Nothing Even Matters: A Kiley One-shot
The sound of skates moving over ice filled the hockey rink.
Kendall Knight smiled as he moved back and forth across the ice, holding tightly on to the hockey stick that was in his hands. He missed the feeling of being able to ice skate whenever he wanted, and the fact that he was able to get in a few minutes while in LA was something that he really enjoyed. It was one of the main things that he missed about his home in Minnesota.
He missed snow in general, he missed it when the temperature didn't get anywhere near the 70's unless it was late spring and going into the summer, he missed the sound of slush squishing under his shoes, and he missed being able to laugh at his friends when they slipped and fell on the ice as they walked to school.
Kendall turned his skates to the left, effectively stopping himself on a dime as he picked up a hockey puck with the side of his hockey stick. He moved it back to the ground and skated back towards the other end of the rink, moving the hockey puck back and forth in front of him, as if someone was going to come up from behind and take it from him. He skated around the goal once and then shot the puck into the corner of the net.
"Goal!" Kendall shouted as he took his helmet off and held his arms into the air, in victory as he glided across the ice. #35 Kendall Knight gets the winning goal for the Minnesota Wild! They're going to the finals against the Pittsburg Penguins to see who will win the Stanley Cup!" he moved his hands around his mouth. "And the crowd goes wild!"
"Are you done yet?"
Kendall smiled a little as he turned on his skates to face his girlfriend, Riley Jackson. He chuckled when he saw her standing behind the player's bench, her arms crossed tightly across her chest, shivering a little bit.
He skated over to her and moved his skates to the side, sending little bits of ice everywhere as he stopped in front of her. "Are you getting bored?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Because I don't think I got that the last twenty times you have asked me that question."
"Well, it's cold here, and I hate the cold," Riley replied, looking at the ceiling. "Plus I've been watching you skate back and forth across the ice playing an NHL game in your head and I can only take you doing a victory lap so many times before I'm tired of watching." She explained. "So I think I deserve to be able to ask the question as many times as I want."
"Doesn't mean that it gets any less annoying," Kendall replied as she pulled off his hockey gloves and cracked his knuckles in nonchalance.
"Tough Kiwi," Riley replied, causing Kendall to burst out laughing.
Sometimes he forgot that she was originally from Australia as she usually spoke with an American accent and switched back to Australian every now and then. One of the things that he liked about her when he first met her was the fact that she could easily switch from the two accents without batting an eye, but it also showed how easily she could adapt to things. Unfortunately for her, that meant that she had to adapt to Kendall's hockey obsession, even calling him Hockey-Head as nickname for him.
"But seriously, can we go soon?" Riley bounced up and down on her toes. "I can't feel my toes anymore and I'm sure that my fingers are going to be the next to go." She flexed her fingers as if to prove her point. "That is if my nose hasn't already fallen off." She added, referring to her red-tipped nose.
"Sorry Rudolph, I'm almost done." Kendall replied and skated back from the boards as Riley reached out to hit him. "Why don't you join me?" he questioned with a raise of his eyebrows.
"On that frozen death trap?" Riley snorted as she motioned to the ice. "No thanks."
"You can't die on the ice." Kendall stated. That was probably one of the weirdest things that he had ever heard anyone say about it. And he was sort of offended because he grew up on the ice and never really liked it when someone badmouthed hockey or skating in general.
"You can get hurt." Riley pointed out.
"You can also get hurt just by walking out your front door and you don't see that happening do you?" Kendall scratched his forehead. "You're starting to act like Logan," he made a face. "And if I wanted him for a girlfriend I would have asked."
"You mean as a boyfriend." Riley corrected.
"No, as a girlfriend." Kendall repeated. "You haven't seen how girly he can be sometimes." He laughed a little. "Let me just do a few more laps and then we can go, alright?" he placed a gloved hand over his heart. "Promise."
"Fine," Riley pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and sat down on the bench, bringing her phone up to her face as she scrolled through something with her thumb. "But you're lucky that I agreed to come out here as it is."
"I know."
Kendall turned and glided across the ice again as Riley continued to mess with her phone. She looked through her e-mail, Facebook, and a few of the other websites that she frequently visited on her laptop, not looking up once until she heard the sound of a body crashing into the boards and Kendall's yelp of pain.
Her head shot up and she got to her feet, slowly walking down the rest of the bleachers as she scanned the ice. "So I see that you finally lost your balance for once, Hockey-Head." She stated and then frowned when her voice echoed across the ice rink with no answer. "Hockey-Head?" she questioned and rested her hands on the side of the barrier between the ice and the seats. "Kendall?" She leaned over, looking over the ice and emitted a low cry of shock when she saw Kendall's form lying on the ice a few meters down. "Kendall!"
Riley quickly scrambled over the barrier and ran across the ice towards her boyfriend, her feet slipping and sliding as she went, threatening to throw her off balance. When she reached Kendall's side, she fell to her knees and started to shake his shoulders.
"Kendall! Kendall! Are you ok?" she questioned, quickly checking his vital signs. "Kendall!"
Kendall's head flopped back and forth as Riley shook his shoulders and he lay still. It wasn't until she called his name two more times did he finally open his eyes and sigh in a disappointed way. "You know, I would have thought that you would have run over to me a little bit faster than that to see if I was ok."
"Ugh," Riley let go of Kendall's shoulders as he started to laugh, standing up and brushing slush off of her knees. "That wasn't funny. You're not funny."
"Sure I am," Kendall replied as he calmed down from his bout of laughter. "I'm hysterical. That's one of the many things that you like about me along with my ability to think of a plan in about three seconds and the very talented way I make very girly lunches." He stated, getting to his feet. Riley wasn't looking at him, her lower lip jutted out ever so slightly as she had her arms tightly folded across her chest. "I'm sorry."
"Sure you are" Riley replied, finally looking at him.
"I am," Kendall smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Let me show you just how sorry I am." Riley smirked as he bent his head towards her, closing his eyes. He opened them again when there was the sound of voices getting closer and Riley turned her head to the side, effectively causing him to kiss her cheek. "Is something wrong?" he asked, straightening up.
"No," Riley avoided his gaze, not matter how hard he tried to catch it. "I'm just hungry and it looks like it's going to get pretty crowded." She pointed to the group of kids that were walking along the outside of the rink, talking loudly and hurrying to get their skates on. "Let's go."
"Alright," Kendall removed his arms from Riley's waist and grabbed his hockey stick that lay abandoned on the ice and then skated after her. "I never really wanted to bring this up," he started, getting her attention. "But, are you embarrassed by me?"
"What?" Riley laughed in surprised and turned to face him, brushing her hair out of her face. "What gives you that idea?"
"Well, because every time I'm about to kiss you or something," Kendall blushed a little bit. "And there's someone else around, you always pull away from me." He cleared his throat. "So I really can't help but wonder if you're embarrassed of me or if it's something that I'm doing wrong."
"It's not you Kendall, trust me on that." Riley replied, her cheeks turning even redder. (They were already red from the cold. "I mean, you're a good kisser and everything. It's just me."
"Well, what is it?" Kendall asked gently.
"Um," Riley bit her lower lip and rubbed her arm, the surefire sign that she was hiding something. He had noticed it when he first met her and had now understood what it meant, about six months later. "Well, I know I really shouldn't care, since its no one else's business, but I often wonder what people think about us and that causes me to be self-conscious."
"What do you mean?" Kendall looked completely confused. "You mean like the tabloids and our fans and stuff?"
"No, just regular people." Riley now scratched the back of her neck. "I don't know, I guess it's just because I've always heard my dad tell me that I'm worthless and stupid and that that's all anyone will ever think of me, I guess I'm stuck in that mindset and it's really not fair to you and-"
"You can stop, I get your point." Kendall interrupted and gave a warm smile that instantly caused Riley to feel comfortable. "But what they think," he pointed over to the kids that had come onto the ice and was now skating around them. "What the workers here think, what your family thinks, none of that matters." He moved forward and rested his forehead against hers. "And do you want to know why?"
"Why?" Riley humored him.
"Because when I put my arms around you," Kendall smiled sweetly. "Nothing even matters except for you and me
"You're lucky you're cute or I would have laughed obnoxiously at that." Riley replied, smiling herself. "And very, very, loud."
"I'm pretty sure you're laughing in your head, though." Kendall replied to which Riley smirked, showing that he was right. "Can I kiss you now?"
"Why would you ask?" Riley raised an eyebrow. "Do you really care if people see us kissing?"
"No," Kendall breathed. "I'm just making sure."
He dug his fingers into Riley's hair, tilted her head back and kissed her for the whole world to see.
The End