“Nathan,” Eve said calling over the young American skater at the end of a group rehearsal. “Can you do me a favour?”
They had settled on Nathan because he was the only one who was a threat to Yas base value and one of the few people who was able to beat Yas when he was on as could be seen at the Olympics. He was also one of the male skater’s closest to Eve’s age on the team and they’d become friends since their respective disappointment at Pyeongchang with neither of them able to live up to the hype around them.
He turned around smiling brilliantly at Eve and she felt somewhat guilty, “What do you need.”
“Would you be able to help me go over the choreography for the group routine? I’m just a bit behind because of my foot.” It wasn’t a complete lie Eve had been struggling slightly in keeping up with the group routines that were being choreographed quite fast especially considering she had restricted time on the ice. Normally, however, she’d be too proud to ask anyone for help. “I’d ask some of the girls but they’re planning a shopping trip as there are no practices this afternoon and I really want to get this sorted now.”
Nathan stared at Eve with an expression of confusion and Eve just smiled in response. “Are you sure that you wanted me to help you. Wouldn’t you ask like Yas or Misha?”
“If I didn’t want you to help me I wouldn’t have asked you,” Eve said rolling her eyes. “Besides I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I think Yas is kinda mad at me at the moment so I want to keep away.” It wasn’t a lie Yas was annoyed at Eve and she didn’t really want to have to ask him for any favours.
“Yas’s mad at you,” Nathan scoffed slightly bemused. “But no I’ll help you if that’s what you want—I’m free right now if that’s good.”
“Sounds great,” Eve said smiling charismatically. “Meet back here in five.”
…
As Nathan and Eve approached the main ice rink Eve spotted two dark figure on the far side of the rink. If part 2 of stage 1 had been carried out correctly then they would be Gabby and Yas who would be rehearsing together. They were both friends from TCC and that was why Gabby had been tasked with making sure that Yas would be in the right place at the right time.
“You okay that Yas’s on the ice?” Nathan asked and Eve felt bad for misleading him considering that he was being so kind and sweet towards her.
Eve tilted her head to one side as though she was thinking about the question, “I think it should be fine we can just stick to the other side of the rink.”
“If you’re cool with that than I am,” Nathan said shrugging before sliding the guards of his blades and stepping onto the ice. He spun around to face Eve smiling, “Hurry up old lady.”
Eve laughed before quickly yanking her guards off and following Nathan onto the ice. “I’m six months younger than you,” she called out as she dashed onto the ice behind him. “You’re the old man in this relationship.”
Eve sped up until she was about to catch Nathan when she realised the reason he had slowed down due to his preparation for a jump. She stopped short in her tracks before Nathan jumped into a quad salchow, which he fell on and he just sat sprawled out on the ice almost in shock.
“So as much as you might be enjoying your quad fest over there. We need to work on this choreo,” Eve said laughing at Nathan’s petulant expression. She skated over to offer him a hand to pull him up.
He took it but instead of pulling himself up he instead gave Eve’s hand a yank sending her crashing down to the ice. Her bad foot hit the ice hard as she fell down and Eve’s eyes smarted with tears from the pain. “Oww,” she whimpered slightly pulling her foot back up towards her chest to cradle it.
“s**t Eve are you okay,” Nathan said stopping laughing and was instead looking worried. “Is it your foot?”
“Yep,” Eve said between gritted teeth. She wasn’t going to let this stupid foot make her look any weaker than it had already rendered her. “Can you help me up?”
Nathan got to his feet quickly before outstretching a hand which Eve took as quickly as she could using it to pull herself onto her two feet. She took a step or two forwards on the ice but as she put pressure on her injured foot she felt it give way slightly beneath her and slipped back onto the ground. “I think my foot’s worse than I thought it would be.”
“What’s going on over here,” Yas said finally skating over from his corner closely pursued by Gabby. Their plan was clearly starting to go wrong considering that they hadn’t planned for any of this. Eve looked up at his figure in front of her and wanted to shrink into the ice that she was already sitting on. “What did Eve do?”
Eve cringed into the ice at his accusatory tone unable to say anything to defend herself. “We were just mucking around—it’s my fault I tripped her up,” Nathan said earnestly in an attempt to deflect the focus from Eve to himself.
“Typical. It’s not like one should expect much more from the pair of you,” Yas said his tone harsh and Eve could see on Gabby’s face her shock at hearing what Yas was saying.
Eve grabbed hold of Nathan’s arm and used it to leverage herself up from the ground in an attempt to assert herself back into the conversation whilst keeping the majority of her weight on her good foot. “I just slipped its no big deal. Why do you care anyway about it?”
“Come on Yas,” Gabby said resting a hand on the Japanese skater's arm calmingly. “Why don’t you finish showing me your new exhibition program.” Eve smiled at the Canadian woman gratefully for trying to relieve the tension. She had scarcely spoken to Gabby a lot before this year but since their mutual disappointments at the Olympics and Eve’s planned move to Orser, Eve had come to admire her feisty spirit.
Yas cast a disapproving glance at Eve and she realised she was still holding onto Nathan’s arm for support. She released it quickly and instead tucked her hands into her hoodies pockets. She looked up and met his eyes, which were fixed on her and held his gaze with as much strength as she could muster. The four of them stood there frozen for longer than Eve could tell and she was about to surrender and give in and look away from him breaking the stalemate when Yas tore his eyes away from her and turning skated away to the other side of the rink.
Everyone else snapped into motion with Gabby smiling sympathetically at Eve before following Yas to where he had gone and Eve could hear her starting to berate him. “Are you okay,” Nathan asked. “Yas was really harsh towards you.”
“I told you he was mad at me,” Eve said mustering up a weak laugh. “Now can you help me get to the side before I fracture my foot again.”
“I’d be honoured,” Nathan said taking Eve’s hand and pulling her towards the edge of the rink gently whilst she balanced carefully on her good foot.
…
“You all right there?” Gabby asked but Yas didn’t respond. He was scarcely listening to her, to be honest. He was just so confused—he wasn’t sure what he had missed but clearly, there had been a miscommunication somewhere between him and Eve.
They were friends weren’t they good friends. But since that party or even since the Olympics it hadn’t been the same and Yas wasn’t sure why or what had changed between them. He’d been excited to be her training partner next year as he believed that she’d be able to push him and he her but now he didn’t know what to think.
It was common courtesy at that party when she had been drunk to not kiss her and turn her away. She was completely out of her mind –she didn’t even remember what happened the next day—and besides, they weren’t friends like that even if she was one of his closest friends who just happened to be female. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t told her about the kiss that hadn’t been but it wasn’t important as nothing had ended up happening and Yas didn’t want to put any strain on their friendship but clearly Eve remembered something of it based off of her actions.
But that was it her actions had been completely off recently. At breakfast, she had been significantly harsher than she had used to be and seemed almost irritated at his presence unlike normal when if anything she wanted to be around him. Then now she was insolent towards him and whilst she had tried to play it off as though she was joking Yas was aware that she was completely earnest. Besides how long had she even been friends with Chen. It’s not like they were both from Russia or friends he never remembered Eve talking to him before now.
He glanced to the side where he saw Nathan on the ice demonstrating the group choreography to Eve who was sitting perched on the barrier between the ice and the arena laughing. She looked as though she was about to take flight and was lit up in a way she hadn’t often been since Pyeongchang. He didn’t understand why if anything Chen was trying to ruin her future career as a figure skater by fooling around on the ice the way they had been. It was completely irresponsible on both their parts and as their senior Yas completely disapproved of their actions.
“Yas are you there,” Gabby asked loudly and Yas only just became aware that he was still on the ice and in the middle of a conversation.
He blinked twice at her disorientated before snapping back into focus, “Yes. What do you want.”
Gabby laughed at his abrupt tone, “To check if you’re okay you look shaken up.”
“I’m fine,” Yas said dismissively. He could hear Eve’s laughter in his ears from across the rink and when he glanced back he could see her bad foot dangling down limply from where she was sitting. That was it he told himself. He was just being concerned for her because she was coming off an injury just like him and he didn’t want her to hurt herself again. He was just being overprotective of a friend and there was nothing wrong with that.