A/N: Pulled this out of my hat because I need to finish this April Monthly and this was the last one I needed to write. No, I'm totally not writing from experience! (also, excessive running is bad for your joints if you do it wrong!)

This is unbetaed, so all mistakes are mine

Summary: Muggle!AU; Padma Patil goes running with her sister and Lavender Brown, and regrets every second of it.

Words: 729

Prompts:

Ministry of Magic Discord Group: Mix and Match

Color: Lilac

Character: Padma Patil

Action: Running

"Running"

In a lilac tracksuit, Padma Patil reached up and tightened her ponytail for the third time in as many minutes, nervous for the trek her sister would be taking her on. Parvati had offered to have Padma join her and Lavender on their daily run around Lavender's subdivision, and Padma had finally accepted her offer.

Once they had left secondary school, Padma had gone on to University to become a doctor. Her sister, Parvati, currently worked as a sales associate for a wedding dress boutique in the Greater London area. Lavender, her best friend, was one of the dress designers at that same boutique.

During University, Parvati and Lavender became fitness obsessed, filling their closets with yoga pants and going on strict calorie counting diets to keep their slim, toned figures. Even now, Padma knew that Parvati was eating on a calorie deficit every day, and still seemed to stay at a healthy weight.

More than once, Padma had to coach her on nutrition, but she took to it like a fish to water.

When Parvati had poked at a bit of pudge in Padma's tummy, that's when the daily offers for Padma to join them on their morning run started. Padma had always had a work excuse handy, but this week she was on mandatory vacation, and she couldn't say no.

With Lavender's address in hand, Padma double checked the townhouse numbers before ringing the doorbell. Lavender lived in one of those cookie cutter areas, where everything looked the same and the only difference were the curtains and house numbers, with perhaps the occasional additional plant out in the front garden.

The door opened before Padma could second guess herself, revealing Lavender in an identical lilac tracksuit as Padma.

"Oh!" Surprise covered Lavender's face. She then got a mischievous look on her face with a sly grin. "Well, one of us will have to change," she teased. "Don't worry. I have another one I can put on," she added. "Come in, come in! Parvati is running a little late, but should be here shortly!"

Padma entered the townhouse and looked around, Lavender leaving her in the foyer to go change into something different. What felt like seconds later had Lavender reappearing and the door behind her opening up, making her jump and whirl around. Parvati appeared in the doorway, a giant smile on her face.

"You two ready?" she asked, her water bottle clipped to her belt.

"Let's go!" Lavender replied, and Padma found herself ushered out of the house. Lavender quickly locked up, and then the three of them hit the pavement.

The actual running part was horrendous. Padma knew she was out of shape, but she didn't realize how bad it was going to be. The only thing looping through her mind as she lagged behind her sister and friend was how the impact of her feet on the pavement was horrible for her knees. Staring at the pavement in front of her, she tried to even out her breathing and keep up. What felt like hours was only minutes and when Padma looked up, the other two were nearly a quarter of a mile ahead of her.

She wheezed, a stitch growing in her side as she slowed her pace. They had agreed ahead of time that they would meet at the tiny community park at the end of their run, and then they would walk back together. Padma could see the park now, just as Parv and Lavender veered off to the right to continue their normal fun path.

Pausing a moment to catch her breath, Padma considered her options. It wasn't a hard decision, but it gave her an excuse to stop running.

She would stop her bout of exercise at the park, and wait for the other two to finish with their run. And then perhaps she would stop by the ice cream shop on the way home to get a cone of their special of the day before going to her yoga class after lunch. She began to run again, a stray thought coming to mind as she picked up the pace to get to the park quicker, vowing to never join her sister and Lavender on their runs again, and instead stick with her good ol' weekly Yoga and Pilates class.

Will my legs be too tired for yoga today?