RP: Morning Run

[rar_oliver]

Date: Monday, September 2, 1999
Characters: Oliver Wood, Alicia Spinnet
Location: Vinewood Terrace, Hawthorne Park
Status: Private
Summary: Oliver and Alicia go for a run.
Completion: complete

Comments

[rar_alicia]

Alicia wasn't usually a heavy sleeper. Even the smallest movements and sounds were often enough to wake her up for at least a brief second. She usually dropped right off to sleep with no trouble, but she rarely overslept an alarm anymore. She didn't even have it set particularly loudly.

But this morning, she'd forgotten to set the charm. And so she woke up not in her bed, but tumbling out of it, far too late to stop herself from crashing to the floor, blankets and all.

[rar_oliver]

Oliver pressed his ear to the door, grabbing his wand as he did so. There wasn't another noise after the crash, but still...what if someone had broken in?

Unlocking the door with a quick charm, he pushed it in with his shoulder and looked quickly around the flat, trying to stay quiet. He wasn't an Auror, that was for damn sure, but he could hex a bastard if need be, or punch them.

He didn't see anything, so Oliver ran back to Alicia's room only to see her laying on the floor, wrapped up in her blankets. "Bloody hell, Al."

[rar_alicia]

"Oliver?" Al peered up at him and rubbed her back. She wasn't hurt, only stunned. She'd had enough real injuries to tell her that. But it was still a shock and mildly painful.

"How did you...oh, of course," she stopped herself, remembering that she'd given him access to her flat ages ago, along with a few others. She'd never removed it, and it would've been quite simple for him to push past her wards with the right charm.

"Sorry about this," she said, shaking her head dazedly, pressing a hand to her forehead. "Am I horribly late?"

[rar_oliver]

Oliver bent down to check her head, just to be sure. He'd performed enough healing charms while in the pros and at Hogwarts to at least know the basics, not that looking at her head would really tell him anything.

"No, fifteen minutes or so. I heard the crash and was worried. Sorry to scare you." He ran a hand through his hair and stood up. Extending his hand to her, he gave her a sympathetic look. "You okay?"

[rar_alicia]

"Thanks," she said, when Oliver checked her over for injuries. "I really am fine though," she assured him, grasping his hand.

"Just really, really clumsy," said, untangling her legs from the duvet. She rolled her eyes as she stood up fully, only realising too late that she wasn't wearing anything besides a tank top and what could very charitably be called shorts. If she stretched the accepted definition.

She blushed, looking up at Oliver. It wasn't like he hadn't seen her in at least this before quite apart from their old relationship; years on the same Quidditch team had taken care of that. And Al wasn't particularly shy about her body in general. But it seemed awkward anyway.

"Sorry," she offered, biting her lip. "I'll, uh, go change. Tracksuit bottoms, and the like. You know, normal running clothes. And all," she grabbed them out of her closet and ducked into the bathroom, berating herself internally the whole way. Not exactly her smoothest moment.

[rar_oliver]

Oliver cleared his throat when Alicia stood, revealing more skin than clothing. Averting his eyes, he shrugged. "Sure thing. I'll wait outside your door."

Nodding to her, he stepped out of the flat and scratched the back of his neck. At least he didn't cough and stutter when he saw her. That was an accomplishment if he'd ever seen one. Alicia was still very fit, not that anything would have happened to change that, but knowing they'd tried and things just never progressed made it easier for him to look at her in a platonic way. Didn't mean she wasn't hot, though.

[rar_alicia]

Al hurriedly dressed, pulling on the tracksuit bottoms and an old white teeshirt that she'd had since Hogwarts, slicking her hair back and sliding her feet into her sneakers practically as she walked out the door.

"Sorry," she said again, smiling. "For the oversleeping and the awkward and the making you wait in the hall bit. Though really I wouldn't've minded if you'd stayed in the flat, Ollie. Especially not after you came in to rescue me," she teased, smiling.

[rar_oliver]

He shrugged. "No problem. I feel bad waking you up, but you did ask me to, after all." Oliver grinned and gestured for Alicia to walk ahead of him. "Shall we?"

Once they were outside, Oliver bent over and stretched his calves and hamstrings, bouncing a little as he stood back up to get his blood flowing. "You ready to push the pace a little today?" Alicia was quick, but didn't have quite the stamina he did. That was sort of expected though, considering Oliver had been running every morning since forever.

[rar_alicia]

"Yes please," Alicia said, smiling as she jogged out slowly, bouncing up and down to get blood flowing. "And I did ask you to and I do appreciate it. See? I'm not really too much of a hag in the morning. Mostly."

"I guess we're going to have to," Al laughed, stretching her own legs slightly, the movements easy and familiar from the years of drills Ollie had put them through in Quidditch conditioning. "Given how much I slept in it's either that or a shorter run. And I've already gotten used to your routes."

She took a quick breath and let Oliver set the pace, concentrating on keeping her own even and steady beside him. She was athletic, but he was disciplined. He set a good pace, even though she knew he must've been slowing down a bit for her.

"So how much longer is it going to be before I run at something other than a slug's pace compared to you?" she asked, smiling as she took a deeper breath.

[rar_oliver]

He laughed as they ran towards the park. "You're not a slug. Maybe a sloth," he teased, looking over at her and smirking. "You're plenty quick, Al, but it's not always about speed. Length is more important. Endurance. Once you build that up you can start picking up your pace, but I don't want you getting burned out or hurt. It's not worth it just for exercise."

He pushed their pace a little as they got closer to the park entrance. "Now, if we were training that would be something else. But this is just to stay in shape, right? To have some fun and be healthy." Oliver didn't think there were many people who would think five am runs were fun, but there were plenty of other folks who enjoyed it. Roger, Lisa, Ang...they weren't that weird.

[rar_alicia]

"Sloth," she said, rolling her eyes. "Ollie, you say the nicest things

[rar_oliver]

He nodded. "Sure, I feel the same way. I thought about training for one of those marathons. You know, the Muggle races? They have ones where you swim, run and ride a bike. I've never ridden one before though, so that's holding me back."

"You probably know about those, yeah? The races, that is." And bikes, probably, considered she was raised as a Muggle. "I like to keep in shape because otherwise I feel useless, but I would rather be working for something. So I know how you feel for sure."

[rar_alicia]

"Triathlons," Al corrected, smiling. "A marathon is just running, and those are plenty difficult on their own. Not that I've done one, mind, but I've always thought about it."

"But if it's a triathlon that strikes your fancy, I'd be glad to teach you about the bike. I rode one as a kid, and it's not exactly something you can forget. I still ride when I go visit Mum, occasionally. And at uni I rode around campus all the time."

Al smirked, bumping Oliver's shoulder lightly. "Be good for you to be the student for once," she teased, raising her eyebrows. "If you think you can handle taking instruction from a girl, that is."

[rar_oliver]

"Triathlons. That's right. I knew it was something that meant three." He blushed a little but didn't bother to hide it.

"Really? That's perfect! Is it the same kind of riding? Or does the racing need a racing bike, like with a broom?" Oliver didn't know a thing about this, but he had a feeling he could get pretty into it. Something to compete for was always good.

"Course I can handle it. I'm not that macho."

[rar_alicia]

"It's easy to mix up," Al said, breathing harder and bringing up a hand to wipe sweat off her forehead. Sometimes she still couldn't believe she willingly woke up and looked like such utter crap in front of a fit bloke, even one who'd been her friend as long as Oliver had. Certainly most of her uni friends wouldn't have understood it. But it suited them

[rar_oliver]

Oliver was getting more and more excited, and knew that his pace was increasing as a part of that. They were running much faster than usual now, and he slowed down some, finally realizing that Alicia was getting winded. "Sorry, I got distracted."

He beamed at her. "Really? This is going to be brilliant, Al! I don't know how I'll do on a bike, but I'm sure it can't be that hard. Money won't be an issue, though I don't want to spend hundreds of pounds on something if I'm no good at it."

He felt himself speeding up and had to slow down again. "Of course I want a training partner, this is perfect!" Oliver stopped and grabbed Alicia by the waist and spun her around. "You know me, give me a good competition and I'm happier than a first year with a butterbeer." He put her down and smiled shyly. "Sorry."