soft spots // ot4

.2 - late start, rough patch.

to say lukes day was bad, was an understatement. it was, in fact, so shitty, that after two coffees spilt on him in the same class, falling over a math book in trigonometry, and getting a bowl of soup dropped all over his shirt at lunch, he wanted to call it a day. but, he also went to the gym to practice, and ended up being 12 minutes late.

"shit shit shit." luke mumbled to himself repeatedly as he ran into the gym, bag slipped over his shoulder. people were staring at him being late, seeing him almost never, ever, late.

he scrambled into the locker room, slipping his shorts on and a loose muscle tee in a rush. he could hear ryan shouting his name for him to get to the ring and that made him get ready even faster, almost slipping in an attempt to slide his shoes on. he got his wraps on his hands as ryan bursted into the room, face looking pissed off.

"where were you, hemmings?" he demanded, giving luke a look that looks like he wanted an actual answer, not a fake one. luke let out a small sigh and dropped his head, not even wanting to put up a fight at this point by saying he wasn't late, it wasn't worth it to him.

"i just had a bad day, 's all." luke replied simply, wrapping his other hand and grabbed the baby powder to put on his hands. "what are we doing today?" he then asked, daring to meet ryan's gaze

"we're working on your weaving today. you've been getting weaker at it, more sloppy and we need to strengthen that for your next match. you're up against roberts later this week downtown, you'll lose if you don't work on it." ryan walked out of the room with after giving the boy a glare.

he walked out of the room a couple minutes later, with his water bottle and gloves. he walked over to his usual training ring, seeing some new kid along with his trainer inside. the dude, he decided to name him curly, was throwing punches at the mats the trainer was holding, face red and vein in his neck showing. luke looked at him impressed, shocked that he seemed to go for as long as he thought he did. he cleared his throat, making the two guys pause their work to look at him.

"yes?" the one who was practicing asked, obviously out of breath. his chest was heaving and he used his arm to push the sweaty hair out of his face so he could look at him properly.

luke took in his features. he had blonde curly hair, some of his hair sticking to his forehead despite his efforts of pushing it away. he had bright hazel eyes, purple bags under his eyes, luke assumed he was either tired or overworked, and maybe even a little bit of both. the guy snapped his fingers, drawing lukes attention back and to respond. his straight expression returned.

"get out of my ring. i need to practice." luke deadpanned and looked at curly before back to his trainer. 'wade's training him?'  luke thought to himself. the trainer, also known as wade, nodded his head and slipped out of the ring easily and took off his gloves and pads. ashton looked at him confused, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to rack his brain to figure out why they were being kicked out of a public space.

"your ring?" ashton looked at him weirdly then, saying after a few seconds and recollecting himself. "there's no sign that says your name on here, im sorry, dude. wade said some guy named hemmings was coming and he needed to use a ring later but im sure he'll use another one, seeing there are four open. i called dibs on this one." ashton moves his arm around the gym to prove that there were, in fact, four other rings open. luke just shook his head, rolling his eyes at the guy's attitude.

"curly, i am hemmings," luke crossed his arms over his chest and noticed ryan walking towards them. "now, get out of my ring." luke bit his lip, noticing his lip ring. fuck. forgot to take it out in my rush.

ashton just shook his head, again speaking up. "it doesn't say your name, this ring is just as much mine as it is yours. besides, who called this yours?" luke rolled his eyes at that, walking off and bumping into ryan on the way.

"where are you going now?" ryan looked at him again, glancing back at the ring to see ashton over there with a smug look on his face.

"im gonna take out my lip ring, then tell the dude to get out of my ring before he pushes me to my fucking limit." luke grumbled and headed toward the room. he obviously felt defeated and there was no way of changing his mind, anger was his only outlet as he needed to feel release.