A/N: Before you read this fic, I must warn you that I initially wrote it in Russian and published it on Ficbook. Then I decided to translate it into English. I'm not a native English speaker, but I've been learning this language for several years and I tried my best in this translation. So tell me immediately if my vocabulary and/or grammar sucked! I'm open to criticism and will appreciate your help in fixing my possible mistakes and inaccuracies.
The main characters here are about 18-22 years old. The very idea of skateboard challenge was borrowed from Braille Skateboarding, you can check it on Youtube.
"Hey, guys! I'm the legendary Ottoman," saying this, Otto gave a perfect smile, as he sat on the bench, "and this is the 20th episode of 'Skate If You Dare'! This time, we got a special delivery from Nebraska..."
The camera slowly zoomed out to the point where a long box on Otto's lap could be seen.
Twister said, "Dude, there's this sign, 'Handle with care'. I wonder, what's in there?"
"I'm curious, too," Otto nodded, as he took his scissors. Making quick work of the creaking Scotch tape, he tore the box open and sank his hands into the ocean of Styrofoam peanuts. While wading through the cardboard and bubble wrap, he made a lot of noise; even as he found something with his hand, his face reflected genuine amazement.
"Oh, snap!" Otto exclaimed.
"Why, what's that?" Twister even gave a jump and left his camera on the tripod to appear in the picture. He sat next to Otto and sank his head into the box.
"Ohhh," he said slowly, stunned. Then he helped Otto to pull out the object of their admiration.
"A glass skateboard!" Otto showed the board on camera.
At that moment, Twister reached to one of the wheels and spun it, whistling, "With glass wheels!"
He hurried to the camera, while Otto said, looking through the transparent deck, "Twist, what are we gonna do with such a fine piece?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, "maybe you first try to stand on it and see if it breaks?"
At once, Otto landed his skateboard, and even as his left foot was in the air above it, Twister gasped.
"Not so fast, man!" he pleaded.
"Cool it, bro!" Otto cut him off, his foot frozen in the air; however, he obeyed and put his foot onto the board as smooth as he could. The board seemed to have survived it, not even creaking, so Otto did not hesitate to put his right foot there as well; he was also skillful enough to keep his balance.
While filming him from all the angles, Twister kept on repeating, "Wow, look at it... wow... it can handle you..."
"And it's gonna skate well, I guess," Otto noted with satisfaction and was just about to jump on the board from habit, when Twister hissed at him. "Man, I don't really feel it's made of glass. It's actually pretty... tight? Well, maybe a bit slick. Is there a grip tape?"
"Hold on, I'll check it!" Twister again appeared in the picture and buried his head into the box. A few seconds later, he reared his head to report, "No grip tape!"
"Okay, that will be fine, too," Otto shrugged.
Twister came up to him, saying, "Need a hand?"
"If you would be so kind, Mr Rodriguez," Otto smirked.
"Aw, don't call me that!" Twister said indignantly, a little confused, but nevertheless went to push Otto forward.
"I'm moving!" Otto shouted, excited, as he looked at his feet, after which pushed and gained some speed. Twister grabbed his camera and rushed after him. Skating on flat surface and small ramps went pretty smooth, nothing happened yet to the skateboard, so Otto finally got his courage.
"It's hardcore time!"
He got off his board, took it up to check for damage and headed to a vertical ramp, way higher than those he had already skated on.
"What are you doing?!" Twister cried, running after him. Otto had already got to the top, with the glassboard on the edge of the ramp.
"Dropping in," he replied, looking down appraisingly.
"Dude, it's dangerous!"
"'Dangerous' is my middle name, if not the first!"
Twister let out a heavy sigh.
"It already hurts to look, bro..."
"Oh, please! The main thing is, you've got to avoid falling on the glass when it breaks."
"But how can you avoid it?"
Otto rolled his eyes.
"Gee, Twist, I don't even know. I'm a pro, and over the years of practice I must have learned even how to fall properly, no?"
"Well, I guess..." Twister replied slowly, puzzled.
"Then stop babbling! I'm dropping in!"
With this, Otto got on his board like lightning, and his dropping in turned out well... or not?!
"Hey, you alright?!" Twister yelled near the same time with Otto's yell after the sound of breaking glass and rushed to him, dropping his camera. Thereafter only asphalt and the feet running away could be seen in the lens.
"Man, can't you see?!" the answer was irritated and instantly followed by a groan of pain. "Oh, damn..."
Sitting on the couch, Otto winced in pain after the millionth time, when Twister was fixing another cut - fortunately, all of them were relatively small and harmless. It was safe to say that Otto was lucky, though by his standards, he would be lucky if he hadn't fallen onto the glass, or even had somehow managed to keep it intact. The deck cracked at the very beginning, so Otto just followed the shards in their falling and accidentally multiplied them by his body weight; but the wheels, strangely enough, were safe and sound. Over the years of practicing their extreme activities, Twister and Otto learned how to save each other and give first aid in case of injury; of course, it was mainly Twister's responsibility, for Otto being way more risk-prone, and the glass skateboard accident wasn't news at all. Twister turned to the next cut, which was in dangerous proximity to the neck, and Otto couldn't help groaning in protest.
"Oh man, I'm sorry!" Twister withdrew his hand; however, in just a moment, he continued what he started, stating categorically, "But I have to!"
"Careful," Otto said through gritted teeth; he had a hard enough time silently enduring all the manipulations.
"That's what I'm telling you all the time!" Twister grumbled, putting a bandage on the cut. "I think that's it."
Otto examined his arms and torso; satisfied, he got off the couch, saying, "All right, I can go skate!"
"Freeze!" Twister commanded, as he pulled his friend back to the seat, and that immediately made Otto freak. "Man, not now, wait at least until your cuts are healed. If anything, we can finish the episode tomorrow."
"Fine, but let's shoot another scene with me here?" Otto suggested, obviously upset about staying home — it had been his nightmare since his childhood.
"You got it," Twister gave in and turned his camera on. The lens caught a crooked smile of the legendary Ottoman.
He waved his hand, saying, "As you can see, I got a bit hurt. But thanks to my great cameraman, I'm alright and I can test the glass wheels separately. By the way, the trucks are surprisingly good..."
Hearing the "great cameraman" line, Twister near gasped, taken by surprise, but he managed to give a relatively neutral smile; so sincere and non-ironic it was, so... warm? Nah, that's just him dreaming up. After a couple of minutes, Otto finished his speech, which was at times spiced with Twister's jokes, and Twister turned the camera off.
When he stepped away to put it on the table, Otto asked thoughtfully, "Why never taking the hat off?"
"Huh? I don't know," Twister shrugged, "that's my habit. Why asking?"
"Almost forgot what gorgeous hair you have," Otto replied casually.
"You mean it?!" Twister asked in excitement, as he sprang up to the mirror and started examining his hair. "Well, um… thanks, bro!"
With a grin on his face, he looked at the reflection of Otto, who was coming closer to him. Again wondering how his friend could be that naïve, Otto jumped on him and grabbed him by the head to mess up the orange hair.
"Ha-ha, busted!" Otto laughed mischievously.
"Man, cool it! Why would you be like this?" Twister yelled. Grunting, he broke free from the hold and revenged on Otto by doing the same thing to him. However, Otto only laughed in response; he wasn't irritated by it at all. But only until Twister accidentally touched one of his cuts, instantly causing him to grip it and hiss.
"Does it hurt?" Twister got worried, reflexively putting his hand on the sore place.
"Can't you see?" Otto grumbled, but his irritation turned quickly into puzzlement. "Umm, Twist?"
"What?" he asked, but the explanation wasn't needed: he saw that he was gripping Otto's hand, which, in its turn, was gripping the injured shoulder. Apologetic, he took off his palm, but all of a sudden Otto objected, "No, no, it's okay."
He took his hand off the shoulder, revealing the cut, and gave Twister an expectant look. It was impossible to determine by this look what exactly Otto was waiting for, so Twister acted haphazardly: he stretched his hand forward, a bit shaky, and, facing no resistance, gently ran his fingers down the warm skin of the arm, then put his whole palm upon the shoulder to give it a soft pat.
Precious thirty seconds of silence and staring at each other, and then a big grin spread across Otto's face, as he mocked, "What are you looking at? You wanna kiss?"
"What- no, I don't!" Twister protested and reverted his eyes.
"Or maybe you do, but you're just chicken?" Otto started teasing him.
"I'm not!" Twister cried, only afterwards realizing how that one sounded.
And again, Otto sprang up to him to see his face and asked, "Then why hesitating?"
"Otto! Give these stupid jokes a rest, I had them enough from Lars!"
Strangely distracted, Twister headed to the couch and sat on it, as he continued indignantly, "Look, you're trying to drag me into this, and then I'll be the one getting punched in the face, won't I? Man, what makes you even think I want to do it?!"
"You've just confirrrrmed it," Otto chanted, skating on his feet across the polished floor. He stood before the irritated (and very bashful) Twister, who folded his arms, and tossed out, "I dare you won't. You don't have the nerve."
"Me?!"
"Yeaaah."
"Oh, please!"
Twister sprang to his feet and pressed his lips against Otto's; taken by surprise, the latter reeled a bit backwards, but managed to keep his balance. And no, he didn't push Twister away; on the contrary, he gripped his shoulders. Could he be serious about it all?
When they were done kissing, Otto, hiding his instant embarrassment, let out a whistle of amazement.
"You did it."
Panting, Twister didn't answer, as he was awfully excited; it felt like some phantom arrows were piercing through his body every second. Hell yeah, he did it. Only, he couldn't understand why he needed it in the first place and why he felt about it that way. So... thrilled, as if he won a major competition and was applauded by thousands of people! What was it?!
Fearing that he was going to become completely confused, Twister defended with a sudden change of the subject, "Now... now let's go and finish the episode! I see you're feeling better, so..."
Not finishing, he grabbed his camera and dashed to the door.
"Sure!"Otto perked up; in a matter of seconds, he put on a shirt, collected the trucks along with the wheels and took out of the corner a new deck and his bag of tools. He ran off the apartment even earlier than Twister and stated in a loud voice, "The Ancient Hawaiians used to say, 'An ollie a day keeps the doctor away!'"
Twister called after him, puzzled, "Did they even skateboard?"
The stairwell returned an echo of his voice; the answer was another echo of Otto's ringing laugh.
Pinned by Ottoman And Twister Team.
Rocketgirrrl:
Like it if you also want to have such a great and caring cameraman as Twister.
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Liked by Ottoman And Twister Team.