Room 504, Tuesday Evening

[intraspective]

Awesome day had kinda dribbled into augh, blah day, and it was kinda Romeo's fault.

It wasn't that she blamed him, really—or, at least, no more than she blamed everyone else for the issues that came up whenever her world was inevitably compared to theirs—but few people asked so out-right and then the whole religion deal just gave her a headache.

She sprawled on her bed, punching in a text on her phone and stared at it for a long moment before hitting send, and tugging out a scroll to read.

[Open door, open post!]

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[intraspective]

"Sis is here and not-so-busy," Ino said, smiling slightly at name as she furled her scroll back up. "What's up? Come on in."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Not much," Jennifer said, entering. "Mainly just wanting to come apologize."

[intraspective]

Ino paused.

And thought back.

". . .I'm owed an apology?"

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"I'm thinking maybe around here... it might be a good idea to know how to defend myself," Jennifer said. "Plus... good exercise."

[intraspective]

Oooh!

"What brought that on?" Ino asked, sitting up and patting the bed. "I mean, I do think it's a good thing, but definitely--why?"

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Partially the alligators," Jennifer said. "Partially realizing I was being a little too... idealistic."

[intraspective]

"Some idealism is a good thing," Ino said, because she was pretty sure it was, even if she wasn't really feeling it tonight. "But, I don't know--should I congratulate you? Or commiserate with you?"

A beat.

"I'm not the best, I don't think, right now for commiserating, I admit."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"I don't think it's either," Jennifer said. "I actually mostly came because I thought, maybe... I could get you to teach me. Not now, obviously. But I figure a teacher close to my size would be a good thing."

[intraspective]

. . .this was starting to be a bit deja vu-ish.

Uh. "Guess," she said, a bit dubiously, "but I'm crap at controlling myself if something's bothering me, and I wouldn't want to hurt you because I was mad at someone else. I stopped lessons before because of that. It's totally not you, you get that right? Because, definitely, would love to. Just."

You know. Issues.

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Oh," Jennifer said. "So I'm guessing hurting me could get... real bad?"

[intraspective]

Ino studied the ceiling.

"It's a chance," she explained, "I'm not a very nice person in a fight, and I've been trained to not pull my punches, even in a spar. Here, I have to, and that's hard enough for me. Add in my bad temper at times, and I fail hard at it."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

Jennifer nodded. "I don't suppose you know of anyone else, maybe?" she said.

[intraspective]

"Fight Club has a group for beginners," she said, off the top of her head. "Um. Any specific sort of fighting you want to learn? That might help."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

Jennifer made a little face, and a laughed a little. "You ask that like I've thought all this through."

[intraspective]

That got a snicker out of her. "You mean you haven't?" Ino teased. "Well, do you think you'd like weapons or not?"

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"I haven't really thought about that," she said. "But I was thinking something hand-to-hand."

[intraspective]

"Fight Club for sure," she said, "they teach punching and kicking and stuff if you don't know how. Mmmm. Let me think about it for a day or so?"

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Take your time," Jennifer said. "I'm not exactly anxious about all this."

[intraspective]

She smiled at her. "Did you know how to fall?" Ino asked abruptly. "I can show you that much, if you'd like. Falling is super important."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Sort of," Jennifer said. "I mean, we trained a lot in dance for that sort of thing. But you're usually expecting to fall, in those situations."

[intraspective]

"That's a good start," she said, nodding. "It's a matter of making how you fall into something that happens automatically."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"So you don't let getting knocked down hurt you more," Jennifer said. "Right?"

[intraspective]

"So you can minimize the damage, yes," she said. "That's exactly right, which means falling is the first and most important thing you're going to learn. You need to be able to do it even in, like, your sleep."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"...I don't think that's possible," Jennifer said.

[intraspective]

Ino thought of Rock Lee standing up to fight while unconscious. Of Hinata getting up over and over again while she fought a losing battle.

"It's possible," she said shortly. "But it takes time and effort and you're not likely to be in a position to know how close you are to achieving it. Just--practise, practise, practise."