Nothing Without Love

Josie's POV

Why in the flying fuck did I agree to be the fake girlfriend of Louis for a week and a half? And all I get from this is a weekend of free meals and free trip to San Diego. Never been there before, I lie. I argue with myself as I'm driving to dads gym. I called Ophelia shortly after I ushered Louis out and all she could do was laugh at me. Thanks best friend.

This why I try not to be nice.

Louis is going to get killed at the gym today. He told me he's not really one for working out and I might have asked my dad to let him join in on his Intro to UFC session. I was literally laughing to myself as I asked my dad. I don't know why, but Louis seemed so scared when I told him the story of how dad almost killed someone that I couldn't not punish him for me asking him to be his fake girlfriend.

He has no real experience with mixed martial arts. He informed me that he had a few trainers during their stint with One Direction that would box with them but he also told me that Liam and Harry were more into the boxing scene. He informed me his cardio was walking back and forth on the stage during shows or darting from the paps and obsessed fans.

I pull up into the gym and parked, taking a deep breath and not seeing Ophelia's car or Louis anywhere so I can only guess they'll be late. My father learned to box in the Navy in the mid eighties, so not only was he a military man. His training in the military pushed him to be more and to keep going, so he did. He got noticed during a fight on a docked ship and the rest, as they say, is history.

I sit in the far for an extra five minutes, Louis is the first to show up, I see him pull in but jump when he taps on my window, he's a little quicker then I had assumed. His eyes are still heavy with sleep, I'm sure he's just woken up and brushed his teeth.

“Good Morning.” I smile, it's seven am on Saturday, not everyone's ideal time to head to the gym but dad has always said that the ones that are the most determined are the ones that show up. And here he is.

“Why are we here so early?” He groans, pulling his sleeves over his hands, at night the temperature drops in LA, early in the morning it still has quite the chill so I can see his sleepiness mixed with the chill isn't waking him up any faster.

“So I can see if your endurance has gotten better.” I say with a straight face but quickly burst out into a fit of giggles. Probably over the line but I thought it hilarious and I even got a smile from him so I'll take it. An alert from my phone notifies me that Ophelia has just woken up and she'll be there in a half an hour so that lets me know that we can head in instead. “Have you eaten this morning?” I ask.

“No, it's too early for food in my stomach.” He grumbles.

“Probably a good thing, don't want to throw up all over those new trainers.” I lightly tap them with my shoes and start to lead the way, locking my car over my shoulder.

The smell of testosterone, sweat, and just general body odor hits you as soon as you open the doors. At first the smell is a little overpowering but once you step further in it gets better. They all know me here so I don't have to sign anything or make my presence known.

“Daddy!” I yell just to wake everyone up a little more. I've always been a bit of a morning person if I want to be. Not all the time, there are times where all I want to do is sleep all day. Today is not one of them, I'm just excited that I get to witness this occasion.

“There she is!” I see my dad several times a week when I can stop in and workout but I'm his little girl, he's my dad so it is how it is.

“Dad this is my friend Louis. Louis this is my father Tommy.” I make the introduction and they exchange pleasantries.

“My step dad is a big fan.” Louis smiles, he's for sure trying hard.

“Ah, you'll have to remind me, I'll give you something to send to him then.” My dad might look intimidating but he's far from rude and mean, he's actually quite nice.

“Louis, why don't you get changed in the back locker room.” I suggest, pointing the way, he nods and quickly walks away.

“He's gay isn't he?” My dad asks, a hint of hopefulness in his voice.

“Dad! No, he's not gay.” I roll my eyes.

“You sure? He looks really...nice. For someone that's up this early in the morning.” He laughs, he really does have the best intentions.

“Yes dad, I'm positive he's not gay.” I smirk at the thought of the secret Louis and I share. Well the slight secret, Ophelia knows about it of course.

“Your not sleeping with him are you?” He crosses his arms and glares at me a little bit, guess I really will always be dads little girl.

“No dad, not sleeping with him either. He's just a friend.” Louis and I have decided that other then Ophelia, Niall, and Erica, no one else needs to know about our relationship agreement. Especially considering it won't effect anyone else and it will be over quickly. All though I long to be a part of the conversation when Louis tells Niall and Erica. I've already regretted giving him my phone number, he sent me at least fifty text messages last night with all of his terrible ramblings. And I thought mine were bad.

When Louis returns with the gear needed for class I giggle slightly. He's sporting shorts, an old t-shirt and trainers with longer socks. I can only assume he forgot to bring shorter ones.

“Yes, I didn't bring any shorter socks.” He makes a face at me and all I can do is kick back to my younger years and stick my tongue out at him. “How do I put all this on?” He asks, holding up all of his equipment.

“It's kind of self explanatory. You'll just learn basic moves today, striking, grappling, and ground fighting.” I start explaining as I help him with his gear. “Striking is self explanatory, you'll be using these sparring gloves when your punching, kicking, using knee strikes, and dropping elbows. But you cannot kick someone when they're on the ground, no kicking or no knee strikes.” I tighten his sparring fingerless sparring gloves as I can tell he's trying to take as much information in as possible. It's kind of cute.

“And the other things? The graping?” He asks in question.

“Grappling. That's more wrestling moves, a take down by forcing your opponent on the ground, or defending yourself against a take down with a sprawl. A sprawl being where you use your balance or leverage and stay standing. Take downs are sometimes simple, a leg sweep, a suplex, or just literally pushing someone over if they're not paying attention. Everyone is just taking this class for fun so don't expect to be perfect. You'll learn a few things but the more complex things will come later, don't worry about being fancy.” I feel like a coach.

“And the last thing?” He's relaxed a little bit but not enough.

“Ground fighting. We usually call it ground and pound. It's when you can take someone down and while you're on top, you give them everything you've got. Head, body, head. Their is different positions that you all won't get into quite yet but mainly when you're on top you can use elbows, fists, arms, to do whatever damage you can.” His eyes grow wide at that last part, making me chuckle just a little bit. “Don't worry, this is just a beginning class, you probably won't practice with another person minus the sparring. When it comes to ground and pound you'll just use the punching bags, probably the seventy pound ones.” I point to the pile in the corner, the bags filled with duct tape and covered in stains from sweat and blood. Sounds so attractive, this place I'm in.

“Why am I here again?” He thinks out loud. “What am I doing?”

“Because you wanted to. Plus if you want me to be your pretend girlfriend when you meet up with Stan, then you have to get to know me too. This is where I grew up. And of course, you want to prove it to me that you can hang with me.” I punch his arm lightly and smile. I can see he's not as excited as he was but I'm secretly laughing on the inside, I can't wait for Ophelia to get here so we can see this.

Notes

Ah Josie and her father make me laugh a little bit, no matter how old she'll always be his little girl. And poor Louis, training in mixed Martial Arts with Josie's dad, I'm sure he's in for a treat! Thoughts as to what will happen? how did you like the chapter, the whole story so far?

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Hope you all have a fantastic day!

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