voice mail from unknown:
"Hey Ki, I know it's like really freaking early in the morning for you, but please just let me know when you get this. I just want to know how Lyra is... I'm heading to the gym so if you need anything my phone will be on me, just please tell me if she's back to normal when she wakes up, or we're going to have a problem again, and I'm really trying to avoid that. Anyways, just text me. Bye."
Ki pulled the phone down from her ear and looked at the time next to the message.
5:57 am.
Damn Gabby.
She then looked at the tiny time stamp on top of her screen.
9:42 am.
Well shit.
Lyra was still asleep on her lap, her hand draped over the side of the couch lazily with her phone loosely balanced between her fingers and the floor.
Ki took a minute before deciding to respond, craning her neck around the couch to see if either of the boys were awake in the kitchen, or still tucked away upstairs.
When they came home last night, they were forcefully throwing expired marshmallows at each other in the kitchen, which although Ki couldn't help but laugh at, was not the right thing to walk in on with Lyra.
She smiled and waved as if everything were okay and then promptly curled up in Ki's arms and stayed silent for the rest of the night; only nodding her head once when asked if she wanted to watch a movie.
It was concerning how mute she was, but Ki guessed it was a fluke incident that would soon be forgotten from a solid 8 hours of sleep and sunshine outside their window.
She decided that worrying Gabby was unnecessary, so she opened her phone and typed out:
delivered:
hey gab it's ki. I think she's okay. she's sleeping right now.
she got an immediate reply.
lyra jr 🏐
okay. it'll probably be best if she spends the day with you if that's cool, if not I can swing by and get her but Cassie and John spent the night here last night and I think damage control says they should stay separated
delivered:
yeah that's totally fine. not like I'm going to mind
lyra jr 🏐
figured. just uh, you know have fun
lyra jr 🏐
but not too much fun ;)
delivered:
there's the dirty remark I was waiting for
lyra jr 🏐
if my sister comes home pregnant I'll kill you
delivered:
once again gabby...
delivered:
IT DOESNT WORK LIKE THAT
lyra jr 🏐
just covering all the grounds here
lyra jr 🏐
I'm not stupid I know ki lmao
delivered:
trust me... she's fine
lyra jr 🏐
I know she is
lyra jr 🏐
contrary to my usual "I hate you because you're dating my sister" attitude, I actually trust you
delivered:
I should feel honored
lyra jr 🏐
it truly is an honor
lyra jr 🏐
if I wanted to end you I would've
delivered:
damn okay
Ki set down her phone on the arm of the couch with a smile as she glanced back down to Lyra sleeping.
Her mouth was hanging slightly open, her hair almost falling in as it draped over her cheek. Ki wanted to laugh at the tangles that were forming from her falling out curls, but instead she just admired her messy morning self in its rarest form.
Then as if a mystical alarm clock was set off across the universe, the phone dangled on the edges of Lyra's fingertips started buzzing.
She quickly jerked her head up off of Ki's lap, her hair becoming evidently worse as she leaned up worriedly, bringing her phone up to her face.
Ki saw the screen as she held it up.
Mamá.
"Ugh." Lyra plopped back down in Ki's lap, pressing the red deny button as she held the phone out in front of her face.
"Not gonna pick that up?" Ki mumbled as Lyra settled back into the couch, awake but barely holding on to consciousness.
"No." She grumbled into Ki's leg, flopping the phone down on the couch beside her.
"Does she know where you are?"
"I'm sure Gabby told her." She waved it off as she let her arm fall back over the side of the couch. "What time is it?"
"Like almost 10."
"Damn that's early." She yawned into the side of Ki's knee.
"Early? You know Shori woke up at 5 to go to work... now that's early." Ki giggled as she grabbed a section of Lyra's hair and pulled it back towards her neck.
"Ew, why is he even working today?"
"Overtime. He's been all over it for the wedding." She tucked it all loosely behind her ear.
"Oh... right."
"Andi is still upstairs though, so no throwing parties." Ki smiled down at her girlfriend.
"Oh yeah, like I want to throw a party." Lyra rolled her eyes and attempted to hold back her smile.
"What do you want to do today though? I've got absolutely nothing planned, and Andi is most likely going to be grading papers and catching up on Supergirl all day."
"Can I surprise you?" Lyra turned her head over so that she was looking up at Ki, albeit upside down.
"How are you going to surprise me? We're at my house and driving my car."
"Yeah, okay well... I don't know... can I drive?"
"Drive the Jeep?"
"Yeah." Lyra whispered hesitantly.
"No." Ki almost felt bad with her immediate response.
It's not that she didn't trust Lyra, it's just that car meant more to her than most things she owned. The whole damn family worked their asses off so they could buy her that car for her birthday. Ki had picked it out and Shori bought it, no questions asked. He didn't even have his own car, yet Ki had one that was newer than Andi's.
"Okay." Lyra shrugged it off. "How about I tell you where to turn?"
"I mean that could work, but you know I'll figure it out right?"
"It's all I've got, Ki."
Ki pondered it for a second. She knew her way around every back road in this tiny little town, and definitely knew where all the staple places to visit worth a damn, so the element of surprise would be completely lost on her, but if it made Lyra happy, it was worth a shot.
"Alright." She sighed. "You want something new to wear first?"
"Uh, I didn't bring anything."
"I know, you dork." Ki smiled down at Lyra, who although upside down still looked as cute as ever with the light pout on her face.
"Oh..." Her face dawned with realization. "Um... actually for what I'm thinking I think I'll just keep this on."
"Okay so given that you know where we're going... what do I wear?"
"Can I pick it out?" Lyra bit her lip with a playful smile.
Ki tried looking at her with a 'really?' pout, but it ended up just turning into a small grin that spread across her lips like uncontrollable wildfire.
"I suppose."
————————
"My gps says turn left but that looks like a forest." Lyra frowned as she tilted her phone over in her hands.
"Lyra we're literally just on State Street, a few minutes and we'll be out of town, there's nowhere to turn left. There's only one road on the right even." Ki sighed, drumming her thumbs on the steering wheel to the sound of RIP 2 My Youth playing in the background.
"But I swear that's the direction we need to be going... I think..." Lyra squinted at the map. "Shit! No wait it is that right turn!"
Ki tried not to laugh as she started slowing down, putting on her turn signal as Lyra was intensely trying to stare at the directions while hiding her phone from Ki.
"You know there's only two places we could be going on this road and one of them is a Starbucks..."
"Shhhhhh, you don't know that..." Lyra mumbled staring out the window as they turned on to Jackson Road. "Maybe we're going out of town."
"Oh yeah? And what would you know out of town?"
"The uh... one mall."
"The mall forty minutes away?!" Ki glared over to her, praying that wasn't her intentions.
"Maybe I want to go shopping..."
"Jesus Lyra... if I would've known that..."
"Turn left." Lyra quickly interrupted.
Ki barely had a second to think before she had to quickly slow down to turn. She knew the exact entrance they were turning into by heart, it was a little odd however coming here on a Friday. They were typically closed.
"You know they're closed on Friday mornings right?" She said pulling into the mostly empty parking lot of The Snow Box Ice Arena.
"Actually..." Lyra smiled slyly, waving her phone in her hand. "I called while you were in the bathroom earlier. Taron works here, he said they're doing a special Black Friday thing at 2, but he'd let us in before since no one else had rented the ice and his boss is out of town, so his older brother is the manager and totally hung over right now... which is kinda unfortunate, but also funny."
"Oh my god, what?" Ki couldn't help but break into a smile. "We're getting the whole ice?"
"Only for an hour before he has to clean it, but yeah." Lyra shrugged. "Figured you could... like teach me or watch me fall or something..."
"That's... so awesome... Lyra! The last time I was on the ice alone was... wow, when I was in Texas..." Ki shook her head in disbelief as she put the car in park.
"So you like it?" Lyra broke into a smile as she reached for her door handle.
"God I love it. Let's go!" Ki practically broke her door off as she ran to the back of her car to get her skates.
There were three things she always kept in the back of the Jeep. Her skating bag, an extremely large tied blanket from Shori's mom, and an extra pair of sweatpants.
She only needed one of those things today, but she was so damn thankful to herself that she never got around to taking them out of the back.
————————
Only half the lights in the room were on, causing the rink to be disproportionately darker in some areas than others. Those were honestly Ki's favorite spots—where she could skate without feeling exposed to the whole world watching.
Well of course no one was watching anyways. The rink was completely empty besides Taron and his brother, and they were both in the office upstairs.
Ki couldn't help but take a deep breath of the cold air in as she skated back in towards the middle from her lap away from Lyra.
"I might just stand here and walk around in circles to make myself feel like a professional." Lyra nodded as she stared down at her feet, pathetically stepping around like a toddler who couldn't turn.
"What? You don't think you already are a professional?" Ki grinned as she skated in close to Lyra, holding out her hand for her to grab as she started slowing down.
"Hmm yeah, I've been here a total of two times now?" Lyra grabbed onto Ki's hand whole heartedly. "That's not even beginners level."
"Is there something you want to try?"
"What and fall flat on my face? Yeah, no thanks."
Ki stopped just short of Lyra's skates and stood there holding on to her hand as if to pull her along, but they didn't move. Lyra looked down at her with a gentle smirk, holding their eyes together with her captivating glare. Ki was just short of leaning in to kiss her, when a wide smile suddenly spread across her face.
"What?"
"Can you show me how you used to skate?" Lyra whispered with excitement.
"Like teach you a routine?" Ki said in utter disbelief. There was no way Lyra could make it five steps in without getting hurt. That was not a risk Ki wanted to take.
"No, no... I just want to watch."
"Watch me skate?" Ki raised her eyebrows. "No... No way. I'm so rusty, it'd be embarrassingly terrible."
"Oh come on... it's going to look better than anything I could do either way..."
"I don't have music anyways, so no."
"You don't need music. I'll sing." Lyra broke into a grin.
"Lyra..."
"Please I just want to seeeee..."
Ki rolled her head back to stare at the central light that was illuminating the center of the ice. She took a deep breath and then exhaled with a "fine."
"What should I sing?" Lyra nearly bounced up as she started clapping her hands together.
"You don't have to sing." Ki shook her head trying not to laugh. "Just stay here in the middle okay?"
"Okay!"
"God this is going to be so bad." She sighed, releasing Lyra's hand as she began to skate past her.
"I think you're going to do great!" Lyra tried to turn around so that she could see Ki.
Ki was internally panicking as she came to a stop on the edge of the goal line, resting the pick of her skate into the ice where a divot already sat from the goal net from last night's hockey game. She really didn't know any routines without music, and she hadn't been in enough practice to just pull one out of her ass either. She thought long and hard about which routine she had previously done in her prime would make her look the least like a fool now, and eventually decided on a orchestral rendition to Christina Perry's A Thousand Years—the last routine she had done in competition.
She closed her eyes and started the song in the back of her mind, hearing the chords ringing out as she took the first stride out. It was a slower melody than her typical pieces so it should've been an easy adjustment given her lack of experience on the ice lately.
When she opened her eyes she was coming around the outside of the circle in which Lyra was standing in the middle. She didn't say a word, or make any faces, let alone smile. She just passed her and started with her arms out to her sides.
The lyrics began in the back of her mind—something she was previously used to filling in for herself at practices as the rendition had no lyrics to begin with. It was something that helped her stay on track and focused.
She closed her eyes again as she rounded the first part of her entrance, she followed it with a slow crossover, using her left foot to turn herself in the direction she needed to be heading.
The darkness of the rink left Ki in a melancholy memory of the exact day she performed this routine for the last time. She had spent so many days and practices perfecting it, just to come in fourth after the rest of the region had gone.
She rose one arm in front of her and one behind, using the extra balance as she shifted her weight to the front of her toe pick and spun back to begin the entry to her first attempt at a jump.
Typically at this point, she would've been preparing for a double axel but in no way would she have been able to land that correctly. It took her a year to get that far, and then when she tried to go further and attempt a triple she ended up landing sideways and nearly broke her ankle.
No way we're doing that today.
A single would be enough.
She took a deep breath and took the jump, the sudden twist in the air passing faster than the blink of an eye. She landed back down on the right foot and nearly smiled that she was able to complete a jump successfully after three years of no real practice.
Nice.
She switched back over to skating forwards as she came around the center now on the opposite side of where she started, glancing over to Lyra quickly, who was following her every move with a loose smile.
Ki's face lit up with a light blush as she allowed herself a moment to smile before she came up to her spin.
She went into it quickly, almost too fast as when she was wrapping her arms back in to her chest, she felt the unbalance nearly knock her over. She left both of her feet on the ice in the spin, leaving it a basic spiral, but at that point she surely would've fallen over with anything else.
There's time to improve that. Ki thought to herself as she came out of it with a backwards glide, bringing one foot slightly off the ice as she crossed over back to her forwards stroke.
Building up to the chorus, Ki increased her speed, coming around the next turn of the ice with several wide crossovers that led her back to a straightaway where she decided to go several turns from forwards to backwards instead of the normal move she would've pulled there.
She didn't have enough space to bring her leg up without possibly hitting Lyra so cutting that spin out seemed like a viable option.
The light was beaming down on her now that she was in the center, making her realize she was most likely going to get sweaty if she kept going like this. She could feel the heat behind her neck and already on her face from where she was previously blushing anyways.
She didn't have time to stop, nor was she in the position to break from the routine so instead she just integrated it in. Slowly as she began to crossover to her backwards flow again, she worked off the sleeves of her dark red leather jacket, feeling the brisk air meet her skin as she was left with nothing but her thin black t shirt brushing against the outline of her body from the breeze. She threw the jacket towards the center of the ice, landing a foot away from Lyra's feet, as she prepared to go into another spin.
This time she would get far enough from Lyra to actually being able to get that second foot up... if she didn't throw herself off balance again.
She went in a little slower this time, leaving herself using the movement of her arms to start the spin. As she counted the second rotation, she lifted her foot out and let her leg freely spin aside from her spinning foot in a lazy fashion that probably didn't look professional, or pretty for that matter, but also felt like a nice step up in Ki's book.
She never was very good at spins. For some reason, jumps were always her finer area, even though for most of the girls in her rink it was the other way around. Maybe she felt more intrigued with the competition to be able to move up in jumps before any of the other girls did. The imbalance between mastering both of them was what left her routines sloppy—or at least that's what she first heard when she came to free skate at Snow Box for the first time. Granted, the girl she talked to first was a bitch who just wanted to critique her instead of let her skate, but Ki still took it seriously. She was probably right, anyways.
As the momentum for the spin ended, she led herself out of it, remembering now that flighting dizzy feeling that can come from a little too many rotations.
That's why I hated spins. She reminded herself as she moved forwards again with a simple stroke, not confusing herself as she regained her center of gravity.
Another jump was coming up, she just couldn't remember which one. It was either the double salchow or the triple loop, both of which Ki had mastered flawlessly years ago—both to her and her trainer's surprise.
"Fuck it." She whispered under her breath, mounting up her energy to jump.
Just pick one.
She didn't know what she was doing when she lifted her foot off the ice, but in a matter of a second she already had her feet twisted tightly together for a salchow.
Making a split second decision was rash and screwed up Ki's count in her head. She lost the song, she lost her rotations, she didn't know what foot she was landing on.
So she didn't.
She was halfway though a rotation when the rear of her right blade hit back down on the ice. It wasn't the elegant landing she was hoping for, so it came at a surprise. Her balance failed her as she tried to untangle the other foot, resulting in her inelegant fall sideways, crashing down onto the ice faster than she could put her arm out to catch herself.
The hit seared through her shoulder as she slid across the ice, her skin feeling the cold bite of the ice as she curled into her shoulder. She was glad if anything she was able to keep her head from hitting the ice as hard as it could've. It was going to cost her with her arm though.
She knew better. One of the first things she learned was how to fall—she was rather great at it in the first few years—yet here she was in this curled up little ball, clutching her arm as if it were going to help anything.
She slowly released herself, rolling her head back so it hit the ice, opening her eyes to stare up at the ceiling in disbelief.
You were stupid to try. She cursed herself as her vision focused in on the shining ceiling light in the center.
"Ki?" Lyra's voice came from across the ice. "Are you okay?"
God her head hurt. She didn't even hit it that hard and yet it was still pounding in her skull. She'd be lucky if she didn't get a concussion.
Dumbass.
She knew for a fact Shori was going to tell her how stupid she was, and how she could've broken something, or that she should've taken her jump down a notch.
He was right, of course, but hell would freeze over before Ki would tell him that.
"Did you break something?" Lyra started worriedly stepping across the ice in incomplete wobbly strokes.
Right... Lyra just saw that.
"No. I should be fine. Not the first time I've fallen like this." Ki said flexing her fingers on the arm still pressed down against the ice.
She turned over onto her back, and as she did she felt the pain that moving her shoulder left behind.
"Shitttt..." She hissed as she clenched her teeth together.
"Are you sure?" Lyra slowed down on her skates as she became within arms reach from Ki, dropping down onto her knees as she didn't know how to stop.
"I can still move it, it's fine. Just numb for a minute." Ki sighed bending her elbow so that she could lay the arm across her chest.
With a deep breath, she felt the air rise in her lungs and then fall back down into the ice that was pressing cold and hard up against her back.
Lyra lifted a worried hand to the base of her arm, and carefully lifted it up off the ice for inspection.
"God that's gotta hurt." She lightly outlined the pulsing red skin on the back of her shoulder.
As she lifted the arm up higher from the ice, her face became more uncomfortable and cautious.
"Ki actually you're bleeding a little."
"What?" Ki found herself in surprise. "It wasn't even that bad. Well help me up, I can't make a mess on the ice." She began to lift her head up from the surface, loathing the thumping pain that returned to her forehead.
"Does it usually bleed?" Lyra asked with an worried expression sketched into her forehead.
"Well I mean, no... but it was my bare skin hitting the ice. I usually have on a training jacket or something, so that's probably why." Ki sighed as she started leaning her weight over to her other arm to push herself into a crouch.
"Do I need to call an ambulance?" Lyra followed her with her hand, lying it gentle and steady on top of her shoulder.
"Lyra, no! No, don't do that!" She laughed, closing her eyes as she began standing up. "I will be perfectly fine, I promise."
"Are you sure?"
"Lyraaaa..."
"Okay." Her girlfriend frowned as she rose up next to her. "Okay, I'm sorry."
Ki still had her eyes closed when she heard the door to the room swish open, bringing with it, a single "hey."
His voice echoed through the empty room, calling her attention to the front that he entered from. She immediately swiveled her head to look at him, leaning against the side of the entrance to the ice, watching with curiosity as she and Lyra stood towards the center of the ice.
"Hey Taron." Lyra replied, bringing her hand off of Ki's shoulder with a small wave in his direction. "What's up?"
Ki let her hands fall loosely at her sides as she began to slowly skate forward into the center ring to grab the jacket she had previously thrown off.
"Not much, honestly." He shrugged. "You guys need more lights on? It's kinda dark in here, my bad."
"No it's good. We're actually just about to get off I think." Lyra attempted to fall in line behind Ki.
As Ki leaned forward to try to pick up her jacket in a simple stroke, her shoulder ached with pain as she moved on where she assumed the injury was. She couldn't precisely feel it at this point, it was just a guesstimate to which area was more numb than the rest.
"You okay?" Taron leaned his head into the rink, watching as Ki hung the jacket off the few fragile fingers that picked it up.
"Um, yeah I'm good. Just fell a few minutes ago." She mumbled looking up to him across the ice.
"I know this is gonna sound ironic, but do you want some ice?"
Ki gave a short forced laugh. "Uh, sure. That might actually be a good idea."
"I'll go grab some and meet you out here." He motioned with his fingers, pointing through the doors to the main sitting room.
"Thanks." She called after him.
"Shall I escort you off the ice?" Lyra came up beside her—completely unbalanced—holding out a hand.
"Lyra you'd fall over... are you sure it isn't the other way around?" Ki smirked up to the girl standing next to her.
"Shhhh, I would not!" Lyra pulled back her hand, pretending to be offended.
"Come on princess." Ki rolled her eyes leaving her hand out behind her to pull Lyra along as she took a stride forward.
Lyra quickly took her hand, which made Ki smile with satisfaction. Behind her she heard the sigh of her defeated girlfriend, mumbling to herself in efforts to regain her defense.
"I'm totally not a princess."