Gwaine sipped his coffee and looked around at the grounds for a minute before focusing back on Jaya. "This Barret character sounds like he's punk."
Jaya snorted and giggled softly for a moment. "He was."
"What happened to him?"
"Eventually?" Jaya smiled and shrugged. "We'll get to that. You two were actually great friends."
"No way. There's no way that I became friends-"
"With a punk kid that had a lot of the same traits as you?" Jaya smirked. I'll get to that too. You just have to trust me."
"Your stories take too long."
"Hey. If I darted all over this story would take five times as long." Jaya pointed at him. "So. Arthur walked over…"
"Jaya."
The bag rocked slightly and the impact jolted up Jaya's arm and into her shoulder muscles. "Aye?" she looked at Arthur, the slightest bit of sweat starting to glisten on her forehead.
"I need your help." Arthur folded his arms over his chest.
Jaya looked at him and then at the squires who were looking toward them. "With them?" she wondered.
"One in particular. He keeps saying that I'm making them fight like girls." Arthur allowed himself the eye roll that had been begging to happen since Barret had started talking.
Jaya's eyebrows knit together and her head reared back slightly. "Does he now. And I suppose you want me to make a point?"
"I'd owe you." Arthur shifted slightly.
Jaya's lips twitched up into a smirk that almost bordered on evil and nodded. "Introduce me to this boy. And we'll see what he thinks of fighting like girl."
Arthur gestured for her to walk in front of him and followed after her, smirking to himself about her pants and bright green, flowing shirt. Suddenly training was going to be so much more interesting. He quickly caught up to Jaya and when they walked around the boys he smiled at them. "Listen up, training just changed a little." He announced.
"Who are you?" Barret asked, one of his eyebrows raised.
"You're new sparring partner." Arthur looked at him and smiled. Like he was glad that the boy had decided to speak up.
Barret looked at Jaya for a moment and then at Arthur. "She's a girl." he sneered. "I don't want to hurt her."
Jaya looked at Arthur and her eyebrows rose before she looked at the squire again. "You think you could hurt me, Laddy?" she wondered, her voice skeptical.
"Girls don't fight." Barret shrugged like it was a universal fact.
"Girls don't fight." Jaya repeated, looking at Arthur.
Arthur folded his arms and waited. It was actually fun to see Jaya work while not being on the receiving end of her pushing for a fight.
"Well, I suppose if that's true it shouldn't take you too long to prove to the Prince here that you deserve to fight like a man, ah?" She pointed out.
Barret scoffed. "I don't know why you're insisting that I duel with you. I really don't want to hurt you."
Jaya smiled. "Why don't you let me worry about that, Laddy. Choose your weapon." she gestured to the table of weapons with one of her wrapped hands.
It was like Barret suddenly caught sight of her wrapped hands. "If you insist. We fight like men." he tossed down his wooden sword and marched toward her, balling up his fists.
"Wait! If you're going to do that, wrap your hands first." Arthur interrupted.
Barret worked his jaw, but allowed two of his friends to start to wrap his hands up.
Jaya stood where she was, hip cocked, watching as the young squires wrapped up their leader's hands. She left her hands hanging loosely at her sides, fingers tapping slightly against her brown material-clad thigh.
Arthur walked over to her, his back to the boys. "Jaya, do your best to go easy on him. He doesn't have hardly any training, he just has a big mouth."
Jaya looked at him and smiled. "Like you then?" she asked.
Arthur pursed his lips together and narrowed his eyes slightly at her.
"Ooooooooooooooooooooo! Burn!" Gwaine laughed.
"Sometimes when I think about it I wonder why he didn't hate me more." Jaya bobbed her head.
Gwaine shook his head. "I'd be willing to bet he thought it was amusing."
Jaya hummed and nodded.
Jaya held up her hands slightly. "I'll let him do all the dancing, how about that?"
Arthur nodded and looked over at Barret to see if he was ready. "Ready?" he asked, somehow making it sound like an order.
Barret nodded and half shoved the boys away from him. "Ready."
Arthur looked at Jaya. He knew she was ready. She had already been swinging at the bag when he had asked her for the favor. "All right. I don't want a messy fight. Quick and clean is the name of the game."
Jaya still hadn't moved. She knew that Arthur was mostly talking to her. He was only looking for a point of be proven, not for a young boy to get hurt. She wasn't planning on doing any real damage. Just maybe a couple of bruises to remember her by.
"Fight!" Arthur ordered, stepping out of their way.
Barret drew himself up as tall as he possibly could and took a hard swing in Jaya's direction.
Jaya ducked and stepped to her right.
Barret stumbled forward two steps and almost took another before catching his balance. "Stand still!" he snapped.
Jaya held her hands wide and shugged. "I have been. Goodness if I was you I'd be worn ragged. You run around so much. I've never seen a girl fight like you before."
Barret balled his fists up and after bouncing back and forth between his two feet he charged her and grabbed his arms around her waist, bringing her down to the ground, with him on top.
Jaya landed hard and coughed once, but cuffed the boy over his ear and rolled over so she was sitting on top of him, her knees pinning his arms to the ground. "There's a difference between being bold and stupid. That what you did right there? That was stupid." Jaya patted his cheek gently with a bright smile and grabbed Arthur's forearm and allowed herself to be hauled up and set on her feet.
Barret rolled to his feet and pursed his lips. "How do you know?" he demanded. "It's not like you've ever been in a proper fight." he pointed out.
Jaya looked taken aback and looked at Arthur. "Have you ever been in a proper fight, Laddy? Or do you only fight with servants who are afraid to touch ya?"
Barret rushed her with a growl.
"Arthur?" Jaya asked, watching him come.
Arthur shrugged. "Be my guest."
Jaya nodded once and side-stepped slightly before bracing her arm straight out just before Barret ran into it. She pushed it back slightly and watched him fall to the ground, coughing, gripping his throat. "I tell you what." Jaya crouched down next to him. "You agree to stop doing stupid things that will get you killed, and we'll have ourselves a proper fight. And if you win, Arthur will step up your training."
"I'll do what?" Arthur asked, looking at her shocked.
"And if I win." Jaya continued like she hadn't heard Arthur, "Then you will learn to fight how he teaches you. And!" She pinned him down for a moment with her knee. "You'll stop using 'fight like a girl' as if it was an insult." She stood up and looked down at him waiting for his answer. "Some of the bloodiest, vicious fights I've been in have been with girls."
Barret propped himself up on his elbows. "A proper fight. All right. Help me up."
Jaya looked down at him. "Help you up?" she chuckled.
"You are obligated to help me up!" Barret informed, sounding imperial. "I am a noble."
"Oh? That obligates me how?" Jaya asked.
Barret looked irritated. "Because you're...you're some sort of fighting servant. Though I have never heard of one. My father certainly wouldn't allow a girl to be one. that's for sure."
"Do you want to tell him, or should I?" Arthur asked, looking over at Jaya, who was now standing with her arms folded, looking at the young Lord on the ground like he was boring her.
Jaya shook her head. "Let him talk. It's not anything I haven't heard a variation of at one point or another." She looked down at the boy, still on the ground. "Tell me something, are you going to do this on the field of battle then? Lay there on the ground and demand your enemy help you up because of the blood that courses through your veins? What if he is a noble as well? Will you then compare blood lines to see who is the most noble? What if he's a king? How will you know in the heat of a battle if the person you're squaring off with is above or below you on the royal scale?"
Arthur coughed to cover up his snort and did his best to make sure that the young Lord's son didn't realize just how amusing Arthur found it.
"Of course not! I'll be a knight and I'll be fighting a knight. They're always nobles." Barret sneered.
"In Camelot, yes. But not in every kingdom." Jaya shrugged.
"What?!" Barret scrambled up on his feet. "What do you know about other kingdoms?" He demanded, his face stormy.
Jaya shrugged. "I hear stories."
"A servant that talks back. And thinks that she has the right to know anything about what being a knight means." Barret snarled, getting right up in Jaya's personal space.
Jaya managed to grab Arthur's arm before he moved to hit Barret back. "I was wrong. I'm sorry to have compared him to you." She looked at Arthur and slowly let go of his forearm.
Arthur dropped his arm and stared at Barret. "You didn't know."
Jaya nodded once. "I offered you a proper fight. So far all you've done is lay on the ground and insult me." She looked at Arthur and shook her head slightly. "I've had better fights with the bag."
Barret swung at her wildly.
Jaya ducked his swing and shrugged. "Arthur?" she wondered.
Arthur knew she was asking him for permission to actually fight Barret. So far she had been avoiding him, letting him swing wildly and tire himself out. "Whenever you like." He shrugged.
Merlin walked around the corner to the training grounds, his hands pressing on the middle of the small of his back. Cleaning the stables was probably the most physically demanding thing that he had to do on Arthur's constant list of chores. He may have been strong, but the wheelbarrows never seemed to roll straight. And, of course, the squire training was slated to start today, which meant, as soon as he got to the training field and Arthur was done the number of things tacked onto the chores list was going to be staggering. Arthur was always in a bad mood after the days that he worked with the squires. Merlin had gotten himself into trouble one too many times agreeing-sarcastically-that he had no idea how awful it was to deal with bratty Lord's sons. He stopped when his eyes cut across the field and caught on Jaya, her hands on hips laughing, her head thrown back, as one of the bigger squires picked himself up from what looked like a near fall. He glanced over at Arthur and a small light of hope poked him. Arthur was smirking. That could mean that Merlin wasn't going to have to duck flying objects between lunch and Arthur's dinner with the King. Merlin stopped where he was, glad that he hadn't been spotted yet and watched for a while longer. It looked like the squire was in the middle of a terrible fight and Jaya was just dancing around him. She ducked another wild punch and Merlin could almost hear the taunting remark from where he was, just by the look on her face.
Arthur's laugh floated across the field and Merlin felt his eyebrows go up of their own accord. It wasn't very often that Arthur let his emotions slip so much that they could be seen by those outside his inner circle. He walked over to where he could hear and sat down heavily on the wooden bench next to the sword rack where he hoped that Arthur wouldn't notice his presence right away.
"It's like you're not even trying, Laddy." Jaya's voice was full of playful taunt, set at that pitch that irritated Arthur almost instantly. "I thought you wanted a proper fight."
"It would be a proper fight if you would just hold still!" Barret growled, glaring at her.
Jaya held out her hands, her smirk clearly daring him to move.
Barret rushed her with a loud yell and took a swing at her.
Jaya ducked the swing and held her ground until Barret's weight collided into her and she tumbled to the ground with him, somehow managing to fall on top of him. She sat on his ribs and patted his cheek again. She looked up at Arthur again. "I don't think you'll ever have trouble with getting this one to rush into battle."
Arthur folded his arms over his chest and snorted.
Barret started squirming and grunting under Jaya.
Jaya looked down at him and tipped her left eyebrow down. "Where are ya goin? I may not be as heavy as the prince here-"
"Hold on!" Arthur protested, his voice almost cracking with the strain.
"But you're still not going to go anywhere." Jaya shrugged at the boy like she hadn't heard Arthur at all.
Arthur glared at her until she glanced at him and then pursed his lips together and did his best to look disapproving as she grinned at him, completely unashamed. He decided to let Barret squirm a little bit more.
Jaya looked down at the boy and then reached down and unceremoniously began to ruffle his hair like he was a small child.
"Hey-quit that! You-can't-touch-me-like-that!" Barret protested flailing around uselessly.
Jaya snorted and did it again, looking like she was enjoying it a little too much.
Arthur let him protest and complain a little longer and then tapped Jaya's shoulder. "Let him up."
Jaya stood up without looking up at Arthur or protesting.
Barret laid where he was for a moment, glaring.
Jaya nodded at Arthur and then looked down at Barret. She took a breath and then offered her hand. "Up you come then."
Barret looked at her hotly and batted her hand out of the way. "I don't need your help, Horeson." he snapped as he scrambled up.
Jaya's head pulled back like she had been slapped and the look on her face went from good natured fun to livid. She waited half a beat and looked at Arthur. "Arthur." she warned, her voice deep with anger, her brogue thick.
Arthur did even act like he had heard Jaya.
Merlin felt his eyes widen. He was pretty sure that the young squire had just signed away his right to leave the training field without anything more than the bruise that was forming on his right cheek. He didn't have a long time to ponder what kind of a mistake the squire had made.
Barret clearly had no idea what kind of a mistake he had made, and decided to push his luck more. "Oh, did that hurt your feelings?" he taunted.
Jaya looked at him. And slowly shook her head. She was using every inch of her willpower to keep from beating the boy bloody. And the longer she stood there the more she was sure it was a losing battle.
"Jaya…" Arthur actually sounded worried. "Apologize right now!" he roared at Barret.
Barret snorted. "No disrespect, Sire. But I won't."
If he was going to say anything else, Jaya's fist slammed it back into his throat. Blood spurted from his bottom lip. And Jaya wasn't done, her left slammed into his left cheek just under his eye. She blocked the wild punch that was coming her way and sent her fist just below his ribs, knocking him back with the force of the blow. The next hit was an open palm to his nose that broke it with a sickening crack.
Merlin flinched when her second blow landed against the squire's nose, blood now pouring down the bottom of his face. He hadn't ever seen Jaya so angry or vicious. All the times that he had seen her and Arthur spar they had always been careful...or so it appeared. Every hit that she made drew blood and a grunt from the boy. He was starting to wonder how long it was going to go on. It didn't look like he was going to be able to take it much longer. Merlin wasn't sure he could take the beating for much longer.
"Jaya." Arthur laid a hand on her shoulder. "Jaya, that's enough. You've made your point." He pointed out quietly, his hand not leaving her shoulder. His voice was full of understanding and yet had an unmentioned order. "He's just a boy."