The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitch_prince]

His bruises had faded to a point where he could train again, so Arthur was, as usual, back in the salle to go through his morning routine, and to deal with his regulars as they showed themselves

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[puppy_fair]

After arts and crafts class, which was a demonstration in the futility of handing beads to Zack and getting him to make things with them, Zack grabbed his sword and made a beeline for the salle.

At least swordplay was something that he could handle!

"Hey, Arthur! How are you doing today?"

[bitch_prince]

Watching part of your canon between pings.

"I'm fine, thank you," Arthur returned, idly, as he lowered his sword away from the dummy he'd been practicing on. "You're looking cheerful for once."

That was, in fact, a joke.

[puppy_fair]

Mwahahaha! It's pretty!

"Every now and then, I manage to do that," Zack replied, grinning. As per usual. "I guess I'm starting to get back into the swing of things after those monsters invaded."

The Pixie Stix had helped.

[bitch_prince]

Far be it from Arthur to come between a man and his live sugar.

"'Swing of things'," he echoed. "That's an optimistic phrase for it." Hey, he wasn't heading anywhere beyond his usual level of disdain for all things today. "Here I was afraid you were going to wind up like a bruised damsel."

[puppy_fair]

"The worst I had to deal with on Friday evening were a few bruises and the sewer smell," Zack laughed. "Saturday morning was worse. I don't know what I did to deserve detention, but they made me clean."

Dried up gator goo. It had been an adventure.

[bitch_prince]

"The school does have interesting ways of disposing of anything foul," he agreed, approaching Zack more readily, his own practice sword still in hand. "Look on the bright side - at least you know you're good for something."

[puppy_fair]

"And here I was starting to worry that people were keeping me around as a decoration," Zack mused, glancing at Arthur's wee tiny! practise sword. Totally bemused. Really. "It's good to feel needed for things like scrubbing guts off of the front gate, too."

And raiding sewers. And such.

[bitch_prince]

Oh, Zack. Decoration was only about two-fifths of the reason. "How did the raid on the sewers go?" Arthur segued, "I haven't caught you since."

He was kind of glad about that. It must've reeked worse than anything.

[puppy_fair]

"More people showed up for it than I thought there would be," Zack replied, straightening a little. He was so proud of that fact, dangit. "Mostly fighters, but Ino showed up to tend to the wounded, if something happened. It actually went really smoothly, I think."

And that was considering the fact that they'd been joined by a trigger-happy bunny rabbit, at that.

"We all got out alive and well... Though a little smelly."

[bitch_prince]

Okay, the reeking would've bothered him for all of thirty seconds if he'd actually been there, which was why Arthur felt a little twinge of guilt he hadn't realised he had, giving way. "That's good," he said, and if those words were rather overtly sincere, then he'd just--

Well, he wouldn't have to blame something. He should've been there. He swallowed that one back. "Were there many wounded?"

[puppy_fair]

"Aside from the alligators?" Zack gave his head a shake.

"I kind of have to wonder if Ino was getting bored down there, actually. We didn't have to haul anyone off to the clinic or anything."

This was kind of a big deal and it was also very awesome, perhaps Arthur could tell by the way Zack was grinning over it.

[bitch_prince]

Arthur really wouldn't blame him. "That's good," he repeated, then reached across to (hopefully) pat Zack on his ridiculously cheerful shoulder. It was hard not to talk to Zack like he was... a puppy, or something, but still. "You performed well," he said, "Anyone would be proud to stand beside you."

... Listen, this sort of thing was necessary, yeah. Certain actions set off some kind of bizarre princely motion sensors.

[puppy_fair]

If Zack got any more proud of himself, there, he probably would have burst.

"Thanks, Arthur!" Do not hug the Arthur, do not hug the Arthur...

Okay. He was good.

"You did a really good job handling the troops in the park, too. It isn't every day you see huge battles like that go so well."

[bitch_prince]

The only way 'hug the Arthur' could've gone worse would be if Leto would've been there as well to watch the entire scene.

Well, and maybe Merlin. Then it would've really been a disaster.

He crossed his arms behind him, his shoulders steeling a little more to settle the picture.

"It's one of my duties." Sure, it was a self-appointed one, but it was either that or go insane. "The warriors of Fandom are still rather disorganised, but we're getting somewhere."

[puppy_fair]

"Considering I didn't hear about any serious injuries, and no casualties at all on the radio that night, I'd say 'getting somewhere' means that you're doing really, really good. It's an honor to be a part of your reserve corps."

Well, it was an honor, and it also happened to keep him out of trouble on Tuesdays. Which was very important!

[bitch_prince]

He paused, then nodded. "Speaking of such, Zack," Arthur said, happy for the chance for the segue, "Have you ever considered any leadership positions at all?"

He could do princely if he wanted to.