Pushing your arms out, the small sphere of energy burst into the Shields of the Seraphim. "It's not as fun as the Winds of Watoomb, but it can definitely save your life or others around you. The hardest part of this spell is to maintain its strength." After a few seconds you let it dissipate on its own before turning to your students. With a nod to Mordo, you begin circling the group to watch and critique as your students began going through the technique.
More focused energy here, a straightened elbow there... overall performance was outstanding. Even Mister Stephen Strange was performing adequately. As you watched him, his shield began to break down and he scowled in frustration. At that, you call the lesson to a close and you approach the newer student. He began rambling as soon as you had sidled up to him. "My hands are shaking too much—I can't maintain the shield."
You smile gently at him before placing a hand on his arm. "Master Hamir has already shown you that's not quite true. You had done really well up until that point, I think you may have just lost focus. Let's try it together," you say and Strange nods. You circle him as he gets into the starting position, and you teasingly run a finger down his back, causing him to go ram-rod straight. "The first rule of any magic is to have proper ergonomics. Were you slouched over during surgeries when you were removing brain tumors?"
Strange glowers before continuing with the spell. Slowly but surely the ball of energy is created. You reach from behind him to lift his elbows and his gaze shifts from his spell to your hands. They look so soft...
Distracted, the energy vanished and Strange groans in response. Quickly reassuring him, he tries again and concentrates solely on the shield. Once it is fully constructed you press your hands against the boundary to test out its flexibility. From within the shield Strange watches your fingers dance across the intricate details to admire his handiwork.
He immediately loses focus again as a dirty thought crosses his mind, and he silently curses himself. Very unprofessional, Stephen. Very unprofessional.
"Strange, what happened? You were doing so well," you question, placing your hand on his arm again. He looks down at your hand before slowly meeting your eyes.
"Show me something else," he pleaded, his voice barely above a whisper, "something intricate."
Unsure and flustered, you stumble over your words. "Okay, uh, this is something I made up if the s-shield isn't powerful enough to protect you."
You back up to leave plenty of space between the two of you and center yourself before speaking again. "It requires a lot of energy concentration to be able to transform an attack into something harmless, like, for example, into butterflies." And with that you slide your hands together in front of you. Sparks begin to fly as you rotate your right hand towards you, all your energy focused on the palms of your hands.
You look up when you're ready. "Strange, throw something at me." Without hesitation, he picked up a training staff and hurls it at you. Before it even reaches you, you throw the mass of energy at it and the staff dissolves into small blue butterflies.
With a hint of pride, you take a calming breath before turning towards your student.
His stare was so intense that you couldn't look away. You coughed awkwardly, and his eyes trailed to your hand before snapping out of whatever trance he was in.
He coughed out an excuse before hurrying out of the room, his face flushed. Watching his retreating form, you wonder what had gotten into him and decided to continue observing him to see if this odd behavior continued.
Stephen briskly walked (he's got running, no of course not) towards his room, his mind reeling. He slams the door to his room shut and leans back onto it. He closes his eyes and tries to clear his mind by taking a deep breath but the image of your fingers, oh, your soft beautiful fingers... NO. He pulls at his hair and starts pacing his small room, arms clasped behind his back. What he needs to do is let off some steam. He needs to punch something.
