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As the free skate program descends into its final minute, Xiao's anxiety reaches its peak, watching the golden-haired skater glide across the ice, as effortless and light as an ethereal fairy beneath the dazzling spotlight.
The music swells, the piano picking up its tempo as it enters the final coda. To match the music, Lumine kicks to speed up before seamlessly transitioning into the last remaining step sequence, doing her best to finish the four-minute program despite her lungs screaming for air, limbs aching with fatigue as she twirls.
And all that is so apparent to Xiao, a former competitive skater who had been forced to retire due to multiple injuries in his ankle and per his coach's request, decided to help Lumine train for the current competition season.
Watching her form deteriorate little by little as the seconds drag on, he yearns to call out to her as he always had.
"Just a little more", "pull yourself together", "hang in there, you're almost done" -- anything at all.
But the music was too loud, and the rules forbade him from doing so. Nor did he wish to jeopardize her -- so he bites his tongue until he tastes copper, fists tightening in his lap as he continued to spectate from the edge of his seat.
With a sharp loop, Lumine successfully finishes the sequence without any major mistakes, and Xiao's shoulders slacken, releasing a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
Only twenty more seconds to go.
But at that precise moment, just when he thinks they're finally in the clear, Lumine catches his eyes from the other side of the rink, glimmering in all of her glory.
Panting, sweating, and utterly exhausted -- but for him, musters the most radiant smile she could.
And before Xiao could realize just what was about to happen, Lumine's already up in the air for one last, unplanned jump.
What happens after seemingly unfolds in slow motion: hands over her head, body rotating thrice before she begins her descent back down onto the ice.
Right at the very end of the program, at the peak of her exhaustion -- Lumine had leaped, taking along with her his heart. It rises and falls with her, and it isn't until the moment she lands, albeit deep into the edge of her blade, that the world erupts into noise and motion once more.
She saves it.
In an instant, Xiao's up on his feet with a shout. He no longer cares - isn't aware enough to care, as he's shocked to the literal brink of tears by the bold but successful attempt at the jump.
The jump she's always struggled to land in practice, finally coming through in the last few seconds.
Lumine has done it.
Though his body had been moving, Xiao's eyes never once strayed off of Lumine's spinning form, watching her complete the last of her spectacular spins in the center of the rink. Before the last note of the composition could ring out and echo through the arena, he was already there, present at the gate.
Waiting.
It takes every fiber of his being to keep himself from rushing onto the ice; but the moment she turns, the moment he sees those tears of utter joy and relief swirling in her golden eyes, distorting the reflection of himself within them --
any last sliver of self-control he's retained immediately dissipates.
He begins to run toward her, but Lumine's faster, gliding toward him with reckless abandon. They meet right at the gate, the fairy flying home to his open arms - her one and only everlasting place of comfort. Xiao embraces her, holding onto her as tightly as he possibly could. The dearest person to him in the world, and the only person who could move him to the point of tears.
No amount of words could explain the overwhelming surge of emotions at that moment, so he forgoes them altogether --
instead, catches her lips with his, unable to hold himself back any longer.
The first of his tears roll down his cheeks when he feels her heaving body melt into his, utterly expended falling into the bliss that was him - but as always, he's there to support her.
There to hold her up, there to catch her when her wings fail, and she falls.
Because he couldn't bear to see her hurt, because he couldn't bear to see her cry.
Because he loved her so impossibly much.
"I'm so proud of you, Lumine," he whispers, breathless when they finally part to breathe.
"I'm so, so proud of you."