The Gym; Sunday Afternoon [ 03/08 ].

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

All good weekends had to, unfortunately, come to an end, and Cal was observing the unfortunate passing of a weekend with Penelope gone leaving Claire with a room to herself (and plants to feed, of course) with his usual Sunday trip to the gym, a little later than usual. It was also a little more distracted than usual, his sets and reps with the weights a little slower and lighter and less religious than they had been at other times, at least until he really started to get a sweat going and a rhythm and zone.


[[ super-duper slow for a few hours, but open gym is open! ]]

Comments

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

The time change had messed with both John's head and his watch, so he was a little later to the gym than usual, coming in already sweaty from a run outside.

Sometimes he really wished he could know before he went into the gym if there were already people there. But he faked a smile for Cal and settled on to a free weight machine.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

In gym decorum, Cal knew perfectly well that all a fake smile in greeting would have called for would be a lift of his chin, maybe a grunt, in acknowledgment back, followed by the settling into either own routines as if the other person in the gym didn't exist at all, but, for some reason, or simply just the reason that it was John, Cal felt the need to not just meet the obligation of greeting but to raise it up to the slightly higher level. "John," he said, nodding back, the flow of his lifting weights uninterrupted.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Cal would take it to the next level, John figured, starting his own set of reps, knowing he wasn't going to have the chance to just lose himself to pushing his physical limit.

"How's it going, Cal?" He raise the stakes of polite gym conversation further.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Only the slightest of shrugs, so as not to disturb his reps. "Not bad," he answered, amicably and simply, tailored to be conversational without really saying anything at all. "You?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you know," John said, sounding much brighter than he felt. "The usual." And then he put it back on Cal to either keep this going or give up and let them both work out in as much peace as they could muster.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Sounds exciting," Cal offered, faintly bored but mostly with incredibly muted tones of needling.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"That's my life," John agreed, just as amused with it as he sounded. "A laugh a minute."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like it," Cal agreed, ironically. "Always so...bright, and cheerful."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"You dig the bright and cheerful, Cal?" John asked.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yeah," Cal muttered with a snort that matched along with an exhale with his weights. "Sunshine and rainbows; that's me."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Thought so," John smirked. "I was pretty sure I heard happy harp music flowing out of here when I walked in."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, if you were a little earlier, you might have caught all the magic glittery sparkling."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John hissed in a breath, "Good thing I missed the glitter. It can only lead to trouble."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Why woul--"

And then Cal blinked.

"Oh, hell. I forgot about that whole thing."

And he'd gone a good, good, good long time without anyone ever mentioning it. Damn it. It would have figured it'd be someone like John to go and bring it back into his life.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"I haven't heard about any glitter attacks in a while," John admitted. "But it's not something people talk about a lot. Unless they're makers of glitter."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Then let's honor that tradition," Cal decided, "and drop it."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John couldn't help wondering if Cal had experienced something with the glitter. "You a glitter survivor?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Not of that kind," Cal said. "Thankfully."

No, it seemed that the glitter wasn't always necessary, was it, Stephanides?

He grunted a little into rep.