Shiro & Haroun, Thursday morning

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During their normal Krav Maga lessons, Shiro and Haroun talk a bit Shiro's actions of Muir. He is relieved to hear someone who doesn't have their head up their ass ;)


This was a mistake. Shiro should have just e-mailed Haroun and told him that he was not prepared for this week's Krav Maga lesson. It would have been a total lie, as the one thing Shiro would never fall behind on is martial arts. But he knew Haroun well enough that he was expecting some off-hand remark about his performance on Muir, which would likely escalate into something messy, which would result in Shiro losing the respect of another teacher as well as forfeiting future lessons. And that would have been bad.

On the other hand, running away from confrontation would be cowardly, and of the many things Shiro was, he was not a coward. So he dressed in his usual jeans and Xavier's School hoodie and went down to the gym to meet Haroun. Hey, maybe he wouldn't say anything at all, and then everybody would win.

Haroun was waiting for Shiro, dressed in his usual camo pants and wifebeater. "Good." he said as Shiro walked in. "Get warmed up, we've got a lot to do today." He himself began stretching his upper body as he talked. He was all business, which he thought the boy would appreciate.

Shiro nodded without saying a word, and proceeded to stretch. He certainly did welcome Haroun's demeanor, but would make no comment about it because he didn't want to spoil it. Once he finished, he cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers, awaiting Haroun's instructions.

Haroun walked through the lesson just like it was any other. Today they worked on deflections - how to use the minimum amount of force necessary to take an attacker's punch out of true and then continue the motion into an attack of his own. He started it slow, to show Shiro the motion, then as the boy caught on he sped things up until they were working at something close to Shiro's full speed. "Not bad." he said as he let Shiro catch his breath for a moment. "Bet you're curious about why I haven't ripped you a new one over the Scotland encounter."

Bending over to pick up a bottle of water Haroun had brought, Shiro rolled his eyes. "Not really. I was almost hoping this topic would not be brought up." He took a long drink from the battle before capping it. "But now that it is out there, why have you not pulled a Cable on me?"

Haroun smiled. "Because that's not my job. Alison already talked to you, and she's my CO. As far as I'm concerned, we're good. If you want my opinion, all you have to do is ask me for it." he said with a light shrug. "We'll work on escapes from chokes next - you're still got some problems with the rear chokes. May as well work on getting them settled out."

"Okay." Shiro put the bottle down and walked over to Haroun for the next set of activities. "I'll bite. What is your opinion?" he asked, knowing he'd likely grow to regret asking. Either Haroun actually saw the light and wasn't angry or disappointed with him, or he was luring Shiro into a false sense of security so he would not expect a chewing out.

"You can't play with a team to save your life. However, if I were to judge you on your solo effort, I'd give you a grade of B midrange." Haroun said. "You've got a whole lot of raw power, kid, and that compensates for a multitude of sins. Take it from me - I don't, so I've had to work on removing those sins before they got me killed. Your instincts are fairly good, but you lack finesse. That kind of finesse only comes from experience."

"What is the point of having power if it is not used creatively and for good?" Shiro asked rhetorically, nodding at Haroun. "I can sometimes feel it inside me, ne? And if it can be used to save people's lives, then finesse or not, it needs to be used. I have great self-control, whether people see it or not, so I am not in danger of exploding randomly or hurting anyone. I can do that quite well on my own," he added darkly.

Haroun grinned. "As a completely random example - when you were throwing those bolts around and missing - did you bother to wonder where they wound up? If they hit anything important or valuable? If they did, how could you possibly make recompense - especially if it was a life and not property? Think about it, kid. Now we're going to quit yapping and start working. That's what you're here for, not to listen to me go on about how I think the world works."

Shiro returned a little grin of his own. "But you are the only one who has yet made sense and actually listens to me and understands me. I prefer a dialogue to a one-sided conversation." After a couple more stretches, he got into position.

Haroun grinned at Shiro. "Well then, catch me sometime not during our training time and we'll talk more. If you want. Now then, in a rear choke the important thing to do is not to panic. Somebody's gonna come up behind you and cut off all your air. And you still need to breathe to live. So when you feel the hands clamp down around your neck, you have anywhere from thirty seconds to two minutes to do something about it before you are completely fucked. You remember the escapes I showed you last time? We'll work those, and if you do well I'll show you a few new ones."

Shiro nodded as Haroun wrapped his arms around Shiro's neck to simulate a choke hold. He had a few escape options. In a real-life situation, he would just blast his attacker with solar flare or fly up high and hope that the hold would loosen. But the point here was to avoid injury, so he would have to rely on something less violent; an elbow to the gut, stomping on a foot, or with enough flexibility a back kick to the groin. Shiro settled for option number two.

Haroun let Shiro practice the moves. Each repetition, he increased the pressure on the boy's neck. At the sixth different go, he was applying enough pressure to seriously risk choking the boy out if he couldn't figure out how to break the grip and restore airflow. To be fair, he was honoring groin hits as valid, even though they did nothing to him.Ditto the knee strikes and foot stomps. He also wouldn't let Shiro get away with simulated strikes - if he wanted to breathe again, he'd have to hit and hit _hard_ before Haroun let go.

Shiro realized they'd gone beyond the normal practice parameters, which was always his favorite part of the training sessions. Aside from the adrenaline rush it brought, it meant he was doing well so far. But it also meant that he would actually have to retaliate to break free, which invalidated anything below the belt for Haroun. Holding Haroun's arm with one hand, trying to pull it away from his neck long enough so that he would not suffocate, he aimed to elbow the man in the abdomen with his other arm.

Haroun ate the elbow strike to his abs silently - it hurt, sure, but it wasn't enough to make him lose his grip. He made a mental note of thanks to Allah for doing all those sit-ups for all those years – he was well-muscled in the abs and the washboard helped steal the force of the strike. The arm-grab wasn't quite worrisome yet, but he wanted to see what Shiro was going to do with it. He had options, he noted with great amusement. The boy was learning.

The hand gripping Haroun's arm moved down to grab his wrist and squeeze. Concentrating, Shiro made his hand heat up, and he dug his fingers as deeply int Haroun's skin as he could manage. And as he did that, he tried another jab at the man behind him. Between the strike to his gut and the potential for serious burns, Shiro hoped that Haroun would release him.

Fire was one of Haroun's big weaknesses, and Shiro knew it. Haroun let go just before the heat was enough to cause him damage, but he took satisfaction in the choking sounds Shiro made as he tried to draw air into his lungs. "Good!" Haroun said, thumping the boy on the back. "Improvisation is very important. Out There, you do whatever it is that you have to. In Here, we practice how to do that safely. Full marks on a job well done. Now go and give me twenty laps around the gym, on the ground this time, and then you can hit the showers."

"I only did that once," Shiro protested, gingerly rubbing his neck. He finished the rest of the water from the bottle he drank from earlier, pulled off his sweatshirt (because running twenty laps in one was too uncomfortable), and then started around the perimeter of the gym. He was in much higher spirits now than he had been the past few days. Who knew that attacking your teacher who is trying to asphyxiate you could feel so invigorating?

"And once is too many times!" he called out after the jogging Shiro. Despite everything, he couldn't help but like the kid. Reminded him of him, really, just with a much much better genome.