Asterism

3. the ring

AS Marley agreed to, the two of them spent the rest of the day in his apartment together. Marley showered her plane ride off after lunch, then Aiden won a round of Scrabble, Marley won two rounds of Spot It, and they both won a game of Battleship. They then snuggled on the couch to watch Avengers Endgame together-or, most of it anyway. Marley did her best to remain attentive but with a devious man-boy constantly trying to cop feels and kisses, portions of the movie ended up going unnoticed.

Now Aiden was letting her take him down a few times in a very overdue self-defence lesson in the gym on the top floor of his building, where there were plenty of mats to practice on. Marley was definitely rusty and it showed, but no matter how much she pled, her boyfriend always refused to be anything other than be gentle with her.

Which, truly defeats the purpose of self-defence training in the first place.

Marley's ponytail brushed against her cheek as she glared down at where Aiden was laid beneath her, her arms pinning his above his head and her legs locking his together the way he taught her. "This is ridiculous, Aiden. An attacker isn't going to surrender and fall to the ground after one attempt at me and then proceed to lay here like a rag doll while I get into this position. How am I supposed to be confident in myself if I don't know what I can do?"

"You do know what you can do," Aiden insisted as she moved off of him, holding out her hand to help him to his feet. He pulled her in with it once he was standing, giving her hand a squeeze. "And so do I, Marley. You know how to throw a solid punch. We've cut your reaction time in half since we started. You're getting stronger. You're getting better. Trust the process."

She rolled her eyes at his usual response to her protests, while he took a drink of their water before handing it to her. Aiden wasn't as exerted physically as she was, but they had both built up a bit of a sweat, and Marley had been out of breath earlier when they stretched and ran together around the exterior track, along the perimeter of the gym.

But what was all of this for, if she would still be going in blind? Marley swallowed her water and twisted the lid back on the aluminum bottle. "Aiden, I'm being serious. I want to feel like this is worth something."

His blue eyes were firm with unmovable resolve, gesturing her close with his fingers. "It is worth something. Learning self-defence is always worth something."

She shuffled closer, not bothering to respond, unmotivated as he turned her back to his front. His hand gripped her hip to pull her in, and she didn't fight him. His head bent, his mouth brushing the hollow of her throat. "This is the part where you elbow me in the face, Hoover."

Marley folded her arms across her chest. "Well, you're not an attacker, so..."

His body sagged against hers. "A self-defence teacher isn't supposed to be an attacker, baby. You're supposed to feel safe in this space and in your own skin so that in a situation where you need to defend yourself - which god forbid that ever happens again - you're not afraid, you feel strong and you can think past your adrenaline."

"How can I think past something if I don't practice thinking past it?" Marley pulled away from him, turning to face him. "This doesn't feel safe to me. Acting like an attacker is going to have the total body strength of a twelve year old boy isn't preparing me, it's handicapping me. And I understood that when I was learning the moves and techniques, but now that I know them I need to strengthen what I know. You don't lift the same weights as you did three years ago, Aiden."