Editing Shadowboxing

'''28 Sep 2520''' <br>

I paused on the threshold of the crew lounge when I heard Joshua's voice, looked up and seeing him, I leaned on the jamb and waited for him to finish his move.

"Since I know your room is pretty much like mine for elbow room, please don't.  The bulkhead will win any argument you bring to bear on it." I stepped all the way inside.  "Were you …fighting someone?  I thought I recognized a knife move, but I couldn't be sure."

"If you'd like a partner, I'm game."  I set my towel aside on the bench and kicked my boots off underneath it.  I wore my usual—tank with jog top under it, exercise shorts—and my feet were bare.  I walked over to Joshua and stood with my hands on my hips.  "Where do you want me?"

"Okay."  I retreated to the requisite spot on the mat and nodded.  

He nodded back and bowed to her. "Third technique. Ganmen-tsuki sankyo. You're going to come at me with a punch to the face and I'm going to apply a rotational wristlock." He then put himself in position, hands up slightly, his body facing slightly left, waiting for Rina's approach.

I nodded and drew closer, then feinted with my right and plowed for his face with my left.

Pain ripped through me as he torqued my arm right up and brought me to my knees.  I sucked in air against the pain and mentally kicked myself—my shoulder still reminded me of its mistreatment a year ago whenever I pushed it.  

"No, don't."  I shook my head with a jerk and sat back on my haunches, flexing my hand and moving my shoulder in a slow shrug up and down.  I rubbed my collarbone, feeling the scar through my tank top and even after a year, it still felt foreign.  "It would only make him angry.  Just give me a minute."

"Please, don't apologize, Joshua."  The pain faded as I knew it would and I rose and sucked it in. "It's my own damn fault.  I never could do anything by halves.  Practice to me is just another form of combat and I don't do it unless I mean it.  I should have warned you."  I raked my hair back.  "And now I have.  So…want to do that again?  I promise to go slow."

It was good advice and I took it, knowing that Joshua had the advantage of knowledge and experience over me on this one.  Not that I minded.  I'd been thinking on expanding my brawling repertoire and assimilating Aikido looked to be a good idea.  So I let him guide me through the exercise and tried to suss out the reasoning behind his moves.  It was a more formal style of fighting than I knew and it was interesting and time disappeared as we went through the lesson.

I turned the concept of yielding as a position of strength over in my head and I admit, it intrigued me.  However, now that we'd stopped I'd become aware that I was dripping with sweat and Joshua wasn't much drier. I shrugged and was glad my shoulder didn't complain.  Arden had told me to baby it and it would be back to its old self in six months.  Circumstances had prevented coddling and my comeback was slower as a result.  I knew that I shouldn't push it, not while my shoulder was still happy with me.

 

"I'd like that, but can we save it for another time?"

I hated coddling and tried not to let my irritation show. After all, I was the one who intruded on Joshua's time alone.  Lord knows, a ship this size had space aplenty to get lost in but crews being what they are, privacy was still a dear commodity.  And he had spoken with the air of a man intending to talk and I wanted to hear what he had to say.

 

So I shook my head and sat down, going through some cool-down stretches to keep from stiffening up.

By now I was getting used to Joshua's mimicry and his switching voices barely threw me.  However before I could answer his query I could see something click inside his head and I remained silent as he trailed off to think it through.

 

''All about the journey.''  We'd been telling him variations of that for weeks and it was finally sinking in.  ''Better late than never.''

 

I kept silent and kept on stretching.

"Not touching that one," I grinned up at him from a leg stretch. "Any part of it."

I continued stretching as I thought on what to say.  I didn't want to cheapen the revelation with a wisecrack. Neither did I want to trot out a platitude.  Joshua deserved better from me.  I settled on the truth.

 

"The learning curve is pretty steep around here and I think you'll find that it won't take a decade."

"Why indeed?"  I rose and offered him a hand up.  "I never had much use for self-pity, myself.  Too destructive."

"I never stand on ceremony if I don't have to," I said, returning the courtesy of a bow.  "And thank you for letting me do this with you.  You're a good teacher."

"The day you stop learning," I said as I fetched my towel, "is the day you stop living."

 

The endorphins from a good workout were settling in and it was making me talkative.  Not too long ago, that would have been my cue to shut up.  ''Now? Not so much.''  And it was a revelation of sorts that I realized I didn't mind.

 

"Study hard.  Live forever."  I chuckled.  "Or something like that, anyway."

"Teacher before the student," I said, bowing out from under his hand and waving him to the door.  I grabbed my boots by their laces and flipped my towel around my neck as I went.  "As for the Shepherd, if he bothers you, you can always come hide with me.  I know he's a Shepherd and deserving of respect, but …. I don't know."

 

I looked around to be certain we were alone before continuing.  I didn't want what I was going to say to get back to the man in question.

 

"The way I see it, Shepherd or not, he had no business saying you had no soul.  That's a hell of a thing to say when first meeting someone."  I'd pieced it together, eavesdropping on their conversations as I went about my duties and I could see the concept of being soulless bothered Joshua deeply.  These past two months had supplied more than enough proof to convince me that Joshua was firmly in the ensouled camp.  I'd run into enough bastards who weren't to recognize them when I saw them.  And while I cannot say I've been innocent of making such pronouncements of people, I at least waited until I'd had sufficient proof before making them.  

 

Mostly.

"Fair enough, but what does he believe? What's his agenda?"

I saw the wheels turning and knew what he must be thinking. That learning curve was rising and he was rising right along with it. I smiled down at the deck and bit my lips, then looked up at him, amused.

 

"How about you shower first and when I'm done with mine, we meet back at your quarters. If it makes you feel safer, you can say you need me to fix something. Will that suit?"

I managed not to chuckle. Joshua was little-brother cute when he got flustered.