𝐶𝐿𝑂𝐴𝐾 𝐴𝑁𝐷 𝐷𝐴𝐺𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒 [DISCONTINUED]

𝟒 | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒

"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡."
—𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛 𝐾𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟

𝒩.

"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐈 say? I'm the best of the best at fighting!"

"Klaus," Natalia laughed as she and the boy entered the training room, making sure to flick the lights on and shut the door behind them. "I don't think you've ever won a sparring match against me. Besides, we're not even doing that today."

Klaus squinted his eyes as he walked over to the middle of the room, clasping his hands behind his back and rocking back and forth on his toes. "Remind me again what we are doing?"

"We're just practicing our kicks and stuff," she informed him as she grabbed two hand-held targets from a table in the back of the room.

"Right." He nodded before a grin appeared on his face, and he corrected, "I'm the best of the best at that!"

Natalia laughed as she met him in the middle of the room. "You fall, like, fifty percent of the time."

"But what about that other fifty percent?" he rebutted, running a hand through his hair. "I'm beauty, I'm grace, my foot is in your face!"

"Oh, that's a good one," she quipped as she raised her eyebrows in amusement, "did you come up with it just now?"

Klaus shifted his weight from one foot to the other, a sheepish look now on his face. ". . . Yeah."

"Come on," she pressed with a small grin, "tell me, how long did it take?"

"Like . . ." He looked up, squinting his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. "Two hours."

She let out a scoff. "Wow."

"Hey, what else am I supposed to do during chemistry class?"

"I don't know . . ." Natalia trailed off for a couple of moments before raising her eyebrows. "Maybe listen?"

He waved a dismissive hand through the air. "Listening is for losers."

A look of feigned offence came onto her face as she placed a hand on her heart and dramatically gasped. "Are you calling me a loser?"

Klaus shrugged, and, with no hesitation, agreed, "Yeah."

"All right, let's start, dummy," she giggled, slapping him on the shoulder with the target. "You wanna kick first or do you want me to?"

"You're already holding the targets, so I'll start," he told her as he parted his legs into a ready stance and bounced on his toes, his fists now held up to block his face.

Natalia nodded, and she rolled her shoulders back before holding the targets out for Klaus to kick.

"So," he began as he started to roundhouse kick the targets, alternating his legs after every kick, "you and Diego, huh?"

"Why do you and Ben keep doing this?" she groaned, adjusting her grip on the targets. "Don't you have anything better to talk about?"

Klaus shrugged, almost falling when his leg swung a little faster than it meant to. "Not really."

"Great," she sighed. "Nothing is happening with me and Diego. We're just friends."

"But" —kick— "you wish you were more" —kick— "right?"