Tying the Knot Ch. 03

"I'd be up for a workout session, as long as we can grab food afterwards." Mike said, thinking of Alex in a tight little... nope nope nope. Need to keep your clothes on, and you are not showing him your room.

Alex looked surprised, then nodded. "Er... sure, I go to a gym nearby, and I have stuff in my locker. Just grab your stuff and we can head over there now."

Mike nodded, then shut the door. Alex could hear him dash back to what was presumably his room, then sprint back. A moment's pause, maybe to catch his breath, and the door opened. Mike walked out, a bundle clutched in one hand.

They climbed into Alex's car, absolutely silent, both waiting for the other person to start. Finally, Alex broke. "Did you... ya know... change?"

"A bit? I can see better, and I think I can smell better? Didn't really have time to check out much else. My roommate woke me up."

"Oh, yeah, those were some of the cooler things that changed."

"So... what else did you get?"

"Well, it became easier to build tone, I got a lot more energy, didn't need to sleep as much. Just everything became easier, aside from the whole spending a few nights a month running around the forest. Though you're the first person I encountered. Usually have a bit more self control than that."

"And the massive cock."

Alex gripped the steering wheel and swallowed. "Yeah that."

"You seem uncomfortable?"

"Sorry... just... I don't want our relationship to be just sex? Like, what if you don't actually like me?" Plus it's hard enough to go to the gym when I'm not sporting a boner.

"Alright, what's your favorite movie?"

"Airplane?"

"What's that?"

"Oh, it's an 80s comedy about a traumatized World War 2 pilot and a blowup doll... That probably sounds pretty bad, from my description."

"I'm interested. No idea what I'm interested in, but I'm interested."

"We can watch it later. What's yours?"

"South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut." Mike said, looking for Alex's reaction.

"Actually haven't seen it. Is it just a really long episode like the Cthulhu thing?"

"It's more like South Park the musical."

"Didn't they make a musical?"

"They made a musical?"

"Yeah, the Book of Mormon."

"That's a musical? I assumed it would be more slapsticky."

"Oh, there's plenty of slapstick, but it's also a musical."

They kept chatting, about increasingly irrelevant topics until Alex pulled into the parking lot. "Alright, when was the last time you worked out?" Alex asked Mike.

"Erm... high school gym class."

"... Alright then, let's get started with the basics."

Five minutes later, Mike and Alex were standing in front of a long wall of mirrors. Alex's clothes accentuating long hours of hard work. Mike's, not so much.

"Alright, let's start with some low weight and help you get your form down." Alex said, grabbing a five pound dumbbell.

"Come on, I can do more than 5 pounds." He protested.

"I know you can, but you don't want a pinched nerve, so we're going to make sure you're doing it right." Alex said, demonstrating with 5 pounds as well.

"I feel like an idiot." Mike grumbled, but followed Alex anyway, suffering the corrections with annoyed huffs.

"So does everyone. Relax, everyone is judgmental as fuck, but nobody actually cares. They all hate that guy." Alex pointed to a guy hopping around like he was in a Rocky movie, using a machine as a counterbalance so he could do a complex jumping based workout, and slam the weights every other movement.

"That can't be what you're supposed to do, right?" Mike asked, a bit worried.

"Nope." Alex said, moving onto the next exercise.

"So, as long as I don't look like an idiot that's going to hurt himself or someone else, I'm good?"

"Pretty much."

"Huh." Mike said, getting used to the motion.

They kept cycling through the exercises, slowly building up weight. Alex looked a little confused as he licked up a 50 pound barbell and started to curl. "Umm... normally I wouldn't do this."

"Pushing yourself to show off for your boyfriend?" Mike asked, grinning.

"No! Well, yes, but no, I mean I wouldn't be able to curl this." Alex said, staring at himself as he completed his first set.

"Maybe it's a wolf thing?"

"Has to be. Wonder why I couldn't do it before. Like I got more energy after getting bitten, and I felt better, but not much real strength increase."

Mike shrugged, following suit with the heavier weight. He was definitely feeling the strain, but it... felt good, knowing he was able to do this. Be this capable for Alex.

The two zoned out, working their way up, chatting and helping each other, until...

"Hey, we're closing for the day, guys." Someone said, interrupting Alex's set.

"Oh, sorry about that. We'll rack the weights then head out." Alex said reflexively.

"No problem. Have a good night." The same voice said, closing the door.

Alex and Mike started putting away their weights, suddenly feeling exhausted, their muscles vocally making their strain known.

"Oww..." Mike moaned, "How long were we doing that?"

Alex looked at the clock. "Looks like... basically all afternoon and most of the evening."

"How late is it?" Mike asked, leaning his head against a wall.

"Late enough for to grab dinner. My treat? I've never had a workout that good." Alex asked. Mike nodded, and stumbled towards the showers. Surprisingly enough, they were exhausted enough from the workout that a session of semi-public shower sex wasn't appealing, and it would have meant that the kid manning the front would need to stay even later than they'd already forced him, so they changed without incident, though there was much sneaking of glances.

"So... the no body hair thing. Is that related to being a werewolf?" Mike asked, appreciating Alex's pumped form.

"Erm, no... that was more me trying to say I owned my body, and a lot of wax. You can still see some places where it... oh, guess it's healed by now." Alex said, pointing to a spot on his chest, as perfect as anywhere else on his body.

Mike nodded, and shucked off his clothes. Alex felt like his belly was much smaller than before. Maybe he'd just not been drinking enough? Made more sense than losing a literal 20 pounds in a single workout session. Would losing that much water be dangerous?

"Mike, how much did you drink?"

Mike held up a water bottle. "Few of these, probably should have done more."

Alex nodded, that possibly explained it.

"Alright, there's a good burger place nearby, and they do a good recovery meal. Plenty of fats, proteins, and salts. So... pretty much like most fast food places, but more on the grade A beef, less on the... well, I would say pink slime, but you literally can't get more lean protein than pink slime." Alex babbled, changing into his date clothes.

"Sounds great. I'm up for anything." Mike said, putting on his standard t-shirt and jeans.

The two left the showers, Alex hesitantly reaching out to hold Mike's hand. Mike grasped it, and smiled. "That was fun, thanks for showing me how to work out."

Alex was tongue tied, but eventually got his head on straight enough to nod, and they walked out together into the night.

The burger joint was... trying. An old diner which tried to revamp itself into something a bit more modern by targeting the nearby gyms and other upscale commercial properties. Healthy fats were in abundance, but you could just tell the cook was dying to use the lard he had in the freezer. It was mostly empty, populated by people who had probably been going there for the last 20 years. The young professional crowd were probably at home by now, or heading out for something stronger than the coffee.

Still, it was better than anything Mike had had in a while, and it definitely hit the niche of "post workout meal."

"Nice place, you come here often?" Mike asked, as he settled into the red and white booth.

"I'll usually grab something on the way home after a workout." Alex said. "Could stand to gain some weight."

A mildly awkward silence fell. Mike was guzzling water, Alex was trying to figure out whether or not they were dating.

Mike swallowed down a gulp and broke the quiet. "So... what did the alpha want?" He asked.

"Excuse me?"

"The person who bit you. You said he wanted you to work for free."

"Oh... he wanted a website for his bar."

"What?"

"And me to provide IT services. I'm a programmer, I don't know jack about IT."

"He turned you into a werewolf... tried to mindrape you... for a free website?"

"Hey, after some of my clients see my emergency rates, they probably want to do the same."

"And you just left?"

"Erm, I kinda blacked out. I think I might have attacked them with a pole cue, and jumped out a window."

"You're five foot nothing, weigh 120 pounds soaking wet, and you did that?'

"Hey, why do you think I've been working out so much? It's the only thing that's stopped me from doing the same to my manager. And the manager before that. I've had a lot of bad managers."

"You're a computer programmer who practices for when you're going to snap and try to decapitate your supervisor with a- a- a-"

"Hard drive tray?"

"Are those sharp?"

"They're crystallized aluminum. You probably couldn't cut through the spine, but I think the jugular would be easy enough."

"Alright then. So the local Alpha tried to intimidate a small repressed barrel of rage, and you wrecked the place? How did it feel?"

"Honestly... don't remember much, but it was fun."

"Wow... you are so hot right now." Mike said, leaning in towards his boyfriend, lust clouding his eyes.