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Shooting Range [Monday afternoon]

Katniss made her way to the shooting range on Monday afternoon, her bow and a quiver full of arrows slung over her shoulder. After Friday's Marksmanship class and her frustration with the rifle, the idea of learning to shoot alternate weapons was all the more appealing.

So she warmed up as she waited for Wesley, setting up targets and shooting them in the head (actually, precisely where their left eye would be, if they were real) neatly. It was excellent stress relief, particularly after the weekend.

Though, when she thought about Rue, her aim faltered just a bit, so she quickly banished any thoughts of her small, lost friend.

[she's waiting for Wes, but it's an open range! :D]

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"I aim for the eye," she corrected. "When you're hunting, it'll make for an instant kill, and then you have the animal's entire body to work with, rather than something with puncture wounds." She pursed her lips, and said, "Would it slow it down so you could reload, at least?"

[np! I'm up waaaay too late, myself! And yes, I love this. :D]

"On some, yes," he admitted begrudgingly. "Others have shells protecting their stomachs that would cause the arrow to simply bounce off."

"I don't mean to waste your arrows, but might I try again?" he asked hopefully.

"The nice thing about arrows is that you never waste them," she assured him. "Because they're reusable. Go ahead and try again. That was really good for a first shot."

Oh. Well, duh. He probably should have figured that one out.

He picked up the bow again, set up his arm as he'd been instructed to, took careful aim, and shot. This time the arrow zipped right above the target, missing it by about three inches.

"Bugger," Wesley groaned. God, he sucked at this.

"That's still very, very good for a beginner," Katniss offered, biting the inside of her cheek before jogging over to retrieve both arrows. "You might want to watch your angles? Your arms and fingertips control where the arrow actually goes."

Wesley nodded. "All right."

He placed another arrow in the bow and set it up, glancing back and forth from his arm to the target. As far as he could tell, it was lined up properly, but what did he know? He checked and double-checked his fingertips and their angle as well as the angle of his arm before asking frustratedly, "Do you suppose this is about right?"

"Does it feel right?" she replied. "You look fine, but if you feel tense or it feels awkward, it's probably wrong. Loosen your fingers on the string a little."

"It feels - uncomfortable, but I suspect that's more to do with the unfamiliarity of the bow," Wesley guessed, still staring at the target. "I suppose it feels fine enough."

Tentatively, he moved his finger and released the arrow. It zoomed forward and, once again, missed the target.

"All right," she said, watching the arrow zoom past, "you have one thing really going for you, and that's steadiness. Your arrows aren't wobbling or going up in the air and they fly really straight and far. Just...not at the target. I think that's honestly just going to take practice with aiming with a different weapon."

"I'm rather incompetent at this," Wesley corrected her dryly. "It's perfectly all right to make that observation."

Katniss hid a smile. "I don't like letting people give up," she admitted. "But maybe archery's not your strong suit. Yet," she couldn't help but add.

"Oh, no, I intend to continue training," Wesley assured her. "I simply doubt that I'll end up being especially prosperous today. But I would like to maintain our training regimen. Mutually, if you'd like."

Katniss nodded eagerly. "I want to learn about those little guns you favor," she replied. She paused, adding, "I have a few other tricks in my skill set that I could teach you, if you don't want to just stick with archery alone. Survival skills, that sort of thing." She shrugged. "I'm teaching another girl -- she was here before you."

Wesley nodded eagerly. "Oh, certainly, I'd love to." Then he offered, "I could also teach you fencing, if you'd like."

[Yes! Something I know how to do!]

Katniss' eyes went a little more round. "Sword-fighting?" She'd never been any good at that, but oh, it'd be useful. "I'd love that. It would be very, very useful for me to know how to fence."

[omg yay!]

Wes beamed. "Splendid," he said decisively. "Then we'll continue. Perhaps several times a week?"

'Cause he really, really wanted to get good at this.

"Sure," she said, nodding agreeably. "And we don't have to stick to the range. We can use the woods, too." Katniss shrugged and added, "Little more like the real world, you know?"

Wesley smiled. "Then it's a date."

Oh, god. "I mean - er - I didn't mean to suggest - or rather, to imply that - I simply meant that it would be - be an arrangement." He was sure his face was burning off.

And now Katniss's cheeks were burning, too. Cinna had been onto something with the whole 'girl on fire' thing. It was even working here. "Of course," she said, fiddling with the end of her braid. "An arrangement."

Oh, if the Capitol was watching this, she was going to have to do some damage control. Blushing over another boy's words didn't exactly scream devotion to Peeta.

"Perhaps Mondays and Thursdays?" Wesley suggested, still red-faced and
resolutely determined to plow through the intense awkwardness. Though a date with Katniss would be... enjoyable. He fought the absurd urge to giggle.

"That sounds...fine," she decided, fiddling with the end of her braid and still blushing, herself. "I have Thursdays all free, since I don't have class on them."

"I have a rather loathsome class in the afternoon, but perhaps afterward?" Wesley suggested. "I could certainly benefit from something enjoyable on those days."

"Sure. What makes it so loathsome?" she asked, raising a brow.

Um, the fact that his teacher had spent the better part of the past spring trying to kill him? Only not really.

"The coursework is rather unoriginal," he lied. For some reason he didn't want to tell Katniss about the time he'd failed at his job and drove his principal responsibility in the fight against evil to try to kill him.

[wait, did he tell her that yet? I'm sorry, I'm crazy confused right now. Sorry.]

"Mmm. I have a class like that," she said sympathetically. "I thought it was archery and it's actually something sort of...strange. But anyway -- Thursday, after classes."

[nope, he didn't! and no worries, SP gets me all mixed up, too. :D]

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wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com - 2010-07-21 04:39 (UTC) - Expand

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