Adrien laughed and ducked out of the way, not bothering to block when a quick sidestep solved the problem just as well. "Sure, sugarbear. I know how roughhousing works, and someone always gets hit in the face. It's, like, one of the rules of the universe."
"Yeah well," Alex shrugged a shoulder, taking another punch at Adrien, "I'm trying my best to not hit you in the face, hopefully that counts for something."
Adrien blocked it with a grin, bouncing a little as he waited for the next strike. "It counts for a lot, Alex. I just… I wanna be careful. We've got a casino to visit soon, and I won't look too nice if I've got a busted nose or a split lip."
Alex chuckled lightly, "No one's gonna care if you had a split lip, don't you humans have like… ointment or something you can put on it to cover it?" He asked. The Walker swung again, this time he punch twice.
Adrien ducked the first one and then blocked the second, wincing at the solid thump of Alex's fist against his arms. "I can't tell if you're talking about lipstick or foundation, but that doesn't matter because I couldn't use either on a split lip. It'd hurt too bad."
Alex lowered his arms when he saw Adrien wince, "Ah right, yeah that makes sense. If you arm okay? Sorry I think I hit it a little too hard then I meant to."
Adrien gave him a grateful smile when he dropped out of his stance, taking a second to soothe the dull ache starting to spread across his skin. "It's fine. I'll probably bruise, but that you can cover with makeup so it's not too bad. You can get back to punching me if you want."
Alex shook his head, "I don't want to bruise you again, we can continue this after our little trip," He felt bad for making Adrien bruise, "Do you want to try using your powers before we leave? Just to get a little practice in."
Adrien laughed softly, dropping out of his stance and rubbing his arm again. "That's sweet and all sugar, but I'm pretty sure whoever's fighting me for realsies isn't gonna stop because of one little bruise." He walked over to Alex, grabbing his hand with a soft smile. "But I'm not gonna stop you if you wanna move on to something else. What kind of weather should I try for?"
"I get that in a real fight the opponent won't stop, but we're going out and I don't want you bruised. we can come back to hand to hand afterwards," Alex gave Adrien's hand a small squeeze, offering a small smile back, "Target practice."
Adrien laughed and pecked him on the cheek. "I'm touched by how much you care about my wellbeing, babe," he teased, a fond smile on his face. "What target am I s'posed to be aiming at? And with what kind of weather?"
"Lightening," Alex turning around and pointed to a pile of boulders not too far away, "Try and aim for one of the boulders. That way in a fight, you know how to aim at whatever is attacking you." He shrugged, "Create a storm and go at it."
Adrien nodded, sizing up the boulders with a critical eye before he pulled on the fear that always seemed to simmer just below his skin. Lightning was easy. Lightning relied on the one thing he always had in spades.
The storm had gathered without him really thinking about it, clouds dark and eager above their heads, so all that was left to do was focus on his rocks, spread his hands out in front of him, and call some of that angry electricity down from the sky.
When he was done the rock was just pebbled on the ground. "Alright, new target."
Alex watched on with a impressed look, glad that Adrien was now more comfortable using his abilities. And he didn't seem to be having any trouble wit his which was good. He motioned to a smaller rock further off into the distance, "That one over there."
Adrien squinted, trying to push the clouds forward until they were close enough to nail the rock with lightning. He had to push himself harder to do it, feeding all the greedy little fears that ate away at him daily until there was a roiling storm complex in the sky, blocking out one of the suns entirely. The lighting was less controlled this time, striking wildly around the rock until everything in a five-foot radius was black and charred. "Next one."
Alex narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't want Adrien to start a fire, but he pointed to a small bush close to the waters edge, "The bush." He could tell the emotions the human was channeling were getting a little out of hand, so he had to watch him carefully.
Adrien swallowed down the lump in his gut that seemed to be getting bigger with every quiet rumble of thunder and nodded, turning to face the bush. It was a smaller target than the other two had been, he'd need to focus to get precise enough to hit it.
He missed twice. Three times. Four.
A small wind picked up at his annoyance, tosing his curls wildly around his face.
It wasn't until the wind picked up a rock and flung it at the back f his head that he gave up entirely, turning away with an exasperated sigh. "Pick a new one, I can't hit it."
"No, you're going to continue until you hit the bush, Adrien." Alex moved behind him, placing his hands on his lip, "Take a deep breath, calm yourself done, and concentrate. You can do it." Adrien was stubbon enough to say no, but he wasn't going to get better without challenges, and this seemed to be one of those.
Adrien grumbled but he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to concentrate, the steady stream of complaints finally trailing off as all his attention slid back to the bush. It was far away enough that he had to push himself, like last time, but the fear was sharp with anger and annoyance, so much easier to get swept away in. Especially when he missed the bush another two times. "I can't! Pick a new fucking target, Alex, I'm not gonna be able to hit that fucking bush."
Alex shifted Adrien around so he could look him dead in the eyes, "Stop getting frustrated. Did you forget that your powers are based off of emotions? You can't hit the bush because you're getting to annoyed. The storm relies on fear not anger. You need to channel the fear. Take a second to calm down, and try again."
Adrien glared at him, dropping his eyes with a sigh when he was told to calm down. "You say that like it's easy," he accused, leaning into Alex's chest and trying to cool off a little bit. "It kinda goes against every fucking human instinct to yank all your fear real close and then let that shit run wild."
(Connor? lol)
Alex wrapped Adrien up into a hug, resting his chip atop his head, "I get that, but you've got to do it. I never said it was going to be easy, you've just got to keep trying, Adrien. You hit those other targets, didn't you? If you really focus I know you can hit this one."
(Sorry! was watching a kurtis conner video and it just got swapped out!!)
Adrien relaxed as those warm arms wrapped around him, tilting his head up to he could give Alex a disgruntled stare. "Those were big, idiot. At least as tall as I am and way fatter. I'd have to be blind to miss them. This bush is… well a, it's pretty far away, and b, it's only toddler-sized, probably smaller!"
(Lol all good)
Alex brushes his hand through Adrien’s hair gently, “Adrien, you have talent, skill. I know you can hit that target. Focus in on the fear and not your annoyance that you can’t hit it. You can hit it, you’ve just got to keep ahold of the right emotion.”
Adrien shook his head. "Well maybe I don't want to, Alex. I know this is the one goddamn time I'm gonna get to turn my fear into something productive, but I still don't like the way I feel after. I don't like having to push myself waste deep into everything I'm afraid of just so I can roast some bush."