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There were times Cécile absolutely hated her birthday. During Juniors, it came right at the start of the Junior Grand Prix, and between JJ, herself, Julien, and now Gabriel and Thérèse, it seemed like there was always someone competing or about to. For her eighteenth birthday, her parents were on a plane with Gabriel and Thérèse on their way home from Courchevel. Andrée was left at home in charge of the younger kids, and Cécile was expected to help supervise training since JJ and Isabella had just welcomed their first child, Giselle. It’s like her parents just didn’t think about reasons why she might be busy while they were gone.
Andrée did, and she didn’t say a word about Cécile canceling practice for two whole days for the 24th and 25th, the day before and day of her birthday. The first day was more about nerves than anything else – if she was on the ice, she was likely to hurt herself. Besides, Julien had an end-of-summer competition with his trivia team, and with the two of them out, there was no one to be on the ice with the younger kids. Taking Michael to hockey practice still happened, but Claude and Delphine were far too young to be left on their own even with Andrée’s supervision, since she couldn’t get on the ice.
That night, after celebrating Julien’s victory, Cécile looked at the drugs Andrée had given her. The way her week was going, all they would do would be to trap her in a nightmare. On the other hand, she was due for some good luck, and if she got one of the people she wanted… she wanted all the time she could get with them. Who knew when she’d be able to see them in real life. Social media just wasn’t the same.
She decided to leave the pills. They’d hardly be wasted; Andrée had periods where she struggled to sleep. Falling asleep was more difficult than usual, but not impossible, and waking up on the ice was hardly a surprise.
The two girls on the ice were, though. First, there were two. Her parents were not going to be happy. They weren’t exactly going to be thrilled with them being girls, either. They weren’t homophobic, exactly; they were just firm believers in allowing God to decide whether and when children would be born. For Cécile, that would now be extremely unlikely; she knew both girls well enough to know that no, neither was capable of impregnating her.
Dariya Altin was not at all a surprise. They were very close friends, thanks to a shared rumor of being Yuri Plisetsky’s girlfriend that hadn’t gone away even two years ago when Dariya’s older brother had his dream and revealed himself as Yuri’s soulmate. If anything, that had made it worse for Dariya.
Mikayla Rosenberg, on the other hand, was a shock. Sure, they were friends too, but Mikayla had turned eighteen a month and a half earlier and not said anything to Cécile about them being soulmates. Come to think of it, she hadn’t said anything to anyone about her soulmate, other than a joke about they’d know something when she did.
Cécile took a moment, observing the two. They weren’t interacting with each other, but that could mean anything. They got along well in real life, but if they weren’t soulmates, this could get weird. She needed answers from Mikayla more than she did from Dariya, so she skated to her first. “Hello. Can you two see each other?”
Mikayla shook her head. “No. I don’t know who else you have. I can’t see them.”
Dariya also shook her head. “I’m glad to be here. Sorry I can’t see whoever else is here. Who is it?”
“Okay. My two soulmates are Mikayla and Dariya. That’s going to make things really complicated. I’m going to talk to you separately, so Mikayla, head over to that end and I’ll come talk to you first, because I have questions. Dariya, head over to that end, and I’ll come answer the questions I’m sure you must have now. Then… we’ll figure out something, I’m sure.”
Both girls took off toward their designated end of the rink, and Cécile could see Dariya warming up to practice some skating. Good. She followed Mikayla.
Once at the end, Mikayla turned around. “So everyone assumes it’s a joke when I say I don’t know anything about my soulmate, but it’s not. I didn’t have a dream. It’s not like I’ve heard of from others where they have a dream where they’re alone. I did not have a dream that night – or if I did, I remember nothing of it.”
“How in the heck…” Cécile asked, but then she remembered. Mikayla and her whole family had gotten severely ill around that time. When she was well enough to talk, Mikayla had mentioned to Cécile that the worst of it all, even worse than losing out on over a month of training time because of relapses and isolation to ensure the spread was over, was turning eighteen in the middle of that. Even if she knew who to go to, she couldn’t have gone. “Oh no. I am so sorry, Mikayla.”
“It’s okay! At least when you contact me tomorrow, I’ll know. I just wish I had Dariya, too. I wonder why we’re not soulmates.” Mikayla sighed. “So obviously, I want you to contact me tomorrow, but if you’re going to wait to contact Dariya I understand. She’s still got over a year till her dream, right?”
“Yes, but she’s also fine with someone coming now that she’s sixteen, especially if it’s someone she already knows. I might wait a week to go to her because she’s competing in Lake Placid, but I also might just get on a plane. Andrée and Julien will understand, and Mom and Dad should be back the day after tomorrow anyway and won’t have to leave again until the Autumn Classic with me and JJ. And if they want to get mad, well… they fucking owe me.”
“I’m not competing until the Nebelhorn a month from now. If you tell me to come to Lake Placid, I probably can.” Mikayla reached up, running a hand through her long red hair. “Might have to bring Kenzie with me.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Aside from Cécile needing to buy two tickets from Chicago to Lake Placid, which would hurt her saving up for her dream guitar. This was more important anyway. Mikayla's fifteen-year-old sister Kenzie was fun, and with the two of them together, a good time was all but guaranteed even before Cécile got around to the big reveal.
Mikayla laughed. “Well, you know, if the purpose of the trip is to be with your soulmates… but then, this is you. If Kenzie minds us kissing, she can go off on her own, and we won’t end up doing more than that. And speaking of… can I have a kiss before you head off to tell Dariya about this?”
“Sure thing.” Cécile kept it short, but oh, she was going to have so much fun.
“So, Mikayla, huh?” Dariya grinned. “That’s awesome. I’m a little jealous. She’s such a sweetheart, I wish I’d gotten her too. We might find out there’s a reason for it when I have my dream, but… are you going to be upset if we do something?”
“Not at all, as long as she’s on board with it. In fact, you know I’m looking to wait for sex until after we’re married and I don’t want to rush into marriage just because I know who you are now, but if you and she want to have fun without me while you wait, my beliefs are mine, not yours.” Cécile grinned as Dariya shook her head. “So you’re competing this week. My first thought is for Mikayla and I to come to Lake Placid to hang out, and explain the soulmate situation after your free skate. If you want me to tell you earlier or not come, I’ll do whatever will make you happiest.”
“What about Mikayla? Why didn’t she come to you earlier? Does she…”
Cécile cut her off, explaining about Mikayla’s failure to dream. “It sucks for her and is something I’d never even thought about as a possibility. She understands why I’m waiting to go to you, but is glad that you’re fine with me coming soon instead of waiting the sixteen months. If someone else shows up later… that’ll be interesting, won’t it.”
“It will!” Dariya threw her arms around Cécile. “So now what happens? I mean, we have the plan for out there, although I’m totally fine with you telling me as soon as you and Mikayla get to Lake Placid. Then we have the whole time to start working on being girlfriends instead of just friends. Dad’s going to do the overprotective dad thing but Beka will be there to run interference, and maybe Yuri, too. He hasn’t decided if he’s coming yet.”
“Great. Come on. I want to try something.” Cécile took Dariya’s hand, skating back toward the other end of the rink. “Mikayla, hold out your hand?” She did as instructed, and Cécile tried to move Dariya’s hand through it. The two hands passed through each other, but there was a slight resistance. “Did either of you feel that?”
Both girls shook their heads. “What was I supposed to feel?” Dariya asked.
“Mikayla. I felt some resistance… but if neither of you felt anything, I guess that answers that. I wonder what it would be like, trying to skate with both of you at the same time. Probably mess with my head, so… take turns? Each of you gets ten minutes or so, and then we trade off?” That worked, and Cécile had a lovely dream.