pumping iron ((atticus))

Although he could feel a rift beginning between him and some of his relatives over drugs, James hadn't felt this good in a while; the main thing to have him feel 100% would be to see Lien at the very least. He was still too much of a coward to seek him out, so he ended up in the gym at one of its more desolate hours. James hadn't shown up to practices like he initially planned, but there was no way he was going to manage some alternative prior to the match. He'd just bullshit and play by ear once on the pitch as he did with most things.

He couldn't be bothered to deal with his gym uniform and modify it, so he was only in his pants. He liked going the simplest route whenever possible, and this was better than feeling like an oven in his clothes. James walked through the gymnasium trying to figure out which exercise to start with; he wasn't particularly in an aerobics mood with how he rushed through the castle under his invisibility cloak for the past however many days. Time for strength exercises. James found a horizontal bar hanging from the ceiling and jumped up to it. Chin-ups it was.

His legs dangled as he pulled himself up and down. Unghhhhh. Why did his relatives think he was extremely in shape again? Grunts escaped from his mouth as he could feel the palms of his hands turn red.

@Atticus Nott

Atticus had seen James go into the gym while he was thinking about going to the common room for the evening, and decided instead to merely drop off at the dormitory to change. A pair of jogging bottoms, a vest to flatter his shoulders, and he was back out again without as much as saying a word to anyone.

He had been thinking about James since their talk in the kitchens, and wondered how his progress with his fitness was going. Also, he knew that he just wanted to see that progress in action. After crossing the entrance hall, he made way towards the gym and got an eyeful at first glance. James was grunting, his muscles were bulging: he looked in a much better state than he had before, and he was only wearing his underwear...

"Great progress," he said, after a while of just standing there and watching his abdomen. "You must be eating right to have all that energy."

@James Potter

After a few more chin-ups, James dropped himself down from the bar to catch his breath a little. He really should've spent more of his time during the past few days doing warmups. Too late for that now.

Not noticing Atticus, James wondered where he stuck his water bottle; other than always having it for gym, he needed to get Louis off his back in regards to hydration. There it was! It was buried by his cloak. Pulling it out of his bag, he wiped some sweat from his brow and stopped upon seeing Atticus. How long had be been there?

"Oh, yeah, definitely," he responded taking quite a large sip of his water. "Yer a top chef, y'know?"

James didn't really know why, but that night in the kitchens made food a lot more pleasurable. Of course, now Lily and Louis thought he had a diet of angel dust when he'd just been eating lots of snacks.

He eyed him up and down; although his apparel wasn't nearly as revealing as the gym uniform, it framed him a lot nicer.

@Atticus Nott

"Yeah?"

What he said, as well as the sweaty work out atmosphere and noticeable change in James's body, had Atticus feeling all hot. He hadn't even worked out himself yet. They were both allowing their eyes to explore one another. Did he like what he saw, he wondered? Did it really matter when Atticus would probably be making the first move anyway...

"Your calorie intake always has to be high if you want to put on the muscle. Just make sure you don't slack, or you'll get love handles instead."

Atticus smirked at him, and his eyes narrowed lustfully.

"Do you think you're ready for the match?"

@James Potter

His eyes lingered longer than socially acceptable; for once, he was fortunate enough that hardly anybody was in the gym or whatever was going on would've been telepathically written onto the wall.

"Been havin' lots of the munchies..."

His voice was breathless, and his mind was quick to think that chin-ups wasn't exactly the kind of exercise he was craving. Chuckling, James bit his lip and glanced up at Atticus.

"Could prolly use more weight trainin'... Gotta show 'em they can't win without me."

@Atticus Nott

"You should always come and find me when you're feeling that."

There had been a lot of fantasies since their time together. Atticus had got off to the idea of James dressed as some Roman Centurion coming home to shed his armour, and he'd be there at his side with a bunch of grapes as he reclined in a chaise lounger. And he'd oil his body... and give him compliments... and see that he's prepared for the fight again the next day.

"Let's see how many press ups you can do, then. Why don't we make it a competition? I'll go first if you count for me."

@James Potter

"Maybe I shall..."

It'd allow for a possible glimpse of Lien too. James licked his lips as vivid images of nurture and pleasure surged through his brain. Velvets and wine. Silks and chocolates. Add some weed and he'd be in a daze.

His eyes wandered around Atticus' biceps. "Want me to get a whistle?"

@Atticus Nott

"If you like, or just tell me when to go."

He knelt on the floor and started stretching out his arms. They weren't as hefty as some of the boys' at the school (and he'd paid attention to a lot of muscles since his return), but there was a good, taut shape to them. The other school encouraged things like exercise, although the meals there were quite dire. They were 'nutritionally balanced', but never had any taste.

Atticus got into position, propped up ready on his arms.

"I'm ready."

@James Potter

"A'right."

Instead of grabbing a whistle, James stuck a few fingers in his mouth and whistled. It was more economical. He squatted down to observe Atticus more attentively.

@Atticus Nott

He took off doing press ups, but soon realised he should have warmed up better beforehand. The sweat was rolling down his neck and dripping over his chest by the time he had got to half way, but he slowly puffed out at each repetition and struggled on through the ache in his muscles. It always felt good to do this and the release of endorphins could set him up for the day, but really he just wanted James to see how strong and fit he was.

When he reached just short of seventy, he gave in. Collapsing to the floor with a grunt, he slowly sat back up again, wiping the sweat off from his face.

"Think... you can do better... than that?" he asked, breathing heavily.

@James Potter

The room felt as if it was on fire by the time Atticus had finished the press ups; there were quite a few moments that his brain imagined Lien over the other bloke's form, but he figured that was his primal self wanting the best of both worlds. James was manually fanning himself with his hand, ready to keel over from all of the squatting. He needed to stretch his muscles more in general.

"Ye bet?"

James shifted himself into position although a part of him felt as if he may end up with less than Atticus, but that was the point of weight training, wasn't it?

@Atticus Nott

Atticus grinned wickedly, standing up.

"Go on then..."

James had a nice rear. He was watching it intently. Now just to see those hips moving...

"Go!"

@James Potter

He began pressing his body up and down finding himself blinded by strands of hair. Agh! With the arm tucked behind him, James brushed his hair out from his face hoping to remain stable while dealing with that distraction.

As he expected, James wasn't able to go nearly as long as Atticus having only reached the mid-40s.

"Need more trainin'..." James gasped out as he fell onto his stomach.

@Atticus Nott

James handled more than he expected, so he got to have a good, long look at his rump moving around. He'd fought the temptation to smack it, but he was holding back so many temptations now. It was very erotic. James looked good. Atticus was getting aroused by him. He just hoped he wasn't going to freak out.

He sat down beside him, and started stroking his back.

"You did really good."

His hand moved up to his shoulder, and to the back of his neck.

"James..."

@James Potter

"Mm, yeah."

He could've done much worse. Now he found himself all worked up, frisky even.

A shiver went up his spine as he felt Atticus move up his back.

James glanced over at Atticus and licked his lips going in for a kiss.

Lazar, wanting to be seen as less loserly than Lien, ran his way to the gym to work on his pecs. The girls liked those, right?

As he went to run to the changing rooms, he froze momentarily seeing that. His pupils dilated as he processed the sight. With his face flushed, he covered his eyes and leapt to the changing rooms.

He exhaled deeply through his nostrils, leaning into James's kiss. He realised just how long it had been since he'd kissed someone. Even he and Lukas never really did anything. Now that he had James and was kissing him, he moved his mouth against his more vigorously making soft smacking sounds as they increased in intensity.

He put his hands through his hair, and felt the perspiration on his torso...

There was a sound from behind them, and Atticus glanced around briefly. He thought he'd seen a pair of glasses. Was that Chang?

"Take a shower with me..." he murmured, taking James's hand.

@James Potter

James began moving his tongue within Atticus' mouth as his eyes closed; how long had it been since he last kissed a bloke? Whenever it was, it felt even better now that he wasn't lying to himself. His imagination pretended at times that those lips were of Lien's, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

He pulled away from the kiss with his head slightly tilting back. "Yes..." Far more privacy than doing it in the middle of the gym floor. Getting up from the floor with their hands linked together, James began dragging him towards the showers.

@Atticus Nott

Once they were in the changing rooms, Atticus thought he'd seen someone in there. Glasses again. He didn't look like Chang, though. It was someone else. He just followed James through to the showers, ignoring whoever it was. Once they were inside a shower cubicle together, Atticus removed his vest and tossed it aside. He removed his joggers, caught James by the arm and drew him back in.

Kissing him hard, he reached around clumsily to turn the faucet and water started gushing from the shower head. That took care of the sound issue. He held James's hips and pushed them closer together, then squeezed his rear.

"Will this be your first time with a guy?" he asked, already pulling down James's underwear.

@James Potter

His heart raced as they rushed to one of the showers that he hadn't noticed that there was one unwilling audience member. It felt nice to be impulsive in a way that he knew would get one particular person pissed off. That was going to be one of the most satisfying aspects of this encounter.

Once in the showers, he immediately clung to Atticus with his arms around his waist and rested his head on his shoulder kissing around his neck. "Not really." Those encounters weren't satisfying, however, there was no real emotion behind it. On the other hand, he didn't have to dip into the money he had. "Might as well be, y'know?" he chuckled as the warmth from the faucet rained down on them.

@Atticus Nott

Out of the corners of his eyes, Lazar felt unsettled by the clothes being thrown nearby. His face blushed even harder as he worked on quickly getting dressed for the treadmill. Would that help his pecs? He hoped so.

He dashed right back to the gym itself as his brain put two and two together.

"Yeah..."

He grinned at him.

"I'll be gentle."

There was some truth in his words, and things panned out. At times he was quite rough and urgent in his movements: feeling as though he needed to satisfy a lull of sexual activity first off. But it all started off quite slow and easy: they just explored one another, kissed one another, went about it like two gay men who were into one another. At points he felt James was a little vacant. He closed his eyes a lot, as though he was envisioning someone else. That didn't particularly bother Atticus, though. He was getting off to seeing his pleasure more than anything. If picturing Lien worked - that was perfectly okay.

It was now at the stage where Atticus and James had copulated and Atticus was actually taking a shower now. He used some soap through his hair.

He smiled at James. "I know what you were doing when I was on my knees," he said ominously, and out of the blue.

@James Potter

If it wasn't for the fact that his cigarette would get drenched, James would have one of his usual post-coital smokes. With all of his closeted hook-ups, he often waited until he was outside to do such a thing as he felt that broads would find it disrespectful. He figured his fellow blokes wouldn't care as much.

He sat on the floor of the shower watching as Atticus cleaned himself; although he was freshly out and felt rather decent currently, something about showering together was too intimate for him to partake in.

"...What d'ye mean by 'at?"

@Atticus Nott

"You were imagining someone else was doing it."

He didn't actually know it for a fact. Atticus always used bluntness as a means of getting somewhere with people, as he never got embarrassed by being wrong.

@James Potter

Damn, was it really that obvious? James looked down at the floor unsure of how to respond to that.

"Guess I was..."

Owning it was the better solution as not owning it led to this form of revenge.

Biting his lip, he ran his hand through his hair.

"I miss Lien, y'know?"

@Atticus Nott