InsaneJournal

WHO: napoleon solo & phillip kopus
WHERE: kopus' gym
WHEN: recently
WHAT: napoleon is checking out a potential new place; engaged own is engaging and a good sell
WARNINGS: pg
STATUS: complete

One of the benefits of owning only one gym was that he generally knew his regulars, which meant he knew when someone wasn’t a regular. He made a point, whenever he could, to greet the newcomers, whether they were members, guests, or prospective members checking the place out.

He made his way over to a fresh new face he hadn’t seen before. “Evening,” he said in greeting. Phillip was a big guy, imposing at roughly 6’6” and built like an ox. He looked like he could break a man in half like a flimsy matchstick, and he probably could do just that with most people, if he wanted to. It was a stark contrast to his overly pleasant nature, and his entirely friendly disposition.

“Is this your first time here?”

---

Although he was effectively living at Gaby’s house at this point, Napoleon was still trying to maintain his usual activities. Getting to his usual gym was kind of pointless -because why drive across town for a gym when there were others around the town.

The greeting from the giant of a man had Napoleon smirking, since it was still rather rare to find someone larger than him, although Napoleon was usually pleasantly surprised when he did. “Evening,” it wasn’t terribly busy in the gym, but clear enough that it was a bustling place. Maybe just a good night to stop by.

“It is, a friend lives near and this is closer than my usual.” And if he was going to keep up his ‘activities’, well it wouldn’t do well to avoid his physical training habits. “It’s a nice place.”

---

“Thanks. Built it from the ground up.” Not the walls and such, he’d had a construction crew do that, of course. But he’d hand picked every machine and feature inside the walls. He’d put a lot of thought into it, a lot of work into making it feel comfortable, a place people would want to come to do their workouts.

“Phillip Kopus,” he added, holding out a hand in greeting. “Welcome, have a look around. If you have any questions, I’m the owner, so. I’m your guy.”

---

Taking the offered hand, Napoleon offered a smile, “Napoleon Solo.” And while it wasn’t every day he used his full name if he did bother with membership he’d have to, so why not. “Thank you.”

He was spending more and more time at Gaby’s place, and it wasn’t far from his own home either if he did eventually fully return to his place. Although it was seemingly less likely as the dreams just stuck in that one spot looped.

“You find you cater a little more towards a specific group?” And that wasn’t just a way to ask if he was going to end up sharing space with a bunch of ‘Chads’ or college buffs or even those cross fit guys who went hard at it. He’d been at a gym once that was mostly soccer moms just walking on treadmills and there for talking rather than anything else. He just liked to know what he was mingling with.

---

Kopus reached up to scratch his stubbled jawline.He understood where the question was coming from. It was a legit question too, if a bit unusual to actually hear asked out loud.

“Mostly people who are committed, and here for the hard work a gym can provide.” He tended to weed out the soccer mom type. Unless they were truly interested in fitness. The gym was a place to work out, train, and get fit. Not to share the week’s gossip. They could use their kid’s soccer games for that bullshit.

---

Commitment was important. It rarely mattered about skill level or what kind of thing a person prefered to do at the gym, but Napoleon had such a pet peeve about people who were just loitering around like it was a group hang out.

“That’s definitely good to know.”

There honestly, really, was nothing worse than trying to get in some physical health practise and listening to Libby and Cathy bitch about their kids' teacher while talking about their wine tasting after the gym. “You have no idea how much information that is mind numbing that I pick up around a gym.” Usually enough to completely put him off what he was doing.

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“Oh, no. I feel you.” Kopus said. He glanced around the gym. There were men and women on the machines. Two women side by side on the treadmills, probably gossipping, but they were also walking at a steady pace. He didn’t mind that so much. When it was just like two of them.

“I try to weed those sort of people out. Some of them are legit, though.” Kopus shrugged. “In the end you have to decide for yourself if this is the place for you. But I hope that it is.”

---

Napoleon nodded, already having had a look around at the people there -he understood buddy work outs, some people worked better when they had someone else to encourage them onwards, he’d been like that about schooling, not so much about working out.

But there was definitely a difference between two gossipy women working out together and a group of uppity trophy wives, Napoleon was fairly good at just dealing when they weren’t there like a swarm taking up the space and polluting the noise.

“It’s definitely looking like it might be,” location was good, price was decent, people seemed okay. What more could you ask for?

---

“Excellent. How about a trial offer? Come in as often as you like, on the house, for the next two weeks. Make a decision after that?” Kopus was in the business of owning a gym because he was passionate about it, and because he wanted to make enough money to live a good life. He wasn’t in the habit of throwing away the opportunity to make money, but he also didn’t think it could hurt to give the guy a free pass for a couple days.

He wanted Napoleon to make an informed decision. No one would benefit if he joined and then determined the gym wasn’t going to meet his needs.

---

Napoleon had expected a trial period, most places understood that offering a testing period was the best way to go. But most places only gave you a few days -which was sometimes difficult to fit in with a full time career and social life. A two week trial meant that Napoleon wouldn’t be trying to work out how and when to fit in it.

“That’s great actually, very helpful.” It’d let him try out a few times during the week too, see when suited best and what it was like. His already good feeling about the gym was doing a lot better now.

---

“Excellent. Come to my office. I’ll get you a temp card.” Which had full access, no restrictions. Kopus believed in giving the full experience. “And if you find you can’t get in enough to get a good feel, I have no issue renewing it for an additional two weeks.” He might lose a little money that way, but he wasn’t worried about that. Not in the long run.

He really just wanted to people to be happy, to make the best and most informed decision about joining or not, that they could.

---

“Two weeks should be fine. Work tends to keep me in the area unless there’s a weekend trip out of town.” On the whole, since the dreams started getting questionable, Napoleon tried not to go too far out of the way, mostly so that he could take care of Gaby if anything came up.

And if this place meant he could cut down some of his travel time, and burn off any extra energy while maintaining his fitness, all the better.

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