Shiro & Nathan, Tuesday afternoon

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On the heel of these e-mails, Shiro and Nathan have the first of their training sessions. Shiro unintentionally freaks out Nathan a bit, but there's no lasting harm done. Surprisingly.


He was going to get bored of these stretching exercises very quickly, Nathan reflected. Then again, that was really kind of immaterial; he was stuck doing them for the rest of his life whenever he wanted to do anything seriously physical. The cost of not doing them outweighed the boredom factor. He glanced up at the clock on the wall of the gym. Five to three. Shiro should be along soon.

Haroun had a harsh sense of humor. Shiro knew that Haroun knew exactly what Nate thought of him and what Shiro thought of Nate. This was nothing but a cruel trick. Or worse, a test. A vicious set-up to see how quickly Shiro would lose his cool with the kusoyarou.

Shiro hoped that he was out of mind range as he mentalized that slur.

As the clock struck three, Shiro entered the gym, and with a brief nod at Nate, began to stretch. He was not going to let this man, only recently permitted to be on his feet again, show him up.

Great. Nathan strengthened his shields, not particularly wanting to hear any of what Shiro had to think, and went into the last part of his stretching. It wasn't hard to keep his expression calm, even empty. Think of it like any other training session.

That's pretty much what Shiro said to himself as well. Forget that this was Nathan Dayspring. Forget the (ir)rational hostility. Get through it and excel like he would any other session. If it would help any, imagine him to be someone else entirely. Someone whose smug face he didn't want to punch.

Nathan got to his feet, much more smoothly than he would have even a week ago. "Whenever you're ready," he said quietly, moving to the center of the mats. "Light contact only, remember."

Shiro nodded wordlessly, and took only another couple of minutes to warm up to his satisfaction. He faced Nathan on the mat, getting his body into one of the stances Haroun had taught him. It was still a bit too new for him, but alternating from one of the familiar jujitsu stances to one of Krav Maga in the heat of battle would be too awkward. "I am ready," he said.

Nathan nodded and fell into a defensive posture, waiting. As this was the first time he and Shiro had ever sparred, he didn't expect him to know that he never attacked first. But he'd get the idea shortly, he suspected.

And it didn't take long for Shiro to realize that he'd have to play the role of aggressor this afternoon. Fine. If that's how Dayspring wanted to play? Then so be it. Shiro attacked, moving as quickly as his small frame permitted.

As fast as he'd expected, Nathan thought calmly, blocking and moving out of range, focusing almost as much on his own carefully measured breathing as he was Shiro's movements. Not the time to have one of those not-quite-panic attacks, here. Shiro's attack was refined, too, in a way he wasn't used to seeing from... well, anyone on the team, really.

Shiro was good, and he knew he was, but his attacks lacked finesse. He was still too unused to this style that he didn't move from one form to the other well, leaving a number of small openings he hoped that Dayspring would be too distracted to take advantage of.

Nathan let the first few pass, just to get a good look at how Shiro fought. When sparring with someone new, assessment was always the first priority. But then there was another, and Nathan's eyes narrowed as he launched suddenly onto the offensive, with something relatively close to his pre-injury speed, to take the opening.

Shiro didn't even have time to swear as he was forced into the defensive. So much for distraction. A half-dozen hits connected before Shiro managed to retreat out of range briefly and seal the holes.

Nathan let him go. "I don't know Krav Maga very well," he said, only slightly out of breath as he circled a little. "Is it weak, defensively?"

Shiro got back into his stance, matching Nathan's speed and they circled the mat. He needed a moment to get his breath back, too. "I am a novice," he admitted. "But it is more of a focus on attacking. Think of yourself having the worst possible conditions, then make do. In most cases, that means taking the offensive. Like this." Shiro launched himself forward, only briefly tapping into his powers to assist with the lunge.

Nathan froze him where he stood, telekinetically. His heart was hammering suddenly in his chest, and all the measured breathing in the world wasn't doing much good to slow down the adrenalin rush. "I think perhaps we need to clarify something," he said as levelly as he could. Crap. So very not good a reaction on his part. "Do you use your powers when you work hand-to-hand with Haroun?"

"Let go!" Shiro demanded before realizing the error in his tone and silently admonished himself. "Sometimes, yes. There have been a few occasions where we have used our powers to augment ourselves. But only for speed. We have yet to take the fights airborne, nor do we apply our powers in other ways. Yet."

"All right." Nathan let go, trying to slow down his breathing. "I'm sorry. My fault for not checking on that beforehand. Haroun and I don't generally unless we agree on it beforehand and I wasn't expecting it." He took a step back, his hands clenching into fists to hide their slight trembling. "Why don't we back up twenty seconds and try that again?"

That was . . . odd. Shiro raised an eyebrow questioningly, but acquiesced and took a few steps back. With the surprise gone, he'd have to find a new opening, preferably one that didn't require any powers use whatsoever, even something as harmless as a quick boost in speed. He made a note to ask what had happened once they were done.

Shiro came at him again, without the speed boost this time, and Nathan kept to a basic Askani defensive pattern, keeping it as tight as he could. It called for a little more speed than he was capable of right now, but the results were still acceptable. He could almost feel it, just beyond him... the point where the patterns would flow together again. Fuck, he missed it.

Nathan's sloppiness was unexpected, but Shiro gave him the benefit of the doubt anyway, not slowing his flurry of blows just because his opponent couldn't keep up. Although it was awful frustrating. He'd come expecting to be blown away, yet here they were, nearly evenly matched. It reminded him of a spar with Paul once, when Paul had refused to speed up no matter how much Shiro demanded it, because Paul knew that it would be unfair to Shiro. Was Dayspring belittling Shiro too? He wouldn't put it beyond him.

Shiro was steadily pushing him back, and Nathan gritted his teeth, suddenly aware of a certain irritation that was unfamiliar, it had been so long since he'd felt it. Since before Youra. But here he was on the mats, sparring with someone who hadn't been alive for as long as he, Nathan, had been practicing hand-to-hand.

And he was holding himself back because he couldn't manage the speed and flexibility necessary to do the Askani forms justice? To hell with that. All at once, in the space between one of Shiro's blows and the next, Nathan shifted styles completely, back to what he had been taught at Mistra. Much less pretty. Every bit as aggressive as Krav Maga, and it felt right, suddenly, right like nothing he'd done on the mats since he'd been allowed back in the gym had felt.

Shiro was too linguistically inept to formulate a proper response to this sudden change. He floundered getting his defenses up. A number of hits slipped through, but thankfully Dayspring wasn't hitting very hard. So Shiro knew he hadn't snapped. That was almost reassuring.

Nathan pushed him back relentlessly, fierce and yet totally focused, too. There was a pattern in Shiro's blocks, he could almost see it. It struck him with a sudden, not unpleasant shock that he was still thinking like an Askani, even if he was fighting like a Mistra operative. And maybe the hybrid was what he should have been shooting for all along.

Shiro was getting exhausted. Speed didn't help much if he didn't have he opportunity to use it. And Dayspring was too strong to counter easily. But he seemed to have a pattern of some sort, too, and patterns mean breaks, and breaks mean time to strike back.

A shame for both of them that he didn't realize that when he took the chance to punch back and regain the offensive, his fist was covered in golden flame. Oops.

Nathan reacted automatically. Not by flinging Shiro across the room, either, which actually came as something of a surprise to him later, in his mental review of the sparring session. Instead, instinctively, there were telekinetic armor springing up around his left hand and arm as he reached out and caught Shiro's wrist, even as he dodged out of the way of the punch.

It was all done before the panic had time to hit, although hit it did, and he knew damned well he wasn't keeping it off his face as Shiro looked up at him. "I think that's maybe taking things a little far there," he said, and his voice wasn't quite even this time. "Getting singed in sparring is not generally on."

Shiro reclaimed his arm, the flames dissipating. Leave it to Dayspring to make him inadvertently tap into his powers like that. Even though Shiro was well aware that it was his own fault. He looked away, taking a deep breath before he spoke. "I apologize," he said firmly. "I did not mean for that to happen. It was instinct, I suppose."

Nathan nodded. "I need a minute here," he said almost inaudibly, turning away and closing his eyes, running over a meditative pattern in his mind, carefully regulating his breathing. "One of the reasons -- I wasn't so sure -- about Haroun's suggestion," he said finally, between breaths. "Not 100%. Like I said."

"Sure." Shiro wouldn't pursue the matter further, he decided, because this had been his mistake and something that he had to work on fixing himself.

He could do this. He'd been doing just fine here. And now he knew precisely why Haroun had him doing this, and it wasn't just because Haroun wanted him and Shiro to practice working together without snarling at each other. You could get in a rut as easily when you were recovering as anytime else. More so, maybe.

"Okay, ready," he said, turning around to face Shiro again. "Let's try and keep powers out of it, all right?"

"Yes." Being the defender was not an option anymore, Shiro figured. It was time to be aggressive and stay aggressive. Losing the offense would mean losing the fight, and Shiro always played to win.

Nathan let him take the offensive, quite deliberately taking a couple of half-strength hits for the sole purpose of pulling him closer in, letting him close the distance. Then he pushed back, and pushed back hard. Always a mistake for a smaller opponent to get too close to someone his size.

Shiro was prepared to the type of attacks that Dayspring seemed to be fond of, but this time set himself to evading the blows rather than blocking them. Countering would still be difficult, but if he could dodge Dayspring then he could get in a hit or two before he regained his advantage.

The way Shiro was bouncing around, he was going to wind up off-balance at some point. Or no, maybe that's just creaky old me... Nathan watched for it, though. A blow that was a little too hard for a light-contact spar snuck past and landed in the vicinity of his ribs. Ow. Lovely. But Shiro overextended, doing it, and Nathan immediately jumped on the opening, sweeping the young man's feet out from under him.

Shiro had to remind himself of the no powers rule as he landed on his ass. How much less painful that could have been if he could have cushioned that fall. But he wasted no time, rolling to the side and back to his feet out of Dayspring's immediate range.

"Dial it back a little," Nathan said, his voice steely. "Light contact means light contact. We're not wearing leathers and if you break any of my ribs you're liable to have a hysterical pregnant Scotswoman breathing down your neck."

"Sorry. Although what can I do that won't leave me with a hysterical pregnant Scotswoman breathing down my neck?" Shiro scoffed as he returned to fight.

"A light-contact spar," Nathan said, raising an eyebrow as Shiro closed with him. "Is this where I say 'duh'?"

"She does not get 'that way' even when you are winded and exhausted?" Shiro asked. "After everything you say about her, I am led to believe that she will take any excuse to harpy you." As he said this, Shiro couldn't believe that he was making light talk with Dayspring of all people.

"What can I say? The idea of a deferential woman seems profoundly unnatural to me," Nathan said. "What fun is that?"

"I think we should end this disturbing line of conversation before it progresses too far," Shiro suggested.

"Why? If you're finding it disturbing it's the perfect distraction, isn't it?" Nathan laughed a bit breathlessly as he pushed Shiro back onto the defensive. "You should try sparring with Domino the next time she's here. She's past master of creative distraction. Of course, she can't turn the probability-altering off, so sparring can be awkward..."

"I think I will pass on that offer," Shiro managed to say before his attention snapped back to the large man looming over him who was trying his best to beat him.

They went at it for another five solid minutes, until Nathan took a step back, raising both hands. "Okay, I think we've probably done enough for the day," he said, breathing hard. "Back's starting to protest seriously here."

Shiro didn't protest at all. He gladly halted and grabbed the water bottle he'd brought. His throat was dry, his stomach was grumbling, and his joints were all demanding to be given the rest of the afternoon off. "That was . . . surprisingly not awful, for the most part," he said after wetting his throat. That was probably the only comment even vaguely resembling a compliment that he'd ever offered Dayspring.

Nathan winced and straightened. "We can keep it up twice weekly, if you want to," he said. "And I'm moving steadily back towards 100% here, so hopefully we can make more of the sessions over time." He hesitated for a moment, then mentally shrugged. "Those little... lapses should be fewer and farther between. Sorry, by the way."

"If you can maintain this regimen, then I will too," Shiro said after draining his bottle. "And I will do my part to see that you are not in the position to react thusly anymore."

"Sticking to non-powers sparring would be best, I think," Nathan said. Not that he was going to be able to avoid sparring with powers, but he suspected that starting back to that gradually, and probably with Haroun, would be the best idea. "And twice weekly is manageable for now, although I might have to cut back a little when the baby's born."

"Yes. I wil have to cut back in general when I begin university in the fall anyway. So until then, I will take full advantage of any training I am offered."

"Speaking of training..." Nathan had noticed the clock. "I have a session scheduled off-campus with Manuel this evening I should go get ready for." He nodded at Shiro. "Thursday, same time?"

"I will be here with bells on," Shiro promised, tossing his empty bottle and offering Nathan a final nod before leaving the gym to find more water, stuff his face, and collapse in bed. Maybe even in that order.