concoursec | yes, you CAN cheat at climbing.

Entry tags:

yes, you CAN cheat at climbing.

Character(s): Espio, Yuri Hyuga
Location: Lobby, after class.
Rating: PG for probable language, I guess!
Open/Closed/Finished: Open. If anyone wants to butt in, it's fine!
Summary: Having just finished a rock climbing class, it's come to attention that Espio is cheating. If using one's natural abilities counts as cheating.

Well, it was as expected. Rock climbing was definitely an easy option - if it counted towards Espio's qualification as a SeeD, all the better! Besides, after a day of mostly dull subjects, running up and down a wall a few times was a little relaxing - except for the classmates, and the instructor barking, well, instructions.

Now that it was over, Espio had gone off on his own, rest of the day now free. He was used to the layout of the place by now, but the question was how he could waste time for the next few hours?

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--Arguing with Yuri, of course.

Okay, so...he wasn't the most athletic guy around. All of this climbing and running and swimming was just too much. But what's worse is watching an overgrown gecko outclass you in every way while you're dragging your sorry ass up a vertical wall of rock.

So it seems perfectly logical to whine about it. He stumbles out into the hall melodramatically after the class lets out with his hands on his knees, bemoaning the fact that he -- horrors -- had to actually work.

"You were," he waves his hand in Espio's direction, aiming to get his attention before he geckos away or whatever the hell it is he does, "what the hell was that? Cheating runt."

Oh great, one of his classmates was talking to him. And that guy, too. Yuri, right? The one who assumed he was some monster or something. Now, Espio had been wondering just what his problem was - he seemed impulsive and aggressive, two traits Espio wasn't keen on.

(They were also traits he himself possessed, but he wasn't about to admit that.)

And now he was accusing him of... what, exactly?

"Runt?" he repeated, with a frown, turning to face Yuri. "Hah, it's not my fault you lot are too tall. And I'd like to hear how I was cheating."

"It's called rock CLIMBING, not rock walking up and down the wall because you're some kind of freak," he's slowly recovering from the traumatizing rock climbing experience now, enough to be properly accusatory at least. "Like I said, cheating."

"It's still exercise. I can do it all I want!" Espio was quick to argue. It wasn't that big a deal. So what if it was easy? This guy probably had easy subjects as well - no wait. Espio took that back.

"It's natural. Besides, if you're so bad at a subject you have to take it out on me, I wonder how well your other classes are going."

He recoils a little at the assumption, clearly affronted. "Don't... don't bring that into this!" Low blow, man. It's not his fault they don't have a class on fusing. Or eating. He'd be getting top marks.

"Anyway, this isn't about me. You damn midget lizard...making me look bad." And in front of the cute girl instructor, no less. For shame.

"You accuse me of cheating, and I'll bring whatever I want into it," Espio said, with a slight smirk. Apparently, he'd hit the mark. Well, a mark, at any rate. "And this is about your ego, now? Must be pretty easy to bruise. What's next? Whining that my invisibility gives me an unfair advantage in field training?"

At the comment, he snaps to attention, recovering from being doubled over in a little Yuri pity party. "Wait, you can turn invisible?"

But something occurs to him and he sniffs a little, rubbing his nose in that trying too hard to look cool kind of way. "He he. Not that it'd help you any with that big mouth of yours. Maybe it's not cheating. Maybe I should think of it more like... a handicap."

"I can pull it off just fine," Espio snapped, a little too fast and assuming a defensive position. Yuri had that one right - Espio's mouth rendered him terrible at the invisibility thing. "It's not as if I need it, anyway. I've got enough skill to get by without it!"

He relaxes a little, moving his hands back to rest at his hips now that he's feeling less defensive.

"Skills, huh? Yeah... I guess you're about the right height for a shelf or something." Actually, he'd seen the guy in action and he wasn't too shabby. You can't help but tease a guy when he's largely pink and barely comes up to your waist, though.

"And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?" Espio asked - their roles had swapped, by the looks of it, and now he was on the defensive. "Gotta love how insecurity makes people's height a target."

Now, Espio was not one prone to being sensitive about things as mundane as his own appearance. However, in an environment where everyone in his range was more than a foot taller, it was starting to wear him down.

"Got nothing else, I take it?"

Hey, what more do you expect from a guy with an IQ equivalent to a mossy rock? He's scratching his ear and watching a couple people leave the classroom as Espio speaks, clearly not paying as much attention as he should.

"Did I hurt your feelings?" he leans down a little now so they're seeing more eye-to-eye.

Don't worry, Espio's more than used to dealing with this type. Granted, he usually deals with it by being as much of a jerk towards them as he can, but that counts for something.

"Is that what you were trying to do?" Espio asked. "Sorry, Yuri, I'm not that easy to hurt."

"Then what's the problem, huh?" he gives him a pat on the head, figuring it's a case of midget rage. You know the kind. Short people, shorter tempers.

Well, it was something like that, anyway! Espio was merely the type to easily be annoyed by stupidity - unfortunately, his definition of stupidity was much broader than that of most people.

"The problem is that you're - hey! Hey!" Espio swatted the hand away, forcefully, and glared at Yuri, fist clenched as though ready to sock him in the gut and only barely restraining himself from doing just that. "Don't pat me! I'm not a kid, and I'm not some pet! Hands off!"

"Hey now, no need to get all rowdy. I'd feel bad hittin' a shorty." he'd barely stopped himself from smacking him one when he'd swatted at his hand. Really though, what kind of monster would sock a guy half his height?

Oh, screw it! One more stupid remark, and Espio was gonna throw away his usual approach (don't start the fight, let them start it) and just go for it. "Oh?" Espio taunted, shifting ever so slightly just in case Yuri pushed his luck. "Or is that an excuse to cover up that you're scared? We're in training together - you've seen me in action, right?"

Okay, so he doubted that Yuri was scared, as it was pretty obvious he was looking down on him for something as silly as his height... but guys like this had, in Espio's experience, a slight tendency to fall for such taunts.

"Scared?" Yuri laughs, bringing his hands up on the defensive. Unfortunately, Espio's right -- he's susceptible to just about any kind of taunt, really. "You that eager to go, pal? I'm game." But he's hardly a bully, either, so he'll get the go-ahead before beating on the little guy.

Experience with people like Mighty rather paid off - to what end, exactly, wasn't entirely clear, because surely starting a fight in the lobby fell into the 'bad idea' category. They could get away with it in the training centre, but oh well! They were here, so whatever.

"Sure, why not? Not like you can do any damage anyway, right? Can't even climb a wall - hah! Little pathetic, don't you think?"

He lowered his stance, ready to charge at him when the chance came.

The fact that they're in the open doesn't really even register in Yuri's mind. He's been starting fights where anyone and their mom can see since before he can recall, and the fact that he'll (they'll) probably incur some trouble for this little scuffle won't occur to him until he crosses that bridge.

"Haha, we'll see about that," he's quick to punch as much as he's quick to mock, and he's already throwing one right for Espio's face by the time the words leave his mouth. He's quicker than he looks, and his lack of brains is definitely a tradeoff for this one. TO ARMS, GECKO FIEND.

Espio's main advantage, in a fight, is his speed. He's quick to observe, quick to react, and can to dodge most hits with ease. Or rather, he should be able to dodge - somewhere along the lines, quite some time ago now, he had apparently decided that evasion was a tactic for the weak. Instead, he blocks, the surprising force pushing him back ever so slightly.

As he retaliates, deciding to go low and twisting himself to try kicking Yuri in the shin, he feels the need to point something out. "Fist to the horn? I think I just saved you a lot of pain!"

"Then I owe you a thanks, huh?" --Distracted by the comment, he ends up getting nailed in the shin (he's not THAT fast). With a swear, he falls back a couple steps.

"Geez, low blow." Ha, ha funnyman. He feels kind of bad going all-out against such a little guy, but that shit smarts. Stripped of his reluctance, he brings a kick of his own up to get Espio in the side.

Which Espio takes, though he hisses slightly when contact is made - that's gonna leave a bruise! "Not that being spared that'll do you much good," he said, using the momentum from the kick to swing around to behind Yuri.

The Garden directory, helpfully close by, made for a pretty decent springboard. Within seconds, Espio had used it to jump upwards and, hoping the motion hadn't taken even just a split-second too long, tried to swing a punch at Yuri's face.

"And for the record,, I fight guys six times your height on a regular basis! It's my job!"

The Garden directory wasn't the only thing close by. Their scuffle had attracted the attention of the Garden faculty. Within moments, two faculty members were intervening, all but plucking the lizard out of the air. The other stood in front of Yuri, blocking him from further action.

"Skirmishes are prohibited within the Garden," one relayed in perfect monotone as he returned Espio to the floor. "Come with me."

What the hell is with people interrupting his fights? He may have just been spared a punch to the face (the mistletoe curse made for slower reaction times, even if he didn't want to admit it), but it's only managed to make him more pissed. He leans to the side to try and step around the faculty member.

"Geez, crawl back to your hole, will ya? I ain't done here. And what the hell do you mean 'come with me'? Like hell."

Oh, come on, he wasn't finished! "Where did you lot come from?!" Espio demanded the second his feet were back on the ground, unimpressed to say the least at being plucked out of the air so easily. How had he not noticed them closing in?

Unlike Yuri, however, Espio isn't quite so defiant. He looks as though he's about to punch the faculty for a moment, but decides not to and lets his hands fall to his sides. After all, even ignoring the fact that beating up the staff would almost certainly get him booted out of the place, these guys don't look like they can take a hit.

"It's not like it was serious or anything," he grumbles.

"Infractions are always serious," the faculty returned immediately. He seemed to have ignored Yuri's interjection completely.

"Come with me." he repeated, waving Espio forward. His intent was obviously to split the two up, and leave the other offender with the other faculty member. "The Headmaster must speak with you."

So it was about 'infractions' was it? Espio made a slight noise of disapproval - how ridiculous. They interrupted a good fight for that? They could have at least waited until it was over!

Still, best to go along with it. "Fine, whatever," he said, grudgingly. "I was obviously winning anyway." Raising his voice to make sure Yuri could hear, he added, "talk later, moron!"

"Tsk." he kicks the shin of the faculty member blocking his path out of annoyance, watching the little pink bastard walk away with his escort.

"Next time I'm gonna snap you in half, you little punk!" he has no problem yelling after him. What are they going to do, kick him out? So what?

The faculty "escort" and Espio rode the elevator up to the Headmaster's office, leaving the kicked faculty member in question behind with Yuri. He leaned down to hold his abused shin, but the look of loathing was obscured by his headgear. He straightened.

"As a cadet of Balamb Garden, you must set an example to all others and abide by the Garden's rules. Understood!?

"Now come with me," he barked, the monotone voice cracking so slightly. In the spirit of keeping them separated, Yuri was taken to the Infirmary until Espio's visit with the Headmaster was through.

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yes, you CAN cheat at climbing.

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