Chapter: Behind your words

Leylan jerked around and started jogging. She doggedly ignored the penetrating side stitches and the again aching lungs. Her circulation had calmed down again in the short phase of standing and now rebelled vehemently against the increasing stress.
> You got it on yourself, so damn it! <, Leylan said to himself and walked on unmoved. She was just edging the inner parking ring for the third time, when her body thrashed back mercilessly.
Her knees buckled under her, her slack and excessively stretched muscles could no longer support her. Leylan hit the gravel path hard and suppressed a cry of pain with great difficulty. Her face contorted with pain, she had to admit that even the strongest will to go to extremes is not spared the limits of the human body. Cursing, she braced herself into a sitting position with her arms and examined her aching legs.
More or less harmless scratches lined her knees, the right thigh was disfigured by a long, slightly bleeding abrasion. Although it wasn't noticeably deep, even the tiniest touch burned and small stones mixed with gravel didn't make the whole thing any better. Cursing without hesitation, Leylan looked at the rest of her body, since she had fallen to the floor with full force. She carefully increased the pressure on her right hipbone and audibly sucked in air: a spreading discoloration of the region suggested a bruise and she quickly pulled her hand away. Lastly, she turned the palms of her hands up. They presented themselves scraped and by no means handsome, Leylan uttered another curse, then slowly and carefully straightened himself up again, still leaning on her hands.

Nobody was to be seen in the immediate vicinity, so nobody had noticed their "accident". Leylan wiped the dirt off his face with relief and patted her hands carefully on her shorts.“And now?” Sullen, she looked around, unsure what would be the best. Suddenly there were footsteps and Leylan jerked his eyes up.
> Tyson! <, it shot through her head and almost reflexively she hobbled into the bushes on her right. There she crouched behind a tree as far as her aching muscles would allow and waited. The rhythmic footsteps drew nearer and had circled Leylan in a matter of minutes. As soon as the noise got quieter, Leylan pulled himself up on the tree and looked after the jogger running past - no doubt, the head of blue hair and the insane speed definitely belonged to Tyson.
Then the young woman suddenly became aware of her own situation again: "Ok, stay sooo calm. On the one hand, I can keep walking until I roll over again, or I go straight to training or go straight into the house and see that I take care of the wounds and clean up. Oh, damn it. "
The certainty that she had "failed" hit her terribly and loomed in front of her like an invincible mountain.
If there was one thing she couldn't cope with, it was having overestimated herself and then having to admit defeat to which she was responsible. Something apparently small, like two two failed laps in a training session, was a concession to Leylan's weakness that she had to prevent since the beginning of her career. Even in her earliest childhood, during her stay in the Russian girls' abbey to train successful bladers, defeat was the first sign of weakness and weakness was the result of momentous overconfidence.
The memory brought tears to her eyes as she brought to mind the words of her adored mentor: "It is more defensible to dodge a fight, skip another test of strength, and then walk away with a satisfactory result of prior successes than any Accepting a challenge even though one is aware that this can only lead to defeat.Self-control is better than overconfidence. Never forget this. "
> And that's exactly what I did idiot. <, it rang in her head and she buried her face in her arms for a brief moment. If Kai's frequent loneliness and discipline of the abbey was never completely gone, Leylan carried an iron will to victory, supported by her doggedness and the recoil of self-inflicted weakness.
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE

Leylan calmly counted the seconds and, as so often, found the necessary relaxation in this rather bizarre kind of reassurance. At "five" she pulled herself up heavily, timidly brushed the dust off her pants and started to walk back. She had made a decision, constantly hoping it was the right one.
Gradually the park began to fill up with people, people who either belonged to the morning exercise, were on vacation, were unemployed or just enjoyed a non-working Saturday - after all, it was only 11:00 a.m. Leylan saw everyone who dared to glide over her admittedly a little battered looking body with an ice-cold look and kept eye contact until the person in question averted his eyes ashamed. She gritted her teeth and her jaw muscles reflected her inner tension due to all the isolated staring people and the decision she had made before. Despite the pain in her hip and right thigh, she put her feet in front of each other as quickly as possible and soon afterwards the manorial estate of the Bladebreakers came into view. As before, she took the passage through the small wrought-iron gate in the middle of the high hedge, then crossed the large green area, which was littered with all kinds of plants and, to Leylan's satisfaction, did not look like a carefully trimmed lawn, and came to a few minutes later right wing of the facility where a variety of arenas were set up and additional training opportunities to improve individual problems.At a distance, Tala, Tyson and Ray were absorbed in their respective training session: Tala trained his speed by circling a row of vials at different distances, with increasing speed and without touching, Tyson let Dragoon balance from tree to tree using the stretched ropes and Ray trained his and Drigger's clout on a variety of materials. She furtively looked for Kai and then let out a relieved breath, only to winced the next moment.
"You hurt yourself - sit down."

Regardless of her aching thigh, she turned around and saw Kai standing a few meters away on her right side, leaning casually against the house wall and appraising her with an indifferent look. The young woman with the long, gently wavy hair bit her lip and stared straight ahead.
[i]> I decided to go this way, but it is more difficult than first thought. Don't panic, just get your blade and starter and get started. </ I]
Leylan urged herself to take her next step, but Kai's fixed gaze did not move a muscle to her displeasure.
"I'll go get my blade and starter," she muttered, still staring straight ahead. A smug smile appeared on Kai's lips; he pushed himself away from the wall and stepped up to Leylan. Since she was still not ready to look at him, he stepped past her without further ado and stood in her direct field of vision. The top blade raised her eyebrows in surprise, she hadn't expected another reaction from the dismissive team leader. He stood up in front of her, his crimson eyes fixed on her dark ones and said: "I am your team leader, I will tell you when you do what. And at the moment the care of your wounds is on the plan - so sit down, now! "
The last part was formulated as a clear command and thus appealed to Leylan's loyalty and sense of duty.The dark eyes literally flash, but Leylan obeyed Kai's "order" and sat down on the bench. Without being noticed by the three teammates, the half-Russian fetched a bowl of water, the first aid kit, and sat down on the bench next to Leylan. The teeth still clenched tightly together, it looked anything but relaxed. The sudden closeness to the gray-haired young man was uncomfortable for her, triggered a strange alienation in her. Kai, while he carefully cleaned the scratches and the wound on the thigh, showed no movement on his face, but stopped when he had to push her shorts up a little and his fingers touched her skin for a brief moment. In direct response to this, Leylan shuddered and she inhaled, unintentionally, audibly.
A slight blush covered her cheeks, after such a release of emotions she wished that the ground would open beneath her. Kai continued to pretend he hadn't noticed anything and wouldn't feel anything on his part. But only the long years of self-control and his wall of ice hid his feeling for the unplanned touch.

So small, so short, and yet so momentous.
Kai bit his jaw tightly together so that the jaw muscles emerged visibly, under no circumstances did he want to reveal himself to the young woman sitting next to him. In fact, he persuaded himself that every trainer had to do this and that it was therefore part of his duties, which, as is well known, he fulfilled without batting an eyelid. A quiet voice in him, which had regained speech for two days, announced itself in him: "Duty? Couldn't she take care of herself? After all, they're just painful grazes, nothing serious. Hasn't she encountered anything worse than a scratch ? "

Furious, he let out a reluctant snort and tossed the sponge back into the bucket with a swing, making it splash.Startled by the sudden movement, Leylan lifted his head and gave Kai a suspicious look. He averted his gaze and looked at the floor: "Ent ... Sorry.", He uttered softly, the suppressed anger always felt in his voice.
More than just astonished, she raised her eyebrows, and in the same breath admonished herself not to make a big deal out of this behavior. Her gaze was looking for a place that was as neutral as possible and then she heard herself say lightly: "It's okay, I think the scratches are clean now. Thank you ... Kai."

Any irony, any self-confidence, any distance had disappeared from her voice, she quickly faded out all the rebellious voices inside and was amazed at how easily the sentence came off her lips. The eyes that she now met were crimson, this time expecting again without looking like the expression of frozen lava, the look that Kai Leylan was giving was