Skating on Thin Ice

Prompt: james is an ice rink marshall and lily is a very nervous skater who refuses to use the penguin skating aids for children muggle au | jilychallenge december 2019

Setting: Muggle AU

1,114 Words

Lily Evans was many things. She was highly intelligent and an excellent student. She was fun and friendly and courageous. She was proud and stubborn and snarky and competitive and had a bit of a temper. She was even willing to admit to being a little melodramatic sometimes.

But there were also many things Lily Evans was decidedly not – and, sadly, included among those were attributes such as 'graceful' and 'athletic'.

Either of those would have really come in handy right about now, Lily reflected glumly, as her trembling legs teetered and she clung to the side of the ice rink like a wobbly barnacle.

A cheerful kid, encouraged by his mum and supported by a penguin skating aid sped past Lily, only adding more fuel to the flame that was Lily's humiliation.

Clutching at the side of the rink like a lifeline, Lily cursed at the stupid pride which had caused her to turn down the rink marshal's suggestion of the cutesy skating aid when he'd realised she was a novice.

Now, the unfortunate and misguided offhand comment she'd made just before stepping onto the ice would likely be the last words she'd ever utter since any moment now her foot would slip, her grip would loosen and she would crack her skull wide open and splatter her brains all over the damn ice.

And that would be the story of how the phrase "It looks like fun and it can't really be that hard, can it?" came to be carved on her tombstone.

Gritting her teeth, Lily chanced a glance over her shoulder.

There he was. The rink marshal. On the other side of the rink, gliding both with fluid grace and dizzying speed, his dark hair mussed up by the wind.

He made skating look fun, cool – and, to add insult to Lily's injury – easy.

Effortless, even.

And by some miracle, crowded with people as the skating rink was, their eyes met.

Lily grimaced and looked away.

There was only so much mortification she could stomach in one day.

Her poor fingers were beginning to tire. Her knees shook, causing the skates to scrape against the hazardously slippery surface of the ice.

But despite Lily's self-induced quotas, mortification wasn't quite done with her yet for the day.

Because the stream of her thoughts – half of which were vehement swear words and the other half pleas to any available deity for her not to slip and break her neck – was soon cut by a disgustingly jovial "All right, Miss?"

"Do I look all right, to you?" Lily snapped, incredulous.

She turned her head while still clinging to the barrier of salvation.

It was the rink marshal, casually leaning his elbow on the side of the rink.

Furthermore, he seemed to be at a complete and apparent ease, standing on the death-trap combination of ice and skates, all wobble-free.

Well isn't this just great.

"You look better than all right to me," the stupidly skating proficient young man replied. "Absolutely lovely, actually."

Lily glared at him.

At some other time, she might have been flattered – the guy was really fit himself and the crooked grin lurking in the corner of his lips jolted her insides even now – but there were the time and place to consider.

Bitter as it tasted, Lily swallowed her pride. After all, this was a matter of survival by now.

"Look, I'm not sure I can hold on much longer," she told him, close as she could come to asking for help.

"I could give you a hand, if you go out with me," the skating genius said.

Lily wobbled indignantly. She supposed the rink marshal coming on to her was better than him laughing himself silly at her, but still – time and place!

Didn't this idiot see that Lily was fighting for her life?

"Sorry," the rink marshal said now, offering her a feeble, sheepish smile. "That was in bad taste. Here, let me help."

Lily stared at the hand he was offering to her and bit her lip.

It looked strong and steady, much like the rest of him.

And he clearly was an accomplished skater himself.

Lily let go of the barrier.

She teetered precariously on her skates, immediately losing her balance – but the next fraction of the second those strong and steady hands were there, firmly gripping her elbows and supporting her weight, keeping her upright.

Her heart still beating madly in her throat, Lily's eyes locked with the rink marshal's hazel ones.

They were calm and confident, as soothing to Lily's frazzled nerves as his voice when he murmured: "You're all right. I've got you."

"Thank you."

Leaning to him, she let him lead her around the ice rink a couple of times.

By the last round, she was almost enjoying herself, even if it was frustrating to see how skilfully this guy could skate backwards.

It wasn't fair for someone to be that good and to make it look so simple when in truth skating was anything but.

Safe, skate-free and back on the good old sturdy non-slippery ground, Lily returned to the edge of the ice rink to have one last look of all the mad people who seemed to delight in risking serious injury to circle around a patch of lethally slick ice.

Well, perhaps, she was mainly seeking out one particular madman.

Somehow, she managed to catch his eye again, gave him a wave.

He waved back, and when he rounded the rink, stopped to lean against the barrier between them.

"You're off then?" he asked, his cheeks a little pink – probably from the cold.

"Yeah. Thanks again for your help," Lily said. She dug her hand into her pocket, fingered the piece of paper she'd just slipped in there.

"I hope you had fun."

"I think I did, in the end," Lily admitted, flashing him a small smile.

"Good." He grinned. "I'm glad to hear that."

And then, because he had saved her life, and because he was fit, and because, well, she really had nothing to lose, Lily took out that slip of paper on which she'd scrawled her phone number, and held it out to him.

"You held your end of the bargain, so here."

"Bargain?" He seemed surprised, maybe confused – or so Lily assumed from that slight tilt of his head – and took the piece of paper from her.

"Yeah," Lily said, nodding at the paper. "Give me a ring, and then maybe we can see about the whole going out business."

"I – what?" he managed, those cute hazel eyes suddenly very wide.

"Well, see you," Lily told him and walked away with sure, steady steps.