Before I Forget

You Have Me

"Sky!" Hawk cried, tasting panic on his lips.

He was still partly on top of her where he had landed, and Sky—

She was gasping for air, her lips drawn back to reveal her teeth. It was like she didn't even hear him like she didn't even realize he was there.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

Though he had been hurt many times - beaten by his bullies - he had never physically hurt anyone, not like this. Nothing had prepared him for this, for the raw pain he saw on Sky's face—

And she was the last person in the universe he wanted to inflict pain upon, the fucking last!

"Sky, are you alright—?"

"Move!" That was Sensei Lawrence, and the tone of his commanding voice made Hawk crawl off Sky, to free his legs that had been tangled with hers. He stayed by her side, on his knees, as Sensei Lawrence crouched down and took a look at her. Sky was pressing a hand on her left shoulder, her whole body was tense like a string, her lips thin and strained, her face pale as a sheet.

"Hey, Ginger, you alright?" Sensei asked with a surprisingly gentle tone and placed a hand on her arm.

"Don't... call me... Ginger," Sky breathed through her teeth, and Hawk let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Can you sit up?" Sensei asked. "Let me see that shoulder?"

"Just... give me... a second." Sky managed, between sharp gasps of pain.

"Take your time." Sensei replied, and turned his ice-blue eyes at Hawk.

"What the Hell happened?" He asked angrily. "What did you do?"

Hawk turned his eyes down, he could still taste the iron of fear on his lips. "I tried to hit her chest but she turned and I hit her shoulder instead. She has an injury—"

"What kind of an injury?" Sensei Lawrence asked.

A fucking bullet wound?

"I'm not sure—" he began, but was interrupted by Sensei, who took another worried glance at Sky. "Miguel, go and get the ice bag."

"On it," came Miguel's swift response, and Hawk heard his running footsteps leaving the room.

"Sky, I'm sorry—" Hawk said, again. The anxiety made his whole body tense, his muscles trembling. He couldn't even look at her face, his glance was fixated on the mat somewhere near her head. "I didn't mean to—"

"Give me a hand, Eli." She replied, her words barely audible.

He didn't even remember to correct that it was Hawk, not Eli. He gave her his hand and pulled her up into a sitting position, where she took a couple of shaky breaths before turning her eyes to meet his.

"It's not your fault," She said with a thin voice. "It was my mistake, I thought I had you."

Hawk swallowed the lump in his throat, he felt naked in front of her, sure that every emotion could be read from his face.

You have me, he thought, you can have me any way you want to.

"You still won, if we count points," Hawk said, lowering his gaze. "You got two, I only got one."

Sky only gave a small nod. "Yeah, I guess."

"Fine, you can sit, you can speak," interrupted Sensei Lawrence. "Now let me see the shoulder."

Sky pursed her lips together but hesitated only for a couple of seconds. Then she pulled off her T-shirt, giving a sharp gasp of pain when she had to move her left arm. Underneath, she was wearing a black sports bra that revealed the shape of her chest, the soft curves of her breasts, and even at a moment like this that sight went straight to Hawk's gut like a shot of tequila.