fandomhighdorms | The Salle, Monday Morning (before classes)

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The Salle, Monday Morning (before classes)

After several months, there were few things as comforting as the Monday morning routine of heading into the salle for practice, if Arthur was going to be brutally honest. While he was in here, with his students, he could sort of pretend the world was working the way the world usually did back home; and back home was troubling enough.

So the first Monday morning of the new term found him back there, same as always, going through his drills while Merlin did his chores and kept an eye on things from his corner of the room. Normal.

Although Arthur was contemplating sending him another text message. Or two.

[[ open salle is open as per usual! ]]

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Fiona made her way there that morning, as was her habit and obligation. She'd spent plenty of time practicing despite the two moves she'd been made to do this weekend, and she was proud of her progress. As such, while she wasn't quite the factory of bouciness that she'd been a few times, her steps were light and her smile was pleasant enough. Fake, but it was early yet.

"Morning."

Perfectly normal, thank you.

Merlin was busy with Arthur's armor again this week. You'd think without regular use it wouldn't need so much polishing, but nooo.

Zack sauntered into the salle today with his sword on his back and a grin on his lips.

So many new people out there! So many opportunities to make best friends forever out of them all.

So, so delusional.

"Good morning!"

"Morning," Arthur greeted in turn. He shot her an idle look, but didn't much care on the whole. "Ready?"

You've got that the wrong way around.

Yes, the harassment would continue.

"Morning, Zack," Arthur returned, glancing up from where he'd been considering his practice sword. "Looking sullen, but I know you're not capable of anything else."

There were boundless ways you could amuse yourself when Zack came into the picture.

"As soon as I've gotten my sword," she said, slipping over to the practice weapons to grab it. She was back in a flash, ready and in the first stance some distance from him.

"When you say."

And Zack was totally fine with any number of them, including but not limited to playing with swords of varying sizes, broomsticks, and umbrellas!

"That's me alright," he laughed. "The very picture of solemnity."

It was a wonder that he actually knew the word, really.

"How have you been getting by, with all of the new people coming onto the island? I hope you haven't been giving them all too hard a time."

"We'll see how your practices have done you this weekend," he said, assuming that she'd done then as per ordered by now.

She was frustrating, but at least you could rely on that bit.

"I've given them all exactly as hard a time as they deserve," said Arthur. Which wasn't really particularily encouraging, Arthur. "I hope you haven't solemned any of them to death."

She had. She'd done it for quite a few days, and the results were as he probably expected.

By the time she finished, there was a bit more of a smile on her face, but not a smug one. Just a satisfied little grin.

"No such luck," Zack replied, still grinning lopsidedly as he took his sword from his back and gave it a few practise slashes at the air away from where anyone was standing. "I met my new little brother, who I'm going to have to call after classes so that I can explain that his roomie randomly becoming a cat is totally normal. And this girl from my world, who I think is interested in the reserves group. But other than that..."

He was going to have to get out there and accost some newbies, at this rate.

Yes, they were. He took last week's newfound realisation to heart to temper any straining insecurities, and nodded.

That was all she was going to get for now.

Well, that, and, "Fair. You should find yourself a dueling partner. Even out those harsher edges, figure out when to use your feet."

Maybe he should shove Zack at her, or something.

"Another one from Gaia?" Arthur asked, loosening his wrist with another one of those trademark twirls. "You're starting to form a crowd."

Nevermind that there was a distinct presence of a certain Camelot Three in Fandom as it stood.

"There are at least two of us here, now," Zack agreed, laughing faintly. "Maybe a third. Someone else seemed to know who I was at the scene of this rickshaw crash on Friday..."

Which had actually been really, really weird.

"But I never got her name or anything before she grabbed Yuffie and ran off."

"Sounds like you fancy yourself a popular man," Arthur said, idly, and scrunched his brow at Zack in a way that implied that he didn't actually believe that. "Yuffie's her name, then?"

Which was actually a really, really weird name.

Hey, it was kind of a weird name to Zack, too, but it was Wutaiian, so there was probably this whole really cultural thing to it. Or something like that.

Zack had noooo clue.

"Yeah. I think it's a regional kind of name, though. You don't get many people called 'Yuffie' in Midgar."

In all fairness, most people in Midgar had weird names anyhow.

Merlin shot him a dryly amused look.

if youve gonne blind yes

There was no answer from Arthur's side.

Except when Merlin's phone went some weird brand of plonk, serving up a very lopsided picture of him handling the armor.

WRONG

By the practice dummies, Arthur was smirking.

Arthur had kind of resigned himself to odd names around here. Why couldn't they have ordinary names, like Cai or Bedwyr or Iseult?

"Regional name?" Arthur asked him, raising an eyebrow. "She's not from your country?"

Zack gave his head a shake.

"No, she's from Wutai, which ShinRa is actually at war with right now, but she seems nice enough. And anyhow, we're both here for school, not to go into battle with one another or anything."

He grinned and gave another swing of his sword, before giving it a twirl.

"She's a good conversationalist."

Or Ector. Ector was a good name.

"Conversing with the enemy?" Arthur asked, slipping into stance without bothering to alert Zack to that. "They let you get away with that?"

Arthur's arse would have been so in jail.

"She wasn't an enemy at the time," Zack replied, noting the stance and slipping into one of his own. "She was a customer. I was at work at Fina. And anyhow, until ShinRa gives me orders to do something about her, I don't even really have to think about it."

What would be weird, of course, would be when he was assigned missions from ShinRa to run around in circles so that she could try to steal his treasure. Just to make up for making her cry when she was maybe ten years old.

Well, that was a neat loophole Arthur had used himself on occasion, so he wasn't about to put Zack in an odd position by pushing. So he switched tacks. "How are the cabins treating you?" he asked, conversationally, "Haven't gotten any bad muscle pains, have you?"

His eyes had narrowed lightly as he held on to his sword.

"Who would you suggest?" she asked as she lowered the sword. She wasn't against it, but she didn't want to waste anyone's time.

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The Salle, Monday Morning (before classes)

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