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Out of all the places Futaba expected to visit after school, the gym was the absolute last place that would be on that list, especially with her boyfriend Ren Amamiya and their feline companion Morgana.
After Ren was able to come back to Tokyo to finish his last year of high school in Shujin, Futaba also started going to Shujin to finally get back on her feet school-wise. For some time, she has been achieving phenomenal grades in all her classes and has even told Ren about her accomplishments during the times they are together. However, she’s expressed that she has been doing amazing aside from one activity: PE, or physical education.
Because of this, Ren had decided to take her to the gym to work on her body. That way, the spectacled duo can both stay in shape and keep their PE grades up. Ren wanted to help her start light with her exercising since he knows that she’s not the best at doing any kind of physical exercise. Their heists within the Metaverse back when they were still the infamous Phantom Thieves put that aspect of hers on full display.
“Might be best to warm up real quick before getting on the treadmill just to be safe.” Ren suggested.
“O-Oh okay!” Futaba agreed.
At first, she was rather clueless on how to warm up, but then she remembered some warm-up stretches that she saw in a fitness game that she owns back at home. Some of them included raising her knees and feet up and stretching her sides with her hands up. While keeping those in mind, she did her absolute best to replicate those same warm-up exercises. Ren was rather impressed considering he thought that she would know little to nothing about fitness since it was just something she never really cared for.
Afterwards, she got up on a nearby treadmill and started running for ten minutes. Although, she was noticeably getting rather exhausted. “I…don’t think…I can go…on for much…longer,” the girl said while continuously panting.
“Just a little bit more. You can do it,” Ren said to keep her spirits up. Morgana even piped up from Ren’s bag saying, “You got this!”
“Guys….I can only…run for so long..”
“You’re almost done. You only got a few more minutes.”
While Futaba’s timer had two minutes left, she genuinely looks like she could collapse at any moment. Ren had to brainstorm a way to help give her a boost. Then he remembered watching anime with her a few nights ago. One of the lines that the protagonist said to the villain before transforming really stood out to him, so he decided to use that line to help boost his girlfriend's morale.
“You have to go even further beyond, ‘Taba! You can do it!” the boy exclaimed.
Further beyond.
Those words were continuously ringing loud in her ears. She couldn’t hear anything but the sound of her own heart beating until….something within her snapped.
Ren swore that she saw a spark within her eye, and before he knew it, Futaba started picking up the pace and started running like her life depended on it. That one line of motivation from her Key Item gave her all the energy she needed to push on through. It felt like nothing could break her momentum whatsoever. Morgana was even surprised at her sudden change in posture. “W-Woah! Whatever you just did there, that really helped her out!” the cat exclaimed with a look of admiration.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
The obnoxiously loud alarm coming from Ren’s phone startled Futaba enough to the point where she immediately froze. Not exactly the best idea since she was still on the moving treadmill. Ren, however, reacted immediately and caught her as soon as she fully slipped off. After catching her, they just looked each other in the eyes and blushed. They didn’t exactly know what to do in the moment, so they just stared.
“I…noticed that we get into these kind of situations quite a bit,” Futaba expressed to break the tension. Ren followed up with a small chuckle.
“Yeah, we really do. Are you okay though, Futaba?”
“Y-Yeah. Thanks for the save. I guess I kinda just zoned out there cuz of the timer.”
“Makes sense,” Ren says while putting her down. “Just try to be more careful next time, okay? That was a little too close for comfort, ya know.”
“Aye aye, Cap’n!” Futaba exclaims. She goes in for a hug with Ren reciprocating it. No matter how much they constantly show affection for the other whether it’s in private or public, the hugs from each other will never old.
“I still got to do my own workout, so how about I finish up and we can go home for today?”
“Okay! Sounds good to me!” Futaba smiles.
Futaba walks on over to the wall and sits down on one of the nearest benches. She reaches into her bag to pull out her Switch, but as soon as she turns it on, the screen showed that the console was on extremely low battery. “I guess I must have used it a lot today in between breaks,” she thought. All that leaves her to do is watch Ren as she does his push-ups.
“How many push-ups do you do?” the orange-haired girl inquired.
“Usually fifty or so,” the boy responded. “Sometimes I try going above that, but I think I’ll just stick with fifty for today.”
That gives Futaba a rather interesting idea. She starts chuckling to herself while looking at Ren, which prompts him to turn towards her. “Uh, are you okay?” Even Morgana was concerned what kind of idea she had cooking in her head.
“Stay right there,” she says before getting off the bench. She walks on over and gets on top of Ren to where she’s leaning on top of his back entirely. Morgana was absolutely left speechless at what was going on in front of him while Ren’s face resembled Futaba’s face whenever he ends up making her feel flustered.
“Well, what are ya waiting for? Just think of me as a training weight! Commence workout!” the energetic girl exclaimed while patting her boyfriend on the back.
“Y-You got it,” Ren stutters and starts his set. Ren was rather flustered with this decision at first, but after his tenth push-up, he got into the groove of things. “You know,” the boy thought to himself, “this actually isn’t that bad of an idea. She’s not super heavy, but she’s heavy enough to where she pretty much *is* a training weight.” While Futaba’s weight made his pushups considerable harder, it was nothing that he couldn’t handle. If he was able to handle multiple Disaster Shadows back when they were still thieves, he can handle his petite girlfriend laying on top of him while he was working out.
“Let’s try going for fifty, come on! Up and at ‘em!” she exclaimed. Futaba started counting all of his pushups from the beginning. She figured that it would be tough if he was the only one keeping track, so she wanted to make it easy on him. While she’s not able to fully see Ren’s face, she caught a glimpse of a look of determination on his face. All she could give as a silent response to his determination was a wide and loving smile for her Key Item.
“Aaaand fifty!” Futaba slowly gets off Ren’s back and stands back up. “I know I’m not really heavy, but I’m honestly impressed that you were able to do that!”
“I handled way worse back in the Metaverse, so that wasn’t a big deal.” Ren expressed with an aura of confidence. That was until Morgana piped up. “You say that, but you should have seen the look on your face when she climbed on top of you. It was priceless!”
Critical blow, AND super effective. Ren was too embarrassed and flustered to even come up with any sort of comeback.
“You were saying?” Futaba said with a smug look on her face.
“So much for being a partner in crime,” Ren blushed while also glaring at Morgana. Futaba couldn’t help but giggle at Ren being flustered. To make up for that, she gave Ren a peck on the cheek and just smiled at him. Ren just couldn’t help himself but to smile back at her.
“On that note, we should probably get going. Don’t want Sojiro to go full-on protective dad mode, so we should head on home now. Plus, I’m starving after that work-out, and I’m in the mood for curry!” Futaba said while patting her stomach.
“Sure thing,” Ren said while chuckling at Futaba already feeling hungry after their workout. “You want me to make it for you?”
Futaba’s eyes immediately beamed up at Ren’s proposal. “Is that even a question? Of course! Sojiro’s curry is great, but it’s like you perfected it! Don’t tell him I said that though. He *might* get jealous.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Ren smiled while opening the door for Futaba. They talked about various things on the way home from the gym, but one thing’s for sure: today was quite an experience for both of them. Futaba would have to grow accustomed to working out in general while also pushing past her limits bit by bit, and Ren would have to get used to his new training weight while exercising. However, this new change in their daily life was definitely something that they could get used to.