Chapter 7

Grayson wasn't lying when he said he was going to continue to help me train with weapons so I would feel a lot more confident being a Protector. However, I didn't think it would mean him waking me up early in the morning to get to the training room when there wasn't anyone there. Most people were either on early morning missions, doing research, or sleeping after returning from a late night mission.

I didn't mind waking up early at times but that was only when I already knew before I fell asleep that I was waking up early. I had no idea Grayson was planning on waking me up early so I ended up falling asleep pretty late last night.

"Do we have to be training right now?" I asked Grayson as he grabbed my bow from the weapon stand and handed it to me. "It's early. I'm tired. I'd rather do anything else right now. Actually, I'd rather be sleeping right now."

"I know you don't do well trying to train when there are other Protectors in here," Grayson said. "All the pressure gets to you. You feel people judging you because of your last failed mission. Wondering how you're the daughter of the head of this HQ."

"No need to sugar coat it," I said sarcastically.

Grayson sighed. "No, that's not anything I think about you at all. I know not every single Protector is perfect. I know some missions, especially failed ones, can be traumatizing. It's fine that you're not back on your feet yet."

"Well, it's kind of hard to get back on my feet when I was never really on my feet," I pointed out.

"You know one thing that will help with your training?" Grayson asked, gently placing his hands on my shoulders. "Being more confident in yourself. I know it's a hard thing to do being in this powerful group where we save the world and all that but... Constantly worrying about what other people think of you will only cause you to start thinking that way about yourself."

"You're right," I said. "That is a hard thing to do. I want to. Believe me, I do. But it's really hard with all those judging looks, wondering how on earth I'm the head's daugther so yes, you were right about that. And how all the pressure gets to me. Is that your ability? Are you telepathic?"

"What? No," Grayson said. "You don't know my ability?"

"I honestly don't know anyone's abilities if I haven't been on a mission with them, even if one of my dad's duty is to know everyone's abilities. I still don't pay attention to them."

"You've been on a few missions with me now."

"And have you ever used your ability on the missions?"

"Okay, fair point," Grayson said.

"So waht exactly is your Protector ability?" I asked.

"You'll have to find that out yourself," Grayson said. "Especially because we have to, you know, actually starting training before other Protectors choose to use this area. So you ready to get started?"

"I'm ready to sleep," I said. "Or do anything else really. But mainly sleep. You really should have told me yesterday you were planning on waking me up early. I definitely would have made sure I actually got a considerate amount of sleep last night."

"You'll be fine," Grayson said. "I once saw you function on little to no sleep."

I eyed him suspiciously. "How would you know how much sleep I had?"

"It was last year," Grayson said. "When we had that very suspicious threat happening around the city and a bunch of us were given certain shifts to stay awake just in case things got very chaotic. I was on that shift with you. The one where we actually got the chaos so we didn't get much sleep that night."

"I'm surprised you noticed I was on the same shift as you," I said.

"What does that mean?" Grayson asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, I just... Felt like nobody has really paid attention to me before. Nobody has tried to. The only time they started to was after the whole... mission with Ben. And that was only to judge me. You're the only one not judging me."

"Because I know the mission wasn't your fault," Grayson said. "Things go wrong. There are risks. It's part of being a Protector. Unless someone deliberately jeopardizes a mission, it's never their fault for a failed one. Besides, I kind of know what it's like to be judged."

"What do you get judged by?" I asked. "I never hear anything." Then again, I try my best to avoid everyone because they all irritated me. I couldn't stand all the glares from Ben and Belle's family or all the judgmental glares from everyone else.

"My ability, believe it or not," Grayson said. "Everyone's Protector ability makes them unique. Special. It helps them on missions. Helps them be a better Protector. And mine... It never does. Or at least rarely does. I like it, sure. It's cool to me. But... Not so much for the people I'm on a mission with."

"What is it?" I asked.

Grayson hesitated before saying, "We really should get to work on training if you want to do it without anyone in here."

I agreed to it, despite wanting to know what Grayson's Protector ability was. I could always just ask my dad about it anyway but as for right now, we really needed to get training if I want to get a lot better with my bow, and even other weapons since Grayson said he would train me with other things as well.

Grayson wanted to see exactly how I was doing with the bow and see if my technique was messed up despite him teaching me a few things here and there. He sat on one of the benches and watched as I aimed for three targets, one after the other.

And missed all three of them.

"Is it too late to swtich weapons?" I asked. "Have something that's not so... this?"

"You'll get the hang of it, Flower," Grayson said. "But the thing is... You're way too tense. You won't be able to aim properly if you're tense about it."

"I'm always tense. Living is stressful."

Grayson hopped off the bench and walked over to me. "Aim again but don't fire." I did exactly what he said and once I took aim, Grayson helped me loosen all the tension I had in my arms and shoulders. "Of course, you don't want to be completely loose but having all this tension will affect it. Just relax. If it helps, just think the targets are Belle."

"Well, I'm not really a violent person so I don't think that will work," I said.

"Okay, then imagine it's... I don't know, I can't think of anything that isn't violent," Grayson said. "What's the one thing you hate the most?"

"People."

"Okay, apart from People."

"...When people are idiots?"

Grayson sighed. "One that won't be violent if I tell you to imagine that as the targets."

"I hate snakes but I wouldn't want to shoot an arrow at a snake. I also hate bugs but again, I personally wouldn't want to kill them. Someone else can do it for me. I also hate--"

"Okay, forget all of that," Grayson said. "Just don't be tense and aim at the target. You don't have to imagine it as anything or anyone else. Just try your best and don't immediately expect to get a bullseye. It takes training."

I nodded and took a deep, aiming at one of the targets. However, right before I was about to release the arrow, I heard someone walk into the training room and say, "Poppy, Grayson."

I ended up completely losing focus, looking at whoever walked into the training room. I ended up moving my aim there as well, accidentally releasing the arrow and sending it to my dad. I reacted quickly, holding out my hand towards the arrow and slowing it down before it could hit Dad.

Once it fell to the ground, I said, "Oops. Sorry..."

Dad didn't even seem mad that I almost shot him with an arrow. He just chuckled. "Now that was an amazing reaction."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad that you were able to quickly use your ability to stop something?" Dad asked. "Like I said, it was an amazing reaction. Besides, it was my fault for calling your name when you were about to shoot an arrow. Anyway, I need you two for a special mission."

"For what?" Grayson asked.

"A sort of... undercover mission," Dad said.

__________________________

i'm about two hours late but i did start writing this on valentine's day/single awareness day so happy birthday poppy! it's why i (finally) updated this because i didn't update anything for grayson's birthday and i miss popson :(

anyway i see a lot of nolan in poppy lol. you cna definitely see where nolan got almost everything from.