The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

Arthur had moved beyond restless into tense, and when he was tense, he took to the sword with twice his usual amount of dedication. That's why he was in the salle even earlier than usual today, practice sword in hand despite the few edges of strain he still felt in that arm, swinging at the dummy.

His blows were so utterly controlled they probably said a few things about his state of mind. No matter. He'd hopefully have his students soon, and use them gladly to keep his mind off of things.

After the reserve tomorrow: that's when he was going to try and use the causeway again. That idea alone would have to be enough.

[[ open as a salle generally is! ]]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was actually happy for the routine of practice by now; the upheaval of so many people leaving soon was less of a novelty and more of a depressing approaching reality. "Morning," she greeted Arthur, trying not to yawn, and headed for the practice swords.

[bitchprince]

"Dinah." Arthur actually ceased his activity when she entered; they had some business to take care of before he started the morning's drill. He'd finally gotten his hands on more of his own money ('adjusted for inflation', they'd said, and peered at him nervously, and muttered something about not having that much on hand and increments and whatnot) and he did have to give her the offered restitution. "I believe I owe you something."

He was fiddling with the strange papers in his pocket in a way he hoped really wasn't obvious.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Mmm?" Dinah willed herself into wakefulness, and tried to think what he was talking about. The money he owed her for the boots sank in after a moment. "Oh! Oh, right." She bit her lip, half-worried now that she wasn't outraged at her shoes being eaten, and Triela had replaced them with even nicer ones. She had no idea how much money he and Merlin had with them, but those boots had been ridiculously expensive in the first place; she'd never have been able to afford them on her own. "It isn't a problem, you know, you can take your time on that..."

[bitchprince]

Arthur did not roll his eyes, but fought with the urge to, taking some bills out of his pocket and fiddling with them until some of them made some sense. "I pay my debts," he said, simply, and maybe even a little impatiently, and offered her the money, stuffing the rest of it back in his pocket. Gracefully. "For your footwear," he elaborated, and nodded.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Dinah said, nonplussed, and blinked at the roll he'd given her, then carefully folded them before going to stick them in her gym bag. "How did you get that?" she asked out of pure curiosity, over her shoulder. "I mean. I know they don't have American dollar bills in Camelot."

[bitchprince]

"I went to the bank," was Arthur's only reply; the word 'bank' rang a little oddly out of his mouth, like it was a foreign word he was testing out. "It takes them a while; something about 'inflation'. Are you ready?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Try very oddly. "Yeah, money... changes. I don't get it either." Dinah shook her head. Well, hopefully that meant he had enough to last out the year, then. If it was a thousand years' inflation. Yikes.

"Yes, hang on, one second." She took a breath, cleared her mind and got into her ready stance.

[bitchprince]

"I 'get it' enough," Arthur assured her, "What, did you think I've been leeching off the kindness of strangers?" He cracked his neck once, then came up close enough to take stock of her stance again. "Begin."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I thought your tuition and board and whatever was paid when you got here," Dinah said, and beyond that, she hadn't really thought about it much. She'd assumed that the shops in town took coins, maybe, but she hadn't considered how many he would've had with him. Or Merlin, either. Hunh.

She re-focused, trying not to be distracted by questions of finance, and started the drill, high, left, low, across, corrected her feet, and switched sides, careful of her arms again, too many thoughts in her head.

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie walked into the salle, a wistful look on his face.

"Ah. The salle. I spent so little time here and yet you had so many pointy things to play with. I shall miss you," he said. Wistfully.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah grinned at her Big Sib, then blinked. "Jamie? What happened to--" She gestured to her face, never had the nerve to ask before. "And you're leaving soon?"

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"I'm leaving today," Jamie said with a nod. "My last day here. At School. And then I'm off to ninja-world where I shall sell squishies to a desert tribe. Of ninjas. I'll be the squishy ninja."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah now had the mental image of soft, stay-puft Ninja. Or possibly Jamie suddenly appearing and offering refreshments, then disappearing in a puff of desert sand. "Do you get a special robe for that? And a squishy battle-cry?" she wondered aloud. Then grinned. "Good luck. You were a good Big Sib. And I can't live up to the naked example you set, but. I'll be rappelling off things and trying to do random chaos in homage."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"See? This is the problem with kids these days," Jamie said shaking his head. "Too hung up on their own body image so they can't run around naked. Dinah? If I don't hear about you rappelling down the dorm naked at least once before you graduate I'll be very disappointed."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Squeak. Then crack up and blush. "Can I do it in the dark?" Which sounded wrong. "I'll -- you know? Knowing this Island? I'll have to. At some point." Dinah saluted him, still tomato-red. "I only hope it shocks as many people as you did."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Just remember. If you do something stupid? Use the gremlin bite as an excuse," Jamie replied. "No one will think less of you."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Totally!" Dinah grinned. "Hug good-bye?" She gave Arthur a look. Yeah, that might not be happening.

[bitchprince]

Arthur did not blink. He was past that stage by now. "You're a graduating senior, I take it," he said, because words did demand some kind of response (unless he couldn't be arsed to, but today he'd take any distraction).

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"No," Jamie said moving toward Arthur. "Actually I'm the guy who ran around the gym naked during graduation. It was an intrinsic portion of the ceremony but you don't get a degree for it. But I am leaving but how about a hug before I go? English Peter isn't here so I might as well hug someone British."

[bitchprince]

There was a pause. If we wanted to be visual with it, it would have included ellipses.

"What," Arthur said, eying him. "I don't think so."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Just a little one?" Jamie asked hopefully. "It can be manly with backslaps and everything."

[bitchprince]

"I've never even met you," Arthur pointed out, staring at him. "I'm not even British, I'm from Camelot. And who is English Peter? Have you no brain?"

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Well you sound British," Jamie replied holding his arms open. "You even have that uptight thing going on. C'mon. One hug and you never have to see me again."

[bitchprince]

Arthur stared at him as if he was physically seeing the brain cells leaking out of Jamie's head. "Are you deaf?" he asked, "I said no."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Camera. SHE NEEDED A CAMERA. Damnit! Dinah tried to be very very quiet so as not to disturb the beautiful potential moment.