Meeting with old friend

Ralph was on his way to the gym. It was time for some practice - working out on those muscles and his stamina. League was bit harder than he imagined when entering the AFW. He went straight to locker room to put on clothes for training. Watching all around, he noticed that gym was quite full. Well, there were still plenty of space to train, but this was nice opportunity to find a spar partner.

When he changed clothes, Ralph went to distant corner to warm up a little before proceeding. He was streching his arms and looking across the gym if there is any familiar face out there.

Haru was busy drilling into a hanging bag when Ralph entered the gym, and so he didn't take notice of him right away. After finishing his set of punches, Haru took a quick break to wipe the sweat from his brow with his wrist band and grab a quick swig of water. As he's setting the bottle back down and getting ready for another round, he spies Ralph emerging fresh from the locker rooms. With a grin Haru immediately drops what he's doing to go confront him.

"Ralph!" Haru declares in a loud voice, approaching him with hands on his hips and a wide grin plastered across his face. "It's been a while since I kicked your ass in the ring, how have you been?"

Ralph just started warming up when he heard familiar voice calling his name. He looked toward origin of voice while keep streching his arms and noticed Haru approaching him. "Hey man, how are you?" He smiled and extend his arm to shake his hand. "It's been a while indeed, but don't forget it was you who got smashed through table." Ralph didn't remained silent and smiled to him. "Everything's fine, having a bit of rough time here. I need some more practice man. Are you up for some sparring? I need a practice dummy." Ralph grined and start walking toward one of free rings.

Haru caught Ralph's hand with a firm shake, squeezing just a bit harder than necessary just because he could. Haru's brows rose when he was asked to spar, that would definitely be more fun than wailing on a bag.

"Rough time, eh? What, you lost your edge after our last fight? I can knock some sense into ya" Haru laughed, clapping Ralph on the back as they headed for one of the rings. Haru climbed up into the ring and put his hands on his hips.

"Looking for anything fancy? Or just a good brawl?"

Ralph felt and return the firm handshake Haru gave him. Although they were friends, the rivalry was pretty visible between them. He stared in his eyes and keep smiling. "It wasn't you - don't think so high about yourself." He laughed and jumped in the ring, being on the other side.

"Nothing special - just a good brawl. Don't want to risk an injury when practicing." He streched his arms for a bit longer and began slowly moving in circles around Haru.

Haru grinned and cracked his knuckles, he had been itching to get another shot at Ralph and here it was. Even if it was not an official AFW match, it still counted in his mind.

"Alright, let's do this then!"

Haru settled into his ready stance and matched Ralph's circling pace. But he didn't wait long to make his move. Haru came forward with fists up, throwing a couple practice punches that he expected Ralph to be able to dodge. His real surprise was a low swing for Ralph's gut, thrown much faster than the previous punches to throw Ralph off guard.

Ralph was keep observing Haru when moving in circles. It was 1-1 so far and this match will show who is better between two of them. And both were probably aware of that. And this was also a good enough reason to not hold back in fight and try to do his best to beat opponent in practice match.

And Haru was first to take the initiative and closed the distance. He began landing punches and Ralph indeed didn't have much problem dodging them. He was moving his torso left and right with keeping arms up to block ones he couldn't avoid. But what was following was pretty hard punch in his stomach. Ralph stumbled backwards, holding arms over his stomach "Hmmm, nice trick."

Ralph turned around and runed toward ropes, bounced from them and run toward Haru. He jumped but instead of attacking him, Ralph glided past Haru. Hopefully, he would land behind him, so he can land a drop kick in his back.

Ralph had done a good job of avoiding or blocking the slower punches, and he showed improvement in his reaction time from what he could remember. But even that wasn't going to save him from the experienced arm of a career boxer. Haru darted back out of arms reach after delivering his surprise punch, doubling over his rival in the ring.

Ralph's recovery time was still impressive too, he was rebounding off the ropes already for a comeback. He glided past Haru instead of attacking, and Haru clued in right away to his strategy. He'd used this one before!

"Not today!" Haru yelled as Ralph jumped up for his dropkick. He sidestepped and grabbed Ralph's legs midair, his biceps bulging as he squeezed his grip tight. Keeping up with the momentum of the moment, Haru dug his heel in and began to pivot, swinging Ralph around for a half turn and then released him, throwing Ralph across the ring towards the turnbuckle.

Ralph jumped and glided past Haru as expected and landed straight behind him. So far everything went as expected, but what followed was a bit tricky. Ralph went for drop kick in Haru back, but he saw that one comming. Blue haired guy knew he was in troubles when failed to hit opponent and on top of that got legs grabed.

Ralph leaned down, puting hands on canvas and tried to tug the legs of Haru's grip, but he was already holding him way to firmly to escape. However, he couldn't stay for long in that position, since Haru spined them around and causing Ralph to fly toward close turnbuckles.

He moved arms up to protect his face before landing to at least lesser the damage impact a little. He slowly stumbled up on his feet and shook his head. "Already got some tricks under your sleeve i see." He smiled and decided to try something else. He runed toward Haru and lift his leg, trying to land a knee hit in his gut.

Haru threw Ralph to a few side cheers from other gym-goers who had stopped their workouts temporarily to watch. Haru sauntered over while Ralph was picking himself up, a cocky grin plastered on his face. Now that he knew people were watching, it boosted his drive to show off.

Haru rolled his neck out while Ralph was getting up, but that punk was playing possum! He suddenly sprung up and jumped up high, throwing a knee for Haru's gut. With only a split-second to react, Haru threw his weight and waist backwards to try to dodge, but Ralph's jump was quick and powerful. The hard point of his knee hit Haru in the sternum rather than the gut, knocking some wind out of him as he stumbled back and coughed.

"Heh, forgot I was facing a jackrabbit" Haru teased, rubbing the sore spot on his chest.