Bare These Bones
Hit The Mats
Vahl'Sai stood in the center of the gym that she was going to be meeting Kirk in, her arms crossed before her chest as she looked toward the windows. Her long hair was still pulled back from her last lesson and she was dressed in the black track suit of a commander for the Security team. She was sporting a faint blue spot on the corner of her jaw where she had been kicked by one of the men while she was sparing with them, but it wasn't enough to result in a bruise.
She didn't even turn toward the doors when she heard them open, knowing that it was either someone unimportant or it was Kirk and she didn't have reason to acknowledge either. She only turned to look when he came to stand a couple of feet away from her, clearly waiting.
He spoke first, "Told you I'd be on time."
"That you did," she said with a nod, uncrossing her arms. "I hope you're prepared, because I'm not going to be wasting my time here," she said simply with a serious look in her eyes. Kirk noticed the spot on her jaw and wondered who had been able to land a kick on her jaw. The entire time he had known her she had never let anyone touch her. "The sparing had already ended when I was hit," she said, clearly realizing that he had been staring at the reddened skin.
"Sorry," he apologized quickly, but she just shook it off.
"I'm going to allow you to choose what you wish to train first. It's your fight."
"Reflexes," Kirk answered immediately, "He's fast and if I'm not careful I might just lose my head."
As soon as he finished his sentence he hit the floor, Vahl'Sai's foot flying just over his head. He could feel the air that rushed against his face moments after her foot passed by, his heart nearly jumping out of his chest in split second fright.
"You're reflexes are already very good," she amended, offering him a hand. "I apologize, I had to test you somehow." Kirk continued to look up at her in shock, taking her hand carefully. She pulled him up to his feet easily, patting his back once before stepping away to put space between them again. "You won't need too much training on your reflexes, but Vulcan's are quick so I'll make sure that I stay at their speed while we train."
"What if I wasn't that fast, you would have hit me!"
"No, I have better control than that, Cadet Kirk, I could very easily have stopped mid kick before I actually hurt you. However, I knew from class that the chance of me actually landing that kick were very slim." Kirk looked at the woman incredulously as she turned her back to walk away a few steps before spinning to face him again. "Now, try and hit me."
Kirk looked at her for a moment, trying to think of a way that he might actually land a blow, before charging forward. Vahl'Sai easily ducked below the punch he threw her way, spinning on the balls of her feet and moving away from him again all at once, never even blinking. Kirk followed after her, lashing out again, but she was just as fast as before, she was gone before he even had a chance. They continued their one sided dance, Vahl'Sai fluently spinning away from each of his attacks without so much as a stumble or pause. It was minutes later before she finally kicked the back of his knee and sent him to the ground.
Kirk heard a faint chuckling sound and rolled onto his back to see Vahl'Sai smiling down at him, laughing softly. His eyes widened at the sight of her actually showing him a full smile, her canines visible to him. Her smile was wide enough that he could see all four canines, the two bottom points visible above her bottom lip but the two top points hidden. That was the first time that he had ever seen her smile, truly smile.
"That was very good, Cadet. Here." Offering her hand, Kirk huffed irritably but took her hand and allowed her to tug him to his feet without any effort at all.
Hours later, Vahl'Sai was once more stepping from her office after dark, putting in the lock key in with her free hand. Her other hand was holding a stack of papers that she had needed to sign in order to finalize the class on Sahvarian Linguistics. She had to turn them in to Pike in the morning, since she was sure that he had already retired for the evening.
"Commander, wait!" Kirk's voice didn't make Vahl'Sai stop, only keep on walking as he ran to catch up to her.
"You're making this a habit, Cadet Kirk. What may I do to assist you this time?"
"I wanted you to meet someone, she's going to be in your advanced class for linguistics next term and she wants to meet you," Kirk explained, doing his best to keep up with her long strides. She suddenly stopped and looked back to where Kirk had come from, nearly making the cadet trip when he attempted to stop just as abruptly. A dark skinning female was walking toward them from the end of the hall, her red cadet uniform catching the light.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Commander Vahl'Sai," the young woman said as she held out her hand. Vahl'Sai took the small woman's hand in her own, her tan fingers far longer than the younger's. "I'm Cadet Uhura," She introduced carefully.
"A pleasure."
Vahl'Sai could feel the quick pulse of the female through her skin and offered a smile and a nod as she spoke to calm the cadet's nerves down. Uhura smiled back as she pulled her hand away, her heat beat still loud in Vahl'Sai's ears. Her green eyes met the dark brown ones of the Cadet and she immediately knew that this girl was serious about her skill.
"I assume you're majoring in linguistics?" Vahl'Sai posed, but Uhura seemed lost as she looked at the woman. Vahl'Sai looked over to Kirk who was rolling his eyes.
"You're accent," he said simply, making her nod. Uhura snapped out of her trance and smiled timidly. "Now that I think about it, you do sound quite a bit like you have a Spanish accent," he commented a moment later.
"Sahvarian language is nothing like the Spanish of Earth. The accent might sound similar but the words and grammar are as close to opposite as possible," she said, looking directly into Kirk's baby blue eyes. She could have sworn that she saw him twitch at her words.
"Wow, you were right when you said that she was like Spock," Uhura mumbled, smiling slightly. "We should introduce them, I'm sure that she would be the perfect refreshment in the sea of illogical people."
"Why am I always compared to this Spock?" Vahl'Sai asked herself aloud as she turned to head out. Kirk nearly jumped after her, making her sidestep uneasily as she looked sideways at him. Her larger irises look like the green was glowing, the colour so bold against her tan skin.
"Still up for my lesson tomorrow, right?"
"I will inform you during class if there is any change to my schedule. Now, I must be off. Good evening, Cadet Kirk, Cadet Uhura."
"It was great to meet you, Commander!" Uhura called from where she was still standing further up the hall, bowing slightly. Vahl'Sai nodded her head before she turned to exit the hallway, stepping out into the darkened hallway. The night air was cool and moist, making her smile. It almost felt like she was home again. But she couldn't smell the nature of the world beyond the city here, the stench of steel and concrete marred the beauty the world once had.
She really needed to burn off some of the pent up energy she was storing up.
Easily changing in her room, she soon found herself back out on the streets in her gym outfit, taking off at a dead run down the street. She would need to get in a couple of hours of running to take the edge off of her agitated nerves. She was relieved that the streets were deserted of nearly all people since it was so late in the evening. She was able to run down the streets without worry of running into or startling anyone.
҉
Uhura and Bones sat on the benches to the side of the large gym that Jim's class was in. Several other people that had friends in the class had also come to join them, sitting around and talking. The class had been informed that Vahl'Sai would be running only a few minutes late that day and to begin their warm up routine without her. Jim had already finished his laps around the gym and was flirting with one of the girls in his class.
"Not to be rude, but why did you come?" Bones finally asked as he looked over at Uhura. She was still dressed in her red Cadet uniform, while he was in his blue science uniform after having just finished his medical rounds. Class had actually already finished for the day, but Jim's class also had their self-defense test today as well as their final lesson just before.
"I'm really interested in Savarian culture; I'm going to be taking Commander Vahl-Sai's class next term. I wanted to come and see the lesson at the beginning of class to see how Savarian's fight," she explained easily, never taking her eyes off the groups that covered the gym. It was a large class and probably would have been difficult for any other human teacher to handle. Uhura knew, however, that Vahl'Sai's strict reputation for obedience was renowned throughout the school.
"She doesn't fight in Savarian style, it's human fighting techniques," Bones quickly replied, remembering what Jim had told him a couple of days before.
"She's still the one fighting though. I guess it's not really the technique, but the way that she delivers it."
Bones was about to speak again when Jim jogged over to them, a grin in place. He had been looking forward to the test for quite a while, since there had been rumours that Spock would be attending to assist Vahl'Sai in the testing process. Bones knew that he was probably so excited because Vahl'Sai had never met the Vulcan Commander and Jim was still determined to fail at being a matchmaker.
"Uhura, I didn't expect to see you here," Jim said in greeting, causing the dark skinned woman to roll her eyes and turn away from him. Jim just smirked before he turned to his friend, seeing that Bones had his PADD of work out before him. "Do you ever take a break?"
"I'm a doctor, Jim, it's my job."
"Oh, come on, Bones! Stop acting like you've got a stick up your-"
A sharp whistle cut off Jim's final word. Uhura and Bones, as well as all other guests attending the class, watched in surprise as every single person of the class went silent and turned their attention to where the doors had opened. Vahl'Sai was walking into the dressed in her black track uniform, making a circular motion with her hand to round everyone up. The students all moved as though it were routine, even Jim stepping away from Bones and Uhura without another word, to make a large circle on the matts around Vahl'Sai.
"Alright," she said began, her voice carrying through the room easily, "Welcome to all of our guests today. As I informed you all last class, we will begin with the final self defense lesson today before proceeding to the self-defense tests." Vahl'Sai looked over to the crowd of people along the benches to the side of the gym, recognizing a few of them, before she turned her attention to her class again. "We will also be having a couple of other guests as well, shortly. Several of you are under evaluation for star ship placement and this test will be important for you," she explained, seeing a couple of the students begin to look stricken. She smirked then, showing off a small bit of fang. "I hope you remembered to study."
Bones looked to where Jim was sitting, resting back against his hands with a look on his face that said he didn't have a care in the world. He, too, could see the people that had begun to tense up at the mention of ship evaluations. Although, he doubted that it was for much more than Jim and a couple of other people that were promoted quickly on the Enterprise.
"On with the lesson, then," the Commander called over the group then, placing her hands on her hips once more. Bones noted the thinness of her body, she looked barely thick enough to be considered healthy, but he knew for a fact that Savarians ate nearly three times as much as the average human to keep up their body weight. Their metabolism blew through fat and calories like it were air itself. She had long limbs, thin but with defined muscle. It was hard to tell, though, from the amount of clothing she had on. Long pants and long sleeves made it hard to tell her muscle tone. "Since Captain Kirk is always so enthusiastic to be around woman, why don't you come and join me?"
Jim looked shocked to have been called on so soon, before he rose to his feet and stepped up to stand with Vahl'Sai in the center of the circle. He had barely been standing for a second near her before she swung a kick at his face, forcing him to drop to the floor on his back to avoid getting kicked. His eyes were wide as he stared at her in disbelief; that was the second time she had done that. She looked around at everyone else, the entire class having jumped at the fast movement.
"Today, we learn how to dodge."
I would love to see Kirk's face it that happened to him, it would be so funny. Anyway, sorry the extra long delay on this chapter. I'll have the next one out soon since it's nearly finished already. Please send in your reviews, feedback is my motivation! :)