Pairing: Tim/Stephanie
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~1,100
Prompt: daily beach workouts

... ...

She loves working up a sweat.

Well, she could probably go without the smell, or the fact that she feels kind of gross and disgusting and probably looks it, too. But she loves the feeling of a good sweat because that usually means she pushed herself. There's something satisfying about the ache in her muscles and the heavy way she breathes at the end of a good workout.

And she loves being able to run in the morning. She's up really early, anyway, just because that's how it was when she was younger and became her routine. It would make a lot of sense for her to be a morning runner, except she lives in Gotham and even though it's not one of the scarier, more dangerous neighborhoods, it's still not safe for anyone to be out in this city unless it's broad daylight. That's just common knowledge. And it's not even that she's scared, either, since she can kick anyone's ass who tries to lay a hand on her. It'd just be really suspicious for a teenage girl like her to not be afraid of jogging alone in the early hours of the morning.

Plus, she's pretty sure a morning in Gotham has nothing on Happy Harbor.

Seriously, it's beautiful, and a lot sunnier and warmer now that they're into summer. She loves it.

"Feeling tired over there?"

"Shut up!"

She doesn't mean to sound so giddy, but she's trying to regulate her breathing while she's running and Tim constantly talking to her every other minute isn't helping. That's exactly why he's going for, actually, but she'll be damned if she lets him get ahead of her.

"Seriously, we can start walking if you're—"

"Don't you dare," she snaps, breathless. He just laughs at her. Jerk!

And she doesn't really remember when morning runs became their thing, to be honest, but it's probably because he's the only other one that's ever up as early as her. He'd always walk into the gym shortly after her whenever she'd zeta to the Cave because it was winter and too cold to go outside for a workout. She teased him about stalking her, because of course she kind of had to, but she believed him when he said that he just wakes up early. They're both from Gotham and it's kind of hard to get any sleep at night in a city like theirs.

After a few more minutes, she feels herself starting to burn out. Even Tim's slowing down, and the sun's a lot higher now that it was when they stepped outside, so she thinks they put in at least two hours of jogging. They fall into step beside each other at a walking pace and she brings her arms up, tightening her ponytail.

Tim clears his throat, and she knows that he probably saw the sweat dripping between her breasts.

(That was kind of the point.)

"Sorry," he mutters, and she just shrugs.

Whatever, she's hardly insecure about her body. She works her ass off every day, so she thinks she earns the right to be aware that she looks pretty damn good. It's not her being conceited, it's just a fact. And it's not like Tim's a creep or something. It's Tim.

He still blushes at sex jokes.

And, as lame as that sounds, she thinks that's what makes him so sweet. He's a gentleman through and through, and in a way where she thinks he isn't even aware of it. He's just so polite and always concerned about others before himself. Everything about him is so genuine, and like, he's the only person she knows that makes the whole nerd thing so sexy.

Cassie says she has it bad for him which… Well, whatever, maybe she does. But things are a lot calmer now and they're not off on missions every other day, so maybe she can actually like, breathe for a few seconds and figure out whatever's going on between them. It seems good, from what she can tell.

"I like this beach," he says, and she laughs as she nods. It's a nice change of scenery from the beach that's at the bottom of Mount Justice. "Isn't there a crepe place nearby?"

"It's on the boardwalk over there," she informs.

"Want to go get some?"

"What?" she laughs. "We'd be eating all of the calories we just burned off!"

"But what good is it to exercise as hard as we do if we can't eat whatever we want?" He flashes a grin at her and she just shakes her head, amused. "And I could go for something sweet," he adds, bringing the bottom of his shirt up to wipe at his forehead. Then he frowns, exhaling loudly. "It's hot," he groans, and then tugs his shirt off.

Her cheeks, already warm from their run, grow impossibly warmer. If she gets a heat stroke from this, she has ample reason to blame Tim.

(And he totally just beat her at her own game. Damn.)

"Then you should cool off!"

She grabs his arm and tugs him, hard, towards the water, flinging him forward so that he stumbles as a wave crashes over him, soaking him up to his shoulders in water. She's laughing really hard and kind of giddily and, okay, maybe that also has to do with the view she gets when a shiver ripples through his muscles. Then suddenly he's turning around and lifting her by her waist and throwing her over his shoulder, and she's laughing louder all the way up until he tosses her a little deeper in and suddenly she's underwater.

He pulls her up, though, and steadies her on her feet as she's gasping for air and then laughing some more, goose bumps all over her skin because the water was cold and felt refreshing since she was hot and sweaty from their run.

"You know, they're never going to let us in that crepe place now that we're all wet."

"We'll dry off on the walk over there."

She giggles and nods, tugs her wet shirt over her head and then jumps onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. He shakes his head and tucks his arms underneath her knees to keep her in place as they start walking again.

They're mostly dry when they get to the café, and Tim convinces the hostess to let them in, anyway, even though they're not entirely decent. They sit a table towards the back, and she takes gulp of her iced water as soon as they've placed their orders. She gets a few drops between her breasts, by accident this time, but Tim's just smiling at her.

He probably doesn't mind.