Rising Phoenix Dojo

January 28, 2000

3:15 PM

Ben's Mom picked him up after school and took him directly to the dojo. "I need to get some things for dinner, so I'm going to drop you off a little early. Your gi is on the back seat." He looked over his shoulder and saw his gym bag. "Yeah, OK Mom." Wasn't the first time.

"You're sure? Do you have something to do until class starts?"

"Yeah, I have stuff from school I can read."

She looked at him directly and joked "Are you feeling sick? Since when do you volunteer to open a book?" She knew he did his homework, most of the time anyway, but school wasn't his number one thing. Still, he was doing better, with a big assist from Gwen's tutoring. At least they could still do that, along with Friday movie nights.

"Funny, funny, ha, ha. I have a history test coming up, and I thought I'd be ready for it for a change." His Mom grinned and turned into the parking lot and pulled up to the curb outside the dojo's entrance.

He unbuckled his seatbelt and grabbed his backpack, and was about to open the door when she leaned over and kissed the top of his head and said with a smile "Have fun, and try not to bring home any gruesome bruises."

Ben gave the obligatory "Mom, please!" drawn out whine, got out of the minivan and opened the back door to get his gym bag. He gave her a smile before closing the door and turned to walk into the dojo.

Paul was just walking through the door, so Ben thought he might have someone to hang out with if the history book got too boring. Gwen didn't get out of school until 3:30, so she wouldn't get there until a little after 4, and they wouldn't have time to do more than say hello before their class started.

He walked in and saw there were only a few other kids there, not unusual since the little kids class ended at 3. He was heading to the locker room to get changed, but Paul saw him and waited just outside the door.

The bigger boy grinned at him. "Hey Short Stuff! How's the throwing arm?"

Ben ducked his head a little at the nickname, but he could tell there wasn't any malice to it and grinned back. He didn't know Paul very well, but he was pretty cool during classes, and Ben kind of liked the attention from the older and higher ranked classmate. Paul went to their birthday party, and mostly hung out with him and the few other guys there, so Ben had a chance to see what he was like outside class. He was the only one who talked to him for the first 20 minutes after he followed Gwen back into the rink, and didn't say anything about the snowball. Ben really appreciated that. Although he did have an amused look when Ben came back in after the herd of girls surrounding Gwen. He was the only one.

"I'm glad you're here early. Can I talk to you for a second?" Paul asked.

Ben didn't expect this, so he replied a little warily "OK, what's up?"

Paul walked until they were maybe ten feet past the boy's locker room. He turned and put his stuff down, and looked at Ben and started laughing in a good natured way. "Dude! What are you scowling like that for? I'm not gonna bite your head off! Relax."

Ben didn't realize he had been, and replaced it with a small grin. "Sorry. Lot on my mind." He dropped his backpack and gym bag.

Paul just raised an eyebrow at him and said almost to himself "I'll bet". Before Ben could say "What does that mean?", Paul cut him off with "Listen, you know how Sensei has some of the higher belts help during class?"

Ben nodded. Paul had been doing that since classes started back up, and Sensei told the class to treat Paul's instruction as if it came from him. "Well, he wants Gwen to start doing it too. We're both going to be testing for blue later this year, and part of it is how well we can help teach the lower belts. Like he says, you can't really do it if you can't teach it. It's a big deal for her, and I thought you should know about it." He thought for a second and added "You're going to have to do it eventually, too, so you should know what Sensei expects."

Ben nodded again while Paul was talking, and had a knowing grin before he stopped. "My Dwe- , er, Gwen will be great at that! She's a good teacher. "

Paul raised his eyebrow again at Ben's almost slip up, but didn't say anything about it. Instead he said "Yeah, we know."

Ben got a puzzled look, and Paul continued "We saw her do it with you. Don't look surprised." Ben was just about to call him on that, but Paul cut him off.

"You're the best in your belt, Sensei says so, and you're really into it. But you didn't move up as fast as you did without outside work and help, and I know she was doing it. If she can get a stubborn mule like you to focus and do the work, she can do it for the rest of the class." He smirked at the stricken look Ben got.

"I'm not stubborn!"

"Dude! You are too! It took you two classes last week to stop pulling punches with her, she got it in one!"

Ben frowned "I wasn't pulling" he got out before Paul interrupted again. "Oh please! You were. You both were. I'm glad you both got over it so quickly before someone got hurt. I will say, though, you did a lot faster than others I've seen." He paused, then said in a lower voice "If she means something to you, you'll at least make sure whatever got to you stays out of here." Paul made a show of looking around at the room and back to Ben.

Ben frowned. "Others?" Means something to him? He felt more confusion. What was the guy talking about?

"You know, other couples." Paul said, matter-of-factly. "It's usually when one of two things happens: one hurts the other, or they have a fight. Which was it?"

Ben felt his cheeks flush "We're not a couple!" he growled.

Paul shrugged "Ok, boyfriend-girlfriend, whatever you want to call it."

Ben almost shouted "We're not that, either!"

"All right, calm down! Maybe not now, but you're headed there." The second sentence was mostly a mumble, not really meant for Ben to hear. Paul saw Ben unclench his fists and said "So touchy. Look, you can keep telling yourself that, but I'm not buying it. You didn't whip that slushball at her head because you hated her. Don't deny it!" He laughed again to get Ben to loosen up. It worked. "So why did you? If you don't mind my asking."

Ben knew he wasn't being mean. None of his friends at the rink asked him about it. They actually avoided him for a while, now that he thought about it. Right then Ben wondered if telling Paul wasn't such a bad idea.

"I needed to get her attention." he grumbled.

Paul had a good laugh at that. "Well, you did that! You should have seen her face when she lit out after you! I've never seen her that mad! A word of advice? Next time you need to get someone's attention, try being a little less obvious! So what's behind your lovers spat?" Ben was about to explode when Paul stopped him with a grin. "Too easy! ... It's just an expression, don't get your panties in a twist."

Ben glowered but didn't say anything, and Paul looked at him funny. "All right, I'm gonna tell you this 'cause it looks like you need to hear it. You may think you're just friends, but the rest of us see it different. I knew your first day. We never pay much attention to firsties, most of them don't last more than a month or two so it isn't worth the time. When Gwen introduced you around I could tell she was excited that you were there. That never happens, especially from Feet of Fury! And no, that's not a dig at her. And then when she ran out crying after those bitches " he pretty much spat out that word with a scowl. That made Ben smile a little. "... got on her case, and you chased after her? You guys were gone for a good while, and when you got back she looked a little rough around the edges but you two were chumming it up. Ever since then it's been obvious you two had something going on. The way you help each other up, use your pet names when you think Sensei isn't paying attention - yeah, we see that, you two aren't as clever as you think -, the way you encourage each other. I know, you both do that for everyone else, too, but it's not the same. Hell, just the way you look at each other sometimes."

The older boy paused like he was thinking, then asked "Seriously, what went wrong?" with genuine concern.

"We didn't hurt each other, if that's what you're asking." Practice sessions with Gwen in the park or back yard came with their own bumps and bruises, especially when he was trying to get a new move down, but they hadn't done that since Christmas break started.

"Hmmn, hurt isn't always physical, though, is it? You don't need to tell me the details, 'cause it seems you two are working it out?"

Paul stopped talking, but he kept looking at Ben, like he was waiting for an answer. Ben wasn't sure how to. No one had talked to him like this before, it was a new one on him. His usual way to reply to uncomfortable situations was to make some kind of joke, but he had nothing right now. He knew he was scowling as the hurt from the last week bubbled back up, but what could he say?

Paul saw the storm that was in his head, but didn't press it. He shrugged instead and said "I hope so. I don't normally say stuff like this, but you two make a good match."

"I thought so too, but she just stopped talking to me." Ben surprised himself, more than Paul from the looks of it, when he blurted that out. But he didn't stop. "She ignored me for a week, and it drove me nuts, so..." he didn't know what else to say, but at least someone heard his side of the story. A little. That was better than eating it for the last week had been.

"So a slushball to her head stopped that, huh? After you got her attention," Paul smirked a little at him, "when you two were outside, did you get any answers?"

"No, not really." In fact he got more confused. "But at least she was talking to me again. After she stopped yelling. And she said she'd hang out after class today." Ben said with a small smile, and looked away. More weirdness, what the hell was he thinking telling this to someone he hardly knew? It wouldn't surprise him to hear Paul give him all kinds of grief spitting that out.

Except he didn't. He just looked thoughtful and then said "Well, that's something, huh? I hope you can sort out whatever started this. Another word of advice? Don't force it, at least not today. You know better than I do, Gwen doesn't like being pushed."

Paul glanced at the clock on the far wall, and let out a surprised "Shit! Look what time it is!" Ben looked around and saw the mat was filling up with the others in the class.

"We can talk again another time if you want. Right now we need to get ready for class." Ben got out "Yeah, OK" before Paul was at the locker room door, and followed him in.

They got changed and were walking out of the locker room, Ben in front, when Gwen came in. Paul did a stage whisper for her to see across the mat area, not loud enough for her to hear though "Looks like you're Dweeb is here" and laughed. Ben looked back at him with a murderous glare, at which Paul flinched and quickly said "Can't use that word, huh? Sorry, won't happen again", and gave Ben an apologetic grin and laughed a little more. Despite himself, Ben couldn't help laughing too. He looked back at Gwen as his laugh faded out, and was replaced by a smile. As they got closer she got a shy smile of her own and looked at them a little funny and asked hesitantly "What have you two been talking about?", and then focused on Ben.

Paul said "Just guy stuff" and smiled back at her as they walked past each other.

She caught Ben's eye and gave up a big smile and said "Good!", and walked into the girls locker. "See you in a minute!"

Note 1: I've been figuring out how Fan Fiction and AO3 platforms work, so while I worked on some formatting glitches I found out I can show more than one inspiration, and obviously Erico deserves the recognition. Thanks for being the path finder.

Note 2: Ben needs more than a Sumo fix from his buddies, and Jamie just isn't up to it!

I know I'm taking liberties with Paul, Shadows' OC, and I certainly don't want to hijack him. But the possibilities for him to be a different kind of friend to Ben than Jamie, or any other classmates for that matter, just popped into my head and this is the result. I imagine Paul being a high school sophomore, which gives him a different perspective than middle schoolers. So with apologies if I overshot the runway on this...