One, two. One, two.

Ravi had been at the boxing studio for about an hour already. In that hour, he hadn’t moved from the punching bag he’d chosen. Instead, he’d been there, boxing with a punching bag for the whole time, dressed in shorts and a tank top that displayed his tattoos. 

It had been a stressful day at work. There was nothing specific about it that had set him off, but the events of the day had accumulated and gotten under his skin in a way that only boxing could fix. Rude customers, lack of parking spaces, mutants in the streets, pay cuts making him short on rent again. As a kid, he would have gotten angry about it all, but as an adult, Ravi had found better ways to work out his frustrations. Rather than let it consume him, Ravi could work out his anger and keep his reputation as an all around nice guy. 

One, two. One, two. One, two, three. 

The man bounced on his feet and hit the punching bag with a little more force. It was starting to build without him realizing it. Short on rent meant that his landlord was going to be angry. That was the second time in six months. A few more times like that and he would be out on his a**. He would have to talk to his manager.

One, two, three, four!

Maybe he could freelance. Yeah, freelance and control his own pay and prices! Who was he kidding, though? He was young and, in comparison, inexperienced. He needed a name backing him in order to get clients. Even the growing popularity of his instagram page wouldn’t bring in enough people to warrant his own business.

One, two, three, four, five!

Okay, the punching bag wasn’t going to cut it. Ravi dropped his hands shook them out, hanging his head down as he let out a throaty sigh. He needed something more. Something where he could move around a bit more. He needed a partner to box with.

Ravi turned around and ran his hands through his loosely pinned hair and searched for the closest person to him. ”Hey, you looking to do a match?”

@wade

Levi's phone finally lit up with a text. He had been standing outside the building for a few minutes now, checking his phone periodically.

"Omg I completely forgot about today, so much stuff going on. Next week?"

He instinctively rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. Of course. Ever since he mentioned that he wanted to get back in shape like he used to be, a girl Levi worked with had been begging him to come to a boxing class with her. Then she bails last minute. Part of Levi wanted to just turn around and go back to his place, but he had to get back in the routine. Especially if things went as planned, because he was going to have a lot less time on his hands. Better to get a head start.

Despite his athletic background, Levi wasn't sure how this kind of training was gonna go. He'd never been an aggressive person, and never really used 'fighting' to destress. It really wasn't that serious, but he had a tendency to overthink things. Before he got carried away, he made himself walk through the doors.

It didn't take long for him to get signed up and borrow some gear for his first day. The gentleman at the front pointed him towards the studio. Fidgeting with the straps on his gloves, Levi walked into the studio and approached an available punching bag. Before he had a chance to start making a fool of himself, he heard a voice from his periphery. 

>>"Hey, you looking to do a match?"

"Oh... um," Levi hesitated to answer. "I guess so." 

"Just follow his lead," Levi thought to himself. He gave a half smile to the man and started to eye the prominent raven tattoo that covered his shoulder.

The closest person to him just so happened to be a blonde man who hadn’t even finished getting his boxing gloves on. If Ravi had been paying attention, he probably would have picked up on the fact that he was either just entering the gym and hadn’t warmed up yet, or he was a newb who wasn’t really ready for a fight. However, Ravi had made a quick call without looking at who he was asking, so that wasn’t the case.

The man gave him a hesitant answer, so Ravi was going to take it. Maybe he wasn’t ready, but he could warm up on the way or something. Ravi had so much to work out that he wasn’t about to go around questioning people.

He could feel the other man’s eyes on his shoulder tattoo, which made him a little proud. He had plenty of images displayed on his body, but people didn’t often get to see the full details of his raven. It was a shame that it was in a somewhat hidden spot, but that made it all the more exciting when people actually got to see it. As a natural reaction, he flexed his shoulder a little, making the black ink strain with the movement.

”Great,” Ravi nodded toward him. ”I’m Ravi. You ever been in a match before?” That was a good question to ask right off the bat. If the fight wasn’t going to be fair, then he would have to take it easier than he would if he was going up against a fellow experienced boxer. It was a completely different experience.

Still full of nervous energy, the young man stepped into the boxing ring in just a few easy strides, lifting the stretchy siding over his head to slip inside. Once in there, he adjusted to his new space by circling the ring slowly. Taking it easy was likely going to prove to be a challenge.

>> "Great."

The question made Levi realize that he had been possibly staring a little too long at the man's tattoo. He corrected his attention and made eye contact instead.

>>"I'm Ravi. You ever been in a match before?"

Oh, that was an easy question. None. A fight? Maybe one, if you could consider that a fight. Levi just wasn't a violent person by nature, and had a tendency to back down to avoid intense confrontations. That was something he thought he might like to change. Being the 'bigger person' was a tough role to play.

"A couple," Levi blurted out. Why did he always do this? A simple question, and the guy probably wouldn't even be judgmental about it. Another lie to pretend that Levi knew what he was doing. Hopefully one that didn't end up with him laid out.

As they walked up to the ring, Levi nervously shook his arms out. "I'm Levi," he revealed. Normally he would do ample stretching before this kind of thing, but it was time to go. He climbed up onto the ringside and tested the tension of the ropes. He had always wondered what these felt like. After a brief pause, Levi entered the ring and situated himself in a corner. Watching Ravi pace around the ring, Levi took a deep breath. This would be prove to be an interesting day.

Ravi had been in plenty of matches himself. It was something that he had picked up awhile ago to work off steam, and it had just stuck with him. It was essentially that or getting angry at every little thing that went wrong, so he figured that this was a better option. A few times a week he would get angry in a good setting, and hopefully, he could be completely calm for the rest of the week. It worked most of the time. Most of the time when there weren’t people being awful, anyway.

Still, he needed to make sure that his partner was on the same page. A couple of fights, he had claimed. A couple could mean different things to different people, so that meant that he would have to gauge things as he went. If he’d known the guy a little longer or had been comfortable questioning his response, then he might have asked him to clarify, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, he merely cocked his head at him and nodded slightly. They would have to figure it out as they went.

Without any real knowledge of what the guy knew and didn’t know, Ravi intended to start out by taking it easy. He stretched out his shoulders a little as he continued to circle the ring, getting whatever energy he still had out.

”Nice to meet you, Levi. We’re gonna get real close real fast,” Ravi grinned. There was no better way to get to know someone than having their fist in your face.

He raised his gloves to a fighting position in front of his face and began to step forward, jumping ever so slightly on his heels. He had gotten good at staying nimble over the years. He approached Levi in that fashion, working his way up to actually throwing a punch. It was easier to let the other person begin, and that would give him a sense of where Levi stood.

>>"Nice to meet you, Levi. We're gonna get real close real fast."

Not necessarily the worst thing to hear, but given the context...

Levi clenched his jaw and nodded. The man raised his arms and stepped towards Levi. The smile on his face didn't match up with Levi's nervous approach however. He was no stranger to competition, but throwing a punch at a complete stranger was definitely a first.

The only other real confrontation he had been in was started by the other guy. He was at a bar back home... hadn't even turned 21 yet, so he was lucky it didn't escalate much further. It was all a misunderstanding really. The guy was probably drunk too. Shoved into the wall just because he bumped into someone and knocked their drink a bit. While Levi tried to let it go, his friend wasn't the type to back down. Next thing Levi knew he was on the ground and trying to get someone off of him. His mutation came in handy with stopping the fight and actually gave his attackers pause. Enough for him and his friend to get out of there at least.

Attempting to feign some confidence, Levi took a deep breath before stepping up like his opponent in the ring.. He pulled his hands up in front of him, and threw a straight right hand in Ravi's direction.

A right hand rushed forward, just narrowly missing Ravi’s face. He had ducked just in time to escape the blow in a spectacular fashion. Yeah, that was why he loved fights. That was why he even bothered to box as a method of working out his feelings. It was his go-to, his first thought, and it really worked. There was nothing but adrenaline coursing through his veins, and he loved every damn second of it.

Spurred on by the rush of having someone throw a punch at him had caused Ravi to react dangerously. He had planned to take things easy on Levi; to see where he stood so he didn’t take it too hard on a beginner. That, however, was all blown out of the water in an instant.

Ravi rushed forward, punching with each fist in rapid succession. He wasn’t sure if they would land, but it felt so good to even be throwing them. The punching bags just didn’t do the sport the proper justice. Having an opponent was an entirely different story.

Even if, in the moment, Ravi had forgotten to be a courteous opponent.