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cinderlilyPairing: Toews/Kane
Rating: PG
Summary: Patrick catches Jonny teaching a boy to skate. (Another snippet in this apparent Cruise!verse.)
Author's Notes: Thanks and love to fromiftowhen and my husband for the beta. (Yes kids, rope your significant other into doing your beta. He lives with you, he can't escape.) All mistakes are still mine!
Even if it weren't for the fact that Erica had playfully coughed the word stalker at him during breakfast that morning, Patrick would know this thing between them is getting pretty weird. It was the third time in a row he had gone to the ice hoping to find Jonny.
He walked out on the ice to find a familiar backside, crouched to be level with a pint-size skater. (Patrick would not find this endearing.)
Patrick stood nowhere near enough to hear the conversation, but he could see the excitement on the little boy’s face through the helmet guard. Jonny stood up and slapped his hand gently on the back of the boy’s shoulder.
"You got this, buddy," he called loudly. He caught sight of Patrick and winked.
The little boy chugged along the blue line at a painfully slow pace down the center of the ice. Patrick was pretty sure that even WITH the speed of the boat below them, the kid was topping out a quarter of an inch an hour… yet Jonny didn't seem to mind the glacial pace. He continued to call random phrases of encouragement. When the little boy stopped for a breather Jonny cheered that he was SO CLOSE. (Patrick thought that was being a bit overly optimistic.)
Patrick found the unending cheers somewhat addicting and by the time the kid got about halfway across the rink, he joined in on the cheers. The little boy wouldn’t look up from the ice, staring dead center at his feet (never a good idea, but Patrick wasn’t trying to do Jonny’s job). He called out "almost there!" after the boy, who he hadn’t even actually met, and when the boy touched the board it took all his energy not to swing him up.
Jonny pushed across the rink and did it for him, swinging the little boy by his hands in a low rotation just above the ice.
“That was awesome, Tanner!” Jonny enthused, as he placed him down and offered a high five.
Tanner frowned and ducked his head, ignoring the hand. “I kept looking at my feet.”
“You won’t do it forever,” Patrick offered, only feeling slightly weird for jumping in on a conversation he hadn’t been invited.
Jonny, who had knelt down to look Tanner in the eyes, smiled up at Patrick. “See, you got to trust him. He gets paid to skate.”
Tanner looked up and after a moment his eyes went wide, leaving it for Patrick to shift slightly awkward.
“You- you’re Patrick Kane.”
“That’s me.”
The boy tugged really hard on Jonny’s arm and whispered something into his ear. Jonny’s face turned bright red and pinched in on itself. Patrick would have thought he was in pain if not weird laugh that erupted from his lips a moment later.
“... What?”
Tanner shook his head and Jonny just shook even harder.
“Come on, you gotta let me in on the joke here, Tanner. It’s not fair, you want to be fair right?“
The boy seemed to consider it, and beside him Jonny, who was finally starting to look like he might breathe, nodded at him.
"My momma thinks you have a cute butt."
“Oh my lord, TANNER,” a slightly too high pitched voice came from behind them.
The three guys turned to find a woman with both hands over her mouth and a blush to put all others’ to shame.
“MOMMA I MADE IT ACROSS THE ICE!” Tanner cheered, completely oblivious, and shimmied the four feet to the exit. “ALL BY MYSELF, MOMMA!”
The woman smiled down at her son. “That’s great Tanner… Do you remember when we had that talk about things we say and things we just think?”
“But you say he’s got a cute butt. You SAY it. All the time. And you want to lick Sharpy’s --”
The woman put her hand over her son’s face and dared a look at where Jonny was barely keeping back laughter. “Thanks Jonathan,” she said. “He had fun.”
The sound of Tanner’s echoing “BUT MOOOOOOOM” could be heard for a solid minute before she must have reached the changing rooms. At which point Jonny finally started laughing like a hyena, while Patrick waited for him to finish.
“I’ll tell Sharpy he’s got it in the middle aged mom set,” he deadpanned. “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.”
“The lady got one thing right,” Jonny said, still breathing slightly heavy from the laughter.
“Ah come on, YOU want to lick Sharpy? His wife is awesome, that’s not cool man.”
Jonny looked around the ice where there were a few other lessons going on. He skated a little closer and Patrick could feel the warm air of his words. “I meant she’s right about your ass.”
Patrick would maintain the flush of red on his cheeks was the cold.
Besides, like that guy had any room to talk about asses.
(Just trying to catch my journal up)
