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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[withoutverona]

It was a crowded salle by the time Romeo shut the shop for a break and made his way back through town. He flashed a slight smile at the activity, then took a place on the mats to stretch out.

"Good morning, Arthur."

[withoutverona]

There was also the fact Reno would most likely lose a spelling bee to Merlin to be considered, here. No point wasting energy worrying about fumbling or bad spelling if neither would be noticed.

"They had teeth," Romeo shuddered, and the teeth had had a bit to do with his cowardice. "So ensorcelled alligators spitting goldfish with teeth -- and I suppose you should say something about the battles, too."

[bitch_prince]

"I suppose we could tell him Zack went into the sewers," said Arthur, unaware of any sort of doom or gloom attached to the case of Zack. "I don't understand why Dinah claimed this 'text messaging' was so bloody useful."

Typing with one finger when you were still trying to figure out the markings was not easy.

[withoutverona]

"It is for short messages," Romeo said. "For more than a sentence, you want a proper keyboard and email or you'd go blind trying to type it out."

But, then, Romeo didn't see what was so difficult about pen and paper, to start with.

"... I don't suppose anyone's mentioned email to you yet."

[bitch_prince]

Neither did Arthur about parchment and quill (with one E, Merlin), but people kept badgering him about this.

"...What?" he asked, for a moment preoccupied with attempting to key the message in with more vigour than could be thought possible. There were wrestlers less involved than this.

[withoutverona]

"You might be a little gentler if you don't want it to break," Romeo had to observe. "Email. Letters that come to your computer. You probably have it on there as well, but on a larger keyboard you can write something longer and use more than just your thumb."

[bitch_prince]

Arthur pulled a face at the device. Gentler. Right. He pressed send as gently as he could.

"Right," he said, shaking his head. "I'll see about that."

Wait, Romeo was here because-- "But enough of that."

[withoutverona]

"Did you mention no one died?" asked Romeo, who had been reading upside down and thus had a reasonably clear idea he had not, and, really, thought that was a thoughtful thing to add. He pushed his hair back. "Enough. Right. Ready for sparring practice?"

[bitch_prince]

There was a moment when Arthur eyed his device. He'd been happy he'd just managed to even finish a message. "I'll remind him of that when we're done," he decided.

Because it would probably take another hour or two. "Always ready," he said, slipping the Blackberry back in his pocket, and he took a stance. "You're the question."

[withoutverona]

"It all but goes without saying here," Romeo said casually, but he decided to give Reno a call of his own. He needed to make sure the package had arrived, anyhow.

The look he gave Arthur was half annoyed and half amused. "If I'm the question, your answer," he said, and he brought his fist forward rather harder and straighter than he would have a few months before, "would be yes."

[bitch_prince]

Definitely some progress, said the part of Arthur's midn that could be smug over being a pretty good teacher. The rest of him was rather busier noticing that selfsame fact as a reason for why his dodging did not come nearly as smoothly as it had with Romeo a while back, and he actually left a slight opening on his side as he launched his elbow up at Romeo's own side.

[withoutverona]

An opening! And Romeo both spotted it, and thought he knew what to do with it! He twisted, letting the elbow glance off his own upper arm, and brought his knee up toward Arthur's side.

[bitch_prince]

Arthur's face crunched up in half a wince as the blow did connect halfway in his attempt to get away from it, reigniting some of last Friday's bruises in the process. He went with the pain, though, as best he could, throwing a punch at Romeo's head while his focus was still mostly elsewhere.

[withoutverona]

Romeo swung up his arm to try to block the punch, but he noticed the wince. "Are you hurt?"

[bitch_prince]

Arthur responded, perhaps predictably (for his standards) by driving his knee up at Romeo's stomach.

[withoutverona]

Well, if he was hurt, he was also an idiot, which meant being hurt didn't count. Romeo considered the question entirely satisfactorily answered ... as much he could consider anything with a knee making a giant bruise on his stomach.

He slammed his elbow down toward the top of the knee after it made contact anyhow.