27 Chapter 26

Reid panted as he leaned on a nearby tree. He is currently in a forested area of menagerie. He came here for one thing…training. Sweat dripped down his face as he pushed himself upright.

'One more time.' He thought as he stood steadily on his two feet. He gripped his left wrist and begun. Aura slowly but visibly began to flow around his left hand. It took some time but it became visible but shaky.

*Bang!*

The aura violently surrounded his hand before dispersing outward with a sound, also pushing him back as his back touched the tree.

"Dammit!" He cursed out loud as his left hand shook and vibrated. He had been at this for a few days and he had gotten nowhere. He left around 8am each morning and came back late at night for the last four days. Right now he couldn't even see the sun.

'What am I doing wrong!?' He screamed internally out of frustration, his mind traveling back to the fight with the assassin.

~~~~~[FLASHBACK]~~~~~

"It's over!!!" He screamed as he appeared behind Reid, his thrusted spear only an inch away from taking his head off.

Just as the spear dug into Reid's neck, the sound of violently chirping birds rang out right before he lost feeling in his body.

"Kk-!!" He coughed out blood as he felt weak.

"W-what h-happened?" He asked in confusion. He looked down at his body to see a lightning encased hand was sticking out of his chest.

~~~~~[FLASHBACK END]~~~~~

He had been trying to recreate that technique without using dust and so far he had been unsuccessful. All he succeeded in doing was waste his aura

It took a lot to convince his mom to allow him to train alone but he managed. He was beginning to regret it.

'Maybe she could have given me some ideas…' his thought process stopped as he suddenly turned to his left.

"I know you're there. Come out." He spoke, his body tensed as he unconsciously lowered himself into his fighting stance until a familiar voice came out from that direction.

"Wait! It's me!" A figure as small as him moved out from behind a tree with their hands up. He looked at the female cat faunus as he dropped out of his stance.

Of course he noticed her presence with [Area Sense] but he was still learning how to different people from the animals in the wild. There was also the fact that he was seriously mentally occupied.

"What do you want?" Be asked before noticing the tray in her hand. She seemed nervous before she finally answered.

"My mom asked me to bring this to you. You've been out here all day and you haven't eaten a thing." She answered quietly. It was then that he noticed something strange.

There was a small teapot on the tray but that wasn't the main thing. Kali makes us take the tea when it's hot and fresh. He noticed the absence of steam or heat from the teapot as he walked towards her.

'It's not even warm.' He thought, now in front of her, a hand on the teapot. He also noticed the slight scratches on her clothing.

"How long have you been out here?" He asked her to which she was surprised before briefly looking away.

"Not too long. I just came to give you some food." She said, avoiding eye contact.

"You're lying." He said in the same casual tone he has used before, causing her eyes to widen.

"W-what do mean? I don-" "Your ears twitch when you lie." He didn't let her finish as he quickly interjected.

She raised a hand to touch her cat ears to find one of them twitching every two seconds before flattening them on her head in embarrassment.

He wanted to refuse the food until he felt his stomach practically trying to eat itself. He has been so focused that he forgot about food.

He didn't push her any further but took the tray off her hands. She stood there for a moment, watching him set the tray on the the floor and follow suit, sitting on the grassy ground.

She was about to turn back and leave when her stomach decided to make itself known. She tried to hide her face, hearing the sound her stomach made and knowing that Reid heard it too.

She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes to see his reaction. Noticing this, he only rolled his eyes and gestured for her to join him.

She joined him on the grassy ground as he opened the cover of the food to reveal sushi. He looked in Blake's direction to see her completely focused on it. He could swear that she'd steal the fish if he didn't give it to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blake laid on the floor with a satisfied smile while Reid simply sipped the tea. She ended up take more than half of the food. It was clearly meant for only one person but they had to compromise.

She felt bad when she realized what she had done only for Reid to wave her off and poured himself some tea.

'This tea has a calming effect. I can see why Ghira likes it so much.' He thought as he continued sipping his tea.

"Umm…" Blake's voice drew him out of the calm that he was feeling. Noticing that she got his attention, she continued speaking.

"I never got to thank you for saving me. I dot know what would have happened if you weren't there." She said sincerely.

'You would have died.' He thought but didn't voice it out.

"Like I said before, don't worry yourself about such things." He answered shortly before going back to his tea. For a few moments, there was silence which was a bit awkward for Blake.

"I'm sorry about the sushi. I couldn't help myself." She said trying to start a conversation.

"I noticed." He answered bluntly causing her to get flustered until he spoke again.

"Well I can't really blame you. It's very good, at least the part I ate." He finished, some pettiness bled into his voice at the end.

"You said it was okay!" Blake yelled, clearly flustered.

"That doesn't mean I didn't want it." They continued like this for some time before they stopped. The silence was now more of a comfortable silence.

"So, what are you working on?" She asked. With her question, he could already feel the headache coming back.

"Just something that I've had in mind for some time but it's not working." He said, frustrated.

"Maybe I could help!" She offers causing him to give her a look.

"No offense but I don't think you'll be of any help." He said bluntly causing her to pout.

He got up from the ground quickly, surprising Blake at his sudden movement. Without wasting any more time, he restarted the process of gathering the aura and then attempting to change its property to lightning.

He couldn't count the number of times he was pushed back of the amount of times the gathered aura became unstable and exploded on his hand.

Blake winced every time it happened but understood that there was nothing she could do. It was getting dark and Blake was already fast asleep, leaning her back on a nearby rock.

"Finally, I did it!"

She was suddenly woken up by an excited shout. She sprung to her feet in alarm, wondering what was going on. She turned to the direction of the shout to see Reid still practicing with his back turned to her.

"Finally!" She heard him whisper loudly.

"Reid, are you okay?" Curious and concerned, she called out to him. He slowly turned to face her with his left hand in front of his face and she noticed something.

Tiny sparks of electricity would dance around his fingers and then disappear before I appearing again. It was a tiny amount but it couldn't be mistaken for an illusion or a trick of the light.

Reid watched the sparks and trails of lightning on his hand with an excited and fulfilled expression.

"I really did it. It's too weak to do anything but it's the first step…" He whispered in excitement as the sparks traveled between his fingers.