Once, when I was jogging by myself, I found a frozen lake. Ice was perfect - without snow, without a frozen ripple - as if someone created this with figure skating in mind. I was afraid I got out of form in these few past weeks without skating, so I had to skate.
And I did. Secretly, when no one knew, I snuck out a couple of times. I wasn't afraid, because Umbra, that black female wolf, was with me. Whenever I was out there alone, she would come to keep me company.
So now, when I knew I was ready with my dance, I knocked a couple of times on Reiji's door.
"What is it?"
"May I come in?"
"You have my permission." I took a deep breath and pressed the handle down.
In order to survive, I had to get Reiji to really like me. I noticed his preferences in gracefulness and high class things, starting with the teaspoons, ending with women. The last one was my guess, but I was pretty sure I wasn't wrong, or at least I hoped I wasn't, because I'd be out of luck and...
"Did you come here to stare into nothingness while fiddling with your fingers, or did you come here for a reason?" His voice brought me back from my thoughts. He didn't stop with his work, he didn't even take a glimpse at me and yet he knew what I was doing. As if he had eyes on his back. That sent shivers down my spine.
"Uhm, yeah. I actually wanted to ask you if there is a place where I could practice figure skating."
"Oh my, you skate?" That got his attention. He put down the tools he was holding and walked towards me, his arrogant smirk getting wider by every taken step.
"Don't tell me an idiot like you can skate." Anger almost consumed my rational thoughts and I almost slapped him. But I knew better than that. I'll play humble for now.
"It's just a hobby of mine. I'm not really that good, I just like the way it feels to be on ice, flying like a snowflake in moonlit sky..."
"Oh really? Then I guess it's really worth seeing you trip over your own feet." We'll see about this. I was getting nervous, but my urge to prove this vampire shauvinist that humans are not inferior to them was way stronger.
"Just give me a few minutes to prepare myself." I ran out of his room excitedly. I dressed up to match my mood - in all white. I put on my white skating jacket with white leggings and a wrap skirt. When I was done, I took my skates and ran downstairs where Reiji was already waiting.
"Shizuka-san, once again you forgot your..."
"It's right here." I wrapped the scarf around my neck.
"Let's go, I still have work to do." Reiji obviously hated going outside. Poor guy was wearing heavy winter shoes, a long winter trench coat, it was a bit obvious that he had more than three layers underneath said coat. You couldn't see his neck because of a long knitted, fluffy looking scarf. He had black earmuffs on and...
"Get going, Shizuka-san." Reiji fixed his glasses and then I noticed mittens on his hands. He looked as if grandma had dressed him up. But he dressed up like this voluntarily!
"Reiji-san, do you, by any chance, dislike cold weather?"
"I despise it as much as I despise that good-for-nothing." Ouch. Reiji opened the front door and urged me to go. I let him lead the way to the lake.
We walked mostly in silence. I was repeating steps and music of my dance in my head all the way to the lake. I didn't want to embarrass myself by forgetting steps in front of this person.
Night was really quiet and calm, moonlight made everything around us shine and sparkle. A few snowflakes were shyly falling down from the sky, making me feel as if I was in a middle of the sky, surrounded by the stars. I took a deep breath, enjoying cool air. I finished lacing my skates before stepping on the cold hard ground.
"And here I go."
"Please do fall down a couple of times," Reiji said with a chuckle. I ignored his remark, took another deep breath and started skating forward.
At first, I did a little warm up. For me, the best way to warm up is to work on my edges. After doing some leaps around the ice, I grew tired of crossovers. I did some simple jumps to warm up to my doubles later on.
I was doing some backward crossovers when I heard it - the sound when your blades touch and you know you are about to painfully fall down. After landing on my knees, I got up as fast as I could while ignoring the pain. That was definitely going to bruise, but better fall now on crossovers than during a difficult spin.
As expected, I heard Reiji chuckle a little bit, but the satisfaction he got wasn't that great, since I made fall look so painless and soft. When I felt ready, I did a waltz jump and landed it into a backspin. Feeling confident, I took the starting position of my skate.
I knew every single note of the song so I let the music in my head do its magic.
First part of the skate was easy, with a few technical difficulties. Most jumps were in the second half for the bonus points purpose.
Skating was my escape from daily life and problems, so whenever I got the chance to get away and free myself from any worries and problems for at least few minutes, I took it and skated my heart out.
Even though there was no music, I still somehow felt it. I was free. I felt like a bird freed from a tiny cage, finally able to spread its wings and fly. And I flew. I spread my wings and lost myself into the pleasure of skating... For a while that is.
Reiji was following my every move, so I had to leave him speechless. I have poured my sweat and tears learning this step sequence and hopefully I won't have to sacrifice my blood today. I had my leg up in the air and was holding it over my head, so I brought it back on the ground, thinking about the first jump.
But I was fired up and I did a double flip double loop combination jump instead of only doing the double flip like I was supposed to. Usually, I wouldn't take these kind of risks, but today was different. Today was 'Fuck you, Reiji, sincerely - the entire human race' day and I was only starting!
After a while, I replaced my single jump combination with a double salchow and a toe loop combination following that. I usually don't add something to change my routine, but I had to take his breath away like a nice punch to the gut.
My eyes didn't leave his face while doing an Ina Bauer with the most bended back possible. Even though it hurt a bit and I was pushing it to my limits - Reiji's dumbfounded face was worth it.
And for the final jaw opening jump I chose a spread eagle into a double axel. I rarely got that jump right, since it was a triple one, but I felt like today was my lucky day. I started the final combination spin, allowing myself to be absorbed and taken away by the sensation.
I made a flying camel spin into a sit spin ending with the y shaped spin at the end. It's a Junior level spin but spins had always been my forté. It felt awesome to finish my little performance without any noticeable mistakes or falls. I stayed in my last pose for a few seconds, savoring the sensation of success and relaxation.
I opened my eyes to see Reiji, standing there with his mouth slightly agape and eyes wide open. I went closer to him.
"May I skate some more or are you already frozen to your vampire death."
"...more..." Reiji said quietly, still not out of his daze. His eyes widened even more when one big snowflake landed on the tip of his nose, probably bringing him back to this world. His hand shot up to fix his slipping glasses. Reiji a bit nervously cleared his throat.
"What I meant to say is that we can't spend more time here - I have to prepare dinner."
"But we had that already. Wasn't it supposed to be a monthly thing?"
"Yes, it was and it still is. The dinner is for you, now let's go."
It was weird, because I always made my own food in the mansion. At first it was hard because all of the cooking books were in Japanese and kanji is hard to understand, but I managed. Sometimes.
He turned around from me and the lake and made his way towards the mansion.
"Reiji-san, wait! I didn't even take these off! Reiji!" He stopped, but didn't face me. I put on my regular shoes as fast as I could and ran to catch up with him. Reiji wasn't waiting for me once again, so I had to run for a bit. On the entire trip back to the mansion I was forced to stare at the sparkling back of Reiji's coat.
What I didn't know was that we weren't alone by the lake that night - we were being closely watched by two brothers.
"Nfu~ Who could have thought that Reiji is going to be the one to take her out on a date."
"That bastard?!" White haired vampire could barely hold in his anger. "I'll show her! I'll show her how to get along with that scum!"
"Please control yourself, Subaru-kun~ No need to make any rash decisions. You know we are one team, right~?"
"Don't remind me about this terrific thing!"
"As you wish, dear brother~ Subaru, where are you going? Subaru-kun! And he's gone," Laito chuckled to himself. "You better survive this, Bitch-chan."
...
And here it is - a few days late, but the chapter is here. It was difficult for me to write it because I know as much about figure skating as I know about Harry Potter - almost nothing
｡(*^▽^*)ゞ
But thankfully, we have a true specialist of the matter - MirajaneMalphas. Enormous Thank you for helping with the skating part!!! (Her story 'Ambition' is a crossover of DL and Yuri! On ice, so if you're in a mood for stuff like that - check it out.)