golden waltz | jily

Third Time's The Charm

"Lily, could you at least try not to look like you're being walked to the electric chair?" Mary rolled her eyes at her friend.

"I'm trying my best." Lily huffed.

Mary took Lily's hand and dragged her the last couple of metres to the entrance to the ice.

Lily could see James already on the ice stroking and doing a few crossovers. She suddenly wanted to throw up. She wasn't sure if it was because of the thought of dancing with him, or because even she couldn't deny just how incredibly neat his edgework was.

Minerva skated over to Lily. "Lily, I'm glad you're finally here. Let's go get James."

Lily threw one last mournful look at Mary and let Minerva lead her away.

Before they reached James, Minerva took Lily's arm and whispered to her, "I'm proud of you for giving him a chance."

Lily tried to smile but couldn't quite pull it off. She really didn't want to disappoint her coach.

Lily dared a brief look at James, who smirked at her. Oh, she was already regretting this.

"Let's get started with a Silver Samba since you're both quite familiar with that pattern from last season. I'll get the music started, and both of you do a few crossovers in Kilian hold until the music starts."

Lily took a deep breath. This was it; she was going to try and skate with James, someone she'd never in a million years considered skating with. Someone, she didn't even remotely like — someone who had tormented her for years.

She'd already considered the fact that she was going to have to touch him and let him touch her. She'd pored over this last night, and came to the conclusion that this was all merely professional and as long as he kept it that way, she would too.

So, as Minerva skated away, Lily looked at James but didn't make a move to get into hold. She wasn't quite sure how to go about this, but James quickly held out his left hand and extended his right arm – where she should go.

Lily rolled her shoulders to relax and slowly approached James. She stood to James's right, reached over his chest, and gingerly placed her hand on his. James took this as a sign to finally let his other arm touch her back and put his hand on her hip. A chill ran down Lily's spine. What the fuck. She wanted to get out of his hold as soon as he touched her but refrained. She wished this could be an open Kilian hold, but she'd never defied Minerva's instructions, so she finally placed her free hand on James's.

She felt like her skin burnt where James touched her, even though there were about four layers of clothes between them (which gave a little comfort to Lily).

She cleared her throat. "Let's go then."

They stroked for a little bit, finding their edges, in what Lily considered a decent unison. She tried to concentrate on the skating, but she caught her friends' eyes a few times, all of them were smiling knowingly at her, which infuriated her.

Lily and James had barely completed a couple of crossovers when the samba music started. Lily immediately jumped out of James's arms, and she needed a little break of being in such proximity to him for a whole of three minutes.

Suddenly Lily remembered that James and Catherine had only missed two key points in the Silver Samba in the entire previous season; she and John had missed nine. And yes, she had indeed spent the last night poring over every single one of James's protocols — his detailed results — that were available to her.

The song Minerva had put on was Sympathy for the Devil, which Lily had wanted to skate to for the Short Dance last season but had been thoroughly refused by John since he thought the judges would prefer something more 'traditional.' Lily knew Minerva had put it on so she'd be in better spirits, and honestly, it was working a little bit.