(no subject)

"Okay, Ray," said Catherine as her brother and her older son finally came away from the knot of spectators, "spill it. How did you end up in a sword fight with my son's karate instructor?"

"It was my fault, Mom," Alex piped up. "I swear."

"Quiet, Alex," Catherine snapped. "Ray, is that true?"

Her brother squirmed. "Um-"

"Actually, Mrs. Haff, it is," came the sensei's deep voice from behind her. She turned around; there was a faintly amused look on his face. "Your son was remarkably well coordinated for a boy of his age. It's not very often we get new students in any age group who know how to stand properly."

She blinked, looking down at Alex. Her son was fidgeting, twisting his belt around both hands and untwisting as he listened. "How did that happen?"

"That part was my fault," said Ray, raising one finger. "Although I really didn't mean to interfere with anything you'd be teaching him when he got started as your pupil, Sensei."

"No interference at all." The taller man smiled.

"Wait," said Catherine, looking back and forth between the two men. "Ray, how did you- what did you even have the ability to teach? I mean, the last time you set foot in- well, in any martial arts school that I know of, you were on a bust, weren't you?"

"The plague of spirit roaches at Madame Fan Fok Fa's All-Women's Kung Fu and Cantonese Opera School, yeah."

"So how-" A soft zneert sound caught her attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Alex making a gesture that could have been mistaken for swinging a baseball bat. She froze.

"Apparently," said Sensei Chris, "your brother's been pretty assiduous in pursuing the weapon-based arts on his own. Alex here told me that his uncle had been teaching him the basics of sword fighting."

"With sticks," Alex added hastily, glancing to Ray in an I hope that didn't get you in trouble sort of way.

"Yes," said Catherine slowly. "Yes, he has. I've seen it in the backyard, but I thought it was just playing."

"Very accurate playing, then," said the sensei. "Alex said Ray, here, had mentioned something about iaido- are you familiar with that term?" She shook her head mutely. "It's the Japanese sword-drawing martial art, to put it as simply as possible. It's not particularly closely related to the unarmed combat forms that grew into isshin kenpo, but some of the most fundamental basics- like the stance- are pretty similar. When I heard about this, I asked Alex to bring his uncle next time if he could. It's not often I get to meet a practitioner."

"And he still hasn't," Ray noted. "I have no clue when I mentioned iaido around Alex, but I only know a couple of moves that a friend of mine taught me. Mostly what I know is what I learned from the Chinese broadsword instruction manual I got my hands on two years ago." He didn't blush, exactly, but he did develop a briefly embarrassed look.

Catherine stared at her brother for a while. "Let me see if I've got this straight," she said at last. "You taught yourself to use a sword..."

"Out of a book, yep."

"And somebody who was an actual martial artist taught you 'one or two moves'..."

"Well, it wasn't just John's instruction. I had other people to practice with." Ray held up both hands. "It just wasn't at any kind of formal school recognized by any of the martial arts authorities."

"Fine. Fine." Catherine shook her head. This sounded suspiciously like- "So you read a book and took up live-action roleplaying-"

"No! It wasn't like that-"

"Live action roleplayers, in my experience, don't usually put in an hour or two of solo practice every day for two years," the sensei pointed out.

She blinked again. "You what? Ray, you couldn't even practice the piano for forty-five minutes straight!"

He ducked his head, shoulders hunching up around his ears. "I got better?" he offered meekly.

"And what about that stretch in Montana?" It was an irrational question, she knew, but there was something irrational about the whole situation. Her brother not being crazy, not being a disgrace, she could accept- but this? This was almost... socially acceptable.

"Tree branch and open space in front of the cabin." Ray shrugged. "It's not like I had anything else to distract me at the time."

"And that's how you managed to get good enough with a-" She knew about the 'sabre, she'd seen it on the news, but you didn't mention that kind of thing in public. "-a sword- even a wooden- you were good enough to beat a real martial artist, a black belt-"

"I'm not as familiar with the use of the Chinese weapons as I ought to be," the sensei demurred. "As far as the armed forms go, we mostly concentrate on Okinawan weaponry in this school."

"And I didn't beat him, really," Ray said. "I just didn't get my ass handed to me. Which he would've done if I'd pressed the fight after disarming him, I'm sure."

"Damn straight I would've," the sensei returned.

Catherine covered her face with both hands.