Mi Hermana y Yo

Ah, Carmen was starting to see a little more rust than she was comfortable with. Nathan's body seemed to be up to snuff, but his mind still need to get on the same level. It was close. Closer than she expected. But not nearly as close as she would've liked. But this was about finding the areas that needed targeting and giving them the right attention. Analysing the problem with the first step to dealing with it.

"All right, let's slow it down." She started to ease off the gas and let Nathan catch up, not wanting her to tire out too fast. They still had quite a ways to go before she'd be satisfied with this day.

After a moment, she let her hands come down and backed off, giving him ample space. She kept her look stern, but her voice was lightened. Partly from the panting. "We'll have to work on your head a bit more, but you're in the right direction." She started to tug the pads off. "Jump squats. Until I say stop."

There was no oral response from Nathan this time. He was panting, too, and he could only give a curt nod before he started his assigned exercise. It was slow going to start, which was only to be expected after the drilling that he'd just done, but he was intimate with jump squats. Jump squats he could do. Tedium and repetitiveness, grinding for progress; if only all of life were this easy. He was breathing hard, but once his body got the hang of things, Nathan's mind was free to try and figure out what Carmen had in store for him next.

Carmen leaned against the turnbuckle and took a breather, watching as Nathan went at it. She ticked off his progress with taps of her foot, keeping an eye on him as he went to make sure he wouldn't over exert himself. She wanted him to push, just not too hard.

"After this, we'll try a little sparring. See if we can get over your hangups the direct way." She folded her arms and eased into the ropes, bouncing off a bit as Nathan settled into a rhythm. "Tell me - why'd you get into boxing in the first place? Just a fan of the sport?"

Nathan nodded; if he were fresh, he may have shown some hesitation, but as things stood, Nathan didn’t have the luxury of indulging in his complex. Nathan did his best to answer Carmen’s questions; Carmen had not told him to stop.

“Started... junior high... for college... apps… No one… boxed… Unique.” Nathan wondered if making him talk while doing jump squats was another training method. “Found out… talented… I started to enjoy myself.” He had to take a longer break after that one. Too many syllables. “Became... fan... Began... to follow… fights… after.” Nathan rolled his eyes. He was beginning to suspect of Carmen what he suspected of all trainers- that they had a bit of a sadistic side- and making him talk through an exercise was something she was doing for fun.

Maybe Carmen did enjoy watching Nathan struggle through the words, just a wee bit. It was mostly to get him limbered up, though, and keep him busy while she stepped to the side and started fishing out the sparring equipment.

"Ten more, then you can stop." She laid out the gear for Nathan - black and blue pieces that she'd picked out guessing his side. Knees pads, shin guards, head guards and gloves, and if they didn't fit, she had more in the back. "Why exactly, though? Do you just like it because you're good at it?"

Thank god. Rather than try and answer in half breaths, Nathan spent his last ten jumps contemplating his response. Then he took another five seconds to catch his breath before he gave what he hoped was a more thorough answer.

“I think that’s the basic answer, yeah. I like things I’m good at- basketball, school. Boxing started out as another one of those things. I fell into it because I wanted something I could put on my apps that also could keep me in shape, but I didn't want to do something that everyone else was doing- I knew a lot of tae-kwon-do black belts growing up. Eventually though, I started to like how it made me feel. I liked how I felt when I slipped under and around punches, and punishing somebody for getting too eager felt just as good. I felt…” Nathan wished that there was a better word for it. “...graceful. Good ball handling in basketball gets me close, but dancing untouched around an opponent made me feel... I guess dangerous like nothing else did.”

Nathan smiled, embarrassed. “Sorry, I don’t know if that’s the sort of answer that you were looking for.” Nathan wiped his brow and glanced at Carmen’s selection. She had a pretty good eye. When he saw the gloves, though, he spoke up. “I brought my own gloves; I left them back in the locker room.”

Carmen always did like having the opinion of boxers who hadn't been born into the sport, so she listened with rapt attention as Nathan spoke. Boxing was a core part of what she was. Her whole identity revolves around it. So it was difficult to imagine coming into it another way. To just box because she liked it, not because it was something that was expected of her. Carmen did love the sport, but she wasn't naive enough to think that her environment played a major factor, and she often wondered what sort of swerves her life could have taken with some minor tweaks. Lawyer, doctor, maybe even a priest or a pop star like her cousins.

"Nothing to apololgize for, Nathan." She waved it off as she tightened her gloves, getting a snug fit. "You can go and get them, nott going anywhere." Carmen gave a curt nod as she moved on to the other fist. "I do want twenty-five of the pushups you owe me before you leave the ring, though. Count them off."

“You got it.” Nathan got down on the canvas. “One. Two...”

Nathan needed to readjust his initial assessment of Carmen, the trainer. Yes, she was tough, that part hadn’t changed, but she was reasonable. He felt pushed, but not so hard that he wanted to quit. He no longer thought that she was trying to run him into the ground on day one.

More surprisingly, she was a pretty good listener; he had to give her that, even if her questions were just for training purposes. He hadn’t spoken this much about himself since… well, at least as long as he’d been here in Japan, anyway.

“...Twenty-five.” And one more in good faith. He got lightly to his feet and, with a nod to Carmen, climbed out of the ring and back to the locker room. He came out soon after wearing a worried expression and climbed into the ring. His hands were wrapped and his gloves were under his arm, but he put them down to put on his gear. As he pulled on a knee pad, Nathan shared his thoughts. "Carmen, I'm not sure if this will tell us anything. I've got a lot of respect for you as a boxer and as a trainer, so I don't think I'd have trouble going at it with you."

Nice, obedient, respectful and attentive. Carmen wished she could get this much out of the students who paid for her lessons. Her gym could have used a few more Nathan Weeds.

He didn't keep her waiting long, either. He was back soon enough, and he looked ready to go. Physically, anyway. His mind was another story. "You respect me, so you're fine with hitting me? Does that mean you don't respect the woman you won't hit?" She canted her head to the side, but made sure to dot her serious look with a smirk. She got what he was saying, it just seemed like an odd way to phrase it.

She stopped putting her headgear on and tucked it under her armpit. "Not a problem, figured you'd say that. Or something like that. Got just what you need." Carmen brought her hands to her mouth and let rip with a whistle, loud enough to cover the whole gym. "Suzy! You're up!"

Suzanne Quinton, one of Carmen's top students, was working away at the heavy bag nearby, and it wasn't a coincidence. She'd asked Suzy to hang around in case Nathan needed a sparring partner, and sure enough, she was fit for duty.

"Coming, coming." She slid into the ring and looked Nathan over, tossing her braids back as she gave him a full scan. "So you're gonna be my new punching bag? Nice. White boys make the best sounds when you smack their guts."

Nathan's mouth opened, but his mind was blank. Rather, it was more like his litany of arguments were colliding in his mind on their way out of his mouth. I respect women too much to hit... wait, but what does it mean then if I'd be okay hitting Carmen? Then maybe I respect Carmen more than... but that's not right either... "Well... I... Ah..."

Mercifully, Carmen didn't wait for Nathan to collect his thoughts. Her fingers came up to her lips and they exploded into a shrill whistle. Before the sound had stopped ringing in his ears, a girl named Suzy had bounded into the ring.

She was a little slip of a thing, about Amy's size, but built like a boxer- coils of muscle bunched up at her arms and across her back from dedicated drilling, rather than all over from the willy-nilly brawling tactics that Amy practiced. Nathan didn't doubt that Suzy was tough, especially if she was a student of Carmen's, but he certainly outclassed her in weight, height, and reach. In fact, it wasn't even close.

Judging from her outward confidence, she had more in common Amy than he would have liked, which meant that she would probably have something snarky prepared for what he had to say next. Still, Nathan tried to remain as polite as he could be under the circumstances. "Hey, I'm Nathan. Nice to meet you too, Suzy." Then he turned to Carmen with an exasperated look on his face. "A bit under my weight class, don't you think?"