Training For Stress Relief [tag: anyone]

Nicole had taken a break from her secretarial duties for a while, pulling her hair back into a sleek ponytail. She stepped quietly into the gym, wearing her collared white shirt and black dress pants. She didn't bother to change because she was so stressed out. It wasn't even the work; it waslife itself. Nicole never had anyone to care for because she had given up her life to be an agent. There was no such thing as caring for anyone in her eyes.

She stepped into the boxing ring, throwing a barrage of completely terrific combos of kicks and punches at the bag until she ripped it clean in half with a roundhouse kick. Satisfied with her damage, she looked around and spotted the gym mats. Escatic, she jumped off of the ring to go do various gymnastically acrobatic routines she was tauggt in the agency.

Vlad had been walking by when he heard the sounds of someone fighting. Curious, he opened the door to the gym and looked inside. A woman was practicing gymnastics by herself.
"Just blowing off some steam, are we?" Vlad asked after a minute of watching.

Nicole landed herself into a split, turning her head towards the intruder. "Yeah.. blowing off steam. We all need to do it." She got up, straightening her shirt as she walked over to Vlad. "Nicoletta Fairburn," she said, extending her hand, "Nice to meet you."

He gripped her hand a little tighter than he usually did as he shook it. Something seemed off about this woman. But the Count was a master at hiding his emotions when he wished it.
"It is a pleasure, madame. Count Vladislaus Draculea; though the staff call me Vlad." the vampire greeted her. Only then did he remember to let go of her hand.

Nicole could tell that something was odd about the man before her, and she looked down at their shaking hands for a moment before she noticed that he had gripped it just a tad bit hard. "Well, then, Vlad.. I suppose you should know that most people call me Nicole for short. Now we're even, yes?"

She stretched out the joints in her hands, looking at him inquisitively. "I'm the temp secretary around here.. got stressed and decided to come and get some physical fitness in. Do you teach or?"

"Oh yes, I teach here. I'm the new Drama teacher, actually." Vlad replied. An odd idea struck him. A smile playing across his face, he regarded her for a minute.
"You said you came in here to relieve stress. Perhaps I might help you with that. Would you be interested in a friendly sparring match, right here?" Vlad suggested.

Nicole heard the word 'spar' and instantly perked up inside. Sparring was her favorite thing to do.. but she couldn't show her excitement. She was a secretary.. one named Nicoletta, to be exact; and she couldn't give herself away. She knew one thing, though.. she wasn't going to hold much back.

"Oh, a sparring match sounds like fun," said Nicole in a bubbly tone, straightening her posture, "Thank you for offering. Shall we? You'll have to excuse me, though.. I'm a bit rusty."

Rusty, hah.. what a statement. Inside, she was positively ecstatic; finally she could have a proper opponent and she could put her years of extensive combat training to use.

Vlad knew for sure that she would accept. Nicole seemed like a woman who loved a challenge. And he was not one to turn away from one when it was offered.
"Very well. Don't think I will hold back on you though. I can get a little over zealous when I fight, even if it is just for fun." he warned her as he stepped ten paces away from her. Then, he turned to face her again and waited for her to indicate that they had begun.

"Oh, I know you won't hold back.. and, in turn, neither will I," she said smoothly, flipping her hair to the side and looking at the ground, then backing up slowly. "Ready when you are."



(ooc: Commence the badassery that is Nicole and Vlad's friendly little spar! <3)

Vlad gathered from the look on her face that she was determined to wait for him to make the first move. Fine then. She was in for a tough fight.
The Count rushed her, his speed surprising her for a second. He knocked her down with one fast push of his hand. She tried to swing her leg around to trip him, but he only jumped to avoid it. Unexpectedly, he caught her leg between his feet.
"How will you use your feet now?" Vlad asked, a little teasingly.

Nicole, already annoyed with herself for letting her body hit the floor, laid there for a fleeting moment. "Don't get too cocky, sir," she said, maneuvering herself so she could grab his ankles and manage to flip herself over onto his shoulders in a hand-stand like position, flipping over him so she landed perfectly upright. All those years of flexibility training certainly paid off. "Catching a lady off guard.." she waggled her finger at him tauntingly, "Not a good trait to have, hm?"

"Oh, you're not the first woman I've caught offguard. And I doubt you'll be the last." Vlad replied as he rolled to his knees. Once on his feet again, he threw several punches at her. Nicole blocked each of them by using her arm as a shield. Each time she tried to hit him back, he simply avoided her blows. She definately had fight in her, he could tell.

"Shh, hun, you might.." She caught his right fist, twisting it and putting her legs around his neck, finally pinning him on his back as she sat on him. She leaned over to whisper in his ear, a slight smirk on her face, "..get caught off guard as well."

Vlad only laughed at her mistake. There were a number of things he could do in that position. He quickly brought his legs up, kicking her over his head and he watched her slide a few centimeters from where she landed. He got to his feet, laughter still coming from his mouth.
"Perhaps this will be less pleasurable and more costly than you think." Vlad joked, not even bothering to hide his fangs since he couldn't stop smiling.

Nicole slid across the floor, landing in a cat-like pose. She didn't notice it, but her nose had started to trickle blood. "Whatever," she said, chuckling a bit before tasting the blood in her mouth. "Well damn," she said, touching the trail of scarlet, "I'm bleeding already.."

She shrugged, rushing towards him, doing a roundoff and using her legs to throw him into the wall behind him. After getting up, she straightened her shirt, rolling her neck around. "This isn't going to end soon, I hope you know that."

Vlad had been smart enough to brace his hands to catch him before he hit the wall. He felt his nails dig into the wall. When he looked at them, he found they were turning into claws.
A scent reached his nose, one he recognized all too well. Blood. He felt that animal instinct try to take him over, but he pushed it back. He could go for another day without blood and he was going to do it.
"It may go on longer than you anticipated, now that you've had an...accident." Vlad warned her. He came at her again, swiping at her with his clawed fingers. She was barely avoiding getting scratched by him, and he was barely avoiding doing any serious damage.

"Well, let it go on, then," said she, ignoring the feel of the bruising that was coming from her injured nose, "What, you think just because my nose is bleeding a little bit that I'm going to go cry home to my mommy?"

She shook her head at him, keeping her guard up just in case he decided to take advantage of her standstill, "You'rea vampire, you like blood, blah blah whatever. I know these things, and it takes a lot more than that to scare me outta my panties, so you can count that one out. I am not a scaredycat in any sense." While she was speaking, she had started to move across the room in an agile fashion, moving locations fairly quickly. "Catch me if you can, Vlad!" she called out playfully, a chuckle following afterwards.

She really didn't know who she was dealing with, he decided. No matter how fast she was, he would always be faster. He followed her, keeping just behind her to make her think she had a lead on him when in truth she didn't.
Vlad stopped to wait for a second, knowing she would be there soon. Just as she looked his way, he backhanded her so hard that she fell back onto the mat behind them. Some of her blood had stained his hand when he hit her that time. He licked it away quickly, just to avoid the temptation later.

(ooc: sorry for being gone for a while Dx I recently started my own rp and I've been super duper busy with school and stuff, so.)

A sickening crack followed Nicole's landing on the mat, the woman instantly whipping her head up and standing. Her nose was bleeding again, a straight line drawing itself from her right nostril and dripping down her chin.

"..You broke my nose."

After she said those chilling words, she paused. In a blink of an eye, she was a few feet from Vlad, and dodged a few of his blows before catching his leg and throwing him into the wall again. She couldn't tell if she was legitly upset or if it was her frustration talking, but with Vlad's landing, the wall cracked just enough to see physical evidence.

"If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't think this was so friendly anymore.."

Vlad gingerly pulled himself from the wall. He tested his shoulder to see if it was injured. Thankfully, it hadn't been. If it had been permanent damage, he would've been very upset.
"Oh, you're impressive. I haven't had this sort of challenge in some time." the vampire commented.

"Well, I'm glad you think so," said Nicoletta, putting both hands on her nose and pushing it back into place, "Impressing people is what I live for."

She sat down, not a bead of sweat visible on her body. "I call a time-out. I haven't eaten all day and I'm getting lightheaded." She ran a careful hand through her hair, looking over at the teacher. 'Vampire, eh? That's useful."

"As you wish. I was beginning to worry that I might break you during this match." Vlad teased her.

Nicoletta narrowed her eyes at him. "You broke my nose, not my willpower," she said, wiggling it just a bit, "It's fine now anyway. Gonna bruise, but whatever. Wonder what the Headmistress will say when she sees her secretary's gotten injured already.. oh well. Woman's opinion isn't much to me anyway."

"That's good to know. However, I wasn't talking about breaking your will, but your body. If I wanted to break your will, I would have mentally tortured you." Vlad corrected her.

"I'm sure you would've," said she, pulling her hair to one side and running her fingers through it, "You seem like the type to. Innerly ruthless, unhuman.." 'Funny', she thought, 'You're the same way, Nicole..'