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Yesterday afternoon, after this e-mail, Sarah goes to the mat room to hit things. Wonder of wonders, Angelo shows up. They take out their frustrations on each other, until Sarah gets windedfrustrated.




You're going to get better. The words felt empty while she thought about them, on her way to the mat room with a bone club already clutched in one hand. Tough words, that she guessed were supposed to make them both feel better, but really, what did Sarah propose to do if he didn't get better? Inside the gym, she took a couple of swings at the open air, and then pulled a bone from her hip, sending it sailing towards the wall with a growl. The clatter it made as it impacted echoed in the room.

Angelo had had the same idea, and for the same reason. In a rather bad mood since reading the e-mail from Jono, he stalked into the room and let the door crash back against the wall, not looking up.

"The room is fucking occupied. Go away." Her back faced the door, pierced by long, thin protrusions of bone. She didn't give much time for a response before pulling a bone shard from her forearm and sending it sailing towards the door. She turned, watching it hit just right of Angelo's head. "Goddamnit, I need to work on my aim." Her tone of voice wasn't malicious, just matter-of-factly.

Angelo stopped, leaning against the doorframe. "Want company? Or a movin' target?"

I want him back, she thought, but didn't say it. Maybe it's obvious, maybe it's none of his business. Since she couldn't have her first choice, she nodded, and gave the club in her hand another swing. "It's a pity the wall doesn't bruise."

Angelo eyed her speculatively, knowing that if Jono had sent the e-mail to anyone else, she'd be among them. "Heard from Jono today", he remarked would-be casually, watching her reaction.

"Yeah," she said in agreement, sending the bone in her hand against the wall. Hard. She wasn't particularly inclined to talk about it right now.

"So. Think we could both use somethin' to hit right now", was all the answer she got. Angelo didn't particularly want to hash over the details either.

"Something like that." Flexing her hands, she pulled her hair back behind her horns and grabbed a bone from her spine. It dripped blood onto her hands as she watched him carefully. "Ready?"

Angelo nodded, shifting smoothly into position. "When you are."

"Always ready." And with that she swung the bone at him, foot thrown out to catch him off balance.

Angelo brought up an arm to knock the bone off course, trying to sidestep the foot but not as worried about it.

The bone connected solidly with his arm, and for a moment she was thrown by just how easy it was to make that hit. With her free hand, she grabbed a bone from her hip and went straight for his midsection.

Masochistic, maybe, but not suicidal. Angelo spun out of the path of the bone, then back to aim a kick at her stomach.

Ah, that's better. If she'd wanted to connect every time, she'd have stuck with the wall. Dropping to the floor, she kicked his foot out from under him, bone club in her hand swinging at him again as he went down.

Angelo rolled as he fell in an effort to make the landing easier, grabbing for the wrist that held the bone and twisting, trying to make her drop it before it hit.

Sarah winced, dropping the bone and pulling her hand back. She pushed out hard with her foot, rolling away so she could get to her feet.

Angelo let her stand back up, and took the opportunity to get to his feet as well. He moved towards her slowly, watching for an opening.

She pulled another bone from her shoulder, swinging experimentally a few times before rushing in with it. Swinging it at his shoulder with a growl, she lashed out with her bone covered free hand.

Angelo twisted aside, keeping his head and neck out of the range of her hand. He was less concerned about the bone heading for his shoulder, but hoped the dodge would take care of that, too.

It did, mostly, and the bone club only just caught his shoulder instead of hitting straight-on. She spun around, the bone in her hand now heading for his stomach.

Angelo was somewhat more concerned about his stomach than his shoulder. He spun and kicked out at her hand, knocking it away.

Shaking her hand to ease the sting, Sarah grabbed another bone with her free (albiet left) hand, and took another swing at him. She didn't really care about how nice it looked, or how creative she was getting in her attacks, she's perfectly "content" to just keep swinging.

Angelo, however, was not content to restrict himself to defensive moves, not right now. Deciding he might as well use his powers for more than just the thick skin - and hadn't Nathan wanted him to do just that? - he sent out a strand of skin to yank the bone out of her hand, following it up with another kick.

That threw Sarah off slightly.  It's not that she's never seen a mutation like his before, it's that she's never seen -his-. In all their sparring, he'd never used it against her. But now that she's seen it, and noted that it's a nifty little trick, she's back on the defensive.

Angelo pushed his perceived advantage, aiming to sweep Sarah's feet out from under her while also trying to land a hit.

She let him back her up, avoiding hits until she hit the wall. Grabbing a bone from her back, she swung it down and across. If she was lucky, he'd be too close to get back in time, if not, she'd at least give herself an opening to get away from the wall.

Angelo did the only thing he could to avoid the slash, which was to step back just as far as necessary. It was less fun sparring when his opponent couldn't move far, anyway.

She swung the bone at him again, a thinner shard in her other hand to slice at his hands when they got close.

Angelo grabbed the wrist holding the shard and spun her around, holding the bone firmly away from his hand, and repeated his twisting move from earlier to get her to drop it.

Instead, Sarah dropped the larger bone and with her now free hand grabbed onto his wrist. Her sharp, bony fingers dug into his skin as she waited for him to let go.

Angelo winced and released her wrist, then twisted his own out of her grip before launching a snap-kick at her midsection.

The kick connected, and Sarah stumbled backwards. "Fucking ow," she muttered, rather out of breath. She really needed to train more. The whole dying thing had made her lazy apparently.

Angelo raised an eyebrow at her. "Ready to stop?"

She looked back up at him, still panting. "Do you feel better?"

"Not much", came the grim answer. "But I'd rather not see you collapse either. I can hit the punchbags, if you need a rest."

Sarah nodded in agreement, and crossed her arms tightly across her chest. "Stupid dying."

Angelo frowned. "You're still not up to speed from that? Or d'you mean you haven't got back into practice yet?"

"No practice. I let them convince me that waiting till I was fully healed was a good thing, and now I'm fucking winded after twenty minutes."

Angelo nodded. "Well, they were probably right. Better this way than doin' yourself more damage - at least you can come back from this with work."

"Yeah, yeah." She didn't sound very convinced. "I'm going to go back to my room now and wallow in self pity until my puppy comes to kiss it better." Making her way back to the door, she picked up a bone that had been discarded during the fight and gave it another swing. "Have fun."

Angelo grinned wryly, turning back to choose a punchbag. "I'll be happy if I can just stop thinkin' for a while."