Oh, Hey.... You (Brooke)

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Mmm…. Good session. Xun had been in the self-defense club for a good amount of time now, and though it wasn’t his prefered style most of the time, it still gave him something to do so he didn’t always have to practice on his own. He didn’t always like the people he had to pair up with, but he’d managed to actually make some… Almost friends in the club. He was introverted and quiet by nature; he didn’t usually go out of his way to talk to anyone after the session was over.

Today, though, he was assigned to help Vincent put away the punching bags and other equipment they had used in the last couple of hours. Xun wasn’t particularly strong, and, with his sort of beanpole-ish build, even his strength training wasn’t making carrying the heavy things so easy. He staggered slightly as he hefted one of the large bags into the equipment closet, heaving out a breath once it was put away. He was dressed in his normal form-fitting black tank and same-colored training pants, with his dark contacts in place as always (except for the days he forgot).

He stepped out of the closet and wiped a few drops of sweat from his brow, glancing around and seeing what else needed to be dealt with.

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Brooke liked the self-defense class. She had done a little bit of kung-fu back when she was a kid, but hadn't really explored it much or committed herself to the practice like some of the other members did. There were actually some pretty amazing people in the self-defense club. First there was this new arrival, only been there a few months, who was absolutely as adorable as a button! Then there was this guy, all stony-serious-face, who did something that she could never really pronounce right.

Well, no, she could pronounce it, but it was just so cute seeing how he reacted to the other name.

"So how's the mushu training goin'?" she asked Xun brightly as she bounced around in what seemed to be a useless effort in cleaning up the training room. She was folding up the blue-mats but was practically flinging them into the corner after she folded them, making them unfold again almost instantly. The little girl had some power behind her though one really couldn't tell with her deceptively slim frame.

Brooke always had a lot of extra energy after practice. The point of joining this club was to give her an outlet for all that pent up energy she would sometimes get during her manic season, but it usually just got her endorphins flowing so she couldn't settle down. Hitting things had that effect on her. Especially if they were with blunt objects.

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Ah... That girl. Xun's expression visibly went even more stony at the question - he knew she knew what it was called, and he'd finally started to catch on that she was doing it on purpose. "Ai-ya... It is called wushu," he stated blandly, picking up a couple of the mats and folding them neatly against his chest. "And it is going well. I'm working on a straight sword form that I will be competing with this summer." He'd actually just gotten back from the Berkeley tournament a couple weeks ago, and had, unsurprisingly, done very well in nearly all of his events.

How did she have so much energy? And, more importantly, couldn't Brooke see what she was doing? It was pointless to fold the mats up if she was just going to fling them like that. Xun sighed, taking over the mats that he had folded up, and placed them carefully down before he picked up the unfolded ones and sat them properly together. "You hurry too much," he chided her, shooting a dark-eyed scowl Brooke's way. "Do you ever lose energy?"

Xun was quite exhausted himself, but he'd had to use his ability towards the end of practice, so it wasn't a surprise. It wasn't like he was jealous of Brooke's seemingly endless energy... No way.

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On purpose? Noooooooooooooooooooooooo~! Of course it wasn't on purpose, Brooke would never do anything on purpose that she knew would irritate another person, especially one so sour-faced and adorable as this kewtie little china-man with the silk-worm eyelids.

"Woooooo-shooooeee," she drawled out, taking another mat and tossing it into the corner. Brooke might actually be a little bit kinda interested in learning something like that, though still it was only an extra method of channeling that overabundant energy that Xun wasn't jealous of. "Oooo, competing!" That sounded like fun! If there were competitions, then maybe Brooke should get into it, she liked competing. With all her heart and stomach! "Do you win moneys if you win?" Because what was the point of competing if you didn't get any kind of reward?

Brooke bounced over as soon as she'd tossed the last mat and hopped onto the stack that Xun was working on, preventing him from folding it properly. She tapped on the blue mats in rhythm to the song as she sang. "What do you do with a drunken sailor? What do you do with a drunken sailor? What do you do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?" Which explained everything.

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Xun winced at the drawn-out word, wondering why he even bothered. Well, at least she pronounced it right this time, he supposed. "That's right," he breathed tiredly. He couldn't imagine this spazzy girl trying the sport - he thought she'd probably go off and start chasing butterflies or something after ten seconds of holding a horse stance. "Ah, no, there's no money involved. It costs money to compete, actually." Well, there were all-around champions each year at CMAT that he believed won some sort of prize, but he wasn't at that level yet. Someday, though. "But you get medals, and meet a lot of, um... Talented people. My sifu was there too." Sifu Li, from his old home in Seattle. It was always wonderful seeing her again.

He continued to fold the discarded mats until Brooke... Kept Xun from being able to anymore. He scowled again, tugging uselessly at the mat he'd just been about to pull out. "Brooke..." he hissed, becoming exasperated. "I need to-" And that was when she started singing. Xun stared at her, mouth slightly open, trying to figure out this new, odd twist. ".... You.... Are drunk?" he asked incredulously, not understanding. With a heavy sigh, he looked down at the mats, then at Brooke, then down again. Well, if she was impaired, he should probably...

Without a word, he grasped around Brooke's middle and hefted her over his shoulder; she was so skinny, it didn't take too much effort. That done, he continued trying to fold the mats, albeit a little awkwardly with the added weight.

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Wuuuushuuu. It was a fun word to say. And if you turned that "W" upside-down, it became Mushu! Which was even more fun! Since the words were fun, Brooke deduced that the sport must be fun too. If she played her cards right, maybe she could talk Mr. Xunie-baby to teach her alllllllll about it?

"Oh," she said simply, somewhat disappointed to hear about the lack of prize money. "Well, that's boring." Why would people try so hard for something if they weren't going to get a good chunk of moo-lah with it? Though meeting people and getting medals did sound fun, so maybe there was more worth it than she thought? "Siiiiifuuuuuu," Brooke said to herself. That wasn't as fun a word.

".... You.... Are drunk?"

"Do you want me to be?" she asked cheerily, tilting her head to the side. Brooke had taken her hair down, so her shoulder length curls bobbed around with her head. She bobbed it even more, enjoying the feel of her hair caressing over her shoulders. Doing that, Brooke probably did seem drunk.

"Yiiii~!" she yelped when the china boy picked the 5'3", 115lb girl and tossed her over his shoulder like a rag-doll. And she flopped like one too, giggling like a 3-year-old child. Of course, toppled like that, Brooke got a very good view of some cheeky-cheeks. She pinched one.

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Brooke would have to do an awful lot of convincing to get "Mr. Xunie-baby" to teach her anything. He was convinced that she would lose interest and become distracted much too easily... Although he had to admit, she seemed decent in the self-defense club, so maybe... Maybe if she would at least stop calling it the name of that stupid little dragon in that one Disney movie!

"It is not boring," he replied, scowling enough to curdle milk. "The reward comes in competing with other people who have worked hard and appreciating all of the effort that goes into competition. It makes the blood, sweat, and pain worth it." Xun didn't remember when someone had gotten such a long spew out of him. It was long, for the introverted, awkward boy. He just ignored as she drawled out the next word, mouth set in a disapproving frown.

"I do not care," he said tiredly; if she was, he couldn't do anything about it. Xun just didn't know what to think about this bouncy energetic girl. In normal circumstances, he would have liked to avoid her completely, but she was in his way, and he was stubborn enough not to just let it be.

Which was why he did what he did on the spur of the moment. And it kind of worked; he managed to get another couple mats folded and put away before the pinch came. That resulted in a yelp, some flailing, and a few chosen foreign curse words as he shrugged her off and not-so-gently nudged her away, cheeks bright red as he attempted to get the last few mats done. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to kneel down where she could still reach his shoulders...

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Brooke probably would become distracted, she was very distractible, especially when in the midsts of distracting things. Like butterflies. And ponies. And butts. Lots of butts.

Buttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbutts…….

Anyway…

"Sooooo…..you fool yourself into the whole self-reward business to justify not getting anything out of it?" Self-appreciation didn't seem all that fun, though she supposed there was some merit to the theory. But Brooke was far to materialistic to care. And she liked results. If she couldn't get results, then it may as well be dead to her. Though making something dead was probably the most instantaneous of results one could achieve, but then that would make her a criminal and Brooke didn't want that.

Speaking of butts.

This one was all firm and tight and muscley, Brooke wondered how he kept it all firm and tight and muscley all the time? It was haaaard to pinch in between just two of her fingers. Toooo haaaard.

She was going to have to use her whole hand next time.

Brooke barrel rolled over the floor as she was shoved off the shoulder and down to the ground below. But it wasn't over yet, not by a long shot! As soon as Xun leaned down, Brooke made her move, pouncing on the thin shoulders of the chinese man and essentially clinging to him like an adorable koala. "Are eucalyptus?" she asked with a nuzzle.

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“Fool myself…?” Xun repeated, frowning and shaking his head. “I don’t need anything. I do it for the sport, not materiality. Wushu is a reward in itself.” He allowed a very faint smile to appear. “And I’m working on training hard enough to eventually be chosen for the national team so I can compete internationally.” He knew people who had competed in China, Russia, Brazil… It was an amazing network. “It’s about… Spirit. Chi..” He wouldn’t expect someone as spazzy as Brooke to understand. It was… Not something that could be taught.

This whole butt-grabbing thing was not alright with Xun, though. If Brooke was going to make a habit of it, he would start avoiding her for sure. A small trickle of thought made its way into his head, though, that he reveled in the attention, but he quickly squished that feeling and let his features go slack and neutral again. “Please do not do that again,” he said quietly in her direction, attention on the mats he was folding.

…. That didn’t last very long. Xun was not a temper-prone person, but even he had his limits, and he felt himself starting to wane. He yelped as she pounced on him again, toppling forward precariously and just barely managing to stay squatted on his feet from the momentum. “Brooke!” he groaned, exasperated. He didn’t know what she meant by the two-worded question (or the rather affectionate nuzzle that came with it), but before Xun really knew what he was doing, he’d slipped himself out of her grasp and managed to spin himself around to pin her on the floor, not knowing what else to do to get her to just stop. “Brooke. Please,” he murmured, features tight. “Just let me finish cleaning up, at least.”

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Internationally? Wow! That was soooo coooooooooolllll!! "Do ya get moneys for winning that?" Brooke asked with clear over-excitement. She was practically bouncing in her shoes and her tits wondering just how much more spiffy this slanty-eyed lovely could get.

Spirit? "Chi?" Immediately, Brooke hopped into a horse stance and put her hands together. "HADOUKEN!" she shouted, directing her "chi" straight towards Xun. "Like that?" Brooke asked with an innocent tilt of her head.

Telling Brooke not to do something (especially again) was about as useless and pointless as asking a mole to not be blind, or for asking Lendys to not be a dragon-god. Brooke rarely, if ever listened to what people asked of her(unless they were Dr. Neville or a teacher that she happened to like). Therefore, Brooke had every intent of squeezing those cheeks again once she got the chance.

….or so she thought, but before she knew what was happening, the slim little girl was being woman-handled right onto the floor and pinned down by the pretty china-man. "Whaaa!" she squealed in her surprise. Brooke blinked her blue eyes up to study the boy's face. She thought for a moment. "Okay…!" she finally agreed with a beaming smile, though she made no effort to struggle away from his grasp.

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Xun sighed, running his hand down through his hair and over his forehead. "I think so, but that's not why I'm doing it," he told her. Monetary rewards were not the motivation for him. And he, on the other hand, was wondering how much more Brooke could bug him until he snapped.

.............

He stared blankly at what she did next. Not because he didn't know what it was, but because he just... Couldn't. Xun's face was deadpanned for a long moment before he suddenly... Burst into a flurry of giggles. He couldn't help himself. It was just so ridiculous. "Yeah, sure," he managed to reply as he forced himself back into silence. "But I cannot channel my chi into an actual, ah.... Blast of energy." Apparently Brooke had found a key to breaking past his serious exterior a bit.

Had he known her plan to not do what he asked, Xun might not have broke like he did. But he didn't, so he did.

And it didn't stop him from doing what he did next. Xun didn't really realize what he had gotten himself into, so he just stayed there, waiting for the response that would get him to move. ".... Okay," he replied, loosening his grip around Brooke's arms and pushing himself up onto his knees. Then he shook his head as though freeing his brain of cobwebs and turned back to the last few mats, using a burst of energy to get them done speedily in case Brooke decided not to listen.

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OH! Thar ewe arrrr! Dat smile! That cutie widdle smile!

Brooke didn't think she'd ever seen Xun smile like that since they'd started practicing together. Then again, Brooke had never gone out of the way to get to know him before outside of class and club. For all she knew Mr. Serious here was a funny, giggly sort of person when he wasn't doing the mushu thing.

Whelp, that was that. Brooke now had a new goal, to stalk and bug this kewtie until she invoked another smile out of him. Preferably with giggles.

"Betcha could…If you keep practicing like that." OH oH OH!! That was an idea and Brooke had to bounce up an down a couple times before she finally bestowed upon the china-man her brilliant idea. "You can learn how t'do that and show it off at the competitions 'n get the billions of dollars that way!" It was a much better idea than just practicing for the sake of self-motivation or whatevers.

After being pinned down like that…whooo! What a rush, Brooke was going to have to fan herself from all the oh-baby! But…since he asked so nicely, Brooke did as she was told, sitting cross legged there on the bare floor and watching that pinchable butt finish with the clean up. "So…why do ya wear contacts like that?" she asked nonchalantly. She'd gotten pretty good view when she got a close up of his face just moment before.

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Nope, Xun definitely was not the funny giggly type, at least not around most people. There were a few he let his guard down around, but Brooke wasn't one of them... Not until now, at least. Now, Xun might start laughing for no reason just thinking about it. As much as he tried to keep a straight face afterwards, he was still giving the occasional tiny giggle at the memory.

"I... Do not think it works like that," he replied, scratching his arm. "Chi is not... Tangible." He'd heard of people playing around with fire like those cartoon characters in that show The Last Airbender, but that wasn't the same. Still, Xun allowed a small smile to cross his face again at Brooke's "brilliant" idea. "How about you figure that out and you make the money off of it," he reasoned.

He was relieved when the girl sat patiently as he finished up with the mats. It only took a couple minutes, and he was done, wiping his hands on his pants as he looked around for anything else to do; everything looked cleaned up. "Huh?" he blinked, whirling to look at Brooke. "How did you...?" Was it obvious? Did they not look right? "... I do not like the color I was born with," he replied, seeing no reason to lie. "It is... Unnatural." He sat cross-legged then, keeping the subject of the conversation pointed down as he stretched out his legs.

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Brooke was going to have to stalk this pretty boy just to see what else it was there was that he would devolve into such a cascade of trembling giggles like that because Brooke sure as hell wanted to see it again and again! All the time! It was her new goal in like! Make Xun giggle giggle giggle until he couldn't giggle anymore!!

Well, that might not be such a good idea, that might mean that he was dead. Or that he was too mad at her to giggle and Brooke didn't really want him to be mad at her.

"Well. It. Should!" she declared fervently, crossing her arms like an uppity child. She was glad that he wasn't ompletely denouncing her idea, though, and gave him an affirmative nod. "I totes will, just you watch!" Brooke confidently pointed her finger out at her fellow chi-user, taking up that challenge with some much needed omph!

When Xun had pinned her before, in addition to feeling her heart beat and flutter around until it tickled her insides, she'd noticed the blue ring around the dark brown in his eyes. Contacts were easy to see up close, especially colored ones. "Un-natural?" Brooke didn't get it. "Why?" She tilted her head in her inquiry.

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If Brooke didn't want Xun to be mad at her, she hadn't been doing a good job so far. Besides the short burst of laughter, he was nothing but irritated by her. Well... Now that he had had his little fit, he was finding it harder to stay mad at the ridiculous girl, but still.

Xun held up his hands in surrender, realizing there was no use arguing this point against the energetic girl. "Okay, okay," he replied, chuckling breathlessly as he snatched the hem of his tanktop and wiped off his brow, unintentionally giving Brooke a good long peek at his thin, lean waist. "When you figure that out, let me know." He would humor her, he decided. Xun's neutral expression was back, however, and his laughter had worn out.

Especially now that a sensitive subject had come up. Xun had been picked on for his unusual eyes back in his hometown before he started wearing his contacts. Living in the international district, he wasn't a minority when it came to race, but people thought he was weird because he was the only full Chinese kid that had blue eyes. "It's not normal for people from China to have blue eyes," he mumbled, stretching one leg out straight as he reached for his foot. "It is a, ah... Mutation." Just like being meta-human, he supposed, but at least there were a lot of those. "See, your blue eyes are pretty, but it doesn't look right on me," he sighed, switching legs.