Closed You Punch Like a Girl PV Opeila Winters, Akari Kato

"You punch like a girl."
Instead of a verbal response, the comment was followed by a lighter punch- past the focus mitts, hitting Aaron's chest. "Oops...", Opeila said in a playfully apologetic tone, the smirk that accompanied it really erasing all doubts that this 'miss' had been accidental.
When he demonstrated and explained however, she listened and watched seriously. Not all of what he taught her was entirely new. Training with Selim Faust had been a long while ago, but not everything had been forgotten since. Of much she had been reminded by Aaron.

"Mh, okay." She would adjust the position of her fingers in her left fist like Aaron had done in her right and moved her feet a bit closer together. "Better?" A memory brought a light smile to her face. "You know, I used to think this was how to make a fist." She closed the fingers of her right hand around the thumb. "Until I broke my hand when I punched someone like that in first year." Opeila grinned. What a silly thing to do that had been.

The idea to start training again had come to her during her time in France. The women she had lived with there had inspired her truly, especially her... well, kind-of-cousin Valérie. Raised by two mothers, a grandmother and a cousin who had fought to control their own lives, what could she have become, other than a fighter?
The young girl had made quite an unexpected effort to include the stranger Opeila was, introduced her to some of her own friends and taken her along to parties (actual teenager parties, with no pureblood nonsense and no adults allowed!) and other holiday events. And when she had noticed that Opeila was not an entire stranger to fighting, she had trained with her sometimes, having learned judo basically since she could walk.

When the young Slytherin had picked her training back up at Hogwarts, she had not expected any help. She had made use of the room of requirements to help her out with instructive books and an area to train and maybe that would have been enough, but then Aaron (of all people) had found her. Opeila had never thought that the room would turn into what it was now to the two of them when she first showed it to him a few years back, but now it was mainly used by them as an improvised make out closet.

So who should be surprised, that this was exactly what happened when Aaron first offered to help her out? Opeila didn't recall ever seeing Aaron fight, so his skill came as a bit of a surprise to her. He wasn't a bad teacher at all... when they trained in public. In private it seemed he was quite as unable to keep his hands to himself as she was. She had not quite figured out where this... pull came from, as she was usually not the most physical person at all. With Alec, yes, him she had hugged loads during their ruse and even now still, but between her and the Gryffindor was a stronger connection than she could possibly have with anyone else at this point. He very literally carried her mark. One word and the two of them could hear each other's thoughts.

Aaron on the other hand... Opeila had not quite decided what to make of what she felt whenever she was around him. Talking to him, touching him, kissing him... all felt so oddly easy at this point. It was so worryingly easy to like him, that she had no hesitated a second to agree to move their training into a public place, just to avoid the risk of growing to like him... more. No attachment, that was their deal.

"If you become my knight in shining armour should I ever get disarmed, I'll happily go back to only magical fighting", Opeila joked when he asked if she wasn't content duelling with her wand, before becoming more serious. "I asked Selim Faust to train me in first year", she began, re-positioned her feet like Aaron had instructed and threw two- this time stronger- punches against the mitts. "A few weeks after Blossom Ball 2020. I wanted to be able to fight without a wand after I got to see my friends being beaten up, knowing no spells that could help them. I dropped training around... halfway through second year I'd say. And this summer I felt like returning to it."

Aaron rolled his eyes playfully and feigned that the punch to his chest had really hurt, acting like it had really knocked the wind out of him. "You wound me," he said in a wheezy British accent, imitating an old man accent he'd heard before. But the grin constantly tugging at his lips gave him away immediately, and he was back to focusing on how to help her improve her form.

The Hufflepuff nodded at her improved fist form, confirming that was the correct way to do it. But then she showed him a way she used to punch and he grimaced. "You punched someone in first year?" Aaron repeated, surprised by the information. He didn't know why he was surprised - it's not like he had known her that well in first year. Aaron himself had almost punched George back in first year, but he'd changed a lot since then. "Well I hope you hurt them as much as you hurt yourself, if not more," Aaron said lightheartedly, not wanting to pry too much. Though if she offered more details, he would listen and comment appropriately.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Aaron flirted with a smirk, listening to her describe him as her personal knight in shining armour. He knew she was just teasing, though. As she geared up to start punching at his mitts again, Aaron braced himself and took the punches in a manner that wouldn't do either of them harm, listening to her talk about training with Selim Faust. Aaron had never really interacted with the Slytherin boy before, so it was interesting to hear that he was into martial arts as well. He wondered what kind, and why they had stopped halfway through second year, but again didn't feel much like prying. Better to focus on her present motivations anyway.

"Yeah, that ball was a rough one," Aaron agreed, recalling his own memories of the mosps and the chaos and all of that. "I think it's good to learn to rely on more than just your wand," Aaron commended. "Sometimes I think maybe I need to rely on mine more, but then I think about how you can lose your wand a lot more easily than your own two fists," he continued, choosing not to mention the fact that he also just in general felt like he sucked at magic. "But maybe I should try using magic more in everyday life so if I need it in an emergency, I'd be ready," he said aloud, only realizing after a moment that he had said it aloud. He really meant for that last bit to be an internal thought, considering the personal nature and familiarity with a magic-needing emergency he had. Moving on.

"That one was strong," Aaron said as she threw another punch, and he shook his mitted hand like it had hurt. It had hurt a bit, but maybe he was playing it up a smidge to instill some confidence in her. That's what he felt like a good trainer does. Mindset mattered just as much as physicality. "So you started training again over the summer, were you training with someone? Alec?" he guessed, trying to keep the subject on Opeila. Though maybe Alec was a bad guess, since if it had been Alec, she probably would've asked him for help rather than Aaron. The only reason Alec had come to mind was because Aaron had seen him in the halls yesterday and he automatically associated them together. And he wasn't sure if that was a good thing, because sometimes when he saw Alec, Aaron felt weird about the whole situation with Opeila.

@Opeila Winters

Aaron's acting as though her punch had hurt him made her grin. "Good." She shook her head un playful indignance. "How dare you mock me..."

Chuckling over the memory of that one afternoon on the astronomy tower, Opeila shook her head. "I think I was definitely the more hurt one. The guy is in your house by the way- uh, Warren! Yeah, it was Warren. I think he even was a prefect back then." Those had been the days. The days when Opeila had still regularly gotten in trouble with young prefects. She couldn't even remember why now.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"And you wouldn't?" Opeila smirked. It was all just jokes of course, but a small, embarrassingly romantic part of her couldn't help imagining. Not that this would stop her from training though and as if to prove it to herself, the next punches were quite a bit stronger.

She wasn't sure how much truth there was to Aaron's expression of pain, but Opeila was happy to just believe it. "Definitely. I mean, I believe I have become quite good at duelling, but it's so easy to get disarmed. In duelling that's one thing, but in a real fight..." She listened to Aaron when he talked about using his wand more to prepare for an emergency.
"Well, we're at Hogwarts, the place where no balls shall ever go peaceful. I dare say you couldn't get better emergency training." Opeila spoke with a smile but the playfulness was gone. This she had meant entirely serious.

"Oh no, I didn't train with Alec. A cousin of mine from France trained me a bit, she's been fighting forever." For a moment Opeila hesitated. "About Alec- you should probably know that the ruse is off." A careful smile followed the words. "There's no more lying. The purebloods can shove it."

"It was Jack?" Aaron said incredulously, a grin spreading on his lips. "Getting into fights as a prefect does sound like him," he chuckled. He and Jack had become really good friends during third year. During the start of fourth year though, Jack had been acting strangely, and then Aaron had gone through stuff over winter break, meaning he was fine with the distance that continued to grow so he wouldn't pry. All in all, they hadn't really hung out in a long time. And now they were a month into fifth year. Still, thinking of a first-year Jack and a first-year Opeila getting into it was mildly amusing. "Well if you ever need me to rough him up a bit for you, let me know," Aaron offered jokingly.

"And you wouldn't?" Aaron chose not to respond verbally to her quip, and instead shot her a cheeky wink. Maybe he would. For a moment the thought of playing such a role for her was appealing, but he quickly brushed it away. This was just jokes, right?

"Yeah, that's a good point," Aaron said when Opeila brought up the disasters of Hogwarts balls. "At the last few balls though, I left before any real disaster struck," he went on to say, thinking back to the last one with Lucia. "Maybe for the next one, I'll have to stay until the very end just for the practice," he said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood a bit since he'd noticed her serious tone. His brown eyes caught her green ones and he gave a relaxed smile before lifting his mitts again for punches.

The Hufflepuff nodded when she explained she was training with a cousin in France. For some reason, he felt - relieved? - that it wasn't Alec she'd been training with. No, that wasn't relief, was it? Why would he feel that way? He was too distracted by the feeling to notice Opeila's hesitation before she continued speaking. His eyes went from watching her fists straight to her face when she told him "the ruse is off." He straightened up a bit, letting his hands fall and dropping the position of taking more punches.

"Oh?" was all he could think to say in the moment. But she saved him from any awkward pauses by continuing to speak, explaining that the purebloods could shove it. The phrase made a small grin appear on Aaron's face, though he was still trying to figure out why this news suddenly had him feeling happy. "That's awesome news," he said, letting his grin grow a bit more. He was just happy for her, right? That must be the reason for this feeling.

"You must be so relieved not having to keep that up anymore," he said, raising his hands again for her to throw more punches. He resisted the urge to say "right?" For some reason he wanted confirmation beyond just her smile that she was happy about this.

@Opeila Winters

"Yeah", Opeila confirmed, Aarons grin made her chuckle. "Well, he completely deserved it! Umm... I think he was mad at me for not catching an owl he lost so he tried to scare me. It was so silly. So... I told him to back off and then I punched him." The Slytherin shrugged. At 12 years old that had seemed like a fully reasonable reaction to her.
"Heh, I actually haven't spoken to him in ages. So if you want to rough him up, don't blame it on me." Playfully she stuck out her tongue.

"Smart", she would comment on Aaron's claim that he left every time before anything bad could go down. "I feel like sometimes I can barely enter without being hit by anything within the first ten seconds. Whether that is potions or... odd deliveries or whatever." Opeila shook her head. Her eyes would meet his when he said he should stay until the end next ball and she bit her tongue. The question almost slipped out, way too easily. Want to try and survive a ball with no bad events until the end?

Maybe he would notice her hesitation, maybe not- quickly she returned the smile and prepared for the next punch when he raised the mitts again. "I also still have some payback to do for last summer. A guy from one of the other schools attacked me because he thought I stole from him." The next punch would be the strongest one yet. "He'll get it all back. One way or another."

"It feels quite weird not having to keep it up anymore, it's been months now. I feel like it'll be a change that we have to get used to? Is that weird?", she tried to explain when Aaron... sort of asked if she was relieved about the change.

Opeila seemed like she was holding something back when they were talking about the past balls, but Aaron chose not to push about it. Maybe she had a bad memory that had come to mind and thought better about voicing it. He certainly hated talking about the ball from first year. The one they'd actually planned together.

Ow. Some of her punches had hurt before, but Aaron was unprepared for the one she threw talking about a guy from camp. He shook his mitt again, slight surprise in his expression. "Attacked you? What the hell?" The Hufflepuff wanted more details of the incident, but bit his tongue. "Good," he commended when she said the guy would get what was coming to him. "I imagine you'll get your chance sooner than later, since the ball's around the corner. Maybe whoever he is will show up for it," he said, since the ball was only two weeks away. He didn't know when the foreign students would be coming for it, but they usually showed up a week or two before the ball.

"I'm not sure," Aaron answered, when asked if it was weird that Opeila would have to get used to not having Alec as a fake fiance. "The whole situation was weird," he said with a shrug. The idea of having a fiance and being engaged at fourteen or fifteen was odd to begin with, and the fact that it was their families that had arranged it was further odd. "I think it's a good thing you don't have to be fake about who you like," he decided to say, his mitts back up. Though after a moment, his hands lowered and he shifted positions.

"If you're planning to actually fight someone - this guy from camp - you'll probably need to know how to dodge too, so want to practice that?" he asked. They'd already been practicing some of her 1-2 1-2-3 punch combos, so it was time to throw in some dodging. Aaron would demonstrate a slow move where she would punch the mitts then he would throw a hit back at her and she needed to duck and dodge his throws (which were padded by his mitts anyway). Once he'd demonstrated it slowly, they continued their practice with her mainly throwing punches, and Aaron occasionally throwing fake punches back so she could practice some dodging. Slowly at first, of course.

"About the whole Alec thing, I think it's a big change yeah, so it's probably natural that it'll take a bit of an adjustment period," he conceded, trying to show some empathy for what she was going through. Though he really had trouble trying to relate. The only people he'd been with he actually liked to some extent. Though not enough to necessarily fake a whole relationship, as evidenced by Lindsey. His mind went to Akari as well, whom he liked, but didn't want to be in a relationship with. Hm. Maybe his own situation wasn't as straightforward either. His eyes looked at Opeila contemplatively as they continued practicing, thinking about the fact that he liked her too, but in what way? He was happy to continue what they had - even if it was in secret - was that a bad thing?

@Opeila Winters

Opeila paused when he shook the mitt she had just punched hard. "Sorry..." She would lower her fists again. "Yeah- I... kind of covered for someone who got something back the guy apparently stole from him. And he caught me and trapped me in his cabin with a spell. Some of those guys from other schools are crazy." Opeila shook her head. She had no problem talking about the incident like it had been nothing, but she still remembered the fear she had felt like ice in her stomach.
This would not happen again.

"Me neither.", she would respond when Aaron said that he wasn't sure if it wasn't weird. "I grew up in a muggle neighborhood, I sometimes feel like I am missing a piece of brain that they all seem to have to understand and be content with their ways." Opeila shrugged. Sometimes it felt like she had not only moved countries when moving in with the Virtanens, but like she had fallen through time. Or into a fantasy novel that wasn't quite as romantic.

"I think it's a good thing you don't have to be fake about who you like"

The words made the fifth year pause. Was this a meaningless comment or a hint of some kind? She would eye Aaron for a moment, until he suggested to show her how to dodge as well. "Yeah sure!", she answered, maybe a touch too enthusiastic as she tried to clear her head again. "That's a good idea."
The new part of their practice helped her focus on the task at hand again. Learning how to fight. Prepare to fight the guy who had trapped her. She was only getting really into it, when Aaron spoke up again, going back to what she had said about Alec.

Not really knowing what to say about it, she just nodded, continuing to throw punches and duck when he returned them. She felt his gaze on her and was not sure now if she was glad or disappointed that they were in public. What exactly was it she wanted? What did she really feel about both of them? Alec was closer to her than anyone could possibly be, bound by mind and magic. But she had never felt about him what she felt about Aaron, never felt the need to touch him or get more physical beyond the hugs and hand holding that had become so natural during their ruse.

"... Oh!" Opeila stumbled sideways a little. Busy with her thoughts she had not focused anymore and not dodged the mitt that now hit the side of her head. Not hard, it had startled Opeila more than it hurt. A chuckle broke out of her and she flattened the hair on the side of her head with one hand, slowly returning to her spot.
And then she just said it. "I- Would you- We- ..." Right, maybe not that easily. Opeila sighed, sorted her thoughts and somehow managed to get the question out. "Would you got to the next fall ball with me?"

Opeila had asked classmates to accompany her to balls before, but never had she been nervous like she was right now. Wyatt, Flash and Zyk had been friends, Percival her boyfriend and Vlad... well, there was no clear label for Vlad. Besides, he had asked her.
But with Aaron she first felt scared that he might reject her. Remind her of rule 2. No attachments.
Nervously she would step from one foot to the other, avoiding his gaze.

"To be fair, some of the guys at our school are crazy too," Aaron pointed out during the discussion. But he definitely thought the guy who attacked her qualified among the craziest. "That guy sounds like he deserves what's coming to him, though, so kick his ass," he added, offering a supportive grin.

Opeila responded a lot more positively to his offer to teach her how to dodge than he had expected, and he went ahead and showed her the movement. "Maybe I can show you how to redirect once you've got this down," he said, since she seemed so focused all of a sudden. "Instead of dodging entirely, pushing their arm and using their own momentum against them... but one step at a time," he chuckled, realizing he was getting ahead of himself. For now, she should focus on dodging at such close combat. She was probably used to having some space between herself and attacks - like spells - but with hand-to-hand combat, it was quite a bit different. A lot less time to react, you had to read the person's body and pay really close attention to their shifts.

They spent a few minutes just focused on the new training routine, with Aaron actually throwing some punches now. He almost noticed her attention waning as it was happening, but not before Opeila failed to dodge one of his half-hearted punches. He didn't know what caused her to stumble, and he didn't have time to wonder about that, because he was suddenly very aware of the fact he'd just hit her in the face. Definitely not hard, and the fact that it was a training mitt and not his knuckles meant there probably wasn't much pain, but he reacted immediately.

"Shit, I'm sorry," he said, quickly taking off the mitt that had hit her and stepping closer. He used his now bare hand to reach for her face, gently turning it so he could examine the spot. There was no visible damage at all - as expected - but he still felt bad. The close proximity he now held with her was a result of their intimacy, but despite the fact they were alone, Aaron reminded himself they were still in public. It meant he had to suppress the urge to kiss her cheek in apology, settling for words instead. "Sorry," he repeated, his thumb gently brushing over her cheek before releasing her.

When she got through her next stumble of words, the question completely caught Aaron off guard. Yet his reaction was almost immediate. "Yeah," the answer given faster than he would've liked in retrospect, but it had almost been instinctive. "Yeah, I'd like that," he continued, a grin tugging at the corner of his lips. He wasn't going to think about what it exactly meant for them to go on a date, or if she had even meant it as a real date. Best to just stay in the moment, because it definitely called for...

This time when he reached forward, Aaron tucked a stray strand of hair behind Opeila's ear and his fingers lingered, moving his hand down her neck. They were alone and would surely have time for a quick peck, a glance around would confirm that. His brown eyes broke contact with her green to quickly glance around, expecting to confirm there was no one in sight before closing in for a peck to her lips. His intentions were probably obvious to the girl considering how many kisses they'd stolen in the corridors before in similar circumstances. But he froze when his gaze landed off to the left, towards a moderately hilly area that hid most of their view of the castle.

Wait, was that-?

Aaron's hand retracted from Opeila like he had been stung and he took a step away from her, putting a bit of space between them. Akari was there, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere, and she was approaching them. He felt like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't've been, but that was a ridiculous idea. He and Akari were not an item, despite the fact that they often acted like one. Still... what had she seen? She hadn't been close enough to see his intentions of kissing Opeila, but it had probably looked awfully weird the way he'd leaned in towards her with a hand seemingly on her face... But no, she couldn't've seen all those details. She would see that he had training mitts and was clearly just in the midst of showing the Slytherin girl some moves, right?

His eyes darted back to Opeila, wondering if she'd be upset at him for almost getting them caught in a compromising position (would she even care now that they'd be going to the ball together anyway?), or maybe she'd be upset about who exactly was approaching, but she didn't know Akari well, did she? Ah, there were too many thoughts going through Aaron's mind, considering everything that had happened in this short span of time, but he needed to focus.

"Hey, Akari," he greeted as she was approaching, still unable to shake what she might've seen and what might be going through her mind and Opeila's mind and - why was she here anyway? "You're up and about awfully early for a Friday," he said, making the casual observation despite feeling quite confused about why she was here.

@Opeila Winters and @Akari Kato

Mentioning: @Aaron Jones & @Opeila Winters

Akari stopped dead in her tracks. Her feet glued to the ground, her eyes stuck ahead at the scene a few feet in front of her. She had completely forgot why she was here, what she was doing and stood completely and utterly still. Her heart dropped. Aaron was with that girl she remembered from the spin the bottle game during summer camp.

She watched as Aaron's hand reached forward and brushed the loose hair out of the girl's face, tucking it behind her ear, before trailing his hand down to her neck, clearly giving her those eyes that say "I am about to kiss you". Akari stood there in absolute horror. Recently especially she had been noticing more and more how Aaron seemed to care more about the image he had with her rather than whatever they actually had going on, but she ignored ignored ignored, because he was not like that right? But this, this shattered her whole image of him. Had it been like that the whole time? Who's to say.

The moment felt like an eternity and Akari's eyes moved back and forth between the two of them desperately trying to come up with explanation for what she was looking at but to no avail. Yes, in all fairness Akari had known that he did not want an actual relationship with her, and that he was not about to change his mind, and they were just a casual thing, but she also was not aware that he was doing whatever this was with other girls. Was she just all for show? Did he even like her at all?

She felt tears welling up in her eyes, finally understanding and admitting to herself how much she had started liking this boy. Deep down she clearly thought he saw something in her, but the proximity of him and this other girl was proving otherwise. Akari was not mad. How could she be? He had told her all along what he wanted, but her heart did not let her truly listen. But nevertheless, she could not help but feel betrayed. After isolating herself for most of her year she had finally let someone into her world and someone who had made her feel happy in a way, but it was all a farse.

She snapped back to reality when suddenly her presence was noticed. She made eye contact with Aaron for a second before he said something to her which she could not hear over the loud voice in her head telling her not to show how upset she was.

"I'm such a bloody fool aren't I?" She muttered in a choked up whisper, not acknowledging his comment whatsoever. Once again she looked back and forth between the two still trying to grasp everything she had witnessed, hoping dearly that her eyes had deceived her, but no, the way he jumped back upon seeing her there had solidified it all.

"You know what I'm just going to go" Her voice quivering as she began to turn around, fighting the urge to just run away.