Canadian, Please! (A red velvet pancakes fic)

Chapter Nine

Matt watched as Matthew attempted strapping on his rental skis.

"No, no, like this."

He took hold of his Boyfriend's leg and propped it up onto a chair.

"You strap it here, if you strap it there it will fall off."

Poles in hand, they walked awkwardly up to the chair lift where Natalia was waiting for them.

Matt was planning on teaching the two how to ski. When he had lived in Calgary, skiing was a hobby of his.

"We are starting on the smallest hill," he said briskly,"So it should be easy enough.

"Ok!" Matthew replied with his tiny smile while Natalie just smiled.

They all squeezed into a seat and Matt lectured Natalia to put her phone away. She reluctantly agreed. Matthew, scared and cold, held tightly on to Matt's arm with his gloved hands.

They neared the top quickly.

"Okay, on the count of three jump down, it really isn't too far. Remember, take it slow at first.."

Natalia was the first to jump, followed by Matt, and lastly, Matthew. He felt the reassuring touch of the ground and felt himself start to glide downward.

'Slowly... Slowly..'

Picking up speed, Matthew began to become more and more confident about skiing. He caught up to Natalia who in turn thrust forward yet again with a smirk.

He was determined to beat her however. Completely forgetting what Matt had said, he dug his poles into the ground and threw himself forward.

The end of the hill was getting nearer and nearer. With a final burst of speed, he flung himself faster than he ever thought he could, racing past Natalia AND Matt.

But something blue and white suddenly appeared in front of him. All he saw was those two colors before... Blacking out.

---------

Matthew awoke with a sharp pain shooting through his thigh. With a groan, he sat up and saw he was in his timeshare, Matt asleep on the bed next to him. He put on his glasses and stared blankly at the wall.

Natalia came in after a few minutes carrying warm soup. Her eyes widened with happiness.

"You- your finally awake," she said with a grin he'd never seen on her before.

"W-what about him?" Matthew replied, pointing to his sleeping boyfriend.

"Oh, must have fallen asleep. He's been worried about you. You've been passed out since yesterday afternoon. It's the next morning now. But the paramedics said you'd be fine. Just get rest. Almost broke your leg, you're lucky it's just bruised. Mr. Steilsson came to visit you. He was crying. It was a pretty funny sight to see such an unemotional person babble like a baby."

Matthew absorbed the information as Natalia placed a tray of soup and crackers in front of him. He turned his head to see Matt rubbing his eyes and blinking slowly before awaking fully.

"You're awake!"

He was met with a large hug which almost knocked the food out of his lap. Matt ran his fingers through Matthew's hair as if it was the last time they'd be together.

"Y-you really scared me..." Matt said softly and with a crack in his voice. "I thought you were going to leave me."

--------

A few hours later Matthew was able to fully walk around. They were planning on going dog sledding later that afternoon, but Natalia was going to spend the day lounging in the Sauna.

Mr. Steilsson drove them to the location they could do the sledding, and it wasn't too far. Only about ten miles away from Horseshoe Resort where they were staying.

They were greeted by a man with dark, curly hair and a truck full of yipping dogs. There were two sleds set up, one for each of them.

They watched silently as the man hooked the excited dogs up to the sleds. Next they all stood on their own while being explained to about how to control the dogs.

"M-u-s-h means go, h-a-w means left, and g-e-e means right," the man said. "But you don't need to say anything except for m-u-s-h because they already know these trails."

Matthew gave a small mush and the dogs darted forwards. He held on tightly to the bar as he watched the pack run through the snowy track.

He heard Matt say mush also and heard even more dogs. He turned his attention back towards his own.

There was a rather tiny husky leading the group. It had a reddish-brown coat and green, intelligent eyes.

I was followed by two larger grey furred ones and a sandy colored one and a black one.

They went around twice before stopping and being taken back by mr. Steilsson.