"Hey, you, uh-need some help?"

Minion looks up at Wayne and sighs. It's a good thing his robot bodysuit is so sturdy; he's fallen six times already, and they've only been out on the ice for fifteen minutes.

The six craters in the ice are a testament to just how sturdy the bodysuit is.

It's also a good thing that Wayne rented the rink privately for the four of them; if anyone else were here, Minion's pretty sure he'd get asked to leave. As it is, Wayne's probably going to have to pay to get the ice fixed after they're done.

On the other side of the rink, Sir and Miss Ritchi are laughing and skating around a crater. Miss Ritchi has her arm around Sir's waist, trying to help him balance. Minion eyes them enviously. Sir made him a custom-built pair of ice skates to fit the feet of his bodysuit, but so far it doesn't seem to be doing much good.

Wayne follows Minion's gaze to Sir and Miss Ritchi, then tips his head thoughtfully.

"...he totally knows how to skate, doesn't he?" Wayne says, as Sir wobbles in a slightly elaborate way and Miss Ritchi pulls him closer in response.

Minion rolls his eyes in fond exasperation.

"Sir has excellent balance; he picked the technique up about five minutes after we started," he says. "I'm pretty sure the falling is just an excuse to get Miss Ritchi to hold him."

"We could do that."

Minion blinks up at Wayne, who slowly turns a tomato-like red color as Minion watches.

"I-uh. I mean. I could help you! If you wanted! Since you seem to be having trouble with the-not as like a-I didn't mean that you were pretending so that I would-"

"Okay," Minion says.

Wayne stops, mouth working silently for a moment.

"Okay? Oh! Okay!" he says, "Uh-okay..."

He bends and helps Minion up, wrapping one arm around the waist of the bodysuit, draping one of the bodysuit's arms over his shoulders.

It's-

-nice.

Huh.

"Okay, so you're gonna want to lean your weight onto one skate and sorta drag the other one forward-no, don't pick it up; that's why you keep losing your balance. Just drag it-yeah. Like that."

They skate around the rink in silence. Wayne's face stays that interesting red color, and he keeps his eyes on Minion's skates, limits his words to instructions on Minion's skating.

Minion stays quiet, following his directions and processing the careful way Wayne is helping him balance; the way that, this close, he can see Wayne's breath, fogging white in the chill of the rink.

It's...interesting.

Behind them, Minion hears Miss Ritchi give a shriek of laughter. Minion startles, looking away from Wayne's face, turning in the suit's headpiece to look at Sir and Miss Ritchi.

She has him pushed up against the wall of the rink, both of them laughing.

"You-! You horrible, terrible cheat! You don't even need my help; you've just been pretending-!"

Sir moves his hands to her waist and picks her up, spinning the two of them around gracefully so that she's the one with her back to the wall.

"E-vil," Sir says smugly, and kisses her.

Miss Ritchi wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him back.

"Um."

Minion turns in the headpiece to look at Wayne again.

"So, I, uh-I think you've mostly got the hang of it," Wayne says, finally looking up from Minion's skates and at Minion himself. "If you...wanna give it another try."

(Behind the two of them, Minion can hear Sir and Miss Ritchi laughing again.)

Wayne gives Minion an uncertain smile and Minion makes a split second decision.

He picks up the right foot of his bodysuit, so that he wobbles precariously on the left foot.

Wayne's eyes go wide and Minion leans just a bit more of the bodysuit's weight into him as he puts his right foot down on the ice again.

"Nope, I think you'd better help me a little longer," Minion says cheerfully.

Wayne's face lights up.

notes: inspired by a prompt from Dal Niente; thank you for cheering me up, Dal.