Start again A Dwight in shining armor fanfic

Date planning and domestics

Dwight was lounging on his bed, browsing through social media on his phone. In that late morning, he wanted to catch up on current events. The week had been more eventful than usual, taking up a lot of his normal free time. It was quite a relief for him to only have some small chores on his to-do list—like helping Nana with laundry and grocery shopping. He was already casually dressed in light blue jeans and a grey tee shirt, ready to get everything done early in the day. Later, he hoped to spend some quality time with Gretta, whom he hadn't seen much of all week.

He continued to scroll through his Instagram feed, seeing a post with a colorful picture advertising the annual Woodside Fourth of July Celebration. All the entertainment was listed, including a variety of food trucks, a band, and of course, fireworks. It seemed to be the perfect community event, sponsored by some local companies. One company grabbed his attention more than the others listed—Woodside real estate. The sound of knocking against his doorframe caused his head to snap up.

"Dwight honey? Can you bring down your laundry?" Nana asked, poking her head into his room. An empty laundry basket was in the crook of her arm.

"Yeah, sure thing!"

He went downstairs with his foldable dirty laundry hamper and separated the clothing into smaller piles of darks, lights, and whites. Picking up the pile of dark clothing, he put them in the machine for washing. On his way back upstairs, a notification sound went off on his phone. He pulled his phone out of his pocket upon arriving at the top step, throwing his head back with a groan.

Of all the days I could've planned to start working out, he thought to himself, heading to his room.

The week had been filled with extra volunteer work—including a new fitness class Nana was putting together, and preparing for the summer pet adopt-a-thon at the local animal shelter. Dwight had only spent time with Gretta on a few rare occasions during his hectic schedule. He'd first seen Gretta while helping her and the others with starting to clean out a few areas of the castle. They'd moved heavy stone and wooden furniture out of one of the rooms, and cut down a lot of the ivy growing against some of the walls. Their last encounter, came the following day when Dwight had become an unfortunate victim of Gretta's sword training.

He clapped his hands and rubbed them together before hopping and stretching a little to shake his body loose. Placing the phone on his bedside table, he started a playlist on his music app of songs full of high energy for motivation. Lowering himself to the ground on all fours, he decided to get the upper body strength done and over with first, doing push-ups. He counted as he went, each one burning way more than the last. He originally planned to do five repetitions of ten, telling himself encouraging words along the way. As he completed the first rep, it was apparent he'd worked his arms more than recently thought. Reaching the second rep, he was already starting to curse at himself with every lift of his body, not knowing how many more he could honestly do.

In an attempt to push through, Dwight grunted while counting aloud, "Seven. Eight. Nine..." As he got halfway up on ten of the second rep, he heard footsteps approaching from down the hall. Looking over through his open doorway, he noticed a specific pair of black boots walking towards him. "Fifty!" He announced loudly before dropping himself to the floor. He rolled over, only to meet Gretta's eyes. She was peering down at him from an upside-down angle, holding a book in her arms. "Hey."

"What are you doing?"

"I was just—finishing up my workout." He sat up from the floor, flexing his arms. "Gotta get these in better shape somehow." Gretta reached out and grabbed ahold of one of his biceps. "Ah!" he said loudly, recoiling from her hand and rubbing the sensitive area on his upper arm. He gave her a weak smile and nervously chuckled, getting up to sit on his bed. The music playing from his phone was turned off to show she had his undivided attention.