Chapter Text
When people think about figure skating in the Olympics, they usually think of men’s and ladies' singles and then mixed gender pairs. But there is actually a fourth discipline that has been becoming more and more popular.
Ice Dancing.
The main difference between Ice Dancing and Pairs was that Ice Dancing didn’t do the jumps that Pairs did. It was more like ballroom dancing on Ice.
The way that Julie and Luke both got involved in Ice Dancing was a little different. Neither of their parents had ever really planned to put their kids into the sport, it just kind of happened.
From the moment that Julie could walk, she was put into ballet. She started piano and voice lessons as well, but those two things didn’t directly lead to where she was now. Both her parents were artistic, and they wanted their kids to be able to do creative things. It was evident within the first few lessons that Julie had a great sense of rhythm and was extremely musical. She continued in all of her lessons until at age 6, Caleb Covington, a former World Ice Dancing Champion, saw Julie at her studio's recital and recruited her to be one of his students.
Julie was pretty young, but Covington told her parents that she was extremely talented and that he thought that she had the potential to be a great Ice Dancer. Ray and Rose were a little reluctant at first, but they just kind of saw it as another after-school activity for her. The ice rink was thirty minutes away from their house and they’d let her quit whenever.
So why not.
It was a lot bigger decision for the Pattersons. Luke’s dad was Canadian, and his mom was American. Currently, though, the family was living in Montreal, where Luke’s dad was working at some firm in a managing role. Like the true Canadians they were, Luke was put into hockey the minute that he could stand up on his own two feet. He was pretty decent at it for a little guy, but he was a bit tinier than the rest, and looking at his parents and other family members, they didn’t think he’d ever get to six feet.
He was still only a kid at the time, so they didn’t really care about if he got big or not. He was just doing it for fun now and it’s not like it was a common thing for every little kid to go pro. He was simply vibing, enjoying playing with his friends and skating.
And for his skating, well, Luke was fast.
Like fast as fuck.
Since he was a bit smaller than the rest, he had to make up for it somehow, and even as a little kid, he figured out that to make up for his size, he needed to zoom.
Caleb Covington had made his way to Montreal to meet up with an old skating friend. He didn’t mean to watch some youth hockey game (he despised hockey, the whole figure skater versus hockey player thing), but there was a game going on at the rink they were meeting at and his friend was running a bit behind. He decided to watch a little bit of the game and was amazed at how fast Luke could skate and how great his balance was. He noticed the jersey number and name and kept that in mind for later.
Caleb eventually got a hold of Luke’s parents and told him what was up. He was forming a few young teams at this new rink in Los Angles and that he thought Luke would make a great Ice Dancer.
Mitch and Emily thought the whole thing was weird. Why would they travel to a different country for their eight-year-old to participate in a sport that he had never tried before? They all but laughed in Caleb’s face when he suggested it to them.
But then Mitch got offered a promotion at his company to move to Los Feliz, and well, Emily had been missing home, originally growing up in California. So, the family moved, and it was only a thirty-minute drive to the rink, so why not sign-up Luke for this Ice Dancing thing and see what happens. It was an after-school activity and hey, maybe if he stuck with it long enough, it would be great to add to a college resume. It was a unique activity that could get him into a good business school.
Julie and Luke were both paired with a few different partners for a few weeks as Caleb tried to figure out everyone’s dynamics. Julie got partnered with Nick for a little bit, but she formed the biggest crush on him and would get nervous around him. Luke was paired with Carrie for about two hours before Caleb called it quits after the fifth fight.
Caleb initially didn’t want to put Julie and Luke together. He couldn’t figure out why exactly, but he really didn’t think they would work. One day, on a whim, he kind of just said fuck it, what’s the worst thing that could happen.
They were amazing together. From the second that they met and skated around the rink together, they were perfect together. From that moment on, they were partners and would stay like that for the next decade.
After a couple of years of practice, the pair started to compete. They didn’t come in first for a while, but eventually, they started to climb the leader boards and won their first competition at ages 10 and 12.
They competed on the novice level for the next couple of years until Julie turned 13. For the next two seasons, the two competed at the Junior World Championships, placing tenth overall their first season, and then coming from behind and winning the whole thing the next year. They were starting to make a name for themselves.
But now, at age fifteen and seventeen, the two were making their senior season debut. It was the first season they could, with Julie just hitting the age minimum. They thought about waiting a few more seasons, having until age nineteen and twenty-one before they would be ineligible for Juniors, but with the Olympics next year, Caleb Covington had urged them to move up. If they wanted a shot qualifying for the Olympics the following year, they needed experience on the senior circuit with senior judges. He thought they were ready and the two trusted their coach.
Why wouldn’t they?
“Music or talking?” Luke asked, appearing behind Julie who was waiting by the entrance to the ice. He started to take off his skate blade guards and Julie did the same.
“Talk, I haven’t seen you in a day,” Julie answered. Luke nodded and grabbed her hand, leading them onto the ice.
“How was school this morning?” Luke asked as they started skating their warmup laps around the ice together, waking up their muscles. Yesterday was their off day, so they would do a few extra laps to make sure that they were all set to start practicing.
“Boring. Homeschooling sucks. I can only watch so many videos of teachers I never met talking about subjects that I don’t care about,” Julie whined.
“Tell me about it. I don’t miss school, but I rather be sitting in a classroom with Reggie and Alex instead of sitting alone at my desk all morning with no one to talk to.” Before this year, Luke and Julie were still going to in-person school. Well, kind of. They went to a school that was for athletes. They would either attend their common core subjects in the morning or the afternoon and do practice at the alternate time. With their switch to competing seniors, it was decided that it would be best for the duo to do strictly online schooling so that they would have more time to practice.
Luke felt Julie squeeze a little tighter on his hand, causing him to look down. She wasn’t looking at him but was looking at the ice below instead. “What’s wrong Jules?”
Julie didn’t answer right away, but she did look up at him as they continued to move along the edge of the rink. “Are you nervous about this weekend?”
This weekend was the duo’s first senior competition. They were going to travel to Finland for the Finlandia Cup. After that, they would compete in their two assigned Grand Prix Qualifiers that would hopefully qualify them for the Grand Prix finale. After that were the National Championships, the Four Continental Championships, and then the World Championships.
Before all of this though was the Finlandia Cup, which was more of a warmup event to get them used to competing at the senior level. It was all a bit overwhelming for the two.
“I mean, I’m a little nervous but it’s just a warmup event, no biggie,” Luke shrugged.
“But it’s our senior debut. What if we get there and prove to the world that we aren’t ready yet.”
Luke stopped skating, causing Julie to stop too. “What do you mean to prove to the world that we aren’t ready?”
“It’s just, Carrie was talking in the locker room earlier about how the skating world doesn’t think that we are ready for the senior level and that it’s not a good decision by Caleb to send us out there to get chewed up and spit out.”
Carrie Wilson was partnered with Nick Danforth-Evans around the same time that Julie and Luke were paired together. The two pairs both stood out to Caleb since the beginning and had been growing as dancers, and people, together since. Both Carrie and Nick were the same age as Julie and were also making their senior debut this season.
Julie and Carrie were actually best friends when they were little. Growing up at the skating rink didn’t leave many options for friends, and therefore the two clung to each other. But as the two pairs quickly climbed the leaderboards at competitions and each started to leave their mark on the skating community, jealously struck, mostly with Carrie who called off their friendship by practically ghosting Julie unless she was making some rude remark to her. Nick and Luke were always civil with one another and remained that way throughout the past few years, although Luke would make fun of Nick to Julie some days at practice (and most definitely made fun of the little crush that she had on Nick that she claimed she no longer had).
The two pairs were always going back and forth with coming on top last year where Julie and Luke finished first at the Junior Grand Prix Championship and Junior World Championships last season with Carrie and Nick were right behind them in second place.
“Julie when the hell did you start listening to Carrie again? They weren’t even supposed to compete senior this year. Caleb wanted to keep them at the junior level with them both just hitting the age limit, but daddy pushed over a few extra dollars and all of the sudden Caleb agreed to move them up. Now unless either of our parents handed Caleb some extra money, he believes that we should move up and that we are ready. Got it?”
Julie nodded and smiled a little bit. “Got it. Sorry, I’m just freaking out a little about our first competition and she isn’t helping.”
“I get it, Julie, I’m a little nervous too. How about one more lap around and then we’ll get started?”
“Let’s do this.”
***
“Go Julie and Luke!” The two heard Reggie shout somewhere in the stands. They were at the Grand Prix Final, which happened to be the first competition ever where all the friends were at. The friends being Flynn and Reggie, who both skated singles, and Alex and Kayla, who skated pairs. Flynn, Reggie, Alex, and Kayla had all grown up skating with Julie and Luke at the same rink, although coached by different people.
Flynn had started when she was five years old but had just moved to the Hollywood Ghost rink around the same time that Julie and Carrie’s friendship started to implode. Flynn was like a gift that had been sent to Julie. The two had clung to each other and had been best friends since. Don’t get Julie wrong, she loves the guys and Kayla, but they were all two years older than her, and it was nice to have someone the same age as her that she could talk to. Two years isn’t that big of a deal, but when you are a teenager in school, it does make a bit of a difference. Flynn was making her senior debut this season as well, just meeting the age requirement. She had completed her short program the day before and would compete her free dance later that night, the last event of the competition. She was currently in sixth place, also known as last place at the Grand Prix Final. But being one of the six finalists in her first year was an accomplishment in itself and they were all proud of her regardless.
Reggie had been picked out at a young age by his coach, who worked at the Hollywood Ghost rink. They had deemed him a figure skating prodigy and was scholarshiped for years. Reggie’s parents were always fighting and were also pretty broke. He had clung to figure skating at a young age because it was something that got him out of the house that he also didn’t have to break his parent's bank account to do. Figure skating was an extremely expensive sport, but Reggie had been fortunate to have a family and coach sponsor him, paying his fees as long as he agreed to continue working hard. Reggie went above the extra mile and put in all the work and more than earn the money that all these people were putting upfront. He was extremely goofy, on and off the ice, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a hard worker. The men’s competition had finished earlier that day, where Reggie had earned his first Grand Prix gold. The past two years he had earned silver, which he was still happy about, but no one knew if they were going to be able to wipe that smile off of his face anytime soon. He still had the medal proudly around his neck.
Alex and Kayla had finished up their competition the night before and had won bronze by the smallest of margins. They two had become pairs when they were younger, Kayla starting as a single and Alex starting as a hockey player. Kayla’s dad had worked with Alex’s dad, and her dad had talked to his about how Kayla was a skater and needed a partner. Alex’s dad had been pretty adamant that his son wouldn’t do figure skating. He was the man’s man type who thought the sport was ‘girly’. Kayla’s dad continued to talk to him though about how it could help Alex in hockey, make him stronger and faster. Alex’s dad finally let in, thinking it would be a temporary thing. Alex’s parents reluctantly let him keep at it, eventually even letting him quit hockey as he and Kayla kept winning competitions. There was this unspoken rule though between Alex and his parents, keep placing at competitions, or they would pull the plug.
Luke and Julie started in the middle of the ice with Julie’s upper body sagging forward while Luke held her from behind, his head tucked into her shoulder. Julie had on a flowy light gray dress, the skirt reaching her knees with her hair up in a bun. Luke had on a grey shirt, that matched the shade of Julie’s dress with black pants.
The opening piano notes of their Free Dance song, Turning Page by Sleeping At Last, originally made for the Twilight Saga (don’t let Luke know that), began. The two started their four-minute dance, filled with spins, lifts, and twizzles. The two performed the flowy sad emotional piece, the song’s main instrument being piano. Since both dancers were still minors, they tried to do age-appropriate moves and the romantic aspects were more PG as opposed to more intense emotions.
The two had finished fourth in their Rhythm program the night before, dancing the required Samba. In their two qualifiers, overall, they finished first in their first competition, and third in their second competition.
Once they were finished with their dance with the two in a tight embrace, they took their bows as fans threw goodies, like stuff animals and flowers, onto the ice. The two skated over to Caleb who was only coaching them today as Carrie and Nick hadn’t made it to finals. They headed over to the kiss and cry and took a seat as they waited for scores to come in. The two squeezed in next to each other on the couch, Luke taking Julie’s hand as Caleb sat next to Luke.
When the scores came in the two were shocked.
It was a good shock though. Their scores were high, significantly higher than both of their qualifying scores. It wasn’t out of the blue; they had been working hard on their free dance the past few weeks and apparently, their hard work had paid off.
They were currently in first place, but that was because only one other team had competed their second dance. They still had to wait for the fifth place and first through third-place teams from yesterday to compete.
“What did I tell you guys,” Caleb said, giving Luke a shoulder squeeze. The two were still in shock, but Julie finally broke out of it and gave Luke a big hug, trying her hardest not to cry. They could both hear their friends screaming somewhere in the rink, their biggest fans. Their parents were sitting somewhere else, and Julie was pretty sure that she could hear her mom whistling and screaming.
The two ended up coming in third place with their combined score once everyone else finished that night. Their free dance score ended up being the second-highest score out of the field and was only a couple of points shy of the first-place team.
The two stood on the lowest tier of the podium, Luke’s hand wrapped around Julie’s waist as they stood shoulder to shoulder. They were just happy that they had qualified in their first senior season, they didn’t expect to leave with a medal. Sure, it wasn’t gold, but at that moment it felt like it. Julie had located her parents in the audience finally and noticed her dad crying, her mom was smiling so much, and Carlos, well Carlos was ten and seemed a bit bored, but it was the thought that counted.
Later that night, after the final ladies' competition, the six friends all piled into Julie and Flynn’s hotel room. Everyone was talking, excited for each other, and relaxed now that all the competition was over for the weekend. They still had the Gala tomorrow (where they performed entertainment dances), but for now, they had a small break. They all had their medals, (except for Flynn who ended up fifth and was still happy about it. She just wanted to qualify for her first year).
“Molina and Patterson, you finished bronze in your first big senior event, how do you feel?” Reggie asked, pretending to be a reporter with a water bottle as his fake microphone.
“Oh, it feels great. I think now is a good time to let everyone know that I will be officially retiring from the sport. I’m going out on top, sorry Julie. I hope you will be able to find a partner as good as me,” Luke joked, winking at her.
“You are an asshole,” Julie rolled her eyes. She grabbed the nearest pillow and attacked Luke with it, causing him to fall on his back on the bed he was sitting on.
“Okay stop it, Jules, you know that I’d never leave you,” Luke laughed, grabbing hold of the pillow, and throwing it across the room, hitting Alex.
“Hey!” Alex yelled.
Luke ignored him and took the distraction to grab a hold of Julie’s hands and flip her on the bed, pinning her down. “And you’d never leave me, Molina, cause you loveeeee me,” Luke teased her.
Julie squirmed, trying to break free. “Stop bringing up what I said to you during our two-week relationship when I was ten!” Julie shrieked.
“Oh yes, the forbidden romance of five years ago,” Kayla laughed, remembering the time the two partners ‘dated’.
“That they had to tragically end to save their business relationship,” Reggie added, smiling.
“I’ll always love you, Luke,” Flynn mocked, joining in on the fun.
“You weren’t even at Hollywood Ghosts yet,” Julie pointed out to Flynn, giving up on trying to get free.
“Yes but I’ve heard the great Romeo and Juliet love story numerous times. I think I have the entire timeline and every conversation memorized,” Flynn replied. “I love the ancient love story of my favorite business partners.”
“Me too. You guys are my favorite business partners,” Reggie said as he made a heart with his fingers.
“You love your business partner right?” Luke asked, loosening his grip on Julie’s wrist, but she made no move to escape.
“Sure Luke,” Julie sighed.
“But she loves Nick more now,” Alex said, pretending like he was whispering. This set off the room in another set of laughs.
“Fuck off Alex!” Julie screamed. “I don’t have any feelings for Nick anymore. That is ancient history.”
“Wait you love me more than Nick right,” Luke pouted, getting grumpy.
“Yeah Julie,” Kayla yelled over the laughter, “You love your business partner more than good old Nicky-Poo right?”
Julie closed her eyes and scrunched her face. Children, they were children. “Yes Luke, as one of my best friends, I love you more than our biggest competition that I used to have a small crush on,” Julie emphasized used.
“Good,” Luke said, and then finally got off of Julie so that she was totally free.
“Good choice Julie. I hear that Luke has more Senior Grand Prix Medals than Nick anyways,” Reggie laughed. This set off the room again, causing different jabs at Julie and Luke’s biggest competition.
“Bedtime?” Luke asked a little bit later as Julie’s eyes started to drift. Alex and Kayla had both already headed back to their rooms while Flynn and Reggie watched some videos on YouTube.
Julie nodded slightly, too tired to talk. Luke shifted, letting Julie’s head lay on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her. Julie got comfy under her blankets while Luke stayed on top of them.
“We did good today Jules,” he whispered, right before she fell asleep. “You were amazing.” And Julie wasn’t sure if he kissed her forehead or not, as she was pretty much asleep. She was pretty sure she felt his lips against her, but she might have just dreamed it.
***
“Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room and we're not speaking, And I'm dying to know is it killing you like it's killing me, yeah- Hey why’d you turn it off?” Julie whined as Luke turned the car off outside the Molina residence.
“We’re here,” Luke pointed out the window towards the house.
“And?” Julie shook her head at him. “The song wasn’t over.”
Luke laughed. “I’m sorry, would you like me to turn the car back on and restart the song?”
Julie sighed. “No, the moments over, let’s just go inside.”
“Oh come on Jules,” Luke leaned over the center console towards her. “I want to hear you sing again, you have the voice of an angel.”
“Uh-huh,” Julie rolled her eyes. “What do you want?”
“I’m serious, you know I love hearing you sing. Come on, I’ll put on some more T Swift.”
“Thanks, Luke, but let’s get inside before mom comes out looking for me. It’s my night to do the dishes.”
“Ugh fine,” Luke banged his head back against the headrest dramatically.
“I think a Taylor free dance program would be so cool,” Julie told Luke as they exited the car and started heading into the house.
“Yeah it would,” he agreed.
“But there is no way in hell Caleb would let us.”
“Yeah, he wouldn’t,” he agreed, again.
***
“We all know what really matters Julie,” Carrie flipped her hair. “US Nationals the year before the Olympics means nothing in comparison to the Olympics next year.” And with that, the blonde marched out of the lady’s locker room. Julie grabbed onto the gold medal around her neck that she had just received at the award ceremony. She just shook her head. Carrie wasn’t going to take away this moment from her. Luke and she had just taken the gold over Carrie and Nick at nationals. And it was by quite a margin, leaving no doubt. She was going to change and celebrate with her family and friends and then tomorrow they were going to perform at the gala. This was a happy moment.
“Ugh why does Nick have to be so nice,” Luke greeted Julie as she left the locker room. He had been waiting for her so they could meet up with their families. “He shook my hand and said congratulations. Then he gushed for about five minutes about how great our performance was.”
“Oh poor you. I got to deal with Carrie,” Julie rolled her eyes.
“How’s that go?” Luke asked, taking a step closer to Julie.
“About as well as you think. But it’s whatever, I’m not going to let her ruin this night for us.” Luke smiled and grabbed onto the medal around Julie’s neck.
“Good. Now let’s go find our parents. I think being national champions deserves us a pretty good lunch don’t you think.”
“Yeah, I think it does.” Julie looked down at Luke’s hand by her neck, still holding her medal. She smiled, “we do need to get going though if we are going to make it in time for Flynn’s long program later.”
“Of course. Now, I need to go see the look on Mitch and Emily’s faces. So much for an after-school hobby huh?” Luke pulled his hand away from Julie’s medal and used the same arm to throw around Julie’s shoulders as they started to walk.
***
After coming in second at the Four Continental Championship, to a Canadian team that they had also lost to at the Grand Prix Finals, Julie and Luke had finally made it to their final competition of their debut senior season.
The World Championships.
Which in a non-Olympic year was the most important competition in the sport.
The World Championships were being held in Stockholm Sweden this year and despite finishing third at the Grand Prix Finals a few months ago, Julie and Luke weren’t a hundred percent confident that they were going to finish in the top three. One of the top teams and former World Champions were struggling with injuries at the beginning of the season and weren’t able to compete until recently. It’s not that this season was all about getting medals. It was more about the experience and getting their feet wet.
But they had been winning medals at every competition and they were kind of getting used to the feeling of weight on their necks.
They weren’t doubting themselves, but more just being realistic. They would go out there and try their best, but they were still young and inexperienced. Their routines weren’t perfect, and it would take a little longer to eventually get there.
They weren’t doing too bad though. They had finished fourth in the rhythm dance, actually beating a team that had beaten them a few months earlier. They were honestly just hoping for a top-five finish. They thought that would be pretty damn good for their first year.
“The scores please,” the announcer said over the speaker once Julie and Luke had finished their free dance. Luke had his arm around Julie’s shoulder and used the hand on the other arm to grab onto her hand. Caleb sat next to him again, squeezing his shoulder in nervousness.
Luke and Julie didn’t really hear the scores over all the yelling as the scores were projected on the screen. They were struggling to see them, but they did hear something loud and clear.
“They are currently in first place!” The announcer finished.
“Wait!” Luke yelled to Caleb right next to him, trying to be heard over all the yelling. “Only two more teams are left to compete.”
Caleb nodded, a big smile on his face. “Yup, you guys are guaranteed a medal.”
Julie didn’t say anything for the longest time. She just stared ahead at the screen in disbelief. She had no idea where their families or friends were. She knew they were there somewhere and probably screaming their heads off, but it was so loud in the arena.
She felt a weight on her, and she knew that Luke was squeezing the life out of her. But she just continued to stare ahead.
At one point, the three were ushered out of the kiss and cry. Her body felt numb as she managed to take one step after the other, letting Luke and Caleb guide her out of the rink and back into the staging area.
“World medalist has a nice ring to it,” she finally said once the three of them had stopped.
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it,” Luke smiled.
Not knowing what else to say, Julie launched herself at her skating partner, wrapping her arms around his neck, standing on her tippy toes. Luke squeezed her back, lifting her up and spinning her around.
“Julie get off your computer and come celebrate,” Reggie yelled over the music later that night. The six friends were all once again hanging out in Flynn and Julie’s hotel room after the conclusion of the Ladies single event, where Flynn had come in fifth. Reggie had won his first World Championship, proudly wearing his gold medal around his neck. Alex and Kayla had come in fourth, just missing the podium. It was their highest placing yet though, so they weren’t too disappointed. Julie’s bronze medal sat next to her laptop that she was currently working on.
“I have to finish this quiz before the deadline,” Julie replied, not looking up.
“We should document this moment. On the eve of her winning her first World’s medal, Julie Molina continued to do her homework,” Kayla announced.
“It would be a great fluff story honestly,” Alex added.
“Julie come over here and hang out with me,” Luke whined from his spot on one of the beds with his guitar on his lap, making himself at home.
“I have to get good grades, or I can’t skate Luke,” Julie told him, continuing to stare at her computer and answering the questions.
“Ugh but I miss you,” Luke pouted, setting his guitar down and crossing his arms.
“Don’t you two ever get sick of each other? You spend all your time together,” Alex asked, rolling his eyes at Luke’s antics.
“No,” Luke said at the same time as Julie said, “Yes.”
“You wound me, Molina,” Luke grabbed a pillow and snuggled with it.
“And you annoy me, Patterson,” Julie sighed. “Okay, I’m finished with my quiz.”
Luke jumped up from the bed and took a few steps over to the desk. “Finally, dance with me.”
Julie rolled her eyes. “I dance with you every day. Have some medals to prove it and everything.”
“Come on.” Julie relented and let Luke drag her to the empty space between the two beds. Everyone started talking again, some making fun of Luke’s terrible moves. For two professional dancers (on ice), they didn’t really seem like it currently.
“It’s like we don’t even exist to them sometimes,” Alex laughed a little bit later. The two bronze medalists were laying on Julie’s bed. Julie was curled up into Luke’s side, under the covers asleep while Luke stayed above them. Luke played with Julie’s hair as he rested his head on top of hers.
“We did good today Jules,” Luke whispered. “I’m so proud of you.” He placed a kiss onto her forehead and then slowly unwrapped himself from her. If she woke up at all, she didn’t show it as Luke left the room with Alex, Reggie, and Kayla.
***
The figure skating besties had all been home for one day after the World Championships when Luke called Alex and Reggie.
“I think it’s finally time guys. We are graduating, not doing any tours this summer, and are about to hit the off-season for a couple of months. I think it’s time we start this band.”
“Did Bobby agree?” Alex asked, referencing Carrie’s older brother.
“Yup, he’s in. He said we can practice at his place as well,” Luke answered.
“Hell yeah dude. Let’s finally start Sunset Curve!” Reggie cheered.
