Bashful - A Skephalo Story ❤️

Part 21

When they finally made it to the slopes, Zak eagerly clipped his boots into his skis, getting ready to shoot off - and noticed that the others were just standing there, confused. "Oh come on, have none of you been skiing before?!"

Three mumbled "no"s came in response. Sighing, Zak unclipped his skis and walked over to Dave, pulling his feet into place. "Turn your feet inwards, so you make a V with your skis touching at the front, or you'll roll away down the mountain." Doing the same for Vincent and Darryl, he went back to his own skis and got ready. "So, do any of you actually know how to get down this slope without breaking your neck?" He teased, turning backwards. "If I knew you didn't know how to ski, I would have made you get an instructor!"

Dave blushed, calling, "I kind of know how, I guess?"

"Thank God," Zak laughed, "I don't wanna go backwards down the same slope three times! Right, go then, and you two watch," he gestured for him to push off down.

Dave obliged, setting off at a snail's pace and making a straight line to the bottom. By the time he made it down, he was uncontrollably fast and had to swerve sharply to stop, toppling over into a snow drift. Zak rolled his eyes, sighing dramatically. "Never mind, Dave's terrible. You can't go in a straight line, or when we get off these baby slopes you won't be able to stop at all."

Holding Darryl's hands and facing him, Zak pulled them down the slope, his skis making a plough on the outside of Darryl's. They snaked their way down, leaning into each turn, and came to a safe stop at the bottom. Winking, Zak skated off to the lift and did the same with Vincent.

Zak came over to where the other two were sitting, Vincent shuffling awkwardly along behind. "So, Dave," he teased, "you sure you know how to ski?"

"Shut up," Dave packed a snowball and lobbed it at Zak.

Seeing the glint in Zak's eyes, Darryl quickly distracted him - he didn't want to fight in the snow for the next hour. "Right, let's go again then!"

Zak glided off to the ski lift, turning and waving to the others. "Just pretend you have ice skates on!" He called, grabbing a saddle and letting it pull him away. Once he got to the top, he yanked on the cable, then let go quickly, using the force to launch himself to the side. Soon Darryl joined him, then Dave.

Red in the face, Dave bent over double, laughing hysterically. "Vincent... In a ditch!" He managed.

"What's so funny about that?!" Vincent cried indignantly, trudging up with skis in hand. Dave couldn't even answer, still laughing uncontrollably.

Zak giggled, nudging him. "So Dave, how come you're finding this so funny? You went face first into a bank a minute ago." Dave blushed, pushing Zak and looking down.

"Shut up, I'm a great skier," he winked, and Zak smirked.

"Go down then, idots!" Zak barked at Darryl and Vincent, who pushed off sheepishly, slowly snaking down the slope. Turning to Dave, he joked, "Did you actually see what you were meant to do, then?"

Dave nodded smugly. "I'll try again," he laughed, pushing off. This time he copied the others, catching up quickly and matching their pace.

Zak dug his poles into the ground, launching himself down and overtaking the others, deliberately swerving to spray snow in their faces. He smiled to himself as the others hurled abuse at him, spinning backwards and sticking his tongue out. Zak had been skiing with his family before, so he was experienced.

Darryl pushed himself faster, wanting to catch up to Zak, and lost control of his skis. Skidding off to the side, he tried to slow himself down but couldn't. He was heading directly towards the edge of a rocky glacier, an almost vertical drop down the side of the mountain.

Suddenly, he felt another body slam into him, and he was knocked over. When they had ground to a halt in a pile of snow, he looked around to see who he had hit.

Zak's wide eyes stared back at him, scared and urgent. "Are you okay?" He murmured, his voice full of concern. Darryl nodded, and he wrapped his arms around him, pulling them both up to stand. "You crazy ping spoofer, you could have killed yourself!" Zak hugged him tight.

The others stopped beside them, confused. "Bad- err, Darryl. Why did you go over here?" Dave frowned.

"Because he's an idot," Zak replied, shaking his head. "What were you trying to do, anyway?"

Darryl looked away, embarrassed. "Well, I was trying to catch up," he mumbled.

Zak laughed, grabbing his hand. "You could have just told me to come back, instead of launching yourself down the mountain!" With that, he pushed off, pulling Darryl next to him. He felt their skis hitting each other and looked down. "Put your feet in parallel," Zak called, leaning into a sharp turn and pulling them faster. Darryl obliged, and they picked up speed rapidly. By the time they reached the bottom, their faces were bright red from the cold wind.

"Why weren't we doing that before?!" Darryl demanded, exhilirated.

"Because," Zak grumbled, "when you tried to do that just now, it didn't go too well."

Darryl didn't respond to the jibe, poking Zak in the arm and pointing up the slope. Coming towards them were Vincent and Dave, holding hands.

"Maybe we don't need to play Cupid after all," Darryl winked, just as both of them fell in a heap at their feet.

"Or," Zak retorted, "they're still hopeless. Were you copying us, by any chance?" He raised an eyebrow at Dave, pulling him up off of Vincent.

"Well yeah, you guys went faster than us, so we tried it out. Of course, we didn't stop as elegantly as you two, but neither of us were attached to a professional." Dave pushed Zak's shoulder playfully, his hand lingering for just a millisecond longer than strictly necessary. Zak just smiled back, seemingly oblivious.

Darryl's nostrils flared, and he felt a twinge of emotion he hadn't ever felt before. He didn't know what Dave was playing at, but he didn't like it one bit.

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Hi, Nadia here! ❤️

First of all, thank you for reading Part 21 of Bashful - Skeppy x BadBoyHalo!

Second of all, if you have any suggestions or constructive criticism, comment down below.

See you in the next part 😊

Instagram: mind_of_nadia
Come for a chat in my DMs :)

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Poor Darryl, the innocent muffin.

There's a bit of a love/like rectangle going on here...  ಠ_ಠ