Drabble Quote: "All that blood looks good on you. It brings out your eyes" Gender Neutral Fluff
Warnings: Blood (unsurprisingly)
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You always believed the most important thing in life is stability. From a stable foundation, you can build anything.
But now you had no idea what you were doing.
The stable foundation was gone.
When Ryujin came to you with a "great idea" of going skating, you didn't know what you were getting yourself into. She had a tendency of putting you in awkward situations and it didn't seem like this was one of them. At least that was until you arrived at the ice rink.
You had imagined an indoor roller skating park or something. Not this.
The first thing you noticed was how cold it was. The rink was indoors, but it was just as cold as it was outside. You waddled your way through the front doors and took a seat on a bench while Ryujin jabbed you with jokes along the way.
"You look like the Michelin Man with that huge jacket." You gave her a look but she just laughed. "It's cute though."
"It's cold. Don't attack me."
"If your jacket was white, you'd belong outside with the other snowmen."
"Stop it."
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You were regretting everything. Standing around the ice rink was cold, but now that you were on it, the air was infinitely colder. You were shivering as you stepped onto the ice and that didn't help your balance as you nearly fell flat on your face within seconds. Your legs felt like jello. Cold, shaky jello.
Unsurprisingly, Ryujin was no help, seeing as she was too busy taking a video and laughing.
All you could do now was make do with whatever knowledge you had on skating (which was virtually nothing) and the boards surrounding the rink for support. There were a few slip-ups and moments where you knew your legs would be bruised up based on the number of times you've fallen, but you were slowly starting to get a hang of it. Still, there was a good chance you'd find yourself hanging onto the wall for the rest of the day.
Unlike you, Ryujin was already a skilled skater, easily gliding around you with her phone in her hand. She was definitely going to be sending these videos to her groupmates later, but that was the least of your worries. You had to worry about keeping your feet under you and not over your head.
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"You've got it!" Ryujin cheered as you got up on your feet again after the millionth fall of the day. At least by this time Ryujin had enough video on her phone and put it away and tried to help you up.
It must've been an hour since the two of you arrived at the rink and your confidence was finally starting to build. Sure, you were still having the occasional slip, but at least you could take a few steps before laying out on the ice. There was also no need to cling to the wall for dear life. Now, you could slowly glide without support, which was far better than what you could say not too long ago.
And now, Ryujin has gone from chaotic girlfriend to extremely supportive sports mom. You weren't sure if it was because of your prior multiple falls, she already had enough comedy footage recorded, or if it was because you were getting better, but Ryujin was now skating by your side, helping you get used to skating without support.
She held your hand as you slowly waddled around the rink. "You've got it, babe. You're gonna be a professional skater in no time."
"I think I'll settle with being a competent skater." You joked.
Just as you said that, it seemed the world was a fan of irony as you felt your legs leave from underneath you.
For most of the day, you fell on your butt and while that did hurt, it didn't hurt as much as falling forward on your face. The world went black for just a second and when you opened your eyes, you saw the ice underneath you stained red. It hurt a decent amount, but at least the ground was basically one big icepack you could press against your injury.
"Are you alright?" Ryujin eventually laughed enough and for the first time today, there seemed to be a hint of concern in her voice.
"I'm not sure if that fall did more physical pain or emotional pain. It hit my pride pretty hard, so I think it's mainly emotional." You rubbed your head and looked at your hand, which now had blood on it. "Actually, there's a decent amount of physical pain too."
Ryujin looked at you quizzically. "Are you sure you don't have a concussion?"
You felt a little dizzy, but you shook it off. "It might be more adrenaline than anything."
Seeing as you weren't fit for skating and you weren't going to be getting off the ice without assistance, Ryujin quickly called for some staff members for help.
People were very quick to catch on as you were helped off the ice and over to a bench you could sit down on.
You let out a deep breath as you could finally stand on a surface that wasn't actively trying to kill you. It was still freezing, but at least you didn't have to worry about getting thrown down onto the ice again.
Ryujin took a seat beside you and waited for staff members to grab whatever medical supplies. She glanced over at you, worried you were going to pass out or start to feel the effects of the hard fall you took. "Are you feeling ok?"
You put a hand to your head and felt the blood still running down your face. "There's a lot of blood, huh? I wonder how they're gonna get that off the ice."
Seeing as you were aware enough to make jokes, Ryujin let herself relax. "Don't worry, it really brings out your eyes."
"You think? Red's not really my color though, is it?"
"Better than that massive jacket you got on."
"Do you really not like this jacket?"
Ryujin looked you up and down for a moment. Sure, the jacket did make you look like the Michelin Man and it made you look like an oversized lollipop. It also probably didn't help when you struggled to balance yourself on the ice. "Maybe it's not horrible. It probably broke your fall a little."
"Exactly. It basically saved my life." You smugly said as you patted your puffy jacket, as if to say good job. "Dang. There's some blood on it too. Do you think it'll wash off?"
"Let's hope not."
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A/N
After reading through this to get back up to speed, I realized that it's basically finished. If I remember correctly, there was some other stuff I did want to do with this story, but it seemed better to just end it here.
I did debate on whether I connect this to the other two Ryujin stories I have in the book, but I decided against it since I didn't want to crowbar bits and pieces of previous stories into this one. I still think it makes sense if you read it that way too though.
Thank god I put a title before my hiatus.
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