Stronger Together chapter 95 (Patreon)

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly, our reunions were happy  and relaxing and we all went to bed that night happy to be home. We  spent hours catching up with Yang hearing about her progress and the new  magic she'd been learning. Raven had been able to engineer some solid  lessons from our own experiences and instruction. After we caught up  with everyone Barb and I fucked Raven unconscious and cuddled up to our  girl as she fell asleep with a big happy smile. Barb followed her to  sleep shortly after, the same smile painting both of their lips. I  meanwhile got up and did my workout, before filling the tub with  nutrient fluid and drifting to sleep.

I  of course was the first one up in the morning, with Raven being so  exhausted and Barb being Barb. I slipped out into the dining room myself  figuring maybe I could make us all pancakes. To my surprise Yang of all  people had beaten me out here and was already at the stove cooking. She  looked peaceful and happy as she scrambled a dozen or so eggs. I was  genuinely impressed she managed so many without burning them onto the  bottom of the pan, I'd never been able to scramble eggs and not waste  half of them.

She  looked up as she heard me enter and gave me an uncharacteristically  soft smile "Hey Cam. Gonna take some getting used to seeing you in the  morning again, but definitely in a good way. It's been sad without you  and Barb around. Kara and I are close but she spent most of her time  with Inari and I just missed our old dynamic you know? Having all of us  back together like this is nice so I figured I'd make breakfast to  welcome everyone back." Her voice sounded warm and content, like this  was all she wanted in the world.

I  smiled back at her stepping over to pop some toast in the toaster as  she cooked."Yeah we missed you a lot too. It's great to be home. And I  think breakfast is a great idea thank you. I was thinking the same thing  but I'm not exactly mad about dodging the work." I shot her a teasing  grin and she snorted out a laugh. "Seriously though it's so great to be  back. Did we mention Harry wants you to come over for training with us  by the way? He's going to be focused on working with you for while,  which is good because I have way too much magic shit to work on."

She  chuckled "You said something about it. But yeah it'll be nice to work  on everything. I still want to learn that crazy martial art Kara taught  you and I cant believe she could make healing potions and never told  us." Yang had been outraged about the healing baths, stating how much  training we could have been doing as a group with a resource like that,  and Kara had promised to bulk order the chemicals and mix up a ton of  the stuff for us. That had led to a discussion of Klurkor and the entire  concept of the martial art got Yang incredibly excited.

I  grinned internally, even someone in as good a shape as Yang would be  wrecked after a session practicing the forms. When done properly they  would exhaust anyone. "Well I could show them to you if you want. I've  been doing them for a while now every single day. The Kryptonians filed  off some important parts when they made their improvements but I'm  slowly feeling out tiny details that seem off and adjusting until they  feel right. Granted I doubt we'll ever completely restore even the first  level forms but they seem ideal for people like us." Far from being put  off Yang seemed excited by the possibility of a new way to train.

Her  ferocious smile reminded me that among all of us Yang was the one who  genuinely enjoyed battle and training the most. Barb had more talent,  Kara had more strength, and Raven's half demon instincts were damn  useful in combat, but Yang was a warrior born, and every time she  stepped onto a battle field you could see the joy in her eyes. That  didn't prevent her from getting angry or accessing her berserker rage  fueled semblance, but it certainly made training a more common thing for  her because she had so much for doing it.

I  helped her finish off breakfast, by which I meant I made the toast  while she finished scrambling the eggs and we plated everything out. We  woke everyone up and let them know it was breakfast, leaving the plates  on the table for them. We made the bacon last because the smell helped  with the wake up and bacon gets gross if you leave it sitting too long,  and once it was done we both sat down to eat. The eggs were absolutely  amazing and I made sure to mention it. "These are fantastic, where did  you learn to make these? I always burn half of them onto the pan."

Yang  chuckled "My Uncle Qrow can cook exactly one type of food and that's  eggs. He taught me when I was a little girl, the secret, aside from shit  tons of butter in the pan, is to use low heat and cook it slow. It  takes more patience but you can make sure nothing gets left behind. I'm  glad you like them though. So this martial art, you willing to teach it  to me before we head to the big mans place? We can't leave until Barb  drags her happy ass out of bed anyway, and being outside for the  awakening of the red haired demoness is a win win."

She  wasn't wrong about that one so I grinned and shoveled the last of the  food in my mouth before standing up. "If you think you can handle it  sure. You're going to be training later, so getting your ass kicked  before you go might not be the best idea, but if you're tough enough I'm  game." I smiled internally knowing she wouldn't turn down the  challenge. I wasn't mad at Yang about our first training session but  all's fair and all that. She was going to be in so much pain by the time  we hit Harry's house it would make what she did to me look like a walk  in the park.

She  shoveled the last of her food into her mouth at warp speed, which was a  bit of a shame because she made damn good eggs, I kind of wished I  could have enjoyed them more but I could ask her to cook again some  other time. Then we both retired to the back yard. I was glad Harry  wasn't going to be training me because doing my own forms this early was  going to make me way too sore to do anything all day. I was healed up  from last nights session completely thankfully so it wouldn't be any  harder than normal. I sometimes regretted the internal nature of the  strain, since no matter how much stronger I got it was never any easier.

I  stripped off my shirt and Yang did the same, standing in the back yard  in just her bra under a think tank top. She left the shorts on which was  probably fine since they were pretty much painted on anyway but she did  take off her belt. She never wore her old clothes anymore but dressed  in similar layers. I grinned at her and then took up my first stance,  letting her settle in before correcting her on the few mistakes in her  form. She did pretty well following me but there were some aspects of  Klurkor that weren't easily seen from the outside and I had to do some  explaining. Muscle tension and balance were key features of the combat  art and it was hard to learnt hose by watching.

Once  she was in position we began. I gave a running commentary, explaining  each move and what kind of feeling it should give as well as my own  interpretations of how it all worked and why. There was a lot of feeling  and intuition involved in the forms so she had her own way of seeing  things and I didn't even know if any of the teaks I made for me would  work the same for her, but she listened intently and tried to implement  all the tips I gave her into her stances and movements. I felt that  familiar burn in my muscles but ignored the pain, embracing the feeling  of my body being refined on a cellular level.

It  was intoxicating getting stronger like this, I expected Yang to be  wincing by now though given how badly it hurt and how much of a shock it  had been to me the first time but she never even twitched an eye brow.  She followed along, keeping pace well and moving along the forms like  she'd been practicing them for years after only one or two mistakes. I  could see some signs of strain though, muscle twitches and sweat beading  on her body. Her face was split in a wide grin clearly enjoying this as  much as I was and still showing absolutely no evidence of the pain.

I  was good enough at these now to manage a bit of speaking as I worked  "So, what do you think?" I grunted between clenched teeth, barely able  to talk "I know it's rough but doing these just makes me feel so..." I  didn't really have words for it. There was so much in these forms I was  still discovering but it felt amazing to just immerse myself in them and  lose my body in the pain and evolution. After we got the nutrient fluid  I honestly half wanted to spend all my time either doing this or  recovering.

She  managed a grunted chuckle, groaning out her response in a voice that  sounded a bit like tearing metal. "Cleansing." And she was right, it  felt like I was being purified, not just physically but down to my soul.  "It feels like all my weakness is being burned away. Like its a  purifying flame." I actually didn't get that but I had assumed that  there would be some personal aspects to how people perceived the forms.  Yang feeling flames of purification was not exactly a surprise knowing  her and how her powers worked.

Give  Yang credit, she followed me through the entire damn set of forms  without complaint, and by the time we were done we were both so covered  in sweat and thoroughly exhausted we barely made it back inside. Kara  hadn't made the new batch of nutrient fluid obviously but we still had a  few jugs left from the batch she cooked up before we got out of  Colorado. Luckily our house was a two bathroom and we both dragged  ourselves into the bathrooms and dumped them jugs into the tub filling  it just enough to pretty much submerge ourselves. Or at least that was  the instructions I gave Yang, who knows if its what she did.

I  dumped out the jugs and climbed into the tub, noting with joy that my  arm didn't absorb or need any of the nutrient fluid, and having one less  limb to repair would hopefully speed things up for me. I lowered myself  into the tub with a groan. We hadn't decided on a time with Harry but  afternoon should be fine. If I made Yang go in sore like I'd planned I'd  have to deal with this nonsense all day and I just couldn't go through  with it. I laid back and closed my eyes letting my body bask in the  healing warmth of the nutrient fluid. Once I got out we would head for  Harry's place. I looked down at my mysterious arm. I had quite a few  questions for Bob.