Status: Attackative

Frostbite

Guts and glory

Being in the Olympic village was like being in another world. Athletes from all sports, races, religions, and intellect, all in one place. It was almost too much to take in. Several times I find myself just stopped, taking it all in, snapped out of it only when Kinna shoves me into her room to prepare for the opening ceremonies, or by Uncle Isaac yelling at me to pay attention during one of our last rehearsal times before the first round.

The camaraderie is what really astounds me. I’ve never been one of those people who doesn’t talk to my competitors. In fact, I make it a point to become friends with all of them. I hadn’t realized that it was the same for every country in every sport. In the end, we’re all in the same boat. We’re all athletes. We’re all good enough to have made it here. We’re all feeling the pressure to represent our country well; the pressure to win.

Benjamin and I stay inseparable. We’ve never really had this much down time in the entirety of our relationship. There’s school, Benji’s job, hockey and ice skating practice, family and friends. Our time together is actually pretty limited. Here there are none of those pressures. Our event doesn’t start for a few more days so there’s a lot of down time. We only have a few short time slots to practice seeing as how there are so many skaters and not nearly enough ice to accommodate all of our usually vigorous practice sessions. We’ve never had so much free time together.

And we’re making the most of it.

Despite the fact that there are so many people here, it’s not hard to find a place to be alone. Most of the time Uncle Isaac and Daddy aren’t in the room, they’re exploring the wonderful city of Vancouver. We don’t do anything too sexual. We mostly just enjoy spending time with each other. Making fun of celebrity’s on reality TV shows, me letting him win at Super Mario Kart so he doesn’t pout, making each other try new Canadian foods, and sometimes just cuddling and talking about nothing and everything. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted from a relationship, and Benjamin gives it to me. That and so much more.

The best part about it is that he hasn’t let me be nervous about our event at all. Any time I started freaking out he would take me into the nearest empty room and cradle me close to his chest, whispering sweet things to me until I calmed down. I love this man so much.
|~|


“Baby, wake up.” I poke Benji’s cheek and look at him through my lashes. He opens one eye lazily and tightens his grip around my chest.

“No.”

“Come on. I have to take a shower. Today’s the big day.” I grin. Today is the day we’ve been waiting for. We slowly but surely made our way to the top of the list, eligible to compete for the medals. As newcomers doing so well, we gained a lot of publicity. It’s overwhelming to say the least but our families help keep us focused on the goal.

“M’sleepy.” He mumbles, burying his head back into my neck.

I smile and kiss his head. We’ve been skating for three consecutive days now, all of it leading up to this epically important day. I understand his exhaustion because I’m feeling it too, but the big competition starts in six hours and we have a lot of preparation to do.

“Uncle Isaac and Daddy went to find someplace to cook breakfast. We could shower together?” I suggest. This wakes my boyfriend right up.

He hops out of the bed and is halfway to the bathroom before he turns to me expectantly. “Aren’t you coming?”

The hours leading up to the competition are hectic. After we get out of the shower, Kinna appears and dresses us for breakfast. There are a lot of photographers around so she finds it imperative that we look presentable. We have very different ideas of what that is but she’s my older sister so I don’t really have a choice in the matter. After breakfast we get to the skating center and Kinna once again fusses over us. Our outfits are more gender appropriate than they have been before so that’s nice. My boyfriend’s shirt is halfway made out of mesh, leaving a nice view of his abs. And the fact that the fabric hugs his ass just the right way is an added bonus. We standby eagerly and watch our rivals. They’re all impressively skilled, with routines that highlight the skills of each skater and the dynamics of each cpuple. I’m not worried though. The way Benji holds my waist while watching the other couples proves to me that our bond is stronger than theirs will ever be, and Miss Ella knows how to flaunt that.

We’re the fourth couple to go on which is both good and bad. There are nine couples after us which means that we could be upstaged, or it means that we could set the bar so high that we intimidate everyone else.

The cheers are deafening when we skate to the center of the ice. My heart is racing a mile a minute and suddenly I forget everything from our routine. My sigh staggers as I breathe deeply and Benji looks at me with concern.

“Baby, look at me.” He insists, cupping my face between his hands. “Focus on me, okay? Only me. You can do this routine backwards, in the dark, with dull skates. You’ve got this, and I’m right here with you, okay?”

I look up and see the absolute sincerity in his eyes. “Okay.”

He grins that grin that makes me melt and kisses my forehead gently. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I smile, positioning myself around his waist in the opening pose.

The music starts and we spring into several different poses before beginning to chase each other around the ice. We do all of our best tricks and lifts. Quite frankly we’re showing off, but isn’t that the point? Around a particularly sharp turn, Benji grabs me around the waist and uses the momentum of the turn and the gravity of his own body to lift us into a triple axel, something that’s almost never been done before.

We fly around the ice gracefully yet powerfully. Touch each other tenderly yet with force. We pour every ounce of ourselves into the routine and we’re both panting heavily when we come to an abrupt and intimate stop.
The crowd roars an applause and I can’t help but to smile and hope that it was enough.

Benji and I link hands and bow before making our way off the ice. Our families are waiting for us and engulf us in hugs as we await our score. When the red numbers finally pop up I’m nearly breathless. It’s the highest score I’ve ever gotten in all my years of skating and it puts us first.

There are still nine teams to go though, and they’re all incredibly good. Kinna and Miss Molly usher us into the changing room where we change into our USA pants, jackets, and the matching Ugg moccasins we treated ourselves to before the trip.

Watching the last of the competition is nothing short of torture. First, one team scores higher than us, knocking us to silver. Then another team knocks us to bronze. I’m almost positive I’m cutting off my boyfriend’s circulation as I grip his hand in anticipation of the last few scores. Luckily we’re in the clear when there’s only one more couple. The bad news is that they took the gold in this event eight years ago. The good news is that they’re eight years from that title and the woman had an accident two years ago and broke her ankle. They aren’t as good as they used to be, anyone will tell you that. But they’re still role models of mine.

We watch their near flawless routine and my heart sinks, realizing that there’s no way that we’re taking a medal home. They’re done soon enough and I start to pace anxiously. Benjanin catches me around the waist and gives me a nervous smile as we wait for the latest set of scores.

Not only did they score lower than us, but we’re ahead of them by a significant amount of points. It takes a while for this to register. Benji already has me in a death grip and everyone is screaming around me as I realize that we got bronze. We actually got a medal.

“We got bronze!” I scream, throwing my arms around Benjamin’s neck and kissing him soundly on the mouth.

“And next time we’ll take gold.” He grins and winks, kissing me again for the whole world to see.
♠ ♠ ♠
Sorry this took so long. We have no one to blame but me.
At firs I was just lazy and it was summer and I had friends who had cars, then it was college, BUT NOW IT'S HERE.

I hope it was worth the wait?

Let us know what you think?