Ice Skating
Despite living in New York City for years, Tony had never been ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Actually, he’s never been ice skating in general. To be honest, he would have died completely content even if he had never gone ice skating in his life. But when Steve planned a trip on Christmas Eve to go see the big tree and go ice skating and the whole team agreed, he couldn’t say no.
The tree was nothing new to Tony. It was large and colorful and pretty- but he sees it every year, so it wasn’t too exciting. Even so, he did enjoy seeing the faces of his teammates as they stood at the bottom, staring up at it in wonder. The lights reflected off of their faces and made their smiles even brighter.
When Steve showed them the Rockefeller Center Ice Rink, right under the enormous tree, they all about peed their pants. Even Natasha who was known for containing her emotions seemed excited. Their excitement flew off them in waves and soon Tony was excited too.
When Steve told him the plan a week ago, Tony had offered to buy out the rink so it would be just them, but Steve had refused. Tony was frustrated, he hated people. People who would stare, and laugh, and be in the way. But looking down at the beautiful skaters and children and families, he could see why Steve had refused. People were a part of the Christmas magic. Tony guessed he could suck it up for one day.
They all put on their clunky skates, Steve having to help Tony and Bruce having to help Clint. They also added scarfs, hats, and gloves in addition to their puffy coats once they felt the huge drop in temperature around the ice.
Steve held Tony’s hands and helped guide him unsteadily to the rink after he had the skates on. How do they expect people to walk in these things?
While Clint, Steve, Bruce, and Natasha skated out onto the rink immediately upon reaching it, Tony hung to the door and stared unmoving at the frosty ice. It was glossy but scratched and he could feel the vibrations as people skated by. Even just standing while gripping the railing, he could feel his feet start to glide in different directions. It wasn’t until Steve glided over to him he even noticed he had been standing there for several minutes.
“You going to skate?” Steve asked, touching his shoulder.
Tony momentarily broke his stare to glance up at Steve before returning his gaze back to the thick ice under his feet.
Steve chuckled and started peeling Tony’s fingers from the railing.
“No!” Tony grumbled, gripping the bar harder.
Steve moved so he was in front of Tony’s face. “Do you trust me?”
Tony looked into Steve’s icy blue eyes. “Yes,” he finally said.
Steve held out his hands and Tony took a second before releasing the railing. Immediately his feet slid and he was falling. He barely let out a gasp before Steve was catching and steadying him. “You’re okay,” Steve smiled.
Steve guided Tony out towards the center of the rink where Tony noticed the slower skaters were stumbling around. “Just hold onto me,” Steve said. Tony nodded and soon they were skating slowly around the rink.
Tony didn’t notice Steve was skating backwards in his excitement at seeing his own feet moving on the ice. I’m doing it.
“You are,” Steve smiled.
Tony’s head jerked up, not realizing he spoke his thoughts aloud. He let out a smile at Steve’s happy face.
Tony looked around at the other skaters. The experienced ones were dancing on the outskirts of the rink, gracefully twirling on the ice. The less experienced ones were mixed around, kids falling awkwardly and even some adults took some tumbles.
Tony couldn’t hold in a laugh when he noticed Clint fall ungracefully on his ass. Natasha helped him up after she finished laughing loudly at him. Bruce rolled his eyes at the pair and skated around them.
In his distracted state, he didn’t notice Steve had let go of his hands until he noticed Steve’s voice next to him. “You’re doing great, Tony!”
Immediately he wobbled in his panic. Steve helped steady him as he was about to tumble forward.
“You go it, bend your knees slightly,” Steve helped. “Great!”
Tony took a breath and continued skating. He tried not to look down and instead focused on Steve’s voice who babbled about the pretty Christmas lights they had seen on their way here.
30 minutes later, Tony felt more confident than when he started. He still stayed towards the center, but he had done several laps without wavering. Eventually Steve got dragged away by Bruce and Natasha to teach them how to skate backwards. Clint, only slightly more graceful than Tony, watched in on the lessons but had no success. Tony stayed where he was, he was only just getting the hang of skating forward!
Just when Tony was thinking about moving to the fast lanes on the outskirts, a child fell directly in front of him, causing Tony to trip and fly into the air before landing hard on the icy rink. His world went black.
“Tony, Tony!” He heard a voice call from underwater. His vision was blurry but slowly clearing. The voices got clearer too, and soon he realized he was staring at his teammates.
“Tony, are you okay?” Steve asked worriedly. He tried to focus on the blue-eyed man, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the public as they stared from between his teammates’ legs.
“Is that Tony Stark?”
“Is that the Avengers?”
“Did Tony Stark fall? I can’t believe he doesn’t know how to skate!”
Just as Tony was going to cover his face with his coat-covered arm, a little boy squeezed between Steve and knelt over him. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark. I didn’t mean to make you trip! I’m so sorry, you gotta believe me!” The child cried.
Tony coughed, trying to find his voice through his pounding headache. “It’s okay kid. Not your fault. It’s all good,” he rasped.
“Thank you Mr. Stark. I’m sorry again. You’re not hurt right? Because if you’re hurt then you can’t save the world!” The kid rambled.
“Not hurt kid, it’s all good,” Tony assured him.
“Oh good, because-”
“Okay, kid-” Clitn interrupted.
“Peter!”
“Okay Peter, go find your parents okay?” Clint said, gently pushing the kid away.
Once the kid was away, a few tears seeped out of Tony’s eyes. “Fuck,” he cursed.
“What hurts?” Steve said immediately.
“Head and arm,” Tony grunted.
Tony’s arm was on fire and he just knew it was broken.
“Should we call an ambulance?” Steve asked Bruce.
“No!” Tony interrupted. Now that people had recognized them, he didn’t want to put on a show. Super heroes don’t get hurt- Iron Man doesn’t get hurt. He was fine. “I’ll just walk it off.”
“You can’t walk off a broken-” Bruce scoffed.
“Can we please just...leave?” Tony grunted.
The team looked at each other.
“Please! Let’s not draw attention to ourselves, okay?” Tony pleaded, trying to sit up.
Steve sighed and grabbed Tony’s good arm to help him up.
Tony’s head pounded fiercely and his arm throbbed but he pulled away after Steve helped him stand and he put on his publicity smile. “All good!” He said to the crowd who had gathered to watch.
The group clapped and took photos as the team slowly moved off the rink. Tony forced his arm straight while biting his lip from the pain. Once they made it to the bench and the fans had dispersed per Clint’s glares, Tony let Steve and Natasha take off his skates and put his boots back on.
He almost passed out in relief when they noticed Happy waiting for them in a large black truck. “Thanks Jarvis,” he said to his watch, getting a comforting vibration in return.
As soon as the doors to the truck closed and Happy started driving, Tony finally allowed himself to cradle his broken arm.
“Breathe, Tony,” Bruce said from where he was sitting next to him.
Tony let out a large breath he didn’t realize he was holding and squeezed his eyes shut when a few whimpers escaped his mouth as well.
“Definitely broken,” Bruce diagnosed. “I don’t have my medical bag but just keep it still, okay?”
Tony nodded, and ignored the tears that were running down his cheeks. He felt Steve’s hand rub his shoulder and he melted into the comfort.
His arm was broken in three places, the doctor at the emergency room told them. He had a large bulky cast on his arm all the way up to his shoulder and an ugly blue sling that wrapped around his neck. He was happy the doctor let him get the cast red, though.
When he woke up on Christmas morning to his arm cast covered in glitter and bows- not unlike a present, he couldn’t even be mad.