The Skating Superstar

Mia couldn't exactly explain what it was about this man that made her blush like a schoolgirl.

It had never been like this, not even with Nyck.

And here she was, in front of an apparent Olympic champion, according to the sign right in front of her eyes, blushing embarrassingly.

Call me Yuzu... He had said, making the red deepen even further. It was just a friendly dialogue, right?

He was smirking at her, an infuriating one at that, looking smug about the reaction that he managed to get from her

"Well, If I heard you correctly, you wanted a photo, right, Alex?"

"Yes! Please! Mom, can you take it for us?"

"Sure, love..."

Mia quickly recovered from her state and pulled her phone out to take the requested picture. She had never seen Alex this excited to meet someone but as long as he was happy, Mia was willing to give him everything that she could.

After taking far too many pictures that all looked the same, she saw Alex's eyes shine bright at the skater beside him.

"How about we skate for a little bit?" Yuzuru suggested, "Can you show me anything, Alex?"

"Huh..." Mia could tell how nervous her kid got in mere seconds "Nothing that great..."

"Nonsense...I'm sure you're great!"

"I can only do doubles." The small boy admitted with a shrug "I wish I could jump like you.

"You are still young... I only started jumping triples at about your age too"

"Really?"

"Yes, silly." The older skater said before ruffling the younger's hair in an extremely cute way. "You have to allow your body to grow so you can do more difficult things. Trying to do something too hard for you can get you hurt."

"Mom says the same thing."

"It seems to me like your mother is very smart "

It was now Mia's turn to stare at Yuzuru, trying to understand what he meant by that, but clearly confused by the skater.

"Well, I'm not a skater, but I try to understand. Everyone needs to take things at their own pace." She ended up adding.

"Yes, it's just like everything else."

"I will show you my double axel!" Alex said enthusiastically, making Yuzuru's attention shift to him once again.

Mia saw her son get some speed and it was still crazy to her how he felt so comfortable on the ice. She was sure that if it was her in his place, she would fall right away. He jumped as if it was nothing and rotated fast, landing on one foot.

Yuzuru clapped with enthusiasm as if it was the most impressive thing in the world, bringing a huge grin to Alex's face.

"That was really good!"

"You think so? Ghislain taught me. He says I jump it like you."

"I can see why he would say that. You barely pre-rotate, that's great."

Mia noticed that they were the only ones at the rink now and she wasn't sure why that was. Alex and Yuzuru seemed to be completely lost in their world, speaking of rotations and lifting techniques.

"I wanted to try it with a back counter but Brian says that's already your trademark... It's always like that, he doesn't allow me to do hydroblades or bielmans either"

Yuzuru chuckled at that.

"You can try the counter if you want, but it's always great to find your trademarks. I guess Brian is right about that."

Alex did just that, trying to impress his skating idol in some kind of way, and obviously, as much as the excitement made him think he could do anything. It was rare for something you just started trying to go well. And this was just like that.

Just seconds before getting on the air, the boy was falling on his ass.

Mia would have worried if she hadn't seen this image time and time again in the past years.

"Auch" he said, making his spectators laugh.

"How about you show me a step sequence instead?"

"Can I do one of yours?"

The question seemed to catch Yuzuru by surprise, but he smoothly recovered from it with a smile towards the younger boy.

"Sure, if you want to. Maybe I can get them to play some music."

"That would be so cool!"

"What do you want to do?"

"Can we do Seimei? Together? From the spin and the choreo sequence?"

Alex was far too excited but Mia wasn't going to interrupt the moment when the Olympic champion didn't seem to want it either.

"Sure"

Yuzuru disappeared from their sight for a couple of minutes before the music started playing at the venue, something that Mia remember vaguely hearing whenever her son watched skating videos.

In seconds, Alex and Yuzu were lining up side by side, as if waiting in queue to enter at the right place.

And they did.

Mia watched them skate in syntony while her chest tightened. She wasn't sure why, but a weird feeling ran through her body as she watched her boy so happy on the ice.

By the time the song came to an end and both of them struck the finishing pose, she had to wipe a single tear that threatened to fall.

Why the hell are you crying, silly woman?

And because she was like this, blinded by her emotions, Mia completely failed to see the signs that she would usually notice with no questions asked.

It was only when Alex kneeled on the ice gasping for air that she finally saw what was happening.