[b]November 3rd, 2019
6:15 AM, PT
Buffy’s, Coast City[/b]

[hr][center][h3][color=#22ff00][u]Echo[/u][/color][/h3][/center]
Ezra sat on his little stool behind the slim desk near the entrance, the wooden countertop only large enough to fit a thin and sleek cash register, a tiny dark mat for his elbows, and a large touch screen computer. Bright sunlight had already deigned to invade the room through the tall floor-to-ceiling windows on either side of the glass door, reflecting warm light off the shiny wooden floors and stainless steel bars, and prompting him to hide behind his sunglasses even as the first few members began to trickle in. By now he’d mostly adjusted to their routines and knew their faces well, though he wasn’t as good with the names.

There were the coffee girls, a quartet of young women always packing Starbucks and showing up first thing in the morning every other morning, claiming a few mats and a radio by the window where they alternated between yoga and some kind of dance workout. The high school jocks were another group, made up of a trio of teenage boys who spent most of their time gossiping, but occasionally they used the large mat in the back to practice wrestling- Ezra assumed they were on a high school team, but didn’t know for sure. Missing from the usual crowd of today were a group of four, two middle aged couples who had admirably stuck with their new year's resolution to get in shape, but skipped sometimes as they were parents and sometimes had other responsibilities.

Ezra left them to their own devices, he was just the clerk and had to make sure everyone using the gym had their membership cards up to date, and sometimes he even got to issue new cards. Exciting. The trainers and fitness experts were usually around later in the day, and after a quick glance at the schedule he saw it wouldn’t be until after his shift that a customer had scheduled an appointment to receive a fitness plan. All in all it was set to be a boring day.

[b]10:00 AM, PT[/b]

“Hey Ezra!” A young voice suddenly called, childishly exuberant.

He reluctantly allowed his attention to be pulled up from his phone, currently playing an informative techno-babble video from TED about artificial intelligences. Human technology amazed him sometimes, it was so different from his homeworld’s, though his people had been more advanced he was proud to admit.

He allowed himself a bemused smile at the familiar child throwing open the gym door, glancing behind the kid expecting to see an equally familiar parent, but no such luck. “Kyle?” he half greeted, half questioned. He had short dark hair and warm brown eyes, and his skin was surprisingly brown given that last time Ezra had seen it the color had been on the red side of pink.

“I didn’t know you worked here!” the boy cried, dashing up to the counter and giving a wide grin. Kyle was an alien of some sort, and Ezra would bet that wasn’t even his real name, but as with most aliens he’d met Kyle’s mom had been cagey about their species, their names, and their circumstances. “Are you going to watch the match?!”

Ezra’s eyebrows drew together, expressing his confusion. “The match?” He parroted, puzzled, but then redirected; “Hey, where’s your mom?” Aliens took being in the closet seriously, and children of near any species were impulsive and uncontrollable, why let this one wander about the city alone? Who knew what could happen?

Kyle waved a dismissive hand, “She’s next door buying flowers or something.” He shrugged, uncaring, “She said I could watch the match with you while she’s busy!”

Ezra raised both eyebrows in surprise, shocked he’d be trusted to watch out for a kid without even a word of warning. He supposed it wasn’t a complicated or difficult task, and he was pretty sure Lauren and her son were telepaths, or maybe they had some other way of keeping in contact quietly- that’d been the vibe he’d gotten from the hints dropped at The Small anyway. It was an awfully tight community they had, even if they treated each other with caution and suspicion there was still a level of trust solely from the fact they were all in the same boat.

He shrugged, deciding to allow it. “Alright, as long as your mom’s okay with it. The TV’s over there,” he gestured to the black flatscreen he hadn’t bothered turning on yet, “you know what channel this match is on?”

Rather than answer, Kyle darted over and snapped up the remote, flicking the TV on and hurriedly changing to a new channel. Ezra was only mildly surprised to see a boxing match on the screen. “That’s Christopher Ives! He’s the defender, and the black guy is Marvin Hayes! The underdog! He’s totally gonna win and turn the world of boxing on it’s head! Everyone’s been saying he’s gonna lose, but no way! Hayes is takin' it home!” The kid babbled excitedly, claiming a seat on one of the unused pieces of equipment. The gym was mostly empty now, a new group had moved into the back and were doing more flirting than wrestling, but most of the morning crowd had moved out.

Ezra allowed himself to share a smirk with the kid, giving him a teasing; “Oh yeah?”

“Definitely!” Was the confidant response, and Ezra couldn’t resist.

“I dunno, I’d put my money on the other guy. That chest hair? Totally has magical powers.” He joked, allowing his usual reclusive shyness to fade away. What harm could there be in talking about a human sport? Besides he’d agreed to keep an eye on the kid, best to keep him entertained until his mom came for him, and hopefully she’d turn up soon, his shift was ending in an hour and he really needed to catch up on his class work.