Kyu is totally gonna hook you up. (huniepop) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-08-01 06:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kyu sugardust, roy mustang |
Who: Roy Mustang and Kyu Sugardust
When: Late May
Where: OC Sheriff’s Range, Anaheim
What: Firearms training
Ratings/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete Upon Posting
Five minutes before seven. Roy strolled into the range, a locked box under one arm, and went up to the counter to talk with the person staffing it. He paid for a selection of ammunition and a pair of paper targets, got a lane assignation, then ambled over to wait at the small table just in front of the door to the range.
He’d met a surprising number of people from Valar recently, he realized. But he’d met everyone else in passing, discovering they were on Valar later. This would be his first time meeting someone he’d actually met online first. He was admittedly curious as to what she was like in person, as opposed to online.
Kyu was tiny as she’d said online, her five-foot-two-inches frame slight and slender to boot. She wore beat up tennis shoes, a long sleeved shirt under a tank top, and shorts. (She shouldn’t get burned on her legs, right?)
She idly wondered if this guy knew that she’d been flirting with him; it wasn’t like she didn’t flirt with everyone, but still. Few people were quite as oblivious, or unwilling to tell her to cut it out. As she hopped out of her car, she saw his dark form sitting outside and waved. Her hair was bright pink, and somehow glittery.
She was met by a man of average height, early-thirties, unruly dark hair and sharp eyes so dark they were nearly black. He wasn’t on business, so he was casually dressed in faded jeans and a dark-blue button-down shirt (cuffed up to short sleeves), loose at the throat to expose a black undershirt. As he rose to greet her with a wave of his own, she might spot a certain strength in the set of his shoulders that indicated that not only was Roy a soldier, he was a commander.
“Kyu?” he questioned, as she drew closer. An Asian name for one who didn’t appear to be, but then again, he was half-Korean and named Roy. Ah, America. “Roy Mustang. A pleasure to meet you to meet you in person.” He offered her a handshake, firm and polite, accompanied by a wry, lopsided smile.
He was kiiiinda hot. Especially since Kyu had a thing for guys in uniform. “Roy Mustang? Are you sure that’s your real name and not your porn name?” She shook his hand and beamed. No way she was going to tell him that her last name in her dreams was Sugardust, no way no how. “So, wanna go shoot some phallic objects with me?”
Roy snickered, one soft “heh”. “Pretty sure. Wouldn’t have passed the security check otherwise.” At the question, though, he answered back in kind with a smirk. “Maybe, but not until I’m certain you’ve got the proper protection.”
He waved her to sit down, taking the seat he had previously, and his expression grew more serious. “Guns are as dangerous as power tools. Most people don’t take a chainsaw too lightly. The reason I suggested you wear something with coverage is simple: last year, a young lady accidentally shot and killed her boyfriend on the range because a hot shell dropped down her cleavage.” He was clearly not kidding around.
“I’m happy to teach you, if you’re willing to learn, but respect for the tool comes first.” He spent enough time dealing with recalcitrant Marines for his day job.
“Well, a hot shell on the boobs would hurt. But yeah, guns are for killing people, not showing off. They’re not toys.” Hell, she’d rather be playing with squirt guns than anything else, but she was pretty serious - this shit was scary, what with demons and vampires and stuff. She didn’t have any sort of fighty powers, so she’d rely on shooting and going invisible.
He nodded, and for the first time, a real smile crossed his face. “Good. Let me give you a rundown on the current state laws. They are restrictive.” His expression shifted to mild distaste; Roy clearly was of the opinion that people should be allowed to protect themselves with much less hassle. “Due to the results of a recent lawsuit, California has become a must-issue state for concealed-carry permits. If you want to concealed-carry, they cannot deny you. Open-carry is generally prohibited. When you transport your gun, you’re required to keep the weapon unloaded, and in a locked container until you’re ready to use it.” He tapped the locked box on the table. “Your glove box doesn’t count, but the trunk of your car is acceptable.”
“At home, you are also required to keep the weapon unloaded and locked up if children may be present.” Again, that wry, crooked smile, this time slightly conspiratorial. “I am not a police officer. What you do in your own home is none of my business.”
He unlocked the box and opened it to show her. It contained two handguns: a .45 SigSauer and a 9mm CZ. “These are both unloaded. I do recommend that you transport unloaded for safety in places like this until you’re at your lane, even if the range might permit otherwise. When you are carrying for personal protection, that’s your own business.” He demonstrated for her, removing the magazine and racking back the slide on each one, then reset them and slid them toward her. “Here, you try.”
She nodded, watching him carefully. Kyu was smarter than most people gave her credit for, and what she did for a living probably wouldn’t suffer from carrying a gun anyway. She cautiously loaded and unloaded the gun, being sure to keep her fingers away from the trigger. Fairy dexterity was good for something!
“Good job. Especially keeping your fingers away from the trigger. You should always do that until you’re ready to shoot,” Roy encouraged her. It wasn’t unusual for anyone new to guns to be extra-careful about working with them. “We’ve got lane seven. I’ll show you how to fill the magazine on the range. Keep in mind, finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. You’ll want that ear protection now.”
He collected the guns, and put on his own earplugs and range glasses. “It’s a little harder to hear each other this way, but better than losing hearing.” When she was ready, he escorted her down to their lane.
He showed her how to fill the magazines, pushing the bullets down into the slot one at a time, and let her do that while he set up the target and sent it downrange. “Leave the magazine out for a moment, and I’ll show you the correct stance.” He picked up the unloaded gun, checked the slide again for thoroughness’s sake, then took up a two-handed stance.
“It’s always easier to fire a gun two-handed. You’ve got a lot more stability and accuracy that way. Make a strong supporting base with your legs spread apart, and support the gun firmly with your shoulders. No hunching over, that will put shock into your elbows. Look straight down the sights and line them up so that the bottom sight is perfectly square between the two top sights.” He handed her the CZ. “Your turn.”
It all sort of made sense to Kyu; she’d played enough video games to figure that it would be just like really violent explosive Duck Hunt. So she fired with two hands, hitting the target, but damn did that hurt. “Son of a motherfucking bitch,” she cried out.
“Pretty good, for your first time. You all right? Where’s the shock?” Roy could take a couple of guesses just from how she’d moved from the recoil, but it would be better if she gave him the details. The CZ didn’t have a lot of kick compared to the Sig, and if it stung that badly, something wasn’t quite right. “Shoulder, elbow? Looked like you might need to push forward into the gun a little more. May I?” He extended a hand to help her adjust her stance.
“Shoulder, and of course.” Kyu winced a little, but relaxed when he helped her adjust her stance. It was a bit of a rush, shooting the thing, but she’d prefer if it didn’t hurt like hell.
“All right. Give yourself a small break, set it down for the moment and shake it all out.” He waited until she had, then indicated she should pick it up again. When she did, he carefully adjusted her position, straightening her shoulders slightly. “Push from here,” he indicated the small of her back and under her shoulderblades, “and lock this up right here,” he touched her lower elbow, which was just a bit loose. “Okay. I’ll step back now, and I want you to pull the trigger nice and slow and smooth, so that you don’t even feel like it’s moving.” It would help with both the kick, and her accuracy.
Kyu smiled when he adjusted her shoulders; it was very businesslike, not flirty at all. It was rare that someone not flirt with her, and it didn’t help that her love fairy powers were getting stronger every day.
His tips helped; this time she felt some kick, but it was more like lifting something heavy and less like getting electrocuted in her bones.
Roy studied both her followthrough and the mark in the paper with professional interest. “That looks much better. Did it feel better? More stable?” A touch of a button called the target back to the front of the lane, where there was a neat little hole in the second ring. “You’ve got definite improvement over the first one.” He tapped the other small hole, which was on the paper, but in the far upper-left corner. After she’d had a chance to look her work over, he showed her how to send the target back down the range.
“Try shooting the rest, and we’ll see how they cluster. I think you’ve got a good start, but now’s the time to work out any little imperfections before they become bad habits.”
“Yeah, that really helped a lot.” She rolled her shoulders once the other target showed up, and she tried to focus as hard as she could on shooting things closely. Especially with fairy senses, she hoped she’d do okay.
Roy watched as the rest of the bullets made their way down the range, appreciating her focus. He reminded her once to set the gun down if her arms were getting tired, but by the time she was done and they’d called the target back, it looked like she’d gotten a firm handle on the form. There was a neat cluster of holes just below the center of the target. “Good. You’ve almost got it down. One bad habit,” he said with a small smile. “And everyone does it, so it’s not your fault. Shooting has a follow-through, just like a baseball pitch or a golf swing. I know that sounds strange, especially because the hard part is not to move.”
He picked up the other pistol and sent the target back downrange. “You can move faster than a bullet. Everyone does. WIth a pattern like this, it means you’re dropping the front of the gun to see where you’ve shot, before the bullet’s fully cleared the barrel.” He gestured her back slightly so that he could demonstrate the slight drop that he saw in the front of the barrel, and then snapped back to good form. “Believe in your sights and your form.” BANG! A nearly-perfect shot, followed by three others, and then he set down the Sig and stepped out of her way, patting her on the shoulder to nudge her towards the target. “You’re just about there. I’m sure you can do it.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been practicing for years,” Kyu grinned. Somehow, his flattery was nice because it was earned, and she could tell it wasn’t easily given. Shooting was nice, and she was finding that she entered the same focused headspace while shooting that she entered while tattooing or sketching. His advice made sense, and she smiled up at him. “I’ll treat it the same way I do a tattoo. I trust my hand to draw the line.”
“Yes. That’s exactly how you want to treat it. Calm, clear, focused.” Sports analysts would call it in the zone. Roy slid the rest of the ammunition box towards her. Another thirty-five rounds still gleamed in it. “Feel free to use it all, and work on your consistency.” He would watch, and add any little pointers he thought she needed, but he was fairly certain that she’d gotten a good handle on it, and all Kyu needed now was practice.
“By the way, gun ownership in California requires passing a written test, and then there’s a ten-day waiting period after you purchase the gun but before you actually receive it. Not the most helpful, but it’s better than nothing, and you can purchase ammunition in advance. I’ve given you most of what you need to know for the test, but there are review documents online.” There was a beat as he considered briefly, looking over the young woman in front of him with a small, lopsided smile. “Of course, that does assume you’re over twenty-one, for the purposes of purchasing a handgun.”
“I don’t know if I’ll own one. I mean, I’m not twenty-one yet, and pretty sure that using a fake ID for buying a gun would get me on some sort of list.” She waggled her fingers insidiously. Reloading the gun was a bit harrowing - making sure the safety was on, making sure there were no bullets in the chamber - but she managed. It was doubly difficult to keep focused as she had to make sure her wings stayed invisible while she was trying to line up a shot, which in and of itself took focus. Lots of concentration on her behalf.
But she turned to beam at him. “You know, you’re not so bad, Hot Broody McBroodpants.”
He couldn’t — or didn’t bother to — suppress a small smirk at that, the instructor-mask relaxing slightly as they’d moved to the practice part of the lesson. “I try. You’re not so bad yourself, Little Miss Sureshot.” Whether the nickname was a reflection on how well she was doing or a comment on her confidence was open to interpretation. Maybe it was both. “More comfortable now?”
“Much. I don’t get how people decide to buy a gun and never practice. If you’re more chill with buying a gun than a car, you’re fucked up.” She handed the gun back to him, grinning up at him. He really was an okay guy, stick up his ass notwithstanding.