The Gym, Wednesday afternoon after classes

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Okay, so yesterday's spar hadn't been the best idea ever. Just letting off steam was going to get someone hurt, and apparently Jen needed a sparring partner too, to judge by Radio. So after weight-training and eskrima in the salle in the morning, Dinah left a message for Jen to meet her in the gym after classes.

Still punching that bag. Today, more like it had insulted her acting abilities.

[for the semi-incognita pink ranger; but open for your other gym-ly needs]

Comments

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Got your message," Jen said, showing up at the gym in her usual black workout pants and pink sports bra, and looking much, much less comfortable in her own skin than last time they'd done this.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hey. I haven't seen you since the cruise," Dinah said, backing off the bag for a minute, and pushing a strand of hair off her face. She winced. "Um. Should I be apologizing for not objecting at your almost-wedding?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Let's not ever talk about that again, how about that?" Jen said, grimacing.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Aww, c'mon. Other people actually got married, Jen. At least you stopped when Francine yelled at you." Okay, that might not be helping. Dinah rolled her eyes. "So, want to switch from beating up wildlife to trying to beat up me?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Oh, God, please," Jen said, dropping her bag and kicking it aside. "And I wasn't beating up wildlife. It was a tree. Until what's her name showed up. The pissy blonde."

Beat.

"Either one of them."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Katchoo. At least, I think that's what Francine called her. I just call her Angry Blonde." Dinah tilted her head. "What'd the other blonde do? I was laughing too hard at Emmett to really follow everything in the broadcast." She picked up some gloves, and threw them over to Jen. "A tree is wildlife!"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"What kind of name is that?" Jen scoffed, pulling off her workout gloves to put the sparring ones on -- while she went through her warmup stretches, because she could multitask that way. "Anyway, I don't want to talk about it. Possibly ever again in my life."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I am a good enough friend that if you fight me, we don't have to talk about anything," Dinah told her. "It's been that kind of week."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"You sounded like you needed the outlet," Jen said sympathetically, "and this is way better than me blowing my top in the middle of the preserve."

Even if it would have felt good.

"So do you want to talk about it, or just start swinging?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Swinging good!" Dinah got into her ready position. "If I could do something about it, I could stand to talk about it, but since I can't, I need to punch things." And it just kept pissing her off more, the longer she got left in limbo.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen squared off, weight on the balls of her feet and hands up in guard position. "I'm good at that. Getting punched," she said wryly.

Usually by giant rubber-suited mutants with fists the size of Dinah's head, granted, but hey, if she could take that . . .

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Thanks, Pink Ranger," Dinah said cheekily, then took a breath, assuming the stance she'd had the night before, facing off with Priestly.

Breathe, shift, circle... and feint to the left, followed by a punch to the right!

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

You could tell how agitated Jen still was by the fact that she fell for the feint and -- realizing too late that she'd made a mistake, so her attempt to dodge was off -- got a gloved fist to the shoulder for it.

See, she really was good at getting hit.

Rolling with it, she pivoted back to aim a sharp jab at Dinah's solar plexus, ready to follow that up with a hook to the head if it landed.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

It did land, and ow, but Dinah had her arm up to deflect the hook at least. "Now I know how Priestly felt," she gulped, backing off to get her breath back, then circling to the left, and snapping off a sharp jump-kick to Jen's hip.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen twisted sharply to avoid the kick and let one arm drop fast in a quick semicircular move that, at full speed and aimed just a few inches to the left, was meant to shatter a kneecap (on a human anyway). At this speed and force, it would just knock Dinah's leg aside, maybe throw her off balance, if it worked.

[not_in_the_book]

Having had a good workout with his sword the day before, Ronan decided to head to the gym today to do some weight-training, and maybe see if there were anyone with whom he could spar.

Not that he had much hand-to-hand experience, but it's not like he'd get any better if he didn't practice.

He noticed the sparring match going on as he came in and waved to the combatants, but aside from that decided not to bother them, at least not until they finished the match. Instead, he headed over to the weight machines and began to work with them.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah's leg got knocked aside, but working out with Tahiri had helped her regain her footing a little better. Balance waaay off though. Not too hard to knock her over with another kick, at that angle.

She was still grinning though, because yay! Fighting! And that punch was probably not going to land, but it might keep Jen at a distance long enough for Dinah to get her stance back.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

It did do just that, actually, so by the time Jen darted in to deliver an elbow strike to the jaw she wouldn't have been able to knock Dinah over that easily.

She wasn't smiling -- she never did when she sparred -- but a little of the tension had faded from the set of her mouth.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

It was a good thing Jen was so focused on the spar, because she'd have gotten knocked out cold if she'd seen Ronan come in from sheer flail.

As it was, once she finished she was pretending very, very hard not to see him.

Because staring at her towel was so convincing.

[not_in_the_book]

"Hey, Jen!" Ronan called, waving at her, after he saw that she'd finished. He'd just finished his set on that machine, so he got up and came over, grabbing his towel and throwing it around his shoulders on the way. "How's it going? Did you have a good rest-of-the-cruise?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Ronan." Jen sounded, just a little bit, like she was choking. "Hi."

Not answering the question is really slick. Way to show off your police training there, Scotts.

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan raised one eyebrow and resolved to check out the radio broadcasts for the last few days.

"As much fun as it was," he filled in, "it's good to be back at school, too." He waved generally at where she and Dinah had been sparring. "You looked pretty good out there. Care for a go?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen did cough now, her cheeks burning. "I, um. I think I might be tapped out for the night," she stammered.

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan actually frowned now, a little concerned. "I, ah, hope I didn't do anything... untoward whilst on the cruise," he said. "That was by no means my intention."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"No, no," Jen said quickly. "You didn't. You were just fine," she added, and that didn't help the fire-engine color of her face right now.