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"Percy, I swear to god, if you let me fall I will murder you."
"Babe, I hate to break it to you, but it's been years since I've ice skated. It's going to be a miracle if I don't fall."
"Why did I let you talk me into this," she whined, gripping the railing before she even stepped onto the ice. Percy shuffled around her, moving awkwardly on the solid ground in the skates. She watched anxiously as he stepped onto the ice gingerly at first.
“Because I won at rock-paper-scissors.”
“Stop reminding me, Percy.”
“You asked.”
They were at the Rockefeller Center’s ice rink on a date because she’d lost at rock-paper-scissors against Percy. She wanted to go to Central Park. He picked ice skating, and he won.
They had gone soon after the sun had gone down, so she wasn’t all that mad about him winning because the rink was surrounded by trees that were completely outlined with twinkling white lights. The immense tree was decked out entirely in ornaments that were of all different shades of red, green, and gold with different colored lights shining off the tree, and the entire rink was lit up with huge stadium lights. The entire center screamed Christmas, and truth be told, Annabeth loved every inch of it. It was beautifully decorated, and she would’ve loved to come here any other day that didn’t involve her and ice.
There were at least one hundred people there, and she could see other people who were struggling on the ice like she would be soon enough which gave her the small bit of confidence to at least shuffle closer to the edge of the rink.
Percy stepped onto the ice, and he waited a minute to get his balance before looking up and grinning at Annabeth.
“Okay, come on,” he encouraged, holding out his hands for her.
“How did you even learn how to ice skate?” she asked, slowly setting her left foot down on the ice, immediately hating the feeling of not having a proper footing. She slid forward as she followed with her right foot, immediately taking Percy’s hands. She bent her knees slightly, leaning forward as he slid backwards slowly, pulling her along with him as he let her get used to the feeling of sliding on the ground.
“I remember being, like, ten years old and mom bringing me here one Christmas to get away from Gabe. We spent all day there, and she just taught me how to skate. I went back a few times since then, but obviously I haven’t gone back since Kronos,” he explained, slowly coming to a stop. She looked up at him in confusion.
“Why are we stopping?”
He smiled at her slightly as he spoke, “Annabeth, you have to move your feet in order to learn.”
She whined, not liking the high possibility of her falling flat on her butt. Sensing that, Percy slid in closer to her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. His lips were warm, and the contrast between the chilly air and his warmth made her shiver slightly.
“I’ll hold you,” he confidently spoke, and Annabeth sighed as she looked into his eyes. She knew that there was no way that she could possibly deny Percy anything when he looked so happy and so excited as though he were a school boy getting to go out to play with his friends.
Twenty three years old, and they were still holding onto these small moments to make up for everything that they missed out on as teenagers.
“Easy for you to say, water boy.”
“Shouldn’t learning things be easy for you?” he challenged, raising an eyebrow. She narrowed her eyes at him, annoyed that he caught her way too quickly.
Annabeth sighed. “Lead the way,” she answered. He grinned happily, his eyes twinkling in the light, and she laughed slightly at his excitement.
“Okay, step out with your right foot,” he instructed, pushing his own right foot backwards. “Then push off with your left.” She followed, and let out a quiet exclamation of joy as she actually moved a tiny bit on her own.
Percy continued instructing her on how to slowly skate along the ice, and she dutifully followed, stumbling every once in a while. Once she got the hang of at least the basic movements on the ice, he moved from guiding her as he slid backwards to moving to her side, an arm around her waist as they skated together. A few times people had skated past her dangerously close to a point where she wobbled, and as promised, Percy was there to hold her every time.
But Annabeth was slowly reaching her breaking point where she just wanted to be somewhere where she could feel the ground and balance .
“Percy, come on,” she pleaded with Percy. “It’s been like 25 minutes. I’ll let you open your Christmas gift early if we get to leave early.” Percy glanced down at his watch and huffed out a laugh.
“Alright, let’s go. How does Thai for dinner sound?” he asked, slowly pulling the two of them to a stop.
“If I knew that letting you open your present early was going to let me off the hook, I would’ve said that earlier!”
“Oh, I’m not agreeing for that,” he responded, laughing. “I’m agreeing because I’m hungry, and it’s cold.”
“Wow, I feel the love,” she replied sarcastically. He quickly kissed her and hummed as he pulled back, just far enough that she could feel his breath fanning over her face.
“You know it. Anyways, let’s go, Annabeth. It took us twenty minutes to get to one side of the rink, so it’s probably going to take us another twenty to get off.”
“Oh, please no.”