023. Merry and Bright
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"Shadow..." Tikal said uneasily as the hedgehog pulled her along into the ice rink, "I-I'm not so sure about this."
Tikal was always optimistic about trying new things. Eating new foods, understanding new technology, wearing a new style of clothing. While they were unusual to her at first, she quickly became accustomed to the modern day antics.
However, skating- ice skating to be more specific, was not on her bucket list. There were actual blades attached to the bottom of her shoes and it did not make her any less nervous about it.
"Don't worry," Shadow told her, his hands gripping onto her own tightly, "I'm not gonna make you do fancy tricks or anything like that so I won't let you fall."
It was just past five late into the afternoon. When Shadow came back from work, he told her about a new ice rink just opening a few days ago near their house. Tikal didn't know what it was and so she was curious and agreed to go along with him to check it out. Needless to say, once Shadow helped her put on these strange shoes, and seeing what they were for, the echidna wanted to recoil immediately.
Shadow wouldn't let that happen thiugh and just looked at her with bemusement as he explained that they wouldn't be here for long. Which was an utter complete lie because it took him forever to convince her to let go of the railing that she refused leave behind.
It was cold too as winter was nearing. While Shadow just had a red scarf wrapped around his neck, Tikal wore a green coat with a woolly white turtle neck scarf. Her legs were covered by her black leggings thankfully since they were the most sensitive to the cold.
For a moment, they just stood there, their fingers laced and intertwined as Tikal tried to get used to standing on her skates.
"Good," Shadow said, "Okay, now just try pushing one put forward and then the other one after."
It sounded like walking. Push one foot forward. Okay. It couldn't be that different. It was basically the same concept, wasn't it?
Tikal pushed her left foot forward, and Shadow was smart enough to move slightly back so that she wouldn't crash against him.
"O-Okay," Tikal said with a nervous smile, earning a low chuckle from Shadow as they continued to move around the rice rink at an incredibly slow pace, "I-I guess this isn't so bad..."
"It isn't. You'll get used to it soon."
"E-Easy for you to say," she squinted at him playfully, "You practically skate all the time."
Shadow just gave her a small smirk. "Exactly. You are learning from a genius here."
The echidna giggled as they kept on going. The pace became slightly faster when Tikal became more confident in pushing her feet. Shadow's holds weren't that strong anymore and before she knew it, her eyes widened in horror when he let go completely, leaving her still on her feet.
"Sh-Shadow!"
The hedgehog left some distance between them. "Try it on your own," he said and motioned her to come towards him, "I'll catch you if you fall."
Tikal wavered and slowly balanced herself. Remembering what she did before, she pushed her left foot forward and then her right foot afterwards.
"I-I'm doing it!" she beamed up at him when she started to close their distance, "I'm- whoa!"
She managed to grab his hand before she began falling back, but Shadow tugged the echidna towards him, causing his foot to slide forward underneath her and send the two of them crashing down onto the ice, with Tikal falling on top of Shadow.
There was some commotion as other skaters surrounded them asking if they were okay. Tikal blushed, realising the position she and the hedgehog were in as they stared into each other with a mixture of shock and surprise. It was until she stifled out a laugh that the situation became humorous to her.
"I-I'm sorry!" Tikal choked out, still laughing, "Are you okay?"
He let out a grunt, squinting his eyes at her. "Yes," he said whilst Tikal continued her fit of laughter, "It's not funny..."
Her laughs calmed down into light giggles. "I'm sorry, you just looked so silly then!"
Of course, that only made the hedgehog frown even more because silly and Shadow did not go well together. Even so, as he watched her giggle and laugh some more and seeing her cheeks tint adorable with that shade of pink, he didn't fight off the smile coming up onto his lips. He stood up and got her off her knees as she balanced herself onto the ice again.
"Ready to go again?" he asked.
Tikal nodded. "I think I can do it myself this time..."
Shadow let her go and she steadied on the skates. Doing what she did before, the echidna carefully moved along the ice as Shadow skated back each time to give her more space. When her eyes caught someone zooming past them to perform a stunt jump, she forgot about her position for a moment before Shadow caught her just in time.
Tikal didn't yelp or make any sort of sound of surprise though. She instead just looked past her partner's shoulder, and watched the other people in awe performing all those tricks with their skates.
"Maybe you could do that sometime," Shadow said when he had followed her gaze before looking back at her with a small smile, "You know, when you're more confident doing this, that is."
She blushed sheepishly and held onto his shoulders. "I-I think doing this is enough for me. I'd rather watch them instead of doing jumps like that."
"Fair enough," he said and stood by her side so that they were next to each other, "Would you like to go around the whole ice rink or do you want to go home?"
If Shadow had asked her that ten minutes ago, Tikal would've probably said she wanted to go back and save it for another day. But seeing how she had already fallen, with Shadow (which she totally made complete fools out of themselves) and realised that it wasn't so nerve-wracking as it originally intended to be, she wasn't so scared of it anymore.
"Let's do a few laps," Tikal ended up saying as they were already halfway through it now, "I-I'll promise to be more careful."
"Okay," Shadow chuckled, kissing her forehead before they started to slowly, carefully, move again.
When they fell down together less than five minutes later, Tikal couldn't help but burst out laughing again when the redness took a heavy toll on Shadow's cheeks.