"C'mon! Surely the great H.G. Wells can ice skate?!" Myka insisted, reaching back to pull Helena forward with both hands.
It had been almost a week since they'd returned from Chicago and it had been strange. Myka felt like she was maybe, just maybe beginning to reach an understanding with her family, with her father. Through her continued insistence and honestly without a much of a fight, Helena agreed to stay too. She was healing and there had been bad moments and good moments but she was finally acknowledging her past. She'd suffered through tearful nights talking about Christina, she'd spent time stunning Myka's parents and sister with her knowledge of literature and her uncanny ability to aid in book restoration. It had also become natural for the two of them to quietly excuse themselves to Myka's room and spend whole evenings just sitting together reading.
Hope, appropriately to the season was beginning to find it's way into their lives.
It was the 24th of December, Christmas Eve and Colorado Springs was abuzz with lights,music and most importantly to the moment at hand, a large ice rink filled with festive revellers.
"I never had the chance to ice skate!" Helena insisted, letting herself be tugged forward by both Myka's grip and her holiday spirit.
"London's not as snowy in winter as movies would lead you to believe!" She continued.
Myka grinned playfully and shook her head in mock frustration.
"I happen to know that there are plenty of ice rinks to go around in London at Christmas." She admonished.
"I love ice skating!" She non the less enthused, relentlessly pulling Helena forward.
"I know you're gonna be a natural."
They collected two pairs of skates and moved to a series of wooden benches to put them on.
In the middle of an anecdote about a childhood skating trip, including her own early mishaps on the ice, Myka suddenly looked up at Helena. With one foot firmly in it's boot, laces half tied, her face was awash with concern.
"That is, as long as you're all right?"
Myka remained super aware of Helena's current fragility, buoying her up when she needed it and also just listening if she needed that too. Even in the middle of their reveries she was keenly aware of the need to check.
Helena, just smiled. Her weariness remained and it washed though her expression, weariness wasn't alone however. Filled with affection, she reached out through gloved hands to grip Myka's, assuring.
"I'm fine."
Standing unsteadily in un familiar footwear and with light returning to her eyes, she presented herself to her companion.
"Righty-ho then ! I believe you were going to teach me to skate?" She grinned with a familiar daring.
Myka paused skeptically for a moment, considering the earnestness of what Helena said and eventually believing, deciding to trust her at her word.
Their progress onto the ice was halting at first but with the aid of a side rail and then a judicious analysis of the physics involved, Helena found her proverbial feet.
Illuminated by lights that glowed red and green and with what was quiet possibly the largest Christmas trees either of them had ever seen standing sentry, they let day turn to dusk. As the sun was setting Helena gripped Myka's hand tighter and swiftly pulled her away from their fellow skaters, into the center of the the rink.
She wrapped her arms tightly around Myka's waist and for a moment they just stood together as Nat King Cole sang about chestnuts and open fires in the background. After pulling her glove off as gracefully as possible without letting go of Myka's waist, Helena drew her hand to the taller woman's face.
"Thank you." She whispered, drawing their lips together.