Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

Monday, morning, salle, Arthur.

And a staff.

It wasn't that he didn't train in the salle every other morning, but Monday had a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to it, especially after spending the previous evening fighting Professor Steve (who was rather a good sport) at Fight Club.

Bruised and slightly strained muscles got the workout they needed, and Arthur was fully focused on his work.

[[ open as always ]]

Comments

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Why, no. Merlin was not napping over on the bench. He was merely resting his eyes.

For several minutes at a time.

Ignore the pillow.

[bitchprince]

Arthur turned around, having finished off a drill, and-- "Merlin!"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Wha--?" Merlin opened his eyes, looking around blearily. "What?"

[bitchprince]

"I'm sorry, did I perhaps interrupt your beauty rest?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't sleeping," Merlin replied, ruining it with a yawn.

[bitchprince]

Arthur eyed him, half glare, half amusement. "Merlin, if you are going to be napping, consider not doing it in the salle with all the lethal weaponry."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin yawned again, sitting up properly. "Were you planning to assault me again and call it training?"

[bitchprince]

Arthur considered him, now. "Well, now that you mention it, I could use a sparring partner..."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"...you just want someone to smack around."

[bitchprince]

Arthur glanced at the pillow on the bench. "You obviously don't seem to have anything better to do..."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I could be studying," Merlin pointed out, ignoring the pillow as Arthur should if he was in any way kind.

[bitchprince]

...Merlin had met him, right?

"And yet, you're sleeping in the salle," Arthur established again.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"...well, you're here too early."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was not napping. Dinah was there, smacking a practice dummy with sticks, rather forcefully, once she got them out. "Morning," she said briefly, making a bee-line for the figure, then starting in with furious speed.

[bitchprince]

"Morning," Arthur said, pausing to blink as she sped on by. "Trouble?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah didn't pause in the hitting. "No, why do you ask?" Whap whap whap! "It's not like I have any problems, right?" Whap! "Understanding people?" Whap! "Or dealing with them doing dangerous things!" Whap!

Therapy through hitting things really was awesome.

[bitchprince]

Arthur took an instant to parse that, idly leaving himself a foot or so away. "I'm sensing there's something the matter here," he said. "Something with people."

...He thought he was being very sensitive here.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah stopped whapping and killing the practice dummy long enough to blow her hair out of her face, and point a stick at Arthur. "You're a guy. You tell me. Why is it okay for someone to take on three huge ships full of enemy soldiers with only one person as backup, and not okay for someone hearing about it afterward to freak out a little?" Or a medium bit. Maybe.

[bitchprince]

Arthur blinked at her.

"Because that someone claimed a victory and came home alive?" he ventured. Honestly, if people freaked out at him every time he went out into battle... ... or nearly got killed...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Okay, now, hearing it in boybrain, that almost made sense. Dinah paused, slowly spinning the stick in her hand, and said, "That part would be cool. If he hadn't said he was dead already, and ..." Whap! Whap whap whap! "He just wants an honor guard before he goes down."

[bitchprince]

Arthur shrugged. "Doesn't sound like he wants much of an honour guard, either," he said, lightly.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Nnngggh. Grrrr." Whap! Whappity-whappity-whap! Dinah took a breath, and muttered, "I end up wondering which one of us is crazy, when I talk to him. And don't--" She pointed a stick at Arthur. "Say that it's obvious. Not helpful." She paused, and muttered, unnerved, "Not that you have to be helpful."

[bitchprince]

Arthur sighed (it was a very put-upon sigh because women, honestly). "When I was seventeen," he began, after a moment of figuring out how to solve this one, "My father sent me out into Mercia with a contigent of soldiers in order to force them to stop attacking our border towns. Halfway in, a couple of Mercian knights went in and blocked off the line through which we'd come in."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah paused in the hitting, and blinked sweat out of her eyes, then asked, "What did you do?"

[bitchprince]

"It seemed like our lives were already lost," Arthur said, with a slight shrug. "The best hope we had was to go out like any warrior should wish to - in battle." Beat. "Of course, in the end, that meant we struck back so vehemently we defeated the Mercian knights and broke up the army that had been raiding our towns."