SYDNEY CLARKE + JESSE MCCREE
SPARRING THAT'S REALLY JUST FLIRTING
PG? | COMPLETE
There was no question Jesse was going to regret being up this late. Reyes had strict as hell be here on time or run laps for goddamn ever rules so every time Jesse decided to say fuck it and embrace his night owl tendencies, he hated himself the next day. But, well…
He and Syd had been sending messages back and forth and damn it all if he wasn’t soft on her. So when the opportunity to suggest a late night sparring session had come up, he’d snatched it without reservation. To be fair, he needed to clear his head too. There were things he’d shoved down about the end of his time in Deadlock, rumors he’d heard, but now that Ashe was staying, he probably needed to dig through all of that.
Tomorrow maybe.
Jesse bounced back and forth on his bare feet on the mats. Held against his forearms were those long pads for punching and kicking a moving target. “Come on now, darlin’. Let’s see what you’ve been learnin’.”
Being here, in training, was an entirely different look for Sydney, she always had her blonde hair up in a messy bun, with athletic workout leggings and a matching shirt - and it was her most blonde high schooler look, and a far cry from her normal dark jeans, oversized hoodies and ass-kicking boots.
It also put her a good 4 inches shorter than she was when wearing said ass-kicking-boots, but Sydney didn’t care as she stuck her tongue out at him as she finished wrapping her hands like the Musketeers had taught her. Between them, Chirrut and Kady, she was feeling a little less useless by the day, and it was just now starting to peek through.
Her movements were still a little choppy, new, and lacked the smoothness of the people training her, but she made a solid kick at the arm pad without falling over, and that was always a win. And then flashed a too-proud grin in return. “I’m obviously learning enough that you’re too scared to do it without the padding.”
Jesse laughed and tapped the pads together. “I was just tryin’ to keep this friendly. I hear you’re real keen on knockin' a fella out with those fists.” He nodded towards her hands and gave a fond little smirk. In all honesty, hand-to-hand had never been his best skill. He’d come a long way working with Gabe - because Blackwatch agents weren’t allowed to really be terrible at anything - but he’d still rather have a gun any day of the week.
Still, he shook one of the pads off his forearm and pushed a hand through his hair. “You gonna take it easy on me?”
“Oh yeah,” Sydney nodded with a smug turn, knowing full well that her hardest probably wouldn’t be half as good as the kind of training Jesse had, anyway. “Can’t have us bruising up that pretty face, right?” And she’d seen enough romcoms or read enough fanfic to know that sparring was never sparring when two people were friends and added in kissing for fun.
Kissing she wouldn’t mind doing again, but didn’t really know how to ask since the last time had been New Year’s Eve. Ashe had planted the bomb right before that, giving Jesse his own shit to think about. Still not sure if she wanted to broach that topic, Syd instead moved forward to strike at him, an obvious move he definitely would see coming.
He nearly got distracted grinning at her like a dumbass, but that’s what happened when good-looking people flattered him and he really, really needed to be distracted. Thankfully, Jesse managed at the last second to step aside and grab her arm anyway, twisting it up behind her so her back was to him. His height helped. And his shamelessness didn’t hurt either.
“Hope you telegraphed that one on purpose or I’m gonna have to give the Musketeers shit about their trainin’,” he teased, close to her ear and not yet letting her go. He dropped the second arm pad and squeezed her hip with his other hand. “They teach ya any close combat evasive maneuvers?”
Syd’s grin fell away as she grunted against the hard line of his back, wincing as her arm was pulled. She wasn’t at risk of dislocating it, but she still tugged a little painfully before giving up trying to pull away from this angle. The Musketeers had taught her a few things that would fit the bill, but first and foremost she remembered Porthos telling her that it was alright to cheat your way out of shit occasionally, and she let herself lean against Jesse.
She didn’t struggle anymore as she let her head rest against his chest, grinning to the side at him as she got in close.
“Not really,” And when it seemed like she’d given up, her elbow went straight back for the gut, just hard enough to hopefully dislodge herself. “But Kady taught me that. Actually she told me to aim lower, but…”
Jesse was glad there weren’t any witnesses to how easy he was to dupe in her case. Well, more like how he willing he was to duped. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have an inkling as to where she was going with this little act. But he still smirked down at her and hummed warmly, the hand on her hip inching over her stomach before not being able to breathe became a bigger concern.
He took a step back, coughing and holding a hand over his ribs. “Goddamn, girl. You got some bony ass elbows,” he laughed. Or wheezed. Somewhere in between was probably more accurate. “Definitely glad you took the high road…” Lifting his eyebrows pointedly, Jesse straightened up and fell into a casual fighting stance. “Playin’ dirty’s all well and good but you can just tell me when I’m stepped over the line, y’know?”
Syd ended up across from him, hands on her hip, laughing a little as she came down from being so flushed, and not from over exertion. Damn teenage hormones. She caught herself breathing a little heavier from it, too, and pushed that aside so she could put herself in a mirrored fighting stance, even as they talked. The fact that she’d won that little round had both disappoint her and pleased her, left her feeling a little warm and tingly from his hand on her stomach and triumphant that she managed to actually elbow him before he saw it coming.
“What?” A genuinely confused look crossed over her face as her foot swept out to tap at his ankle, looking for a weak spot. “You weren’t crossing a line, I just wanted to win.”
Huffing another little laugh, Jesse lightly kicked her foot away and circled her for a few steps. He wasn’t in any hurry to swing for real.
“See that’s the thing…,” he murmured, dropping his voice like he was telling her a secret. “...I thought if I played my cards right we could both win.” With what he hoped was a disarming smile, he dove forward to try and throw her over his shoulder.
Sydney had let her guard drop with a laugh, the flirting getting to her just as much as it was him. She ended up over his shoulder, and landed flat on her back below him, gasping for breath as the wind was knocked out of her.
“Ow.” After a moment, she opened her eyes to squint up at him, midsection and back still protesting. “I think if we were playing cards you just got a royal straight?” She paused and stretched just a little, testing out her muscles. “I don’t know anything about poker.”
Laughing, Jesse propped himself up above her, palms flat against the mats on either side of her shoulders. “Nailed it on the first try anyway,” he grinned. “Though that really is somethin’ we oughta fix. I’m good at cards. Better at that than..” He trailed off for a moment as his gaze tracked down the length of her and then snapped back to her face. Apologetic wasn’t the word for the look on his face, but maybe just a touch ashamed.
“Better at that than hand to hand combat,” he clarified. “Generally stuck to shooting attackers or running the hell away before Reyes and his hardass training came into the picture.”
“Were you actually going to say sex, because if you’re better at cards than sex…” Sydney trailed off, face flushed a little from his look, but flashed him a shit-eating grin anyway. “Then I feel sorry for your partners.” It wasn’t the question that had been on the tip of her tongue the last few weeks, sure, but it was a step in that direction. Without, hopefully, being too pushy on the subject.
“I only have a month under my belt.” She reached up to poke his chest. “I’ve been practicing with a gun for like two years now, learning how to choke people with my thighs first would’ve probably been smarter but Victor just prefers to shoot them.”
“Hey! Noo. I just got distracted.” Jesse sounded just a little petulant, proof that while he was hard to embarrass, he still had too much teenage shithead pride. Still the childish frown between his eyebrows gave way to a flirtatious stare. “Promise I ain’t never had any complaints in the bedroom.”
It wasn’t entirely true but it was close enough. He wasn’t counting requests to do something different since he was rarely unwilling to do whatever he was asked to do. And now that the subject had come up, he was hesitant to drift too far from it. “Do you wanna learn how to choke people with your thighs?”
Sydney was never one to shy away from things. She was frank and open, probably to an uncomfortable degree with some people, because she hated dishonesty. Even if she was keenly aware she was still under him on the middle of a wrestling mat in a mostly public area, where flirting should’ve been off limits. But dumb teenagers were gonna dumb teenage, and she was a little more forthright than usual. “You can show me sometime,” she promised, even as she slipped away from under him to sit cross-legged on the mat.
“I definitely plan on learning how to choke people with my thighs. Chirrut is teaching me body control with Zama-shiwo, and I have to learn my muscles.” Which basically just meant she spent a lot of time with tired legs these days.
The promise shouldn’t have caught Jesse off guard - he’d hung out with her enough to know her bluntness and he wasn’t exactly new to the kind of flirting that led somewhere - but she had a way of surprising him anyway. It meant he was easy to roll off her and end up sprawled on his side looking a little stunned.
“Oh, uh. Alright.” He smiled slow and lopsided, and then propped his head up with an elbow in the mats. “I mean, you ain’t gotta know how to choke people with your thighs for that but it’s a nice bonus.” His smile wavered between smug and amused. “Know how that is though. Sore legs. Think Reyes would work people until they’re literally crawlin’ across the floor if he could.”
Syd reached up to re-tie her hair in a high ponytail, taking her time, not completely unaware of the fact that it stretched her torso out to make her look a little taller, even sitting. She wasn’t usually the seductive type at all but she’d never had anyone actually look at her like anything other than a bratty teenager before, and she already knew that she liked the attention from Jesse.
“We can practice that later.” She smiled, but then leveled a more serious look on him, “Honestly, I’m only here cause I wanted to hang out with you and because you seemed like you needed to get away. Did Ashe get in that head of yours?”
Jesse started to grin a little wider, ready to joke about which thing they’d be practicing exactly, but her conversation switch brought him sagging back against the mats with a frustrated huff.
“She didn’t get in my head. She just...made me look up shit I was happier not knowing.” He’d done well not thinking about the fall of Overwatch too much. It was above his pay grade and there wasn’t a whole lot he imagined he could do about the big picture. But finding out Gabe had died - for all intents and purposes - after Jesse abandoned Blackwatch…
“I went rogue, sure, but not like I’d worried,” he muttered, toying with a frayed edge of the mat. “Just wasn’t where I should’ve been when shit hit the fan.”
Sydney hadn’t been the happiest with how it’d all been thrown out there, but without it actually being her life, sitting on the side of supportive was the best she could really do. And the least she could offer, since Jesse had gone out of his way to listen to her grumble and rant.
“Ashe was a little worried it was so bad you weren’t going to handle it well. Gave me a heads up.” She stretched out, arm back on the mat, her bare foot gently nudging his leg. “I’m glad you’re not like, falling off the deep end. It sucks finding shit out here and not being able to fix it at home, though.”
Jesse regretted not saying something about how good she looked tightening her ponytail instead of going down this road. But it was a little late for that. He snorted belligerently and covered her foot with a taped hand.
“Yeah, well, Calamity likes to pretend she’s the only one with her head on straight or any kinda backbone at all.” He wished he didn’t sound so bitter, but it was what it was. “I ain’t sayin’ I ain’t upset, but I’m not sure what I can do about it. At least Gabe is sorta okay here and Jack too. And I can damn well promise you I ain’t gonna abandon em.” He stroked his hand a little ways up her calf. “Still got both hands, so there’s that.”
“I think not abandoning them is a pretty good first step.” Syd offered the advice with a shrug, trying not to let her own issues seep into that. She was still avoiding Victor, silently waiting for someone here to just fix him so she could move on, not feel so fucking guilty anymore about bringing him back broken. But she could be fucking supportive of Jesse not doing the same, and actually sticking by his people.
“Is-” Her voice caught a little with his hand wandering, but she didn’t stop him. “Is not having both hands a thing that we should worry about?” Her calf flexed under his fingers. “Or is that just a hint at how to not be upset?”
“Not just a hint,” Jesse joked, his eyes regaining some of their mischievous glint. Maybe one day he’d be the type to brood a bit more. But at this age, denial, avoidance, and distraction were still his favorite coping mechanisms. He rolled to his hands and knees and scooted over to lay down beside her on his hip.
“Think it was lost in the line of duty,” he shrugged, stretching the hand in question out across her abs. “Could happen anywhere, I suppose. But for now, I’m still all me.” He shifted to graze his fingertips higher up her ribs and gave a shameless grin. “Wanna put it to the test just to be sure?”
“Hopefully there's a really cool story attached,” Syd ran a hand along the outer edge of his forearm, looking down at it as her fingers traced lightly. “Cause I don't know if I'm good with it unless there's a cool story.” As if she had any real say in it, but deciding to go along with the flippant tone regardless.
Her hand traveled up to his shirt, pulling him into her personal bubble, grinning. “but I guess you can convince me otherwise, sure.”