Chapter Text
I'm not going to lie, spending my day at an ice rink wasn't my idea of fun. Hell, I hadn't even been near an ice rink since I got kicked off the hockey team in junior year of high school. But, so was Eren Jeager, so I suppose it wasn't a complete tragedy.
At the moment, I was sitting on a bench, freezing my ass off while Sasha finished her private practice. Unfortunately, my phone was on 12% battery, too near death for me to be comfortable with risking playing any of those time wasting games. Sasha still had half an hour before her practice was over, and I had nothing to do. Great.
Sulking in one of the hard, plastic chairs behind the short wall, I took a look around the rink. The place was big, but not as big as the stadium at the University. There were only three skaters out on the ice; Sasha; a tiny girl named Krista, whom I had met a few times; and Levi Ackerman, Sasha and Krista's coach. Levi was an Olympic medalist, and was very choosy about who he coached, so Sasha was very adamant on being on time to every one of her practices, even if she wasn't on time to literally anything else.
Levi was talking to the two girls, apparently grilling them hard, because when he pointed them back to the ice, Krista was wiping her eyes, and Sasha placed her hand on her shoulder, a sympathetic look on her face. Apparently Levi had a habit of making people cry. I'd comforted Sasha too many times, sitting in the car as she sobbed her eyes out because she'd messed up in practice, and afterwards ordering forty bucks worth of fast food to make her feel better. Yeah, she perked up real quick when I pulled up to the drive through.
A few minutes later, Levi gave the two a break, and Sasha skated up to me. I leaned over the wall and handed her a waterbottle, which she drank from heartily.
"Good practice?" I asked, an eyebrow raised as water dribble down her chin.
"Great," she replied, grinning and out of breath. Her face was bright red, her hair was falling out of its ponytail, and she looked exhausted. "Levi's working us harder than usual. I think he's getting us ready for a competition or something."
"Your first of the season?" I asked, motioning for her to turn around. She complied, leaning back so I could reach her hair.
She chugged down some more water and made a confirming noise. "Probably the one in Shiganshina."
"You scored pretty well there last year, didn't you?" With practiced hands, I retied her reddish brown hair into a ponytail, scooping the loose strands between my fingers. I've been doing stuff like this since elementary school. Sasha was always dropping or forgetting or losing something, and Connie was no help. In fact, he was just as bad. Someone had to put them together, and I happened to be the one to adopt the job. So, since before we even knew what the internet was, I've been looking after Sasha and Connie, making sure Sasha didn't forget her skates and Connie had his homework done, and, in our high school years, the two of them got home safely. Naturally, when i got my driver's licence, I became the honorary taxi driver for the two of them. I can't even count the times I've picked Connie up from some party in the middle of the night, or dropped by Sasha's at two in the morning because she wanted company. Con and Sash were the only ones who stuck with me after... the incident with Eren, so I would do almost anything for them. Almost anything.
"Yeah, third in the women's. I beat Mina Carolina. Levi was over the fucking moon."
"I'm sure." I finished her ponytail and she handed me her waterbottle.
"I'll be done here in like, twenty minutes. We can get McDonald's after this, right?" She asked hopefully, "I have money for once."
The thought struck me that fast food probably wasn't the best thing to feed a professional figure skater, but, hell, she could burn off the calories in three minutes flat anyway.
"Yeah, sure, whatever. Now get your ass back out there, you don't want your coach getting all pissy."
She rolled her eyes and began to skate away, and my attention was caught by another skater entering the rink. He skated up to Levi, and the two exchanged words before he skated in a few warmups. I watched him for a few minutes while he greeted Sasha and Krista, both of whom seemed to know him.
Then, he began to skate. Like, really skate. And holy shit, did he dance.
His movements were graceful, more graceful than anything I had ever seen Sasha pull off. He practically glided on the ice, making use of the entire rink, carving patterns into the smooth surface with his skates. He was dressed in all black, short sleeved shirt, skating pants, the whole getup, complete with gloves. His dark hair blew behind him as he moved with delicate precision to reverse his direction, gaining speed. The tip of his skate chipped the ice, launching him into the air, his arms crossing neatly across his chest. He got about a foot off the ice, rotating sveral times before landing gently back on the ice, one leg sweeping out behind him and his arms outstretched for balance. From where I was standing, I could see his face, half closed eyes with this contented smile on his lips.
And then I noticed he had freckles. Lots of freckles, everywhere. On his face, his arms, his neck.
At the time, the only thought in my mind was holy shit, he's so fucking hot.
And I am so fucked.