The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

His bruises had faded to a point where he could train again, so Arthur was, as usual, back in the salle to go through his morning routine, and to deal with his regulars as they showed themselves.

He was choosing to ignore anything that may have gone on over the weekend (although he was messing about with his Blackberry in order to finally let Reno in on what had happened on Friday. It was a work in progress, but he'd managed to work it down to ensorclld alli and he had hope that with time, he could both finish the last word, and add the 'golden fish' part. It was possible it would be easier if he simply figured out how to leave a voice-mail-- he was quite an expert in the field if he wasn't, in fact, lucid and sober) and took a good training sword instead to give his aching muscles something to remember.

Just an ordinary Monday morning, all in all. He had a vague hope it might actually stay that way for once.

[[ open salle as per usual! ]]

Comments

[withoutverona]

"It is for short messages," Romeo said. "For more than a sentence, you want a proper keyboard and email or you'd go blind trying to type it out."

But, then, Romeo didn't see what was so difficult about pen and paper, to start with.

"... I don't suppose anyone's mentioned email to you yet."

[bitchprince]

Neither did Arthur about parchment and quill (with one E, Merlin), but people kept badgering him about this.

"...What?" he asked, for a moment preoccupied with attempting to key the message in with more vigour than could be thought possible. There were wrestlers less involved than this.

[withoutverona]

"You might be a little gentler if you don't want it to break," Romeo had to observe. "Email. Letters that come to your computer. You probably have it on there as well, but on a larger keyboard you can write something longer and use more than just your thumb."

[bitchprince]

Arthur pulled a face at the device. Gentler. Right. He pressed send as gently as he could.

"Right," he said, shaking his head. "I'll see about that."

Wait, Romeo was here because-- "But enough of that."

[withoutverona]

"Did you mention no one died?" asked Romeo, who had been reading upside down and thus had a reasonably clear idea he had not, and, really, thought that was a thoughtful thing to add. He pushed his hair back. "Enough. Right. Ready for sparring practice?"

[bitchprince]

There was a moment when Arthur eyed his device. He'd been happy he'd just managed to even finish a message. "I'll remind him of that when we're done," he decided.

Because it would probably take another hour or two. "Always ready," he said, slipping the Blackberry back in his pocket, and he took a stance. "You're the question."

[withoutverona]

"It all but goes without saying here," Romeo said casually, but he decided to give Reno a call of his own. He needed to make sure the package had arrived, anyhow.

The look he gave Arthur was half annoyed and half amused. "If I'm the question, your answer," he said, and he brought his fist forward rather harder and straighter than he would have a few months before, "would be yes."

[bitchprince]

Definitely some progress, said the part of Arthur's midn that could be smug over being a pretty good teacher. The rest of him was rather busier noticing that selfsame fact as a reason for why his dodging did not come nearly as smoothly as it had with Romeo a while back, and he actually left a slight opening on his side as he launched his elbow up at Romeo's own side.

[withoutverona]

An opening! And Romeo both spotted it, and thought he knew what to do with it! He twisted, letting the elbow glance off his own upper arm, and brought his knee up toward Arthur's side.

[bitchprince]

Arthur's face crunched up in half a wince as the blow did connect halfway in his attempt to get away from it, reigniting some of last Friday's bruises in the process. He went with the pain, though, as best he could, throwing a punch at Romeo's head while his focus was still mostly elsewhere.

[withoutverona]

Romeo swung up his arm to try to block the punch, but he noticed the wince. "Are you hurt?"

[bitchprince]

Arthur responded, perhaps predictably (for his standards) by driving his knee up at Romeo's stomach.

[withoutverona]

Well, if he was hurt, he was also an idiot, which meant being hurt didn't count. Romeo considered the question entirely satisfactorily answered ... as much he could consider anything with a knee making a giant bruise on his stomach.

He slammed his elbow down toward the top of the knee after it made contact anyhow.

[bitchprince]

Luckily, that part of his knee wasn't bruised as hard as the rest of him, and it offered Arthur the opportunity to drive his elbow back up at Romeo's face while his attention was elsewhere.

Merlin was not going to be impressed by the bruises, but who cared?