[WoD] Abounding Coincidences - Intricacies of Love

[Fiona Devlin]

"Now," she said, her eyes, still closed, unaware Michele was peeking at her.

".. focus on breathing. In through your nose, and out through your mouth."

:: Fiona fanned her arms above her head slowly as she did so ::

[Michele Hawkins]

Least I wasn't caught peeking, but now I got a better way to do this. I try and take on a similar stance as her and repeat the motions with my own hands, while I breathe as instructed.

After a minute of this, I get into a nice rhythm. But it's still weird, focusing on breathing like this. I never really thought about how I breathed. I just, ya know, did it.

[Fiona Devlin]

:: Fiona opened her eyes again, then guided Michele through the basic movements of a tai chi form, one movement at a time ::

[Michele Hawkins]

So I open my eyes and focus on Fiona's arm movements. She does them slowly, sometimes two or three times to demonstrate if I need it and try to mimic it back to her. I feel like I'm all rigid and stuff compared to how graceful Fiona is, but I gotta keep trying to remember she's been doing this a lot longer then me.

[Fiona Devlin]

:: Fiona's face was passive, and her nature one of patience as she guided Michele through the series of soft, circular, open handed movements ::

[Michele Hawkins]

I've gone from rigid to jello and I feel like my arms are just flopping around just to do something. I just hope none of my frustrations are leaking onto my face.

[Fiona Devlin]

:: Fiona turned around then, aligning herself the same way Michele was facing, than moved through the form again for her ::

[Michele Hawkins]

Okay, this was much harder because I really had to rely on remember some of the movements on my own. Some were okay because there was a pattern involved with the next motion. Some royally sucked and I was standing their like an idiot, unsure of what to do at times. Sigh.

[Fiona Devlin]

:: Fiona turned, sensing the frustration and took Michele's hand ::

"Don't get discouraged. No one is grading you here."

[Michele Hawkins]

Bah. Caught.

I squeeze her hand. "I just wanted to do it right."

And to impress her. Which I know is stupid of me but I'm really overwhelmed by everything that she does. I feel like I've done so little in my life when Fiona's done so much. It's kinda intimidating.

[Fiona Devlin]

"You're trying too hard, instead of letting yourself feel the movements."

:: She let go of Michele's hand and began again ::

[Michele Hawkins]

"Sooooo ... I'm not supposed to do it right?" Okay, I'm more confused. I would think that doing it right was just as important.

[Fiona Devlin]

:: Fiona reached out and gave Michele a playful shake ::

"You're very tense. We need to fix that."

[Michele Hawkins]

I can't help but laugh as my head bobs back and forth. "Any suggestions?"

[Fiona Devlin]

"A massage." she replied with a serious, but friendly face.

:: She pulled her hair free of the ponytail it was in ::

[Michele Hawkins]

"I should be tense more often," I say with a joking seriousness.

[Fiona Devlin]

:: Fiona walks over to fetch her sports bottle sitting beside a Japanese sword stand and heads for the door ::

[Michele Hawkins]

My curiosity overrides the blissful massage waiting for me as I see the sword stand. Fiona has weapons too??? Well, it does make sense. Martial Arts stuff isn't just about hand to hand fighting.

I hop over there and lean over the katana and, um, well little katana? My eyes follow the arc of the black scabbard and even watch myself do that since I can see my reflection on it. This didn't look like one of those cheap pieces of crap you'd find late at night on the Home Shopping network.

[Fiona Devlin]

:: Fiona tossed a glance over her shoulder ::

"Yoo hoo, Miss Hawkins." she cooed.

[Michele Hawkins]

D'oh! I catch up with Fiona and smile apologetically. "Sorry, I was admiring the sword display."