Chapter 13 – Fight

William

I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a good afternoon. Hell, I hadn’t had this much fun in a while. Harmoni was undoubtedly one of a kind. I peered at her sitting next to me, expecting to see the smile I had managed to put on her face since we had arrived at the ice cream shop, but instead, I found her deep in thought.

Had I not succeeded in taking her mind off things? I chastised myself. She was assaulted. No amount of ice cream could make her forget it. Not that fast at least. I hope I had at least helped her lighten her up a bit.

Harmoni was edgy in the car, she played with her finger and her hair a couple of times. I didn’t call her out on it in case it had something to do with reporting the incident.

Within the silence of the car, I recalled her asking if I went there often. It was one of our go-to places with my sister when I still lived here. That was before she disappeared. I smiled as I remembered how she used to pester me to buy her a second serving. I missed her.

We arrived sometime later, I parked the car and walked out to start my shift. I was about to begin my perimeter check when I noticed that Harmoni hadn’t gone inside yet. She was nearly at the front door when she turned around and walked back to me.

“Did you forget something in the car?”

“No.” She shifted from one foot to the other visibly not feeling very comfortable. I was about to ask her what was wrong, but she started talking before I could.

“Can you teach me some basic self-defense techniques?” The words came out so fast I just barely understood her.

I didn’t answer immediately, frankly quite surprised by her request. Thinking about it, I guess it did make sense for her to want to be able to protect herself.

“Because you know, I wasn’t able to do anything then and if somehow it happens again I want to be able to do something whether it’s a punch, a kick or just an escape technique. If you don’t want to, I completely understand. You probably already have so much to do. I mean you basically have two jobs. I just thought that it could be nice and useful, but if you don’t have time...”

“Sure” I finally answered interrupting her adorable rambling. As she rambled, her cheeks slowly covered in a light blush.

“Really?” she exclaimed, shock eminent in her voice.

“Why do you seem so surprised?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t know maybe because I have been nothing but a... well unfriendly person since you started, or because you’re busy. You pick. I’m sure I can come up with other reasons.”

I chuckled.

“I’m glad you admit you were behaving like a spoiled child when I started.” She stuck her tongue out playfully as a response, proving my point. Before I continued on a more serious tone. “I’ll help you but only if you commit to it and take it seriously,” I told her.

“Of course!”

“I can only do it early in the morning so we will train every morning before you go to school. So 6 am every day of the week, and we’ll take Saturday and Sunday off.”

She hesitated for a moment but her will to learn was more prominent than her love for sleep. “Deal,” she looked at me smiling from ear to ear. I hadn’t expected her to be this happy simply from me accepting to train her. If I had known earlier, I would have offered it to her.

“Great then we’ll start tomorrow.”

“Amazing!” she said, clapping her hands together jumping slightly. With that, she finally retreated to her room probably to continue studying. I couldn’t help but notice how captivating she was when she became excited.

***

Waking up earlier the next day was a lot harder than I had expected. Hopefully, I would get used to it soon. I changed into some workout clothes and grabbed my bag for work. Throwing it in the trunk, I hopped in the car. Looking at the time, I groaned—it was already 5:40. There was no way I would be the one arriving late to our first training. Especially after I had told her to take this seriously.

While I drove, my mind took me back to yesterday's event, and a smile found its way to my lips.

I pulled up in front of the house and noticed two figures. One was Benjamin, who had clearly been working all night and was now keeping an eye on Harmoni. And the other was none other than Harmoni, who was already stretching.

The clock in the car read 5:55. I released a breath I hadn't even noticed I was holding. I wasn't late. I parked the car and joined her. We were halfway through November, and the temperature had dropped accordingly, making me hug my coat closer to my body. I would take it off after I was stretched and warmed up.

Looking at Harmoni, she had had a similar idea. She was wearing a thick hoodie and underneath it, I could see her high-fit leggings. Oh god, what did I just sign up for?

Nodding to Benjamin, I told him I would be with Harmoni until she went to school. Benjamin didn't need to be told twice and went home—night shifts were the toughest physically, it truly drained your energy and even after shift it somehow felt like you had gone on holidays abroad and came back with a jet lag.

"Good morning, Princess, slept well?" I asked. I only got a sort of growl in return. Clearly, she wasn't a morning person either. We didn't speak while we stretched.

"Ready?" I asked when we were finally a bit warmed up.

"Sure, where are we going?" she asked, smiling. I guess she had finally woken up enough to be amicable.

"The gym," I said while we started our run. Unlike a lot of rich people, Harmoni's house didn't have a gym, so we would be heading to a gym a few blocks away. As a SWAT member, I didn't need a membership there, but Harmoni did.

Our run there wasn't very long, but we tried to keep a challenging pace. I was surprised at how well she kept up.

"We always have to do a lot of running before each cheer practice," she explained as if reading my mind.

"Sprint to the end?" I asked, but before she could reply, I sprinted away.

We were both puffing heavily in front of the entrance.

"You cheated!” she said, outraged. But the twinkle in her eyes showed that she was more amused than angry. If I hadn't been out of breath, I would probably have laughed at her facial expression. "Plus, I didn't even know where the gym was! It's like double cheating," she exclaimed while crossing her arms and pouting.

Laughing at her antics, I walked past her and entered the gym. I waited against the wall for a few minutes while Harmoni got her monthly membership. The gym wasn’t busy at this time of the day, which gave us plenty of room to practice. Hopefully, Harmoni would also feel less self-conscious with fewer people watching.

Inside, we settled for a vacant space and I started to test out her skills, asking her to alternate between punch, uppercut, low kick, and high kick. She managed the high kick very well, as expected, thanks to her flexibility. Overall, her technique was wrong, but she could muster quite a lot of power in each strike.

I started to show her the proper movement, making sure to emphasize how the body pivots on itself to produce more impact.

She tried it a few times, but her body always seemed to revert to its original wrong posture.

"Harmoni, make sure you twist your leg. Think of it as putting out a cigarette butt,” I explained again.

"The only problem with your example, Simba, is that I don't smoke,” she said flatly. I guess she was starting to get a bit frustrated at the fact that she wasn't getting it right.

Stepping behind her, I placed my hands on her waist. As soon as my hand made contact with her body, I could feel the warmth radiating through her, sending electricity through my body. It was like our chemistry flared up ten times more when we touched.

I couldn't even imagine what it would feel like to touch her bare skin; to run my hands over her beautiful curves... ~Snap out of it!~ From where I was standing, I couldn't tell whether she was affected the same way I was, but somehow I wished she was.

Focusing back on the task at hand, I corrected her posture, pushing against her thigh and twisting her ankle to show her how it felt when the movement was done correctly.

After that one correction, she started doing the movement correctly every time. I taught her a few other moves where the same thing happened: she struggled with the movement, but as soon as I helped her correct it, she would do it flawlessly. She was a really fast learner; I would even say she was a natural.

"You're a fast learner, Princess," I complimented her after she once again adapted her movement to what I said.

"You'll see one day I'll kick your ass, Simba," she exclaimed, making me laugh. That was more than unlikely, and what was up with this 'Simba'?

"Simba?" I repeated, arching my eyebrow. The corner of her mouth curved up, making her smirk at me.

"I thought we were going for Disney nicknames. You don't like it?" she smiled devilishly. "If you're going to call me Princess, it's only fair I return the favor and give you a nickname as well,” she continued before I could respond. I chuckled; that was an argument I was not going to win. Plus, I'll admit, I like the Lion King, so I didn't really care that much.

"Princess, I doubt you'll ever beat me, but you can always give it your best. Just try not to be disappointed when I pin you down time and again,” I said, returning to our previous teasing.

"You say that now, but you'll see.” I didn't know if she was trying to convince herself or me, but all in all, if it made her work harder, who was I to complain.

Later, we decided to move on to different outlets to build up some strength.

I'll admit I spent more time glaring at incoming guys than I spent focusing on my workout.

While I was working on my arms, I couldn't help but notice this boy blatantly staring at Harmoni's ass while she did her squat rep. I glared at him, but unlike the others, he didn't seem fazed by me. He continued to outright stare at her with a smirk playing on his face. That was simply rude and disrespectful.

Letting go of the machine, I stalked off to him as my anger boiled. I hated men looking at women like they were a piece of meat, especially if the woman in question was Harmoni.

"Keep your eyes up, or the next thing you see will be my fist before it collides with your nose," I hissed menacingly to the young man as I stepped into his personal space. He must have been around sixteen, maybe seventeen. Needless to say, he would not stand a chance against a fully trained SWAT officer. By the looks of it, he knew it too.

"Sorry, I didn't know she had a boyfriend," he quickly said before leaving to work on an outlet on the other side of the gym. ~Wise choice~ asshole. Was I acting like a protective boyfriend? I didn't want to ponder this question at the moment, so I decided to simply ignore it. With a satisfying grin, I looked back to where Harmoni was, only to see her looking at me with her hands on her hips.

"Was that really necessary?" she asked. "Poor guy. I'm surprised he didn't pee his pants,” she shook her head, but I could see a hint of a smile sneaking its way onto her face, clearly entertained by what had just happened.

"Yes. Now finish your stretches so we can go home and get ready,” I said, putting her back to work before she could say anything else.

I was glad to see that since that night, Harmoni had done a complete one-eighty regarding her attitude towards me.

She wasn't trying to upset me anymore, and I would even say I thought she enjoyed my company.

I was happily surprised when her wall cracked just long enough for her to share her doubts regarding her future. I hoped that with time, she would let her walls down and open up to me.