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“Come on Toya, it’ll be fun!”
“Shiraishi, you know I can’t skate-”
“Neither can I! We’ll learn together! And I told you already, it’s An!”
“Apologies…I’m still getting used to that.”
An chuckled. But she continued to pull him along to the rink. “Anyway, you can’t get cold feet now when you said you would a few hours ago!”
Toya tried to steady himself, though trying to walk while having the actual ice skates on was proving to be difficult. It was true that he said that, but since they had arrived at the rink he had started to have second thoughts. “You said you wanted to try couple skating. I fear that we’ll just embarrass ourselves.”
An rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t matter if it's embarrassing! There will be plenty of other people just like us, I'm sure of it.” The two of them finally stopped at the edge of the rink. An slid her hands into Toya’s properly. “It’ll be okay. We can start slow.” she said. Toya smiled back at her, happy that she’d finally listened.
Though it only took two seconds of An stepping on the ice to squeal and grab on to the side of the rink. She was surprisingly unsteady for someone who was so nimble on her feet. This time Toya laughed a little.
“W-What are you laughing about?! I’m fine I swear!” An replied, her voice slightly shaky. Toya then stepped on, though instead of being able to look, he fell flat on his face. An tried to hide her own laughter, though she squatted down so she could at least try and get Toya up and off the floor. He looked up at her, his face extremely unimpressed. Though she took a hand off the bar to reach out to him, which made him a bit more happy. He got onto his knees, and was helped to stand, though he grabbed onto the bars just as quickly as she did.
“So much for starting slow.” An then said. “We can’t go anywhere like this.” she sighed, though she was still smiling. She’d tried to actively stabilise herself, with not too much
“How about circling the rink like this at least once?” Toya suggested. “That way we can at least get a little grip on steering before trying anything else out.”
An nodded, and extended her hand out to him, which he very gladly took. The two started slowly skating round the edges, finding a rhythm within the swaying of the skates and the sound they made as they clashed against the ice in a slow but weirdly melodic at the same time.
It didn’t take too long for them to circle the rink once, the two of them chatting to each other as they went around. It wasn’t too difficult to skate when they got further into it. Why, An felt that she could even let go of the bar, which she did. However, An was going to push herself off instead of simply letting go, something Toya strongly disagreed with.
“I just think you’ll get hurt,” he said. “Even if the amount of force you apply is minimal, you could go flying off the rink.”
“I won’t! I know how to stop, so I won’t crash!” she replied, giving him a thumbs up with her usual smile. He didn’t respond as An started to rev herself up. It would be fine, right?
It wasn’t fine, as she immediately picked up speed as she pushed herself off, somehow speeding by the other people and right into the wall opposite. She immediately fell back on the ice as she shivered in pain. Toya gasped, managing to skate over just in time as she picked herself up.
“Shiraishi, are you okay?”
An itched the back of her head and chuckled nervously. “...yeah.”
“Let’s get you off the rink for a few minutes just in case.” he responded, letting her get up and putting her arm around his shoulder. He was a little shaky on the way to the exit, but he never let go of her, not even once. Once she was sat on a bench, An took a few seconds to regain her composure after basically being winded. “Well I-”
“I said you shouldn’t, why didn’t you listen?”
“As I've said, I am fine. You don’t need to worry your pretty little head about it.” she said, slightly grumpy. She had looked away too. “But we’ve gotten the hang of it now! I saw how you skated over to me.” she added.
“Absolutely not. We’re not trying anything.”
An froze, her head slowly turning back to him. “But why?”
Toya sighed. “You got hurt because you couldn’t stop yourself. I don’t want that to happen to either of us. I’d be so upset with myself if you got hurt because of me.”
An’s expression relaxed as she caressed Toya’s face. “That was it? Oh Toya…” she giggled.
“What, am I wrong to feel that way?” he asked. An shook her head.
“It's not wrong, just that…I think you gotta look out for yourself too.” she answered. “And besides, what else could go wrong today?”
“A lot of things, actually.” Toya said. But he stood up, helping An to her feet. “You think you can go.”
“Ah please it’s just a scratch.” she said, whilst shivering slightly from the pain. She smiled still, smiling through it all. “Now let’s get back on the ice!”
Toya nodded. The two of them hobbled back to the edge of the rink, holding on to each other’s hands as they pushed themselves on, and still smiling as they managed to spin around the rink. They stared at each other, a gentle smile and slightly rosy cheeks gracing their faces. They collided with a wall not even a second later but it didn’t really matter since they weren’t going that fast, and it didn’t hurt all that much. The two laughed, and An placed a small kiss on Toya’s cheek. This was nice, it truly was.