The Gun Show

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan stayed silent, staring around the weightlifting equipment with a sense of nervousness. She was currently wearing some more appropriate workout clothes underneath her zipped-down blazer, that being black gym shorts and a black tank top. 

Okay, Meggy. You never really were the weightlifting kind of girl. But hey, first in everything. You gotta get some more muscles. Muscles are hot. Muscles are cool. Muscles make for good cops.

Meghan tosses her blue blazer onto a bench, and she turns towards a mirror on the wall. She stared at her toned body so far, from her arms to her legs. She slowly curled her arm and flexed her bicep, giving a confident smirk. 

Oh yeah, this is gonna be good.

 Meghan looked around the equipment and eventually set her sights on a bench with a barbell. Chest presses. Perfect. 

She walks over and looks over at the weights. 

Hmm, 10? 15? Mmmm, let’s go with 25!

Meghan takes a 25 lb weight and slides it on both sides of the barbell, excitedly thinking about how she can fit this exercise into her new routine. She lays down onto the bench, stretching once more before taking her hands on both sides of the barbell. She takes one deep breath. One. Two!

She lifted the barbell from the stand, and she felt the weight immediately as her elbows bent. She grunted while the weight of the barbell weighed against her. She slowly began to move her arms, the barbell lifting up into the air. 

Come on…come on, Meghan… come on…!

“O-One…!” She lifted the barbell up completely, laughing. 

And the barbell stayed up... and up... and up...

Meghan smiled wildly, her eyes wide as saucers as her arms were stretched into the air with the barbell. 

...uh-oh. 

[LYourLocalAutist]

Gym clothes: on. Water: bottled. Sweat rags: shouldered. Deodorant: totally in his locker in the changing room this time. Playlist: 40% Bad Bunny.

Awww yeah. Workout time.

[Manuel "Mañana" Hernández continued from On Responsibility]

Manuel swiped down and reviewed what today's session would comprise on in his notes app. Pull-ups, deadlifts, medicine ball... core day today. "Gotta work that posture, Hernández", he remembered his coach telling him. That was around a week ago. Damn it. He thought his posture was fine. Far be it from him to complain about getting better at his dream, though; in fact, anticipation built in his chest as he approached the entrance and huh

That was, uh... Meggy something. Chota-Girl. Manuel stopped and his face screwed in confusion a moment. The hell was she doing here? He'd never seen her around- was this her first time?

...It would probably explain the workout malfunction he currently witnessed. That thing was... not coming down. Meggy was stuck. Sweating like a- nah, too easy. His first instinct was to reach down for his phone. Take a picture, maybe a snap video, apply funny caption and whisk off to his buddies. Have a big ol' laugh at the expense of Chota-Girl. But then he caught himself and looked around a moment. No one here. Him and the girl. No one to see nothing and get any ideas. That was why he came here at this time in the first place. Relief sprouted through him. TIme to do something nice.

It started with him approaching, the confusion on his face having turned to concern. He called out: "Hey, uh... need some help with that?"

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan’s eyes snap over to Manuel, that kid. She didn’t exactly mind the fact he’s here. She didn’t care, right now all that matters is the feeling that her arms was about to break.

She let out a small yell, not a loud one, but one to to properly communicate to him “Hey there, yes I’d appreciate the help and get this barbell off me before I die!”

[LYourLocalAutist]

wOAHkay no more talk that scream meant action

His eyes widened in small panic for a moment, before screwing back to determination as he jogged around and in front of her. He barely had to reach up for the barbell, the bar part of which he took in his hands and gently began to lift. 25 was kind of... child's play, but also, what the fuck, you don't lift 25 your first go with zero partner. Pushing the gym bro inside him to the side, he slowly alleviated the weight in Meggy's arms

"Okay, so... this is called spotting."

He mentioned. He did a really bad job of containing that gym bro. With practised ease, the barbell was right back on its rack.

"You'll prolly want someone to do it for you whenever you're liftin' stuff above your head. If it's your very first time, anyway."

His voice was a lot softer and kinder than he usually let it be. It felt liberating, but also conflicting considering it was... well, her.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan felt the weight lifted from her body as the barbell is pulled off back on the rack. She released long groan, relieved on part from not being crushed underneath 25 pounds of weights. And yet, she also felt extremely embarrassed someone walked in on her struggling, and had to help her.

Spotter. Right. She uh, forgot about that part of exercise.

“Right, yeah. Thank you, uh-“ She snapped her fingers “Manuel, is it?”

[LYourLocalAutist]

"That's me. And you're Meggy."

He grinned, stretching his arms out a ways, basically gesturing "Here I am, yeah". He felt a little proud of himself having remembered her name, but most of his current pride came from the act of altruism he'd just performed. He looked down at her with eyes that were meant to be casual but came off as stern, and placed his hands back on his hips.

"Right, seriously- this is your first time doing weights, isn't it?"

Safety was something he took very seriously in his training. You pull a muscle, break a leg, crack your skull open with a barbell, guess what? That's loads of hard work allll thrown down the trash. Wasn't gonna happen to her, though, he thought to himself. Not while he was around.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan's face appeared flushed under the prodding of the question, stumbling on her words as she stood up and nervously chuckled "Well, I mean I wouldn't say..." She stopped herself. Lying was definitely not the quality of a good cop. She glanced away, embarrassed even more now "Yeah, this is..."

[LYourLocalAutist]

He couldn't hold back a little chuckle himself seeing the way she acted. He patiently waited for her to spill the truth before continuing to talk himself, genuine intent behind his voice.

"Well, gotta say, props to your confidence. That's, uh, where the props end, but still. Deadlifts at 25 for a beginner... sheesh."

He shivered slightly. Bad, bad things could've happened had he not intervened. He cleared those thoughts promptly from his head and returned to his half-instruction, crossing his arms. It felt a little serious, now, in concordance with the offer he was about to make.

"Listen- I'm here to work out too, but if you want... I could help ya out. What exactly are ya looking to train?"

He really didn't have any reasoning behind the offer, which when he thought about it, was a bit of the point. Just trying to look out where he can. Not like Marino was lurking out a window with a cameraor something.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan's embarrassment faltered as she glanced up at Manuel, surprised at the offer of help. Usually, she would help others, so getting the help was...weird to say the least.

"I...I don't really, know, all I've done is a bunch of cardio workouts and my swimming to keep me in shape," Meghan sighed, scratching her head "Just wanted to get stronger, bulk up. You know...muscles. Muscles are cool."

Meghan flexed her arm a bit, envious of Manuel's stronger muscles.

[LYourLocalAutist]

Ah, the 'just wanna get buff' type. Very typical. Very fitting for literally every third person this soon after the new year. Also very easy to work with. Manuel knew more than a few, and knew how to get them going. Seeing her attempt at a flex, he couldn't suppress a bout of pride and flexed a bit himself before returning to coach mode.

"Full-body, huh? I get it. Loootta stuff you gotta practise for that- you'll prolly wanna write this down somewhere." He chuckled at his own half-joke, before trailing his eyes up and down meggy. She certainly did have that swimmer body, and no doubt a wee bit of muscle memory that'd help her get a head start. But beyond that, he checked out her arms, the ones that'd just been forced to hold up some heavy metal with no way out for some non-descript amount of minutes.

"...I think your arms need a little rest, so we're gonna start with squats. Got it?"

Absolute classic, and the only one in the full-body lineup with full focus on everything but arms. Top five in Manuel's workout rankings for sure.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan felt embarrassed by Manuel's eyes. In many situations she wouldn't mind it, hell, enjoy the eyes on her, but in their situation she felt like he was judging her. She gave a small sigh as she stood up, cracking her back "Squats, huh? Well, I guess that works. And yeah, my arms definitely need to relax."

Alright, don't embarrass yourself any further Megs. Just be glad your savior is deciding to help instead of laughing.

[LYourLocalAutist]

“Okay!”

He called out with a smile, a declaration of preparedness. Taking a few steps towards Meggy, he turned around and positioned himself parallel to her, facing the same
direction she was. He immediately got into position, muscle memory roaring up, key turned in the ignition.

“Now, squats are pretty simple, but there’s some pretty important stuff you gotta keep in mind. Keep your heels on the ground at all times. Stand like I am… wide, just like that, that’s good.”

He took a moment to help her adjust. Couldn’t overwhelm
her just yet, that was gonna be the bench press’ job.

“Alright, we’re gonna do 10 reps, 2 sets. Just up and down. You’ll make it.”

Manuel smiled encouragingly at her, not minding diminishing his own workout for her sake. There was always home to do this kind of thing. With that, set one began. Squats came naturally to Manuel, but he kept an eye on his current partner, timing his with hers.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan took some deep breaths and followed Manuel's movements, lowering her body into a squat position and giving soft grunts after each rep. Meggy knew how to do squats, with all her swim lessons, but never knew how satisfying doing them were until she almost broke her arms and smashed her head open with a barbell. That would have been more embarrassing than a cop accepting bribes.

"9.....10!" Meghan stands up straight, completing the second set as she gives a sigh of relief and she look over at him "Woof. That felt good actually."

[LYourLocalAutist]

His grin broadened seeing her complete her goal. It was less the satisfaction of what he was doing and more how she felt now. He gave her a congratulatory back-clap of reasonable force before reaching down to where he'd put his water bottle, pulling it up with a hand and downing some.

"Genial! You're a natural." He declared. He gestured towards his water bottle. "Need some? Or d'ja bring some yourself?"

He really didn't want to have any more reasons to inwardly laugh at how unprepared she was. It was already bad that he still thought it was funny.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Meghan scoffed “Of course i-“ She turned to the bench where her jackets is, her hand moving to grab the water bottle she packed, only to swipe at nothing. She stopped, looking over the spot once more, her smile stays on her face as she slumped her shoulders.

“….I left it in my car.”