Request of Bruce/Manabu for the prompt ice skating. Ahh, my most painful pairing.
It was either too late at night or too early in the morning when Bruce grabbed my shoulder and shook me awake. "There's no one out at the lake now," he said.
I dragged my face from the warmth of my pillow. Despite our heater's best attempts, the dorms were chilled from the snow outside. Getting out of bed or a warm shower took more willpower than a hard day of training.
After a minute of groggily blinking myself back to the world of the living, Bruce's words registered. The lake on Destiny Station's grounds was a new attraction for all off duty SDF members since the onslaught of snow and freezing temperatures iced it over. Why Bruce took interest in it while I was trying to sleep, well, I didn't really care. "Jeez, Bruce it's-" I threw a glance at the clock, "-five in the morning. We can go to the lake in a few hours."
He flicked on my lights, so bright I dropped my face back into the pillow with a hiss. Again, he shook my shoulder. "There will be people there in a few hours," he said. "You were the one who wanted to go skating. I'm not going to make a fool out of myself in front of everyone, so this is the only time I'll do it."
"Don't have any skates," I growled, muffled by the pillow. I did want to go skating with him, but at a time when my eyes weren't stinging from the early wake up call.
"I went through the trouble of borrowing some for us," he said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me out of bed. "Get dressed. We're going."
I swung my feet under me before my face could meet the floor. This didn't make sense. He was the one who'd refused to go skating, so I wasn't sure why he was so adamant about it now. But I was already awake, so I pulled on my best winter clothes – white wool gloves and the navy jacket for cold assignments. I never bought any casual winter clothes, and neither did Bruce, so we matched.
Outside, the night's snowfall left the ground pristine. Our crunching steps made the first tracks of the day. Bruce walked ahead, skates bouncing at his shoulders while I traced every footprint he left. The icy air felt like an unending slap, so it was hard to feel tired. The skyline was dotted with the lights of early risers, skyscrapers mirroring the fading stars. "It's pretty out this early," I said, hopping between Bruce's footprints.
He glanced around for any sign of another soul and shrugged. "I guess." He always was a barrel of fun.
The benches by the lake were covered in snow, so we brushed them clean before tugging on our borrowed skates. Bruce laced mine up so tight I wasn't sure I had circulation. "Alright," he sighed. "Let's get this over with."
When I first asked if we could go skating, he said he'd never set foot in skates before, and it was a terrible idea. I retorted that I'd never been skating either, so it probably was a terrible idea. I didn't care. I would have fun with it anyway.
Bruce waddled to his feet, and I followed with my ankles wobbling under me. "This would have been better if we had people around to tell us what to do," I said.
"If I'm going to fall on my face, I'm not going to do it in front of anyone," he snapped. Once he managed to land both feet on the ice, he stood perfectly still, eyes locked on his feet in concentration. I placed one foot on the ice and pushed off with the other. My nice, two-second glide cut off when I plowed into him.
We both grabbed hold of each other's clothes to keep upright, but we pulled each other down instead. Bruce landed on his butt, while I fell on my knees in his lap. The sheer irritation on his face was enough to leave me in a fit of giggles.
"I told you this was a bad idea," he said.
I used his shoulder to steady myself as I stood. "We've haven't even been at it a minute. Come on, we never had a good frozen pond on Tabito."
Once I felt balanced, I offered him a hand, and he took it with another sigh. "You make my life difficult."
"That's because you're a difficult person," I said. "Don't know how to have fun." I tugged him up until my feet slipped out from under me. What breath didn't leave my lungs from my back hitting the ice flew out when Bruce fell on top of me.
"Is this your idea of having fun?" he wheezed before rolling off of me. Neither of us made a move to get up, flat on our backs.
"Told you we should have gotten help," I said, unable to hold back another laugh.
"How am I supposed to take you on some romantic skating date if we're surrounded by people laughing at us for our inability to skate?" I looked over to find him pouting at the sky. I had a feeling this date idea came from someone else. He always stressed about finding something I'd like.
Behind the skyscrapers, the sky tinged pink with the sunrise. I reached over and grabbed his hand. "See? A sunrise has to give you points for being romantic. And we haven't fallen in yet, so that's something."
He sighed but held my hand in return. "How are we going to get off of here without falling again? I'm already sore."
"We're about two feet from the bank," I said. "We can probably roll over there."
But he didn't move, and neither did I. With the frozen, sleepy morning and the night sky fading out, I felt so secluded just lying there with him. As I listened to him breathe and held his hand, I wondered how such a mess of a date could feel like the most romantic one he'd ever taken me on.