Something smelled amazing when Aley woke up the next morning. She cracked her neck as she sat up, taking in a deep breath. What could that be? Is someone in the kitchen? She cautiously crept out of bed and opened the door. Xinn had his back to her, puttering around in the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" she asked, stepping out of the bedroom and allowing her wings to stretch out.

He threw a smile over his shoulder. "Good morning. I thought that it had perhaps been a while since you've had a warm breakfast, so..." He gestured towards the food warming over the fire.

He... made breakfast for me. She felt her heart melt a little. "That's so sweet, thank you." She shuffled over to lean against a nearby wall and watch. "Did you get any sleep?"

Xinn shook his head, not meeting her eyes. "How did you sleep? I know last night was a lot."

"I slept fine. Why haven't you slept? Didn't you have someone trade you out?"

"No. This is almost ready if you want to sit down."

She smirked. "You just want me to stop asking questions. Why didn't you sleep?"

He sighed, taking a step back from cooking. "I... wanted to make sure you stayed safe." His strange eyes glanced at her, then away. "I felt bad for putting you in danger last night. It... it was wrong of me."

Aley smiled at him. "And staying up all night then making breakfast is your way of apologizing?"

He nodded, looking at the food again. "This is finished. Go sit."

She did as he said, taking the chair that was quickly becoming a habit for her to sit in when talking to him. He brought over two plates full of food, placing one in her lap and keeping the other to sit down with.

Aley watched him eat for a minute, trying to figure out how to eat the different items. When she finally dug in, it surprised her. She hadn't realized how much she missed a warm meal—most of her food since arriving had been whatever cold stuff sariun apparently always ate.

"This is delicious," she said in between bites. "But do sariun not really cook? Like, I've mostly had cold food since I've been here."

He shrugged. "I don't know about everyone else, but I like my meals fast, so there isn't time for cooking."

"Well then, thank you for taking the time to make this." She smiled sweetly at him. Dang, maybe I do have my charms still. He made breakfast without staying the night. Well, I mean, he did stay the night, but not like... never mind.

"Mm," he muttered, mouth full of food as he nodded sharply at her.

He really is a soldier, isn't he? She did her best to stay subtle as she eyed him. He was kind of cute when he wasn't sure how to respond to her compliments. "So, what are we doing today?"

He swallowed. "I want to teach you self-defense. With all the trouble you get yourself into, I think it would be beneficial."

"You mean all the trouble you get me into," she said playfully, but regretted it immediately. He felt bad enough about last night. "But to be fair, I get myself into a lot of situations I can't seem to get out of. So, yeah, self-defense. Good call." She shoved some food in her mouth to shut herself up.

"You are trouble," he agreed. "There's no doubt about that. Were you like this back on... Earth, is it?"

She waggled her head back and forth. "I mean, I wasn't getting death threats and trying to run away to save my sister, but yeah, I guess you could say I was a little reckless back home." She winced at flashbacks from being a teenager, her rebellious phase was one she wished she could forget yet hadn't entirely grown out of. "My friends and I like to party a little, which, according to my family, is not the safest thing to be doing, but I've clearly survived."

He smiled a little. "It seems you can survive anything."

"Well, anything is a stretch, but pretty much I guess," she laughed. "I would say that you're pretty indestructible too, going off those muscles of yours." She eyed said muscles, wondering what routine he did to keep them up.

"Can't be a general without being a little indestructible," he said playfully.

"You know, now that I think about it, aren't you kind of young to be a general?"

"That should tell you just how good of a general I am." He smiled at her, standing to collect her empty plate with his own. "We'll return to the beach for your defensive studies. While we're there, you can practice your flying again."

She immediately jumped up. "Yes! Let's go!" She zipped out of the door before Xinn did, taking a second to spin around in the sunlight. "It's beautiful out."

"Yes, it is," he said with a smile. "Let's get you to the beach so you can enjoy it more thoroughly."

Ten minutes later, she was careening through the air recklessly, dipping low over the ocean and soaring high above the trees. When her wings were tired of carrying her, she crash-landed on the beach, to Xinn's horror, with minimal bruises.

"Are you all right?" He helped her up, circling around her to check for signs of injuries.

"I'm fine." She pushed him away. "Can we learn how to the self-defense thing now?"

He sighed. "Well, at least you're sturdy to pair with your recklessness. Let's begin simple." He led her through some easy exercises, and she did her best to concentrate, but sometimes it got difficult when he was standing so close. It was worse when he had to touch her as part of the exercise. Nothing particularly interesting, an arm across her neck to teach her how to get out of chokeholds, a hand on her wrist as he pretended to grab her, but the contact was enough to make her mind wander.

I need to focus; this could save my life someday. She nodded, pretending to listen as Xinn went on and on about a particular method of escape. But he was crouching in front of her, hand around her ankle as he simulated an enemy grabbing her, occasionally shaking her ankle for emphasis or glancing up to make sure she was still paying attention. Joke's on him, I can pretend I'm paying attention, and no one will ever the be the wiser. Although I really should listen. But his hand is warm. And it's really weird seeing him all the way down there, he's usually slightly taller than me.

Something light with many legs brushed up her calf. She shrieked, jumping back and flailing one hand in terror. It had just been Xinn's hand, he was grinning up at her mischievously.

"Are you going to pay attention now?" he asked.

She kicked some sand at him. "Jerk."

He laughed and reached to grab the blade she hadn't realize she had thrown into the ground while waving her hand. "We should probably move on to learning how to use your blades anyway."

Her blue eyes lit up. "Really?"

"You have to learn sometime." He took her hand and turned it over, brushing a particular point on her wrist. "This is where your blades come from. Since you don't have control yet, they'll sometimes come out when you gesture too hard. The more we work on learning how to use your blades, the more control you will have, and you will have that problem less often."

She stared in fascination at her wrist. There was a tiny slit there, like two halves of her skin pressing tightly together that had definitely not been there last week when she still lived on Earth. Xinn was still talking though, so she forced herself to pay attention.

"The easiest skill is throwing blades. The hardest thing about that is learning to aim." He demonstrated by flicking his arm to send a blade flying into a distant tree. "Just do what I did."

Aley eyed him skeptically for a moment, then did her best to copy his movement. A thin blade barely fell in the sand five feet away. She frowned.

"Try throwing it harder," Xinn said.

"Try throwing it harder," she mimicked, then jumped when he took a threating step towards her. "Don't throw me in the ocean! I'll try." She threw her wrist out again, much harder this time. The blade sailed almost halfway to where his was still embedded into the tree.

"Much better," he said approvingly. "Keep practicing."

He gave her tips and encouragements as they continued to learn more about her abilities. After she understood the principals of blade throwing, he wanted to move on to blade grabbing.

"I'm sorry, you want me to grab the sharp object coming out of me at who knows what speed?" Aley crossed her arms, staring at him incredulously.

He looked amused. "Yes. Like this." He flicked his wrist and then there was a blade flashing in his hand. "It takes time to learn, your reflexes have to be fast, but it will be helpful in any sort of close combat."

"Yeah, I guess." She glanced at her own wrist.

"It's like throwing a blade, but the motion is smaller, and you have to be ready to catch it," he said.

"Well... all right." She took in a breath, then tossed her wrist out. She completely missed catching the small piece of metal.

"A little faster," Xinn said.

She bit her tongue, and tried again, fingers closing sharply around her palm, but not a blade. "Oh boy. We'll be here a while."

It took a while for her to get the hang of throwing her wrist and closing her fingers at nearly the same time. Finally, she managed to grab on fast enough that, while she didn't catch the blade, it only just barely skimmed out of her fingers, leaving a small cut.

"Owww," she whined, shaking her hand. "Why would you want me to catch this thing if it's just going to hurt me?"

His eyebrows bunched. "Hurt you?"

She opened her palm to him, showing off the cut on her fingers. "I don't exactly have the most calloused hands. I'm an actor for crying out loud."

He cupped her hand in his, studying it with worry. "The skin on your hands and wrists should be thick enough to not be affected by your blades. I assumed since you had blades you would also have the protection needed to use them. Does it hurt when you throw?"

She shrugged. "It stings a little, but nothing too bad."

He took hold of her other hand so he could inspect both of her wrists. "I apologize. I didn't realize it would bring you any pain." His thumbs brushed over her wrist. "We'll avoid catching your blades, I don't want you to injure your hands."

"But it seemed like such a cool trick," she pouted, letting him continue to hold onto her wrists.

He smiled at her, about to make a retort, but was interrupted.

"Ooo, what's going on here?" Jirn laughed as he jogged towards them. "General. You've only known her a few days and you're already holding her wrists? I told you it's been too long since you last talked to a female." He winked at Aley before continuing to tease his boss. "What are you going to do next, give her a nip?"

Aley glanced at Xinn curiously. "What does that mean?"

Xinn scowled at Jirn. "I'll explain it to you later. Can I help you, Jirn?"

The other sariun quickly switched into soldier mode. "The council sent me to find you. They would like a meeting."

"With both of us?" He gestured to Aley.

"Just you, general."

"Very well. I'll go there now. Did the council assign you any other missions?"

"No, general."

"Good. Take Aley back to her room and guard her until I send someone else to relieve you."

Aley nudged Xinn's shoulder with her own. "Does this mean our lesson is over?"

He smiled at her. "I'm afraid so. We'll continue another time. Be safe, Aley." He nodded at her before jogging away.

She watched him go before glancing over at Jirn, who was already watching her with a curious smile on his face. "What?"

He blinked. "My apologies, savioress. Shall we return to your hut?"

Sighing, she nodded. "I guess." Xinn better tell me what that was about when he comes back.