OOC – Aurum parts all written by Aurum.

And so they’d skated. Sort of. Mostly, Riley had fallen and Aurum had caught her. The catching part wasn’t bad, but the falling was. To make matters worse, every time she thought she had it and tried to move on her own, Riley would fall. Aurum couldn’t always catch her then, and she couldn’t blame him.

She’d starting getting up on her own, though, determination and stubbornness replacing the trepidation and mild fear. Riley knew she had fallen plenty already and that the worst that had happened was bruised pride and a couple sore spots on her knees and rear. She could do this. Really.

They were back to holding hands and moving slowly, and yet again, she slipped and fell into him. He caught her. And yet again, her brow furrowed in annoyance at the stream of failures. It was a constant process. Her, seemingly trying to defy physics and walk on razor blades, her failing. Her, not giving up.

”Dammit” she cursed. Riley glared at her traitorous legs. "Let's try again."

It slipped out on accident. Just slipped out so naturally. And when he realized what he'd chuckled, Aurum was stunned to find it true.

"I love you," He'd laughed.

Like a rubber band pulled taut, her body had suddenly tensed. Then, tension released as her eyes snapped. Up. Up, to his face. Surprise. Confusion. Shock. They were all etched onto her face.

So sudden. So sudden, and so unexpected. And dammit. She hadn't been ready. Ready?

What was one supposed to say to that? Just out of nowhere, when you were tripping. Falling all over someone in your own embarrassment and shame. Dammit Aurum. Dammit!

She couldn't skate. She wasn't perfect. She was grumpy, and snappy, and she’d dumped Ginger Ale on him. How...

For her, too, the words had just slipped out. Different words, though. And a whole different feeling.

"You can't mean that..." She'd trailed.

"Why not?" Aurum asked.

She couldn't skate. She wasn't perfect. She was grumpy, and snappy, and bitter, and didn't bat an eyelash when it came to giving him a hard time. But all the same, she was Riley. And a lot of those things, he didn't mind one bit. A lot of them, he even liked.

Why not? Why not? WHY NOT?.

Because. Because love was that word. That word. Riley realized that she was repeating herself in her head and wondered if this was the start of a mental break with reality.

Love. Psh.

Riley looked at Aurum, in all of his sincerity, too honorable or too sweet to take back words that had surprised him as much as they’d surprised her.

Riley was not a believer. Love was something for fairy tales. Love was something that little girls dreamed about before they found out what the real world was really like.

”You don’t want to love me Aurum.” she said.

Why. Not.

"Why not?"

Again, what was the big deal?

If the middle of a skating rink was an odd place to be having this conversation, nobody had told Riley.

Why? He still wanted to know why. Riley shook her head and gestured vaguely at herself. ”Because....all this.” she said, trying to make him understand, but getting a sneaking suspicion that she was going to fail miserably.

Aurum wasn’t asking for anything in return, at least not yet, and Riley realized how utterly crazy she had to sound. Maybe he was sincere. Maybe he really did mean it. The thought made a knot of something uncurl in her stomach. Something warm and absolutely terrifying.

”I don’t know how to do this.” she said.

All this? All this?!

>>”I don’t know how to do this.”

She was just keeping up.

"You try," Aurum said. And because he had good balance, he managed to pull her closer to him, taking her hands in his. "You don't have to rush it if you don't feel like it, but try." Try. It was a good word. Yoda might have said there was no 'try', only 'do', but Yoda was a muppet. Riley needed to take her words of wisdom from better role models than animatronic puppets. Like the little engine that could.

"Riley. I like you." Aurum reiterated. "And I don't think I have to tell you why. And you can argue. But we'd be here all day. And."

And... He trailed for her benefit. He'd let her pursue the 'and' to its end.

Try. He was always asking her to try. Riley pulled a hand from Aurum’s and put to her head, almost knocking her stocking cap off. This was a lot for someone who had only just reconciled herself to dating.

How had he put himself out there like that? And how had he stayed so even keeled when she hadn’t immediately responded in kind? He said she didn’t have to rush, but he wanted her to try. That’s all, just to try.

Again. How could she refuse? Was it all simply too good to be true, no matter Aurum’s intentions? Probably, but she wanted it. Bad.

They were closer now and Riley had somehow forgotten that through the whole conversation they’d been standing on ice skates. ”Okay.” she said, ”I can do that.” and launched herself against his chest.

Perfect balance is a fickle mistress. You rely on it for so long, and then... 'ooh, hey, shiny!' You fall on your ass. Riley went with him. She helped. She was good at that. And then, she was on top of him, and his whole backside hurt and he was in pain. But that was unimportant. She was hugging him, yes, but... She'd missed the most important part. The hinted 'and.'

He smiled at her deviously. "You didn't ask about the 'and'..."

God, she was cute. And in the hottest way...

Somehow, falling wasn’t so bad when you landed on top of Aurum. He was hot, the ice was cold. It was one of those things.

He was smiling at her, so pleased by the tiny bit of ground that she’d given that Riley was almost compelled to give more. She couldn’t though. Not yet, and he’d said that was okay. Was it slightly awkward laying on top of Aurum in the middle of a skating rink? Not really. Riley hugged him tighter.

And...she’d forgotten about the and? What and? Had there been an and somewhere in there?

”And....?” she said, puzzlement clear on her face.

"I said if we argued about it, we'd be here all day. And." Again with the devious smile. "I was just thinking there were better uses of our time."

It would probably be a good idea to get up off the ice soon. And luckily, it wasn't too far a walk back to the benches to get their shoes, and his motorcycle wasn't far off from there. And then, it was only a short drive back to her place. There were movies there, after all. ... also, beds.

Better uses of time than staying there on the ice? Riley saw that smile, and heard that tone, and stayed right where she was looking seriously back at Aurum before nodding her head.

”Yup.”

”Time to go.”

And so they went.

Hugging and kissing all the way.

Well, maybe not all the way. Maybe he had to have his eyes on the road at some point. And it was rude to show off in front of people. And he had a feeling that despite their best efforts, many men of the couples grouped all over the ice had reason to stare. They couldn't control it. He knew he was lucky. He had a smoking hot model with an awesome personality, after all.

The motorcycle, it got parked. And the kissing, it intensified as they worked their way up the steps. And into the building. And into the elevator. Someone, somehow, managed to push a button. It was time to go up for them.

Doors slid shut, ding.

Upward Movement. Movement down her back. Hands held.

The elevator jerked to a stop.

Silence.

Maybe they'd accidentally hit more buttons than just the one...?

Man that had been an interesting motorcycle ride. An interesting motorcycle ride that Riley had wanted over as quickly as possible. They’d kissed on the ice, they’d kissed on their way to the bike, and now they were kissing on their way into the apartment. It was impossible to be passive with Aurum kissing her, Riley decided. Just like everything else, he was so...so...him that she was almost frantic in response.

The door was too far away, and then the elevator. Somehow they made it inside. The doors shut, and the old elevator lurched to life, taking them up towards her apartment. Soon, but not soon enough. The elevator stopped, too soon.

No doors opened. No floor signal dinged and Riley groaned. ”Are you kidding me?”

Inwardly, Aurum swore. Outwardly, he swore too.

"&^$*!"

Dammit. It had to have planned this. After all the jokes they'd made at its expense every time since the last time it had caught them there. Like the Kite-Eating tree, it had watched their progress. Lurking. Waiting. And now, it had them like Devil's Snare. And it didn't appear like it wanted to let go.

"*&%^." He repeated his off-color remark.

Oh well. At least they were alone. With a shrug, he just kept on keeping on. In the stopped elevator. It could lurk if it really felt the need.

Riley had to laugh when Aurum swore. Laughing wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do, but it was what happened. She laughed, and Aurum swore again, probably not at her laugh, but at the elevator. The bastard elevator.

It figured. After everything. Foiled by the elevator. What was foiled? Riley didn’t know, she was confused, and following Aurum’s lead. He’d wanted to wait, and make things special, and stuff. It didn’t matter though, the elevator had killed those ideas.

Except that...Aurum just kept on keeping on. Right there in the elevator.

Dialogue was tough. Really tough. Hell, conscious thought was tough.

“I thought....you wanted to wait.” she said breathlessly and serious, working her hands free from whatever they’d been doing and putting them against his chest.