Chapter Text
The Junior Grand Prix where Damian was competing was in Colorado Springs. After Dick’s previous difficulties competing at that location due to altitude, they traveled the day before the competition began. They flew on their more modest sized private jet, used for domestic flights, and arrived in Colorado mid-day. It was just Dick, Damian, and Mia, the figure skating coach who had traveled with them. Bruce wanted to come, but considering the last minute preparations for the wedding that weekend, he was unavailable.
Dick was fussing about the altitude difference and making sure Damian acclimatized properly. Damian merely tutted, “I was born in Tibet, I’m good with altitude.”
“I…that’s fair, still, be aware, check in with your body and let us know if anything feels off and you need help, okay?” Dick asked.
Damian rolled his eyes but nodded and Dick pulled him into a hug. Damian, at approximately 13, had started his growth spurt over the summer and was currently about 5ft 5 inches, reaching higher on Dick’s chest when they hugged than he used to.
They got settled into the hotel; Dick and Damian were sharing the penthouse suite, each with their own bedroom, while they’d gotten a separate hotel room for Mia to use.
They went out for a nice, albeit healthy, dinner and Dick ended up getting Mia to take a picture of him and Damian in their nice clothes, sending it through to his PR Agent Rachel for a caption, then posting with her approval something about them being there for the Junior Grand Prix.
The next day, Thursday, the men’s competition began at 3:30pm. The numbers for their order was kind of random and there were 23 competitors. Damian’s sporting nationality for competition purposes was for the country of Tibet, where Nanda Parbat was located, and because it was easier to qualify to compete for them since they didn’t have any other figure skaters.
Dick and Mia, as Damian’s official coaches, were both allowed backstage and stuff with him as he got ready. Damian was competing to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack and his outfit includes brown pants and a white and brown shirt in the style of a pirate’s outfit. Dick helped put on some slight eyeliner, above and under his eyes, which matched the pirates from that series and also made his eyes pop.
Damian ended up competing at around 5pm. For the first day, they were doing short programs. Dick knew that Damian had upgraded his routine; since debuting the move last month, he’d practiced a lot to become comfortable with the triple axel jump and was now incorporating it into his short program.
Damian’s starting pose was a fencing pose as he stood on center ice. The music began and he skated around, building speed as the music built, launching into his first jump as the music crescendoed, landing a beautiful triple axel jump with perfect form, arms close to his chest for the jump. Dick cheered after he landed he smoothly, confident it wouldn’t distract Damian from his upcoming spin moves.
Damian did his layback spin move, a level 4 with the different positions, completing it easily and in time with the music before he did a camel spin with a change of foot, also executing the move well. Then Damian started skating his step sequence in time with the music, dancing elegantly across the ice. He mimed fighting with a sword as he skated around, making it clear what he was doing and pulling it off in a way that looked cool.
Then it was the second half of the performance and Damian built speed going into his jumping pass, a triple flip-triple loop, landing the move beautifully; it was one of his more-practiced jumps, one that Dick had favored as well, for the high difficulty score from a two-jump combo. Then Damian skated to the other side of the rink, executing a beautiful triple lutz with his hands over his head, landing it beautifully on one leg with the other extended elegantly behind him.
Then as the music wound down, Damian completed his combination spinning move with a change of foot, getting a level 4 for maximum complexity and points. Damian then stood up fully, freezing in his final pose with arms outstretched as the music ended, before bowing to the judges.
“You did great, Dami!” Dick cheered as Damian came over to the exit and Mia handed him his skate guards.
“It was adequate, serviceable; we’ll see if it was great when the score comes in,” Damian expressed flatly.
“Your technical score is looking to be the highest yet today, around 46 points, the triple axel was great!” Dick said encouragingly.
They went over to the kiss-and-cry to await the scores. It came in as a 76.6, with a total technical score of 45.45 (TES=39.8) and a component score of 31.15. “You’re in the lead, Dami, great job,” Dick said encouragingly. Currently, second place was someone from Japan with a score of 65, though apparently he’d majorly messed up on an attempted triple axel and got no points for the element.
However, Damian was frowning slightly, “I wanted a higher component score….that averages out to around 6.2? I was hoping for at least a 7, I’ve been trying to improve the artistry.”
Mia was amused, “Wow, he sounds just like you, Dick. Oh, woe is me, I have the best technical score but my components are low.”
“I do not sound like that,” Damian fumed.
“No, little D, she was mocking me, not you, and that’s fair, I have complained about it many times,” Dick smoothed over before continuing, “That’s a pretty common component score for this level. Your skating skills, footwork and such looked solid, but it looks like performance and interpretation are a bit lower, so room for improvement with that. Also, it’s a newer routine, some of that comes with time,” Dick assessed.
They left the kiss-and-cry but lingered, watching the rest of Damian’s group of 6 compete. Some of the American skaters were going, including Nathan Chen, who was around 16. He was a Junior skater but had competed at the senior US Nationals last year, so he was close to moving up to the next level. He had a clean routine, landing a beautiful triple axel.
They watched his technical score tick up to 42.2 at the end of the performance; Damian’s was still higher by 3 full points. Mia commented, “Chen’s only getting levels 2 and 3 on his non-jumping elements, whereas Damian is maxing out the small technical details. Goes to show that the details matter, that’s where the technical point difference is.”
Chen’s final score came in as 77.1, which Damian was immediately upset by. “I won the technical score by 3 points, how is he beating me?” Damian fumed.
“Because he got higher component scores. There’s less than a full point of difference, you’re basically tied going into the free skate,” Dick said, trying to soothe him.
“I just….it doesn’t feel fair, how am I supposed to improve on the nebulous components?” Damian complained.
Dick put a comforting hand on Damian’s shoulder while also making him face him. He then spoke in Arabic, “Stay calm, do not look upset. We got an exception for you to compete up at this age level; part of competing at this level means not being a sore loser, accepting that you might not always win, but this is what you wanted, to be challenged. If they see you crying over not getting 1st, they will regard you as childish and immature, which I know you do not want.”
Damian took a deep breath and evened out his facial expression. “I wasn’t crying. But I understand, sir.”
“You don’t have to call me sir. Good lad, just take a deep breath. I’m proud of you, okay? You’re doing great,” Dick comforted him, pulling him into a hug.
The group of them then went to the backstage area properly and Damian sat down to change out of his skates.
Chen also came through the backstage area. Dick decided to do the good sportsmanship thing on Damian’s behalf and casually complimented him on a good skate, which the teen seemed pleased with; Dick was respected in the figure skating world at this point, due to his dominant performances combined with his commitment to artistry.
They opted to go back to the hotel rather than watch the junior pairs competition later that day. Though, Mia as the coach stayed around to watch, scouting out the competition and stuff, always seeking inspiration for helping to design routines. They ordered room service of a healthy dinner to eat.
“How do I improve my component score for tomorrow’s routine? What was wrong with today’s performance?” Damian asked Dick, his voice calm.
“Nothing was wrong with today’s performance, it was a flawless technical performance,” Dick prefaced before chewing a bite of food, “However, are you….generally aware that you have a flat facial expression, most of the time? Me, I’ve been acting and faking emotions my whole life, including at the circus, so the performance aspect came naturally to me, but it’s something you need to actively consider. Though, not if it distracts you to the extent of negatively impacting your performance.”
“Let us go through my free skate performance plan and you can coach me on how to make the proper facial expressions,” Damian suggested.
“Tell me about it as we finish eating dinner, then we can practice in the mirror,” Dick agreed.
“So, well, we switched my short program and free skate, actually, because we decided the 1812 overture and the canons fit better and was more impactful with the many jumps of the free skate. Also, there’s only so much I can do with the sword choreography of the pirate performance, so that works better for the short one. And the full 1812 overture is like 12, 15 minutes long, so there was a lot of content for us to pull from to craft a stronger free skate performance, rather than just focusing on the finale bit,” Damian explained.
Damian then explained the phases of the music and what they were trying to communicate with the story of it, which was a strong story progression, in Dick’s opinion. They practiced in the mirror, with Dick giving specific advice until Damian could craft the corresponding facial expressions properly. Then Dick tested Damian on doing other distracting tasks while maintaining the mask until he was reasonable confident that he could maintain it properly while skating.
Bruce called, congratulating Damian on a strong performance and confirming he’d watched it through the virtual stream. Dick checked his phone, liking the post the GothamSkatingClub account, run by Mia, had posted about Damian’s performance. Apparently, Damian was second after the short program, just slightly behind Chen, the two of them well ahead of the rest of the field.
Dick offered to Damian for them to share a bed to cuddle for the night, if he wanted, and Damian had agreed. They had gotten comfortable doing that last year during the time period when Bruce was missing. They both slept easily in the king sized bed.