In My Cold Arms

[frozen-with-a-capital-a]

lord-thunderpants:

Ezekiel awoke in a flurry of limbs and blankets, grasping out at the phantom memory. In a split second it was gone again. He was sweating too much for how hot it was and every passing second reminding him how much he needed a drink. But he wasn’t in his apartment anymore, with all his worldly comforts, this was training camp.

‘Stupid training camp,’ Ezekiel grumbled, ‘I need to cool off, there should be a lake or pond around here somewhere.’

Ezekiel pulled on some shorts and thew on a shirt (not that he wanted to wear one, it just fit the fashion) and ducked out he door. He doubled back because he forgot his watch.

Wandering through the woods it didn’t seem so bad, not that he needed the training, but it was good to hang out with other demi-gods every now and again.

‘The only thing this place is missing is a nice bar,’ he said as he neared the pond. Oh. Aria was here too. The pond’s was frozen over, with crystalline patterns webbed out across the surface. Not what he meant when he was thinking “cool off”.

‘Zeke, pleasure to see you, but why are you interrupting my skate?’

‘It’s a free country, I can do what I want,’ said Ezekiel, unclasping his top button. ‘I was coming for a dip in the pond, care to join me?’ Aria shot him a cold glance.

‘It’s not that cold.’ He braced himself for what was about to come.

Aria rolls her eyes. Her partner could be, what was the delicate way to put it... Forward? Sure. She was willing to go with that. At least unless a better adjective came to mind. “As much as I’d love the view, the pond is rather frozen at the moment,” Aria responds, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Sure, Zeke was easy on the eyes, but she had better things to do than feed his already inflated ego. “I’m afraid your swim would be a tad on the icy side. 

She made no mention of the fact that yes, she could easily pull the chill away from the ice, allowing the water to heat back to its natural temperature. Zeke would know all of that anyway. But that wasn’t the point. Aria quirks a half-smile, whipping up a cool wind to blow past the pair. The south-bound wind was charged with the chill of winter, a north wind, albeit out of season. 

“As you can see, the weather is hardly suitable for a swim,” Aria states, gesturing at the pond. “So, either find yourself a pair of skates, or come back another time.” Aria ties the laces of her skates together, throwing them over her shoulder. “Either that, or you probably should go back and work on your archery. I heard the last time you left your lesson without firing a single shot.”

It wasn’t that Aria took her training seriously. Not her demigod training at least. She was still holding onto the dream of being an Olympic figure skater, or ice dancer, or both. She trained year round, wherever she could find a suitable ice rink. Even if that meant making one. She hadn’t told anyone about that. She didn’t expect anyone to understand. She’d been skating since she was small. It was only fitting that she dream of wearing that gold medal.

[frozen-with-a-capital-a]

@lord-thunderpants

To say Aria wanted to do her training the day would be vastly inaccurate. She was sitting at the pond, freezing and unfreezing the water. Some people put their feet in the water, but Aria wasn’t some people. She’d much rather have the ice. She glances down at the skates next to her. Any other person would absolutely crazy to ice skate, outdoors, when there was no ice at all.

But then, Aria had always been able to make her own ice. She blows a stream of icy cold wind over the water, watching it crack and crystallise into ice. Smiling to herself, she pulls on her ice skates and skates across the make-shift rink. She’d always loved having skates on her feet, ever since she was a little girl. Growing up in Alaska, well, it wasn’t hard to come by ice rinks, either natural or otherwise. She’d gotten quite good over the years.

After some time skating, occasionally stopping to re-freeze the ice, Aria stops, having heard someone’s voice near her. She sighs softly. It was her partner, Zeke. He never did grasp the concept of ‘don’t bother me while I’m skating’. She skates to the edge, pulling the skates from her feet. “Zeke, pleasure to see you, but why are you interrupting my skate?

[frozen-with-a-capital-a]

[frozen-with-a-capital-a]

If I took it back, we'd be nowhere.

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