Margot double checks she had in fact deactivated the alarm completely before heading into the darkened gym. The last thing she needed was for her ex's roommate of a surrogate father to learn about her being back in town. Either of them considering how close Tilly and Waver had gotten if the hazy bits of her memory were anything to trust.
The soft rattling of metal against metal and the hard broken sounds of wrapped punches hitting their mark come easily to Margot's straining ears as she slips inside closing the door as quietly as possible behind her.
Whoever it was must be wearing headphones considering the rhythm of their hits seems to be in time with whatever song they were listening to. Even without seeing them properly, Margot could already tell their stance was sloppy. Their punches to off the mark.
It wasn't until she picked up on the flavor of the intruder on the otherwise stale building air that Margot was shaken enough out of her instructor's daze to realize just who it was that had decided to use her mother's gym after hours.
The warm aroma like she'd just walking into a bakery to catch that first scent of the day's stock being pulled from the oven blended so delicately with the soft citrusy and ocean air flavor that always seemed to cling to….
"So, what was it this time? Someone else's credit card to jimmy the door or you go for the hairpin trick?" Margot asks her tone flat as she leans lazily against the doorway to the more private workout rooms the building offered.
Tilly didn't bother pausing her self-appointed sparing as she answered with an equally unfeeling "It's all in the tumblers, love." That she combines with several quick jabs to the still swinging bag she was working on.
Margot swears she draws blood against her palm as she watches transfixed whilst her ex moves in time with the swinging punching bag still attacking it with calculated yet unfocused blows.
The sight only rubbing more salt into the already raw wounds their last true conversation caused.
One look was all it takes…..
One look to know as hard as she'd tried. She hadn't been able to break free.
Her heart wouldn't let her no matter what her head told her. No matter how often she forced herself to relive the single more painful afternoon of her life.
"You want to make me small…."
"It's make you small or watch them lock you away, and baby no way in heaven or hellfire itself am I letting them do that." She tries to argue once more pressing the bottle of pills into her soon-to-be ex's fist. "Just take them. Please."
"What are you doing here, West?"
The harsh bite of Tilly's question is enough to shake Margot out of her thoughts and back to the oh-so-appealing reality of finding her ex had broken into her mother's gym for some after-hours sparing.
"You tell me, considering you're the one trespassing." Margot fires back her arms crossed tightly over her front.
A much more targeted jab against the heavy bag answers her before Tilly speaks. "Ivy broke up with me."
Apparently, Margot's "Good." Wasn't as in her head as she'd thought. "She didn't deserve you anyway." She follows
"Idiot." Tilly mumbled sending another jab towards the heavy bag.
Margot catches her wrist before it could come close to landing. "she didn't deserve you." She repeats her voice stronger now as she sees the war behind her ex's eyes.
"She made me smaller than those pills ever…"
Margot stops the bitter whisper by tugging its speaker against her front hugging her tightly from behind. At once she feels herself being hurled over that warmed shoulder but for once she didn't care. As soon as she landed flat on her back, she kicks out sweeping Tilly's already unsteady legs out from under her.
That is, she tried to.
She might be emotional at the moment, but Tilly wasn't about to fall for the obvious move considering she smoothly avoids but Margot is ready with another.
"She didn't deserve you."
Tilly growled that was more than a sob as she scrambled back to her feet. This time her stance was more on point as Margot followed.
"You don't get to say that." Tilly snapped her eyes swimming in tears
"She didn't…." Margot started to say at the same time she smoothly sidestepped another attempted jab of Tilly's trembling fist.
"Stop it." Tilly bugged but Margot shakes her head in denial. "It's true and you know it just like I do." She reasons allowing the shaking blue-eyed blonde pin her to the floor in a sloppy but effective takedown. Tilly now straddling her lap. Her knees pressing into Margot's hips as they both catch their breath.
"You left me."
"You broke my heart." Margot fires back struggling to keep her voice even as she confessed this "I had to get away. You were the only thing keeping me from suffocating here. When you left, I had no reason to stick around."
"So, you let me trade one prison for another one?" Tilly reasons.
"Kind of pointless to ask along the very person I was trying to get away from to tag along when I finally got the hell out of here." Margot reminds
"Could have at least sent back a lousy postcard or two, something." Tilly grumbled "For all, I knew you'd got hit by a car, bus crash…" she listed her fingers gripping tighter against the front of Margot's shirt holding another part of her ex-girlfriend hostage.
"And address them were, the Troll Bridge?" Margot questioned only to regret her comment the second the words left her mouth at the pained look they cause the blonde looming over her.
Rather than give a real answer Tilly's mouth pressed unyielding against Margot's own in a rough kiss Margot knew would leave her lips bruised come morning. Not that she cared as she gave Tilly's lower lip an answering bite of her own before she kissed away the sting as Tilly had for her.
After a few frenzied more kisses between them Tilly's hands slaps hard across Margot's flushed cheek the sound of the blow landing echoes around the empty gym.
Margot scoffed shoving both hands palm out against Tilly's chest and if she'd also paused to enjoy the feel of her ex's breasts against the fabric of what had once been one of Margot's own shirts Tilly didn't point it out before her blushed grin morphed into a hard glare as the two square off once more.
