Ice skating/hockey AU
prompt: One is a hockey player and the other a figure skater fighting over who has the ice rink for the afternoon.
wordcount: 4265
characters: Naomi and Savvy mainly
Naomi didn’t like hockey. It was too violent, too loud, and the hockey practice always screwed up the ice. Which wouldn’t matter, except they always went on the ice right after the Zamboni, and played for 30 minutes before lugging off, leaving the ice broken and bumpy. Naomi had a class to take at 3, and if she waited until the Zamboni ran again, then there was no way she would make it on time.
She had tried to get to the rink earlier, but the hockey players were always there. Naomi quickly learned that they didn’t even compete. It was just a group of friends playing hockey for fun. Which only made Naomi madder. And it wasn’t like they had any place to go anyway, because while she was skating on the bumpy, wrecked ice, she saw most of the players sitting at the coffee shop, and one of them sitting in the bleachers, watching as she tried to skate out her performance.
Which would be a lot easier if the ice hadn’t been screwed up and if she had had time to stay longer.
After a particularly bad fall, (which would definitely bruise, damn it), Naomi skated off the ice only to find that the hockey player who was sitting on the bleachers was laughing. At her!
“What are you laughing about?” Naomi snapped, walking over towards the bleachers.
“Me? Oh, I just thought that figure skaters were supposed to be graceful.”
“I used to be, before you and your friends started screwing up the ice before I practiced.”
“Really now?” The hockey player challenged, grinning. “I’d like to see that.”
Naomi frowned, not appreciating the fact that the hockey player obviously didn’t think that she was capable of doing well. On the other hand, maybe it was a chance to switch times with the hockey team. “Well, if you let me practice before you start playing hockey, then sure. You could see that.”
“Alright, deal. Tomorrow then, 2 o’clock. I’ll tell the guys that practice is at 2:30 instead. But I’ll be here to watch you wipe out again.”
“I won’t fall!” Naomi huffed. “But fine. Tomorrow at two. Thanks.”
“See you then, Toe Pick!” She said as Naomi turned away to take off her skates and change so she still had time to get to class.
The next day, Naomi was at the rink, lacing up her skates at 1:50 while the Zamboni smoothed the ice. She hadn’t seen the hockey player yet, but the rest of the team definitely wasn’t there. She would have heard them by now, at the very least.
As Naomi was standing up, walking over to the rink wall to watch the Zamboni run, she heard a voice call out, “Hey, Toe Pick! You ready?”
“Are you calling me ‘Toe Pick’?” Naomi asked, turning to look at the other girl, who looked different without her hockey pads on.
The hockey player shrugged, grinning. “Yeah. I thought it worked, seeing you’re a figure skater and all.”
“Should I call you Hockey Stick then?” Naomi snorted, rolling her eyes.
“Nah. Savvy works just fine. Besides, then I’d have to fight Derek for his stupid nickname.”
“Then don’t call me ‘Toe Pick’. My name’s Naomi.”
“Great. Well, show me what you’ve got, Naomi.” Savvy sneered, gesturing to the ice. The Zamboni was gone, which only left fresh, unskated on ice. Naomi smiled as she took off her blade guards and stepped onto the ice, twirling to face Savvy.
“Just watch.” She snapped, before skating over to the wall to put her music on the speaker. As it begun to play, she skated to the center of the ice, giving Savvy one last look before closing her eyes and taking her beginning pose.
She skated beautifully, albeit not flawlessly. She fumbled a few of her harder moves and nearly fell landing a jump. But as the song came to an end, she skated smoothly to the middle and looked up towards the hockey player, who had moved to the bleachers to watch. “Way to go, Toe Pick!” Savvy shouted, standing up on the bleachers. “Guess you are pretty impressive!”
“Told you!” Naomi shouted back, skating towards the door after grabbing her stuff. “There you go, I showed you that I can actually skate. Provided there aren’t giant gashes in the ice.”
“What, you want me to switch you from now on? As good of a skater you are, I can’t do that.”
“Why not? It’s not like you have anywhere to go at 3! You all sit up in the coffee shop!”
“Well we have to have post-practice hang out before Derek and Sam have to go.”
“Come on!” Naomi groaned, sitting down on the bleachers with frustration and pulling off her skates. “You can hang out later, can’t you? Or before your practice?”
“It’s not up to me anyway.” Savvy countered, as she laced up her own skates. “Sam sets everything up.” She looked at Naomi for a moment before getting up and saying, “But maybe I can work something out. Stay there.” She grinned, then walked over to the counter where you could get rental skates, and then came back with a pair of hockey skates in Naomi’s size. “Put them on, I’ll show you a real sport.”
“I’m not playing hockey!”
“Come on. You want the ice, don’t you? Just one-on-one. I’ll grab Claire’s gear from her locker, she won’t mind, and they should fit. But seriously, put those skates on, Toe Pick!”
Naomi found herself standing on the ice uncertainly, the difference in skates uncomfortable and making her feel unbalanced. But she wasn’t going to let Savvy know that, so she refused to stand near a wall or next to the goal that Savvy had set up.
Savvy had given the figure skater a helmet and a hockey stick, saying, “You don’t need pads or anything, I’m not going to rough you up. Besides, you take harder falls in your little dancing skirt.” Then she had proceeded to skate across the rink with ease and turn to face Naomi, who felt stupid wearing her figure skating practice outfit and a hockey helmet.
“Why are we doing this again?”
“Because it’s fun!” Savvy exclaimed, dropping a puck on the ice from her pocket. “You might be able to convince the guys to switch times too!”
“I don’t know how to play hockey!” Naomi protested, trying to adjust her stance to see if it was easier on her ankles. “These skates suck!”
Savvy laughed and shrugged. “They only suck because they’re rentals. And hockey isn’t that hard. I’m gonna go easy on you too. Just hit the puck with the stick.” Then she hit the puck across the ice, towards Naomi. In an effort not to look stupid, Naomi tried to skate towards where the puck was ending up, but only ended up hitting the ice too early with the stick, and toppling over. Savvy skated over, cracking up. “Oh, this is golden. You can’t even skate in those!”
“They don’t fit right!” Naomi muttered, pushing herself off of the ice and pushing the hockey stick away and taking the helmet off. “And these are just weird.”
“So are you admitting that hockey is harder than figure skating?”
“Is that what this about?” Naomi asked, looking annoyed. “Because no, I don’t. I’m just not used to the skates. Let me try again.” She wasn’t really one to back down from a fight. Savvy smiled at her as Naomi put the helmet back on and picked up the hockey stick.
The rest of the hockey team ended up using half of the ice to practice, one of the guys snorting at Savvy and Naomi as the latter stumbled around the ice, hockey stick in hand, and Savvy skated backwards around her as she dribbled the puck towards the goal.
“Getting the hang of it yet, Toe Pick?” Savvy teased, and Naomi made an annoyed face as she missed the goal once more. “Or are you admitting your defeat?”
“Fine. I’m not that good at hockey.”
Savvy snorted. “Yeah, I’d say. But you are getting the hang of it. You should have seen Lise on her first day. Face planted the second she stepped onto the ice. And I’m still not entirely sure that Claire can actually skate in a straight line. Sam and Ami are pretty good, but they’ve been playing forever. Derek falls a lot.”
Naomi was a bit confused now, because Savvy had gone from teasing her to making her feel better. “What about you? Are you flawless?” She snipped, and Savvy laughed.
“I’d like to say that I am, but I know it’s not true. I’m terrible at goalie.” Naomi rolled her eyes, then skated over towards the edge of the rink to take a break and to watch the rest of the hockey team play. They were a pretty ragtag team, just having enough players to have a complete team. Elise was a tall girl, she played goalie, though she did fall a lot when she left the goalie’s box. The defense players were Claire and Derek, Savvy pointed out to her. Savvy played forward, along with Amelia and Sam. “We usually play 3 on 3.” Savvy said. “So we usually all switch what we play. But it’s usually Lise, Derek and me against Claire, Ami and Sam. What position we play switches.”
“Huh.” Naomi said, watching as the 5 players on the team played a game. It looked like 3 on 2, but Naomi wasn’t sure. “I usually just skate.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Doesn’t it get boring though?”
“Boring?” Naomi shook her head. “No. Never. It’s amazing.”
Savvy shrugged. “I dunno, I think it would be boring, just doing the same thing over and over, all alone.”
“It doesn’t. And not everyone skates alone. I just never found a good partner to skate doubles with.”
Savvy hummed, looking back up towards the game being played on half of the ice. “Hey, I’ll be right back. I’m going to figure something out.” She said, smiling at Naomi before skating into the game, stealing the puck away with a laugh and then spinning around and stopping in front of Sam. She said a few things, and he said something back, and then proceeded to look really annoyed before nodding. Savvy grinned, punched him in the shoulder and then hugged him, before skating back over to Naomi. “I’m awesome.”
“Really now?” Naomi said with a roll of her eyes, and Savvy made a face back at her.
“Really. Sam said you can have the rink first every other day. A compromise. But… You should join the hockey team.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because it’s fun, and you’re cool, and I want to hang out with you?” Savvy shrugged. “No, really, I think you should. And, in exchange, I’ll learn to figure skate and I’ll skate doubles.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, why not?” Savvy smiled. “I’m sure I’ll suck, but I’ll get better.”
“Well, usually doubles are a man and a woman.”
“Well that’s stupid. I’ll do doubles with you.” She grinned. “Is it a deal?”
“Fine.” Naomi said, smiling a bit. “It’s a deal.”
“No, Savvy, just spin!”
“It’s hard!”
“It’s not that hard!” Naomi shouted, watching the other girl struggle with the skates. “Just cross your feet and turn.”
“It would be easier if there weren’t these stupid toe picks! What are these even good for?”
“They’ll be helpful later.” She frowned as she watched Savvy wipe out again.
“Ugh, this is hopeless.” The hockey player groaned, rolling onto her back on the ice and tilting her head to see Naomi. “How the hell do you do this?”
“Practice.”
“Right. You’d think that I’d be fine in these skates, but man, they suck!”
“Rentals.”
“Yeah, maybe that’s it.” Savvy hummed, standing up. “But seriously, I think figure skaters should probably wear helmets. This seems a bit dangerous.”
“I haven’t even started you on jumps yet.” Naomi grinned as she skated in front of Savvy, backwards. Then she picked up speed and leapt into the air, spinning around twice before landing.
“That wasn’t a jump.” Savvy protested. “That was a jump with a spin included.”
“Practice.” Naomi chimed, skating off the ice.
“Just hit the puck forward! It’s not hard!”
“It doesn’t go the way I want it to go.”
“Then you aren’t aiming right. Hold your stick differently.”
Naomi adjusted her grip on the hockey stick and then skated towards the puck, ready to hit it, but as she swung the stick, she lost balance and fell, hard.
“Jeez. You okay?”
“Yeah.” Naomi groaned stubbornly, standing back up. “I got this.”
“I know you do, Toe Pick.”
“Shut up.”
“There you go!”
“I did it!” Savvy cheered, raising her hands in the air in celebration. “Spins! They aren’t that hard.”
“Shut up, I saw you here practicing early.” Naomi teased. “But that’s a good start. Now we have to move onto one footed spins.”
“One footed?” The other girl groaned, looking exhausted. “Fuck.”
“You’ll get it.”
“So I need to hold the stick like this?” Naomi asked, and Savvy shook her head.
“No, a little lower. It gives you more control.”
“Like this?”
“No…” Savvy frowned and skated over to Naomi, standing behind her and putting her hands over the other girl’s, guiding them to the right spot. “More like this.”
“Oh.” Naomi said softly, her face growing warm. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Yeah.” Savvy replied. “Yeah. Uh, try now.” She skated away, passing the puck over to Naomi, who then hit it into the goal without a problem. Naomi’s face grew into a grin, and Savvy skated over to her, slamming into her with open arms, patting her on the back with a grin. “Dude, that was amazing! You’re amazing!”
Savvy grimaced as she started to head into the jump in the routine that she hadn’t managed to land yet. But she leapt up, spinning in the air and then landed on both feet, only stumbling a bit before turning to face Naomi. The other girl grinned. “You landed it!”
“It’s not good enough though.” Savvy groaned, pushing her hair back before skating back to try again.
Six attempts later she landed it smoothly, and then looked up at Naomi with a wide smile. “There you go.” Naomi said, skating over to her. “Next step is skating together.”
“Oh. Jeez.”
“Yep. Let’s get practicing.” Naomi grinned and skated away gracefully.
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you, Toe Pick. Together. Right.” Savvy muttered as she went to catch up with the other girl.
The next time they met up, this time to practice hockey, Naomi showed up at the rink and went to pick up her rental skates, but Savvy ran over to stop her. “Hey! You don’t need those today.” She said with a grin.
“What? Are we not playing?” Naomi asked and Savvy only grinned.
“Come on up to the coffee shop. The rest of the team’s up there already.”
“Uh,” Naomi said. “I don’t think I’m good enough to play with everyone else yet.”
“Come on. You’ve seen everyone else play. Besides, that’s not why. Just come on.” Savvy smiled and grabbed Naomi’s hand, leading her up the stairs and into the café that looked over the rink. Like Savvy said, the rest of the team was already up there, crammed into a booth and talking loudly. “Hey guys!” Savvy greeted them, and they all replied back.
“We finally meet the elusive Naomi. Figure skater extraordinaire.” Elise said. Naomi knew the team already from what Savvy had said and from watching them practice, but seeing them all without gear on was a bit strange. “Savvy talks about you a lot.”
Savvy punched Lise in the shoulder, and they squabbled light-heartedly for a moment. “Hi.” Naomi said, ignoring the small argument. “It’s nice to meet you all formally.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Derek said, giving Savvy a sly look.
“Are you going to give us our best player back?” Derek asked.
“Oh, you’re skating on thin ice there, Derek.” Savvy said, “I’m not best at all. Better than you, yes, but let’s be honest, Ami’s the MVP.”
“Hey!” Sam exclaimed. “I can beat all of you in one on one.”
Naomi giggled, watching them begin to argue over who was the better player, Amelia or Sam. When they finally just gave up on the silly argument, Savvy looked to Naomi and said, “Oh! I have something for you.” She grinned and then motioned to Claire, who then pulled a bag out from under the table. “Go ahead, open it!” She said excitedly, handing it over to Naomi.
“You got me a gift?” Naomi asked, and Savvy shrugged.
“It was the least I could do for you.”
“Thanks.” Naomi said, opening the bag and pulling out a jersey from inside. It matched the jerseys that the rest of the team had, light blue with dark printing on it, and on the back it said ‘Brooks’ and had the number 3 underneath it. “Wait, really?” The girl said, her smile growing as she looked at it.
“You’re part of the team already, you have been for a while now.” Elise said with a shrug. “We thought we’d make it more official.”
“I’ve never even played with you guys though.”
“You play with Savvy, that’s enough for us.” Derek replied.
“Let’s be honest, Naomi, you’re a key part of the team.” Savvy said with a smile. “And you’ve taught me tons. I chose the number three because of that insane triple axel you pull off flawlessly.”
“Wow. Thank you guys. Really.” Naomi said, looking at the jersey with a huge smile.
“Wait, that’s not everything!” Savvy said. “Look in the bag!”
“What?” Naomi said, looking down into the bag, and then pulled out a piece of paper that had a huge smiley face drawn on it, and underneath was scrawled, ‘Skates and gear!’ Naomi looked at it for a while before looking back up, confused. “What?”
“It’s means that you can go shopping with me and we’ll get you hockey skates and gear. So that way you can play without rental skates or borrowing someone else’s stuff.” At that, Naomi laughed. “What?” Savvy asked. “I’m being serious. I’m going to buy you the gear. Then you’ll have good fitting skates.”
“No, no, it’s not that… It’s just that-” Naomi grinned and reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope that had Savvy’s name written on it. “Well, I got you this.” She handed it to the other girl, and Savvy looked at Naomi funny for a moment before opening it.
“I owe you some real skates, tell me when you can go shopping.” Savvy read aloud. “Love, Naomi.”
Naomi flushed pink at that and Derek waggled his eyebrows at Savvy teasingly.
“Wow. Guess great minds think alike.” Savvy chuckled. “Thanks, Naomi.”
“Thanks.” Naomi replied.
They went shopping that same day, instead of practicing. Savvy had asked the rest of the team if they wanted to go, but Elise had polite declined, saying that they would give the two of them some room. Derek had chimed in that he didn’t want to feel like a third wheel either. Elise had kicked him under the table.
So they went to the skate shop, and spent a little while getting skates fitted for them, and then looking through the hockey gear and getting things for Naomi. Her own helmet, a hockey stick, and a mouth guard. Then, much to Savvy’s reluctance, Naomi dragged her over to the figure skating section and picked out a pair of tights for the other girl, before looking over skating outfits and making Savvy try some on.
She ended up with a dark blue dress, which Naomi said would look good with her own yellow one for when they skated together. Naomi also insisted that Savvy get blade guards for her new skates, and then they went to pay, each paying for each other’s stuff. They would have to come back to pick up their skates though.
“Oh, we’ll have to do a ton of basic stuff to break in the new skates.” Naomi said, frowning. “Which will put us off schedule a bit, but we should be able to manage.”
“Eh, schedule. Whatever. We can just meet another time that we’re both free.” Savvy said. “Or meet for longer.”
“Oh. Okay, yeah.” Naomi said with a smile. “Great.”
“Hey, you know, this is the first time we’ve hung out outside of the rink.”
“Oh, it is, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Savvy said, playing with her bags. “Uh, maybe we should do it more?”
“Go shopping?”
“No, I mean hang out, not in the rink.”
“Oh. Yeah. I’d like that.”
After they had gotten their new skates and broken them in, they started on choreographing the doubles performance. Naomi chose music from The Princess Bride, and Savvy had agreed, so they started working out the details, skating together roughly to the music.
Their timing was still off, and they weren’t in sync at all, but they were making progress. At least they weren’t running into each other.
The hockey team started to show up to watch them rehearse, and Naomi had started to play into the games with the rest of the team.
However, once they signed up for a competition, hockey went to the side as Savvy and Naomi set upon perfecting their routine. Savvy had finally gotten the hang of the lifts, and Naomi had gotten used to being lifted up into the air, which she had never done before either, having only skated singles before.
They started hanging out after they practiced too, sometimes going out to eat lunch, and sometimes heading back to one of their apartments to watch a movie or just hang out.
They kept practicing.
But then it was good. Maybe even great. It wasn’t perfect, they knew that, but they knew that it was hundreds of times better than when they had started it.
And they were good.
“Next up is Naomi Brooks and Savvannah Jones, skating their routine to the theme from ‘The Princess Bride.’ This is their first competition, so it will be interesting to see how they perform.” The announcer said, and the group of hockey players up in the stands all cheered. They were all wearing light blue hockey jerseys and holding signs that said, ‘Go Savvy! Go Naomi!’ and cheering as the two girls circled the rink, warming up.
Naomi had been right about the dark blue of Savvy’s dress complimenting her yellow one. As they skated towards the center of the rink, Naomi breathed in deeply, feeling the cold air fill her lungs. Savvy closed her eyes before looking up at Naomi and smiling. “We got this.” Naomi whispered, and Savvy nodded. Then their music started and the rink fell quiet.
They started simply, skating around each other delicately. Then Savvy got low, and Naomi spun ahead, before reaching her hand out and grabbing Savvy’s. They skated hand in hand for a while, Naomi backwards. Then Naomi leapt, and Savvy spun after her. She lifted Naomi up, and Naomi pointed her toe, grabbing the back of her skate before Savvy set her down and they separated, skating mirrored to each other with a series of low to high twirls and then ending with a double axel. As they skated back towards each other, Naomi spun low to the ground, and Savvy skated around her, and as Naomi stood back up, Savvy was facing her, grabbing her hand to stop her, and they ended like that, hand in hand.
The music faded out, the lights went down, and all that could be seen on the ice was the silhouettes of the two girls holding each other, pressed together in a kiss.
When the lights brightened again, both girls separated and then bowed, their faces warm. Their friends were cheering as loud as they could, their signs now flipped, showing drawings of hearts.
“It was about time!” Elise groaned as they left the rink, Naomi and Savvy both wearing 2nd place medals around their necks. “Jeez, it took long enough.”
“We had to get everything right.” Savvy said, and Elise rolled her eyes.
“I think everything’s been right since you laughed at Naomi wiping out on the ice.”
“Shut up, Lise.” Savvy muttered, blushing heavily. Naomi only grinned and reached out to grab Savvy’s hand.
The group of players wearing light blue jerseys cheered as they hit another puck into the goal, the team all skating in together as the buzzer indicating the end of the game sounded only seconds later. “The Ice Picks win the game!” The announcer declaired and they all cheered, Claire skating onto the ice to join the rest of the team after being switched out earlier.
“Hell yeah! We’re undefeated!” Savvy shouted, and Derek shook his head, scoffing.
“I don’t think it counts if it’s our only game, Sav.”
“Don’t tell me how to live my life! We won, we’ve never lost! Undefeated, right, Nai?”
“Sure.” Naomi grinned, pulling her helmet off. “Whatever you say.”
“Whatever you say.” Savvy mocked, pulling her helmet off too. “Well, what if I say I love you?” She said, leaning into the other girl.
“Well, I’d say that I love you back.” Naomi grinned, and the two fell into a kiss.