Viola makes it to the gym to a very eager reception. Different than when she’s been out because of her health but everyone seems very happy to see her, almost too happy. She does her normal training with Steven before doing a little practice on her own. But the feeling going down her spine remains. The atmosphere is odd; she swears she has seen children trying to hide things more convincing than the current feeling.

Steven notices people are acting odd as he gets an itch on the back of his neck. Viola sits on a bench, glancing for her water bottle. Athena offers a drink from the water cooler. Steven glances at the other to see everyone watching. “Here,” he grabs the purple water bottle. “Found this,” he says. Viola says her thanks before drinking as Athena gives him dirty glares.

Later on, Viola reaches for her water bottle again to notice it is gone. This time when she finds the bottle it is with two other purple bottles. “Which one is yours?” Mark wonders.

Viola turns all of them on the side revealing the bottom. “This one,” she answers showing a hand-drawn star on it. She pours out the rest of the water in the bottle and packs up for the day.

Steven grabs one of the water bottles before Mark can clean up. The rest of the gym watches him. He sniffs the water; the heavy metallic smell strikes a chord. “Stop that!” he almost growls.

“What?”

Steven scans the room to see who is fidgeting. “She’s a hobbyist! She’s not one of us,” he barks before disappearing into his office. “Idiots.”

Everyone comes back together. “Think he’s right?” Raph asks.

“No way. The way that girl looks at her own muscles something is definitely up,” Athena comments recalling what she sees in the locker room.

“We keep going then?” Mark asks for clarification. They all nod.

The next day feels odd for a different reason to Viola. A type of tension in the air that is new here and something she could not quite put her finger on. When the group finally asks her opinion on something, inviting her over to talk, she thinks it must be something in her mind. The group begins chatting and hand her a drink. Steven slips his hand over her cup, “We should get back to your workout.”

“Uh, sure,” Viola agrees though her eyes are shifting back and forth.

Steven pulls her away from the group, who are now giving him a different range of anger and confusion. He leans down to Viola, “They’re trying to prank you. Don’t drink or eat anything.”

Viola nods as she glances in the mirror to catch everyone else’s expressions. “Explain later?”

“Sure. Lunch?”

“Sounds good.”

Steven takes Viola to his favorite diner for lunch, after they finish their sessions together. In a city that looks like it does not update the diner looks purposely old. The classic tin tone exterior, vintage signs, and checkered floor give it a completely different feeling than the rest of town. The classic diner is probably one of the things adding to his ‘Cap’ image but Viola just smirks. ‘All the developments in the world and he picks retro,’ she thinks with a grin. After they place their orders, “Thanks for helping me out. Guessing that prank is why everyone was odd today and yesterday?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why they started it. I tried to get them to knock it off yesterday,” he complains as the waitress brings the first part.

They begin eating. Viola notices that he’s not looking at her. ‘He’s probably watching out for my health…But these are his friends,’ she thinks. She tries to lean in with her arms on the table, “What did it do? What did you save me from ‘Cap’?”

He snorts at his nickname. “Just something to mess with your system,” Steven tries to write off as they eat. ‘With that payload, she would have blown up as big as Raph’s SUV. That would be a terrible first time,’ he strokes his head as tries not to make a face while visualizing. He could only imagine that none of them would ever see her again after that, with how body-conscious Viola is.

Viola blinks at him rubbing his head, “Can’t be too bad. Did they ever try it on you?”

Steven glances at her. She gives him a soft smile. ‘She’s trying so hard to be encouraging,’ he thinks watching her. “They’ve done it to me enough now I have a tolerance,” Steven slightly sighs. He recalls the early times and how often they would prank each other. The feeling of being that open with each other and how much they all laugh is a great memory for Steven. He does smirk at the thought. His hand taps her hand, “Just stay close to me. Once they get something into their heads it gets stuck for a while.” Her fingers play with his. “Even if they don’t mean any harm,” he ends with a grin.

“All right,” Viola knows he means her condition. Even as a prank or some sort of gym initiation anything that messes with her health right now would be catastrophic. The waitress puts another platter down near Steven. “Wow. I am not eating enough,” slips out of Viola as she eyes everything.

Steven picks up a fork full, “No. You’re not.” He smirks and picks up another fork full, “Here try this.” Lunch turns into a much more playful event as the table becomes a tasting table for the first time. Their playful banter even causes the staff to smirk. The conversation ends up with Steven offering to take Viola grocery shopping on his next half day. She only accepts on the condition that he let her help with something when she is able. Steven is happy to agree.