Meetings

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Friday May 7th 2004, 9:51pm.



Jubilee tied the belt of her Gi tightly and set up her starting stance for the first Kata. It was an easy one, something to clear the mind and ready the body for the more complex patterns. She had just moved beyond the first stance when she heard a noise by the door but ignored it, concentrating fully on what she was doing.

Manuel was looking to get in a little bit of Quality Time with his sword and the infernal Tennis Ball of Frustration. So he was not paying attention when he swung into the Fencing Hall, and saw someone else there.

Someone who was not fencing. He racked his mind for her name, and it came to him after a few seconds of thought. Jubilee. Chinese girl. Atrocious fashion sense. So he sat down against the wall to watch. May as well get some eye-candy out of things, and a quick empathic check told him Amanda was still blissfully asleep, basking in the afterglow.

Jubilee stepped forward, moving outward with her eyes closed. She had gotten into the habit of doing the moves blind, trying to feel her way around with only her hearing and what she could feel around her as guides.

She felt a presence, someone over by the door. Opening her eyes she noticed Manny for the first time.

"Hey," she said, not knowing how he'd react to her, after what Marie-Ange had told her, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to have a conversation with Manny.

Manuel smiled at the Chinese girl, seeing her unease and vague distrust. "Hey." he replied carefully. "Nice moves. Mind if I use this part of the gym over here to work out? I shouldn't bother you much, and I'll try to keep the cursing down." And with that he used his sitting position to begin to stretch out.

Jubilee nodded, her eyebrow raising at his last comment. "Sure, not like I'm using the whole gym. Why would you be cursing?"

Jubilee was somewhat confused, when she saw who it was, she'd been all ready for a fight, she'd expected someone who was rude just for the hell of it, a person who didn't care about anyone but himself. Yet he'd just asked her if he could use one side of the gym and he was trying to be friendly from what she could gather.

Manuel smiled at Jubilee, and shrugged slightly. "It's because I am still not anywhere near as smooth or as in-shape as I used to be. The asylum really wrecked me." he says, before going over to the locked weapons cabinet and unlocking it. "It won't be very pretty to watch, I should warn you."

Jubilee smiled back. "Hey, you should hear me play violin. I swear I think Alison regrets the day I joined her music class. Besides, you don't have to be perfect every time, it's the mistakes we make that mean we'll get better. No one would ever learn anything if they did everything perfectly the very first time they did it. Besides, I haven't had the chance to watch someone fence in a long time, so if you're willing to let me watch, that'd be cool."

Manuel smirked as he retrieved a blunted foil from the weapons cabinet. Relocking it, he turned to lower the infernal tennis-ball-on-a-string that is the bane of all fencers. "Can't promise that it'll be much of a show, but if you want to watch, I won't stop you." he smirked again, then turned his attention to the tennis ball.

Jubilee studied Manuel, watching him fence with the ball on the string. It seemed to involve a lot of swearing, at least that is what she thought he was doing, as she didn't understand Spanish. He was definitely arrogant, his attitude on the journals told her that, yet watching him fence she could see an almost insane intensity, almost as if he could beat it, he could prove something to himself, what that would be, she couldn't tell.

"Do you think you could teach someone to do that?" she asked suddenly, surprising herself.

Manuel, panting, turned around in surprise.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" he asked Jubilee, his Spanish accent much thicker with his fatigue. "I could, but I'm in no shape to do this right, let alone teach anyone else. When I do get back into fighting shape, then we can talk about lessons. If you want to do it now, you can talk to ... shit, I forgot her name. The purple girl."

Jubilee shook her head. "Don't want to learn it right now. Don't even know why I asked, really. I kinda got enough on my plate with the self defence lessons. Yesterday, I had to stand with one leg in a kick stance for what seemed like hours and God that sucked. How long you been fencing?"

Manuel smirked at Jubilee, sinking to the floor to rest his aching legs. "Since I was nine or so. Started out with knife-fighting, then graduated to the rapier, then I integrated the two. Would have eventually learned epee and foil as well, but I had to bail on home. So how long have you been doing the chop-socky?" he asked.

Jubilee stretched out her legs before settling into an Indian style cross legged position. "Only two years, although it seems a hell of a lot longer. Some of the Katas I can do really well but others I'm still seriously in need of work on. Started doing advanced classes this year, so I'm not doing horribly. You did Knife-fighting first? I would have thought using a sword was easier then using a knife."

Manuel smiled charmingly at Jubilee. "Not when you are nine, and the sword is maybe half your size, total. Knives are smaller, they're better weapons for children. Some of the techniques are similar, and the attitudes are identical." he said. He then started to stretch out, displaying a somewhat impressive array of flexibility for somebody like him. "Ow. My hamstrings hate me."

Jubilee raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you didn't stretch properly before you started? Dude, your muscles are so going to hate you in the morning. You know, I never thought of kids training with weapons. I mean, I know some Buddhists start training really young but guess it just didn't occur to me. Hmm, I think I could probably work out the soreness in your hamstrings, if you don't mind me touching you."

Manuel smirked again. "Give me at least a little bit of credit for having a brain. I did stretch before I got here. And if you can use that Ancient Chinee Secret to make my hamstrings not-hate me, then go ahead. I'm harmless, I'm dampened." he said, voice showing far more bitterness than he intended.

Jubilee pondered him for a second, her hands reaching for his left hamstring and slowly starting to ease the muscle there. "You'd be surprised how many times I used to forget to stretch, sometimes you just want to get into the routine so bad you forget the stuff you gotta do before it. As for the rest, well, I ain't exactly got my powers either, so I guess we're both harmless, right? I know I'm being totally nosey but why are you being nice to me? I kinda did threaten to do you bodily harm after the whole Kwannon thing. Granted, I was like totally stressed at the time but I've known people to hold grudges for less."

Manuel melted into a puddle of goo as Jubilee started to work out the tension in his legs. "Why?" he asked, clearly surprised by the question. "You've done nothing to me, so I have no quarrel with you. It's that simple." he said, closing his eyes to relax into the massage. "God, this feels good." he moaned as the sore muscles finally started to relax somewhat. "And for massages like this, I'll be prepared to forgive _much_."

Jubilee started on the other leg, laughing softly to herself. "You are so not what I was imagining." she said softly under her breath, then in a louder voice. "So, listened to any good music lately?"

Manuel heard the comment, but let it pass uncommented-on. Smiling to himself, he shrugged.

"Depends on what you call good. I'm into trance mostly, futurepop, EBM, that sort of thing. Club music, stuff that makes your body _move_."

Jubilee nodded enthusiastically. "Club music is good. Haven't had near enough reasons to just sit down and listen to it lately. Always seems like there's some class or something else I need to be doing. Which reminds me, I so have to go. I need to finish some homework before tomorrow. Hey, would you mind meeting up some time and takin' a look at your music collection? I've not got a huge one; don't have much money of my own to spend and such. But I could bring some of my favourites and we could compare. I could even offer another of my massages, guaranteed to make even the most hateful muscle purr."

Manuel grinned as he rolled over and stood up, testing his newly-limbered muscles. It's also fairly obvious that he _enjoyed_ the massage. "Yeah, sounds like a plan. You know where I live, right? Feel free to show up anytime. And the massage would be nice. Got lots of tension that needs worked out." he leered, then went over to the weapons rack to lock up his training sword. "See you later."