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“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure ?”
“ Yes! I’m fine. I just got a little beat up by the training dummy, that’s all,” Keith replied. He was getting a little tired of Lance’s fawning. The last few weeks, he had been pushing himself, a little shaken by the Blade of Marmora incident. To do this, he upped the level of the training dummy tenfold. As a result, he found himself feeling way more sore, and way less into doing anything he usually enjoyed. Lance insisted over and over again that he was overworking himself, but he refused to take a break. He was determined to better himself as a fighter, and if sacrificing he had to sacrifice his free time, then he would do it. He wanted to become stronger. It was rare for him to feel so battered and tired after fights, so when he nearly collapsed after their trial, he felt he had to get better.
His boyfriend wasn’t having any of it though. He wouldn’t take any excuse for him to let him treat himself like this.
“You’re going to hurt yourself doing this you know? You have hurt yourself so many times. It’s unhealthy…”
Keith sighed and rolled his eyes. “Despite what you think, I am completely capable of taking care of myself.”
Lance made a begrudging noise of acceptance, as he wrapped his arms around him. “Yeah, yeah I know. Red paladin, tough, strong, best fighter and all. Whatever. Just... be careful, okay? Don’t drive yourself to the brink.” In his embrace, Keith melted into the touch. He didn’t have the energy to argue for once, a rare and unheard of sight. Instead, he just allowed himself to relax. He had to rest at some point. At the moment, he was already feeling incredibly drained. His body was littered with small scratches and bruises, and he was pretty sure his hip popped at some point during his fight. All over him, there were small purple and blue blotches from where he had been hit. Mentally, he cursed himself. He knew he looked weak. That shouldn’t bother him, he knew, you were only weak if you didn’t pick yourself up. That was why he forced himself to train so hard. But, he couldn’t find it within himself to stop after so many days of training.
“I’m not. Everything’s fine .” He spat, surprised at his own bitter tone. He couldn’t stop talking though. “I have one more round to go. Then I’m done. Just go, and I’ll be out in a bit.”
“Babe, at least-”
“Just go , Lance. This is important.”
It was a strange addiction he found himself in. As much as it pained him, the rush of it helped numb any aches he felt. The strain in his muscles, the endless signals that fired off in his brains. There was just as much mental work as their was physical. Every swipe of the dummy’s staff was new information for him to take in, and he had just a split second to respond with a slash of his bayard. The dummy would then counter with yet another jab or swing, and the Keith had yet another brief moment to respond. He felt he could go for hours like this, just going back and forth in this tiring dance of machine vs. man. It was unfortunate that his stamina wasn’t high enough for this waltz of weapons to go on endlessly. He found the difference between him and the program was that there didn’t seem to be any limit in its coded. No one had entered line making it slow down after so many hits. He on the other hand, did. In his exhaustion, he couldn’t think as fast as the training dummy could attack, and his screaming muscles could move as quick as they could. Inevitably, he got knocked down, and the adrenaline creeped out of his system, and he was just another fallen soldier. With the pace he was upping the machine, it seemed that he would never catch up to it.
Maybe that was just it. He couldn’t. The thought was worrying, humbling, and inspiring all at the same time. The device had Altean inspiration. They were such an advanced and strong race, yet the Galra had wiped out almost the entire race. If there were races stronger than Alteans, and Keith wasn’t even at the highest level on the dummy, how many alien children could rival him? How many alien adults could destroy him in an instant? Probably countless, he reasoned. It reminded him that Earth was weak, practically still in the stone age in comparison to everything he’s seen out here. That only pushed him harder. He was going to fight in defense of his planet, his race, and his honor as a human.
Taking a moment to catch his breath, he walked to the edge of the room where he took a swig of water. Then, he activated the training dummy for the fifth time that day.