Fright Or Fight [VerMillion]

This isn't a part of the building that Heather has seen before, if only because of the locked door. In spite of what Jon may feel at times, she does try to find ways to keep herself entertained without involving him, and poking her nose into everything in the building not behind a locked door was one of them - though at least now that she's off of brave toxin she knew better than to touch anything chemical in nature while she was at it.

She's surprised at first when this locked door simply seems to be a closet, having assumed that it must have been something more important if he was going to lock the door, but the hatch-like door in the floor answers that confusion more than adequately. And she's grateful for his help down the steep staircase - the idea that she would trip and break her neck is probably not as far-fetched as one might think. She really is that big of a klutz at times, and perhaps that's why what they're doing tonight is such a good idea. She's just not used to doing physical things.

Once she's down the stairs, she peers around the room curiously for a few moments. All she can really tell by observation is that he's been attempting to grow something but seeing nothing actually growing she gathers that 'attempting' is the key word. She's tempted to ask him about it, but noting the intent look in his eyes she figures that if she did the question would fall on deaf ears so she doesn't bother. While she knows how to get his attention when his mind wanders off like that, it's hard so it has to be worth it. And given why they're down here, she knows he'll come back on his own soon enough. In the meantime, she silently helps him move the tables, trying not to be too nervous about this.

Up until recently, Heather never really had any reason or desire to know how to fight, so she didn't. Because any of that self-defense stuff is physical, and physical stuff is something that she does not 'do'. Or at least, she didn't - times have changed. So when Jon motions her closer, she's quick enough to come, but at first the answer to his question is a frown and a long pause as she tries to come up with an answer. But when she realizes that she's not going to be coming up with a good answer she instead says what's on her mind. "That's the problem!" she says, "I mean, I know I can't run worth anything, but I don't know the first thing about fighting either - I'd probably just hurt myself. That's why I kind of just... stood there." Well, that plus she tends to freeze up when she's scared, and Jon is scary when he's going after you. But the main problem is that she's a totally blank slate when it comes to defending herself - except possibly when she was on brave toxin. Yet even then she wasn't very effective.

Heather frowns to herself slightly as she remembers a few key points in the past where she really could have used at least a little fighting ability. Those moments are actually somewhat embarrassing to her upon reflection, even if there hadn't really been a need for her to know how to do better up until the day Jon hit her car. She'd avoided all those parts of the city that she knew were more dangerous and was with friends most of the time - it was like a completely different world from where she is now.

A world that, while she's not entirely certain of, she knows that at least for the time being she needs to adapt herself to. While there was a time that she didn't try to escape because she was worried about what Jon might do if she did, it's actually been a long time since since she's even thought about the possibility of leaving. Mostly because she's had no real desire to. At worst she's simply wanted to get out of the hideout more often, to help relieve boredom, but that's different from actually wanting to leave. In fact, Jon could leave the front door of the hideout unlocked after telling her that he'd be gone for several hours and she wouldn't go. There's still the question of what she'd do if someone directly gave her the choice to stay or go since that would make the decision conscious. But since that's not happened, and Jon hasn't given her any sign of doing anything different, she simply assumes that she'll be hanging around him for the foreseeable future and doesn't object to that idea.

Which means that she needs to learn how to defend herself. Otherwise she's extremely liable to get killed or worse. So in spite of her reluctance to do anything physical, she does get why this is important. If she didn't, she'd have protested rather energetically about the whole idea. His words now, however, cause her frown to deepen since she takes his words slightly differently than he meant them. "Hey, if I can't do it, it'll be because I can't do it. Not because I don't understand," she says, sounding somewhat insulted, "I'm klutzy, not stupid." She's actually a bit defensive about her intelligence because several aspects of her personality would lead people to believe that she's not as smart as she is.

One of those personality defects is her attention span, though that's actually extremely linked to her interest level in what's going on. Which makes it particularly bad when she's on brave toxin since that greatly lowers her level of interest in anything that would normally make her nervous. However, if she has an interest then she also has an ability to focus, roughly proportional to the level of interest. If you get her doing something she finds really fascinating she could focus on it all day. Not that Jon would know that, since she's had a hard time finding anything that she finds that interesting around here, and when she did he was probably too focused himself to wonder why she'd managed to go for so long without bothering him while he's working.

If Jon thinks that the way he treats her differently is subtle then he's rather mistaken, at least from where Heather is standing. Even though she didn't meet him until recently, she's followed the news much more closely than most for the past five years. That hardly taught her anything about what he's like as a person, but she is very keenly aware of the usual results of his interactions with people. It's not normal for him to kidnap someone and keep them for this long. It's also not normal for them to remain unharmed. And every time she's come off of brave toxin she's been amazed that she's still alive after what she did while she was on it. Not that any of it was overly bad, but she has a hard time believing that he's so tolerant of her. She's not sure if that means that she's just that important to his plans or if... no, it couldn't be that... Stop dreaming!

She makes a slight face at his response, indicating both her disagreement and lack of desire to actually argue the point. That's not a point that will be proved through argument but action. She will understand or she won't, she'll be able to do it or she won't, and there's only one way to find out. And she's actually finding herself to be quite determined to give it her best shot on both accounts.

When he steps closer and starts adjusting her stance, she suddenly finds herself having to remind herself that he's not touching her as a man touches a woman but as a fighting instructor touches a student, and she mentally kicks herself for the distraction. Thinking like that will make it impossible to concentrate! But he's standing so close...

She manages to shake that thought though, and experimentally shifts her weight on her feet a little in order to try and concentrate on the topic at hand. Yes, balance... most important thing... It seems somewhat obvious, but then again Heather's not really thought about it before so it's still new to her. And the way she's standing now does feel more secure. Or is that because Jon is right there? Jeez, can't she focus for one minute! She nods slowly to show her understanding of the concept, though.

In spite of her best efforts, Heather's thoughts continue to alternate between attempting to concentrate on the position he's putting her body and being distracted by his touch. So it's no wonder that with her mind going everywhere that she stiffens up. And when he verbally tells her to correct that, she frowns - just what she needed, something else to have to think about. "Okay..." she says as she tries, fighting within her mind for more of it to concentrate. It helps immensely when he steps away; like this, she's supposed to stand like this? She can remember that... Probably...

Though when she sees how he's looking at her out of the corner of her eyes, she looks back at him. It's true that she probably looks pretty helpless even if she's in a decent fighting stance; she's short, and while she's thin like Jon her own thinness has the added element of a general lack of muscle instead of compact ones. And though she's able to hold the position, she's not used to it and is a bit uncomfortable with the unfamiliarity of it so it looks artificial - she probably looks like someone could knock her over with a decent shove. And that's probably even true... And it also doesn't help that she can't look at him looking at her without wondering if he's seeing someone as horribly pathetic and inadequate as she feels around him sometimes.

When he suddenly breaks into some sort of a fighting routine, she's surprised at first, but since it isn't hard for her to guess his purpose in it, she watches him as carefully as she can. It's a lot easier to learn something if you know what you're trying to do is supposed to look like when you're doing it correctly, and though she's seen Jon fight before it was normally over too quickly for her to really absorb. So actually seeing something extended is rather helpful, especially with the whole idea of balance in the back of her head. Then again, in the front of her head she can't help but notice and appreciate just how gracefully Jon can move... And yet she also notes that the strikes interspersed among the movements would be very bad to be in the way of - she's actually seen what that looks like against a real person before.

As he finishes and starts walking back, she finds that she has a greater understanding of the role balance plays since she'd noticed its presence throughout the whole routine. But she also finds herself somewhat less confident in her own ability to learn to do that - it also kind of rubbed it in her face that she's got a lot of work ahead of her if she wants to come anywhere close.

She resettles herself into the same balanced stance she was in before as Jon gets close, having lost it while she watched and feeling rather self-conscious now, but finds herself better able to concentrate as he fans her fingers like his were. And his quiet words actually help a lot more than he realizes. "A dance?" she repeats to herself. She actually does know how to dance. Hip hop, to be specific. Took her forever to learn it, but it helped her become more 'cool' in high school and impressed her friends in college, so it was worth it. But if it's like a dance, maybe it isn't so far-fetched for her to learn to fight too.

Lost in those thoughts and thinking more about her balance than what Jon's actually doing, she's actually somewhat surprised when he starts pulling on her ankle. "Whoa!" she says as she tries to balance on the other leg, her arms shifting wildly for a moment before she manages to do so. Her poor sense of balance is actually one of the main contributors to her overall klutziness problem, but once she steadies herself she does notice that her hands have instinctively flared out just like he showed her a moment ago. Ah, that's what it's for! It becomes even harder as he shifts her leg further and she's rather wobbly, but with his help she manages to keep from losing her balance completely. But it's hard enough for her that she actually manages to focus on what she's doing rather on the fact that he's touching her - she can appreciate the fact that he touched her when she doesn't feel like she's in imminent danger of falling over.

Focusing entirely on keeping herself upright, Heather doesn't completely notice when Jon stops assisting her - not unlike how a child learning to ride without training wheels doesn't know when their parent stops holding the seat once they're up to speed. But though she's wobbly and would probably fail to keep her balance if she tried this for too long, over the short term she can just manage.

Though what Jon says next almost causes her to lose it because she abruptly turns her head to look at him, and she's just barely able to compensate for it after some rather severe wobbling. Once she's relatively steady again, though, she's actually able to respond, "Um, okay." Though she can't give him her full trust, she quite naturally gives him all the trust she can given the circumstances. Which is quite a bit, actually, and definitely includes falling back when she's told to without questioning it much.

She turns her head to look forward again, taking a deep breath before she allows her center of gravity to shift too far back. It's definitely easier to fall than it is to maintain her balance, though ensuring that she's falling in the right direction takes a little thought. Though when she falls she proves to have some instinct on how to preserve herself; her head moves forward a little and her back rounds slightly as she goes backwards, ensuring that if Jon for whatever reason doesn't catch her the impact will be safely absorbed by her spine. She has, after all, fallen a large number of times in her life. And just because it was generally unintentional doesn't mean that she didn't learn from the experience - get a couple of concussions and you figure out how to be more careful about your head. But otherwise she manages to hold her leg up and her arms steady as she falls, attempting to do exactly as she was told.

When she feels herself falling past the point where Jon ought to have caught her, for that split second Heather cries out in protest before hitting the ground. It's not that hard of a hit, given that she was in a good position, but even in a good position it hurts. Emotionally as well as physically, actually She lays there for a moment, surprise, shock, and anger competing on her face until Jon comes to her side and speaks to her. She listens with an angry frown on her face, silent until he's finished as she doesn't quite know what to say.

But then she suddenly shifts to kick angrily in the general direction of his legs, though she's still laying on the floor. She doesn't expect to hit him since he's stepped a bit away and, well, this is Jon we're talking about. But she's angry enough to feel the need to express that emotion physically in some way. "Is that your way of saying that I shouldn't trust you?" she asks somewhat coldly as she rolls over and then pushes herself back to her feet, though with a hint of disbelief in her voice that hints that she'll listen if he wants to say otherwise. Listen, but perhaps not calm her anger if he doesn't have an extremely good reason for doing that. Now her back hurts...

His words cause Heather to scowl at him, and she ignores the hand that he offers her. There's a long moment as she tries to figure out what to say to that, though it's easy to see from her continued anger that she's refusing to accept what he's saying. But eventually she mutters, "Are you teaching me how to fight or are we going to argue? Because if it's the second one, I'm not interested."

She pauses for a moment to stretch her back a little, trying to ease off the amount of pain that it's complaining about. She hates pain, and the fact that it's Jon's fault makes it even worse. And since she's not about to accept his reason for it, she's not going to chalk it up as a mistake and a lesson learned. He simply shouldn't have done it, end of story.

Once she's satisfied that she's sufficiently recovered from the fall, she looks over in his direction as if to silently ask what they're doing next. Though her mood is considerably soured at this point, and so is much of her motivation to even try something that's already proving to be so difficult.