Balance

Chapter 25 ~ Weights

"Yes, weights. Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't balance my fricking weight Blaze." She crosses her arms with a small smile on her face. With the small slither of sass travelling through in her tone, I'm taken aback slightly but wave my hand in the direction of the weight area. Too turned on to say anything else... and these shorts do not leave much room for any kind of mishap.

She walks over timidly, one of the older guys in the ring has stopped for a break and is hanging his stocky body over the ropes, his eyes are glued to her ass.

"Have you got a fucking problem?" I snap making Atlas jump slightly, the stocky guy rears back, narrowing his eyes at me but as I take a step closer he quickly pushes himself up and wanders away, "That's what I fucking thought." I mumble.

Atlas' blushing cheeks move quickly over to the set of weights on the far wall, trying to draw as least attention to herself as possible which is weird considering she's a phenomenal dancer and a flyer. I don't dance but isn't the whole idea to have people watch you and enjoy it?

Well, that sounds... stop thinking about it. Jesus.

She starts doing a few exercises and I watch her carefully as I do my own to make sure she doesn't accidentally hurt herself- they're some pretty big weights shes using.

I see her eyes glide up to my arms that are curling up and down, she nibbles on her lip before she notices I'm watching her. Her eyes widen and she directs her gaze to the floor with a little cough. I grin because unknowingly to her I'm totally checking out her ass like the jerk I am.

"I uh... I need to start rebuilding the strength in my muscles I've lost over the years and get rid of the fat it's been replaced with." I stare at her with a pointed look. She hasn't got a single ounce of fat on her and it wouldn't matter if she did, "Dancers have to have as much strength as skill. There's no point doing a pirouette if you can't sustain it." She says moving to a different exercise, one that focuses on her lower core.

"Not too much on the top half of my body, it's more my core and legs. My momma used to say I've got the dancer's body- it's in the genes, strength, agility, height and high arches." She mumbles looking rather pained.

"Does she still dance?' I ask remembering she went to Julliard.

"Uh... no," Atlas says bluntly, picking away at her nail varnish.

"How come-"

"How did you learn to box?" She quickly changes the subject, her face scrunching slightly like I hit a nerve.

"Here and there." I grunt, in reality, I've always had anger issues... genetic I guess but growing up in an atmosphere as I did with my dad as my 'role model' I used my fists to talk over words. It was when I really got involved with my dad that I learnt how to properly fight... and cause some serious damage.

The air around us grows slightly heavier, neither of us wanting to skim any deeper than the surface of our sports. We finish doing our weights in silence, Atlas keeps her eyes on the ground with a small line of perspiration on her forehead. Sometimes she winces or looks pained but it's not the weights that are hurting her it's something else, she looks sore.

"Alright, so let's start with some basics... a few blocks and simple punches alright?" She nods eagerly at me, pushing a bit of hair off her face with the back of her hand.

I show her a few simple moves, she watches intently, her sapphire eyes moving across me as I demonstrate a series of jabs. They dart intently as my hands move with much less fury as usual.

"Okay, you ready to try?" She nods at me as I grab a set of sweaty pads, sliding them onto my hands, "Whenever you're ready." I watch as she moves out into a better stance and she takes a deep breath before slamming her hand into the pad. It was firm-ish but wouldn't do anyone any harm except herself.