fandomhighdorms | The Salle, Friday Afternoon

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The Salle, Friday Afternoon

Wesley was waiting for Percy. They had a spar scheduled and it was not going to suck this time.

The last time Wesley had fought Percy had been kind of a shitstorm. He had lost, been kind of a sore loser, and overall made an ass out of himself. Today was not going to be different. He was all set to not get beat by Percy this time. Probably. Not. But more importantly, he was not going to be a sore loser. Probably. It was all up in the air, really.

He'd spent the week practicing, like Percy had snidely suggested he should, and even practiced a bit as he waited, going through parries and sequences he remembered. He was even less clumsy than usual, which surprised even him, really, and he hoped he could keep it up.

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Percy wandered in a few minutes later. He was getting pretty used to the salle by now. It wasn't the training arena but it was still pretty good.

"You made it," he said when he saw Wesley. He kept Riptide in his pocket for now. "No more classes for you this week?"

Small talk. Percy didn't know why but it seemed to be warranted.

"I had two today but they were in the morning," he replied politely, sheathing his sword and propping it hilt-down against the wall. "And yourself?"

"I was supposed to have one yesterday but it was canceled," he answered, shrugging. "So, I haven't had once since Tuesday. It's been an easy week for me. I'm not used to that."

"Oh, I quite agree," said Wes. "The schedules here are rather - well, they're not very demanding, are they?"

"Nope, not at all," Percy said, shaking his head. "I guess that makes it harder to get expelled. Not that I'm complaining. I'm sure my mom's thrilled she hasn't had to come get me."

"Quite true. I'm rather pleased I haven't been expelled as well," he joked. Huh. He and Percy had something in common. That was pretty weird.

"You been expelled before?" Percy wondered, picking up on the similarity too.

"Yes, just the once." This was ordinarily a source of disappointment, but as with any conversation he ever had with Percy, he was getting the idea that it was kind of a competition. "You have also?"

"Yeah, from about twelve schools." Or was it more than that? Percy had lost count. He shrugged though, having become used to it by now. "I don't always do well in school."

Wesley did, but he'd been expelled too, so who was he to judge? "Understandable," he said diplomatically. "Well. Shall we proceed to the spar, then?"

[sorry. lj ate that notification. silly lj.]

"If you're sure you're ready," Percy said, pulling Riptide out of his pocket. The pen immediately changed into a sword and Percy gave it a few warm up swings.

[No worries! I'm about to head SP/AFKish for a bit, FYI!]

"I'm quite sure, thank you," said Wesley primly, unsheathing his sword. He tried a few practice swings of his own, distinctly more comfortable with them today than he was the last time they'd sparred.

Percy could tell that Wesley did seem more comfortable and wondered if the spar would be better this time. It would probably be longer, at least.

Without much fanfare, Percy wandered to the middle of the area, still twirling Riptide. He felt good enough that he didn't need to loosen up. He'd sparred Luke last time so he knew he could do this.

Wes followed suit, dropping into a fight stance opposite Percy. For a few moments he just went through the motion of extending and retracting his arm a few times, changing his grip from pronated to supinated a few times. Finally satisfied, he nodded at Percy and confirmed, "Shall we start, then?"

"Ready when you are?" Percy said, taking a page out of Luke's book and waiting for Wesley to make the first move. He didn't know if it'd be helpful or anything but Luke had won their spar so maybe this would be what he needed to beat Wesley again.

And he was all set to go ahead and make that first move before he thought of something. "Er - perhaps before we begin, we should determine the nature of the fight?" he proposed. "Such as how we will determine once it's been won?"

"Oh, right." He'd almost forgotten that part. Percy dropped his sword down to his side. "Preferences? Luke and I sparred till first blood."

"First blood it is, then," said Wesley decisively. "All right."

With that settled, he gave Percy a nod, then wound up his sword in an arc around his head, cutting in a smooth motion toward Percy's shoulder.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Percy said, swinging Riptide up to block before Wesley could cut off his arm. "I need to switch swords if we're going first blood."

He assumed Wesley was a mortal and, if he was, Riptide would just pass right through him. Celestial bronze wouldn't hurt mortals.

"Oh!" Fail. Wesley reflexively dropped his arm to his side before his sword could even come into contact with Percy's. "Er. I'm rather partial to my sword, actually. Is there a particular reason you'd like to switch?"

'Cause as far as Wesley was concerned, without any understanding of the whole celestial bronze deal, if it was just that Percy was pretty sure he'd win and didn't want blood on his sword, he was going to have to put his foot down.

"Mine's just not...feeling right," he said, bringing Riptide back down. It quickly turned into a pen again and Percy pocketed it a little sadly. He hadn't used any other sword besides Riptide for three years.

"You can keep yours but if we're gonna do first blood, I've gotta see if I can't dig up a practice sword," he said, shrugging. "Sure there's one around here. Just give me a minute."

Hmph. Not feeling right? And he wanted to give it to Wes? Charming.

"Well, if you'd prefer, we could... not... do first blood," he ventured slowly. "Though I'm not entirely certain why that's relevant."

Percy wasn't going to let Wesley touch Riptide. He more meant he had to switch his sword out with another one. No one but him was touching Riptide.

"We can do first blood," Percy said, sounding a little irritated now. "Let me just find a different sword to use. You can keep yours, man. I don't want it. I've just gotta switch mine out."

"All right," Wesley said tightly. He ran through a few practice swings in the meantime, mentally trying to figure exactly what the hell the first blood thing had to do with anything.

One day he'd probably tell Wesley but explaining the mortals versus non mortals and the fact that his sword would just pass through Wesley was going to take too long.

Luckily, Percy was able to find a light practice sword that didn't feel too uncomfortable in his hand. It didn't feel right but it was better than nothing.

Percy wandered back over, coming to stand in front of Wesley again. "Let's go."

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