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Training had been hard.
It was the usual stuff, but for some reason, Rogelio had just had a harder time than usual fighting off the bots. It didn't help that Lonnie was bullying him for his screw-ups the whole time and the person supervising the training session looked disappointed in his performance. Kyle was also having some troubles, but that was to be expected. That blonde kid wasn't exactly known for his fighting ability.
Training came to an end and Catra suddenly hopped in to kick over the last bot. Rogelio kind of hated how often she pulled that little stunt of not putting in any work until the last second but it's not like he could voice those feelings. All that ever came out of his mouth was grunts and hisses that only Kyle seemed to understand in the slightest.
"Good work, cadets" the supervisor said once they were all lined up after the session. "Well..." he said suddenly as if realizing something "Good work to Adora, Catra, and Lonnie" he corrected. "Kyle, you still need to work on your form and... Rogelio..." he continued, looking at the reptilian. Rogelio felt his heart sink at being addressed so directly.
"I don't know what went wrong today, but your fighting was sloppy" he said sternly, not a hint of mercy in his tone. Rogelio looked at the ground to avoid displaying the emotions currently running through his head. He felt like a fuck up. "Train harder next time" the supervisor continued "We can't have your performance slacking if you expect to ever be a good cadet" he said sternly before turning back to the group as a whole.
"Now, you all may go back to your barracks until lunchtime" he said with a small smile. "Good work, girls" he said again, directed at Adora, Catra, and Lonnie. They all waved him farewell before walking out. The supervisor walked back to his own office, leaving Kyle and Rogelio alone in the training area.
Rogelio was still staring at the ground and Kyle could tell he was shaky. "Rogelio, buddy?" the blonde asked gently, getting the reptilian's attention. Rogelio just looked at him, and Kyle could tell that he was forcing back tears. He already felt like a fuck up, so he was gonna try his hardest to not cry. After all, this was the Horde. Emotions were a sign of weakness.
"Okay" Kyle said gently, taking his boyfriend's shaking hand in his own. "Let's go to the locker room, yeah?" he asked quietly. Rogelio took a deep breath before nodding in response, and the two walked out into the locker room.
Rogelio was growing shakier by the second and seemed out of breath. Kyle recognized the signs of a potential anxiety attack, having experienced many himself. Rogelio was usually the calm one in this scenario, but Kyle was still gonna try his best to be a grounding force for his boyfriend, as Rogelio had done many times for him. Part of Kyle wanted to go find the supervisor and yell at him for having been so harsh to Rogelio. The reptilian wasn't even that bad during training. He just made a few more missteps than usual.
"Rogelio?" Kyle said quietly as he saw the other boy growing more and more anxious. "Do you want to sit down?" he asked gently. Rogelio just shakily nodded in response, so the two of them sat down on the small bench that was set up in between two of the rows of lockers.
Rogelio silently leaned against the small boy. Kyle just rubbed his back, occasionally whispering words of reassurance like "It's okay" or "Just breathe, buddy" and it helped the reptilian to become grounded again. After about 5 minutes of this, Rogelio was able to come back down to a state of calm and shook his head as a gesture to communicate to the blonde that he was okay again. Kyle was just glad to see his boyfriend smiling once again.
"For what it's worth, you weren't that off today" Kyle said with a small smile. "Sure, you made a few missteps, but Catra didn't even fucking help out" he added. Rogelio let out a small grunt of amusement as he heard the blonde curse. Kyle almost never cursed unless it was just the two of them, and Rogelio couldn't help but be amused at hearing the scrawny boy say such words.
"Now..." Kyle said, standing up and helping the reptilian to his feet. "Lunch is in about two minutes" he stated with a nervous smile "Do you want my brown ration bar?" he asked. Each cadet got one brown and one grey bar during lunchtime, so he and Rogelio usually switched with each other so that Rogelio got the brown ones and Kyle got the grey ones. That way they could both have their favorite without having to try and steal from Lonnie.
Rogelio nodded in response and the two ran off to the cafeteria.