ZeRoyalViking||Date Me, Maybe?

Date Me, Maybe?

Anthony stood at the edge of the rink leaning left and right on the tight blades, already feeling queasy. Jumping, he turned to see whose hand had landed on his shoulder and sighed in relief to see it was just John.

"Come on already, Anthony. You dragged me here, now go talk to him!"

"I can't," Anthony whined, eyes looking back across the ice to watch a curly haired Canadian helping a child up on their feet and gently pushing them along. Pitiful noises escaped him and he was already backing up.

"Fucking- ugh, fine, I'm going in there without you," John said with a roll of his eyes, pushing past Anthony onto the rink.

"No, wait, John!" The Italian grabbed the other's arm and sheepishly followed him, still grasping his sleeve and holding the wall of the rink. They slowly stumbled along together, Anthony trying to focus both on where he was going and his objective across the ice.

The two circled for a while, Anthony's eyes never leaving the figure until he felt enough confidence to push forward and skate towards him as a small sign of impression and greeting.

He stopped himself suddenly, narrowing his gaze at the new intruder who came in and fell on the ice, snickering to himself at the idiot who was trying to get up. Though, he frowned and felt a bubbling grudge grow when the Canadian helped him up and greeted him with a hug. His spirits fell and his eyes turned away.

"How come you haven't talked to him yet?" John inquired. "We've been here for a good ten minutes and we've gone around for quite a while and we don't look like we're having fun."

Anthony simply sighed and nodded towards the direction of his desire. "Because of that," he muttered.

The other turned his head and noticed the second person, smiling a little to himself. "Hey, I know him."

"You do?" Anthony asked, suddenly perked. "Could you like, I dunno, pull him out of the way or something...? John? Wait- John!" He groaned as his friend skated across the ice ahead of him to greet the incomer. Anthony dragged his blades across the ice before suddenly charging and skating fast. He wobbled a little and forgot how to stop, yelling when he fast approached the expert skater and ran into him.

The other yelped as he was knocked onto the ice, grumbling expletives and rubbing his shoulder where he fell. "What is your problem?" he asked, obviously irked.

"I-I am so, so fucking sorry," Anthony mumbled as he looked down at the individual beneath him and blushed, quickly clambering off. "Sorry," he said again.

"And I thought I was supposed to be the one saying that," the Canadian chuckled out, pushing himself gracefully back onto his blades.

Anthony worried his lower lip, feeling clumsy as he tried to stand, mind frustrated from embarrassment. He heard a soft chuckle emitted above him and looked up as a hand reached towards him.

"The name's Steven," he said, taking Anthony's hand to shake it.

"I'm Anthony." The Italian smiled awkwardly, still sitting on the floor, struggling to get to his feet.

Another laugh left the other and Anthony thought he could just die on the spot- both sheepish and because he'd never felt happier. "Okay, if you wanna get up, you gotta get on all fours as weird as it sounds."

Anthony looked up in question. "You're a kinky bastard. You always do this on first dates?" he teased, cheeks dusting red when he realized his comment. "Sorry..."

"No, it's okay," Steven replied with a snort, hiding his giggle. "Okay, now slowly lift one leg and get onto a blade. And do the same to the other. So now you're kind of squatting. And then push up. You have to balance, though."

"Okay, um..." Anthony followed his instructions, pushing himself up a little too hard as he wobbled back and felt a hand grab the front of his jacket and one of his arms.

"Woah, woah. A little too much there. I gotcha." Anthony was pulled forward and he looked down to see bright green eyes staring up at him, a bright smile painted on the Canadian's face.

"So um, I uh....sorry about running into you earlier."

"It's fine. You might as well join the class," Steven said as he waved his hand to the small group of kids practicing how to slow to a stop.

"Oh! Oh, you teach a class here, that's right!"

"That's right?" Steven narrowed his gaze at the other and waved his finger. "I know you. You always come by and you just watch and sometimes skate around here. I thought you were familiar. Must be the moustache."

Anthony smiled and looked down in embarrassment. "Yeah, that's uh, that's me," he admitted, voice breaking in between and his cheeks further turned nearly cerise.

"So where's your boyfriend? Oh, there he is."

"What?!" Anthony looked up and saw Steven pointing to John who was holding hands with the other. "H-he's not my..."

"I know; I can see that now. I thought that..."

"Oh, no, no, not at all. You're my boyfriend." Anthony shook his head. "I mean, you're not my boyfriend, but I was hoping- I mean um, I was just saying- fuck I-"

"I'd love to go on a date with you sometime," Steven said, giggling at the flustered Italian.

"Y-you would?" Anthony asked in excitement, biting his lip as his arm slowly dropped and he was soon gently interlocking their fingers, hastily pulling his hand away with a quiet laugh as they brushed each other.

"Yeah, sure. By the way, I guess I didn't mention but that's also Anthony. Pretty weird, huh?"

"His name's also Anthony?" he asked, wrinkling his nose a little.

"Yeah. But I guess you're the Anthony I'll be focusing on for a while. How about after I finish teaching here? We could grab a coffee maybe?"

"I was thinking ice cream, but sure."

"Ice cream sounds fun, too. I'll catch you in five minutes, then?"

"Yeah, five minutes. Sounds good."

"Cool." Steven smiled as he stared at him a little, slowly backing up with a wave.

"Yeah, uh, cool," Anthony dumbly replied, waving back.

"So?" John asked, skating over with a grin. "How'd it go?" he asked, tone teasing.

"I...I have a date!"

"I knew you could do it, buddy."

"Oh god, I'm probably sweating though. Do I look okay?"

"Anthony, chill. He's pretty damn sweaty, too. Look at him. You'll be fine."

Anthony nodded and stared now back at Steven, anticipating their upcoming date and grinning idiotically to himself. Maybe he should run into him more often.