Dedication: To silver_apples on LJ. This was written as part of a Christmas fic/art gift exchange. But also to you, if you're reading a Christmas fic any other time than December.
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.
'No. No, Pads, your feet are pointing in the wrong direction. If you point the blades in, you'll move in. Lift your feet off the ice! Don't just drag them. Why're your hands so cold? Pads. Pads, what're you doing. No, don't let go of my hand, you'll fall. You'll fall! Oh, Merlin...'
'Shit.'
Sirius can feel the damp spreading through his long coat, jeans and underwear. It's a rather unpleasant feeling, but he's not too inclined to stand up and do something about it, knowing that he'd probably just fall over again.
His legs are spread out in front of him and his thighs are becoming damp as well. He bends his knees, moves his feet towards his bottom, and resists the temptation to put his ungloved hands out behind him. Ice skates are dangerous, and fingers are worryingly easy to cut off. Or so he's heard.
There was something that appealed to him about learning to ice skate (probably the idea of teeny thin blades and moving reallyreallyfast on them interested the Marauder in him), but the practicalities are hard to get his head around, because putting so much pressure on a thin sliver of metal doesn't make sense. Unless muggles have suddenly gotten a hold of weak Levitating Charms, so that you don't actually touch the ice. Now that makes more sense.
The most frustrating thing is that James, Peter and Remus all seem quite happy. Peter is standing still by the barrier, chatting up a curly-haired girl who seems to really enjoy grasping onto Peter's arms every time she 'falls over'. James is showing off by skating backwards (and reallyreallyfast) and managing to avoid every obstacle, from little kids and the older couples holding hands and skating calmly.
And Remus is standing next to him, looking a bit worried and a lot annoyed.
Sirius scowls, feeling a lot annoyed himself. He just doesn't get this. It's frustrating that he can't do it AND he can't cast a Levitating Charm on himself. There're too many muggles around. Sirius sets his hands back on the ice when he finds that he can't balance properly.
'Need a hand?'
Remus' hands are nicely enclosed in woollen gloves. They're bright red, and match his cold face and flushed ears. Sirius wonders if his own face is bright red as well, but he doesn't suppose that it matters too much.
'Please.'
Remus moves to stand in front of Sirius and puts the toes of his skates to the toes of Sirius' skates. They clasp hands, and Remus pulls Sirius up.
'Merlin, Pads, your hands are cold. Why didn't you do a Warming Charm before we got here?'
Sirius wants to point out that he'd muddled his way to Bayswater from his flat on the Tube, and then promptly ignored the massive signs pointing to 'Queen's Ice and Bowl' (London's only indoor ice rink! And a bowling alley! It'll be amazing, Pads. Who cares if you can't skate yet?). The Warming Charm that he'd cast at home had worn off by the time that James found him in a kebab shop, roughly half an hour after they'd planned to meet.
Sirius shrugs.
'Fine then. Shall I take you back to the barrier?'
They both look at the barrier. The people there seem to be mostly giggling girls trying to catch boys' eyes and young kids who look a little scared. Sirius notes that Peter and the girl are now on the other side of the barrier and are waddle walking in their skates to the little cafИ next to the skates rental hatch.
'No. I want to learn how to skate. Properly.'
Remus offers his hand, but Sirius decides to move off without him. Remus shrugs and skates a little ways away. Sirius starts to stumble, and Remus is back by him without a word. He offers his hand again, and Sirius takes it, mumbling about needing to share some of Remus' bountiful body heat.
They set off slowly, and Remus manages a few seconds without nagging.
'No, Pads, you need to look ahead of you. Not at the ice. No, don't look over there, ahead of you. Dead ahead. Come on!'
Dead ahead of Sirius is a poster of an ice-skating couple laughing hysterically, holding hands and looking generally in love. Sirius looks to his own hand and the rambling Remus attached to it.
'Why're you looking at our hands? Look, no one will know. They'll just think that you're a seventeen year old who can't skate. It doesn't matter. Are you worrying? Don't worry. Just look ahead!'
Sirius looks ahead. He points his feet out as Remus had instructed earlier and it does start to get a little easier. He still has a death grip on Remus' arm, though.
He starts to giggle a little bit; it's a stupid situation to be in. He probably looks manic, but his friends already know that he is. When Remus starts to laugh (ever so slightly nervously), Sirius glances at him, and realises that maybe he's also generally in love, lack of ice-skating proficiency and all. When he starts to relax, he finds that he's been skating quite happily for roughly three and a half minutes.
'Pads! Pads, this is amazing! Well done! Look, even James is watching. I'm so proud of you Sirius.'
Sirius laughs again, properly and triumphantly and feels on top of the world. Holding hands and feeling generally in love.
That is, until he skates into the poster and ends up on his arse again.
'Shit.'