Weapons Training... *insert winking smilie* [ATTN:Jatasha]

[Guest Estel]

Stripped to the waist, though in his present company perhaps dressed to the waist was more appropriate, Carnhain led Jatasha to a nearby weapons rack.  Despite having won last night’s dart game, sometime after they had left the inn he had promised to take her up on her side of the bet anyways.  Promised or lost another bet?  Last night was a little hazy…

 

“So Jatasha, which weapons will it be?”  A certain double-meaning came to mind which turned his face beat red.  Coughing, he gave her a guilty grin.

[TaeaDawn]

It was the color that made her take his words at something more than they were and she laughed lightly for it.  For most of the men she had known she would have automatically looked for the second meaning, but with Carnhain she hadn't expected it.  She was having a small effect on him, it would seem, one that she was more than willing to keep at if she could.  She certainly didn't mind his current state of dress and she didn't mind the fact that her eyes kept trailing over his bare chest.  She was still smiling as she walked over to the weapon's rack and ran her hand over different weapons, looking at them and trying to figure out what sort of thing would come best to her.

 

"I do no know what I be best with.  I do be knowing a little about knives and clubs, but that be it.  It do seem a sword be rather popular, but I think a staff do be less conspicuous.  And daggers.  Those be more like knives in my way of thinking also."  She looked at him as she bit her lower lip lightly.  "What do you think?  Be I looking in the right direction?"

 

Jatasha

[Guest Estel]

How quickly things changed.  Two nights back he had been a stuttering mess, embarrassed to parade around shirtless while she was a few bare feet from him.  Now, in the middle of the training yards, he was shamelessly strutting about, puffing out his chest in an effort to seem as muscular as any of the infantrymen sparring around them.  And the way she kept smiling at him was only encouraging him.

 

He grinned, more than happy to answer her questions.  Their… “learning” thus far had been namely one-sided and left him eager to share his own knowledge so as not to seem a complete oaf.  Picking up a staff that would be a foot taller than Jatasha and no thicker than her wrist, he handed it to her to let her feel its weight.  “With a staff, endurance and quick hands are key.  You can’t ever stop moving the staff or you’ll loose your main advantage.  The staff gives you a greater range and you don’t necessarily have to be strong to excel with the weapon.

 

“The flail or war club, on the other hand,” Carnhain said, picking one of each off the rack and handing them to her as well “require some strength as well as a lack of fear for getting in close to your opponent.”  Teasing, he took a flail as if to demonstrate, moving in close with the weapon raised.  He contemplated kissing her right there in the middle of the yard but a blush betrayed his new-found confidence and with a guilty laugh he backed off again.

[TaeaDawn]

She had thought for a moment, just a moment, that he was going to be forward and kiss her, but in the end he had just been playing.  She took the staff from him and held onto it, not sure what to do with it.  She'd never been good with weapons.  In fact she wasn't one of the girls who got into fights often, though the Light knew there were plenty of girls on the streets that jumped at the chance.  She lowered her eyes slightly and looked up at Carnhain through her eyelashes. 

 

"I do no be knowing how to work this... staff in the right manner." She said, hoping to provoke him.  "I do no know if I be holding it right.  Do you think my hands be able to work the pole right?"

 

Jatasha :P 

[Guest Estel]

…

 

Carnhain was caught between taking the comment at face value and bursting out laughing.  Somehow Jatasha had never come across as… innocent though.  All the same, the blonde man’s face was a red as the scars across his chest and abdomen.  Better to play it safe- just in case.

 

All the same, he moved in behind her, taking both her hands under his.  He shivered slightly as his rough, calloused hands gripped lightly around her smooth ones.  This close, and closer than need be to tell the truth, his face was bare inches away from her hair, stray strands tickling his neck.

 

He moved her hands so they held the staff roughly shoulder-width apart.  “This is the hand positioning you would use if you were planning to block.  Rule number one: never hold the staff in a death grip or it’ll jar your wrists when your opponent…”  He trailed off, blushing.

[TaeaDawn]

Jatasha barely managed to keep from laughing at Carnhain's word choice.  Oh, but she could have such fun with a man that blushed as often as he, but he was hardly likely to keep training her if she made it her mission to make him blush whenever either of them opened their mouths.  And though she wasn't too sure she wanted the training, she did want to ensure that she would get to see him more and she was certain he would keep up his teachings no matter what else happened.  Even if he didn't want to see her again on a personal level, she was sure he wouldn't let a woman go around defenseless if she had asked him to train her.  She was counting on it anyway.

 

Her smile was wide none the less for his words and the way he didn't complete the sentence.  "No death grip.  Understood." She said with a nod, making sure her grip was strong but not too hard.

 

Jatasha :P

[Guest Estel]

She was grinning.  Not slapping him, not pushing him away.  This was good.  So why was he so scared?

 

Licking his lips, he struggled to smile back, failing to the insecurities from his face.  This wasn’t like every other recruit where he could simply revert to a simply professional approach and distance himself from any feelings he might have concerning the trainee.  With Jatasha he couldn’t hide behind being Captain General, here he was stripped bare to simple Carnhain, the blushing man was far too many insecurities and not enough experience.  He was so lost without his shield.

 

His fear begged him to turn tail and run before he could make a fool of himself; his mind turned up hundreds of ways to excuse himself maintaining some dignity, afraid that she might suddenly reject his advances.  At the same time, though, her smile captivated him, freezing him position.  While half his mind was frozen in fear and the other drowned in her grey eyes, this left him doubly unable to think.

 

Of course, at some point, one’s sense of “you are now making a total idiot of yourself” kicks in, at which point one’s eyes go wide, one shakes one’s head and blushes profusely... again.  Honestly, the woman had his mind so addled he could hardly tell up from down anymore.

 

“Umm... anyways.”  Clearing his throat seemed a most manly way of breaking the terribly awkward silence that he seemed to have created.  “To attack with the staff, you move your hands closer together to allow a better pivot.” he slid her hands into the proper position.

 

“And now to show you how to really make use of this thing.”  Picking up the stave he had used to demonstrate earlier, he began swinging it above his head.  Slowing down so she could see his hand movement, he gradually picked up the pace until he had returned to his former speed.

 

“Your turn.”

[Guest Estel]

Jatasha tried not to smile so much around Carnhain, she tried not to let it show.  It was one thing to be willing to bed the man, but he was sure to turn tail and run if he realized just how often she had thought that maybe this was the sort of man that would get her off the streets, the sort of man she would be able to be faithful to.  So she schooled her face back to seriousness when he back working the stave in his hands. 

 

She had to force herself to watch the weapon because her eyes strayed to his face, his body, even his hands on the weapon distracted her if she thought too long about it.  She took a deep breath when he said it was her turn.  She hadn't been paying near enough attention, but she had to give it a try anyway.  Served her right really.  If he was going to put the effort into training her, the least she could do was pay attention.  Either that or he was going to start thinking her stupid for not catching on quicker. 

 

"Right" she said, making sure her hands were in the right place.  She performed the move as she had seen him do it, though not near as fluid as he had moved.  he was rather graceful with a weapon, rather like when... she closed her thoughts and jumped suddenly when she felt his hands on hers, correcting her movement.  She nearly hit him with the stave in the jump. 

 

"Oh Light... I’m sorry.  I didn't mean to... I just.."  She blushed suddenly.  She'd just about knocked him about because thinking about him had made her miss the fact that he had been talking and had come up beside her.  "I um..." she bit her bottom lip.  "I was just thinking about... the other night."  Well, at least he'd just think her a whore instead of a stupid whore.

 

 

For someone using the staff for the first time, it wasn’t half bad.  He’d seen worse from Privates.  “Your hands are a little far apart still.” he moved in close to adjust her grip... and nearly got knocked out for his trouble.  At first he was scared he had gone too far, done something wrong or... something to make her push him away.  Light the sting of rejection was already pervading his face by the time she stuttered out an apology.

 

Just as he was calming down and his confidence level slowly creeping back up to what it had been, her stuttered last comment hit him like a brick.  Carnhain turned beet red faster than an infantryman could drain an ale.  He didn’t even try to reply to her until he had collected his thoughts enough to be fairly certain he wouldn’t stutter and make a fool of himself.

 

Mind you, she seemed to have quite the talent for taking him off guard.  Blood and ashes!  She was blushing as badly as he was and stuttering besides!  Somehow he had never pictured her nervous at all, about anything.

 

Carnhain laughed.  He couldn’t help it.  The hilarity of how the pair of them must look blushing and stuttering like fools must have amused everyone in the training yards.  “You’re blushing as badly as I am!”

 

 

His comment made her laugh instantly.  As scattered as she must seem to him he was taking it well.  At least he wasn't running away.  Yet.  Still she couldn't help but smile even more as she held the staff up quickly.  "Watch it, I’m an armed woman and if you make me blush again I might just have to hurt you with this thing."  She looked at the staff and shrugged.  "Well... I would probably end up knocking us both over with it if I tried but..." she winked then.  "That has its own possibilities."

 

 

Of course he blushed.  He blushed every bloody time she said something like that.  Blush he did.  Stop laughing he did not.

 

“A challenge?  No man can dare step down from a challenge.”  Grinning, and still blushing himself, he stepped closer.  Still nervous, his hands were practically shaking, he gently grabbed her arms “And if I were another one of those toughs, intent on well...”  Oh Light, he couldn’t even finish it.  He was practically giggling like a girl.

 

 

She bit her lower lip as he grabbed her.  His hands were rough but gentle as she knew they would be.  Just his hands alone sent fire into her blood and she smiled wickedly up at him.  She might not know how to fight like he did, but there were something’s she was rather good at.  Getting a man on his back was one of them.  She leaned even closer, then as she hooked her leg around one of his, she pushed back on his shoulders as she kicked his leg out from under him.  Even as he landed she was on top of him.  "If you were one of those toughs... what exactly would you do now?" She teased, her lips almost touching his as she asked.

 

 

One minute he was in control and on his feet, the next he was on the ground at her mercy.  Not that he was complaining...  Mind you, if he had been blushing before, it was nothing compared to how his face was aflame now.  Thinking was becoming awfully hard again.  All he had to do was lift his head just slightly and he would be kissing her again.  His head inched forward fraction by fraction of its own accord in anticipation.  The tiny voice in his mind buzzing about how this really wasn’t the best place to be doing this was a fly’s buzz in the midst of a cavalry charge.  And right now, his heart was pounding like those horses’ hooves.

 

All the same though, if he gave in now, he’d be abandoning the game she was playing.  And currently, Carnhain was more than happy to play along.  Using his heavier weight to his advantage, he shifted and rolled so suddenly she was the one pinned to the ground.  “I think if I was one of those toughs, it would have been me knocking you to the ground... not that I’m... umm... complaining.”  For some reason blushing and grinning seemed part of the same action now.

 

 

Even if she had wanted to stop him she wouldn't have been able to, but being pinned to the ground wasn't at all unpleasant.  It occurred to her that this was probably not what he had expected when he said he would train her, but there were plenty of things to train in and at the least she was getting a good lesson in how not to train for a weapon.  At least until she was able to get her hormones in check, which she figured would be quite some time considering how strongly Carnhain seemed to affect her.  "And yet you still managed to end up on top all the same.  Not that I’m... complaining." she said, her grin as evident in her voice as it was on her face.

 

 

No doubt Carnhain’s loud laugh drew a great number of eyes and therefore smirks to their very public display of... well... affection didn’t quite cover it.  “Somehow I don’t think many toughs would do well on the bottom.” Oh yes... he was blushing redder than ever.  He was also grinning wider than ever.  “I think they’d prefer a little more control.”

 

 

Jatasha laughed.  "True.  But I do believe most toughs would have thrown me over their shoulder by now and run off to have their way with me in a secret corner."  She said, her eyes alight as she spoke.  She leaned up until her lips brushed his ear.  "I don't know about corners, but I happen to know a place with a nice soft bed close by..."

 

 

Coherent thought was very... very... far... away...  The little voice that tried to tell her “you’re using her” and “you hardly even know her” was drowned out by the blood pounding in his ears.  He didn’t even bother to justify it with “she’s throwing herself at me”.  His body shivered as her lips brushed his ear.  Thought was as possible as him leaving her alone in the training yard.  Which was to say he could sooner beat an infantryman in a wrestling match.

 

Getting to his knees, he draped her shoulder and stumbled to his feet.  It would have been much more difficult had he been a real tough and she actually fighting him, but as was, she seemed more than happy with where she was for the moment.  “Just point me in the right direction.”

 

 

She was almost giggling at his words and was barely able to suppress it.  Hoisted as she was she simply pointed out the way to her place.  It was relatively close by and even as the door to her room was opened she continued to point the way until she found herself dumped onto the bed.  She laughed then as she found herself in the same position she had been in the training grounds.  Only instead of the hard ground it was a soft mattress under her.  She wrapped her arms around his neck this time as she smiled up at him.  "Now this is something I can concentrate on." She said with a laugh as she reached up and kissed him.

 

 

Luckily it wasn’t much of a walk.  As the anticipation grew, Carnhain’s heart raced faster as if somehow if going faster would get them there faster.  Too much longer of this, and his heart wasn’t going to be able to take it too much longer.

 

He practically slammed through the door, laughing as she continued guiding the way straight to the bed.  Dumping her on it, Jatasha’s arms pulled him down into a kiss while he was still kicking his boots off.  “Funny... I’m finding it very difficult to concentrate... at all.”

 

 

"That's because you're concentrating on the wrong things." She said with a wicked grin.  "Let me help you figure it out."  She teased lightly as her hands started taking clothes off.  Hers, his, it didn't matter.  The more clothes off the better.

 

 

He laughed.  “You’re terribly helpf...” her lips caught his before he could finish the phrase.  That was about the end of “intelligent” conversation.  And Carnhain’ll have it known that the red in his cheeks was most definitely not a blush any more.