3rd Person

After the Pikeman debacle, YN and Max headed slowly and quietly to the training grounds. She had planned for them to do some laps of the camp, but they were already off schedule.

Every camper was out of their tent by now, most going to the mess hall to see if they could grab a snack before breakfast.

YN and Max reached the training grounds, and he finally looked up from his shoes to examine the pain he was probably about to go through.

YN walked over to the weapon rack, grabbing two long sticks. She chucked one in Max's direction. He went to catch it but ended up missing entirely.

She frowned slightly, walking over and watching as Max picked up the stick.

She shook her head, "This is gonna be a long day."

Clearing her throat, she caught Max's attention.

"Follow my lead. Today you're gonna learn to fight back. It's not usually the first thing us Woodscouts learn, but you really need to know it," She held the stick in its centre with her right hand.

She extended it in front of herself horizontally, and Max did the same. She walked over, moving his hand so it was more in the centre of the stick.

Taking a step back, YN pulled two dummies out from behind the weapons rack. Leaving a good distance between them, she pointed to the spot in front of Max's dummy.

He obliged, moving to stand in front of the dummy. Someone had crudely drawn a sad face on the head of the dummy, which itself was made out of a punching bag with a head tied on the top.

YN attacked her dummy with precision, starting with a right swipe, then a left one, then right again.

Max's eyes widen slightly, before filling with a sense of confidence.

He attempted the moves she did, hitting the dummy kind of weakly. In his defence, the stick was pretty heavy.

YN sighed, shaking her head. She placed her hand on his shoulder, only to have him pull away from her.

"You need to put emotion into it, Maxwell," She pointed at the punching bag, "You're not hitting a bag-"

"Yeah I am! That's literally a bag!" He threw the stick onto the ground, crossing his arms, "How am I supposed to put 'emotion' or whatever into hitting an inanimate object?"

She shook her head again, "Let me finish. You need to mentally replace the dummy with someone you hate, someone you want to hit."

Max stared at the bag.

"Go ahead, pick up the stick and hit someone you hate."

He walked over and grabbed the stick, taking some steps back and getting back into position.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, thinking of people he hated. There was a lot to choose from.

Daniel, David, Pikeman, Petrol, Billy, his parents...

Max decided to hit David, picturing the smiling consoler in front of him. His face filled with anger. This was the guy who got him stuck in this mess in the first place.

Opening his eyes again, he took a swing at the bag. His body missed at the last second, as if it didn't want to hit the bag.

Or, more specifically, David.

"Swing again," YN ordered, crossing her arms and observing Max. Her stick was leaning against her dummy, all her attention on the boy in front of her.

He swung again, this time coming from the left.

Miss.

YN inhaled, and Max looked over at her with a look of confusion.

Why did he keep missing? His aiming was fine and everything.

"Try.." She paused for a second, thinking, "Try thinking of someone else."

He changed his focus back to the dummy. Someone else? Easy.

Pikeman, a man who sent fear and fury into his heart. He was someone who Max could attack without any guilt.

Imagining Edward's ugly face smiling evilly down at him was easy, and knowing that he couldn't hurt him in this moment was encouraging.

He took a swipe from the right. Hit.

One from the left. Hit.

YN smiled and watched as Max kept hitting the dummy, getting into a simple rhythm.

Left, right, left, right.

"Ok, now try doing a different pattern," Max stopped hitting it and looked over at her, "Try right, right, left, right, left, left. Go on from there."

He nodded, looking back at the dummy. Beginning to hit it again, YN waltzed over to their shared tent, coming back a few minutes later with a bottle of cold water.

Max didn't notice her missing, but feeling less and less angry as he attacked the punching bag. He took a step back and looked over at her.

She held out the water, seeing him panting and sweating. He gratefully took it, chugging a quarter of it down. YN smiled.

"Ok, let's try a different attack now."

~TIME SKIP~

The two spent the first half of the day training to attack, taking a small break to eat some granola bars YN had stashed away. Max was glad he had something actually edible to eat, since all he had last night was a few bites of dry mash potato.

He felt tired after all their training, but YN wasn't done with practice just yet.

The sun was high in the sky when she and Max went on a few laps around the camp. During which, she showed him around.

"And that, as you may know, is Edward's office," He winced slightly at the sight of it, not liking house close it was to the tent.

He stopped, looking over at YN and tilting his head slightly at her.

"So," he started, "What is it with Pikeman and you? Yesterday, my first day, you were so.."

He gestured something seemingly random, and YN raised an eyebrow.

"Formal?" She offered. Max pointed to her.

"Exactly! Not just to Pikeman too, it was to all the other campers as well. And - and you seemed.." He paused, scratching his neck and mumbling something under his breath.

YN looked around briefly when she heard snickering nearby. She caught the gaze of a few other campers, pointing at Max and elbowing each other. Crossing her arms, she glared at them.

Max noticed her glare and stared over at the boys too, his eyebrows furrowing in frustration.

"God, won't anyone leave me alone?" He muttered under his breath, making his way over to the boys. YN grabbed his arm, pulling him backwards slightly to stop him from advancing to the campers. He stumbled, yanking his arm out of her grip.

Before he could make a snarky remark, the boys started to mock Max.

"Hey crybaby over here!" What seemed like the leader yelled out. Max turned to face them again, fuming as three of them waltz over.

It felt like a Mexican standoff, the boys standing a meter or so away from YN and Max. YN glared, recognising the boys instantly, but not really knowing much about them.

She did see them as the troublesome type though, always pulling pranks on the other campers. She vaguely remembered them bombing tents with some kind of exploding pinecone that the nerdy one, Peter Hue, made.

The leader, YN knew as Tanner, stepped forward towards Max. They both stood their ground, and YN took the time to admire the half-blind boy standing across from Max. He had messy brown hair and piercings on his ears, one black one above his eyebrow. They say he went face to face against a wild bear, who clawed at him and blinded him in one of his eyes. YN doubted that that was true. His sleeves were rolled up to his shoulders, and he stood with his arms crossed, showing off his biceps.

YN was used to every boy at the camp having muscles, it's just what the vigorous training lead to in the end.

She looked over to the two boys who had stayed back, trying to remember one of their names.

Ah, that's right, Mateo. Mateo Segeri. The flirting boy who reminded her of Max. He had pale blue eyes and frizzy black hair, a pastel pink polo showing underneath his Woodscouts shirt. He was taller then YN, but not to the extreme, and his skin was tanned.

Max and Tanner were arguing about something a rather, but YN was looking over at Peter.

She remembered him as a funny little kid, one who loved to give out little gifts to people he thought deserved them. Sadly, in YN's second year of Woodscouts, he became more aggressive towards people he disliked, therefore convincing him to hang out more with the other two boys.

He had shiny ginger hair, styled neatly in a way where it hung nicely above his thin framed circular glasses. His eyes looked slightly bigger due to those glasses, but it brought out his green-blue eyes. Freckles spotted his face and down his thin, pale arms.

YN shook her head and focussed back on the argument that had broken out between Max and Tanner. She felt a pang of guilt when she saw Max getting slightly scared because of Tanner's yelling.

"No one cares about you Maxwell! No one ever did, and no one ever will! Learn to deal with it, and stop making people pity you," Tanner would yell, making Max flinch, glancing over at YN.

"YN doesn't pity me! The only one that should be pitied is you, and your stupid friends!" He yelled back, making Mateo take a confident step forward. He crosses his arms, looking over at her too.

"Actually, she does pity you. Why do you think Edward chose her in the first place? Because he knew only she would have enough pity to train you," Max's eyes widened, and he looked over at her, confusion and slight sadness swirling in his eyes.

"Y-YN?" He paused, "Is it true?"

Peter took his chance, jogging up to the four of them and pushing up his glasses, "Why do you think she is the only one who comforts you? It's because she's the only one who pities you."

The two boys simultaneously 'ooh'ed at Peter's knowing look. Max, however, was in shock. He looked at YN with betrayal flooding his face, tears bubbling in his eyes.

"You told them?" His voice dripped with disgust and sadness, "I-I.. YN?"

Her name sounded sour on his tongue, the way he forced it out made him gag.

She was silent, before looking over at Tanner. Max growled under his breath, swiping away tears from his cheeks.

So that was it. That's what Max got for putting his trust in someone.

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BIG THANKS TO; @Kailedakat and @AestheticCoffeeMugs for letting me use their OC's Tanner, Peter Hue and Mateo Segeri (:

Updates every Wednesday and Saturday?

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Unedited

Final word count: 1 815