Work Text:
Athena was 14 when she discovered that working out was a very effective way of curbing her anxiety and stress. It had been 5 am and she'd woken up from a particularly crappy nightmare and she was buzzing with energy. So she strapped on her sneakers and went for a jog around the block, feeling surprisingly better afterwards and even managing to fall back asleep.
So she started doing it more. After rough days at school, she would take a run, feeling significantly more relaxed by the time she got home to her empty apartment. When she was 16, she applied for a gym membership and had been a loyal member ever since, going atleast once, sometimes twice a week, to let off steam.
It was only after she started working under Mr. Wright that she found herself going to the gym almost every day. She loved her job, she did, but man were some of the people she had to deal with a handful.
Boss and Apollo never seemed to question where she went until a case that Apollo took the lead on that she swore caused them both to age atleast 10 years.
"Well, that was fun!" she exclaimed cheerily after it was all over, "See you tomorrow, Apollo." Apollo gave her a funny look and she frowned. "What?"
"How the hell are you always so cheery?" he accused. "I feel like I'm one step closer to having a heart attack the longer I do this."
She shrugged. "Maybe you need a different stress management."
"Well what do you do?"
She gave him a steady look. "I work out."
He gave her a skeptical look. "Wouldn't that just stress you out more?"
"Nah, I've been doing it for years and it's worked out pretty well."
He seemed to ponder on that for a minute, his thinking face fully on. "Is that where you go every day?"
She grinned. "Yep! You're more than welcome to come, if you want."
She saw him wrinkle his nose at the prospect and suppressed a giggle. Her coworker was definitely that kid in school who had his nose in books constantly and got winded over running laps in gym class.
But she couldn't help but be a little excited at his sudden interest. Maybe she would have a gym buddy.
Those hopes were very short lived as by the end of her usual session, Apollo swore up and down he was never doing this again unless he wanted to keel over by 25. Drama queen.
So she accepted that she was the only one who liked this sort of thing. She offered for Boss to join her once and he just grimaced and made up a lie about dinner with the Chief Prosecutor or whatever, so she just kept going on as normal. Atleast until that day...
Pearly was visiting again, likely due to loneliness from not having Ms. Fey around, atleast according to her expert ears when she asked about it. She felt bad for her friend. It must be excruciating being alone on a mountain for most of your life. The spirit medium was just sitting on the couch with a cup of tea when Athena poked her head into her boss's part of the office.
"I'm heading out for the day, Boss," she informed, "See ya tomorrow."
"Got it," he waved lazily. "Have fun at the gym."
In her peripheral vision, she saw Pearly straighten up on the couch.
"You're going to the gym?" the girl asked her in interest.
"Yeah, it's on the way to my place." She raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Pearly's eyes practically sparkled with determination as the girl flew off the couch. "Can I come with you?" And then she tacked on, "Please?"
She blinked in shock. Pearly was so small and polite, soft-spoken even. She wondered if the other girl knew what she was getting into, or if she just wanted an excuse to hang out with someone her own age. Either way was fine with her. So she nodded.
Whatever Athena had been expecting from her medium friend as a gym buddy got completely shattered into pieces almost as soon as they came out of the locker room.
Objectively, she knew Pearly was tougher than she looked. But she wasn't prepared for the tiny girl to have abs. And well-defined ones. And not just abs, either. Also some back muscles that flexed under her tight tank top and arms that were hard with what was no doubt years of care. This wasn't the body of a girl only going to a gym to hang out with a friend. She was a pro! And she could probably kick Athena's ass and the knowledge of this made her fall just a tiny bit in love.
"Athena?" The other girl asked. "Are you alright? Your face is really red." Athena felt a palm on her forehead. "You're not ill, are you?"
"Please marry me," she blurted out stupidly.
Pearly froze, face turning beat red. "What?" she squeaked. Good going, Athena, you gay disaster.
"Nothing!" she tried to correct. "I'm fine. Let's just go stretch."
Pearly put her thumb to her lip, biting her nail nervously. "If you're sure..."
Athena had never been less sure of anything in her life. She thought Pearly hiding that physique in the first place was bad enough, but actually seeing it in action was a new brand of torture. Between the way her shirt rode up to tease the abs Athena had seen earlier in the locker room and the way her shoulders and biceps bulged with every movement, it was looking less and less likely she would survive this session.
Death by hot girl. A fitting but tragic end.
Pearly was a foot shorter. She was tiny! And she could probably lift Athena with ease and pin her to a wall. That would be nice..
It was only when she was suitably distracted by her own pace (faster than usual because she refused to let Pearly beat her) that she was able to muster the braincells to ask, "Do they have a gym in Kurain?"
She heard a steady breathing and then a "No, not yet. I was gonna ask Mystic Maya about it when she came back from her training."
"So, then," she started, trying not to let on how she was checking her out, "How have you been keeping in shape?"
Pearly, none the wiser at Athena's plight, smiled, quickening the pace again (Athena was really starting to feel it), and said, "I joined the sports club at school. Mystic Maya thought it would be a good way for me to make friends. I ended up having a lot of fun."
She wanted to ask about it more, but her breaths were becoming more ragged, so she allowed a comfortable silence to fall, the only sounds being the whirring of the machines and their even breathing.
By the end of the hour, Athena felt more exhausted and sore than she had ever remembered being.
"That was fun!" Pearly said, back in those deceptive robes that Athena couldn't help but resent a little now, "We should do that again sometime!"
"Haha," she chuckled nervously, every step she took towards her car stiff with overuse, "Maybe."
It was only when she saw the girl flounce out of her car into Boss's apartment, the insane workout they both got clearly not affecting her at all (was she even human?), that Athena allowed herself to rest her head on the steering wheel.
She could not take Pearly to the gym with her again. Not if she wanted to live.