This One Time...

Lysandra snickered, getting an elbow in the side from Aedion. “You were like that once, too,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, and now I’ve adapted,” she said proudly, tossing her long braid over her shoulder. Her leopard print coat would’ve been tacky on anyone else, yet somehow Lysandra made it look chic. She was also in snow pants, but that was because she had Evangeline to keep up with.

Aelin pecked a kiss to her boyfriend’s lips with a smile. Rowan’s eyes crinkled as he smiled back, cheeks already rosy from the cold.

“Eugh, get a room,” her cousin groaned. Aelin threw a snowball at him, deliberately making sure to pack the snow nice and hard and tight, smacking him dead-square in the back. “Ow! You bi—rat!”

Before he could return fire, Aelin hid behind Rowan, using him as a human shield. She stood on her tiptoes, chin just barely past his shoulder, to stick her tongue out and blow a raspberry at Aedion. Without warning, her boyfriend ducked, allowing her cousin to hit her right in the chest. After that, they called a truce.

For now, at least.

“Traitor,” Aelin hissed under her breath as they strolled along the frozen river that became a bustling market in winter. Rowan squeezed her hand in apology.

All bundled up, people thankfully didn’t recognize her. Or if they did, they chose to be polite and not approach her. Orynth loved their women’s professional hockey team, especially their captain. Sometimes Aelin wished she wasn’t quite so famous in her hometown, or throughout Terrasen in general.

A group of teenage girls passed them as Rowan perused a stall selling ceramics. Eyeing a pretty vase, she leaned in to look at the price and balked.

“Excuse me,” came a girl’s voice, slightly timid. “Are you Aelin Galathynius?”

Aelin turned to see that group of teenage girls standing just outside the stall, huddled in a group like penguins as they waited for her reply. They squealed upon her confirmation. One girl asked for her jersey to be signed, which Aelin did gladly, after borrowing a marker off the shopkeeper. She crouched and they all piled up behind her to get in frame as Aelin held one girl’s phone up to take a selfie. Met with a chorus of “thank you!”s, Aelin waved them goodbye and returned to face her boyfriend. The look in his eyes was too soft for her liking, too full of the future.

Afterward, they ambled onward, hand in hand, just another happy couple enjoying the winter market.

———————————

Rowan could feel his girlfriend’s eyes as he laced up his skates. Attempted to, more like. “I’ve got it,” he grumbled, struggling to yank the waxed laces tight.

“Let me help you,” she said, already squatting. Aelin pulled off her gloves and shoved them in the pocket of her coat, making quick work of the stiff laces. “Good?”

Wiggling his foot back and forth, Rowan shrugged in confirmation. He stood, pitching forward and narrowly being saved from getting a faceful of snow and ice by his girlfriend. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the baby steps he took while clutching her hand made his face burn. And the fact that kids who barely came up to his knee could skate in circles around him made it even worse.

The “rink” was a large section of frozen river with the snow cleared away. Some people who wanted their own chunk of ice brought shovels and dug one out for themselves. Most were content to share the biggest one, treating it like a public rink.

With Aelin’s hands in his, Rowan tried to follow her voice. “Push, push, glide,” she repeated for what felt like the thousandth time in the last five minutes, pulling him along as she skated backwards. They slowed to a stop. “Remember, it’s a push, not a step. Use the inside edge of your blade to dig into the ice and propel yourself forward. And bend your knees. Always bend your knees.”

This was by no means his first skating lesson from his girlfriend, star of Orynth’s hockey scene. The city, the country, the whole damn world loved her. So did he, but sometimes he felt his love paled in comparison to their fervent adoration.

Push.

Push.

Glide.

“Almost!”

Rowan didn’t think the problem was with the teacher; she taught tons of little kids in the offseason. Maybe he was just meant to cheer her on from behind the glass. Maybe he wasn’t meant to have knives strapped to his feet.

Push.

Push.

Glide.

He glided. All of half-a-step’s length, but it was better than nothing. He did it again, going slightly farther this time. His motions were still stiff and stilted, not at all fluid or elegant like his girlfriend.

Aelin’s grin was so infectious that Rowan couldn’t help but catch it.

“If I fall, I’m taking you with me,” Rowan promised as she gently pushed him to glide farther, go faster.

His girlfriend’s turquoise eyes sparkled with something like mischief. “Only if I get to be on top,” she teased with a wink. Rowan blushed, embarrassment flooding hot into his face. Hopefully no one could see it, red as his cheeks already were. “Oh, relax. I’ll be right here the entire time.”

Aelin set a slow, easy pace to her skating, hands casually in the pockets of her coat. Rowan kept his out for balance, his confidence slowly growing with each lap. Without warning, she abandoned him, speed-skating around the edge of the rink and weaving through people with ease. She stopped just shy of crashing into him, a spray of snow flung onto his legs. Upon her return, Rowan grabbed her hand, keeping her with him.

It was then his skate hit a rough patch of ice and he went sprawling. Aelin’s arms pinwheeled before she couldn’t right herself and went down with him. Tailbone smarting and dignity in tatters, he turned to look at her. Aelin was biting back a smile, shoulders shaking as she tried to laugh silently.

“What?” Rowan glowered, trying to tamp down the feeling that she was laughing at him.

“I haven’t fallen that hard in years!” she eventually got out between peals of laughter. Clambering to her feet, she dragged Rowan up to his. “Ow,” she whined, brushing ice off her backside. “My butt is going to be so sore tomorrow.”

“You don’t say,” he deadpanned.

Aelin pulled him so close they were chest-to-chest, breath mingling in white clouds. “Kiss it better?”

“Aelin!”

“So I take it that’s a no?”

“What do you think?”

She held up her hands placatingly, though her smirk betrayed her. “Just checking.”

They made a couple more laps, just so Rowan didn’t end today’s skate on such a bad note as a fall. Finally, they agreed to go home. He was cold, damn near frozen to the bone. Aelin tossed their skates in the trunk, climbing into the driver’s seat. Rowan immediately turned the heat knob to its highest setting, ignoring the disapproving look he was getting.

At home, a boiling shower thawed him out the rest of the way. As he stood in the steam shivering, Aelin made them tea and a quick coffee cake. Rowan slipped into a clean pair of sweatpants and his warmest hoodie, snuggling up with his girlfriend on the couch and watching one of those silly holiday romcoms. Fleetfoot jumped up halfway through, a transgression they reluctantly allowed, and curled herself into a ball next to them.

On the verge of dozing off, he mumbled a sleepy “I love you” into her hair. He had fallen for her so hard, so deeply, that he battled the cold and froze his ass off as a testament to their love.

———————————

yes rowan is wearing one of those ridiculously ginormous red canada goose expedition parkas (he is also a wag)

unfortunately i am not immune to the heated rivalry hockey propaganda. howEVER imho the pwhl >>> nhl