This chapter is for @Sarcolineskitty for redeeming the !write reward on twitch! Thanks babe, you know I love you. 

Asher’s POV

Getting out of the house had been an absolute battle in and of itself. Zane’s listening ears must have fallen off in the middle of the night and tossed into a dumpster where they proceeded to be lit of fire to never be seen again. 

His class didn’t start until later in the afternoon thankfully but with it being summer, he was stuck sitting around the house with me all day as I worked on budgets and improvements while Ryan was gone dealing with the clubs who stole labor hours. Usually, Ryan was there to keep him entertained and worn out but without him here, Zane ran around the house like a madman, screaming and laughing at the top of his lungs. 

I had taken several breaks throughout the day to play with him and attempt to get him to sit down long enough to eat something but it did almost nothing to curb the crazy coming out of his 9-year-old body. 

Halfway through the day, I gave up on work, mostly when Zane ran into the coffee table, knocking off the glass vase that had been sitting there. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt and I don’t even remember where I had gotten it so it wasn’t a big loss but in fear of Zane possibly getting hurt, I put the work away. 

An hour before we had to leave, I attempted to get Zane changed into his gym clothes. I sent him to his room to find him sitting on the floor a few minutes later, surrounded by toys in the same clothes I had sent him in there with. 

It had been an act of god to get him to put the toys down for longer than three seconds to get the shirt over his head. His pants were a whole different story and without Ryan there to give me time checks, we barely got out the door in enough time to get to the gym on time. 

We pulled into the parking lot and before the car was fully in park, I opened my door and got Zane out of his booster seat, all but shoving him in the door to try and make it on time.

“You’re late,” Cade sighed from his chair. I slumped in defeat as Zane slipped off his shoes and ran onto the mat. 

“I assumed so,” I agreed. 

“It’s his third class.”

“I am aware.”

“We talked about this.”

“We really did,” I agreed again. “I swear to god I tried.” Cade only hummed, his eyes flittering to my son, who was currently hanging completely upside down on a bar that I had no idea how he managed to get on top of. “He’s being a bit of a maniac today,” I admitted because it was better to warn him now if he couldn’t already tell. “If you can’t get him to focus or don’t want to deal with him, I can take him home.” Cade didn’t break his focus from my son. 

“What have I told you about playing on shit you don’t know how to use?” Cade’s voice boomed throughout the room, his arms crossed over his chest and a rather unimpressed look was printed across his face. Zane’s smile dropped in a second as he got off of the bar. “Get over here and stretch before you hurt yourself.”

I watched, a bit outraged, as my son did exactly what he was told, the first time he was told to do it, without any pushback or whining. 

“Fucking how,” I seethed, utterly pissed that Zane listened so well to a man he barely knew while he fought everything I tried to get him to do today. Cade only smirked as he stood from his chair, knees popping at the simple action. 

“It’s a gift,” he shrugged. “I’ll be adding the late fee to this week’s invoice.” I groaned but didn’t bother protesting as I headed up to the observation room. 

The class had gone better than I expected it too. Zane gave it his all and Cade pushed him as hard as he could in the hour time frame that we had. Admittedly, Cade did have to jump in to save Zane from several hard bails he would have made, cursing at every one of them as he forced his body to turn and support a falling child. After a particularly hard bail that had both of them on the floor, Zane popped up like nothing had happened while Cade stayed on the ground for several more seconds. 

It had been brutal. Zane ran at him like a freight train and the jump he did had him all but landing on top of Cade. Cade caught him easily but the momentum pushed both of them back. Zane ended up landing on the coach, looking a bit concerned as he stared at the cursing teacher. 

“Are you good,” I asked from the top of the stairs.

“I’m fine,” Zane yelled back, giving two thumbs up. 

“I was talking to the person you just murdered but I’m glad to hear you’re also okay. Cade?” Cade lifted a shaky thumbs-up of his own before forcing himself into a sitting position. 

The second Cade sat up Zane ran back to the end of the gym floor, ready to try again before he was stopped. 

“Come here for a minute,” Cade said, holding his hand up to stop the running child. “Let’s have a quick chat.” I stayed at the stairs. 

Cade didn’t seem very happy with my son at the moment and while I couldn’t exactly blame him, the second he started yelling I would beat his ass before pulling my son out of class and doing everything in my power to shut this gym down. 

Still, Zane did what was asked of him and sat in front of the teacher. Cade led him through a few stretches silently at first, probably trying to figure out whatever he was about to say, attempting to dumb it down for the younger child in front of him. 

“What you just did was very scary, for both of us,” Cade began after a few minutes. His voice was stern yet caring and though I couldn’t see his face, his shoulders were relaxed and Zane didn’t appear to be upset yet. “We both could have gotten very seriously hurt right then. Do you understand that?” Zane nodded timidly. 

“My job is to teach you how to do all these cool things in a safe environment where the chance of you getting hurt is very small but I can’t do that if you aren’t at least trying to also be safe. That run was beautiful but had way too much power considering this is a new skill and I was going to support you through it. Save that run for when I’m not spotting you but when I’m here you can’t run like that. It makes the skill too powerful and unpredictable. You weren’t able to go straight back because of it and that caused you to turn sideways and hit me. I can’t focus on saving you when I’m also falling. Does that make sense?”

“But you did save me,” Zane said with a tilt of his head. 

“This time,” Cade agreed. “But that might not always be the case. I will always try and put you first but there might be times where I could get more hurt than you. This thankfully wasn’t one of those times but I can promise you that getting hurt in this sport isn’t fun and you don’t want to go through it. I love the energy you came in with today but you gotta learn when and where to use it, okay?” Zane nodded and bit his lip lightly. 

“Can we try again?”

Cade didn’t answer for a second before looking at his watch and shaking his head. 

“This is not meant to be a punishment,” he began. “But now, I’m hurt and you only have 5 minutes left. I don’t feel like I can safely spot you right now. Do your cool-down stretches, think about what we talked about, and I’ll see you in a few days okay?” Zane nodded even though he looked like he was about to cry. “Don’t start with the tears,” Cade said softly as he ran his fingers through Zane’s hair. “You are not in trouble and I am not mad at you. Safety is my number one priority. If there is even a chance for you to get hurt, I’m not going to allow it to happen and this is one of those times.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” Zane said, barely above a whisper. “I didn’t mean to.”

“I know you didn’t,” Cade promised with a smile as he stood up. I watched as his right leg threatened to buckle but he caught himself with a practiced motion, shifting all of his weight onto his left leg as he reached out to catch himself on a chair. “I’ll see you in a few days.”

He didn’t wait for Zane to say anything else as he limped off the mat and headed to his office. I followed him without a second thought. 

Cade was already dumping a handful of pills into his mouth by the time I got there, plopping into his desk chair in a way that I couldn’t if he meant to or his leg finally did give out. He watched me with a glare as he swallowed. 

“Don’t start bitching at me for cutting class early,” he scoffed. “I’ll waive the late fee to make up for your five minutes.”

“You don’t have to do that.” 

“But that’s why you came in here, right? Five whole minutes of wasted time isn’t worth the battle. I’ll take it off.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” His breathing seemed painful and I could even though the desk was covering it that he was rolling his ankle in an attempt to stretch out the pain there. Still, Cade rolled his eyes. 

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look it.”

“I will be fine,” he corrected but I still wasn’t so sure. 

“Do you need any help with anything? You usually have more classes after us. I don’t mind helping set up mats. It’s the least I can do after seeing that. I’ve been body-slammed by him before and I know it doesn’t feel good.” Cade glared at me and even though I didn’t know exactly why, I could tell I had crossed a line somewhere.

“Do you even fully understand what just happened,” he asked after a while of just glaring at me. 

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Your son could have broken his fucking neck,” he scoffed. “Or a leg or an ankle or a dozen other things. What he just did was extremely irresponsible and dangerous.”

“He’s 9,” I scoffed. “Being irresponsible is kind of what they are known for. I’m sorry that you got hurt but it’s your job to keep him from breaking those things.”

“I can’t do my job if he quite literally pushes me out of the way. If we had been on a trampoline and he pushed me off, I wouldn’t have been able to jump back in and save him like that. You need to talk to him. I don’t think he fully understands how much a simple mistake like this can hurt him.”

“What do you want me to do? Sit him down and explain that he could have died? That’s a bit extreme don’t you think?”

“It’s your hospital bill I suppose,” Cade shrugged. “But he’s only got a few of those left before I drop him from my roster. He’s not my only student and I can’t afford to not be able to do my job when I have other kids coming in after him. At that point, it’s not only mine or his safety on the line, it’s everyone that comes in after that because I’m not on my A-game.” I sighed and rubbed a hand down my face. 

I had to admit that he made a fair point and I also didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt but how do you even have a conversation like that with a kid? 

“What can I do to help? At home and such. If it’s a discipline thing, I swear I’m trying but-,” 

“Not discipline,” Cade cut me off. “You need to work off that energy. Not all of it, he still needs to have enough to pull off these skills, but whatever is going on with him today was too much and it’s partially on me. I should have seen that he was too amped up and tried to tire him out more than I did.”

“You seemed to tire him out pretty well to me,” I said honestly. Cade had worked him harder than any of his past coaches had in sport he had played before and it still wasn’t enough apparently. 

“What changed today that isn’t usually different?”

“Ryan’s not here,” I sighed. 

“Is that your boyfriend?” I choked on my own spit. 

“Absolutely not,” I sputtered. “He’s my assistant. He’s really good at matching Zane’s energy and getting him to let some of that energy go. I’ve always noticed he’s a bit crazier without Ryan but I didn’t think it was this bad.” Cade hummed before shrugging. 

“Kids don’t do well with change. When does he come back?”

“Friday night.”

“Our next class is that morning. Normally I would cancel it but I don’t want Zane thinking I’m mad at him so try your best to wear him out that morning alright?” I nod before turning to leave. 

“And you’re sure you don’t need any help before I go”?

“Positive,” he scoffed. “I promise, I’ve had much worse things happen than a 60-pound child run into me.” I didn’t like the answer but nodded anyway before picking up my kid and heading towards the door.