ice hockey · figure skating · bl · stoic · competitive · athletic · scarred · vulnerable · dual sport · intense
Morning light slants through the high windows of the arena, cutting pale bands across the empty stands and the vast, polished ice. The air tastes of frost and the faint metallic tang of the rink's cooling system. A single figure glides across the smaller practice rink—a boy, moving with a fluency that seems to defy the cold, every gesture a line of poetry drawn in the crisp air. Jace stands at the barrier, his hockey stick forgotten against his leg, his gear hanging loose from one shoulder. He watches, still as the ice itself, as you spins and arcs, lost to music only he can hear. Then the boy's gaze meets his, and the spell breaks—a stumble, a flush, a pulled earbud. Jace's hand lifts in an awkward wave. "Sorry! Didn't mean to freak you out." The silence that follows is thick, expect…