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Winter was the greatest time of the year. Beyond the comfort of thick clothing, it’s hard to get bored when there's a frozen pond nearby surrounded by a foot of snow. It was especially fun for Thanos and Nam-gyu. They always came up with the best ideas when high off their minds, splayed out on Thanos’s bed.
“Nam-su, I’m telling you—”
“Nam-gyu.”
“—right, Nam-gyu, I’m telling you, we gotta play on the pond this year. I don’t care what the concern is about the ice breaking.”
“Yeah, bro. We gotta like… ice skate or something.” Nam-gyu lolled his head to the side, facing Thanos.
“That’s so boring! We should…” Thanos paused, deep in thought. “...roller skate on the ice.” He sat up suddenly. “It’s like the same thing, but way better. ‘Cause it’s wheels, and wheels go way fast.”
It’s not like it’s impossible, right? They’ve only been roller skating at a roller skating rink, and they did fine there… mostly. Hey! It’s not like you have to be an expert to do it! That was way back in high school. They’re grown now. Early twenties is basically unc status. The only problem is–
“But we don’t own roller skates.” Nam-gyu follows Thanos up, leaning back on his palms, seemingly pondering how this problem could be avoided. “I guess we don’t own ice skates, either. How did we avoid this last year?”
“They have them to rent nearby, remember? But roller skating during winter… that’s just too genius a feat to be done easily.” Thanos plopped back down onto the bed, his arms shooting into the air to make shapes with his fingers, meaningless to anyone but himself.
The cogs in Nam-gyu’s brain were visibly turning, his eyes squinting and his tongue stuck out slightly in concentration. “Oh, yeah! We could, like, go to a roller skating rink.” He flipped over to face Thanos, grinning down at him. “Then we could rent the roller skates, sneak out the back, and run to the pond!”
Thanos’s attention slowly shifted to Nam-gyu, matching his expression with a hint of pride. “That’s it, my boy! I knew I could count on you!” He sat up, clapping Nam-gyu’s shoulders. They quickly moved to prepare for their grand scheme.
~
The moment Thanos and Nam-gyu slipped into the alley behind the skating rink, they burst into a fit of giggles and quickly made a move to go to the pond, skates in hand.
“This is gonna be so fucking fun!” Nam-gyu whipped his head to face Thanos.
“Everyone’s gonna wish they thought of this first. But nope–the Legend Thanos strikes again!” he guffawed, wrapping an arm around Nam-gyu, who quickly reciprocated.
When the pair got to the pond, it was almost empty, save for a few people who were building snowmen or having snowball fights. They scurried to the edge, preparing to put their skates on, knees clunking as they sat.
“We have to name this new sport. Roller ice? Pond skating? Wait, that’s water. Ice skating–shit.” Thanos pursed his lips.
“Hmm… ice wheels? Nah. Uhh… rice skate? I don’t know, I think roller ice wins.” They both finished tying their skates, ready to begin.
“Roller ice it is!” Thanos attempted to stand up coolly and drag Nam-gyu onto the ice by his hands, but his attempt at step one was squandered by him slipping and falling flat on his ass. He yelped in response.
“Dude…“ Nam-gyu chuckled into his glove-clad hand, pointing at Thanos with the other.
“Shut up!” Thanos yelled, but there was no bite behind it. He grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it into Nam-gyu’s face, laughing.
Nam-gyu, too, attempted to stand, but became a victim of gravity, falling face-first into the snow.
Thanos, the damn hypocrite, burst into laughter at the sight. “Now we’re even!”
Nam-gyu looked up, smirking at Thanos before spitting snow onto him. He probably aimed for the face, but it landed more on his jacket than anything.
Thanos got up, ready to start their game of roller ice, as they decided to call it–albeit a lot more carefully: he had one foot facing forward, the other facing the side; an extraordinary amount of effort was put into not sliding away. Despite this, he still put an arm out to help Nam-gyu stand.
Nam-gyu clutched Thanos’s hand, putting the same amount of work into balancing. This is gonna be so worth it. The next thing he knows, Thanos is already rolling away, dragging him along.
Unfortunately, wheels don’t follow the non-wheel laws of physics. Nam-gyu, who doesn’t have a stopper keeping him upright, falls right onto his ass. Even less fortunately, roller skates only have stoppers on the front. These stoppers were designed for tripping accidents, not for fully-grown-man-falls-down-holding-your-hand accidents. So naturally, Thanos gets dragged down too. He might as well have done a Charlie-Brown-style flip through the air with how vertical his legs ended up. Don’t worry, though, Nam-gyu was right there to keep his skull from breaking.
“Fuck!” Nam-gyu’s breath sputtered, coughing for air under the other man.
“Dude, I don't think this method is working. We gotta like–oh, shit!” Realizing their position, Thanos rolled off of Nam-gyu, albeit a bit late, landing next to him. Nam-gyu deeply inhales, easing his cough. “Anyway, we gotta, like, go to the middle of the pond. ‘Cause there's the most room for roller icin’, am I right?”
“How are we gonna get over there if we can’t stand?” Nam-gyu stared blankly at Thanos. They remained lying, weighing their options.
Skating over is out of the picture, but crawling… could work? It might take too long. Looking at the shoes, there’s–
“Stoppers!” Thanos sat up, a light bulb appearing above his head.
“Stoppers?”
“Yeah, the stoppers!” Thanos gestured to his skates, pointing at the little knob sitting between the two front wheels. “You can walk on these, right?”
“Dude, you’re so fucking rational!” Nam-gyu jostled Thanos’s shoulder. He sat up, got on his knees, and eventually finessed his way into a weird tip-toe position, knees bent and arms flailing at his sides. Thanos does the same, placing an arm around Nam-gyu’s shoulder for balance. Finally, they start moving. Progress!
“What was that one army thing? We gotta march in unison!” Thanos paused before chanting, “I don’t know, but I’ve been told!”
“I don’t know, but I’ve been told!”
“Uhh… something something something cold!”
“How the hell do you not know the words?”
They creep onwards, in something close to tandem, before finally making it to the center. Thanos threw his free arm into the air, whooping.
“Step two: complete! Let’s go!” Thanos took his boosted arm and wrapped it around Nam-gyu, who almost jumped before realizing he was wearing roller skates on ice. He opted to return the hug, bouncing on his ‘feet’.
The two mostly detangled, keeping their elbows interlocked.
“Okay, we start on our right foot, then we go around in a circle.” They both pointed to their feet… despite it being different sides.
“Your other right,” they said in unison.
“Okay… uhh, that one.” Nam-gyu pointed to their right feet with two fingers. Thanos stomped his right foot lightly to ensure it was right, which was confirmed with a nod.
“On three!” Thanos smiled brightly at Nam-gyu.
“One,” Nam-gyu reflected the grin.
“Two,” They began to lower their feet.
“Three!” The duo stepped forward in unison, and they started moving! Laughter filled the air, along with the sound of wheels on ice.
They made it about six or seven meters in before the sound changed to wheels becoming airborne. The two slipped from a small misstep and dragged each other to the ground with a loud crack. The yowl that was released was heard by the nearby children, who turned and began to giggle.
“Shit!” Nam-gyu turned to look at Thanos, who was still grinning wildly.
Nam-gyu returned the look, which was followed by another loud crack. And another.
Splash!
The pair landed ass-first into the water, breaking through the ice. Water filled their noses, forcing them to try and emerge from the icy pond.
Nam-gyu grabbed onto the side of the ice, pulling himself up, which in turn brought his legs down. He came to learn that he can stand on the bumpers in this water. It was much shallower than originally thought. It was cold as shit, but after coughing for a moment, he was basically fine.
Thanos remained flailing in the water, grasping for air.
“Dude.”
No response–aside from an unintended splash of water–graced Nam-gyu’s face.
He reached out and grabbed Thanos’s arm, pulling him to stand up.
“Bro, enter flow state.” Nam-gyu pushed Thanos’s shoulder. Thanos remained flailing until he opened his eyes, realizing that he was standing on solid ground. “This pond is like three feet deep, dumbass!”
“Oh, shit.” Thanos looked down, seeing the water reaching only his hips. He then shook his head wildly, as if he were a wet dog, splashing Nam-gyu even more.
“Fuck you!” Nam-gyu said with a snicker as he pushed Thanos. He fell back into the water, the roller skates failing to save him.
Thanos latched onto Nam-gyu’s leg in defense, pulling them both into the three-foot depths. ‘If we go down, then we go down together’ type shit.
Maybe this should’ve been one of their first thoughts, but being in -3°C water isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. After a beat, the pair scrambled to get out of the water, praying not to die via frostbite.
They both crawled on the ice, flipping over to land flat on their backs, gasping for air.
“Worth it?” Thanos sputtered, turning to Nam-gyu with a smile.
“Worth it.” Nam-gyu returned the look, grinning through his coughs.
~
“I’m fucking freezing, dude.” Nam-gyu groaned, leaning more into Thanos. They lay together on their couch, wearing fresh clothes, under four blankets.
“Me too, Nam-su.” Thanos hugged him tighter, bringing their chests closer together. Or he tried to, at least. Damn those pesky laws of physics, keeping them from becoming one.
“Nam-gyu.” He corrected, glaring at Thanos and poking his forehead. He’d push him away if it wasn’t so goddamn cold.
“You’re so easy to ragebait.”
“No, I’m not!” Nam-gyu whipped his head up, nearly breaking Thanos’s nose.
“Yes, you are, Nam-su.” Thanos smirked, inching closer.
“No,” Nam-gyu’s eyelids fluttered, accepting his dare, “I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.” Thanos’s smile grew, staring down at Nam-gyu for a moment before peppering his face with short, chaste kisses.
“Dude, stop!” Nam-gyu laughed, with no intention of actually ending the ruthless attacks. “This is gay!”
“It’s only gay if there’s more than 6 blankets. Everyone knows that.” Thanos said between kisses, laughing at the stupidity of it all.
This was the best part of winter, they decided.