A clash of blades echoed out across the silent combat field. I eyed my opponent thoughtfully and then raced into a complicated series of attacks, my body flowing fluidly from one stance to the next, writing poetry with my dancing sword. I slashed my blade across one last time and an explosive clang rang out as my opponent’s sword flew over the grass and landed with a dull thud. Keeping my eyes blank, I bowed my head in respect of the fight and then grinned cheekily, a gleam in my eyes.

“Oh, shut up Shig!”

“I never said anything!” I said smiling.

“You didn’t have to, that cheeky grin shouts louder than any sentence.” I laughed loudly and clapped Roan on the shoulder. We walked over to Sensei and I shot Roan a worried glance, Sensei did not look happy. “How many times have I told you to keep hold of your sword Roan?”

“Countless times Sensei,”

“Yes Roan, countless times! And Shigeru, how many times did you leave you left side open for attack if you had been facing any more than one opponent?”

“Several times Sensei.”

“Yes Shigeru, several times, when will you learn not to get so involved with the feeling of the fight and to actually concentrate with what your body is doing?” I could tell that it was a rhetorical question and said nothing.

“I almost feel as if you don’t listen to a word that I say, you’re both so thick skulled that it seems to bounce straight off!” I said nothing and took his insulting criticism in front of the entire class, knowing that in a few minutes that it would be over and that it would be someone else’s turn to fight. “I seriously don’t know what I’m supposed to do here, your elbows were all over the place Shigeru and that flying upright slash was no where near to the standard that it should be.” I could feel my face turn red indignantly, I’d really tried hard when I put that in, it was so unfair for him to criticise it, we hadn’t even learnt it in class, I’d learnt it from a book and tried to incorporate it into my fighting.

“I’m disappointed Shigeru.” He said dismissively, almost ignoring Roan and focusing his attention in me. His eyes flicked over our heads, summoning a new pair of boys forward to fight. We joined at the back of the rest of the class and stood next to each other, I was fuming and Roan could tell.

“Don’t let him get to you.” I just scowled and stared at Sensei, feeling my eyes boring into the back of his head. “Seriously Shig, it’s not worth getting so het up about.”

“But it’s all the time, nothing’s good enough; last time he said I needed more creativity and to feel more intone with my fighting so I’ve practised really hard to get things more fluid and I even researched and put in that flying upright slash to add creativity, and then he says that it’s rubbish and that my movement flowed too much so it looked as if I wasn’t really thinking about it!” My voice started off quietly and slowly grew to a harsh whisper as I spoke.

I scowled again and scuffed the grass with my foot; a cloud of dry soil and dust erupted from the ground to fly away in the breeze. Roan said nothing, sensing my frustrated mood. ‘Was I really that bad?’ I’d been fighting ever since I was five years old and could pick up a wooden sword, everyone had told me how good I was, it was one of the reasons that I had joined the ‘Guardians Academy’. All through my years at the academy all the teachers had told me how efficient I was at fighting, how well I did it. Now I had come into my last year and had gotten into the top class, I finally had Sensei as my teacher, he was probably the best combat teacher in the entire academy, he only took the oldest year and I was thrilled to be able to finally have him, but for him to turn round and tell me how disappointed he was at me every lesson just made me doubt myself and disbelieve all the teachers that I had been taught by before.

I stood there until the end of the lesson, still fuming and hardly hearing anything that was said throughout the rest of it. I fiddled with my belt and sword, staring at the floor, it was only when Roan elbowed me in the ribs that I realised that the bell had rung and that we had been dismissed. “Come on Shig, let’s go find the girls to cheer you up.” I smiled at him and rolled my eyes; same old Roan. We walked through the Grounds of the school and found Arian, Zana and Midori sitting under a few trees in the shade. They saw us and smiled, waving us over to them. We went and sat with them taking off our shirts and letting the cool breeze blow over us in the heat. I put my arm around Midori’s shoulders as she said hi and I smiled slightly but said nothing. The others began to talk amongst themselves and she turned to me and asked me what was wrong quietly, I smiled and played with her hand, interlocking her fingers with mine. She waited patiently and then I told her about the lesson. “I wouldn’t mind so much if he just gave me one positive thing and then a thousand bad things to improve on, but it’s just all bad all the time and I’m not sure if I’ve lost my ability to fight.” I turned away from her and stared out over the grass, hearing the summoning bell for the year below us.

She could tell that I was worried and upset and leant in closer to me in a hug, “I doubt that.” I turned up the corners of my mouth in a weak smile and said nothing; she would say that. The bell went, calling our year to come and get our evening meal. We all walked inside and into the eating hall, row after row of tables lay in front of us as we walked through the doors. I could see the rest of our year lining up by the food hatch – the clatter of trays resounded as loudly as the chatter of hundreds of voices.

The five of us grabbed our trays and joined the back of the queue, waiting patiently as the line slowly moved. The others were in front of me and I could see Roan flirting obviously with Zana; it put a smile on my lips, even if my fighting ability was changing, at least Roan remained constant. We got to the hatch and I grabbed a plate of rice balls and then a couple of pieces of chicken in a sweet plum sauce, joining the others at our table when I’d gotten it. We always sat on the same table, there was about fourteen of us and we were generally the loudest in the eating hall; Roan and I usually messed around and made the others laugh a lot, but today I just didn’t feel like it.

“Hey Shigeru, what’s up?” Heath asked me, I finished my last mouthful and smiled at her, “Nothing’s the matter, I’m fine.”

“You don’t seem fine, want to tell me about it?”

“No it’s okay,” I looked around the table and noticed that Midori wasn’t there, “Where’s Midori?” I asked her. For some reason Heath shot me a slightly hurt look.

“She’s just gone to get a drink, she forgot before.”

“Oh, right.” I was puzzled by her hurt expression, but didn’t take long to think about it, I could see Midori coming back over and pushed my chair away from the table a bit. There were no chairs free so Midori sat on my lap sideways and I put my arms around her waist protectively, I could see some boys on another table eyeing her up and wanted to make clear that she was mine.

She smiled at my warm reaction and put a sweet cherry dipped in honey into my mouth. I smiled and ate it slowly savouring the flavour. “Are you alright now?” she asked me trying to hide her real concern.

“Yeah, I suppose that there’s nothing I can do about him so I’ll just take his criticism and try to use it to improve.”

“That’s my boy.” She said playfully and put another honey cherry into my mouth, I ate it and noticed some honey left on her lips from the one that she had just eaten, I slowly wiped it off with my finger and put it into my mouth without taking my eyes off hers, I could feel the connection growing in intensity as I slowly sucked all the honey off. I could feel myself locking her eyes to mine. Then I poked her in the side with my finger, she yelped and jumped, looking at me unimpressed, I just laughed loudly and ate another of her cherries. She stared at me unblinkingly for a while trying not to smile, so I just grinned at her widely.

“Yeah, you’re fine.” She said shaking her head and laughing. I suddenly noticed that Roan and a few others were looking at us, I smiled at them cockily. Roan laughed at me, “I don’t know how you do it to him Midori, but that boy seems to cheer up whenever you’re around.” She smiled at him and I wrapped my arms around her a bit tighter, pulling her closer to me.

When everyone on our table had finished eating we went outside and to the grass bank. The other boys started to play a game with an apple that they still had from their meal, I wanted to join in but didn’t really want to leave Midori on her own. “Go on, I can go and talk to Arian,” I paused, still unsure whether to join in, “I’ll still be here when you’ve finished.” She said smiling, I squeezed her hand and then ran to the others. We played for about half and hour and then noticed the sky turning to a slightly pink colour and stopped.

We walked back over to the girls that were sitting on the floor by the trees and most of us sat down to talk to them. I took my normal place next to Midori and sat with my arm around her shoulder, leaning on the tree behind me. Roan was telling a joke and making the usual pratt out of himself; I wasn’t really listening to him, but watching the sun sink below the horizon instead. I felt Midori lean against me more and realised that she had fallen asleep, her head resting on my shoulder, I smiled, she looked so innocent when she was asleep – her harder outer shell disappeared.

I gently stroked her chestnut brown hair from her face, noticing all the subtle bronze tones in it. I looked up and realised that Arian was watching me, “She’s so lucky to have you.” I smiled at her, watching Midori’s face as she slept.

“I think I’m the lucky one.” I told her and she just smiled again and looked at Craig. “Why don’t you just say something to him?” I asked her

“Because I don’t know if he thinks of me that way, and because I think I like someone else better, but I don’t want to like that person because I don’t think he’s right for me, but I can’t help it… if that makes sense.” She said sadly, turning away from the crowd to look at the grass.

“I know what you mean, I guess that I was just lucky.”

“Yeah, Midori was crazy about you even before you asked her.” I smiled again.

“I didn’t know that, she took so long to give me an answer, I thought for certain that she’d say no, yet here we are a year later and a half later, still together.”

“Exactly, I think some people are just meant to be together.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did she take so long to answer? It’s been and itch at the back of my mind for a while now and I just thought… as her best friend I mean?” I felt slightly self conscious asking Arian this.

“She didn’t know how reliable you’d be.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know what Roan’s like,” She said watching him flirt with Zana, “She wasn’t certain that you wouldn’t be the same.” She said apologetically.

As if that would ever happen, “That’s the only reason?”

“Yeah, she didn’t want to end up getting hurt by you, to see you with someone else would have probably broken her.”

“I would never do that to her.” I said holding her closely, unable to imagine anyone else in my arms, but her.

“She knows that you wouldn’t.” I looked at Arian and saw the soft smile on her face. “I’m so glad that she found you Shigeru, you’re a good person.” I smiled at her and then stroked Midori’s hair as she stirred slightly. Roan walked over and I indicated for him to be quiet, nodding my head towards Midori. He nodded and whispered that the rest of them were going back to the dorms. Carefully I picked up Midori and smiled as she murmured in her sleep.

I carried her back up to the fountain with the others. I sat down on a bench in the courtyard between the dorms with Midori still in my arms and told Roan that I’d be up in a minute. He left and Arian told me she’d wait up for Midori in their room, I smiled at her and watched her walk through the door to the girls’ dorm.

I lent back on the bench and brushed the hair from Midori’s face, kissing her gently on the forehead. Her eyes flickered open and I smiled, “Hey,” I whispered quietly. She smiled and lent closer into my shoulder, nuzzling her forehead against my neck. I kissed the top of her head, breathing in deeply and smelling her hair; it smelt like fresh flowers. We stayed like that for a while, I was happy just holding her. Eventually the sky turned dark and the stars came out, “You should go to bed,” I whispered to her gently.

“Not yet, just five more minutes.” I laughed quietly, hugging her closer. I felt her head droop again, “Oh no you don’t, I can’t carry you all the way to your room.”

“Why?” she mumbled half conscious.

“Because I don’t want to get kicked out of the academy if that’s okay with you?” She mumbled something grumpily. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

“Do I have to go to bed?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can’t I just stay out here with you all night?” I breathed in slowly,

“As much as I’d like that, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because if I fell asleep I’d drop you.” I said laughing quietly.

“Well that’s not very nice,” she said, rousing herself more substantially. I stood up firmly and after a while she joined me somewhat unsteadily so I gently pulled her into my arms. She rested her head against my chest. Slowly she tilted her head upwards, putting her arms around my neck. She looked at me from under her lashes and smiled, “What are you doing?” I asked her.

“Trying to persuade you to stay out here with me all night,” She said and then kissed me, pulling me close to her. We stayed like that for a while, just kissing in the darkness, but eventually she pulled away tauntingly. “And your answer is?” she asked, I just kissed her again, lifting her off the floor slightly. I broke away and held her there in my arms. “I can’t.”

She looked at me mischievously, and kissed me lightly but making it last addictively. When she had finished it, I didn’t let her go, but kissed her neck, pressing my mouth against it. I felt her shiver and pull me closer, her arms still around my neck and in my hair. I heard her breathe deeply and could feel her chest rise and fall against me. I pulled away and gently put her feet back down on the ground, I didn’t want to take this too far and I wasn’t sure how much restrictive willpower I had left. She could tell that I meant it when I said that I wasn’t staying out all night, so she kissed me lightly on the cheek and then jogged to the door, turning and smiling at me a final time before she disappeared.

I walked up to the room I shared with Roan in the boys dorms and slowly sunk into bed, hearing Roan’s deep breathing as he slept on the other side of the room. 

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hope you enjoyed the first chapter...not sure whether to actually continue with this story so any yes, nos or feedback in general would really be appreciated.