je maintiendrai

he wishes this wasn’t in the dead of cold winter. where she wasn’t wrapped in so many clothes and he couldn’t feel their bodies so close. but he was taking what he could from her lips. kissing her hard and deep to make up for the time he hadn’t felt her. it was still so familiar. she kissed him the same, gripped his body the same. his hand moves to tangle in the back of her hair, holding her in place as their kiss grows more frantic.

he leveled a look at her. “i know it’s hard, scarlett. my best friend is justice o’neil; she’ll never let me forget it. but curling is also an incredibly difficult sport and canada’s team operates on nepotism and favours. i’m a nobody– wasn’t gonna waste my time on a team like that even if i am canadian. so fuck you for saying i shouldn’t take the opportunities offered to me. i’m one of the youngest olympic curlers in the world now.”

“what? you don’t think i know that some of the things that go on behind the scenes are absolute bullshit?” scarlett questions with arched brows. “i come from nowhere. my parents own a farm in backwoods quebec. if the artois didn’t pay for basically everything i do, i wouldn’t have this. any of it. but i worked my fucking ass off to the point where no one could look me in the eyes and say i didn’t deserve a spot on this team. you can say whatever you want to justify your choices to yourself, but that doesn’t mean i have to buy it.”

“Oh no, no, no, my dear.” Sonny said, quickly locking his phone and haphazardly tossing it to his side. “That’s below my pay grade.”

“I’ll just ask the media managers since you’re no help to me.” 

“I’m not supposed to be any help to you, that’s below my pay grade,” Scarlett grins as she leans back in her chair, snorting softly as he tosses his phone aside. 

“I’m supposed to skate and do spins and look pretty. It’s your job to be helpful.”

“ oh, but it surely has its place, ” maisie’s quick to quip back. “ i find it useful in navigating complicated situations. ” she watches her fold the newspaper after seeming so invested – she wonders what it was that caused her to close it. “ hmm, ” she hums thoughtfully, “ you’re unfortunately right. i can’t say that i haven’t benefitted from some of it – but i don’t think it’s right either. ” 

“grace is nice and pretty but it doesn’t get shit done,” scarlett shrugs with one shoulder. she’d learned that plenty of times over. sure, in figure skating grace gave you an edge. you had to look seamless on the ice. but in reality, that came with hours of hard work and determination. she wished she had been a little more angry and a little less graceful at the last olympics when she’d been cheated out of her worldwide rank. “the queen should jut overturn the law -- simple as that. like, what use does a marriage do to the way a country is run?”

“Good thing I’ve got a twenty year head start on that bastard.” Bas’s expression turned from victorious to dismayed as he heard the coffee was decaf, quickly handing it back before so much as taking a sip. “Love that for you, but if Coach catches me drinking decaf he’s gonna start going on about caffeine again. And he can pry my coffee out of my cold dead hands.” Probably literally, given how early Bas had been forced to wake up lately. “I pulled Xenia off of a Christmas tree and she nearly took it down with her– does that count?”

Scarlett’s lips hold a smug curve of triumph as her coffee is handed back to her, taking a sip. Sure, there were things any ordinary athlete didn’t partake in for the sake of maintaining peak physical form; however, her own heart condition ensure that that already slim list of allowable things was whittled down even further. And keeping Bas from swiping her coffee was one of the few perks of having to settle for decaf. “Only you could cause a potential international incident involving a cat and a Christmas tree. Please, don’t get us kicked out of the country. I’m kinda starting to like it here.”

“ i agree, ” nandi was quick to place her own agreement out into the world right after the other had voiced their opinion on this whole — affair. without it, surely nandi would remain back home. continuing her rule until her cousin turns eighteen. nevertheless, she still didn’t see the whole point of such an outdated law. “ i don’t understand why anyone would want to marry in this sort of fashion. or why the queen herself hasn’t elected the law to be dismantled as it seems to me to be unreasonable in the world today. haven’t anyone realized that the 1800s have longed surpassed us? ”

“In some countries it seems that apparently dramatic value outweighs actual fair updates to the law,” Scarlett sighs with a shrug of her shoulders. “You’ve got to wonder how much money Genovian tourism makes off of spectacles like this, you know? Like commemorative plates and stuff. I can tell you one thing, though, this kind of thing wouldn’t fly in Canada. I can’t imagine the literal royal fit Charlotte would throw if anyone tried to tell her how she should get married.”

rémy levels a glance at her that isn’t as serious as it looks. “i still have a canadian passport. hey– if you weren’t goo enough to get onto your home team of doing flips and wearing tiny skirts. i bet you’d go anywhere to get the chance to compete in the olympics. not like i’m gonna join the fuckin– ottowa club team, you know?” 

“god, you sure have a nice way of making one of the most challenging sports in the world sound absolutely juvenile,” scarlett snorts as she shifts in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. “plus, it’s not as if you’re ancient. it’s not as if your athletic career would cap by the time you hit twenty-six. if you didn’t make it this round you should have just waited and paid your dues until your time came. it’s like taking your toys and going home when things don’t go your way.”

he watches her for a moment after the words fall past her lips. in reality, he had thought a lot about this moment. about being caught up in her again. in feeling her against him. having her the way he did before. she was always the most exciting. she made him a more exciting person. his hand falls from her wrist, and instead takes hold of her chin, tilting it up just a fraction so he can bring her in, their lips brushing together in the slightest way. even that brought shivers down his spine. he could help but to make the kiss deeper, and with ten times more passion.

“Worse comes to worse we have him preserved. I’m sure there’s a good taxidermist somewhere in the Netherlands. Add some kind of voicebox and you’ve got yourself a couple more years of some freedom.” There was no way that was a real suggestion. Or was it? God, he didn’t know, but just the idea of having to go through what she was dealing with was beginning to bum him out. “Morbid? Yes, but… effective.” 

Antonia let out a loud laugh at the mental image -- she’d always appreciated some good black humor, and Kieran could always be counted on to provide. “Let’s hope that hologram technology has progressed leaps and bounds by then,” she jokes, reaching once again to her drink and taking a swallow. “So what’s brought you here? You don’t still skate, do you?”

he smirks. “didn’t figure you for a friend of dorothy. it’s okay, i am too.” he gives her a grin, but it isn’t very convincing. “but that’s by the by. hey– what’s your ice time like? i know i defected to australia, but i’m still a canadian at heart. we should hang.”

“i’m not --” scarlett starts, but ends in a sigh. she’s not gay, but it’s not something negative to be accused of -- and better to not give remy any more fuel on that subject. “why would i give you my ice time?” she questions suspiciously, a small line forming between her brows. it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for him to go back and run his mouth to justice or her trainers. “defecting to australia does kind of mean that you’re not canadian at heart, you realize that?”

that was reassuring, he thought. he gulped, before going down to one knee in front of her. he gripped her hands in his, and put on the best show he could for the cameras. they were yards away but he could hear the snaps of the shutter.  he squeezed before he opened his mouth. “i’m sorry we’re put in this situation,” he started, giving her a weak smile. “i hope we find a way out of this, you deserve to have something who thinks of you are the center of their world, but until we can… will you marry me?”

even though she’d known it was coming, it was still a shock to see leonardo down on one knee it front of her. she feels a leap of panic in her chest, like an animal struggling when it knows it’s about to be caged, but she swallows it down and presses it to the base of her stomach. (as she had with so many things lately) his proposal manages to make her smile in spite of the situation -- wouldn’t it be nice if there were a way out of this. she glances briefly towards the cameras, hoping they’re getting a story worth selling, before she looks back to him. “of course. yes. nothing would make me happier.”

     harper chuckled at the brunette’s words. she recognized her, she was a skater for team canada. “well, it’s not that bad.” the young princess said, her diamond ring and equally stunning wedding band difficult to ignore as she tilted back her coffee cup to take a sip. “and i mean… a lot of us grow up used to this kind of ‘no privacy’ thing, so i don’t think it’s that new to her, you know ?”

scarlett’s eyes fall on the ring and she lets out a soft snort. she wasn’t much of one for jewelry herself, especially showy stuff. (her skating costumes alone required more showiness that what she was comfortable with in day to day life.) “well, it looks like you don’t have the same type of problems as this girl,” she says, nodding to the paper. “you locked it down pretty early. how old are you anyway?”

     “faker. i’m just asking you to keep me from being yelled at, not ride off into battle for me. although, i wouldn’t stop you if you wanted to live out any game of thrones dreams,” jack teased. “jokes on you, i don’t know what paradigm means so i’m going to take that as a sincere compliment.”

“why would i stop you from being yelled at? watching sonny lose his marbles is the highlight of my week and as long as it’s not directed at me, i have a great time,” she muses with a smile as she takes a sip of her coffee. reaching for the paper, she rips a corner of the page and crumples it into a ball to flick at his face. “that was clearly sarcasm. you’ve taken too many hits to the head, buddy.”

“if you don’t say it then we’ll keep doing this forever.” he inquires, bringing a hand to her wrist, his thumb rubbing her skin. “i want nothing more than to taste you again, but i can’t do it without knowing you want me to.” his eyes flicker up and down her person. “you are the only one who can open the door to this again.”

antonia draws her lower lip between her teeth as his touch finds its way to her skin. she’s trying her best to look unbothered, but it’s close to impossible when she feels the warmth of his fingers against her wrist. “you know,” she breathes, her voice low as if there’s someone close who could hear them in spite of the fact that they’re likely the only ones around for miles. old affair habits die hard. “you know that i want you to...”