Training Montage | Balancing Act

Zenki huffed and wheezed as he looked at the large inflated plastic ball in front of him. It had been tough to puff it up, but he had managed. He had to manage after all, seeing as it was part of the trick he was doing with Skybreaker. He wanted to prove Hutch wrong no matter what. What were they thinking? Acting all high and mighty over what an imp should eat? It's not like they had stomachs, so who cared what they ate anyways? It wasn't like they weren't a hypocrite either, feeding them these sesame seed treats, it was still eating something- which was apparently abnormal. Skybreaker seemed to notice the tension on their owner's eyes, nudging their head against his hand and making a small noise of concern. 

He looked down to the stellaram and lightly ran his hands over their head and into their wool. "It's okay Skybreaker. I'm alright just... really fucking competitive." The hand that wasn't holding onto Skybreaker curled into a small fist as he thought about it. Skybreaker gave a little nod, making as much of an aggressive stance as such a small creature could manage. Zenki giggled lightly, which allowed Skybreaker a bit of joy. They always liked seeing Zenki happy, which is why they were also doing this. Skybreaker couldn't understand the concept of 'competition' or 'hypocrisy' or even 'anger'. They were too sweet for the world and just wanted to make others happy. 

"Alright, Breaker. You're gonna hop up on here and stay really still while I make sure everything's okay, alright? And then when I say go, you're going to start walking around- again- very slowly, while still staying on the ball, okay?" Zenki explained, and Skybreaker gave a little nod. It seemed easy enough, even if the stellaram couldn't really speak from experience regarding the matter. With the help of their owner, Skybreaker found themself on top of the inflated ball, looking down at the repeating patterns of bright colors and making a small noise full of nerves as they also as how high up from the ground they were. Thankfully, Zenki was there to put a calming hand on the ram's face. "Hey, Hey it's okay buddy. I'm here, I'm not going to let you fall, alright? You can hop off whenever you want if you need, okay? I'll be right here."

The imp gave another soft noise, but this one was more positive, happier. After a while, Skybreaker felt Zenki's hands leave them in order to test the strength and stability of the ball. He kicked it lightly, tapped at it, and even smacked it with his tail a few times. And yet through all of that, Skybreaker found themself stable and standing on the ball just fine. Maybe the little Imp shouldn't be worrying so much. After a few more pokes and prods, Zenki found the ball's status to be acceptable for his beloved stellaram to stay on top of.  "Alright, the ball's good to roll. Are you ready, Skybreaker?" 

Skybreaker shook their little head. At least they were being honest. In response, Zenki gave the imp a hug, nuzzling his face into the wool for a moment. "It's okay, we can try again another day, right? I'm sure Quince won't be... too mad at me for not getting any work done." Zenki laughed, but Skybreaker found themself suddenly changing their attitude towards the task once they heard that. They didn't want Zenki to be upset, or have anyone else be upset at him- so before they could be taken off of the ball, they started moving forwards, huffing slightly as they rolled the ball and balanced on top of it.

Zenki was worried for a moment, not wanting his beloved imp to fall over and get hurt, but that worry fell away once he realized that Skybreaker had walked forwards just fine while on the ball, without even a passing thought of them falling off. So instead, Zenki smiled and cheered, walking in front of the ball to encourage the other to keep going. The stellaram gave a happy little noise at the new development. They had been scared before, but they were finding it easier to do now. Maybe it was because they had simply pushed themself forward and their mind caught up with the task...

Or maybe it was just easy to do because it made Zenki happy. Even if Skybreaker didn't understand all of the intricate little reasons that Zenki smiled towards them, they were just happy that they were able to bring joy to the succubun that took care of them and made sure they were okay. In fact, they had to be pried off of the ball later, simply because they didn't want to make Zenki upset for daring to hop off of it. 

It was definitely a task, but Zenki didn't mind, because it was for Skybreaker.