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When Yosuke had discovered his partner had never been ice skating, the utter disgust in his shocked gasp was potentially a little over the top. But since the rest of the team had been similarly upset by the prospect of their leader having never indulged in repeatedly bruising his tailbone on frozen water, he let it slide without feeling too self conscious.
Naturally, this led to the realization that his partner had never learned how to ice skate as well, and the speed with which he offered himself up to teach him was probably a little alarming considering he had only ever imagined doing that for a cute girl on some cliche date.
(He wasn’t getting into the whole thing about how he was thinking about girls less and less lately. That was hidden deep, deep in the pandora’s closet. Doesn’t exist, no sir.)
They didn’t take long to find an ice rink in Okina and the moment they hit a day they were all free, it was go time.
So like, Yosuke was talented. He was able to do flips (sometimes) and he was a speed demon in battle. He was reliable! He had that shit on lock.
Only he… well. Sometimes he kinda just tripped over absolutely fucking nothing and ate shit into the ground.
So to say he knew how to ice skate wasn’t a lie. He knew, theoretically, what to do in order to skate well. Sometimes he even managed it! By all means he should be able to be a good skater, and he was a fantastic teacher.
He just was also constantly falling at random points while he instructed. Something he had failed to think about before offering to teach Yu how to skate for the first time.
Oops?
But at least he didn’t seem to mind? Yu just smiled and laughed in a way that made it obvious he wasn’t laughing at Yosuke and was more taking joy in the silliness of the situation. It made something in Yosuke’s chest tighten oddly, and then release rapidly to the point he felt like his chest no longer had organs in there and instead was filled with cotton candy. Or maybe helium. He did kinda feel like he was about to float away, actually, so maybe the helium thing.
Yosuke tried to not make a joke about girls while he lead Yu along by the hand, keeping them close to the wall just so they could reach out if they needed to. He had a strong feeling that would ruin the mood they had going on. And while he was kinda, strike that, extremely terrified of this feeling, he didn’t want this to go away. He didn’t want to see Yu’s smile tighten and go just a bit darker, see the disappointment Yu wishes he didn’t feel linger in his grey eyes.
So far, Yosuke was doing a decent job of not falling, but there were a few moments where he was waving his arms frantically to re-find his balance. He could skate so smooth and impressively one moment, and the next he was like a baby deer on the ice; trying to explain the process of skating while looking like he had never done it a day in his life.
But hey, he knew what things to tell people to help them learn, so who cared? Right?
Honestly, it was kinda weird watching Yu not be effortlessly perfect at something from the get go, though. So often Yosuke either saw the tail end of Yu learning a skill, or he saw him master it so rapidly that Yosuke never remembered that his partner wasn’t always able to do it. But skating was about muscle memory, and it would take time for Yu to learn that. There was no way around it.
(Well. That didn’t mean he wasn’t leagues better than Yosuke when he first got on the ice, but still.)
Yosuke watched his partner teeter next to the wall with a dopey grin on his stupidly handsome face and felt his breath taken away. He never believed the whole thing about your world narrowing down to a single person cliche but maybe he just had never met the right person before.
Well he certainly as hell had now.
Yosuke reached to grab his hand frantically when he saw Yu’s foot stutter instead of glide and forgot to let go for an entire hour.
“Come on Partner, just a little longer? Please? Look how good at this you’ve gotten. I know you’re close to getting it totally down, I promise.”
Yu made a noise like he didn’t believe Yosuke, but smiled softly and walked carefully back to the ice anyway. Yosuke’s whoop of triumph was perhaps a little too loud for the enclosed space, but he decided he didn’t care. Not after the butterflies in his stomach did the thing at how warm and kind Yu’s eyes looked.
The rest of the team had decided it was hot chocolate time and taken their skates off a while ago, but Yosuke was insistent that he wasn’t done and Yu shouldn’t be either.
Indulgent. Yu was extraordinarily indulgent with him and Yosuke had never had that before. It made his heart race and his face warm just thinking about it. Everyone had always just brushed him aside or told him to shut up when he got excited about something. No one had ever looked happy to hear him go off about music for an hour and a half, or ignored their aching feet to keep doing an activity that Yosuke wanted to do.
Yosuke was so distracted he didn’t have time to correct himself when he tripped, gasping as he left his balance fail him. The hand he felt grab at his arm was familiar, but sadly unwelcome in this context as Yu was new to skating and he should not be trying to keep Yosuke from falling . He pulled too hard, bringing Yosuke against his chest and causing both of their balance to fail in the other direction.
Yosuke could practically hear Chie yelling Timber.
Landing on top of someone made the fall suck a little less for him, but he imagined it sucked way more for Yu. Twice the weight sounds like a bad time. Yikes.
“Dude, I’m so sorry. Are you good? Please tell me you didn’t knock your head on the ice. Oh my god, sorry, I suck — ” Yosuke felt the self deprecating rant starting up before it was interrupted abruptly by non-stop, loud, and uncontrollable laughter.
Not from outside the rink, not from other skaters, but from under him. Yu was laughing, so hard he would be clutching at his sides if his arms weren’t held tightly around Yosuke.
(Ah. That sure was his face going red, wasn’t it? Why did Yosuke have to blush so easily…)
Yu repeatedly tried to start a sentence with Yosuke’s name, only to devolve into Yukiko level laughter once again. It went on for several minutes, and if Yosuke wasn’t a fan of his best friends laugh, he might be irritated.
“Go ahead, take your time.” Yosuke was not pouting as he deadpanned that, it just sounded like he was. Totally different.
Yu eventually caught his breath, taking one hand from around Yosuke’s waist (Oh god, not even his shoulders, his waist .) to wipe away a tear that had managed to form in the corner of his eye and gave a shit eating grin.
Oh no. Yosuke felt so much fear at that look on his face.
“Partner, if you were falling for me so hard, you could have just told me instead of demonstrating.”
Yosuke groaned, hid his face in Yu’s chest, and lied through his goddamn teeth jokingly about hating his partner’s guts.
A year later during a post Christmas party makeout, Yu paused suddenly.
Yosuke had
so much fear
from the look on his face. That’s the smug partner look. God help him.
“Wait. You actually
were
falling for me that day we went ice skating, weren’t you?”
He was promptly shoved off the couch. Yosuke threatened denying him kisses for two weeks, but he gave in within the hour.