Work Text:
They faced each other across the mat.
Khan stood, motionless and stone-faced, staring at Jim like a lurking tiger.
Jim kept moving, dancing back and forth on the balls of his feet, expecting a lightning attack at any moment and figuring he'd be harder to hit if he presented a moving target.
Still, he was aware that there was no way he'd ever get the upper hand against the Augment unless he cheated. Which was why he was carrying slightly illegal equipment concealed in his gym gear.
Dancing closer, he lashed out a fist towards Khan's chest.
The blow was evaded neatly, and Khan returned to his lurking position as though nothing had happened.
Jim repeated the maneuver with his other hand, with the same result. "Aren't you going to attack me, Noonien?" he asked, slightly out of breath from all the dancing about. It would be easier to use his secret weapon if Khan were at least a little bit distracted.
Khan didn't move, didn't even blink. "No. First, I want to see what you're up to."
So, Khan suspected that he had something up his sleeve, and he clearly wouldn't be goaded into attacking him. Jim stopped moving. "The point of a workout is to, well, work out. You're just standing there, which isn't very work-out-ly."
"This is a fight, Jim. The point of a fight is to win," Khan replied. "If I wanted to work out, I'd use the weights or the treadmill." Disconcertingly, he still hadn't blinked, or moved.
Shrugging, Jim started moving again. He was working out, and he still intended to win this fight despite an inner voice telling him that this was hopeless. How was he supposed to win even a mock fight when confronted with augmented speed and strength?
Simple: by removing one of his opponent's advantages.
Dancing back and forth, he lashed out a few more times, carefully avoiding falling into a pattern. Khan only moved to evade, never retaliating, purely on the defensive and waiting for whatever it was he suspected Jim to do.
Finally, Jim decided he had delayed long enough. Feinting with one hand, he reached into his concealed belt pouch with the other and flung the fine sand in it right in Khan's face.
He didn't expect to really blind the Augment, what with his superior reflexes. Still, the brief moment when Khan closed his eyes to avoid getting the sand in them was enough for Jim to throw himself at him in a full-body tackle. And Khan, who couldn't see him coming, actually lost his balance and fell onto his back with Jim on top of him.
Victory for Jim, according to the rules, despite the fact that, if this were a real fight, Jim would be dead not ten seconds later.
"Gotcha," Jim crowed.
The eyes in the sand-covered face close to his opened. For a minute, Khan merely looked at Jim in astonishment. Then he smiled. "Excellently played. Enjoy your victory. Captain."
Jim felt himself flush with the unexpected compliment. Trust Khan, who knew all about fighting to win, not to reprimand him for cheating. "Thank you. Khan."
The Augment's smile turned devilish, and Jim realized that this trick would not work a second time. And that, from now on, Jim wouldn't be the only one cheating.
His ass, as they said, was grass.