Rivals - L.S.

Twenty Five - Baby It's Cold Outside

Pulling up to Harry's second destination made Louis' heart jump in his chest. They were at the Natural History Museum's Winter Ice Rink, a colorful skater's dream that was home to a huge Christmas tree and views of the picturesque Waterhouse building. It was beautiful, and definitely exciting since Louis had never been ice skating before.

"Ready to get some new kicks, birthday boy?" Harry asked, opening up the car door.

Louis nodded with a laugh and quickly unbuckled his seatbelt, hopping out and onto the snow covered sidewalk. He held Harry's cold hand tightly as they approached the stand to rent pairs of skates.

While Harry grabbed their skates, Louis took a moment to fully appreciate his surroundings. Men, women, and children of all ages danced across the colorful rink, some graceful and some not. Everything smelled kind of like hot chocolate, too, which was automatically a bonus. And in the center of the rink stood a tall Christmas tree with bright, twinkling ornaments.

For someone who didn't like Christmas, Louis sure liked this.

"Okay, my little elf boy, use those extremely tiny feet of yours to get to that bench so we can put our skates on," Harry teased, dipping to press a light kiss on Louis' cheek before tugging him away.

They switched into their skates and headed for the little step to go out on the ice. Louis was surprisingly nervous, shakily placing one foot out onto the slippery surface. "I've never done this before, okay? You have to promise to not make fun of me," he instructed, gripping tightly onto Harry's hand.

"I would never make fun of you. I know you've never done holiday-ish stuff and it's all part of your lovely charm," Harry grinned, "Now come on, I swear it's not that hard. You'll get the hang of it quickly enough."

Louis shook his head. "We'll see about that, Harold," he mumbled. Louis stepped out onto the ice, legs wobbling as he tried to maintain his balance. His excitement was slowly being replaced by embarrassment as he prayed that he wouldn't completely fail.

"You're doing great, my little Bambi. You're very brave," Harry said, mustering a laugh as he tried to be supportive.

"Shut up," Louis chuckled, moving to grab Harry's arm for more support, "My bravery is not a joke."

"Of course not, angel," Harry replied with a fond smile on his face, eyes adoringly scanning Louis' features.

They slowly started to make their way around the rink, Harry humming holiday songs as Louis focused intently on his skating. Lucky for Louis, it wasn't really as hard as he was expecting and he picked up the skill with ease. He hadn't fallen once yet and was starting to feel steady on his own feet.

"Look at you go, birthday boy, you're quite the professional skater," Harry said proudly, wiggling Louis off of his arm to lace their hands together.

Louis did a little bow, "I should be an Olympian."

Harry let out a light laugh, breathy and airy and completely to die for. Louis swore his heart skipped a beat, it happened every time Harry did another adorable thing. He was beyond smitten and was only falling harder in love with the curly haired lad. As he skated along, he realized that he still couldn't believe that Harry went to all of this trouble for him. He felt like the luckiest boy in the world.

"You okay there? You look like you're in some very intense thought," Harry chimed in, waving a hand in front of Louis' face.