fandomtownies | The Atlas Gym, Saturday Afternoon

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The Atlas Gym, Saturday Afternoon

What use would it be to give someone a knife without teaching him to use it? And Sparkle had asked, after all. Besides, Leto expected it would be a lot of fun, which made it even better.

He had arranged to meet Sparkle at the Atlas gym and had arrived a bit early, practicing some moves by himself to warm up, trying out the selection of knives he had brought for himself. He should do this more often, really, although less for training than to clear his mind. For a while now he had been training Hania, but as Duncan was now himself and had accepted the position of Swordmaster to the Atreides again, he would leave that to him. They would probably enjoy it, no doubt.

This place brought back memories of the Fandom Fight Club. As Leto stopped to pick up another knife, he smiled to himself, thinking back to that while balancing the blade in his hand.

[Leto is here for Sparkle, but the gym is open of course]

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Sparkle was here! Sparkle was actually here somewhat punctually, at that, and he'd brought the knife that Leto had gifted to him and had worn clothing that would be easy to move in, the same clothing he wore when Atton was training him. It seemed to work well enough for him when Atton was putting him through his paces, so the tank top and comfortable black pants combination was going to be the winner of the day.

Yes, he put this much thought into getting dressed every time he left the apartment. Even if nobody could tell.

"Hey," he said, grinning as he came through the door. "How goes it?"

"Sparkle," Leto said, smiling as he walked up to him. "It's good to see you."

The careful consideration of clothing was wasted on Leto, who wouldn't have noticed unless it was something very obvious. He was just wearing the loose shirt and pants he usually wore for training and hadn't put much thought into it.

Sheathing the knife he was holding, Leto leaned in to give Sparkle a kiss, because that seemed like an appropriate greeting.

Greetings that involved kisses were Sparkle's favourite, okay? And he was leaning in to meet Leto in that kiss quite happily.

"Good to see you, too," he replied, licking his lips and wearing a silly little grin when he leaned back again. "Thanks for coming out here for this."

To train him, to just spend time with him, whatever. Sparkle appreciated it all the same.

It could be both, couldn't it? And training with knives was so much fun, which hopefully Sparkle would soon be aware of.

"I couldn't give you a gift without showing you how to use it, could I?" Leto replied with a laugh. That grin on Sparkle's face was adorable, he had to admit.

"So, are you ready for this?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Sparkle replied with a grin. "I've been looking forward to it, I mean. Where do we start?"

Presents that involved 'will you show me how to use this' opportunities were quickly becoming among Sparkle's favourites. He set his bag down off to the side of the room, complete with a change of clothes and his plush cat, and gave Leto a questioning look.

Quickly switching into teacher mode, Leto said: "Show me how you hold the dagger."

He had shown Sparkle before, but that had been briefly and mostly for fun, so he didn't expect him to remember.

Sparkle chewed his lip and pulled out the knife, trying to re-position his hand on the hilt the way that Leto had taught him to do. It was close, at least, though hardly perfect. Sparkle had been paying attention, because that had seemed like something that was important to know, and he knew well enough to be able to tell that the knife wasn't quite sitting as comfortably as it was supposed to in his hand.

"That's not right, is it?"

"Close," Leto said, noting that at least Sparkle had been paying some attention, even if he probably hadn't had enough practice to commit it to memory. He adjusted Sparkle's fingers, then said:

"How does that feel?" That was what he needed to remember, after all.

"Better," Sparkle decided, turning his hand over and looking at the way his fingers were resting. This time he was going to remember it, dammit. "It fits there better, you know? My hand isn't going to, like, cramp up just trying to keep a grip?"

Probably. That was an educated guess, anyway. It wasn't like Sparkle had really done daggers before. Atton had taught him a bit with larger fare and with blasters, and Alec had shown him how to use a bow and arrows long before that. But a one-handed little stabby thing? That was new.

"Not if you're tense, and you shouldn't be," Leto replied, taking a few steps backward. "That might take some time to get used to though."

He waited until Sparkle seemed confident enough, then said:

"Now try and stab me."

There was no way a beginner like Sparkle would succeed, should the blade even have been able to hurt him.

"Uh." Sparkle went from zero to deer-in-the-headlights in about two seconds flat, right there. Sure, he didn't think he'd stand a chance in hell of actually making contact with the dagger, considering Leto had been doing this for significantly longer. But the whole idea of making a go at stabbing somebody (especially somebody he liked!) still kind of caught him by surprise. "Okay, sure. How else are you going to know what I need to work on, right?"

Hooboy. Right into the deep end, then. Sparkle took a deep breath, and then lunged forward with the knife, giving it his best, if only because he trusted that Leto wasn't going to let him do anything too stupid. Probably.

It was probably clear that he was used to practicing with longer weapons, from the way he was overcompensating for the reduced range. Unless he was just throwing down and grappling with somebody bare-handed, he had no clue how to get in close enough for a good stab with a knife.

He didn't move as fast as he could have; there was no need, and that would be too confusing. So Leto just took a quick step aside and backed away a little. "What weapons are you used too?" he asked, because clearly Sparkle had been practicing with something.

"Atton's mostly been teaching me to swing a stick around," Sparkle confessed, smiling wryly. "Other than that, it's mostly just things that you shoot, and those are totally different."

Yes, Sparkle. Those required you to stand still and hope whoever you were shooting wasn't going to get closer in the meantime.

Leto nodded. "I think you noted that the stick required a quite different technique," he said. "Try again a few times, and see if you can notice the difference more clearly."

He could teach specific moves, and he would later, but without an elementary understanding those would be useless.

"Right," Sparkle said with a nod, trying to fix his stance a little and this time dialing his lunge back a bit. If he seemed more confident this time, it was less because he thought he stood a chance of getting it right (he didn't, he knew that at this point in the game) and more because he had seen Leto deftly avoid the knife before.

It was easier to stab at somebody you liked when you knew for certain you were going to miss.

Yes, but that was missing the point, a bit, and something he needed to get over, Leto thought.

"You have to be prepared to kill with it," he said. "That's what a weapon is for. I expect you don't really want to hurt me, but if it helps, pretend I'm someone you do want to inflict damage on."

There had to be someone, Leto thought.

Oh, was there ever. Sparkle's lips pursed a little as he tried to pick between one of three names that jumped directly to mind. And then, deciding that he hated Lewis but didn't actually want him dead, he settled on his father, instead.

This time, after taking a breath and nodding, Sparkle's stab was a fair bit more vicious. It still needed work, since Sparkle's form was better trained for a much different weapon, but the attitude was there, if nothing else.

The attitude was the important part, for now. Leto grinned at Sparkle, pleased with the improvement.

"Much better," he said. "Now, try that again, but pay attention to where you're aiming." He held up his own knife. "And I'll show you where you're leaving yourself open to attack while you do it."

Of course he wasn't going to actually hurt Sparkle, but it made things clearer to use the weapon while demonstrating.

Sparkle gave Leto a nod of his head, taking a moment to actually size up his opponent before just settling on making a lunge at his chest. It seemed... seemed like it was the biggest, easiest target, really. And if he was going for a kill, the central mass was a good starting point, wasn't it?

Of course, the way he was stepping in meant that he could take a knife in return pretty much anywhere from his face down to his abs. None of those would end pleasantly, if so.

Leto took a step sideways, which made it easy for him to step close and put the dagger towards Sparkle's throat. Not touching the skin, obviously, but clear enough to make a point. He wasn't bothered about doing this to someone he cared about - he had done the same thing to his own child, after all.

"Again," he said. "And try to pay attention to the direction I'm moving."

Today would just be an introduction, but Leto wanted Sparkle to get a feel for how the dagger could be used. To actually be able to do it in a real fight drilling would be needed, but that would come later.

Leto stepping in to demonstrate the opening in Sparkle's stance with the dagger didn't actually throw Sparkle off, that much. Sparkle did give a thoughtful frown and a nod of his head, before falling back into the stance he had been using before.

"Right. Pay attention, try to be less wide open."

His own ability to block with the knife was way more limited than his ability to block with a big stick, after all. With that in mind, he thrust the blade forward again, keeping his stance a little more closed this time.

Leto noted that Sparkle wasn't afraid, and that made this a lot easier. He gave a small nod and waited for the next attack, and let Sparkle follow that one up with a few others so that he could get a feel for what worked. Each time Leto countered it in a different way, pointing out the options an opponent would have.

One thing could be said for Sparkle: He was a diligent student when he wanted to learn something. Each time Leto corrected him on something, he nodded, took that into account, and tried again, trying to come up with strategies that wouldn't leave him open here or there, while still getting him close enough to attack.

There was improvement there, as he went, though he was still very much an enthusiastic beginner.

The point was to learn, after all, and when Leto stopped, he grinned at Sparkle. "Good. I can see your reasoning behind your moves." Oh, he was enjoying this, and he was pleased that Sparkle was picking up what he was trying to teach.

He reached out and nudged his fingers against Sparkle's hand, the one that held the dagger, and continued:
"Don't tense your hand. And now, I'll attack you, and you'll have to find ways to counter that. What I've done so far should give you an idea.

"Okay, I think I can handle that," Sparkle decided, relaxing a little, like Leto had told him to.

After all, it looked like the best counter started with a dodge, and Sparkle was getting pretty good at not being in the way of things that wanted to put messy holes in him, between a few years on the island and Atton's training, before.

He shook himself out a bit, took a deep breath, and fell into his ready stance again. Leto was here to teach him, not to stab him. No tensing. Okay.

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The Atlas Gym, Saturday Afternoon

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