Chapter Text
The dust cloud engulfed him as his back hit the ground, his body bent in a way that his knees dangled on either side of his head. He had lost count of how many times his sparring partner had flipped him mid air during their training, despite her constant instructions on how to avoid it. He had not even got to sit straight when Anna's voice rang in his ears.
"Get up. Now!"
Her words were closely followed by a precise kick to Yoh's ribcage, rolling his limp body on his legs, forcing him to get his hands on the dirt before his face followed suit. Despite the bruises all over his body and the dirty spots in his training uniform, the boy planted his feet in the ground and pushed himself up to meet his partner.
"Took you long enough." Anna went back to her fighting stance: hands clenched into fists at the level of her eyes, legs slightly bent, ankles in the air as her feet bounced her entire weight, ready to move at lightspeed at any moment's notice. Yet Yoh's hands were still on his scratched knees, trying to catch his breath from his latest defeat. Anna's eyebrows burrowed as a her challenging face turned into a scowl. "Maybe I should call the instructor and let him scold you for lazing around during training."
Yoh couldn't hold back a giggle between his heavy breaths, he even managed to let out some words. "You hit harder than him."
"Is that so?" Anna's eyes lingered on him until his laugh ceased, her whole body still on tiptoes. "That's the only thing that worries you?"
Yoh glanced around trying to spot the man responsible of their training. Their instructor's yells weren't unfamiliar to him, especially not when he could hear him belittle some of their training mates in the background. A kid from the mountains who didn't take anything seriously, a kid from the capital of a recently conquered country that took things too seriously, a kid that made jokes of everything, a kid that didn't understand jokes, among many others, all of them forced to grow up too fast. He was the lazy one. He had been called lazy enough times to have the commander even wonder out loud why he hadn't been kicked out of the warrior program yet.
There were two ways out of the program: being failed by your superiors, and being failed by their bad luck. First case scenario, you could go back home. Second case scenario, bad luck usually wasn't that merciful. Apparently the only reason why he hadn't been kicked out yet was that his commander expected his bad luck to get him eventually.
But he didn't know Yoh had a good luck charm.
By the time Yoh lifted his eyes and focused back into training, he met a pair of amber eyes at mere centimeters from his, gleaming from behind the strawberry blonde messy fringe that floated mid-air. His own eyes opened even more as he tried to capture the dazzling glimmer more vividly. In a fraction of a second, Anna's punch to his stomach had pushed all the air out of his lungs, but it only took the increasing distance between his face and his partner's to make him realize he had been too slow, too distracted,
too lazy
. He managed to shift his center of gravity at the last second to avoid falling again, and ducked right on time to avoid Anna's next blow to his head.
"Is that how you want to become a warrior?" Anna's voice crawled in his brain while he kept trying to dodge, trying to catch an opening in an almost perfect choreography. He knew there probably wouldn't be a fighter as agile and intelligent as her, who knew how to use every gram of her weight, every inch of her height, and every ounce of her strength in her favor. He knew how lucky he was to have her training him. If he could land one single blow on Anna, then maybe he did have a chance out there.
Maybe they could stop the Founder, maybe they could end the cycle of hatred.
He needed all the luck he could get.
As much as he tried, he couldn't keep dodging her forever. A pair of strong arms locked around his neck and left arm, one knee also pushing on his shin to force him down. "You promised me…" another breathy whisper crawled into his ear, while he tried to find a way out while less and less oxygen made its way to his head.
"I know… and I won't fail you..." Yoh struggled to let the words out.
"How? You can't even best me." And the boy wouldn't hesitate to admit how right Anna was.
Her grip around his neck tightened and he needed a way out before his body yielded.
In a spark of ingenuity, he allowed his own knees to collapse and fall to the ground, trying to take advantage of her unexpected unbalance to throw her over his head. She had been teaching him that move with sacks full of rocks serving as opponent stand-ins, but it was the first time he actually tried it on her. As Yoh quickly realized, Anna was way lighter than their makeshift training tools, thus easier to throw.
What he didn't expect was that Anna knew how to land on her feet, regaining balance fast enough to kick him with all her strength. He couldn't help but smile at his own naivety after his short-lived victory bliss, hoping that his progress would actually surprise her. The kick was so strong that his butt dragged itself over the dirt for a little over a meter, only stopping when his back hit the fence that divided their training pen from the rest of the military complex. Only then the pain became stingy again.
He hugged his own stomach, trying to process both pain and defeat. He knew it wouldn't go away that easily, and when it did it wouldn't be for long. He still had a lot to learn.
"You call that a throw?" Anna's shadow blocked the sun and covered him, allowing him to lift his gaze towards her icy eyes. "Not so bad for a first try," she conceded, extending her hand as an offer to him.
It was impossible to ignore her might whenever he looked at her from below. It was not news to anyone in warrior camp how it was a given fact that she would be one of the chosen ones to inherit a titan. To Yoh she already looked like one. He couldn't keep lagging behind her if he intended to keep his promise.
Yoh took her hand and got up, assured that he could endure a little bit more that day. It couldn't be any other way, if they really wanted to fulfill their fate.
"I can do better."
At least he had his good luck charm, even if she was the one beating him down. At least she helped him to get back up.
Anna got back in her fighting stance for another round. Yoh did the same, even if he had to put a lot more effort in just maintaining it.
"Then do better."