Daniel (danhoffman) wrote in neogenesisrpg, @ 2009-01-02 05:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | dan hoffman, gil hatayama |
Who: Gil Hatayama, Dan Hoffman
What: Working up a sweat while picking at each other's brains
When: Late Afternoon, December 29th
Where: Dan's Apartment in Pennington Condominium
Rating: PG-13, probably some language
Status: In progress
Gil left the office early, his schedule unusually light for a Monday. While he and Clara successfully consulted more than one case as a team, an air of tension hung over the heads of the staff at the office. To Gil and Clara's credit, no one attributed it back to them. Not wanting to risk the chance of that happening, he called his day early. Whatever else he planned to do that day was delegated for the next morning. He didn't bother changing out of his scrubs until he was miles away from the medical center and safe in the confines of his apartment.
A long shower helped relieve some of the tension left over from his day, but he still couldn't shake the restlessness. He changed into a pair of shorts and a black tank top then padded barefoot in his apartment for his gym shoes. Going online for the sole purpose of seeing if his neighbor across the hall wanted company seemed pointless, so he stepped out of his unit to stand in front of the other man's door. It was about the usual time that Daniel would be harangued into completing a fitness regimen not of his choosing. The man complained about it enough.
Dan and Gil were unlikely friends, they disagreed more often than anything else. Gil wasn't even sure if the man even considered them to be friends and was merely tolerating him. The disabled vet's personality was more compatible to Gil's ex-wife than Gil himself. Or at least Gil imagined it to be. At times he wondered if that was why they got along so well, but it was a detail he never dwelled on.
"Hoffman!" he barked, pounding door 303 with a closed fist instead of ringing the doorbell. "Get the door."
The weights felt lighter these days than they did back at the beginning and Daniel didn't need a trainer to tell him that it had less to do with the metal bars and more to do with his own muscle mass. In the army, his whole body had been the subject of intensive training, with no particular regard for upper or lower limbs. Things changed swiftly, once his legs were no longer of any use - on the contrary. Lugging them around from bed to chair and chair to bed had been murder at the beginning. It still left him out of breath, but he was slowly getting there.
Taking his time, his trainer would call it. To which he'd predictably retort why not. If he had anything, it was time to kill and waste and spend as he saw fit. Privately, he recognized that he slacked off on purpose. There was a sense of safety attached to the familiarity of routine.
Just as it was to know that there was only one man who could possibly bang on his door at four in the afternoon - on days when he wasn't looking between a woman's thighs.
"It's open!" he yelled back, too absorbed in counting lifts to greet him proper.
Gil opened the door and stepped inside, following the sounds of metal rhythmically clanking against metal. Although he was familiar with the layout of Dan's place, it was a small comfort in hearing the man doing more than stare at computer screens all day. He walked over to the side of the home gym not occupied by the Dan's trainer.
"Thought I'd come in and join on the torture." he grinned, looking over at the rack of free weights and the unoccupied equipment. The ab solo was by far his favorite, the machine designed more like a basketball arcade game. Gil sat on the cushioned seat and adjusted the stabilization handles to his height. Making sure his feet were comfortably secure beneath the handle cushions before taking the one of the medicine balls under the hoop and reclining back against the back support. "How many reps?"
Between Joel and the staff, the list of people Daniel came face to face on a day to day basis with included few others. Well. One. Gil's presence down the hall was as much a source of reassurance and periodic entertainment. Not that Daniel could, on a sober mind, ever say as much out loud.
"Welcome to purgatory," he groaned by way of greeting, taking a moment out of every lift to breathe properly. One hand came down to adjust his left leg on the ground. His trainer had it in for him with the balance obsession. It's good for the rest of your spine, he'd say. Daniel never had a good enough answer and rather than bother trying, he turned his attention to his neighbor. "Seven hundred and eighty two. Aren't you supposed to be looking up some woman's skirt?"
"Somehow, I can't believe you." Gil smirked, pressing back against the back rest until he was on his back. He lifted the ball over his head and sat up, throwing the ball at hoop then grabbing the second medicine ball to repeat the process. "Trust me, a man gets desensitized real quick looking up women's skirts all the way back in med school. I've seen so many different types of vaginitis that nothing shocks me anymore. I've got surgeries lined up Wednesday."
His trainer snorted, straddling the bench to help Daniel lift the weight again. "He's been counting every lift twice. And squaring."
"Cubing," Daniel corrected, taking the bar with both hands. "That's what you do when you know math." And when you were too lazy to do the routine as it was built. But that was beside the point. To Gil, he added: "Hey, didn't say you would be having a good time! Just thought you'd be at work. Like a normal person. Aren't you taking Wednesday off? It's the last day of the year." Big damn deal.
"Can't. They need painful things discovered and taken out of their bodies, I couldn't bear to make them wait." he smirked, throwing the medicine balls in a metered rhythm. "Do you seriously think a resection here or an ablation there, or even a polypectomy is going to mean I'm going to miss out on the end of year festivities. Got any plans yet, or are you just going to troll forums all night?"
"You go, Doctor Fantastic," he chuckled, doing one full push before letting the weight slide down again. It didn't get easier with time and he could foresee the cramps tomorrow morning. Just what he needed more of. "Nah, that's my day job. At night, I don my bat wings and become Batman. And Batman doesn't take nights off the job. I'm sure you're very shocked."
"I'm more upset you didn't ask me to be your Robin!" Gil sat up mid-throw, pointing the medicine ball at Dan's trainer. "He asked you, didn't he?"
"No, I'm Alfred." the man chuckled, waiting until Gil was back to to throwing the ball to go over to the machine. The man covered the hoop with a board with a bullseye instead and pointed at it. While under his watch, guests were subject to his 'suggestions' too. "Too more reps of ten, Dr. H. Pace yourself or get a ball in the face."
"Yes sir, Alfred sir."
Left alone with the weights, Dan did the obvious and cheated on the next two lifts, doing them half-way before stopping. It was his luck and Gil's misfortune that the trainer turned his attention to him, but maybe Doctor Fantastic didn't mind. The child in Daniel hmphed.
"Robin and Batgirl don't live in Seattle," he retorted, casting Joel as the enigmatic circus boy. Smirking, he shot the other man a glance. "Don't worry, Gil. You can be Catwoman."
"Aw, you know I don't have the thighs for it." Gil whined, panting as the burn turned into a dull ache. "Jerry, you're killing me."
Jerry, on the other hand, was not fooled in the least by Dan's half-hearted reps. He knew what a full lift at that weight sounded like. "That'll be two more for you and when we're done here I'm going to get you on the Patriot you whether you want to or not. I want full five reps now or you're going 5 reps of 10 later, your choice."
Daniel's laugh turned to an accusing gasp as the words registered and the punishment went from bad to worse. "Sadist!"
"Liar," came the retort. "I don't hear metal."
"I can throw it at you, you know. So you two can-" A lift. "-get up close and personal." He lowered the weights again, loathe to admit that he was tired. Ten years younger and he could've run laps around the building for hours. Effort made him feel old.
But then he heard Gil whine and the competitive part of his bitter soul turned to his lips into a smirk. "Jerry, you need to stop torturing my guests."
"You know. You like it." Gil threw the medicine ball at the board with a grunt before falling against the cushions. It made a loud thunk as it ricocheted over his head and rolled to a stop at the corner. "I quit. You win."
He freed his ankles from their restraint and crawled away from the machine, lying on his back. Looking over at Dan, he rubbed a hand over his stomach and whined. "You pay him to be this sadistic to your guests, don't you."
Giving up on Gil and his exercises, Jerry turned his attention back to Daniel, to the other man's disappointment. "Five minute break," he begged to Jerry's eyeroll.
"Two minutes."
Daniel grinned. "Two thirty." But the weight lifted from his hands and he could rest. Rubbing at his wrist, he shot Gil a look. "He does it for the fun of it, don't you know?"
"Whatever you say, Hoff."
He groaned as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. For all of his complaining, Dan's trainer was effective at getting every muscle working. Even still, a workout wasn't his sole purpose for coming over.
"How've you been? It's been awhile since I've invaded your personal space."
"Bullshit," he teased, watching Jerry excuse himself, cell and all, for the next two minutes. There wasn't much he liked about the man, but he knew when to disappear and when to push Dan harder and it was a welcome skill.
"You only like me for the home gym," he retorted. "'Sides, you're the doctor. You tell me. Do I look the picture of health?"
"No, I love you for your home gym," he retorted back, laughing. "I don't know, I'd have to look under your skirt to be sure. Anything new on the world wide web I might be interested in knowing about?"
"Words in the wind, Dr H," Daniel shot back, borrowing Jerry's nickname for the man. "Next time remind me to wear a kilt. Just for you, I might actually do it." At his question about the world wide web, he shrugged. "The usual. Elected officials delivering pearls of wisdom."
"The implementation of law is taking longer to adapt than I anticipated. I thought there would be plenty more eager at the opportunity to continue their family line." Gil stood and straddled the unoccupied bench on the workout station next to the other man.
"I do not envy the government trying to hit the right messages to appeal to the secular, religious and the rest. Our generation grew up believing we'd never have to make the sacrifices our parents had to, that we had to make the most out of this life because humanity would end in a matter of decades. Then, we're burdened with the responsibility of creating a baby boom in a year. That's a lot of pressure."
Leaning a hand on the bench, Daniel quirked his lips into a wry smile. This was a difficult topic - one he'd have loved to argue until the moon turned blue from cold, but not with Gil.
"Come on," he sighed, "There's a difference between eager couples wanting children and couples shackled to each other's genitalia. We don't need a baby boom in a year. We don't need a baby boom at all. We just need to restore a normal birthrate."