Okay I've been dying to write this ever since a conversation with Slyc. So thanks for the inspiration and sorry for stealing the idea! Hope you like it...
To those of you out there (you know who you are) who know vastly more about fencing than I do. Please forgive misused terminology. But if there are glaring issues or even small ones that would make the story better, please PM me. I'm looking for that kind of info. It's been a long time since I actively fenced and I was never great with the terms, or really the moves for that matter. But it was fun and I never did get it out of my system.
Without further ado...
"Foil, epee, sabre, schlager?" Jase asked cheerily, walking the long wall of weaponry. "I bet women love this part," he teased, grinning widely. "In real life you never get to choose the size of the weapon before you have it in your hands." Usually his bad jokes about fencing and sex being similar got her laughing. But tonight his joke was met with complete silence. He turned toward Michelle when she didn't answer him. She had one of those annoyed looks in her bright blue eyes. Her brown hair was pulled tightly back into a pony tail. She had donned most of her equipment, but there were a number of buckles she had yet to deal with on her white canvas jacket and her mask was tucked neatly under her arm. She wasn't really paying attention. "Michelle?"
"Yeah," she replied and looked up at him.
"Hey, are you up for this?"
Michelle finally really looked at Jase. He was in his all black gear.
Fitting
, she seethed.
The bad guy always wears black
. She glared into his hazel eyes. "I'm always up for anything you have to offer. Remember?"
Jase immediately held up his hands in surrender. Her tone was more a little dangerous and he had no idea what he had done. "I don't know what's gotten to you Chelle, but I'm not here to
fight
. I'm here to practice. You care to share or are you going to dwell in silence."
Michelle looked around the large private gym, giving Jase the impression that she was opting for silence. Jase was friends with the owner and he had conned the guy into letting Jase have the place at night, after close, to practice. Both Jase and Michelle worked such insane hours during the day that they never got a chance to make it in during daylight hours. It had been incredibly convenient. In more ways than one. Michelle couldn't believe she had been stupid enough to sleep with the asshole.
That was two weeks ago now. Not a single phone call. On top of that last week he'd invited Ted and Zach to join them for practice. He sent a pretty clear message that he hadn't really intended things to get close between them. Then he'd had the nerve to flirt with her as if nothing had happened. She had almost managed to ignore the whole thing until she heard Paula talking about going out to dinner with him a couple nights back. When Michelle had suggested dinner, nervous as a high school kid, he had turned her down claiming to not have a free night available. He made it sound as if his life was all work and no play. Right.
Jase turned and pulled two schlagers off the wall. "Since you're in such a mood, how 'bout assault? No strip?" He inspected the tips as he spoke, making sure the blunts were in good shape and the tape would at least last through this match. Then he tossed one of the weapons to Michelle.
Catching it in a gloved hand she re-inspected the weapon as if Jase had done an inferior job or she didn't trust him. "Fine with me," she replied angrily as she pressed the tip against the mat and watched the blade bend, looking for flaws. "Target?"
"Whole body," Jase offered with an amused glint in his eyes and pulled his mask on over his face. There were a number of whole body things he was thinking about doing with her tonight. "Maybe if you work out some of that aggression we'll be able to get some real practice in."
Michelle almost went straight for his head when he said that. She put her mask on, walked to the middle of the mat and stood at attention. When Jase got into position she only gave him a moment before shouting , "En guard," advancing, and lunging at him.
Forced into a retreat, Jase stepped aside, parrying Michelle's blade and attempting a riposte. Michelle attacked as if she were on fire. Confused by her aggression Jase continued to back up, barely managing to counter her advance until he hit the wall, literally. He had been so absorbed in his counters and Michelle's behavior that he had miss-calculated the amount of space he had. The sudden stop jarred his arm and he felt a sharp thrust into his chest.
"Hit," he called reluctantly acknowledging her point.
"I thought we weren't keeping score. Assault," she growled back at him. "This is only an exercise in assuaging my aggression," she mocked.
Now Jase was getting mad. As far as he knew he hadn't done anything to deserve this. "Alright Chelle. You wanna tell me what's wrong?" He tried again. He was getting more and more frustrated with the situation.
Michelle pulled her touch and stepped back to the center of the mat without answering him. She briefly considered that she still needed to adjust the buckles on her jacket. But when she noticed that Jase was already headed toward her she let it go. She took her position up again. "En guard," she said back in a deadly soft voice.
If she hadn't already managed to get his attention she had it now. Jase adjusted his jacket and stepped to the mat. She wasn't going to catch him off guard again. "En guard," he answered holding his left hand well back, leveling the tip of the schlager at Michelle's mask and waiting.
Michelle paced around forcing him to adjust his stance several times. The strap that should have come up between her legs and buckled at her back was dangling and she could feel it brush her legs as she walked. It wasn't long enough to step on. But it wasn't exactly regulation to be fooling around without fastening it. Tonight she was feeling cocky and angry though. There was a little part of her that believed both Jase and she were good enough to manage without all the frills of the safety equipment.
Michelle had always been better at free play than Jase was. He preferred line fencing. Michelle had a nasty tendency of forgetting rules or stepping out of line. She was usually caught on technicalities. He'd only suggested this because he thought it might cheer her up. In truth, Michelle had only started fencing for fun and had proven to be a natural. But she hated the logistics and was much happier with friendly swordplay than serious work, usually. Michelle watched with amusement as Jase awkwardly side stepped in order to keep her in front of him. She knew his style fairly well. He'd wait for her attack. He always did. This seemed to be the one area of his life that Jase didn't show a natural up front aggression with. He actually bothered to try and learn about his opponent, locate weaknesses, and determine the best move before attacking. Unfortunately Michelle had proven to be a tricky opponent. He had yet to completely figure her out and that made him cautious while dealing with her.
Without warning, Michelle's blade came up and she stepped deliberately toward Jase. She beat his blade off as he tried to close the line and thrust at him. Jase parried and Michelle countered. The next few moments were a flurry of thrust, parry, counter, lunge. Neither of them was willing to give ground. Finally Jase saw an opening and took it. Beating Michelle's blade down, he thrust at her chest. She ducked just in time and the tip barely missed her shoulder. At the same time she brought her own blade up and managed a hit to his stomach.
Swearing, Jase stepped away from engagement. "Hit," he spat out as he walked away. "You ready for a real bout yet?"
When he turned back Michelle was already advancing on him. "What the hell Michelle?" Jase got his blade up only barely in time to deal with the next volley. This time Jase managed to get the upper hand when Michelle went for a low line attack and tripped on her loose jacket strap. He got her with a vicious thrust into her hip, where the padding wasn't quite as thick. He hadn't intended to hit her that hard and he knew there'd be a good half dollar sized bruise on her creamy skin. A flash of the night they'd spent in the locker room a couple weeks back went through his mind as he pictured the purple circle taking shape on her hip.
For a moment Michelle sat on the floor.
God what am I doing. It was only one time. I don't have any claim to him. If he wants to go out with Paula, that's his business. Some friend she turned out to be
. "Sorry," she said despondently. "Maybe we should call it quits for tonight. I don't think my heart's in it."
"You're heart's here alright. You've been beating the shit out of me," he growled. Here he was again. The woman was impossible to read. When he first met her he had called her the ice queen for a reason. They only ended up spending time together at all because she had been interested in getting into fencing. If it were for that he never would have even considered getting together with her. Over the past couple months as they got to know each other some, he'd found himself more and more attracted to her. Then the locker room happened. He thought the ice queen had finally thawed. "If this is about the competition—"
Michelle scoffed.
Men are so damn clueless
. "This has nothing to do with the competition."
