Taiyang Xiao Long watched his eldest daughter giong through her katas. Her movements more like a dance -albeit a violent dance- than something used for combat; Her passion reminded him so much of her mother before she left him, left them… Watching her reminded him of a time long past, when he first met her mother… A sigh escaped his lips before he was lost in his memory.
Tai was going through the forms of his own personal combat style, his was an unarmed, hand-to-hand style. The first rule that all hunters in training learned, was to never under-estimate your opponent. It was also a lesson nearly all of them forgot by the time they had made their own weapons.To keep himself from ever forgetting he decided he would use no weapon, just disipline himself and use only his hands and feet.
His personal practice area was a small woodland clearing behind Beacon Academy, no-one knew about it, and that suited Tai just fine, his opponent was a handmade sparring post. A quick right backhand to the 'head', followed by grabbing his left fist and using the pulling motion to deliver a harder strike to the 'collar bone', lean back and a reverse heel kick pivoting off of his right foot and punching the ground to increase his momentum his blow struck mid-torso and the sound of splintering wood crashed through his clearing almost as quickly as his heel had the post.
Stepping forward he yanked the remnants of the post from the ground and tossed it to the pile of shattered stumps sitting to the side. Grasping a small earth dust crystal and rubbing it vigorously onto the skin of his right hand, he headed towards his remaining training dummies intent on getting a new one and placing it in the same spot.
His stride broke when he heard a short burst of clapping, his head turned towards the sound as he dropped into a ready stance, before easing out of it. His visitor was a young woman his age, with long black hair, a silly smile and a blade longer than she was tall strapped to her hip. He knew who she was, he had seen her and her brother a few times over the course of their first few days in school. Raven… Raven Branwen, a supremely arrogant woman, with the skill to back her boasts, a supreme beauty and someone he had watched carefully, making sure he wasn't spotted, by either her or her brother Qrow.
And there were many boasts, and many people had ended up in the infirmary because they thought they could best her skill with a blade, and not one of them proved to be right. He decided to play it safe and err on the side of caution, "What's your name?" His voice hadn't quite deepened into what it would be as a full grown man, but neither was it the high tone of a child.
She let her hands rest behind her head, her eyes trailing from his head to toe, lingering for a ghost of a moment on the crystal in his left hand. "Branwen, Raven Branwen," She smoothly replied, before looking him in the eyes, a slight smirk now gracing her face instead of her silly grin, "But… then again, You already knew that. Didn't you Taiyang Xiao Long?" She started to saunter his way, her hips sway completely unintentional, drawing his eyes down her armor-clad figure, even her armor accentuated her womanly curves.
She stopped just a couple feet from him, "I mean," She lowered her hands from behind her head in a what can you do gesture, "You have almost as high of a solo combat record as I do, among first-years at least," She put one hand on her hip, waggling her finger at him, "But I was referring to the fact that you've been watching me."
Tai's normally stoic demeanor was shaken for a moment, before he vehemently denied her accustations, looking away "I've got no idea what you're talking about Raven." A light blush coloring his cheeks, he'd never been very good with girls even back on Patch, the island where he grew up. Her eyebrow raised as her smirk became more pronounced, and she asked, "So… You weren't staring at me during lunch today?"
The blush that had been coloring his cheeks darkened, How does she know about that? He thought, I was careful not to be seen… "I was not staring at you during lunch, nor have I ever stared at you." He blatantly lied. She reached into a pocket and pulled out… a spoon. Her face broke out into a wide open smile, "Do you know what this is?" She asked rhetorically.
"A… spoon?" He answered mildly confused, when she shook her head, "If it's not a spoon… what is it then?" She spun it around so that the inside was facing him, and saw himself with a rose colored blush. "It's a mirror, which means, I saw you looking today, just like you have every day this week." He blanched, hoping that she wasn't going to just beat him for looking.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to have a spar with you." It was his turn to raise an eyebrow, "So… let me get this straight… You don't want to hurt the person who's been watching you for the last week of school, you just want to have a friendly spar?" He was more confused now than when she first showed him the spoon.
She nodded, "You don't get better by only fighting the same people, you have to switch it up and test yourself against other styles, because you don't get stronger by only fighting someone weaker than you." If he hadn't been spacing out at the compliment, he might've seen a quick flash of red on her cheeks that disappeared as quickly as it came.
Tai sighed as he thought of that day, a small tired smile on his face as he watched his daughter, a mirror image of her mother only blonde, work on her forms with the new arm she had gotten from her uncles friend James Ironwood. And his wife's final words from that day echoed in his head. "You don't get better by only fighting the same people, you have to switch it up and test yourself against other styles, because you don't get stronger by only fighting someone weaker than you." He decided to act on his wifes advice and called out as he launched himself up and started to deliver and overhead axe kick "Heads up spitfire!"