Chapter Text
“You ready?” Asks Kevin, handing Aaron his water bottle when he skates over to the bench behind the boards.
“I dunno, I was actually gonna do my stretching out here, maybe do my homework.” He answers, putting on his skate guards and sitting down beside Kevin.
“It's cold as balls in here, stretching would be counterproductive…” He points out.
“Fine then, homework it is. Gimme a second though, my stuff’s in the locker room, and I can tell Wymack we’ll lock up after ourselves.” And with that, Aaron stands up, and jogs out of the arena, and into the locker room, leaving a very confused Kevin.
A few minutes after Aaron left, he came back into the arena, jangling the keys to the building in one hand, and a familiar duffle bag in the other. Kevin realized the bag was familiar because it was his bag. The one he hadn’t been able to use for a while.
“I have a proposition for you.” He starts, eyeing Kevin’s confused glance, “I talked it over with Abby, and I convinced her to give you clearance to do some skating. No actual playing, just… I figured it might help?”
He thought he was seeing stars. He had tried to convince Abby to clear him for skating, basically since his hand got busted in the first place. She kept telling him no, that if he fell and landed on his hand, it would actually be game over for his career. While Kevin was persistent, he knew Abby was right. He missed the thrill of the cold air against his face as he raced towards the goal, the shivers that cheering crowds never failed to send down his spine, and the familiar wight of his stick in his gloved hands.
After a second of reflection, and a brief study of Aaron’s face, searching for his tells of joking or dishonesty, he ran a hand through his hair. The blond looked at him briefly before unbuckling his helmet with one hand, as he often did when the team was warming up or just skating for fun.
“Why is it that I can never convince anyone of anything, but you do it all in a single breath. Jesus…” complains Kevin, with a hearty exhale, and accepts the hand that his friend offers him and is quickly pulled off his seat on the bench.
“It’s just the precious blond in me.” Aaron deadpans, but his tone softens, “It ain’t right seeing you in the audience. My-... our Queen belongs on the rink.” Kevin always loved how Aaron’s southern accent slipped into sentences. It was one bullet point on a list of a hundred things that made the twins different.
“Damn fuckin’ right, I belong on the rink. Can’t believe Abby lacks appreciation for my luscious locks. I mean, yours is nice and all, but blonds shouldn’t get all the fun. My haircare regi-” laughs Kevin when he gets cut off by Aaron’s hand clamped over his mouth mid-word.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know about Kevin Day and his hair. You make Lucius Malfoy jealous, now take off your goddamn shoes, you heathen.” Aaron says with a chuckle and a shake of his head.
He unzips Kevin’s bag and pulls out his skates, that were dormant until Aaron’s aptitude for convincing people to do things for him. He loosened the laces quickly and folded over the tongue for Kevin to put his foot inside. His friend was clearly not enjoying his own lack of self-sufficiency, so he kept his face as neutral as it could be around Kevin. After the skate was on, Aaron bent down to the floor, sitting up on his knees while pulling Kevin’s skate-clad leg towards him and started tightening each row of laces.
“Jean and I used to do this for each other.” Kevin said, breaking the silence between them.
“Oh?” It was the only response he could manage. He knew small bits about Kevin and Jean’s relationship in Evermore, but nothing big enough to draw any conclusions from this sentence, let alone ask a follow-up.
“Small comforts went a long way in there. We’d insist that our fingers were too cold to do up our own, but that we could manage each others. Ridiculous really, the laces were all Raven regulation, and it was always the same amount of freezing, but…” Kevin explained with a glint in his eye.
Aaron finished one skate, then tapped the floor in front of him for Kevin to let him do the other. “Like when Andrew and Neil do their little things?” Asks Aaron, and after seeing Kevin’s face in need of elaboration, he continued “When Neil gets headaches, Andrew always plays with his hair, or squeezes his neck. Ya know? The cute and tender bullshit.” which gains a low laugh from Kevin.
“Yeah I guess so. Like I said, tenderness wasn’t a thing over there.”
“Well, lucky you’re got me aren'tya? And lucky you traded in those emo ass colors for orange.” Aaron finishes tying Kevin’s second skate, and slaps it with his hand before standing back up. “Now that I think about it… maybe our colors are the cause of Neil’s migraines…”
“Yeah, okay Einstein. Remind me how you’re passing in pre-med?”
“Oh shut it sweetheart.”
“Never.” said Kevin, poking his tongue out.