Empath

Chapter 12

The next day, the boys did yoga together in the bedroom. Or at least, they tried.

Al took a sip of Earl Grey milk tea from his Best Mom cup, before he set it back down on the little bedside table. Then, he straightened up, in front of the television and the window. He cleared his throat. "First, I'll show you how to do a Surya Namaskar."

"A who what now?" Yui asked, with a dramatic raise of one eyebrow.

"A Sun Salutation," Al translated. "It's a sequence of asanas. We'll do them one at a time. Just follow my lead." He turned around, so that Yui was standing behind him, with both of them facing away from the door and toward the wall with the window and TV. Al stood up straight and took a deep breath, with his palms together at his chest. Then, he reached up toward the sky and took another breath. As he did so, he leaned backwards, so that his hands were practically hovering above Yui's head. Yui tried his best to follow along. Luckily, he was rather flexible, and his back bent further back than Al's did.

Then, Al leaned forward and grabbed his ankles. "You should feel... the back of your legs stretching, here," he informed, as he exhaled. Yui looked down at Al, and wondered if he should wait for the next step before following. He couldn't see much more than his butt from this angle. Al breathed in and sunk further forward. After a few breaths, he straightened his back, with his hands on his shins. "You might... feel a strain...in your upper back and chest here," his voice sounded a little forced, "...or at least... I do." He stayed there for a bit.

Yui started leaning forward, to do the same. But he soon realized that Al's butt was dangerously close to his face. He straightened himself up and backed his feet toward the door a bit. Then he leaned forward again. This time, he had enough room that he wasn't face-planting into Al's behind. However, when he straightened his back, with his hands against his knees, the way Al instructed, he looked up and saw that Al's shapely buttcheeks were not far from him.

"Next, we're doing a plank," Al instructed. He put his hands on the floor in front of him and slowly backed up his legs. Yui had trouble following Al's movements and avoiding collision at the same time. As Yui put his arms out in front of him, and was in the process of adjusting his leg position, Al's legs slipped through the space between Yui's arms. The younger man looked down in shock. "It's not supposed to be like this, is it?" He asked.

"No," Al admitted, as he straightened his legs beneath Yui's torso, "but we don't have enough space in this room."

Yui was still working on straightening his legs. He soon realized that the door was closer than he thought, and it didn't give him enough room to fully stretch out. Since he couldn't stretch his feet further back, he instead had to give himself more room by inching his top half forward. Before he knew it. His face was dangerously close to Al's butt yet again. Al didn't even seem to notice.

"Agh, I give up," Yui exclaimed, as he carefully tried to get up, without touching his friend in some awkward way. "There's no room!" After some difficult maneuvering, they both stood up.

"Yeah," Al agreed, "maybe we should go to the gym."

"The gym?" Yui echoed. "Really?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"I mean," Yui said, nervously, "are you sure you'd be... okay?" He got a little flustered at expressing that he didn't think his friend would be able to handle a public gym.

Al tilted his head in a way that made his hair sway over one of his eyes. "It's been three days," Al explained. "I feel like I've had enough time to recuperate. I don't think... I should keep myself shut up."

"Oh," Yui perked up. "I'm glad you feel that way!"

It's not that Al wasn't still worried about being around people, but a gym was hopefully less invasive than going to someone's apartment when they're depressed enough to call on Yui. Assuming the people in the gym would be in a good mood. Going out in public would always be a toss-up for Al. Even if he went to a generally happy place like an amusement park, that didn't mean everyone there would be happy at the moment that Al passed by them.