Sebastian woke up to his 6:00 am alarm, regretting every fiber of his being that decided it was a good idea. He hadn't gotten into bed until almost 3:00. He still forced himself out of bed and into the shower. He trudged out, already planning out how big of a coffee he was going to buy at RCC this morning. He put on a black cut off tank top and blue gym shorts, slipping on his black nikes.

He grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone and threw them into his duffel. He tossed his bag over his shoulder and headed to his car.

When he made it to the gym, he took out his phone and tapped it to see the time, but instead noticed he had a notification.

Good morning 😊

Good morning to you too

Surprised your up

Same..My upstairs neighbor decided to do deadlifts this morning

So I've been listening to THAT for the last half hour..

What kind of animal does deadlifts if they're not on the ground floor?

Let alone at 6:00 am??

I'll have to ask him.

I'll make sure to call him an animal too. 😜

Well if you're bored and don't want to hear him deadlifting

you could come hang out over here at the gym with me

It's actually pretty quiet here this morning

I think I may take you up on that offer

Could I bribe you with post workout coffee?

Gym AND coffee?

Sebastian I'm swooning 😌

What can I say..

I know how to please

As soon as he hit send he stared at his phone. Oh my god. Why did I say that.

Luckily he quickly saw Rylee respond.

😉😏

See you soon!

He sighed in relief at her message. Afraid she would've taken it badly or something..

He forwarded her the gym's address and went to the welcome desk to let the receptionist know Rylee was coming and to put her on his account. He told her where he would be so she could direct her to him when she arrived. He walked back over to the treadmill and started it up, feeling nervous and antsy for Rylee to get there.

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Rylee was surprised how excited she was to go to the gym. She usually hated it. She didn't like the idea that people may judge her workouts, even though she knew that realistically no one really pays attention to other people at the gym.

She rolled out of bed and started getting ready. She decided to give herself two Dutch braids and tucked the ends into each other, almost creating a crown of braids on the back of her head. She put on a green sports bra and matching leggings along with her black nikes. She felt insecure for a moment about just wearing a sports bra, so she decided to throw a black tank top on over top of it.

She put extra clothes into her black Jansport backpack and grabbed her wristlet, keys, and phone, putting them into the small front pocket. She had a little skip in her step as she made her way down a few blocks to the subway. She had walked past his gym many times before so she already knew what stop she needed to get there.

She looked at her phone for the time, 6:53. It didn't take her too long to get there. She walked up to the door and rang the bell. To her surprise she was immediately buzzed in. She saw a young looking girl sitting at the gyms front desk, giving her a smile, loudly chewing her gum. She was blonde and very lean, wearing a t-shirt boasting the gyms information and black leggings. She seemed like the typical girl you'd want to be sitting out front of your gym to bring in customers.

"Rylee Summers?" She asked, cocking her head to the side, smacking her gum.

Rylee all of a sudden felt a little intimidated by this girl. Why though? She was like what....22?

"Yeah, that's me. Hello," Rylee smiled.

"Great. Seb told me you'd be coming. He is over in the weight room," the receptionist said tipping her head to signal which direction for her to walk.

She was surprisingly jealous that she called him Seb. It seemed like a name only her and his close friends would call him...not a receptionist... her mind started to wander as she nodded and thanked her, starting to walk the direction she had indicated.

She turned the corner and stopped dead in the doorway. There he was...holy shit.

His bare back was to her, but she knew it was him immediately. He was hanging on a pull up bar, part way through a set. Each time he pulled himself up, the muscles in his back seemed to ripple, flexing with every movement. Veins and muscles bulging. He would slowly lower himself, working more of his shoulders...and it seemed like every single muscle in his arms worked overtime too...

And how did his ass look so good? Pull ups have nothing to do with that...

Rylee Ann. Stop.

He dropped down, leaning against the bar for a second to catch his breath, shaking out his fingers. He bent down in a squat to grab his water bottle for a drink. And there was that ass again, holy mother of god... as he stayed in his squat position she couldn't help but stare.

"'Scuse me miss." Rylee jumped at the words. She looked behind her to see someone was trying to get into the space and she was basically blocking the door just gawking at the lone man in the room. She apologized and stepped aside but Sebastian must've heard the exchange because he turned around, seeing Rylee, he gave her a small wave as he stood upright. He wiped his arm across his forehead, glistening with sweat.

"Hey, you. Glad you made it."

Don't stare at his abs. Don't stare at his abs.

"Hi," she smiled, feeling her blush crawl across her cheeks, hoping she hadn't been caught creeping. "Thanks for the invite. This is way better than listening to that guy upstairs just grunt and groan and throw those weights on the ground. I could've swore my ceiling was going to cave in...probably still will... but at least I won't be there to get crushed by it," she laughed.

"Glad to be of service. I had Jen at the front desk put your name on my membership, so you can come here whenever you want."

"You didn't have to do that." She knew memberships could definitely be expensive, especially to a gym like this one, it seemed sort of exclusive. There were lots of side offices for trainers, a pool, weight machines she'd never seen in her life. And she had also just realized that this place had four more floors to it. Definitely expensive.

"Shush. I insist. Honestly. It'll be nice to occasionally have a gym buddy that isn't fucking Evans," Sebastian laughed. "But yeah. Jens going to set you up a key fob when we leave so you can come here whenever you want, even if I'm not here."

Rylee was taken aback by this. She didn't know what to say. But Sebastian spoke quickly, "Anyway. I dunno what your usual work out routine is or whatever. We can hang together, or if you wanna do your own thing feel free. I have a set routine I've gotta follow for work, otherwise Don will kick my ass to next Sunday if I skimp and cut corners...He'll make me suffer," Sebastian laughed, but Rylee could tell he wasn't fully joking.

"Who's Don?" Rylee questioned.

"He's my trainer, Don Saladino. He's a great guy. I started working with him back in my First Avenger days and been working with him since...so like ten or so years."

"That's nice. I've never had an actual trainer before. I kind of just hop on random machines and go to town." Rylee mentioned in a matter of fact tone.

"Well, if you ever want pointers, tips, or help with anything, just let me know. Im by no means a pro, but I'm always willing to help make the gym less scary," Sebastian winked. He winked. Good god.

"Thanks. Maybe I'll take you up on that. So...what's next on your superhero workout agenda?"

"I've gotta head over to the dumbbells for a bit, and then pretty much keel over on the rowing machine."

"Alright...well...while you die doing that, I'll use the lat pulldown machine." She laughed. It was located right next to the dumbbell portion of the room they were in.

She walked across the room with him and as he prepped his weights, she adjusted the weights on her machine.

Her machine takes no time at all to adjust so as she sat down on hers, she took a moment to watch Sebastian finish prepping his. Did he just pick up two 75 pounders? Holy crap. He laid back on the weight bench, and began his reps. She was quickly sucked into watching him, like being hypnotized. The way his muscles moved under his flexing skin, veins exposing themselves...it was very...distracting to say the least. But what really didn't help was the noises. Good god the noises he made left little to the imagination. She'd love to hear those noises somewhere els-

"You okay?" Sebastian cut through her thoughts as he spoke. "Ryles?" He had apparently finished a set of lifts as she stared and she didn't even know it.

"Uh. Yep. Yeah. Golden." She quickly responded. She grabbed the bar on her machine and began pulling.

This guy will be the death of me.