Prompt: "You move swiftly– Impressive.", sequel to 42.

The incident with the rebelling gang had been enough to convince the Queen and her Guard Dog to agree to Kagome's needs to defend herself. She was glad, even though she did have to suffer Her Majesty's smothering doting, weepy eyes, and John Brown's antics to cheer the old woman up. But, Kagome wasn't pleased to hear that instead of just having a weapon handed to her,

she'd have to be trained instead.

Oh certainly Kagome didn't protest against the idea.

But she didn't like that it would be him who would lead her training.

What happened at the end of that disaster of a day had shy her away from Vincent more than usual and his attempts to subtly seduce her had gotten bolder. The bastard took advantages of his learning to surprise the poor Kagome, oftentimes appearing randomly behind her and in rooms she was certainly not expecting him to be in. In the sight, in the mind, was what Vincent said—and Kagome knew what he was doing right away.

She wondered if his attraction to her was more than just physical, leaving her to doubt the usually-sincere Guard Dog. Even now she still refused to meet his eyes, when one of his hands danced over her arms to correct her posture and another over the curve of her spine, "Your form is too stiff, milady." Vincent murmured, righting her outstretched arms and eyed her hands wounded tightly around the gun.

Kagome sniffed, pressing away from the hand at her back, "I'm more used to archery, than guns." She said dryly, finding it hard to keep the heat from reaching her face.

"Wouldn't the principles of it be the same, milady?" Vincent wondered out loud, when he pushed lightly against her wrists so to line up with the large red bull-eye in the faraway target, "As I said before, archery hadn't been in practices in decades, since Her Majesty's coronation."

Shaking her head, Kagome corrected him, "While it is true that both of them are long distanced weapons, I can't properly compare and I've only ever used the longbow." She parted her hands to demonstrate how she'd hold her bow and arrow, "But you don't hold them in the same way."

Vincent sounded, interested in her position, "Ah, I see. Perhaps I should make an argument with Her Majesty about allowing archery in practices again, even if it'd for purely demonstration and historical purposes." He'd like to see how his dear bird handle that one.

From the state of her body and daily postures, she does seem to have some form of training. But, Her Majesty didn't fancy any ideas of Kagome being any less than a proper lady. Never mind that She had some skilled women in Her court. She does have a skewed logic, unfortunately, when it comes to those She was the most fond of.

He didn't agree that Kagome should be left utterly defenseless, but he didn't like ideas of Kagome dirtying her hands with the filthy ones. Ridding the filthy ones is one duty he'd prefer to have, and only he. Still, if she must, then she must, if only to protect herself when Vincent wasn't anywhere close enough to rescue her.

He'd be too late to save Lady Blackbird, if he hadn't figured out the scheme to disrupt the horses.

"Now then," Vincent started, pushing aside the pictures of what-if that made him to cringe inwardly, "hold this like so." He exhibited the previous posture and aimed his own gun to the target.

Kagome mirrored him—he liked lack of incertainty in her form.

Vincent stepped back, returning his hands to her shoulders, "Now, pull the trigger."

Soundlessly the bullet thudded.

Perfectly in the center of the bull-eye.

"Ohhh, impressive." Vincent whistled lowly—this was her first one too. "Well, you've a good handle on the gun already. We'll work on other aspects of using it later." When Kagome inched away from his touches, he caught her pinked face and smiled. Separating his hands from her frame, he hummed, "Let's move on to the next part of your defensive training."

She slumped, "There's more!?"

He bit back an urge to laugh out loud, "But of course! You know how I like to be thorough." Vincent grinned, "Think fast!"

Kagome dove away from his sudden grab for her neck, thudding her hands onto the cold pebbled ground. She darted away from Vincent's reaches, "The heck!?"

Clapping Vincent righted himself and praised her, "You move swiftly– Impressive."

"You could've been faster!" Kagome retorted, rubbing her, thankfully gloved, hands and held back a pout.

Vincent agreed, "I could have, but there aren't many that have the similar set of skills that I do. I am simply replicating a common man's actions, rather than mine." He pointed out.

She glared at him, not denying that he was right, "So, are we done?" Kagome huffed, glancing at a nearby grandfather clock—all welded from bronze and gold gears, "It's almost lunch time too." She turned the gun's grip toward the man, for him to take back.

And, there was that skewed smile again. The lady eyed him, pulling the weapon back and evened her footing. Not for the first time Kagome found her debating to stop pulling away from this handsome man or not.

Vincent chuckled at her wariness, "Not quite." Perhaps tonight would finally open her eyes to him.