Harry’s Fighting Stance

"Do you fight?" the other boy bit out. "Or do you spend all your time with your nose in a book?"

"A little bit," Harry said. He'd undergone a few self-defence sessions at the Tower through Clint, Steve and Natasha – mainly Clint since Natasha grappling with him in exercise gear was something guaranteed to lead to Harry's embarrassment at the hands of his burgeoning hormones, and possibly dirty underwear as a result. Aside from that, his physical education had been somewhat eclectic: Clint had taught him shooting, primarily with a pistol, Loki and Natasha had taught him some knife work, both in hand and throwing (primarily the former as they stressed that without a great degree of practice, good technique and serious amounts of power, throwing a knife would usually be ineffective) and from Tony, Darcy and Sirius he picked up a bastardised mixture of mixed martial arts, boxing and some down and dirty street fighting.

"When in doubt, don't go for anything fancy," Darcy had said. "Seriously, just kick 'em in the nuts, and if needs be, keep kicking." She shrugged. "It's not very honourable, but it keeps you in one piece."

And of course, Loki had started to teach him the applications of magic in combat, from a sudden flare of light to misdirection to out and out combat.

Harry had absorbed all of this like a sponge in water, and, much to his own surprise, had the makings of a decent fighter. Everyone else had just said, "Like father, like son."

Thor had added, "Like mother, like son, too. Lily was downright terrifying in a fight." He had gone on to explain that not only did Lily have a ferocious temper, the words 'fair fight' might as well have been in ancient Etruscan for all the relevance they had to her.

Of course, he thought back in the present, when compared to a taller, stronger and far more skilled potential opponent who felt that he had something to prove like Uhtred, all he had on his side was speed (debatable, since he had no idea how fast Uhtred was), magic and guile.

He blinked, as he realised to his surprise and slight worry, he had slipped into a defensive position, body side on to Uhtred, weight centred and his right hand forward, ready to respond to an incoming blow or attack with magic.

Uhtred had mirrored his stance, and as their gazes met, quiet, worried, yet determined green eyes meeting stormy, volatile greys, Harry saw a glint of surprise, rapid reassessment, and a slight lessening in the level of disdain.

The son of Ullr had clearly not expected the son of Thor to know anything about how to fight.

"Your stance is off," he said, tone slightly superior, making sure to take advantage of his superior height to look down at Harry.

"Actually, I think you'll find it suits me just fine," Harry said, tones heating as his hackles rose. At first, the other boy had reminded him of Ron. Now, he reminded him of Malfoy. "Though I can't blame you if you haven't seen it before. It's a variation."

"I've seen a lot of stances. And there are stances and then there are mistakes. I know which one I'm looking at."

"You might want to learn a few more stances, then."

Loki sighed as the two boys passively aggressively sniped at each other, eyes locked, muscles tensed and generally looking like young wolves, circling each other, assessing, wondering if the other was going to strike first and testing all the while, and drew off to one side, gesturing at Ullr and Clint to join him. Neither boy noticed.

—- Chapter 28, The Calm (Mostly)