"Sure, gimme just a sec," Tal called from the bedroom, where he was putting away their clean laundry. He tucked a last pair of shirts into a drawer and then hurried out, rolling up his sleeves as he went. He'd heard his partner's voice from the kitchen and had assumed it would be something food related--
His eyes went immediately to the dull knives and then to her face, weary and wounded but determined, too. There was a spark in her eyes that echoed the smoldering flame in his own heart, carefully banked but carefully tended. An ember of anger, vengeful and tempered hard as steel. He assumed it was aimed at the same foe, and at her request he sucked in a breath of surprise that lasted for only a second before he nodded emphatically. "Yeah, of course." Something in him unwound a little in relief to see his love taking control of her life again. Moving... if not past her loss, then at least forward with it. "Let's shift th'table out o' th'way..."
They cleared the common room enough to work. The quarters were tight, but it was too cold to do anything outside, so they would make do. Tal accepted one of the blunted daggers and tested the heft of it before he planted himself in front of his partner and raised the knife defensively. "First, y'gotta be willin' t'hit someone." He patted his chest, where his Vest clinked softly beneath his hand. "An' get used t'how it feels. Y'won't hurt me through this. An' even if y'do, we've got enough healin' between us t'fix any bruises these'll leave."
His eyes went immediately to the dull knives and then to her face, weary and wounded but determined, too. There was a spark in her eyes that echoed the smoldering flame in his own heart, carefully banked but carefully tended. An ember of anger, vengeful and tempered hard as steel. He assumed it was aimed at the same foe, and at her request he sucked in a breath of surprise that lasted for only a second before he nodded emphatically. "Yeah, of course." Something in him unwound a little in relief to see his love taking control of her life again. Moving... if not past her loss, then at least forward with it. "Let's shift th'table out o' th'way..."
They cleared the common room enough to work. The quarters were tight, but it was too cold to do anything outside, so they would make do. Tal accepted one of the blunted daggers and tested the heft of it before he planted himself in front of his partner and raised the knife defensively. "First, y'gotta be willin' t'hit someone." He patted his chest, where his Vest clinked softly beneath his hand. "An' get used t'how it feels. Y'won't hurt me through this. An' even if y'do, we've got enough healin' between us t'fix any bruises these'll leave."
