Page 72 of Reforging Onyx

Shane chuckled. “We start with these and then we keep adding new ones.” Picking his staff back up, he grinned at Onyx. “This is the first kata.”

He demonstrated the full set of moves; shin, hip, shoulder, upper diagonal, across at shoulder length, down, twist, down again, down diagonal the other way, opposite shoulder, hip, shin. Twist, repeat to the side.

It was fascinating.

When Shane was done, he turned back to face Onyx again. “So now add the diagonal. Shin, hip, shoulder, rotate here and then up diagonal.”

He repeated the movements more slowly, then went to help Onyx through the steps again.

This was, admittedly, a lot, but Onyx thrived on the challenge. He might complain about the book learning, but when it came to anything physical — really, anything he already had an aptitude with — he was more than willing to start from the basics and work up. It didn’t make him feel stupid, or awkward, or clumsy when he knew he’d pick it up soon enough.

He let Shane adjust his stance and help to guide him through more efficiently making each strike, concentrating hard on what he was doing.

“What’s a kata, anyway?” he asked a few minutes later as the unfamiliar word finally registered in his mind.

Shane smiled. “A kata is the name of a set of actions used to practice moves in Eastern martial arts. We’ve been doing them all along, with each of the patterns of moves that I’ve been teaching you. This set of movements—” Shane went through a series of strikes, blocks, and kicks that he’d taught Onyx before. “—is called the Danennsho kata, from Ryui Kai.” He picked the staff back up again, then went through the series he’d already shown. “This is the Ha Po No Jo kata from the same.”

There was no way Onyx was going to remember any of that, but it sounded nice. And he’d try, because it was sort of neat to be able to put words to a series of attacks. “Danenn… What?” He’d already forgotten the name for the attacks, but he was fascinated by it all the same. “Do they all have cool names? Have you been hiding that from me this whole time?”

Shane laughed. “I haven’t been hiding them from you, and I’ve been using forms from several different styles. Some of them have cool names; some of them don’t, and they’re just called something like ‘fighting form seven, hand strikes.’ For someone learning a specific style, learning all of the names is part of the whole art form. For just learning to fight, they’re useful patterns and forms for learning how to use movements, and the names aren’t that big of a deal.”

“It’s totally a big deal,” Onyx insisted, grinning at Shane. “Now you have to teach all of it to me all over again until I learn what they’re all named. And the ones that don’t have names… You can make it up. I’ll never know the difference.”

And it wasn’t like he was going to be teaching anyone else.

Shane grinned. “I can do that,” he said. “So, we’re starting with the Ha Po No Jo kata.”

For the rest of the lesson, he worked Onyx through each of the steps for the kata, correcting each movement and motion so that by the end Onyx was able to do one full cycle slowly but accurately.

Onyx felt alive and happy, thrilled to be learning something that had measurable results.

“Okay,” Shane called the end of the hour. “That’s enough for today.”

Onyx let out a disappointed sigh, but he nodded. “Okay, okay. Tomorrow’s the warehouse, then… more the next day?” he asked hopefully. There would be so much to learn, so much to master, and then when he got bored of staves, there would be knives.

“More then,” Shane confirmed.

Onyx offered him a grin, then wandered off to the showers, rinsing off the sweat before getting dressed again. Dominic would be there or calling for him any minute, he knew.

And after this progress, well…

He didn’t want to go backwards.

Dominic was in the gym quietly talking with Shane about the plans for the next day’s trip to the warehouse when Onyx got out of the showers. He broke off of the conversation when Onyx approached, and he smiled faintly. “Shane says you enjoyed learning with staves today.”

Onyx stepped in close to Dominic. He’d been debating what he’d do when he saw the other witch since the moment he’d stepped into the shower, and he knew that it would work in his favor if he thanked Dominic for the lessons.

Dominic wanted him, all the way through and through, and the best way to thank him… He leaned up, brushing his lips lightly against Dominic’s cheek, not quite bold enough to kiss him on the mouth in front of Shane. “I did. Thank you,” he said, and those words were sincere.

“Good.” Dominic leaned in to kiss Onyx more firmly.

Onyx was a little uncomfortable at kissing Dominic like that in front of Shane, so he didn’t look in the wolf’s direction. Lucky. He was lucky. He had everything he could possibly want.

It only cost him everything.

Chapter 30

Dominic