Chapter Text
Turns out that finding a skating partner was, in fact, harder than she thought.
It was actually impressive the amount of people that contacted her, and she was thrilled when most of them confirmed the tryout date. Now, she reckons that it was gullible on her part to believe that that was the hard bit. Because getting people to come was relatively easy when what followed was to see if they had what it takes and if they fulfilled the criteria.
And that proved to be the real challenge.
She internally groaned as the skating partner number ten messed up the choreography once again, doing a spin instead of a jump and trying to change his movements at the last minute upon realizing his mistake. That earned him his third fall on the ice and they weren’t even halfway through.
Rayla pursed her lips together, staring unamused at the sheepish look he was giving her.
“I think that’s all for today, thank you for coming.” She said, running a hand through her hair, a tired look on her face but giving him a polite smile nevertheless. The fatigue of holding tryouts for a whole day was eventually catching up to her body and she’s certain she hadn’t been giving her all either since the eight aspirant.
She deserves a break as much as he deserves a committed partner.
He seemed like he wanted to say something else but ultimately decided against it and only offered her a small nod and a thank you. The sheepishness was still very much present in his smile as he skated away. Or maybe it was embarrassment.
She exited the rink and sat on the first bench, taking a few sips from her water bottle every so often.
She had started this whole process with an optimist view and a buoyant mood in spite of Runaan’s warnings that she shouldn’t get her hopes up. And she should have listened because he’d know more than anyone the difficulties that skating partnerships imply. It’s been a week and still nothing.
Rayla sighed because at this rate she’ll never find a partner.
She reached forward to take out her laptop, opening the lid and finding the website she had been surfing for the past couple of days. The online database should make this search easier but so far it had nothing but give her a big headache. She looked through plenty of skaters’ bio, and they were either too far away in the globe with no chance of relocation, their categories and level of expertise did not match hers or their goals were simply too lackluster to even being put into consideration.
She scoffed at the response of one of them regarding their qualities. How could people write and reread their answers and think yeah, this is it is beyond her.
Clicking on one last name, about to seriously reconsider this whole thing, when the information written across the screen made her momentarily pause. Because for the first time since she began searching, everything seemed to check all the imaginary boxes she had apparently pre-established in her mind.
His category equaled hers, his competitive history was nothing but impressive and his short answers gave a lot to say about his character. In a good sense. She even clicked on the link to a Youtube video at the top of the page of one of his latest performances and the amount of grace and accuracy and confidence in which he delivered each movement left her equal parts of bemused and impressed.
She was tempted to contact him right then and there for his profile was impeccable and his prowess admirable; it was all she was looking for in a partner.
“How is everything going?”
Rayla heard Runaan approaching from behind, taking a seat right next to her. She closed the laptop, making a mental note to reach him later on, and let out a deep sigh. “Well, you were right.” She said leaning forward and placing her forearms on her knees, a thoughtful look on her face. “No progress, I have yet to find the one, and I have been doing this for a week. It’s driving me crazy.”
He hummed, seeing all of this coming in advance and totally not fazed by her current situation. “And what are you going to do about it?”
“Not give up, that’s for sure.” She said, the determination clear on her tone. Though the underlying concern was still very much noticeable despite her efforts of masking it up.
Runaan looked at her, his posture slacking up a bit and raised a single hand up to rest on her shoulder. The touch was comforting, and she offered him a grateful smile in return, “It’s too early to distress over lack of good talent. Hang on, be patient, dear.”
She could be patient, it’s all she has been this past week. But she thinks it’s finally running out of her system.
“I called one of my good friends from when we trained together in our younger days.” She turned her head to look at him, expectant. “He’s a coach in an academy that is further east and, conveniently, he has a student of his own that has been searching for a partner for quite some time.”
Runaan stood up, checking his watch, and scowled at the hour, “We coordinated to meet at four-thirty sharp. And unpunctuality does not bode well with a proficient skater.”
Just as he verbalized his thoughts on punctuality – or lack thereof – the doors to the academy burst open and a young man rushed in with a boy trailing not so far behind. They were both disheveled and panting, and when they finally reached them, they were too out of breath to talk properly without having cuts in between.
“I’m so… sorry for the… tardiness.” The older of the two said, gulping for air in between words. “We… we were stuck… in the traffic.”
The boy leaned to rest his hands on his legs, his breath getting more ragged by the second, “It’s true…please, it’s not… it’s not his fault. Oof, I need to… sit down.”
“Please, do.” Runaan said, gesturing for the boy to take a seat in the nearest bench. He gave him a beaming smile, his eyes lighting up with sheer gratitude towards his offer and that sole action clued Rayla into establishing that he was one of the purest souls out there.
“Thank you.”
She glanced towards the other person, the young man couldn’t be any older than her, and he–
Wait.
Or he is the same skater whose profile she was just looking at and that awed her enough to consider contacting him straightaway – forget the last candidates that were to come later that day, throw decorum away – or he has a doppelganger that looks insanely identical as him.
“Good afternoon, sir. My name’s Callum, we talked on the phone.”
No, same person.
Runaan eyed the man, and she could see him internally considering if he should give the young man a hard time for his lack of punctuality or let the incident pass. He crossed his arms over his chest, “Yes, I remember.” He said at last, his signature serious expression never wavering in the slightest. “We have already lost quite some time already, so I expect you both on the ice in five minutes top. Good luck.”
With that he walked away towards the highest benches where he had a better view of the whole ice-rink and, therefore, of their entire performance.
“Hi, I’m Callum. We didn’t get to introduce each other properly.” She looked at him, at his extended hand and at his soft smile, one that made an inexplicable feeling flutter in her stomach and promptly stirred a confusion deep inside her for it came all of a sudden. She took his hand and shook it, offering him a small smile. “Rayla.”
She looked at him, truly looked at him, and there was just so much kindness in his eyes that they enthralled her in, the color of his irises was only a plus. Never have green eyes looked so pretty to her before.
“And I’m Ezran!” She looked over at the boy, who had stood up from his seat to introduce himself, the same beaming smile from earlier back on his face. It was then that she realized the lingering of her hand in his and upon noticing it she retrieved it from his grasp, as if the touch had burned her, but careful enough as to not come off as rude.
“Nice to meet you, Ezran.”
“Oh and you should meet my little friend!” He reached behind in his backpack and the excitement in his tone made it all too difficult to say no, the glimmer in his eyes telling her that whatever he had to show her brought great amount of joy to the boy. But no matter how hard she wanted to concede to Ezran’s suggestion, more could her better judgment which was telling her that they better get on with this soon before Runaan lost his forbearance.
“I’d love to! But that would have to wait.” Rayla gave him a sad but reassuring smile, somehow trying to wordlessly promise him that he will get to show her his friend after the tryout was all done. She turned to look at his older brother, “Should we–“ Rayla trailed off, gesturing to the ice-rink.
“Y-yeah, yeah, we should.”