Kael's POV
It leaves my mouth before I decide to let it.
We are in the middle of the defensive work that has swallowed the last three weeks. Akira is resetting after a sequence that almost sat cleanly in his body, breath a little short, hair damp at the temples, the faint flush of real effort along his throat.
I step in to adjust the angle of his lead foot and the word is simply there, low and certain.
"Again, baby."
He stills for half a second. Not long enough for anyone else to notice. But long enough for me.
I do not take it back neither do I try to explain it. I finish the correction with my hand at his ankle and step away as if nothing has shifted. He resets. We continue.
The morning air stays cool and ordinary around the fact that I have just called him something I have never called anyone in a training yard before.
The second time happened two days later.
