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ladytauriel) wrote2014-03-18 10:09 pm
Fic: Starlit Spirits - Chapter 4
There are several international competitions, in which many figure skaters of Olympic standards annually compete. They include the Grand Prix Final, the Four Continents Championships, the World Championships (or Worlds), and the European Championships. Jaap Edenbann is the skating rink that was used in the winter olympics, when they were held in the Netherlands, and EKIJSA is a real figure skating club in the country. The Dutch Figure Skating Championships (or nationals) are not actually in January, but I used the idea of the nationals of the United States for the purpose of timing in the story.
Thank you so much to my amazing and wonderful and lovely beta, StarlitTauriel! Without her, I would probably never be coherent. Also, her constant support, patience, and love helps me find confidence in my writing.
Kíli took the opportunity to end the embrace and slightly distance himself from Tauriel, albeit awkwardly, after the applause faded, and the audience began to disperse. He recognized that he wasn’t
even remotely adequate in the areas of romance and relationships, so he forced himself to tread its waters slowly. He remembered what Coach Balin had drilled into him from the beginning to the end of their work together.Breathe the ice; be the skates; feel the fire. Eat the exuberance; drink the fame; dream the gold.
In the midst of being caught up with seeking world fame, going to almost ten competitions per year the last few years, Kíli never had the time for a normal childhood or adolescence. He bounced from tutor to tutor, coach to coach, homeschooling never offering fully accurate social cues. There were no mentions of relationships at all. The only acquaintances he had were his cousins and brother, whom he had nicknamed "the Company." They were there to support him throughout the beginning of his career as a child star. First in Erebor, his home town, just a few hours away from the capital; next in Amsterdam and in several European circuits and championships; and finally in the national competition of Holland. He hung around them during his rare free time, so of course he did not know how to properly act in a situation such as this.
Tauriel was staring at Kíli with a look he could not quite understand, the roots of her emotions buried deep within her eyes, unreachable and unfathomable. It resembled yearning for something intangible and far away. It was unsettling, not knowing what, but also recognising it from his own experiences and subconscious, fleeting feelings in his life. The sudden connection and familiar nostalgia forced him to look away.
"So, uh..." he muttered, scratching the crown of his head, "Maybe coffee?"
Tauriel's face burst into a smile. "I'd love to," she responded.
A few minutes of walking to the nearest coffee shop found them standing in the line to order, surrounded by an awkward silence. Kíli was not sure how to begin a conversation. When they finally busied themselves in the so important action that was drinking coffee, Tauriel decided to break the ice. Kíli almost snorted at the internal pun.
"So," Tauriel began, clapping her hands in visible peppiness, "when were you going to tell me that you ice skate - no, not ice skate, ice fly? Or something."
"Or something?" Kíli grinned. "Well, I've known you for less than twenty-four hours. Believe it or not, I never expected to see you again after last night."
Tauriel's face visibly fell. "No more wine cellar raiding?"
"Nope!" exclaimed Kíli. "I've decided to live a better life. It's like I'm a new man!"
The two broke into laughter, both content with their newfound easy banter. Kíli listened to the radiating smiles in her words and to the breathlessness in her whispered giggles. Being here and doing this, for the first time in his life, felt like standing at his first competition, knowing he had nothing to lose with a quad jump. It was risk worth taking, a jump over the edge, and a possibility of endless glory. However, before every reach for the gold came a chasm of failure and obscurity, which another can easily surpass. It was a matter of choosing what was most important.
"You're so good," Tauriel almost sighed in amazement. Kíli smiled, remembering the number of fans he had encountered at the Four Continents Championships and the Grand Prix Final, as well as the World Championships. Luckily, it was Japan and England that had welcomed him earlier that year, the Grand Prix happening at the beginning of December, and he left behind his fears of a huge publicity behind upon coming back to train at the EKIJSA Figure Skating Club and the Jaap Edenbann.
"Oh, really?" answered Kíli haughtily. "My performance was good enough for you?"
He immediately regretted his words after seeing the flush embarrassment on Tauriel's high, sharp cheekbones.
"I'm sorry," she made out, "but I barely know how to tie my skates. I've never talked to someone as professional as you before." After a pause, she said, "Tell me about yourself. What you do."
This was never a question Kíli had expected throughout his secure, paved out life, every step leading him in the direction of stardom. His young childhood demonstrated his bright future. His mother had shown undying support, and the Company understood his passion as well as his childish love for mischief, for which he rarely had the opportunity. Homeschooling and the minimum required academics, overshadowed by a total of roughly ten hours of on- and off-ice practice each day, created a wedge between himself and the flow of the regular outside world. A constant goal in his mind, to be one of the few Dutch figure skaters to make it to the Olympics, was always just beyond the horizon. Now, January approached with the Dutch Figure Skating Championships, which would decide his fate. Being surrounded by either competition or support, he was never required to explain himself.
Tauriel's wonder, something new, unexpected, yet pleasing, limited his ability to fully express his thoughts.
"Well, for one," he began, "I skate. Compete. World competitions and the like."
"What about the Olympics?" Tauriel asked. A fair question. Kíli sighed.
"I'm trying," he responded, "but only the Dutch Figure Skating Championships of 2014, in the last week of January, can decide that. New skaters have risen to fame since last spring, including those that have never competed against me.”
"Then what are you doing, staining your records and future with your useless paroles around Mirkwood Manor?" Tauriel exclaimed. "How can you just risk throwing away everything like that? You were thrown in jail. I ensured that you would be thrown in jail. What if there had been no one to bail you out?"
"It's okay, truly. There always will be someone, because such is my life as a famous athlete. Don't blame yourself. My uncle and sponsor, Thorin Oakenshield, bailed me out. In fact, he gave me the same lecture as you, and he has had to deal with me for many, many years." Kíli threw a bittersweet smile Tauriel's way, causing her to wince apologetically. "And I do train quite a bit, actually. I was ending my third practice session of the day, knowing there would be more people that would come for recreational skating, just before you arrived. I myself was there from early hours of the morning, and my regular studio, Jaap Edenbaan, is closed for the day because of recreational Christmas Eve skating, to no surprise.”
Tauriel's look of shock was layered over with discomfort, as if she had questions that were too embarrassing to ask.
"Just ask," Kíli prompted her.
Tauriel, looking flustered, said, "I don't know how to be around you, Kíli. You are nothing the person I thought you were, and everything the person I never had the opportunity to hope you'd be. I just work at a lord's manor. There are days when I think I can't cope, but there are days where you must instead think that you need to survive."
Outside, the stars that overhung Amsterdam, many remaining brighter and more visible than the city lights, were beginning to rise. The dim lighting of the café allowed the lights of the the celestial bodies in the sky to paint a plain of white on Tauriel's face, her freckles standing out like fallen meteorites. She was looking out the window in wonder, and a fleeting thought passed through the the outskirts of Kíli's mind. However, he grabbed on it. Like a gift I can't keep, it whispered.
It was the wonderment of this young woman that seemed so important to him, more there than anything he had felt before. Was this love? At what, second sight? It seemed unlikely, possibly too good to be true.
For Kíli, love was finding a home on the ice, when he couldn't find it in his mother's arms. It was skating to be, not just to skate, to train, or to win. It was flying as if his heart were trying to break free of its chains. The chains grounded him to reality, a reality that was ironically, and unlikely, were it anyone else, a future of figure skating, flowers, and fame. Sometimes, he just wanted to push himself physically, mentally, and spiritually over the edge for his own calm state of mind, his own salvation, and only for that. It was a vividly imagined thought that left him with nostalgia instead of hope.
"I don't know if I can explain to you whom I am beyond the expanses of my career as a figure skater," Kíli amended, "but I can show you, if you will let me.”
Tauriel nodded, returning her cappuccino mug and following Kíli outside of the café. She did not ask where they were going, and Kíli felt a slight flutter in his chest at the thought that she trusted him. His heart began doing triple axels from excitement, and he did not wish to stop it. Instead of leading her to Leidseplein, he walked in the direction of the nearest metropolitan station.
After he paid for her ticket, Tauriel finally asked, "Where are we going?"
"Just wait and see," he responded. "I have something in mind."
In his opinion, something remarkable.