"You do have," Tabitha tells me. "The one time a month where you can bring a friend along as long as he stays with you while here, Kieran. Part of the reason we have that rule in place is so that friends of our members can check out our facilities. While we don't do assessments for the guests, there's always the possibility that if you're working with a personal trainer while the guest is here, they might see the guest's training and abilities and mention something off-hand."

In other words, they might give a small assessment statement for free. Most likely, it's to encourage the guest to get their own membership or pay for an appraisal. If the member is undergoing the training and the guest has a similar ability, then they would even be able to see stuff that works for them without paying. Without a similar ability, the guest might still see how tailored the program is for the member and be more interested in seeing if they can get results, too.

"So Zane can hang out with me while I'm in my session today?" I ask.

"Yep," she answers. "Though Lucas is scheduled to work with you, Kieran, that doesn't mean you can't have a guest there as well, just as long as it's understood that Lucas cannot give him advice or training."

"Alternatively," I tell Zane. "You can pay for the assessment and have someone else do it for you."

"Can I request Lucas for my assessment?" Zane asks Tabitha. "Kieran sung some pretty decent praises about him."

"Unfortunately," she says. "Lucas gets off as soon as he finishes with Kieran's training session each day – he's only scheduled until eight in the evenings. Kieran took up his last two hours of availability. If you'd like to schedule an assessment with him, it would to be earlier, though you'd need to schedule it ahead of time in order to ensure he's able to come in earlier due to his current schedule here."

Assessments are two hours, and Lucas is only available from two to four due to teaching martial arts and acting as my personal trainer, meaning he'd have only a small amount of time to get to his martial arts on time, and he likes having a few minutes extra before things. He admitted to me that personal training sessions usually only last an hour to an hour and a half, too, and not every day. However, that's mostly because of the person they're training rather than a rule or anything – he prefers full sessions like with me.

"We do, however, have a few other trainers who can assess you," Tabitha tells Zane. "If you'd like to work with them now instead. We do like to set people up with the best person possible to assess an ability and formulate a routine, so Lucas might not even be the best option for this."

"Ah," Zane says. "I turn to stone."

"…come again?" She asks, both her and Betty, the other receptionist, looking confused.

"I turn to stone," Zane tells her. "It's my family's thing. My older brother, my dad, my grandmother, my great-grandfather, and so on, for, uh, we don't know how long. We can still move about and stuff as if we aren't stone, but we're tough like stone in that form. It comes with enhanced strength and durability in normal form, too, but nowhere near as much as when we turn to stone. We also have decreased mobility, but that's usually not a problem."

"How does that translate into not being able to stay fully clothed?" I ask in confusion.

"I turn rock-hard in more ways than one when I use that technique," he informs me "And being hard while wearing clothes and as big as a power user? Not fun."

"Ah."

"So," he says. "Think I can hang out as your guest this time, then? See what kind of training you do and how it works?"

I'm pretty sure he just wants to see me naked, especially as I haven't told him what my ability is yet.

"Sure," I tell him. "As long as you promise to at least get an assessment after."

"I can agree to that," he says.

"Alright," I look at Tabitha. "Thanks, Tabitha."

"No problem," she says. "I do need Zane to fill out some forms. Mostly waivers, so that he doesn't try to hold us accountable if he gets hurts."

"Sure," Zane fills out the forms to be allowed in as my guest this time. "There we go!"

"Enjoy your training," Tabitha tells me.

"Thanks," I respond. "Come on, Zane."

I lead him down to the blocks room, finding that Lucas isn't here yet. That doesn't surprise me, though, considering how early I am today. With almost half an hour before he even finishes the martial arts lesson, and at least ten minutes from then until he arrives in here, I have a lot of time before my actual training begins.

"Is your ability speed-related?" Zane asks as he looks around at the blocks. "Having to weave through these while go as fast as possible? Fast enough your clothes rip off?"

"Uh, no," I answer. "I'm going to change and do some warm-ups. I don't like to use my ability outside of the training yet, so I won't demonstrate it for you, but you'll get to see it when Lucas arrives."

Part of that is so that I can psyche myself up to someone seeing me naked. Not just a trainer seeing it to help me and figure stuff out, but just some random person. Well, he's not that random. But it's still him seeing it for a reason other than training, and for that, I do need to psyche myself up a bit.

I only remember as I go to pull off my underwear that he's going to see it before then.

"Nice ass," he comments.

"Uh… thanks."

I finish pulling off my underwear and stick them in the bag, then pull out my shorts and pull them on, turning just enough that he can see that I'm soft. If he's trying to trick me about looking for an actual relationship, this hopefully shows him that I've little interest in going further than that at the moment.

While I have noticed an increase in my libido the last few days, it really isn't that much of one.

After slipping on the shorts, I begin working through some warm-up exercises. Zane strips down to his sweats, revealing a lean, toned body with nicely-defined abs. Okay, so he's a little bit hot for sure. And there's tenting in his sweats…

Deciding not to focus on that, I perform exercises and stretches the full time until Lucas arrives. Zane stops after about ten minutes, but I push on. After the last week, I know I can handle this as long as I don't push myself too much with the exercise portion.

Before the martial arts session yesterday, Lucas taught me a workout plan using just my body. Just like with my ability, I don't push myself to my limits, but to a portion of it, and do them in sets like that. Doing it this way lets me do even more. Four sets total.

Not by much, but I've built up enough strength over the last week to make it at least partially doable. I can manage four pushups instead of three using this. Lucas said that we're going to do it every martial arts lesson and increase my limit by four every week until I can do twenty, then by five every week after.

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Though I think he's a bit optimistic, I'm going to trust him. It's even something I can do on my own if the job for the Patron doesn't go through. I'm also going to do them before every session for training my powers, too.

I just decided that, right now, as Lucas walks in here, holding a box of bright yellow tennis balls again. My guess is we'll do this every week for the skill training.

"Good evening, Kieran," Lucas greets me, his gaze traveling to Zane, who's sitting on a bench. "And… I don't think I know you?"

"I'm Zane," Zane introduces himself. "Here as Kieran's guest today, so they told me I have to stay near him. He's worked at my family's company a couple of times, and when I mentioned that I was looking for a place to train my powers, said I could tag along. I figured I'd see how his sessions went before getting an assessment."

"Ah," Lucas says as he sets the box of tennis balls on the barrier, then looks at me. "Are you ready to begin?"

"Almost," I pull off my shorts and set them on the barrier. "Now I am."

"Okay," he rolls his eyes. "You're in a fun mood at the moment."

Now that he mentions it, I don't normally do things like that. I guess I am in a bit of a different mood than normal. A good, happy one, but still different. And that's with having two hot gay guys in here, knowing that one of them is actively checking me out and the other will do so subtly… I really need to sort my head out regarding this.

"You never did tell me what your ability is," Zane says as I climb over the barrier. "I'm kind of curious what kind of ability you'd train in here, involving tennis balls, where you can't wear clothes."

"Middle again?" I ask.

"Yeah," Lucas glances at Zane. "Going to tell him?"

"It's not that I can't wear my clothes," I tell Zane. "Just that they fall off. Once I'm powerful enough, I'll be able to work on keeping them on. As for what I can do? You're about to find out."

I walk to the center of the center, then immediately hear the popping of a ball smacking the tile floor. A moment later, I spot the ball and charge towards it. It's fifteen feet away, so I wait until I'm nine to shadow-walk over.

While I could try to show off for Zane and move as soon as I'm out, I'm not quite talented enough yet and still need that slight pause before taking off. After I miss the ball, I realize that I had thought about showing off for Zane.

That's a new thing to me. Is it because I'm crushing on him and have knowledge that he's interested in me? I haven't tried showing off for Lucas, though. That might be because Lucas knew what I could do before I realized he was into me, whereas I've known Zane for less time.

Lucas continues with the session, and I continue attempting to grab the balls. Zane's leaning against the barrier, watching intently as I train, but I start to forget he's here as I try to catch the balls. Just like last Saturday, I stumble a fair bit, crashing into blocks and tripping into a couple. However, I manage to move faster than I did last Saturday, my fingers brushing the balls a little more often than last time.

The agility training over the last week, the practice from last Saturday, and the practice with the trampolines on Wednesday really are helping me. I didn't expect to see results this soon.

Just like last Saturday, I try to finish off this week's skill training by performing a shadow-walk while moving. As soon as I pop out and try to continue my step, I roll my ankle and tumble to the side, slamming into the block whose shadow I stepped out of. Through the pain, I attempt to scramble for the ball, only to fail.

The ball smacks the mats, bounces up, and disappears in a small flash of light. Groaning, I use a nearby block to help myself stand, then pull myself over to one I can sit on and do so, rubbing my ankle. A moment later, Zane and Lucas appear in a flash of light, Lucas holding out my shorts.

"Trying to show off?" Zane asks.

"No," I answer. "I figured I better not try showing off when I lack the skill for it."

"He did that for the last one last time, too," Lucas tells him as I take the shorts and pull them on. "It's not something he can actually do, but he wants to try so that he can build up the skill."

"Why put on the shorts now?" Zane crouches down as well. Is he hoping to see it a bit more? "It's not like he didn't see it up close already."

I only put them on because Lucas handed them to me, so I look at him. Instead of answering, Lucas kneels and examines my ankle, poking at the it and causing me to hiss in pain. He grabs the walkie and presses a button.

"Tiff, you there?" He asks.

"Just got in," a woman's voice answers.

"Mind if I pick you up?" He asks. "I think my client sprained his ankle."

"Sure," she answers. "I'm outside Flight Two."

"Be right back," Lucas stands, disappearing in a flash of light.

Zane opens his mouth to say something, only for Lucas to reappear a moment later with a woman who looks to be in her late twenties. She's dressed in the uniform of the center, her dark brown hair fixed up in a ponytail.

"Hello," she greets me, giving Zane only a glance before kneeling. "You must be Kieran Wolfe, huh?"

"Yeah," I answer.

"Give me just a moment to assess this," she grabs my ankle, and a pale yellow glow forms under her fingers. "It looks like a fracture, actually. You haven't really built up strength in your bones and have been putting a bit too much stress on them. I'm going to guess you rolled it, based on the way it fractured."

"You can sense injuries?" I ask.

"Yep," she answers, and the pain starts to fade away. "And heal them, too. To a degree. Let me guess: your diet is the Lower District Special?"

"Not much, not healthy, and sometimes missing?" I ask.

"Yep," she tells me. "There we go. I can sense some signs of improvement, but slight. Did you recently change your diet? In the last week or so?"

Her ability is good.

"Yeah," I answer. "A potential employer paid for me to start training and gave me enough money to buy food to go with it. Lucas has given me some recipes to follow to help ensure the training doesn't go to waste."

Yet I continue to fail at them.

"Ah!" I look at Lucas. "Is there any way we can get more for the slow cooker? I think I'm able to handle those better. Those and anything I don't need to actually cook…"

"What did you screw up this time?"

"I tried doing that spicy chicken with rice that was near the end of the recipe book," I tell him. "One, I discovered I really don't like things too spicy. Two, I burnt the underside and they were really rubbery."

"Yeah, that's called 'overcooking'," he says as Zane does his best not to laugh.

"You're doing a lot there, Tiffany," Lucas says.

"I'm better at fixing clean breaks than fractures," she says. "I'm almost done."

"Thanks," I say as she pulls her hands away. "So you work as a healer overnight? Wouldn't it be busier during the day?"

"My brother handles the day shift," she tells me. "Mostly, we handle the big things with our powers. Breaks, fractures, more severe things. For everything else, we generally just use medical supplies."

"I'm sure you'd get paid more elsewhere," Zane says. "At a facility in the upper districts over here. Sorry if it's rude, I'm just curious about why you picked here. You said your brother does? Is it a family requirement or something?"

"No," she answers. "Though we do all work here. You're right that we can be paid more in a district that's not one of the poorer ones. One place has offered to pay me triple to work there in addition to providing a living space."

"So why here?" I ask. "Isn't that a better deal? Or are the others a bit worse to actually work for?"

"No, they're decent," she tells me. "We're all just friends with the Lusvarises, so we put up with the lower pay, poorer districts, and worse living conditions to be among friends."

"How many are you?" Zane asks.

"Three," she answers. "My mom's normal, so it's just me, my brother, and our dad. Like Lucas, we usually only work six-hour shifts, but we work every day. We also live in the apartment building right across the street, so if they need us for an emergency, they can just call us and one of us can usually get here pretty fast."

"Nifty," Zane says.

"Yeah," she stands. "Well, I'm going to get back to doing my rounds, Lucas. You have a good evening."

"Thanks," he says. "See you, Tiff."

Tiffany leaves, then Lucas looks at me as I stand and put weight on my ankle. There's no pain, it's as if it was never injured.

"You did much better today," he tells me. "You may manage to catch a ball within a month. Want to go to dinner? Same as last Saturday?"

He's trying to tell me that he'll pay again, but without trying to come off that way to Zane so that Zane doesn't misunderstand. Except it's probably not a misunderstanding, and Zane already knows since I told him earlier.

"Actually," Zane says as I start to answer. "I have a bit of extra fun money. Mind if I come alone? I'll pay for it all… if you're willing to stay a bit late and do an assessment for me? I like what I've seen."

Lucas seems a bit divided, and I suspect it's because he wants to spend time alone with me. However, we are just friends right now, and I'd be happy having two friends eating dinner with me. Especially since I'm a bit uncertain regarding both of them.

How he reacts to the situation might help me get to know him a little better. Zane wanting to intrude on the dinner tells me he doesn't want me to be alone with a love rival outside of a professional setting, too. Is that jealousy? Or something else?

"I don't mind waiting a bit," I tell Lucas. "If you're okay with staying for his assessment and won't get into trouble. Three's company for dinner, right?"

"Alright," Lucas looks at Zane. "What's your power?"