The Beach [Friday morning]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max had arrived at the beach before dawn. Which was unusual for him sure, but he'd been awake so he figured he might as well get out there and warm up. Which e'd done for a bit. Then he'd decided to take a swim to cool off. Which explained why his shirt and shoes and blade were lying in a pile on the sand and he was out in the water.

He wasn't much of a swimmer, usually, but he might have to change that. It was rather nice out there. Though he was careful not to get too far from the shore. The truth was that it wasn't so much swimming as wading. And maybe some dog paddling.

[Expecting one and up early, but the beach is open. C'mon... you know you want your newly gendered people to get hit on by Max... Oh, wait... that's me.]

Comments

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

"I hate fandom," Eric said, vehemently, as he stopped on the beach.

In fact, 'he' hated Fandom so much at the moment that he hadn't even noticed the fact that Max was shirtless.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

That was okay. Max could do enough noticing for the both of them. New face. Nice new face.

And it wasn't time for new students, so that made this one (probably) fair game. He'd get to that in a minute or two. For now Max was going to stand in the waist deep water and enjoy the view.

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

"Because, honestly," he continued, "where else in the world am I going to randomly wake up as a girl? And to top it all off my center of balance is different so I'm going to suck even more at sword work!"

Finally he noticed Max. And, uh, stopped ranting, because he kinda stopped doing anything but staring.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max was doing his own staring... The good kind.

Heeeey... Wait a minute... 'Wake up as a girl'? 'Sword work'?

"... you're... here for some lessons, aren't you?"

Curses. She... he (whatever) was a student. Not that this stopped Max from staring.

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

Okay, so the distraction -- given enough reason -- didn't last long, and Eric was back to ranting.

"No, not at all. We were just discussing it yesterday. When I was still a boy. Oh, God, I hope this wears off soon. Like, now. Now would be a good time."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max blinked a couple of times. Not because he had to, but because he couldn't seem to actually look away. Hey, it wasn't his fault someone made a rather good-looking girl.

"Do you..." Max had to take a second to remember what question he was planning to ask. "Do you want to reschedule?"

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I fucking want to reschedule, do you think I want to-"

But Eric cut himself off, took a breath.

"No, we'd better not," he continued. "For all we know, Fandom will throw this at us when there's an invasion, and I'll have to fight as a girl. I might as well know how."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max closed his eyes for a moment and took a long, deep breath. Think of her like any of his other female students. No staring...

He could do this.

Right.

"If you're sure," he finally said, walking in toward where his clothes were piled.

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

"Hey, it can't be too much different, can it?" Eric asked.

He did know better, really; he was just trying to put on a happy face. ... And also to avoid staring at Max, in his wet, shirtless glory.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max knew that kind of stare. He was used to it. A lot of women stared at him like that.

...

Waaaait... Eric stared at him like that.

...

Oh. Ooooooooooooooooooh. Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

Right.

"It's actually significantly different," he said instead of saying any of the things he was actually thinking. "Different center of gravity and the hips are angled differently which forces you to adopt slightly different stances."

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

"So it'll be a good thing to learn, then," Eric said. "If I'm right, and Fandom will eventually decide to throw an invasion at us when we're... changed."

Focusing on the business at hand was helping, actually, to keep him from staring too much at Max. "Is it something I'd need to learn from scratch, though? Or could it interfere with my normal training?"

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"A lot of what you know still applies, and unless you end up this way for a couple of weeks it shouldn't be enough to mess up what you've learned already by now."

Max finally reached his pile of stuff and reached down to grab his shirt which he used to roughly towel himself off.

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this so wasn't fair.

Eric pulled out the practice sword he'd brought along, and the shorter practice dagger. "At least I still feel about as strong as I am normally," he said. "There doesn't seem to be much difference there."

[likeabeachball.livejournal.com]

Vince Noir really had no problem with the way his body had changed over night.

It did, however, make the plunging neckline on his red vinyl jumpsuit almost... precarious.

And even in such an outfit, Vince was out at the beach.

"Hello sun!" he said, all smile.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

If Max were someone else. Say, Yakko Warner (just to choose someone at random), he might well respond with a very classy 'Helloooooo, nursse!'. However, Max wasn't someone else so he just grinned and took a moment to appreciate the scenery.

Plunging necklines. He totally approved of those.

[likeabeachball.livejournal.com]

Vince spotted Max's gaze and waggled his eyebrows.

"Well hello there," he said.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max felt that the only appropriate response was an eyebrow waggle of his own and a rather cliched "Hello there, yourself."

[likeabeachball.livejournal.com]

Vince struck a pose. "I'm Vince Noir," he said. "Or today, I suppose... I'm Vincentia."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Well, hello, Vincentia. I'm Max. It's a pleasure to meet you."

And he totally meant that.

[likeabeachball.livejournal.com]

"It always is," Vince said. "I dare say it, I'm almost more gorgeous than normal."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Almost?" Max repeated, clearly amused.

[likeabeachball.livejournal.com]

"Oh, it doesn't get more gorgeous than me, when I'm myself," Vince said. "This hair is pretty great, though. And the curves are new."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"They're rather nice curves," Max pointed out. And he would know. He was something of a connoisseur.

[likeabeachball.livejournal.com]

"They are," Vince said. "I mean, they're on me, they have to be pretty nice."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Is that how it works?" Max asked, clearly amused.