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[x-marrow.livejournal.com]

Yesterday. Angelo needs a distraction. Sarah's looking for a good fight. They meet in the gym.



Pulling her hair back, Sarah pushed the door to the gym open with her hip and let it swing closed behind her. "Convenient to have a place to fight just right down the hall.." she said as she walked in.

Angelo, already a good way into his warm-up, glanced over at her with a grin. "Yeah, it must be. Almost as good as havin' one just in the basement."

As she walked over, several bones sprouted from her back. She grabbed one, and gave it a good couple of swings before dropping it and starting her stretches. "So what's got you all riled up?"

He sighed. "Not s'posed to spread it round the mansion, but Nathan went an' got himself hurt again, somehow. An' they won't be back 'til tonight, so I need somethin' to do while I wait."

"Again?" She didn't sound very shocked, nor very worried. "Sounds like he's determined to beat you out of the 'always i the medlab' crown."

"Me an' Amanda put together, at this rate", he answered wryly. "Amanda was talkin' about gettin' Domino to put him in a plastic bubble, an' I think she had the right idea."

Sarah smirked, cracking her knuckles and watching the bone start to spread on her hands, from thin strips and patches to nearly covering her entire hand. She scratched her shoulder, and pulled out another bone. "I'd pay to see that. Really."

Angelo laughed, then looked pointedly at the bones on her hands. "You ready to go?"

"Looks like it, huh?" she nodded, giving the bone in her hand another swing. "Come and get it tough boy."

Angelo grinned sharply, shifting into combat mode and walking casually towards her.

She came at him quickly, the sharp end of the bone in her hand headed for his shoulder.

Angelo avoided the sharp point relatively easily, ducking under her swing in an attempt to grab her wrist and flip her round.

She struggled against his grip, and kicked hard at his ankle with her bare foot. "You've been practicing," she noted.

"What, did you think I'd let it slip just 'cause you weren't here?" he asked teasingly, not releasing his grip yet. "You're a good person to spar with, but you're not the only choice."

"It was a compliment, jackass," she growled, twisting her wrist and digging her bony fingers into him.

Angelo laughed. "Hah. I know - an' thanks." He let go of her wrist, but not for a moment - making a point.

She pulled her wrist away from him and swung the bone at him again, pulling another bone from her thigh and pushing it sharply towards his abdomen.

Angelo chose to avoid the stab rather than the swing - he'd been stabbed, more than once, thank you very much, and it wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat.

The bone hit his shoulder with a solid -smack-, and she smiled wickedly. She kicked at his knees, trying to take out his feet.

Angelo returned the smile, thoroughly enjoying this, even as he attempted to dodge the kick while kicking back at her at the same time.

Quickly planting both her feet on the mat, she shoved into him hard, catching him off-balance as he kicked.

Angelo stumbled, but managed to catch himself before actually falling, whipping his foot out to snag her ankles and sweep sideways, hopefully before she could react.

Sarah went down hard, and scrambled up again, grumbling something that included several occurrences of the word fuck. She pulled a bone from her shoulder, and took a swing at his stomach.

Angelo, grinning, dropped into a roll that carried him neatly underneath the swing, coming up on the other side of her and instantly kicking her legs out from under her - or trying to.

This time it was her turn to grin, because after four attempts at trying to kick her legs out from under her she's got a nice patch of bone growing along the length of her leg. That's going to hurt if he gets a good solid kick in.

And hurt it did, as evidenced by him swearing quietly and scrambling out of her reach while he rubbed his foot.

She gave him an unapologetic look, taking a hard swing at him down on the ground.

Angelo glared back at her, catching the bone almost casually in his hand and using its momentum against her.

"Poor tough boy," she cooed mockingly, abandoning the first bone, and using her other hand to grab a bone from her hip. She pushed the sharp end forward towards his shoulder.

Angelo, contrary to expectations, lunged forward, risking his shoulder being impaled to more or less headbutt her in the stomach, knocking her breathless. At the same time, he shoved hard at her legs with his hands.

The force of the impact caused her to only nick his shoulder, but it worked, sending her flying back down onto the mat again. She scrambled towards him, wrapping bony-sharp hands around his ankles, and pulling him them towards her to bring him down.

Angelo, unable to prevent it, came crashing down onto the mat on his back. Momentarily winded, he just lay there with a grin, trying to catch his breath.

She caught his grin as she started to sit up again, instead crawling over to lay just out of arms length (well it -seemed- like a good idea). "You sure I can't steal you to spar with me in Boston?"

He shrugged as best he could without actually moving from the mat. "I'll come to visit when I can. How's that?"

"I guess that works," she said grudgingly, shifting to remove the bone from her hip pushing painfully back into her from the mat.

Angelo rolled his head sideways to look at her. "You really that hard up for decent fighters up there?"

"Ones that'll let me draw blood, yeah." She grinned, stretching out on the mat and causing several joints to crack.

Angelo grinned ruefully, putting a hand up to assess the damage to his shoulder, and discovering it wasn't much. "Yeah, well, that depends where and how you mean. If they can't handle a little cut or two or a bloody nose, they got no business calling themselves fighters."

"Most of them aren't. You call them a fighter and they'll correct you in a heartbeat. They're in it for the exercise, not the fight." She shrugged. "Non-contact is what they'd prefer. Nice and safe."

Angelo grimaced. "There must be a few real fighters, though, right?"

"A few," she nodded, "but even then a lot of them are afraid to get too rough. Tom has watched some pretty nasty stuff heal on me, and even he's walking over eggshells sometimes."

Angelo rolled his eyes. "God, I was raised not to hit women, an' even I can make an exception for you."

She laughed, reaching back to pull a bone from her lower spine. "Thank god -somebody- can."

"Hope they learn better?" he offered lightly.

"They have to, right?" She held the bone firmly in her hand, as if testing the feel of it, the balance and weight, before tossing it in the direction of the wall. "And if not, I guess that's just more reason to come back later."

Angelo glanced at her speculatively. "Come back for visits? Or for good?"

"I dunno," she shrugged, rolling away from him and onto her back. "I like my freedom. I like not feelin' like I need to change."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, I get you. 's not easy adjustin', even for me, an' I want to. Most of the time."

Grinning curiously, she twisted for a moment to look at him. "Only most of the time?"

He shrugged a little wryly. "Yeah, well. Sometimes when things get complicated, I'm seriously tempted to do what you did. It passes."

"I'm sure it does." She shrugged again, and started to sit up and stretch out. "You gonna go worry some more?"

"If we're done, yeah", he answered with a frown. "Go smoke some more, or somethin'."

Sarah stood up, her bloody tank-top clinging to her uncomfortably. "Don't worry yourself too much," she said with a serious tone, "we don't go down easily. You should know -that- from experience."

Angelo pushed himself up on his elbows, half-smiling. "Yeah, I know. Just wish they'd get back here so I could see for myself, y'know? It's the waitin'."

She nodded. "Yeah, I know. Just take it easy, yeah?" She waited silently for a moment, and turned to leave. "Later tough boy, it's been fun."