Kindred Crush(ers) (Liesmith)

[Winter]

Arlise did not read people particularly well, but she could see the cogs turning in the woman's mind.

The glance down at her legs would have tipped her off even if she had not seen the evident signs of curiosity in her - Samiya's - eyes, and Arlise merely quirked her head as if to ask for comment. Perhaps she considered the danger presented by Arlise's legs. Perhaps she believed Arlise's legs had grown larger since that scissor series, as they had. Perhaps she wanted to ask more about how she had beaten a woman with so much more experience. Ultimately, she did none of those things, and Arlise let it pass to tap her chin and repeat her name with her own French lilt making it musical.

"Samiya. A pretty name." She could not quite place its origin, but she had enough problems in the past with conjuring different languages - she did not want to complicate matters further. As she once more spared her own momentary glance at the shapely, shorter woman's full figure, she expected it strangely suited her, too, for reasons she could not have defined if she were asked.

She pondered Samiya and her outfit at least once more, the finger still tapping her chin. She did not want an entire conversation about her - she had walked over because of her interest in Samiya, and her curiosity demanded that she filled in some blanks. "Are you a gymnast? Or were you? That routine looked brilliant."

[Liesmith]

Yeah. No. Samiya’s gaze went flat at that little note about her name, the sort of banal remark that was virtually guaranteed to kill her interest in a conversation faster than anything.

If that was where this was going, she was about to walk away.

All that held her was a combination of her own reluctance because Arlise Christiaens was far more fascinating in person than she’d expected and something about the way the redhead was looking at her. That tapping finger, the roving eyes. There was something on her mind and Samiya’s curiosity was such that she didn’t just want to walk away without finding what it was.

For all that, she probably wouldn’t have waited long but then she didn’t have to – even if her first reaction to Christiaens’ question was to arch her eyebrows sarcastically. Because she felt the answer to that was pretty obvious.

But then the redhead added her second question and that brought a more thoughtful twist to Samiya’s expression as she contemplated her answer.

Just because she felt like it, the tattooed girl turned a swift, handless aerial, landing with a flourish.

“Was,” She allowed with a grin, throwing her arms up and crossing a leg behind the other in a quick salute before straightening up, “Before I switched over to lifting. It was getting boring anyway and I thought I might as well jump before they push me.”

Another off-hand shrug.

“Something about getting fat.”

Samiya rolled her eyes meaningfully, her expression and tone showing just what she thought about that suggestion. Sure, she didn’t and hadn’t fit the traditional image of a gymnast, but then neither had plenty of the girls at national level and below.

It hadn’t ever stopped her excelling.