The salle, Friday afternoon

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

After classes, Dinah headed down to the salle with her eskrima, ready to work out with Tahiri and pay her back for the light-saber demonstration.

Also, counting the hours 'til the cruise. Yay, vacation!

[for two, but open for others, as salles are]

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[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri showed up just like she'd promised, looking much more rested than yesterday and, as always, barefoot. "When'd you get back?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah beamed as she unsheathed her eskrima. "Last night. I left a text for you, didn't I? If I didn't, I meant to." She grinned, bouncing up on her toes, then giving Tahiri's feet a speculative look. "I get to stay, yay! So we can doing this more than once!"

[weetuskenraider]

"I turned my comm off so I could get some sleep," Tahiri said sheepishly, having done so at Ben's suggestion. She picked up the short practice staff she'd grabbed out of the gym, since those eskrima sticks wouldn't hold up against her lightsaber; the balance would be all wrong, of course, but she'd have to learn to compensate. It wasn't like she didn't know how to use a gaderffi stick either, after all . . . or an amphistaff. "You've been missing an interesting week."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I heard about the fire alarm. And, um." Dinah looked down, turning very slightly pink. She twirled her eskrima forward, and to the side. "Uh. You're doing okay, right?"

Which was as close as Dinah could get to checking Tahiri wasn't too distracted to be playing with big whapping sticks.

[weetuskenraider]

"I'm fine," Tahiri promised. Well, in the sense Dinah was suggesting anyway. "It's been giving me a headache, but I'm used to it now."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Whew." Relieved, Dinah grinned, relaxing, and then looked thoughtful, studying Tahiri's feet. "Does that help? For balance or something?"

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri spun the staff in her hand and quirked a smile. "Helps for me. Shoes are evil, you know. They're a torture device for our toes."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah grinned, tempted to kick off her own shoes. "So I've heard? But find hard to believe." She held out her sticks for a second. "Eskrima sticks. Rattan. Light but hard." She twirled the one in the left from the wrist, and did a pass with the one in the right, coming back to rest. "Want me to show you on the dummy, or just start?"

Bounce. Bounce.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri considered briefly, tempted to ask Dinah to demonstrate first. "No," she finally said. "Let's just go right at it."

No, she hadn't thought how that phrase could be taken. She just knew she wanted to work off some of other people's tension.

[momslilassassin]

After his conversation with Kaylee ("shouting match" being probably a little more accurate a description), Ben was in a pretty terrible mood.

But he'd promised Tahiri he'd come by and smacking things good and hard certainly had its own appeal.

He paused in the doorway and tried to stay out of the way.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah noticed the younger guy at the door, and twirled her sticks in greeting, smiling. "Hi! C'mon in. We're having a stick-off. Staff versus eskrima sticks. Nothing should go flying, though. I'm Dinah."

[momslilassassin]

"Eskrima?" Ben repeated, unfamiliar with the term. "I'm Ben. Tahiri told me you were going to be here."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh, hi!" The boyfriend Tahiri smiled about so much without saying more when not under at truth compulsion. It was enough to make Dinah predisposed to like him, though. She held up the rattan sticks so he could get a better look at them. "Eskrima's the fighting style, so you use the sticks as an extension of your arm, with holds and kicks and other hand-to-hand techniques."

A twirl from the wrist, then the elbow, and a sweep with the full arm, to kind of give him the idea. "We wanted to see how they'd do against a staff."

[momslilassassin]

"Depends who's wielding the staff," Ben said, smiling. "I think Tahiri'll give you a fight."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Cool!" Dinah rocked on her toes, shooting Tahiri a glance. "She's awesome with the light saber." At least by Dinah's standards. Because seriously. The demonstration last Sunday had been impressive as anything she'd ever seen.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's smile got wider. "You've seen her?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yup! This is trade for her letting me see her practice last Sunday. I almost got hit by one of those little robots-- sorry, remotes-- but I got to see her doing the full-scale ziiiing zzzzzunggg zzzz on them," Dinah said, imitating the light saber as best she could. "She said she practices with you, sometimes?"

[weetuskenraider]

There was no way Tahiri could miss Ben's presence, or the fact that he wasn't in as good a mood as he'd been in yesterday. She shot him a questioning look as she headed over.

"Are you okay?"

[momslilassassin]

"Personality conflict," he said, waving a hand. "It'll blow over."

He hoped.

"You're going to smack each with sticks?"

[weetuskenraider]

"Wouldn't be fair with a lightsaber, would it?" Tahiri asked. "We"ll see how it goes. I might be a little rusty with a staff."

[momslilassassin]

Ben gave Dinah an appraising glance. "You won't be that rusty," he said, smiling. "Don't beat her too badly."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri couldn't help a goofy grin at his assessment of her skills. "I won't. Promise. No Force leaps or trying to pull the sticks out of her hands or anything."

[momslilassassin]

"Besides, I want you to have enough energy to try to beat me in a duel later," he teased.

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh, you're on, Skywalker." Tahiri blew him a kiss and smirked, just a little.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

After Dinah and Tahiri were done sparring, and Tahiri had talked to Ben, it was Dinah's turn to sit against the wall, rubbing her bruises, and hoping they forgot she was there as they started to practice.

zzchwwwwwing!

COOL.