capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

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(no subject)

WHO: Tom and Laura
WHERE: The Dojo
WHEN: Friday @ 8 AM
WARNINGS: violence, sort of?
SUMMARY: Tom wants to be ferocious, and Laura is going to help. Time for a training montage!
FORMAT: Prose to start

This was the first time that Tom had been awake before ten o' clock in years, and needless to say, he waking up this early didn't exactly agree with him. Still, he'd somehow managed to crawl out of bed, grab a quick shower to wake up, and even stopped to pick up breakfast before heading to the dojo. Of course, he still looked exhausted and barely awake, but once he arrived, he set down the bag of food and walked out onto the mat and started stretching, even though he was yawning between each position.

He had no idea what Laura would have him do or what he was getting getting into by asking for her to train him, but he felt certain that he would be sore by the end of this.

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Laura was already at the dojo when Tom arrived, though she didn't step into the room itself until after he was stretching. She was dressed in a pair of black exercise shorts and a purple tanktop, and her bare feet carried her immediately over to the bag of food he had brought, peering inside.

She plucked out a breakfast sandwich and unwrapped it, green eyes watching Tom. "Do five more of those." She called out, seemingly at random, during one of his stretches.

Tom made some sound that was something like a tired groan in response, though it was muted and easily ignored. He was too tired to complain or be stubborn yet, though, and went on with his stretches, touching his toes easily. Stretching was one thing that Tom liked. It came easily to him, since he'd always been flexible, and it was relaxing.

Once he'd finished though, he walked over to Laura while she ate. "Are you always awake this early?"

Laura leaned her hip against the counter as she watched him finish his stretches, slowly eating the breakfast sandwich. When he walked over she shifted to the side so he could reach the bag, and then nodded.

"I don't sleep much, I never have."

He grabbed one of the sandwiches, unwrapped it and started to eat. He wasn't really big on eating before getting his ass kicked, since that just seemed like a bad idea, but he was hungry, so he ate about three fourths of his breakfast before wrapping it up again.

"So, it's just a habit or something?"

"No."

She answered automatically, then paused as she thought about it, and eventually shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe. I am not a very deep sleeper. Sometime usually wakes me up and then I do not fall back to sleep."

He frowns a little at that. She seemed to sleep pretty well at the beach last week, but that may have been because of the alcohol... That was how he got to sleep sometimes... And he wasn't even sure if she slept soundly, since he'd fallen asleep shortly after. "It's probably safer that way," Regardless, he wasn't sure that she wanted to talk about this.

"So, what did you have in mind for training this morning?"

"It is," she was fairly certain it wasn't a 'normal' way to sleep, but she didn't know any other. She was a paranoid little thing, really.

She considered him carefully for a few moments as she set half her unfinished sandwich down on its wrapper on the counter.

"I want you to attack me."

"Attack you?" He wanted to follow up with something along the lines of 'you're kidding, right?', but he knew that she wasn't. Of course, he was the only one in the room who thought this might be a terrible, potentially painful idea.

"Okay, then, let's get started," He shrugged and walked over to the mat. Normally, he'd be in his werepanther form if he was going to spar, so right now he didn't know just how strong or fast he was... Well, it was probably time to find out, even if it meant that he was going to get his ass handed to him even faster than usual.

Laura just nodded when he repeated her request, fully expecting the response he managed to not give. She was rather impressed that he hadn't, really...maybe Tom was adapting to her.

She followed him onto the mat and waited, looking rather relaxed as she faced him. "Just try to hit me. Think of it as a...practical."

Tom turned to face her, cracking his knuckles and trying to decide how best to do this. He didn't like using his fists, but they were the safer, more guarded way to go about this. He preferred kicks, though his dad tried to change that. They were stronger, held more momentum, but they were riskier too.

"If you insist," He shrugged, and in a fluid movement, closed the distance between them and moved to punch her hard in the stomach.

Laura slid easily out of the way at the last moment, slapping the top of his arm as it passed through the air where she had been before she back peddled several steps and fell into her relaxed, waiting position once more.

"Keep trying."

Okay, he knew that Laura was fast when he was a werepanther, but this was just embarrassing. He didn't even graze her! He didn't back off, though, and instead tried to keep the forward momentum, turning on the ball of his foot to catch her with a roundhouse kick.

Laura took a long step backwards to avoid the kick, and her arms reached up to catch his ankle as it passed her face, gripping it hard and shoving the limb at him.

"You telegraphed that."

"I know!" He growled slightly. He wasn't a good student and he knew that, and he was already starting to get frustrated like he always did with Pops. He knew that he still had a bad habit of telegraphing his attacks, especially when he was in his other form and his tail would give things away.

He stumbled back a little when she pushed back on his legs, taking a breath and calming down as he studied her posture and tried to coordinate his next attack, deciding to feint high before sweeping low in an attempt to knock Laura off her feet.

The feint might have worked if she wasn't, well, her, but she saw it a second before it did and suddenly she was pretty much in the air, legs leaving the floor to hop over Tom's foot as she arched backwards, almost horizontal to the ground for a moment. Her bare feet came up to kick at his chest, not too hard, enough to knock him backwards before she dropped to the ground and rolled away, coming up standing on the edge of the mat.

"That was better."

Tom was going to follow up the sweep with another move in an attempt to hit her while she was in the air and couldn't dodge, but she was still faster than his human self, and he only had time to react to her kick, blocking it even though he staggered a little.

"You're too fast like this," He frowned, the skin on his arms rippling for a moment, showing fur before it returned to normal. He wanted to change, knew that the best way to counter Laura was with all of his senses, but he couldn't do that right now.

"Then be faster," Laura knew this was frustrating for Tom, but in a sense that was important. He had to see what he could and couldn't do, right here, to figure out what he needed to learn next.

She stepped back into the center of the mat with him and waited again.

"Easier said than done," He retorted, obviously irritated by the less than helpful advice. How was he supposed to "be faster" in such a short amount of time? If he wasn't able to hit her before, then he wasn't going to hit her in the rest of this session as long as he wasn't in his werepanther form.

Wait a minute, could he do that? Could he have been using that form the entire time? He supposed that Laura didn't explicitly say he couldn't, but it felt a bit like cheating to consider using his ability to help him with this...

But he didn't have much choice if he was going to hit her before their time was up. So, he went with the same strategy as his last attack, feinting high with another roundhouse kick, expecting her to dodge it, then crouched low, shifting forms immediately and using the burst of speed to spring at Laura in an attempt to tackle her.

Laura was almost annoyed when Tom appeared to be using the same attack twice, but because of that annoyance she realized a split second too late that it wasn't, actually, the same attack as the fur appeared on his skin. She turned, starting to move to the side only to have him crash into her and drive her to the mat hard on her side.

She started to turn, intent on throwing him off and retaliating, when her mind reminded her that this was just training, and not actual combat, and she she forced herself to pause, pinned to the mat.

"That was better."

He kept her pinned to the ground, the feeling of victory in having finally hit her overshadowed by the adrenaline. He'd been frustrated before, and he was still frustrated now, and that made him have to hold back a second and not get lost in his senses. His teeth were close to her throat, but he was calm, he hated those instincts.

He stayed like that for a moment, then finally pulled back, getting up to his feet and offering a furry hand to help her up as well.

"You could have told me that I could do that from the start," He picked at the tattered shreds of his shirt hanging off his shoulder.

Laura didn't seem particularly frightened by the teeth at her neck, she was perfectly calm, her body still as she remained pinned beneath him. When he moved she released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding though, and she sat up slowly, her green eyes on him. Considering him carefully.

When the hand was offered out she took it and stood, though she didn't release it immediately, turning his hand over so she could consider the fur on the back of it for a few seconds.

"Why did you assume you could not?"

"I thought it'd be cheating to use my powers. You know, it'd be like you training with your claws out too."

He didn't mind when she held onto his hand for a while longer. He maybe even kind of liked it, but he didn't really know what he was supposed to do now. It was nice, yeah, but at the same time he was kind of waiting for Laura to turn and throw him over her shoulder.

"So, should we keep going?"

"Your powers are part of who you are. You should not refrain from using them while you are training. It is an unnecessary weakness." After a few moments she released his hand, her arm falling to her side.

"If you wish. Or we can move on to other training. You were able to attack me."

He looks at his furred hand for a moment longer, before letting it fall to his side as well. "Doesn't that mean you should be using your claws right now, then?" Not that he really wanted her too. Those things were dangerous, after all, but then again, so was he in this form, sort of.

"I wouldn't mind, if you're okay with it. What would you have us do next?"

"No. I do not use my claws unless I am fighting someone who I am willing to hurt." And she wasn't willing to hurt Tom, so that solved that.

Laura considered him as he stood there. "Transform back." She finally decided. Yes, using his form was necessary during battle, but learning motions outside of it was probably a good thing.

"We will-" And then there was fighting training! And it was good! And probably a great workout! Except I'm not entirely sure how to describe it so we're going with MONTAGE!

Edited 2011-08-09 19:37 (UTC)

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