Magic on Ice (Eddie)

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty hadn't meant to such into the ice rink, but when she had seen some of those people who had laughed at her humiliation, she couldn't help but want to hide. It was too much to face them. In the aftermath of her humiliation it most likely seemed like she has turned tail and fled home like a child who wanted to hide behind her momma's skirt. Even though that wasn't the case she was aware that it looked like that. And she would face the crowds when she needed to, but if she didn't need to, she didn't want.

The chill from the ice rink crept into her skin. Even with a long skirt and long sleeves it was very chilly in here. Much chillier than any night she had experienced out in Los Avalos. It made her wish for a couple of extra layers to keep her nice and warm. It made her miss the Los Avalos sun.

Glancing around she noticed that she was not as alone as she had thought. There on the rink was a boy. And he was wearing those ice skates and gliding across the ice. Dusty couldn't take her eyes off him and she moved closer to watch. It was enchanting. It was like magic! She'd never seen anything like it before. And in that moment Dusty forgot about the chill in the air, content to watch the ice skating.

[Eddie Locksley]

Eddie was useless at everything. Eddie could fall over sitting down. Eddie had no coordination. Eddie couldn't do any sports or physical activities or anything his father would have wanted.
On land.

For some reason, all that lack of grace and coordination went away when he stepped on the ice. He couldn't explain it, maybe it was some kind of weird magic, the first time he'd gone ice skating (after following some pretty girl into the rink), he'd fully expected to fall flat on his face and probably break something. But he hadn't.
He'd wobbled, sure, but for some reason he'd found his balance far quicker than he ever had before, there had been something calming about gliding around the ice, and before he knew it the pretty girl was forgotten. He hadn't even seen her at the rink in months, but he'd been here, four or five times a week sometimes, practicing.

They'd been called back home and met their new brother and Eddie had come back in a turmoil of emotions, and he knew exactly where he needed to be to clear his head.
He barely noticed the girl coming onto the ice, so focused was he in his routine. He skated backwards down the rink, prepared himself, dug in his toe pick and leapt into a spin.
Two full rotations and he landed gracefully, twisting his feet to bring himself to a stop.
"Damn. Need to push harder to get a triple."

It was then that he noticed the girl.
No amount of skill on the ice could overcome his fundamental Eddie-ness when startled and embarrassed,so his reaction was to yelp loudly and immediately fall over.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty was entranced. She had never seen anything quite so elegant. As she watched her eyes grew as big as saucers. And then there not started to skate backwards. Dusty was flabbergasted and it was all she could do not to let her mouth drop open in surprise and shock.

Then he jumped into the air, spinning around and it quite took Dusty's breath away. She found herself involuntarily letting out a breath when he landed. It was so beautiful.

And then he noticed her and fell. Dusty winced, taking a step towards him. "Are you alright?" She called, not daring to step out onto the ice. She didn't trust herself to not trip and fall too. Ice was something she had very little experience with. "I'm didn't mean to surprise you. I'm sorry."

[Eddie Locksley]

"Yea, I'm okay," he mumbled, climbing to his feet and gliding over to her to avoid having to shout halfway across the ice. "Don't worry about it, happens to me all the time."

He'd at least managed to regain some of his grace, but he slid to a stop a few feet away from her, like he was trying to keep the ice as a buffer between him and his natural clumsiness in close proximity to girls.
" Uh... you're not going to tell anyone else about that are you?"

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty began to feel the chill of the ice rink again and wrapped her arms around herself to keep the warmth in. She was glad that the boy seemed to have bounced back from the fall pretty easily. She breathes easier knowing that he was alright.

"Well I reckon that I don't have to tell anyone if'n you'd rather I didn't. But I caint think why. You were wonderful." She blushed slightly. "I've never seen anything like that."

[Eddie Locksley]

"Are you okay? If you're cold you can have..uh.. my shirt.." He reached for the hem of his shirt before realising he wasn't wearing anything under it and stopped "Oh. Wait. No, uh, I mean... oh!" He tugged his gloves off and held them out to her "try these?"

He found himself blushing at how nice she was being about it, but he was pretty certain she was the only one who would be.

"I'm not that good... and it's kind of embarrassing. I mean, it's sort of like dancing, it's not very manly... most people would probably just make fun of me."

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty was certainly cold, but she wasn't sure how help Eddie's short would be, but it was sweet of him to offer. She have him a small smile, gladly taking the offered gloves. "Thank you. I ain't used to the cold. We don't get a proper winter where I'm from."

Dusty friended thoughtfully, but nodded. "I suppose you might get teased. Well, I guess if you'd rather I not say anything then I won't. But I still think you're real good."

[Eddie Locksley]

"Oh really? We do. I mean, we get snow and stuff, sometimes the lake freezes over, it's not like this though, it's all bumpy and covered in snow, I don't know if you could skate there, not that skating's really a thing at home..." which of course was another reason his father would never, in Eddie's mind, be proud of any accomplishments he had on the ice, it just wasn't something Robin would ever imagine his son doing in a million years "but skating's a lot of fun if you're warm enough."

He was babbling a little, but that was a side effect of being around girls, he was never really all that good at talking to them so he figured if he just kept talking he'd say the right thing eventually. It wasn't, admittedly, the greatest tactic he'd ever thought of.

"Thank you. For not saying anything. And for saying I'm good. I mean, I'm okay, I'm trying to do a triple lutz at the moment but I'm only doing a double, but I've been away so I'm a little out of practice."

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty smiled. Her hands were nice and warm now though the rest of her was cold. She nodded. "I've never actually seen snow," she admitted. "I live in a desert. It gets cold but not this cold." She wished she had a shawl or something with her. Then she would be as warm as could be. Perhaps she would remember for next time. "Skating looks exciting. I don't think I could do it. I'm kinda clumsy."

Dusty was amused at the babbling. She didn't mind it. It was sweet, really. "What's a lutz?" she asked as soon as Eddie took a breath. She wasn't sure she could get a word in edgewise if she didn't say anything. "Is that the spin thing you did there at the end? Is a triple better than a double?"

[Eddie Locksley]

"Oh! Wow. Snow is great, you can build snowmen and get in snowball fights, my sister always wins but she has much better aim than me, and you get really cold but then you go and sit by a fire and it's really nice, hopefully it'll snow here soon and you'll get to see it. Everything goes white and it all looks really nice." There was something quiet and pleasant about winter, he loved crunching through fresh snow, even if he did slip a lot on the icy ground - apparently skates were the key to keeping him on his feet. Most of the time anyway. "Skating's great, and I'm really clumsy too, you can't be worse than me, so you never know maybe you'll actually be good at skating, uh, I could teach you if you want?" maybe it was the ice that was making him feel so brave, but he was also excited at the possibility of getting to share something he loved with someone else for once - the same way he felt good when he got to talk to Gaston about Star Wars or Dr Who.

"Yea, a lutz is a jump with a spin, a double means you do two full spins, so a triple means you do three, it's definitely better."

[Dusty Fae]

Snowmen and snowball fights sounded like magic, quite frankly. Snow covering the ground and turning it into a blanket of white sounded so pretty. She wanted so much to see what it would look like and feel like and sound like. "I hope it snows. I'd like to see all of that."

The offer to teach her to ice skate was surprising, but it delighted Dusty to her very core. "Really?" She asked. "You'd teach me? I'd be mighty grateful if you did. Though I reckon I won't be nearly as good as you."

Dusty nodded. She would remember that
A lutz wasa jumping spin. "Those look hard. I would be nervous to try one of those."

[Eddie Locksley]

"Then I hope it does too," Eddie beamed back at her. He couldn't believe he was doing so well, talking to a girl. Maybe the ice really was magic, maybe it gave him special gifts, maybe he had ice magic. ....No, that would be crazy.

"Oh I bet you could, I bet you'd be really great at it, maybe even better than me." girls liked compliments right? Wow, he was really nailing this. This wasn't even that difficult, he could totally do this off the ice.

"You don't do them right away, you start small and work up to it." he explained "So it's not as scary by the time you get there, by the time you get to them you've already fallen over hundreds of times so it isn't even a little bit scary any more."

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty grinned. Eddie was sweet. She wondered briefly how they hadn't met before, but Dusty was fairly shy and Eddie seemed like he might hang out with a bunch of people. But she was glad that she had met him now. Maybe he would be her friend.

She laughed and tugged at her sleeves, trying to make them cover her wrists a bit better. She couldn't keep the cold out. "I doubt that," she replied, though it was a nice thought. "My momma tried to teach me dance and I never could. I cain't imagine I'll be better at ice skating, but I'd like to try."

Dusty nodded. That sounded like a smart plan. "Like riding a horse. Gotta walk before you can jump fences."

[Eddie Locksley]

"Well I'm really clumsy, I can't dance at all, or ride very well, or shoot a bow, or use a sword, my sister can, she's really good at everything," his tone turned a little bitter "and Ri-my brother, he's really good at everything too. I'm not good at anything at all. Except this. Maybe you will be too."
"Just come onto the ice and I'll teach you," he added enthusiastically, stopping himself suddenly when he realised the flaw in that plan "Wait, no, don't do that, you need some skates first, do you have any skates? And warm clothes. You do warm up while you're skating but it's good for your muscles if you keep them from getting too cold, I read about that, I read a lot about skating, as long as nobody's there to see what I'm reading about, it's all really interesting, almost as interesting as Star Wars - have you seen Star Wars? Me and Gaston watch it all the time, it's our favourite." he rambled cheerfully.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty shook her head. "I'm sure that some true. You must be good at other things, you just don't know it yet." She chuckled softly. I don't have ice skates but I do have warm clothes. Next time I'll come prepared." She shook her head. "I don't know what Star Wars is." She shrugged. "I don't know a lot of the new fangled things here."