43 – Caring Concern
Vanessa seemed genuinely concerned as she closely inspected his 'battle wounds'. In the end he could only put up with it while she pushed and pulled him around to get a better look at the damage.
"Yeah, I'm ok. You don't need to worry," Dave told her.
"Of course I'm going to worry, stupid," she retorted, some annoyance evident in her voice.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"Just boys being boys," he said.
"This is more than just boys being boys," she insisted.
"What do you want me to say? I fell down the stairs?" he said rolling his eyes. Compared to some of what he went through with his father during some of his worst outbursts this was really not all that serious.
She just snorted in response.
It was only at this moment she noticed how close they were together. She quickly let go of his head and jumped back to put some space between them. He could see a light blush on her tan cheeks.
"A-at least it looks like it's... healing ok," she said trying to ignore what had just happened.
"Yeah it happened yesterday. It should be fine in just a few more days," he said.
She nodded thoughtfully. "If you say so," she said.
Their instructor wrapped his arm around Dave's shoulder causing him to wince a little. "Oof, you don't look so great. Are you sure you want to participate in class?" he asked with concern giving him a once over.
"Yeah, it's really not as bad as it looks. I'm just excited for class," Dave reassured him.
"Good to hear! Oh there's Jake," he said letting go of Dave to wave at Jake who just walked in through the entrance.
Jake just nodded in return and gave Dave a surprised look, but didn't say anything.
"Well just let me know if there's anything I can do," she said with concern.
Dave nodded. He wasn't sure whether he would take her up on such an offer though. It wasn't really like he felt the need for help when dealing with Jeffrey and his clique. He was already working on his revenge and this was likely the worst he could do to him.
Jeffrey couldn't come after Dave financially or his family due to Dave's father. Meanwhile Dave just kept getting stronger. He was already able to fight off Jeffrey with two of his jock friends backing him up. Meanwhile he would keep getting stronger.
'I should probably look into some martial arts classes to start as soon as I finish this class and have a few more hours available a week. With this new learning ability picking up a martial art should be much easier and faster than it would have been before. It's also not like I'm a total novice, just rusty' Dave thought remembering his father drilling various martial arts into him before he hit puberty. It had been quite a few years since then, but like riding a bike he hadn't forgotten it.
If he could join a decent gym nearby it should be easy to knock the rust off in a rather short time with the new ability and instead focus on growing his abilities further. His goal was eventually to be as powerful as he could be. With his system and ambitions he was always bound to have enemies and the best way to protect himself was to become undefeatable or as close to it as possible. To get to this point he couldn't just focus on becoming physically strong. He would also need to master a variety of martial arts along with marksmanship for ranged encounters.
The harder thing than growing his personal power though was going to be growing his social and political power. Although personal power was the ultimate power he didn't know just how far he would be able to grow his personal power in this world. Everything indicated though the ceiling was quite high someone on the level of a super soldier couldn't stand up to the power of the government or military. He had yet to come across any abilities that indicated growing beyond the level of super soldier was possible. He also hadn't had a chance to gather enough smaller abilities to determine if they could synergise beyond that level either. This meant social and political power were still very important.
"Are you sure you didn't hit your head too hard? You seem to be spacing out," Vanessa said interrupting his thoughts.
"Yeah, just thinking about the future," Dave said.
Vanessa hummed curiously. "Sure..." she said.
"Well, I just wanted to let you know we were about to start and you haven't changed yet," she continued with a smirk.
"Oh, crap!" Dave said. He quickly ran off to the changing rooms.
The class went by pretty quickly it only lasted from 6 to 8 unlike the weekend so students could still attend their day jobs. They just spent a little time going over the material before hitting the floor for live work which always flew by. Since the class was training them to be personal trainers and not focused on training themselves he managed to get through the entire thing without struggling too much despite the bruising that was covering a lot of his body.
Before he left towards home Vanessa caught his sleeve.
"Hey hold on!" she said.
"Hmm? Yes?" he asked.
"So I'll let it slide this time, but like I said before. If you are having trouble let me know, ok?" she said with a soft smile before letting him go.
"Uh... sure?" Dave responded with a soft smile. Although there were plenty of assholes there were still some good people sprinkled in too. Even if he wasn't planning on taking her up on it, it was the thought that mattered.
He was glad to wrap up the training and finally have dinner at home. He was absolutely starving. Probably his body wanting all the energy it could for recovery.