The Workout (Shota)

Elly walked confidently into the gym preparing for a short but satisfying round of exercise. Midnight was by her side, since she had insisted to tag along when she spotted the counselor grabbing her sports bag. She wasn't quite sure why, but she was picking up a lot of cues that the 18-Only Hero had an ulterior motive for coming with her. When she glanced around the open room, however, she saw why.

Her ears skewed crazily on either sides of her head, she pressed her hands to her flaming cheeks and gasped. Midnight giggled wickedly.

Aizawa was the only one in the teachers' gym at the moment. He was stripped to the waist and wearing only a pair of black shorts and sneakers, propped up on his fingertips with one hand on his back doing pushups. His dark hair was tied back in a ponytail and it was apparent from the way his skin was shining in the overhead lights that he'd been at this for awhile.

Elly couldn't help it - she mewed faintly. His head shot up and his gray eyes zeroed in on hers at once. He blinked and then they slid to the side to take in the woman with her. They grew much flatter when he saw who it was.

Midnight didn't care in the slightest. She grabbed her colleague's arm and all but dragged her until they were standing right in front of him.

"What do you want, Kayama?" The laconic man went back to his workout as he spoke.

"Nothing," she insisted. "I came here for the sauna. Cheshire, here, on the other hand..." She nudged the cat woman and she glared at her, her tail starting to twitch. "And I'm off! Toodle-ooo!" She flounced away towards the women's showers.

Elly swore at her under her breath.

Aizawa just sighed. He watched Midnight stop before she disappeared into the back and, out of sight of Elly, started trying to tell him something. She winked at him and made some rather lewd hand gestures that he assumed meant he should try to hit on the Insanity Hero.

He sighed, deeper this time. Why was everyone trying to push him into something he could handle himself? He already had what felt like the weight of the world on his shoulders, and...

Wait.

Weight?

He stopped and looked up at the terribly embarrassed cat woman. Her striped tail was now swishing rapidly about her legs and she looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her whole.

"I'm sorry, Aizawa," she apologized quickly when she saw his attention had focused on her. "Kayama... well, she insisted, and before I knew it here we were."

"That's fine." He waved her apology off with a brief gesture. "But you can help, if you want to."

Her ears unfurled, slowly perking up as she raised her eyebrows. "I can? You're usually unnaproachable while exercising."

He grunted. "How much do you weigh?" Her eyebrows raised even higher but she told him and he nodded in approval. "I thought so. You're fully proportioned and well built." His gray eyes appeared to be sizing her up, slowly looking over her curves in her sport top and tight shorts.

Elly's heart hammered crazily in her chest. This was damn near love poetry from the laconic homeroom teacher. "Th - thanks," she said nervously.

"If you want to spend time with me right now, I suggest you sit on my upper back."

"Wait, what?"

He pointed behind him to the surging muscles of his back as he continued to do one-handed push ups. "I'm busy, we both want to talk. You can help make my workout more efficient at the same time."

"You really..?" She tentatively placed a hand on the scarred skin of his back. He was very warm and somewhat slick from exercising. "Here?"

"Yes." He paused, then laid completely flat on his chest, reached around with one arm and scooped her up, encouraging her to sit down. She did so, struggling to control her wildly beating heart.

"Oh!" He had immediately begun his reps again, still one-handed. His only concession to the rise in difficulty was instead of balancing on his fingertips his palm was flat on the floor.

"This is better," he told her. Elly thought that maybe - just maybe -- she detected a faint smugness in his voice. He sounded as if he were slightly pleased with himself.

They talked while he finished his workout, mostly about the students in both their care and, of course, cats. He seemed very interested in her feline attributes but hesitant to ask more questions. She could feel his interest, and her heart, which had begun to slow a little as she grew used to the close contact, started to speed up again.

At last, it was over. He requested her to slide off and she did, swallowing hard when she saw how his face was dripping with sweat.

Aizawa wiped absently at his neck with a towel he picked up nearby. "You helped me achieve an excellent workout. Yet you were behind me the whole time." He looked around the mostly empty gym, then grinned. The scruffy man stepped closer, grasping her wrists lightly in his hands and bringing them up to his lips. "Would you be interested in a bit of a different perspective? Perhaps laying on your back with me on top?"

She gaped at him incredulously, her eyes gigantic in her shock. "Wh - what? Did you just proposition me, Shota Aizawa?!" Her voice was low, like his, to avoid attracting more attention than they already were.

He placed a gentle kiss in each of her palms, staring into her eyes the whole time. "Depends. Isn't the connotation of 'proposition' bad?"

"Well, I - okay, yes. I simply meant I was startled you actually hit on me."

He flashed her a crooked grin. "Did it work?"

Elly sighed weakly. "Shit," she muttered, half to herself. Then, out loud, "Yes. But, in all honesty, you could have said 'sex, now' and I'd have agreed, too."

He covered his mouth with one hand and she moved forward, alarmed before she realized he was laughing! His laugh sounded like a dry cough.

"How remarkable," he chuckled, obviously finding it very much so. "And do you want a relationship as well?"

"I ... well, yes."

"Even more amazing. So do I." He glanced over his shoulder at the men's showers. "I have to clean up. Please wait for me by the coffee shop in the front, and then we can ... continue at either my place or yours."

She blushed harder and his grin became a much softer smile before he threw the towel over his shoulder and walked off.