[AU] [C] Dress

"Okay."

Dick rubbed his hands on his thighs. Nerves were settling in. Under his breath, he mumbled a small prayer in hopes he won't mess this up.

He decided to start off with one of the simpler moves: A triple toe loop.

"I am hoping to build this up to a quadruple toe loop," he called out to Giacinto. "I can do it when I am not under pressure." But that was true for a lot of the harder jumps.

He ran through a triple Salchow jump then onto a triple loop. He cursed as he landed wrong, hitting the ice. In one smooth motion, he got himself up.

"I can do a triple about seventy-five percent of the time... Mostly in practice."

Although he looped around the rink before attempting it against. This time landing it. He let go of the breath he held. It would have been embarrassing falling the second time.

He moved on to a flip jump and then a triple lutz jump. His landing was a little wobbly, but he stayed up.

"Again, I have trouble landing a triple in competition."

He finished off with a double Axel jump. He was pleased to find he landed this one cleanly - despite its difficulty.

Wiping his brow he skated back over to Giacinto.

"You struggle with landings, not the jumps themselves," Giacinto observed.

She smiled a crooked, sadistic smile. "You're doing a lot of landing practise, boy." Every skater's worst nightmare. It was something that she had fought with Theo over a hundred times when she switched from hockey to ice dancing.

"Jump and stick a landing," she ordered.

She hit the nail on that one. It was exactly what his last coach wouldn't shut up about.

Internally he groaned. But if this was what was going to make him a winning skater, then he was willing to comply.

Even if it meant going back to basics.

"Any jump in specific?"

"Give me a Salchow."

Start off simple. Once he was comfortable and consistently landing a single, she'd push him to do more.

He skated around, building up speed. Once ready, carefully and controlled he lifted his right leg up. He swung it round to help propel himself up. In the air he brought his arms together, body twisting for a single.  

He extended his leg to land, quickly followed by a string of curses. He was so used to doing doubles and triples he put too much force into the jump.

With a hiss, he hit the ice. That was definitely going to bruise.

No time to think about his new injury, he picked himself up. For the third time, he attempted a single Salchow again. This time with much less force and a lot more success.

"Alright. Ten more salchows."

Now came the repetitive bit that Dick was going to hate her for. He was going to be doing these exercises until he wanted to tear his own hair out.

Then he would be doing them more.

Dick sped through them, falling into a routine. Skate, jump, land and then skate again. 

The first five he landed well. On the sixth he cursed, landing a little wobbly.

He attempted it again. Only to let out a string of more colorful vocabulary.

Taking a breath, he looped around the rink He took a moment to reflect on his jumps, recognizing he was getting cocky and impatient.

The last three were the best. A more controlled and thought out jump that resulted in a clean landing.

His focus turned back to Giacinto, waiting for his next set of instructions

"I counted three jumps landed well. So I want seven more landed just like that."

She smiled, a little too brightly and nicely for the current situation and her general personality. Kill him with kindness.

"Go. Do."

Dick's shoulders sagged. 

She asked for him to do ten Salchow jumps. Not Ten Salchow jumps well executed and cleanly landed. He wanted to move on to more difficult jump now.


He very quickly reminded himself it was his impatience that meant he had to redo seven of them.

"I am going and I am doing."

This time he took his time. Thinking about the jump and how his body was moving. The first two were not jumped well, the next seven were... Or at least he hoped.

He looked over to Giacinto for approval.

Giacinto nodded when Dick looked back at her for approval.

"Good. Ten more."

Now a definite smirk curled her lips. "Go. Do."

Dick stared at her.

Very slowly his idolized version of her was morphing into someone horribly evil.

With a deep breath, he skated on. He landed the first one cleanly, then the third and fourth, all the way up until the tenth-

"Fuck."

He gritted his teeth. 

He didn't even bother looking to Giacinto this time. He ran through them again. And again. And again.

Finally on his (fifth? sixth?) go he managed to land all ten cleanly.

He turned to her, brows furrowed. Surely she wasn't going to make him run through them again.

Giacinto was incredibly impressed that when he knew he had messed up then he had to go through them again. Not a lot of her students picked up on that so soon.

So when he landed ten perfectly in a row and looked over to her, he got quite a surprise.

She glided forwards, wrapping her arms around him with an exuberant laugh and spinning the two around.

"Well done!"

Nerves ran through him as she glided towards him. He somehow fucked up, didn't he? He was so sure he landed all of them cleanly-

He track of thoughts halted in shock.

In the few times they have met up all he had gotten was coldness from her. As much as he daydreamed about her congratulating him over something (preferably a very complex routine) he still didn't expect it.

Especially in the form of a hug and laughter.

Awkwardly, he patted her on the back as the spun.

"Thank you?"

Quick as a flash, Tony had her phone out of the pocket of her jacket and had opened instagram.

She pressed his face cheek-to-cheek with hers, grinned and took a snap of the two of them.

Guess who just aced training! #ThisGuy #Iceskatingchampintraining #proudcoach

She dropped her phone back in her pocket and grinned down at Dick.

"All right, Richard. Time to move onto something a little more difficult. I want you to land ten double salchows just as well as those singles you just did."