Austin knew that any moment, she was liable to come into the gym for her own workout routine time, so he was getting himself ready to try and impress her or gain her attention. Again.

Ah, the new recruit. Austin found himself sighing and staring off into space for a moment with images of her dancing in his mind. She had only joined the firehouse a week ago and was still finding her footing and settling in, but GOD was he smitten. She was the real fire in L.A. An absolute smoke show. He wanted them something awful, but he knew he had to be careful in how he approached it. He couldn't just come on to them like some horny dog. If she had no interest in him back, it would make the workplace awful. He understood why most people avoiding such 'romances', but he just couldn't help himself.

He was still wearing the goofy, high schooler boy with a crush grin on his face when the door to the gym room opened and in stepped her.

Immediately, Austin dropped backwards on the bench press machine he was sitting at and grabbed the bar. A bar he had loaded with the most amount of weight he had ever attempted to lift before. Maybe if he showed her how strong he was, it would gain him a point!

He was so quick in wanting to set up the 'scene' for her to see him in his feat of strength, he had forgotten to prep his hands which were already sweaty just from her proximity to him. With a grunt of effort, he lifted the weight and started to do reps while attempting to keep his face stoic like it was 'easy'.

"Oi, there you are. Good to see ya." He said, making sure to draw her attention during his third rep, that Australian accent of his still detectable despite having immigrated at thirteen to L.A. "If you need the bench, be do-..."

Sweaty hands and a hurried grip? The bar slid, the weight became unbalanced and Austin found his hopeful show of strength and prowess turning into a painful and embarrassing disaster. His arm buckled and the bar came crashing down on his chest, knocking the wind out of him hard enough to cause a wheeze and probably a bruised rib or three.

"Oh, Bollocks!" Austin wheezed in a tight voice, wiggling and twisting to the side to try and roll the weight off of him.

Panic set it. He couldn't have her think he was weak or hurt! How would that make him look on top of everything? As he managed to free himself of the bar, he promptly pounced up off the bench, sweat dotting his brow and spun around to face her directly with a winded, wheezy laugh to try and play off what just happened.

"I'm fine! Not a thing to worry on!" He promptly blurted, even though he still had a bit of wheezy tone to him. "How's your day going then? Need a hand with any of the equipment?"

Idiot! God I'm an idiot! Austin internally chastised himself while trying his absolute best to fight the horrifically embarrassed blush from climbing onto his cheeks and gain the ability to breath properly, back. Sounding like a squirrel to your crush was NOT part of his playbook today!