Gym, Sat morning

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel would have preferred to sleep in as a rule, but sometimes what he wanted and what he got were two entirely different things.

Not wanting to toss and turn, and feeling too restless to stay in the room, Angel got dressed in black sweats, a white wifebeater, a black hoodie, and made his way down to the gym.

Once there he took in all the equipment. He looked longingly towards a heavybag. His left hand, which sported a smaller bandage than it had all week but was still bandaged, clenched. What he wanted was to attack the bag until he was exhausted but, again, what he wanted and what he got were two entirely different things. Even he had to admit that that was more than his damaged hand could handle.

Something calmer then.

Angel stripped off the hoodie and dumped it over by the wall. Shoes and socks were next. He walked over to an empty space on the gym floor, closed his eyes, and centered himself. He tried - not successfully, but tried - to banish all of the thoughts that were weighing him down. That done, he began to practice his Tai Chi forms.

It had been a while since he'd done this. His movements began roughly. But the more he did it the smoother he became. After a while, he even began to remember what it felt like to be calm.

[ooc: open to interaction if anybody wants it, or the vamp can ignore you if you need the gym to yourself for whatever reason]

Comments

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Marty walks into the gym and sees Angel doing his Tai Chi moves.

"Nice form." he comments totally not hitting on Angel.

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Angel said, totally not flexing his muscles on purpose. "Am I in your way?"

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Marty started doing some stretching exercises because two can play at this game. "Not at all. Where did you pick up Tai Chi?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Spent some time in the East," Angel said totally not admiring Marty's form. If you know what I mean, and I think you do. "Helps. You know, with the demon."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Marty finishes stretching and gets on one of the treadmills.

"Would it distract you if we talked shop/business?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Nope," Angel turned so that he could look at Marty even as he moved. "Lucky for me, monitoring my breathing's not a real problem. What's up?"

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Marty starts off with a light jog on the treadmill.

"Yesterday when I was in the library I ran into Belthazor again. Spent a lot of time in the mythology section. Alone that might not mean much but if you add in the time he spent researching spells at Phales the other day..."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel stopped, frowning. "That's not good. He's already got a book about the soul curse. Unless the library made him give it back?"

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

Callisto wandered into the gym and stopped when she saw Angel and Marty. "Morning."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel stumbled one of his forms. "Um - hey. Morning."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

From the treadmill, Marty nods at Cal and rolls his eyes at Angel's flub.

"Morning."

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

Callisto watched Angel as she started warming up. "What are you doing?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Tai chi," Angel said. He tried to get his groove back. "It helps me relax."

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

"It looks very distracting relaxing." Callisto bounced on the balls of her feet and starting kicking at a punching bag. "Martial arts thing?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel gave another wistful look at Callisto the punching bag. "Yeah. More of a soft art, but still useful for fighting."

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

"It's very...flow-y." Callisto started kicking at the bag harder, not that she was trying to distract herself or anything. "Lot more graceful than the excerises we have back home."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"It's soothing," Angel said. "Good for when I'm trying to control - um - get a handle on - um - when there's stress."

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron padded into the gym and barked a 'yo' in greeting to the people there. Somehow he thought a basketball might be too big for him to catch.

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Cam," Angel said. "Need me to start a treadmill for you or something?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

/That'd be good. Thanks./ Cameron barked in agreement as he trotted up to Angel.

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Walk or jog?" Angel asked. "Um - one bark for walk, two for jog?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron tilted his head as he caught Angel's scent when he got closer. He whined softly as he realised something was missing from it, he wondered if that was the whole vampire thing. Forcing himself to concentrate and ignore the strange scent, he barked twice in reply.

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel nodded at the whine, as though he wasn't unused to getting that kind of reaction from the animal set. He peered at the treadmill, which was fortunately made with buttons so easy even he could figure them out. He set it for a jog and got out of Cam's way.

"There ya go. Bark if you need me to stop it."

A thought occured to him. "Um - do you need people to talk you for other kinds of walking? If you, uh, get what I mean?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

/Oh man. Did you have to ask?/

Cameron whined and hid his muzzle underneath his paw at the question. Seriously, he did not want to even think about how he had been dealing with this dilemma. The whole being a cub experience came with enough embarrassement already.

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Even in cub-form, Angel could recognize the universal guy signs for not wanting to talk about something.

"We'll never speak of it again," Angel promised.