It's the eye of the tiger (Gwyn)

[Gaston Jr]

After receiving Meredith’s text message Gaston Jr had wanted nothing more than to go find Mordred and pummel him into the ground.

There was two problems with that though.

Number one: it was far more likely that he would turn up and Mordred would pummel him into the ground.

Number two: he was still sort of hurting from the recent revelation that Meredith and Mordred had been sort of together and thus had the look of a wounded puppy rather than someone who was out for vengeance.

So he had decided to rectify both of these problems. He might not be able to take on Mordred right now, but one day, one day he would be strong enough and fast enough and he would take that big broody mcbroodyface to funkytown and back again. Meaning, for once Gaston Jr wouldn’t have his ass handed to him by the older boy. Which is why he found himself in the gym punching at the punch bag in a rather haphazard way and not achieving much more than scuffing and bruising his bare knuckles.

Still he carried on.

The music was certainly helping, and of course he was singing along...

"It's the, eye of the tiger..."

[Gwyn Locksley]

There was music coming from the gym. Why? There would not be music in a battle or even a sport's game, so why bother training to it?

Approaching the gym, Gwyn peered inside to find Gaston doing his worst on the punching bag. Well, she certainly hoped it was his worst because if he could not do better than that then he was lucky to be so likable. Who would ever want to fight him? Unlike a certain someone else whom had helped her train last time she had set foot in this room. Mordred had helped her get some of her aggression out about Richard, a very honourable and friendly thing to do; how could he then turn around and treat Meredith so dishonourably? Gwyn was... disappointed, really.

Clearing her throat, it was obviously not loud enough to be heard over the music, so she crossed to the stereo and stopped it abruptly. It didn't stop entirely, though, as Gaston had been singing along. “You're doing that all wrong. You're going to hurt yourself,” she pointed at the punching bag.

[Gaston Jr]

It took Gwyn speaking for Gaston Jr to realise that he was no longer alone with the music and his anger. Startled a little he stopped punching the bag to look at who had spoken, only to have said bag knock in to him slightly. Fortunately, he had not been hitting it hard enough to have made it swung back very far, so it only bumped him a little bit.

He smiled when he saw who it was and said, “Yeah…probably.”

He looked back at the bag, “but…had to take out my anger on something and well…this seemed easier…and safer.”

He looked down at his scuffed knuckles and said, “although I am beginning to rethink that statement…ow.”

He shook his hands out like that might help in some way and walked over to her, “How are you? Sorry, was I in the way, were you planning on working out?”

[Gwyn Locksley]

When Gaston smiled, it was nearly impossible not to smile back, though her eyes didn't linger long on his face before dropping to his hands and trying to quickly assess any damage he had done. He just had to stop shaking them first.

“There are other ways to let out your anger. This is not a method you should choose unless you are properly trained to do so,” Gwyn stated, blunt and efficient, but out of concern rather than annoyance. Gaston was her friend, and she hated to see her friends hurt in any way.

He approached her, and she was able to get a closer look. They looked scuffed up, would probably bruise, but she didn't see much for blood at least, so probably nothing too bad. “Oh, no, I was just walking by and heard the... music.” Music was not something Gwyn had gotten much into, though she preferred it to television at least. “I am well, thank you, and you? Besides the anger, of course.”

[Gaston Jr]

He nodded as she started to chastise him and sounding genuinely regretful said, “Yeah…yeah I know. I keep meaning to get the proper training but…I don’t know, I can’t get anyone to stick with me long enough to teach me this kind of stuff…they tend to give up pretty quickly…and I don’t blame them.”

He stopped shaking his hands and looked at them for a moment. He frowned and said, “Are you supposed to wear gloves or something? That feels like cheating…”

When she said she heard the music he smiled a little sheepishly and said, “Uh…yeah…it’s good for…you know, getting into the mood. And…well…I can’t help but sing along…it’s a classic.”

When she asked how he was he replied, “I’m…as well as can be expected, given the circumstances. Glad to be back though, really glad to be back. It’s going to be good seeing you and Eddie more regularly again, although seems like I might lose one of my best friends for a bit…”

He smiled at her excitedly, “I think he might have a girlfriend.”

[Gwyn Locksley]

It wasn't like Gaston to sound so down, and Gwyn frowned at him. “Clearly you haven't found the right person yet. I was serious about the offer, I could train you if you like.”

Really, she shouldn't be loading more onto her plate. She needed to focus on her studies, but she had hired Lorelei as a tutor, that was enough, right? But then she had added teaching her archery, and Costin swordfighting to her schedule. Still, she would make room for Gaston. Training was what she enjoyed after all, and once she caught up on her studies things would settle down. She hoped.

“You don't have to wear gloves. You could tape your hands. Either one would be advisable starting out at least,” she stated, smiling a little as he spoke of the music. “I suppose I can see how it could help. I prefer the silence as I assume there won't be a soundtrack to any real battle, but whatever motivates you.”

She was, however, surprised at the revelation about Eddie. “Eddie?” she repeated, surprised. Perhaps she shouldn't have been. She had always wondered why girls never went for her brother. Sure, he was nerdy and knew nothing, but he was kind and sweet and deserved someone nice. It did remind her that she should spend more time with her brother, though. She was clearly disconnected from what was going on in his life. “I'm sure you won't lose him. Eddie won't be one of those people.” The disdain was evident in her voice. 'Those People' of course being the ones that lost their heads over love and forgot about everyone else in their lives and only had time for that one person. Those were the people that made her think having any kind of romance, especially so young, was stupid. She had too many goals to devote so much time to one person, and some people forgot about what they wanted for themselves and made everything about their relationships. It was annoying.

[Gaston Jr]

“Well if you’re serious and, if you don’t mind, I would love that,” he said smiling and nodding.

Gwyn was the best at what she did, and what she did was awesome. She was an amazing fighter, no doubt passed on to her from her mum and her dad, but Gwyn, she had a style all on her own, it never failed to impress him.

He looked down at his hands and said, “alright, I’ll try tape next time, thanks coach”

She made a good point about fights and battles not actually having soundtracks in real life. Maybe that was why he wasn’t really in to the whole fighting thing as much, because the reality was much less boring. “I suppose, but then you have fighters that listen to music before their fights sometimes to get psyched up, I mean even on the battlefield you’ve got drummers and stuff to get everyone ready to go,” he said.

However the conversation moved on to Eddie and he started nodding excitedly, “yup, a girlfriend, she’s really nice as well. She’s called Dusty, I feel like I remember that name from somewhere and I can’t remember where, but she’s really cool, she seems to really like him. And you’re right, Eddie isn’t that type.”

A slightly more serious look came across his face as he said, “I hope, that if I ever find someone, I’m not like that either…I mean…I’d hope that in the event I did find someone it wouldn’t matter too much because they would be my friend, you know? What’s the point of dating someone if you’re not friends with them?”

[Gwyn Locksley]

“It's settled, then. I'll teach you,” she said, before poking his chest with one finger. “But you have to promise you're not going to get half trained then go attack Mordred, or anyone else for that matter, just because you're angry with them.” She would teach him self defense, as well as some offensive moves, but not just so he could start fights with people.

She supposed he had a point about the drummers. Entirely different type of music, but a point nonetheless. “Maybe I will get you a disc of drum solos and bugle music, then.” She barely held back a smile. It was one of the things she loved about Gaston: despite that one little incident a while back, she always felt so at ease with him. He didn't think she was weird, didn't get offended by her somewhat abrasive nature, and usually even got her jokes. It's one reason she was so afraid of messing everything up, and she felt a wave of dread wash over her when he started talking about dating someone he was friends with. Wasn't that how it had started last time? No, no, no, not again.

“Dusty?” Gwyn repeated, keeping the topic focused on Eddie. “I don't think I've met her, but she better be nice.” Her brother deserved the best, after all, especially after being demoted from his position as first born. “When did this all happen?”

[Gaston Jr]

Gaston Jr looked at her, pleased, he hadn’t really expected her to offer and being trained by Gwyn would certainly be interesting, if almost certainly gruelling. “Great,” he said, and found that he meant it.

Then of course she had to follow it up with that thing about Mordred, he laughed and holding his hands up in surrender he said, “alright, alright, I promise. I will only use my powers for good, I promise.”

He laughed again and said, “I look forward to it, anything to help with the training. But seriously, you should give it a try, training and music goes very well together. Have you ever listened to Pink? I have a feeling you’d like some of her stuff, I’ll make you up a CD of it.”

It was good to see her smiling, she didn’t do it often enough in his opinion and thus had made it his life’s mission to make her smile as much as possible. It was also good that things seemed like they might be getting back to normal between them. He remembered how she had ran out last time when they had spoken about dating and he had very firmly got the message. No dating. Not between them anyway. She had said she liked him, but then she had left, it was confusing but he had spoken to his mum about it and she had counselled giving Gwyn time and letting her make the first move…if there was a first move to be made.

Now probably wasn’t the best time in any case, even if she did. He was still so very hung up on Meredith, although…it would appear that the nail in that particular coffin had been driven in by Mordred. He always knew it was hopeless, it was just hard to hear. He needed to work on getting over that, over her…punching the bag had helped…

“Oh she’s lovely, very sweet, American,” said Gaston Jr, “just the right kind of girl for Eddie, very patient. It only happened a couple of days ago, of course Eddie being Eddie didn’t actually tell her his name, although she didn’t tell him hers either so I guess they’re both a little scatter brained.”