[zapdragon555]

The warm sun was really only a gentle warning for the absolute buckets of sweat that Hermey planned to produce today. He looked up at the gym, hands on his waist, bands on his wrists, and bright green short-shorts on his hips, then spun around to wave for Joseph, lagging behind a bit. "Heeey! Come on, let's go in! Getting here early is the best part, I read online!" This whole health-based self betterment thing was a long time coming for the both of them, but Hermey was determined for the both of them to get some good exercise in. Even if just for a little while.

Luckily, the gym had just opened--ungodly early in the morning, yes, but Hermey was sure it would be deserted inside. Better for both of their self esteems, in the long run. Hopefully the other gym goers hadn't had the same early-riser idea.

[Isalynne]

Joseph was one hundred percent certain that he wanted to die.

He would do anything for Hermey. Really, he would - he would walk through fires, over glass, swim an ocean, bend over backwards to see him smile. Going to the gym at a disgusting hour of the morning was not on that list, and for a very good reason. He had gotten out of bed with minimal fuss, thrown on black gym clothes with nary a whimper, but boy was he beginning to feel it.

He could stare at Hermey's butt in those short shorts. That was about the only redeeming factor.

"I'm coming," He huffed, combing a hand back through his dark mop of hair. "Do we have to? Like.. do we honestly have to do this?"

[zapdragon555]

"Yes, we super do!" Hermey fired back, his voice as chipper as ever, but not without an air of firmness. "We keep saying we're gonna do this, but we keep not doing it, so now, we've gotta. We already made it this far," he added with a grin, pointing a thumb at the gym and waving for Joseph to follow him to the door.

"Besides, we can start small. I did a TON of research. We're not supposed to push ourselves too much the first day, alright? Just some basic exercises." His hands pressed to the doors, and he opened them, immediately faced with a very crowded gym full of people who clearly had the exact same method of getting up at this ungodly hour and exercising. "Huh," he mused aloud, blinking owlishly at the people walking around inside, using machines, lifting weights... overall, things didn't seem too horrible. A few people looked up at him, and he gave an excited wave, to which two of them ignored him and one woman waved back, looking breathless and haggard from the thirty pound weight she was lifting.

[Isalynne]

Joseph sighed, hands shoved into his hoodie pocket, and gave an acquiescing nod. Alright. If this was the way it had to be, he'd deal with it, for the love of Hermey. At least it would be quiet--

Oh. The place was fucking heaving, full of sweaty assholes who were stupid enough to have had the same idea. Immediately, he had to fight a spike of annoyance - not at Hermey, just the other pricks having the gall to make this so much more of a god damn ball-ache than it had to be.

"Okay." He stared at the apparatus for a brief moment, and then turned on his heel as if to leave. "Bye."

[zapdragon555]

Hermey jolted with alarm as Joseph turned around and said a farewell, his arms immediately flinging out to grab hold of his hoodie sleeve. "Nooo! No, no no no. Come on-- I mean, yeah, it's... it's a little crowded in here! But I'm positive we'll still have a good time!" he stumbled slightly, clearly the weaker one of them both, but tiptoed closer while still holding on. His hopeful grin faded into a kind of understanding, neutral smile, glancing back at the crowd with a thoughtful look on his face. "Twenty minutes," he said, looking back at Joseph's turned back. "Give me twenty minutes here, yeah? It's a good start."

Plus, he'd read that thirty minutes of exercise a day could make a huge difference in someone's life. Twenty wasn't too far off... and that's what it was, after all. A start!

[Isalynne]

Joseph was more than willing to drag Hermey out with him if he was going to cling onto him, and was making good on that thought, until the twenty minute suggestion was made. Damn it. He couldn't say no to Hermey, even if he was desperate to.

"Fine," He grunted, turning back to face the correct direction. "Twenty minutes. If anyone gives me a shitty look, I'm making it ten."

Speaking of which, they had attracted some attention from the regular gym goers. Unfamiliar faces piqued interest, it was common sense, but it still ruffled Joseph's feathers. He set his face in the grumpiest expression he could manage, hoping that would be sufficient to scare them off.

[zapdragon555]

Hermey relaxed instantly in response to Joseph's begrudging agreement. "Yes! Alright, it's a deal," he chuckled, turning back around now that the imminent threat of Joseph running off had passed. He peered around the room, and eventually his eyes fell on a rack of dumbbells, most of them not taken, save for the few that were being used by the woman that had waved at him. "Let's start with weights. They're easy, I hear!"

He tugged Joseph along after him, a light pressure so that he didn't make the other man stumble. "Personally I think we should start below, like... twenty. Twenty seems like a lot," he mused aloud. "Maybe more like... five? Ten?"

[Isalynne]

Joseph allowed himself to be tugged along, looking not unlike a disgruntled puppy dragged out of its sleep for the sake of a morning walk. His gaze fell on the dumbbells with even more reluctance. Admittedly, his skinny ass could do with some strength training, but he would rather be doing it in the afternoon, out of the view of eager (and probably critical) gym bunnies.

"I could do fifty," He grumbled - he had to tease, even if he did sound like a bonafide jerk while doing so. His sanity was at stake. "Fine. Gimme some of those."

Probably wasn't a great idea to go grabbing them and swinging his arms, but it didn't stop him.

[zapdragon555]

Hermey whistled, a humorous grin spreading over his face. "Heck, fifty? Total turn on, wowza," he joked, grinning cheekily as he bent at the waist and picked up a pair of ten pound weights. When he straightened up he blinked at Joseph, then winced in alarm. "Wait, don't! You might sprain something," he said, dropping his own weights and attempting to reach for the swinging ones, yelping slightly when the weight and velocity of it jammed his fingers in.

"Oww-wuh," he exclaimed, shaking out his hand with a lopsided grin. "Or sprain me," he joked, chuckling and picking his own back up. "I read about this--the point is to make small movements, at the elbow, not the shoulder. If you keep swinging at the shoulders, you'll totally break yourself."

[Isalynne]

Joseph showed no shame in staring at Hermey’s ass as he bent, but thankfully found a bit of remorse when his recklessness ended up injuring him. If he had ears capable of laying flat against his head, they would have. He was trying to have fun with it... fun that would not be beneficial to their bodies. Looked like he’d have to take it seriously to some extent.

“Since when do you know so much about working out?” His time wasn’t mean or accusatory - just grouchy in the way that Hermey had doubtless been getting accustomed to over their time together. Despite his complaining, he did as was suggested and altered his methods; less swinging, more lifting. “What kind of crazies come here this early...”

The woman nearby was alert enough to shoot him a disapproving look

[zapdragon555]

"Us kind of crazies!" Hermey said with a chuckle, pointing both fingers to the plush of his cheeks. "If we exercise now, we'll feel better for the rest of the day. Unless we overdo it or flail. No flailing," he said with a kind of mock sternness, pointing a dumbbell at Joseph's face before flipping it back into his hand with a smile. "And like I said, I researched! It got kinda slow at the ol' part time, so I snuck my phone out and searched up some great tips. And some not so great tips. Gosh, it was like, a total rabbit hole, I started reading about how there's some dumb article saying you can use laxatives to lose weight? Sounds bogus and horrible." He made a face, then grinned, all sunshine again as he adjusted his grip on the dumbbells in his hands. "We're not here to lose weight, we're here to get them GAINS, man!"

With that enthusiastic gesticulation, he lifted at the elbows--and almost instantly, his grin snapped into startled pain, and then deep concentration as he tried very hard to lift the minuscule weights. And failed, with some noises of effort and grunting. "Okay... uhhh, alright, hm! Gonna... gonna switch to five, probably," he mused, embarrassment tinging the grimace on his face. The expression didn't really suit him.

[Isalynne]

Joseph was baffled. Honestly, he had never expected it - Hermey appeared more than capable to him of lifting a ten pound weight, considering all the grocery juggling he was used to doing. He wasn't going to laugh at him. Even if the smile was beginning to pull at the corners of his mouth, he would suppress it, shove it down as deep as he could reach because he was a good boyfriend and that's not what good boyfriends do--

"Yeah, it's.. hrk--" It took so much effort to stop the laugh from coming out. Enough effort to make him begin to cough, making sure to face away from the weights and the rack before doing so. "T-that's probably a good idea, yeah."

God damn it.

[zapdragon555]

Hermey looked up from where he was picking up smaller weights to stare at Joseph as a snicker escaped him, his expression immediately flatlining into a dirty look. "Don't laugh," he mumbled, but he couldn't help the small grin from tugging at his mouth, before it burst into an outright giggle. "I'm just out of practice! Sore from that big shopping run yesterday... have mercy!"

He lifted up the five pound weights and found them far more manageable--the difference was instantly recognizable. "Aw man... these are too easy," he chuckled, testing them with a bend of his elbows. "Ah well... I guess there's no awkward inbetween weights, huh? I'd love a good seven-pounder. Seven's lucky," he said, winking and grinning.

[Isalynne]

Joseph listened to Hermey’s rambles with an indulgent smile on his face. Waking up early was still horrendous, and he would rather be curled up in bed than at the gym, but he could never hold it against the other man. Even in his darkest of moments, he couldn’t bring himself to rain on Hermey’s parade. That being said, he wouldn’t be opposed to a shower now and then... just to vaguely dampen him.

“Uh-huh. No wonder the reindeer knocked you down,” He said. What had, at the time, been an unfortunate situation had turned into a fond memory. “I hope the windows are closed, you might fucking float away on the breeze.”

It was an amusing image. Hermey, in all his scrawniness, carried through the sky like a scrap of paper on a strong wind. Not even the weights looked like they could keep him on the ground.

[zapdragon555]

Hermey's grin turned wider and much more bright, at the mention of that memory. "Aww! Haha, yeah, he was a strong one! I bet he could lift fifty pounds... that wouldn't be a turn on, though. That'd just be terrifying," he joked, trying to count in his head the number of reps he was attempting.

At Joseph's words, he chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. "Y'know, I used to hear the same thing a lot as a kid. Minus the 'fucking' part," he joked, lifting the weights over his head and bending at the elbows, then repeating the motion with some grunt of effort. "S'probably genetics... I wouldn't know, though."

He didn't reference his parentless past often, and when he did, it was often lighthearted. When he finally reached twenty reps, he let his arms drop with a heavy 'whew!' sound, and glanced at the clock. Ten minutes in...