Hopeless: Part 1 (Reader Release) (Patreon)

As I continue to clack away at Hopeless 2 for this month's Plus short here is the first half of last month's short Hopeless for the Readers. I'll release the second half once I have the Plus Short up for this month. This was one was pretty silly but a lot of fun to write. Hope y'all enjoy it.

***

Hopeless

In a baggy pink crop top and oversized shorts that only stayed on my hips thanks to the tightly tied drawstring, both borrowed from my best friend Olivia, I enter the gym across the street from my apartment. I stop and take in a deep breath, the smell of sweat and testosterone flooding my nostrils as the clank of iron and the deep grunts of lifters join the hard rock music pumping over the speakers to fill my ears. Just stepping inside this place felt like a victory after all the months of psyching myself up to walk across the street and begin my new life. Just being here made me feel more powerful. Dominic the doormat was a thing of the past, starting right now!

“Uff!” I stagger forward as pair of ripped gym rats shove past me on their way in.

“Don’t stand in front of the door, pipsqueak.” One of them chortles as they stride past me with barely a glance.

“Sorry.” I mutter, combing my fingers through my shaggy blond locks to get my hair out of my face.

“Ignore those thugs.” The hulking older gentleman in barely there tank top behind the desk shouts. “What can we do for you, sweetheart?” His amiable energy quickly fades as I approach the desk and he sees that I’m a man. His face falls. “Oh.”

“Um…hello.” I say softly, my fingers nervously clawing at the top edge of the counter. “I’d like to…join up?”

“Sorry, what? Can’t hear you over the music. Speak up!”

“I’d like to join up!” I say again, my voicing going higher than I meant it to as I raise my volume.

“Uhhhh.” He leans over the counter to look me up and down. “I think you’re probably looking for the purple place down the street.”

“Purple? I don’t think so. This is the place.”

“The Dungeon is a gym for hardcore lifting. We don’t offer pilates or any of that stuff.”

“Um. I know, sir. I am hardcore, sir.” I say. “And I live right across the street. I’ve seen the buff people coming in and out of here. Do you want to see which place is mine? It’s got a cool umbrella…” He stares at me blankly in that way people did sometimes when I said something wrong. “Sorry! No, um, I’ve done my research and this place is locally owned and has amazing reviews.” I ball up my slender fists and flex my non-existent biceps. “This is the place for me! Hardcore!”

“Oookay.” He says as he pulls out a form. “We’ll just get your information here. Name?”

“St. Claire, Dominic.”

He glances up at me. “Saint? Clare?”

“No. I’m sorry. Dominic is my first name. St. Claire is my surname.” I squirm under his furrowed gaze. “Sorry, I was just…I saw the surname was the first field and…I thought…”

“It’s cool. Dominic St. Claire. Got it.” He jots it down along with a few other details. “Well Dominic, we have a monthly plan, a yearly plan and the continuing plan. Those that are just dabbling go month to month, but all the serious lifters are on the continuing. You just dipping toe or are you actually serious about your health and fitness?”

“Oh, I’m serious, sir.” I nod, my sheepdog curls bouncing. “Very serious. Today is the first day of the rest of my life!”

A grin slowly spreads across his salt and pepper stubbled face. “I knew you were hardcore the moment you walked in.”

I giggle. “Yeah!”

“That’s the spirit! We don’t want any quitters in here. Continuing renewal it is. You can pause at anytime of course, but I can see that won’t be an issue here. You can call me Gus by the way. ”

“Okay, Gus.” I smile. “Hey…could we turn the music down?”

“No.”

“Oh! Sorry.”

***

“Yo, D! How’s it hangin this morning?”

“Low and heavy, same as always.”

“Ha ha! Fuckin Futas.” He looks up at me and offers his fist.

“You wish.” I fist bump Todd on my way past toward the deadlift station. I stop at the barbell and roll my shoulders a few times as I check myself out in the mirrored wall. I’d already warmed up with some light cardio and calisthenics and with just a subtle sheen of sweat over my bronze skin I was looking GOOD. Pulling my waist-length black hair behind my shoulders I hit a few poses, studying my physique like the sculptor of flesh that I was. In my black and green skin tight sports bra and leggings even the contours beneath the cloth could be assessed. Sure this outfit revealed the bulge between my legs, the envy of the gym by far, but my days of hiding myself were long over. I was a futanari and I was fucking proud of that. “Hrm. Triceps could use some more definition.”

It was then, through the mirror, I catch sight of some willowy chick with shaggy blonde hair and a pink sleeveless crop top getting hooked into paying what would turn out to be God only knows how many months of fees by Augustus for what would surely turn out to be half a dozen to a dozen visits at most. All of us regulars could spot these well-meaning but poorly disciplined neophytes a mile away, we’d seen so many come through over the years. I almost felt bad for them but they did keep the fees down for the rest of us. And every so often one would stick around and actually build a physique to be proud of. This dainty damsel wouldn’t last the week though. I would have bet my left nut on it. Too bad for her.

After loading the weights I chalk up my hands and clap them hard, sending out a cloud in front of me as I square up to the bar. I take a deep breath and squat down to take a firm grip on the bar.

“Welcome to the Dungeon, Dominic” Augustus says loudly, slapping the newbie on the shoulder in a way he never would have done to a… Wait. Dominic? That little bimbo…she…is a he!? No fucking way!

My eyes lock back onto the slender figure in ill-fitting clothes as he coyly shuffles out onto the gym floor like a lost lamb among the wolves. My eyes widen, my cock twitches, my nipples stiffen and my pussy tightens. I let out a low, guttural growl. “Ohhhh myyyy God.”

***

“You sure you don’t want a trainer?” Gus asks me again.

“No thank you.” I say as I fiddle with the free keychain I’d gotten with my membership. “I’ll figure it out. I’m very resourceful.”

“Sure, sure, sure. And you don’t need a locker or anything?”

“Um.” I nervously look around at the musclebound bodies in every direction. “No. Locker rooms make me nervous. Especially the ones with lockers in them. I just live across the street. I’ll shower and change there.”

“Right.” He smirks. “Well that’s handy. Just remember the etiquette.”

“Clean the equipment when I’m done, don’t interrupt other’s sets, no food, don’t drop the equipment…”

“Yeah. You don’t have to repeat them, just remember them” He says. “Alright, Dominic. First day of the rest of your life starts right now. Get a pump on.”

I flinch as he slaps my back again. “Th-Thank you.”

“Remember, hardcore!” He flexes his guns.

“YEAH!” I flex back.

As Gus returns to the desk I walk to the nearest bench, one that clearly wasn’t being used by anybody else, and stand beside it as I look around at the racks of dumbbells and free weights that lined the walls. I could feel eyes on me. I could see them sneering and quietly laughing among each other. Closing my eyes I focus on my purpose for being here. ‘I need a real man.’ That’s what she said when she left me those months ago. A real man. A real man was strong. A real man was brave. A real man got sweaty and worked hard and had big muscles. A real man…got the girls to love them. I wanted the girls and so I needed to become a real man. After a deep breath I open my eyes again and look at myself in the mirror. Scrawny, pale, scared, totally out of place here among these Hercules. But one rep at a time I would get there too.

I look at my new keychain and admire the dragon curled around the letter D. I look around, knowing everybody else here had one of these too. This keychain was more than a freebie, it showed that I belonged. I was one of them now. I set it on the bench and walk down the rack of dumbbells, my fingers brushing along the cold iron weights as I go. I stop at a weight that looked reasonable and go to take it off the rack.

“Oof!” My shoulder jars as the weight barely budges!

“Ha ha ha!” I hear a mocking laugh behind me. It was a laugh I knew too well. The laugh of a bully.

My cheeks burning I let out a huff and try to block the chuckles out. Gritting my teeth…I grab the dumbbell with both hands and with all my strength hoist the weight off the rack. Straining, the weight hanging heavy in my arms, I carry it back to my claimed bench. “Nnngh!” I grunt as I set it down beside the bench. I didn’t yet know what I was going to do with it but I had a spot and I had a weight. This was where my journey begins.

***

I am breathing heavy and leaning against a nearby squat rack after a couple of hard sets of deadlift. As I squirt some water into my mouth my eyes remain locked on that glorious little femboy who had wandered into the Dungeon. That figure, that waist, those hips, that plump little ass…Fuuuuuuck! How in the hell was I supposed to work out with that walking, talking, perpetual cock-tease flouncing around in here? I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.

With a chuckle I shake my head. He had a single dumbbell and was currently attempting to do some sort of twisting two-handed curls with it. With his sender hands jammed together in the hand grip his arms trembled as he tried to curl the weight to his chest. This guy was HOPELESS! Perfectly, haplessly, adorably hopeless. I found myself actually quietly cheering him on to complete even a single good rep of…whatever the hell he was trying to do.

My smile fades as I notice a trio of my fellow regulars closing in around him.

***

“Ohhh.” The weight drops to my feet without even one real lift performed. Sitting on the bench I stare down at breathing heavy. This was hard. Really hard. But…I just had to keep at it. It would get easier… I shake my head as the doubts start to creep in. What was I doing here? I’m making a fool of myself again!

“That’s quite the technique you’ve got there.” Says a butch woman wearing a thick leather lifting belt. I turn to see she had two stout men with her, all of them wearing smug grins. “Here I’ve been using two dumbbells for curls all these years.”

“Oh, um.” I stand and offer them a friendly smile. “I was…just warming up. These weight are really heavy, huh?”

“That’s kinda the point.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess it is.” I say. “My name is…”

“Warming up you said? Ha!” Says one of the guys. “Looked like a 1RM to me.”

“Uhhhh…yeah. Sure did, huh? Uh…what’s a 1RM?” As they close in around me I step back until my calves were touching the bench. I don’t know why but I scoop up the keychain and clutch it to my chest as if they were about to steal it from me. “Y-You’re not supposed to interrupt sets. I-I’m using this bench. This is my bench.”

“Well maybe we want to use it too.” Says the guy who hadn’t spoken yet. “You gonna stop us, peewee?”

“Um…Gus will…?”

“What are you doing in here, sissy?”

“I’m…working out. I-I-I’m…not a sissy. I-I-I…”

Just then I watch as all three of their smiles drop in an instant as their eyes flit upward to look at something behind me. I then feel…a looming presence at my back.

“Hey, D!” Says the woman. “We were just welcoming the new guy.”

“Sara. Boys.” I hear a husky, smoky, sexy voice growl from OVER my head. “You heard the man. This is his bench.”

“Y-Yeah.” The three shrink back as one. “Of course. Well…we should be getting back to our set.”

“Yeah. I think you should.”

The trio hurry back to where they’d spawned from as I slowly turn around to find myself face to tits with a GIANT of a woman! My eyes pan up and up and up until my gaze meets the prettiest gray eyes I’d ever seen, like the clouds after a storm.

“I’m sorry!” I blurt out.

Her full, shapely lips curl into a surprisingly kind grin. “For what?”

“Um…whatever I did.” I squeak. “Am I in your spot?”

“No, you are not in my spot.” She says, her expression somewhere between curiosity and amusement.

This…goddess stood over a foot taller than me. She had long, wild black hair that cascaded down over her broad shoulders. Her body was chiseled, beefy muscle from head to toe, thick yet lean enough to see veins beneath her flawless tan skin. Her forearm was nearly as thick as my thigh! She had huge, natural tits, the big nips showing through her skin-tight sports bra, and despite her ripped physique she still maintained an alluring hourglass shape. Every inch of her enormous body was a marvel, but no part more than the massive and well defined bulge between her tree trunk thighs! A futa!

I tear my eyes away from her junk before they lingered too long. It was already too late though as when I look back up at her face her grin tells me she noticed my ogling. But there was no accusation in her eyes, only kind curiosity.

“Um…m-my name is Dominic.”

“Dominic.” She says, offering her hand. “Daisy.”

“Daisy.” I say softly, with a smile. “That’s a beautiful name.” I reach out to shake her hand and the keychain drops to her feet. “Ooops!”

***

I have to bite my lips so as not to laugh as Dominic clumsily scrambles to pick up the plastic bauble. Gripping it tightly in his other hand he takes mine for a shake. His palm is soft and warm, like satin against my skin.

“You like the keychain, huh?” I say, noting the way he clutched it.

“Yeah.” He says, shifting around the bench to stand closer to me. With no concept of personal space stands right up against me, his shoulder touching my arm. Most dudes I met stayed at arms length when meeting me for the first time, unsure of how to react with a near seven foot tall mass of glorious feminine muscle with a cock a stallion would be jealous of. Dominic however had no such qualms. In fact he seemed to relax a little standing inside my aura. It was…kinda precious honestly. Did I smell strawberries? Opening his delicate hand he shows me the complimentary ‘gift’ we all got on joining the gym as if it was something special. He offers it up for me to look at, his wide blue eyes twinkling brightly in the hard overhead lights. “I think the dragon on it is pretty, don’t you?” His face suddenly twitches and he pulls his hand back again. “Sorry!”

“What are you sorry for now?” I ask.

“Um…real men don’t like pretty things.” He mutters to himself, then says louder. “I meant to say it’s…cool.”

I smile, I literally couldn’t have stopped myself if I tried. “I think it’s pretty too, Dominic.”

His face brightens as he giggles. Giggles! Honest to goodness giggles! “Yeah. It IS pretty.”

He shows me the keychain again and runs a slender finger across the dragon. As he stares at the item I am staring at him. His features were fine, delicate, feminine. His facial expressions so pure, his innermost emotions right there on the surface without filter. That laugh was…music to my soul! And that lithe body hidden beneath a crop top that left a tantalizing little peak to his soft, smooth tummy… OH MY FUCKING GOD! It took all I had not to grab that twink and… RRRRR! The hand he couldn’t see balls up into a tight fist, my nails digging into my palm as it quivers with pent up lust.

He swallows hard and says most sincerely. “Um…did you want to share my bench?” My brows rise at his invitation. “I’ve got a dumbbell we can share too. I don’t have a training partner yet, do you?”

I cover my face and begin to laugh. What a silly little man! Where did this guy come from!?

“Oh. I…said something wrong. I’m sorry. You have a partner, huh?”

“No. No, Dominic.” I chortle, bringing my hand down to my hip. “You didn’t say anything wrong. I’d love to share your bench.” I sit down on it, feeling like I was pulling up a front row seat to this one man circus.

“Need some energy?” He pulls out a little rectangle of saran wrapped…fruit leather? Right there he unwraps it and jams a chunk in his mouth and begins to chew the tough treat that smelled of apples and strawberries. I KNEW I’d smelled strawberries when I walked up, I just assumed that’s what femboys smelled like. He says. “Worked up quite an appetite myself. Hard workout, ya know? Hardcore.”

Left and right I look, convinced that I had to be on camera, but all I see are confused and curious looks back my way from the regulars. Doing all I can to hold back my laughter as his lips contort while he tries to pry the stuck bits from between his teeth I ask. “Make that stuff yourself?”

“Mm hm.” He nods proudly and offers it again, pretty pink lips smacking and gleaming white teeth gnashing.

“I’m good right now, maybe later.” I say. “Smells good though.”

“Mm!” He grins, wraps up the fruit leather, and jams it back into his pocket. I close my eyes and bite my lips again as sucks each digit of his right hand then wipes his sticky fingers on his shorts. Augustus would kill this guy if he saw this, especially since he had JUST been read the rules minutes before.

When I open my eyes to look at him again his smile grows wider. God! I’d never seen a more hopeless…or prettier man in all my days. Elbow on my knee, fist against my cheek, I lean forward and just…watch.

***

Grabbing the weight again I lift it up and with a mighty effort bring it to my chest to clutch it there with both hand. “Ugh! This one’s pretty heavy but I can handle it.” I say, despite my struggles. “It’s good for…um…squats.” I arch my back, thrust my tush out and bring my chin up so I am looking at the roof as I lower to a sitting position and then back up again. “Yeah! Squats. Hrm! Whoo!” I huff as I do a second and a third and a forth squat. Daisy leans forward, her long hair forming a curtain that covers her face. Her shoulders jerk up and down in quiet laughter. It wasn’t mean laughter. Not mocking or bullying like those others. I’d been laughed at a lot in my years, every day in fact, and I knew the difference well. I giggle along with her. “Pretty strong for my first day, huh?”

“What even ARE you, Dominic?” She whispers between her laughs, her eyes peering through her hair and rarely leaving my glutes as she studied my form.

“Quebecois.” I say mid-squat. “Rff! Moved down here when I was two. Hff!” I struggle up on the next rep, my slender arms beginning to tremble. “Well…I guess I didn’t move when I was two. Hff! I mean, who moves by themselves when they’re two? Rmm! Still go up there in the summers sometimes to see family. Oofff! Don’t know the language though. FFF!”

Daisy had that lost look on her face that I saw so often. “What are you even talking about right now, Dominic?”

“What I am. Hey! My friends call me Nicki. Well…rng…my one friend Olivia. Whoo! That’s ten, or was it eleven? Anyway. I think that’s enough. I’m about done for today. Whew! I can feel my muscles growing already.” I waddle over to offer the dumbbell to Daisy. With one hand she takes it from my chest and sets it down on the floor as if it were light as a feather. “Woah! You’re strong. You’ve been training awhile, huh?”

After a long pause she strokes her long hair back up over her head so it falls down her back. She looks at me, her gray eyes gleaming with mirth. “Dominic. Nicki. I swear to God I’m not trying to discourage you, but…what are you doing here?”

“In the gym?”

“On Earth!”

“Huh?”

“Yes, in the gym. Why are you really here?”

“Honestly?” With a sigh my shoulders slump and I flomp down beside her, leaning into her very solid body. “I’m here to become a real man.”

“And what…exactly is a real man?” She says, peering down at me.

“I don’t know.” I say, glumly, resting my head on her firm shoulder. I sit admiring her lovely tan skin and how it looked so dark next to my fair flesh as I confess my true reasons for becoming a hardcore gym junkie like her. “My ex-girlfriend said she was leaving me for a real man when she broke up with me. Her new boyfriend is big and brawny. Like all you guys in here. I thought maybe I could get big and strong too. To get the ladies.”

“Pfffft!” She chuckles and pats my thigh with surprising gentleness. “Nicki, I don’t know your ex from anyone…but she was a cunt. You don’t need to look like these goons to ‘get the ladies’. You just gotta find the right ladies.”

“Oh?”

“Weights don’t make you a real man.” She pats my lithe chest, the span of her strong hand going from one my shoulders to the other. “That does.”

“My pecs?”

“No!” She laughs a big bellowing laugh. “Ha ha ha! Not your pecs! Your heart!”

“Oh. Uh, well, yeah. My heart hasn’t really been cutting it lately. Ladies can’t SEE my heart.” I sigh. “But now that you mention it, she was kind of a cunt actually.”

“Pff! Listen, cutie. Some girls don’t go for that rugged man shit.” She brushes the back of her hand against my bare knee. “Some girls like…softer things.”

“I’m soft. You won’t find many men softer than me.” I grin and turn towards Daisy then poke her boulder of a shoulder. “You called me cutie!”

“I did.”

“You think I’m cute!”

She rolls her eyes but her smile never falters.

“Hey, um, do you have a boyfriend?”

“Pbbsst!” She sputters, taken aback by my question. “Nicki! Ha ha ha! Are you about to ask me out!?”

“Uh…yes? Gus didn’t say that was against the rules.”

“He actually did. Not hitting on other patrons is rule 6.”

“Oh.” I slump, thinking about this new conundrum. “Well…can I get your consent to break rule 6? Or is that against the rules too?”

“Oh my God! You adorable man.” She shakes her head. “Nicki, sweetie.” Sweetie? I sit taller, smile growing. “Look at me. Look at you! I would CRUSH you! And I know you noticed I’m packing extra gear.”

“You’re a futanari.” I say, taking her near hand in both of mine. “I’ve only met one or two before, that I know of. None of them were as big or as pretty as you.”

She pauses a moment then says. “You’ve met some, but have you ever been…WITH one?”

“Well, no. I’ve only ever had two girlfriends. Neither were a futa.” I confess. “But…I mean, you’re still a woman, right? I’m still a man. It can’t be THAT different.”

“Oh, it can. It doesn’t…ya know…bother you? Me packing pipe?”

“Um.” I think about it a moment. “Should it?”

“Nicki…”

“Say yes? Please?” I tug at her arm and bat my eyes. “Pleeeease?”

***

That ‘…or as pretty…’ line was still warming my loins as he awaits my answer. Any other guy I would have rolled my eyes at the clumsy compliment but…looking into those big, bright, vacant blue eyes of his…I could see he meant every word. I had barely survived his ‘squats’, the way they made his crop top ride up to reveal his lean midriff and made his plump little ass thrust out as if in offering, so his sweet, honest words had slipped right past my weakened defenses. Dominic stares up at me through his curly blonde bangs with those big sapphire eyes…I didn’t stand a chance. Not one God damned chance. It was…hopeless.

I smile a smile that beams straight up from my heart to shine through face. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. And yes, I would love to go out with you.”

“He he he! Yes! Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me, you dork.” I ruffle his oh so soft hair. “Wine me, dine me, 69 me. But don’t thank me until it’s over.”

“Oh! Ha ha ha! 69!? My goodness.” He blushes three shades of pink. “So, uh, I’m done my workout…you got much longer?”

I grin and shake my head. His entire ‘workout’ consisted of a dozen attempted two-handed dumbbell curls and ten of the worst, though sexiest, goblet squats I’d ever seen. “No.” I lie. “I was just wrapping up too.”

“Great!” He says. “Let’s go on a date!”

“Now? Like right now?”

“Oh, are you busy right now?”

“I suppose not, it’s just…it’s 10 am on a Tuesday.”

“Is that a bad time for dates?”

“Uhhh, no. No, I suppose not, Nicki. Just… Never mind. Yes! It’s a perfect time for a date.”

“Hey, my place is just across the street. It’s no trouble. You can see it from the door. My place is the one with the unicorn umbrella. Olivia got that for me and I love it. We can be there in like one minute.”

“Are you…” I blink. “Are you inviting me to your place? You’re just skipping the whole date thing and getting right to the good stuff?”

“No! I’m a gentleman. We could have the date there, silly. I could make you a sandwich. I’ve got tuna. You muscley types like tuna, right? I’d take you out for a taco or something but I sorta spent the last of my money on the membership.” His face brightens. “Oh! But if you don’t mind paying we could go out somewhere!”

“Me? But…” I shake my head. “You asked me out and…you don’t even…?”

“I could drive though! You ever ride on the back of a scooter?”

“A scoot…? What!?”

“I’d need a couple bucks for gas. I had to walk old Lucille home from work last night. I could ride her on the downhill bits though, that was fun.”

“A couple…? The downhill bits…?”

I have to turn all the way around to face away from him so he doesn’t see the expressions of amusement and disbelief passing across my face. This guy HAD to be a joke. He had to be! Again I look around to see who was pranking me, again I see nothing but people going about their workouts or glancing my way curiously. What was even happening right now!?

“I’m sorry.”

“Now what are you sorry about?”

“I don’t know. Um. You have that look people get just before they tell me to shut up and go away.” He says softly. “Are you alright, Daisy?”

“Mm hm.” I nod. “Just great, Nicki. Never better.” Glancing back over my shoulder I ask. “You say you’ve had girlfriends before? Like, real live women?”

“Yeah! I mean, they let me suck their boobs put my you-know-what in their you-know-where so…that’s pretty much a girlfriend, right?”

“I…uh…uhh…” I nod, momentarily at a loss for words. “Yeah, I suppose you could call it that.” He smiles again, causing a flutter in my heart and surge down below. I pan up and down his soft, subtle curves and shudder. “You…stay here. You stay right here. I’m just going to grab a quick shower and get changed.”

“I’ve got a shower at my place if you…”

“I think I’ll grab one here, thanks anyway.”

“You’re welcome!”

I pause, marveling at the strange, kind, pure, stupid, wonderful little man with most perfect femboy body that had ever graced this planet. I had never met anybody like him, nor would I again. I had no doubt about that. Dominic was truly a one of a kind.

“I mean it.” I grip his shoulders and push him down into the floor, as if rooting him to this spot, and stare intensely into his eyes. “Don’t…go…anywhere!”

“I won’t, Daisy.”

I then glower around at the other patrons. Puffing up my chest and flexing my arms I point and say loud enough to be heard. “If even one of you sumbitches even LOOK at this guy the wrong way…!”

Hands go up and heads nod vigorously as everybody acknowledges that Dominic was now under the protection of the Dungeon’s alpha bitch. With that understood I hurry toward the locker room determined to get back before this perfect ditz of a twink wandered out into traffic or something.

Part 2