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Arzhur stood with his feet slightly apart, waiting for his opponent to move. He gripped the pole tightly, watching for the slightest movement, which he got. The leader of the terrorists lunged forward. Arzhur pulled his arms apart and took the blow between his hands, holding the pole horizontally. He countered with the same movement, but pulled back and thrust the pole under the terrorists arms, hitting him in the chest.
Arzhur jumped back, circling, as the leader caught his breath. He watched the leader again, detecting signs of movement in the changing of his muscles.
Arzhur parried thrusts to the left and to the right, all done expertly, with exactly the right amount of force behind each one.
Sophie couldn't tear her eyes away from the fight. She couldn't believe how fantastic Arzhur was. She watched as each blow, however cleverly they were performed, was easily blocked by Arzhur, without, it seemed, any effort at all. The same could not be said for the leader of the terrorists. He was breathing heavily, and panted harder each time he attacked. Clearly, he didn't have the training Arzhur did. He was doing all the work, while Arzhur stayed calm and in control.
Finally, the leader was so tired, he stood panting.
Arzhur lifted his pole, and with one blow, that wasn't extremely powerful, hit the leader over the head, and knocked him out.
Sophie immediately pulled out her phone and called the police. She took a pole of her own, and stood in front of the exit.
"Don't try to leave. The police are on their way. Step away from your weapons, and put your hands up. As per the agreement, we have won."
The other terrorists put down their weapons and stood in a line with their fallen leader.
Arzhur came over to Sophie, who threw her arms around him
"You did it!" she cried happily, "I can't believe it! I mean, I had faith in you, I knew you would win, but still! You beat him!" Arzhur silenced Sophie's babblings with a kiss, then squeezed her tighter.
However, Sophie just smiled goofily, and continued her ravings,
"I mean, the Queen will have to thank you! I mean, you risked your life to save the crown jewels! Maybe she'll knight you, though you it's a little late for that, if you know what I mean…"
"Sophie!" Arzhur interrupted. "Yes, yes, yes. It's all very good and well, but I think you are taking things a bit far. As if I would be knighted for saving the Crown Jewels." Arzhur scoffed.
Sophie, however, did not agree with this. "I don't know what you are talking about, I mean, Elton John got knighted for his musical talents… if he can become Sir Elton John for that, then you can definitely be Sir Arzhur Pendragon. I can see it now." She out on a voice that was high pitched and sounded very prissy, "Kneel, Arzhur Pendragon. Arise, Sir Arzhur Pendragon." She returned to her normal voice. Then continued, with
"And then you can turn to the audience, and say 'I just want to thank my dear friend Sophie Franklin, for supporting me and believing in me and for being a fantastic and beautiful girl." Sophie then pretended to cry, wiping away the 'tears' from her eyes.
Arzhur, although it probably wasn't suitable for the current situation, began to laugh uproariously.
"Very nice Sophie, but I don't think I will mention you at my knighting ceremony. I will save, myself for someone more worthy of my love." Sophie punched him on the arm, just as the police came in.
A tall man in uniform came over to them, flashing his badge.
"My name is Inspector Regins. I'd like to have a word with you about what happened earlier.
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After half an hour, in which Arzhur and Sophie each told their story separately, and another half hour of questioning, the terrorists were finally taken away, and the students were allowed to go back to their hotel. It was too late to make it to their tour of the London Dungeons, so Mr Johnston just let them hang at their hotel, or go into the city. So long as they weren't alone. And they were back by nine o'clock.
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Sophie and Arzhur were sitting in Spaghetti House, a restaurant in the area where all of the theatres were, which was called Theatreland, eating a Hawaiian pizza.
"This is very good." Arzhur said, around a full mouth, "What's it called again?"
"Hawaiian, but some people just call it ham and pineapple."
Arzhur smiled, and Sophie returned the favour. They finished their dinner, Arzhur paid, and walked out. It was only 7 o'clock, so they walked around Theatreland, listening to people coming out of the theatres, and hearing about the shows they had seen. Then walked down to Piccadilly Circus, hand in hand, in silence. Just thinking about the day's events.
"I hope it isn't too much more of an eventful week." Sophie said quietly. "I don't think I could handle too much more stuff like today" By this time they had reached the statue of Eros.
Sophie stood with Arzhur, hand in hand, below Eros' out stretched hand, beneath his bow. Arzhur leaned down and kissed Sophie, gently at first, but it then became more passionate and Arzhur was pulling Sophie further in, until she broke away.
"I… I don't think this is the place to be doing this." She said. She looked at her watch, and realised that it was eight fifteen, and it took half an hour to get back to the hotel. Arzhur nodded, then put his arm around Sophie, and they began to walk back.
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They finally got back, with ten minutes to spare. Sophie stepped into their room first, and let Arzhur turn the lights on (because he felt this was still a bit of a novelty), and flopped onto her bed.
"I don't know about you Arzhur, but I am so tired I could die."
"I wish you wouldn't." Arzhur replied, "Because then I wouldn't be able to do this." And with that, he pulled her up into his arms and kissed her. After a moment, Sophie and Arzhur had fallen back onto Sophie's bed. Then, soon after that…they had past first base.
It was then that Sophie felt it was time to stop.
Sure she liked doing that stuff, especially with Arzhur, maybe even more than liked, but she had only known him for a couple of days. She didn't want to move too fast.
"Stop." She said, sitting up. Arzhur pulled away and sat on the bed beside, his face flushed.
"Sorry" He said, embarrassedly, "I think I got… carried away."
Sophie smiled softly.
"Don't worry," she said "I'm just too tired for this stuff." Arzhur smiled, but helped her up, picked up her stuff, gave it to her, and pushed her into the bathroom.
"Get changed, then we shall go to bed." Arzhur changed, chuckling to himself as he did so. When he was changed, he waited another ten minutes for Sophie to come out of the bathroom. When she didn't emerge, he knocked on the door, but got no answer. He pulled it open, and found Sophie, in her pyjamas sitting asleep on the floor.
He woke her up, got her to brush her teeth, brushed his, and put Sophie into bed.
"Goodnight Sophie." He said, kissing her forehead.
"Goodnight Arzhur" she yawned
He smiled, turned off the light and got into bed.
This time Sophie was the first to sleep, though he knew it was inevitable. He smiled, and drifted off himself.
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