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"Lazy isn't always a bad thing," he added with a shrug, finally peeling off both gloves and tucking them under one arm as he reached for his water bottle again. He tipped his head back and drank it in, draining it with a soft suck of air at the end. He had learned the hard way to stay hydrated during his work outs and was already headed for the refill station behind her as he spoke over his shoulder.

"No, I'm done," his smile was lazy and he seemed content with what he had managed thus far. "I have to be careful not to burn too many of the calories off, it's actually pretty hard to keep weight on for me. I've been struggling to get much more muscle than this, I think my body has just adjusted too much."

When he came back, he was screwing the lid of his water bottle back on and holding a hand out to help her back up to her feet.

"It's why I've started drinking that gross thing," there was humor in his voice as acid eyes fell down to meet her deep blue ones, "but we can head back to the apartment now. I can make you breakfast after I shower if you want."

"Oh, really?"

A dark, mossy brow quirked as he began a slow, lazy walk back to the door. He was waiting for her to catch up but paused long enough to drop his towel in a bin at the edge of the wait room. Both gloves were shoved into the pockets of his gym shorts, making them bulge oddly on one side, but it freed his hands to let him pop the mouth of his water bottle open and closed a couple of times.

"Is that really all it takes, a few chin-ups and some bacon?"

It seemed he had caught onto her playfulness and let it infect him; she wasn't wrong, it did make it easier, even if it did nothing to brush away the underlying anxiousness that lingered beneath his skin. He didn't consider himself to be a fidgety person but his inability to read what lay between them was making him unnerved. It had been easy when they were just flirting, easier when they dated, but now this friendliness after becoming so close was hard.

He turned to face her as he walked the last few steps to the door, then pushed it open with his back. It let him step sidelong and hold it open with his body for her, making her walk a little too close to get past him. The smirk on his lips said that he knew exactly that, too.

"If you're a good girl, maybe I'll make you some more coffee."

"Tomato, tomahto," he shrugged at her wooing comment but mentally filed away her preference for waffles over pancakes as something to remember in the future. Considering he'd never been much for cooking his own (or anyone else's) breakfasts, he didn't have a waffle iron stored away for specials occasions. She was just gonna have to settle on pancakes and like it - but he would remember for next time.

Then he realized that he was letting himself hope for a next time.

"What kind of guy prefers limp?" his face retained its usual smarmy mask as she walked her fingers up his chest but he was struggling to do so if he was really honest. Their actual physical interactions were few and far between and each poke of her fingers into the flesh of his pecs was absorbed with a strained nostalgia. As she finally bopped his nose gently and walked past him , he released a breath he had trapped in his lungs and followed behind her obediently.

"I'm not sure always is the right word here," he mumbled, just loud enough for her to hear but making it seem as if he didn't want her too. His hand was in his pocket though and the Tesla's lights flashed as he unlocked it with the fob. He caught up to her with little effort from his long legs and caught her by the chin, forcing her pretty eyes to look up at his own. "I can recall several instances where you were anything but good."

With that tell-tale smirk on his lips, he leaned past her and pulled her door open for her to step inside, releasing her chin.

The flush in her cheeks did not go amiss but he let her slide away from him and fold herself carefully into the car anyway.

"Why would I ever complain?"

The smirk was still on his lips as he shut the door behind her and walked behind the car. Once he was (fairly) sure he was out of sight of her window, he tilted his head back to face the sky and shut his eyes, cursing every god to hell and kingdom come as he tried to get a grip on himself. It was a rare break of his careful composure and he took it for the moment when she could not see him. It was damnably hard to play this game of cat and mouse with her when he knew they were not really playing at it. This was a test drive, an observation and he was nothing more than a test subject showing how well behaved he had become.

A sneaker scuffed irritably on the pavement before he rounded the car and reached for his own door handle, making sure he put on a weak smile before he pulled it open and slid into the seat beside her.

"Alright, then," his seatbelt clicked on before he slipped his car into reverse and peeled out of his parking space. A shift into drive and they were out of the parking lot and into the open road that would take them home. "Home to feed this very good girl."

The shift of her hand was barely a flutter in the corner of his eye but the jolt in his chest told him that he had seen it completed a hundred times before; it left a deep sorrow in the wake as he realized that she still had those ingrained instincts for him. He drew a deep breath and purposefully avoided looking over at her, pressing his gas down just a little to zip through a yellow light and avoid getting cause - mostly so he didn't have to face her in the stillness of the pause.

Luckily, she seemed to want to fill the silence as much as he did and he smirked quietly to himself as she rambled out a series of different things.

"My coffee taste was never bad," he countered, playing up the sound of offense in his voice and punctuating the end with an indignant scoff. It made him laugh, though, and he relaxed into the seat comfortably as he drove down the familiar roads back to his apartment. "I do need to eat though, yes. I've have alarms now to remind to me eat and this... stupid calorie intake app. It's a lot more effort than just eating cupcakes all day, honestly."

It was bad enough that he was having to eat healthy, diet specific foods - it was worse that he had to keep track of it all.

It seemed like no time before they were pulling back up at his apartment and he dipped out of the car to open the door for the two of them. He didn't wait for her to exit the car before he was walking inside and leaving the front door gaped open. A quick one, two and he had stepped out of his shoes and left them haphazardly next to the entrance. He was slipping out of his hoodie and peeling the damp beater up and over his chest before he even thought about how inappropriate it probably was now to be stripping too much in front of her. He paused halfway to the stairs up to the second floor and looked back at her by the door.

"You can just, uh, wait here. I won't take long."

After he disappeared into the hallway upstairs it only took a few minutes for the sound of the shower to burst to life. It was loud enough that he was probably just showering with the door wide open; he always did hate the way it fogged up the mirror and made the tiles too slick.

Nothing much had changed about Levi's apartment in the time she had left except that the things that had once tempted him were missing. His wine rack was gone, as was the cabinet he kept full of liquor and his favorite mixers. Oddly, that empty space across from the neat, blue sectional had been traded out for a cat tree of all things.

And there, lounging in a stray ray of sunlight that filtered through the cracked curtains was a grey cat with a green collar hung comfortably around its neck. As Jade entered the room, it opened a singular green eye. The other was scarred closed but it didn't seem to deter the air of authority the creature had. It judged her for a moment before rolling onto its back for a deep, long stretch; whoever this stranger was didn't seem to make the cat feel very threatened.

Upstairs, the shower cut and the sound of rings sliding over the shower bar could be heard even from the other side of the house. It was followed by the sound of feet plodding from the bathroom and down the hall to what could only be his room; he wasn't rushing, at all. Not in the slightest.

The single green eye watched the woman closely as she got onto her knees and, little by little, inched her way towards the feline. There was very little reaction at first but soon its nose began to twitch and the slick grey head inclined forward to try and get a good sniff of her. Deciding that it liked her enough, apparently, it rolled back onto its belly and leaned forward to rub the side of his face against her outstretched hand.

As it flopped over, the medallion attached to its collar flopped with a gentle tinkle, displaying an engraved gold tag that read 'Sylvester'.

After a moment, Sylvester pushed himself up onto his paws so that he could brush the opposite side of his face along her hand, then leaned his body into her arm as he stalked forward, eventually coming to rest against her outer thigh with a rumble in his throat and his single eye half shut. Whether it was the laziness of the sunny morning or his nature, he seemed pleased enough to see her and beg for attention.

Upstairs, Levi was noisier than he had been, changing into a pair of ripped jeans and a band tshirt that looked well loved over the years. His hair was wet and tussled as he finally bounded back down the stairs, pausing at the bottom once he didn't see her immediately.

"Where are you, Argent?"