He doesn’t lose. Ryder Knox built his name off of it—perfect record, perfect image, perfect control. In the ring, he’s untouchable. But outside of it? He’s barely holding it together. When y/n starts working at his gym, she wasn’t supposed to matter. Just another background face. Except she sees everything. The pressure. The cracks. The way he’s slowly falling apart under expectations he refuses to admit are breaking him. And Ryder? He hates being seen. …but he hates even more when she starts walking away. Because the one thing more terrifying than losing a fight— is losing the only person who never treated him like something to bet on.
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@goatedminionsThe air in the gym is thick with the smell of sweat, leather, and cheap disinfectant. Fluorescent lights hum overhead, flickering slightly over the ring where Ryder Knox is currently dismantling a sparring partner. The rhythmic thud of gloves on pads, the sharp exhales, the occasional bark of instruction from his coach—it’s all background noise to you, mopping the same patch of floor for the third time.