Page 30 of Resurgent

He plants himself beside me.

"Alright." His expression shifts, the joking fading just enough to let concern creep through. "How's the leg?"

Instinctively, I glance down. The scar where the blade entered has faded from angry crimson to pale pink, but the muscles around it still feel...wrong. Tight. Weak. Like someone replaced half my thigh with a soaked rope.

"It’s still attached."

“That didn’t answer my question.”

"And yet…it did."

He rolls his eyes. "On a scale from one to ten?"

"Three."

"Liar."

"Four."

"Try again."

"Fine." I sigh dramatically. "Five and a half."

“You’re full of shit, but I’m pretty sure that’s the best I’m going to get—and Korr can’t get on my ass for not asking,” Matt says, clapping his hands together once. He shakes his head, still looking at me like he can’t quite believe I managed it. “I’m honestly more shocked you convinced Korr to let you start training before you’ve even been cleared. I didn’t think that man knew how to bend a rule, let alone make an exception for you.”

“Who knows, but now that the interrogation is over, we’re stretching! And yes, we do need to stretch before yoga."

“I didn’t say anything!” He argues, before whispering a ‘yet’ he thinks I don’t hear.

We start with simple movements: neck rolls, shoulders, wrists.

Everything feels stiffer than I remember, like months rather than weeks have passed. Maybe they have, in a way.

My body remembers lying still far better than it remembers how to move.

Slowly I lower into a hamstring stretch, and immediately regret it, as my leg protests—the pain sharp, but not unbearable.

Matt notices before I say anything.

"Take it easy."

"I am."

"You've been trying to touch your toes for approximately ten seconds."

"I can almost—" My hamstring spasms. "...Ow."

"It never gets old.”

“What doesn’t?” I hiss, releasing from my self-induced torture.

"Always being right,” he teases, his smile on full blast as he kneels beside me. "Now, slowly ease into it."

"I am easing."

He shakes his head.

"I love this."