Cold as Ice (KuroKen)

(11)

Tw: Mentions of abuse

Kenma's POV

"I have your scarf." When I arrived at the rink that night at my usual time I found Kuroo already sitting in the stands. He was scrolling through his phone but immediately put it away when I entered. He was giving me his full attention, normally I didn't like eyes on me but this wasn't so bad.

"Thanks." I handed him to piece of cloth and went to tie my skates on the bench by the opening of the rink. Kuroo remained at his spot on the top which I preferred. I usually knew when Kuroo came to watch me, I just chose to ignore it, however, now that he's obviously there and not trying to hide I'm sort of nervous. I know he's not but I feel like I'm being silently judged.

I stepped onto the ice and starting by just skating around aimlessly, usually I did this to warm up. I glanced up briefly at Kuroo and saw him staring at me with a smile, he looked like a dork honestly. He was watching my every move like their wasn't anything more interesting in the world. I liked to start with simple things, if I jumped right into big tricks and messed up I'd get hurt. So I did a few one foot spins, nothing amazing really just average, and a few toe loops just to warm up. Regardless of Kuroo's presence I planned to try an axel jump, which was extremely hard and I'd only every done one before. But today I was determined to do a double.

Maybe it was because it was a new trick or maybe it was because Kuroo was watching, even though he watched before now was different, either way I couldn't seem to land it. I wasn't even getting close and each fall left me aching more and more. Eventually I tried once more and landed rather rough. I lifted off for the jumped but without the proper rotation speed couldn't make it all the way around and I couldn't land in time. My skates got locked together and I ended up slamming my knee onto the ground and landing flat on my stomach. Of course Kuroo came rushing down from the stands immediately yelling all sorts of questions.

"Kenma are you okay? What did you land on? Did you break anything? Any sprains? Can you stand?" He rushed over to me on the ice clearly worried. I honestly felt fine and found his constant concern laughable. So of course I laughed and he kneeled down to check on me. I rolled over onto my back and just laughed for no reason in particular. He rolled his eyes and smiled at me as well, he hit my arm lightly. "You scared the crap out of me." He joined me in my laughing fit but neither of us really knew what was funny. Eventually we both calmed down and he helped me up. It's scared me a bit, how comfortable I was becoming around him.

I sat down on the bench and began to unlace my skates. Kuroo suggested I stop for the day even though I felt fine.

"You should at least look at your knees." He suggested pointing at my knees which had dark stains on them from the melted ice that got stuck to my pants.

"They feel fine though." Once both my skates were off I tossed them into my bag and threw on my sneakers.

"I'm just saying." I sighed and rolled up my pants to his request.

"Kenma what the fuck!" My left knee was horrible bruises, almost completely black and blue. It's strange though I didn't feel anything. He tapped my knee lightly as if it would shattered if he hit it too hard. "This doesn't hurt?" Truth be told I'd grown accustom to seeing bruises of this caliber usually scattered throughout my arms, face, and legs. Just something that occurred in my time living with my mother. Maybe I was use to it so I didn't feel it or maybe the coldness of the ice numbed the pain.

"No." He helped me up even though my knee still didn't really hurt all that much, or so I thought. The first step I took without my skates on was excruciating. I leaned on his arm a bit more than I probably should have for support.