fandomhighdorms | Sunday, Gym, Afternoon

After her adventures in Gun Club (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/654949.html?thread=31237733#t31237733) Pippi is entirely to pumped and decideds to see if there are jumpropes available to work off some of that access energy.

Pip waves to Pippi as she enters. "Hey, Me-pi. What's up?"

Pippi snags a jump rope and starts skippin in front of Pip's treadmill.

"You." she says. "Gotta join Gun Club."

"Sounds like something I should've joined to begin with," Pip says. "Any particular new reason?"

"Appart from making things go 'bang bang'... Marty set up an obsticle course-maze-killer robot thingy this week in the danger shop. That was exciting and new. Last couple of weeks it was just target practice."

"Dude, awesome," Pip said. "I didn't know you were in the gun club. What do you use"

"Flintlocks!" she said spinning the rope while crossing and uncrossing her arms.

"But last week Marty showed me how to use a semi-automatic rifle! And I've been thinking of upgrading."

"Well, if you want to try out some other types of weaponry, yours truly has a pretty impressive arsenal. Does Mary run the gun club?"

"Huzzah! Like what?" she asks, "Marty... I guess he does run the Gun Club. He's the one who makes the signins and sent out the email so he must."

Victor walked into the gym, ready to sweat. He turned to Walter and smiled. "So, where do you want to start?"

"Ohh, lots of stuff," Pip replied. "Handguns, assault rifles, sniper rifle. The works. If Marty runs it, should I call him about joining?"

"Warmups are usually a good idea," Walter said, stepping onto the mat to start stretching to a degree Victor may not have seen him demonstrate before. "A lot of what you call butler-fu is about being aware of what's going on around you."

"Okay," Victor replied with a nod. He streched out as well, using his flexiblity to his full advantage to friendly compete with his boyfriend. "Sorta like Marco-Polo."

"The explorer?" Walter frowned, trying to remember if Marco Polo had been renowned for being particularly alert.

"Remember our first meeting with Alfred at the Perk?" he asked as he forgot about dead explorers and watched Victor demonstrate his own exceptional flexibility.

"Probably." she said turning in place. "I just went down to the shooting range one day and there was a sign-in sheet. It doesn't usually meet on Sundays, but I guess Marty could only get the Danger Shop for today."

She came back around to face Pip.

"I gotta musket."

"No, it's a swimming game. I'll teach you sometime when they heat the pool. But anyway, yeah, what about it?" he asked, bringing the encounter to mind.

"I'm using myself as an example of what not to do, and Alfred as an example of what to do." He grimaced at the memory and worked on some lunges, surreptitiously untying one of his shoelaces while he was at it.

"Why did he beat me?" The memory still stung, but dammit, he was going to turn the humiliation into something useful.

Victor shrugged. "Because he was better? I mean, you both seemed to have this ego thing going on, but he seemed a lot...calmer than you were."

He winced. "You're not gonna smack me with a ruler, are you?"

Walter switched legs and lunged again, loosening his other laces in as unobtrusive a manner as possible. "No. No rulers. But Alfred already had taken my measure. Weighed what I could do, and knowing him, already planned almost everything from the moment..."

He straightened quickly out of his lunge and kicked his shoe off, aiming directly for Victor's midsection, but trying to keep the force behind it minimal. He was aiming to make a point, not a bruise.

"...he threw the teacup," he finished.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, catching the shoe. Then, he looked down at his hands with a puzzled look. He'd caught the projectile. Either he was just that good, or...

"Oh, I see. You were trying to teach me something right there, weren't you? I didn't expect you to throw a shoe at me, so I wasn't ready when you did it. The only reason I caught it is because you weren't trying to hurt me, so it went slow enough for me to notice it." He looked at the footwear and wiped a spot off on his sweatpants. "Did I get it right?"

"Yes." Walter nodded. "And remember..." He kicked out again with his other foot, this time faster, still not hard enough to bruise. "...what happened next with the saucer."

He bounced up on the balls of his feet. "What was the point of doing that if this had been a real fight situation? Taking into account what I just mentioned about observation."

Alfred had thrown the saucer next, Victor remembered, just as the other show went flying at him. There was no way he could catch it in time, however, and ended up curling his arms around his midsection to block the attack. "Ow," he muttered, and picked the shoe up to join the other one in his hand, all the while keeping an eye on his boyfriend.

"The point is to always watch your opponent in case he's going to attack you. Just because I caught one shoe didn't mean I expected another one. Plus..." he looked down at the shoes and saw that the laces were untied, "you had to untie your shoes to kick them at me. If I had seen you as an opponent and was paying attention, I would have seen you untie them."

"And I could use those two attacks to size you up. You caught the first one easily enough, giving me an idea of what you were capable of, but you still didn't have an indication of my full abilities."

He motioned to Victor to drop his shoes.

"That's what Alfred's teaching me. I guess that's what you called butler-fu. It's not as much the fighting as the thinking. Here ends todays lesson on the thinking part."

Stepping closer, he grinned in anticipation. "How would you like to approach the physical part? Attack or defense? Kicks, punches, or holds?"

"Um...I'm not sure," Victor said, scratching his head. "I...what I'd really like to learn is what to do if someone stronger than me has me in a hold. Like a vampire or something."

No, he wasn't sneaking that last part in. Not at all.

Walter frowned. "In my world, if a vampire has you in a hold, you're lucky if the worse that happens is that you die. The point with vampires is to never let them get that close."

He moved as fast as he could to come around behind Victor. "Because they're as fast as I am and my bite won't turn you into a mindless ghoul."

Victor stiffened as Walter came behind him, then leaned against his boyfriend wearily. "You're right," he sighed, looking at the floor. "I'm gonna get bitten really easily..."

"No, because you're going to learn to take advantage of what you do have. What vampire is going to expect you to attack with your tongue for one thing?" Walter put his arms around Victor and squeezed.

"But promise me you won't go looking for vampire trouble yet."

It wasn't a matter of him looking for vampire trouble. It wa smore of a matter of vampire trouble looking for him. But how could he tell Walter that? Even after all they'd been through...was this too big?

He ran his fingers along the cross around his neck and nodded. "I definitely don't plan on it."

"That's all I ask. You didn't go looking for Darla to do what she did. Some things aren't your fault. Just don't pull a 'study group.'"

He put his lips next to Victor's ear, "I trust you to take care of yourself, but I couldn't live with myself if you were hurt doing something like that."

Victor teared a little, not just because of his boyfriend's words but of how much his heart twisted when those words were spoken. They were equals...partners.

"I have something I want to say," he said softly, "but I'm afraid it'll hurt you."

"I'll survive," Walter said almost out of habit. Victor had a better chance of actually hurting him than just about anyone else, though. "You should say it."

He took a deep, nervous breath and exhaled softly. "I'm afraid that one of these days, Alucard's gonna try and take you back. By force. Maybe even kill me."

There. Not so bad, right? Then why did he feel like he was on the edge of the world, about to fall?

That wasn't so bad. In fact, it was a pretty reasonable fear since Victor didn't know what Walter did.

"I really can't talk about this here." He squeezed Victor reassuringly before letting go of him to retrieve his shoes. "Let's go back to your room (http://walter-n-wires.livejournal.com/9749.html) to continue this."

Sunday, Gym, Afternoon

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