A year on from his victory at Flying Derby, Hugo has become Royal Prep's first ever male Ice Dancer. Inspired by their friend's courage, many of the other princes ask Hugo to teach them how to do it, including James. However, James finds himself unable to concentrate in class thanks to his increasing feeling of attachment towards Hugo. When Hugo notices, and offers to teach him in private, James both fears and wonders where it could lead.

Winter term at Royal Prep was marked by various winter sports and events, shockingly(!). The students all quite looked forward to winter; warm fires, good food, playing outside in the snow with snowball fights and building snowmen. But in this cold time, two activities rose to prominence. Ice hockey for the boys and ice dancing for the girls; at least, up until now. Thanks to Sofia, once again, the previous gender-fixed sports had become all-inclusive. Just as Sofia herself had become the first princess to become a Flying Derby racer, and Champion on top of that, Hugo had become the first prince to ever do Ice Dancing. And he was good at it, really good. He and Sofia, who had become one of his closest friends since she helped him become a better team player (and a better person), had done a magnificent dance recital in front of the whole school and their family and friends, with Hugo amazing his father King Garrick with his skill and love for the art. Not only was Garrick impressed and proud of his son, but so too were his friends. That was why, after school had ended, Hugo found himself standing at the shore of the school's frozen pond, a small group of his fellow princes waiting on the ice to begin their first Ice Dancing lesson. James, Jin, Khalid, Derek, Zandar, Mike, Frederick, Toshi, Caleb and Noah. However, enchanted ice dancing skates were tricky to get used to, let alone master, and all of them were stumbling or floating about.

"All right, guys. First step is to find your strongest footing."

"How? I can't stop spinning!"

"Neither can I!"

"Ouch, Zandar, you just kicked my-!"

Hugo sighed; this was gonna be harder than he thought.

"The skates are connected to you; think stable feet!"

Next moment, all of them were standing firmly with their feet on the ice instead of flailing and spinning wildly. They looked at him expectantly.

"OK, now that's over, we can get started. First, balance. Balance is just as essential in Ice Dancing as it is in ice hockey. Now, try and skate from one end of the pond to the other without falling over."

All of them managed it on the first try, though not without a few stumbles.

"Good. Now, skate around the edge in a line."

These were simple exercises, to get them used to and comfortable in the enchanted skates. More than a few were giggling; the magic in the skates tickled if you didn't often wear them. As James passed, their eyes met; next second, James had lost his footing and went spinning across the ice, arms waving frantically. He skidded off the ice and into a huge snowdrift, sending snow everywhere. Once, Hugo would have laughed; now, he ran forwards and pulled James out of the snowdrift. James was covered head to foot in white powder, his face pink with cold under it. He was looking embarrassed, not meeting Hugo's eye. Deciding to move on, Hugo called them all over.

"Right, now you're warmed up, let's move on to something a little more complicated. The Fireball Flip."

They all looked nervous.

"Nothing too fancy or complicated. Just get a running start, then propel yourself up and spin around. Just one flip will do for now."

The boys lined up on the edge of the pond, for an optimum running start. Zandar, James' best friend and prince of Tangu, went first. Unfortunately, he was so caught up in soaring into the air that he forgot about the flipping and landed in a tree. Fortunately, his turban stopped any serious damage to his head.

"Ugh. I'll get him down. Khalid, you're up."

Khalid was the only prince of Khaldoun, which neighboured James' kingdom, and was on the hockey team with him. His take-off was less powerful than Zandar's, but he managed to do the flip. When he landed, he clapped his hands and giggled a little.

"That was fun!"

"Jin, your turn."

Jin was the portly prince of Wei-Ling, another of Enchancia's neighbours. Since he was heftier than Zandar and Khalid, he didn't go as high but he managed the flip. So did Frederick, Mike, Derek and Toshi. Caleb and Noah went together; the two were princes of two separate island kingdoms, Te Waipounamu and Te Ika-a-Māui, and virtually inseparable from each other. They took the jump at the same time, movements perfectly synchronized, and flipped to land elegantly with their friends. Now, only James remained. He was, in contrast to everyone else, looking very nervous. Seeing this, his friends began to cheer on him.

"Go, James!"

James took a deep breath, then took the running start. As he prepared to jump, he caught Hugo' eye. Next moment, he'd lost total control and went crashing into his friends like a rogue bowling ball, scattering them like pins. They didn't hold it against him, in fact most of them were roaring with laughter, but as Hugo leaned down to help James, the other prince pushed his hand away and wouldn't look at him. He spent the rest of the lesson avoiding Hugo's eye, but was unable to do a single flip. When Hugo finally called it a day, James threw off his enchanted ice skates and stormed off. Hugo stopped Zandar as he was about to go.

"What's up with James?"

"I don't know. He's been really weird lately, especially about you and this ice dancing thing."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like, I don't know. Remember when I had that party at Tangu Peak?"

"Who could forget that? Elephants dancing on flying carpets!"

"And how I was trying to impress Hildegarde?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I think James is trying to do the same with you."

Hugo blinked.

"What?"

Zandar nodded.

"Yeah. I'm a bit jealous; he's so eager to be your friend, and only last year he hated your guts."

"Yeah."

"Almost like he has a crush on you."

Zandar had said this half-jokingly, but he had no idea of knowing that he was correct in that assumption. Hugo blushed a little; he had felt a kind of connection to James long ago, when they'd hugged after winning the Flying Crown. It had felt nice, and warm, like being hugged by his mother. There had been resurgences each time he and James looked at each other, but he'd just thought that was because he was glad to have him as a friend. Zandar, unaware of the gravity of his words, clapped Hugo on the shoulder.

"Well, I'm gonna go back to the school and wait for my parent's carriage to arrive. See ya later, Hugo, and thanks for the Ice Dancing!"

The turbaned prince ran off in the direction of the main building, leaving Hugo standing there in the snow. The cold didn't bother him as much as it would others; his kingdom, Bruma, was cold all year round. He began to walk in the direction which James had run off in, towards the stables. Sure enough, when he entered the stables he saw James sitting on a haybale, face turned away. He didn't look up as Hugo approached.

"Hey, James. Why'd you run off like that?"

"No reason."

"If it's because you didn't do the flip, I'm not mad or disappointed. I had the exact same difficulties when I was first trying it."

"No you didn't."

"Yes, I did. This was when I was trying it in secret, before Sofia brought me out of my shell. But I kept trying and trying until I got it."

James laughed a little.

"I'll never get it, though. I can't concentrate on it when we're in class."

He actually meant that he couldn't concentrate because of Hugo, who he was sure now he really liked. Liked as in, how Zandar had liked Hildegarde and how Lakshmi liked Zandar himself. He wasn't ashamed of it; all the kingdoms tolerated it and he knew two boys in Dunwiddie Village who liked each other that way. He was just sure that Hugo would never reciprocate; he had girls fawning over him all the time, and all that time with Sofia doing Ice Dancing. So when Hugo clapped a hand down on his shoulder, he tried to suppress the warm feeling he got whenever that happened.

"Well then, how about I give you a private lesson?"

"P-Private lesson?"

"Sure. We've got a few minutes before our carriages get here to take us home. More than enough for me to help you get it right."

James was nervous; what if he slipped up? Let his true feelings show? But Hugo was already dragging him along to the icy pond, where their skates sat waiting. Something undetectable at the back of James' head pushed through his doubt and reluctance, made him put the skates back on and skate out on the ice with Hugo. Hugo took James' hand and led him over to the edge of the pond.

"OK, I'll go first. Just empty your mind of everything else except what you're doing."

James thought that was unlikely. Hugo, flawlessly of course, got in the running start and up into the air, flipping once perfectly before landing gracefully. He waved to James.

"Come to me, James!"

Boy, did James want that. He took a deep breath and started forwards, eyes never leaving Hugo's. Gaining momentum, he took the leap and… flipped one, two, three, four, five times. He was so ecstatic that he nearly forgot to break when he landed. Fortunately, he was stopped by Hugo cannoning into him, catching him in a big hug.

"You did it! James, you did it! You did a Quintuple Fireball Flip!"

"Is that good?"

"Good? No-one's ever done a Quintuple before! Not ever!"

"Well, it's all thanks to you."

The two of them had been hugging now for several seconds, but neither made the attempt to break the embrace. They held each other, gently, like lovers about to dance. No words were spoken. They weren't necessary; after all, love doesn't need a mouth to express itself. The eyes, golden brown and dark brown, met and locked and that, as they say, was that. They began to lean in closer, closer and closer until they felt the other's warm breath on their lips.

"H-Hugo?"

"Ssh. Don't speak."

James nodded, then moved his head in and their lips met. Fiery warmth like molten lava shot through their veins, chasing away winter's icy hold. Hugo, the taller of the two, pulled James in so their bodies were so tightly pressed against each other that not even the tiniest spider could have squeezed in between them. James broke the liplock.

"Is this real?"

It was whispered, like he was terrified to put it in words; Hugo smiled sweetly.

"Yes, James. This is real."

"I just kissed another prince. You just kissed another prince."

"Yep. And, I'm about to do it again."

"So am I."

And they did.