>>"Hey! I can't tell if I'm flattered at this point or I feel challenge by it. Maybe both. You're just as good at getting into trouble as me. Eventually I'll be about as good at getting out of it, then we'll see who's keeping an eye on who."

A slow grin spread out on Gawain's face and he felt his shoulders tense up in the instinct of squaring for a fight.

"Now there's the Evelyn I remember dragging off into the Danger Room" he chuckled, suddenly a lot less nervous about the whole idea of his girlfriend joining the X-team. She often behaved like a shy girl around him, but he had seen her in fight situations, and she was a lot more feisty than she gave herself credit for.

Also, when it came to dragging her to places, the DR was not the first on his mind anymore.

"I'll take your challenge m'lady" he smirked, bowing to her "It shall be a fair fight."

>>"Now there's the Evelyn I remember dragging off into the Danger Room"

She laughed and put a hand on her hip, grinning slightly. "Not quite the same Evelyn. Next time you try that I don't think you'll find it quite as easy."

The echoes flickered back to life, feeding off Gawain's body language. With a smirk, she laughed, and responded quickly as he bowed. In a quick movement she swiped the bow from across his shoulder where he had placed it, and darted a few feet away, grinning with a twinkle in her eye.

>>"It shall be a fair fight."

"Fair fight, perhaps.... Can't say much for what the echoes do though." Her posture was calm enough, but she had learned a few things during the lessons she had taken. It would only take a few steps to shift her body weight so she couldn't get knocked over as easily, and while she wasn't tough, she was nimble enough out here in the open to make a challenge out of a game of keep away.

>>"Not quite the same Evelyn. Next time you try that I don't think you'll find it quite as easy."

He raised an eyebrow at her tone, acknowledging the challenge. Evelyn could definitely put up a fight, she just needed to get used to not shying away from it. Gawain liked to see this rare side of her.

>>"Fair fight, perhaps.... Can't say much for what the echoes do though."

"Well we'll just... hey!"

She took his bow and danced away with a smile, and Gawain's eyes narrowed and he straightened up from the bow, but he couldn't keep the corner of his mouth curling up.

"Now you have done it." he said slowly, then let out a low whistle. Two furry ears snapped to attention.

"Angua. Fetch."

Angua....Evelyn was not quite planning on that move, and the echoes scrambled to suggest an idea as the giant dog started forward. She was grateful for her fast thinking at this point. Otherwise, she would have already had the bow yanked from her arm. Fetch... She had to think like Angua for a second. Was fetch Evelyn, or fetch the bow? She was pretty sure it would be the bow, especially when she gave it a toss up towards the nearest tree, where it casually dangled from one of the smaller branches.

"Oh, whoops. My bad." Ok, she wasn't sorry. At least not yet. She would be if she still got ever so lovingly tackled by the dog anyway. Self defense against humans was one thing. Animals was another field she wasn't close to getting into yet.

The bow flew up and Angua changed directions mid-leap, bounding past Evelyn and towards the tree, jumping up trying to get the bow. Fetch was something that she had been trained for, but so far it always meant objects, not people. However, a giant size puppy bounding past and over provided a momentary distraction that Gawain was fully intent on exploiting. Starting forward he moved in Evelyn's blind spot, ready to grab her from behind while the echoes were occupied with Angua and the bow...

The echoes were useful at times, but then others they tended to make things more difficult. Dragging their attention back away from the bow and Angua was not an easy task, and while she had been practicing her timing was still a little slow. Gawain was already moving, and she had little time to react. Still, little time was more than no time.

Gawain went to grab her and Evelyn shifted her stance, swinging her arm back to try and push away one of his arms. She didn't fall over, point for her, but it still wasn't perfectly executed to stop his move entirely. Chances of her getting one arm trapped and the other free were very high, and chances of escaping without resorting to rude measures like kicking immediately dropped.

Evelyn was too slow on the uptake, but still faster than Gawain expected. She managed to twist one arm free when he grabbed her around the waist and tipped her off her feet. Unfortunately, one flailing arm was enough to make him duck, avoiding an elbow to his ear, and consequently also lose his balance. Staggering two steps back he ended up falling against the tree, maintaining his hold on her and taking the brunt of the impact on his back.

"Ugh... not bad for a rookie."

Falling... there always seemed to be a lot of falling when they practiced, and while she had her stance pretty decent this time, nothing really helped when the other person toppled over. She flinched slightly as Gawain fell against the tree, and sheepishly grinned over her shoulder.

"Alls fair in love and training?" She remarked, then stuck out her tongue at his comment. With her free arm she tried to get a grip on the mirror-walkers wrist to free herself. If it were a real fight things like pressure points were fair game, but this was more a playful defense of her ego. Instead, she tried to loop her leg behind Gawain's to send him the rest of the way to the ground.

>>"Alls fair in love and training?"

"Love?" Gawain smirked and planted a kiss below her ear while she struggled to pull his wrist free. She might have been sneaky and faster than before, but he still had the upper body strength on her that she could not compete with, and his arrow hand was slightly stronger anyway.

He almost missed her leg looping around his. He was in a more stable position now that he had his back against the tree, but the insistent kicking didn't help, so he finally rolled to the ground, pulling her down too, and looping his own leg around hers to hold her in place, all limbs pinned except for a hand, and completely pinned by her weight in return.

Gawain blew strands of white hair off his face and peered up.

"Um... so now what?..."

The kiss made the echoes pause for a moment, but then she was back to wiggling free of Gawain's hold. Well, that might have been the goal. Instead she found herself mostly pinned and staring down at Mirror.

>>"So now what?"

Evelyn's echoes assessed the situation and brought a shade of red to her face that was impossible to hide. She coughed slightly and sheepishly looked away. "Well....Maybe you should think of something." She quickly stammered before the echoes made her feel more awkward than she already did. The echoes were breaking her this time.

>>"Well....Maybe you should think of something."

He did not need to look to tell she was blushing. Good thing this only ever happened with him, otherwise she would be in trouble on the field.

"Oh, I can think of a lot of things" he murmured with a smirk, pushing her further into confusion as a purely tactical step (obviously).

Fortunately for her (or him) (or someone), Angua chose this moment to give up her hunt for the bow and jog over to the couple tangled in the grass and want in on the action. Pushing a big wet puppy nose in between them she proceeded to lick faces and paw at shoulders.

"Ew... ugh, Angua, no!" Gawain released Evelyn in his hurry to roll away from puppy slobber, and held out and arm to shield his face "Down!"

>> "Oh, I can think of a lot of things"

Mayday, mayday, that took care of the echoes, and Evelyn grew further scarlet and let out a nervous giggle. She was preoccupied enough she didn't catch Angua's presence until she was getting a tongue bath and a cold nose shoved in her face by the dog. She laughed and scooted away, Angua forced to choose between the two and thankfully favoring Gawain. She smirked and shook her head, face slowly gaining it's normal pale color, while inwardly her heart was still thundering in her throat.

It would be a good thing if this never happened in real combat. Being embarrassed into submission wasn't the usual tactical maneuver people used, but it still had a crippling effect on her thoughts she tried not to admit.

As the tail wagging swung a bit close to her face, Evelyn chuckled, and grinned around the dog's figure. "I think she's jealous."

>>"I think she's jealous."

"You think?!" Gawain sat up, pushing the puppy nose out of his face. His hair was sticking up from random licks, which only added to the comic potential of his bewildered expression. "Down, girl!" she patted the dog who obediently rolled onto her back, tongue lolling out.

"Well, there goes my plan for training a fierce battle dog." he frowned, scratching Angua's belly, then chuckled as he looked up at Eve.

"Not bad though, for a brawl. You'll need to build some strength, but not bad at all. As long as your opponent doesn't make you blush that is..."

Okay, that was a low jab. The young knight grinned.

>>"Not bad though..."

Evelyn grinned, drinking in compliment for the moment. Then Gawain went and popped her bubble.

>> As long as your opponent doesn't make you blush that is..."

"Hey! You're the exception, not the rule. Not my fault you are using your charm to your advantage against me." She stuck out her tongue then smirked slightly. "Plus, two can play at that game."

>>"Hey! You're the exception, not the rule. Not my fault you are using your charm to your advantage against me. Plus, two can play at that game."

"That's exactly what I've been talkin' about" Gawain agreed, hand-combing through his hair to get the cow(dog)licks out. If Evelyn was distracted by him during their brawl, the same thing went the other way as well. Granted, right now they had no one to focus on but each other, but still.

"We'll have to learn to... not get distracted, I guess." he noted the obvious. With so much tension in the air, that was going to be a trip and a half...