Get on the fucking bike, Athena! [Gabe]

Even though the days that followed Athena's date have been rather cold the young model was eager to keep her promise to Gabe, since he would have to keep his afterwards. After making sure it wasn't going to rain for the rest of the day Athena send a message to Gabe inviting him to meet her at the park, she specified they were going to need that bike he talked about. After sending the message Athena found herself alone waiting for him.

"The climate is so cold here... Dad even caught a cold again. It's good thing I got accustomed to the climate." She said to herself. Her train of thought stopped when she felt something cold touching her skin, she raised her eyes and realized it was snowing.

I hope that the my reservations will still be in order...."

Gabe was currently on the phone with the rental store, a block away from where Athena is. After a few more seconds, Gabe would then sigh.

"Very well.... "

Gabe would close his cellphone shut and started to head on over to the meeting place of athena. "All, look at the beautiful snow!" Gabe say as he came over to Athena and kissed her forehead. "Hello there, hope you didnt take too long waiting for me. Though, i dont like the fact that your hands are so exposed with the cold weather approaching. Should we get you some warm gloves first?

She quickly rose from her seat as she watched Gabe approaching "Hi, Gabe. There is no need to worry I didn't wait much at all. Gloves are probably not going to be necessary my hands are always warm no matter warm no matter what." The girl replied as she reached for his face, should he not stop her or move away she would be able to touch his cheeks. "See, they are warm despite the snow. It can be a pain sometimes but it also has it's benefits."

Athena would smile before proceeding. "Not to mention we are going to get some good exercise from all this bicycle ridding. I'm certain it will be enough to keep us warm. Speaking of which where is it? I thought you were going to bring it with you"

"Benefits? The first thing I would do is take you home and nurse you back to health. Having a fever around this time of year is quite common, you know?" Gabe touched her hands as Athena placed them on his cheeks. "But for now, i'll just take your word for it. " After that little segment, Athena reminded Gabe of the bike situation. "We have to pick it up from the bike rental store. I wanted it to be delivered to my house so that we could ride from my place to the park. However, they couldn't make the delivery on time, so we are going to pick it up. But the best part is that yu get to pick the color that you want. " Gabe ran his fingers through his hair as he gave an apology. "Sorry Athena, but it'll get better, i promise. The store is only two blocks away.

"There is no need to apologize. After all now I get to pick the color of the bike as you said." Athena replied with a smile. "Though I imagine they wouldn't have a variety of colors for two seated bicycles, not that I mind it of course a simple white or black would do just fine." Athena would follow Gabe to the store, which ,like he said, was only a few minutes away. Just by entering Athena could tell this was a place designed for professionals, the variety of bikes was beyond words.

"Are you sure this place is good for us? It looks amazing and all but it also looks rather expensive, I wouldn't want you to spend so much money just to help me." In truth Athena would love if Gabe, or any person, spent money just to please her, especially a lot of them, but she felt obligated to warn him at least.

They actually do, only because of the fact that they specialize in bikes in general. Regular bikes, two seated bikes, one of those enlarged bikes that you see circus performers ride on, unicycles, and even something as practical as a motorcycle. A bike with a motor on it is also something that they have, so it's actually an interesting place"

They then stopped in front of the door and Gabe opened it for her. "This is Sunlake Cycles. Come in.." Gabe was eager to hear what she thought? There was plenty of bikes to choose from, all in assorted colors, it was like Gabe said before. "Darling, excuse me for a moment...." Gabe then hurried off to speak top the manager for a few moments. After that,  he ushered Athena over. " Well, take your pick of any color you like, the rental is free now.  Right, mister manager?" Gabe would eye the man, which made him nervous. "I'm sincerely sorry for the  booking problems and the delivery. At least allow me to make it up to you Gabriel.

The subtle glaring didn't go unnoticed by Athena, even though she pretended to be fascinated by the variety of bicycles the store had to offer. Up to this moment she considered Gabe to be an innocent kind person though after that she began to realize he wasn't timid as she suspected him to be. That aspect of her boyfriend's personality appeared far more intriguing than anything the store had to offer. Nevertheless Athena pointed at one of the bikes with a smile at her face. "Oh this one looks lovely! It's black and white the perfect harmony, wouldn't you agree?" Athena turned towards the manager "How long can we keep it? I'm a bit of an amateur in ridding so it will probably take some time for my friend to teach me how to properly do it, therefore we'll probably need it a bit more than the average time."

"Ahh yes, it's perfectly fitting with the cycle of the world. Yin and Yang, together in harmony. " An interesting question did come up in the sense of how long it could be kept, in which the manager immediately looked at Gabe, then back Athena with a smile. "In this case, for the rest of the day. We will also send someone over to Gabriel's house in order to pick it up first thing in the morning if you don't manage to make it back on time before the stores closing, if you wanted to return it sooner. For no, don't sorry about it, no late fees."

Gabe smiled and gently massaged Athena's back. "See, everything is fine. So we will be taking the bike that she wants. " As soon as Gabe handled the paperwork and brought the bike outside, He looked to Athena. "We should start at the park first, or would you like to try and ride there with me?

Athena thought a bit before replying "I think the park would be a better place to practice. I would rather fall on grass than the road. Because the only thing I can be certain is that I'm going to fall... more than once at least." Athena said looking slightly worried, she wasn't looking at Gabe or the manager but rather her eyes were locked on the bike. "Lead the way, the park is only a few meters away, the walking will certainly give me the courage I need."

"Alright, I would figure that walking to the park is the more safer option. .and speaking of safe...." Gabe put up the kickstand and went back inside of the bike shop and brought back two helmets. "Can't do much without these, I wouldn't want you to get hurt. " after placing the helmet on the seat, Gabe would then man the bike again and roll it along, being on the side that leads him to be more closer to Athena. "So, how's work going? Is everything alright? Not too stressful right?" He worried about her, wondering f she could handle being a model nd a cadet. However, her will to succeed was quite impressive to Gabe. " I've been trying to handle some deadlines, but I wanted to put them aside today to spend some time with you. I hope you dont think of me as a slacker for it.

Athena seemed to ponder a bit before she placed the helmet on, on the one hand she din't want to ruin her hair but on the other she didn't want to risk cracking her head open either, in the end survival won over vanity and the teen donned the helmet. It felt kind of uncomfortable but this was most helmets felt so the girl payed no mind. "Well at least I wont return home bleeding." She said as she hit the helmet with her first to demonstrate it's endurance "See, barely felt it. This is amazing."

"Work is ok, being a member of the cadets really helps with popularity but my time is so limited now since I have patrols for most nights. I wish I could tell you more but most information regarding the government are, as you know, classified. Also you don't need to worry about you skipping a few deadlines, nobody can call you a slacker if you're not caught" Athena said with a sly smile. "So should we attempt to ride this like bike now or we need to find a better location?"

"No time like the present. " Gabe got on the back of the bike nd tapped the front of the seat. "It's kind of a stretch, but i'll be your support, right behind you. You can peddle the front and steer. You don't have to worry about falling off the bike or anything, i'll support u both with our weight. All you have to do, is peddle the front as well and lead the way. " Gabe didn't necessarily have a helmet, but he didn't think that he needed it. "So here is what we are going to do, we are going to make it all the way to the park. This is a challenge that we can do together. "

Gabe remained firm, waiting for Athena. "First off, just get on and paddle forward, I'll match your pace and we can start slow.

"Alright I've got...." The girl said as she rode the bike trying her hardest to look ahead of her. By bringing her legs at the pedal, she even managed to make a little progress before her eyes drifted downwards to check her movements and to make sure she wasn't going to run through anything. The moment the model attempted that she lost her balance and her body drifted to the left, in a panicked attempt to remain on the bike she held the breaks as hard as she could, this of course did nothing but pause the bike. "Quickly to the right!" She only managed to scream as she shut her eyes out of terror.

"Don't panic..you're doing fine..." Gabe would say as he matched her pace. He wasn't too sure how she would do, it was her fist time. However, Gabe already considered Athena to be a very capable woman. "See, Riding a bike is ea-" Suddenly, Athena screamed and started drifting to the left. Gabe would quickly give all the support and upper body strength to turn his front handle to the right., which would also turn Athena's front wheel to the right as well. "Don't close your eyes, you're basically the pilot, remember?" Hopefully, Athena would open her eyes and gather her bearings, they weren't quite finished yet. Just remember who goes down with the ship along with you."

"This isn't helping me relax but thanks for reminding me" Athena said as she recovered her balance, this time she was determinate not to look down. She tried to keep her head straight ahead, Gabe was behind her if she missed something then he would tell her. Despite the fact she kept telling herself that she couldn't help but doubt and worry about the outcome. Which lead to yet another slip, one from which she recovered much faster with more composure than with the first.

"Gabe..." She said without turning her head. "Do me a favor, if I start heading towards a person or a tree pull the brakes as hard as you can." Once that was out of the way Athena took a deep breath and started pushing the pedals, deciding to put her trust on the person behind her, just for this once. Much to her surprise this attempt went much smoothly than the other two. It wasn't perfect by any means, and she still needed to practice her turns but at least it wasn't a complete disaster. "Was that good?" she asked once she stopped still uncertain.