It was twelve in the afternoon and Bill was busy working out at Euphoria. True he wasn't one to be around women, but it had a good assortment of workout machines, plus he didn't really mind the women dressed in tight exercise clothes. Even though he was a little heavy for his age Bill kept himself in good shape, going to the gym regularly. He wasn't huge, but he was defined.

He was wearing a tight fitting black t-shirt and matching Under Armor workout shorts. The t-shirt simply had the red cross from Full Metal Alchemist on it, but most people wouldn't know what it was from. Glancing at him you'd probably think that he was a regular guy working out and listening to music on his iPod. Truely he was listening to some of his favorite Japanese music, which included anime theme songs, Japanese pop, J-Rock, and everything in between.

Taking a deep breath Bill laid down on a bench and started doing benchpresses. He knew that women were probably looking at him, but he didn't feel attractive at all. Hell even being around them at the gym was nerve wracking, and he'd probably end up killing himself if one of them started talking to him. He was an otaku at heart so the nervousness around women kind of came with the territory.

After finishing the first set of the workout Bill sat up and sipped from the water bottle that was laying on the floor next to his feet. It was tough for him, because he didn't really look like an otaku. The closest he'd gotten to a girl was taking the subway, and he nearly had a bloody nose from that experience. People say that things that happen in animes can't happen in real life, but some of them could. He felt like there was no real place for him.

So it wasn’t really like Tasia wanted to be here. Actually, kind of the opposite. Tasia Xanthopoulos and gyms don’t even belong in the same sentence.

Her yia-yia had bought her a gym membership for her birthday, though, and had actually driven her to the door and all but pushed her out, telling Tasia she needed to beef up to ‘get man’. Tasia had informed her grandmother that if that were the case, she was completely happy being a lesbian, thank you very much.

Her grandmother had said, quote: “You seen them butch girls? I no like them. You be strong one.”

Then she’d driven away.

In a fit of rebelliousness, Tasia had thought about walking home and forgetting the gym altogether. Really, just look at her. She’s stick thin, size nothing (and hates it), with bird bones and small little breasts. She was half afraid that she was going to pick up a weight and her arm was going to fall off. It didn’t seem particularly likely, but still – it was always a possibility.

That was what had really made her go in. “Look yia-yia, you made my arm fall off.”

Then there would be cake. Lots and lots of cake to make up for it.

As it was, she spent about half an hour on the treadmill, thinking it was the stupidest thing ever to walk and walk and get nowhere, and ohmigod, she was becoming a hamster and what if everyone was a hamster, and treadmills were just some vast conspiracy?

That would suck.

Deciding that 29.68 minutes was close enough on the treadmill, she hopped off and wandered around, looking at the poor suckers doing their workouts in teeny tiny outfits. Tasia looked down at herself. Oversized Scissor Sisters t-shirt and biking shorts.

Oh yeah. That right there is fashion.

Then she saw a very interesting shirt. It was, of course, attached to a guy, but still. Never being one to be shy, she walked straight up and said, “Nice shirt.”

Bill had been taking a little bit of a breather and was going to start his second set when a girl walked up to him. He looked up at her, and almost immediately broke out in a sweat. He took a little bit of a breath, and smiled. "Thanks." Definitely one of his weaknesses.

She was pretty thin, but she was pretty attractive though a little on the shorter side. "That's a pretty good t-shirt too." He said remembering that he listened to the Scissor Sisters once. Pausing his iPod Bill turned his full attention to her, though he was starting to sweat a little more excessively. From what he could tell the girl was a little older than him, and had a kinda small chest.

For some reason he got the feeling that she wasn't one that went to the gym a lot. "Do y-you come to the gym often?" He couldn't keep the nervousness out of his voice, and decided to look at the weights that lined the wall in front of him.

If Tasia and or noticed the sweat on the guy’s brow, she promptly ignored it. That was a fairly large IF, though. While she could be downright nosy when something captured her interest (read: suspicion), she was fairly oblivious unless said interest was aroused. It was one of the reasons she’d had to give up her five-minute dream of being a private investigator.

Looking down at her own t-shirt, she smiled. “Thanks. They started in a gay bar, you know. How can you go wrong with that?” That was a fairly rhetorical question. That didn’t mean that she necessarily favoured homosexuality above all else – but damn, anything that bothered to be different was okay with her.

Just look at her hair. It was currently the colour of grapefruit juice. Not quite orange. Not quite pink.

She was going to have to die it again. Maybe get a haircut.

Ooo. They had a salon here, didn’t they?

Acknowledging his question, she wrinkled her nose. “That would be a no. My birdy bones can’t take the stress.” She flapped her arms to demonstrate. “Between you and me, I have a feeling one might fall off. Blood everywhere. Reporters reporting. Probably wouldn’t do much for the appeal of the place, would it?”

Tasia smiled winningly.

Bill nodded as the girl explained about the band. "Oh yeah! I remember hearing that somewhere. They're good too!" He said with a smile. It seemed that she wasn't an ordinary girl. "I prefer the Japanese music, but that's just me. It has a much better sound to me." Go being different! Most of the music he listened to probably wouldn't interest the girl, but he was fine with that.

He didn't care if she was all for homosexuality, hell he was probably worse since he was attracted to drawn girls more than real life ones. Everyone had their own opinions, and he wasn't one to push his on to others.

Then she acknowledged his question and he laughed. "I'm sure you could definitely lift some weights if you tried." He stood up and took a better look at her. Her hair was the color of grapefruit juice, pretty interesting. She was a few inches shorter than him, and definitely thinner. "I'll help you out if you want." He said starting to feel more comfortable around her. It seemed that they were both different from the norm of society. It might be interesting to work out with her.

Tasia blinked. Then again. This was followed by her saying, "I used to be into the whole J-Rock scene in middle school. I was that crazy lolita chick. Grew out of it though. Got some stranger friends, developped a slightly different style and didn't look back." She shrugged with one shoulder.

Careful Bill, when she gets talking, she sometimes forget to breathe.

"I'm not too sure about that," she replied. "I think my arm falling off argument was a valid one. What if my arm falls off, what then? Then you're stuck with a girl with only one arm. I'll have to sue you or something, and make a bunch of money so I can buy a robotic arm instead. Then I could be like, Bionic Woman or something, and it would be sweet."

She then remembered that in saying no, she was basically saying that she couldn't do something.

So far as she was concerned, she could do everything.

"But if you want to help out, you could." It was a hasty addition, and it was all too readily apparent.

Bill laughed as Tasia spoke about the whole thing about being into that stuff, but growing out of it. "Let me guess...you watched the whole Dragon Ball and Pokemon?" That was what they typically watched at that age. Definitely not the best. "It's pretty hard for me to grow out of it."

Then Tasia moved on to the whole thing about her arm falling off. "That'd truly be awesome. I can say that I got sued by the Bionic Woman." He said with a smile. "You could be the Bionic Woman and I could be the Million Dollar Man." He said with a chuckle.

Then she quickly added the idea of helping out. Smiling Bill stood up and wiped his face on a towel. "How about we start with something easy? Maybe curls?" It was the next weight he was going to do anyway. "They're not that hard at all."