Bare These Bones
Black and White
A swift swing of her leg upward with barely any force behind it hit the Cadet that she was facing off against directly in the jaw, throwing him off balance and onto the floor. She stepped back while she waited for him to regain his footing, but he made a cutting sign across his throat as a sign of giving up the fight, coughing slightly as he tried to compose himself.
"Cadet Kirk, tell me what fault Cadet Bradley had," Vahl'Sai said as she turned toward where Kirk was sitting on the edge of the mats with the other cadets of his class. He had a towel around the back of his neck and a water bottle in hand, sweat still on his skin from the run that he had been forced to do when he was late for class.
"Uh…he didn't duck?" He asked, causing several other students around him to snicker.
"Would you like to be my next opponent, Cadet Kirk, to test out your theory? I asked you for an answer, not another question." Kirk's face went serious after she spoke and she knew that she had struck a nerve. He hated when people dogged on him in front of others, especially the women in the class, and she used that to her advantage whenever she needed him to be serious.
"He was thinking too much on the offensive and not enough on his defensive. He was so busy looking for an opening to hit that he missed the signs of your next attack," He answered, getting a smile from the Commander. He flinched when he knew that he had played himself right into her trap. Again.
"That is correct, Cadet Kirk. Cadet Bradley, do I need to send you to sick bay?" She asked, looking over to the male in question. He simply shook his head, nursing the forming bruise on his jaw. "I apologize if I used excessive force. You may sit out for the next partnering round if you wish. Thank you for your cooperation." He held up his water bottle in a type of silent cheers before he fell back onto the mats, sweat drenching his clothing and his chest rising and falling from exertion.
The class was sitting in a wide circle on the sparring mats in one of the connecting rooms to the track, their red and black track suits on with their water bottles in their hands. Self Defense Training had been on for a week and they already looked ready petrified when she requested a volunteer. She looked around at the group, noting that the ones that hadn't been called on that day looked bored and irritated.
"Who was it that asked me when we were learning how to throw someone?" She asked suddenly, a couple of hands rising in response to her question. "Of the people who have their hands up, I need a volunteer." The hands went down just as fast as they had risen, making her chuckle. "Come on, I don't bite."
One of the girls timidly raised her hand and Vahl'Sai motioned her up, waiting until she was standing across from her. She looked petrified that she had actually just volunteered to be thrown by the strongest person in Starfleet, but she was hiding it pretty well. Vahl'Sai was careful to assure the girl that she wasn't going to hurt her, only show the steps on how to do so properly.
She demonstrated to the other students on how one would throw an opponent off of them in they had them in a choke hold from behind, using the arm that was clutching their throat as leverage. She was careful to take it slow so that they could all see the steps and that Cadet Moore, the volunteered female, wouldn't get frightened or injured. She stopped before she would actually toss the girl over her shoulder, only pulling her onto her back and rising Moore's feet of the floor by a foot before she put the girl back down.
"Thank you, Cadet, you may resume your seat. Would anyone like to volunteer to actually act out the full move or would you like to partner up now and practice?"
"I'll do it," Kirk said as he raised his hand up, placing his towel and water to the side. Vahl'Sai looked at him curiously for a moment before she motioned for him to stand up and join her. The other students clapped as he did so, causing him to smile—smirking at a group of girls a couple of feet away.
"Come and stand behind me, just as Cadet Moore had."
Kirk moved to stand behind the Commander, wrapping his arm around her neck in the process. It was slightly strange for him to be so close to—both his commanding officer, and— a woman that was the exact height as him, if not taller. He was used to women being smaller than he was.
Vahl'Sai let him take a moment to prepare himself before she took a hold of his forearm, near his wrist and elbow, and bent forward, using the momentum in her pull to take the cadet right off his feet. Kirk grunted in surprise to suddenly find himself airborne for a total of one second before his back slammed down onto the mats hard enough to temporarily stun him. Vahl'Sai fluently stepped up to his side and used her hold on his arm to pull him up into a sitting position, patting him on the back as he tried to regain his breath.
"Very good, Cadet Kirk, thank you for your assistance. Now, partner up and please try to keep partnered with someone of the same weight class for the time being," She called over the students, the red and black dressed adults rising to their feet and placing their things aside as they partnered up.
Kirk coughed slightly when his lungs finally let him take in some air, taking in the oxygen greedily as he tilted his head back. He last time that he had felt that much power in one being was when he was getting the shit beaten out of him by Spock on the bridge of the Enterprise. Now he knew why no one wanted to be her test dummy when she was showing them how to spar or fight correctly.
"Are you alright?" He looked over to Vahl'Sai, seeing her kneeling beside him with concern in her slightly green eyes. "I've never had a student actually volunteer to let me throw them before so I don't know if I used too much force."
"You really need to monitor your strength all the time, don't you?" Kirk asked, standing on his feet sluggishly. "I'm good, just got to let my organs catch up."
The end of class came fairly quickly after she had used Kirk as an example, the Captain soon partnering up and training with the rest of them. It relieved her that she hadn't injured one of her students accidentally. That was one thing that she looked forward to about her Xenolinguistics class next term, she didn't have to worry about injuring the cadets in her class accidentally while teaching them.
She waited in the sparing room while the students went to change back into their other uniforms, soon joining her back inside the large space. She just let them talk for the remainder of the class until the bell sounded that signalled the students were to move along to their next classes. She was still dressed in her black Commanders track uniform for her next lesson, her white hair pulled back into a tight pony tail.
"Hey, Commander," Kirk called as he jogged over to her, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him in silent question. "I was wondering if you could show me some other moves, you know, after class? I'm going to be taking off after next term on the Enterprise and I want to get some more training it physical combat."
"I can't give you special attention unless you need it, Cadet Kirk. You are at the top of the class, aside from some questionable attendance problems, and I see no need for you to take after school lessons." Her answer brought a look of disappointment to his face, but he was determined to get her to agree.
"Come on, I have a bet with a friend that I can beat him I combat and he's going to kill me if I don't train more," He said, making her sigh. She should have known that he was lying in his first excuse. Or was he still lying now? His heart was still beating quickly from class so she was unable to detect if he was lying without him discovering her. "He's a Vulcan and I'm going to need more than just human combat tactics."
"For a human male to make a bet that he can defeat a Vulcan male in a fight is a fairly idiotic thing to do, Cadet Kirk. They are three times stronger than humans."
"And you're about five, so if you train me-"
"Fine, just stop with the excuses," She finally said, dropping her head back in exasperation. Kirk cheered as he did a small celebration, the bell sounding and letting him know that it was time to run. "Meet me here at 1700 tomorrow evening and do not be late."
"I'll be here, I swear," He said quickly before running off, snatching his bag up from the floor as he ran past it. Vahl'Sai shook her head in exasperation, knowing that the agreement that she had just made was somehow going to come back to bite her in the ass. She was still thinking through her deal when the students for her next class began to file out of the change rooms in their track uniforms, sitting down in a wide circle as they had been doing for the past week.
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James Kirk couldn't supress his smirk as he stepped into his dorm room, Leonard McCoy already there finishing his daily medical reports. He threw his bag down beside the foot of his bed before he fell back onto the mattress with a pleased sigh.
"Alright, what the hell are you so happy about?" McCoy demanded as he looked up from his PADD after the second sigh escaped his dorm-mate.
"I have a plan," He started, hearing his friend groan from his own bed as he placed his PADD to the side. He just knew that this was going to be a long and very bad talk. Jim glared as his friend for a moment before he sat up on his bed to face the doctor.
"Please tell me that it doesn't have to do with the pointy eared bastard," McCoy said, his southern accent still as thick as the day that he had first met Jim on the shuttle off planet.
"Of course!"
"Jim-"
"Come on, Bones, you can't tell me that you haven't noticed his weird Vulcan way of moping since Uhura canned their relationship," Jim interrupted, only hearing the doctor grumble in response. "I've found the perfect person for him."
"Good god man, you honestly think that you're going to be able to find a match for Spock. Are we talking about the same Vulcan here? The pointy eared, green blooded hobgoblin that had you suspended from the Enterprise, that Vulcan?"
Jim laughed as he shook his head, falling backward onto his bed again, "She's not exactly human, Bones. Ever met Commander Vahl-"
"Stop right there, Jim," McCoy ordered as he jumped to his feet. "You can't honestly be serious if you think that you can set up a Sahvarian with a Vulcan. They're as close to polar opposite as you can get," He ranted, making Jim roll his eyes and move his arms behind his head so it was propped up and he could see his friend face to face.
"I'm taking classes with the Commander after school tomorrow and whenever else. I told her that I bet Spock I could fight him and win and that I needed her help so that I didn't get my ass kicked," Jim replied with a cocky grin perking his lips.
"You lied to Commander Vahl'Sai and lived? The woman's like a living lie detector!"
"Yes, but she's able to tell when someone's lying by listening to their heart beat and if it speeds up or not. I had just finished with Fitness when I asked her so my heart rate hadn't gone down by the time I asked her. She wouldn't have been able to tell."
McCoy just looked at Jim with shock in his eyes before he dropped his head down and sighed loudly. He began to rub at his face with his hands to try and clear his head. It was actually a very smart thing to do so she wouldn't know he as lying, but it wasn't like she was never going to find out. Sahvarian's were temperamental at times and Jim could get hurt if the truth were to slip while they were training after school and no one was around to stop her.
"You're going to get killed one of these days and it's not because you work for the Federation," McCoy grumbled just loud enough for Jim to hear him, scoffing loudly when he did.
"Come on, Bones, look me in the eye and tell me that you don't think this is going to be an awesome term?" Jim asked as he sat up in his bed once more, the grin still plastered on his face with a dangerous look in his eye. McCoy refused to look him in the eye.