The One That Understands Me | A Zanvis FF [COMPLETE]

Chapter XX - Ice

~Travis's PoV~

   "Hey Zane, wanna come skate with us?" I feel myself ask the man with icy eyes, cloaked in black.
   He looks up at me with a face as if he's weighing his options.
   "Sorry, but I don't want to." I hear him peep.
   "Why, it'll be fun!" I taunt, bringing out the 'u', and sitting down.
   "Well, it's just that..." He trails off, eye glancing over to the arena of people skating.
    "Just that..?" I ask, pushing him to finish his sentence.
   "I can't skate." He sighs.
   "That shouldn't be much of a problem. I mean," I pause slightly, pondering what I could do, "I could teach you. Or at the very least help you. Aaron's helping Aphmau 'cause she stumbles a bit."
   Zane looks over the rink again, scanning it. I could tell he did want to go, but some part of him wanted to hold him back. After a small moment of quiet and him thinking, he looks at me and grunts, "Mmm.. okay, fine." I give a cheer of victory and gesture to him to get up and follow me. "You better not make me regret this, or I swear, I'm not leaving my house in weeks." He mutters once more, his voice getting lower as the sentence progresses.
   "I won't, I won't, trust me, you should have fun." He drags himself off of the bench to stand by my side. "Follow me." I told him as I practically skip back to the line for the shoe stand.
   Yes! I got him to actually agree. I think this'll be good for him.
   After some comfortable silence between us, we check out our skates and go to the bench nearby to switch shoes. We sit down and take our own shoes off to put on the others. Zane tied on his skates as I grabbed our shoes and other belongings we shouldn't bring on the ice patch. I set them in a small cubby square of a shelf the park provided for this ice rink. I stumbled back to Zane; I had my skates on and it was somewhat difficult to walk normally in them. I could see Zane was starting to have seconds thoughts.
   "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..." He mumbled, barely audible.
   "Nope, this is a good idea." I stood in front of him as he began to really process the situation. "There's no going back now, so c'mon." I held my elbow out for him to take. He hesitantly locked arms with me and tried to balance so he could at the very least awkwardly waddle somewhere.
   "Ehh, I don't like this."
   "Hey, it's okay, I got you, you're not gonna fall." I reassured him.
   "You sound like one of those lame fathers  who's teaching their children how to ride a bike." He said, trying to avoid the fact that he was literally leaning on someone. I knew him somewhat, and I knew when he needed help he hated to admit it.
   "...Or maybe you will fall." I smirked, loosening my grip on him and making him lose his balance ever so slightly. He panicked and held on to me tighter.
   "Okay, okay, I'll stop with the remarks. Sheesh." He regained his balance and we finished making it to the edge of the actual ice. "Alright, now what?"
   "When we get on the ice, just hold on to me, and move your legs like this," I stopped talking a little to show him the correct movement with my legs, "and you should be fine."
   "Keyword, should be." He uttered, clearly uneasy that he was doing this new thing.
   "Oh, relax." I tried comforting him in a casual way and we both stepped on the frozen lake. As we inched in further and further away from the entrance, I felt his legs wobble a bit and him leaning on me more. "Hey, remember to go like this," I angled my right leg kind of out and pushed myself with my body and left leg, resulting that I go right a little. I repeated the action with my left, and I was softly and slowly moving back and forth to go forward. Zane attempted this movement, and, as most beginners are, was sloppy and uneven. He growled out of frustration, and I replied to this with, "You're doing pretty good actually, of course newcomers aren't gonna get it right the first time they try it." It seemed to calm him down.

   We kept at it for a while and Zane was starting to get it down - in his own wobbly way. He was still a bit shaky, obviously, as we were here for only a couple minutes to possibly an hour. But he didn't have to grip me so tightly anymore, and we were going faster than when we first started.
   I saw Aphmau was starting to really get it down too. Better than Zane, of course, as when we started she could glide without anyone helping her. Garroth and Laurance were probably skating all synchronized for all I know, they're probably the best out of the whole group. Well, that is if you exclude Katelyn, as she was also very good at this sport. Dante was OK, I was definitely better than him, but he seemed to be getting along just fine. Aaron was good enough to help others, like Aphmau, but Kawaii~Chan did have more trouble than Aph, and maybe even Zane. I assumed this was her first time on the ice too, but she had Katelyn to help her out.
   I wonder how well we'd all be, like if we were ranked. I think Katelyn would definitely have to take first, she can even do some twirls, leaps, and spins. The two sillies would tie for second and third, then maybe Aaron. I'd probably be next, with-
   I was snapped out of my thoughts as Zane seemed to have lost balance and tumbled to the cold, hard ground - bringing me with him. Since we were going at a pretty quick pace we slid a little on the ice before completely stopping. I could hear Zane groan beside me.
   "Urgh, why gravity." He growled.
   "I guess the ground just needed a hug." I patted the ice I sat on, jokingly trying to wrap my arms around it somehow.
   "Well, I don't like hugs." Zane muttered and tried to pick himself back up, and I saw him struggle. I got up myself and held my hand out for him to take. He looked up at me with half-lidded eyes, clearly from annoyance because of the amount of times I've had to help him today.
   He placed his hand in mine and I pulled him back up, and we continued to slide our way around.
   After some other slips and falls, Zane could finally glide around just like how Aphmau could at the beginning, without my help at all. I still skated close to him, just in case he fell once more, and I could tell this aggravated him. I only found it funny that he got mad.
   "Okay, I get that I'm still learning," he snarled at me, "but you don't need to keep baby guarding me."
   "I know, but I find it better if you're close to me."
   "There he goes again," he said to himself, shaking his head slightly.
   By this time, Aphmau could skate faster and better, with cleaner leg movements. And I didn't know she was behind us, approaching, with a plan. She picked up pace a bit to the point where I could hear her skates as clear as day. Then, in a swift motion, she sped past us, but not before nudging Zane in my direction. He lost his balance again and fell, right on top of me. I face planted into the frigid ice, as Zane lay across my mid section, our bodies making a strange shape resembling an 'x'.
   "Oh no," I could hear Aph speak, as others gathered around us. Someone helped Zane up, then me. It was Aaron.
   "You need to be more careful, babe." Aaron told Aphmau as she skidded towards us.
   "I know, I know, I was just trying to experiment and go fast." Aphmau apologized, sounding deeply sorry. "I'm really sorry Zane, I didn't mean to push you so harshly." She gave Zane an ashamed look.
   "Ugh, it's okay Aph, you didn't mean to," Zane returned, obviously trying his best not to snap at her, "you wanted to be cool. But sorry to break it to you; it's unobtainable."
   There's that bit of sassy remark.
   "Again, I'm so so sorry, to both of you." She said, and Aaron had begun to skate away. Zane looked down to dust the small particles of ice off of him. In the his small time, Aphmau looked straight at me, winked a satisfied wink, gave me two thumbs up and a very smug look. And with that, she slid away.
   That little...! She had this planned, of course. Just push Zane right on to me. Even for her or KC, this seemed a little aggressive. Well, maybe just for Aph, I don't know about KC and her ships. But dang, Aphmau can act really innocent.
   Why did I have to tell Dante, it resulting in him telling KC and Katelyn, and then they'd tell Aphmau. They even know who it's about too, which makes it worse.
   "I think that's enough for me, Travis." I hear Zane say beside me. "I'm getting a little tired. But... if you don't count me falling down countless times and the aggressive shove, I guess you can say I did have a little fun. Just a little."
   And with that, Zane skated off to the exit to take his skates off and get back to sitting down. Some other people of the group were also heading out, but the majority was still in, so I decided to stay in a while longer and skate, before we all decide to do something else.

Word count: 1676
WHOO I FEEL ON A ROLE.
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