A New Helping Hand

[Dubski]

Alba Garcia was trading moves with June, trying just as she had to be firm but safe with her. She seemed to be enjoying herself as she continued to train with her, having the most fun training in a long while as she did so. And she could feel a better camaraderie forming between them. But Alba had also not realized the time after one move after another were performed, and Garcia felt herself feeling just as worn out as the blonde was.

Wiping some sweat from her brow, she let out a small laugh at her joke and said, "If you're old, that means I'm old too, which I cannot accept!" She jested with June, preparing herself for another move. She took a deep breath and began racing towards the blonde, springing up and then leaping up and sliding between June's legs. And then, Alba would leap up and then flip upside-down, wrapping her legs under June's arms and then grabbing hold of her by the hips, attempting to throw her weight down to try sending June onto her back and pinning her in a sitout position! A simple move, but one that took a lot of effort with how much bigger June was and how exhausted Alba felt!

[Crossedes]

"I mean in dog years, I've got to be something like thirty years older than you are..." June hardly felt old - in fact, peer pressure had her sometimes thinking she needed to do more growing up - but anytime her age could excuse her getting winded in a spar, she would take it. Frankly, though, they had really been going at it. With her focusing on throws rather than submissions, she hadn't exactly slowed down or given her muscles any breaks, and she remembered why most trainers recommended that all fighters know how to ratchet the intensity down to play through their ground game.

June acted like a linebacker again as Alba rushed her, spreading her arms and legs and preparing to drop the younger woman to the canvas again if she made any mistakes. But again, the Spaniard showed her physical gifts in full force, and June couldn't turn fast enough to account for someone diving through her legs even when she was fresh - and no way did she knock her knees together in time. She served as little more than a grappling dummy as Alba snagged her arms and wrenched her backward, and for the tenth or eleventh time, the room flipped upside down. This time, though, it was specifically a pin. "Yeeeah," she approvingly grunted out, staring at her own knees, before she wriggled enough times to pop herself free.

Keeping the movements going, she rolled over until she could get back onto her knees, then propelled herself at Alba. Last exchange, and she would be sure to make it dramatic. She reached to hook her hand around Alba's collar and take her by the back, looking to lift her up into a position for a chokeslam.

[Dubski]

Alba Garcia had June pinned, but didn't really apply the pin too firmly. Normally in a match, she would have locked her arms around one of June's legs, or she would have adjusted her position to get more leverage. Instead, she just allowed June to kick out freely, not resisting her at all. Exhaling loudly, Alba would start to get up just as she stood and walked right into a chokeslam for June! The Spaniard staggered in place. Fortunately, this wasn't too bad. If it were in a match, she figured that it would be a lot more harsh than it was.

She was then lifted up, and as she was lifted up, Alba had managed to break the grip and land to the blonde's side stumbling a few paces. And then she went with her final move of the match. Waiting for June to turn, Alba got her arm prepared...

And she extended it for a handshake. "Good spar, June. Thank you..." said Garcia simply, offering a small smile to her as she panted, trying to catch her breath.

[Crossedes]

June lifted her high, held her - not as easily as she might have fifteen minutes earlier - and watched as Alba again showed that she was learning how to handle the roughness, the jostling, the potential devastation that someone of June's size could do to her smaller body by squirming away. Of course, there was no denying that a real match would have made even two of the moves June had executed agonizing stuff, painful enough to drop a lot of wrestlers with no other offense involved. But value clearly existed in the motion. Better yet, Alba looked to have perked up. June couldn't have gotten more out of the experience.

Not sure if Alba wanted to end that exchange there, she whirled, squared up, got ready to pick the woman up again - and stopped when it was a hand Alba extended to her. The adrenaline drained all at once, and June's shoulders slumped from the fatigue hitting her twofold. That didn't stop her from grinning big and taking the hand extended to her. Heck, June turned it into a hug, probably halfway smothering Alba in the process. "It's nothing! This is the kind of stuff I love about wrestling." How breathless she sounded probably made it sound as if it had been something.

"How are you feeling about things?"

[Dubski]

Alba smiled warmly right back at June as she took her hand. And soon it turned into a very eager hug, catching the Spaniard off-guard. Letting out a brief yelp, she was pulled against June's bigger form. Alba's face pressed against June's impressive, but also sweaty, bust, and she would gingerly return the hug, patting her back. "Thanks..." answered the dancer before prying herself away from June and brushing off her face.

She would then lean forward, putting her hands on her knees as she started to take deeper breaths now. Alba was beat, and she was more than ready for a break. She appreciated the hard work she put in though, feeling a sense of accomplishment. She picked her head up when June had a follow up question, looking a bit confused. "Feeling about... what? The training? It was great! I think it was really helpful! I haven't worked so hard in a long time!" said Alba before brushing some of her hair out of her face.

[Crossedes]

"Good!" June could read body language pretty well - so she thought - but as best she could tell, Alba had started getting more out of their spar than she had. Admittedly, that was probably because she had gotten tired faster, but she still would have given a great deal for Alba to have become a quarter as happy as she seemed compared to how dejected she had looked sitting on the locker room bench. Attempt to cheer her up? An absolute success as far as the blonde was counting, and she valued these things above just about anything else.

"Would you want to do it... again sometime?" Stupid breathing. She paused long enough to take in a huge breath and gather her composure, but she was almost too excited to pull it off. "I can give you my... number. Anytime you want to talk or spar or even go... out and do anything if you get bored or down, you can pretty much guarantee I'm game." The paladin came ninety percent of the way to continuing by asking her if she wanted to join her Dungeons and Dragons group... that was the sort of thing to spring on her later, though. "I'm new too, so I'd love some girl time."

[Dubski]

Garcia gave a few nods to June, standing back up straight with a smile still etched on her face. "Yeah! Sure! We can, um... exchange numbers to do stuff sometime," said Alba, looking a little bit surprised but containing it pretty well. She canted her head, gesturing to the locker room. "We can do that when I get my phone from my locker, but..."

Taking another deep breath, Alba Garcia smiled, looking grateful. "We can do girl time. What do you like to do, exactly? To hang out or... whatever? In your free time?" asked the Spaniard, looking around before she started to head out of the ring, waving June to follow her. She was looking to have a seat somewhere--mostly just to get out of the ring and relax a bit.

[Crossedes]

One thing June understandably couldn't pin down about Alba since it hadn't come up was what she might be the type to do in her free time. She was athletic enough that June could have seen her involved in any sort of sport. June did... not. Wrestling amounted to the only sport she had ever spent any real time on in her life because she had mostly hated doing anything active before she had discovered it. With Alba's question, she clenched her teeth, waggled her head. Not many wrestlers found June's spare time the stuff of friends in the making.

As she motioned for them to head back to the locker room, the blonde let her answer trickle. "Well, I... watch a lot of movies. Play video games. I, uh... write." While she swung through the ropes and flopped back down to the gym floor, she studied Alba's face, trying to see how all of that went over with the superior athlete. "Play... tabletop. To be honest, I'm a frickin' nerd." She really was, wasn't she? Hearing it all in a list made it even more obvious.

Oh, but there was one thing. "Oh, and I really like eating," she said, grinning, as she poked at a love handle.

[Dubski]

Alba Garcia made her way to a bench a little ways away from the ring with June following alongside her. The Spaniard listened to June's answer to what she liked to do in her spare time. Movies... Alba liked movies too. She liked to watch them to wind down often. It also helped with her English. But video games? That was less relatable. Writing... not a familiar hobby. But one she understood. She only really seemed to flinch at the video game one. At least until June mentioned tabletop, which seemed to completely perplex Alba. She wasn't sure what it was, or why it was nerdy, but she tried to figure it out.

The mention of eating made her smile though again as she swatted at June's hand, shaking her head. "Stop, you're in great shape. I like eating too. There are many great restaurants around here!" said Alba with a warm smile before plopping down on the bench, canting her head. "What is... tabletop? Is it an American thing?" asked Garcia, trying to parse the potential language or cultural barrier there.

[Crossedes]

"Yeah, but you must be using what you eat more often than I do! You do have to show me some good places to eat, though. I never came to this part of Tokyo much when my dad was traveling." Considering how hard the blonde worked, June knew her own words to be entirely untrue, but at one point, they would have hit right on the mark. No one could have bothered her to get up and do much of anything except watch her favorite shows, talk to friends online, play whatever new game had come out... Maybe she should write an autobiography someday. "The Statue Who Became a Wrestler." She would workshop that name, she decided, as she plopped down on the bench and ran her towel across her sweaty face.

"I think you have it across the pond, but it may be a different name..." What that different name was, June did not know. She was cultured, but not that cultured. "It's like... one person runs the game, and the other people make characters to play. You play through an adventure like it's Lord of the Rings or..." She tried to think up a more common fandom. "...a Marvel movie, and you use dice to figure out whether you succeed or fail at the heroic things you try to do."

It sounded so ridiculous out loud sometimes. "So yeah... pretty nerdy. Lots of math."