Tarin was frowning, he didn't really want to do this, Lee knew. If she was honest with herself, she didn't really want Tarin to do this, either, but this was really the whole point in taking these lessons in the first place, to learn how to fight, to protect themselves. And there really wasn't much point in the lessons if they ended up not being any help in real situations because they had taken it easy on each other.

His fists were clenched, and it looked like he was really debating with himself, too. But finally Tarin said 'alright', and almost before the word was even out of his mouth he was moving. Lee was slightly more ready this time, but not enough. She'd managed to brace herself slightly, but not move out of the way, and the sweep knocked her from her feet again.

Only this time, Lee didn't feel her back hit the floor. Instead, she felt Tarin's arms catching her, something that she was actually quite impressed with for the brief moment before his arm came up and wrapped around her throat.

His arm, wrapped around her throat, was definitely tighter than it had been the last time. Not as tight as it could have been, Lee was still able to pull a bit of air through her windpipe, but most definitely Tarin was holding her tighter than he had been the last time.

And then she started moving. It was difficult, she didn't have a lot of room to move with how she was being held, and things were different than what John had said because she was mostly laying down this time, having not had a chance to even try getting up after having her legs swept from under her. But Lee had to try, had to do this. And quickly, to prove to herself that she'd be able to do it when someone was holding her even tighter.

A bit of twist...Ok! Lee decided that suggestion of John's didn't work as she felt her air supply being cut even further due to her movement. Attempt number two.

That didn't work very well either, but at least it seemed to ease up some of the pressure on her throat very slightly.

Attempt number three, success! Lee felt the hold pop open and a split second later she was able to gasp in air. Then Lee was moving, pulling the arm fully from around her neck, turning as she came up onto her knees, pushing Tarin away from her as she did. Hey, in a real fight, she'd be doing at least that much, wouldn't she?

Lee went down, again, Tarin would have been proud of himself if it hadn’t been for the arm wrapped around his wife’s neck. The hold couldn’t be comfortable, and Tarin could only imagine how hard it was probably getting for Lee to pull in breaths. He almost lost his resolve, then, but reminded himself again exactly what it was that could happen if Lee wasn’t ready for a situation just like this. The spirits were tricky sometimes, and if Lee didn’t figure out that a merge had occurred, there was always the chance that one could get the drop on her. This was good, this was necessary…this was working way the hell too well.

Lee was shifting around, trying this technique and that technique that John had shown her in order to break the hold. None of it was working. Tarin held tight, starting to panic slightly and wondering just how much trouble he’d be in with Lee if he let go and gave up on the game. It was starting to get a little too real as he heard her gasping for air and felt her throat and hands struggling against his hold. There was only so much a man could be expected to handle, right? Tarin was just getting ready to loosen his hold when Lee twisted.

The twist in and of itself wasn’t all that strange. Besides the fact that it broke the hold he’d had on her neck, it put a little space between the two of them. Then Lee shoved him. Lee shoved him and Tarin felt like he’d been hit by a small wrecking ball. It took a moment for him to realize that his feet had left the floor, and when the realization finally dawned, Tarin only had time to pull his arms into his body before the far wall of the dojo stopped his progress.

The walls were padded for situations when peoples’ sparring brought them too close for safe combat, but the blue padding did little to stunt the momentum that Tarin had built up in the air. Into the wall he crashed, doing an amazing impression of a mosquito on a windshield as he slid down, landing on his face on the cushioned floor.

It was a few moments before he could even think to move. Lee had shoved him before, Lee had used her strength on him before…but Lee had never done something like that before.

Tarin’s whole body hurt, and his head was spinning slightly where it had knocked into the wall where he hit. Nothing felt broken, though, and when he picked up his head and opened his eyes, he could see people moving towards him…or maybe that was just one person, seen in double. “Woah…” he groaned.

((OOC: Yay for power growths!))

Lee's eyes widened as she knelt there on the mat, gasping for breath. She'd broken the hold, actually managed to break it without using her powers, then pushed Tarin away to put a little extra space between them as she got up onto her knees.

She'd pushed him, and Tarin had gone flying across the room. She hadn't pushed that hard, had she? Lee wondered as she continued to kneel there, wide eyed. She couldn't have. It just wasn't possible. Sure, she didn't always have the best control over her speed and strength when she was energized like this, she slipped sometimes as did more than she was planning to, but that?!? Lee had never done anything like this, that much of an unexpected response.

For a full thirty seconds, Lee just sat there, eyes wide in shock, as she watched her husband fly across the room, hit the wall, slump to the ground.

And then Lee was moving. She was tired, though, so much more drained than she thought she'd have been because of the sleeper hold. If anything, that should have added more energy to her supply, at least once she got her breath back.

"Are you ok, Tarin?" Lee asked as she crouched down beside him. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do anything like that. Are you ok?"

Moving on the floor didn’t sound like a good idea. It didn’t sound like a good idea at all, and Tarin didn’t plan on moving for at least a few more minutes. This was what he got for pushing, this was what he got for insisting that Lee be prepared for situations that might not even happen. Tarin sighed, and regretted it when his ribs pulled. He’d lifted his head a moment ago and thought he’d seen people moving towards him. A voice a moment later announced the people as just a single person, Lee.

As always when something went wrong, Lee was blaming herself and panicking over the fact that he may have been hurt. “Don’t stress Lee….” Tarin managed to croak, “I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”

It was apparently time to move, because Lee wasn’t going to relax until she knew for sure that he was okay. The problem was, Tarin wasn’t quite sure that he was okay. Rolling was a slightly painful matter, but eventually he got to his back, then went about sitting up. It didn’t seem like anything was broken, which was definitely a good thing, but it felt like someone had ran his body through a meat grinder….twice…and as he sat up, Tarn groaned.

“Lee…really, just relax…I’m fine…but what was that? You’ve never packed a punch that strong.”

Tarin really didn't sound good when he finally answered her. Not at all. But despite that, he was telling her not to stress. Not to stress? He'd just flown across the room after she had given him a small shove.

But he was moving now, albeit slowly, and Lee reached out her hands to help him. Gently of course. Tarin definitely didn't look to be in very good shape. Maybe they'd have to make a visit to the Labs, or to the Mansion, when they left here, to get Tarin fixed up. All because of her.

Finally Tarin was sitting, though, so Lee just stayed there at his side, not even thinking about pushing him to get up even more at this point. Sitting, and asking her what she'd just done.

"I...don't know," Lee admitted slowly. "I have no clue. I just pushed you, and you went across the room...I didn't even push hard, I didn't think."

Lee didn’t know what had happened. Well, that made two of them. Tarin couldn’t even remember Lee’s hands hitting him. He didn’t remember much of anything other than what it felt like to fly. That part had been pretty cool, Tarin had to admit, right up until the part where he had slammed into the wall. That part definitely hadn’t been cool.

“That felt…different.” Tarin said, looking at Lee and tilting his head as he tried to puzzle out exactly what had happened. John chose that time to approach.

”Lee! You know you’re not supposed to use your powers full strength when you’re sparring. We’re doing this for situations when you can’t necessarily use them. I know Tarin told you not to hold back, but that was a little over the top.”

Tarin shook his head at their teacher and raised his hand to rub his neck, which was getting more and more sore by the moment. Whiplash anyone? “She didn’t mean to do it…” he said, looking up at their teacher and sighing deeply, “Sometimes things like this happen with our powers...since we’re each pretty unique as far as those things are concerned, we can’t always explain it.”

Tarin looked at Lee. Was this one of those things, or had she simply pushed him harder than she thought she had? Tarin didn’t know, but maybe it was time for another trip to the labs.

“Got any ice John?” he said, settling for getting on his feet for the moment.

Tarin's description of what had happened, what it had felt like was different? Sure, it was that, but really.

And then Lee heard John behind her, berating her for using her powers full strength on Tarin when they were simply sparring. "I don't even know what that was," Lee replied, her eyes still wide because of the shock and worry from it.

But Tarin was asking for ice now. Lee plopped fully down on the floor at this point beside her husband, no longer couching or kneeling there. "I didn't want to hurt you," she said softly. Lee was sure that Tarin already knew that, but she still felt the need to say it. "I don't even know what it was, but I didn't mean to do it.

"How could I have really pushed you that hard, and not realize it?"

The situation was quickly spiraling downward. Lee was getting more and more upset about what had happened, and John didn’t seem to understand exactly what was going on. All their instructor knew was that Lee had used her powers full strength on him while they were sparring. Tarin shook his head, wincing at the pain in his neck when he did so, yeah, they were going to need to stop by the labs or call Sebastian. That was for sure.

Lee pointed out again that she didn’t even know what had happened and Tarin nodded his head, fixing John with an apologetic look, “I’m telling you John, that’s like absolutely nothing that’s ever happened before. Lee’s pulled out her full strength on me a couple times in the past, that’s not what this was.”

The big man looked confused, then frustrated, then sighed and dropped his hands on his hips before going about dispersing the small crowd that had gathered around them after Tarin had flown.

Lee was apologizing again and as she plopped down next to him on the mats, Tarin reached out and grabbed her hand, “I know you didn’t mean to do that…” he said, but smiled slightly, “Though, honestly it’s kind of cool. You just tossed me like 15 ft without even trying. “

Lee mused over how she could have tossed him without even trying and Tarin shrugged his shoulders, eliciting a wince, “Maybe you weren’t trying physically, but you were trying really hard mentally.” It was a hard concept for Tarin to explain to someone whose powers weren’t mental, but he tried, “Sometimes I’m putting out so much effort when I’m sitting in a chair I feel like my head’s going to burst from the exertion. Could that be it?”

John was back now and he looked a little abashed before he spoke, ”You know I like you guys…” he said softly, squatting down to look at Tarin and Lee more levelly, ”And you guys are always welcome here…but that caused quite a spectacle. Is there any way you can make sure that doesn’t happen again? I don’t allow bigots in here, but what if you’d have hit another customer? “ John thought for a moment, obviously uncomfortable with what he was saying, and then he smiled, ”Look, don’t worry about it. If it ends up being a problem we can work out some before or after hours training times for sparring.”

Tarin smiled at the other man, he was being perfectly reasonable, “Thanks John.” He said, “I’ve got some things I kind of want to work on too that would be better after hours. We can talk about that next week though. I think we’re spent for tonight.”

Tarin turned to his wife, “What do you say to a stop by the labs? Surely Slate or Sebastian is around…unless you want to spend the next several hours giving me a massage…” Tarin grinned at that, it was something he probably wouldn’t mind. Not at all.

At least Tarin knew that she hadn't meant to do what she had somehow done to him, hadn't meant to hurt him at all. But on top of that, he thought that it was cool that she had just thrown him 15 feet across the room without even knowing how she had done it?

Sometimes her husband had a much different idea of what 'cool' was than she did.

Then Tarin asked if it might have been because she had wanted to do something like that really hard mentally, and Lee frowned in thought. "I don't know," Lee said slowly as she looked at Tarin. She had been wanting Tarin away from her at that moment, yet Lee had been making sure she didn't use too much strength on her husband so she didn't hurt him. She always did when they were sparring. "But how? My powers don't work like that..."

By this point, John was back, and Lee actually looked up at him this time while he was talking because, while yes it looked like Tarin was in pain, it didn't look like anything that was all that serious, and staring at him wouldn't change anything.

And then Lee's eyes shot back to Tarin when he started speaking again. What in the world did he want to work on that would be better to do after-hours? But Lee would have time to figure that out later since it wasn't a surprise when Tarin said he thought they were done for the night. Yeah, that was a bit of an understatement as far as Lee was concerned after what she'd just done to her husband.

So Lee just nodded in agreement with Tarin, then nodded again when he suggested they head over to the Labs to see if they could find Slate or Sebastian there. "The Labs," Lee said as she stood up. "I'd rather make sure it's nothing more than just some bruising first." Then Lee held out her hand to help Tarin up off the floor, though she was more than ready to move if her husband needed more help than that.

Lee handled what John said well, and he nodded his head once in acceptance. This wasn’t bigotry, it was simply a business owner trying to protect his business. Nobody had ever given Tarin and Lee a hard time for what they were in this dojo, but Tarin honestly couldn’t blame them for worrying.

Tarin hadn’t missed Lee’s look when he’d mentioned wanting to work on some things after hours. It wasn’t something he was going to talk to her about right now, though. Tarin had a feeling that Lee wouldn’t be a fan of what he had in mind. John was really into meditation and things like that and Tarin wondered if that might help him separate his consciousness from his body. It was something he hadn’t ever even brought up to his wife, and something she wouldn’t like. Especially since it was what had caused his coma. That was talk for later, though, what they needed to be concerned with today was getting up off the floor and getting to the labs.

That was apparently Lee’s preference in the matter and Tarin actually sighed a little disappointed sigh. There had been something to the idea of the massage for hours, with Sebastian or Slate it would simply be a matter of laid hands and poof. It was enough to make a man reckless, knowing there were people out there who could heal so easily.

It was time to get up now, especially if they were going to make their way to the labs. Lee was worrying again and Tarin laughed as he put his hands down and went about getting to his feet. The laugh turned to a slight grunt, then a groan at the stiffness already spreading through his body. “Maybe the labs isn’t such a bad idea after all…I don’t think anything is hurt worse than bruising…but I’m not sure a massage would do it.”

He was on his feet, sore but on his feet. Tarin took an experimental step and his back twinged and his neck hurt, but otherwise felt okay. “Let’s go.” He said, “Sorry John.”