Chapter Text
July 2028
"I thought I'd find you here". Jisung sighs in frustration, slowing to a stop after his last triple flip (which had been a little shaky) and turning towards the voice. Standing at the edge of the rink is Jaemin, brown hair tousled, hands in pockets, and signature 'I do not approve' frown adorning his features.
“Congrats, you found me,” Jisung says, smiling sarcastically as he skates over to where Jaemin is. “What are you doing here?”
“I can ask you the same question. You know Taeyong would beat your ass if he knew you were here at ass o’clock in the morning, alone, working on your jumps.”
“What time is it anyway?” Jisung asks half out of genuine curiosity, half to distract Jaemin from his own question.
“You’re deflecting, stop that. What are you doing here so late, alone no less?” Jaemin crosses his arms over his chest and although he usually comes across as playful and mild-mannered, something about the dim overhead lights makes him seem more intimidating than Jisung would usually allow himself to think.
“Relax, I wasn’t working on any quads. I just… needed to think.” He shrugs, putting on his skate guards and walking over to the bench, sitting down and slowly unlacing his skates. Jaemin starts “tsk”-ing away, shaking his head.
“You know, most normal people go on walks when they need to think. They get fresh air and get reacquainted with nature and all that good shit. They don’t come to freeze their ass off in a dark and stuffy rink.”
“And you know as well as I do that nobody who skates is normal,” Jisung says with a scoff, slipping on his sneakers. He really should stretch his legs out, roll his ankles out a bit, but now that Jaemin interrupted his midnight practice session the tiredness is crashing into him in waves, seeping into his bones.
“Deflecting, again, Sungie.” Jaemin uses his sing-song voice and Jisung looks up, seeing a smirk on Jaemin’s face as he leans against the boards. Jisung sighs, folding his head over and running his hands through his hair as his eyes shut. There’s a slight throbbing behind his temple.
“I’m just… nervous, I guess. I was gone for 2 years with absolutely no notice, you know? That’s not exactly normal in our sport.” He opens his eyes but keeps them focused on his sneakers, following the stitching along the sides, trying not to look as anxious and stressed as he feels. “Most people probably think I retired.”
He feels more than sees Jaemin sit beside him, a hand coming down to soothingly pat his shoulder. He’s expecting some more nagging, a bit more teasing, but he’s surprised when Jaemin’s voice, notably more softer, says, “like you said, nothing about the sport is normal. How about we blow this icicle joint and get some ramen? Nothing like convenience store ramen at ass o’clock at night to soothe the soul, huh?”
In that moment, Jisung feels relieved. Jaemin can be a pain in the ass with all his teasing and nagging, but he reads Jisung like a book most times and the last thing Jisung needed tonight was more questions, more poking and prodding for answers even Jisung didn’t know yet. He finally pulls his head out of his hands, glancing over at his fellow skater. “Only if you’re paying.” He tries to smile as he meets the others’ eyes, and Jaemin smiles slightly before standing up, shoving his hands back in his pockets.
“Aish, I try to do something out of the kindness of my heart and I get taken advantage of instead. See if I ever come around to save your ass again, you better invest in some Life Alert in case you eat it out there one night.” Jisung smiles, looking back at the ice one more time before following Jaemin out of the rink, skates in hand, the lights shutting off behind them.
"You just don't ever quit, do you?"
Chenle skids to a stop, looking towards the entrance gate to the rink to see his coach, Kun, leaning over the edge of the boards with Renjun by his side. It was Renjun who had spoken, a glint of mirth in his eyes as he looked at his junior, his protégé, his mini me.
Chenle just laughed, loud and freely in the privacy of the rink. "I gotta catch up to you, don't I?" He asks teasingly, doing small figure eights on the rink with his hands up, effortlessly switching between the inner and outer edges of his blades.
"False. You have to do better than me, so technically you have to catch up and then go further. So really, you're not working hard enough," Renjun teases back.
Chenle halts all movement, about to retort when a new voice breaks the atmosphere.
"Renjun, you're back!" Chenle looks over to see Xiaojun making his way from the locker rooms, a smile on his face at their senior showing up unexpectedly. He bounced towards the older boy, his blonde hair flopping on top of his head as he threw his arm around the senior.
"Yeah, I figured I'd drop in and grace you with my presence, see how my favorite figure skaters in the business are doing. Kun keeping you in tip top shape?" Renjun peers at the coach, and Kun scoffs at his words, poking his thumb towards where Chenle stood on the ice.
"Chenle keeps himself in tiptop shape. He's a well oiled machine, I'm just a glorified supervisor." He glances towards Xiaojun, a lilted smirk pulling at his lips. "Xiaojun, well, he needs all the help he can get."
Said skater looks up, his features twisting into a mildly offended look. "Sorry not all of us were gifted straight out of the womb like Zhong over there." It's all in good fun though, and Chenle watches on familiarly as the 3 of them bicker and banter like a family. Which they were, kind of. Kun, Renjun, Xiaojun. They're the only ones in this industry he trusts. They mean more to him than they probably even know. He just looks on with a fond smile stretching over his features.
"Alright, alright. Let's focus on what really matters. Chenle, have you worked on your new short program yet? I want to see how it's coming along," Renjun says. "Have you added the triple flip toe loop combo?"
"I have. I've also been working on my flexibility, I was thinking of changing the camel spin to a Biellmann." To prove his point, he reaches down towards the ice, stretching his leg muscles and testing their flexibiltiy. A bit stiff, but nothing some stretching wouldn't fix.
"The Biellmann? Damn, you really want that gold." Xiaojun's eyebrows shoot up in surprise as Chenle stands up again. He just shrugs, reaching a hand up to fluff his hair out.
"Gotta pull out all the stops, right?"
"The Olympics aren't till next February, in case you've forgotten," Kun teases, yet there's a proud smile on his face. "There's still 18 months, no need to show off so much so soon. Let's stick to the camel spin for now, we'll shoot for the sit spin to Biellmann next season."
Chenle gives a mock salute to his coach, his teeth poking out in a small smile. "Whatever you say, captain."
"Alright then, show us what you got, ice prince." Renjun calls from the side. Chenle groans at the inescapable nickname that seems to follow him everywhere, but nonetheless he skates to the center of the rink, arms raised and poised in his starting position. He takes a deep breath, feeling his heartbeat thrum in his chest, the world around him going mute as he waits for the first note of the song to play.
He lives and breathes skating. From the time he was only 4 years old, his whole life has revolved around skating. He might as well have the nickname so befitting to him.