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When Cheng Xiaoshi dragged them out to their local ice skating rink to “try something new” after they’d sat on the couch, steaming mugs of hot chocolate in hand, to celebrate the holidays with a Yuri on Ice watch party, Lu Guang had not been opposed. Cheng Xiaoshi’s puppy-like enthusiasm had been difficult to refute, though Lu Guang had very adamantly rejected his roommate’s ridiculous notion that his “snowy white hair and cold vibe” was foreshadowing that he would be “perfectly in his element on the ice.”
Currently? To say Lu Guang is out of his element would be an understatement.
Shivering from the frigid cold, Lu Guang grips the handrails of the ice skating rink for dear life as he slowly inches forward on his skates. His breath comes out in misty, white bursts despite the plaid scarf he has wrapped around the lower half of his face, his cat beanie, and the fuzzy mittens—all things Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling had gifted him for the holidays. Around him, the rink is lively with the sounds of metal scraping rhythmically against smoothened ice, Mariah Carey trilling her Christmas tunes over the speakers, and people laughing with—or at—their loved ones as they either skate gracefully around the perimeter or embarrass themselves trying. Lu Guang is, unfortunately, a part of the latter group.
“‘Let’s try skating together,’ he said,” Lu Guang grumbles to himself as he practically slams his right hand in front of his left one and pulls himself forward a bit too harshly. His feet shoot forward before the rest of his body does, and he nearly slips backwards with the momentum before he catches the railing and pushes himself up by the elbow, righting himself. “‘It’ll be fun,’ he said.”
“Lu Guang, you’re doing great!!”
“H-huh?”
Still hunched over the railing like the Wicked Witch of the West, Lu Guang wheezes and looks to his right as, outside of the rink, Qiao Ling jumps up and down with her phone camera pointed at him, waving at him with such lovable enthusiasm that it’s impossible for him to stay annoyed in front of her. With her stockings, her red, white fur-lined skirt and her sweater top to match, Qiao Ling is the picture of holiday jolly and joy, and Lu Guang would be remiss to ruin it. He takes a deep breath and waves at the landlady and her camera, mustering up as wide of a smile as he can—though he fears it comes out looking more like a pained grimace.
“Qiao Ling, why aren’t you in here with us?!”
Lu Guang slowly turns around, eye twitching as he sets his sights on Cheng Xiaoshi—adorned in a striped scarf, a brown dog beanie, and fuzzy mittens to match Lu Guang—who has more or less gotten down the art of staying upright on two pieces of metal faster than he has. Cheng Xiaoshi skates up to the railing and throws an arm around Lu Guang, shooting him a boyish grin while Lu Guang resists the temptation to ask if they can go home yet.
Qiao Ling giggles and shouts, “I have to capture this moment, or else you won’t have anything to look back on later~ I’ll join you guys in a bit after I’ve gotten enough photos and videos of our Guang Guang skating for the first time!”
“Qiao Ling-jie… you really don’t have to…”
“Nope, she definitely has to!” Cheng Xiaoshi laughs. Lu Guang turns his head and smiles deceivingly warmly at him, eyes glinting with murderous intent as Cheng Xiaoshi hurriedly skates away with a flourish before Lu Guang can contemplate doing anything to him with the two blades on his feet.
“Lu Guang, this is for you!”
Lu Guang watches as Cheng Xiaoshi gets into position in a wide, empty space a few feet away, lowering his arms by his sides and raising his left knee in a dramatic starting pose. He turns confusedly to Qiao Ling, who pokes her head out from behind her phone and shrugs. He returns his attention to Cheng Xiaoshi.
Cheng Xiaoshi exhales dramatically, and begins his performance with a graceful raise of his arms.
“Who am I dancing for?”
Cheng Xiaoshi begins to sway to and fro, moving his arms around himself in what looks like… an interpretive dance? A horrible imitation of those inflatable dancing tubes at car dealerships? Distantly, Lu Guang is reminded of…
Ah, Lu Guang realizes when Cheng Xiaoshi slides backwards and spreads his arms with poise. The “Eros” routine from the ice skating anime we were watching. His brain helpfully supplies the seductive strumming of the guitar that played during that scene, and Lu Guang finds himself flushing red when Cheng Xiaoshi tilts his head coyly at him, making intentional eye contact with an exaggerated air kiss and a wink.
“I know who.”
Genuinely, what is wrong with me. Lu Guang blinks and shakes the blush off of his cheeks, suddenly feeling hot underneath all his layers. Yet, he can’t take his eyes off of Cheng Xiaoshi, who has taken on the allure of Yuri on Ice’s protagonist with impossible ease. He’s just playing around. That’s all.
Cheng Xiaoshi slides to his right on a one-foot spin with the elegance of a swan—
SLAM!
—and promptly falls on his ass with the grace of a one ton iron weight, all of his limbs landing in a dignified heap on the floor.
.
.
.
“HAHAHAHAHA! WHAT WAS THAT?!” Lu Guang is still processing what he’s just seen when Qiao Ling doubles over laughing, holding her stomach and wiping tears from her eyes. He distantly hears Cheng Xiaoshi push himself up on his elbows and shout in indignance that he’s working on it, and that Qiao Ling needs to support his efforts more as his older sister and stop laughing at him already!
“Hmph.”
They both stop when Lu Guang raises a hand to his lips, hiding his smile.
“And you say my ass is big, when yours could have cracked the ice with how hard you landed on it.”
With that, Lu Guang continues inching his way along the railing, leaving a raging Cheng Xiaoshi with steam fuming from his ears and a cackling Qiao Ling behind.
~
“Cheng Xiaoshi, I can’t.”
“You can!”
“I can’t.”
“I’ll be with you the whole time, promise!”
Cheng Xiaoshi tries his best to give Lu Guang his most charming, most confident, most encouraging grin as he takes one of Lu Guang’s hands in his, gently prying it away from the railing. He feels Lu Guang’s hand trembling in his. He isn’t sure whether Lu Guang is truly that nervous or if he’s just cold; nonetheless, he squeezes it reassuringly. He’s sure Lu Guang can skate—as soon as he jumps out of the nest!
When Lu Guang looks away in silence, hiding his expression from view, Cheng Xiaoshi hesitates. His heart twinges.
Am I being too much?
Just as he’s about to let go and playfully apologize, Cheng Xiaoshi feels Lu Guang gently squeeze his hand in return. He looks up at Lu Guang, and notices that his ears are glowing a little pink. Warmth instantly shoots through his veins as though Lu Guang injected it into his system, and it takes everything in Cheng Xiaoshi not to tackle him to the ground with the cuteness aggression he’s suddenly been struck with.
Instead, he weaves his fingers in between Lu Guang’s, connecting their palms and fully intertwining their hands together. He tries his best to remain casual when Lu Guang gives him a questioning look.
“For extra security. We’ll go one hand off the railing at a time, yeah?” Lu Guang nods with resignation, and Cheng Xiaoshi kicks them off with a tiny push forward. Lu Guang noticeably panics a little, but keeps up with Cheng Xiaoshi just fine, sliding his feet forward one small push at a time as he keeps one hand on the railing while squeezing Cheng Xiaoshi’s hand in a death grip with the other. His eyebrows furrow in concentration as he focuses on matching Cheng Xiaoshi’s intentionally slow pace.
Together, they scale the perimeter of the rink multiple times, increasing the pace that they go at each time. Eventually, Lu Guang’s death grip loosens to a considerably more comfortable hold as they reach a steady pace.
Finally, after many rounds of the rink, Cheng Xiaoshi watches with pride as Lu Guang slowly lets go of the railing.
While Lu Guang remains quiet, Cheng Xiaoshi watches a comfortable smile grow on his roommate’s lips as they continue to skate forward. He grins mischievously and leans into Lu Guang’s space. At the same time, Lu Guang suddenly turns to Cheng Xiaoshi.
“See, Lu Guang? I knew you had it in—”
“Let’s stay near the railing just in—”
“WHOA!”
Cheng Xiaoshi jerks backwards when he realizes just how close their faces are to each other. Lu Guang startles and, forgetting where he is and what he wears on his feet, leaps 4 feet away with astonishing agility, slipping a little but somehow managing to stay upright. Cheng Xiaoshi is, regrettably, less fortunate. He begins to flail about all over the place, ice bits flying up into the air around him as his skates commit the ultimate betrayal.
“Cheng Xiaoshi!” Lu Guang, bless his heart, instinctively skates closer to help him. He just as quickly moves back as one of Cheng Xiaoshi’s skates narrowly misses taking one of his fingers off.
“I’m okay, I’m okay!” Admittedly, Cheng Xiaoshi is not okay, but he’s not about to embarrass himself for the second time. After slipping and sliding for a couple more seconds, he slams a foot down on the ice and bends his knees to adopt a wide athletic stance, effectively regaining his balance and putting a halt to his humiliating display.
Cheng Xiaoshi puts his hands on his knees and lets out a huge sigh of relief, out of breath like he’s just run a marathon. Before he can move, he hears a disgruntled huff as a familiar pair of white mittened hands reaches for his, taking them off of his knees and helping him up. Once he is safely standing, he looks at Lu Guang with wonder, who stares silently at him with a deadpan expression on his face.
We were close enough to kiss just now.
Cheng Xiaoshi pointedly ignores his brain’s very unhelpful thoughts.
While Cheng Xiaoshi is internally wrestling with his own mind, Lu Guang’s mouth opens. Before Lu Guang can admonish his carelessness, Cheng Xiaoshi tilts his head and snaps out of it with a big smile when he realizes something monumental.
“Lu Guang, look! You skated away from the railing by yourself!”
Lu Guang glances around himself, and sure enough, Cheng Xiaoshi is right. In the fiasco, Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi have moved considerably further away from the railing than before. Lu Guang looks back at Cheng Xiaoshi, who watches with delight as his roommate graces him with one of his small smiles.
“I did, didn’t I? No thanks to you, in the end.”
Cheng Xiaoshi sticks his tongue out. “Liar. You couldn’t have done it without me.”
“Cheng Xiaoshi, Lu Guang!”
A bright voice interrupts the beginning of their bickering. Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang straighten themselves up, and watch Qiao Ling skate smoothly over to them as though she’s been doing it her whole life. Cheng Xiaoshi’s attention immediately falls to what Qiao Ling is pushing over to them with glee: a large, pastel yellow, plastic seal that slides effortlessly on the ice when she pushes it in front of her by its raised tail. She comes to a stop and presents the seal to them with a wide flourish of her arm.
“Qiao Ling-jie, what is this?”
“This bad boy…” Qiao Ling begins, giving the seal’s head two pats with the gusto of a go-getting car salesman, “is the solution to all of your problems. Its name is Puccini, by the way.”
~
Ten minutes later, Qiao Ling skates a bit ahead, and can’t help pulling her phone out to film her brother and his roommate. She’d been planning to enjoy herself for the rest of her time there, but can’t help herself because they absolutely need photos and videos of this moment.
“Woohoo!! Go, Guang Guang, go!”
Qiao Ling clicks the record button, and holds her phone up in selfie mode to capture the scene behind her: Cheng Xiaoshi whoops and cheers on top of Puccini’s back while behind him, Lu Guang steadily pushes the adorable ice skating aid forward, holding onto the two tips of Puccini’s tail. With the support of the ice skating aid, Lu Guang feels more secure skating further out to the center of the rink, gliding along the surface of the ice with more ease than ever before.
“Idiot, stop shouting so loud,” Lu Guang scolds. Despite his words, Qiao Ling can see his lips twitching as he tries not to reveal how much fun he’s having, pushing Puccini along like this with Cheng Xiaoshi on its back. Nothing is saving him from the fond blush that inevitably rises to his cheeks, however.
As the landlady of the Time Photo Studio, it is Qiao Ling’s job to make sure that her tenants are working hard to pay off their debt. And she does! Yet, as she watches Cheng Xiaoshi excitedly tell Lu Guang to go faster and Lu Guang, unable to hold in the adrenaline any longer, zooms forward with the zeal of a Fast and Furious street racer, Qiao Ling can’t help the laugh that comes bubbling out of her lips at the sight of them letting loose.
In the future, I hope we get to have more fun times like this together.
“Qiao Ling, it’s your turn for a ride on the Puccini Express!”
After snapping one last picture, Qiao Ling pockets her phone and skates after Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang.
“Coming! Slow down for me, would you?! I didn’t know Guang Guang could even go that fast!”