Chapter Text
One month before the winter Olympics.
“That's enough for today, Holliday. The hockey team is gonna take the rink soon.”
“Just one more coach!”
Holliday pleaded as she glided around the rink. Her arm is moving in a graceful manner, she makes a huge leap in the air as she spins four times.
She elegantly lands on one leg, successfully doing her one of the Quad flips that has been synonymous with her figure skating career.
She had done the move many times, in both competition and in practice. She won tournaments with it, both regionally and internationally.
Despite how perfectly and how consistently she has been able to do the move again and again, Holliday still feels like she needs to elevate it. And that’s where the idea of doing five quads in her routine popped in her head.
She has done it three times, four times in a row before. But it requires insane accuracy and consistency to pull it off five times, which is something that Holliday thinks she doesn’t have yet.
She needs to train harder if she wants to have a shot of winning a gold medal at the Olympics.
This isn’t her first rodeo at the Olympics, she came so close to winning the big gold the first time. As she was on the air, her un-coordinated self slipped on the ice while trying to do a Quad Lutz.
She lost balance and quickly tried to recover, but it was too late. She only got placed second. The rest of her routine was phenomenal, but the slip was enough to ruin her dreams.
Four years have passed, and she has improved in every aspect compared to her past, and she’s ready to claim what’s rightfully hers.
Her coach has already left 15 minutes ago, it's her and only her in this ice rink.
She practiced spins and jumps again and again. Holliday is so focused that she has blocked all of the noise outside. The only thing that is even slightly audible to her is the sound of her skates gliding through the rink.
As she glides around, trying to build up for another flip. She doesn’t realize she’s in the way of the hockey team that has just made their entrance to the rink. With Holliday's conscious mind entirely focused on the trick, her body immediately collides against an unsuspecting player.
As Holliday laid on top of Silver's body, Silver immediately groaned out of pain from making contact with the ice.
She can hear the figure skater’s heavy breaths on her chest. The skater is light and small, so it’s not like she’s being crushed by the stranger above her, but being pinned by a stranger isn’t something that she particularly enjoys.
“You’re gonna get off me now?” Silver said in an annoyed manner.
“Ugh…”
Holliday groaned as she slowly stood up on her skates. Using her hockey stick, Silver stood up as well.
“All figure skaters should have left a long time ago. What the hell are you doing here?”
Silver approached Holliday a bit too close as she looked down at Holliday, her voice is almost threatening her.
“God forbid I actually want to win a gold medal, unlike your shitty hockey team.”
Silver's face quickly switches from an annoyed one to a surprised one as Holliday fires back. She was not expecting the little figure skater to have such an attitude.
Holliday turns her back and slowly skates again. Silver usually doesn’t care if somebody is talking trash about her, she had let the fans said all kinds of things about her if she had a bad day.
But Holliday trashed her team, and no way she’s gonna let that slide.
Silver quickly skated over and stopped Holliday’s path. She used the hockey stick in her hand and poked it at Holliday’s shoulder.
“I’ll only say this once princess, leave the rink.”
The woman in front of Silver is clearly annoyed. She threw her hands up in an act of trying to get some more time on the ice.
“Cmon! Just get out of my way! I won’t crash on you guys again.”
At her defiance, Silver can’t help but feel her boiling time over time. Her teeth are gritting as she speaks to Holliday once more.
“You insulted my team, leave or I'll report you to the federation.”
Silver threatens while staring Holliday down, her eyebrows furrowed. Holliday isn’t letting up either, she moves closer to Silver and looks up at her, not giving up anything to the hockey player.
But, Holliday is in the wrong, and her ego isn’t that high to be this much of a prick. She slowly stepped back to the captain of the hockey team while still making eye contact.
“I’ll see you again.” She threatened as Holliday quickly skated out of the rink, trying to avoid eye contact with other members of the hockey team.
—————————————————————
10 days before the Olympics.
Silver can’t get Holliday’s words out of her mind. It’s true that the hockey team has never been able to win gold before.
But it’s not like it matters to her, she quit hockey right before the last Olympics started and she only made her grand return to the sport a year ago.
But maybe it’s the fact that she’s the captain on her first cap on the team. She’s not playing for herself but she’s also leading a whole team to victory, she’s responsible for everything that the team does.
So hearing that somebody does not believe in the team to bring home the medal, it crushed her spirit a little.
So she continued to train after the whole team had gone home, honing her skills as much as possible for the perfect performance. All for that gold medal.
But she’s not alone on the ice.
Holliday would leave the rink when it’s time for the hockey team to come in, sit in the stands while trying to get some rest, and once the team had left, she would immediately go back and do her flips.
So for days on end, Holliday would be on one side of the rink hopping and spinning, while Silver would be on the other side, shooting pucks into the goal.
One day, after going to recollect the hockey pucks to practice her accuracy again.
Silver quickly got side tracked as she glanced at the figure skater on the other side.
Silver has observed her day in and day out when she’s taking small breaks. She can’t lie that her moves are some of the most elegant and beautiful things that she has ever seen. Each gesture is soft and gentle, and her jumps are almost superhuman, how fast and flexible she is in the air.
Silver can almost remember Holliday’s routine in her brain by now just from observing from the side. What flip is she gonna do, how many times is she gonna spin, Silver almost has everything remembered in her head.
While Holliday is one of her routine jumps, Silver has no doubt in mind that she’s gonna stick the landing, just like the multiple jumps she had done before
But the complete opposite happened.
Holliday had slipped, and this time, she wasn’t able to regain her balance. She plopped straight down to the ice as her body involuntarily slid and hit straight on to the barrier.
Silver can feel her heart stopping a little as Holliday makes an impact with the wall. She can hear how loud the impact was as it rang through the skating rink.
Her mind contemplates whether or not to go help her out because of her past conflicts with her.
But as soon as she can see Holliday, teeth gritting struggling to stand up again.
She knows that she can’t leave her alone like that.
Silver skated to Holliday as fast as possible as she lowered herself down to assist the injured skater, stopping her from any attempt at standing up herself.
“Hey, take it easy won’t ya?”
Silver bear hugged Holliday and helped her sit up on the ice. Holliday’s hair is messy, flaying around on her face after the crash. Holliday quickly glared at Silver and it wasn’t a nice one either.
“I don’t need your help.”
She lightly pushed Silver with her injured arm and as she did that, she quickly winced her teeth gritting as the other arm gripped it tightly. She turns around, avoiding eye contact with Silver. Holliday knows that she’s hurt, really hurt, but in no way she’s gonna let somebody who she’s on bad terms treat her wounds.
“You either let me treat you and recover just in time for the Olympics, or let yourself be hurt and then miss it. Which one do you pick, skater girl?”
Holiday cursed internally at Silver’s word. Gosh why does she have to be so correct at the worst possible moment?
Holliday sheepishly made eye contact with Silver again as she finally lets down, she lets out a sigh.
“Fine, do whatever you need to do.”
“Your arm made some pretty gnarly contact with the wall, I’ll check that out first.”
Silver’s southern accent is strong and deep as her finger slowly places itself on the zip of Holliday’s “Team USA” jacket.
Holliday, however, decided that she doesn’t want Silver anywhere near her besides her wounds.
She lightly shoves Silver’s hand off her jacket.
“I’ll do it myself.” Holliday says annoyingly.
She slowly unzips the jacket that she’s been wearing for the whole training session.
Silver immediately noticed the bruises on Holliday’s right arm. Holliday’s lucky that the bruises weren't that huge. She carefully holds up Holliday’s arms to check for any broken bones. And no sign of that as well.
A few bruises is lightwork to treat for Silver, considering she would scrap with people daily in her hockey matches. Getting out of it with some bruises is inevitable.
Her equipment is all the way in the locker room. So they would need to get out of the ice first.
“C’mon, let's get you to the locker room.”
Holliday thought of objecting, she absolutely doesn’t want to leave the rink yet. She hasn’t even finished a run of her routine before her crash.
But Silver words rang through her mind again, if she wanted to compete in the Olympics that is coming in less than two weeks. She’s gonna have to treat it and rest properly, she knows this from the competence in her mind trying to push through injuries before.
“Tch.” Holliday grunted under her breath.
In the locker room, as they both sit down together, Silver is carefully wrapping Holliday's arm where there are bruises. Holliday wasn’t expecting both of them to talk, but she is proven to be false as Silver started some small talk with her.
“So, how did you get into figure skating?"
“Why do you care?”
“Just making some small talk, that's all.”
Holliday turned her head the opposite side of Silver, contemplating whether she’s gonna spill her entire backstory for somebody she doesn’t even know her name yet.
Well, maybe it’s fine that she spills a synthesis of her backstory.
“My grandfather was a figure skating legend, my father didn’t pick it up but when it came to me, I was fascinated at the sport. Since then, my grandpa was my coach before he passed away a few years ago.
“My new coaches are fine, but I miss him a lot, you know?.” Holliday says defeatedly. She’s already being treated by somebody she absolutely loathed before. She had given up on any dignity and ego she had left after the crash, so acting cold and distant wouldn’t do any favors for her.
“I failed to get the gold medal when he was still around. That’s why I’m training so hard for this Olympics.”
Silver’s facial expression became thoughtful, she listened intensely to everything that Holliday had to say to her, which is a lot considering they didn’t even talk to each other once besides that argument.
“So, what’s your story?”
Holliday turns back to the person who is bandaging her. She leaned back to check Silver’s name tag on her jersey, finally learning the name of the person who has been accompanying her these past few days.
“Miss Silver.”
At the weird formality, Silver’s face cringed as she finally finished bandaging up Holliday.
“Just call me Lilah.” Silver sighed.
“I broke up with my partner before the last Olympics. I quitted hockey as I was spending the paychecks I got from it on alcohol and rent.”
“I only got sober this past year. I worked my damn ass off for this chance and there’s no way I'm gonna let that gold medal get away.”
Holliday can feel her heart soften up a little from Silver’s story, she did get a divorce before. So Silver’s story of breaking up with her partner hits a little bit closer to home than she would like to admit. That post-breakup crisis is something terrible that Holliday does not want to revisit.
Deep inside, Holliday also admires Silver’s determination to win her event. Which is something rare these days, seeing how a lot of athletes just arrive at the Olympics for a free and paid vacation.
“So this is your first Olympics?”
“Something like that. What, you’re gonna be my personal guide?”
Silver retorted, and that somehow makes Holliday chuckled a little, at the image of a figure skater like her giving Silver a tour around the Olympic Village.
“I won’t share too much about myself.” Although Holliday definitely did before.
“But we’re more alike than you would like to think, Lilah.”
“Really? I thought the beautiful and elegant figure skater would have her life smooth and sailing. Not terrible like mine”
Holliday cheeks slowly warms up at Silver’s little compliment.
Wait. Why is she blushing like a little teenager? She doesn’t even think that a compliment like that would be enough to make her cheeks blush.
Holliday tries to suppress the growing butterflies in her stomach. Is this… attraction?
But Silver’s a grown woman. And Holliday is straight, not once did gay thoughts come across her mind since the conception of her birth, so why now?
She tries to shake off her feelings a little.
“Smooth sailing my ass. If anything, it might be even worse than yours”
“Really?”
Holliday grinned as she leaned back to the locker.
“I got divorced. Twice.”
Upon hearing that, Silver immediately chuckled at Holliday’s troubling love life.
“Nice. Who divorced who?”
“I was always the divorcee.” Holliday sighed
“I understand them though, I travel a lot for skating so it’s easy to fall apart with each other…”
Before they knew it, Silver and Holliday were almost venting to each other like they’re life long friends, about their lives, their careers. Heck, even their exes. Falling in love with normal people will never be easy for athletes like them. Their schedules, the public’s attention on them. It’s stressful, even for them, so it would be crushing for a normal person.
At this point, both of them have buried the hatchet from their argument a week prior. They’re way more similar than both of them in the past would’ve thought.
After a while of just chatting and talking, Silver turned to Holliday.
“Hey. What’s your name?”
As Silver asked, It’s only now that Holliday noticed how hot Silver’s accent is.
That goddamn southern accent, that drawl sound of her voices scratches a part of her brain.
“Melanie. Melanie Holliday.”
“Well Melanie, wanna get some food? You’re definitely in no state to train and I’ve definitely had my fill of shooting hockey pucks.” Silver said as she took off the jersey and her gear.
Holliday, initially, is confused. Nobody has ever offered to do anything with her besides her exes, she has always closed herself off to the outside world in favor of skating. So she really has no idea on how to respond to Silver’s invitation.
So she only sheepishly smiles, avoiding eye contact to try to not make this as awkward as possible.
“Yeah. That sounds great.”
—————————————————————
The last few days went as follows: Silver and Holliday would train in their respective side of the rink, after they were done with the session, they would go get some food together, and they would leave swiftly after.
Every time they sat down together, they got to learn a little bit more about each other everyday. Silver learned more about Holliday’s personal life, her relatives and her early career.
And Holliday learned that Silver is a lesbian.
Speaking of being a homo, Holliday still can’t figure out the feelings that she’s been having for her new (and only) friend. Holliday finds herself paying more attention to Silver every time they hang out post training.
Her eyes would peek a little at Silver every time they’re walking together to the next local restaurant that they would try out for that week.
Silver is an insanely attractive woman, even a “straight” person like Holliday has to admit that.
The way her hair sways around and the way it looks insanely fluffy. And the way her sharp facial features look under the light poles of the sidewalk they’re walking on. And every time they would dine together, she would catch a glimpse at how fucking hot the woman opposite to her is, and then she would immediately try to hide from Silver’s returning her gaze.
Sometimes, all Holliday wants to entangle her fingers in Silver’s hair, then slowly lean into her. Then Holliday’s face will be so close to Silver’s, the distance between their lips is essentially miniscule. Then Holliday will finally do the one final action, leaning in and kissing-
STOP!
Okay, Holliday will admit that it’s been a while since she really did anything romantically with anybody. People would be surprised how much isolation and focusing on the one thing that you do best can actually make you crave human interaction. So it’s easy to understand how she’s essentially falling head over heels for Silver and making her question her sexuality.
And Silver is a great partner to talk to. Just being able to converse with a fellow athlete that actually understands everything that they have to go through is already enough of Holliday.
And Silver’s personality is almost special in a way. Other athletes would have their ego are so high that it’s almost impossible to actually have a conversation with them, especially in figure skating where the place is stacked with rich kids.
But Silver is nothing like that, she almost doesn’t have an ego. She’s actually grounded to life, which is surprising considering the industry that they work in.
Talking to somebody like that reminds her of the better days when she actually had friends, and because of that it made Holliday grow a special look towards Silver.
That’s how everyday has been for Holliday. Wake up, think about Silver, actually training with Silver. And then go back home, think more about Silver, and then hit the hay.
At this point, the little crush that she has no idea how to solve is fading her ambitions for that gold medal that she has been longing for.
Before training, Holliday took a cold shower. Not because she wanted to cleanse herself. It’s because she wanted some time for herself, excluding the thoughts that had been clouding her focus.
Today’s the last day before the whole team is gonna move to Italy for the Olympics. Holliday leaned her forehead against the wall of the shower as she let the cold water run down on her. She can’t let these thoughts control her anymore. It will make her unable to focus on what’s actually important.
Holliday closes her eyes, trying to focus as much as possible. Other people could ask their friends what to do, but Holliday has her and only herself to lean on.
After a while, she turned off the shower.
Holliday had made her decision.
After the hockey team had wrapped up her training. Instead of staying in the rink training some more, Holliday left the ice with the team as she approached Holliday, who was sitting on the stands.
“Hey, I’m not gonna train after practice today, just trying to get some rest after the flight tomorrow, you know? You have the rink all on your own Holliday.”
That set an alarm in Holliday’s mind. Silver can’t leave, especially right now. It would ruin her plans for the both of them if she’s just gonna stand up and leave her alone.
Out of instinct, Holliday grabbed Silver’s wrists, not letting her go.
“I’m not training today either…”
Holliday swallowed as she spoke up again. Nervousness is evident in her eyes.
“But stay, skate with me, Lilah.”
She says pleading. Silver is staring her straight in the eye, Holliday could clearly see how Silver is questioning what the hell is going on right now and that just makes her nervousness go up even higher.
“Just skate with me. Like how people do in their local mall’s ice rink, you know?”
By people, Holliday meant couples.
Her grip on Silver’s wrists gets tighter.
“Please Lilah.”
Holliday’s eyes are full of puppy eyes mode right now, even though she didn’t intend it to be. But maybe her pleading words struck something inside Silver. She chuckled lightly at how Holliday is practically begging to skate with her. It’s weirdly adorable and a whole contrast to the tough and hard head Holliday she first met.
“Yeah sure.” Silver responded softly.
“But hey, can you release my arm? I need to go get my gear off.”
Holliday never released something that fast in her life as quickly turned away out of embarrassment.
“Do you anything that you need to do!”
There stands Holliday, in the middle of the rink, alone. She closes her eyes as she tries to focus on how the Olympic atmosphere would be this time. On her first meet, the atmosphere was definitely crowded. But it’s been four years since that event, she needs to envision everything in her mind in order to perform her best.
The music of her performance is playing in her mind as her arms move automatically like an instinct. It wraps around her body as a part of the choreography, her head lifts up gracefully, almost like she’s absorbing the arena’s light.
She started skating around the rink with her eyes still completely closed. Holliday is completely immersing herself in the character of her program, a frail and broken woman who’s closed off to the entire world, drowning herself in loneliness.
Thinking about it, the character that she’s portraying is less of a fictional persona that she and coaches created and more of it is just Holliday playing herself. Her life has always been closed off since she’s so deep into her passion of figure skating that most people just won’t understand.
Her former friends found her annoying to do anything with, her relatives don't really care for her and more or less they just want to suck off the fame of Holliday being a famous skater.
And her ex-husband definitely hates her for how passionate she was about her sport to the point of ignoring them.
But now she finally met somebody who can actually understand.
On the side of the rink, Silver watches in awe at how beautiful Holliday’s performance is. She’s watching the figure skater taking advantage of the full court instead of just half of it like how she always trained with her.
Her moves are explosive yet elegant. Holliday looks almost superhuman in Silver’s eyes the way she spun in the air that fast.
Since meeting Holliday, Silver feels revitalized.
Since falling into the deep hole that’s called alcoholism, making a recover has been tough to say the least.
But with the help of her teammates, her coaches, she’s been doing pretty well on the road to recovery.
And with the presence of a certain figure skater in her life. She has never felt better since she broke up with her ex.
Finding someone that understands her life is hard, but she may have found somebody that actually does.
Besides their striking similarities, Silver respects Holliday for how hard working and talented she is. Being committed to your own craft is something that is definitely something to be in awe of.
And the dates they have been going out on. Every time Silver would tease the woman she’s been accompanying with, Holliday would just be flustered like crazy, and then she would
cover her face, avoiding eye contact with Silver. Something that she finds absolutely adorable.
Like Holliday, it’s been a while since she actually got with somebody romantically. Despite how hard it was, Silver has already moved on to a better part of her life.
And she would want Holliday to be a part of that as well.
As Holliday finishes up her routine, ending with an elegant bow for what would be a packed audience, there's only Silver for her to bow in front of.
Silver clapped as loud as possible and the sound rang through the empty arena.
“Go Holliday!”
Holliday’s expressions went from a pleased and satisfied look to an immediate shock.
“You were here this whole time?”
“Yep.”
Silver’s mouth makes a little pop sound at the end as she enters the rink. She skated her way next to Holliday.
“So, what were you planning?”
Silver can notice how nervous Holliday looked since she arrived at training today. Silver never thought that she would get to witness a confident skater like Holliday acting so weird and scared for the first time.
“Can I…”
Holliday suddenly intertwines her fingers with Silver’s. At the sudden touch, Silver’s eyes immediately opened wide. She turned to look at the figure skater next to her and could see that she’s also looking a lot more flustered than normal.
“Let’s skate.”
So, the two athletes are hand in hand, skating together. Besides the slight shock from Holliday's touch, Silver found herself a bit more comfortable just talking with Holliday next to her side, just like she always has done to Silver on their little dates.
Silver also can’t help but notice how rough her skating is compared to Holliday’s. It’s almost like butter how smooth Holliday skates, Silver looks like she’s skating with a broken leg compared to her.
After a while of small talk, Holliday takes a deep breath as she mentally prepares herself. She starts skating in front of Silver. She turns around and then faces her, all the while she is skating backwards.
Her other hand reaches for Silver’s, holding both of them while looking straight on at the captain of the hockey team.
“Lilah, you must be feeling the way I’ve felt for the past few days… right?”
Silver does feel what Holliday is feeling, but she is understandably confused at Holliday’s question.
“Huh?”
“Uhm… It’s just, it’s been a while since I really had feelings for anybody.”
Holliday’s grip on Silver’s hands tightens.
“But Lilah. With you, I never felt more attached to anybody like this.”
Silver’s eyes opened wide, her mouth agape. She’s clearly surprised at Holliday’s confession.
As Holliday continued, they were both still skating slowly as they slowly moved from the side of the rink to the center.
“You actually understand what we have to go through. I knew we were similar, I rejected those similarities because I didn’t want to get attached.”
“But the way you talk, the way you listen to my stories… I don’t think I’ve ever fallen for somebody this hard.”
While talking her heart out, Holliday slowed down a little on the ice. But Silver’s was caught off guard by the change of speed.
‘Woah!”
Silver fell on Holliday. But out of instinct, Silver wraps her arms around her and places her hand behind Holliday’s head, protecting her from the impact. In return, Holliday immediately clinged on to Silver like a lifeline as they fell.
As they made impact with the ice, the arena fell silent a little. The closeness of their bodies is making both of them blush. After they fell together however, they didn’t remove themselves from each other for a second, Holliday kept wrapping her arms around Silver, Silver is still holding on to Holliday.
After a while, the first one to break the silence was Silver.
“So, you were saying?”
She was also the first to remove herself from the opposition, something that definitely elicited a small disappointed look to Holliday.
“I-I…”
They made eye contact with each other, to look at one another while being so close like this. Holliday can feel the barriers that she has put up around her closing down, all of the doubt that Silver might not have the same feelings for her completely disappeared.
Holliday even had doubts on herself that she is just craving attention after isolating herself so much and she’s not actually attracted to somebody with the same sex. But no, It was Silver, it has always been Silver that made her like this.
Holliday’s hand cupped Silver’s cheek.
“I like you, Lilah."
At Holliday’s confession, Silver immediately closed the distance, kissing Holliday passionately as she placed her hands on her hips.
Holliday doesn’t pull back either, her hand is entangled in Silver’s hair, releasing all of the tension that she has been holding back.
After a while of making out, Silver was once again the first one to pull back.
“Wanna go back to my place?”
And Holliday has never agreed to something this quick before.