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A/N: Yes, this was so not the place to go on hiatus, but it was not on purpose. Sometimes the stories just put themselves on hiatus without me having any control over it whatsoever. The stories are always in charge, I'm just the pawn that puts them on paper. And this time all my todae-related material took a time out on account of the overwhelming todae feels >.< I'm not always in a state where I can handle so many feels -_- Thank you for your patience ♥

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“Ready!” Daesung stood up a little too energetically, wobbling for a second or two, stretching his arms out as far as they would go, waving them around to try and regain his balance, before falling back down on his cute little tushy.

“Aigoo, aigoo.” Seunghyun shook his head like he had expected this to happen.

“Ya! It's harder than it looks! Fat chance you can do any better.“ Daesung folded his arms, pouting out of embarrassment. Seunghyun smirked. Daesung had no idea he had taken lessons. 'Be prepared to be amazed, little one.' he thought as he got to his feet. He couldn't wait to see Daesung's face light up with surprise and wonder.

He stood up like he owned the place, like he had been doing it professionally for many years before this, but something went wrong. He couldn't find his balance. Somehow the break part on the blade of his skate had gotten caught in the floor material, and after a second of rocking back and forth he fell right back on his , just like Daesung had done.

Daesung erupted with laughter, “SEE! Told'ya! It's super hard!”.

Damn. All that practice and he couldn't even stand up straight. He had wanted to be all cool and impressive, but that endlessly annoying pingu that resided inside of him always had to ruin everything.

“So ehm... how are we even going to reach the ice?” Daesung grinned hopelessly, pointing out what he thought was a major flaw in their plan. They were so close, but yet they could just as well have been a million miles away. Okay, he wasn't that talentless, he could at least get them to the rink itself. Oh, how little faith did Daesung have in him, he thought in frustration.

“My skate just got caught on something..” he explained, exposing his broken cool.

“Mhm.. sure it did..” Daesung giggled, not believing a word that he was saying. That was it. He stood up, getting it right the second time, waltzing over to him and chivalrously lending him his hand.

“Oh.” Daesung exclaimed in timid surprise. He had managed to impress him even though the blunder before had sabotaged his grand Prince Charming plan.

Arm in arm, they somehow managed to transport themselves over to the rink itself. The ice put the cool back into Seunghyun's attitude, restoring his self confidence. He had this in the bag. He released Daesung that started clinging to the rink wall for dear life, all his energy going into trying to stay upright. Seunghyun did a quick lap. He wanted to show off a bit, he had worked so hard to get half decent at this, he was allowed to bask in the glory.

“Hey! You're not so bad!” Daesung shouted as he rushed by him. Not so bad. Who was he kidding with that lame half-compliment. He was awesome, that's what he was! The second time around he headed straight for Daesung, planning to stop impressively right in front of him, a slight miscalculation nearly sending them both to their early graves, if it hadn't been for Daesung's quick reflexes. Daesung managed to slide to the side before he hit the rink wall head on with a loud clunk.

Daesung snorted when the shock of it all had subsided. “I take that back.” he giggled uncontrollably, tears popping out.

“Come on.” Seunghyun encouraged Daesung, who wasn't all too thrilled to let go of the wall. “I can just skate alongside it like this!” he grinned, moving along the ice like a sloth on cold medicine. He barely moved and still managed to do the splits out of the blue, hanging from the wall while his feet tried to get away from him. Chuckling, Seunghyun took his arm to steady him. It took him a few tries to convince him it would be alright, that he could let go, that he would protect him. “Trust me.” he smiled his most innocent of smiles, trying to imitate Daesung's angelic smile. His face looking like it objected to what he had decided, Daesung let go of the wall, taking a leap of faith.

Daesung was so wobbly that it took everything Seunghyun had to keep them both from kissing the ice. He couldn't stop himself from laughing, he was so cute. He was like a kitten being forced to take a bath, crawling up his arm to try and escape this horrible destiny.

“Woa!” he exclaimed as Daesung's feet inexplicably flew off the ground, sending him straight into his arms, like they were in mid dip of the dramatic ice tango they were dancing. Daesung's surprised face made them both chuckle.

After a few close calls and a couple of laps where Seunghyun acted as Daesung's skating aid, much like a walker for the elderly, only human and on skates, skating in front of him while Daesung clung on for dear life to the back of his jacket, things finally started to go the way Seunghyun had imagined. Their legendary clumsiness had erased all signs of awkwardness between them, leaving a comfortable sense of intimacy. It gave him the courage to slide the hand that was supporting Daesung's upper arm down along it, smoothly grabbing his hand and holding it tight. He squeezed it and Daesung squeezed back, his heart doing a backflip in excitement.

And around and around they went, lap after lap. He was amazed Daesung was able to skate straight with that widest of all smiles having made his eyes disappear completely. Okay, he wasn't exactly skating straight, but at least he was managing to stay up on those jiggly legs of his, which in and of itself was no small feat.

Seunghyun longed to close his eyes and enjoy the rush that came with skating hand in hand with that gorgeous ray of sunshine, lighting up his soul, the warmth from his hand able to heat up his entire body. Daesung decorated the music with his lyrical laughter after another near tumble, tightening his grip on Seunghyun's hand, weaving his fingers around Seunghyun's so it felt like they were permanently stuck together. There was no better feeling.

When he sensed that Daesung was getting weary, he guided them to the edge of the rink. He quickly removed his jacket and laid it out on the ice so Daesung could sit down without getting his preciously well shaped behind all wet. He had something special planned, a performance of sorts that he had painstakingly rehearsed, but he was getting second thoughts.

He had wanted to go all out since he was doing this whole 'big gesture, romantic skate rink just for the two of them' date in the first place, but now that they were actually here and he had Daesung in front of him, he got the feeling it would be more embarrassing than romantic. Although it could be argued that this was exactly what it meant to be romantic, to show your vulnerabilities and risk being embarrassed in front of the one you loved.

Pulling an invisible blanket over the fear in his chest, nervous that Daesung would be overwhelmed by his cheesiness, ruining the progress they had made, he told Daesung he had prepared a tiny something.

“What? For me? Okay...” Daesung's face was one big hesitant question mark, feeding Seunghyun's doubts.

“Nah, maybe I shouldn't.. it's stupid..” Seunghyun retracted, his confidence shrinking into a wrinkly little raisin.

“No.. no, I wanna see it!” Daesung wiped the surprise off his face, replacing it with the world's most supportive smile. “So it might turn out a bit silly, who cares? It's just the two of us here.” he sent him an encouraging wink, waving his hand to indicate that he should go ahead and start. Just when Seunghyun thought he couldn't fall any deeper, thinking he had discovered the bottom, Daesung yanked it right out from under him. Words could not describe how badly he wanted to make him his, now more than ever. Life was too short not to take chances.

And with that thought he skated to the middle of the ice, changing the music to the song to which he had rehearsed his routine, Knocking on Heaven's Door, the Antony and the Johnsons' version. It was perhaps a bit too down-beat to match the current atmosphere, but this version was just so unbelievably touching. It was impossible to listen to the song and not be moved. Therefore it was perfect since his goal was to move Daesung's heart enough so that the door to it would shake open and finally let him in. And it was also quite fitting, he thought, Daesung being the embodiment of his idea of Heaven and he was knocking on his heart's door.

“Here goes nothing.” he whispered to himself as he balled up his fists and took a deep breath through his clenched teeth, gathering courage.

He bowed his head and challenged the ice to a staring duel until the first chorus started. Right then, with the finesse of a construction worker, he did a very inelegantly executed ice-mime performance, skating around as previously choreographed, dramatically knocking on the invisible doors all around him. He could feel his heartbeat increase exponentially as the grand finale drew closer. He came to an abrupt stop in front of Daesung, with just enough space to open the imaginary door between them and skate through it. He pointed at himself, skated towards Daesung in a half eight pattern and pointed at him, completing the eight with a little twirl, his arms reluctantly forming a heart. It was the ice skating version of 'I love you'.

He took a bow to indicate that this weird disaster had come to an end, but couldn't find the strength to raise himself back up to face Daesung. This had been even more lame than he had pictured. Instead of being romantic and full of feeling, it was painfully humiliating and awkward. He shouldn't have done it. He knew he should have listened to his gut when it was screaming for him to bail on this ridiculous idea.

When he was just about to cut his losses and flee the scene, he heard the sound of a hearty applause echoing through the building. As the sound hit his gut it turned into butterflies, fluttering in a matching rhythm. He could feel his cheeks blush, the sudden warmth making them smart in the cold air. He bit his lower lip as he looked up. Daesung beamed at him, still clapping enthusiastically.

“What song was that?! I mean, I recognize the song itself but not this version.” Daesung asked with interest, his bright voice bouncing around Seunghyun's jittery heart as he joined him on the sideline. He told him about the song and how he had stumbled upon it, that it had completely captured him at first listen. He wanted to tell him there was someone else too that had captured him at first listen, but he couldn't get the words to form in his mouth, chickening out at the last minute.

“Wow, it kind of makes you want to create something beautiful.” Daesung said, his eyes dreamy as the last few notes of the song died out and left them in the quiet.

“I know, right!” Seunghyun agreed, thinking they were already creating something beautiful.