Karate Lessons (Alexis)

[Eliot Holt]

Controlled movements. Controlled breathing. Everything in his movements were controlled, were focused, were rationalized and well thought out as he rolled his shoulders and stretched, feeling the muscles pulsate and pull underneath his skin, his spine, elbows, shoulders and knees cracking with virtually inaudible pops. He stood out in the park, bare foot against the warm, green and freshly cut grass, dressed in his trainers – a pair of loose, red sweat pants and a black tank top. He wouldn’t be less modest if he stripped to show his toned upper body – hell, he usually ran through the park without a shirt, especially since there was hardly anyone ever there when he ran in the early morning or late at night. Today, though, was just a slightly bit different, seeing as he had another member of the Lucid Manor staff with him, gearing up to learn his Karate moves.

He quirked an eye as she arrived, and rolled his shoulders a final time before looking at her up and down, “You’re definitely ready for this?” he questioned the young woman who stood no taller than five feet, seven inches, relatively ‘normal’ for a twenty three year old. For at least the last month and a half she had constantly bothered him for him to teach her karate, and finally, he accepted, only to make her leave him alone. Of course, it only happened to make her bother him to start teaching him…

He sighed. It was early – about eight in the morning – on a warm, summer day. It wasn’t exactly too hot, but it wasn’t exactly cold like at night, either, which made Eliot Holt quite happy. It was the perfect time to teach someone, especially since he didn’t have a dojo and she wasn’t paying him – he considered it something along the lines of “friendly teaching” or something like that. He gave her a curt nod, “So, shall we start?” he questioned, feeling the dirt underneath his feet and the wind, a gentle wind, hit his face and exposed arms. He wasn’t exactly sure if this was going to be good or not – might as well see where it goes.

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[Alexis P. Redfield]

“ughh!”

Alex rubbed her eye sleepily before shoving a long lock of blonde hair from her face. She’d known better then to go out partying last night because she was suppose to meet Eliot today to start her lessons, yet she’d done it anyway. Feet drug lazily across the hardwood floor of her apartment as she moved towards the fridge. A beep caught her attention and she looked around until she realized where the sound had come from. Someone had obviously stopped the microwave before the count down could finish and hadn’t bothered to reset the timer. It just so happened that it was one of her biggest pet peeves so she knew she hadn’t done it. Annoyed, she pushed in on the reset button a little rougher then necessary. The nice normal time of 8:50 appeared on the screen and she smiled at her small accomplishment, right before she let out a scream.

“8:50! Oh god, I’m going to be late! Eliot’s gonna kill me.”

Alex ran to her bedroom and quickly threw on a pair of white shorts and a black tank top, determined to be cool today summer be damned. The park was right across the street so she knew if she hurried, she could make it just in time. If she ended up being late, she was sure Eliot would never help her learn how to properly fight. Hell, it had taken over a month of harassing him at work for him to agree to even help her. Of course she hadn’t told him the reason she wanted to learn, but that was because he would have probably told her to just lose the notion of learning karate and tell the authorities her ex was bothering her again. And luckily, Eliot hadn’t bothered to ask. But Alex was determined to handle things on her own this time, without involving the cops. If her ex showed up, she’d give him one hell of a fight.

That was, if Eliot didn’t kill her for being late. She was already out the door before she realized she’d left her cell in the house. At least the park was right there. Alex jogged across the street, trying her best to ignore the splitting headache that was pounding into her temples. Luckily she was off today so once they were done, she was going back home to snuggle up with a good movie and a bottle of Motrin. She caught sight of him just as he did her. “You’re definitely ready for this?” Alex laughed a little before coming to a halt in front of him with a nod.

“Oh yeah.”

What she should have said was no, I have a killer migraine from the party last night but for some reason, she didn’t think he’d appreciate that all to well. While she waited for them to start, she took a few moments to look him over. He was sexy as hell, and she’d made it no secret she thought so to him the first few times they’d met. He equally made it no secret he wasn’t interested, but it hadn’t hurt her feelings too much. Once she saw him use some of those moves on an unruly patient, she’d switched her sexual harassment to ‘Teach me! Teach me!’ His voice brought her back from her thoughts though, "So, shall we start?"

“Ready when you are… I think. Thanks again for teaching me Eliot. Oh wait-”

She noticed he didn’t have any shoes on so she quickly kicked her white sneakers off and chunked them a few feet away. Tilting her head back to look at him, she smiled sheepishly.

“Ok, now I’m ready.”

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[Eliot Holt]

A cool gaze fell onto the young woman as she approached, almost as if she had just woken up. His hand had slipped into his pocket and he pulled out his stop watch, glancing at the time, “Five minutes late for a reason?” he questioned, idly. He was a bit anal about being on time and if she was going to learn karate from him, she should at least be on time – especially since he had work when they were all done with this, and he had enough time to go home, shower and head off, and those five minutes were just wasted. He put the stop watch back into his pocket before he listened as she said whenever he was ready, followed by a thanks, followed by a wait. He quirked an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched her start undoing her shoes, probably, he figured, realizing that he was barefooted. It was just something he was taught in the dojo and everything… he gave a heavy sigh, rolling his shoulders a bit as he studied her. She stood in front of him, now barefoot, dressed in a black tank top and white shorts. White. He rubbed the back of his neck, “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but next time wear sweat pants or something. Something not white, preferably,” he stated, giving a gentle shrug.

He thought about how to do this. Warm up, stretch, some easy punches and kicks to start off, cool down. It’d take about an hour and a half to be thorough, but he had enough time, plus a few extra minutes, apparently. He mulled about it before looking over her once again, “Okay, before we start, tell me what you know. Obviously you’ll know something – like, a kick or a punch or whatever. I know what I’ll teach you, but you have to remember you’ll be starting from the very bottom, so it’ll be a lot of mundane things,” he gave a shrug. Meditation, stretching, rolls, punching, blocking, kicking, a quick spar – the list of what they would be doing would be long, and today was just the beginning. She asked for it – he’ll push her… and he made a mental note to keep her on time and focused, as well. He nodded at her and smiled, almost as if he was being generous with giving away his free time, which, honestly, meant that he had to catch up on his sleep schedule later. But whatever, it was time to do some training.

“You’ll have to practice when you’re not with me, but for now we’ll do basics. You should get into a habit of warming up and stretching before you come to practice, so we don’t waste time and can just hop into the stuff, seeing as you live across the street, right?” Hey, he was observant, “I usually don’t do this but just stretch your muscles out a bit, do jumping jacks of something for five minutes and get your blood rushing. Then we’ll work on a straight punch and how to block it, alright?” he was being serious, but cool headed about it. No reason to get on her ass about practice just yet.

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[Alexis P. Redfield]

“I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but next time wear sweat pants or something. Something not white, preferably,”

Alex looked down at her attire with a frown. She hadn’t picked out white on purpose but now that he mentioned it, it did seem a bit ridiculous. But dammit, she was tired and hung over. Her attire hadn’t necessarily been top on her list, especially since she was running so far behind. Hell, five minutes late had been an accomplishment. But she appreciated what he was doing for her, so kept the attitude to herself. When he asked her to tell him what she knew, all she could think about was how little she’d fought back all the times her ex had attacked her.

“Not much honestly.”

Alex needed this and she was determined to not make it look like she was a joke. She knew she would have to practice and practice she would. Alex would practice until her muscles gave out if she had too. As he coached her on stretching before practice she nodded understandably. Normally when someone smarted off or ordered her around, Alex gave them an argument. But as soon as Eliot told her to start doing jumping jacks, she did.

Alexis might not have been the fittest person in town, but she did do a lot of crazy sports so it took a little more then jumping jacks to tire her out. This was nothing compared to the rock climbing she’d done last summer. After a good five minutes she could feel the blood starting to circulate in her body and a flush on her cheeks. Alex stopped, stretching her legs and arms quickly as she used to do before climbing. As much a she loved to pick on Eliot, there was no misinterpertating the determination written clearly on her face.

“Alright Eliot. I’m ready for the next part.”

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[Eliot Holt]

Eliot watched, his arms crossed his chest as he watched Alexis instantly start doing jumping jacks on his command. He could see the momentary attitude pass over her face but she said nothing and just proceeded to warm up, and then finish by stretching her arms and legs. At least she knew that much, he did have to give her credit for it. He watched her form carefully, sizing up how well she knew how to warm up and stretch, mostly to be able to give her good strategies in the long run – he knew the pains of muscle strain and popped joints, so he knew that what she was doing would have the be pretty flawless. He pondered when she said she knew not much and that was okay, it’d just be like learning how to ride a bike – training wheels at first and then from there it’d just slowly get easier.

“Well, now that you’re warmed up we’ll start with punching and blocking. It’s relatively easy – basically, you keep your legs at least shoulders width apart… and then keep your upper body straight, and your arms up almost as if you’re going to go boxing,” he showed her, shifting so his left leg was towards the front, slightly turned, his back straight, eyes trained on her carefully, making sure she was watching. His arms rose to rest in front of him, hands at shoulder level, arms parallel to his chest, “A straight punch is exactly what it sounds like. The arm extends straight, usually to the person’s chest or jaw,” he punched, his right hand soaring through the air quickly before pulling back. He had power, that was for sure. He demonstrated with his other hand, then back to his right hand again before looking at her carefully, his arms dropping back to his sides and his feet returning to being straight underneath him, “You give it a try. Just try to focus on how your arms are, fully extending them and everything. You can use me to practice on,” he smirked a bit, hunkering down a little, arms out in front of him, covering his face a bit, almost like he was being a human punching back.

“And don’t you dare have any thoughts of if you’ll hurt me. I’ve gotten plenty of punches, plus, it’ll teach you how the defense looks like,” he smiled, waiting for her first few punches. He had a bit of gear for later, but for now he wouldn’t mind the flesh against flesh, skin against skin combat practice. After all, it’ll help him measure how powerful she was without any padding.

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[Alexis P. Redfield]

Punching and Blocking. Okay, surely that would be easy enough to get the basics down. As he went over the instructions for the new task, Lex listened intently and made sure she did just as he said. Legs went to shoulder width apart and she kept her upper body straight. As he showed her an example of the straight punch, she suddenly felt nervous. Hopefully all the sports she did would help make up for a lack of strength the female body normally had. She knew she wasn’t weak by female standards, but by male standards that was another story. Alexis nodded as he instructed her to try it out.

That was when she realized he wanted her to try it out on him. Just as she opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t think that was a good idea, he addressed her thoughts. It wasn’t really that she thought she would hurt him, but it just seemed wrong to practice on him. Alexis bit her bottom lip nervously as she positioned herself in front of him, going over the steps in her mind. Legs shoulder width apart, upper body straight, arms up.

She inhaled, taking a deep breath before exhaling it slowly. There was no reason for her to feel any adrenaline yet, but the anticipation of learning these moves was exciting to her. And her warm up stretches had only increased the feeling. Just as he’d shown her, she repeated, mimicking the moves as perfectly as she could. Fist jutted forward then back, then forward again. After a few punches she stopped, waiting to see if any corrections to her form were needed. Not to mention to give her hands a rest from punching Eliot’s arms. Hitting him was like trying to take on a solid concrete wall.

“How was that?”

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[Eliot Holt]

Eliot Holt wasn’t one to be biased about, well, anything, really, and the thought of pretty much everyone as equal. He didn’t judge Alexis because she was a female and because she was weak in the upper body strength; that’s one thing that karate would help her out with, that was for sure. It was a type of movement, an activity, that grounded the feet and put power in the punch, or grounded the mind and soul and put force in a kick. He quirked an eyebrow at her punches, not too weak, and not too strong either, something that they’d work on in the future, that’s for sure, but for now, it didn’t particularly matter. He smiled as she pulled away to give her hands a rest from hitting his arms, and asked how it was. He gave a nod and straightened a little, putting his arms down, “Pretty good, actually. In karate, strength comes from your mind and soul, not just your body, but we’ll get you breaking pieces of wood in no time, I promise,” he gave a little wink before rolling his shoulders again, “Okay, that’s the straight punch. Do you feel comfortable with it? We’ll do some blocking now, just the basics, before we go on.”

He waited a moment, waiting for her answer. If she was feeling uncomfortable with the punches, they’d work on it a little more, but if not, well… he figured, if he moved on, they could always backtrack later; good thing that they were going to be working on this for a while, that’s for sure. He smiled gently and nodded, deciding that it would just be easier to mend it all together, “I might be pushing you too hard, but this next part is easy. Blocking. Throw a punch at me,” he said, waiting, his arms going up. When she did, he shifted, pushing her arm towards the side with a powerful move, his other hand going towards her stomach… and not giving her a powerful punch in the gut, but rather a gentle tap with his knuckles, “For blocking, you use the person’s movements to your advantage. If they punch, block and punch back, but it doesn’t always work. We’ll work on it, don’t worry, but that’s how flawless it can be. Understand?” he questioned, tilting his head a bit.

[Alexis P. Redfield]

Alexis literally beamed at the small praise. A pretty good that came from Eliot was an almost impossible task for her, or so she figured. She leaned forward slightly, listening to his words. Mind and soul, not just the body. Well, her mind was in the right place- okay so maybe it wasn’t. At least she wasn’t learning these moves to try and kick the crap out of anyone who messed with her, it just strictly so she’d be able to defend herself against Calvin. Head tilted to the side a little at his question and she gave a small nod before answering,

“Yeah, I’m comfortable. I think I've got it.”

Blocking, this is what she needed to pay attention to. This was probably the single biggest and most important thing for her to learn when dealing with her ex. Even if Alexis was weaker then him and couldn’t hurt him with her punches, she needed to be fast enough and strong enough to block. For a moment Alexis thought back to the manor and the few fights she’d seen Eliot get into. They’d prompted her to start asking for him to teach her. She’d been so amazing by how easily he could get a situation under control. The way she figured it, if she ever ended up having 1% of his skill she’d be doing pretty good.

“You’re not pushing me to hard, I can handle this. I'd be mad if you went to easy on me.”

She did as he asked and threw one of the punches he’d recently taught her how to do, taking care steps to make sure her stance was right. When he easily redirected it she let out a heavy sigh, wondering if she’d ever be able to do something like that. Alexis nodded at his explanations and tried to mentally recap the punch and his blocking.

“How did you get so good at this Eliot, if you don’t mind me asking?”

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_{Word Count 313!
Tags Alex and Eliot!
Status Complete
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