Red Hood

34. Working Up a Sweat

Jason raced down the street, waving and greeting those who tossed congratulations and 'hello's to him, breathing deeply and evenly as he booked it.

Sometimes in the mornings Jason would have a run behind Danny's house, enjoying the forest and the nature surrounding it, but found that he had an unnatural amount of stamina for a regular person. Not to mention the insane amount of strength and knowledge of fighting he possessed.

One of his and Danny's theories was that he was a trainer of some kind before losing his memories, or was a boxer of some sort. It wasn't anything solid or concrete, but it made the most sense given the facts.

And Jason knew Danny was almost as fast as he was, well, only able to guess considering she tripped on a root last time they had a race. But it was enough to light a fire under his butt and get him going, unwilling to lose.

"How's it going back there," he didn't dare to look back, hearing the footfalls of Danny's boots behind him as he called, "Enjoying being in last place?"

"I won't be in last for long," her voice was much closer than he had expected, practically only 5 steps away from him.

He grew eager, but not overeager, excited that she was keeping up. The fact that she could keep up was impressive, knowing that she had trained herself for fun over the last 6 years, doing whatever martial arts she could get her hands on, boxing being her favorite he recalled.

Seeing the familiar pickup truck in the car lot gave Jason the extra boost he needed to push forward, breath coming just a little harder now.

Well, it was a long way from the truck to the center of town, he mentally shrugged.

Reaching a hand out to touch the chipping and rusting metal of the blue truck, Jason was surprised to see a hand reach out to slap it a millisecond before he could.

"Haha!" Danny cackled, one hand on the truck in triumph while the other fist pumped into the air, "I win!"

"Dam it," Jason hissed under his breath, wiping a single bead of sweat off his forehead, "I was so close."

"But I was closer," Danny huffed, a smile on her face, "admit it."

"I know when to give up an argument," he raised his arms in surrender, laughing, "You win."

"You do not know when to give up, you liar," she swiped her thumb across her nose playfully.

"That was impressive though, I'm not gonna lie about that," Jason laughed as he opened the driver's side door for Danny, "I was close though!"

"Yeah you were," she buckled, watching as he slid in the passenger side, "I actually wasn't sure who was going to win for a second there."

"Maybe we can do some runs in the morning, make it a thing," Jason buckled himself up, "I know for a fact that it would be more entertaining."

"A training buddy?" She started the engine, raising a brow, "Never had one of those."

"Sounds fun though," Danny grinned again, pulling out of the parking spot, "so sure, why not."

"Tomorrow at 5 then," Jason smiled at her, "you usually do your morning workouts then, right?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "I usually see you going out for a run then, never joined in since I was doing the sandbag."

"I bet-"

"Nope!" Danny groaned humorously, "No more bets, I find that we often end up in a tie in the total tally of things."

"That's true," Jason shrugged, "but you never know!"

"Fine then," she narrowed her eyes playfully, "whoever keeps up the most during 3 days will win something."

"Win what?" It was his turn to narrow his eyes playfully.

"I don't know yet," Danny smirked, "we'll just have to figure that out."