Better Off In Love (Peterick Au)

Ice skating

Pete decided it would be cute to take Patrick, and when he mentioned this plan to Hayley in passing she immediately invited herself and Lynn.  Patrick was also fine eith this, so that weekend the two pairs met up at the local rink. Hurrying in from the cold of outside to be met with the chill of the ice was a fun consequence of skating in the middle of winter.

Once everyone had hired their skates, the four friends waddled over to the ice, gingerly stepping on. Patrick nearly fell over just trying to stand, grabbing Pete's hand to steady himself.

"I'm hoping you're better at skating than I am," Patrick told Pete, who shook his head with wide eyes.

"Nope, I have, like, no balance,"

"Well, this'll be fun, won't it?" Patrick laughed.

As they both tried to take shuffling steps forward, gripping the railing tightly, Lynn glided past at a rapid pace. She quickly made her way to the centre of the rink with the other people who clearly knew what they were doing, executing an elegant pirhouette that caused her long hair to spin out behind her, before returning to her awestruck friends.

"I haven't done that in ages! I've missed skating," she sighed happily.

"You're only here to make us look even worse," Pete complained, gesturing between his boyfriend and himself.

Lynn only laughed as Hayley carefully skated a little way away from the edge to meet Lynn in front of the boys.

"How are you so good?!" She gushed.

"I used to go skating loads when I was younger, I'm probably not half as good as I used to be,"

"You two can go on ahead, if you want," Patrick offered, realising they were likely going to get bored of watching them repeatedly fail to move around.

Lynn looked over at Hayley, who nodded, before both headed off to do a few laps of the rink.

"It can't be that hard right?" said Pete, "Like, sliding one foot in front of the other and everything,"

"Why did you decide this was a good idea?" His boyfriend laughed.

"It seemed like it would be cute..." He mused.

"Come on then, let's do this," said Patrick, attempting to find his balance and move himself forward.

Pete followed his example, sliding along at a snail's pace but gaining confidence.

In the time that it took them to complete one painfully slow lap of the rink, Lynn had whizzed past them at least seven times, Patrick estimated, and Hayley wasn't too far behind. After a while, Lynn came to a halt beside the men, whilst Hayley continued making her way around on her own.

"Lynn... Is this a double date? Are you on a date with Hayley?" Pete suddenly asked the question he'd been thinking to himself since Hayley had added the pair of them to the outing.

Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting to be asked that.

"Honestly? I have no idea," she told them, looking out across the rink to where Hayley was.

"Do you liiike her?" Patrick teased, smiling at the deep blush that appeared on Lynn's face.

"I mean... I think she's pretty great," she began, before interrupting her own train of thought. "Is it weird to date your manager? Is that even allowed?"

"Well, I guess it's not exactly recommended to go around dating all your managers, but if it turns out you both like each other I can't see why you couldn't work out!" Pete enthused, and Lynn smiled at the encouragement.

At that moment, Hayley came over to join them, nearly falling over as she attempted to stop, only just saved by Lynn reaching out to grab her arm and hold her up.

"Thanks! I hadn't fallen over or anything really yet, it was all going too well..." she mourned, before properly looking around at the little group. "So, what were you all chatting about?"

"Nothing much, I can't even really remember after your dramatic entrance," Patrick quickly filled in as Lynn did her best impression of someone who was calm and collected.

"Shall we try and do some more laps? I bet 'Trick and I can nearly keep up with Lynn by now," joked Pete, and after everyone nodded, the group made their way off around the ice again, chatting and laughing like they were in a beautiful seasonal stock photo.