As you might expect

Unfortunately, Billy wasn’t able to stall or prevent Heather from fetching the loaded gloves for Miranda. Now he could only stare, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead, as his nerdy cousin pulled those dangerous gloves over her hands and tightened the straps…

Billy gulped. Before his eyes, in that same damned living room, Miranda tested out those weighted gloves, lifting her weak arms and letting them drop. It was kind of hard on her small muscles. She wasn’t used to having something so bulky over her hands…

“Have fun!” Heather smiled knowingly at Billy, and gave Miranda a little pat on the back. Ugh, it felt like she was doing this just as much to tease Billy as to actually help Miranda’s confidence.

Heather left Billy to it, heading upstairs to look for and check on Aunt Judy. Why hadn’t she gone home to Miranda last night, Heather wondered? The moms had both had quite a lot of wine to drink, the night previous…

“Alright. So… Let’s see you lift those gloves up near your head.”

With his mother gone, Billy started cautiously showing Miranda the ropes. He gave her gloved fists maybe a bit more respect and fear than they really deserved - but at this point, he was just being safe.

He began by teaching Miranda some basic stances, which she awkwardly adopted. It took a lot of nudging and repositioning from Billy before she got it right. Even then, after she dropped the stance and stood up straight, she couldn’t get it correct on her own again.

“Tuck your arms in a bit more,” he said, adjusting her body with his hands.

He took care not to let any of his potent fear show on his face or in his voice. He had an image to maintain, and besides, this was just Miranda. While Heather and Judy had been fit, full-bodied milfs with mile-long legs, there was nothing to worry about here. No hidden power, or favorable setup. He wasn’t going to let Miranda knock him out for some kind of fetish or experiment, and she wasn’t going to catch him by surprise either. And he CERTAINLY wasn’t going to underestimate the power of those gloves. This was completely different to those other times… So why was he so damn nervous?

The timid girl blushed as her athletic cousin gently nudged her elbow closer in to her body. His hands were so big, and he was being so helpful… She still wasn’t that confident, and she felt like a total burden right now.

“Thanks for doing this, Billy… I know this must be boring for you…”

Billy gave her a reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder, as he stood back to look her stance over again.

“Not at all. Come on, let’s get to the fun part.”

God, he was so cool. Miranda just about melted.

With Billy’s guidance, the shy young girl was walked through some basic punches. The jab, the straight punch, the hook, and the uppercut. Miranda seemed to take a particular liking to that punch - the uppercut.

“It feels so sneaky!” she giggled. “Just, you’re not looking, and then - BAM!”

Miranda swung one of those gloves up through the air, stopping just above her own head’s level. The same height, Billy noticed, that his own chin rested… Even at a safe distance, a chill ran through him as Miranda burst into giggles again.

“I don’t know why it’s so funny to me. BAM!”

She was already loosening up, just throwing half-understood punches at the air. Maybe there was something to boxing for confidence after all… Then again, maybe it was just the kind, confident attitude radiating off of Billy, rubbing off on her.

“Yeah… Yeah, you’ve got to watch out for those uppercuts,” Billy agreed. “Is that your favorite punch?”

“Definitely!” Miranda smiled.

Billy considered this. It was probably much more comfortable on her small muscles to have the weight of the gloves vertical, instead of out on the end of her arm far away from her body. It made sense that she liked this punch the most.

Billy watched her glove swing up to the height of his chin again. Miranda was so small, so weak… He wondered what effect a punch like that would have on him, if he was standing just a bit closer. Would the glove bounce off his chin, and… KO him right in front of his timid little student?

Just then, both cousins were distracted by the sound of quiet talking and movement down from the staircase. Turning, they watched as Heather comes down the stairs with a sleepy, still-tipsy Aunt Judy leaning on her for support.

Aunt Judy’s glazed eyes and dumbly grinning face suddenly snapped to a kind of dozy attention when she saw Miranda, standing opposite Billy with the gloves on. Slowly, her dumb grin spread back across her face, and she lifted the hand that wasn’t around Heather in a closed fist, pointed supportively towards Miranda.

“Gehehehe~~ get him, Mira…~~”

Miranda tilted her head. But before she could question it, Heather spoke up.

“Billy, why was Judy sleeping in your bed?”

Billy froze up. Because she knocked me the fuck out!, he thought. Taking a second, he answered in a nervous voice.

“O-Oh, I just… She was pretty drunk, and she didn’t want to call an Uber, so…”

“Where did you sleep last night?” Heather asked, reaching the bottom of the staircase with her sister still using her for support.

“I-I just… I slept down here. I didn’t mind.”

Billy’s eyes focused keenly on his mother’s face, then on Aunt Judy’s. Heather had been upstairs for a while. The two must have talked. Had his drunken aunt revealed the truth already? Did Heather know that he lost another boxing match…?

After a brief pause, Heather shrugged. “If you say so,” she commented, not sounding particularly invested. “Billy, Mira, I’m going to drive Judy home. I’ll be about an hour. Have fun, you two.”

With that, Heather took Aunt Judy out to the car. On the way, some of her drunken mumbling made its way back through the halls, and into the living room.

“…I actually knogged him oud, y’know… I really did, you shoulda sheen him… He was shleeping in one punsh. One punsh!…”

Billy winced, and turned to Miranda. His younger cousin just looked baffled.

“What do you think that was about?” she asked, as the front door to the house closed.

“Yeah, uhhh… Your mom was just drunk. That’s all.”

The last thing for today was to teach Miranda how to defend against punches. Billy didn’t do anything crazy here - just some nice and slow punches towards her, to give her ample time to react by moving her arms in the way of the swings.

Even thought it was just defensive movements, Billy was sweating as she swung those dangerous loaded gloves around… he was glad to finally finish up shortly after.

“I think that’s good for today,” he said, relieved.

“Okay… That wasn’t so bad.”

“See? I told you,” Billy gave her a comforting smile, which spread briefly to her face too. Then Miranda looked down at the ground, suddenly nervous.

“You’re really good at this…” Miranda spoke softly. “You’re like… A pro.”

Billy smiled, and thanked her. Miranda shuffled her feet.

“So, umm, we have to spar once we’re done, right…?”

Billy noticed her nervousness. Was she afraid of a bit of light sparring? Well, that worked for Billy anyway, so he quickly jumped on the opportunity with some comforting words.

“Hey… It’s alright. We don’t need to spar if you don’t want to.”

Miranda nodded. “Yeah… That might be best. Thank you.”

Phew! What a relief. Billy wouldn’t have to worry about getting knocked out, or outboxed, by Miranda. A ridiculous thing to worry about regardless - but with things the way they were, Billy was glad to have a few days of absolutely zero risk.

As he relaxed his body, glad to be free of the built-up tension, Miranda shifted awkwardly in place.

“Are the other people at the boxing club as good as you? That must be scary…” as she spoke, she reached up and began trying to undo the velcro strap of one glove with the other, ready to get those gloves off. It was a useless attempt - when you have two gloves on, you have to undo the first velcro strap with your mouth - but it was pretty cute to watch her try.

Billy just shrugged. “They’re good, but no one’s as good as me. It’s a lot less scary once you realize that blocking and dodging punches are something you can just learn how to do.”

Miranda stopped for a second, looking up from her frustrating glove situation.

“How do you dodge punches?”

Billy smiled, happy to share knowledge now that the danger was over. “A lot of it is in the head movement. Using your neck and shoulders to get out of the way of a punch,” Billy explained. “You don’t want to lean with your whole body unless you have to, because it makes your footing unsteady, and makes it so you don’t have anywhere further to go to dodge the next punch. But once you’re good at it, it’s easy. Even the best guys in the gym can hardly ever touch me.”

“Can you show me?”

Miranda’s innocent question froze Billy. Suddenly, his tension returned, and he was kicking himself for his bragging.

“O-Oh, we don’t have to… I know you want to finish up,” Billy said.

“No, it’s okay! I kind of want to see you dodging. You’re so good, it’s fun to see you perform… It’s fine, isn’t it?”

“W-Well, I…”

Miranda tilted her head, confused by his sudden change in demeanor. He couldn’t back down now. He had just been talking himself up. Staring at her dangling, gloved fists, Billy spoke his next words slowly.

“…I suppose, I… Alright…”