xp_logs | Amanda and Nathan, late Monday afternoon

The day after their email argument, Amanda finds Nathan in the gym. They agree that they both probably could have handled the situation better. Nathan proceeds to give her one of the self-defense lessons he promised quite a while ago.

Nathan hammered away at the punching bag, forcing himself to increase the speed and force of his blows steadily as the minutes wore. Moira would probably throttle him if she saw him going at it like this and his shoulder was probably going to hate him, but his patience for taking this by increments was a little thin this afternoon. Besides, it felt too good.

The gym wasn't one of Amanda's usual haunts - yes, she did Pete's self defence classes with some enthusiasm, and had been learning from Remy before everything went bad between them, but she didn't go there that often otherwise. But the emails she'd exchanged with Nate were bugging her, and she figured he'd had time to cool off, so she went looking for him. Finding him in the gym, however, made her a little uncertain about actually going through with this - he was giving the bag a good old workout, and it didn't take his aura to know he was not a happy camper. She hesitated in the doorway, just watching him for now, knowing he'd know she was there.

Nathan, well-aware that he had an audience, decided against trying to kick the bag. His leg was aching this morning and he didn't want to either land on his ass and look like an idiot, or hurt himself with Amanda standing right there. So he gave the bag a few more concluding punches and then stopped, breathing heavily as he turned to face her. "I am not," he said, wheezing a little, "trying to work out my frustrations. You were there and saw that the Mandarin class went fine, and Manuel was downright pleasant this morning."

"Didn't say nothin'," she said, arching her eyebrow - if he wanted to play it this way, well, she wasn't about to blunder in and mess things up again. "Yer've been workin' hard on this gettin' back in shape thing," she offered.

Nathan snorted. "There was a lot of work to be done," he said, limping as he went over to grab a towel. The bone-deep, gnawing ache in his shoulder was enough to set his teeth on edge, but he was doing his very best not to growl. Amanda would almost certainly take it as directed at her. "I'm getting there, though," he murmured. "Couple more weeks of this..."

He was in pain - she could see it, plain as day, even without using magic. "How's the shoulder?" she asked tentatively. When he gave her a look, she shrugged non-commitally. "It looks off, an' yer movin' it a bit stiffly, is all."

"Hurts like hell, actually," Nathan said after a moment, as candidly as he could. "But that's how I know I'm pushing hard enough." He managed a tight smile, weary but fierce. "Everything's healed. Pain, at this point, is just my body being a wimp." Although his shoulder had been bothering him more since Angelo had sent him crashing to the mats yesterday. He'd just had to land on that side, hadn't he? But thoughts of Angelo led back to thoughts of the dream, and he wiped his face with the towel, more to cover his expression than anything else.

All right, enough dancing around. It wasn't her style, and she hated feeling awkward. "I was lookin' for you, t' apologise for the whole passive-aggressive thing," she said. "Yer right, I was, an' I shouldn't have." The use of the word 'aggressive' brought something to mind, a conversation about him teaching her defence after the whole Rack business. "Sometimes I get angry an' worried an' don't have a proper outlet for it." She nodded at the punching bag. "Not like that."

Nathan sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "It had nothing to do with not trusting you," he said finally. "Did it occur to you that maybe I didn't want to talk about it? I wasn't going to let her show up and scare the crap out of you if she didn't tell you herself, Amanda, but... it was just a difficult conversation I could actually avoid, and there haven't been many of those this week. Between B--Tuesday night, and Jack, and Angie's vision, and the damned dreams..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "Maybe it wasn't fair to you to keep it from you just because I was being a wimp," he said with a rueful, awkward smile. "I don't know. I thought I had good reasons at the time, but I've missed entirely too much sleep between then and now and I've lost track. I'm just sorry you were hurt."

He took a deep breath, looking back at the punching bag. "I said I'd teach you, didn't I?" he asked, trying determinedly to change the subject. "I will. If you're still interested. Angelo was certainly eager to start back with the ones I promised him, and they've been going fairly well."

"You did," she agreed, glad for the subject change. Some things were just too bloody messy to deal with, and the last thing she wanted to do was push Nate into another emotional meltdown because she pushed too hard. And it was all about the not pushing at least since the lack of sleep incident. "Magic - well, my magic, at least - ain't that good against metal, an' I wouldn't mind learnin' some extra stuff t' defend meself with."

"We could start slow," Nathan suggested, grateful and relieved that she was going to let him away with the subject change. He gestured around at the gym. "If I was some anonymous British bastard invading the mansion and I found you in here, what do you see that you could use as a weapon?"

Resisting her initial impulse to cast a shielding spell and say "that", Amanda cast her eyes around the mostly-empty gym. If it had been an pub, she might have been quicker - there was always a broken glass or barstool to telekinetically throw at someone that way. At last she caught sight of the broom propped in the corner, used for cleaning up after classes, and gestured, levitating it into her waiting hands. She looked up at Nate with a slight grin. "Will this do?"

"Not bad," Nathan conceded, making a mental note that he might do well to teach her some sort of staff work. She was small enough that a weapon that could keep an attacker at a distance and give her some extra reach would be a good idea. "If that gets taken away from you, what do you pick up next?"

"Fuck," she muttered under her breath, looking around again. Nothing much beyond Nate's towel - which would do at a pinch, she supposed, but she really didn't want to get within his reach, not with the height disparity. She propped the broom back up against the wall and looked around again. Then, with a snort of self-disgust, she realised what he was getting at. "You mean me, right? If there's nothin' t' hit 'em with, hit 'em meself?"

Nathan blinked. "Well, not just yet," he said helpfully. "I mean, first I'd pick up that wooden bench over by the far wall. You hit someone hard enough with that, they'll stumble at least, probably go down. Then maybe you could break the window in the door and get a nice, sharp shard of glass. If you get the chance, then you run for the washroom. Lots of different possible weapons in a washroom."

Amanda eyed the bench speculatively. "It'd be heavy, but I think I could pick it up," she said. "An' I can't believe I didn't think of the window." She looked around again, trying to remember what Pete had taught them. "I could peg someone between the eyes with a that full water bottle if it came to it," she said.

Nathan grinned tentatively. "Pete's given you guys this talk before, I gather? Feh. Stealing my thunder." He tossed the towel aside, limping a few steps closer to her. "But you're right, you won't always have weapons to hand. If I was to, say, go nuts right here and now, what would you do?" He gave her his second-best deadly glare.

"Besides run like fuck?" she asked, only half-joking. "Depends... we talkin' powers or none?"

"Both," he suggested, interested to see how she thought, tactically speaking.

She moved away from the wall, not taking her eyes off him and obviously considering the options. "Yer a lot bigger 'n me, an' have a longer reach, so if I'd want t' make sure you couldn't hit me. Shieldin's a bit of effort, tho', an' takes power, so I'd have t' do somethin' t' make sure you weren't a threat for long..." She glanced over at the bench again. "Probably try an' keep yer attention on me, so I could clonk you on the head from behind with the bench."

"You have that telekinesis spell," Nathan said coolly, deliberately keeping his expression, his eyes cold as he watched her. Just in case she decided to take a peek at his aura, he kicked down to zen level, too, relishing the icy clarity. The Askani were chuckling softly at the back of his mind, which was a bit of a distraction, but not enough to break his concentration. He advanced on Amanda slowly, minimizing the limp, waiting to see her reaction. "You'd keep to defense alone? Go physical for the offense?"

"A bit of both. I can do more 'n one spell at a time, as long as one of 'em's familiar." She backed up a little as he came closer, still keeping her eyes on him but her attention more on the bench, which she had floated up behind him. He would read her intentions from her thoughts, but she wasn't about to really hit him in the back of the head with a bench. Besides, she had another trick or two. "I've got t' watch that threefold rule thing, not hurt anyone more 'n necessary for the situation. An' most of me offensive spells are Rack's, an' they're nasty shite. So I tend t' use physical for attackin'." As she said the last, she made a sudden beckoning gesture and the bench jerked forward, aimed squarely at Nathan't head. At the same time she summoned her werelight, keeping it hidden behind her back until he should turn to deal with the bench.

Nathan didn't turn to deal with the bench. He froze it in the air, prepared this time to deal with the odd feeling of conflict between psionic and magical telekinesis. It was a very strange feeling, he thought a bit dimly, but a little more power on his part compensated for it.

Amanda was nothing but adaptable. Reaching behind her for the werelight she flung it forward at his head, incanting under her breath as she did. The small greenish blob of light burst into a brilliant flash about a foot from Nathan's face, and at the same time she lunged forward on a forty-five degree angle to Nate, aiming one of the basic side kicks Pete had taught them at his knee and hoping she did it right since she had bare feet and would hurt like hell if she got it wrong.

The flash of light blinded him, but he was more than used to such distractions out in the field. Sensing her move, seeing the momentary flash of a thought that told him what she was planned, he reached out telekinetically and froze her in mid-step, all before his vision had even started to clear.

"You do realize you were going for the bad leg," he chuckled, raising a hand to rub his eyes and then blinking at her.

"Points for instincts?" she asked hopefully, trying hard not to panic at the grip he had on her. Flashes of Rack again. "'Sides, I knew yer'd probably stop me - yer the teacher, remember?"

Nathan eased off on the telekinesis slowly, mostly to give his vision time to clear entirely before she was free to move. "You've been listening, in Pete's class," he said, meaning it as a compliment. "And you're willing to experiment, but aren't under the delusion that you particularly know what you're doing. This is a really good start."

Amanda couldn't help the pleased smile that came to her face at the praise. "I like Pete's class," she said. "An' I've been thinkin' of stuff t' do with the magic, ways of gettin' 'round me limits, only I don't get t' train with anyone else, least not this way. Strange is more of the sit down an' meditate type of thing." She tilted her head expectantly at him, not sure if the lesson was over (and hoping it wasn't), but not wanting to push him too far.

"Is that what you want to do with me?" he asked, moving around her slowly. "Integrate the physical and the magical?"

"Somethin' like that," she agreed, turning to keep an eye on him as he circled her. "You ain't so breakable as some, an' know what yer doin'. Tho' the straight physical I could probably do with workin' on too, especially if I'm fightin' people as big as you."
"We need to make something clear, if you and I are going to do this," Nathan said calmly. "You do not get to buy into this fighting-for-fun crap, if you're going to learn from me."

She paused, looking him straight in the eye. "I won't," she said simply. "I'll do what I have t' do, t' protect meself an' the people around me, but the minute I enjoy it, someone might as well end me then an' there, 'cause that way leads t' me turnin' into someone like Rack, an' I'm buggered if I'm gunna let that happen."

Nathan smiled. "Good," he said. "Don't take that to mean that there's no enjoyment to be had in learning, or hell, even in practice. But there's a line you need to make sure you don't cross." He stopped, spreading his hands wide. "Let's see how much you have picked up from Pete," he invited.

She grinned at him then - it wasn't the actual fighting she was enjoying, it was the way she got to try and outthink him as well, like physical chess. And he was prompting her to take the lead and attack, which was different to how she normally did things, which meant more thinking. The size difference was the issue here... With that thought, she moved forward, aiming a punch at his throat rather than his face (which was getting out of her comfortable reach any way) with her right, following it up quickly with a lower punch, one that would hurt a lot if it landed - Pete had no qualms in teaching them to fight dirty, and Amanda had no issues with doing it.

Nathan blocked both, still smiling a little. "Oh, yeah. Perfectly obvious who's been teaching you," he said, backing off a bit to let her try again. He wanted to get a good look at her offensive technique. Someone her size needed to take the initiative as much as possible. "Do me a favor and mind the bad leg, though? If I'm limping too much the next time Moira sees me, she and I will probably have words."

Amanda nodded. "Well, considerin' all the energy I put into healin' it, I ain't about t' knock it out, temptin' tho' it is." She was watching him carefully, trying to find an opening and not having much luck... and he was a lot faster than he looked. Hmm. "'M better when someone else has a go first," she admitted, still looking for that weak point. Again she jumped forward, but this time she was aiming to land on his foot and pull his attention downwards, following it up with a short uppercut that was intended to connect under his chin.

"Good," Nathan said, moving his foot out of the way before she could land on it and then catching her wrist. "Be careful about getting inside my reach like that," he advised her.

"'S tricky sometimes, 'specially when I get someone a lot bigger 'n me," she agreed. He had her wrist fairly firmly, so she decided against twisting out of the hold and settled for aiming a combination knee to the groin, followed by a kick at the knee of his good leg instead.

Nathan blocked her knee with the flat of his free hand, but his balance was off and her kick connected. It wasn't a hard kick by any means, but as he staggered, his bad leg abruptly decided to give up the ghost. He let go of Amanda immediately and focused on not hitting the mats quite so much like a sack of potatoes.

Amanda, for her part, had to restrain herself from reaching out with her telekinetic spell and helping him - neither of them was used to the way the two interacted. She didn't drop her guard, 'though - she kept her distance, watching him carefully to see if he was trying to sucker her into getting too close.

Snorting (and trying not to wince), Nathan sat up, grinning wryly at her. "Ow," he said mildly, carefully straightening out the bad leg. The way she was hanging back impressed him, especially as he'd sensed what her first impulse had been. "I think that's probably enough of that for now. Well done, though."

With a small, pleased smile, Amanda came and crouched beside him, resting her forearms on her knees. "Leg all right?" she asked, inclining her head towards it with only a hint of worry - she was learning restraint.
"Just letting me know that I've done enough today, I think," he said, kneading at the tense muscles carefully. "Too much exercise these last couple of days. I suppose I've been overdoing it a bit."

Amanda nearly said 'last couple of weeks, more like', but bit her tongue. "I know I ain't as good as say Ange, but that was... well, fun, but not in a bad way. Challengin'. Pete taught us, the sneaky shite, only some of us picked it up better 'n others. Some of the kids get all worried 'bout fightin' fair, but then again, they ain't had to do it for real. An' I've been beaten enough t' know I don't want it happenin' again. So workin' with you... 's good." She smiled a bit bashfully at him. "If you don't mind me takin' up yer time."

"You're my very favorite time-suck," Nathan said, mock-somberly, and a laugh slipped out as she rolled her eyes at him. The muscles in his leg started spasming and he winced, rubbing at them a little more enthusiastically. "I think I need to get up," he gritted. "Walk this off..."

Amanda nodded and straightened, grimacing a little as her knees protested against the extended crouch. She offered a hand to help him up. "Can't have you hobblin' 'round the place again," she agreed. "Moira'd have my ears."

Nathan did take her hand, but also gave himself a bit of a telekinetic push up upwards, muttering a curse under his breath as his weight came down on that leg. "You and I... can definitely work more on this, you know," he said raggedly.

"I'd like that," she replied simply, frowning as she looked at the way he was favouring the other leg, and the pain both in his face and his aura - it was impossible to ignore. "Um, I could, well, help with that, if you want?" she asked hesitantly. She wasn't sure how he would take the offer, but she had to offer at least.

"I... are you sure?" he asked, breathing heavily. "Not going to be too much....? Y-You should save it for Pete and Dom, maybe..."

Amanda bit her lip before speaking. "Trust me?" she asked. "I'm gettin' better at knowin' when t' stop, really. An' Pete's at the stage where he can do the rest on his own." She looked up at Nathan, meeting his eyes. "I won't overdo it, promise. Just enough t' take away the pain."

"If you're sure," he said finally, uncertainly. "I just... don't want you overdoing it." A fierce note entered his voice as he went on, despite his best attempt to keep his words even. "You do not get to hurt yourself on my account again. Ever."

Amanda blinked at him, surprised at the vehemence behind his words. She hadn't realised how much the events of May had affected him. "I won't," she said, still holding his gaze, but a slight smile crossing her face. "Witch's honour."

Nathan sighed and relaxed a little. "Good," he said. "Very good." He mustered a smile. "And hey, you'll save me from Moira's wrath. I was just going to start limping in her general direction and hope I came up with a plan before I got there."

"Can't let that happen," Amanda agreed, taking his hands in hers and beginning the healing spell. She was careful to only do so much, no more, enough to take away the worst of the pain and begin knitting torn tissue. Opening her eyes as she finished the spell, she smiled up at him. "There, wrath free."

"Thanks. Think I'll go find something stationary to do for a while," he muttered, not letting go of her hands just yet. He felt like he ought to say something else about what had happened, as much as they had both been willing to let the subject go. She had sounded so hurt.

"Yeah, probably a good idea. Wouldn't do t' have people thinkin' I broke you or somethin'." Amanda aid wryly, but she didn't move either. She wanted... well, she didn't know what she wanted. For things to not be awkward between them, for a start.

The thought came through loud and clear, as if it was a blunt object she'd thrown right at his head, and Nathan smiled ruefully. "Ask Dom when she gets here," he said quietly, still not letting go of Amanda's hands. The pain in his leg and shoulder had died to a dull ache; it was rather nice. "I'm constitutionally incapable of not being awkward at regular intervals."

She blushed a little as he responded to her thought, not her words. "Yeah, well, I ain't exactly Ms Tactful 2004, neither," she said. "I'm sorry, if I came on too strong. Dom sounded... well, she sounded scared, in her email. An' I thought you were doin' that over-protective thing you do so well."

"She is," he said with a sigh. "And... well. I wasn't, if you believe that. It was equal parts being... thoughtlessly practical, I suppose, given that you really can't do anything until she gets here, and just... not wanting to talk about it." His grip on her hands tightened fractionally, but he made himself let go. "I'm getting tired of juggling all this crap," he said heavily. "If that makes me sound self-absorbed... well, I guess that's a pretty good description, all in all."

"S'pose I'm a bit selfish still," Amanda said, shrugging a little. "I should've remembered you two have a lot of history, an' I'm jsut a johnny-come-lately." She looked up at him again. "I won't again if you won't?"

"I'll work on it, okay?" Nathan said with a tentative smile. "Can't promise I won't backslide from time to time, though."

She nodded. "Same here." The she smiled. "Hey, you eaten yet? Lorna's been bakin' again, we could raid the kitchen on the way in."

Nathan thought about it, then snorted. "Um, no, I haven't... and I'd better, before Moira makes a point of asking me."