"This is a joke, right?" Boruto whined on the other end of the phone. It had been all of six minutes since Sarada pressed send on the email with her and Boruto's training schedule.
"I thought an athlete of your ability could handle it," Sarada teased. She could hear him grumbling, unwilling to refute something like that.
"You have us meeting twice a day, on top of my hockey practices and my classes! I'll get benched for bad grades if I don't have time to do my schoolwork!"
Sarada rolled her eyes, that was a lame excuse for someone who she knew was taking an easier major just so he could focus on hockey and dick around. "This schedule is perfect, it accounts for all your practices and blocks out time for you to study, eat, and get eight hours of sleep. I would even venture to say it is a masterpiece."
"Ugh, you're so lame," Boruto scoffed.
"We just need all this practice in the beginning so you're up to speed on all the basics before our choreographer comes in."
"I don't even know this rink you have us going to in the mornings."
"It's not a rink, it's a ballet studio."
"What?! You got me doing figure skating and ballet?! My friends will give me so much shit if they ever find out."
"We're not really going to be doing ballet, you dunce. We just need to work on your flexibility, and eventually, we'll start practicing lifts. We need to be nailing it every time before I let you pick me up over your head on the ice," she told him, deciding not to mention the qualifier they'll be competing in was televised.
"Yeah, yeah. I can't wait to think of what you're going to do for me as compensation."
Sarada frowned. "Nothing gross."
"Define gross." She could practically hear him smirking through the phone.
"I'm hanging up now. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow... And watch those videos I sent you!"
At six the following morning, Sarada trekked through the small parking lot of her family friend's ballet studio and was pleased to find a sleepy-eyed Boruto standing out front. "I'm glad to see you're at least punctual," she said, raising her iced coffee in greeting.
"Following your schedule as promised," Boruto replied and pushed the door open for her. As she walked past him, he snatched the coffee from her hand and took a sip. "Meh, not my favorite but it will do."
Sarada shot him an appalled look. "Excuse you!? That was mine!"
"Well I'd like to spend one of my requests to make it mine," he said with a challenging grin. He was testing her. Seeing if she would hold up her end of their bargain.
"You just said you didn't even like it!"
"Yeah, but I like the look on your face right now," Boruto teased and Sarada glared at him in response. "I mean if you don't want to bring me coffee…" he paused, letting his eyes drift down her figure. "...I'm sure I can think of something else I want."
Heat rose in her cheeks at the way his blue gaze somehow made her feel naked. Boruto cracked a smile and shook his head before taking another sip of iced coffee. "You're too easy to mess with, Sarada."
"Ugh, fine whatever. Keep the coffee!" she fumed as she marched inside the studio to hide her embarrassment. "You are really making me start to regret this."
"I'm awake at 6 AM! I already regret this!" Boruto called, following after her.
They set their belongings up against the wall and sat down on the hardwood floor in the middle of the room. Boruto looked around a little self-consciously, not quite used to being somewhere with wall to wall mirrors. He copied Sarada's movements as they went through each stretch and she explained the various skills they would be working on in the two weeks before the choreographer would come in to help develop their program.
Boruto figured lifts and throws shouldn't be too hard, he was confident in his strength, but the spins and jumps they would have to do in perfect unison were a whole other story. However, Sarada had considered that in her schedule design, setting aside a significant amount of time for those skills specifically, and he quietly appreciated her being so thorough.
Along with his schedule, Sarada sent him videos of some of her favorite Worlds and Olympic pairs programs to give him an idea of the different components. Boruto also took the liberty of looking up Sarada's most recent competition. "Hey, tell me what happened between you and your last partner. Why did you guys split up?"
Sarada's face soured. "Let's just say it was a personality difference. We couldn't get along."
"You couldn't get along with someone?! Color me surprised," Boruto snickered sarcastically. Sarada rolled her eyes and continued stretching.
After a surprisingly productive morning, Boruto and Sarada made their way to the university's campus, parting ways to head off to their own classes.
An annoyed Sarada walked into the ice complex after her classes and found Boruto lounging on the bleachers beside the rink. "You're late," he taunted, not even bothering to look up from his phone. "Aren't you like the queen of schedules or something?"
She tossed a sports drink at him, secretly hoping it would hit him, but he caught it. "The pink flavor is like impossible to find! I had to go to three different convenience stores."
"I know, it's my favorite," he grinned as he twisted off the cap. Of course, he would use one of his requests to make her get him a drink he knew was hard to find. Sarada swore he was purposefully being annoying.
Boruto took a few swigs of his drink before reaching down to tighten his skates. Sarada stared down at his feet and mumbled, "Oh shit."
"What?"
"I totally forgot," she facepalmed. "We have to get you new skates before we can practice. Your hockey skates don't have a toepick and you'll need it for the skills you'll be learning."
Boruto began unlacing his skates, grumbling about how much he hated breaking in new ones. With his shoes on and his bag slung over his shoulder, Boruto followed Sarada out of the ice complex as she led him to one of her favorite stores.
The perky, young salesgirl greeted them with a smile and guided Sarada to the back wall lined with pristine, new skates. Boruto, however, got caught up in the costume section, cringing as he flipped through the racks. Each garment more bedazzled than the last. "Is every costume this sparkly?"
Sarada snorted a laugh, "honestly, I thought a guy who loves pink as much as you do would be comfortable enough with his masculinity to wear some rhinestones."
Blue eyes glared at Sarada standing with her hands on her waist, a victorious little smile tugging at her lips. She knew he wouldn't contest her comment and risk implying his masculinity was fragile. "Now, get over here. What size shoe are you?" she asked and Boruto pouted as he walked over.
He sat on a bench as the salesgirl knelt in front of him on the floor, lacing up the new pair of sleek, black figure skates. His grin grew wider with each shy peek she stole up at him. A rosy hue dusting her cheeks.
"Um, so how do they fit?" she asked softy, her hands lingering on him for a moment.
"They're perfect," he replied with a cool smile and a wink. Bored of watching Boruto and the salesgirl make eyes at each other, Sarada walked away to browse the accessories.
Twenty minutes later, Sarada was tapping her foot impatiently as he continued to chat up the salesgirl, leaning on the counter as she checked them out at the register. The pair walked out of the store together, shopping bags in hand. Boruto with his figure skates and Sarada with a new pair of leg warmers. She gave him an annoyed, side-eye glare.
"What?" Boruto laughed.
"Could you try to keep it in your pants for like fifteen minutes?" Sarada huffed.
"You're just mad because she only gave her employee discount to me!" Boruto said, sticking his tongue out at her.
Sarada had worried about her ability to teach Boruto everything he needed to know in order for them to be competitive, but he was surprisingly receptive and worked really hard during their practice time together. As the week wore on they started to find their rhythm.
She was thankful he was spending his requests on the same things every day and they were almost always to bring him food between classes or after practice. Even though the number of hamburgers he consumed bordered on concerning.
Unlike other partners she had tried, Boruto didn't have any bad habits to correct or weird quirks for her to match, he was a blank canvas for her to paint the perfect partner that complimented her existing style.
They had been running various drills over the last few days to get Boruto comfortable with the motion of spinning on the ice and using his toepick, but they were finally ready to try some jumps. Sarada had explained that the jumps are defined by the takeoff. Which foot, which edge, and whether the power and rotation come from his free leg or digging the toepick into the ice to propel his body up and around.
Boruto stood there blinking at her as he tried to absorb the information. "Okay, actually, let's just do one at a time. Let's start with the salchow as it's usually considered the easiest."
Sarada backed away to give herself some room to demonstrate. "Alright, so you're going to take off on the back inside edge of your left leg…" she sprung into the air, tucking her arms to her chest, and spun twice before landing on one leg, the other extended behind her. "...and land on your right, back outside edge."
She skated back over to Boruto, "You ready to give it a try?"
"Psh, piece of cake," he said with a cocky grin. He threw his first attempt with a surprising amount of confidence. The takeoff was pretty sloppy and he landed on two feet instead of one, but the rotation was there.
"That was shit, do it again," she called, trying to hide her small smile.
Sarada watched as he threw jump after jump, offering advice and occasionally demonstrating for him again so that he could watch carefully and understand. She was impressed that despite being so new to figure skating, he was never nervous to really go for it. But then Boruto threw an attempt that over-rotated, he stumbled out of it, slipped, and fell on the ice with a hard thud.
"Are you okay?" Sarada questioned as she skated over with concern in her dark eyes. She was nervous that he might be hurt or that a fall would shake his confidence.
Her worry quickly faded with the sound of his soft laughter. "You're joking, right?" Boruto stood up and brushed himself off. "Do you think I'm a delicate flower or something?" Sarada crossed her arms and pursed her lips, admonishing herself for caring about someone so arrogant. "I play hockey, Sarada. Usually, when I hit the ice I got a guy or two, my weight or heavier, crushing me. I may not be wearing pads, but that was nothing."
Without fuss, Boruto got into position and attempted another jump. And then another. He didn't falter in the face of her criticism. Didn't bitch and moan like some of the other partners she had tried. Instead, he nodded at each of her notes and tried to correct the behavior.
Sarada watched his repeated attempts and couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips and the faint trace of admiration that warmed her chest. She was actually kind of glad she found him.
Boruto and Sarada walked out of the ice complex together after having practiced for two hours. He was getting more consistent in landing his salchow but they still needed to clean it up. And that was only the first of the six jumps he needed to learn and master before their first competition. Or at the very least he needed a solid three to give their routine some variety.
She had been talking to their choreographer and they had already decided to try to keep the routine simple and clean for the qualifier and then if they made it to the Grand Prix they could up their technical score with greater difficulty jumps.
Sarada was distracted from her musings when she noticed blue eyes staring at her. "What?" she asked, unsure exactly how long he had been looking at her.
"I was just wondering… why'd you pick me to be your partner?" Boruto asked.
"I told you I was totally out of options," she shrugged.
"Okay, we both know that's not the whole story. You asked me at least three times, and I mean if you were willing to go through the trouble of picking someone who wasn't even a figure skater to begin with, then why not choose any random guy off the street?"
"What are you getting at?" Sarada asked, crossing her over her chest.
"You wanted me specifically, don't deny it. I just haven't been able to figure out why?" Boruto rested his chin on his fist and shot her a teasing smile that invited her to reply.
Sarada narrowed her eyes at him. Was he seriously just fishing for compliments?! They stared at each other silently for a moment.
"Ugh, fine," she sighed and averted her gaze. "I guess I wanted you after I saw the way you skated when you had that private coaching session with my father. The way you move is very controlled and powerful and yet, you made it look so effortless and graceful. I thought you could be good at figure skating."
When she turned back to him, his smile had grown into a full-on grin and he was nodding like he expected her to continue. Sarada scoffed, "that was it."
"Oh well if you think I looked good then," Boruto began, as he leaned in closer. "...you should see me in my true element…" Her cheeks warmed at the mischievous look in his blue eyes.
She shoved her hand in his face and covered his mouth while shooting him a stern glare. "I'm not interested in hearing about how you woo women in the bedroom."
Boruto chuckled as he pried her fingers from his lips and held onto her hand. "I'm flattered that that's where you assume my element is, but I was going to say you should come to my hockey game tomorrow night."
"Oh, uh…" Sarada blushed, embarrassed at the fact that her mind somehow went to a sexual place before his. She had obviously been hanging out with him too much.
"But I mean I could show you what I do in bed if you're interested in a full showcase of my abilities," he said with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.
"Goodbye, Boruto," Sarada said flatly, stealing her hand back from him. He just chuckled as he watched her walk away.
A/N: thank you for reading! and a double thank you to those who left comments on the first chapter! your kind words really help keep me motivated to write and update frequently! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I can't wait to hear what you think!
