Great Heights

Outfit

Kalila knew, objectively, that she was far from unattractive and that her height often worked in her favor more often than not. In Britain, she was often only of equal height or a mere inch taller if not actually shorter than most men. Egypt was a different story all together, where she was more than half a foot taller than the average woman and several inches above the average man. Most traditional pureblood men did not enjoy having a wife taller than them, especially when fashions often required women to wear heels at important functions, which made her even taller than her hypothetical spouse. Suffice it to say, her father had a difficult time finding her a willing spouse even among their own family tree, nevermind if he had to search for one outside the family. She'd been taught from a young age that the greatest goal she could aspire to, was to be the perfectly submissive wife of a husband who hopefully allowed her enough freedom to pursue a few hobbies. Not that she'd believed that nonsense after the age of ten. She'd always been too tall, and that made her the perfect target for bullies, but she'd never been good about 'turning the other cheek' and so she'd taught herself how to fight back. Being submissive had more or less gone out the proverbial window after that.

Over the years, Kalila had keep up with the self-defense training, though it had stopped being about self-defense and was more about staying in shape. Which was why she was in the university gym at the crack of dawn so she could work out before classes began for the day. Kalila had never been much of a morning person, for all that she'd trained herself to wake up early, and so she enjoyed her two days a week that she didn't work out and could enjoy the luxury of sort of sleeping in before classes. Unless Khalil was feeling particularly frisky that morning, then her dreams of sleeping in were dashed.

She was stretching her legs before her squats, one of her most hated exercises but she couldn't deny that they helped make her already fabulous legs even more delicious. Given her height, it was no surprise that she had long legs, but that made them a focus and so she needed to keep them looking their best. Not that she was particularly vain, but she knew she had to work the assets she had in order to draw attention away from the less attractive aspects of her person. It was in the middle of one of those such stretches that she heard the door open and close to admit another person. 

Percy knew that he was still considered to be young by Wizarding standards. He had not even reached a third of how old that he could be, but he knew that he was older than he liked. Small things were beginning to alert him to it. A few lighter hairs at his temple, the wrinkles that were starting to form when he smiled, the lines around his mouth, the way he felt when it was cold, the ache in his knees when he had been on his feet for too long. He was much too young to be feeling so old, so he decided to go to the gym. The one in Lufkin made the most sense to him, since he could work out in his free period, shower and then get to lunch with his wife. HIs wife! He was still a little in awe that he had even managed to get her back, that she had given them a second chance, but it had been that night in the bar, dancing with her that had made things feel like they had when they had first started.

He was happy again, even with the world in chaos he was happy. He knew that it was probably wrong and looking back at it years from now he was going to feel like a love sick fool, but that was what he was. He had his second chance, he had his love, and the pompous man had done nothing but smile since then. He wasn’t even sure how he felt about that, no one really got to see him smile, but his wife loved him, his family was whole once more and he couldn’t be happier if he tried.

Walking into the gym he was humming to himself and smiled when he saw a young woman in the gym already. He smiled, giving a nod as he came in and took off the sweater that he was wearing and began to stretch as well, knowing he would have to or he would be useless the following day.

Outfit

Father was being particularly obstinate about getting the pre-nuptial negotiations settled, much as Kalila tried to draw them out. She wanted to finish her schooling, and to get to know Riyad better before she made any final decisions, because if she turned him down for real only to end up with an even more restricting second option, then she'd regret it for the rest of her life. However, if she agreed only to find him more controlling than her own father, then she'd be in much the same boat. Kalila knew the best she could hope for in a husband was one who allowed her the freedom to pursue her love of astronomy, even if he restricted almost anything else. While she didn't know Riyad very well, the things she did know were promising of an amicable relationship, one where he allowed her the freedoms she needed, but she was unsure if that was a front just to get her to cave. He seemed like a reasonably liberal man, at least for one raised in the strict conservative values of Egyptian pureblood society, but appearances could be deceiving. The problem was that she had little time to meet Riyad outside of school unless he came to her, but he was unable to leave Egypt due to his own schooling. So they were at an impasse as far as getting to know each other went, which didn't help the speed of negotiations. Maybe they'd have time in the summer, if she could stretch things that long.

The gym's newest arrival was familiar enough, the poli-sci professor wasn't one of her own but she's seen him around and she knew people who did have him. He was attractive, in that sophisticated way of older men, too old to pursue, but there was nothing that said she couldn't look and admire. "Hello," she greeted with a smile.

He wasn’t bad looking, or so his daughter and wife told him. He was older, and he was a bit of an acquired taste, he thought. He had a beard now, something that he had like that was paying off. He liked how it made him look rugged and serious all at the same time. It was a little thing that fed into his vanity. He had never been like Bill or Charlie. He wasn’t handsome, or funny like George. He was gaining strength and toning and wasn’t afraid of how he looked any more. He had accepted himself, and he was happy.

He smiled at the student inside and cracked his back before laying down on the mat to do some stretches. He looked over at the young woman and tried to place her. There were so many students that often he found himself struggling with their class, or if they were even in his classes. ”Miss Bast, am I correct?” He wasn’t rubbish with names or anything, there were just so many people to keep straight these days that it seemed to be getting worse and worse.