cafeteria: tuesday lunch time

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan wasn't sure he'd ever been in the school's lunch room, if he was honest. He tended to eat in town or in his room so the lunch room had been largely ignored. But, after his class, he'd made a stop in there just to check it out.

He'd seen places like this back home but had never had the money to actually participate so he was actually a little fascinated by the whole thing. It kind of made amazed that he could still be amazed by mundane things. But, it was a thing and he was going to accept it.

He grabbed some food and a drink before sitting down to eat. Maybe he'd have to do this more often since he guessed it'd save both money and time and he wouldn't have to walk all those stairs. He had an errant thought that Gabriel would probably laugh at something like this before he pushed it away.

Thoughts for later.

[Open. This just hadn't been used in awhile and I wanted to post here.]

Comments

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, nodding. "It's -- I tried talking because I can't really do anything else that isn't fighting with my fists. It was about the only piece of offense I had."

[not_every_mage]

"It turned out to be the right one. And I'm not much good with my fists," Anders said thoughtfully. "I scrapped when I was younger, like anyone, but I haven't thrown a real punch in -- Maker, it must be years."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"That's one thing I did learn how to do back home," Nathan said, eating some of the rice he'd gotten. "Celia taught me how to defend myself."

[not_every_mage]

"If you ever felt like showing me, I wouldn't mind," Anders decided."The way things on this island go, I might lose my magic sometime."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You want to learn how to fistfight?" Nathan asked, raising his eyebrows. "I could try and teach you, sure. It won't be a very good lesson since I'm not a great teacher but I might be able to help."

[not_every_mage]

"I want to learn anything that might help me," Anders smiled as he forked up some salad. "If it means extra time with you, that's just a bonus."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You're a flatterer," Nathan laughed, shaking his head. "I'll show you what I know. If anything, you'll at least be able to throw a punch at someone's nose."

[not_every_mage]

"I am, but flattery gets you things," Anders returned. "The ability to punch people in the nose, for one."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Have you ever punched anyone before?" Nathan asked, tilting his head curiously.

[not_every_mage]

Anders shrugged. "When I was 10 and another boy said something about my mother, does that count?"

He had not been a blazing success as a pugilist; as he recalled, he'd ended up with a sore hand from the punch and mud on his pants from being pushed down.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It counts," Nathan said, nodding. "How'd it go?"

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, it was glorious," Anders said, looking vaguely sour at the memory. "He shoved me and ran off, I fell into the mud, and then I got in trouble at home for making extra laundry."

He lightly prodded at his chicken again. "Anyhow, that's the only time I remember punching someone."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan chuckled a little and hid a smile. "It was probably better than most people's first times, honestly. You didn't break your hand."

[not_every_mage]

"I didn't," Anders agreed. "I didn't even know you could. Why, did you do that?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan shook his head. "No, thankfully. I just know you can. I guess if you punch wrong, the bones in your hand can break. Face isn't the softest place to hit."

[not_every_mage]

Anders ran his fingertips experimentally over his own nose and cheekbones, seeing what Nathan meant. "Huh. So maybe punching someone's stomach is a better place to start."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Don't get me wrong, you can punch the face but if you do, just have to know how to hold your hand and where to punch so you don't break fingers," Nathan advised.

[not_every_mage]

"is this how you hold your hand?" Anders wondered, holding up his own right hand and making a sloppy fist, thumb mispositioned.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Don't tuck your thumb into your fist," Nathan told him, shaking his head. "That's guaranteed to hurt. A lot."

[not_every_mage]

"What else am I supposed to do with it?" Anders complained mildly, as he moved the thumb to the side of his hand. "Won't this feel awkward?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It might feel awkward but you're not gonna break anything if you put it on the side of your hand," Nathan told him. "Imagine hitting someone's face with your thumb tucked in your hand like that and the impact it's gonna feel."

[not_every_mage]

Anders had to think about that. "Basically I'd be smashing my thumb between the other bones in my hand," he finally conceded. "I can see where that's a problem."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"And if you broke your hand, you'd have some trouble handling your staff, I assume," Nathan said. "So, we should avoid that."

[not_every_mage]

"If that happened, I'd have to set my staff aside unless someone else wanted to handle it for me," Anders agreed. "So I'll try to keep the bones in my hand in one piece."

He stabbed a tomato. "Or -- the number of pieces there are supposed to be, anyhow."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I'll show you how to punch, at least," Nathan assured him. "And how to block. You can probably get by in a fistfight with that, to start."