Love The Story Keep Up The Good Work.

Love the story keep up the good work.

How To Fight - Male!Reader x Ningguang & Yelan

Ningguang

"Yes. I am ready."

You eye Ningguang curiously. She has a confident smirk on her lips, her arms crossed over her chest. She's missing her usual dress, wearing light armor instead. You shoot her an amused look. 

"Someone's feeling daring today." You shrug. "Alright then."

You walk up to the weapon stand, grabbing two dull training swords. You spin around, throwing her one of them. She barely catches it, but quickly places it in her hands. You stretch your neck and approach her as Ningguang assumes the default stance you taught her. 

"I'll show you just how much I learned." She says, brandishing her weapon. "Three hits. Come at me."

"Hah! And make things easy for you, dear? You started this, so you come at me." You spin your sword in your hands, and ready it. 

Ningguang skips up to and swings sideways. You hold your weapon firmly, taking the blow wholly on the handguard. You push against her sword and retaliate with an upwards slash, but she dodges. A hard downwards slash tries to break your guard, but your parry and stab forward. Using both hands Ningguang manages to force the sword away, but you reposition and strike her with your shoulder. She staggers backwards and you finish with a trained top down hit to her shoulder. 

You withdraw. “Clumsy and slow. Again.”

She exhales heavily, steadying herself and returning to position. “Ready.”

This time you open with a barrage of quick cuts, all of them blocked with little effort. You tease her with a stronger hit, catching her retaliation on your hand guard. You step back, just in time to block another downwards attack, followed by a quick stab. You managed to deflect it and riposte, using your strength to break her weakened guard. She blocks the would-be killing blow just in time, forcing you to jump back. 

“Great.” You praise, but before she can react, you charge again. An upwards slash to the left, followed by a vertical combo is ineffective, but your stance nullifies her counter. Having used her acceleration to attack, Ningguang’s frame lowers, rendering her unable to stop a slash straight down on her back. She yelps, and you retreat, giving her space.

“Ow. That’s going to hurt tomorrow.” She groans, but retakes her stance once again, a frown of focus on her lips. 

“Focus. Last chance.”

She moves in without warning, forcing you into stance. Amongst her quick side-to-side attacks stabs are mixed in, forcing you to respond quickly. You find a moment to wind up a stronger riposte, resulting in her weapon being deflected upwards, giving you enough space to close the distance. You try to follow up with a low blow, but she manages to stop you. Before you can react, Ningguang elbows you across the face with her left arm, breaking your lip and sending you stumbling backwards. You send a sloppy, heavy blow at her, knowing she’ll dodge and step back. Now a few feet meters apart, you both resume the default positions. You wipe the blood from your face with your sleeve. 

She moves forward, delivering a variety of high strikes mixed in with various pushes. You keep your distance, making her attack faster and with less accuracy. You once again use your strength advantage and strike right at her weapon’s chappe. Ningguang, exhausted, agitated and unfocused, fails to recover, giving you enough space to slash at her chest. Feeling frisky, you twirl around and, before she can turn around, place a firm slap on her butt. She yelps in surprise.

“W-what was that for?!” You jog back to her, snickering under your breath. Ningguang’s face is red, partly from exhaustion and partly from embarrassment. 

You send her a teasing smile. “Let’s see. For… arrogance, for slacking off in training, and for being so hot.”

Ningguang takes off her helmet, and lets out an exhausted sigh, the expression of embarrassment changing into a smirk. “Understood."

You approach her. Suddenly, but gently, you grab her chin, and place a brief kiss on her forehead, earning a soft smile from her. 

"You'll get it eventually. Patience, Ningguang, patience."

Yelan

Warm sunlight pours through the windows of the gym, reflecting off of the bright, lacquered wood. The day outside is peaceful, but the situation within the hall is anything but.

Sounds of moans and grunts of extortion echo, as do the sounds of hits and the swishing of blades. Sweat pours from your bodies, but neither you nor Yelan lose focus. Your minds are occupied on the deadly exchange of slashes and pushes, always seeking for an opening in each other's guard. One stabs, the other stops the stab, and retaliates, only to have their attack blocked and returned. Locked in a seemingly endless, intense cycle of combat. Action and reaction. Only that exists in your minds. 

Your eyes are cold on Yelan's. Your movements are calculated, backed up with years of grueling training and countless combat scenarios. Every muscle tenses and relaxes on effortless demand, perfectly aligned with your mind, coming across as instinctual. Yelan, in the meantime, grits her teeth. Her body aches, longs for, pleads, demands rest, even if just for a moment. Though she had been dueling you for just over six minutes, her adrenaline-filled brain processes time faster. It feels like she's been fighting forever, exchanging blows, pushes, slashes and stabs with you. 

Some part of her regrets ever asking you to teach her close quarters combat these two weeks ago. The other reprimands her for backing out, in your voice. She knows she has to. For her own safety. She won't always have a better weapon on her, nor will she have backup. The majority of spontaneous encounters end within the first 10 minutes, you said. She knows she has to last. 

Her body screams for mercy. It bleeds from the numerous small cuts, mainly on her bruised and battered forearms. Just as you suggested, she had been using them as a guard and a shoving  tool, and they work. She just never expected it to hurt like the Abyss. Just barely managing it, Yelan inflicted several wounds on your body too. The ones you inflicted are shallow, but deep enough to draw dark, crimson blood, while hers are deeper, sloppier. Her eyes constantly steal brief glances of the nasty gash on your cheek. Despite your hand being almost covered in blood from the slash on your thumb, you don't frown, let alone flinch. Your hands somehow remain steady, while hers have been trembling for some time now. 

Yelan's body is drenched in sweat, both from the intensive activity, and something never before felt by her during these sessions. 

Stress. 

It's her first exam. It will decide whether she will continue on to learn more advanced combat, or spend the next week revising and training, both under your watchful eye. But that's not what worries her, and neither is the fact that it's just the second time you fight with real, sharp blades. It's you, not as her instructor, but as her lover. The sight of your blood bothers her, especially that it was she who inflicted the wounds it comes from. She understands, she really does, that training has to be rigorous, as real combat will be unforgiving. Yet at the same time she doesn't want to hurt you. She knows that neither do you, but you're skilled enough to keep the damage minimal, while she isn't. And then there's the chill in your eyes. No warmth, none of the familiar feeling of security and comfort - just merciless instruction. Yelan knows that it's only temporary, that you'll return to normal after the session ends, but that on top of the former is becoming too much for her. 

She feels like it's real. That she really needs to harm and kill you, else you would do the same. Her eyes feel the prickle of tears in the corners, of both exhaustion and discomfort. She waits for a good opportunity, blocks your attack, and hops back swiftly. You instinctually move to engage her again, but she raises her open hands slightly. 

"Stop, stop. I concede. I concede. Please, no more."

You stay in stance for a moment, but soon relax and stand down. After sheathing the knife, you wipe your bloody hands with your shirt. 

"Alright."

Without another word, you move to the bench. Yelan watches on as you grab a water bottle and press it against your lips, proceeding to down almost all of it in one go. She sighs and closes her eyes. 

"Heh, just don't fall asleep over there." You smile and turn to face her, but stop when you see her. "Yelan, is everything okay?" 

"Yes, yes, I just… Ugh. I'm tired." She tries an evasive answer as she joins you on the bench, her own hydration in her hand. 

"Don't lie to me. I know something’s bothering you.”

She covers her face with her hands, and sighs. “I don’t want to do this.”

You hum in response. “Wasn’t it you who suggested these lessons?”

“I did, but I didn’t expect you to make me do this.” 

You scoff, your thoughts still deep in training mode. “Getting injured is just a part of the training. Besides, Yelan, you aren’t seriously hurt. Are you?”

She rubs her eyes, wiping small tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Her voice comes out nearly as a growl. “I don’t want to hurt you, is this so hard to understand? And you’re so cold, and so… foreign today. I just… You…” Her voice drops to a near whisper. “You’re scaring me.”

You stay silent, taken aback by this statement. She glances up at you and continues. 

“It’s just that you’re so emotionless, and different from the man I know. I l-love you, and you’re making me treat and hurt you like an enemy? You even act as one. I feel like you’re… a stranger with my husband’s face.”

Taking a deep breath, you try to ease her worries, but she cuts you off before you can speak. 

“I don’t care, do you understand? I don’t care that I need training, o-or that real enemies won’t go easy on me! You’re not one of them! I don’t want to treat you as one, please! We can train, really, but I don’t want to do this. Anything but this, please.” A few stray tears slip through her fingers. Her tone is now more hushed, sounding broken. “Please…”

You scoot over closer to her, and place your right hand on her elbow. “Yelan. Please, look at me.”

She looks up, her blue eyes almost pleading. “Y/N…”

You pull her into a hug. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I went too far. I should have asked first, been more gentle and empathetic. I… Have no excuse.”

Her slender arms snake around you, securing comfortably around your chest. She lets out a very quiet, muffled sob. “I don’t want to do this ever again, p-please. I don’t want to hurt you, Y/N.” 

You gently stroke her hair, getting a little blood on the dark blue strands from the injury she inflicted. “You won’t have to. I’m sorry, my love. I’m so sorry.”

Eventually, in your arms, Yelan is able to steady her emotions. She parts with you, a sad look still present on her face. She moves her hand to your bloody cheek, fingers carefully avoiding touching the injury. She smiles at you.

“Come on. Let’s go home.”

Thanks for reading!