Hi to one and all! This fic first came to mind when reading " Tell the boy" by the very talented Ruij. In that fic, Kaido ( and all the boys) are thirty years older and working in different jobs. Kaido is working in a gym and when talking to Ruij I mentioned it maybe fun to base a fic on him dealing with the trails and tribulations of being an instructor. So due to her enthusiastic encouragement, this tale has come to life.

Dedicated to Ruji.

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, those who read my stuff know by now that Prince Of Tennis DOES NOT belong to me...

" Kaido Kantoku...Gym Daze."

Chapter one

" 197, 198, 199...200!"

Letting the heavy bar bell fall to its rest with a loud clatter, Kaido Kaoru lay flat on the bench for a moment; his muscular chest rising and falling as he caught his breath from the strain of the press ups, then he heaved himself into a sitting position and reached for his towel to mop the sweat from his face and neck.

Reaching up to his head he quickly untied his exercise induced wet bandana, then swiftly tussled the salt from his hair as his mind briefly revisited his past.

Thirty years spanned the time between his present and his thoughts, yet a single random image would effortlessly whisk him back and he hissed quietly as he viewed himself as a teenager playing tennis at high school. But such times were now three decades behind him and he rapidly blinked his pale eyes to clear away the fog of yesteryear and focus on the job at hand.

On leaving school, he had landed a job at a local gym as a part time aid to the instructors and over time had worked his way up the pecking order and become a qualified instructor in his own right.

His breathing now returned to a normal state, he drank deeply from his water bottle then glanced at the huge clock dominating one wall. The first of his clients were due to arrive in thirty minutes and he decided a quick shower and change was in order. Standing, he started to cross the room but stopped when a cheerful voice hailed him.

" Kaido! You've completed your work out? Excellent!" Cocking her head to one side, Brown hair cut to jaw length and shaped back at an angle swayed with the movement and dark brown eyes closed as the owner of the gym smiled at him. " But you need to shower."

Staring at the disturbingly familiar expression that strongly reminded him of a now camera toting, globe trotting Tensai he only ever now saw at Christmas, an irritated hiss escaped his lips. Instantly his boss tuttered and waggled a playful finger making his back snap straight and his eyes bug with alarm.

" And what is my rule Kaido Kaoru?"

Red faced, the lean yet well built man swallowed and replied; " Hissing scares our clients."

" That's right." the young woman all but purred in a menacing undertone the former Seigaku Mamushi didn't miss. " No hissing! Now go!"

" Yes Ruji Sama" he mumbled meekly then turned away for a much needed refreshment.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was nine am by the great round clock when the first of the day's trials waddled through the door. Mrs Ozuru had spent a great deal of her youth as a semi active person, but then ten years of rich marriage and high living had caught up with her in the form of high blood pressure and enough spare flesh to keep an army of jungle cannibals in clover for a month. Maybe two, but Kaido had no time to dwell on such amusing thoughts as he gloomily approached her with a heavy file in hand.

Working up a nice edge of professionalism, he greeted his scowling twice a week friend and escorted her to the floor mats for some warm up stretching. Unfortunately, the only thing the middle aged woman wished to exercise was her tongue as she kept a non-stop rant about her horrible friends, their equally horrid off spring and her cheerfully straying husband. Not to mention the high price of meat, the bad job her hair dresser had done, what it was going to cost to fix the car and how on earth she was going to cope with her young becoming teenagers and what was the world coming too with all its trouble and strife!

And all throughout the kind of rambling that one Shinji Ibu; formally of Fudomine would burst into applause over, Kaido held his ever growing stress levels in check as he steered her onto the tread mill.

" Now begin at a slow walk," he told her as he adjusted settings and fought down the urge to have her run forty laps for his own sadistic amusement. " That's it, work your arms..your doing fine."

" Fine!" she huffed angrily as she struggled with even the slowest setting. " I had better be! All this money I'm paying you.."

Five minutes later, Kaido wrote up some notes, fought down a strange desire to drink his lovers worst ever juice in the vain hope it would dull his hearing and sighed as he forced a strained smile to his lips and rubbed at the scraggly black goatee adorning his chin.

" A little faster now and a bit of uphill today." he rumbled as he pressed a button.

Small eyes almost lost in folds of scarlet flesh bulged in alarm and the woman began to puff like a broken winded old horse.

" NO!" she panted and gasped between breaths drawn like a black smith's bellows. " I can't..it's too...much.."

" But you can do it Mrs Ozuru." grumbled her instructor as he glared at the extremely slight incline and band speed a snail would find comfortable. " Just ten more minutes.."

Breaking into a great tirade of loud moans and long suffering groans she started to berate the bandana wearing tyrant for his inhumane cruelty and after the required time for her torture has elapsed, something inside of Kaido snapped and a spectacularly loud hiss cut the air with its venom.

Shocked silence robbed the woman of all speech as he stumbled from the machine and backed away shaking in terror.

As if drawn by mental telepathy, Ruij emerged from her office with precision timing to smile in a deadly sweet way and say; " Mr Kaoru..a word if you please..."

To be continued...