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[neverjedi]

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[neverjedi]

"They can be fairly closely related," he said, absently.

Then he blinked and refocused, because they were getting close to their destination. Enough so that the car's signal was on for the final turn.

"If at all possible, fall backward rather than forward. Get up by kneeling, hand on your knee and up. Push off your blades sideways. I'm getting you a wrist guard. Wear it."

[darkforcerising]

“Am I going to lose another hand doing this?” He asked. “Because I’m running out of those.”

[neverjedi]

"I wouldn't have suggested it if you were at risk of losing anything, but you are going to fall. Natural instinct is to catch yourself with your hands. I don't want you to have to deal with spraining your wrist. So, protect it."

Matter of fact, about every single point of all of that.

[darkforcerising]

“Is there a version of skating that doesn’t involve falling?” He was only half serious.

[neverjedi]

He groans and gets out of the car when it stops, and waits on Anakin to explain the groan. "You're going to tell me you've either played hockey or have roller-bladed, aren't you?"

[darkforcerising]

“Does field hockey in P.E. count?” He already knew the answer to that, even if he’d asked anyways.

“I had roller blades when I was younger.”

[neverjedi]

He made sure the driver was paid, and tipped and headed toward the building. He looked very seriously at Anakin: "If it doesn't involve how to fall, forget everything you might accidentally remember and save me the pain, please."

[darkforcerising]

“Doesn’t the instructor fall with the student,” Anakin asked, heading into the building. “A show of solidarity?”

[neverjedi]

He followed Anakin in, then directed him off to one side. "That really depends on how hard the student's holding on when they fall." He paused near a small reception window and waited someone to get to him, patiently and politely. Not that there was any other line there, at least. "Are you actually nervous?" Could be. Could also just be snark.

[darkforcerising]

“Well,” Anakin seemed to think about that deeply, but then said, “I like my ass, I don’t want to bruise it. That will make sitting still tomorrow impossible.”

[neverjedi]

"Get a pillow," he said, with a friendly eye-roll. Then the attendant came back and it was his turn to greet the frankly tiny woman. "Hey, Marie. Can you do me a favor and get whoever's working on the other side today to come over and bring a pair of skates for my smart-ass friend?"

He glanced to Anakin with - "What's your shoe size?"

[darkforcerising]

“That will cause questions at work.”

He was busy looking at everything. He’d never been in an area before. Arizona didn’t have many of these, certainly not were he’d grown up.

“Twelve.”

[neverjedi]

He was basically totally inured to it being worth looking at - particularly this one. "All right, twelve. Get the most beginner friendly blades of the lot."

He touched Anakin's shoulder and nodded him back toward a - not entirely but mostly - empty locker room. This wasn't 'public' space, exactly. Not in the sense that access was unfettered, which meant at least they weren't going to be around too many people, even before getting to the ice.

Once he got Anakin back there, he headed straight for a locker.

[darkforcerising]

Anakin followed without any more prompting.

He assumed the locker was for his coat and backpack so he found an empty one.

“Okay, what do I do?”

[neverjedi]

His locker was actually locked, since he was here often enough. His sportscoat went in, his skates and a left, highly adjustable, wrist guard came out.

He dropped his skates on one of the varnished, wooden, benches and went back to Anakin, where he sat down. "We need Alexi back with skates for you, but otherwise shoes off, skates and wrist protection on and we go have fun."

[darkforcerising]

Anakin raised an eyebrow, as if any of that was straight forward. He could get his own shoes on and off, he had a system. But all the rest of that he was going to need help with.

He sat down on a bench and leaned over and picked at the knots on his laces, he could do this one handed now.

But the skates and wrist brace were new.

He sighed and accepted there was no non- humiliating way to do this. Month of therapy made his next question possible.

“Can you help me with them.” He looked at the wrist guard and skates.

[neverjedi]

"Sure." He stopped once his shoes were off, and he was downright casual about it. Since he'd assumed he'd be helping. He didn't even make a thing of it, which was why it actually was straightforward.

He went and sat down on the floor in front of Anakin, and actually took a second to check the blades that were on Anakin's skates and made a point of pointing out -

"One blade is actually two," he pointed out. Which was true there was a groove down the middle, making two surfaces. The entire thing was also wider than it could have been - see also: beginner friendly. "That's going to be relevant in a few minutes." Then he put the guard back on.

With that out of the way he started unlacing the pair Anakin was borrowing and - actually left him to put them on, because in that regard it really wouldn't take two hands.

He twisted around to grab his own skates, scooted back out of the way and put them on. Once he was done it was back to matter of fact tightening the laces (tightly) and tying them for Anakin, making sure he tucked the extra laces outside Anakin's jeans. "Hand me that brace."

[darkforcerising]

Anakin listened, and watched. As skilled as he was by now at knotting his own shoe laces, he would never have been able to get the skates laced as tightly as they apparently needed to be.

This sure was infantilizing - but there weren't many activities that weren't for him after he lost his arm. Everything was a lesson in humility now.

"You know, I am thinking of ways to pay you back and get you out of your comfort zone," he said, his voice lighter than he was feeling - his feelings would pass. "Non-harmfully, of course."

[neverjedi]

"I don't know, a little harm probably won't kill me.There's more out of my comfort zone than in, though, so we have options." Something, say, on par with the fact that Anakin was probably going to fall down.

He smiled to show he was joking, wrapped the brace around Anakin's wrist and checked to make sure it wasn't too tight or inhibiting range of motion and then unfolded and stood up.


"All right, since we're both here step one: Stand up and get used to the surface area you're on with the skates. Maybe do a quick mental review of how physics work and the relationship between action and reaction while you're there."

[darkforcerising]

“Alright,” he said.

He positioned his feet closer to the bench and planted them firmly. Then pushed up from the bench.

He was not as graceful as Obi-Wan, but he did make it to his feet and didn’t fall back. The floor’s rubbery texture made sense now. Normal locker room concert would have been a terrible surface to walk on.

Once standing, and not wobbling, he said, “okay, what next?”

[neverjedi]

"Stand on one leg - then stand on the other one. Use me for balance if you need to."

That wasn't a useful exercise, though it could have been. It was his method of getting the blade guards off Anakin's skates. He did the same for himself, though he would have usually waited longer.

Once he was done with that, he headed toward the door out onto the side, and held it open for Anakin.

"Step out, center of gravity straight down from your hips. Grab the wall around the rink once you can reach it."

Next? Was fun, dammit.

[darkforcerising]

Ya, fun.

Anakin understood the instructions in a way. So much of his physical therapy was learning how to balance again. Now, he told himself, he was just doing that same thing on two skinny strips of metal on ice.

He didn’t even try to leave the wall when he first stepped into the ice, he grabbed the waist high wall with his left hand and more or less just stood there.

At least he was still standing.

“Okay, how do I move?” He could just pull himself along the wall, but he figured that that was not the point.

[neverjedi]

He came out onto the ice behind Anakin and - obviously didn't need the wall. He skated slightly past Anakin, pivoted and stopped himself facing him.

"I promise you at least a few minutes of speed before we get you off the ice," he said, though admittedly that was going to be with Anakin holding onto him.

He would have been using smaller steps, more caution, but dealing with an Air-Force vet and someone who had clearly had physical therapy? No. The fitness level and ability was there. He wasn't going to patronizing. He did not need to know how to

"Keep your core tight and use your thighs to push off with the inside edge of your blade. Once you've done that once you'll have a front and back leg. Center over the front, push with the back."

He was, however, going to stay pretty close. So he demonstrated what he meant, but he also pretty quickly came back to Anakin. Within 'catch him' distance.

[darkforcerising]

“Show off,” he said good-naturedly.

And then he tried the thing with pushing with his thigh on the edge of the blade but he didn’t get very far.

He moved forward, awkwardly, but not really by much. And he felt really out of balance so he clung tighter to the wall.

“Okay, but what do you really do?”

[neverjedi]

"Save calling me a show off for when I start pulling out triple axles," he said, dryly.

He watched Anakin, opened his mouth to instruct him and then changed his mind.

"Do you have issue with being touched?"