–Chris–
Her eyes were just a touch too wide as she took in the space. She’d had plenty of time alone with her thoughts on the way over, how it was stupid to just follow a random stranger, how it was probably fine, they were going to a public place, how nice Aaron’s legs looked as he ran, what to expect from a gym for supes–
But it just looked like a normal gym. Maybe a sparse one, but normal. She looked around at the equipment, trying to spot the difference, couldn’t. Finally she turned to Aaron, trusting him to be her guide.
“Okay then, where do you usually start?”
He scratched his jaw, looking around the space. He took in a trio of top heavy dudes in the free weights section, making love to their own reflections. He made a face, shook his head, and turned his gaze to the cardio zone.
“Well, usually there, but we kinda already did that part…”
Chris nodded and rolled her shoulders. She hadn’t been able to do much more than her at home PT work for it, with Sam haunting their gym. She gestured to the weight equipment scattered through the main body of the room. “We jogged enough I warmed up, maybe do some arm work?”
He flexed a bicep with a grin, clearly showing off. But it was endearingly silly, rather than a macho show of ego.
“Sounds good to me.” He scanned the gym, indicted a free fly machine and headed over.
“Do a rep loose, to see if the reinforcements throw off your sense of weight. They shouldn’t, but…” He seemed sheepish. “I’ve never brought any of my human friends here before.”
“Human friends” was surprisingly reassuring. She didn’t feel out of place here exactly, half so much as she felt out of place everywhere. Knowing that Aaron had human friends made him hanging out with her feel less weird somehow.
Chris sat on the bench and went through the motions, but honestly, it seemed fine. She told him as much as he brought over an assortment of plates, color coded in a way that wasn’t immediately apparent. He set the stack down and handed her a sky blue one.
“Bird weights,” he said. “Avians and serpents tend to the lithe and fast end of things, as far as superhuman abilities go. But most of the serpents in Lowtown hang out at Asylum and use their gym, so it’s mostly just birds here, if any. How’s the heft?”
Chris tested it and nodded, “Good.”
“Awesome. I’ll just put these back then, and we can spell each other off.”
She went lighter than usual on her shoulder, since it was unfamiliar equipment. The last thing she needed was to overdo her shoulder and have her old injury flare up. To his credit, Aaron didn’t question her weight choice, or comment on it in any way. Sam would have had some opinion, and delivered unsolicited. Aaron loaded her weights, made sure she was familiar with the machine, and let her work.
“Trade?”
He nodded, hefting two weight plates the size of her head. 250lbs each, geez. He could probably pick her up and toss her over his shoulder–not that she was going to day dream about that or anything.
“So,” he said, once he was ready and seated. “What do you like to do for fun?”
She looked up, surprised he wanted to talk through his reps. As usual, her brain’s quick response was on point, ”Sorry?”
He smirked. “I usually bring my headphones when I come here, so I have something to entertain me. Music, podcasts—anything but sound of other people quietly suffering on their own machines.”
“Oh, I see, so we’re going to play Twenty questions.” She smiled, not wanting him to think she was serious. “Um, fun. Well…”
Her brain flashed over the last year. For the most part, she hadn’t done anything other than school, work, work out, and gone to any social functions Sam deemed somehow important to his job. It had become rather monotonous. And dull.
God, she missed her friends. The six of them had been inseparable in high school, but Sam hadn’t liked her friends. It had started with her just seeing them when he wasn’t around, but that had decreased more and more until she hadn’t seen any of them in months. Depressing.
She drew herself out of her thoughts with a shake. “Sorry, apparently that was a hard question. I… watch trashy reality tv.”
God, had she really just admitted that out loud?
“Tell me about one.”
He didn’t laugh—but then again, he seemed to be huffing a little. Maybe he didn’t want to talk through his reps half so much as be talked to through his reps.
Chris shifted her weight, then shook her head and started stretching as she sat and told him about Cheater’s Island. It was a really dumb premise – sending cheaters to be alone on an island with the idea that if they could abstain from any of the other cheaters, their spouse or whatever would take them back. Every week was some new stressor that coincidentally trapped some people in isolated spots to tempt them. It was utterly staged, utterly hokey, and for some reason, she enjoyed watching the made up drama. Mel had gotten her started on them, and she ignored the totally depressing thought that she’d kept up with them in a weird attempt to keep in touch with her bestie. Fortunately it was her turn on the machine, and Aaron entertained her with tales of his own extracurriculars.
“And so it was pretty natural to jump from Pokemon to Magic as I aged out of Pikachu, and into tabletop games when I realized just how vast the world of nerdery truly was.”
He was grinning like a dog panting from a run, relaxed and happy with the world. It was really cute.
She couldn’t help but smile back, even as she tried to breathe with the movement of the machine. When they went to trade off, she added, “You are much more built than the nerds I dated in high school.”
He flashed her a grin. “I’m telling you, it’s the wolf thing. All wolves are naturally more athletic, even lazy ones like me.”
“Ah, yes, the haven’t been to the gym in ages, need a cute girl motivator.” She blew out a breath and got up so he could have the machine again. “I was the opposite in high school. I was nerd adjacent, but played volleyball and softball.”
“Clearly, just the cute girl motivator I need.”
They fell into a nice routine, trading off so the other could rest between reps. Then off to another machine, test her ability, back into a routine. Easy. Kinda nice.
She was just starting to really relax when a thundering crash from across the room in the free weights section. The whole gym booed, the guy who dropped them looking sheepish. Weight crackers were considered bad form in other gyms. In supe gyms, Chris could see why everything was reinforced. Dropping that much weight might crash through the floor somewhere else.
Aaron stood with a hand protectively on her shoulder, bristling like he’d done with Sam earlier. Chris wasn’t sure, but she thought he might be… growling?
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he muttered. “We’re usually better than that here.” His eyes were still on the offending weight lifter. His voice was definitely thick and low and growly. Yum. Then he shook himself and looked at her, Mr. Growly Hyde giving way to a gentler look of concern.
“You okay? You wanna leave?”
She stared up at him for a moment too long, then managed, “Uh. No. No, I’m good. Uh, thanks.”
Realizing how very unconvincing she sounded, she waved a hand and smiled. Nope, not flustered at the hot guy being protective and growly. Not at all. “Really, we can finish, I’m fine.”
“Mmm, you sure are.”
The voice from behind her made her jump, turning to take in the dark, compact woman who tossed her a wink. Her voice purred where Aaron’s growled, making Chris wonder if she was cat shifter.
The man that followed her was obviously a bear.
Tall, grizzled, and looking like he’d stepped out a post-apocalyptic call for extras, the guy’s presence filled the room long before he finished his slow but steady procession across the floor. The weight-clacker cowered, looking like a kicked puppy. The dark woman made a soft “oooh” sound low in her throat, smile wide as she anticipated trouble.
“No roughhousing.”
The voice was as gravely as she’d expected from someone named Gruff.
“No loud music,” he continued. “No showboating. No fights outside of scheduled classes, no hierarchies or bullshit.”
It was clearly a list of rules, rattled off by rote. Chris realized she’d hadn’t seen any posted anywhere, or even seen anyone or anything resembling staff, until now. It all seemed to run on the honor system.
“No excuses.”
“Yes, sir.”
Weight-clacker nodded, a little too quickly. Gruff gestured to the rack of weights with a curt nod.
“Maybe drop it down a notch, if you’re struggling. None of us got nothing to prove here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Apparently satisfied, Gruff continued past into the empty practice room, dark until he’d turned on the lights. He collected a clipboard from the wall and studied it, must be a class roster or something. Before she could ask Aaron what on earth had just happened, a soft whomp sounded next to her as all the air was knocked from Aaron’s body. The dark woman sat on him, clearly having dropped him to the floor.
“Buddy get off me! What part of “no roughhousing” don’t you get?”
“The part where it doesn’t apply to me,” she answered lightly. Still seated on Aaron, she held a hand out to Chris.
“Hi, new girl. Name’s Buddy, since our mutual puppy was too rude to introduce us.”
Chris blinked. She really didn’t think it was Aaron who was rude when she was using him like a chair. But he looked exasperated, not mad.
She took the hand. “Uh, I’m Chris.”
“And I’m not a chair!” Aaron said from under her. “Get off me.”
Buddy did, helping him to his feet, then almost taking him right back off them with another move. Aaron groaned and Buddy laughed.
“You’re slow, pup! You shouldn’t have skipped so many classes—what will Rachel think?”
“Rachel doesn’t care what a mid-ranker like me does.” He brushed himself off of imaginary dust and looked to Chris.
“Chris, this is Buddy, that was Gruff. They run this place—though Buddy is more likely to run it into the ground, the way she treats all her students.”
Buddy scoffed. “Only the lazy ones.” She looked Chris up and down. “Bet you’re not lazy, are you sunshine? You here to take Bunny Boxing?”
“Bunny Boxing? No…” She wasn’t too put off by the obvious leering Buddy was doing. She’d put up with worse from Mel, and she imagined they meant it about the same amount. “I just needed a break from my regular gym.”
Close enough.
Aaron tried to pull an arm lock while Buddy was distracted, but it only resulted in her putting him in a headlock.
“Ow ow ow, leggo!” Buddy did not, in fact, “leggo”, so Aaron continued speaking with his head tucked under her arm.
“Buddy’s the one to talk to if you want to make this your regular gym—assuming she hasn’t scared you off.”
Buddy offered Chris a hand, releasing Aaron. “Blodwyn Ames, at your service.” Her feral grin returned. “Everyone calls me Buddy though, or boss, in class. You, however, are welcome to call me anything you like, lady pup. Or any time.”
Before Chris could answer, Aaron made an uncomfortable sound and said, “She’s not with the pack.”
Chris was having a hard time keeping up. Make this her regular gym? Her brain hadn’t even made the move to something being wrong with her current regular gym.
Yeah, it was the same gym that Sam went to, but…
She thought on every time she’d had to duck into the showers to avoid him, only to find him waiting for her outside the door anyway. Every time he’d started a conversation while she was on a machine and it was either talk to him or risk an argument that drew everyone’s attention. How many times she’d heard his voice followed by someone else’s ‘oh, she’s over there’.
Today, jogging up to the building only to see him step around the corner and hope that she’d turned fast enough to avoid him seeing her. She hadn’t been.
Buddy was giving her a look that meant she’d missed something. She shook her head.
“Sorry, I missed whatever you said, I hadn’t thought about the fact that I probably should switch gyms permanently.”
“I asked if you wanted to audit my bunny boxing class. It’s perfect for people like us with less weight to throw around.”
Without even seeming to move, Buddy had hooked her foot behind one of Aaron’s and pulled him off balance again.
“Will you cut that out!”
Buddy grinned. “Great class if you’re gonna be hanging around with big scary puppies like Aaron.”
Chris couldn’t help but smile at the idea that Aaron was somehow big and scary. Big maybe, but hardly scary. She supposed that if he’d been growling at her instead of over her, maybe. But it was hard to forget what a goofball he mostly seemed to be.
“It sounds interesting and I’ve been meaning to add some sort of active class now that I have more time. When is it?”
“Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7, or Saturdays at noon, if you want to ditch the pup and come see me alone.”
Since it was Wednesday, that meant there was a class tomorrow night. She didn’t have any plans – and it sounded better than being alone with Buddy.
“Tomorrow would be fine, I don’t have plans.”
“Neither do I,” Aaron said through gritted teeth, though she was pretty sure it was more at Buddy than being volunteered for a class tomorrow.
“Great! It’s settled!” She threw an arm over Chris’s shoulders and pointed imperiously towards the free hanging bags in the back of the room.
“Go get your grump out, pup. I’ll show your new lady friend around.”
Aaron was decidedly growly when he said, “I’m good, thanks.”
Buddy met him with a look and energy that rivaled Gruff’s from earlier.
“You’re riled, wolf. I know you don’t want to bring that kind of trouble home to your alpha, and you probably don’t want to scare off your new friend here. Work it off. I won’t make any moves on your girl. Cute as she is.”
Raevenly Writes 