WHO: Tony Chang and Adrian Mattias
WHAT: Late night workouts and musings
WHERE: Puddlemere work out room
STATUS: Finishing in comments!



“Five more!” Tony commanded, standing with his hands on his hips as he watched Adrian finish another pull-up, “Four!”

His eyes drifted to the clock across the training room. It was late, but with a little persuasion he could probably convince his friend to stay another half hour so. Maybe he could mention that Adrian’s abs were beginning to look a bit like a pouch, anything that would give Tony a reason to stay out of the house. That sounded terrible, his daughter was at home with her nanny, waiting for him to return. It wasn’t Cho, it most certainly was not Cho that Tony was attempted to avoid. His daughter was his sun and stars, the twinkle and apple of his eye, the cherry on top of the world’s best sundae, but Cho was also four years old and was fast asleep by eight o’clock on-the-dot. Going home would mean sending the nanny away because he couldn’t afford to keep her any longer than he already did, and going home meant realizing once again that he was quite possibly the loneliest man on the planet.

Tony watched Adrian drop down from the bar, and he tsk’d loudly, “Those last four were done incorrectly, do them again.”

There was only a hint of amusement in his tone, and his eyebrows went high as if daring Adrian to protest.

Adrian looked down at his best friend with a dubious stare. They had been done right, he could do pull-ups in his sleep. He ate pull-ups for breakfast, he owned pull-ups, pull-ups were what made Maggie want to rake her hands across his chest, he was pull-ups. He did not do them wrong.

And even if he had, by chance, messed one or two up, it wouldn’t be the worst in the world. His beating ability was not going to suffer from it, and it was getting late anyway. Not that big of a deal.

“I am not,” Adrian grumbled finally, letting his body sag as he hit the floor. Tony may be something of a trainer by profession, but he had known him as a best friend longer, so-- yes. He felt no guilt challenging him, in a serious manner or not.

“You do them again,” Adrian came back randomly, a bit unsure what that was really supposed to mean, or even accomplish. A small grin broke on his face, and he shook his head. “I’m tired, mate. And hungry--- no more.” To reaffirm his wishes, Adrian brought himself down to the ground, and pressed his palms to the floor.

Tony scoffed, jumping up to the bar as soon as Adrian was on the floor. He pulled himself up so that his chin rested on the bar, and since pull ups were boring, he straightened his arms and locked them in place. He held himself over the bar for a few moments before swinging over it, hanging upside down to stare down at his friend from his new, more interesting perspective.

“Where should we go to eat?” Tony said, not having a problem in inviting himself to wherever Adrian might head. It wouldn’t be home, yeah? He and Maggie got along beautifully, but Tony really did not feel like playing third wheel again. For a couple who’d left each other at the altar, Adrian and Maggie were rather sickeningly sweet when it came to displays of affection.

The bar pressing into his gut was beginning to annoy him, so Tony tugged himself forward and flipped over. He hung awkwardly for a moment, shoulders twisted back, but after a second of hovering he dropped back to the floor.

“I am thinking pizza.” He paused, lips twisting, “Vegan pizza, of course.”

Adrian let out a loud groan and fell back to the floor. Eating with Tony was the worst because you couldn’t go here, and you couldn’t go there, and frankly Adrian found that not eating things like cheese was offensive to basic wizarding needs. And meat! Meat was so good, it was just wrong to purposely leave it out of your diet. He couldn’t begin to imagine... no.

But it was Tony’s personal choice to eat disgusting things day in and day out, so Adrian would continue to keep (most) of his opinions to himself. He rubbed his eyes with his hands roughly, and let out another dramatic sigh. Plus, he wanted to go home, and eat with Maggie, and Josef, and Adeline, even if it was too late for a proper dinner and Adeline would already be in bed with Josef along the way shortly--- he shouldn’t leave Maggie to do all that by herself.

“Let’s just--- go get your strange pizza, and then you can bring it back to my house,” Adrian suggested, removing his hands and opening his eyes to look at the ceiling. “I don’t want vegan pizza,” he interjected a few moments later, in case that was necessary to be said. He really didn’t know what he wanted, or even--- it wasn’t that big of a deal, but he felt tired enough that everything was a colossal decision.

Tony bit back his whine, but his feet never paid attention to his mind and he bounced in frustration. He wanted to avoid the Magnificent Mattias clan. He didn’t want to head over there, eat his strange food, and then when the kids start falling asleep and Adrian’s ready for bed, have to awkwardly excuse himself for the night. If he was going to be a bad father and stay out a little longer to avoid his daughter, he wanted to at least be doing something that he enjoyed----

----there it was, there was his guilty conscience had roared awake at the thought of missing bedtime with his daughter. Tony let out a breath, twisting away in frustration. Either he was miserable sitting at home or he was miserable being out and away from his daughter. There was no winning, so he might as well do the right thing and go home.

He was a terrible person.

“Nevermind,” Tony said with a wave of his hand. He went to start collecting his things, feeling somber. Not only did he not want to be immersed in the beauty that was Adrian and Maggie, it annoyed him that he and his best mate had not been out on their own in what felt like months. Did he have to spell it all out, that he wanted to hang out with Adrian and not his wife and kids? “I should get home anyway.”

Adrian contorted his face a bit with confusion, feeling like he had missed something. It wasn’t an uncommon feeling, as he frequently found himself feeling like this, but it was unusual to experience with Tony. What was happening--- had he said something? About the pizza? He shifted in his seat, applying more pressure to his palms on the ground. Well.

“Alright...” he trailed off wearily, and then leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees. “Whatever you want.”