Author's Note: So… this is very much a personal experience piece, except I never met my soul mate this way… though, I might've come damn close. ;) Dedicated to my lovely partner, fellow figure skater, and the Roxas to my Axel, Nicayal. :) I 3 you!
Word Count: 1888
Sometimes, he didn't know why, there were just days when getting out of bed was an impossible task. In fact, 'impossible' wasn't even a good enough word for saying that he could not, would not, didn't want to, whatever; he couldn't do it. He wasn't sure why he felt so sad and hopeless, like the world overshadowed him, or something did, but there it was. Axel didn't want to move.
Luckily for him, he didn't have to. Today was Saturday. No work or school for at least another day, so he could weather this, right?
So he lay there, huddling over a few sodas, one beer, and letting the television play whatever it wanted, just so he could hear the noise of someone in the room. This house had always seemed too quiet, like there was someone he was supposed to have there with him. Unfortunately, he'd tried dating, and more often than not things just didn't seem to work out with men or women. It was as though he was supposed to do something, or meet someone, and he'd…missed the chance to do it.
He rolled over, glancing at the television screen before closing his eyes, again. Then, as if on cue, as though he had to, Axel snapped them open to stare at the images on the screen.
The advertisement was of an ice rink up the street from his house, which he had never been to because he hated the cold. Well, ice rinks were cold; why would he want to? Most importantly at that moment in time, why did he want to? Because the moment he saw the logo of the facility flash across the screen, Axel had been visited with an intense desire to get up and head down the street to that very ice rink. It wasn't far, he could just walk, and if he didn't like it he could come right back home.
He had no idea why but the thought got him out of bed, and that was as good a reason as any to make him follow through with the silly idea. Then he stood in front of his closet, grabbing the first thing he saw, which happened to be an emerald green button-down shirt. Whatever, it was as good a shirt as any, he supposed. Except that once he had that on, he had to look for the dark jeans that went with it. He wasn't the kind of guy to just go out looking half put-together, whether or not anyone he knew was going to see him. So he hunted down the nicer pair of jeans, grabbed a black pair of shoes, and navy socks. The shoes weren't likely to last long if he decided to actually get on the ice, but he'd look good getting there.
Before he knew it, Axel was out of his house and heading for the ice rink. What a strange day it was turning out to be… The sun was shining irritatingly bright in the sky, as though it were trying to show him why he should have wanted to leave his bedroom all along. Fuck you, he thought, and then shook his head when he realized he was cursing the sun. Then he had to chuckle a little bit because it sounded so cheesy in his head; cursing the sun for shining. Wow, what was going on in his head?
As he got to the ice rink, Axel hesitated. He really did despise the cold, and he wasn't sure if the jacket he'd brought with him would be good enough to keep him warm in that fucking place. Who would want to skate on ice in the middle of the summer?
When he opened the door, green eyes spotted exactly the type of people who would want to do just that as a loud scratching noise grabbed his attention immediately. There on the ice were several skaters all doing the kinds of tricks and twirls and things that Axel was pretty sure he'd only seen on TV before this.
One of them landed one of those jump things right in front of him, turned around, and the triumphant grin on his face grabbed Axel's attention. Then, for a long moment he stood there in a trance, watching one of the most gorgeous guys he'd ever seen just skate around the edge of the rink by the wall-thingy, which he was more than a little happy was made of half-see-through materials so he could see every bit of that short blond in tight pants as he moved around.
The daze never really faded, but it began to direct itself a little. He noticed a few seats around the arena, and that there were people sitting in them watching these skaters. So, ignoring the helpful woman behind the counter who probably wanted to know what exactly Axel was doing there, he headed for the bleachers, hands in his pockets and never once taking his eyes off of that beautiful male figure skater.
He sat down in a corner away from where most of the other people sat, and just stared at the blond. He watched as the guy did things he could not name, watched as those short legs created speed, and watched every landed and messed up trick that the blond did.
All too soon, however, the blond was grabbing his things, and getting off of the ice. Axel didn't know what to do about that. He sat there in a kind of daze just looking at the chopped up ice surface, and wondering why he hadn't taken a walk down the street from his house sooner.
It was perhaps his good fortune that caused the blond to choose a seat not too far away from Axel to start untying those ice skates of his, or possibly very bad fortune since Axel had no idea what to do or say. Then the blond turned, and blue eyes met green ones, a slightly surprised look flashing through them before the automatic smile.
"Hey, I've never seen you here before. You skate," the guy asked as though it was no big deal, and he was talking to a normal human being.
To Axel, this was a big deal, and this guy was quite possibly some sort of god. "Uh… I-no," he stammered, half-annoyed with himself for being so caught up in those blue eyes. "I watch. I mean, I watched today. I just… I live down the street, so…"
The blond nodded his head, as though he understood perfectly, and turned back to what he was doing. Then, Axel couldn't stand the silence, or the fact that this guy might not talk to him again after that. He wanted to hear that voice again. Deep like a man's but not so low that it was intimidating; it was perfect.
"I-you're really good… out there, I mean," he stammered, wanting to kick himself for not finding the proper connection between his brain and his tongue. "How long have you been practicing?"
Those blue eyes glanced at him, a look there that he didn't quite recognize; exasperation, maybe, or something like graciousness that he couldn't really think of a reason for. Maybe the blond got these types of questions all the time, and it was Axel's bad luck that the conversation starter he'd hoped for was actually nothing more than a repeat of every encounter this guy had in this rink.
"Thanks. I've been skating for about ten years now," he responded, before turning back to his skates, which were now off of his feet.
"Wow," Axel replied, without thinking. "That's a long time."
The blond nodded, giving him a simple 'mmm hmm' without turning back around. He was running a rag over those sharp metal blades that were attached to the bottoms his ice skates, and Axel saw only one thing left for the blond to do before he was gone; his tennis shoes sat next to him on the bench and they would probably be the next and last thing the guy had to do before he got up and left. Thinking rapidly about how to keep the guy there, he came up with something that made him want to smack himself in the forehead, hard.
"I'm Axel," he said, getting up to move closer to the shorter guy and holding his hand out for the blond to shake.
Those blue eyes greeted his, and the blond smiled. "Roxas," he replied, setting the skate aside to shake Axel's hand. "Nice to meet you, Axel. Wow, you're tall."
Axel didn't really know what to say in response to that, but he nodded in agreement before countering with, "and to me, you're short."
Roxas snorted, "To you everyone must be short."
Axel didn't know why that made his face heat up, but he grinned back. "I guess, you have a point there," he conceded, cheeks sore from the size of his big, stupid grin. "So, you hanging around to skate some more, or are you heading out?"
Pausing, the blond looked at him, obviously assessing before answering. "That depends," he answered, but didn't elaborate.
"On what," Axel finally asked, doing his best not to sound overeager or to stutter.
"On why you want to know."
The words were short, but those blue eyes were sparkling with something that made Axel answer truthfully despite himself. "I was wondering if you wanted to skate with me," he answered. "I've never done it before, so I'm not that good, but you're already here and you're cute and I'd like the company." He snapped his mouth shut after that, afraid of spitting something else he didn't want to share out. The blond hesitated, looking up at him, and Axel continued as if spurred on by some invisible force, scratching the back of his head as he spoke. "That is, you know, if you don't have anything better to do."
For some reason, that last bit made Roxas grin up at him; a little twinkle in his eye that made Axel think something mischievous was going through that gorgeous head of his. "You really want to skate around with me?"
"Well," he said, glancing at the shiny, slippery ice. "I mean, I just kind of want to do something with you. Skating was the first thing that came to mind… and like I said, we're already here." His face was definitely hot now.
"We are already here," Roxas echoed him. "Hrmm, if I'm going to skate again, though, I need something to eat first. Care to join me?"
Food! Damnit, why didn't he think of that? "Yeah, I'd love to."
So Axel followed Roxas to the snack bar, where they both ate something very bad for them before getting onto the ice together on the next public session. They talked, and laughed, and after the session discovered that they could still keep on talking if time allowed. So they did. And the next time Axel woke up feeling like he couldn't make himself get out of bed, Roxas was there to motivate him. Because really, his life felt a little less like it was missing something vital when the blond was around him.
They had their first real date three weeks later, and it was not at the ice rink.
