I Need to Know (Valerie)

[Noah Washington]

Christmas had been a little more hectic than it usually was for Noah. He had the pleasure of meeting Valerie's family on Christmas Eve - they were... Well, they were the Danners. And while he would have liked for her to meet the little amount of family he had left, he knew it wasn't the best time for it. Even if Josh was bugging the living hell out of him about it.

Hell, even his Grandmother was starting to question if "Valerie" even existed.

"She said," Noah started, adopting his best impression for his grandmother, "Are you sure "Valerie" isn't just Vance, your secret boyfriend?" Still, he managed to laugh at it as he walked the incredibly short distance from her apartment to the lake. The snow didn't keep him down much, in fact, it was just the opposite.

Most people wanted to spend their New Years Eve nights out partying. He had a differnt idea; "You have to grace me with your new ice skating moves." Noah reasoned, tugging at the laces of his skates as they hung over his shoulder. "You've been practising, right?"

Because last time had been an ordeal.

[Valerie Danner]

Biting into her candy cane, Valerie couldn’t help but laugh at Noah’s recount of his trip back home. “You do have that gay vibe about you.” She teased, nudging his arm with her shoulder. “You’re too well put together to be completely straight.” Pausing, she chuckled to herself. “Although…last night would probably paint a pretty different picture of that notion…” she chuckled even more before shaking her head in amusement. “I should stop. I should.”

She jumped in front of him and stopped him for a while. “You know what would be fun though? If I dressed up as a boy if I meet them.” She wiggled her eyebrows before falling in step with him once more. “Joking. Maybe.”

His comment made her laugh. “If by moves you mean not eating ice too much, I would love to grace you with it.” She chuckled as she flumped down on the nearest bench, getting her skates ready. She hadn’t been practicing so much as getting all of the falling out of her system. She had chosen to wear some very modest dark leggings to cover up all the bruises she had gotten from falling the past few times.

“You’re not allowed to laugh okay?” She warned him, pointing a finger at him accusingly.

[Noah Washington]

"Don't say that. Just cause I live here, doesn't mean I live the lifestyle." Noah whined, crinkling his nose. It was true though, there were a lot of gay people in Pilot Ridge. He frowned hard in her direction, knowing she was teasing him and feeling willing enough to take it all on the chin. "Not joking." He corrected. No maybe about it.

"Eating less ice than last year? Merry Christmas to me." Noah chided. He really would try not to laugh, but there was only so much he could do. He sat down beside her, undoing his skates and swapping his shoes for them.

Leaning across to her, Noah pressed his lips to her cheek. "I promise," He started quietly, shrugging his shoulders, "To try."

[Valerie Danner]

“It doesn’t, baby. I know it. Everyone who sees me draped all over you knows it.” She chuckled, ruffling his hair and pressing her lips to his temple. "Or they probably see me as your beard." She added with a snort. She chuckled even more at his correction.

She laughed mockingly at Noah’s tease as she strapped herself nice and tight. She knew the key to a good skate was tight skates. Or something like that.

Leaning into the kiss, she feigned a grimace at his tease. “Why are we even together? Huh? Your merciless teases will eventually be my undoing and you’re gonna be sorry you ever made me feel bad about myself.” Valerie dramatically fell to her side and sobbed out loud.

Chuckling after a while, she grabbed Noah’s hand and stood up, a little wobbly at first, but she gained her footing quickly. “I can totally do this.”

[Noah Washington]

Noah ensured his own skates were tied tight enough, though not too tight to be annoying. A happy medium, and all that.

"As if my teasing could shake the mountain of confidence you've got on your shoulders." Noah interjected with an amused smile. He even offered her a light, playful shove with his palm. Sometimes she was a bigger dork than he was.

After hauling himself to his feet, he offered his hands out to her so she could stand. When she was upright, he nodded to her with caution. She could do this.

Because she had to, in the next moment he was stepping through the snow and gliding onto the ice. "C'mon, you had a year! You knew this day was coming!" Alright, so she didn't have a year. But as he rung small circles in the ice, he kept his distance. There was only one way to learn, after all.

By falling.

[Valerie Danner]

"You know me too well, sir. Too well indeed." Valerie narrowed her eyes at him playfully. She stumbled a little but regained her balance and shoved Noah back with her forearms. "You are such a boy." She rolled her eyes and poked him in the sides.

Gripping his hand as she stood up, the look he gave her made a small smile appeared and she nodded in response. She could.

"I did not have a year. Don't exaggerate." She called out as she slid across the ice. She hadn't fallen so she took that as a good sign. As Noah skated in circles around her, she squeezed her hands repeatedly every time she felt like falling down.

She put her weight on one foot and then the other and soon enough, she was gliding. "This lake needs some handles." She chuckled as she used the momentu to turn around to look at Noah. It had been something she actually mastered during her little 'practices'. It went smoother than she had predicted so she grinned widely up at Noah.

"There we go. I can totally do this." She shrugged, trying to skate over to Noah.

[Noah Washington]

Noah turned around on his skates, making a point to watch her as she moved. He had to admit, she did look a lot better on the ice than last year. Last year Noah recalled a lot of falling and subsequent moments where he had to ice certain parts of her. But he was confident in her this year. The number of falls would be at least halved!

"You're doing fine. Look at you! Totally not just shuffling around the ice." He called out to her, the massive grin on his face completely evident.

Noah stretched his arms out towards her as she was making her way towards him. He made a bit of an effort to close the distance, but it was all her. "This is like teaching kids how to swim, y'know?" He asked with a laugh. "C'mere baby. I got you!"

[Valerie Danner]

She couldn't help but grin widely at Noah's confidence in her. His words making her chuckle a little. She was nineteen years old for goodness sake but by God in that moment, she felt like a four year old doing this for the first time.

"Yes, because I'm a child right now." Valerie joked with a laugh at his analogy.

She didn't know what she was expecting when she started gliding against the patchy ice but as soon as she got confident about her strides, a slight hitch of her breath brought her tumbling down the ice face first. "Oh jeez." She wheezed, her breath knocked out of her. "No~ I was doing so well." She pouted as she turned on her back and sat up, dusting her knees and huffed upwards to get the lock of hair that had fallen into her face. "Gravity, thy's a vicious bitch." Valerie grumbled, butchering the line oh so completely.

[Noah Washington]

"You look a little bit like one." Noah pointed out, clearly only chastising her for the sake of a laugh. And to loosen her up a little more.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but before a word could get out she was already face first into the ice. Noah cringed, turned to a swift halt - ice shavings kicking up from his skates as he did so. He quickly made his way over towards her; "For what it's worth, it was almost graceful." He offered an award winning grin for her troubles.

"Do you want help? Or have you got this?"

[Valerie Danner]

"And here I thought I was the cradlerobber in this dynamic," Valerie smirked at her boyfriend, understanding that there was no malice behind his words.

"God damn your gorgeous face, I could just mess it up right now for being such an ass." She grumbled before swatting his face playfully. She contemplated on asking for help before finally deciding, to hell with it. What was the point of a boyfriend if she had to do everything herself?

"Pretty please come help a poor defenseless little girl." The brunette fluttered her eyelashes up at the blonde and plastered a simpering smile on her face.

[Noah Washington]

"Oh, you are," Noah reasoned, a shrug emanating from his shoulders, "But every so often, you gotta switch it up."

He threw his head back in a laugh, taking her backwards compliment regardless of how she gave it. He crinkled his mouth when she swatted towards him. "Don't handle me like you handled my spider-babies, baby." He said quickly, unable to stop himself from smirking at her predicament.

After he breathed a heavy, exaggerated sigh, Noah breached the distance and offered both hands to her. "C'mon, defenceless one. We'll skate together. I heard that's what couple's in love do these days."

[Valerie Danner]

"Keeps things spicy eh?" Valerie wriggled her eyebrows and chuckled, despite getting a little cold in the butt from sitting on the ice too long already.

His laughter got her laughing as well and when she was reminded of that fiasco with the spiders, her smile actually softened before she rolled her eyes again. "Whatever, you monster." She made a face as she responded.

She snorted at his exaggeration, rolling her eyes and let him help her up. She clung on to him and ignored the fluttery sensations going on in her stomach at the word 'love'. What has this boy reduced her to, she didn't know.

"Yes I agree," she replied with a soft sigh. "And that's what we are...a couple in love." She fluttered her eyelashes and nudged him slightly on his arm. Though she did slide her hand through his arm to grip his jacket sleeve tightly. "Lead the way, my love."

[Noah Washington]

Curling his hands around her wrists, Noah gently helped her back up onto her skates. He waited to ensure she was back to a regular state of balance before letting her go, his hand following the line of her arm down to hers. He held on.

Even he couldn't help the way it felt to say that he loved her. To refer to her as someone he loved. "Is it weird to say?" He asked with a small laugh.

But that amusement dwindled over time.

"Be honest," Noah began quietly as he lead them around the frozen lake. His strides were slow, smaller than they usually would be to compensate for his counterpart. "Do you wish I said it in another way? Another time?"

[Valerie Danner]

Valerie shivered lightly, though out of the cold or the movement Noah's hand made, she wasn't sure.

His question made her smile a little before she answered him. "A little bit. Is that weird?" She asked, wondering if any other couple actually questioned all this.

The slight tone change made Valerie just a tad nervous. Nothing good ever happens when someone asks the other to be honest. But she made a small sound of acknowledgement as they skated. When the question finally came, she turned to him with an apologetic grin. "Sometimes." She answered truthfully.

"I mean, I don't expect hot air balloon rides or dinner at a fancy restaurant or rose petals or whatever but I think the whole killing spiders thing may have taken the romanticism out of the way." She chuckled before clearing her throat. "Have you been...thinking about saying it for a while?" She asked, not wanting to look at him at that moment. The college student concentrated on the pace she was going.

[Noah Washington]

"Maybe we're just weird." Noah retorted with a little shrug. They talked about spider babies like they were real - of course they were weird.

Noah waited as patiently as he could for her to offer an answer. Truthfully, it had been a question on his mind ever since he said it. There could have been so many ways he went about it. He could have made it perfect, he knew. It wasn't as if he'd just realised he felt that way about her. The single word she offered hit him with force. Minimal, but there was still something behind it.

Romanticism. He felt his mind catch on the word.

"Honestly? Yeah. I... Didn't think it'd happen like that." He admitted, glancing away from her and down towards the way their feet moved across the ice. "I'm sorry. I couldn't land on the right idea, I guess. And then it just happened."

But before she could answer, he opted to slow the pace he was skating at. "Do over?"