xp_logs | Amara and Bobby | You're Hot and You're Cold

Backdated. Bobby and Amara meet at his make shift ice rink, and they discuss power interactions.

Even though it was the middle of the summer, Bobby's mind had been thinking about hockey today, so he decided to make a mini rink outside for himself. It wasn't very big, just large enough for him to put a hockey net on one end and to skate in a small circle in front of it, and that's exactly what he was doing now.

There were a few pucks on the ice sheet, and he stickhandled one of them, flipping it back and forth before wristing it hard into the open net.

"He shoots he scooooores, and the crowd goes wild!" Bobby put his hands over his head and waved to his imaginary crowd, mimicking the sound of them cheering as he skated around the net and retrieved the puck.

"There is no crowd."

Amara's eyes had been wide as she watched the teenage boy skate around. She'd never seen anyone do anything like that, from the ice to the stick and puck. She understood enough about sports to recognise that getting something in the net meant he had scored, but it did not seem to be much of an achievement given there was no opponent.

Her eyes had narrowed when he had exclaimed his brilliance, and she couldn't help but point out the falsity in his words. How ridiculous.

Bobby turned around to face the sound of the voice, frowning when he didn't recognize who it was. He skated over to the end of his little rink and came to a stop, then leaned on his stick as he looked at her.

"Well, there's a crowd of one here now, technically." He paused and thought for a second. "Ok, one's not a crowd, but still. You know. Words." he added with a shrug. "You must be new here I take it?"

"Yes, I arrived very recently." Amara paused, her gaze looking over the boy and his setup once more. "What is it that you are doing?"

"Being awesome," he quipped, pushing backwards with his skates and reaching for a pick with his stick. "but technically this is hockey. Which is also awesome, but not as awesome as me."

"Neither of which is inspiring awe in me, so I would dispute your claim." Amara folded her arms across her chest. "Hockey seems very easy."

"When you're as awesome as me, yeah, it really is." Bobby replied, choosing to ignore her dispute of his claim. "Wait, does 'seems' mean you've never played it? Or seen it before? Dude, can you even skate?!" The idea of someone not knowing about hockey was breaking his fragile little mind.

Amara stiffened even more, the frown on her face deepening even more at Bobby's words.

"No, I have never heard of hockey before. Nor have I "skated" before. It is not something that is played in Brazil. Our climate does not lend itself to sports played on ice."

"Oh. that sucks, I'm sorry." In his mind Brazil must have had a pretty crappy climate if you can't even play hockey there, wow. "What do you play then?" She had to play something because everyone played something, right?

"I am well versed in a variety of athletic disciplines, as well as futebol, of course." She pursed her lips, biting back a rude comment about the American soccer team. Now wasn't really the time for that.

"Fut... oh, football." Bobby said, taking another shot at the empty net. "Football's ok, not my favourite but the Superbowl's usually pretty fun. The ads are always awesome for sure." It was entertaining to watch even if you didn't follow the sport, he thought. "If you want to toss around the ol' pigskin sometime, let me know. Heck, if you wanna learn how to skate I can help with that too."

"... I do not know what you are talking about. You kick the ball in futebol, you do not throw a pig skin." She looked over the ice again. "I am not sure I should try to skate. I may melt the ice."

"Nah, I bet I could keep it nice and cool, no prob. It's what I do, after all." He waved a hand and left a trail of snowflakes in his wake with a little flourish, showing off just a wee bit. "Wait, do you, like, make salt or something?" Salt melted ice, right? "You'd need skates anyway, but if you get some I bet it'd be just fine."

"I have demonstrated the ability to turn into fire. Which could be problematic for your ice." Amara smiled, uncrossing her arms and clasping her hands behind her. "But if you wanted to test it out..."

"Sure, that'll be awesome!" Bobby said with a grin. "The coolest guy around with the hottest girl around? What could possibly go wrong, am I right?" Probably a lot and he hadn't really thought that through before saying it aloud but he said it anyway, which was pretty much Bobby's life in a nutshell.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Amara replied with a wink. She glanced down at what she was wearing, a dress that her mother had bought for her. "But I am rather attached to this dress, so perhaps it should wait until a training session."

"Hah, yeah, I- wait, what?" He wasn't used to hearing that. Bobby followed her gaze down and then back up again and blinked. "Uh, yeah, maybe wait until then. Ok, sure." That probably was for the best after all. He leaned on his hockey stick, which slipped on the ice a bit and he had to catch himself before he fell over. "Training, totally."

Amara bit her lower lip, doing her best not to laugh at Bobby's flustered response to her comment.

"But for now, perhaps you could teach me the basics of skating. I will do my best to be not too hot."