They met at two the next afternoon in front of the skating rink. Tino and Berwald had, against Ivan's protests, paid for both of their skates.
They went to a bench and tied their laces up. Ivan could easily tell that Yao hadn't ever skated before. He stumbled along on the blades, clinging awkwardly to Ivan's sleeve as they made their way to the rink.
"Have you ever done this before?" Ivan asked with a sly smile.
Yao scoffed indignantly, even as he grabbed onto Ivan's shoulder to stop himself from tripping. "Of course I have! Just, uh, it's been awhile."
Ivan shook his head, smile still in place, and stepped out onto the ice. He held out a hand to help Yao.
"Oh please, I don't need your help," Yao said stubbornly, grabbing the wall and cautiously inching into the rink. He wobbled and started shuffling his feet cautiously. He kept a hand tightly gripped on the wall. Ivan smiled fondly and skated beside him.
"Are you sure you don't need any help?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Yao shot a stubborn glance over at Ivan. Unfortunately, the break in his concentration caused him to lose balance. His arms flew out, grabbing the front of Ivan's coat and pulling him down with him. They went sprawling down, one on top of the other.
Ivan rolled onto his knees and stood, asking Yao if he was okay. "Ow," was the only response he got.
Ivan chuckled and grabbed Yao's hands to pull him up.
"I'm too old for this. Can I go sit down now?"
"What? No! We've only just started. We are literally less than twenty feet away from where we got in. And you have to go all around the rink to get out anyway." Yao huffed. Ivan rolled his eyes, "Here, let me help you."
Ivan caught his hands again, both of them, and stood facing Yao. This time, Yao rolled his eyes.
"Tell me if I'm about to run into anything," Ivan said before starting to pull Yao forward, he himself moving backward.
"W-what? No, don't just pull me, I-!" Yao struggled, causing him to stumble again and crash into Ivan. Fortunately Ivan had enough time to react and catch him though, supporting him completely from where he grabbed around Yao's shoulders.
Ivan righted him again and sighed. "You have to trust me, okay?"
"Fine, just don't get us killed or injured."
"Yao. You have to relax. Let me guide you. And you really need to be my eyes I have no idea where I'm going."
"That is not helping me relax!" he cried, but gave Ivan his hands again anyway. Ivan smiled and started to pull him, and immediately Yao's grip tightened.
"Hey, it's alright. I'm going to go slow, okay? In a little bit I'm going to have you move your feet like mine, but not before you're ready, okay?"
Yao nodded begrudgingly.
"Watch my feet, okay? Look."
Yao peered down, wary of losing his footing again.
"See how my feet move like I'm walking backward? It's that easy."
Yao nodded and watched Ivan's feet intently.
"Do you think you could try it yourself now?"
Yao took a breath and shakily did as instructed. He slid his left foot forward, but slipped and was barely caught by Ivan.
"It's okay, you'll get it."
Yao huffed again. "Can I take a break?"
Ivan smiled, a little goadingly, but pulled him over to the wall anyway. "I'll be right back, alright? I'm just going to skate around a few times."
"Don't let me stop you."
Ivan smiled and skated off.
Yao relaxed his shoulders and took a moment to look around the rink. It was relatively busy, but he could still find Tino and Berwald easily, one on either side of Peter, holding either of his hands. Occasionally, the little guy would trip and Berwald would pull him up by the arm to prevent him from falling.
Yao smiled—those three were so cute. Yao had known Peter since he was very small, when Arthur's family would visit. Even now, working at the bookstore with Buchanan and Riley, Yao heard about little Peter all the time.
Yao was glad he'd found a good home.
Ivan waved and smiled as he skated past Yao, and Yao was honestly amazed by how little time it had taken Ivan to go all the way around the rink. Yao watched him skate away. He was passing a lot of the other skaters, not even seeming to consider how fast he was going.
It was almost funny seeing awkward young Ivan skating so smoothly and elegantly. It made Yao feel bad not being able to skate. Ivan made it look so easy.
Yao's arms were tired from how tightly he had been clinging to Ivan, so he tried to relax his shoulders further, though it was difficult as he clutched the wall for dear life.
Soon however, Ivan was back beside him. "Are you ready to keep learning now?"
Yao sighed.
Eventually, Yao was able to move very slowly without any help. He'd nearly lost his balance every so often, but Ivan was always there to grab his elbow and steady him.
"You're doing well. Do you want to try going faster? Grab my arm, I'll lead you."
Yao grabbed his bicep tightly.
"Okay, you're going to keep moving your feet."
Ivan continued to instruct Yao, telling him to distribute his weight better, lean forward, and Yao did as he was told for fear of slipping again.
Ivan led him around the entire rink until they were coming up on the entrance again. "Do you want to take a break? Maybe get some food?"
"It would be nice, yes, I am getting hungry. Where are the concessions?"
Ivan smiled and led them to where he guessed the concessions were (upstairs, following all the smaller children running around).
Tino and Berwald had already gone up to the concessions, apparently, because as soon as Yao and Ivan entered the little eating area, Peter stood up and was running toward Yao, calling, "Ow! Ow!"
Tino came running after him. "What wrong Peter? I'm sorry Ivan, I don't know what got into him," he apologized, grabbing Peter's hand and scooping him up. Berwald was still seated at their table, turning around lethargically and trying to figure out what just happened.
"No, no it's fine," Yao said, waving him off. "He's talking to me; he never could say 'Yao', for some reason. He's always called me 'Ow'."
"Oh that's right; I always forget that you and Arthur are such close friends. Now you," Tino said, turning to Peter, "You don't go running away from us like that." Tino shook his head and brought him back to where they had been seated.
"So what do you want to eat? I'll buy," Ivan said, steering them toward the concession stand sign.
"No! My skates were already paid for; I'll buy my own food, thanks."
"Find. How about you pay me back? You can go sit down near Tino."
"Fine. I'll have a, uh pretzel, I suppose. And something to drink? I like coke." And he went and sat down at the long table next to Peter. Peter was sat next to Berwald and across from Tino.
Tino smiled and leaned closer across the table. "You know, you and Ivan are so cute out there. And Ivan's a really good skater, huh? I think I might challenge him to a race. Who do you think would win, Berwald?"
Berwald had been wiping up whatever mess off of Peter's face, not paying attention to what Tino had been saying. Yao saw his slight panic at being addressed when he was off guard, before frowning and saying, "I don't know."
Tino noticed this all also, and scoffed.
"Well anyway, here he comes," Tino smiled as Ivan sat down with a tray of food. "That was pretty fast. How's Yao's skating lessons coming along?"
"He's learning pretty quickly for being so old."
"Hey!"
Ivan smiled. "I'm kidding. Yao is learning pretty well. I hadn't known that you couldn't skate."
"How did you learn to skate, Ivan?" Tino asked as Yao and Ivan began to eat. "You are very good."
Ivan chewed on his first bite of pizza as he considered the question. "I guess my Ma taught us how to skate as soon as we could walk, pretty much. There was a lake that always froze up solid during the winter near where I grew up. My Ma somehow got a hold of skates for all three of us—she was nearly professional when she was young."
"That's cool! Why didn't she make it to pro?"
Ivan shrugged and smiled his particularly sweet smile. "I suppose she met my father? Haha!"
Yao thought that laugh was off, and the smile was off too. He could tell Ivan didn't like telling this story.
"That would throw a wrench in that plan, huh?" Tino nodded his head.
Peter stood up on the bench seat and whispered in Berwald's ear impatiently, cutting off the rest of the conversation.
"Pet'r wants ta go skate s'more."
"Oh, you'll go with him? I'm still finishing here."
Berwald nodded and took Peter out to the rink again.
"I didn't think you two were taking Peter for a few weeks still?"
"Oh, he's not moved into our apartment yet, but we take him out and do things sometimes," Tino nodded. "We've finally gotten him registered at the elementary school near us, just this morning. And Berwald is looking for another job. You know, he gave his two week notice? Just so he'll be home at night? He needs a day job now. It's almost like he thinks he can just sell some furniture he's been making. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"Yeah, I heard something about that," Ivan said.
"And you two are engaged—how's the planning going?" Yao asked.
"Yeah, we've agreed to a December wedding, and Peter's going to be the ring bearer. That's all we've got so far."
Ivan laughed to himself—he knew that Tino would get his way on when the wedding was going to be.
"What? What's funny?"
"Oh, sorry, nothing."
Tino gave him a playful weary scowl. "If you say so. But what about you two? How long have you been dating now, like a month and a half? I haven't even heard of one fight between you two! That's impressive. Though, I suppose the only comparison I have are Arthur and Alfred and Sadiq and his…" Tino shook his head and sighed, "Problems."
"Oh god, Sadiq? Herakles' boyfriend?"
"Yeah, you know him too?"
"Herakles always crashes on my couch whenever he leaves Sadiq. It's rather pathetic."
Tino shook his head and laughed. "Honestly, Arthur keeps trying to give Sadiq advice, but if I ever met this Herakles guy, my advice would be to break up. Seriously, their relationship is off just as often as it's on. They just need to see other people."
"But then he'd pretty much move into my apartment. I really don't mind what they do as long as it does not interfere with my life. I would wake up one morning and try to make breakfast at eight AM, and be yelled at by this stupid Greek about how I was making too much noise. In my own home." Yao scoffed at the end.
Tino laughed, but began to stand up. "I should probably go make sure Berwald is handling Peter alright. He sure can be a handful, you know! Are you both going to go keep skating?"
Ivan and Yao looked at each other.
"I'm getting tired. You can keep going if you want."
"Ah, maybe for a little bit. Is that really okay?"
"Yeah, of course. I'll sit in the stands and watch."
"Alright, I'll just do a few laps."
Tino and Ivan went back to the rink together, Yao refusing to not clean up the table before he left it. They skated side by side, making their way around to catch up with Berwald.
"So, you've really got it bad for Yao, huh?" Tino asked as they started around a corner.
"What?"
"Gosh, you don't even notice it, do you? Man, you've got it worse than I ever suspected!"
"What do you mean 'it'?"
"Ivan you're adorable."
They were approaching Berwald now, and Tino switched his attention there, so Ivan dropped 'it' from his mind entirely.
"How's Peter doing?" Tino asked when they were within earshot.
"I ran into the wall and my lip started bleeding! This is fun!"
"What? Are you okay?" Tino asked, shocked. Peter just nodded and showed Tino where his injury was with a juvenile sense of pride.
Ivan smiled; Tino really was the doting motherly type. Even when he was just worrying over Berwald's mother, his empathy had always reminded Ivan of a mother's.
"Berwald how'd this happen?" Tino asked as he inspected Peter's lip.
"H'said he want'd ta try ta skate by himself."
"And you just let him?"
Berwald shrugged.
Berwald was the type of parent figure to let kids figure things out for themselves.
The two of them would definitely make good parents together.
Berwald's phone rang right then, and he excused himself to answer it, Tino taking Peter's hand from him. Berwald skated toward the exit, answering the phone as he went.
"That might be one of the jobs he applied for. Say, do you know what time it is? Peter needs to be home by four thirty."
Ivan looked at his phone. It was almost four and he had a message from Yao.
He told Tino the time and they started toward the exit after Berwald.
They took their skates off and turned them in. Tino fussed over Peter, untying his skates and tying his shoes up in their stead.
When they met Berwald back in the lobby, he explained that his sister had called—Ivan had forgotten about her, not even noticing when she left. He wondered if that was rude.
"Oh? Is she okay?"
"Was just callin' ta check in, I s'pose."
Tino hummed. "Well Ivan, we're gonna get going now. We'll be seeing you around."
Ivan nodded. When they were gone he went to text Yao that he was ready to go, but before it sent Yao had appeared in front of him.
"Hey! Did you get my text?"
"Um, no? Let me look."
The message said he was down the street, at a bookstore he had seen when he was coming to the ice rink. Ivan rolled his eyes because of course Yao spotted a bookstore.
"You didn't notice I was gone? You weren't waiting long? That's good; I found a movie that we should watch together sometime. Not tonight though because I have to make dinner. But some other time."
"You're not going to tell me what it is?" Ivan asked, pulling open the door for Yao.
Yao smiled, "Nope."
Ivan sighed. "If you keep showing me your movies, we have to watch some of mine too."
"Are they scary? I only like cute."
"Oh come on, they're good, I promise!"
Yao rolled his eyes. "Are we taking the bus? We should get to the stop if we are."
Ivan nodded and they went on their way, holding hands like they were still on the ice.
