tampered | ongoing; closed

ongoing; closed

When; January 24, Sunday
Rating; PG-13?
Characters; Leon Magnus [

roseofseingald] and Stahn Aileron [

myswordtalks]
Summary; Stahn wants to join Leon for his daily training routine. But little did they expect they'd be cursed for it.
Log; Leon had woken feeling a little off today, but he thought little of it as he dressed to ready himself for training. Nothing was physically different about his body, and his mindset seemed normal. Perhaps the feeling stemmed from the fact that he wasn't training with Yuri or Emil that morning, but instead Stahn. For the first time since Stahn got to the City, they were going to fight. The last time they'd fought in battle, the circumstances had been different, painful even. But it was only training, there was no need to make more of it than needed. And on that note, he exited his room and crossed the hall - which took him seven steps, not that he was counting - to Stahn's room.

He didn't bother knocking, and instead pushed the door open, flicking on the light to wake Stahn up. But of course, such a measure wouldn't be enough. He knew Stahn's sleeping habits all too well to know that merely turning a light on would do nothing to affect the slumber.

"Stahn!" Huh. He'd meant to say the word idiot, but it hadn't come out. "How long are you going to sleep? Did you forget we were training this morning?"

Well, that was odd too. That sentence had been so much more abrasive in his head. Why hadn't it come out like that? Not that he was purposely abrasive to Stahn or anything. He moved closer to the bed, prepared to take more drastic measures if Stahn didn't wake at his voice. Those drastic measures would likely include an arte. Not a destructive one of course - no, something simple like little red and yellow hammers.

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Stahn was fast asleep and had been fast asleep for a long time. He had slept early, what with his lack of things to do around the beach house and in the City, but that wouldn’t stop him from sleeping in. Even now, at this ungodly hour, he was in a deep sleep despite the fact that he had already been asleep for about seven hours. He at least planned on sleeping for seven more, holding true to his grandpa’s words about growing boys needing more rest and food.

His arm was curled around the pillow under his head, the other arm hanging uselessly off the bed as he snored lightly. Evidently he was a restless sleeper, the blankets half-kicked off the bed already. By midday, all of the blankets would probably be on the ground – not that he’d get to sleep in until midday, not with Leon coming in to disturb his sleep.

Stahn hardly stirred when the light was turned on, his eyelids not even fluttering in reaction to the sudden brightness filling the room. The boyish voice that was speaking didn’t do much to disturb his sleep, either, the dopey, self-satisfied smile remaining on his face as he dozed on. He was having a good dream, it seemed – perhaps dreaming of something to do with his beloved flock of sheep, his family or somebody else he missed or loved. His quiet snoring continued, no sign of any disturbance or acknowledgement of someone’s presence on his features until he suddenly went quiet.

"You can't make... ... Leon doesn’t like rubber ducks..." His snoring had stopped momentarily, replaced with a mumbling into the pillow, his voice quiet and thick with drowsiness. For a moment, his expression changed into a frown, and then it changed into a smile again. “... loves pies. Lilith, make...” The words quickly turned incoherent as Stahn buried his face into the pillow more.

Leon hadn't been expecting to hear his name. Even more so not in the same sentence as 'rubber ducks'. He glared down at Stahn accusingly, as if he were tainting his good name in his dreams or something. It pretty much sealed Stahn's fate for a pow hammer awakening.

"You-" the insult still wasn't coming out as he intended. It was a little frustrating, what was wrong with him today? He'd never had a problem insulting Stahn before, but he didn't attribute the affect to a curse. But to be unable to say what he was thinking was still irritating. He frowned, unsheathing Chal.

"You can't sleep forever! Pow Hammer!"

“O-owwww…” The impact of the hammer caused Stahn to open one eye slowly with a glare as he turned over, immediately regretting the action as he was now looking directly up at the light. And that hurt. What was going on? Forcing both eyes open, he blearily searched for the reason for his awakening… and then was left completely nonplussed and possibly agonized when he saw that it was Leon.

“What do you want–“ He was starting to say, until a thought hit him. He had woken up to Leon and a Pow Hammer before, and the result of that day wasn’t pretty at all. Jerking awake now, Stahn scrambled to sit up, checking his wrists. “No, not again!”

Leon rolled his eyes, resheathing Chaltier and folding his arms over his chest.

"We're training today, remember? We decided on that last week, and I even reminded you last night. Don't tell me you've already forgot, I know your memory isn't that bad."

Somehow, his sentences still weren't coming out like he planned them too. There was less edge and less insulting when he spoke, and he wasn't really sure what was up with it. And he never bothered checking the Network until after morning practice, so of course he wouldn't be aware that there was a curse going on.

Stahn blinked uncomprehendingly for a moment, Leon’s words not reminding him of anything for a second. He only vaguely remembered being reminded, but then again, it was probably because he was trying to ignore Leon and stay out of his way as he generally did as of late. Well, as long as they weren’t stuck together again, Stahn wasn’t too fussed.

Pushing himself out of bed, he ran a hand through his messy hair, attempting to straighten it out a little. He didn’t feel any different today – not really. He just felt a little cranky from being woken up so early.

“Why do we have to train before the sun’s out? Even Chester – or whatever his name is – has the smarts to be training at only eight o’clock!“ … Huh. His brain must’ve been slower than usual this morning. He hadn’t meant to imply that Chester was smart in any shape or form. Ignoring that, he stood, looking for his shirt. Where had he thrown it the night before?

"Tch- Stahn," damn, he'd meant to say idiot again, "I told you what time I train, so you aren't allowed to complain about it."

Leon turned away from Stahn to let him get dressed in peace, hand now resting on Chal's hilt. Maybe it would have been better to not train with Stahn, considering the circumstances the week before. But Leon wasn't going to let the awkwardness of their argument affect him obviously like that. That would be like running away from the situation, and he didn't want to do that. Didn't want to make that kind of mistake again because it frustrated him to be like that.

"Try to hurry up, I know it's hard for you to wake up early like this, but if we want to be back in time for breakfast, we need to leave soon."

“Breakfast, right!” That seemed to motivate Stahn a little, injecting a little bit of life into his movements. Finding his clothes and his armour strewn across the floor, he started getting dressed, not taking too long since his clothes weren’t anything fancy. It hadn’t really occurred to him fully that he was going to fight Leon, and that they hadn’t fought physically since that time where… well, it didn’t matter now. It was better not to think about it, and even better not to think about their argument about a week back, even though that argument had done a lot to change Stahn’s behaviour.

“What’re we having for breakfast?” He headed to the bathroom to wash up, still a little groggy.

"Yuri usually makes crepes for breakfast," Leon answered, waiting impatiently for Stahn to get ready. By this time, he and Yuri would have already been ready and out the door. But he never had to wake Yuri up. Leon was trying not to think about the last time they'd done battle. Because this definitely wasn't the same. He wasn't anyone's pawn this time and no one's life was on the line.

Of course Leon had been doing his fair share of avoidance in the past week, but he had a good excuse for it, at least since he was working for that week. Working more than he really needed to, but the extra money was useful anyway. After all, they were two more mouths to feed in the house these days. And one of those mouths acted like ten mouths.

Oh, right, crepes. Stahn remembered his excitement about them when Yuri had mentioned them off-handedly, and he briefly wondered if there were any strawberries and cream laying around in the fridge. He hoped so.

Finished in the bathroom, he walked back out over to Leon, picking up the sword that was leaning uselessly against the wall. Its weight still felt strange in Stahn’s hand; it was light, which was good for mobility, and it was a pretty good sword overall – one of the pricey, well-worth-it types. Even so, it just wasn’t as powerful or nearly as special as—

“Hey, Leon. Did I ever tell you that your new cape looks a lot better than your old one? It looks good.”

… Stahn had forced himself to say something – anything to get his mind off of Dymlos, but that? What the hell was that?! He stared at Leon, not quite sure why he had just said that.

The comment totally threw Leon off-guard. He hadn't been expecting Stahn to say something like that, not when Stahn still seemed angry over the entire argument they'd had. So he just kind of stared at him, shoulders tense, before turning away to walk to the door and get away from this awkward compliment.

"There was nothing wrong with my old cape," his sentence shouldn't have stopped there. He was fully intending to say that his old cape looked much better than Stahn's cape, but it hadn't come out. Did his mouth have a word filter on it suddenly? Something was definitely out of the ordinary.

"A-anyway. Let's go get this over with. I wonder if you're any better at fighting now than you were the last time we fought, not that you were particularly bad or anything. For being self-taught, you're pretty good but your form still needed a lot of work back then."

...What. What had he just said? No, he definitely hadn't meant to say that. Thankfully he had his back turned to Stahn so he could hide how flustered he was at being unable to say what he actually meant to say, and he wouldn't be able to see Stahn's reaction.

Between what had just been blurted out of his mouth and what Leon had just said, Stahn was left completely dumbfounded. He had expected Leon to turn away at the ridiculous comment about the cape, but that whole thing about his fighting? That was… that was unexpected. That was nice. It kind of made Stahn feel a little happy – after all, was Leon finally acknowledging him? … Then again, Stahn wouldn’t be that easily convinced. He was still mad over what had occurred, and whether this was a strange change of tactic by Leon to befriend him again or not, it wouldn’t work so easily. Still, there were the beginnings of a reluctant smile lighting Stahn’s face. He went ahead to lead the way out of the room, speaking as he walked. It was only right to be polite to Leon’s comment, even if Stahn was suspicious of it.

“… Thanks, Leon. That was… really nice of you. Though, I don’t know if I’ll ever be as graceful as you in a fight. You’re kind of like a dancer – really fluid in your movements.”

… What? What? It was his turn to fluster at his own choice of words, but he continued walking, acting as if he were unfazed. Did he hit his head in the middle of the night or something?

Leon's face heated at the comment. Is that really how Stahn viewed him when he was fighting? That was just- that was just embarrassing. He opened his mouth to snap a retort about such a ridiculous comment, but-

"You definitely have room to improve as long as you practice. I've been fighting since I was seven, so of course my movements will be completely fluid by now."

No, he hadn't meant to say that. Where the hell was his 'don't be ridiculous' spiel that he so often used when Stahn said such flustering things? Why couldn't he say it? It's not like he was feeling compelled to be nice, his words just weren't matching up with his thoughts at all. He looked away from Stahn's back, willing his blush of frustration to fade as he followed after him.

This was getting weird. And fast. Speaking of fast…

“I’ve been fighting around the same time, too. My grandpa taught me, but… I don’t know, you just have this speed that I don’t think I’ll ever match. It’s what makes you so tough to fight against. You can look really cool when fighting, too!”

… Stahn paused for a moment. Did he just give away his weakness to Leon’s fighting style? Not that Leon probably didn’t already know, but Stahn had never wanted to admit that, let alone say that Leon was cool. This was just getting worse and worse.

He quickened up the pace, heading down the stairs with this look of confusion and embarrassment plastered across his face.

There wasn't a word to describe that color of Leon's face right now. He just glared, at the wall, as if it were somehow at fault for his flustered predicament. Anything to not look at Stahn, even if it was only his back. Because this was just too awkward. Sure, Stahn had complimented him before, but not like this. It was weird.

"You've got more strength and defense than I have, though. My speed only makes up for what I lack in other areas, since I can't take that much damage like you can."

What the hell was he saying? This was absolutely ludicrous. He definitely wasn't meaning to say anything like this, even if they were latent thoughts that he tended to ignore in favor of criticizing Stahn in less productive ways.

He followed after Stahn hurriedly, though maintained a good bit of distance still. How were they going to fight if he was flustered like this? He couldn't let Stahn see him like this. Not at all.

Leon had never been this nice to him before. It was puzzling and rather pleasant, but… rather maddening, as well. Stahn didn’t know how to react. Maybe there was something wrong with Leon. Although this behaviour wasn’t unwelcome by any means, Stahn just wasn’t used to it. Compliments from Leon were usually few and far between, and this was embarrassing him to the point of blushing, which wasn’t supposed to be happening – he was meant to be mad, dammit.

Stopping in his steps and turning to face Leon, Stahn took a deep breath.

“Are you sick, Leon? Like… a fever or something? Not that you look sick, you look perfectly fine – well, more than fine! Although, your face is kind of red, which makes you look kind of cute – well, cute if you were a girl. Not that you look like a girl, I mean. You’re still growing, so–“

Stahn turned around again mid-sentence, clamping a hand over his mouth once he was facing away. Maybe he should just not talk. He stalked to the door, focusing his energy on being mad.

Thank Atamoni that Stahn turned away again. Because his face had blossomed into a new shade of red with that one. He was nearly sputtering indignantly about it. Just what the hell did Stahn think he was? Like a dancer and cute like a girl? Damn it, he wasn't a woman!

"Of course I'm not sick, and I wouldn't say these kinds of things even if I was. Something is definitely off for me to complimenting you out loud like this. I would never-"

He shut up before he dug himself deeper. Because any further into that sentence, he would have been openly admitting that he acknowledge Stahn's strength mentally even if he weren't verbal. But he couldn't let Stahn know that.

He just silently followed after Stahn, fingers rubbing at his temples as he tried to properly assess the situation. Something was definitely amiss. He just didn't know what it was right now. But he was going to figure it out before he said more stupid shit that might give Stahn a big head or something.

Stahn was too fixated on keeping his own mouth shut, barely paying attention to Leon’s reply. Sure, Stahn said some pretty stupid things at times, but this was just on another level entirely. After all, since when did he think Leon was cute? He thought Rutee was cute, sure, but Leon? Either he really had hit his head or someone had fed him some sort of crazy serum.

Taking a deep breath once he was outside, he came to a stop again, not really sure where he was meant to be going. The cold, fresh morning air did a lot to calm his demeanour and nerves – nerves that were created by knowing he was going to fight Leon again and this stupid as hell situation.

“Right,” he began, his words coming out slowly. He was trying to consider every word carefully before he spoke. “Whatever you say. Where are we training?”

"I usually train in Xanadu. But the beach is closer, so we can just train here, as long as we're a fair distance away from the house. We don't want a repeat of what happened to the apartment."

Leon turned to look at the ocean stretched out along the shore, wondering momentarily why he'd though it was a good idea to have the house built next to water. He really wasn't all that fond of it. He shook the thought from his head, walking along the beach to put a good distance between the house and their battleground.

Right. He was going to fight Stahn. And this time it was going to be one-on-one. He had no doubts in his abilities, but he still idly wondered how much better Stahn had gotten since he'd died in that cave. Was he going to have too much difficulty beating Stahn? Not that it mattered who won, of course. It was only training. But he really wanted to win against Stahn. To prove to himself that if it had been a one-on-one fight that time, he wouldn't have lost. Even though it didn't matter anymore. Nothing would change. And it probably wouldn't make him feel any better about it.

Stahn followed again, keeping his sword held loosely in his hand as he walked along the length of the beach. Truth be told, he was rather nervous. They hadn’t really fought one-on-one – there was always Rutee or Mary or Philia or any of the others around to back him up, to make sure he was still standing at the end of it, but this time… This time, he had no one to help him, and yet it felt like everything was on the line. He felt like he had something to prove – something along the lines of, ‘if only you had trusted me, we could’ve done anything.’ A part of him also didn’t want to be thought of as nothing anymore. He wanted to show that he was capable – that he wasn’t as useless as Leon probably thought he was.

“It’s been a little while since we’ve fought sword-to-sword, huh?”

Stahn was relieved that had come out normally. He was eyeing Chaltier, perhaps rather jealous, or at the very least wistful. Just from the Swordian’s presence, he already felt like Leon had the edge over him in battle, as per usual, even though they hadn’t even begun fighting yet.

Leon frowned, dipping his head in agreement. His body was tensing the farther they got from the house and the closer they got to their fight. It'd been a long time since he fought anyone from home. And he'd never fought Stahn one-on-one like this before.

"Yeah, it's been a while."

He finally came to a stop a safe distance from the house, so that it wouldn't be caught in the fray of their training. His hand lighted on Chal for a moment, unsheathing him and then stabbing him into the sand nearby, to put him out of the way. He wouldn't be satisfied with an unfair advantage. So instead he pulled out his sword and dagger, experimenting with the weight of it. It'd been a while since he'd fought with a dagger rather than another sword. But he'd be fine fighting like this. He'd used a dagger for so long, it was pretty much ingrained in his memory.

"Alright. Let's start," he turned to Stahn, stance dropping into a standard defensive one.

An expression of surprise flickered across Stahn’s face as he saw Leon shoving Chaltier into the sand. He was about to open his mouth, say something about how Leon should use Chaltier if he had the Swordian, but then he just stopped, shaking his head. He wasn’t going to complain about a fair fight – especially when he wanted to win so badly.

He took a few steps back, placing one hand on his shoulder as he craned his neck to the side, stretching and loosening up a few muscles first. Eyeing Leon’s stance, he then slipped into his own defensive one, sword gripped tightly in both hands and held at an upwards angle in front of him.

“You better not go easy on me, alright?” His voice sounded determined, and any grogginess that was present in him earlier seemed to be gone now. Always the pro-active one, he immediately lunged forward once he had settled into his defensive stance, arcing an overhead swing at Leon.

"I couldn't go easy on you even if I wanted to, not that I would want to anyway."

And Leon dashed forward, sword swinging upwards to meet the attack. For some reason, despite the fact that he trained every morning with Yuri and Emil, it seemed different when it was with Stahn. Like when his blade connected with Stahn, it was more than just training. It was trying to prove something he'd not been able to before. And it was like too many emotions and feelings all bottled in his weapon. It was weird, but somehow exhilarating in some way.

He backstepped after a moment before leaping into another attack, just basic swings of his weapons. No artes yet. He wanted to see what Stahn was going to do. It'd been a while since he fought with him - against or alongside - so he couldn't quite guess what Stahn was going to do anymore.

Stahn barely even realized that he was grinning as he followed Leon’s actions with his eyes, keeping alert as he responded to the swings. He was unfazed as his weapon bounced off Leon’s, and he used the momentum of the impact to pull himself back into a defensive position, anticipating the next attack.

It was a little bizarre how much Stahn had trained and fought with Leon in mind. At one point, he had even been fighting to try and prove himself to Leon, to match himself to the other boy’s level of swordsmanship. For Stahn, Leon had been a benchmark as well as somebody he considered a friend, and although he wasn’t sure about them being friends now, Leon was still a benchmark he wanted to surpass.

On the defensive now, Stahn blocked the oncoming swings with his sword, allowing himself to fall into a pattern while waiting for the right time to counter.

Leon jumped back after one more slash, a circle beginning to appear beneath his feet. It didn't take long to cast, being a novice tier spell, but it's one that he didn't have from the time he'd traveled with Stahn.

"Move! Shadow Edge!"

A brief look of surprised passed across Stahn’s face, confusion clearly showing at the unfamiliar move. Not taking any chances, he started to side-step away from Leon’s path of attack, sword held up defensively in front of him, but it didn’t do much good against the fast manoeuvre. Leon’s attack connected with the side of his arm, drawing a small amount of blood.

Not even taking the time to wince, Stahn immediately fired back with an arte of his own, spinning around to face Leon before lunging at him and swinging with a chain of slashes.

“Dragon Swarm!”

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