Ashton Enchanted » [cashton] √

2.3

"Do you want a hand?" he asked, and Ashton gave him a begrudging nod, "Alright, take my hands, you know the basics, don't you?" he nodded again, "okay, we'll just practice until you get used to being on the ice again," he told him. 

Slowly Luke skated backwards, holding Ashton's hands, and the older man managed to make his awkward dinosaur steps, helping to keep them in motion. 

"Won't Sierra be disappointed you're not with her?" Ashton asked, focusing on Luke's face to stop himself from looking at his feet. 

Luke chuckled, "I thought it was only fair that I came over to warn you that Crystal invited Calum, and I thought if I stepped in, you might not be encouraged to be in this position with him," he explained.

Ashton sighed, "that was my one condition of coming, that she didn't invite him," he rolled his eyes, "typical Crystal," 

"Yeah, well, normally I'd be right alongside her meddling but, she told me that, and I felt bad, so I'm here to help," he gave Ashton a small smile as ways of an apology. 

"It's not that I don't want to see him or that I don't like him. It's just that-"

"You have other stuff going on," 

"Exactly! And Crystal knows that!" he said, letting go of one of Luke's hands to gesture wildly, which was a mistake because he lost his balance, and Luke tried to help him and joined him in his fall. 

"Fuck," Luke said as his arse hit the ice. 

Ashton groaned as he shifted, trying to lift his foot to untangle his and Luke's legs, but it was an immense effort with the heavy skate attached. 

They both shifted their attention up as they noticed the shadows that had appeared and saw that the rest of the group was circled around them. 

"What happened?" Sierra asked. 

Ashton shifted and groaned again, "we were having a conversation, and I gestured too vigorously and lost my balance, taking my teacher down with me," he explained. 

The others laughed, and Luke finally stood, and once he was stable, he tugged Ashton up as well. 

"Why are you teaching Ashton to skate, Luke? That's Calum's job when he finally gets here," Crystal scolded. 

"I wasn't teaching him to skate; he's just a little rusty," 

"Hence why I wasn't wild about you inviting Calum, this is fall one of one hundred this evening," Ashton said, shooting a glare her way. 

Michael laughed, "I told you to stop scheming," he said, turning to face Crystal as well, who rolled her eyes, "We all know there's only one solution here," his tone was sarcastically solemn, "You have to get better, really quickly," he shuffled forward on his skates taking Ashton by the shoulders, "be better and fast," he told him. Ashton felt the tug in his stomach again and wanted to sigh. 

This could only lead to more questions. 

Everyone fanned back out, and Luke and Ashton were left alone. Luke seemed to be watching and waiting, and Ashton was pretending to catch his breath, sure that as soon as he tried to skate again, he'd have some explaining to do. 

"I'm just going to go sit down for a minute; I think I skinned one of my knees," he explained weakly.

Luke raised an eyebrow, "okay, do you need a hand getting back to the edge?" 

"No, I'll be fine; you go spend time with your girlfriend; I'm sure she'd probably cursing my name by now," Ashton laughed easily.

Luke laughed along too, "Okay, come find me if you need me," he told him, then he was turning his back and skating away.