By the time night settled blue and cold over Ohsu, the rink had grown far quieter than it had been that morning, when the long training session had filled every corner of it with motion. Now the cold air clung to the ice, and only the faint scrape of a skate gliding across the surface disturbed the stillness.

Within that quiet, her movements began to take on the shape of a dance beneath the sea, each one deliberate, fluid, and hauntingly clear, as though water itself had learned to follow her.

‘No... the takeoff still drifts too much. If I’m going to stand under the light tomorrow, then it has to be sharper than that.’

Even the familiar jumps began to merge together over the course of her practice, their rhythm flowing so naturally through her body that even the slightest movement of her fingers felt bound to it.

Still, each movement remained unmistakably its own, sharpened through repetition and polished with care. To anyone else, it might already have seemed enough. To her, it was still too far from the level she would need, and that was exactly what kept the edge in her from softening.

Shhhnnk.

Her skate pushed off once more, momentum building almost at once, every angle of her body measured with the same relentless control. Yet this time, at the height of the jump, her line of sight shifted just enough to catch the outline of someone beyond the rink.

She landed cleanly, though the awareness of that presence did not leave with the impact. The dryness in her throat surfaced only afterward, sudden and annoyingly ordinary against everything else still running sharp beneath her skin.

‘...I could really go for something hot.’

Only then did her eyes settle properly in your direction.

‘You’ve been standing there for a while, haven’t you? If you’re going to stay, then don’t get in the way. I was heading out anyway.’

She rolled her shoulders once, the motion small but telling. To be practicing this late was a privilege many junior skaters had never been given the chance to touch, and somehow, you had found your way to the rink just in time to be noticed.

It was late, and the quiet had already deepened around the ice.

Now that her attention had settled on you, would you finally step forward and reveal yourself, or turn back before the moment could become anything more?