Working out with Jemma.

[runningred]

{{From here}}

Jay is hanging out in the bar early in the morning. Well, early for him. He's dressed in sweats and running shoes, waiting for Jemma.

Comments

[runningred]

"And undergrads bring all sorts of trouble of their own." Jay grins, knowing all too well how busy the streets of Gotham use to get for the first couple of weeks of a new semester.

He's happy to keep walking for a little longer if she needs it before gently encouraging her to jog again.

[protect_and_survey]

"Every year the forthcoming fall of civilization was predicted." Jemma agrees with a grin, before picking up the pace again.

[runningred]

Jay laughs. "Never made it to collage myself so at least I avoided being responsible for the end of the world." He jogs steadily, letting Jemma set the pace but keeping with her to keep her going.

[protect_and_survey]

Jemma at least has the very good sense to not immediately try and convince Jay that he should go to college - she imagines that would be at least as impressively annoying as the friends and family members who tried to convince her to stop going after advanced degrees (after all dear, you're not getting any younger / there's so much world to see outside the ivory tower / you should go put your stamp on the world).

There'd been some raging fights during those years.

Some still ongoing.

"Small mercies, I'd imagine you'd be creative enough for at least a small apocalypse." She teases, in time with her foot-falls.

[runningred]

"Perhaps not a full apocalypse." Jay chuckles. "A couple of apocryphal apocalypses maybe. At least two full blown disasters." He's being modest. It was three.

[protect_and_survey]

"Come now, we can't have that, you should be working to your full potential." She retorts, dry and drawling - the tones that usually don't make it out of the lab, never mind into Milliways.

Well, a version of those tones, anyway, it's hard to work up a proper boarding-school drawl when your breath is getting tight again.

[runningred]

Jay laughs warmly, "My full potential involves explosions. And breaking at least a couple of the bar rules. I think I'm good running within safe parameters here."

[protect_and_survey]

She can't exactly encourage him to break the rules - breaking the rules makes her deeply uncomfortable, so... it'd just be weird.

"Only a couple?" Mostly she's just curious - and if so, which one is he leaving out?

[runningred]

Jay shoots her a quick smile. "I'm not that sort of exhibitionist. I prefer my amours more private."

[protect_and_survey]

She snickers breathlessly, shaking her head.

"Figures, that's probably... the easiest one to... get away with." Honestly, people do it all the time in the real world - how much harder could it be in a poorly patrolled pub at the end of the universe.

[runningred]

"Sneaking around in corners isn't my style. It's fun from time to time but it's not my way." He drops back to a walk again. "Besides, the bar has plenty of rooms."

[protect_and_survey]

Gratefully she slows to match him - she's pretty sure an Operations agent would already be all the way around the lake, but that's not going to be her today.

"Which is utterly odd - have you seen the stairwells? They'd give a sherpa vertigo."

[runningred]

"I found out there's a way round that. Seems like the spacial dimension of the bar are malleable. Apparently with a bit of negotiation with the Bar herself, you can have extra rooms added, install shortcuts to get from one place to another. I now have a door that goes from my room on the sixth floor to my workshop in the garage without any apparent shift in elevation. It's goes a little Escher if you think to hard about it but it seems to work."

[protect_and_survey]

"You'd need a portal that could account for changing air pressure as well as the physical distance..."
Jemma, distracted by the implications (and shiny, shiny science) slows while trying to work out how that could happen. She really does need to get her hands on one of Fitz's robots.

...

Also, continuing to walk would probably be good.

[runningred]

"Possibly but I haven't noticed any change that would account for the air pressure. Not that I've measured it with anything more sensitive than my own ears." Jay's happy to walk for a bit more.

[protect_and_survey]

"Yes, six floors probably wouldn't be enough to be seriously notable, but have you seen the numbers in the elevator? There's some in the thousands." She agrees, her pace turning meandering as she gets more caught up in the idea and how to make it work.

[runningred]

"I have a feeling the garage shifts. It never seems to be the same number of floors down." Jay tries to keep her at a brisk walk.

[protect_and_survey]

Belatedly she realizes why it seems that suddenly he's hurrying her along. Embarrassment at getting distracted (again, this happened yesterday too) silences her abruptly. In a fit of stubborn self-flagellation, she takes off into a run again.

Focus, Simmons, is it really so hard?

[runningred]

Jay keeps pace as she speeds up, jogging along next to help. "You're doing good, Jem. Just keep it up. Tomorrow we'll do it again with one less walking stage."

[protect_and_survey]

"I'm slow." She grits, determined not to stop again before finishing the loop of the lake. "It's not acceptable."

[runningred]

"No, Jem. You're building up. There's a difference. It takes time. But if you want to go fast and push harder, we can." He keeps up with her until they get back around the lake.

[protect_and_survey]

She's out of breath by the time they get around the entire loop, but she's just about stubborn enough to not fall over once she feels it's okay to walk again. These are the times (and the only times) she wishes she'd taken a teaching post at the Academy - there aren't any gazelle-like runners to make one feel quite turtle-like.

[runningred]

"Okay. Good work. Lets walk back to the bar, grab some water and head down to the garage. I have some self-defence moves I'd like to work thought with you."

[protect_and_survey]

She nods, glad at least that the upcoming humiliation at least won't be public.

Not long later she walks into the garage for the first time, blinking in surprise at just how very big it is.
"Goodness, do you spend much time down here?"

[runningred]

"I lived down here for the first month I was in the bar. It might be massive but it's private. And comforting in it's own way." Just past his workshop, Jay has a training space set up - a sprung and slightly padded floor that won't hurt to hand on.

Jay ditches his shoes and shirt and bounces onto the mat, stretching a little. "Do you want to show me what your trainer's been doing with you? Might be best to build on that."