Humpty Dumpty on Ice

The sound of crunching ice was indeed Barry. He had been slowing down after running to the lake. He had his ice skated wrapped around his neck and they dangled loosely over his chest. As soon as he spotted the girl he smiled as brightly as he could. "Hey Cass! Ready to go skating?" he asked excitedly. Ever since he had asked the Summer girl to the Winter Formal, and even a bit before, he had butterflied in his stomach whenever he was around her. He liked the feeling.

Barry blushed slightly as he took the bag. "If I knew you were giving me a Christmas present, I would've brought yours along today." he said. He opened the bag and pulled out the scarf. He immediately gave a huge smile and hugged Cass. "Thank you thank you thank you! I love it!" he said excitedly, letting go of the girl. He quickly wrapped it around himself. "I love scarves! How'd you know?"

Barry nodded. "Let's do it!" he said excitedly, grabbing Cass' hand. He led her down to a bench that was set up near the ice-covered lake and sat down, untying his shoes. He put on his ice skates and waited for the Summer to get her skates on.

Barry stood up to meet Cass and to help her walk over to the ice. "I think so. There's no signs and not really anyone else here. Shall we?" he said, wobbling on his feet. While he was a good skater on the ice, it was a lot harder to skate on solid ground. He led her over to the ice, almost falling once. "Wait here a second." he said, gingerly placing one foot onto the ice. He put the other foot on and took a minute to get his bearings before steadying himself. He held a hand out to Cass, smiling. "Alright, let's go."

He laughed. "Slow isn't always bad." he said. "Sometimes taking things slow can be really nice." He led her slowly around the ice, showing her the motions of how to ice skate. "Push off of one foot, then the other. Tip your feet forward if you want to stop. The skates have jagged edges on the front of the blades to create more friction." he explained.

The Autumn smiled as he watched Cass skate. "I think it's because you're a quick learner. All I did was show you how to do it." he said, blushing. She looked so happy and carefree while they were skating. There was nowhere he would rather be or anyone he would rather be with. "Ice skating is my favorite thing to do in the winter. And I'm glad I get to do it with you." he added.

Barry watched Cass fall as if in slow motion, helpless as she fell through the ice. Cassandra!" he yelled, throwing off his coat, scarf, skates and shirt to dive in after her. He needed something that was dry to put back on. He leapt into the water and almost went into shock from the sheer cold. He swam deeper to reach Cass and his vision started getting blurry from the murkiness. The deeper he swam, the colder the water. The Autumn finally found the girl, knocked unconscious by the cold, floating near the bottom. He grabbed her and quickly swam back up, nearly running out of breath.

He broke the surface, gasping for air, and brought Cass up and set her on the ice until he could get out. He was shaking, and he quickly picked her up, bridal style, and ran back to his dorm, forgetting his discarded clothes and skates in the process. He opened the door and set her down onto his bed. He quickly got a towel ready and tried to wake her up.

"Cass, wake up. Cass!" he said in a very worried tone, shaking her shoulders slightly.

Barry heaved a sigh of relief when Cassandra's eyes fluttered open. He grabbed the towel and brought it over to her. "We need to get your coat off of you. Actually, anything that's soaking wet." he said, getting slightly red in the face. While he was still worried about her, he couldn't help but be embarrassed at basically asking her to take off her clothes. "You can umm... borrow some of my clothes, at least until you warm up and can get back to your dorm." he added quickly.

Barry's face turned bright red as she began undressing in front of him. "I'll just umm... make us some hot cocoa." he said, speeding off to the kitchen. "I'll be out here if you need anything." he added, grabbing cups, water, and cocoa powder. He put some water into the cups and put them into the microwave to heat up, trying his best to not think about Cass undressing.

Barry looked over as Cass walked out of his room. He couldn't help but think that she looked incredibly cute wearing one of his shirts. He took the cups out of the microwave and set the down on the counter. "No problem." the Autumn said, smiling. He ripped open the cocoa packages and poured powder in each of them. Grabbing a spoon, he used his speed to quickly mix the powder into the water. He brought one over to Cass and handed it to her. "Careful, its still hot." he told her. He had to forcibly take his eyes off of the girl. He just couldn't help it. She was just too damn cute for his innocent little eyes.

He walked over to the couch and sat down next to her, careful not to spill his drink. "It's not your fault. It's not like you planned to fall through the ice, right?" he said, chuckling. He took a small sip of the cocoa so he didn't burn his mouth. "Besides the whole falling-through-the-ice thing, I had a lot of fun." he told her, smiling.

Barry laughed quietly at her sneeze. "Okay, that was adorable." he said smiling. He winked at her. "You know, I'm pretty warm. If you're that cold. You can scoot a little closer." he told her, taking a sip of his cocoa. "That is, if you'd like to, obviously." he added nervously, hoping he wasn't too direct or didn't sound dumb.

Barry got a fluttery feeling in his stomach when she moved closer to him, barely leaving space for his hand's width between them. He felt his face get slightly warmer. He looked down between them, and in doing so, he noticed that he was still shirtless. His face turned a bright shade of red. "I'm so sorry." he said sheepishly. He took less than a second to run to his room and throw on a plaid shirt, not bothering to button it. He figured that she'd seen him shirtless this long, he figured leaving a plaid shirt unbuttoned wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Barry tilted his head slightly when she buried her face in her hand. "Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?" he asked, concerned. He hoped nothing was wrong. He didn't want to ruin this.

Uh oh. He made things awkward. Damn it. he thought. "Well, if you say so." he said, moving his hand away. He was mentally kicking himself because he was the one to make it so awkward. "So... umm..." he started, unable to finish. He wasn't quite sure what to say and hoped Cass did.