[[Ice Skating]]

[queenspeedy]

Things were weird.

Those three words could sum up Thea's Darrow experience. Weird-scary, weird-silly, weird-crazy, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they were weird, and that the one person who seemed to make them feel normal was her tall, magic-wielding friend. Which was strange in itself, but Thea had stopped questioning those things. It had honestly felt as if forever had passed since she had normal friends who weren't there just because of her last name and what they wanted.

Molly couldn't care about any of that. She had her own family issues, and they were utterly unlike anything Thea experienced. It was possibly what brought them together -- that their lives were so different and yet they understood what it was to be both a warrior and completely shaped by who their parents were.

Today was going to be as normal a day as either of them could hope -- Darrow willing. Ice skating up at Kagura couldn't go that wrong. Thea strapped on her rented skates and grinned up at her friend. "Who do you think is faster?"

Comments

[thewinterlady]

Molly pulled herself up to her full height plus a few inches from the skates and gave Thea a haughty look. "Please. Winter Lady, remember?" She said and flourished a hand in the air loftily. Then promptly collapsed laughing. "If I can even remember how to stand up on the ice, it'll be an accomplishment. I hope you can manage to hold me up cos I'm hanging on to you the whole way round."

[queenspeedy]

"Sure, sure. You claim that now, and next thing you'll be making ice castles in the middle of the rink," she said, laughing. Thea stood, wobbling for a few seconds as she got used to the change in balance. "I'm stronger than I look. I can tug you around."

[thewinterlady]

"Just don't send me sprawling on the ice, that's all I ask." Thea was very strong, it was true. They sparred a lot, sometimes Molly's powers against Thea's speed and strength, sometimes blades clanging, and Molly was always impressed.

"And I can only do ice condos. Castles are in the advanced class." Molly said, hobbling to the edge of the rink, looping an arm through Thea's.

[queenspeedy]

"Of course, what was I thinking?" She holds her friend's arm close, grinning up at her. Thea used to skate with her dad every winter. Sometimes when she was a teenager she used to go by herself, the memory of what she'd lost forgotten temporarily in the cold. "You balanced?"

[thewinterlady]

Molly wobbled a bit as they stepped onto the ice, but mostly managed to maintain her balance. "Yeah." She said, uncertainly. "I think so. Don't go fast okay?"

They started around the very edge of the rink and Molly was hopeless. She'd never been good on blades. Too tall. Centre of balance was all wrong for it. She was having fun though, laughing at every stumble until a bunch of tiny kids hurtled past them at mach 3.

"Look at them! Rubbing it in." She grumbled good naturedly at Thea. "I bet that was you."

[queenspeedy]

"You're right. I have a secret underground cabal of small children, ready to pounce at a moment's notice," she says with a deep and sinister tone. Thea doesn't, she's not at that level of brilliant madman (or any level really) to develop a cadre of kids.

She laughs, tightening her arm. "You're getting better. Once more around and then we can break for hot chocolate. The boozy kind."

[thewinterlady]

"That's the only kind. And then, when slightly drunk, when I fall on my ass it won't seem so embarrassing." Molly didn't really care about falling. She was just having fun. She'd be grateful for the time out though. Her night with Will was at the front of her mind and she needed to share it with Thea. It was really nice to think that she had someone here that she could trust that way.

[queenspeedy]

"You know, I used to own a bar and before I came here I couldn't even legally drink." She laughs at that as she guides them toward the edge of the rink. It's one of her good memories of the last few years in Starling. Thea just wishes there were more. "Unlike here, where I own absolutely nothing, but can drink til the cows come home."

[thewinterlady]

"It's a bonus." Molly said with a chuckle. "But I think due to squatters rights we now technically own the warehouse. I spend enough time in the basement there with the potions that I should try and claim it as some kind of business property. Not sure how i'd sell it to them though." She mused as they skated off the ice and put the guards on their blades, carefully moving over to the concessions stand.

[queenspeedy]

"A magic fight club with a bar upstairs? I mean, what could go wrong?" Thea laughs, a list of a dozen things already popping up in her mind. Not that she doesn't want to try it...

"Maybe we should look into who owns it."

[thewinterlady]

"We should. I kinda like the idea of somewhere permanent like that." Molly grinned. It was a good idea. Molly might not know anything about owning a bar but she learned fast and Thea had already done it before. The fight club was something they could expand on too. Definitely update the magical protections to let different kind of magic users fight there as well. "You know I like the idea. You think Oliver would come in with us? He's been here a while, right?"

[queenspeedy]

"I dunno." At one point she would have said no way, definitely not. Now she's not so sure, but she's also not sure if she wants him to be a part of it. They both have secrets, it seems, and he's worse at sharing his than she is hers. "But I can ask him."

[thewinterlady]

Molly felt Thea's reservations and she nodded. She knew what it was like to want to keep things to herself. She'd only suggested Oliver in case Thea wanted the reassurance of a familial face. After all, she and Molly, though they were much, much closer these days, hadn't known eachother too long. But if Thea would rather not, then Molly was more than happy to make it just the two of them.

"You know what? Let's not." She said, nudging Thea. "We can manage on our own."

[queenspeedy]

"Yeah?" She looks up at Molly, trying to see if she's serious. There's nothing in the other woman's eyes to indicate that she's not, and it's a relief. "We can totally manage on our own. I mean, have you even met us?"

[thewinterlady]

"Seriously. We can do it." Molly said, happy her friend was happy. "I mean, we're taking a practically derelict building off their hands. We just have to talk nicely to the bank managers." Or she could nudge them in the right direction. Either way.

[queenspeedy]

"It's doing them a favour," she agrees, hooking her arm through Molly's. She looks around at the food stalls lining the font courtyard of Kagura. "Uhuh. Really really nicely? In that special Molly way?"

[thewinterlady]

Molly gave her serene smile. "Look, I can't be blamed if they see a pretty girl and for whatever reason they can't remember anything they did or said while they were looking at her." She said loftily. Fae charms weren't something she used very often but this place didn't play fair very often so why should she? "Besides, the distribution of wealth in a closed environment is extremely important. Or something. We're really doing everyone a favour. And us."

[queenspeedy]

"So this is an anti-capitalism, anti-patriarchy sort of plan? Re-distribution of the wealth to shake up the status quo?" She laughed at that, knowing that at one point she had been wealth, society and everything it entailed. "I've used my pretty girl wiles a time or two, but I don't think mine are as good as yours might be. Just saying."

[thewinterlady]

"Your wiles are awesome. I just cheat." Molly said with a laugh. She knew Thea had been wealthy and privileged back in her home universe, but Thea never seemed to show it, at least not to Molly. "You can deal with the suppliers, though. You know what that whole side of things looks like. I'll just turn them into frogs and that might not be good for continued supply." She couldn't turn anyone into a frog, obviously, and Thea knew it, but she did have a short fuse when she knew she was being deceived. Considering a certain amount of deceit in business was par for the course, she figured it would be better for Thea to handle that.

[queenspeedy]

"Uhuh, I see how it is. You get the glamorous excitement of bamboozling the bank managers, and I get to go blind reading over stock lists," she teases. Honestly, it's not something she minds. She's surprisingly good at running a bar, something she discovered in Starling. It was a relief to find something she was good at, other than being a dilettante, something that had gotten old roughly around the time she was kidnapped by Slade.

"Of course, you're not considering the most important things," she says seriously, pausing dramatically. "Nachos or chilli fries?"

[thewinterlady]

"Excuse me? That's not even a choice. Chilli fries." Molly said, turning them towards the right stall and grinning. "And then boozy hot chocolate. I haven't forgotten. I am all about the chocolatey goodness."

[queenspeedy]

"Somebody's an alcoholic," she says with a sing-song voice, even though she's looking forward to a hot chocolate with baileys herself. Lots and lots of baileys. "Chilli fries it is. You find a table, I'll grab the food."

[thewinterlady]

Molly gave Thea a nudge and did as she was told, finding a table that overlooked the rink. She settled and waited for her friend to return.

When Thea came back, food and drink in hand, Molly was stifling a laugh as a guy, clearly trying to impressed a girl, swaggered onto the ice. "Thea...this guy. You've got to see this."

[queenspeedy]

She's balancing the food and drinks on a tray, setting it on the table without spilling anything, a feat she's particularly proud of. Thea looks up just in time to see a guy try to skate backwards only to land on his ass. "Oh man. He needs to go back to skating 101. Flirting 101, too."

[thewinterlady]

Molly laughed and took her food and drink, tucking in hungrily. "He does!" She said, blowing on a hot bite. "I'm a virgin and I've never dated, but I know for a fact that would not work on me."

[queenspeedy]

"You're a... Seriously?" Thea hisses it out, leaning close so no one overhears them. "Never?"

[thewinterlady]

"You look so surprised." Molly said, chuckling. "I know it's rare but it does happen that you can get to twenty five and not slept with anyone." She said and it wasn't mean spirited. She was somewhat used to the reaction. "I was brought up in a Catholic house and then I fell 'in love'," she dropped airquotes around it with her fingers. "with my mentor while I was studying magic. Then I got taken to Faerie and then here. I haven't had a lot of time to date." She gave Thea a smile.

[queenspeedy]

There are times that Thea wonders what it would have been like to have a parent (either one) who was religious. What would her life be? Would Ollie and her father have vanished? But it's not a path she got to take, and she's not big on what-ifs. "Molly. We have to get you a date."

[thewinterlady]

Now Molly blushed furiously. "Uh...I kind of had a bit of a date last night. Well...you can't really call it a date. I...I kissed him to get him out from under the mistletoe spell and then things got really heated and we ended up going to my room to make out." She rushed it out and then cringed at how bad it sounded. "Okay that wasn't meant to sound as high school as it did."

[queenspeedy]

Thea grins, leaning even closer and resting her chin in her hand. "Uhuh. Sure you didn't. So does mister make-out have a name?"

[thewinterlady]

"Will Graham." Molly said and nudged Thea. "And don't look at me like that. I'm not fifteen. I just...guys don't come on to me, you know?"

[queenspeedy]

That's something she has a hard time believing. Molly is tall, gorgeous, and all the things that guys should like. "Or maybe you don't meet the right guys. Who know, Magic mistletoe might have been better than any dating network."

[thewinterlady]

"I definitely don't meet the right guys." Molly said and laughed, munching a few more fries. "Magic mistletoe is a great name for a dating network, actually." She nodded and then shrugged. "But I'm glad he got stuck there."

[queenspeedy]

"Maybe we can start that after we start the bar," she posits, leaning back and grabbing her drink. "But until then, what else? Are you going to see him again?"

[thewinterlady]

Molly smiled and nodded. "We're going on a date in a few days. I think we both kinda needed some time to decompress." She gave Thea a smile. "He's really in my head. Like, behind my defences, magically speaking, kind of in my head. No one gets in there, but he just...is."

[queenspeedy]

"Huh." She gets that, and it's something that she doesn't exactly want to admit. It was how things with Roy had been. Their differences hadn't mattered, and her walls had come tumbling down around him. But he'd kept secrets from her too, so many secrets. It made it harder seeing him when she'd gone back to Starling, and now she wasn't sure what she'd do if he was here. "That's good. I'll have to book in a post date debrief for the next day."

[thewinterlady]

The flare of frustration and sadness was hard for Molly to miss. Her friend had always been tight-lipped about her life back home, opening up gradually as they got to know eachother, and Molly hadn't ever pushed her. She knew how hard it was to trust, and even when you did, how hard it was to talk about certain subjects.

"Of course. Like I would leave anything out. I'm going to have questions too so, you know, be prepared for too much information." She said, trying to wipe away the hint of gloom coming from Thea.

[queenspeedy]

"Suddenly we are planning a club, a dating site, and a relationship guru service?" She laughs at it, Molly's efforts obvious, and welcome. Thea sips at her drink and nods. "Honestly, I'm not the best to give advice. I dated the wrong kind of guy, a lot. And when I found the right one, his secrets got in our way."

[thewinterlady]

Molly nodded. She might not know about dating or sex, but she knew people well enough to know that they could hurt you without even trying at times. "Hey, I am literally a virgin. Any advice is worth it's weight in gold as far as I'm concerned." She said, smiling gently. "And the right one must have been good for a while, right?"

[queenspeedy]

"He was. I kinda thought he might be again," she admits, unable to keep the longing from her voice. She wishes so much that Roy were here, that they could have another chance. "But that's another world. Literally."

[thewinterlady]

Putting her drink down, Molly reached out and hugged Thea to her, arm around her shoulder. She wasn't a particularly tactile person, but the ache coming off her friend deserved comforting and Molly could do that. "Thea..." She said, and let the moment of sympathy stretch, before she smiled and nudged her shoulder into Thea's. "Maybe we need to get you a date." She said, hoping to break the tension a little.

[queenspeedy]

There aren't many people that Thea feels comfortable being that close to, something that had only exacerbated since training with Merlyn. But Molly has moved past that line, and she doesn't freeze or pull away from the hug.

She laughs, nudging Molly back. "Maybe we do. Or maybe we can focus on you and this mystery bar we're going to open for a while."

[thewinterlady]

"Let's do that." Molly said with a laugh. "We need to figure out what we're going to call it." She said thoughtfully. "I'm not good with names."

[queenspeedy]

"Not Verdant," she says, thinking of her bar back in Starling. She misses the place, both incarnations about it. "That was Ollie's name anyway. We'll come up with something. Less... Green."

[thewinterlady]

"'Verdant'?" Molly asked, eyebrow raised. "Yeah I think we can try for something a little more us." She said with a chuckle and then thought about it. "I mean...it's kinda beat up, but the bones are good. Little bit like us. Are we going to keep it that way? Industrial?"

[queenspeedy]

"Absolutely. Bare, and strong." She likes the image, she likes comparing it to the two of them. "We'll figure it out."

[thewinterlady]

"I like it." Molly said. "Now we just have to figure out everything else that goes into it. Like music. I have no idea what the music scene is like here. Or anywhere really."