Chapter Text
Ed listened to Leona explain chess strategy to Kalim and sighed. Ed liked Leona fine, but explaining things to Kalim that way was going to go nowhere.
“The problem'll be you, Kalim. I expected as much, but you just don't move like an athlete.” Leona explained. “But even lacking strength, you can try and get in an opponent's blind spot, or take 'em by surprise and body check 'em. That sort of thing.”
Kalim gasped. “ What?! That's awful. I could never!”
‘ Talk about not knowing your audience.’
“In a straight up fight, you've got no chance at victory.” Leona elaborated.
Ed sighed. “Leona? Come here into the shade for a sec.”
Leona walked up to her. “What’s up Ed? You got an idea for Kalim?”
Ed nodded. “Yup. I watched Kalim practice, and they already picked up what me and Ling explained to them. Kalim may not be perfect in time, but me and my husband can work on them a little.”
Leona hummed. “Sounds good. You tied with me, so you and Ling will be good for two on one learning while I help the others.”
Ling nodded. “Great. Kalim! ” She yelled. “We’ll be helping you one on one.”
“Oh really? Yay! ” Kalim cheered.
Kalim jogged over to the shade. “Where do we start?”
“The positives,” Ed began. “To begin with, you listened to my and Ling's advice quite well, and implemented it the best you could in this short time frame. The second good thing is that you are quite adaptable.”
Kalim smiled. “That’s good!”
“But,” Ed held up her finger. “There are some negatives. The big one is that you are clearly inexperienced. That’s not going to be fixable in a day, but we’ll try our best. A minor one is that you don’t like playing dirty, but we can work around that. Ling? Play a round with them.”
Ling nodded. “You got it.”
****
Kalim drank his water in big gulps. Going up against Ling was tiring, but Ed and Ling’s advice was very helpful! Ling was giving little advice while they sparred, and after every round, Ed let Kalim know what was going wrong or right. Even better, they put it into terms he understood by keeping it simple! Right now, they were on a break so Ling could eat a snack so as to not pass out.
“You’re getting much better, Kalim.” Ed said.
“ Really? ” Kalim asked.
“Yup!” Ling chimed. “You're clearly trying a lot, and it’s showing. You take our advice to heart and try to implement it to the best of your abilities. You're very agile, so teaching you to dodge was super easy!”
“I wish I was better at attacking though…” Kalim mumbled.
“You’re getting better at it.” Ed offered.
“Yeah, but I just wish I could keep track of my opponent's limbs better…” Kalim mused. “I can handle my own, but someone else's?”
“You play the drums right?” Ling asked.
Kalim nodded. “ Mhm. ”
“Do you ever have to play multiple drums at once?” Ed asked.
“Yup! And I have to keep time!” Kalim chirped.
Ed sighed. “That. It’s like that. Your body is the tempo, and the opponents are the drum heads. You have to subconsciously keep track of yourself while focusing on the opponent.”
“ OHHHHH!”
****
“How's it going over here?” Leona asked as he walked over.
He didn’t doubt Ed and Ling, but Kalim was… something for sure.
“Good, Kalim’s learning quick.” Ling said. “They're getting better at attacking and have dodging almost nailed down.”
“I touched Ling’s beads!” Kalim cheered.
What. “You… did what?!”
“Yeah! Ed and Ling have been really helpful, so I’ve improved a lot!” Kalim answered.
“...Let me see a match. Right now.” Leona demanded.
This, he needed to see to believe.
One match later, and Leona could not believe what he’d seen. Well he could, he’d just seen it, but you get the idea. Kalim was… competent. Not as good as Ed or Ling, but the amount of progress made was surprising. Kalim moved his body fluidly while focusing on Ling, almost like his entire focus was on Ling while he subconsciously moved around. It had been three hours. Vil and Lilia had made progress, but not nearly as much as Kalim was showing. Granted, Kalim had started at zero, so his improvement was much more obvious.
Leona knew better than to question Ed at this point, but he felt that her ability to turn a kid who's been wrapped in bubble wrap his whole life into someone not halfway bad in three hours needed to be studied by science. “ Explain. ” Leona demanded.
“I’m not sure what’s complicated about it? Kalim was very adaptable and willing to listen to our advice.” Ed explained.
“When we first started off, I pulled myself back to be just a little better than Kalim so they could practice what we were saying in a way that was simple enough to do, but challenging enough to learn.” Ling added. “While we spared, I would give them advice like: ‘Hey don’t forget about your leg.’ so Kalim could fix it in real time.”
Leona knew Kalim wasn’t stupid. Naive? Oh yeah. Probably undiagnosed for some form of neurodivergence? Abso-fucking-lutely. But stupid would be undercutting Kalim and his efforts. Regardless of what Jamil secretly thought, Kalim was not a useless trust fund baby. Kalim may struggle sometimes, but given the proper teaching, would be just fine.
And apparently that proper teaching was an insane married couple. Who would’ve guessed? Leona probably should’ve, but hey, Ed and Ling were notoriously curveballs that everyone was blind to from time to time.
And Leona had never been so happy to be hit in the fucking head in his life .
“Good job you two. I guess I should’ve expected this, but oh well. I’ll get the others and we’ll head back to the hotel.”