The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

It was Monday, the weekend had been uneventful - thankfully - and Arthur was working off some left-over aggression from the whole Morgana mess. This time, he wasn't taking it out on the dummies, but rather on himself-- forcing himself to be more precise, more measured, more everything as he moved.

He lost some track of his surroundings in the process, but that was all right.

If anything, sparring Zack had put a new spark into his training routine.

[[ open, although I'll be gone for a good chunk of the day ]]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was rested up, utterly recovered from her hangover, and ready to train hard today after last night's sparring. "Hey, Arthur." She watched him for a minute, eyes widening, and said, "Sticks today, right," then headed toward the practice dummy with her eskrima in hand.

[bitchprince]

Arthru eyeballed her back as she went. "For that, I think I'm going to put you through a vigorous session with the sword." Not dirty.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Blink. Medieval Guy, sometimes you boggle the girl who knows Shakespearean insults. You do.

"You're sure you don't want to run through someone else?" Not dirty?

[bitchprince]

"I don't have any other students at the moment," Arthur said, idly giving his sword a twirl.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah twirled the sticks, then figured what the hell and went over to re-sheath them, then picked up her sword. "We need to get Morgana in here. Maybe I'll bug her about that this week." She spun her sword in her hand, and turned to face him. "I'd like a more even match once in a while."

[bitchprince]

"I asked, but she chose not to show." Arthur's eyes were rolling.

Okay, maybe he'd been a bit rude in his invitation, but it's not like Morgana didn't know him. "But yes, you should try as well."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that conversation, Dinah would've liked being a fly on the wall for. "Think I will, then. Gotta check in with how she's been since Spring Break anyway. Too much going on." And how. Yikes. "And thanks for that check-in on Saturday morning." Dinah gave him an amused look. "As wake-up calls go, yours is... effective."

[bitchprince]

"I strive to be in all areas of my life," Arthur agreed, smirking a bit in her general direction.

Well, he did. Whether it was healthy was another thing entirely. "How did matters resolve?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I'll bet." Okay, someday, she was hitting him with all the entendres possible. And betting he'd miss all of them, 'cause it was coming from her. Although probably not today.

Dinah quit flexing her arm with the sword, falling into defense mode unconsciously as her expression sobered at his question. "Dru and Kennedy and I were banged up and bruised. But we got out okay." She clenched her jaw. "Civilians got hurt by a... God, can't believe I'm saying it, but: flying psychic snake. That we didn't manage to kill earlier." She grimaced. "And untrustworthy ally escaped unscathed." Okay, that wasn't fair to Christophe, but she still wanted to stab him, and her fingers tightened on her sword at the memory.

[bitchprince]

"A flying psychic snake," Arthur repeated. Thoughtfully, and without the slightest scrap of irony. ... where he came from, it was a distinct possibility, things like that. "How many civilians were harmed?"

They could spar after the grilling session.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Dinah said, voice bleak. "It went off and laid eggs, Christophe said, in the sleeping neighbors. No one was coming out of their homes, but all these little snakes flew out and went after us again, the next morning." She was quiet, then cleared her throat, trying for dispassion. "Say between thirty and fifty. All of those on the street, maybe." This was one of those kinds of fall-out that just slowly kept crumbling away as you absorbed what had happened, Dinah had found. She could plead ignorance of what it would do-- she had been. She could plead having tried to stop the snake-- they had attacked it. It still felt like a failure.

[bitchprince]

Arthur pursed his lips, then nodded. "Then it's a good thing you put a stop to it before it did worse."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I guess." Dinah shook her head. "Dru's safe. That's important. A lot of people want her dead, because she'll be able to fight vampires and other things real soon. But she's vulnerable still, now." She squared her shoulders. "And she's here. Not stuck in some political school they wanted to send her to. There was a half-vampire who really wanted his own way about that. But he can kiss my... anyone who throws Kennedy into a wall for disagreeing is not someone I want Dru listening to."

[bitchprince]

... Privately, Arthur had often considered throwing Kennedy into things when she started to disagree about anything at all, but nevermind that.

"Like I said," Arthur said, because there was little to add, really. "It's a good thing you put a stop to it. Weeping about what didn't happen hardly has any point."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah stuck her tongue out at him, since she wasn't weeping, and muttered, "Yeah, right." Right. Someday she'd deal as fast as Arthur did. Really. .... okay, probably never. SHe had no idea how he did it, to learn it, and didn't want to ask.

"Sparring," she reminded herself, setting her feet and her stance. "Ready when you are."

[bitchprince]

It was incredibly easy if you just grew up with the right father figure and developed a self-destructive sense of pride about yourself. It really wasn't worth the bother.

"Sparring," he agreed, slipping into a defensive stance. "Let's see what you've got today."