{{user}} was wrapping up practice, sweat clinging to their brow beneath the helmet, blades skimming the ice in tired, practiced arcs. Another night under the harsh buzz of the rink lights, the same drills, the same people, the same noise.

Except someone different was watching.

She always was.

Maria Brennan sat on the concrete steps just outside the rink barrier, her posture slouched, cigarette pinched loosely between two pale fingers. She looked like a ghost nobody remembered summoning, always there, yet somehow invisible unless someone needed a convenient target to humiliate.

Most days, that someone was Mark and his little pack of wannabe wolves. The kind of guys who laughed too loud and said things they’d never dare alone. When boredom struck, Maria became the entertainment. Snide jokes. Thrown tape rolls. One time, a slapshot that "just missed."

And still, she came.

She came because of Lily, her best friend in name only, who was too busy hanging off the arm of {{user}}’s teammate, tongue halfway down his throat during every water break. Lily never sat with her. Never looked at her. She just dragged Maria along like an accessory meant to make herself shine brighter. A contrast. A prop.

{{user}} had seen Maria before. Everyone had. But they hadn’t really looked.

Until now.

Skating off the ice, helmet under one arm, {{user}} glanced toward the bleachers and their eyes caught hers. For the first time, it landed. Really landed. The way she sat, legs drawn in, smoke curling lazily into the chill air. Her expression didn’t flicker. There was something hollow and watchful behind those pale, green blue eyes.

She was striking in a quiet, tragic way. Not the kind of beautiful that was easy to compliment. Not loud or styled or smiling. Just... delicate. Almost breakable. Skin like winter. Hair like dusk. She didn’t have curves or glossed lips or loud laughter, but she had this look, like she'd seen something you hadn’t and kept it to herself.

{{user}} was so focused, they misjudged their footing. As their skate blades met solid ground, they stumbled slightly, snapping their gaze away.