Bobby and Adrienne - Skating Lesson

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Thursday

Bobby takes Adrienne skating, where spills and chills ensue.

 "It isn't any more difficult to walk in these than it is wearing heels," Adrienne mused cheerfully. To demonstrate, she took a few steps around the dressing room of the Salem Center Community Club's indoor ice rink, walking heel-toe on the pristine white figure skates she'd recently purchased.


Bobby smiled warmly back at her as he stretched his arms into the air. "Couldn't tell you about walking in heels, but I've seen plenty less graceful in heels. Take Terry. There's only so many times you can laugh at your wife falling down while wearing skates before they get a little upset." The smile widened at the mention of his wife. He was already taking in the raised eyebrows and quizzical looks at the man going to an ice rink wearing a t-shirt and jeans. But after all, he should be comfortable, this was his domain after all.


"You laugh at me, I cut you with one of these blades," Adrienne threatened, giving him a glare. She began to make her way out of the dressing room and down the short corridor to the ice surface. With the weather improving, there weren't many people at Free Skate this afternoon, for which Adrienne was grateful. "Or maybe I'll stab you with one of these pick things," she amended, and then tripped on a bit of upraised matting and stumbled, grabbing onto the boards to keep herself from falling on her ass.
Bobby bit his lower lip to stop himself from laughing, but quickly glided along the ice behind her, pulling to a stop a few inches in front of her face. "Do I need to freeze you a few bumpers around the side of the rink." His devilish smirk pulled at the corners of his lips, but he couldn't help himself.


"What's a bumper?" Adrienne asked, watching as he skated around the ice. She had approached the door to the boards and paused in front of the glassy surface of the ice, suddenly a little nervous. Tentatively, she placed a skate on the ice, then the other, standing without moving another muscle as if worried that the slightest shift in weight would cause her to slip. "Okay, got the standing part down," she announced proudly. "What do I do now, to do the actual skating part?"
Bobby chuckled to himself again. "You had to buy new skates. Couldn't buy them from like a second hand shop of some figure skating champion." As his laugh died down, he tried to think how to explain how to skate. It had always come so naturally for him that he really had th think about it. "Ok, now what I want you to do is take your right foot, and push it down, and out towards the board. Like, well like your trying to kick yourself away from it."


"Now, Bobby, do you really think I'm naive enough to think that buying skates off some figure skating champion would make me as good as them?" she questioned, snorting. Adrienne did as instructed, pushing down and out towards the boards, but all she managed to do was scrape the blade of the skate across the ice, creating ice shavings that gathered up at the side of her skate, while she remained in the same spot. Well, except now her legs were very far apart and she was losing her balance. She fell backwards onto her tailbone, cursing loudly as pain shot up her spine. "I'd like to kick myself away from it right about now," she grumbled. "...Kick myself away from you right about now, too."
Bobby hit his own hand against his forehead. He wasn't quite sure if it was because he didn't know how to help Adri learn how to, or if it was more to stop himself from laughing and making the situation worse. "But if you skated away from me, how would you ever get back up." His warm smile returned, Bobby reached his hand down towards her, making a conscious effort to make sure it was warm enough for her to grab as the homeostasis of the rink had already begun to lower his body temperature.


"Details, details," she grumbled, taking the offered hand and rubbing at her not-wet ass. "I don't think this pushing down and out thing is working." Adrienne frowned up at him. "It's a good thing you've got a steady job as a teacher and X-Man, because I don't know about your future as a skating instructor," she smirked, taking a few tiny, walking steps around the ice, figuring that walking even without the gliding part was better than pushing out and down and falling.
"Yeah, I can see that." Bobby glided along side of her, not taking much time to regain the lead from Adri as in his mine she looked like a wobbly toddler just learning how to walk. "But how about this. Do you want me to at least pull you for a bit, so you can see how it feels, then you can find your own technique." He snorted again at his unseen joke. "At least one that doesn't end up with you on the ground... or looking like you're just remembering how to use your legs."


Adrienne shot him a death look. "Har, har," she muttered. "You know, the student can only be as good as the teacher." She did think that being pulled might be a good idea, however, so she held out her hands to Bobby. "Did you learn how to skate growing up in Boston?" she inquired conversationally.
Drake pulled himself around and began pushing on the inseams of his skates to move backwards. He reached out slowly and grabbed onto Adri's hands, gently pulling her into motion before checking over his back shoulder that he wasn't going to run something over. "Yeah. During the winter there, everything's pretty much frozen over, and without the Sox or my baseball team I had to find something to keep me out of trouble. It ended up being hockey for me."


"I grew up in Boston," Adrienne grinned. She didn't need to know about how frozen things could get there in the winter. "I just had very little interest in using frozen glassy surfaces out in the bitter cold to keep myself out of trouble, so I never learned. But since I'm dating a Canadian I thought it might impress him if I learn," she added with another smirk, wobbling a little as she worked to keep herself balanced as Bobby pulled her around the rink.
"Does that mean that I have to learn how to throw giant logs around to impress my wife?" He grinned back at her as he let himself turn the corner of the rink. "Just relax a second. I promise I won't let you fall. You just need to learn the feeling of the ice underneath you."


"And drink thirty pints of Guinness in one night, sleep for three hours, go to work, then do it all over again the next night," Adrienne nodded emphatically. She became suddenly nervous when he told her to relax. "Uhh... why? What are you gonna do?"

"I'm thinking about throwing you up in the air, twirling a few times and catching you. Didn't you see the Olympics." Bobby skated in closer to Adrienne, hoping that the twitches at the corners of his mouth didn't give away that he was simply jesting. "Ready?"



"Okay!" Adrienne replied excitedly, calling his bluff, "yeah, I'm ready!"
Bobby actually considered it for a second before falling back and pulling at her arms again, jingling them slightly up and down in the process. "I'm just trying to get you loosened up. It's one of the biggest mistakes first time skaters make. If you tense your legs up, you won't be able to glide. No gliding, no moving."


Looking down at her legs, which were indeed locked stiff with nervousness, Adrienne blew out an annoyed breath. She forced herself to loosen up, bending at the knees slightly, immediately feeling her centre of gravity improve. "Huh. Good advice, Teach," she smiled. "I think I may need to learn how to make myself glide instead of just doing the gliding from you pulling me before I sign up for the Olympics, though, huh?"
"I see you more as a biathlon person than a skater anyway. Something about skiing and guns just screams Adri." He made sure that they were going at a good speed again, and that Adrienne wasn't about to tip over before proceeding. "Now, you think you're ready to see if you can go it alone for a bit?"


"Yes. I want to go it alone so I can catch up to you and pummel you for that crack about skiing and guns." There was no way she wanted to learn how to ski- skating was hard enough!
"Alright, just keep relaxed..." Bobby let go of her hands, but kept his arms separated and around the outline of her torso. He kept darting his eyes up and down trying to notice any signs of a wobble. If he let her fall again, he knew that a phone call would be coming. And when Terry was mad, her accent became much less adorable.


"I'm as relaxed as I'm getting," she assured him under her breath, concentrating hard on maintaining her balance. "To be any more relaxed I'd need a bottle of pinot noir, a bathrobe, and Garrison Kane handcuffed to my bed. So is this where the pushing down and out like trying to kick the skate away from me part comes in?" Now that she had some forward momentum it seemed like it might work?

"Yeah, at least I hope." Bobby tried to match her speed as best he could without blocking her path. But at the same time, he was beginning to feel the molecules in the air, in case he needed to form a soft pile of snow for her to fall into. "But I'd be willing to focus on anything to get my mind off of Garrison wearing fuzzy handcuffs." He knew she hadn't used the word 'fuzzy' in her description, but he couldn't help but let it jump into his head.

Adrienne snorted at the image of Kane wearing anything fuzzy and pushed her right skate down and away from her body. She was propelled forward, wobbling but retaining her balance, and followed with the left skate, pleased when she moved forward a little faster and still kept to her feet. "Hey! I think I've got the hang-" With an audible 'whump' she ended up on her ass again, growling in frustration as pain shot up her back once more. At least Bobby had given her a pile of snow to land on so this fall didn't jar her as much as the first one had. "I think Olympic skating may have to survive without me," she muttered wryly.


"It's possible, but I always saw you more as a summer games person anyway." With a large grin, Drake reached his hand down again, hoping that his snow was enough to insure his safety for the next few days at least.