Guarded (Sugawara x OC)

Chapter 5

"Again."

Reo stood at the edge of the mat, arms crossed and eyes stern. "Do it again." He barked.

Out of breath and shaky Machi re-set in the middle of the mats for her form. She didn't argue with him this time, even she knew that last segment had sucked and needed a do-over. Taking a deep breath to center herself again, Machi began her form once more, each strike and kick executed with a fierce precision as if she were fighting an invisible opponent. When she reached the segment that was giving her trouble she felt her muscles automatically tense and her jaw clench. Get your shit together Machi, you can do this. Three fast round kicks at alternating heights followed immediately by spin jump crescent that landed in a solid middle stance. Her kicks were strong this time around, but she felt her knees wobble a bit when she landed her jump. At least she didn't fall on her ass this time.

"Better. Your stance needs to be deeper and you can't flub the landing, but at least you're improving." That was about as close as Reo had ever come to complementing his daughter and she found it both unsettling and refreshing. It was better than his regular lecture at least.

This was the second week of starting early morning practice again, and Machi was both glad to see she was improving enough for his acknowledgement, but she also really missed that extra hour of sleep. Reo was one of those insanely early risers that she swore was a sign of sociopathy, which just meant she was the one who directly suffered. And so when 5:30 rolled around she was standing in their home studio, eyes still swollen with sleep, but ready to work. He drilled her on everything: multiple weapons, her black belt form, and most importantly: sparring. While she would be judged on all three at competitions, sparring was worth the most points and would often decide the champion. As a result that was what they worked on the most in the early dawn hours. On days like today Reo made sure they used every single minute of the hour to train both sparring and her form, and now that the time was up, Machi's legs felt ready to collapse.

"I'm judging a tournament this weekend so I won't be home when you get back from school." Reo grabbed the dry mop from the corner and began cleaning the mats, which Machi used as her opportunity to escape and get ready for school. She ran, or hobbled on her wobbly legs, off the mats as fast as she could and up to her room. It was already pushing 6:40, which barely gave her enough time to shower, dress and grab breakfast-to-go before meeting with Tadashi and Tsukki. Moving as fast as she could manage, Machi was only eight minutes late by the time she left the house. Her uniform wasn't tucked in and her still damp hair hung loosely around her shoulders, but she figured those were things she could fix as they walked.

"Someone forgot to finish pampering this morning, I see." Tsukki was a bit salty about having to wait longer than necessary (again) for Machi, and Tadashi had insisted (again) they couldn't leave without her.

Still cranky from her early morning and now sore muscles, Machi pushed him along the sidewalk with her foot as she hastily fixed her uniform. "Can it, dick-wad, I've been up since 5, and dad only just dismissed me 30 minutes ago." Tsukki scoffed but didn't retaliate and Machi moved on to digging through her school bag for a hair tie. When her hand only grasped at books and paper she swore under her breath, "Aw shit, now I have to wear it down all day, I blame you Tsukki. You rushed me."

"Why don't you—"

"Hey, um before I forget," Tadashi quickly interjected, before the two could start yet another argument, "Tsukki and I have to practice during lunch so we won't be able to eat with you, is that okay?" He fidgeted with a loose strand on his school bag, feeling a bit guilty about leaving her alone.

"Don't worry about it, I have a book with me I can catch up on. You two have a game coming up you want to prepare for?" She had watched their practice match against those new first years not too long ago. The loss must have struck a fire in his heart to be better. Aw, he's growing up so fast.