thin ice | childe x reader

two. the boys

"enough. i can't believe we're brothers," his apparent sibling grunted while pulling at the younger's hair, who whined about his hair product going to waste. "diluc. senior. left wing. my terrible brother is the right wing."

"and of course, that leaves me," childe introduced. "childe to the team, tartaglia and all of its mispronunciations to our opponents. i'm the captain and center. not like i expect you to know what that means."

your eye twitched. "i may not know what it means, but i can certainly see that you are the center of attention."

"it's 10 in the morning, are you asking for fight?!" he sneered.

"after this, i'll challenge you to a speed skate, and you'll lose," you countered.

"my average for the 500 is 40 seconds!"

"mine is 37 seconds!"

"enough, enough," coach interjected. "you'll have more than enough time to skate after we have brunch here."

as the courses began flowing through, amiable chatter covered the table. "so, y/n, you signed with the national team?" chongyun piped up.

"yeah," you said wistfully, recalling memories of your younger self. "it was crazy how fast everything went. i snagged all four championships for singles in high school, and the nationals committee was interested. so, to pay for my college tuition here, i signed."

"all four years?!" xingqiu cried. "you must be insane! but why the hockey team? it's a completely different sport than figure skating."

"if i'm being honest, i made a deal with coach, and i owe him anyways," you said before absentmindedly stirring at your water.

"that reminds me," kaeya added. "what made you want to skate? for diluc and me, it just runs in our family."

"i was going to do fencing until father convinced me otherwise," diluc muttered.

"well, i took ballet when i was little," you began while picking at your pancakes. "but i realized that just dancing wasn't enough for me. i needed something that would be more physically challenging. so, my dance teacher passed me over to ice skating, where i met coach jean, and whose sister used to be your manager. she taught me everything and she's practically like my mother."

"coach jean, huh?" xingqiu said with a hand on his cheek before shoving biting into his apple. "she used to be on the nationals team when coach was in the league. isn't she also head coach for the nationals team?"

"yup. back in the day, she was just my skate instructor. when she got the offer to be head coach, she took me with her."

"i've heard stories about her. you must be special, since she took you and signed you to the national team and went with here."

"i suppose," you hummed as you popped a slice into your mouth. "coach jean and i aren't on the best terms right now, after the olympics last year."

a tense silence filled the air as your utensils dropped on your plate. with sharp eyes, you looked down the table, facing each member of the team. "for future reference, i would rather not bring up the olympics. my job is to only help out the team, no?"

the subtle fear in their eyes at your sudden seriousness, especially childe's, made you smile through the rest of breakfast.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"you know, i think coach is trying to make us throw up on the ice," kaeya muttered as you all walked into the sunlit archon arena. the lobby that was between the two rinks was empty, save for the receptionist up front. "we're hardly an hour out from brunch and we're already jumping into warm ups?"