How about a gym AU where Frederick is a personal trainer/instructor and F!Robin, who has a crush on him but hasn't spoken to him much aside from the odd "hi, how's it going?", decides to sign up for one of his dreaded Fanatical Fitness Hour classes to get closer to him. Besides, she figures it can't be as intense as the stories say, right? (Spoiler: Robin is horribly, horribly wrong)
again, sorry for the 2+ year wait! I hope you enjoy nonetheless c:
After countless all-nighters and weeks of caffeine-inducedexistence, Robin decided that it was time to hit the gym. She figured her dietof coffee, instant noodles, and whatever was in the sale section at the cornerstore was not a very good way to live, and she could feel herself get more andmore sluggish as she dashed from her house to school.
She had slowly gotten herself into the habit ofgoing to the gym in the past few weeks, but her main motivation for going was arather attractive man who worked there. She found herself too awkward to strikeconversation, but she gave him the occasional “hey” and “how are you?” wheneverthey were at the water fountain together. Or rather, Robin be-lined to thewater fountain every time she saw him there.
She hasn’t learned much about him but she doesknow that his name is Frederick, he is a personal trainer, and that he isstupidly good-looking. Their sparse interactions at the water fountain onlymade Robin more curious about him, but Frederick didn’t waste any time duringtheir conversations. They could only get through one or two topics before hescurried off back to his job.
Since Robin couldn’t pin him down long enough fora proper conversation, she decided to sign up for a personal trainer.Specifically, she signed up for Frederick to be her personal trainer.
Every day.
Robin wouldn’t call herself shallow, but she couldn’thelp but stare at Frederick’s muscles every time they had an appointmenttogether. He would guide her through the machines and through various exercises,but all she really focused on was how she could ask him on a date. Frederickwas oblivious enough to Robin’s gaze, and she figured that he was reallyinvested in his job. Too invested in fact, as nothing Robin could do wouldphase him:
“What do you usually do after work?”
“I study, for personal enlightenment is of theupmost importance.”
“What do you do on weekends?”
“I’m a fan of reading, I also enjoy cleaning. Icannot think straight even when there is a stray pebble in the garden.”
“Are you single?”
“Robin! That is an inappropriate question, we areat the gym. Now give me twenty one armed push ups.”
He talked rather formally, but Robin just found itas an adorable quirk he had. She slowly grew more comfortable around him, buttheir short one hour sessions didn’t allow her to get as close as she liked.
One day as she was leaving the gym, she sawFrederick chatting to the blue-haired front desk worker. She didn’t think much ofit, until both of them started calling for her.
“Robin! There’s something here you might enjoy.”Frederick bellowed. Robin, as subtle as she is, practically ran over to them.
Chrom held up a clipboard with a piece of paper forRobin to see, “Frederick’s Fanatical Fitness Hour” was printed in bold acrossthe top. A big goofy grin sat on Chrom’s face, almost like he was trying tokeep in a secret.
“I think you’ll enjoy this. You’ve been makinggreat progress in our sessions, and I would like to see how you do in one of theseclasses.” Frederick said rather matter-of-factly
Robin had heard of these sessions before, mostlyfrom eavesdropping, but every single person would not stop talking about how “intense”it was and how it “destroyed” them. She figured they were exaggerating,Frederick was her personal trainer and he hasn’t been that harsh so far.Besides, any extra time with Frederick was a pretty good deal in her eyes.
She swiftly grabbed the clipboard from Chrom andwrote her name down on the list. She scanned the sheet and her name was only thethird one written down.
Perfect, Robin thought, more one-on-one time withFrederick.
As she walked home, Robin thought she might becoming on a bit too strong. She didn’t want to be creepy, but she was convincedthat Frederick was interested in her, even just a little bit. They startedhaving some playful banter after their sessions, and Frederick had visited herat the library during every one of her shifts in the past few weeks. If nothinghappened between them, Robin could at least be grateful that he got her intoshape.
On the morning of Frederick’s Fanatical FitnessHour, Robin could barely hold in her excitement. As she jogged down to the gym,she prepared herself mentally and physically for everything Frederick couldthrow at her. Robin practically skipped as she entered the gym, greeting Chromwith a warm “hello!” as she headed into the change room. She could barely hearChrom yelling “good luck!” after her since she was moving so fast. It was niceof him, but Robin was pretty sure she could handle it.
Once she entered the room that Fitness Hour washeld in, she found Frederick doing some stretches towards the back. Loud rockmusic blasted from a boom box in the corner while cheesy motivation postershung from the walls.
“Hello, Robin! I almost didn’t hear you walk in.” Frederickyelled over the music. “I hope you’re ready!”
Robin nodded in response, but she was a bit toodistracted by the posters to reply properly. She was fairly sure that Frederickput them up himself, as she figured that the gym wouldn’t have posters withFrederick’s face on them. His face was plastered onto every poster, with hugetext reading “Frederick Wants You!” on the bottom. It was quite obvious thatFrederick just taped pictures of himself onto the paper, and that he quickly scrawled“Frederick” on top of whatever writing was there before. Robin let hercuriosity get the better of her and gently poked one of the posters, revealingsome blue hair behind the shield of Frederick’s face. She was close to findingout what was underneath there before she two hands grab her sides and her feetleave the ground.
“H-hey! Put me down!” Robin squealed, flailing herlimbs in every direction.
“I’m sorry Robin, but I cannot let you see what isbehind there.” Frederick announcedstraight-faced. For as frantic as she was thrashing, Robin was pretty impressedat how composed he sounded. “What is behind there is strictly confidential.”
“It’s not my fault you hung them up!”
“Tsk tsk, I will not endorse this mischievousness.”
Before Robin knew it, Frederick slung her over hisshoulder with such ease that she might as well be a towel in his eyes. Herresistance was fruitless, and she simply accepted her fate. Frederickeffortlessly placed Robin outside the room and quickly locked himself inside. Robinwanted to protest, but the sound of paper being ripped and sporadic crinklingerupted from the door and drowned out her voice. Frederick emerged not too longafter, almost as if nothing happened.
“Welcome students! Please, come in.” Fredericksaid, extending his arm into the room to invite them in. Robin didn’t realizethat there were two people standing behind her, looking rather confused andscared at the same time.
The last thing Robin remembered before her worldturned black was how bare the walls were, and the huge smile on Frederick’sface as his warm voice announced “Welcome to Frederick’s Fanatical Fitness Hour!I hope you are all ready to feel the burn.”
Robin awoke from her exercise-induced coma to findthat was slumped against the wall, with Frederick diligently cleaning up theroom. It was almost comical to see such a small broom in his hands, but she wasn’tgoing to complain about it any time soon. She looked down to see small bowl ofwater and a small towel folded neatly beside her. Once her hand went to dip thetowel in the water, Frederick’s head shot around to examine her.
“Ah, the lady has awoken!” Frederick gently placedthe broom down and knelt down beside Robin, taking the damp towel and wiping itagainst her forehead. “I was worried that you were going to spend the entirenight here.”
“What happened?”
“Well, right when class was over I saw you stumblingout the door. I’m grateful that I managed to catch you before you fell over.You are really quite easy to carry.” Frederick chuckled. Robin couldn’t helpbut blush a little, but the sudden bloom of red across her face only causedFrederick to wipe her entire face with cold water. “Oh my, you must be reallyexhausted. I apologize for any… embarrassment I may have caused.”
Robin wanted to wipe that smug look off Frederick’sface, but she couldn’t deny how nice the cold water felt against her skin.
“Yeah, yeah.” Robin attempted to get up so shecould go home with some dignity, but her legs immediately protested, sending asearing pain through her body. She tried to brush it off as coolly as shecould, but Frederick quickly caught her and placed her against the wall again.
“Don’t strain yourself, I would hate for you tomiss one of our sessions.”
“Thank you for the concern, Frederick.” Robinthought it was quite sweet of him to stick around for her, yet there was onething that kept bothering her. “But how have you not even broken a sweat? Itlooks like nothing even happened.”
“You flatter me, but I have trained hard for suchendurance. I must thank you for noticing.” Frederick replied, a tiny smirkdecorating his face. “Now stay here, I will return with some more water.”Frederick picked up the bowl and darted off.
Once Frederick returned, he found Robin lying downon the floor fast asleep, with the tiniest trail of drool escaping her lips. Hechuckled to himself and placed a towel on her to act as a blanket. He went backto sweeping the floor, but made sure to do so extra quietly. Once he finished hefelt like waking her would be a horribly bad decision, so he gingerly satbeside a very much asleep Robin. He pulled out his notebook and starteddrafting new poster ideas instead, all the while enduring Robin’s snores andlight kicks to his leg.
The next morning, Chrom couldn’t help but laugh atwhat he was seeing. He quickly took a few pictures and sent them to Frederick tosee when he woke up. Frederick was sat up against the wall, hunched over on topof poor Robin and very clearly asleep. Robin was perched up on his lap, but herwhite hair escaped her ponytail and was sprawled in every direction, almost asif dozens of white tentacles were trying to escape. Somehow, Frederick’snotebook ended up sitting perfectly on his head, as if he was wearing a hat.
Chrom couldn’t wait for them to see, as he wentoff to his desk and started planning his own posters.