Avery Arrives at the Boxing Ring

“Hey, I haven’t seen you around here before. You got a membership?”

Avery rolled his eyes at the employee’s exhausted, dull intonation of the perfunctory question.

“Yeah, man. I do. I come here all the time. And somebody’s coming to meet me here, so when a tall dude with black hair and a beard comes in without a membership it’d probably be best if you just send him back to the mats with me.”

Avery flashed his membership card at the sullen, blank-faced gym employee, who nodded in acknowledgment.

“Sure. Can I see your card for a sec? Gotta update your guest counter.”

Avery nodded, then handed the card over.

“Don’t worry about it, Jacob,” a rich voice boomed from the back room, “I already have a membership. Don’t waste one of the kid’s swipes on me.”

The fuck? Why’s he already here?

Rod walked out from the boxing area back behind the check-in area as Avery yanked his card back from the check-in worker’s hand.

“Wasn’t sure if you were going to show, Avery.”

“You showing up early to try fuck with me, old man?” Avery dryly intoned, narrowing his eyes at the larger man’s imposing figure.

“No, I just wanted to warm up. Once we’re done here I still have to go to work, after all. Shall we?”

Rod’s eyes gleamed as he spoke, gesturing back towards the boxing room behind him. He’d clearly done a few sets, his muscles already pumped up and ready to be put to further work. Avery just curtly nodded and slung his bag back over his shoulder.

“Whatever, old man. Pretty bold of you to assume you’ll be good for work after I wipe the floor with you.”

___________

I made a mistake on this one.

Avery buckled over as Rod’s gloved fist cleanly slipped around his guard and slammed into his solar plexus, causing the young man to briefly loose his composure and double-over gasping for air.

A pretty huge fucking mistake.

Avery staggered back and pulled himself together quickly, quickly jabbing to try catch Rod off-guard. He didn’t. Rod’s guard seemed to easily absorb the hasty blow before another one of his punches solidly connected with Avery’s stomach.

Rod stepped back while Avery struggled for air once more.

“You’re not bad, kid. Your guard clearly still need work, but your fundamentals beyond that are pretty good. You’ve got a natural stance, and you hit hard enough to—”

“Why are you trying to coach me right now, old man?” Avery choked out, furious that Rod was unscathed enough to make such paternal pronouncements.

“Because you want to be coached.”

“The fuck are you talking about?”

“You could stop this at any time. If you really didn’t want this to happen, you could just tell me not to. You could make me drop my guard anytime you want by commanding me to. But you haven’t. Because you don’t want me to be below you. You want me to teach you something.”

Rod walked back to his corner as he spoke, stopping to drink from his water bottle as Avery similarly slunk over to his corner and collected himself. The younger man was silent for a moment before speaking.

“What makes you think I won’t?”

“Because you don’t really think I’m beneath you. The only thing that gives you an advantage here is something outside of your control. And, if you beat me, you want it to be because you’ve earned it, not because you can.”

The words hung in the air for a moment as Avery drank from his water as well. Avery wasn’t sure how exactly, but he thought there was something to them. Rod continued speaking as Avery grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat from his drenched brow.

“What I find interesting about you is how you choose to extend this respect. You clearly don’t give it to the women you encounter regularly. My wife’s a prime example of that.”

Avery bristled, but kept quiet. It was true that what he’d been up to definitely wouldn’t have been acceptable under the social norms accepted before the Shift. But those were fading away by the day. So why do I care?

Rod pressed on, “I want to know why. Which is why I you’re going to become one of my clients. We’ll have our first session tomorrow. It’ll give you some time to recover once we’re done.”

Avery audibly scoffed at that, but a look of indecision crept its way across his face. He charged at Rod, hoping to catch him off-guard, but Rod’s fist swiftly crashed into his side yet again as the men resumed sparring.

___________

“Holy shit, babe! Are you ok?”

Pastel shot up from the couch and almost sprinted to Avery’s side as he staggered back into her house.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just… sore. I’m gonna take a shower real quick.”

Avery certainly did look sore. Pastel couldn’t help following him, and was livid when she saw a few bruises forming on his body from the earlier match.

“Babe, for real, are you ok?”

Avery nodded, turning to face her after stepping in the shower. He shivered for a moment as he started the water, the icy-cold flow streaming down onto his aching muscles.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Rod packs a punch, as it turns out.”

“Why’d you let him do that to you?”

The water was heating up nicely, and Avery stretched out under it to let it wash away his sweat.

“I’m not sure, ” he murmured with a look of hesitation. That look quickly transformed into a wolfish smile as he looked at his girlfriend’s worried face. “Want to kiss me better then?”

Pastel couldn’t help but smile at that. She followed suit and took her clothes off as slowly as possible, enjoying the view of Avery’s naked body in front of her.

“Sure thing, lover boy.”