Hey girlie!! I was wondering if you would write a short prose piece on my url, tricksexual? I literally can't wait to see what you come up with, because everything that comes out of your fingertips is fantastic.
Life got a bit bananas, so apologies this is so late, @tricksexual. But it’s here! Happy New Year!
CW: strong language, thighs, and lots of pining
And it was the twist, the jackknife hip flex, a cymbal crash of knees and elbows pulling her up and over, hitting hands strong on the bend, heaving out and around. Momentum cast her from the bar, back and back below ankle bend to bounce, grab, push and pull herself up, arms loose and strong, eyes locked ahead, breath heaving.
“Fuuuck,” Laney breathed, skate bag slung over her shoulder, her white figures dangling from her fingers.
Gabriel, her pairs partner for the past eleven years, socked her in the shoulder.
Laney scoffed. “You can’t just talk to people, Gabe.”
Her eyes never left the gymnast as she flung herself between the bars.
“That’s illegal,” she muttered as the woman launched into an impossibly twisting dismount, thighs straining with a cleanly stuck landing, arms poised overhead. “Jesus.”
“What,” Gabe said over her shoulder, “are you feeling inadequate? Out-classed? Out-flipped?” He spun around to stand in front of her, interrupting her staring. “Has she seen our triple twist?”
“No, and she never will.” Laney glared at him, implying a threat she was all to happy to follow through on, but Gabe just smirked.
He tossed a glance over his shoulder at the small gaggle of gymnasts on the other side of the gym, watched one demonstrate a move with her hands to the woman who just finished her routine.
“Allison,” Laney said. “Parallel bars and balance beam.”
“For the love of God,” she cursed, and dragged Gabriel, now openly laughing at her blooming blush, out of the gym.
Neither of them stuck around long enough to see Allison watch them go.
Breathing heavy, legs shaking from her fifth double toe in a row (not under rotated this time, thank you very much), Laney dragged her hands across the back of her neck, rubbing her sore muscles. Off-ice training wasn’t her favorite, but it was necessary if she didn’t want to hurt herself more than the crash pads could protect her from. And if she wanted to nail her landings, but that was a given.
Halfway through her cool down routine, Laney looked up from her place on the floor to find Allison standing a few feet away, gym bag over her shoulder, one hand clutching the strap and the other shoved into the pocket of her sweatpants. A faded Carly Rae Jepsen concert tee covered the top of her sparkly purple leotard.
Laney, flat on her back with her left thigh nearly flush to her chest, sputtered out a surprised, “oh, hi.”
Allison smiled. “You’re a figure skater, right?” She shifted her weight, leaning on her right foot, and Laney was staring at her thighs oh my God please pay attention.
Brain finally catching up to what was going on, Laney switched legs and coughed. “Thanks. I mean,” she said, scrambling for something, anything to add to the conversation, “not as cool as bars, but we can’t all be super good at flips and stuff.”
“From what I’ve seen of your workouts, you’re pretty good at flips and stuff, too.”
A group of absolutely ripped high-ponytailed ladies called Allison’s name. She looked down at Laney, still flat on the floor, sweaty and flushed, and smiled.
“I gotta go. See you later?”
She had a perfect view as Allison walked away.
The next few days found Laney and Allison smiling and waving when they saw each other arrive at the gym.
It was hard for Allison to focus on her routine when at least three of her teammates made kissy faces at her whenever she mounted the balance beam. Not to mention the looks she got when they caught Laney looking from the open space where she and her pairs partner practiced their lifts. Jessica took it upon herself to elbow her every time Laney was at the leg press.
On Thursday, while Allison was going through her beam routine step by step, slow as she could manage, Laney and her partner arrived for their evening off-ice session with their coach. The moment Laney disappeared into the locker room, her partner jogged over.
“You’re the parallel bars girl, yeah?”
“You’re the figure skating boy,” she said.
She jumped and twisted sideways into a handstand, letting her legs fall into a split, calm and collected. It’s not that she was trying to show off, but.
“What’s up?” Her left hand floated up beside her hip, her right bearing the full weight of her body.
Gabe blinked and gathered himself with all the grace of a baby giraffe. “Uh, we’re at the rink tomorrow morning. At eight.”
Surprise wobbled Allison’s arm. She carefully lowered herself down, legs straight up, pressing her chest to the bar before swiveling to a sitting position.
“You should stop by,” he said, walking backwards toward the locker rooms. “If you’re free, and all.” Halfway across the gym he turned and called out, “I know someone who might be happy to see you.”
It only took a moment for one of Allison’s teammates to mime kissy faces at her intense blush. What she didn’t expect - but honestly, she really should have - was the enthusiastic shoulder punch retaliation from the frazzled gymnast, who was already thinking of which sweatpants to pair with tomorrow’s leotard.
When she walked down the hallway toward the rink, Allison wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Classical music, maybe, or something from a musical. Not Carly Rae.
They were in the middle of their routine, feet carving the ice, spinning dizzy in tandem before Gabe grabbed her arm and pulled her into a turn. He took her waist in his hands, she gripped his wrists, slid a leg down and back, and a twist, launching her into the air in a whirlwind before she hit down, dipping low, flinging her arms out to catch the wind and curl into the corner of the rink. Gabe matched her movements.
Allison could imagine the sequins, the flair of a skirt spiraling into a landing, the crash of metal on ice spraying snow at the stands. It didn’t take much.
It also didn’t take much to send Gabe tripping in a heap to the ground, blade catching on Laney’s and sending him tumbling, nearly taking her with him. They laughed, and Gabe flapped his arms, making a snow angel on his back in the center of the ice.
They both turned at the sound of excited clapping.
“That was amazing!” Allison called out into the cold.
Laney froze. Gabe threw a thumbs-up straight into the air.
“Thank you for your patronage,” he replied. “Laney, please greet our guest while I peel myself off the ice.”
“That was amazing,” Allison said again, quieter this time as Laney slid over to where she stood at the boards. “Is that your routine?”
“Program,” Laney said, the automatic correction slipping out before she could stop it. “Er, yeah. One of the two for this season. The longer one. It’s a, uh, work in progress.”
“He just threw you into the air. Like it was nothing.” Allison’s eyes dipped down to Laney’s skates before quickly flicking back up to her eyes.
“It took a lot of practice, believe me.”
“Rude,” Gabe yelled across the rink. He was skating slow figures in the far corner, black workout pants covered in snow.
Allison smiled and fiddled with the hem of her sweatshirt. “I like your music, too.”
“I mean, I saw your shirt.”
“Oh, yeah, I got it at one of her concerts. When she was in town for a show.”
“Give her your number,” Gabe yelled.
Both of them went ripe as tomatoes.
“You first,” Laney said, resisting the urge to cover her face with her hands.
“I’ll let you get back to practice. But you should definitely teach me some of those tricks. I’ve always wanted to learn.” And she handed Laney a slip of paper with ten numbers and her name.
“Yeah. Definitely. Whenever you want.”
“Great. Cool.” She just stood there for a moment, before mumbling, “have a good practice, bye.”
Gabe coasted up behind Laney, hands in his pockets.
“I’m so proud of you, you little disaster.”
Laney turned and pushed him backwards, sending him careening across the ice, laughing.
“If you drop me after all that I will murder you.”
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