driftfleet | action | party mingle

Squats are good for you. [She's not dressed at all for it though, and he's certainly not going to make her strip to her underthings, or ruin clothing not meant for exercise.] And you're walking completely normally, clearly I haven't been making you do enough of them.

[Through the entire conversation he still lays punches against the bag, finishing with a solid kick and using his left arm to catch it before the rebound can swing it into him.]

Well, you sound fairly confident for someone that I have not seen doing said squats and has only been telling me to do them.

( Sansa can tell a difference, honestly. She thinks it's easier to kick things now that she's been doing the strength training and as much as she despises the squats, she won't stop doing them. She pitches her voice lower, trying to match his, but it's nowhere close.)

'Ten more, Stark, you're not done.' I hear it haunting my dreams at night.

Is that a hint? Or a challenge?

[There's a gleam in his eye that just might match the gleam when he tells her to do squats while holding dumbbells.]

One day, you're going to thank me. And then I'm going to make you do twenty more.

Oh, yes. I will thank you for making me so sore I can barely walk or sit down. Please, Bucky, tell me more of these crib tales. I never fancied you for a minstrel.

( Sansa laughs softly, utterly amused, and she is glad she's not dressed to do anything remotely physical at the moment. She has on one of her nice dresses, actually, so she's in no danger. )

There is something you could teach me today, though, while I'm dressed like this. I can imagine I won't have the benefit of wearing my gym things if I am ever abducted. I should know how to escape in a gown.

It's good for you.

[He knows that she knows it, and the more they work together the more he gets an idea of how and how much he can push her. She is getting stronger, she just doesn't have the advantage of the alterations that he has.

He's about to start with the bag again, when her question comes. Bucky eyes her gown carefully, and a little skeptically not because it's a gown, but because it's one of her better ones.]

What aspect of escape should we focus on? Fighting off your abductor? Or are you tied up and seeking to free yourself?

Fighting him off.

( Sansa thinks if she fought, it might not have happened as much. She'd been passive too many times, had just gone away and let things happen to her. If she'd been a wolf like Arya, she would have escaped before she did. )

I should have fought him, Bucky, but I was just paralyzed instead. I don't ever want to be her again. I want to be steel, not porcelain.

We'll assume you're unarmed, or you've been jumped too quickly to reach for a weapon.

[He steps away from the bag and onto the mats meant for sparring; it will be a better surface should she fall.]

Stand in front of me. When you tell me you're ready, I'm going to grab you. But I'm going to talk you through it, because you need to understand the attack if you're going to understand its defense. I promise, I will not hurt you.

( Sansa moves to stand in front of him. Few men will be as tall as he is and none will be as strong as he is. There's no one in Westeros who could hurt her the way Bucky could, if he wanted, so if she can learn to escape him she can learn to escape anyone she needed to escape. )

I'm ready. Don't...I know you'll hold back some to keep from breaking bones but don't hold back more than just the strength of a normal man. I want to actually be able to do this.

Mmm. I'll make it a little more real as we go, but I want you to learn the actions first, then practice them. It's no use me overpowering you from the start, you won't learn that way.

[There's a little smile in his voice at that, trying to lighten the situation, because the weight of the trust she's putting on him is great. He knows how uncomfortable this can potentially be, considering her past, and that requires a special approach. His arms wrap around her slowly, the grip firm, and he explains the movements as he does them.]

You're most likely going to be grabbed from behind. You're tall for a woman, so an assailant is going to try to rely on the element of surprise and the bulk of his own build to overpower you. See how I've got an arm around your chest and your waist? It pulls the greatest concentration of your weight into my body, so you can't use it against me, and by limiting your arm movements I've limited how you can get leverage.

[From there he has her shift her arms and elbows, flex her wrists, even wiggle her shoulders. They're all movements meant to let her learn her own freedom of movement, such as it is, before her starts to direct her into moving with the intent to free herself.]

( It feels like how she'd been grabbed during the riots in King's Landing. She'd been only a girl then, twelve, but her chest tightens a bit anyway. Bucky's voice is low and soothing in her ear though and she follows his instructions, moving the way he directs so she can learn how to break the holds.

When he comes at her the next few times, he uses more strength. His arms feel like a vice, even if she knows he can't be using his full strength, and she flounders as she struggles before using her body as leverage to break herself free.

As she does, she tumbles down to the ground and lands flat on her back, knocking the wind from her for a brief moment. )

Seven hells, that hurt. Do you mind if I simply lay here for a moment and just try to remember how my legs work?

[Bucky does his best to be patient with the lesson, aware that this isn't a comfortable thing for her and it's for reasons that have nothing to do with the physicality of the actions and more to do with what they mean to her. Still she takes instruction well and he comes at her again and again, until she can break successfully out of a forceful hold.

Clearly they'll have to work on her falling, turn it into something more productive, but that's hardly a lesson to start in a dress.]

We'll set you up in a hot bath when we get back to the Starduck.

[He moves to sit next to her on the mats, mostly to grant her the reprieve. He's not as winded, for obvious reasons.]

Still, you're a good student with a strong spirit.

( Sansa turns her head a bit and buries it against the side of his leg, groaning a bit when he mentions a hot bath. It sounds a bit like heaven right now, even if the ship doesn't have the sweet oils she used to use in her baths back home. At least the water stays hot far longer than water heated over a fire and poured into a copper tub. )

I shall hold you to that. You shall draw my bath for me and hail my husband on the First Breath and tell him to come read me to sleep.

( When he says she's a good student, though, Sansa lifts her head and quirks a little smile at him. )

I'm a slow learner, Bucky, but I do learn.

[The bath is a luxury, one that sore muscles will no doubt appreciate. With only five of them on the ship itself there's not too much worry about hogging up a resource. He pats her shoulder when she buries her face against his leg, the motion brief but there.]

I'll shuttle him over myself if I have to. But you'll have to promise to do the stretches I showed you. You'll thank me for it in the morning.

[He shakes his head but it's with a smile because she does learn. And she wants to learn, no matter how sore he makes her.]

I know. You did well today. Let's get ourselves to the shuttles and I'll fly you back; we can come back for the second one another time. [Or he'll just get it later with help from another of the crew; either way it's no big deal to leave one behind for now.]

action | party mingle

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