Disclaimer- "Flappy, good news. I've decided not to kill you."

Chapter Twelve- The Gym

As Pietro promised he would, he arrived at Crystal's apartment Friday afternoon. He was dressed in a shirt that had previously been a t-shirt, but it's sleeves had been cut off. His shorts were easy to work out in, but they weren't biker-shorts made from spandex (much to Lorna's disappointment).

Crystal smiled as she opened the door to let him in. He gave her a tiny lopsided grin, and ran a hand through his hair absentmindedly (although it must have been a habit, since it was still done in his usual arrogant fashion).

He leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest, and most of his weight was supported on his left leg he studied her up and down critically. Then with a satisfied smirk he said, "You look hot."

Pink blotches formed themselves on Crystal's cheeks and she did her best to scowl at him in return.

"Well, well, well," drawled a satisfied someone from behind Crystal. Pietro and Crystal both looked at Lorna, who had a sweatband around one of her wrist and head, her platinum blonde hair tied back into a ponytail. Her shorts were made of blue spandex, and she was also wearing a loose white tank top. Her arms were crossed against her breasts and she gave Pietro a saucy grin. "Look at this sexy hunk of man. Who wouldn't want a piece of you?"

Pietro's dark eyebrow stretched its way up to the middle of his forehead; his usual arrogant smirk reappeared in its usual spot back on his facial features. "Why thank you. I thought almost the exact same myself as I stared at myself admiringly in the mirror this morning," he said conceitedly. "Except I thought, who wouldn't want to do this sexy hunk of man?"

Lorna's eyebrows rose and Crystal let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh really? Do what? Your hair?"

Pietro reached out without looking and wrapped an arm around Crystal's waist, pulling her closer to him so her back was leaning against his frame. "Why yes," he said matter-of-factly and he stared at her in mock amazement. "How in the world did you know?"

She shrugged one of her shoulders. "Guessed."

"Can we get a move on?" Crystal said loudly, speaking for the first time. She untangled herself from Pietro's arms, "Damita and Val are waiting."

Lorna nodded and walked over to the couch and hoisted up a small duffel bag over her shoulder. Then the three of them left.

Lorna drove, her elbow hanging outside of the window, a cigarette resting lazily between her index and middle fingers. Pietro sat in the passenger's seat, since his legs were longer and would be cramped in the backseat. Crystal sat in the middle of the backseat.

Pietro huffed. He was already growing impatient and they had only been on the road for five minutes. "Are we there yet?"

"No," Lorna snapped giving him a glare filled with annoyance. He sighed loudly and leaned his chair back in a laying position. Thirty seconds later he put it upright again, groaning loudly.

"What is the matter with you?" Lorna snarled, swerving sharply around the driver in front of her. "There's only ten minutes left."

Pietro let out another audible groan and stomped his foot. He rolled down his window, a look of annoyance appeared on his face when he saw that it didn't go down fast enough. Lorna shot him a scathing glare while Crystal sighed and leaned back, crossing her arms, and was looking at Pietro with an equal amount of irritation.

They rode the rest of the way in silence, every once in a while one of Pietro's legs gave a sudden twitch. Then he started fidgeting madly, as if something irritating were crawling around in his pants.

They pulled in the parking lot of the work out center and Pietro opened the door before Lorna had even stopped the car all the way. He made a mad dash out of the car and ran around in circles in front of the gym.

"Ahh!" he spread out his arms wide like wings, palms facing skywards, and he sighed blissfully to the blue heavens. "Freedom from the automobile of doom!"

Both women rolled their eyes, walking past him towards the center. After realizing they left him alone spinning around in circles like a fool, he followed them inside.

He found them inside with two other women; one was tall and dark with wild, curly hair and the other was short and some sort of Asian decent, he couldn't tell what though.

"Hello ladies," he said with an air of confidence that only told them he had done the exact same thing before thousands of times. He put an arm over Crystal's shoulders.

"And is this the man that had suddenly taken up all of your time, Crys," the dark one said, "or is this just a complete stranger that walks up to random people and puts their arms around them?"

He smirked. "Random women, not random people. Why would I go around hugging men?"

She rolled one of her shoulders. "I dunno, you seem sort of effeminate to me. Nancy-boy like."

Pietro's mood changed swiftly like a chameleon changes colors. His arm dropped from Crystal's shoulders, and he stiffened, his face burning, his eyes icy, and his jaw clenched.

"Excuse me," he forced himself to say, each word filled with venom. "I seem to have not heard you right."

She opened her mouth to speak but Crystal cut her off with a glare, but her face was filled with incredulity. "Girls this is Pietro," she spoke, her words seeming slow and deliberate, "Pietro this is Damita and Valerie, but we just call her Val."

Pietro nodded jerkily to them, then walked off, his fists clenched, to inspect the nearest treadmill.

Crystal caught Damita by the arm. "What are you playing at?" she hissed.

"I don't like the looks of him," Damita said, "Just something about him. Makes me uneasy."

"Yeah, and that's a reason to go off insulting him," replied Crystal sarcastically. She shook her disbelievingly and went off towards the weights. Damita made her way to the treadmills.

"I'm the best runner here," she said to Pietro as she took the one he was next to. "Have the record time for the fastest level on these things. About an hour and a half."

Pietro glanced at her contemptuously. He looked around the gym silently. There weren't many people there, just a few others. Val was off doing palates, Lorna was doing crunches and Crystal was lifting hand weights.

"Yeah," he said tersely, stepping onto the treadmill. He set his feet to the sides and stuck in the key. He set it on the highest and fastest level right away.

"You shouldn't start off that fast," Damita told him, setting hers at a nice and slow jogging level. "And you should connect the clip at the end of the key to you, so it turns off it you go too far or fall off. People usually start to slack off right away on that level. They get tired."

He didn't listen, but stepped onto the moving rubber, easily keeping up with the machine. Damita raised the level faster.

"You know why I called you that?" Damita panted a half an hour later, "It's because I saw you twirling around in circles outside like a frolicking schoolgirl."

"Yeah," he snorted. He ran a hand through his hair again. Beside him, above the humming of the treadmills, he heard Damita start to pant heavily. He smirked, knowing that she was showing signs of tiredness when he was not. He was breathing as normally and calmly as he would if he was walking. He looked at her, "You sure you hold the record? Seems like you tired pretty quickly if you ran that long at that level."

She glared at him. "I haven't been on these as much as I used to. I've been working out at other parts of the gym."

He snorted again. "Yeah, right." He lowered the level slightly, knowing that if he stopped it immediately he'd just about have a heart attack. He kept on lowering it slowly until it was just walking.

"Tired?" Damita asked smugly, as she too lowered the level. Pietro raised an eyebrow at her.

"Do I look tired?"

She didn't answer but turned off the machine and walked towards the weights, which Crystal had just abandoned.

He walked calmly towards the weight bench, adding more weights to the bar. Then, he started bench-pressing.

Lorna ambled over to him. "Why aren't you sweating?" she asked incredulously, "You've been on the highest level on that thing and you ain't got a drop of perspiration on you. That's not normal."

"And why were you staring at my irresistibly sexy body?" he said. "Why are you over here?"

"I'm going to spot you, so if your hands slip or something the thing won't go crashing down on your neck." She said. "Besides, I need to rest. I'm pooped."

"Uh huh," he grunted.

Crystal sauntered over. "Hullo," she said cheerfully to him, wiping sweat off of her brow with her forearm. Pietro put the weights back in their place and sat up. He growled at her like a feline.

"Excuse me?" she said in amusement, quirking up a brow.

"I said get over here, pretty lady," he growled and she took a few furtive steps closer, but just out of his reach. But quick as a flash, he reached forward more and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her down into his lap. Then, he plunged his mouth hungrily on her neck, almost devouring it like candy. Crystal gasped.

"Excuse me?" she said, pushing back on his chest and giving him a glare. "Did I say you could go sucking on my neck?"

He made his blue eyes very wide and innocent looking, staring at her hopefully. Then with a tiny nod, he smiled a bit.

"Yes!" he said heartily, and then attacking again, but this time it was her mouth. The second time around, she didn't resist, but answered back eagerly.

"Guys, guys!" Lorna scolded from behind. "A gym filled with smelly people is no place to go sucking off each others' faces. Save it for later."

"I'm not sucking her face off!" Pietro snapped at her. Lorna rolled her eyes, stood, and patted Crystal's shoulder sympathetically. "Good luck with this one," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

"Hey!" Pietro called angrily. He shot Crystal an indignant look and stood up swiftly, walking (although it was getting harder and harder for him to do so) back towards the treadmills, and started running back at the quickest pace the machine could possibly go.

He didn't know why he went on the treadmills. Whenever he saw one of the machines, he just had to run on it. Not because he could easily keep up with it (although, now that he thought about it, it might've helped) but because he was afraid. Ever since he had been eight, since he had lived with his father, he had been forced to run for endless hours on them. Now, it was probably more of a habit than anything else, but also that small fraction of nagging fear and paranoia that his father might be standing in the shadows, watching.

He shook his head to clear his paranoid thoughts. He knew his father wouldn't do any of those sorts of things to his children now. He had changed. Although he still wasn't as loving as he could be, he had tried. He had lent the money to the Brotherhood to fix up the house and get new furniture. It had been the least he could do.

"Maximoff!" Shaken out of his traveling thoughts, Pietro froze immediately. And just as quickly, he flew off the machine and landed on his buttocks.

"Watch it Maximoff, coulda hurt someone there!" a cruel and amused voice said behind him. Pietro whipped around. "Namely me." Duncan Matthews said with a smirk. Pietro rose quickly to his feet and stood eye to eye with the former high school football star.

"So, this is what you've been doing when you got expelled?" the blonde said loudly. "Or have you just been sitting around all the time at that shithole you call a boarding house, hanging with Dumbass, Smelly, and Fatso? Did the house finally wreak so much of freak that you just had to get out?"

The next moment Duncan found himself sprawled on the floor, eight feet away from where he had been standing. He looked dazed and confused for a moment, and then he shook his head but immediately let out a yelp of pain as his hands flew up to grip his jaw.

Having the gift of super speed will also give you the gift of limited super strength. Pietro's left fist was still clenched, but it stung and throbbed like nobody's business. The important thing was that he had hurt Duncan more than he had hurt himself, that Duncan was the one lying on the floor and not him, and that it was Duncan that had been hit in the face and not Pietro. Duncan was lucky that Pietro had not kicked him; otherwise he would have been dead.

"What happened?!" Crystal gasped as she hurried over towards the scene, her friends behind her. She took one look at Duncan as he struggled to a standing position still clutching his jaw. She gave Pietro a worried look.

Duncan stood up straight now, rubbing his jaw. Three of his friends had joined him. One was man of Mexican descent, with a black goatee covering his chin. The other was made of muscle, with hair closely shaved to the scalp. The other was one of his high school goons, the one with the blonde pudding bowl haircut.

"Crystal, baby," Duncan said, trying to smile in his most charming way but it ended up turning into a grimace. "Miss me?"

"Not remotely," Crystal growled, her eyes narrowing. She took a few steps closer to Pietro. Duncan's expression was filled with incredulity.

"You left me for him?!" He exclaimed, waving his arm towards the mutant.

Crystal jabbed a finger at his chest. "Wrong, Duncan. You left me. You left me sitting alone at a table at a fricken restaurant. You took me out on Valentine's Day just to dump me! I'd rather go out with the dirt on my shoe than go out with you."

Duncan started to smile slowly. "Ah, now I see why you're with scum like this." His eyes flickered to Pietro, whose whole body stiffened instantaneously.

"I didn't say that, Duncan." Crystal said calmly.

Duncan still looked smug. He shrugged. "Whatever you say, Crys," he drawled. He turned around and started to walk away towards the locker rooms. He looked and called over his shoulder. "Hey, Maximoff, whenever your sister feels the need to have a nice screw, have her call me."

That had done it. Something exploded inside of Pietro and before anyone knew it, he was on top of Duncan on the floor, his hands wrapped around his neck. Duncan's three cronies immediately took action and jumped on top of Pietro, knocking all the air from his lungs and pinning him between them and Duncan.

"Idiots!" Duncan gasped, "You're crushing me!"

They scrambled off of the two and Pietro immediately went back to his task of choking Duncan. Then, two pairs of strong arms wrapped themselves under his upper arms and yanked him off. They stumbled back into one of the exercise bikes and it fell over, with their weight on top of it. Pietro yelped as he felt one of the petals jam into his back.

Other people in the gym were panicking, watching, or laughing at the whole scene. "Somebody call the cops!" one of them gasped and the lady in the desk in front who was looking through the open doorway immediately scrambled to dial the number on the phone on her desk.

Pietro felt himself yanked up again, and then felt his head painfully whipped to the side, his cheek burning with agony. He kicked at one of the men holding him in the shins, and the Mexican holding his left side fell down hard on his back, clutching his broken leg. He then punched the blonde one holding his other side right in the nose, where blood immediately spurted out. He let go and covered his nose with his hands, cursing as blood poured from between his fingers. Pietro dove forward again, knocking Duncan off of his feet again. The two of them rolled on the floor, hitting wherever they could.

Faintly, Pietro heard sirens, and he paused, looking to his left out the giant window. Squat cars were pulling in, and police officers were running out and into the building. Pietro looked back at his enemy and hit him in the side of the face one final time before scrambling to his feet in a second.

He wiped the blood dripping from his nose with the back of his hand, wincing as his hand made contact with the broken cartilage.

"If you ever come near my sister," he threatened quietly, but the area was so absent of noise that everybody heard what he was saying. "I swear over my mother's frozen grave that after she kicks your ass, you'll be answering to me."

He licked the area around his lips, including the blood that was oozing from his split lip and he spat it out on Matthews' chest.

He looked over at Crystal apologetically, whose expression was mingled with fear, anger, and worry. "Sorry," he whispered to her and then looked around at the room of staring bystanders. "I gottagetouttahere," he gave one last filthy look at Duncan and his friends before disappearing in a blur.

. . . . . . . . .

Okay, not as sweet as the others, but fighting's a nice break from that. Besides, way back when I said I'd do some Duncan bashing, so I just fit it in this chapter. Yay!

Some people will think that in no way would Pietro beat up four guys. Well, he's improved since the series. Everybody has. They've been training better and well, Pietro's just so darn fast. And sexy. Sexy could be the ultimate weapon.

Zee4- Pietro's not afraid of going to the gym! Hmm, redo Untitled? Well, I'm fine with how it's going right now, except for that lack of updates. But then again, if you think you can improve it a lot I wouldn't mind either. If you're gonna make Luna older, don't make her too much older. But then, I also love little Luna. Aw man. I'm not that big of help, am I? Well, whatever you do with it I'll read it. Plot? What plot? I haven't had Cornflakes in years! Dammit now I want some! Thanks for reviewing!

SPoOkZ13412- Glad to have you back!

Childrenwithblades- Dammit, you BETTER remake Maximoffs: Reversed! I loved that story when it was up and it was only two chapters! So I encourage you to write it again. Or threaten you, whichever works better. Thanks for your review!

SperryDee- Yes, Pixie Sticks do rule. I didn't really describe Pietro working out, because this is a PG13 rated story. Just use your imagination. I could go into a long list of details on how and why Pietro is so damn sexy and appealing to the entire well, Pietro fan-based population. Thanks for reviewing!

The Uncanny R-Man- Yes! Fluff cures everything! I can't see why anybody would hate Pietro. Or even semi-hate him for that matter. Thanks for your review!

Insanebunneh- Torture just sounds so much better though than just telling you how it ends without and threatening. Yay! Six Flags!

Kyuushi- Thanks for all that advice and stuff. It's probably going to help me a lot. See, I planned this story to be twenty chapters, but now I look at it I see that's only six chapters and there is no way I could fit all I want to do in here. I want to keep it twenty-five at the most. I agree with you, there should absolutely be more PietroCrystal fics out there. But I'm actually seeing her being mentioned more and more out there. With Wanderlust, From the Shadows, and Lest Not We Forget. Thanks for your review! I love Future Happenings, by the way! When do you think that's going to be updated?

Like it? Hate it? Either way, review!