It took Johnathan a moment to process what his father had just said. Being told he was about to spend a significant amount of time with a tall and muscular woman was not the punishment he’d been dreading. Really, it was about as far from those fears as he could imagine. 

“Well, good to meet ya, Johnathan Preston IV,” Ms. Xanthopolous said, all smiles and sun-kissed Australian perfection.

“Y-yes. Yep. Good to meet you as well,” he said, stumbling through the effort to reply. “My, um, my friends call me Johnny.” 

He then winced, realising that probably sounded horribly immature to this stunning properly adult woman, and so attempted a save. “Childhood friends, though. Obviously it’s a bit cutesy, and so Johnathan is probably better.”

The slow nod from Ms. Xanthopolous told him he’d just dug himself deeper in a hole in his attempt to recover. What a nightmare.

“Yes, well, he’s still a bit young and learning to make better first impressions,” Johnathan’s father said, serving as a reminder that Johnathan hadn’t just made a fool of himself in front a beautiful woman, but also his father. “But I’m still sure you two will get to know each other quite closely.”

The implication to his father’s words left Johnathan happy blushes didn’t show up very well on his cheeks. Any sort of physical proximity to such a beautiful woman was slightly mind boggling to him. She was so totally out of his league.

“Quite clo--” Ms. Xanthopolous began to mumble, before her eyes flashed with some sort of a realisation. “Right. Yes. Close. With your... son. Yes... haha, well, we should head off to see the gym. Why don’t you show me the way, Johnny?”

Not quite certain what to make of the woman’s shift in tone, Johnathan tried to reply all the same. “Uh, sure. Yeah. This way. It’s in the basement.”

With a small gesture, he led the way. Only to stop after about five feet as he realised Ms. Xanthopolous had paused to toe her shoes off. It wasn’t much of a delay, but it was a slightly unexpected lurch that left him feeling even more self conscious about the impression he was giving. 

Hoping there would be no more surprises, he led the way to a doorway in the dark concrete walls that one could easily mistake for a closet. It opened onto a stairwell heading into the basement, the stairs themselves being planks of high strength glass extending out of a wall, no railing to speak of as they moved down a level. Because safety wasn’t chic. The basement hallway was lit with soft and warm indirect lighting that did its very best to not feel clinically sterile despite every surface being concrete or glass.

As they walked, Johnathan pointed out what the other rooms they were passing were. Not that there was too much need, windows letting them look in on the full sized swimming pool on one side and the garage displaying a number of rare cars on the other. The loading bay and employee kitchen areas were a bit more walled off, though he was pretty sure they were very interesting. At least until Ms. Xanthopolous spoke up.

“How many employees do you guys have, to need a whole area for ‘em?”

“Uh... I’m not sure the exact number. There’s a couple of maids and a gardiner... then, I think, like, ten security guards?” Johnathan replied. “Dad handles a lot of classified top secret sort of stuff for the military, which means his office needs to be kept under 24hr watch.”

She nodded once or twice. “Where is--like, so I don’t get in trouble if I go for a walk, where’s his office?”

It was funny, for a second it looked like she’d winced... that was probably just her realising the question could potentially seem suspicious. It was fair, though. The guards were such sticklers they chased Johnathan off when his father was on a call. Even though the office was sound proofed.

“It’s an out-building, though you can get to it down that hallway over there. Left leads to the office, and is covered in cameras. Right leads to the guest house,” he explained. “Anyway, this is the gym here. We’ve probably got everything you could need?”

As he said it he opened the door to a well lit room. The walls were either white or covered in mirrors (which he hated), the floor and ceiling covered in wood paneling. There was a weight rack, a treadmill, a stationary bike, and some other machines that Johnathan knew nothing about. Maybe the one was a rowing machine? There were also three doors on one wall: a sauna, a small changing room, and a secondary hallway to connect to the pool.

“Wooo... yeah. This gym is a beaut,” Ms. Xanthopolous said, eyes almost sparkling. “All this stuff and there’s room for yoga. Ace.”

Watching the confident grin on her face, Johnathan did have to admit he was a bit surprised how much he was liking her accent. It was just so charming and friendly.

“So, do you have some gym clothes then, Johnny?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Um, upstairs in my room,” he mumbled. “And... and I should probably go by Johnathan. I’m too old for a cutesy nickname.”

“Nothing wrong with cute,” she said with a shrug. “If you want to be cute, be cute. I happen to support cute.”

A rather undignified noise escaped him at that combination of words. He simply hadn’t been ready for something like that... no one had said anything like that to him since he was a kid. Maybe a tween. Everything had been all ‘man up’ and ‘be like his father’. It had all seemed like too fast of a push towards manhood to him. He missed his childhood, and being allowed to be soft (at least around his mother and sister).

Apparently the effect of her accidental strike against his attempts to be a man surprised Ms. Xantho--Grace. If she was going to call him Johnny then he was going to call her Grace. His father had said he should try to be her equal, right? But, either way, his reaction seemed to cause her to raise an eyebrow.

“Well, let’s go, Johnny,” Grace said. “Up to your room to grab some workout gear and swim trunks. We’ll see what you know and I’ll teach you what you don’t.”

“Um, well... I don’t actually have any swim trunks,” he mumbled, feeling self conscious.

“Ya don’t? With a pool like that in your house?” Grace asked, though something about her tone seemed... odd.

He wasn’t sure how, but it seemed a little less surprised and a little more amused than he’d expected.

“I’m not... I’m not exactly in great shape. So I’m not much to look at and I get self conscious going about shirtless,” he said. “I... I’d like to be in better shape. A guy is supposed to bulk up, but... I’m shy and jocks eat shy guys up at the gym, so I’ve never really gotten around to it.”

“Mhm,” Grace said, nodding to herself. “Well, it’s a good thing your old man hired me then, isn’t it? C’mon, let’s get you into some gym clothes and I’ll start ya from the basics.”

Feeling somewhat reassured by the lack of disappointment in Grace’s voice, Johnathan led them back up to the main level, and then up again to the hallway over to the bedrooms. As they went, Grace muttered about the size of the place, which was completely fair. The main reason they escaped the ‘useless rooms’ syndrome that hit the other well-to-do homes Johnathan had visited was because his father had decided to simply have fewer but larger rooms instead. Which did make all the rooms feel a bit lonely, but maybe that was better than having a dedicated foosball room that simply collected dust. The last time he’d visited Pete’s place, they’d found a room that Pete had completely forgotten existed, which seemed absurd.

Grace agreed to wait outside his bedroom as he went in and changed. It took a bit of fishing about to find some reasonably close fitting track pants, and about as long to find a t-shirt to match. The struggles of having always preferred loose clothing. Still, he was changed and ready to go a few minutes later, though Grace had apparently gotten bored and wandered off down the rest of the hall while he’d been at it.

“It’s just my parent’s room down that way,” he said, causing her to jump slightly at his voice.

“Sorry, sorry. I just got a little bored,” she said with a slightly strained smile as she turned back around. “I’ve never been in a place this posh before. Wanted to see a little more of it.”

“The security guards are going to love having you around,” Johnathan mumbled. “Well, let’s head down, so I can embarrass myself.”

“Don’t worry. It’s the first day, so we’re mostly going to keep things simple,” Grace replied in her consistently casual and friendly tone.

Though it also had that confident swagger that, combined with her tattoos, gave her a bad girl sort of vibe. It all left Johnathan with some questions.

“You know, you don’t really seem like a personal trainer... at least not the ones I’ve seen in movies or tv shows,” he said as they made their way back to the living room.

“Oh?” she asked.

“They usually seem more, like... preppy, I guess? Instead of... y’know,” he said and gestured towards her tattoos on her arms and neck.

“Ah. Yeah. That’s fair. I was actually plannin’ to be an MMA fighter. Then I had a bad match out of my weight class and skill level, and messed up my hearing with a bloody nasty blow to the ear,” she explained, pointing towards her ear and turning to let him realise she had a hearing aid in place. It was sleek and modern, which explained how he missed it before. “Botched my career plans, since they didn’t want me in the ring with the hearing aid or without my hearing right. So I settled for somethin’ else I knew.”

“Oh... I’m... I’m sorry,” he offered, feeling like he’d picked at something he shouldn’t have.

“Nah, it’s all good. That was a couple years back and I’m making more money than I had been then,” she replied with a grin. Now, let’s worry about you.”

---

The ‘warm up’ proved more brutal than Johnathan had been ready for. He felt exhausted and in need of some water by the end of it. Amazingly, though, Grace didn’t steem disappointed even though there was barely any sweat on her well muscled and tattooed arms. 

“I’m worse than I thought,” he mumbled, after taking a drink.

“Warm ups are just like that. I maybe pushed you a little too hard, but you have to wake your muscles up,” Grace replied in a simple tone. “Now, let’s show you some techniques. You need proper form so you don’t hurt yourself.”

“We’re starting light, aren’t we?” Johnathan asked, feeling a little nervous.

“We’ll start without weights for the most part. Still, there’s a risk of hurting yourself, though. Up north, I’ve seen someone slip on ice, and pull a muscle from flailing to keep their balance without even falling,” she explained. “Muscles are strong enough to hurt themselves without any help.”

Feeling slightly embarrassed, he decided it was best not to question her methods. No matter how awkward it felt to run through the motions without anything in his hands. Or how weak he was sure it made him seem. It was better to build steadily than to hurt yourself, after all. Even if that meant looking like a dork in front of a beautiful woman... doing something wrong and injuring himself would be even more embarrassing.

Plus, there was only so much he could complain about Grace’s soft instructions said in her wonderfully attractive accent. However, things did get slightly awkward when he was working on a squatting technique, following her lead, only to get a soft whisper of ‘good girl’ when he got the motions right.

“Fwgh--fweh. Wh-what was that!?” he squeaked.

Grace managed to look embarrassed herself. “Sorry. Sorry. I basically only have female clients normally, so it just sort of slipped out.”

Nodding, Johnathan found himself utterly confused about how the words had felt. There had been a clear assertion of dominance to it that was wildly attractive. That was something he’d accepted about himself years ago. The secondary effects, however, were far more complicated. It seemed to give him some of that bubbliness that being told ‘cute is good’ had done, but there was also the somewhat ugly reminder that he was a guy. So the words had been wrong.

“Using that as a, um, stopping point,” Grace said, pushing a smile onto her face. “Maybe we should use this as a moment to discuss your goals? You and your father have both mentioned bulking up, but, did you have a specific end point in mind?”

“Uhhh... I’m not sure? Something that counts as ‘muscular’ was about as far as I got?” he replied, feeling self conscious about his lack of clarity... masculine body types had always just sort of existed. None of them really spoke to him.

Probably because he was straight, right?

“Just, like,” he started, not fully sure if what he was going to say made send, “the fully A to Zee of workouts until I start looking good?”

Grace stared at him. “A to C? Is that some sort of Arizona expressi--wait. Z. A to Z. Not A to C. That makes more sense. There’s, um, a lot of different muscle groups you can work, but we can do general full body fitness. It would be good to get you swimming for that, though.”

The face of defeat that flicked across his face was involuntary. 

“Right. Right. We’ll put that off for now. Until you have a chest you like...” Grace said. “I also want to ask, are you in a hurry?”

“A... hurry?” Johnathan asked, tilting his head a little. “Of course I’m in a hurry? It takes ages to bulk up, doesn’t it?”

“It can... well, since you’re not about to enter any professional sports, how do you feel about boosting your performance a little?”

“P-pardon?”

Grace shrugged, as if she hadn’t just proposed something wildly out of left field. “Well, older steroids were a bit unreliable, but now we’ve got alien stuff flowing onto the market, if you know where to shop. They’re much safer, and you can balance out any side effects with some other hormones.”

“What... what sort of side effects?” Johnathan asked, feeling mildly concerned.

“Well, y’know. Stuff a bit like what testosterone does. Some risk of balding, extra body hair, oilier skin,” Grace explained, every word filling Johnathan with dread. 

It sounded like a nightmare scenario, really. He didn’t want to build muscle by ending up like... that. It was like everything he’d hated about puberty being thrown at him a second time. Hadn’t he been forced through enough?

“Don’t worry, though. We can counter those things with a little bit of oestrogen, and it’ll all even out,” Grace said with a casual shrug. “Probably a bit of a higher dose to keep your face all K-Pop pretty boy, but it would be totally doable.”

“K-Pop. Pretty. Boy,” Johnathan mumbled, having never actually been called that before. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to like it or not.

“Yeah. Everyone loves pretty boys these days. You’re going to want to lean into that, even if you bulk up.”

“I... you’re sure all that would be safe?” he mumbled, feeling intimidated. “Can a guy even take estrogen? Doesn’t that make women women?”

“Totally. That alien stuff is ace. And it’s just a bit of oestrogen. Everyone’s bodies have a little bit, just like everyone’s got a little testosterone. I forget the exact amounts, but I’ve got a friend who knows what she’s talking about. She can handle all the doses.”

“Um... well... I’ll think about it,” Johnathan mumbled, feeling more than a little overwhelmed. Was it really fine for a guy to be taking a bit of estrogen? Did his body actually produce some already?

“Fair. Right fair. I kind of sprung it on ya,” Grace said, looking slightly self conscious. “Well, c’mon, I’ll run you through some cool down stretches now.”

Johnathan nodded, but he couldn’t help but feel like he’d done something to disappoint her. As they ran through the cool down, he decided that he was going to agree... but not until next time. Otherwise he might seem a little flakey instead of thoughtful. While decisive was better than thoughtful, thoughtful was better than flakey.

Right?