UST Party {closed}

If one happened to stumble upon Morgan Laiten's room at home, they'd probably be surprised at the countless number of self defense DVDs sitting by her TV, proudly on display. Admittedly, they were mostly there to remind her step brothers not to mess with her (though they were plenty scared of her as it was, thank you very much.), but she also had made it a point to watch them all. She never wanted to be caught in a situation where she couldn't take care of herself. Not again, at least.

More so, to Morgan working out was a hobby, albeit second to reading and school work. She didn't do much else, really. She had no friends to hang out with, no other hobbies that interested her. The thing was, other than a punching bag, Morgan had never actually fought with an actual person. I mean, there was Pepper, but she didn't really count that. How could she fight someone, when she'd just burn them? That wasn't a fair fight in the least. 

Still, what if when the day came she had to defend herself, she'd fuck up somehow? That's what kept pushing her. She needed to be strong, to be able to take care of herself all on her own. After all, she didn't let herself rely on anyone else. The only person who would always be there for her was herself.

When she walked into the gym, bag over her shoulder, the first thing she noticed was that she wasn't alone. Instinct had her taking a step back, already preparing to leave to room and find somewhere unoccupied, but when she realized who it was, she stopped in her tracks. Jonathan. She hadn't seen him since their first interaction, not since they went back to grab their stuff and he walked her to her dorm room. There had been some promise of hanging out again, which was... weird. Morgan wasn't used to having friends. So after that day, which admittedly had only been a few days ago, she hid away in her room. She wasn't hiding from him, per say, but interacting with people wasn't her area of expertise, and what had started to blossom between them was good and nice and frankly, that scared Morgan. Anything that blossomed, she usually just burnt up.

She was conflicted as she stood at the door. She could run away and avoid facing him at all, or she could stop being a baby and go talk to him, because really, it's not like it's that big of a deal. They were friends. Or something. Were they friends? She didn't actually have any, so she wasn't sure on the requirements of friendship. But if she did have friends, Jonathan would surely be one of them. So really, she should go up and talk to him. It's what friends did. At least, she thought so. Walking forward, she noticed the earphones in his ears, faintly letting out music, and how concentrated he looked. Sweat glistened on his neck, pooling against his tank top. He was covered with it, which she should have found disgusting but she couldn't find it in her to do so. It was almost a shame to distract him, and she considered one last time just leaving quietly, but she forced herself to lean forward and tap on his shoulder from where she stood behind him, smiling nervously. When he turned to face her, she felt self conscious in her matching black sport bra, baring her midriff, and work out tights that clung to her. It was in sharp contrast with her normal, loose fitting attire. Tucking a lock of hair that had fallen loose from her ponytail back, Morgan already began to regret being here.

Under his gaze, her cheeks heated up even more (honestly, she needed to find a way to stop blushing all the time. It was becoming a serious problem.) and she fidgeted self consciously. It just dawned on her what she was wearing. Usually, she went to one of the other training rooms, or worked out in the comfort of her dorm room. But today her usual place to go had been occupied, and so she came here. Nobody typically saw her in her workout attire, and it was just her luck that Jonathan would. He was probably judging her, she probably looked gross and ugly and- why did she even care what he thought? She didn't. It didn't matter. Whatever.

She was saved from her traitorous thoughts when the punching bag came back to hit Jonathan in the face. Her eyes widened, and a part of her wanted to laugh or make fun of him, but all her nervous mind could muster in the moment was a raised eyebrow. He spoke rapidly, and it was pretty entertaining to see him all worked up. Still, she couldn't help but feel a bit insulted at the assumption that this was her first time. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm here all the time, actually. Guess you just never noticed." To be fair, she wasn't typically in this particular gym at this particular time, but she didn't mention that, preferring to give him a hard time. Relaxing a bit, she allowed a smirk to play at her lips. "It's nice to see you too, although it seems like your punching bag is more excited to see you than I am." She teased, and if he really thought she was going to let that go, he had another thing coming. Like punching bags, for example.

Morgan put a finger to her lip, looking into the distance as if she was considering this. Frankly, she enjoying this far too much, but this was her first time seeing him anything less than completely cool and collected. Granted, they'd only met twice before, but details, details. "I will accept bribes and forget about it for now, but you're not getting off that easily, mate." She pushed an over the top Australian accent on the last word, and reached out to hit him on the arm before thinking better of it and pulling away. It was more of a reflex, really. A part of her knew that she could touch him, but her brain was so wired to stay away from physical contact that her body pulled her away. Her eyebrows furrowed and her smirk fell.

Awkwardly, she backed up and dropped her bag to the floor. It was like she was closing up yet again, something that seemed to be becoming a habit around him. She would grow overly comfortable without thinking, before realizing and shrinking back into her shell. "Right. Well, I actually came here to work out, because that's a thing I do, so I'm going to um, do that now." Inwardly, she winced at how awkward she sounded. She moved away from him, turning around so that she wouldn't be tempted to watch him and began to stretch, reaching down to touch her toes.

Morgan was oblivious of her position, or of any effect she may have been having on the Winter. Straightening up, she began to stretch her arms, looking over her shoulder whenever Jonathan began talking again. A spar... Her eyes lit up with excitement, and she nodded zealously. She'd never actually fought with someone. Not even Mr. Bear would have a go with her, instead sending her off to work out independently. Yet another curse of her power. So in theory, she was an excellent fighter. But since she'd never actually tested it out, she had no way to tell for certain.

However, now she did. Jonathan was really a blessing. With him she could be a normal girl for once, and forget about who she really was. At least for a little while.

"Do you want to warm up before we do this?" She tried not to sound as excited as she felt over a silly spar, but she couldn't keep the anticipation out of her voice, or the spark in her brown eyes. This would be her first match, and she wanted to make sure she was completely prepared. She didn't actually wait for a reply, instead beginning to warm up on her own. A few more stretches, push ups, etc. Laying on her back with her knees bent, she paused before speaking. "Hey, Can you hold down my feet?" She asked from where she lay in the sit up position.

Rolling her eyes good naturedly, Morgan waited as he put his weight on her feet, holding them down. "It's not like there's much to do wrong, so I'm sure you're fine." Besides, though Morgan worked out plenty herself, she wasn't sure she was at Jonathan's level of dedication. After all, from here she got a good view of his muscular arms- but nevermind that. Crossing her arms over her chest, Morgan lifted herself off the ground, feeling the familiar pressure in her abs as she pulled herself up, coming face to face with Jonathan. Quite literally, in fact.

Morgan froze, her cheeks immediately heating up when she realized that the distance between them had closed drastically. Now they were mere inches apart, and she was stuck like a deer in headlights. Her eyes roamed over his face without her permission, taking him in. She could clearly make out the blue in his eyes now, and she noticed the peculiar shape of them, how they were slightly slitted, hinting at an Asian background. For a split second, her eyes fell to his lips before she got a hold of herself.

Her options ran like this: she could jump up and run away, attempt to avoid him the rest of her life and never speak of this moment again. Or she could pretend like this didn't even phase her, act like she wasn't internally having a meltdown just because of their close proximity. While avoiding the situation was preferable, she was stronger than that.

All of this emotional turmoil occurred in the few seconds before she lowered herself to the floor. Taking a breath, she pulled herself back up again, her eyes locked on Jonathan's face. She didn't let them roam this time.

A few more. Just a few more, then she could free herself from his hold and never have to think about the way his eyes had dilated as he looked at her lips, seemingly lost in thought, again. She would no longer have to deal with the warmth of his body radiating against hers, and she could finally push out all the strange new thoughts she was having, thoughts that were very unlike her.

On the rare occasion momentum carried her too far, their breath mingled and her hair swished forward, lightly brushing against his face. Jesus. No. She couldn't handle this anymore. She had no idea what was going on with her, but she knew that it was Jonathan's fault. She wasn't sure how, but somehow it was his fault. She felt like her body was heating up, which would have been normal if her power actually worked right now, except she didn't even have that to blame it on. This was one problem Morgan wasn't ready to face head on. Sitting up completely, she avoided his eyes as she pulled away from his embrace on her legs, standing and collecting herself for a moment, looking down at her Nike covered feet. "Ready to spar?" She asked after a beat, trying to hide her flushed cheeks as she turned and walked towards the mat.