A New Helping Hand

[Dubski]

Alba Garcia was continuing to look at her sparring partner with uncertainty as she spoke, chewing on her bottom lip as she considered everything that June was saying. She took deep breaths as she listened. June made sense, and it was something she felt she needed to get used to, but it was still a little nerve-wracking to willingly be hurt. The encouragement helped, though, as Alba smiled a little bit more and said, "Thanks..."

With a loud sigh, Alba shrugged and shook her head, speaking in a bit of a nervous tone. "We can try, I guess... Just don't try anything too intense, please..." said the Spaniard, swallowing hard as she considered the worst of what could happen. She felt like she trusted June though, and she thought that her newfound friend might be able to approach this with the care that she proclaimed she would.

[Crossedes]

Though she would have had a difficult time overlooking Alba's apprehension, June did think she offered the only option if Alba's biggest issue was learning how to take hits. No doubt some mad psychologist out there had some way of convincing people to ignore pain - a scary thing to think about, even in June's inventive mind - but she doubted the League employed anyone like that. Or hoped they didn't, anyway. If they employed people who wouldn't train their new fighters, she could buy anything at this point.

"I promise-" And she did. June refused to break her promises and considered it a point of pride, and she gave Alba a pat on the arm for reassurance. "-you'll be fine with me! We'll start one step above love taps, and whenever you want, we'll stop. Deal?" The blonde knew in this career, trust could be hard to build. A lot of wrestlers had it out for others, but she also didn't think that cutthroat nature actually benefitted anyone. Genuine, fair competition and camaraderie satisfied her so much more.

"Do you want to start with strikes, submissions, or throws?"

[Dubski]

The Spaniard took a deep breath, closing her eyes as June promised she wouldn't go overboard, then offered her a small smile in response. She wasn't completely comfortable with it, but she was at least willing to try with June now and trusted that June wouldn't go off on her too hard--at least intentionally. Brushing her hair out of her face, Alba took a step back, considering the options.

"Not strikes," answered Alba immediately before chewing on her lip as she thought it over. She absolutely didn't need to be hit today if she could help it. She also preferred to not be tortured in any sort of submission holds. Plenty of awful times she spent in those prolonged painful moves.

So taking a deep breath, Alba made her choice. "I guess throws..." She still didn't seem entirely thrilled with the idea, but she at least braced herself for what was about to happen, averting her gaze from June at first as she got ready.

[Crossedes]

"Throws it is!" June chimed, trying to keep the positivity going. While she didn't want to express doubt to Alba - she believed in the idea - she could understand the apprehension. People's Alba's size didn't volunteer to get thrown around by people June's size on their best days, and the blonde could tell that the last few weeks didn't equate to Alba's best days. June internally warned herself to be as careful as possible as she stepped her way in front of Alba and rubbed her hands together to make sure she didn't lose her grip and drop the nervous girl on her head. It was unlikely for a woman who could deadlift in the multiple hundreds of pounds, but she wanted to cover her bases.

"Okay, we're going to start this just like they did when I trained the first time - some simple tosses and throws." She squatted and reached out to take Alba gently by the arm. "And don't think you just have to take the falls! Keep trying to stick your landings like you did before. And I got you, kay?" With one last nod and smile to reassure, June gave a little tug to tell Alba she was going to start before turning her hips into the smaller woman and executing a methodical, light hip toss... juuuust enough for Alba to go bink on the canvas if she didn't roll through it.

[Dubski]

Alba braced herself, taking a deep breath as she listened to June, allowing the blonde to take her arm. She resisted the urge to pull it away, but she let her continue holding her. "...Okay, okay. I can do that. Sure," said Garcia. She didn't necessarily sound confident still, but she was definitely trying. Clearing her throat loudly, Garcia closed her eyes, readying herself for the move.

The hip toss was the move, and it was being done probably as safely as it could possibly be. Alba would allow herself to be flipped up and over before landing on her back with a small grunt. Normally she would have tried to counter and nimbly land, but her mind was too pre-occupied with being ready to take the move that it didn't cross her mind until she landed.

Fortunately, it wasn't too bad, and Alba Garcia was already standing back up, her mouth knit as she nodded a few times. "Okay... I'm fine," said the Spaniard simply, shaking out her limbs and getting ready again once more as she faced June. She felt a little bit better this time now.

[Crossedes]

June might have been even happier than Alba to hear the Spaniard say she had taken the fall well. Confident as she might have been in her ability to keep the impacts safe, she knew Alba's ability to take the falls mattered a lot more than her end of the equation. And she popped right back up, no issues, no cold feet. June pumped her fists as she straightened - small steps counted as progress. "Perfect. Alright, onto number two." She promptly closed the distance on the Spaniard again and took the other arm, giving it a pat.

"I'll pick up the rhythm as we go, but the throws are going to stay light. I'll warn you before I take it up a notch." With another reassuring wink, she tugged Alba in and proceeded to execute the same hip toss with the same intensity across the other side of her body, listing as Alba's landing quietly rattled the mat like the last one. This time, however, rather than outright waiting, she popped back up, waiting to take hold of Alba once more when she got up and send her toward the ropes by way of an Irish Whip, bringing the pace to something closer to a wrestling match.

"Bounce back - I'm going to catch you!"

[Dubski]

Alba readied herself once more, waiting for June to grab hold of her. She offered a tight smile as she nodded. "Okay..." She affirmed what June was going to do, clearing her throat. A hip toss came again, and it remained light, causing Garcia to let out a stifled groan as she got herself to her feet again. But June was just a little bit quicker and forced her up a bit faster.

And then in another moment, the Spaniard was whipped towards the ropes. She rebounded, looking surprised by June's suggestion, but seemed willing to follow through with it. She trusted June that much, at least. And when she got back to June, she sprung up into the air, hoping that June would indeed catch her before she fell! Not sure what would follow, she just got herself ready!

[Crossedes]

June wouldn't get ahead of herself, but she believed she had already helped spur some positivity in the younger wrestler. Then again, maybe that was her own positivity which rarely quit. But what tension she could still sense from Alba didn't stop her from engaging in the practice, and June knew that the best way to deal with doubts and struggles was to get to work. The Spaniard took the second hip toss as well as the first, and she didn't shirk June's propelling her toward the ropes. In fact, she came back with energy and took to the sky.

The people who had trained June valued her having real-life wrestling scenarios in training. What they had just done could have happened in any match - a competitor gets dropped with a hip toss, tries to get up, and gets tossed across the ring before she can recover. Moves didn't happen in a vacuum, they had told her. So, just like in a normal match, she, the bigger woman, answered Alba's leap by swinging her arm out to catch the Spaniard around the front of the chest and over her shoulder. That stopped her momentum, and she brought her other hand up, holding Alba by the abs to steady her. "Going back down!" Fortunately, to June, Alba weighed little, which made it easy to turn what would have normally been a spine-shattering side slam into the stuff of two friends playing on the trampoline as she took the Spaniard down with her.

[Dubski]

Alba Garcia was unsurprisingly caught by June. Her smaller frame held in her arms and the Spaniard held onto her as well, just to risk not falling--not that June needed any help. She was bigger and Alba was on the lower end of middleweights. And then, in a moment, the dancer was dropped down in a side slam. Her body bounced off the mat and she winced very slightly from the impact before laying there.

And surprisingly, Alba would crack a smile, looking up at June. "Okay... I think I'm getting the hang of this," said Garcia more confidently as she pushed herself up. Preparing, the Spaniard would then give June a nod and said, "How about I do something and you catch me or counter?" suggested Alba, bending over with her hands on her knees, feeling more confident.

[Crossedes]

Alba's enthusiasm sounded like music to the blonde's ears. Already all smiles from the dramatic drop on the side slam, the blonde rolled onto her back, nodding vigorously at Alba's request to throw her energies into the exchange. "Give it to me! I'll keep giving you callouts." Getting overeager, she almost managed a proper kip-up to get things started again, though she fell back onto her butt with a laugh. Who cared if she fell on her but? This was going as well as she could have dreamed.

June lost track of time as they continued, and she enjoyed every second of it. Alba's getting into things made it easier when she finally said she was going to execute her throws with a little more gusto... then a little more, then a little more. She never went beyond the point of what she would deem a "stern warning" in the ring, but it was enough to hopefully show Alba that she could get there - that these rough landings would be something that she could learn to deal with, if not today, then eventually, once they had become second nature.

Giggling and sucking for breaths, June had worked up a sweat, almost lost her shirt a time or two, and officially taken a shine to her sparring partner by the time she looked at the clock after rising from Alba's efforts to trip her. Wow... they had been going a lot longer than she thought. No wonder the fatigue clung to her. Alba might have had more in her, but June was going to wear out and make a mistake if they went much longer. "Okay, gotta admit... old lady's getting tired." Older than Alba, anyway. "One more... set of transitions, and we'll call it? You've killed it, so today's a success no matter what."