Toughen Up. (Max x Reader)

-9-

3rd Person

Things haven't changed much since the day Max exploded at YN. Every day following the incident was tense between the two of them.

It has been 3 days.

3 days of sleepless nights for Max. 3 days of awkwardly avoiding eye contact. 3 days of being pushed around the mess hall, getting food in his hair and bruises on his arms. 3 days of awkward training. 3 days of...

Max sighed, running his hand slowly through his hair, pulling out bits of potato that he had missed. He stood in front of the mess hall walls, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He wouldn't admit it, but he was scared.

YN sat inside at a table, surrounded by her friends. A forced smile on her face as she listened to their dry jokes.

A creak filled the loud room, most people turning to look at the boy walking in, head down. Most laughed, some even throwing food at him.

Just like every other day.

YN frowned, but shook off the uneasy feeling filling her gut. After the second day of the ignoring, she had just accepted that this was what the kid was. A quiet introvert who didn't want to be touched nor talked to.

I mean, she'd only known him for five days, what was there to contradict her assumption. For all she knew, he could've been acting the first two days and just recently fallen back into the normal swing of things.

The two of them hadn't talked about the incident, in fact they'd barely talked at all. The only social interaction they had with each other was when YN would teach Max and train him. Other then that, they never uttered a word to each other.

Of course, they still shared a tent, but Max would already be in bed, back facing her, by the time she went inside. As soon as she fell asleep, Max would go down to the docks to think, maybe skip rocks.

Once again, he felt lonely and scared. Even as he went into the mess hall that morning, sitting at his own little table with no one to bother him, he still felt terrified. He knew that if he tried to leave before everyone else he would be pushed onto the ground and stepped on as everyone else left before him.

And even if he did wait till everyone was gone, they would throw food at him during eating breaks. He would be tripped on his way out the door.

Max sat down at his table, glancing over at YN and connecting eye contact for a split second before quickly looking away. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to keep himself awake after another sleepless night. He was so tired, more tired then usual.

Oh, if only he had his beloved coffee machine, they could run off together. Every morning he would take a sip from the mug, leaning against the machine with a content expression. The aroma filling his nose and taking him away to coffee land, where he would battle the mighty tea man. No! Max would never let tea man take over his coffee kingdom!

Thud!

Max's head hit the table, jolting him awake and filling his face with surprise. Everyone in the room laughed at him, pointing and elbowing their friends. Max felt a burning sensation on his ears and neck, realising that he had dozed off and made a loud noise.

He looked around the room, awkwardly connecting eye contact with YN. She looked down at her slop instantly, but Max kept his eyes on her. He missed being able to joke around with her, even holding a decent conversation with her.

But he couldn't. Well, he could, but he didn't really know how. See, he doesn't really know her, he doesn't know if she is fine with confrontation or if she despises it. If she hated it, well, he didn't want to risk making the situation worse.

So, Max did what every normal person would do in this situation.

He waited for her to come to him about it.

And maybe that moment wasn't as far away as it seemed.

• • • •

Heyyy, so this is really short and kinda late, but I'm real busy currently. I have a assignment thing due on Friday that I haven't started and I should be doing homework, but ahhhh

I hate being a procrastinator most times.

Anyways! This was kind of a filler in a way, but mostly just showing that you and Max are remaining all "teacher and student" only, yknow, not talking to each other out of training and that

But it's still important to the plot line

I came up with a great analogy for this chapter; 'the alleyway before the house'

So basically, stuff is gonna haPPEN in the next chapter, and this one was just preparing you for it ((;

Anyways , slán!

• • • •

Unedited

Final word count: 826