More Than Skating Lessons chapters 1-3 of ?
Posted: Tue May 27, 2003 12:40 am
Title: More than skating lessons.
Author: Tira Yuy
Editor: West Wind
Mean Pairing:WufeixHilde
Background couple(s): in later chapters DuoxCatherine and some refrences to WufeixMarien.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters, this story idea came from Lady Pyro.
A/N: This fic is not AU, though if you view Ground Zero as cannon then this is AR. If you don't know what that means don't worry about it.
Also please post lots of comments.
-----
*L2 187 AC*
Jumping off of the last step on her school bus, Hilde began running to the ice skating rink.
She let out a shout of joy, "Yay!"
'No a shout of jubilation,' she thought as her smile grew enormous. 'Only three more blocks.'
She practically flew as her heart, filled with joy, led her feet down the street. Today was to be wonderful. "No, glorious!" this time she shouted her thought.
As she passed an elderly gentleman, he gave her one of those looks that said "children should be
seen and not heard." But, she didn't care! She was too happy as she remembered her Mother's words from the night before.
~Flash back~
"Why didn't you tell me how you felt?" Mrs. Nora Schbeiker asked of her 7 year old daughter.
Hilde just wiped at her runny nose with her sleeve and shrugged.
In truth, she had been afraid of how her mother would react.
"Come here, Hilde," Nora's voice was soft but firm.
Shuffling her feet Hilde slowly approached.
"Oh, Hilde." Wrapping Hilde into a loving embrace, Nora kissed the top of Hilde’s black hair.
Feeling safe and comforted in her mother's embrace, Hilde began to cry and hugged back.
"I'm sorry, Mama!" Hilde said between sobs, her little body shaking with each breath. "I know I
shouldn't have hit Suzzie."
"That's right, you shouldn't have hit her. Tomorrow you are going to see her before school to
apologize," she kindly instructed.
"Yes Ma'am," Hilde said with a hiccup as her crying tapered off.
With matching large blue eyes, Mother and daughter looked at each other. Pushing Hilde's shoulder
length hair back, Nora gave a lopsided smile. "I can't stop teaching other children to skate,
it's how I put food on the table." Squeezing Hilde's shoulders, she went on speaking softly, "but
perhaps I could make things better. How would you like it if from now on I taught only you of the
evenings?"
Hilde's eyes grew wide with hope, the tears starting to fade. "Do you mean it, Mamma? You'll give
me privet lessons?"
"Yes, Hilde, why I believe I was your age when my father taught me."
~end flash back~
As Hilde rounded the last corner she felt ashamed of herself for having grown jealous of her
mother's students.
'How foolish of me, she only works so she can put food in my mouth and take good care of me.'
Suzzie was usually nice, but had a habit of bragging a lot. Hilde was already in a frump over her
mom not going to her the school’s parent-teacher meeting, when Suzzie came up to her and began
showing off what Nora had taught her. In a flash Hilde had lost her temper and gave Suzzie a
shiner. Her first thought, after the unplanned] action, was her Grandfather would be proud at the
quickly bruising eye.
Then she thought how her mother would react and left to hide under her bed.
Today at school Hilde had seen Suzzie, the older girl was the center of attention as she showed
the other girls that she was wearing her mother’s makeup.
When Hilde went to say she was sorry, Suzzie gave her the cold shoulder. But during lunch,
Suzzie said she would forgive Hilde if Hilde promised not to tell anyone she was wearing makeup
to hide the bruise. Hilde agreed and everything was back to normal.
Everything that is except for the fact that Hilde had been extra antsy as she waited for school
to let out.
With the excitement of having her mother all to herself, Hilde had only barely thought of the
fact that most girls would go wild to have a chance to learn from a figure skating champion, like
her mother.
As Hilde pushed opened the door to the skating rink, she felt like singing. Once inside she
looked around, no one was in sight. She felt her stomach do a summersault as she listened and
didn't hear anyone.
'I'm just not use to being in here without a bunch of other kids shouting,' she thought in her
attempt to settle her uneassy stomach.
Keeping smile in place, Hilde ran over to the rink. "Mamma! I'm here!" she shouted.
There was no one on the rink, or answer to her her shout.
'It looks so.... large without anyone on it, almost lonely' she thought walking away and to the
back rooms where the lockers were.
"Hello?" Hilde called out as she opened the door.
"Hilde!" the female voice choked back a cry.
"Miss Valder?" Seeing the woman who worked with her mother, Hilde ran to her. "What's wrong,
where is Mamma?" she asked of the woman whose eyes were puffy from crying.
The young woman in her early twenties blinked back more tears as she pulled Hilde into her arms.
"I'm sorry..there was an accident.....she." Shaking her head Miss Valder lost speech all together.
"What.... she what?!"
The joy felt only seconds ago was fading into memory as fear gripped at Hilde's young heart.
A big, ruff hand landed on Hilde's shoulder, causing her to jump. Looking up she saw that it was
only her grandfather.
'He looks sadder than usual,' Hilde thought as she looked into the deep blue eyes that resembled
hers. 'He's been crying... grandfather never cries.'
Panic rising, she pushed Miss Valder's arms away. "Where's Mamma?" she demanded to know in a
shout. "Where is she?!"
Finally out of Miss Valder's arms she attacked her grandfather. "What accident?!"
The panic only rose higher and higher with each fist she tried punching her grandfather with.
Easily catching Hilde's small fist into his large callused hands, he pulled her to him.
"She's gone.. Died before knowing what happened," he said in his horse and gruff voice.
Shaking her head violently Hilde choked. Questions swirled around in her head how, where, Why!
But, only one of them could she slip out from her trimbling lips "What about my lessons?"
*Earth December 197*
Breathing in the cold air that "had enough bite to eat a man," as her dearly departed Grandfather
would have said, Hilde walked down the sloping hill.
It was her third day on Earth, and she had finally gathered her resolve to head out for a spot
where she knew a nature made skating rink would be.
The very first day of Hilde and Duo's vacation, Trowa had visited and told them of a spot where
it flooded in the fall and froze over by December. It was a favorite spot of his and Catherine's.
Huffing a little, Hilde watched her breath float like a cloud up into the sky. She couldn't even
remember how the subject had come up, it just had, and while Trowa and Duo moved onto the next
topic, Hilde's mind could not move pass the thought of a frozen over pond in the middle of the
woods. Just sitting out there all alone, waiting for someone to come skate on its smooth surface.
She had tried many activities to detour her mind from the beckoning ice and the memories it held,
but it had been no use. Memories of watching her Mother's graceful slim figure gliding across ice,
as she turned herself into a living work of art, would not leave her.
She had tried shopping as a distraction from her thoughts. While passing an eye catching window
showing off winter sports goods, she had spotted them. There in the window was the most beautiful
skates she had ever seen. Once again 6 years old begging her Mother, Grandfather, and whoever
else would listen to buy her skates like Suzzie Hatch's, an off and on childhood friend.
And so, here Hilde stood, half way to her destination with brand new figure skates over a
shoulder and heading for a self lesson on skating.
'Maybe it won't be so bad,' Hilde thought moving once again down the hill.
A glimmer of ice caught her eye. 'Sure I'll fall a few times, but who doesn't?'
But, that was not what really had her nerves jumbled up and wanting to run in the other direction.
Thoughts of Hilde’s mother were never far from her, but skating had been her mother’s passion.
When sitting in bleachers watching her mother move across the ice it was like getting a view of a
unique and lovely dance. Hilde had always craved the ability to mimic that dance, but with her
mother’s death it was just so painful to even look at ice.
Despite now knowing it wasn't her fault, ice skating was just too closely tied with her mother’s
death in her mind.
Trying to shake the melancholy thoughts, Hilde straightened her shoulders, her mother would want
her to learn to skate. Also, Hilde still had the desire to learn.
Just as she was getting close enough to see half of the pool, something dark blue zipped past.
"What... ?" she muttered and ducked behind a tree. Putting her arm against a branch, she leaned
her cheek onto it and tried to get a better look at what was doing all of the zipping.
As her eyes focused, she saw that it was a young man, about her age, wearing a navy blue snow
jacket. He had a hat on with his back to her, making it impossible to see his face.
His strong legs led him from one end of the giant ice cube to the other. There seemed to be no
point to his skating, just sort of racing back and forth and sometimes slowing down to do figure
eights and other shapes.
Intent in her watching, Hilde did not even hear the branch she was leaning on crack and then
brake sending her tumbling down.
Chapter Two
-------------------
Hearing a loud crack, Wufei only had time to look up before a tree branch and something only a
bit softer, sent him onto his back.
"Oh, I'm sorry," a voice mumbled into his ear.
Regaining his focus, Wufei found himself looking into large and startled eyes, the color of the
sky just after sunset.
'They even have a shimmer to them like the stars at dusk,' he thought as he felt the girl shift
to get off of him.
With the girl off, he struggled to get rid of the tree branch.
"Here I'll help."
Grabbing an end, she picked up part of it, allowing him to move from under it.
"I'm Hilde." Sticking out her hand she smiled; it was a rather sheepish smile, and he wasn't sure
if her cheeks were red from embarrassment or the cold. Shaking her gloved hand, he decided it was
a bit of both.
"Wufei," he replied simply.
She just stared inquisitively at him.
'What does she want me to say?' he wondered releasing her hand while hoping his irritation did
not show.
Grabbing part of the branch, Wufei moved it off of the ice so it would not be in the way of his
skating.
"You're not mad?" she asked his back, her voice though friendly held a tone to it that he knew if
he did not answer the question right meant he would have to deal with a defensive female.
He would have rather not answer, but that would mean having an angry female on his hands.
Wufei wanted her gone, but if he got her mad she mite stick around to pout.
"I've had worse happen to me." he settled on as an answer.
In truth, he was mad, not for having the wind knocked out of him for a minute or the branch that
had left a bruise that was already starting to throb on his face. But because of the fact that
someone had seen him. He valued his alone time and privacy, and this girl was intruding.
What was worse, she did not seem to be in any hurry to leave.
"I saw you skating, you're...Uhm, fast." She said politely.
She picked up a backpack from the ground that he had not even noticed until now.
She appeared to struggle with a thought for a while.
'What now?' he asked himself hoping it would not be -
"Would you mind if I skated here too?"
'But of course, it would be the one thing I didn't want,' he thought as he tried for a not too
hotty yes. Even though Sally was not around to point out any uncalled for rudeness, in the past
year Wufei had been trying to learn some better manners.
Looking at Hilde to give his answer, he found it was too late. She had spotted a log and had
started to take off hiking boots and trade them for ice skates, a rather fancy pair too.
Deciding it best to just ignore her and go on skating, he picked up his hat, put it back on, and
started skating again.
It was so refreshing, his exposed skin brushed by the cold air now turned light breeze. As he
sped back and forth, with no destination, just enjoying the feel of motion gave him a since of
freedom that he found lacking when in any other activity.
Here there were no rules, no attempts to please other people, no fighting with his own emotions
and thoughts. It was just him, his skates, the ice, and a scenery that shielded him from prying
eyes.
That's when he felt it. He just knew Hilde was watching him. And he did not like that one bit.
As he did a figure eight, he pictured her larger then life eyes tracing over him. Looking up to
see for himself how accurate the image was, he saw she was still sitting on the log, and unlike
the image in his head, she looked sad... and.... 'Scared?' he thought skating away. Turning to
skate backwards, he gazed at her.
She was now looking down at her skates, hands on either side of her holding onto the log for dear
life, and her shoulders hunched.
'Why would she be afraid of me?'
Sure Sally openly told him all the time that he was hard to approach, and he knew he could be
hard on others, but he did not think he had done anything to scare her.
'I can't skate like this,' he thought frustrated with her presence; but annoyed with himself for
doing whatever it was that had her so upset. He came here just to be away from others, and the
last thing he wanted was to try and comfort some girl because he startled her or some such
nonsense.
Turning to face away from her he tried to forget her existence.
The cold air was the same as before, but it was not having the same effect.
Instead of having his mind cleared of all worries and stress from work, his thoughts jumped back
and forth from the girl on the log and the chewing out Sally would give him if she were here.
'But if she were here Sally could take care of Hilde,' he thought as his frustration built up.
A year or so ago he would have shrugged Hilde‘s presence off or found some way to get rid of her,
but after becoming somewhat more sociable, he did not like being responsible for hurting someone.
As he fallowed the curve of the ice he found hisself heading back.
Hilde was still on the log, her shoulders shaking.
'Crying?' He wondered.
Why could he not just enjoy a day of skating? Shrugging he sped up a little to get back to her
faster, and get it over with.
Wufei ran through his mind all of their exchange and wondered what he had done. Not coming up
with anything, the girl's presence just become more of a nuisance.
Thinking back to how she had waited for something while he had moved the branch, he wondered if
she thought he was hurt.
"I'm not hurt," he said simply stopping in front of her.
Hilde looked up, with a blank face, tears making her eyes glisten.
'So that wasn't it,' Wufei thought feeling like kicking himself.
"I didn't think you were" Hilde informed him.
Skating away backwards, Wufei tried closing the matter gracefully. "You didn't look like you
believed me."
"Well I did," Hilde said back, a puzzled look on her face causing her to wrinkle her forehead
and squint her eyes.
"Then why aren't you skating?" Wufei inquired looking down at her skates already on her feet.
She shrugged, "I'm just not ready yet."
"You look ready to me, but too scared to try," Wufei said as another reason for her not skating
came to mind. Maybe she was too embarrassed to skate in front of him.
"You're not doing it right, so how would you know if I'm ready?!" Hilde's husky voice retorted
with a huff.
Moving to stand right in front of her, he tried to keep his temper under control. "What are you
talking about?" Wufei’s demand came out a bit more curtly than he intended it too. "I was never
told there's a right or wrong way to skate."
Hilde still sat on the log, but she was leaning forward with eyes flashing. "Your form, it's not
as smooth as it should be." She lifted her chin a little as though daring him to mock her again.
He didn't disappoint her.
"Then get off of your royal butt and show me how my form should be," Wufei's voice demanded.
~
Hilde stood up immediately ready to answer his challenge with all the grace of a queen. However,
she fell and landed on her butt.
'He's laughing at me!' Hilde thought as her temper rose at the sound of Wufei's chuckles.
'The... the buffoon!' she angrily got to her feet. 'He wouldn't know how to do a triple axle if
his life depended on it,' she thought ignoring the fact that the same could be said of her and
be true.
Just as she was getting to her feet, she lost her balance again, "Aaahhhh!"
"Not in my ear," Wufei said as he caught her and tried to help. "You can't even skate and were
trying to tell me my form was wrong." He did not even bother hiding his displeasure.
Feeling his warm breath on her cold cheek, Hilde gripped his arm.
"I was only repeating what Grandfather would have said," she defended herself rather lamely.
A memory, her gruff grandfather instructing hopeful teens while they worshipped her mother,
flickered across her mind as she leaned on Wufei's arm to regain her balance.
The unexpected movement of Wufei letting go and moving away startled her. Acting without thought,
her grip on his arm became stronger, and she tried moving towards him.
"Hey le-" she heard him say before both of them were sprawled on the ice. This time him on top of
her.
Chapter Three
--------------
*L5 190 AC*
"If you sit around all day reading, you'll have no muscles" Wufei's teacher informed him.
Twelve year old Wufei was disappointed. If there was one person in the whole clan that Wufei had
thought he could count on not pulling him away from his studies, he had thought it to be his
teacher Chang Chin.
Pulling the book out of Wufei's hands, Chin went on, "Go outside!" He waved Wufei out of his
seat.
"Yes, master Chang" Wufei said, keeping his voice low and respectful when what he really wanted
to do was grab his book back and find a more remote and quit place.
"You are my most faithful student, and I can't tell you how proud it makes me to have the future
head of this clan as such a good pupil." Placing his hand on Wufei's shoulder, Chin led the young
boy to the front exit of the school. "But, it is not healthy for one to sit all day. I would be
a dishonorable teacher if I were to selfishly keep you indoors reading my writing."
Wufei had to admit there was truth to those words. He had just read the other day the benefits of
exercise. But he'd still rather be reading his latest book on China's role in World War II, which
happened to have been written by his very honorable teacher.
"I hear that some of your fellow classmates have made a temporary skating rink, why don't you
join them?" Chin had put it in a form of a question, but Wufei knew it to be a command.
Bowing a farewell, Wufei said, "Yes, Master, I'll go now."
Pausing Wufei hoped that Chin would hand him back the book before he left.
"I'll see you in the morning," Chin said as a farewell.
Leaving without his book, Wufei headed for where he knew the other children to be.
Upon reaching the oddball rink, Wufei's ears were assaulted by the sound of children‘s laughter,
stomping on the ice, and the delighted shouts of the children trying to talk to each other over
the other sounds.
Wufei just stood with arms crossed and watched the children, one girl waved to him as she skated
pass him.
He knew who she was but did not wave back, Papa was very chatty and he knew if he showed any
sign of recognition she would come by to give him the latest gossip on every body.
Looking further in to the crowd he recognized some of the older children to be his cousins. It
was not surprising to see them here. They usually were drawn to fun or causing it, but he had
hoped to avoid Koun.
Koun looked up just then and, seeing Wufei only standing on the sidelines, skated right over.
"Why do you stand like a statue?" Koun asked with a grin that made Wufei want to smack it off.
"Doesn't our future leader wish to join the average people?" Koun asked before Wufei could
respond to the first question.
"I don't have skates," Wufei said hoping Koun would just go away, but no such luck.
With a mock bow Koun said, "Then take mine, cousin!"
"No," Wufei replied already knowing what Koun was up to.
"What? And have you miss out on all of this fun?" Koun asked waving to the rink and all the other
children on it.
Koun glided over to the center of the ice. The children parted along his path and moved to the
sides of the rink
"Do one of your tricks!" a little four year old girl shouted at Koun as she held on to her older
sister's hand.
'He doesn't need your encouragement,' Wufei thought with anger towards the girl.
With an exaggerated bow, Koun said back "As you wish!" and then zoomed on his skates.
Going as fast as he could in a circle, he waved with his left hand to get the other kids to cheer
louder.
Wufei wished the others would not encourage Koun's showing off.
Slowing down Koun skated closer to the center of the rink again then jumped backwards doing a
flip that ended with him landing perfectly on the blades of his skates. Doing the back flip two
more times, Koun then started skating backwards and waving at the others to clap louder.
The children were eager to comply. The racket of their shouts of "YAY KOUN!", the clapping of
their hands, and the stomping of their skates on ice was deafening to Wufei's ears.
While still moving backwards, Koun did three more back flips, stopping on the last one perfectly
in front of Wufei.
"I hope you took some pleasure in my pathetic tricks, Sir," Koun said in a tone that mocked his
own humbleness.
Ever since it had become known that Wufei was to be the next leader of the clan, Koun had been
immensely jealous and relentless in his picking and teasing of Wufei.
"For I'm sure you could do much better than I, who am so unworthy," Koun went on, knowing fully
that Wufei had never skated in his life.
Sitting down on the ice, Koun took off his skates in only a few moments.
'How hard could it be?' Wufei asked himself. 'If Koun can do it, so can I,' he decided with
determination.
All of the children were circled around where Wufei now sat putting on Koun's ice skates.
"That's Koun's cousin, Wufei," Papa whispered to another girl.
"To bad he didn't inherit Koun's good looks," the second girl whispered back.
Wufei angrily jerked on the second skate trying not to hear what the others were saying.
When he finally had the skates on and started to stand, Wufei heard a boy say, "This should be
good, they wouldn't have chosen Wufei if he wasn't good at something other than books."
Shoulders straight Wufei was more determined than ever to skate better then Koun.
Author: Tira Yuy
Editor: West Wind
Mean Pairing:WufeixHilde
Background couple(s): in later chapters DuoxCatherine and some refrences to WufeixMarien.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters, this story idea came from Lady Pyro.
A/N: This fic is not AU, though if you view Ground Zero as cannon then this is AR. If you don't know what that means don't worry about it.
Also please post lots of comments.
-----
*L2 187 AC*
Jumping off of the last step on her school bus, Hilde began running to the ice skating rink.
She let out a shout of joy, "Yay!"
'No a shout of jubilation,' she thought as her smile grew enormous. 'Only three more blocks.'
She practically flew as her heart, filled with joy, led her feet down the street. Today was to be wonderful. "No, glorious!" this time she shouted her thought.
As she passed an elderly gentleman, he gave her one of those looks that said "children should be
seen and not heard." But, she didn't care! She was too happy as she remembered her Mother's words from the night before.
~Flash back~
"Why didn't you tell me how you felt?" Mrs. Nora Schbeiker asked of her 7 year old daughter.
Hilde just wiped at her runny nose with her sleeve and shrugged.
In truth, she had been afraid of how her mother would react.
"Come here, Hilde," Nora's voice was soft but firm.
Shuffling her feet Hilde slowly approached.
"Oh, Hilde." Wrapping Hilde into a loving embrace, Nora kissed the top of Hilde’s black hair.
Feeling safe and comforted in her mother's embrace, Hilde began to cry and hugged back.
"I'm sorry, Mama!" Hilde said between sobs, her little body shaking with each breath. "I know I
shouldn't have hit Suzzie."
"That's right, you shouldn't have hit her. Tomorrow you are going to see her before school to
apologize," she kindly instructed.
"Yes Ma'am," Hilde said with a hiccup as her crying tapered off.
With matching large blue eyes, Mother and daughter looked at each other. Pushing Hilde's shoulder
length hair back, Nora gave a lopsided smile. "I can't stop teaching other children to skate,
it's how I put food on the table." Squeezing Hilde's shoulders, she went on speaking softly, "but
perhaps I could make things better. How would you like it if from now on I taught only you of the
evenings?"
Hilde's eyes grew wide with hope, the tears starting to fade. "Do you mean it, Mamma? You'll give
me privet lessons?"
"Yes, Hilde, why I believe I was your age when my father taught me."
~end flash back~
As Hilde rounded the last corner she felt ashamed of herself for having grown jealous of her
mother's students.
'How foolish of me, she only works so she can put food in my mouth and take good care of me.'
Suzzie was usually nice, but had a habit of bragging a lot. Hilde was already in a frump over her
mom not going to her the school’s parent-teacher meeting, when Suzzie came up to her and began
showing off what Nora had taught her. In a flash Hilde had lost her temper and gave Suzzie a
shiner. Her first thought, after the unplanned] action, was her Grandfather would be proud at the
quickly bruising eye.
Then she thought how her mother would react and left to hide under her bed.
Today at school Hilde had seen Suzzie, the older girl was the center of attention as she showed
the other girls that she was wearing her mother’s makeup.
When Hilde went to say she was sorry, Suzzie gave her the cold shoulder. But during lunch,
Suzzie said she would forgive Hilde if Hilde promised not to tell anyone she was wearing makeup
to hide the bruise. Hilde agreed and everything was back to normal.
Everything that is except for the fact that Hilde had been extra antsy as she waited for school
to let out.
With the excitement of having her mother all to herself, Hilde had only barely thought of the
fact that most girls would go wild to have a chance to learn from a figure skating champion, like
her mother.
As Hilde pushed opened the door to the skating rink, she felt like singing. Once inside she
looked around, no one was in sight. She felt her stomach do a summersault as she listened and
didn't hear anyone.
'I'm just not use to being in here without a bunch of other kids shouting,' she thought in her
attempt to settle her uneassy stomach.
Keeping smile in place, Hilde ran over to the rink. "Mamma! I'm here!" she shouted.
There was no one on the rink, or answer to her her shout.
'It looks so.... large without anyone on it, almost lonely' she thought walking away and to the
back rooms where the lockers were.
"Hello?" Hilde called out as she opened the door.
"Hilde!" the female voice choked back a cry.
"Miss Valder?" Seeing the woman who worked with her mother, Hilde ran to her. "What's wrong,
where is Mamma?" she asked of the woman whose eyes were puffy from crying.
The young woman in her early twenties blinked back more tears as she pulled Hilde into her arms.
"I'm sorry..there was an accident.....she." Shaking her head Miss Valder lost speech all together.
"What.... she what?!"
The joy felt only seconds ago was fading into memory as fear gripped at Hilde's young heart.
A big, ruff hand landed on Hilde's shoulder, causing her to jump. Looking up she saw that it was
only her grandfather.
'He looks sadder than usual,' Hilde thought as she looked into the deep blue eyes that resembled
hers. 'He's been crying... grandfather never cries.'
Panic rising, she pushed Miss Valder's arms away. "Where's Mamma?" she demanded to know in a
shout. "Where is she?!"
Finally out of Miss Valder's arms she attacked her grandfather. "What accident?!"
The panic only rose higher and higher with each fist she tried punching her grandfather with.
Easily catching Hilde's small fist into his large callused hands, he pulled her to him.
"She's gone.. Died before knowing what happened," he said in his horse and gruff voice.
Shaking her head violently Hilde choked. Questions swirled around in her head how, where, Why!
But, only one of them could she slip out from her trimbling lips "What about my lessons?"
*Earth December 197*
Breathing in the cold air that "had enough bite to eat a man," as her dearly departed Grandfather
would have said, Hilde walked down the sloping hill.
It was her third day on Earth, and she had finally gathered her resolve to head out for a spot
where she knew a nature made skating rink would be.
The very first day of Hilde and Duo's vacation, Trowa had visited and told them of a spot where
it flooded in the fall and froze over by December. It was a favorite spot of his and Catherine's.
Huffing a little, Hilde watched her breath float like a cloud up into the sky. She couldn't even
remember how the subject had come up, it just had, and while Trowa and Duo moved onto the next
topic, Hilde's mind could not move pass the thought of a frozen over pond in the middle of the
woods. Just sitting out there all alone, waiting for someone to come skate on its smooth surface.
She had tried many activities to detour her mind from the beckoning ice and the memories it held,
but it had been no use. Memories of watching her Mother's graceful slim figure gliding across ice,
as she turned herself into a living work of art, would not leave her.
She had tried shopping as a distraction from her thoughts. While passing an eye catching window
showing off winter sports goods, she had spotted them. There in the window was the most beautiful
skates she had ever seen. Once again 6 years old begging her Mother, Grandfather, and whoever
else would listen to buy her skates like Suzzie Hatch's, an off and on childhood friend.
And so, here Hilde stood, half way to her destination with brand new figure skates over a
shoulder and heading for a self lesson on skating.
'Maybe it won't be so bad,' Hilde thought moving once again down the hill.
A glimmer of ice caught her eye. 'Sure I'll fall a few times, but who doesn't?'
But, that was not what really had her nerves jumbled up and wanting to run in the other direction.
Thoughts of Hilde’s mother were never far from her, but skating had been her mother’s passion.
When sitting in bleachers watching her mother move across the ice it was like getting a view of a
unique and lovely dance. Hilde had always craved the ability to mimic that dance, but with her
mother’s death it was just so painful to even look at ice.
Despite now knowing it wasn't her fault, ice skating was just too closely tied with her mother’s
death in her mind.
Trying to shake the melancholy thoughts, Hilde straightened her shoulders, her mother would want
her to learn to skate. Also, Hilde still had the desire to learn.
Just as she was getting close enough to see half of the pool, something dark blue zipped past.
"What... ?" she muttered and ducked behind a tree. Putting her arm against a branch, she leaned
her cheek onto it and tried to get a better look at what was doing all of the zipping.
As her eyes focused, she saw that it was a young man, about her age, wearing a navy blue snow
jacket. He had a hat on with his back to her, making it impossible to see his face.
His strong legs led him from one end of the giant ice cube to the other. There seemed to be no
point to his skating, just sort of racing back and forth and sometimes slowing down to do figure
eights and other shapes.
Intent in her watching, Hilde did not even hear the branch she was leaning on crack and then
brake sending her tumbling down.
Chapter Two
-------------------
Hearing a loud crack, Wufei only had time to look up before a tree branch and something only a
bit softer, sent him onto his back.
"Oh, I'm sorry," a voice mumbled into his ear.
Regaining his focus, Wufei found himself looking into large and startled eyes, the color of the
sky just after sunset.
'They even have a shimmer to them like the stars at dusk,' he thought as he felt the girl shift
to get off of him.
With the girl off, he struggled to get rid of the tree branch.
"Here I'll help."
Grabbing an end, she picked up part of it, allowing him to move from under it.
"I'm Hilde." Sticking out her hand she smiled; it was a rather sheepish smile, and he wasn't sure
if her cheeks were red from embarrassment or the cold. Shaking her gloved hand, he decided it was
a bit of both.
"Wufei," he replied simply.
She just stared inquisitively at him.
'What does she want me to say?' he wondered releasing her hand while hoping his irritation did
not show.
Grabbing part of the branch, Wufei moved it off of the ice so it would not be in the way of his
skating.
"You're not mad?" she asked his back, her voice though friendly held a tone to it that he knew if
he did not answer the question right meant he would have to deal with a defensive female.
He would have rather not answer, but that would mean having an angry female on his hands.
Wufei wanted her gone, but if he got her mad she mite stick around to pout.
"I've had worse happen to me." he settled on as an answer.
In truth, he was mad, not for having the wind knocked out of him for a minute or the branch that
had left a bruise that was already starting to throb on his face. But because of the fact that
someone had seen him. He valued his alone time and privacy, and this girl was intruding.
What was worse, she did not seem to be in any hurry to leave.
"I saw you skating, you're...Uhm, fast." She said politely.
She picked up a backpack from the ground that he had not even noticed until now.
She appeared to struggle with a thought for a while.
'What now?' he asked himself hoping it would not be -
"Would you mind if I skated here too?"
'But of course, it would be the one thing I didn't want,' he thought as he tried for a not too
hotty yes. Even though Sally was not around to point out any uncalled for rudeness, in the past
year Wufei had been trying to learn some better manners.
Looking at Hilde to give his answer, he found it was too late. She had spotted a log and had
started to take off hiking boots and trade them for ice skates, a rather fancy pair too.
Deciding it best to just ignore her and go on skating, he picked up his hat, put it back on, and
started skating again.
It was so refreshing, his exposed skin brushed by the cold air now turned light breeze. As he
sped back and forth, with no destination, just enjoying the feel of motion gave him a since of
freedom that he found lacking when in any other activity.
Here there were no rules, no attempts to please other people, no fighting with his own emotions
and thoughts. It was just him, his skates, the ice, and a scenery that shielded him from prying
eyes.
That's when he felt it. He just knew Hilde was watching him. And he did not like that one bit.
As he did a figure eight, he pictured her larger then life eyes tracing over him. Looking up to
see for himself how accurate the image was, he saw she was still sitting on the log, and unlike
the image in his head, she looked sad... and.... 'Scared?' he thought skating away. Turning to
skate backwards, he gazed at her.
She was now looking down at her skates, hands on either side of her holding onto the log for dear
life, and her shoulders hunched.
'Why would she be afraid of me?'
Sure Sally openly told him all the time that he was hard to approach, and he knew he could be
hard on others, but he did not think he had done anything to scare her.
'I can't skate like this,' he thought frustrated with her presence; but annoyed with himself for
doing whatever it was that had her so upset. He came here just to be away from others, and the
last thing he wanted was to try and comfort some girl because he startled her or some such
nonsense.
Turning to face away from her he tried to forget her existence.
The cold air was the same as before, but it was not having the same effect.
Instead of having his mind cleared of all worries and stress from work, his thoughts jumped back
and forth from the girl on the log and the chewing out Sally would give him if she were here.
'But if she were here Sally could take care of Hilde,' he thought as his frustration built up.
A year or so ago he would have shrugged Hilde‘s presence off or found some way to get rid of her,
but after becoming somewhat more sociable, he did not like being responsible for hurting someone.
As he fallowed the curve of the ice he found hisself heading back.
Hilde was still on the log, her shoulders shaking.
'Crying?' He wondered.
Why could he not just enjoy a day of skating? Shrugging he sped up a little to get back to her
faster, and get it over with.
Wufei ran through his mind all of their exchange and wondered what he had done. Not coming up
with anything, the girl's presence just become more of a nuisance.
Thinking back to how she had waited for something while he had moved the branch, he wondered if
she thought he was hurt.
"I'm not hurt," he said simply stopping in front of her.
Hilde looked up, with a blank face, tears making her eyes glisten.
'So that wasn't it,' Wufei thought feeling like kicking himself.
"I didn't think you were" Hilde informed him.
Skating away backwards, Wufei tried closing the matter gracefully. "You didn't look like you
believed me."
"Well I did," Hilde said back, a puzzled look on her face causing her to wrinkle her forehead
and squint her eyes.
"Then why aren't you skating?" Wufei inquired looking down at her skates already on her feet.
She shrugged, "I'm just not ready yet."
"You look ready to me, but too scared to try," Wufei said as another reason for her not skating
came to mind. Maybe she was too embarrassed to skate in front of him.
"You're not doing it right, so how would you know if I'm ready?!" Hilde's husky voice retorted
with a huff.
Moving to stand right in front of her, he tried to keep his temper under control. "What are you
talking about?" Wufei’s demand came out a bit more curtly than he intended it too. "I was never
told there's a right or wrong way to skate."
Hilde still sat on the log, but she was leaning forward with eyes flashing. "Your form, it's not
as smooth as it should be." She lifted her chin a little as though daring him to mock her again.
He didn't disappoint her.
"Then get off of your royal butt and show me how my form should be," Wufei's voice demanded.
~
Hilde stood up immediately ready to answer his challenge with all the grace of a queen. However,
she fell and landed on her butt.
'He's laughing at me!' Hilde thought as her temper rose at the sound of Wufei's chuckles.
'The... the buffoon!' she angrily got to her feet. 'He wouldn't know how to do a triple axle if
his life depended on it,' she thought ignoring the fact that the same could be said of her and
be true.
Just as she was getting to her feet, she lost her balance again, "Aaahhhh!"
"Not in my ear," Wufei said as he caught her and tried to help. "You can't even skate and were
trying to tell me my form was wrong." He did not even bother hiding his displeasure.
Feeling his warm breath on her cold cheek, Hilde gripped his arm.
"I was only repeating what Grandfather would have said," she defended herself rather lamely.
A memory, her gruff grandfather instructing hopeful teens while they worshipped her mother,
flickered across her mind as she leaned on Wufei's arm to regain her balance.
The unexpected movement of Wufei letting go and moving away startled her. Acting without thought,
her grip on his arm became stronger, and she tried moving towards him.
"Hey le-" she heard him say before both of them were sprawled on the ice. This time him on top of
her.
Chapter Three
--------------
*L5 190 AC*
"If you sit around all day reading, you'll have no muscles" Wufei's teacher informed him.
Twelve year old Wufei was disappointed. If there was one person in the whole clan that Wufei had
thought he could count on not pulling him away from his studies, he had thought it to be his
teacher Chang Chin.
Pulling the book out of Wufei's hands, Chin went on, "Go outside!" He waved Wufei out of his
seat.
"Yes, master Chang" Wufei said, keeping his voice low and respectful when what he really wanted
to do was grab his book back and find a more remote and quit place.
"You are my most faithful student, and I can't tell you how proud it makes me to have the future
head of this clan as such a good pupil." Placing his hand on Wufei's shoulder, Chin led the young
boy to the front exit of the school. "But, it is not healthy for one to sit all day. I would be
a dishonorable teacher if I were to selfishly keep you indoors reading my writing."
Wufei had to admit there was truth to those words. He had just read the other day the benefits of
exercise. But he'd still rather be reading his latest book on China's role in World War II, which
happened to have been written by his very honorable teacher.
"I hear that some of your fellow classmates have made a temporary skating rink, why don't you
join them?" Chin had put it in a form of a question, but Wufei knew it to be a command.
Bowing a farewell, Wufei said, "Yes, Master, I'll go now."
Pausing Wufei hoped that Chin would hand him back the book before he left.
"I'll see you in the morning," Chin said as a farewell.
Leaving without his book, Wufei headed for where he knew the other children to be.
Upon reaching the oddball rink, Wufei's ears were assaulted by the sound of children‘s laughter,
stomping on the ice, and the delighted shouts of the children trying to talk to each other over
the other sounds.
Wufei just stood with arms crossed and watched the children, one girl waved to him as she skated
pass him.
He knew who she was but did not wave back, Papa was very chatty and he knew if he showed any
sign of recognition she would come by to give him the latest gossip on every body.
Looking further in to the crowd he recognized some of the older children to be his cousins. It
was not surprising to see them here. They usually were drawn to fun or causing it, but he had
hoped to avoid Koun.
Koun looked up just then and, seeing Wufei only standing on the sidelines, skated right over.
"Why do you stand like a statue?" Koun asked with a grin that made Wufei want to smack it off.
"Doesn't our future leader wish to join the average people?" Koun asked before Wufei could
respond to the first question.
"I don't have skates," Wufei said hoping Koun would just go away, but no such luck.
With a mock bow Koun said, "Then take mine, cousin!"
"No," Wufei replied already knowing what Koun was up to.
"What? And have you miss out on all of this fun?" Koun asked waving to the rink and all the other
children on it.
Koun glided over to the center of the ice. The children parted along his path and moved to the
sides of the rink
"Do one of your tricks!" a little four year old girl shouted at Koun as she held on to her older
sister's hand.
'He doesn't need your encouragement,' Wufei thought with anger towards the girl.
With an exaggerated bow, Koun said back "As you wish!" and then zoomed on his skates.
Going as fast as he could in a circle, he waved with his left hand to get the other kids to cheer
louder.
Wufei wished the others would not encourage Koun's showing off.
Slowing down Koun skated closer to the center of the rink again then jumped backwards doing a
flip that ended with him landing perfectly on the blades of his skates. Doing the back flip two
more times, Koun then started skating backwards and waving at the others to clap louder.
The children were eager to comply. The racket of their shouts of "YAY KOUN!", the clapping of
their hands, and the stomping of their skates on ice was deafening to Wufei's ears.
While still moving backwards, Koun did three more back flips, stopping on the last one perfectly
in front of Wufei.
"I hope you took some pleasure in my pathetic tricks, Sir," Koun said in a tone that mocked his
own humbleness.
Ever since it had become known that Wufei was to be the next leader of the clan, Koun had been
immensely jealous and relentless in his picking and teasing of Wufei.
"For I'm sure you could do much better than I, who am so unworthy," Koun went on, knowing fully
that Wufei had never skated in his life.
Sitting down on the ice, Koun took off his skates in only a few moments.
'How hard could it be?' Wufei asked himself. 'If Koun can do it, so can I,' he decided with
determination.
All of the children were circled around where Wufei now sat putting on Koun's ice skates.
"That's Koun's cousin, Wufei," Papa whispered to another girl.
"To bad he didn't inherit Koun's good looks," the second girl whispered back.
Wufei angrily jerked on the second skate trying not to hear what the others were saying.
When he finally had the skates on and started to stand, Wufei heard a boy say, "This should be
good, they wouldn't have chosen Wufei if he wasn't good at something other than books."
Shoulders straight Wufei was more determined than ever to skate better then Koun.
Peace out!