Alpha's Blue (BXB)

Chapter Thirteen

The next morning, I was dressed, ready and waiting for Marco to arrive. Just as I finished putting on my running shoes, Marco stopped in front of me. Just like me, he donned his gray sportswear along with the sports shoes.

"Ready?" He asked and started spot jogging.

I nodded and started running along with him. We ran past the backyard pretty quickly and soon headed toward the woods to get to the clearing.

It took us a few minutes and two breaks - needed by me - in between to get to the clearing. I was mildly surprised to see Nicolas already present and exercising there. The sun still hadn't risen and I could barely make out his shape in the dark. Despite not being able to see him clearly, I knew it was him.

Just as planned, Marco and I ran past him to get to the padded columns. Marco corrected my form and my closed fist before I went for the first punch. Much to my dismay, the column didn't even vibrate and my hand throbbed like I had punched a rock.

"Left one now." Marco ordered, not noticing how red my right fist had become.

My left fist didn't dare to move to suffer the same aftermath as my right fist.

"Come on." Marco whispered beside me and I ignored the ache and drove my left fist against the column with just as strength as before.

A loud yelp left my mouth before I could've controlled it and I cradled both of my fists close to my chest. The pain was getting worse with each second and it felt like I had broken or at least chipped a bone in there.

I heard Marco curse before he extended his hands to look at mine. His hands were slapped away harshly as another pair of hands grabbed mine.

I looked up and saw Nicolas examining my hands in his gentle hold. He touched one of my knuckles and I hissed in pain.

"Sorry, sorry." He apologized softly and pulled my hands closer to him through my wrists.

I was captivated by the genuine worry on his face and the way his eyebrows furrowed when I had hissed in the pain.

He gently blew on the knuckle he had touched and I felt like my soul was about to leave my body.

"Go get the first aid kit." He ordered Marco without looking up.

I saw Marco nodding and running away almost instantly as if he was waiting for an excuse to leave.

Nicolas started moving each of my fingers up and down slowly, probably to check if something was broken. Even though each movement caused the throbbing to increase rapidly, I didn't dare let out a single sound. I didn't feel like I could even if I wanted to, not with the way my heart hammered in my ears.

My breath hitched in my throat when pressed on another knuckle and blew on it immediately. He repeated the same thing with the rest of my fingers then let out a satisfied hum.

I didn't notice Marco arriving, but the next thing I knew he was gently pressing a soaked gauge against split open skin. Once done, he applied a sweet smelling ointment on top of it and then continued to wrap dressing across my palm of both hands.

My face felt warmer than it did when I was running and I felt like I was melting inside.

"Thank you." I kept my voice low and looked down at my now wrapped up hands.

He let go of my hands carefully and grabbed the first kid from Marco standing beside us. "Take him home." He turned around and walked away without another word.

"I'm sorry." Marco apologized as soon as Nicolas was out of sight. "I didn't notice that you got injured." He explained further and asked for forgiveness again.

"It's okay." I tried to smile at him but the pain was back in full force and I couldn't help but grimace.

"No, it's not. I shouldn't have forced you to do this." His regret was clear on his face and I felt guilty for making him think it was his fault. It wasn't. I knew I was the only one who was responsible for this.

"You didn't force me. I agreed to it on my own."

It took me a few minutes to remove guilt from Marco's face. It wasn't easy and the pain only made it worse but I wasn't about to let him see that.

On our way back, Marco started again. "I don't think we can continue with the plan."

I halted in my tracks and looked at him in confusion. "What? No. I won't back out now. We are gonna do this."

"But, your hands..." He trailed off, looking at my hands in worry again.

"I won't let this happen again. Stop worrying about it." I reassured him and we started walking again. "I'll just hang around until it heals, I guess."

"It won't take long. The salve Nicolas used was Luna's secret recipe. It speeds up the healing process a lot." Marco informed me before stopping by the boundary of the woods. "He doesn't use it often, not until it's absolutely necessary."

"He shouldn't have wasted it like that." My gaze got fixed on my feet. "I would've been fine without it."

"I'm gonna tell him you were being ungrateful." He teased.

I snapped my head up and furrowed my eyebrows at him. "That's not what I meant."

"I'll still let him know." He said with a mischievous grin.

"Whatever. Just add a 'thank you' from my side once you're done." I turned around with a huff and walked back home.

Grandma freaked out as soon as she saw the bandages on my hands and didn't stop blaming Nicolas until I explained everything and told her that it was Nicolas who used the special ointment and bandaged my wounds. Even then, she would glare out of the window every time I hissed because of the pain. It was amusing and if I wasn't in so much pain, I honestly would have been laughing.

As expected, grandma didn't let me help her with anything for the rest of the day and she even wanted to feed me. I thought that was too extreme and politely refused which earned me a glare too, which I easily dissolved with a grin.

The wounds felt warmer as night approached and the pain was replaced with a tingling feeling which was a lot more bearable than before. Thanks to that I was able to sleep throughout the night and didn't get up until I heard the door of my room being knocked.

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