[1v1] The Foreign Tongue (Maebe/Tommy)

[Nio Love]

Her spar with Abbi wasn't going to be enough. After giving time for her shield to heal, Maebe was back out on the training field, sitting on a post impatiently. She wouldn't even bother hitting the dummies for practice. She wanted real, flesh and blood fights, and she wanted them now. She was desperate to get her mind off of -

She sent off another text, and then held the phone like a lifeline, keeping her from drowning. It was doing a terrible job.

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[Seussi]

Maebe did not have to wait too long for a target, as Tommy made his way onto the training field, beginning his usual regimen of stretching, limbering himself up for the work out to come. A quick glance around showed him that the grounds were rather empty for a change, save for one person sitting not too far off, a blonde he did not think he recognized.

She was given a wink and a wave anyway before he stretched an arm behind his head in some ungodly way that looked incredibly painful but did not seem to phase him in the slightest.

nio love

 

[Nio Love]

Maebe had no idea who the man walking up to him was, either. That made no difference to her, however - any body was going to do for now. She hopped off of the fence, pulled her shorts down so they didn't ride up her rear end, and walked over to him. With a curve of her fingers she returned the wave, albeit a little more tentatively. Something about her eyes looked haunted, and distracted. She looked like she could have been beautiful, if she wasn't so scared.

"Would you like a spar?" She murmured out, her voice careful in it's easy pitch. "I could use the distraction."

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[Seussi]

He watched with growing interest as the woman approached him, with an odd feeling of familiarity that he assumed was likely from simply having passed her in the hallways before. It was a small island, after all! He stopped stretching when she came to a stop in front of him, a warm smile instantly tugging up his lips, even if she did appear to be...worried? about something.

Her voice, when the question was asked, tugged at that sense of familiarity again, but once more it was brushed off, as even up close he did not think that he recognized this woman.

There was still something about her, though.....

Despite this, and her almost timid appearance, his smile transformed into a wide grin. "Ah, of course! I would not wish to deny somebody as lovely as yourself such a simple request." As charming as ever, even if she did not look like she was quite in the mood for it, his words tinged with his his usual exuberance, and of course, his likely unmistakable accent.

nio love

 

[Nio Love]

It was a lot easier for Maebe to make the connection, the moment he'd spoken. His voice had made an impression, and it was all she had to remember him by. He had a bunch of bandages and a woman in a bed, which was more difficult to place just by voice. She had darkness - no visual to conflict her memory when the voice triggered the sound of all that Italian in her mind.

"Tommy?" She muttered, one eyebrow raising in surprise. She summoned Thaw into her hands, and quirked her lips with weak amusement. "I guess it's not your fault you don't remember me. Though you did just answer the question of whether you say that to all the girls. Even the ones whose faces are wrapped in bandages."

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

For a few seconds that stretched into eternity, Tommy did not catch on. She said his name, repeated words he'd obviously not thought about since he'd said them back to him, and even mentioned bandages, and yet a connection was not made.

And then it was. Realization dawned, and his eyes widened. "Maebe?" He shouldn't have questioned it. He knew. That hair, those lips, that voice. He felt like an idiot for not realizing sooner, but yet, through this, his smile did not falter.

He chuckled lightly himself, and gave his head a small shake. "Or, perhaps it is just you, bandaged or not, that's beauty is so profound, I can not help but notice it." There was definitely a hint of mischief in his smile, now, and soon his own weapon was summoned, his fists encased in spiked knuckled gauntlets that were each mounted by a small crossbow.

"Or, I could just say it to everyone, but that does not mean that I do not find each person lovely or beautiful in their own way. I guess that is for you to decide. "

He pulled back the string on each crossbow, giving her weapon a thoughtful glance only a moment before saying, "Ready, bella?" and swinging a fist towards her, deciding to keep things close ranged at least for now.


HP: 40
Damage: 0

nio love

 

[Nio Love]

She watched it dawn on him, and bit the smile away from her lip when he finally figured it out. "Bingo." She told him, crouching down to get on the defensive. "I decide that you say it to everyone. But if you appreciate beauty in everyone, then I think we have something in common. So I like that much better than some romanticized idea that you find anything about me personally profound." The trident disappeared when he surged forward, his fist aiming to hit her instead of his weapon. His arm never made it far enough when she blocked it with Thaw's wings, and twisted the weapon until she'd caught him tangled in it's pointy bits.

Then she took the offensive, and the trident bit into his shield with a hefty stab.

"I hope you don't mind if I give it my all, mon amour."

Quote:

HP: 50
Damage: 9
Charge: 1/3

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

Well, that certainly hurt. Her trident bit into his shield, twisting against him painfully and giving him a quick lesson in why he should have just kept his distance.

Though being close to her did have it's benefits as well. He raised his eyebrows at her and grinned, doing his best not to falter despite, well, the pain.

"Amore mio, I would expect it no other way!" He teased, bringing his second, gauntleted hand up and firing the crossbow mounted on the back of his wrist once he had it pointed at her.

"Now, I am curious. Why is it that you think that there is nothing profound about you?"

HP: 31
Damage: 8

nio love

 

[Nio Love]

She felt the bite of his crossbow and twisted around in response to it, rubbing the spot against her skin where she felt the dull bite of echoed pain. Keeping her distance wasn't much of a strategy with a weapon like that, so she bore down on him again, her trident twisting in her hands until it dug violently into his shield. She sidestepped and pulled her trident away when her damage was done, in an attempt to stay at his side and give him trouble with a straight shot.

"I didn't say there was nothing profound about me. I said it would be difficult to believe that you're able to appreciate that. You hardly know me, Tommy. I could be extremely profound, or extremely profane."

She kept dipping around, keeping out of his line of sight. For a moment, she was at his back, tugging on his hair playfully. "But it's not that hard to guess."

Quote:

HP: 42
Damage: 9
Charge: 2/3

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[Seussi]

Again she dealt him a hard blow, her trident twisting against his shield hard enough that he could not stop the gasp of pain that escaped his lips before she stepped away. A gauntlet clad hand instinctively went to the attacked area, pressing against where a gaping wound might have- no, would - have been if not for his shield.

"I could appreciate either of those things." He protested, with another grin, attempting to turn with her as she attempted to dodge around, a venture she succeeded in long enough to even tug on his hair, which earned her a laugh.

"Profoundly profane?" He guessed, whirling on his heel and taking quick aim before firing off another bolt, though this one only landed a glancing blow.

HP: 22
Damage: 2

nio love

 

[Nio Love]

The glancing blow had her hesitating, just long enough to keep her trident at bay, and choose to come up for a closer, more physical attack. She elbowed him in the gut, and then straightened up, until she was on her tiptoes looking up at him from inches away.

"If I had a business card, that would be on it." She promised him, her smile just a little too dangerous for her own good. She shouldn't be flirting so hard, so soon. It was too easy to forget, when moments like these came up. She wanted to see the look on another's face when they started to wonder just how serious she was. It was such a bad habit to kick.

Quote:

HP: 40
Damage: 2
Charge: 3/3

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

He stepped back from the elbow to his gut with a sharp exhale of air followed by a chuckle, giving his head a small shake. As she spoke, he deftly reached up to string both of his crossbows once more, leaving them at the ready should they be needed.

He let out a thoughtful hum when she finished, a smaller smile now toying at the corners of his lips as he looked down at her, letting that little tid-bit of information sink in.

She was another firecracker, all right. Tommy seemed to find himself surrounded by them, lately.

"I do not suppose there is a call me printed on the other side of this business card, is there?" He asked, innocently enough, and still smiling, before he ducked in to dig spiked knuckles in towards her ribcage.

HP: 20
Damage: 8

nio love

 

[Nio Love]

Unlike previous attacks, when Tommy ground the knuckles into her middle, she did not flinch, and she did not back away. She pressed forward, digging it harder into her shield. Her smile turned tight, and unamused.

"No." She hated that joke, but she wasn't going to blame Tommy for making it. Instead, she drove her trident hard into his body, from the close range she'd pushed herself into. His weapon continued to bury into her shield, even as she twisted the trident, trying to break his.

"You don't need to call. If you need me, I'm right here."

Quote:

HP: 32
Damage: 10
Charge: 3/3

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

Tommy wondered, briefly, if he had done something wrong. Joking around was just something he did, and flirting had become second nature to him, as part of his act, as part of his performance, practiced, used to earn him more money, rinsed and repeated so many times that the line between who he truly was and who he pretended to be became so blurred that he had simply become somebody different entirely.

But the way she smiled at him now, all unamused as she pressed her body against his weapon, had him pulling back mentally, reassessing himself, his audience, and what he should have said versus what he had, though that was slightly difficult to do when her trident was quite suddenly stabbing into him, pushing him back.

She was small, but she was strong. He could feel that if he continued on, like this, pushing against her while she pushed against him, his shield would give. So, with a quick twist of his knuckles and a grunt chased with a light laugh, he pulled himself away, and sidestepped, hoping to avoid being skewered by that wicked weapon.

"Have I upset you, Bella?" He asked, readjusting himself with a shrug of his shoulders, his smile still there, but more subdued, as he hoped that he had not in some way offended her.

HP: 10
Damage: 3

nio love

 

[Nio Love]

Have I upset you?

When he pulled away, she tumbled forward, until she was down on her hands and knees. She hopped up quickly to recover, but even he could tell that something was wrong, despite how well she'd thought she was doing. The truth was, there was nothing well about the way she grinned just a little too hard, until the teeth gnashed audibly against one another.

"What?" She mumbled out, forced to try and focus instead of let her thoughts wander. "No, I, no. You didn't. I mean, you didn't do anything worth upsetting. You made a bad joke, but that's not - no, trust me, this isn't - "

She was crumbling in front of a boy she hardly knew, and all her best laid plans of trying to use up a new distraction were fluttering away in the wind.

"Sorry." She finally whispered out, her expression etched with guilt. "I didn't mean to get so - so - whatever I'm being. This isn't me."

She moved to strike with a more long ranged attack, piercing him briefly before pulling away.

Quote:

HP: 29
Damage: 4
Charge: 3/3

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