Talk Shit, Get Fit

[babylonmechanic]

Who: Wave and Knuckles
What: Knuckles teaches Wave fighting techniques
Where: The gym
When: August 17, early morning
Warnings: E for EXERCISE

Wave was exceptionally confident in her skills and abilities. That fact was undeniable. She knew she was an exceptional rider, an exceptional mechanic, and a genius to boot. She could take on anything on her Gear.

Off her Gear, though...

A fateful trip to the floating island taught Wave that her close quarters combat skills were lacking. Knuckles had offered to train her, although at the time her wounded pride prevented her from accepting. Time and reflection had a way of changing one's mind about things. It may have been against her ego, but she took him up on the offer.

The weight room was sparsely occupied at 6 in the morning. Either the meatheads hadn't arrived, or they were about to. Either way, she felt so out of place there, waiting for Knuckles to arrive.

Comments

[babylonmechanic]

She pushed herself up quick. He had a really strong chest, wow... She regained her composure, trying not to draw attention to the warm feeling on her cheeks.

"I-I'm fine. I just lost balance," she said. "Won't happen again."

[machomonotreme]

"Huh. Yeah... let's call it quits for today."

He stepped back a little too.

"....I'll get you another bottle of water. It's important to stay hydrated when you're training. Don't want you getting dizzy or anything."

That was probably the closest they had ever been, physically. (Why did she smell so good. That was weird.) Really, he didn't mind it. But he had to look at it this way: One! Tails was interested in her and he knew enough about friendship to know that he should feel stupid levels of guilt for not minding that she'd all but hugged him. (Even by accident.) Two! She was here to learn how to be a badass fighter, not to have him be OK with physical closeness.

[babylonmechanic]

"Yeah... Fine. Thanks," she said, finally stepping back and trying to regain her composure. It kinda felt nice... What the heck was she even thinking?! Get your head back in the game, girl.

"So how often do we need to meet for this?" she asked him as he went to get water, grabbing a towel and wiping her brow, stretching her arms over her head to feel how stiff she felt.

[monotreme_101]

He was divided.

His answer would have been 'Every day and don't you dare skip even one session because I'm not interested in trying to toughen up a slacker!' five minutes ago. Even two minutes ago. Now he was kind of more like 'Oh, it was just one time. You're done. Come see me for a diploma later.'

But that wasn't fair.

"...every day. Same time. Strength isn't built in one morning, or four days a week. It's something you commit to every single day."

He tossed her a bottle of water.

"You think you can do some shadow boxing every night to keep limber and toughen up your muscles too? Or is that gonna be too much for you."

[babylonmechanic]

"I'll try," she said, draping the towel over her shoulders. She caught the bottle of water, turning to face him. "Guess this means we'll be seeing a lot more of each other," she remarked.

[monotreme_101]

"Sure. I guess." Knuckles replied with a little shrug, glad he had his own bottle of water to keep his hands and face busy. Otherwise he might have felt even more awkward.

".....see if you can drag Tails in with you some times. That kid could use a little training too. Don't want him gettin' soft on me."

[babylonmechanic]

"Right, sure, I'll see if he's interested," Wave replied quickly. Right, Tails! Don't have weird thoughts now, she was already having way too many of those lately. She didn't need to start feeling awkward around KNUCKLES too.

[monotreme_101]

"He'll probably say No, that he's too busy on whatever it is he's working on at the time. Don't listen to him. Remind him you're super smart too and if you have time to train for combat, so does he. He takes a little push sometimes... but he's a good kid."

Even though this Tails was older than the one he was used to, it was hard not to think of him as a kid.

[babylonmechanic]

"Sounds like you've had this discussion with him before," she suggested with a small smirk. "How'd it go then?

[monotreme_101]

"It can be a real struggle to drag Tails out of his work shop at the best of times. Sonic does a better job than I do when it comes to getting the kid outside. It's like... telling him how much stronger he could be doesn't motivate him."

So freakin' weird.

"It's easier if Robotnik is attacking. Or if you turn it into a project. Well, like training Emerl. Tails did that, too. Taught him some funny little moves."

[babylonmechanic]

"Right, so you want me to go tell him 'Tails, come quick! Eggman's attacking, and he won't stop until you do a hundred push-ups!'" Wave teased.

[monotreme_101]

That actually made Knuckles laugh pretty hard.

"Oh no! Here he comes again! Quick, show me how many pushups you can do!"

[babylonmechanic]

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do," she told him, walking past him and elbowing him in the arm on the way to the changing rooms. "Phew... I need a shower after this," she muttered to herself as she stepped in.

[machomonotreme]

His nose twitched a little.

"Yeah you do." he replied, acting like he didn't find the smell even a little bit interesting. "I'll catch you around, Wave."

He pulled another apple out of his bag and bit into it.

"...hey." he said, mouth full. "You did a good job today. Tomorrow's gonna be even better."

[babylonmechanic]

"...Yeah. It just might," she said, glancing over her shoulder to throw a smirk his way before ducking into the changing room.