Love is Etched in the Ice

“Avery, Apolo; Apolo, Avery,” The Flying Tomato put his left hand on my shoulder and his right on Apolo’s.
“Nice to meet you, Avery.” Apolo nodded and smiled a crooked smile. His brown-green eyes shone from the light reflected off the snow.
“Same to you.”
It was after Apolo won his gold medal in the 1500 meter short track. Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and his first games. Gold.
After the stands emptied and everyone had left the ice, Shaun White, my ‘younger brother’, introduced us.

“And now, in his third Olympics, representing the United States, Apolo Ohno!” The announcer came over the PA, making the crowd go crazy.
I was snapped back to reality.
Sitting next to Yuki Ohno, Apolo’s father, I stood up, screaming.
He skated out onto the ice, looking up into the crowd, raising his right hand after touching his lips. He looked over to his father and me and smiled that crooked smile I loved.
Apolo took his spot, the closest to the wall, next to him was Lee Ho-Suk and Lee Jung-Su, both Koreans; J.R. Celski, an American; and Charles Hamelin, a Canadian.
The bang went off and Jung-Su raced up to first, followed by Hamelin, Ho-Suk, J.R. and finally Apolo.
Three laps to go and Jung-Su was slowing down. He wavered for a second and fell, taking out Hamelin. J.R. raced to first, staying there for a lap. Ho-Suk passed him with three turns left. Apolo starting sprinting, taking first place with two tenths of a second to spare. He won! Gold!
He touched his lips again and raised that hand to the crowd, a full smile on his face. He took the flag from John Schaeffer, his coach, skating a few victory laps.
After slowing down, he shook hands with each of the other skaters. I saw him mouth ‘Congratulations’ to the other two medalists. He went over to John and they exchanged a word, ‘bro-shake-hug’ thing and Apolo sat down and started unlacing his skates, after of course, putting on the stops.
I walked slowly down the bleachers after kissing Yuki on the cheek. I walked up behind Apolo and covered his eyes.
He stopped unlacing and ‘looked’ straight ahead. I saw the camera pointed at us and stuck my tongue an inch from his ear.
“I’m gonna guess… Um, Avery?” I felt his eyebrow rise under my hand.
“Aw, shucks. Your too good for that anymore,” I hugged him from behind, smiling.
“Nah, I’m just a good guesser,” he winked and continued unlacing, slipping off his skates and replacing them with his Nike shoes.
“Could you hand me my jacket, please?” He pointed to a chair a few feet off.
I skipped to it and picked it up, sliding it on, easily. I skipped back over and offered him my hand.
“That’s not what I meant,” he kept a straight face, but I knew he could barely hold in his chuckling.
I noticed the stands were almost empty now. “Well, fine.” I bent at the hips and put my face close to his, to where our noses were almost touching. “But if you want it, you have to catch me first.” I kissed him quickly on the mouth and ran off up the bleachers.
I heard his chair crash as he quickly got up and ran after me.
I sprinted down the fifth row, jumping over the seats to the seventh row and continued running. I stole a glance behind me to see e was about ten feet behind.
Crash!
I caught myself before hitting my head on the cement stairs. While looking for Apolo, I tripped over a bucket, luckily empty, and hitting a mop.
Apolo rushed up and knelt beside me, “You okay?” He was smiling, so he knew it wasn’t too serious.
“Yeah, I just bumped my knee and skinned my hand.” I looked up at him through my eyelashes, “Kiss it better?” I smiled on the inside, remembering a little girl long ago who did that exact same thing to her father.
He looked down at my hand, which I had extended. He grabbed my wrist and kissed the outside of my palm, looking at me through his eyelashes. His goatee tickled my thumb.
Yuki walked over, shaking his head and carrying my jacket, which I left on the back of my seat. “You guys are so childish,” oh, how I loved his accent.
We stood up and I brushed off Apolo’s jacket, handing it to him while taking my own from Yuki. “Thanks.” I smiled at him, shrugging into my own jacket, the exact same as Apolo’s, but the female version.
“Shaun, they’re probably in here. If they aren’t in the dorm, they are more than likely in here. Duh.” Iris, or Saf, opened the door, making the empty stadium echo with her very girly voice.
“Whatever, Saf.” I heard him roll his eyes.
“Yes, Iris. We are in here. We were just leaving.” I started stepping down the stairs, careful not to fall, since, even though I am a snowboarder, I am very clumsy, especially when it comes to stairs.
Knowing this, Apolo grabbed my elbow, helping to balance me. I smiled back at him, silently thanking him.
“Ha, I told you.” Iris appeared in the tunnel, followed closely by Shaun White, a fellow half pipe-er and my ‘younger’ brother.
“Like I said before, whatever.”
“Would you two just get along? Gosh.” I picked up the fallen chair and set it back up, sitting down and rubbing my knee.
Apolo sat down in the chair next to mine, facing me. He glanced at my knee, “You sure you’re okay? It looks kinda swollen.” He put his hand over mine, massaging it gently.
I smiled, looking down. “Yeah, I’ll probably have a bruise, but that’s it.”
Iris walked over to us, hands in her pocket, white specks in the fur lining her perfect face. “What, on your knees too long last night, Avery?” She spit it out, obviously angry with something.
Shaun walked up behind her.
Or someone.
“Hey, man, ‘gratz on the gold.” Shaun touched fists with Apolo. He didn’t seem angry, but he was always good at hiding his feelings.
“Thanks. Good luck tomorrow.”
Shaun smiled and stole a quick glance at Iris, his smile fading for a millisecond.
“And no, you know I don’t do that stuff.” I tried lightening up the mood by adding a sort of ‘giggle’ to Iris’s ‘question’.
“Whatever.” She walked off, sitting in the second seat of the first row of bleachers.
“Okay.” I sighed and looked at the time on watch: 10:47. Time for bed.
“Apolo?” I looked at him sweetly.
“Yes?” he looked at me as if he already knew what I was going to ask.
I lifted my arms, “Carry me?” I stuck out my bottom lip slightly.
He sighed, happily. “Alright. Hey, Shaun, could you carry my skates and stuff back to the room? Please?”
Shaun nodded and put his phone away. He picked up the things and hoisted them over his shoulder.
“Aw, Shaun!” Iris jumped up from the bleachers and kissed Shaun.
Apolo stood me up, and put my arm over his shoulder then bent down and picked me up bridal style. I laid my head on his chest and closed my eyes.
Twenty minutes later, now that we were back at the dorm, Apolo opened the door and laid me on the bed.
I sat up as Shaun put Apolo’s gear in the closet.
“Thanks, Shaun.” Apolo looked around the corner from the bathroom.
“No problem. See you guys in the morning. Night.”
“Nighty, night.” I got off the bed and closed the door. I hung up my jacket in the closet and got some comfy pajama pants, a tank top and, of course, clean undies. I walked in the bathroom, already in a towel and got in the hot shower. A few seconds later, Apolo walked in.
He stepped over to me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around his torso and closed my eyes, laying my head against his bare chest.
“You were really good tonight.” I looked up at him.
“Nah, it wasn’t that good,” he put his head down and kissed me softly.
“Whatever.” I stepped back. “I’m getting bigger.”
He smiled, “I know.” He laid his hands on my baby bump.
“Four months left.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, having to get on my toes to reach.
Ten minutes later, we were in bed, dressed and warm. He fell asleep but I was awake, just lying there, using him as a pillow; just thinking. I finally fell asleep, thirty minutes later, 11:55.
Tomorrow’s another day. I’ll tell him then. Was the last thing I thought before I closed my eyes and drifted off.