Lily and James's homecoming from Nationals should've been a celebration. But it wasn't.

The morning after the free dance, the senior championship teams were announced. Lily was sure they'd get a spot at either Europeans or Worlds but she'd gotten a surprise when the third spot for both was announced as TBA. So, they had nothing.

On Tuesday morning they got a call from an official from the British skating federation saying that since theirs and John and Tala's results had been so close at nationals and they were both new teams, they would all be attending the MNNT Cup in early January to determine who got sent to what.

Lily had felt like screaming at first. But she and James had come to the conclusion that international judges had seemed to have their eyes open when judging John and Tala so there was no way they were going to beat them.

Lily had also expressed concern to Minerva about John's comment to James after the free dance and Minerva had consulted with a trusted source at NISA and was told that there was no way for John to use Mrs Potter's immigration status against them, which brought some relief to Lily but she knew for a fact that John wouldn't relent from trying to fuck them over so easily.

The MNNT Cup was only a month away, so Lily and James got to work immediately. They trained long and hard six days a week, so Lily had been a little dubious when Diner Luke had asked her to go out with him and give up her only 'free day', which wasn't even a free day, really, since she used it to do schoolwork and take a shift at the diner. But she'd said yes for some reason.

He was nice and handsome and funny and it wasn't like she liked anyone else.

So Lily gave up her Sunday evening. It'd cost her the pay from one shift at the diner but since she might not even go to any championships, she figured why not.

Luke hadn't actually told her where they were going, just told her to dress warmly and comfortably.

Even though he hadn't told her exactly what they were doing, he had brought her to a park so there weren't all that many options.

"I hope you don't think it's too corny or anything, but I figured it's December and the spirit of Christmas and all that," Luke said as he led Lily through a walkway.

Lily smiled, reassuringly. "I promise I won't think it's too corny."

"Well, here it is." Luke gestured to his left.

Lily turned to see ice. He'd brought her to an outdoor ice rink. Her eyebrows raised. She quickly tried to school her features into something that resembled a grimace a little less but she was finding it hard. She gaped at Luke, trying to find something to say and trying to remove the frown from her face.

"Oh, fuck. You hate it, don't you?" Luke said worriedly.

Lily shook her head, still with a bit of a frown. "No, not at all." She took a breath. "I guess... I just wasn't expecting you to ask me to work on our first date."

His eyes widened. "Work?"

"Um, I'm a figure skater, like, a professional one."

"Oh. Oh."

"I just... I spend some five hours on the ice every day so I just really wasn't expecting this."

Luke brought his palm to his forehead. "Ooh, I get what Amita told me now."

Lily smiled. "What'd she tell you?"

"Well, I asked her if you liked ice skating and she said, and I quote, 'I figure she does since she does it all the time'."

Lily laughed. "Well, I mean, I do like it, but it's still my job, it costs more than it pays at the moment, but I hope soon enough I'll start making money off of it."

"I'm such a dick, we don't have to do this."

Lily shook her head. He was sweet. "No, it's fine. I just wish you'd told me so I could've brought my skates."

Luke seemed relieved by this and they went to get rental skates, which Lily examined closely. They were black and ugly and the blades were dull but she put them on with only a small grimace.

They stood by the entrance, waiting to be let onto the ice. "Do you know how to skate?"

Luke shrugged. "Theoretically, yes. But now that I know you're a professional skater, I'm too scared to say I can."

Lily laughed.

The rink was a little smaller than an Olympic-sized one and there weren't many people around, the ones inside were holding onto the boards for dear life, Lily kind of wanted to help them.

Once they stepped onto the ice, Lily was pleased to find that Luke could at least advance forwards without having to hold on to anything.

They trailed along the boards.

"You know, I'm not gonna lie, I kind of hoped you couldn't skate that well so that I could hold your hand," Luke said.

Lily smiled. "Well, I can hold your hand if you need."

"I wouldn't complain."

Lily took Luke's hand and she couldn't help but think of James. He was a lot taller than Luke, with Luke only being a few inches taller than her. She'd never ice dance with Luke, she liked her partners with at least some five inches on her.

Lily heard the unmistakable sound of someone hitting the ice. She turned to see a little girl, maybe around nine-years-old had just fallen on her butt, her face looking like she was about to burst into tears. Lily rushed to her.

"Oh, honey, are you okay?" Lily took the girl by the hand and pulled her upright.

The girl nodded.

"Ella! I told you not to do that here!"

A woman whom Lily assumed to be the girl's mother was holding onto the boards a few feet away. She turned to Lily. "Thank you so much, dear. She's been taking skating lessons and now seems to think she can do the moves unsupervised."

Lily's eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. She turned to the girl. "So, you're a skater, too. What were you trying to do?"

Ella still looked down. "Just a spin."

Lily nodded slowly. "Right. Maybe let's leave that for training. Why don't you come do some crossovers with me so you'll get your confidence back?"

Ella seemed to perk up. She turned to her mum, who nodded encouragingly.

Lily took Ella's hand and started skating backwards. Crossovers were simple. It was just basically putting one foot in front of the other in order to gain speed. Ella's crossovers were bumpy but good for a kid.

As they came to a stop, Ella seemed a lot more content. Crossovers relaxed Lily too. "Your crossovers are so good!"

Lily smiled. "Thank you, so are yours."

Ella shook her head. "Yours are so smooth. Are you an ice dancer? I'm an ice dancer."

Lily grinned, her heart warmed. "I am an ice dancer. Good eye."

Ella let out a small gasp. "Can you do twizzles? I can't complete a set on one foot."

Lily nodded. "Yeah, I can do twizzles."

Ella grinned. "Can I see?"

Lily looked down at her rental skates. She'd tried to tighten them as possible and the blade did seem to have the small curve required for spinning. She probably wouldn't die if she tried. "Sure."

She looked over to check the coast was clear. The middle of the ice was nearly empty.

She did the three sets they usually did on the short dance and James crept into Lily's mind again.

Ella seemed over the moon. After telling Lily how amazing and perfect her twizzles were, the girl finally went back to her mother and Lily back to her date. She felt a little bad for having left Luke behind.

He smiled at her as she approached. "I feel like I should tell you I tried to go after you to help that little girl but you were so fast I almost face-planted trying to follow you."

Lily laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's okay. It was really cool what you showed that kid. I'm sorry, I'm not very well versed on figure skating terminology. I only know triple Axel, was that a triple Axel?"

Lily let out a loud laugh.

Luke smiled. "I guess that's a no."

Lily shook her head vehemently. "It's a resounding no. A triple Axel is a jump, and I don't jump."

Luke's brows raised. "Oh?"

"I'm an ice dancer, there's no jumping involved there."

Luke nodded. "Oh, wait, ice dance. That's like, Torvill and Dean, right?"

"Yeah. Well, there's been so many rule changes since their time that ice dance has basically become an entirely new discipline but, yeah, kind of like Torvill and Dean."

"So, you have like, a partner? Should I be worried?"

Lily rolled her eyes playfully. Why was it such a popular myth that skating partners were always romantically involved? All the partners who ended up marrying each other certainly weren't helping. "I do have a partner, his name is James, and you should not be worried, it's really not... not like that. At all." Lily had no idea why a blush crept up her cheeks as she said this.

Luke raised a brow. "Okay, then."

Lily and Luke skated around a while longer, and Lily tried her best to keep her thoughts off James. She was probably thinking of him so much because she was skating with someone who wasn't him. And for some reason, she felt kind of bad for skating with someone else without him around, which was very stupid. Minerva occasionally decided to have them switch partners for warm-ups, so Lily had skated with other guys, but James had always been there, and Lily had no idea what she was even thinking anymore.

Either way, it wasn't like Luke was a skater, he was just a guy.

They were leaving the ice when Luke said, "I hope James doesn't mind I stole his partner for a little bit." He held up his phone.

Lily looked at the screen to see Luke had posted a story of Lily holding his hand on the ice. She'd noticed him take it but she didn't think he'd post it. She looked at him worriedly. "Um, I really appreciate the sentiment but... could you take it down?"

Luke frowned. "Oh."

"It's just that... I feel kind of bad about James seeing that."

"Is he like, a jealous guy?"

Lily shook her head. "It's not that. It's me, I'll feel bad, I know it's kind of dumb, but –"

"No, it's not dumb, Lily. I get it, I'll take it down."

Lily smiled. "Thank you."

There was still a bit of a frown on Luke's face. "Are you sure there's nothing going on between you guys? Seriously. Even if it's one-sided."

Lily's mind briefly flashed back to Tallinn when James had carefully diverted Mrs Simms' question about if he still liked her. "No, really, no. It's just a bit of a... complicated partnership and still fairly new."

Luke nodded slowly and finally smiled. "Okay, I get it."

Lily felt so weird about her little outburst with Luke that when he'd dropped her off at her house and he'd asked about a second date, Lily had invited him to the Christmas showcase at Alexandra Palace.

Lily hadn't skated in said showcase in years, but Minerva had asked her and James to perform in it, so they were doing it. They'd put together a program very quickly with Minerva's help.

Lily thought that if Luke saw her and James skate together, his mind would be eased about any possible romance going on between them and he'd quickly realise their relationship was purely platonic.

The Christmas showcase was mostly for the younger skaters' benefit and their parents and families were pretty much the only spectators in attendance.

Lily's plan was quite perfect, really. Luke would see her and James skate but he wouldn't meet any of her friends or parents yet. And he didn't even need to stay for the whole thing because she and James were opening the show.

Lily really enjoyed being around the younger skaters at the palace, most of them were a lot of fun and quite chill. So, she found that she was in a good mood the night of the show as she helped Alena do her hair.

"Ow, Lily, you're going to rip my scalp off."

Lily rolled her eyes and reached for a hair tie. "Calm down, you're the one who'll have a heart attack if even one hair is out of place."

"Is it really my fault for not wanting to look like a slob when performing?"

Lily's eyes narrowed. "I'm not entirely sure if that was supposed to be an indirect towards me but I'll let it slide."

Alena grimaced as Lily twisted her hair into a bun. "Face it, Lily, a half-updo is not a competition appropriate hairstyle."

Lily gaped at the girl. "You can talk to me when you're a senior national medallist."

"So... you'll listen to me in some three years."

"If you medal at senior Nats in the 2018-2019 season I swear to god I'll listen to you."

Alena smiled, contentedly. "You're on."

Lily tapped Alena's head slightly to let her know she was done and the girl ran off to change into her costume.

Lily and James hadn't had time to get a costume done specifically for the show so she'd just gone for an old red competition dress.

"Hey, Lil."

James was wearing his Sochi Scott ensemble and Lily took a second too long to respond. "Hey."

"We're almost up."

Lily nodded, she walked with him into the rink and almost out of habit, took his hand. They usually only held hands during competitions but Lily thought it was too late to retract her hand now.

James cleared his throat. Lily could barely see his face in the low lighting. "So, Sirius told me your new boyfriend is coming tonight."

Was that a bit of an edge to his voice Lily detected?

"Sirius told you?"

"Well, you told Melanie and she told Sirius and Sirius told me."

Lily nodded and let out a small huff. "He's not my boyfriend, we've been on like one date."

"He must be pretty special though if you're inviting him to your skating events already."

Lily scoffed. "It's the Christmas showcase, not Worlds."

James shrugged defensively. "Okay. I'm just saying, you know, there are always people who don't quite understand on-ice partnerships aren't necessarily romantic. You know how many girls have felt threatened by Sirius's partnership with Melanie even though it's not like that at all?"

Lily considered this. He wasn't wrong. She'd witnessed plenty of Sirius's flings go sideways because some girls just could not fathom the idea that even though Melanie was his partner and they were close, their relationship was strictly platonic. It'd happened to Melanie too, with the few boys she'd crushed on, they were easily intimidated and turned off by her relationship with Sirius.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bring Luke here. But it's not like this program was very romantic. Maybe a little bit. But surely... Lily shook her head. It was too late either way. If Luke was going to be intimidated by her completely platonic relationship with James, better find out now, because if he asked something stupid of her, like to choose between him and James, she'd very obviously pick James, since skating was her fucking career. And it'd be really embarrassing for Luke.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by James pulling her onto the ice by the hand. Guess it was their turn now.

They were skating to Baby, It's Cold Outside, and now that Lily thought about it, their playful flirty choreography could perhaps be interpreted as romantic but she resolved that it'd just make Luke see that they were really not good at even playing at romance.

I simply must go (Baby it's cold outside)

The answer is no (But baby it's cold outside)

As Lily playfully flirted with James as per their choreography, she realised that maybe she hadn't really thought the whole inviting Luke thing through. Because he could very possibly interpret this the wrong way. Fuck, she'd have to find Luke as soon as she was done.

I really can't stay (Get over that old out)

Baby, it's cold

Baby, it's cold outside

Lily tried to search for Luke in the crowd as they took their bows but it was too dark to see.

She put on her skate guards as quickly as she could as they exited the ice. "I have to go."

James gave her a knowing smile but nodded.

She rushed to the stands and quickly found Luke standing to the side.

Lily smiled. "Hey."

He smiled too, not his usual grin though. "Hey." He pulled his hand through his hair. "Um, that was... that was really good, you're – great."

"Thanks, I'm glad you liked it."

"I have to go, though. Do you mind if I call you later?"

Lily's face fell. She nodded. "Yeah, it's okay."

Luke said goodbye and left.

He couldn't have possibly felt threatened by James? That was so stupid! Why were men so fucking dumb? She should've never tried to date a guy. Ugh.

Luke did call Lily later. He'd told her he didn't think it was such a good idea to go on another date. Lily had easily resigned but his words still rang in her head.

"At first I thought maybe that was the way all ice dancers behaved with each other but then when I got home I looked at some videos of you with your previous partners on YouTube and you didn't look at them the way you look at James, you just don't. But it's not just that. If you look at him with love in your eyes, he looks at you like you hung the moon and stars, I looked at some other videos of you guys too and it's the same in all of them. I think you've got something going on, whether you'll admit it or not. I feel like there's history there and I don't want to be caught in the middle. Not just for you but for me too. I'd still like to be friends with you because you're great but I don't think dating is going to work out," was what he'd said.

Lily, of course, hadn't commented on any of what he'd said in his little monologue and had just agreed to remain friends and encouraged him to still stop by the diner. A customer was a customer, after all.

Then she'd spent almost the entire night looking at the four videos there existed on the internet of her and James skating. In the end, she was willing to admit that she had maybe, a few times, looked at James... affectionately, but that had been just in an attempt to represent the character of the dance, there definitely wasn't love in her eyes. That was so stupid. Luke just hadn't liked her that much and had come up with that entire thing as an excuse to let her down gently.

But Lily didn't care, it was his loss.

Lily recounted the entire night to her friends during their lunch break the next day. They all offered their condolences for the breakup but Lily really wasn't so hung up about being dumped by someone she'd gone on one date with.

"... honestly, that's such a shitty excuse, he could've just said he didn't want to go out again."

Mary put a hand on Lily's arm to stop her. "Lily, babe. You know I hate it as much as the next person when we have relationship trouble because of our partnerships, but in this particular case, I kind of see where Luke is coming from."

Lily gaped at her friend. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Mary shrugged. "Well, if I were going out with you and I saw you and James skate together, I'd get the hell out of there too."

Lily frowned. She turned to look at Melanie and Yuna but they both shrugged noncommittally. Were her friends ganging up on her now? "I have no idea what you're talking about right now, Mary."

Mary sighed. "Well, the past month or so you've been having this sort of will-they-won't-they vibe between you. Each time you're on the ice you're like two wild animals peacocking around each other."

Lily's eyes widened. "What the – what the fuck, Mary."

Mary turned to the other two girls. "Help me out here, bitches."

Melanie took a deep breath. "I think what Mary is trying to say is that ever since you've made friends with James, you two have had this sort of very... loaded energy when you're around each other. Like you're about to snog each other at any given second."

Lily gaped at her friends. Where was all this coming from?

"Plus you've both been awfully flirty with each other lately," Mary put in.

Yuna placed a hand on Lily's arm delicately. "I think what's happening is that you've started to develop feelings for James but you refuse to admit it to yourself."

Lily scoffed. Were her friends playing a joke on her?

What did they know either way? They were only her best friends in the entire world, two of whom she'd known since she was eleven-years-old and who knew her better than anyone else.

Lily thought for a second.

Oh, no. Oh, fuck.