Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 13 - Lost the Will to Fight

Warning: The last section of this chapter has some extremely dubious consent. There's no violence or force involved, but if you're uncomfortable with such things, you may wish to skip over that part.

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"Three more," encouraged Yuri as I closed in on the end of my walking lunges, "You got this, Rose."

"My legs and ass feel like jello," I said, as I took the last lunge, "but thanks for helping me through this, Yuri. I really appreciate your help."

"This is all on you, Hathaway. Well, you and Belikov's training plan that he drew up," he said. Although I was kicking his ass in sparring more often than I'd expect, as mentors go, Yuri was surprisingly decent. He was great at encouraging and motivating, but, other than the encouragement, I wasn't sure how much of his mentoring really came from the plans that Dimitri had given and how much was Yuri shooting from the hip. I had started to learn that Yuri was definitely not a stickler for by-the-book and liked to change things up. "Dimitri had down for you to do some seventy- or eighty-pound calf raises on the machine after this, but how about instead you do them up over on that box with a couple of fifty-pound plates?"

"Okay," I said, "A hundred - really?" I asked. Yuri nodded. "Wow, that's more weight than I've done before. Are you sure I can handle it?"

"Yeah, actually I slid the pin in a few further down for your last set the last time you were on the machine. Just so you know, I've been updating him with all of your progress and he keeps changing up what he is having you do. Man like him would never come out and say so, but I can tell he's really proud of you."

"Really, Yuri?" I asked, surprised to hear it, as I started to do my calf raises.

"Really," Yuri replied.

"But he still can't stand to touch me," I said, "Yesterday, during weapons, we were working on knives and switchblades. When it got to the part that I was actually working with our practice blades on hand-to-hand fighting, I got into a position where he was able to circle around behind me and use the blade against me and get it up to my neck, with his arm around my body. As soon as he was standing so close like that, he immediately stopped the hand-to-hand part of the training and went back to throwing and grip! How am I supposed to learn if he can't come in contact with me?"

"For fuck's sake, Rose," said Yuri, "Didn't I already tell you this is your fault? Fix it. Just go to the man and kiss and make up."

"There are so many things wrong with what you just told me!" I said, picking the weights back up for my second set, "So, first, You're an instructor at a school who basically just told a minor student to go make out with another instructor. And, second, I already told you - we're not like that anymore, because he was using me! Third, - You promise you won't say anything if I tell you this?"

"Not a peep," he said, "I just want everyone to be happy, you included. And considering you're less than a week from being eighteen, I'd hardly call you a minor. In the human world, you and Dimitri are close enough in age that you might be in college classes as students together right now. But, I won't say anything. Even if you and Dimitri were fucking like rabbits, I'd keep it to myself. Hell, if you were fucking like rabbits, I might even have to ask you for details."

"Third is that I already sort of tried that - and it clearly didn't work. That's why he asked you to come train with me."

"What do you mean you 'sort of tried that'?" Yuri asked, as I finished my next set and set the weights back down, sitting on the box I had been standing on the edge of.

"Dimitri and I were ... together. After the caves. I snuck into his apartment that night. It was pretty great, at the time, honestly, but then it just seemed to be all about the sex and I started questioning everything. I think I just rushed in too quickly without being really ready. And it was pretty clear from his responses to me afterwards that he just wanted me for my body. So, I told him it was a mistake."