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.
