✓ ❘ 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃, 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐌𝐘 𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐑 ─ 𝐁. 𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐄

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ sɪxᴛᴇᴇɴ: ʜᴏᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴏᴜᴄʜ

I paid no attention to the amount of force I used to slam the locker room door shut but judging from the way Corvey jumped out of his skin, it must've created a fairly loud bang. I didn't hear it over the sound of my thumping heart.

"I'm not gonna kick your ass, 'cause that would raise suspicions," I spoke slowly and clearly, taking cautious, deliberate steps toward the pipsqueak in front of me. There was a slight tremor in his legs; I had to fight hard to supress a laugh at the sight. Weakling.

"But let me make one thing perfectly clear," I continued, picking up my pace a little. Once I was close enough, I clamped my hands down on his shoulders and gave a small, sarcastic smile; he flinched at the impact, shutting his eyes. "Under no circumstance are you to ever touch her like that again, you hear me? She's not yours, nor will she ever be, so back the hell off. You understand?"

He nodded vigorously and I could see the fear swirling around in his wide eyes. Good. He should be scared.

"Wonderful," I flashed him a dazzling smile and stepped back, patting him once on the back, "then we're done here."

I spun around and started for the exit, hearing him sigh in relief. My hand was just about to grab the door handle when I remembered something.

"Oh, and," I turned to look at him, "You're not training her anymore. Not in this life or the next."

~

I watched her as she brought one hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn; she was clearly half-asleep and I felt only slightly guilty for cutting her slumber time short. But contrary to what she might think, it wasn't an unnecessary move. If I hadn't woken her up to do this, she would've been back in the centre tonight with that imbecile Corvey – God, even thinking of him made me sick – and we couldn't have that. No, we couldn't. Not at all.

If anyone was going to be rolling around on the floor with her, damn straight it was going to be me.

She was tiredly rubbing her eyes now, trying to brush away the remnants of sleep as she creased her forehead. I noticed that her lips were pouted, and I turned away before I could get any debauched ideas.

I flexed my jaw as I began rolling my sleeves up and cleared my throat as I backtracked away from her, willing my mind to focus on the task at hand: her training.

"Let's start with the basics. Reflexes."

She sighed and continued rubbing her face. "I already did reflex training with Corvey," she pointed out; I just barely bit back a growl.

Why did she have to go and bring him up? He was idiotic and incompetent; I don't even know how he ever passed training. He could never have trained her properly – so why did she approach him in the first place?

Images from last night flashed in my mind – of him standing so close to her; of her smiling genuinely at him; of him touching her...

Fuck, it made me mad. It's obvious that he has a thing for her – a pathetic, schoolyard crush – but he can't have her. She's not available for him to claim as his own. And I would crush him if he ever tried to pull a stunt like last night again.

And I think I made that pretty clear to him in the locker room last night.

But, I still had to make it clear to her.

"Yes, but," I flicked my hand forward, sending the blade flying straight at her head, "I'm not Corvey."

I didn't want to kill her – obviously – so I purposefully aimed a few inches higher than the top of her hair. She wasn't aware of this, and the way she was currently glaring at me, panting and eyes broadened by shock, showed that she had been sincerely scared for her life.