"Xiao," Nel shouts rather seriously, using all the might of his short legs to catch up to Xiao. She turns to him, her long bangs deliberately cover her bruised eye and lacking eyebrow on one side. "What is it?" she blurts, her tone unintentionally harsh. Nel raises his hand in a fist, revealing a bundle of wraps and alcohol wipes. Xiao felt like she could cry. She could have probably managed to scavenge some medical supplies but his sincerity was a fresh breath of air to Xiao; she had always assumed revealing her wound would fester suspicion rather than sympathy amongst her teammates.
They set up at Xiao's bunk, Nel carefully arranges the supplies next to her on the bed. "How'd you get this?" Xiao wanted to stay quiet but felt forced by how forthright Nel had always been with her. "The admission test; got stabbed by my bo staff," she says, pausing between painful breaths. Nel wipes at the wound with alcohol, cleaning away the accumulated blood painstakingly. "What were the officials doing? They aren't supposed to let participants injure each other to this extent." She scowls, "We come from very different cities apparently."
Nel begins wrapping the wound, pulling tightly to apply pressure to the wound. "Still this is just wrong," he pauses awkwardly "hey, you mentioned you used a staff. Would you mind teaching me a bit? I don't mean to impose."
She nods, reassuring him.
Later in the day, between martial arts training, Nel and xiao train in an open plot of dirt the soldiers share for training. Xiao starts by teaching him to spin the staff. He stumbles repeatedly and the staff falls from his hands many times. Xiao, unused to amateurs finds herself discouraged. By this time Chance and Christopher join the training session, entertaining themselves with Nels clumsiness. Dunder sits inside the tent, diligently smoking a cigar, unaware of Christopher and Chances slacking. Hours pass and the two loose interest. Xiao is dedicated to teaching Nel the bo staff, But years of training have made Xiao a master, and nel ends up falling to the ground every round.
"Are you sure you want to keep going? You're starting to look kinda purple." He waves his hands "absolutely not! I almost got this!" she shakes her head.
She isn't liking this new side of Nel. What could possibly be this little noble brat's motivation for working this hard? He's got everything.
"We're done, moderation is key, you won't ever get it if you don't wait for your muscles to catch up." She puts the staff on a nearby rack and wipes her hands of sweat. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pressure you. You helped me for so long today."
She reveals a slight smile to reassure him fully. He's startled by it. Xiao having any facial expression at all is a rare blessing; One that allows her teammates to see she is not completely cold-blooded like some of them had initially misunderstood. But her underlying judgments about nobles make this conversation filled with an angst that Nel doesn't understand.