Gym, before workshops

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron was up early. If he was beating the bag with a lot of enthusiasm, then it was just because he was trying to warm up before Veronica got there. Yep, that was all there was to it.

((Open to all but the thread between Veronica and Cameron is locked.))

Comments

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica was yawning when she walked into the gym. Instead of coffee, she was carrying a bottle of water though.

She stood in the doorway and watched Cameron beating the hell out of the punching bag for a minute before announcing her presence.

"What did that poor punching bag ever do to you?" she asked.

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron startled as he hadn't really been paying attention to anything around him and he swivelled around to face Veronica.

"It's here?" he suggested with a quick smile. "Morning."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

As soon as Cameron turned to face her, she noticed the bruise on his forehead.

And blinked.

"Okay, did you get that from the punching bag? Because then I would understand."

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

He'd managed to forget about the bruise for a moment, but the minute she mentioned it, he reached out a gloved hand to his forehead.

"No, sparring gone wrong. I ducked too slow and well..." He shrugged sheepishly.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica's expression became concerned. "You got that from sparring?" she asked. "With who?"+

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Tyler. Don't worry," he said as he noticed her concern and got scared that it would make her reluctant to get into the whole self-defence thing. "It's not usually that rough. We got a bit carried away. Normally you use some padding and while there's some bruises, it's not that bad."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Why did you get carried away?" Veronica asked. Her concern was for Cameron, not herself, because she knew he'd been dealing with a lot of stuff lately.

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Bad mood? Hitting things usually helps. I normally stick to the punching bag, but Tyler needed to hit things to and there's only one bag. It got a bit out of hand," he paused as he realised how that sounded. "I don't think I'm making a good impression here considering how you keep seeing me get involved in fights."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"You don't have to make a good impression on me, Cameron," Veronica said. "I consider you a friend. And I realize that people deal with their stress in different ways. I prefer to drown mine in ice cream. You like to hit things. One way isn't necessarily better than or healthier than the other."

Her eyes focused on the bruise on his forehead for a moment, then her gaze met his. "But there's a big difference between hitting inanimate objects and letting what's supposed to be a controlled sparring match get out of hand."

Veronica held her hand up. "And I'm not judging you, or blaming you. But I'm worried about you. Did your bad mood have to do with any of the stuff we talked about the other day?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Deciding she needed to do something physical after spending all of Sunday and Monday working in her room due to a sudden burst of inspiration, Sam entered the gym, waved to anyone who was there, set her water bottle by the treadmill, and programmed the machine for a 5 mile run.

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Yo, Sam," Cameron greeted. "How's things going?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Can't complain," she shrugged. "You? And what happened to your head?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Maybe he should beg some girl to give him a make over. Cameron sighed. "Spar gone wrong. I ducked too slow and that's the result," he paused. "It looks stupid."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"But you'll duck faster next time, right?" Sam asked as she began to hit her stride. "So, who cares how it looks? It serves a purpose. Who'd you spar with?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Tyler," he grinned. "I think it did prove exactly how hard my head is."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Didn't we know that already?" She teased.

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"It's always nice to have a suspicion confirmed," Cameron said with a laugh.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter figured that some exercise would wake him up a bit before First Aid. He nodded to everyone in the gym and headed over to find a practice blade before starting to drill through his forms.

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Morning, Stickbug brother," Cameron greeted from where he was back at the punching bag again.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Morning, Cam," Peter replied with a grin. "How goes it?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"I've had better weeks," Cameron said honestly. "Did you get detention too? You got called into the principal's office as well, didn't you?"

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter grimaced. "Yes, I did. On Saturday. I tried to assure her that we weren't going to hurt anyone, but it didn't particularly help." He got a good look at Cam's face. "Did you walk into a fist? Or did the ducks take revenge?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"At least we won't be along," Cameron assured him. "Walk? No. More like not ducking fast enough and getting hit in the stupidest place ever."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"True. Sounds like most of us will be there. It actually could be fun," Peter said with a grin. "That must hurt. Literally and telling the story. Who were you sparring with?"

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Could be," he said with a quick grin and rubbed his bruise. "It did hurt, as did Tyler's hand."