A/N: Hey guys I wouldn't usually do something like this but for the record I love writingO.C. fics, and as much as I write them for myself I also write them for people to read. And since this story hasn't had the response I got with Curve of the Earth (which I haven't forgotten about it's just I kinda wrote like the best chapter ever for that fics now everything else I write towrds itjust seems bad in comparision, but I'm working on it), how about you guys who are following this one recommend it to your friends let's get it out there. Or at least let me know what I'm doing wrong to turn people off from this one so I can fix it.

Chapter Five

Heights Avenue Gym was a home away from home for Ryan. But then again considering the fact that he spent more time at the gym, then he did in his own bed, it made since that he considered the place a home.

To Marissa Cooper, Heights Avenue Gym was not exactly what she'd been expecting. It took her over an hour to find the place once she got to Chino. She hadn't wanted to call Ryan and forewarn him of her visit, fearing that he might tell her not to come; that was a chance Marissa didn't want to take. So instead she drove every street in Chino looking for a gym, she figured there couldn't be many there. And her assumption was right thus far, Heights was the first gym she'd seen and with any luck she'd find Ryan somewhere inside the run down cement block building.

She pulled her car into a parking spot close to the door and tried to ignore the glaring eyes of two young boys outside the building.

"I think you got the wrong place honey." One of the boys called out.

"Beverly Hills, is that way baby." The other boys taunted behind his buddy.

Marissa felt her heart jump a few beats as she walked faster into the building hoping thing would be better once she got inside. They weren't. As soon as Marissa walked inside, she felt like everyone in the room stopped what they were doing, and started staring at her. A pair of tattooed men in the corner lifting weights dropped their barbells and whistled at her. Another man mumbled something under his breath as he passed her on the way out the door. She scanned the room looking for Ryan, a part of her inside praying he was there somewhere. Noticing her confusion, the man behind the locker rental counter called to her.

"Do you need some help Miss?" He asked her tossing a dirty towel into a laundry basket.

"Umm yeah, do you know Ryan Atwood by chance?"

"Yeah I know Atwood."

"He isn't here by chance is he?"

The man pointed towards the far back corner of the room; "He's over there on the heavy bags."

"Thanks." Marissa gratefully smiled at the man, who simply nodded back at her.

Slowly she made her way towards where the man had point, half way there she made out his frame in a pair of boxing trunks and a wife beater. A sigh of relief crossed her lips, and no longer could she contain a smile of anticipation. His breathing was heavy, she could make into out by the time she was within twenty feet of him. For a moment she stood back and watched how graceful he was moving with the bag, striking it at what seemed to be perfect timing to her. When he came to a slowing point, she made her move.

"Ryan." She called out and watched as he snapped around at the sound of his name. She watched as a look of shock crossed his face, and she responded to him with a smile. "I told you I'd find you."

Ryan spit his mouthpiece into his hand and began to remove his punching gloves. Still he stared at her with a look of shock, trying to hide the half grin he felt creeping up. "Well you found me alright, can't say I expected it to be here… How exactly did you find me?"

"I drove around Chino all day until I found a gym, then took a leap of faith that you'd be inside."

"That's ballsy." He let the grin show as she shrugged at him.

Marissa rolled her eyes as she heard another whistle come, this time from a man who had just finished sparing and was getting out of the boxing ring. "I had to deal with that though." She made reference to the whistle.

"Yeah," Ryan resisted his urge to go punch the guy into the mouth in order to make sure he never whistled at any woman again. "There's benches out back, you wanna go talk?" He pointed to the back door.

"Sure." Marissa shrugged and moved past Ryan towards the door he's point towards.

Ryan waited until Marissa passed him, then turned back and gave the man who'd whistled a stern and possessive glare. Turning back, he followed Marissa out the door, he couldn't help but notice the way she moved as she walked, her hips subtly swaying, her body moving like silk, she was certainly something to be admired.

Marissa saw the benches Ryan had mentioned but moved past them and took a seat on a swing in the dilapidated playground behind the gym. She patted the swing next to her in a motion for Ryan to come sit next to her.

Ryan sat next to her, and gave his swing a slight push; "I haven't been on these swings in years. When I was younger, before I boxed here, we used to come after school and play on these swings. They haven't changed much, I can't imagine that these swings were ever new."

"Well I can tell you this place wasn't what I expected at all."

"What were you expecting a day spa?" He sarcastically remarked.

"Well I am from Newport Beach." She joked back.

"Yeah well," he gave his swing a hard push and moved into the air, "This isn't Newport girlie." He yelled out bringing his swing to a harsh stop with his feet, and resting his hands firmly on the chains.

"So I noticed," she glanced over to him. As she did a nasty scar on his right middle knuckle caught her attention. It was a bold move, but she reached up and grabbed his hand from the chain, taking Ryan by surprise and herself for that matter. "Wow, your hands are really soft, I would say especially for a boxer, but you're the only boxer I know."

She gently ran her fingers all over his hand, sending chills up and down his spine. Ryan knew he'd never felt anything like it before, but he didn't want to make too much of the situation. "Yeah well, it helps when you wear gloves with just about everything you do."

"You wear gloves at work?" Marissa felt stupid as soon as she asked the question. "Of course you do, you're a boxer."

"Well I-I-uh," He tried to focus on speaking, and not on the feeling of her fingers on his hand. "I work construction five days a week too. But I wear gloves at work, because my well like you said I'm a boxer, they're important so I take really good care of them."

"You take care of your hands huh?" She smoothed her hand over his again, "You sure you don't know something about those day spas you mentioned earlier?" She laughed and bit her lips a little bit as she noticed she'd gotten a laugh out of him.

"You're funny."

"Always." She returned her attention to his hand, and ran her finger over the scar that had initially caught her attention. "Did this happen boxing?" She asked.

Ryan shook his head at her, "No in Juvie. Way before I started boxing."

"Oh, well we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

He gave her a quick shrug, "My first week there, my first fight there too. In was a one punch fight, I knocked one tooth out and cracked the other in half, it put him in the infirmary, and gave me four extra months there, a month for every stitch I had to get."

For the first time, Marissa saw pain in his eyes. She hadn't seen any there when he was lying in the hospital bed, but there on the swings as he spoke of his tainted past she saw pain and shame. He was proud of who he was becoming, but not of whom he'd been. Seeing this Marissa felt her heart jump in her chest, it was both a familiar and unfamiliar feeling at the same time. She hadn't felt it in so long, and yet now she wondered if she'd ever felt it before. His past didn't matter to her, and it never would. She wanted to show him that. She brought his hand up to her lips. Closing her eyes she gently kissed the scar of his past. Then brought her eyes up to meet his. As their eyes locked, she could see the pain melt from his eyes.

"I should get back inside, I hadn't gotten much accomplished before you get here, but I'll walk you out to your car."

Marissa shook her head at him, "Will you teach me something about boxing?" She asked as they walked inside.

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know anything." She asked as they walked inside stopping by the heavy bag where Ryan's gym bag was. "Like this thing," she pushed the bag. "What's this for?" She knew she was intruding on his work time but she was trying to extend her time with him as long as he would possibly let her.

Ryan jumped in front of the heavy bag and caught it before it hit Marissa. "This is a heavy bag. And in order to use it properly, you can't look at it as just a bag." He told her. "This is a man, this is your opponent."

"So it's your enemy?"

"Not your enemy, because if you view your opponent as the enemy you'll lose every time. You have to respect the other fighter; you don't respect an enemy. Anyway…" He gave the bag a slight push. "This is a man, you have to move with it, get it's pattern down and strike at the right time. And in boxing everything is backwards, so if he moves slightly right, you want to move left, but you do that by pushing off your right toe, like this," he demonstrated for her.

"Then when he moves back in you hit him?"

"No, you never hit him when he's coming at you, see what happens," he waited for the bag to come back in then struck it, and got thrown off balance. "Doing that is like punching a brick wall, it's only going to thrown you off, hurt you, and make you tired because you can't get enough extension and there's no power to a punch with no extension. But if you wait until just the right time…" Marissa watched as Ryan wait for the bag to swing back, then unleashed a viscous combo of two jabs, a right uppercut and a left hook on the bag, making indentation and barely excerpting any energy. "You then have the advantage because it tell you when to hit, just like any person in a fight tells you when to hit."

Marissa stepped back from him for a moment, in awe of how graceful he had moved. It was then that she felt it again, the same thing she'd felt outside only stronger.

Ryan saw the look on her face and panicked for a moment that he'd somehow scared her, maybe he'd been too harsh with his words. Or the fact that he punched things had frightened her. "Are you ok?" He asked trying to mask the worry in his voice.

"Come here." She gently whispered.

Ryan moved in slowly almost as if her words were drawing him to her. It was a that very moment she reached up to his face and there in the Heights Avenue Gym with two dozen other people around them, the world failed to exist, because Marissa Cooper leaned in kissed Ryan Atwood like neither of them had ever been kissed before.