Clone Wars Oneshots (and some Bad Batch)

"No offense, Sarge, but I mean, look at her! No one's gonna look at that and think, 'Oh, that's Kal Skirata's daughter.' Am I wrong?"
—RC-1262, "Scorch", to Kal Skirata

Kyrimorut, Mandalore; four standard years after the Battle of Geonosis, one year after Order 66

Yelena's P.O.V.

   "Don't arch your back when you're punching," Walon Vau calls out to me. "You need to lean forward into it." I pause, holding the bag in front of me still while I give him an annoyed look. He's been pestering me like this, giving me "pointers", for the worst part of two hours. I roll my eyes and continue punching.
   It's only the two of us—well, three if you count Mird—in Kyrimorut's underground training center. It has everything you could ever really want; punching bag, weights, treadmills, stationary bikes. It even has an obstacle course, complete with ropes, monkey bars, balance beams. The only thing that doesn't need to be here is Vau.
   He's staring at me from his position on one of the weight benches, where he proved to Mereel that he could still lift forty-five kilos of weight. Surprisingly enough, he actually did it without hurting himself. Much. He stands, and Mird scrambles out from under his feet.
   "Do you ever listen?" Vau asks, holding the punching bag from behind while I continue to pound it.
   "Only when someone is saying something worth listening to," I reply, trying not to grit my teeth.
   Vau frowns. "Your form in combat can mean the difference between your life and death," he tells me. Oh, like I've never heard that before, I think. Then his face hardens in a strange way, and his grip on the punching bag tightens. "The difference between your life and death is important."
   I step back from the bag. "Did it ever cross your mind that I might already know all of this?" I say with a scoff. "I'm the greatest child assassin the galaxy has ever known, Vau." I turn my attention back to the bag. "Any lesson you think you're teaching me, I've already learned. Any technique you've mastered..." I smirk. "...I'm already better at it than you are."
   His face hardens more. "Care to prove it?"
   I stop again. "Are you challenging me?" I ask, amused. "You really think you can take me?" His face remains serious, and I smile. "Alright. You've got yourself a deal."

A few moments later...

   Vau grunts as my fist connects with his nose for at least the fifth time, and he staggers onto his backside. I stand there, hands on hips, panting. He put up a good fight, better than I expected, but our skill sets are still so different, our range of abilities so varied from each other, it's almost comical. He got in a few punches, but I don't think anything's broken or sprained. Bruised, perhaps, but nothing that will last. Vau, however...
   I smirk as I look down at him, panting on the floor. "So, any pointers, Sergeant Vau?" I ask. He spits out a wad of spit and blood, remaining silent. "Didn't think so." I turn and saunter away, taking a long drag from my water bottle as he picks himself off the floor.
   I hold it out to him, and he takes it. "Your skills are very..." He swallows and wipes his mouth as he hands the bottle back to me. "...impressive." He pants. "But you shouldn't have held back."
   I give him a look, even though, if I'm being entirely honest...maybe I did take it a little easy on him. "Well, what else was I supposed to do?" I say; he's at least twenty years older than me. "Go postal and rip your head off?"
   "No," says Vau, his composure regained. "But you shouldn't have held back just because I'm older than you. I could've handled it."
   "Right..." I say, smiling. "You barely lasted five minutes as it was, Vau." I raise an eyebrow at him. "So you might want to swallow that ego and accept the fact that even if you were Sev or any of the other commandos, I still would've beat you. If might've been slightly harder—slightly—but I still would've won. It's just a difference in training." I pat him on the shoulder and smile. "After all, if you mess with the bull...you get the horns."

A/N:
I hope you guys liked this! Please let me know what you thought, and if I made any spelling/grammar mistakes.
God bless ya'll!