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

[ojisankink]

Oh, god, Kotetsu, you know you shouldn't do something like that if you don't want to risk getting Barnaby all excited. But it is Valentine's Day, so Barnaby just chuckles softly and reaches up to muss up Kotetsu's hair. He would very much like to just be kissed silly, but alas, there is skating to do.

Barnaby kind of sits there for a while after Kotetsu gets up, still dazed and beaming stupidly, kind of wishing he could just drag Kotetsu back down with him. If Kotetsu really wanted to skate, he wouldn't have done that ridiculously wonderful thing with his teeth against Barnaby's lip.

Eventually, though, he manages to find some way to suppress the part of him that wants to tackle Kotetsu and act half normal again, getting back up to his feet and gliding over to where Kotetsu is.

"How long has it been since you've skated? It really isn't that hard to figure out," he teases, hopefully getting some semblance of revenge.

[oldmantiger]

"Finally," Jack sighs, as he watches the two of them get up from the snow. Honestly, he signed up to do Barnaby a favor and watch Kotetsu make a fool of himself. Not watch two adults being all gross and adult with each other. If they'd kept up with that much longer, he might have dropped the ice out from under them.

...but then he catches a glimpse of Barnaby's goofy, dreamy smile, and Jack's irritation softens. At the least, this looks like he's doing a very good favor for someone he wronged in the past.

Kotetsu, meanwhile, honestly hadn't thought he could feel more in love. But, looking at Barnaby now, he feels his heart flutter all over again, like it's the first time he started noticing how amazing his partner is. In general, Barnaby still seems so shy about kissing and affection. But every so often, there are these wonderful moments where he seems to well and truly embrace it and reciprocate enthusiastically. Those moments are coming more and more, now, and Kotetsu is overjoyed to think that he might have helped bring that about.

But kissing can happen later. Will probably happen later. Today is a day for skating. He does blush a little, at Barnaby's teasing, but not too much. Kotetsu isn't ashamed to admit how bad he is at this, if it wasn't terribly obvious already.

"Honestly, before today? I used to have to so I could keep an eye on Kaede during practice. But that was years ago now. She was literally skating circles around me in no time."

[ojisankink]

What's so adult about kissing? Frankly, Barnaby feels like a teenager right now, being so desperate for more smooches. But he would concede with Jack that it's gross, so he looks back in his general direction and rolls his eyes. Kotetsu's a sap, what are you going to do?

Besides love him relentlessly. Barnaby's smile remains on his face as he skates closer, admiring Kotetsu. The way he wobbles on the ice. The way his eyes are shining with excitement anyways. The soft pink tinge to his tanned skin, from the cold or from embarrassment, Barnaby isn't sure. Just... admiring everything about this.

Kotetsu may take real snapshots, but Barnaby does his best to take them in his mind. Burning the negative into his brain so he'll never forget something like this again.

"Right, I forgot Kaede is in figure skating. Would have been better if I could skate with her, it seems." He laughs softly and holds out his hands. "Come on, old man, enough bravado. Let me keep you steady."

[oldmantiger]

Barnaby isn't the only one who feels like a teenager right now. This giddy rush of new love growing and blooming, exploring feelings and one another and slowly growing more comfortable with this and them and the nature of being together. It's been years since Kotetsu has felt any of this. He had long ago made himself accept that he never would again. Now everything feels bright and fresh and new again - Kotetsu included. Right now, he doesn't feel like a clumsy old man. He just feels like a man relentlessly and desperately in love, flush with the triumph of having done something nice for the man who loves him.

As Kotetsu tries to steady his wobbling, he nevertheless gets caught up in admiring Barnaby instead. The smile on his face, the way his shoulders are relaxed. The fact that the snow hasn't entirely dampened his curls. The way his entire body seems to lean into skating - the way he's so clearly comfortable and happy here. Just...everything about him, and this, and them.

So Kotetsu starts a little with surprise when Barnaby finally addresses him. But then his gaze refocuses on the world to see Barnaby holding out his hands, and Kotetsu's expression visibly and unreservedly lights up. "Maybe it would have. But I'm glad it's me instead."

He skates to his boyfriend without any further hesitation, and lets Barnaby hold him steady. "You always do, Bunny."

[ojisankink]

There certainly is a lot to explore, especially for Barnaby, when he hasn’t been exposed to this at all before. He, in a similar manner to Kotetsu, had accepted that this kind of romance wasn’t for him. He had revenge to enact, and goals to follow, and a guardian to make proud. He had thought this sort of thing wouldn’t interest him anyways. But… it certainly does. This new world makes him dizzy with excitement and wonder, and he feels so incredibly lucky to have even a small exposure to it.

He turns to grin as Kotetsu stares at him, chuckling softly. It’s so weird to think of Kotetsu of all people admiring him, but he certainly doesn’t mind it.

“I’m glad it’s you too.”

His cheeks only go a little pink at that adoring comment, but he holds Kotetsu’s hands tightly, skating backwards and tugging Kotetsu along with him. “You have to stop thinking of this as walking. It’s gliding. And the blades are sort of levers to push you along. They aren’t meant to dig into the ice.”

He tilts his head, embarrassed. “I don’t think I’m very good at teaching.”