Strong Enough to Bend (for LoneWanderer)

[Winter]

How could Arlise Christiaens recognize a good week? Someone responded to one of her ads for an apartment spar.

Figuring she had the mats laid out well enough, a humming Arlise rose from her knees and let her eyes sweep the room. It looked pristine, but that did not stop her from pacing around it with her wrists lazily propped on her hips and a spring in her step, scrutinizing everything. Not only would the Belgian beauty have a guest to impress, but she also had several more sets of eyes to impress - specifically, the ones figuratively behind the lens of the camera who would watch this apartment clash later, once LAW distributed it. She already enjoyed these apartment encounters for the sake of a low-stakes match with a potential new friend, but knowing LAW wished to pay her a little extra to release the recordings only excited her more.

To assure herself of the cleanliness and organization of the room, the redhead again leaned to look through the eyepiece, and sure enough, nothing within view of the camera looked amiss. That afforded her a moment to check her makeup in the standup mirror she kept by her front door. She knew most of the people friendly enough to open up an online chat with her upon finding her ad, especially ones hoping to learn something from her like her coming guest, likely did not need a greeting from an Arlise dressed to the nines. But she kept up appearances, and that appearance required at least a touch of eyeshadow and a dab of lipstick. She brushed aside a smeared inch of that lipstick, checked her top, and would have inspected her bottoms if not for the knock at the door. She took the opportunity to brush out her hair with a hand instead. "Coming!"

She shuffled across the room and leaned to peer through the peephole. Surely enough, the man of the hour lingered on the other side - Senji. Impressive hair, even from this view. Arlise had found him entirely pleasant when he had asked to set up the match, unlike many younger men she knew, and he seemed to have a learner's attitude and wanted to benefit from meeting her. And while she knew she could garner a reputation in her apartment building from many unknowing souls by having a trail of men arriving at her door, she did not want them to feel unwelcome.

Besides, she had had more... amorous encounters with the women than the men, though she suspected some of the traditionalists in the building would not have suspected that nearly as much. It was the price Arlise paid for wanting quieter, more mature neighbors.

She unlatched the door and swung it open for him, and her curvy figure filled the frame as she smiled her inviting smile to him. "Hello. Senji, yes? Though I don't believe I can mistake you with the hair," she said, gesturing to it.

Spoiler

[TheLoneWanderer]

Here I go.

The redhead told himself as he rapped his knuckles against the doorframe. The request itself was one of the oddest outings he had chosen to expose himself to. Initially, there had been some tightness in his chest about such a weird event, but he had brushed past in favor of giving the unknown a chance. If he wanted to uphold his end of the legacy, then he must take risks. Develop a hunger for victory to remove the obstacles in his path. Besides, she was only a wrestler. What genuine harm could she do to him in an official capacity, if there was any desire at all? All he had to do, was extend a olive branch towards her.

Arlise had been a bit more reserved in their first meeting, as she explained the 'no-fuss' stipulations. Less outward vigor, as opposed to himself. She greeted him with little delay, swinging the door open and filling his sight with her curvaceous frame.

"Arlise----?-"

Arlise's "attire" made him pause audibly before continuing. She looked quite...friendly.

"Ah. My mother always said it's warm enough to attract attention. I am glad you like it."

Senji flourished his left hand, mimicking her gesture to put emphasis on the locks that were the same shade as hers. He returned it to holding his outfit for the evening, as he was not dressed in a combat uniform when out and about. It looked to be a puffy, black Gi with a red stripe shining diagonally along its surface from the folded up position. His cheeks heated at the sight of his partner, but he had enough of a hardened stance to keep his back straight. She took good care of her body, that much was obvious. Now all that remained was to see how good she was on the mats.

"May I come inside?"

He asked, doing so if she allowed it and moving sideways to allow her space to maneuver as well. Now there, he settled over at the edge of the Living room on the loveseat she might have had. He looked up at her with an eager and entranced gaze, expecting direction as to not encroach on her hospitality thus far. The new clothing set in his lap, rustling against his blue jeans and zippered, white pull-over. Not quite as elaborate as his Sunday best, but he supposed it should do when he had already showered beforehand and was above the very low-bar of being dressed like a slob.

[Winter]

Arlise supposed she did not have to wonder if she had dressed up quite enough.

"Yes, hello." The Belgian beauty had witnessed enough of those glances to recognize even the most subtle ones, and her smile deepened. It deepened again as he mentioned the words of his mother, and she nodded her agreement. "I say your mother is right. It sounds like what mine would say, too," she agreed in her French lilt. Anyone who spoke fondly of their mother had respect in her book, so he had already marked himself as a good guest.

Her eyes settled over what he held in his hands out of absent-minded curiosity, but her eyes soon returned to his face as mischief played at her lips. She could not let the idea pass without some patented Arlise coquetry. "Others say it is the color of vixens...", she coyly added, before she slipped aside to let him in at his request, casually posing in the doorway as she did so.

She followed him in idly before she realized he waited, respectfully, for her to tell him where he could go to change. She popped on her toes and pointed to the hallway. "Oh! You can have some privacy to change in the bedroom or the bathroom, just down there." Those two rooms she had not quite cleaned as thoroughly, but as someone who owned perhaps a few too many tops, skirts, heels, sets of underwear... she had to place all her belongings somewhere. She at least knew they didn't look slobby, only cluttered.

She rested her chin on her fists as he started to leave, but remembering her role as host, she offered him one question before he slipped down the hall. "Is there anything else you would like before we begin?"

[TheLoneWanderer]

"---I'm not a fox." Senji murmured as he sat and she spoke about his hair. The words were honey, but her mouth unveiled a different motive. A stretched smile, like she was looking forward something else aside from their grapples. He banished the doubts, however, with his gaze trailing on the curves of her tummy before rising back at to her face as he took in her posed position.

His eyes shifted to the right, taking in the hallway that pointed out. Immediately, he bounced to his feet, raring to go. But his host only had one question which he declined promptly.

"No, Miss Arlise.---You have been too good to me so far."

His shoulders sagged as he was caught by two choices. The bathroom would be more of a traditional space, but there was the matter of storing what he had rather than throwing it across the floor. That settled, he strode off towards the bedroom to change out of his current clothes. Fine in a pinch or getting jumped, but not the best for Arlise making him bend.

====

Somewhere in the ballpark of under 4 minutes, the twist of a doorknob announced his reentry for the two's parlay. He had left his street-wear on the corner of Arlise's bed, folded into squares and then stacked on top of each other. Now that she could likely see him, she could consider him overdressed compared to her. The black Gi top went all the way down to his waist, with only a pair of shorts to cover his nether regions. The rest of the skin was barren, smooth and shaved after being conditioned by a mind-numbing number of squats over his brief lifetime. They hugged his hips in a snug fashion, not quite as tight as skinny jeans to avoid a lot of chaffing or rashes. A blue belt secured the two halves together, completing the partial Gi. At least this way, she would be hard-pressed to grab him by his nonexistent pants.


His feet came towards her in a 1-2 sequence, burying themselves into the mats she had setup. He kneeled accordingly, resting his weight on his heels for the time-being. This time around, he had tied his hair back into a lengthy ponytail which swayed over the back of the Gi.
The position was remiscent of sitting under a fulton. Big, amber irises stared up at her again, with a body that was very malleable.

"What do you want to do first with me? You've been waiting long enough."

Type of Pose (Inspired by Rose Gold)

[Winter]

"Oh, I did not mean you."

But he probably knew that, deep down. Regardless, amusement painted her tone. Sometimes, she could not help but tease - she called on that nature as easily as most breathed. And she only spoke the truth. Even before people met her, the color of her locks and the shape of her body led many to assign Arlise that moniker, and her freewheeling nature, well... that only added to their certainty. Ironically, however, Arlise ignored the fact that she likely reinforced that same moniker in his mind, too.

"Please, just Arlise," she added as he began to depart. She appreciated the courtesy... but had already felt old, at her ripened age of twenty-three, having gleaned that he was younger than she. If anyone started to refer to her as "Miss Arlise," she would start purchasing the most reliable wrinkle cream she could find.

The Belgian beauty paced while he changed, becoming paranoid that he would find the bedroom that of a slob despite her self-assurances to the contrary. She also filled the time by pointlessly checking her clothing and the camera again, and she still had enough time to sit on the loveseat and consider how she had seemingly gotten so lucky with all of her guests for these apartment clashes. He had seemed lovely so far, and much like the others, the redhead would like for him to part considering her a new friend.

He looked entirely official - far more than she did in her version of apartment wrestling attire, the least required for decency while offering the most practicality for rolling and tumbling and grappling. ...The shorts were quite cute, and she peered at them perhaps a moment too long before he dropped down onto the mats and... posed? Again, very official, and it summoned an almost fond smile from her. She wondered if he did not feel at ease, but she supposed having this encounter recorded tended to push the match toward some degree of seriousness.

She did not do so with the same degree of preciseness as he did, a classic grappler to her core, but she did ease into place on her knees across from him and rested her hands on her thighs. The Belgian beauty considered him a moment before recalling that her expectation involved him making some of the decisions on how to go about their sparring. He had mentioned he wanted to learn, after all.

But she also did not care to put pressure on him, and he had asked. Titania tapped her chin. "We start simply?", she rhetorically asked. "Here from our knees, with either tapping or a verbal submission to end it. Then, we can work on holds, since we will have an idea of where we both are with our mat wrestling."

She pushed up higher on her knees, dropped her shoulders, and lifted open hands - a variation on her standing stance meant more for the knees. "Come, you close on me first, and I will try to counter."

[TheLoneWanderer]

"Let's reach for the stars together!"

Senji murmured in a hushed exclamation to Arlise's declaration, acknowledging the rules she had laid out by nodding his head to show his understanding. Senji shuffled on his knees, beginning to crawl forwards to get closer to Arlise. The calmness of the room promoted a slight smile from Senji, as his lips curled upward. Clearly he wasn't used to this type of wrestling, and had only fought in one once. Still, Arlise wasn't so bad thus far despite the inherent desire to bend him.

Senji's gaze lingered on her legs, considering what to do while approaching. A single leg or double leg would be too predictable despite their reliability. He needed to try another entrance to resisting Arlise in contrast to the obvious. The fighter darted forwards to get to her belly, attempting to tie up with her by wrapping his arms underneath her armpits and going around the back. This way, he attempted to press his weight forward and get Arlise onto the bottom.

He snuggled his hips close to hers, whether she managed to get her legs around his waist or not. As his first attempt at domination, Senji immediately went for an oppressive move. He aimed to crawl his fingers toward the back of her neck, in order to reach around her shoulders and interlock his fingers at the front of her throat. Then, he would push down to expose her to heavy wrestling pressure and make it very uncomfortable for Arlise to try and breathe. Senji rested his chin on her abdomen, shuddering as he kept the push downwards. This also kept both of her arms high around his body, meaning she would not be able to move them as easily due to the previous lock-up.