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[neverjedi]

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[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?"

[darkforcerising]

“Depends. I’m assuming you are going to stick a wet finger in my ear.”

So, sure, Obi-Wan could touch him.

“It’ll be better if you grab my upper arm. I can actually feel that.”

[neverjedi]

"I can't think of a single reason I'd grab your arms." Which is true enough since he's moving back around Anakin and putting his hands solidly on Anakin's hips. "Sticking a wet finger in your ear, though..."

He wasn't plastered against Anakin or anything, but since he was doing double duty on balance right now, he was close.

"Put all your weight on your left leg." And as soon as Anakin came even close to doing that, he pushed them both off with his right (skipping Anakin needing to weight shift yet) and got them away from the wall. Security was nice and all but so bad for figuring things out.

[darkforcerising]

Anakin was not expecting a - that Obi-Wan would be touching him there (though he didn’t fight it) and b - that they would leave the wall.

“There are easier ways to get your hands on my hips, you know. And I like the wall. I was making friends with the wall.”

But he tried. And managed a little better this time.

[neverjedi]

"You don't want to make friends with the wall. You hold onto the wall with your upper half, your center of gravity goes toward your grip, your legs slide the other way and you're stuck looking like you're the wall's clingy boyfriend."

He tightens the hand on Anakin's right hip slightly. "Shift your weight onto this leg."

Which meant he pushed off with his left.

"Right now, just do that. Shift your weight toward the tighter hand." He'd handle keeping them up and balance-

and he really could do that because in spite of being relatively small and not looking like he knew the meaning of the word 'workout' he was strong.

"And breathe."

[darkforcerising]

“The wall likes it,” Anakin protested. But he noticed the lack of Obi-Wan’s objection to the touching comment. And again, he found he didn’t mind.

Following the instructions was easy enough, and it seemed to be working.

“I see we’re coming up to the end of the rink. What do I do?”

[neverjedi]

He hadn't objected because it was true on two levels: He wanted to touch Anakin, but also that there were better ways if what he wanted was to get his hands on Anakin's hips. In front of or beside Anakin, he had the same issue as the wall - and wouldn't be able to get close enough to prevent it. He was also a lot less stable than a wall.

"Bend your right knee, keep your weight above and on it, and just like a motorcycle - lean in the direction of your turn. In this case right."

Stopping with Anakin was - they should have gone over that before. Oh well, they still had a wall.

[darkforcerising]

The analogy made sense, the follow through was wobbly. But they were turning. And then they were going the other direction.

“Maybe I can try it on my own now?”

[neverjedi]

"It's like you read my mind." Aside from that 'oops' on not teaching a stop.

He was careful to let go of Anakin without allowing any sort of pressure in any direction to happen, but he wasn't hesitant in letting go, either.

He didn't continue to hover, either. Once they were no longer attached, he moved off so a location where he could watch Anakin,

[darkforcerising]

He wasn’t going fast, but he kept the motion - push back with the edge of his skate, glide, switch feet - going.

Until he caught the toe pick, lost his balance, and ended up on his ass.

By now he was used to falling so he just let it happen, laid back on the ice until his butt stopped smarting.

“I’m really narrowing down the possibilities for my revenge.”

[neverjedi]

He skated over, looking for all the world like he wasn't on skates or ice - more like crossing the street in sneakers for all his stability.

He reached down and offered Anakin his hand.

"Why? You're doing remarkably well." Not a lie. He was pretty impressed.

Of course most of his students were four or had been skating for more than a decade, but still.