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A really nice illustration was done for this chapter by KryptoCow. The link to it is in my profile under the listing for "Deeper". Please go check it out!
Deeper – Chapter Two – To Gi or Not To Gi
The bedraggled pair sloshed into the elevator. He studied the control panel. Her gaze rested on the level display above the door. She offered him the towel, but he waved it away. She draped it over her head like a terrycloth hood.
"I hope Dick remembers you're a vegetarian."
She sighed and surveyed the puddles they were creating on the floor. "It seems I will have to mop the floor today as well. I keep turning too late."
"No one can fault you for trying. You do seem to be getting over your fear of the ocean, though," he chuckled.
"It does appear that the water and I are becoming fast friends."
"Is that why you want to learn this crazy trick? Trying to get over some fear of falling? Or water? Or do you just enjoy me catching you? It doesn't seem to bother you very much these days."
She cast him a sidelong glance. "The falling or the catching?"
He folded his arms across his chest and turned his chin to her. "All right. I'll accept the challenge here. The catching."
"Ever since Twilight Canyon, I haven't . . . minded." She gazed at the ceiling, her cheeks painted a light shade of crimson. Her smallest fingers twitched against her legs, whose outlines were clearly visible through the clinging damp of her uniform. He rolled his own eyes down to the floor and began to whistle a mindless tune with exaggerated focus.
The lift halted with a gentle beep. The right side of his green lips curled into a crooked smile as the doors opened. "Why, Raven, I do believe you are flirting with me."
They stepped in different directions, leaving separate contrails of salt water in their wake. He could hear water squishing in her boots with every step. Her right hand braced against the heart of her tattoo. I wonder why she bothered with the elevator. He called to her over his shoulder.
"Catch you later, then."
What he couldn't see was her fanning her face with her hand as she wandered down the hall. What he couldn't hear were her thoughts as she peeled a damp glove off her arm . . .
Muscle. Green. He's grown up. . .
"Aikido!"
"Bless you, Dickie."
"No, Gar, aikido, as in the martial art." He rubbed the bridge of his nose where his mask usually rested. "That, Raven, is the answer to your defense dilemma."
"What is it exactly, Dick?" Gar watched as Cyborg pushed the steamed rice across the table to the now-dry young woman sitting next to him. Her hair still carried the scent of salt.
"I think it's right up your alley. Basically, you use your opponent's own strength against him to deflect an assault. There's a lot of throwing involved, but very little punching and kicking. The students learn how to move from their centers, how to see things from their opponent's point of view – perfect for an empath. But I need to know . . . what kind of focus can you maintain? What kind of schedule did Azar have you on?"
She squeezed an elbow with her right hand while she reached back into her memory. "Time passed in a different way in Azarath, but it was the equivalent of sixteen to eighteen hours a day, except for holy days."
Dick exhaled a low whistle. "And I thought Batman was demanding."
"Remember that I was isolated from most of the people there. There was nothing else for me to do but train. But very little of it was truly physical in nature, as yours was."
Dick's eyebrow arched. "So what else did you do besides meditate and learn how to tele—I mean, move between dimensions?"
"I read books. A plethora of books. Some of them from Earth, others written on Azarath."
Gar chuckled as he reached for his chopsticks. "That explains your million dollar vocabulary. How many times did you read the dictionary, anyway?"
"Which language?"
"I think you just made my point." He winked at her. "I have to carry one in my back pocket just to keep up with you."
Cyborg howled. "We'll get you into stand-up comedy yet, witch. So, you want to throw our girl around, Dick. Rave, do you think you can handle getting tackled by this lug?"
"I have been tackled many times already. That is the problem."
Dick pushed his seat back from the table. "Actually, I recommend going to a school, a dojo, for this. At least to start with. I know some aikido, but I think it would be better if you studied under an actual sensei to get the feel for it." He added, in a more brotherly tone, "I also think it would be good for you to study with other students. Just like in your high school."
"May I have the soy sauce, Garfield?" Raven scooped out more of Buddha's Delight #9 onto her plate. "Do you have a particular dojo in mind?"
"Oh, yes. I have contacts." Dick always had contacts. Is it someone we can trust with her?
"Don't you think she should practice in her uniform?" Gar asked. "Or will she have to wear those pajamas?"
"Pajamas?" Raven exclaimed, turning to Dick with widened eyes.
"Oh, Gar." Dick rolled his own eyes to the ceiling. "No, the outfit is called a gi. It's just a loose fitting jacket and pants. You'll be fine."
"I still think it looks like pajamas." Gar slurped lo mein noodles into his mouth.
Raven sighed deeply and rubbed the small of her back with her left hand.
"You do realize that it will take years of training before you might be able to use this in the field?"
"We all have to start somewhere." She lifted a mushroom to her lips with her chopsticks. She chewed and swallowed with the utmost delicacy. "I only have one question," she said. "Can I have a demonstration first? I would like to know what I am committing myself to before I go."
"Only if I get to use Beast Boy as a guinea pig."
"I only do karate as a kangaroo. Dick."
Ouch. Maybe I should've been a guinea pig. I would've been harder to catch.
Her back was retreating from the gym, but he had to say something after colliding with the mat that hard.
"Don't forget our training tonight!"
"Very well," her reply drifted in from the stairwell. I hope she's not limping because of me!
"What kind of training?"
"Um . . . humor assimilation."
"Ah. And how is that going?"
"Well, she'd enjoy the movies better if she'd quit taking notes. Other than that, we're getting there. A lot of shocked looks, some bug-eyes, and some yelps of 'Azar!' here and there, but no actual laughs yet."
"Girl just needs to let her hair down, Gar," Cyborg interjected. "Maybe she's just too uptight."
"Humor is about shared experience," Dick mused while he placed his mask back around his eyes. "Some jokes just aren't funny unless you've actually lived them. She was cloistered in Azarath for a very long time. I'm sure that didn't give her a lot of that experience."
"So you're saying, what, exactly?"
"Find something in her life that she can laugh at."
"Are we talking about the same person? Not a lot to laugh at there," Cyborg replied, scratching his chrome skull plate. "She's not exactly Miss Happy Mary Apple Blossom."
"Consider it a challenge, Gar." He shot Cyborg a meaningful look. "You could have fun at an actuarial convention. Surely you can find something that would be funny to her."
After Gar left, Dick Grayson's smile faded. "Something is blooming in San Francisco, isn't it?"
A/N: I really don't know a lot about aikido, so I apologize if I state any facts incorrectly.