Heat Week! Athlete

Starlight's taped up fist collides with the punching bag that resides in the gym. Content with listening to the sound that came from every strike she lands while waiting. Trixie also decided to have followed her all the way to the gym just to see exactly where her friend would disappear to at times. Not that Starlight minds nor cares, she already knows other company will be here soon.

"So is this what you do when you're not home?" Trixie asks almost indignantly.

"I do live a life outside of you and the castle, Trix." Starlight merely responds, not letting the rude attitude get to her.

"It kind of smells in here... Like old socks and mothballs." Trixie continues. "How can you stand this place?"

"I think it's part of the charm of this place." Starlight remarks with a bit of a smile.

Neither of them pay any mind to the door that just opened towards the front of the gym.

"I'd wager some bits you're only here because of that stallion Justin over the castle." Trixie's prodding continues.

"Well, the castle does have it's own fitness room that I use sometimes." Justin's voice cuts in, taking the show mare by surprise with a small shriek. "Trixie, good to see you. Starlight, glad to see you practicing those punches."

Starlight glances at him with a small nod. "Hi. You said to keep them sharp, so here I am."

Trixie finally calms herself down enough to say something. "How long have you been there?"

"Just now." he happily replies with a grin. "If you'll give me a minute, I'll go change and we can get in the ring to have you hit some targets, see how hard you can hit."

Starlight gives him a nod in response and he disappears off into the locker room. A few moments later, Justin and Starlight are in the ring of the gym being watched by Trixie. Her interest is more on the man since he changed, making no attempt to hide her eyes from ogling the fit frame of his body tat his shirt does little to hide. However he is focused on training the lilac mare in front of him. Justin had put pads on his hands, trying to instruct Starlight hitting them and hopefully not his face.

He yells "Go!"

Starlight reacts almost as soon as he says and a hook crosses across his cheek rather than the foam pad. His head recoils in the direction of the punch and he stumbles back a little bit out of surprise more than force. he wasn't prepared for the amount of power this mare hides, his jaw is hurting from her. He steadily regains his composure and looks at the now mortified Starlight.

"Damn, Star... where'd you learn to his so hard?" He jokingly asks, taking her a little off guard.

"You're... not.. mad?" She asks with a little confusion.

"Mad? Why would I be mad?" Justin just chuckles a little. "You hit hard ad with enough focus and training, you may be able to knock me out in the ring."

Starlight's a little taken off edge now, having expected him to just yell at her. "You... really think so?"

"I know so." He says with a smile at her. "Just look at Caramel. He did it during a sparring match."

Starlight, now feeling a bit more embolden by his words, is wanting to try again. Justin happily obliges and gets ready to let her go ham on the foam pads. The next couple of hours are filled with the noise of Starlight's fists smacking against pads while the man moves them in various directions to test her. He also tells her to go high or low in get her to recognize mid and upper chest strikes. Much to Starlight's credit and glee, her paying attention to some of his other sparring matches has paid itself off.

"Excellent, Star." Justin compliments with a smile. "You're well on your way to becoming a capable boxer. Just keep to those workouts and practicing your punches."

"What if I wanna really 'test my mettle' as you would say?" Starlight asks with some mischief in her tone.

Justin now a bit confused looks up to from putting away the foam padding. Seeing her stare rather intently in his direction.
"What? No. By Luna no way is that going to happen right now."

"Awe, why not?" Starlight has a bit of a pout on her face.

"First off, you ain't ready yet." Justin zips up his bag and stands tall, his gaze falling towards Starlight but not on her. "Second, Trixie's gotta get home, she's drooling on the ring."

Starlight's eyes widen a little and look behind her. Sure enough, Trixie has her head against the floor of the ring, snoozing away with a puddle of her own saliva where her cheek is. She watches the man as he climbs out of the boxing ring and starts to make his way to the lockers. The lilac unicorn watches as he disappears beyond the doorway and gets to work waking up her friend. At first she tries to lightly knock on her head with a boxing glove. When that doesn't have the desired affect, she climbs out of the ring, landing herself next to Trixie just to light shake her awake.

"Come on, Trix, you can't sleep here." She tells her sleepy friend.

"Just... five... more.." Trixie then dozes off. Again.

"Dammit." Starlight mutters under her breath. "This can't be happening..."

Starlight looks around to see if Justin has come back out yet, hoping he can help. Thankfully he is on his way back in the street clothes he came in with. Silently waiting for him to reach them before letting him know what's going on. Fortunately for her she didn't have to, he glances at Trixie then back to Starlight.

"No luck?" He asks, a small smirk on his face.

Starlight just shakes her head 'no' at him with some defeat. "She's a heavy sleeper."

"Is that so?" Justin muses for a moment. "I have an idea." That smirk works it's way in to a twisted smile as he leans in close to one of Trixie's ears. "Trixie..." He almost quietly sings. "..watch out for that Ursa Minor."

Starlight is staring at him while he takes a couple steps back. "That's cold."

"Give it a second."

Much as he expected, Trixie wakes up freaking out and screaming. Starlight and Justin both jump at that moment to calm the light blue mare down from her night terror. They get her to quiet down at the very least but she stays hyperventilating while looking around the gym. Steadily realizing that she's safe, with a friend, and someplace she knows. A soft glare then reaches her eyes and stares down the man next to her.

"That wasn't funny!" Trixie scolds, lightly slapping his shoulder.

"I ain't laughing." Justin defends, letting the slap connect to his shoulder.

"But you ARE smiling!"

"Yeah, we're done and leaving to go home." He continues to retort. "We aren't leaving you here."

Trixie's mouth opens then closes, trying yo see the logic but only to be confused by his words.

"Come on, Trix, I'll make us both something when we get back to the castle." Starlight tries to bait her friend into going home.

"Fine! Trixie will leave but Trixie has her eyes on you." She threatens towards the man.

Justin just chuckles a little and waves by to the unicorns. "As if you don't keep them off me when I'm around anyway."

He can see Trixie's face turn red, not out of anger but embarrassment. He thinks it's because he knows she likes to stare at him. Not that he minds considering the looks he used to getting at this point in time. Justin takes some time to double-check that he has everything before finally leaving for the castle. Giving Starlight and Trixie enough of a head start so he can pass the halls without getting yelled at. Just reaching up and tracing the feathers on his pendant while walking down the street.