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People passed by him in a blur of colorful knit scarves, held hands, and smiles warm enough to melt the ice they skated on. Chatter and laughter melded with Mariah Carey’s irritatingly cheerful “All I Want For Christmas Is You” that drifted through the air like paper thin snowflakes, falling all around the spirited crowd gathered in the city. The icy iron bench he sat on fit his dejected mood, as he glowered at the skates laced on his feet with squinted blue eyes, the ones his friends somehow convinced him to wear. As to where they were in the dizzying circling mesh of people in the ice, he wasn’t certain, but he wasn’t too eager to find them too.
Daryl sighed. Not that he could, anyway. Who knew the ice rink could be so intimidating? And he wasn’t about to stumble or fall in front of a certain someone he knew.
In the midst of his musing, a familiar pretty face adorned with gray-haired braids and a lopsided lavender knitted cap, swerved to a stop a couple of yards in front of him. Two more of his friends joined her side – a Korean teen with glasses way too big for his face, and a handsome, fair-skinned boy with curly brown hair and light blue eyes. Daryl could hardly make it out but he noticed different shades of pink on their faces clashing against dew drops of ice atop their heads.
“Come on, Daryl, you don’t know what you’re missing! Get off the bench and skate with us, you party pooper,” the braided girl called.
Daryl huffed in response and shifted his glare to Carol. “Nah, I’m good.”
In all honesty, he felt anything but good. It was cold, he couldn’t feel his hands, and everyone around him was accompanied. Merle could’ve joined him but of course, but after his suggestion his older brother huffed out a non-stop litany of how “skating is for sissies” that Daryl practically threw his hands up in surrender just to shut him up. That thought made him feel colder.
Carol merely stuck her tongue out at Daryl, and went off on her way again, zipping across the ice. The Korean boy hesitated and frowned, staring at Daryl a bit longer through his bespectacled view, but Daryl waved him off with a grunt.
“Go on, Glenn.”
Glenn just shrugged and went to join the others, both he and Carol getting lost in the crowd again. Daryl barely noticed that the third figure had yet to leave, or even instigate something as per usual. He grew apprehensive as the third boy approached, with more of a graceful finesse on the skates than Daryl could ever hope to have, and halted smoothly a few feet in front of him. The very same boy that Daryl have been nursing a hopeless crush on the very first time he stumbled late in Mr. Greene’s third period Zoology like a breath of fresh air, and Daryl saw those beautiful blue eyes for the first time, blue as the ocean waves.
“Can you even skate, Daryl?” the suave Southern drawl grated on Daryl’s nerves, making him all the more self-conscious, making him wish his ears would go numb enough to tune the other out.
“Fuck off, Rick,” Daryl growled, lifting wary bedroom eyes to regard the other teen’s cerulean stare.
Rick looked curious, tilting his head a little, eyes glittering in reflection to the many lights strewn about the rink. “Figures.”
Then, Rick smiled. “I can teach you if you like, and you will learn in no time. Must suck watching all these people pass by you and skating. Makes you wish you could skate, huh?” he gloats, making a few gaudy spins as he reached the edge of the rink where Daryl sat, his gloved hands behind his back.
Daryl swallowed. He imagined Rick holding his arms, facing him and skating backwards as he guides Daryl…and it ends up being a disaster. As tempted as he was to feel the other boy’s touch, he’d rather bury himself under the snow and die rather than do something stupid like lean against Rick’s chest. Or bury his face in the crook of Rick’s neck and inhale his scent. Or worse, kiss him. Daryl wanted to hurl.
“Whatever, Grimes,” Daryl mutters instead, shaking his head, as he shifted his gaze to the meandering path of a spiraling crystallized snowflake as it landed on his folded hands, and melted on contact with the reddened skin.
Outside his field of vision, Rick frowned. He sighed heavily, as in defeat, and after a few more moments of silence, Daryl figured he had finally left, though admittedly missed his company.
And then, without warning, a pair of slate gray skates appeared in Daryl’s line of vision on the frozen ground. His head was jerked upwards as the offender tugged up on his scarf, and his widened squinted eyes were met with mischievous blue before another pair of cold lips slipped over his.
It was none other than Rick’s cold lips.
Daryl felt his eyes go wider as warm breath ghosted over his numbed lips, and the tingling of Rick’s whisper joined words Daryl was able to comprehend along the white noise that he heard.
“Catch me if you can, Dixon.”
Rick then gave a little nip to Daryl’s lower lip, accompanied by a coppery drop of blood against the sweep of a tongue brought Daryl back to his senses. Rick smirked as he pulled away from Daryl and cold air flooded against the latter’s heated skin. Embarrassment, mounting anger, and confusion warmed him, while his muddled mind started to make sense of things.
“Why you little…” Daryl began before launching at the laughing teen, now a safe distance away from Daryl. Heart roaring in his ears, Daryl didn’t let the mess of brown curls disappear from his line of sight as he cut through the flock of people in his way. But even though the boy he chased was now way ahead of him, he turned back at Daryl and flashed him a grin.
“Hey Daryl, guess what?” he says playfully. “You’re skating.”
Wait, what?
Daryl’s train of focus came to a halt. Abruptly, he lost his balance, tumbling onto the ice beneath him, seemingly stunned at the realization. When he glanced up to find Rick doubled over in laughter, his anger quickly remounted, but remembering Rick’s kiss made embarrassment take over, making no move to rise from the ice.
Rick looked pretty pleased with himself as he shakily skated over towards Daryl, still trying to control his snickering, before offering Daryl a gloved hand. Daryl accepted it reluctantly, avoiding the other's smirking face as he stood up.
The touch however, regardless if the other wore gloves or not, sent jolts of electricity through both of the boys, surprising them both, and all of a sudden the air felt warm between them. Rick was looking at Daryl – really looking as if he just saw him for the first time, a swirl of emotions behind those lovely eyes, then after a while he grinned at him again, in a rather caring manner that Daryl has never seen before from Rick. Daryl had to do an odd double take as his mind struggled between the immediate rage of falling over in front of others, and the sudden attraction he felt due to the realization that said grin was damn sexy.
Daryl bit his lip and felt his cheeks flush again despite the cold, but he returned the look with a knowing smirk, and watched with a thrill as Rick’s eyes darkened. And they we’re still not letting go. Something definitely started here, Daryl thinks, and this is something that he will not want to end. Ever again.
Rick then leans in towards Daryl with a husky whisper. “You’re welcome, brother.”