Part XX

"Time out," Xander gasped, his chest and belly heaving with his need for air.

Darshan lowered his sword, which had been hurtling through the air towards Xander.  "Again?"

"Yes...again."  He swallowed hard to try to bring some moisture back into his throat, and failed.  Wheezing and shaking with exertion, he lowered his sword and plopped down on the ground.

"You've got to learn to push through this, Xander," Darshan said.  There wasn't a bead of sweat marring his visage, and he was breathing normally.  Xander's shirt was soaked through, and he was so out of breath he could barely speak.

"I...don't...think...I'm...cut out...for this," he puffed, wiping the sweat off his face with the back of his hand.

"You're doing fine, Pudge," Cee said encouragingly from her perch on the low wall that surrounded the yard.

"Truly, you're doing better than I thought you would, if only you wouldn't take so many breaks," Darshan told him.

"I'm not...exactly...used to...regular...exercise," he quipped.

"I suppose that's true," Darshan said thoughtfully.

"Can I...have...something...to drink?"

"I'll get you some water," Cee said, popping up.  She disappeared into the house.

Xander watched his breath puff into the air in a cloud of steam.  They were in the spacious backyard of the house, and though the sky was grey overhead, no precipitation was falling.  He sat on the cold ground, mentally begging the cool air to dry his skin.  He was drenched in sweat and still quaking from the work of hauling his huge body around as Darshan came at him again and again.  Though, as Darshan had said, he was doing better than he had expected.  Though Darshan was fast and strong, Xander was stronger.  He was able to swat away Darshan's blows with ease, though he wasn't always fast enough to catch them.

"Here you go," Cee said as she emerged from the house with a large glass of water.

"Thanks," he panted, and downed half the glass in one gulp.  "Can we...be done?" he asked hopefully.  They'd been at this for over two hours, and he was getting really hungry.

Darshan frowned.  "One more time, as soon as you catch your breath.  Then we'll take a break."

Xander just sat there for a few minutes, sipping the rest of his water and staring down at the ground.  He wished that Cee hadn't insisted upon watching them.  The way she stared at him as he jiggled about made him really nervous and embarrassed.  It was bad enough to show Darshan how out of shape he was, but having Cee just sitting there, staring, for once silently, was unnerving and humiliating.

"Alright, that's long enough," Darshan piped up.  "Up you get."

Xander reluctantly lugged himself to his feet and set the glass of water down on the picnic table, and picked up his sword.  It was a heavy thing, the sword, silvery and sharp with a scrolling design etched in its handle.  Xander had thought that they would practice with fake wooden swords first, but Darshan had insisted upon using the real thing so that Xander could get the feel of the weight of it.  At first, Xander had been terrified that Darshan was going to slice him open, but the level of control he displayed was remarkable, stopping inches from Xander's body.

Darshan came at him again with no warning, and Xander raised his sword in front of him to fend off a blow.  Xander whipped Darshan's blade away.  Darshan countered with a stab, which Xander missed.  The point of Darshan's sword came at his round belly and Xander instinctively sucked in.  Xander parried the move with a sweeping motion, stepping backwards out of the range of the blade.  He stumbled over his own feet and flew back, landing with a heavy thump on his backside.

"Shit," he muttered.  That was the fourth time he'd fallen on his ass.

Darshan sighed, obviously disappointed.  "Alright, we can take a break."

Cee ran over to him.  "Good thing you've got all that padding," she told him cheerfully as she held out a hand to help him up.

He ignored her proffered hand and lumbered to his feet, still gasping. 

Cee immediately started chattering as they made their way into the house.  "You're doing really well, you know, Pudge.  None of us can just whack Darshan's blows out of the way like that.  You're really strong."

Xander just stayed silent, wishing firstly that his breathing would calm down, and secondly that he had something to eat.

"Oh, you're hungry?" she asked him innocently.

"No," he growled quietly, not wanting Darshan to hear that the big fatty was already hungry.

"Yes, you are," Cee insisted.  "We don't really have much here, but maybe we can run out and get you something."

"You're hungry?" Darshan asked, making a bit of a face.  "Didn't you just eat breakfast?"

"He couldn't get as much as he wanted because the lady who was working was a bitch," Cee explained.

Xander mentally buried his face in his hands.

"Oh, uh, well, I suppose you can go get something," Darshan conceded.  "Just don't be gone too long."

"I'll be right back," Xander promised.  He made his way to the front door and stepped back outside.  He then realized that Cee was following him.  "What are you doing?"

"I'm coming with you.  You're not supposed to be alone, remember?"

He looked at her with distress.  "You don't really have to come, do you?"  He'd been looking forward to going to a drive-thru and ordering as much as he wanted and stuffing his face in the car with no one there to make him feel guilty.

"I want to come," she said simply.

Xander sighed, but unlocked his car and let her get in.

Five minutes later they were sitting in the drive-thru of his favorite fast food place, a locally-owned joint that had the most amazing fried cheese, burgers, and chicken sandwiches.  "I'd like five cheeseburgers with everything, four chicken sandwiches with ranch, three large fries, a large coke, and six orders of fried cheese.  Do you want anything?" he asked, turning to Cee.

"Nah, not hungry, I just ate, remember?"

Blushing, he turned back to the speaker and told the server that that would be all.  He gave him his total and told him to pull around to the window.  This was Xander's least favorite part.  He came here so often that many of the servers knew him, and knew that everything he was ordering was all for him.  Most of them let him go with just an odd look, but some of them made comments about the size of his order.  He prayed that today he'd get by with just a disgusted look.

"Thirty-one fifty is your total," the guy at the window told him.  Xander handed over his bank card, trying to not look at the guy, who looked familiar.  He handed his card back to him, followed by a large bag of food.  "You enjoy that!" the guy told him, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Uh, thanks," Xander said as he took the food and his drink.  He handed the bag to Cee to hold and quickly pulled into a parking space.

"Why are we stopping?"

"So I can eat."

"Why don't you eat back at the house?"

"Because I'd rather not show Darshan what a fucking garbage disposal I am."

"Stop it right now," she said sternly.

"Look, I just don't want to stuff my face in front of them, okay?  You, unfortunately, have already seen me eat, so it's not going to be a big surprise when I devour everything in this bag.  I just don't want them to say anything."

"Why would they say anything?" she asked him, her brow furrowed.

"Because...it's not normal," he explained, "to eat this much."

"It's normal for you."

"Yeah, and that's why I weigh as much as three people put together," he told her in an exasperated tone as he unwrapped his first burger.  "That is not normal."

Cee just sighed.  "You know, you can't go through life just being afraid of things people might do or say."

"But I can try my best to avoid getting humiliated," he muttered, then shoved half his burger into his mouth.