Alison & Kyle: Frustrations

[xp-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Kyle finds Alison in the basement. Alison's just mad at herself.



The dance room was underused at best - Jennie did some work there, sometimes Kurt, but there weren't dance classes anymore, not really, not with Jennie having a studio and the kids having classes at the local.

Which was why Kyle was very confused to hear - and feel - music coming out of the room. The bass rumbled under his feet as much as the synth and guitar resonated into his sensitive ears. He passed by, ignoring the music in favor of tapping out an email, and then backed up a few steps - the shadows were pulsing irregularly and had caught his attention.

Really less the shadows and more the faint strobe light coming from the half-open door that was creating them, irregularly timed to the beat of the music. Kyle paused, knocked loudly - and watched the light try to match his knock instead of the music and then yelled over the speakers. "HEY! Tay-tay! No dying or lasering a floor I personally waxed once!"

Alison, leaning on a wall and breathing heavily, threw her towel at him. Really, there was no other appropriate response after an introduction like that.

Then she realized she still needed that towel. Shit.

Instead of hitting its intended target, the towel plopped on the ground in a damp heap. Kyle barked a laugh and the kicked it up into his hands. "Cheer practice? Dance Dance Revolution competition? Did J-dawg finally bribe somebody to setup a Gen-X run with you kids versus Disco Inferno, who is a super baddie I just totally made up?"

J-dog? Really?

"I d-" gasp. "on'" gasp. "I mea" gasp.

Okay, this clearly wasn't going to work. And she used to be so good at snarky banter! Breathing too heavily to be able to speak in anything other than high-pitched gasping noises, Alison settled for flipping him the bird.

She couldn't stop the grin that quirked up anyway.

"Kay, so you're dying of over-doing it." Kyle offered, and then tossed the towel back. "For reals, did you turn your tempo up, or what? Cause you were strobing enough that I saw it outside, and I am only like half kidding about my floor in here."

She laughed despite herself, which only really proved to cause the burning in her lungs to flare up as she caught the towel. She was half-tempted to throw it at him again. "I turned the tempo down, actually." Deep breath, and she seemed to have herself under control fully. "I wanted to get in some dance practice, since it's been a while since I found the time."

Her smile fell, just a little, and she ran her fingers through her hair. (She quickly regretted it. Ew.) "Clearly too long. That was less than a third of my normal routine, and I'm already about to pass out. It's embarrassing."

"Jealous of Gaga's routine at the Super Bowl? Cause I don't blame you, it was pretty killer and I mean, yo, she had your rhinestone boots, I -saw- that video when it came out, I think she for real stole your boots." Kyle said, with a cheerfully innocent grin. "So, a whole year an-a bit of regular high school and you're all busted? What's your deadline for getting un-busted? You gotta tour coming up?"

Alison snorted quietly. "More like broke into my wardrobe and stole everything but the skirt," she muttered under her breath. Then, louder, "No, nothing like that. I just... I dunno." She shrugged, turning her eyes to the floor. "I think I'm just listless. Like, nothing I could choose to be doing right now sounds fun. Nothing except this, I mean," she corrected, gesturing towards the center of the room where she'd been practicing.

"Okay so, I mean you didn't have full stamina when you started this, right? So what'd they do to get you up to speed? Cause.." Kyle shrugged. "I mean, yo, you wouldn't be the first kid I rolled up on at 6am and made them jog a mile. You'd just be the first one who could laser-etch my face if they hated my running music."

"You mean someone hasn't laser etched your face already?" She teased. "Damn. Looks like I owe Tabby $20."

Kyle snorted. "You owe her a Hamilton, I've been lasered, but not in the face."

"Eww!" She threw her towel at him again. "Didn't need to know that, thanks . And there was a lot of cardio, really. Running, dance, breathing exercises and meditation for a while."

Kyle paused and stared at Alison for a long moment. "Yo, I have fought dudes with laser powers, it wasn't a hair removal thing, do I look like I've removed any of my hair?" He considered it for a second. "Actually I don't even think fighting laser dudes did anything to my hair. I mean, lets be real here, I am fuzzy. And okay, so cardio to start? Get the endurance back up, maybe throw in some stretching."

Alison laughed, pulling herself to her feet. "I have no idea what half of what you just said means, but sure, let's go with that. Just pretend I did the smile and nod thing, if that works better. Besides," she grinned, letting the tips of her hair glow soft blue, "nobody has laser powers like me."

Well, not anymore, Kyle thought to himself. "Okay, so lets get you back up to speed. You a morning person or an evening person? We start off with a couch to 5k, and some tai chi, and go from there, and every week you beat your personal best on a mile run I buy you one very large fancy ass donut." He paused. "or you know, a reward of your choice that costs me less than three dollars."

"A whole three dollars? I must be the luckiest girl in the world." Alison quirked a lip. "You don't need to slow down quite that much for me, you know. But what the hell, I'm game." She pulled herself to her feet. "Let's do this."

"You're a sarcastic little shit, you know that?" Kyle's grin showed all his teeth, and all his approval. "Kid, you realize I can run a four minute mile, right?" Granted, that was on all fours and then he had to lie down and rest, kind of like an enormous cheetah with opposable thumbs and a frequent-diners-card at iHop. "Okay, so you want the 6am wakeup call, or the after dinner one? Bonus to 6am, you're usually up before the showers are taken, bonus to 6pm, you don't get the rest of the morning jog folks commenting on your form."

"The only thing I'm likely to do at 6am right now is shank someone, honestly." And hadn't that been a fun little surprise for her first personal trainer to find out? She was still under an NDA about the whole incident. "I've always been more for endurance than speed, but..." she glanced at her towel again. It wasn't that she was by any means out of shape, but she was far from her previous personal standards. "Well, let's just say that I could use some help with both."

Kyle made a face, like he was considering if getting stabbed was worth it. "Kay, so after dinner run, and we'll take it slow until I know you won't hurl if you run a mile. Cause if you boot on my feet I make you do pushups." He was not serious, not that Alison would know

Alison just smiled. That was a challenge she'd be more than happy to take. (Plus, she was beginning to think he'd drastically underestimated how long she'd been in here before he found her... well, he'd find out. Eventually.) "You're so totally on."