Dancing on the blades, you set my heart on fire. (Backdated to the 14th)

[oldmantiger]

Kotetsu Kaburagi has a very bad sense of time. Not just in terms of minutes and seconds, but also in terms of days, weeks, months. It doesn't help that, as far as he's been able to gather, the castle is running around two months ahead of when he was back home. And that's before various strange happenings skew his sense of time even further.

But since shortly after getting together with Barnaby, there's one day he's been keeping an eye out for. After counting forward from the end of the first event he experienced where everyone was transformed, and the day he realized a couple of days too late was Barnaby's birthday, Kotetsu is reasonably sure he's pinpointed today as Valentine's Day. Now it's just a matter of what to do. Even here, he wants it to be special.

Eventually, he gets an idea that leads to him hunting up Jack Frost. Jack agrees that he still owes Barnaby for past events and agrees to Kotetsu's plan. From there, it's just a matter of digging up skates. The castle seems to feel it owes Kotetsu for literally not giving him and Barnaby a peaceful time together since before they got together, though. He turns up a closet full of skates of various sizes without too much trouble. These, Kotetsu gathers up and carries over to a newly frozen pond in one of the more wooded areas. He dumps them by the side of the lake - no reason he and Barnaby should have all the fun, after all - and sets to work digging up a pair for himself.

Once that's done, it's just a matter of getting in some hasty practicing so he minimizes how stupid he looks in front of his boyfriend. That shouldn't be too hard, right? He did used to take Kaede to her skating practice...years and years ago.

It turns out to be pretty hard. There's a lot of stumbling, flailing, and falling as he tries to figure out just how people make this look so easy. But he's fallen from and onto worse than this. So Kotetsu always gets back up and keeps trying to keep skating, even if he's obviously too lead footed to make much headway at this on his own. Jack, meanwhile, hangs around in a bare tree to watch the show.

"You sure you don't want any help?" he calls out every so often.

"I can do this," Kotetsu always replies stubbornly, as he gets back to his feet from his latest stumble.

Neither of them is being terribly quiet, though, and the skates are there for the taking if you can find one in your size.

Comments

[havesomefun]

It's fortunate for Jack that Frisk has ducked their head, because it hopefully means they don't see the look of panic that flickers over his face when they seem to curl in on themselves like that.

God, why is he so bad at this? Was he always this bad at talking to kids?

"H-Hey, Frisk, come on..." he says, bending down to try to catch their gaze and smile. "I'm sure whatever you did couldn't have been as bad as me, and..."

Fortunately - or perhaps not, depending on one's point of view - they've both been talking long enough for Kotetsu to catch sight of them when he sits down to retie his skates. There's no easy way to walk in these things that he's discovered. So he takes them off entirely instead. Wet socks are going to be the least of his problems today, and at least that lets him come over to investigate.

"Hey, Frisk!" And, because one skill Kotetesu does have is reading faces, their obvious distress does not go unnoticed. "...what's wrong?"

[dustless]

"Don' worry about it," Frisk tells them both, feeling their chest crush closed. These two are too nice for their own goods sometimes.

"I'm, um. Jack, Jack told me you were gonna...you were doing that for Barnaby. Gonna go on a date." They dredge up a smile from somewhere even as they take a step back. "Don't wanna interrupt you guys."

[oldmantiger]

That is not a normal smile. Kotetsu's concern only deepens. He takes a cautious few steps off the ice and back onto solid ground, though skates are hardly ideal for standing even in snow. Still, he doesn't move to entirely close the difference between them. Just in case.

He shakes his head, keeping his voice level. "You're not interrupting me. Trust me, I'm not going to tell Bunny about this until I'm sure I can skate a straight line." He carefully sits himself down, trying to make it look casual.

"Honestly, I was gonna be taking a break soon anyway." This is not entirely a lie. "I can only take falling on my butt so many times, y'know? I'm an old man."

[dustless]

...Barnaby not being around does help them. A little. They're not nearly tripping over themselves backing up anymore, at the very least.

"...Not really old," they say eventually, letting the smile slip. Frisk's trapped in place--they fell tapped in place, even if they have a strong feeling they won't be chased if they run.

[oldmantiger]

"Older than pretty much any human here, feels like. Heck, older than any of the other heroes back home." He smiles wryly and gives a little half shrug, before going to work loosening the laces on his skates. "I don't really mind, though." That's mostly true. "I think parents especially should be at least a little old." Or else what would their kids have to make fun of them about?

They definitely won't be chased if they run. Kotetsu would be sad that they felt they had to run from him, but he knows sometimes that kids just need to get Away. He really should have taken a break before now anyway.

"Heck, for the longest time, 'old man' was Bunny's name for me, just like Bunny was mine for him." He huffs out a laugh. "Mine was better, though."

feel not fell gdi

[dustless]

Parents should be a little old. That's a weird statement. Maybe it's right, though. The Dreemurrs were old, and they were best when they were parents.

They're locked in where they are for now. Until they find an out.

"...Bunny's cuter," they offer after a long, long pause.

I knew what you meant!

[oldmantiger]

It's a statement you probably have to be a parent to understand. Because only when you're a parent do you fully appreciate that, in a way, looking at your child is like looking your own mortality in the face. And somehow, that fact seems like the most natural and harmless thing in the world.

Or at least, that's how it is in Kotetsu's experience. He's never really talked much to other parents. But he very, very clearly remembers that feeling coming over him when he'd seen Kaede for the first time.

Frisk still looks awkward. He casts about for something else to say. Something to make them smile. Something to at least make them relax. Kotetsu darts a glance up at Jack, who shrugs helplessly and makes a sympathetic face. He's accepted that he's unfortunately out of his depth here.

"Yeah, Bunny's cuter," he says, looking back at Frisk barely missing a beat. "And I mean, Bunny's pretty cute on his own, y'know? Did I ever tell you that we got him a stuffed bunny for his birthday? We'd only known him for a couple of months at the time, and we, ah, didn't really know him well enough to know what else we should try for." Though Kotetsu had certainly known him a little better at the end of that whole affair.

"He acted like he hated it, but we found out later that he actually kept it and was taking really good care of it."

[dustless]

(Frisk's biological ones very much weren't. Maybe their dad would've survived, maybe their mama would've been better.)

Their arms are pinned tight against their sides, but they're listening. Gathering details out of habit--it might be useful later, important. They can't avoid Barnaby forever, they know, they just don't want to talk to him now.

"...that's really cute. What...um, what did it--does he still have it?" Maybe they can be useful and look for something like it if it's gone.

[oldmantiger]

Kotetsu looks quite pleased to hear them say as much. "Thanks! I thought so. So did everyone else. That's why they said the present was just from them and I'd have to find my own." He lets out an irritated little huff at the memory...though that irritation fades to a smile after a moment. Because Kotetsu had done pretty well for himself, there. It felt like the first time in their partnership that he undeniably had. Even if he'd needed to get confirmation of that much from the criminal they were arresting.

"Here at the castle? Nah. Or at least, wherever the castle dumped it, I haven't found it yet. If you see it, let me know? You can't miss it. It's big and pink, with green eyes." He measures out sizes on his hands for a moment, before nodding decisively. "I think it's even a little bigger than you are."

whoops

[dustless]

Frisk doesn't look too happy with that. "You told him the truth?" Right? Right?

And that finally gets a reaction that's both real and not remotely on the spectrum of 'fear'--an open mouth and a thumb pointed at their own chest. "Bigger than me?" No way.

[oldmantiger]

"Eh. I think he figured it out on his own in the end." The next time they'd spoken about it had been at the party at Barnaby's apartment, following Jake's defeat. And Barnaby had certainly been looking right at Kotetsu when he'd laid out just what that gift meant to him.

And even if he hadn't, Kotetsu doesn't mind after all this time. He can't imagine that Frisk would make him tell the truth, right? Right?

"Yes, bigger than you! Don't forget about the ears." He holds his hand up an inch or so above Frisk's head. Admittedly, he's partly guessing here. But Frisk is shorter than Kaede, and Kaede is taller than the plushie. So it's probably a safe enough bet. "Wish I could show you, but I've started running out of room on my phone." He's had to start deleting some of the less important pictures from home.

[dustless]

They won't force him--but still doesn't feel like it should be something totally overlooked. It doesn't seem fair, and it's an unfairness that'd be easy to correct.

"...you should make another one."

They raise their own hand above their head, looking a touch skeptical. "...maybe...not so big. Might be hard to do." Frisk certainly doesn't know how to sew.