Title: The Secrets that you Keep
Date: 12/12/05
Synopsis: Rina catches up with Kitty in the gym at Columbia.
Rating: PG (Sparring)
Cast:

Kitty
The girl before you stands at an average height of five
eight and regards the world about her with a slight smile. Her light
brunette hair, hangs loosely down her back, the long curly strands
flowing with her movements. Her wide brown eyes peer about her with
curiosity, sizing one up and yet watching everything at once. Her
expression is one of composed relaxation, her features soft and
smooth yet with a sharpness at the edges

Hanging from her shoulders, she wears a pale blue/grey
camisole, falling loosely over her form, ending just below her waist.
Other than the straps, Kitty's slightly pale shoulders and arms are
bare. Starting at her waist she wears a pair of black jean shorts,
hugging her tightly, and showing off her toned legs. On her feet she
wears an expensive looking pair of sandals, a row of painted toenails
sticking out the fronts.

Rina(#2017POXcef$-)
Rina is a muscular young woman of obviously mixed heritage. Her eyes
are almond shaped, large, and deep brown. Her skin is a light tan,
her hair deep black, with long bangs in front, and down to the small
of her back in back. She is solidly muscular, each muscle well
defined, visible in chiseled relief, much like a body builder.

Rina is wearing a pair of grey police academy gym shorts. Her bare
legs have the usual quantity of hair for someone who doesn't shave
them, and her feet are also bare. Her only other article of clothing
is a grey sport bra. It hugs her body tightly, her powerfully muscled
chest (and rather limited bust) showing through. Her belly is bare,
abdominal muscles bulging in the classic "six pack" as they extend
downward from her chest. Rina's back is the match for her chest,
powerfully muscled, each muscle defined almost agonizingly clearly.
Rina apparently does not shave her armpits and, in fact, extending
from her navel downward, to disappear under the elastic waistband of
her shorts, is a fine trail of body hair. Two lines of scar run from
her left shoulder to just above the knuckles of her left hand.

---

Kitty steps out of the dressing rooms, looking around carefully.
This /isn't/ what she's used to. She usually tries to keep in shape,
but usually she can do better for a gym than a college gym. But for
appearances, this gym will have to do. She's been trying to maintain
a lower profile ever since coming back and this is more of that. The
current lifestyle hasn't been the most enjoyable time she's ever had,
but then, there are worse lives.

Rina is on the mats. She's just warming up though. She does a quick
tumbling pass from the gymnastics she trained in long ago, making up
in power and speed what she lacks in form. She flips across the mat
and lands a stick landing nicely enough, but she'd have lost enough
tenths on form to be a problem. She shrugs. Repeats the pass going
the other way and adds a quick flurry of punches and a kick at the end.

Kitty tilts her head as she sees glances past the weights and notices
Rina on the mats. She wasn't planning on any kind of workout like
that tonight, but the last time she and Rina met, Rina seemed to be
catching on to things that Kitty didn't want her catching on to. So
then maybe this is the perfect time for Kitty to "set things
straight". With a light smirk, she carefully treads around the gym
towards the mats where Rina decided to practice her tumbling/martial
arts. She doesn't say anything immediately, letting Rina finish her
current routine before she'd try to make herself known.

Rina 's hands flicker into a swift round of motions. You might
recognize them as Bruce Lee's 'way of the blocking fist' - Jeet Kune Do.

Kitty recognizes them. She might not have as rigorous of a training
schedule as she might've had at one time, but she's not a slacker
either. She's forgotten more than a lot of people have ever learned
about fighting. Just one of the benefits of getting your training
through mystical transformations instead of actually doing the work.

Rina drops to one knee and flicks claws out in a quick whistling
slash, one left, one right. That'd be Rina-fu. So would the forward
roll and dual toe-claw rake. She lands on her feet, and her nose
twitches. There's a familiar scent around. Now where... and where has
she smelled that before?

Kitty raises an eyebrow at the custom moves, but only steps forward
from the wall when Rina pauses after the strike. "So... is this what
you do with your spare time?" Idly, she considers what her chances of
Kirk having told Rina that she's come back are as she waits for a
reaction, but she wouldn't be completely surprised. It's not like it
was a secret.

Rina 's head swivels toward you and she smiles. "Hi Kitty. Long
time." She walks toward you. "How've you been?" Her skin is wet with
perspiration now, and she's breathing a little heavily.

"Yup. It's been a little while. I've been alright. How are you?",
Kitty answers, grinning, a little surprised at how much of a workout
that Rina has managed to get on her own already. Apparently, she
practices hard. Not that she thought that Rina was into casual
exercise. She seemed pretty hard core and she'd have to practice a
lot to get this good on her own.

Rina is very hard core. Her body shows it. There's not much softness
to her, she hasn't gotten much curvier by growing up, and her legs
and armpits are still unshorn. "Good. Doing pretty good. Studying,
working out, working, I barely have time to sleep. Where've you been
all this time? And you're here to work out?

"I don't know?", Kitty answers honestly. "I lost a couple of months
with that thing at Columbia and when I got back... since then things
have been tough. This feels like the first time I've actually gone
out anywhere since... as long as I can remember." Actually, this is
the second or third, but who's counting? "Between school and work,
that doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else."

Rina nods a little. She's heard this sort of story before. Even her
own memory is a little spotty about that whole business. She lets it
drop. It's the kind of thing that will drive you crazy if you let it.
"I seem to recall that when we were down in the tunnels that one
time, you wowed everybody... especially me... with your skills. I've
got this mat for another hour this morning, would you like to work
out together? Maybe spar a little?

Kitty tries to like she wasn't expecting that. "Uhhh... I don't think
I was /that/ good. And I don't know if I can keep up with that", she
says gesturing to Rina, referring to the moves she saw earlier.
"Plus, I'm a little out of practice. This is my first time in the gym
in years." She looks apologetic. "I can try though", she says, trying
to sound reluctant.

Rina smiles a bit and steps on the mat. She lets her hands hang at
her sides. "Bring it on." Rina grins.

"Okay", Kitty says, putting a determined look on her face, but taking
up an amateurish stance. She's had practice at pretending and it's
paying off here. Yes, she's obviously going to be underperforming and
it'll be a blow to her pride when Rina beats up on her, but it should
be worth it to get Rina thinking she's normal again.

Rina stands there without moving, letting you come to her. She
relaxes her knees, seeming at ease. "You're holding back on me,
Kitty. I've seen you work when you meant it. I can tell from your
stance."

"I'm not...", Kitty tries to assure, though doubting it will get Rina
satisfied with the response. "It's not like I do this every day." And
just as suddenly, Kitty looks confused. Very confused and slackening
with her stance. The stance looks even worse now if anything and she
definitely doesn't seem to be ready to defend herself. Looking down
briefly at herself, her hands again pop up, but she still doesn't
look comfortable in a fighting stance.

Rina frowns a little. "You ok?" Rina draws her hands up, still slack
at the elbows and shoulders, relaxing. She's still waiting for you to
come for her.

"Y-yeah. Fine", Kitty answers, not looking confident any more. But
she doesn't drop her hands again. Another blackout? And now that
she's woken up, she's fighting Rina in... probably the school gym?
She doesn't even feel comfortable here, but fighting?

Rina slides forward with an easy kick, trying to sweep your legs out
from under you. She's not moving all that fast, she's not hitting all
that hard, she's feeling you out to see what you're going to do.

Kitty, without any training, is vulnerable. Her best chance to avoid
that one was to phase, but she's not sure that she's even allowed to
phase in this random sparring session. Though somehow she has a
feeling that it'd be considered cheating. She's not fast enough on
her own to avoid the kick and her legs are swept out from beneath
her, sending her to the floor to land with a graceless "oof" and a
"thud". As soon as she reaches the floor though, it seems as if she's
ready to get back up again.

Rina stares. "Kitty... c'mon. It's me. I've seen what you can do.
You're better than this."

Kitty groans as she starts getting back up. "I don't really do this a
lot, Rina. I don't remember the last time I've practiced any of
this." As a matter of fact, she assumes it was several years ago.
Right now she's not even remotely the skilled fighter that she was a
few months ago when Rina saw her in action.
Rina sighs a little. "There's an old saying that it's too late to
whet the sword when the trumpet sounds. You want to make this a
habit, and we'll see if we can't get you sharpened up again?"

"Again? Look Rina. I don't know what you think I can do, but it's got
to be something that there's no way that I could be doing. I'll try
again, but I don't think you understand. I really don't need any of
this stuff. I can always just..." She was going to finish that with
"phase", but the mutant power talk needs to be a little more private.
"Nevermind."

Rina rubs her hair a little. "okay. Okay." Geez, she must have lost a
lot with the memory mess. Because she was hell on wheels. I remember
that. "Let's do some basic kata." Rina shows you the motions slowly.
Her style is a mishmosh of Chinese and Japanese styles, smooth and
powerful. She speaks softly to herself in Japanese, focusing her chi,
focusing herself, getting the kata right with a level of precision
far greater than her gymnastics.

The kata seems to improve Kitty's confidence levels and while she's
paying close attention, she seems a lot smoother once they aren't
fighting. While that might betray that she knows a little more than
she's letting on, the kata is just basics and it should be easy for
anyone to follow along. Trained or not. Kitty is perfectly willing to
let Rina see that she can follow directions. Just not what she's
capable of. So long as it's something that everyone could do.

Rina nods, watching you. <Good. Good> she says in Japanese, having
not changed mental gears. <Again.>

Kitty doesn't answer the praise in the other language, understanding
it, but out of habit not saying answering. She does follow along with
the kata, carefully following what Rina is trying to show her, making
sure she at least looks like she's trying hard.

[End]