed in embarrassment at the mention of his *friend*.
"She's not my girlfriend!... Not yet."
Meki made sure to add his own two cents to the conversation.
"Oooohh sounds complicated. So you have a crush on her?"
"Well-," Kouya tried to defend himself, but gave up immediately after. "Yeah..."
Makoto then interrupted with his own question.
"Who is she anyway? Do we know her?"
"Maybe," Kouya sighed. Then he looked at the bags full of pastries. "I want a treat too."
"Sure, take some," Meki smiled at Kouya.
"You're too kind, you know that? You're my favorite out of everyone here," the shorter man grinned and patted the taller one's shoulder.
Meki blinked, surprised.
"I'm glad to hear that, stoat boy," he smirked.
"Yeah yeah", Kouya rolled his eyes, then looked at Ermina, who was still in Makoto's hood. He approached him and the stoat, taking something out of his pocket. It was...
A dead mouse...
Everyone shrieked at the sight and stopped eating, while Ermina perked up and immediately took the mouse from Kouya, eating it in a matter of seconds.
Makoto looked at him dumbfounded, before yelling.
"Did you seriously just feed her a dead mouse on my jacket!? I don't want dead mouse germs on me, you idiot!"
"Calm down, the mouse didn't even touch your jacket. Besides you could just take a shower and put your clothes into the washing machine. Wouldn't harm you anyway," Kouya defended himself.
Makoto put on an offended expression.
"Excuse me!?"
Meki tried to ease the tension a bit.
"Now now, no need to fight, boys. Let's all calm down, okay?"
"Fine, whatever," Makoto grumbled, still slightly pissed off.
Ermina chirped again and nuzzled her little head against Makoto's cheek to calm him down.
Makoto sighed but settled down eventually.
Kouya mumbled in jealousy.
"Traitor."
Meki then got up and stretched.
"Well, I'll go now. It was fun, but I need my daily me-time now. See ya!"
"Bye."
"Take care."
"Bye! Thanks for the pastries!"
Meki nodded with a gentle smile on his face and left.
"Well, guess I'll get going too. Yo, Ermina, come here!", Kouya shouted to get Ermina's attention, who then jumped out of Makoto's hood onto the floor and climbed up to Kouya's shoulder.
They left, leaving now only Kaelis, Makoto, and Akio, who's been silent the whole time.
Kaelis turned to the two teens.
"Alright. You two may go as well. I'll tidy up real quick. Tomorrow we'll repeat what you've learned today."
Makoto nodded and left the training room with Akio following close behind.
The walk to their room was awkward. At least for Akio. Makoto didn't really care.
*Why am I like this? Why am I even upset? I'm so dramatic. My life isn't even that bad, so why..? My family's probably wondering where I am by now. Maybe they called the police to send them looking for me. I miss them, but I can't go back. Not like this. Not after I agreed to become a criminal so easily. They'd be disappointed for sure.*
*Although, they should know by now that I was born to disappoint.*
*Oh Shibou, I wish you were still here... This isn't fair. It should've been me. I should have suffered instead of you.*
"You good?"
Akio flinched, looking to the source of the voice to find Makoto, gazing at him with what could be described as... concern?
"I-... No, not really," Akio answered honestly.
Makoto sighed heavily.
"God, I'm really not good at this, but... do you want to talk about it?"
Akio blinked, surprised, before responding.
"I don't want to burden you with my problems."
"You won't. Now tell me what's bothering you."
Akio swallowed, his anxiety getting the best of him.
"Alright..."