Love is Etched in the Ice

~Avery’s POV~
Oh, how I love Iris. She always has her camera and always has amazing ideas. If her snowboarding career goes downhill, she should take up photography.
Which, of course, it never will. She’s an amazing snowboarder. But she’s also been doing it all her life, so, it’s kinda her destiny.
We still had ten minutes before Shaun went, meaning that I had to suffer in the freezing weather just another fifteen before I could go back to the dorms and sleep………
Ahhhh… That sounded good. But I knew I couldn’t. We still had the ceremony, and I had gotten a call that said the doctor would be here at three instead of five to do the ultrasound. So, watch Shaun, grab some lunch, then the ultrasound, the medal ceremony and then I get to sleep.
“Aw, that one’s cute. Look.” Iris put her expensive camera in front of me so I could see picture. It was me, staring out into the distance, with my hands linked over the slight bump in my shirt. I had to admit, it was very cute. I loved the sun shining down on the snow capped mountains behind my head. It looked like it belonged in a magazine.
“Nice. I like that one.”
“Me, too. It’s beautiful.” Apolo looked over my shoulder.
Iris drew in a sharp breath: She had an idea.
“Would it be okay if we did a photo shoot? Like, not now, but I want to make a website where I put all my photos and stuff. I would come over and just take a bunch of pictures.”
I looked at Apolo. “Sure. Like, an all day shoot?”
“Probably. I would want some with the sun in the background, some when your asleep and Apolo is looking at the ceiling. Stuff like that.” She smiled.
“Okay, how about… Saturday. Tomorrow? That works, right?”
Apolo nodded, “Works for me.”
“Yeah, Sunday is when I run and Shaun is only training and stuff. So, I’ll come by at… seven?”
I thought about that. I would get to bed about nine, seven worked. “Yeah, seven’s good. I might not be awake but you can come. He’ll be awake,” I jerked my head towards Apolo.
“And now, running for the United States, Shaun White!” The crowd cheered loudly, feeding Shaun exactly what he needed, energy, and lots of it.
The buzzer went off and he left the gate. His first jump, twenty-six feet in the air, he did a flip and landed, going over to the other side, jumping twenty-three feet. He came down, and went back up, hovered in midair and smoothly glided back to the top of the pipe. Five more jumps, all awesome, the tricks were perfect. He skidded to a stop at the bottom of the pipe, looking up at the board, waiting for his score.
“Thirty-eight point four! That puts him in second place!” The crown leaped up and cheered.
He celebrated and Iris took a few pictures of him. Even if she wouldn’t admit it, she was in love with him.
Nine others went, all coming out with good scores, but not good enough to knock Shaun out. The last runner was Japanese Kazuhiro Kokubo whom did awesome. He waited that the bottom for his score. Shaun watched intently. Silver was okay, but bronze wasn’t what he wanted. He’d settle, but be a little upset.
“Thirty-eight point two! Bronze medal goes to Japan!”
Iris screamed. Shaun’s smile got ten times brighter. He shook hands with Kazuhiro and congratulated Peetu Piiroinen, of Finland, who got gold.
Apolo had a huge toothy smile on when he looked at me. I hugged him, pressing my head into his chest. Even in all the noise, I could hear is strong, steady heartbeat.
I looked up at him, “We should go eat. I’m starving.”
“Alright. Come on.”
We said bye to Iris and walked down to the café. We walked inside and sat down, it was almost empty, but with a few Frenchies off in one corner.
I needed something hot, like, lasagna or something. Too bad they didn’t have that.
“Hey, I think I’ve decided that I’m not really all that hungry.” I set the menu thing down and looked across the table at Apolo.
“Okay, I’m not either really.” He put his menu on top of mine and got up. He held out his hand and I gladly took it.
I collapsed on the bed as soon as we got back in the dorm. “This bed is so comfortable,” I sighed happily.
Apolo chuckled and walked over to the bed, pulling my boots off. I curled up the best I could and wrapped my arms around my knees.
“Now you gotta take your jacket off. You’re gonna get overheated,” he tugged on my hood.
Unhappily, I moved onto my back, spreading my arms out. “You can do it.”
He kissed my forehead and unzipped my jacket. I slipped one arm out and he pulled on the other.
I curled up again, pulling the blanket over my shoulders, and closing my eyes. I felt the bed move from the extra weight that was put on from Apolo sitting down. He moved some hair out of my face, keeping his hand there while he lay down.

~Apolo’s POV~
She was perfect. Beautiful. Everything. She was mine.
I kissed her nose and got up, hoping to get the room clean a little bit before the doctor got there. I put some clothes back in the suitcases. Put those, our shoes, and our jackets in the closet. I looked around. It looked cleaner. Just one thing left.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Ave, kissing her cheek.
She nodded slightly so I left the room, careful to lock the door behind me.
I jogged down to the gift shop in the building and picked out a bouquet of yellow and red roses. Yellow for friendship and red for love. After all, I did fall in love with and marry my best friend. I thought it was appropriate.
I paid and rushed back up to the room, it was 2:45 so the doctor would be there any minute.
And by any minute, I mean he was there waiting when I got back up to the room.
“Sorry, Ave’s probably asleep,” I unlocked the door, letting him in and walking in after. I set the roses on the dresser and went over to the bed, “Ave. Hey, the doctor’s here. Ave.” I smiled, sound asleep. I shook her a little, “Avery. Wake up.” I wasn’t very good at a sing song, but I tried.
I continued to try waking her up as the doctor got his things ready.
“Avery, wake up.” I used my best stern voice, which was hard, she was just too cute asleep.
“What?” She sounded sleepy, I didn’t blame her.
“The doctor’s here.” I looked over at him, hooking the machine up and putting gloves on.
“Okay,” she rolled over on her back. “Hi, Doc.”
“Hello, Avery. How are you feeling today?” The doctor was a short man, of Chinese decent, with round glasses and a fuzzy chin.
“Alright. We felt a kick this morning,” she sat up, leaning against the pillows.
“That’s great! Alright, lift your shirt up, please. This is gonna be cold,” he squeezed the blue gel on Ave’s stomach.
“Holy crap, your right. That’s freezing.” She took my hand, ready for the picture to appear on the screen.
“Alright, ready?” Dr. Cho kept the wand thing hovering over her stomach, taunting her.
“Do it already!” She took his wrist and moved it down.
“Alright, alright.” He examined the fuzzy picture on the screen.
“Wow. That’s them?” I pointed to two round things.
“Yeah, those are the heads. Perfect position. It looks like different sacs, so they won’t be identical.” He moved it down a little, “And, it looks like a boy and a girl. Everything looks good.” He moved the wand around more, and kept murmuring ‘Yep’, ‘That’s good’, and ‘Awesome’. “Alright, well, everything looks good. I’ll get back to you if the other doctor can find anything wrong, which, they shouldn’t.” He smiled warmly and wiped the remaining gel off with a white towel.
He got his things together and walked to the door.
“Thank you so much, Doctor.” I walked over and shook his hand, opening the door for him. He walked out after nodding to Ave. I closed the door and ran to the bed, jumping on it.
“They were beautiful.”

~Avery’s POV~
“They were, huh?” I wasn’t sure, but it looked like his eyes were red and wet.
“Yeah,” he crawled up the bed and lay down, this time his head on my chest.
I smiled and stroked his hair. He lifted his head and looked at me.
“Just like you,” he lifted his chin and kissed me.
I slid down and put my hand on his cheek. He traced my side and left his hand sitting on my hip. I pulled away and looked in his green brown eyes.
He was perfect. And I adored him.