moments with you.

6. Ice Skating

Author's notes: Based on SorchaRossin's (fanfiction.net) suggestion for ice skating, thank you for your support as well~

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6.

Ice Skating ranks fourth in GoGo Tomago's list of "Top 5 sports to never try." (The other four are basketball, ice hockey, shot put and line dancing, though the last activity's title as a sport is questionable to GoGo).

Which is why when Honey Lemon (somehow it's always Honey that's indirectly responsible for her scrapes and such) succeeds in securing tickets to go ice skating, GoGo's initial response is a flat-out no. It's only after 48 hours of badgering, bantering, begging and pleading that GoGo finally relents (she gives up when she sees the disappointed tears in Honey's eyes. GoGo swears her soft spot for her only female best friend will be the death of her in the future). Honey's reply is to beam brightly and tell GoGo she'll see her at the San Fransyoko Ice Rink at 2 pm in the afternoon, on the next day, along with Fred, Wasabi and Tadashi. She adds, with a hopeful grin, that if GoGo didn't know how to skate, she could always ask Tadashi, who's certain to be kind enough to teach he and hold her hand- Here, GoGo cuts Honey Lemon off by hurling a pillow at her and telling her not to push it.

But even then, GoGo's spent the first twenty minutes in the ice rink gripping the sidelines- she's pretty sure her knuckles are a pasty white under the thick black gloves she's forced to adopt in favor of her original fingerless ones. She hasn't moved an inch since everyone's set out- Honey Lemon and Tadashi prove to be amazing skaters, while Wasabi's too careful and going too slowly. Fred proves himself to be a straight-out klutz on ice.

GoGo took a deep breath. Woman up, she chided herself fiercely; if her four friends could do it, why not her? The memorably painful fall she had as a child of seven was ages ago (ten years, to be exact), and GoGo tries to tell herself that it's different this time round. She's not an enthusiastic child brimming full of eagerness to dominate the ice rink with untold speed anymore (she had a need-for-speed back then even when she was young), she's an adrenaline-junkie who's lost her naive persona, and who's interested only (maybe the word 'only' was an exaggeration, but GoGo believes that extremities were required in quelling her childhood trauma) in speed.

So she steps her right foot out tentatively, and hears it make a small metallic click against the thick wall of ice. Excruciatingly slowly (slow considering it's GoGo, anyway), GoGo releases her death grip on the sidelines- which basically proves to be her lifeline. It's alright, she tells herself. It'll be fine. She won't suddenly lose her balance, suddenly feel her feet spread out farther than she intends, suddenly just slip and land backwards on her head and black out-

GoGo steps her left foot out hastily when she realises that her train of supposedly encouraging thoughts are backfiring. It was a mistake; she feels her feet sliding across the ice unintentionally, beyond her control, and her mouth almost peels open to unleash a shriek-

"GoGo!" Tadashi calls out as he reaches forward to grab her arm, pulling GoGo back before she can catapult forward onto the ice. GoGo tries to steady her breathing and heart beat, but her eyes are opened wide and tinged with trauma, and she struggles to calm herself down. Finally, when it seems like the rate of her heartbeat has more or less resembled something normal, GoGo takes one look at the position she's in with Tadashi- leaning into his arms while he stares at her in concern- and it speeds up again. GoGo groans.

"What's wrong?" Tadashi asks, GoGo shoots him an irritable look and wonders how he can dismiss physical contact with such ease, but he did save her from falling, so GoGo ends up mumbling a 'thank you' and resumes her death grip on the metal bar beside her. With her eyes closed, this time round.