Blades & Flirtations [Mileven AU] [SLOW UPDATES]

prologue

"Representing the Hawkins Figure Skating Club, please welcome Elle Hopper"

Elle could feel her feet step over the barrier and onto the ice, but it doesn't feel like she is physically moving herself. She can hear her blades move against the ice as she skates to her starting spot. She feels herself stop and takes a second to look up.

So much has happened in the past few months, hell the past few days. She can already feel the sweat dripping down her face and she hasn't even begun her program yet.

Everything is moving in slow motion: the dying of the cheers from the audience, the nod from her coach signaling she's got this, the judges as they look at her as they wait for the music to start, even Elle feels like she's going into her starting position in slow motion.

Nothing feels right: her tights seem to fit wrong, her skates are too tight, her dress feels like it's bunching up already, her hair is falling into her face already even after all the product she put in her hair, her blades don't feel sharpened enough, the ice feels too choppy, everything about this feels wrong; much like how the past couple months have felt. It feels like everything's finally catching up to her, only the timing of this couldn't have been worse. She's only skating her free skate program at Nationals, in the final group, and could be considered a part of the next Olympic team if she doesn't fuck up everything in the next 4 minutes.

Just before she settles into her position, she looks up one more time to the audience, looking for that once face she can count on. The one face that if she knows she sees, she'll be alright. That she can skate a clean program, shit maybe even place and make the Olympic team.

She looks down, realizing she's wasting time, it looks bad for the judges. Are they there? Elle doesn't really know, she never got a good enough look at the audience. But she knows they're there, she can feel it in her gut.

She takes a final deep breath, settles into position, awaiting the opening notes of her free skate program, Moonlight Sonata...

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A/N: Hello everyone! So this is my very first fanfiction ever! It's probably going to be a little rough because I haven't written fiction stories in a very long time. So my fanfiction is going to be a Mileven AU fic, in which Elle/El and Mike are competitive figure skaters. She will still be called Eleven, I'll get into that once the story actually starts. I'm pretty sure no one has done this type of fic yet, so hopefully I can do it justice! I was a competitive figure skater myself for many years, although Elle and Mike are going to be MUCH better than I ever was. I should be able to get all the details right, if not I will come in a do corrections.

Hope you all enjoy it and stay tuned for updates! 🌸