Songs For Us [English Version]

Eighteen. Yuzuru Hanyu and the Spaniards.

A little bored, Dalia skated without a fixed course, and feeling in the mood to test her limits, she decided to check how many Loops she could add after her Triple Lutz. She slipped when she was about to do a fourth and lying on the cold ice, she smiled to the small audience that had accessed the arena about one hour ago.

She got up to see Javi shaking his head skeptically at the other side of the rink.

"Now me, now me!" Nathan beamed, waving his hand so he'd get her attention. And somehow, he tripped on the second jump of the combo and failed his attempt to outshine her. Frustrated, he groaned, burying his face on his hands in clear embarrassment. Amused, Dalia gave him an exaggeratedly surprised look.

"No, no!" he shouted. "That was the warm up!"

She shook her head, playing with him.

Suddenly, Shoma hopped on the ice and behind him, a quiet Yuzuru bowed to his beloved ice and moved gently as he did some laps.

"Dalia!" Nathan called, causing the eyes to lay in them.

Dalia turned just in time to watch Nathan doing a clean quad Lutz before her eyes.

///

Dalia clapped, obviously impressed, to a smiling Nathan Chen.

"How was that now?"

She laughed and rolling his eyes, Yuzuru snorted and skated close to his training mate, Javier. He could, perhaps help him clear his head.

"Javi" he said. He wasn't sure asking was right. "Dalia..."

The look on his friend's eyes immediately changed and Yuzuru realized too-late-for-his-own sake: asking Javi was not a good idea.

"Interested, huh?"

Yuzuru shook his head.

"Dal-chan..."

"OH MY GOD" Javier interrupted. "I leave you two for a couple competitions, and she's already 'Dal-chan'?"

Teasing Yuzuru was one of the Spanish man's hobbies, and then, the worst thing that could happen to someone wanting to keep his feelings as a secret occurred: his face turned red.

"Dalia... I... don't understand"

He couldn't explain how much she confused him with his limited English. Dalia was an enigma: smiling and making him laugh without really trying, yet from the distance, she always looked distinct, unknown to him- when she spoke to Javi or Irene's nephew -making gestures and talking in a way she never did around him-, when she was teaching Shoma English or when she was alone- it wasn't easy to describe, just as everything in her.

"Because of her accent?"

"No. Her accent...cute"

Javi exploded right away.

"What!? Long ago, you said my accent was ugly" he pouted, pretending to be offended. "Your clear favoritism hurts me, Yuzu"

In that instant, they watched Dalia giggling as she skated next to Shoma. Without saying much, they started some weird competition -surprising everyone. It was like they were trying to prove which of them could bend more, him with his cantilever and her with some version of it.

"No favorites"

Javier snorted.

"Yeah, sure. And my mom is the queen"

"Is... is she?" he asked, confused.

Javier facepalmed.

"Look, Yuzu" He sighed. " Dal's quite sensitive and she feels very deeply, that's why she's so introverted, so quiet. I think in some way, she believes the more she lets someone know about her, the more exposed to get hurt she is. So she simply doesn't talk about the important stuff -you could talk for months with her, and still feel like you don't know her at all-, that's why sometimes she feels like a riddle."