The Lunar Chronicles Oneshots & Headcannons (TLC Wattys)

The Skate Off

A/N

Hey guys, first of all, so sorry for not updating sooner! I blame the Shatter Me series for being so good that I couldn't put it down, and my geography teacher for being a jerk and giving me way too much homework.

Second, thanks so much to whyZep who gave me the idea of the crew going skating. Check out her book, Fanboy; it's a Miraculous Ladybug (that's a tv show btw, if you haven't seen it you should totally go watch it cause it's great) fanfiction about Adrien and Ladybug, and it's super cute and relatable so I would definitely recommend reading it. 😉

And finally, I just wanted to ask you guys not to hunt me down and kill me after this chapter, since I figure you might want to after you read it.

Enjoy!

P.S. I'm sorry if you hate me for this.

"You are so going down." Iko told Kinney, shoving him lightly. They were standing in the middle of a frozen lake, which was crowded with people, young and old, skating around the ice.  Initially they had come here with Scarlet and Wolf so they could relax and take a leisurely skate across the ice. So, naturally, Iko and Kinney had to turn it into a massive argument over who could skate the fastest. Now, they would determine the winner with a race to the finish line.

"Bring it on," said Kinney, smirking at her.

Iko could feel every inch of her aching to take off down the rink, to reach the end before he even had the chance to get ready. She had to win, had to beat Kinney so she could wipe that stupid, arrogant smirk off his face. That stupid, yet somehow adorable smirk...

Focus, she thought, scolding herself for letting her thoughts drift off again. It was the second time it had happened that day. She'd been thinking about one thing, until all of a sudden Kinney's face would pop into her mind, beautiful brown eyes and dark wavy hair and all. He'd make her forget what she was doing for a moment, before she came back to her senses. Losing is not an option, she told herself as she came back to the present.

"Ready." He said, and Iko prepared to push off down the rink.

"Set."

"Go." They said together, taking off down the ice, with Iko in the lead.

She skated around the rink as fast as she could, weaving her way in and out of the crowds. The rush of going so fast was exhilarating, and she smiled to herself, knowing she'd left Kinney far behind. However, as she kept skating, the crowd seemed to thicken until there was a whole wall of people blocking her path. She tried to stop quickly to keep from crashing into them and ended up spinning around, coming face to face with Kinney. Unlike Iko, Kinney wasn't able to stop in time and crashed right into her. The impact was enough to knock them both backwards onto the cold, hard ice.

For a moment, they both lay there, groaning. Then, Kinney rose up slowly and Iko watched in amazement as he extended a hand to her.

She stared at him incredulously. She'd been prepared to insult him; not to be helped by him. Was he playing a trick on her? Was he planning on helping her up like a gentleman, only to throw her back down again? It seemed the sort of thing Kinney would do to her.

"What, no insults?" Iko asked skeptically. "No snarky remarks, no trash talk, nothing?"

"It was my fault. I'm not going to chastise you for something you didn't do." Kinney said, and Iko found that despite her better judgement, she believed him.

She accepted his hand, and he pulled her to her feet so quickly and with such strength that she stumbled forward a little, closer to him. She looked up to see that their faces were only inches apart, and Iko felt her fan sputter as it always did when she looked into his eyes.

"Thanks," she said, in barely more than a whisper.

"Anytime." His voice was softer than she'd ever thought possible.

His gaze dropped to her lips, and she felt herself leaning forward. A small voice in the back of her head screamed at her to stop, to remember who he was. This was Kinney. The one who had disliked her since they'd met, done nothing but insult her, and had just knocked her over.

But he was also the same Kinney who'd swallowed his pride to help her to her feet, and who had been loyal to Cinder and her friends when no one else had. Now, as he leaned in to close the gap between them, that was all she could think about.

He was so close she could feel his breath on her skin, and just as her eyes slipped shut -

A loud shriek cut through the air, and Iko startled, jumping away from Kinney who looked equally surprised and a little bit flustered. She looked toward the noise to see Scarlet leaning over Wolf, who'd fallen face first onto the ice.

She looked back to Kinney, and noticed him blush the moment their eyes met. "I - I should go help her." She stammered, glancing over at Wolf, who was struggling to get up only to fall back down again. He was a tangle of limbs sprawled across the ice, but Iko was barely able to process that or anything else at the moment. Her head was still spinning, unable to compute what had just happened.

Was Kinney going to kiss her? Was she going to kiss Kinney? Did she even like Kinney?

She looked back to where he'd just been, desperately scanning the swarm of people for any sign of him, but he'd already disappeared into the crowd.