What Lies Beneath Her Mask (REWRITE)

Chapter 12: Practice Makes Perfect

I pressed my somewhat small foot firmly on Kai's chest as he panted heavily.

"I thought you said this wasn't going to be that hard!" Kai complained after catching his breath momentarily.

"Never said that. I said that it would be easy for Peculiars, such as I and my former teammates, who've trained for a long time. In comparison to what we've had to do back at the facility, these are just warm-ups," I explained, lifting my foot off of Kai.

He propped himself up with one elbow, staring at me like I was a madman. Rolling my eyes playfully, I held my hand out for Kai to grab, helping him up in the process. A few moments later, we chuckled and shrugged it off as if it never happened. I dusted his shoulders lightly, tugging his sleeves back in place. I craned my neck up slowly, feeling Kai's slow, surprisingly steady breathing on my cool skin.
I soon began to realize that we were staring at each other intently. I hadn't moved a muscle, nor did he. I let out a huff of a surprise when I witnessed Kai close his eyes slowly, placing his arms around my waist and lower back. I blushed lightly, not wanting to make any sudden moves. At one point, I was somehow sure that he had passed out.
He sighed, pulling me closer to him until his body pressed against mine. He placed his chin on my head, gently swaying to and fro. I, for some reason, wanted to go along with it. I eventually eased into his relaxing touch, allowing his warm, lean form to cradle my small, cold, muscle toned body. I could feel myself twitch in some places as my body got used to the idea of relaxing and being cradled by Kai.

Why do I feel so-, so relaxed? So calm, so protected? What- what is this? This, this feeling...it's more than one emotion, more than five, probably, all in one. So what is it? I've never felt like this before, so why now?

I had never felt so confused about what was happening. This felt so wrong- but so right at the same time. This was new to me, change was always thrown at me, but this was a change I've never felt nor seen before. While I was thinking about all of this, I felt Kai pull me even closer until my face was practically glued to his chest. In that split second, I felt claustrophobic, I felt like if I didn't get out of that position immediately I would suffocate and run out of oxygen.
My senses told me to get out of that position, and I knew better than to disobey. I tried shoving Kai away, to which he backed off and let go of me. I took a tumble, landing on my ass before curling up into a ball and hugging my knees. I took multiple deep breaths of relief once I knew I wasn't going to suffocate. I continued to straddle myself and rock back and forth, all the while Kai was still towering over me, confused why I pushed him away.
He immediately took action and started comforting me. Sitting on the cold, black marble floor, Kai room a seat in front of me and raised his hand to touch my cheek. I flinched, holding my hands in front of my face swiftly. Kai backed off once again, freezing in place until I realized that it was only him. He didn't ask me if I was all right, or if something was bothering me.
Kai just pulled me into his lap and rocked back and forth in silence, which was exactly what I needed. I didn't need nor want to explain myself at the moment. Though I knew he would ask sooner or later, I decided to keep to myself and cry as silently as I could handle. My first day as Kai's instructor and I already blew it, way to go, me. Sooner rather than later, I started whimpering like an injured puppy, though I did force myself to bottle it up inside.

     "How come you flinched and pushed me away? I saw terror in your eyes like you were scared of me. What's going on?" Kai asked softly.

     I gulped, taking a few shaky breaths before answering.

     "They used to hit us, the workers at the facility, if we did something wrong while training. The first time they struck me was when I was ten and couldn't stop crying-," I paused before continuing.