Unexpected {Ejen Ali Fanfic}

Ice Skating

Saturday came in about no time, and Ali's spirits was unusually high today. He couldn't wait to hang out with Viktor today, though he didn't want to admit it, he actually asked Alicia to come along because he was used to her presence every time he went about without his father or Comot. 

Comot was playing with a yarn Ali had bought for him after he had messed up Ali's own one when it was supposed to be used for his first knitting attempt. Grudgingly though he had wanted to do it, after Comot messed it up, he just took off the excuse that his cat had once again ruined his work. But secretly he was glad of it. He didn't like the needles nor the complicated patterns of the threads at all. It was girl's activity, if you ask him.

Ali had prepared his socks and gloves like Viktor had told him to inside a small red backpack.

Seeing that Ali was going somewhere, Comot meowed to gain his attention. When Ali didn't notice, it meowed harder and pushed at his ankles. 

"What's up, Comot?" Ali questioned curiously at his cat.

Comot meowed at the direction of his backpack, staring with its large blue and green eyes.

"Oh, I'm going out with Viktor. He invited me to hang out today, didn't I tell you?"

Comot purred kindly at his ankle. Ali at first was confused, but then realised what Comot meant and laughed.

"OK, you can come," Ali grinned, and Comot meowed appreciatively. "But you need to stay out of sight. We're going to a shopping center and cats are not supposed to be there."

Comot hopped onto Ali's bag and stuffed itself inside it, barely even visible inside the depths of the bag. Ali swung the bag onto his shoulder and descended down the stairs. 

"Dad, I'm going out with Viktor!" Ali called towards the kitchen.

"OK, take care," said an occupied voice dismissively. 

He rode a taxi to go into the main city, because that was where Sunway was. It took him nearly ten minutes to arrive there. Apparently Viktor hasn't arrived yet, because they were supposed to meet up at McDonald's, and no boy with dark raven hair was there. So Ali took a seat on a deserted table and looked around for something interesting to observe. 

Opposite him was an ice-skating rink. He thought it would be nice if he got a go on it, but skates just wasn't his thing. In fact, he had never even tried them on in his life. He was just wondering how it would feel like to glide smoothly across the chilly ice sheet when someone approached him. And it wasn't Viktor. It was Alicia.

"We have a mission," she said in an undertone, taking the seat opposite Ali.

Ali groaned. "Can't it wait? We're hanging out with Viktor today."

"You thought I would've come to hang out with Viktor, what with you hanging around?" she sneered. 

Ali, taken aback, tried to process what she meant. "T-then...why are you here?"

"Our mission is to acquire a pen drive with information of the Azurium sniper in it-"

"Eh, Azurium sniper? I thought that blueprint's back in MATA, no one else could've got it."

"There are many other ways one can still get it," Alicia said, waving her hand as though to wave aside Ali's comment. "The thing is, if this thing gets into the wrong hands, let's say Uno's for example, it would be total doomsday."

"Oh..." Ali said, but he felt like something was still missing. "And where exactly is it?"

"In space." 

"Really?" Ali asked, surprised. 

But Alicia seemed to be more irritated. "It's in this shopping mall, idiot. That's why I'm here. The exact location of the pen drive is unknown, so it will be up to us to find it."

"How bout this," Ali said, cutting in. "You can go and find the pen drive, and me and Viktor can hang out."

Apparently he had touched a nerve.

"All you ever think is you and you only and you never thought about other people, have you?!" Alicia yelled, so that half of the restaurant stopped to stare at them instead. 

"Alicia, can you-" Ali mumbled, ashamed, but she went on.

"If one day I'm not here-" she hesitated.

Ali quickly took this opportunity to drag her away from the watching crowd. As they got out, however, they were met with an excited looking Viktor.

"Ali, you're here! So early nowadays!" he exclaimed. 

Noticing he was holding Alicia's wrist, his face dropped, then smirked. "Ehh...where are you two going?"

"Nowhere." Ali rolled his eyes. "Where are we going to hang?"

"You haven't figured that out?" Viktor asked, shocked. "Haiya Ali...I especially asked to meet up at McDonald's is because we're going to ice skate!"

"Ha, serious?" Ali asked, dumbfounded.

As he and Viktor, followed reluctantly by Alicia, went to the skating rink, he rather thought his bag was vibrating strongly. 

*** 

"You ready?" Viktor asked, as they fitted on their skates. Alicia refused to join and was sitting somewhere close by, both arms and legs crossed.

Ali quickly wore his jacket and gloves after stuffing his feet aggressively into his extremely tight skates. 

"Ready!" Ali said, nearly falling off balance as he attempted to stand up. 

"Have you skate before?" Viktor asked as he supported Ali towards the edge of the rink.

"No," Ali replied nervously. 

"You better hold onto the railings," Viktor advised him sternly. 

Viktor went skating off first. Ali was taking in deep breaths. He could see a lot of people stumbling and nearly falling in the rink, and Viktor was skating as normally as possible. He came back after a round to find Ali still not entering. 

"Need help?" he offered a hand to him.

"Thanks," Ali smiled nervously. He took Viktor's hand, and put a foot into the rink. At once his leg slipped, but he managed to catch himself on time. Viktor chuckled, and directed his hand to the railings at the side. Ali placed the other foot onto the slippery ice, and nearly did some sort of split as he did. He sunk right below sight but at least still got hold of the railings, but now the place under his arm really hurt. 

"How do you even-" Ali said, before nearly slipping again. He don't reckon he could even so much as move a muscle. Let alone skate when you don't even know how to balance. 

"It'll take some time," Viktor said, skating a little forwards so that he was right beside Ali. "You need to move your legs like this."

He positioned his feet so that it looked like a V-shape. Ali tried, but slipped in the process.

"Oh, you have to learn how to balance first," Viktor said, offering his hand again to Ali. "You won't really be able to skate yet since it's your first time."

"Thanks," Ali said, but not taking his hand. "But I think I'll stick to the railings."

"Take a lap around the rink," Viktor suggested. "That should help you practise. If you still can't, do more. Don't worry, I'll be watching you."

Ali gave him a crooked smile as another thanks, and tried to slide slowly without slipping forwards.

"Uhh, Ali. You might wanna go faster, there's people behind you."

Ali looked behind him to see a row of people glaring impatiently at him.

"Oh, sorry!"