Atlas Gym; Tuesday [05/06].

[sword_chocobro]

Sometimes, it really astonished Gladio how much could happen at the gym between his time there on Monday and him coming in on Tuesday morning, which, oddly enough, seemed to be the day when all the weird stuff always happened.

Today, it was the big hole that appeared in one of the workout classrooms, right over the pool downstairs.

Which meant his day was going to be filled with contacting contractors and trying to keep the gremlins from sneaking into the closed off room to dive into the pool through the hole.

But at least it was nice to see the pool getting some use?

Atlas is open!

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer came into the gym that morning with the intention of hitting the treadmill hard while blasting her new anthem on repeat into her eardrums, but she was definitely distracted by all the excitement around the hole.

And now tempted to just post up downstairs poolside to judge the gremlins' dives.

Somehow she didn't think Gladio would approve, though.

Or maybe he'd think it was hilarious! She'll maybe get a few miles in and mull it over.

[stykera]

Summer's outfits were not about him and had never actually been about him but Stark noticed them. Always. Appreciated them. Felt guilty for appreciating them the last couple of weeks.

He offered a stiff sort of nod to Summer if she happened to glance his way and a less awkward nod to Gladio.

"How was the camping?"

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio was about to greet Stark with his usual, but then that question got out of Stark first and Gladio had to grunt.

"We all made it back in one piece," he said, in what sounded like a less-tgan-charitable sort of grumble, "so overall not too bad, I guess. How was your weekend?"

[stykera]

"Was that in doubt?" Stark asked. "Surviving?"

"And my weekend was fine. Quiet."

[sword_chocobro]

"It's always a possibility," Gladio pointed out. "Gotta be prepared for anything, especially since our track record on that's pretty iffy. But..."

He hesitated a moment.

"It's good that we had the chance to do it. Glad you had a fine, quiet weekend, though."

Even at the loss of a more exciting one that he probably would have preferred.

[stykera]

Stark would prefer having someone to spend time with on his weekend but things were still weird! Because he was terribly awkward.

"Are you... is everything all right? With the three of you?"

[sword_chocobro]

"It's fine," Gladio said, and he meant it, too. It would take much more than even unpalatable routes to immortality to drive a wedge in them at this point. "Just some...disagreements, about what Iggy needed to talk to us about. But he does seem pretty confident about it, so I guess I'm just going to have to trust him on this one."

He didn't look particularly happy about it, though, and gave a faint, derisive sort of snort.

"I mean," he added wryly, "I know you know how he can be once he's decided how he feels about something..."

[stykera]

"I haven't figured out how to make that right..."

Stark sighed.

"Someday I hope to."

He was curious now what they had all discussed but it wasn't his concern.

"But I'm glad things are... fine."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer did happen to glance, and she nodded back, with that newly frequent apologetic sort of smile, and then she lifted a hand to give a small wave, and then she decided to go over and take a little water break.

"Hey, did you see the pool hole?"

Look, if there was any opportunity to spark a conversation with something confusing over awkward, Summer was going to take it.

And let's be real, some of those outfits weren't not not for Stark, either.

Wait. Was that the right amount of negatives? Whatever. Didn't matter. Point was, some choices had been made with intention.

[stykera]

"The what?"

Well, now he was confused about something new for the moment so that was good.

"There's a hole in the pool? Or a pool in a hole? Or a hole to play the other kind of pool?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer had to grin over each and every one of those wrong answers.

"A hole to the pool," Summer explained, hitching a thumb over her shoulder, "in the room where the gremlins have their aerobics class. Apparently, even though he's got it blocked up, Gladio keeps catching them trying to dive into the pool from there."

[stykera]

"Why is there a hole to the pool? And i didn't know gremlins liked diving. Have you watched them?"

Gremlin diving might be fascinating!

And that idea might distract him from thoughts of swimsuits. One in particular. Damn it.