Work Text:
Jack dropped to his knees on the ice, frustration swallowing everything else. His skate had been going so well, and then the last jump, a triple loop, he had way too much momentum, and went flying to the ice. Until then, he’d been doing well, but not well enough to survive the negative GOE and mandatory deduction. Not if he wanted gold. Jesse Turner had put up too high a bar for that.
His coach, Gabriel, gave him a big hug when he made himself get up and get off the ice. “You did good, kiddo. Don’t worry about it. Silver’s still good enough for you to make Finals, you know. You can get your revenge on Jesse there. Cry if you need to, just remember you’re still on camera.”
“These aren’t tears. My eyes are sweating. I’m tired.” Gabriel’s smirk relaxed Jack a lot. Gabriel was right. He’d done what he needed to do. When the score popped up to confirm it, Jack shook his head. Two points – one for the deduction, and then he’d only needed to get one more point on GOE and he’d have won. Easy to do when you don’t fall.
Jesse gave him a sympathetic hug when he got over to the holding area. “That’s not how I wanted to beat you, dude. I thought I’d lost it, right up until the end.”
Jack ignored the butterflies in his stomach. This was his rival, he reminded himself. He could just hear what Gabriel would have to say about him crushing on a competitor. “You deserve it. You skated well.”
“Well, we’ll see each other at Finals, right? I’ll get a chance to beat you clean there.” Jesse smiled, and Jack lost his fight against going weak in the knees. “Think your coach will let you hang out in our free time? I’d love to get to know you better.”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth, he’d never asked to spend time with a competitor at a competition before, but that didn’t make it any easier to see the disappointment on Jesse’s face. “I’ll ask him, but don’t get your hopes up too much, okay?”
“Fair enough!” Jesse let the matter drop, so Jack headed over to Gabriel. May as well ask now, while he was thinking about it.
To his surprise, Gabriel burst into laughter. “I know you’ve heard the story of how your dads met, but have you ever asked them about the story behind them falling in love?”
“Uncle Dean said that after Father retired, he kept coming to competitions, and since they were no longer competitors, they started hanging out because Dad had switched coaches from Grandpa to you. Dad just said he doesn’t have any idea how it happened, and Father says he still only knows about a quarter of it.” They’d competed against each other for a while before they had a chance to properly meet, since Castiel was skating in Europe.
They met at a summer ice show, when Sam came out of the showers to find that someone had broken into his bag and smeared frosting on his skates. Since Castiel was the only other person still in the locker room, Sam had asked him if he did it or had seen who did. Castiel took offense, believing that Sam was accusing him. Their rivalry actually ended quickly, when Sam figured out that it was an accident – the frosting smear had come from a cookie his brother had left there for him that Sam hadn’t seen before setting his skates in his bag. However, since both Sam and Castiel were the kind to keep to themselves and not talk, people believed that the rivalry was still ongoing.
“Castiel fell in love with Sam when Sam sought him out before the competition to apologize. He just thought Dean would never let him be around Sam after that. Sam fell in love with Castiel during the Grand Prix the next year, when an interview after he won the Cup of China brought up the rivalry and Castiel didn’t just say the usual stuff about Sam being worthy competition he hoped to beat, but said something thoughtful about how as good a skater as Sam is, he’s a better human. They were just both shy idiots until Dean started making them hang out.”
“Okay, but I don’t see the relevance.” Jack and Jesse were rivals, sure, but there was no misunderstanding and nothing personal about it. They were only usually mentioned together because they were close to the same age and had similar backstories – both orphaned young, both adopted from single mothers who didn’t list a father on the birth certificate, adopted by loving couples who couldn’t have their own children but came from a skating background, and both practically living on the ice from the time they could walk.
“Don’t you?” Jack shook his head. “The relevance is that I already had to deal with that with one skater. Never could convince Cassie to suck it up and go talk to Sam, but you? Jesse’s already made the first move, I’m all for the two of you hanging out and even hooking up, as long as you’re smart about it.”
“Really? And Dad and Father won’t…”
“They are going to be thrilled to see you happy. Again, just be smart about things.” Gabriel winked. “And watch out for surprise frosted cookies!”