Learning to Love the Cold
This is kind of based on the comic by kimiooon on tumblr! There are probably quite a few other fics that are much better than this one floating around for it, but I thought it'd be fun. Mostly because whenever anything to do with skating comes up I have to write it. Ah, so consider this a prequel to Taking the Gold, since I kind of throw in a reference with Eren and Mikasa. (You don't have to read it, but.)
Also, apologies—this is kind of terrible. I wrote it pretty quickly, so.
Jean Kirschstein never really was one for the cold, growing up in California.
Of course, it's only his luck that he moves to Michigan in one of its coldest winters in ages.
He was against it, really, but his parents left no choice in the matter. His dad had a great new job opportunity with much higher pay. (They told him this with overly cheery faces and the voices they would use when talking to a baby. He already can't stand them, and the way they treat him has pushed him over the edge more than once.)
So, here he is, senior year, freezing to death, and pretty much friendless.
Except for Armin Arlert.
On the first day at his new school, the shorter blonde talked to him right away, offering to show him to his classes and whatever else he might need help with.
Jean's first question was how long would it be until he wouldn't freeze his ass off when he takes one step outside.
"It's not that cold. We're mostly passed that! It's been getting warmer every day!" was the kid's reply. (So, they consider twenty five degrees warm here? Wonderful. Really, truly wonderful.)
Lunch time comes around and, naturally, he sits with Armin. This is when he meets the blonde's two best friends—Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman. Mikasa absolutely stuns him. He's never been so tempted to reach out and touch someone's hair before. It has to be made of silk. There's no other way it could look so soft.
Eren, on the other hand, annoys the hell out of him. He doesn't even have to say anything—it's his face. He looks so angry, especially when he glances at Jean. Really, what's his problem? Needless to say, they definitely do not get along at all.
During passing time, Armin tells him more about Mikasa (and Eren, much to Jean's dismay), and it turns out that they're figure skaters. A pair, actually, gearing up for nationals in January and Olympic hopefuls. The idea of skating makes Jean shiver. Why? Why would anyone suffer through the cold, even when it's warm out and you could go swimming? He's only skated once in his lifetime—it was a school fieldtrip when he was nine. That was the day he decided he hated the cold, actually.
But Armin says he should come to the rink and see them skate sometime. They really are amazing and Armin's sure they'll make it to the Olympics. (He starts rambling about Russia and traveling at this point. Jean swears he can see the stars in his eyes as he goes on and on about how cool it would be to see the world.)
So a week later, Armin takes him to the rink after school.
Jean's sticking to how much he hates the cold, but this rink is far more astounding than any other rink he's ever seen. It's huge. There are three sheets of ice, each Olympic size, and each has enough seating for well over a thousand. It makes him forget he hates the cold for a minute.
In rink one, he can already see Eren and Mikasa practicing. Their coaches are telling them something, and the two are nodding in agreement with whatever they're saying. (Jean sort of wishes he could read lips, but he probably wouldn't understand whatever the two were being instructed to do anyway.)
He watches the two as they move around the ice—Mikasa much more graceful than Eren—and he throws her into the air.
"A triple twist," Armin says, leaning forward. "They've been struggling with it."
Jean frowns. It looked fine to him.
His attention moves to another skater at this point—a boy. He's moving so quickly that Jean's having trouble making out his features, but he's guessing he's around his age. He's going into a jump and then, before Jean knows it, he's landed.
He can clearly see his face now and, oh God, he's so hot it makes Jean physically hurt because people should not look that good and on top of that it's obvious he's super talented if he can land jumps like that so flawlessly.
Without taking his eyes off of the boy, Jean whispers to Armin, "Who's he?"
"Who—oh! That's Marco! He goes to our school too, but with Nationals so close his parents pulled him out for training and whatnot. Eren and Mikasa will probably be pulled out of school for a while soon, too," he adds.
Jean nods. Yeah, he hasn't seen him before. He would remember if he did.
Marco spots them watching him and a smile crosses his face. (Jean's internally crying at this point.) He makes his way to the boards, stopping and leaning over it. "Hey, Armin!" he calls.
Armin stands up but Jean stays put. He doesn't know him, so he probably shouldn't—
Armin tugs on his sleeve to come with, so Jean follows him to where Marco standing.
"Hey, Marco! You look good out there," Armin flashes a smile.
"Thanks!" Marco turns his attention to Jean now (up close, Jean can see he has freckles, too). "You're Jean, right? Armin told me about you! Said you didn't really like the cold much."
"I, uh, yeah. I'm not a huge fan of the cold."
Yes Jean, that's the perfect way to introduce yourself. Absolutely perfect.
Marco laughs, "Well, the rink isn't too bad. Besides in the mornings. So long as you hang out in the stands it's not too bad. Have you ever skated before?"
"Like once. I was nine. Definitely not my thing. It looks cool, though."
"Maybe I could teach you something sometime," Marco says. He steps back from the boards. "I should get back to skating for now, though. I'd rather not get yelled at by my coach. It was nice meeting you!"
"Yeah, you too," Jean says, watching the boy skate off. Marco immediately goes into a spin, and Jean asks, "What's that?"
"A flying camel," Armin says, hardly even looking at Marco, instead watching Mikasa and Eren do, well, whatever they're doing. Jean has no idea.
Jean sighs, resting his elbows on the boards where Marco was only moments before. Great. Now he has not only a lot of skating terms he has to learn, but he's going to have to teach himself to like the cold.
A triple twist is a thing only in pairs figure skating where the guy throws the girl and she twists in the air, and he catches her and helps her with the landing. A flying camel is a spin, a lot like a camel, but you kind of like jump into it, if that makes sense, and you're really doing a back camel, where you're still spinning the same way but on the opposite foot. That probably didn't make much sense. But if you're really curious, then you should totally look them up!
Well, I hope you guys liked it. I'm sorry, I seriously rushed this. But I needed to write it so badly omg. Really, I should work on my other fics but skating aus get to me.