"Enoch, it's not going to be that bad. It's not torture."

"You don't know that."

"...It's ice skating. Not walking on hot coals."

Olive laughed to herself and idly began to inspect her fingernails where she lay staring at the ceiling with her phone to her ear. Enoch didn't say anything on the other side for several seconds, so long she thought for a moment he'd hung up and the line had gone dead.

"Enoch?"

"I'm not goin'. Ya can stop tryin'a convince me."

"Everyone else is going, you really should come." Olive sighed and sat up, rolling her eyes at Enoch's next response.

"That's exactly why I don't wanna. Too many people."

She could hear the annoyance in his voice. She hadn't expected him to want to come along but she would try anyway.

"Even with me?"

"What's 'at s'posed ta mean?"

"Oh don't be such a grump, Enoch."

"I'm not a-"

"Fine. Don't come if you don't want to. I'd like you to but if you do decide you want to come I'll text you when we were going to meet there."

"...Who's 'we'?"

Olive smiled to herself at Enoch's suddenly suspicious voice. All she would have had to say was that there would be other boys there probably to convince Enoch to come. He was possessive enough for that to work. But she hardly wanted to force him to come to something that he didn't really want to be there for anyway. He could come if he changed his mind.

"Hugh and Fiona, Millard, and Emma and Jacob I think."

"Portman ain't the way ta convince me ta come along, Olive."

"You asked."

xxxXxxx

"It's not that boy again you're going out with tonight is it?"

Olive sighed and stopped in the living room doorway as she'd been hurrying towards the door pulling on a coat. She wrinkled her nose a little and turned to step into the living room where her father had been reading the paper. Her dad had made it perfectly clear since the moment he met Enoch that he didn't like him at all. Olive shouldn't really have been surprised, in the time she'd known Enoch before he actually accepted her as a friend, not many did seem to like him. But she'd thought that if she could see that that wasn't all there was to Enoch, then surely other people could do that too if they tried.

Of course she wanted her parents to like him, and maybe Enoch hadn't made a very likeable first impression but her father's obvious distaste for him quite upset her, whether Enoch himself cared or not.

"There's a group of us going skating, I told Mum about it already. And his name is Enoch."

"Right, alright...and is he going?"

As casual as he probably thought he was being with his questions, it was very obvious he wanted her to tell him that Enoch wasn't. She didn't even know if he was. Olive had messaged Enoch early telling him where they were going and when, as she'd said, but he'd never replied.

"I don't know. He might and he might not. You could give him a chance, Dad..."

"I'd like to, Olive," He sighed and dropped his newspaper, frowning over at his daughter. "But he didn't exactly make a good impression, I just don't like the look of him. I don't see why you had to like this boy of all of them."

"You don't have to like him." Olive huffed, her cheeks turning slightly pink, "But if you just accept the fact that I do then maybe Enoch will surprise you."

She was still slightly frustrated about it by the time she met up with Emma at the outdoor ice rink at the Natural History museum before anyone else had arrived yet. Already there was a good amount of people on the ice, and music, Christmas carols for now, playing through a loud speaker. Emma looked up from her phone when Olive found her sitting on a bench with her skates at her feet.

"Well, at least you're on time...what are you so frowny about?"

Had she looked that obvious? Apparently enough to notice. Olive sighed and smiled to wipe any frustration off her face. "Oh it's nothing..."

Emma didn't look convinced but to the red head's relief, she didn't push it as Olive sat down beside her on the bench.

"Did Enoch say he was coming?"

"Well, he said he didn't want to but I'm hoping he's changed his mind." She looked over her shoulder towards the gates, hoping, but not entirely expecting to see Enoch slouching his way over to them.

"Oh well, if his girlfriend can't get him to join in at least you tried to."

"His gi-" Olive went bright pink and a silly little smile spread over her face.

Emma stared at her and raised an eyebrow like she was mad. "Well, yeah, you know you are."

"It's just...weird to hear someone say it like that. A nice weird!" Olive hurried to add and felt her whole face burn hot while Emma just rolled her eyes at her. "Oh look, that's Jacob!"

"Avoiding the topic much, Olive?"

Olive could practically hear the laughter in her friend's voice until Emma got to her feet and waved to Jacob who was picking his way towards them. Emma's whole face lit up whenever he walked in and she insisted on teasing Olive about Enoch?

It was a full fifteen more minutes until Fiona and Hugh arrived hand in hand and Millard at the same time. The majority of which Emma spent talking to Jacob and Olive spent distractedly looking over her shoulder and at her phone for any sign that Enoch might have decided to come after all, joining in the conversation with completely unrelated comments she had completely misheard.

"Our resident hardhead decided not to come after all?" Millard asked loudly, pulling his beanie further back on his head and setting a few light brown curls springing free over his forehead.

"Looks that way. And here I really thought he might with Olive around. Fi, come hire skates with me?" Hugh waved a hand over his shoulder and winked at Olive who just stuck her tongue out at his teasing as he and Fiona continued past them to hire their skates.

Olive shouldn't have been disappointed, she wasn't really surprised, it would have only made Enoch uncomfortable anyway. She sighed and leaned over to change out of her boots and into her ice skates, lacing them up tightly before pulling on her gloves against the cold of London's December.

No sooner had she stood up, wobbling just a little and holding the arm of the bench for support, then a voice sounded right behind her.

"Hey."

Olive yelped, making Millard and Emma a few paces ahead of her towards the entrance to the rink turn around and stare, and started to topple over in surprise as she tried to turn around on the spot.

"You're this unsteady and ya ain't on the ice yet?" Enoch caught her forearms and she was sure she saw a flicker of amusement cross his face when she lifted her eyes up to look at him.

He let her go straight away and she beamed. He had actually decided to join them after all, she didn't even care if he'd been forced into it, which she doubted he would have let slip again, she just cared that he was there.

"Well, look what the wind blew in!" Emma called and Enoch scowled over at her before stepping well away from Olive and sitting down in her spot to change his shoes.

"Shut up."

"Lighten up, we're glad you're here."

"That makes one of us." Enoch grumbled to himself as Olive sat back down beside him.

"Two actually. Probably more." She corrected, gently nudging his side which Enoch completely disregarded as he started to lace up his skates.

"Don' expect me ta enjoy this. I fink I've skated like twice ever."

"Well then, you can look as out of place as I probably will. I'm really not very good on the ice." Olive couldn't take her eyes off him, as if trying to convince herself that he had actually come out and it wasn't just her hopes getting the better of her.

Even despite his grumbling. Enoch was surprisingly steady on his skates. While Jacob had performed a comical performance of trying to catch himself and having to cling onto Emma to keep him upright the first time he stepped onto the ice, and Olive was hesitant to even let go of the edge of the rink for the first few minutes. Enoch on the other hand, stayed surprisingly steady for his claiming of not being a good skater. He seemed to find his feet quickly even while Emma metaphorically skated rings around all of them as gracefully as if she was walking on air.

Fiona and Hugh very quickly split from the rest of them to skate arm in arm so every time one slipped, they both did.

"I thought you said you weren't very good." Olive scoffed, reaching out to stop herself on the side of the rink where Enoch had just hopped over to the other side. She'd found her feet enough to let go of the side.

Enoch just raised his eyebrow at her before ducking down below the edge to adjust his skate.

"Actually I didn't." He stood up so fast Olive flinched backwards a little in surprise. "And I can stay upright at least...more than I can say for you apparently."

Olive stuck her tongue out childishly, to which Enoch only scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not that bad, you could help me instead of poking fun."

"'oo's pokin' fun? And no. Move, Olive."

She slid back a foot away from the edge as Enoch hopped up and swung his legs back over the side to avoid walking around to the next entrance onto the rink.

"Oh come on, be helpful."

"I don't do 'elpful...people are lookin'." Enoch frowned more when Olive held out her hand to him and made no move at all to take it.

"No they're not, Enoch. Look yourself."

Sure enough the last thing people were doing was paying attention to a few more teenagers on the ice when half the people on the rink were holding arms and hands, or toppling over on the ice and laughing.

"Don't be so proud, Enoch!"

Olive and Enoch turned as one to see Hugh turning around on the spot and skidding to a halt on the ice, grinning over at them.

She could practically feel the annoyance flicker over Enoch's face, and the daring grin Hugh was giving him. He was doing it on purpose, clearly, to see if with enough snark at Enoch's expense, he would actually get over it and hold her hand in front of other people.

"Oh for cryin' out loud."

Before Olive could so much as say a word, Hugh was laughing and Enoch's cool fingers closed around her gloved ones. He didn't look at her but Olive smiled all the same and let him pull her along as she steadied herself. Enoch said nothing, and after a few seconds she stole another look at his face. He was still set in that frown, but she could have sworn there was a little more colour to his skin.

"See, no one's watching. It's okay to have fun you know." She smiled, leaning into his shoulder slightly as she wobbled turning on her skates.

"Skatin' rings wiv this many other people 'round ain't my idea of fun."

"Do you even have an idea of fun, Enoch?"

"Hey!" He finally turned his head and scoffed as he caught her grinning at him. "Oh whateva..."

"Why did you change your mind? I thought you hated the idea."

"I do." Enoch muttered and they flashed orange for a moment as one of the rotating lights washed over them. "I only came bec-woah!"

Olive yelped, tugging sharply on Enoch's arm automatically as her foot started to slip out from under her and right into Enoch's skate instead. Her heart seemed to stop for half a second as she felt herself start to fall, instinctively she threw out her hand and would have sent both them toppling hard onto the ice if Enoch had been just a fraction slower. Then all she felt was a hand on her shoulder and an arm around her back and Enoch's coat under her palm...and all the blood rush to her face.

"Ya 'right?" He was staring at her with an eyebrow raised and not so much the edge of his lip twitching. His arm felt warm around her waist and, kissing aside, it was the closest he'd gotten to her.

"Fine..." Olive squeaked and Enoch's eyebrows almost disappeared into his hair for a second before his blue eyes left hers and he loosened the secure catch he'd had on her as he looked around as if double checking that no one was watching. "You caught me, I'm fine...thank you."

"Well...wasn't gonna watch ya fall, was I?"

He wasn't letting go of her completely for once, as if he'd been burned, and something Olive hadn't seen before flickered in his blue eyes when he looked back at her. Then as suddenly as it had come, Enoch seemed to snap out of it and his arm started to leave her waist. It felt colder somehow.

She must have still been as red as her hair, she certainly felt it, when Enoch backed away, but his hand still took hers again.

Neither of them seemed to notice that her ankle had slipped closely up against Enoch's, and the blades of their skates dangerously close to touching. The thing with ice skating, in Olive's experience, was once you'd fallen, it was hard to keep from slipping again.

Enoch moved first, turning his foot in exactly the wrong direction and before either of them knew it, someone's foot flew out from under them and topple they did into a comical tangle of limbs.

"Bloody 'ell!"

It happened so fast that Olive barely knew it was happening until her elbow smacked the ice and Enoch's face was suddenly an inch away. If it had been embarrassing before it was three times as embarrassing now as Enoch lifted a hand to rub the back of his head.

And then she burst out into giggles.

"What the bloody 'ell is so funny?!" Enoch snapped but his ears were burning redder than Olive had ever seen and he was struggling to push himself up on the ice and out of her face that it was somehow absolutely hilarious.

"I'm sorry...I'm s-I'm so-" She couldn't even get through the words, without dissolving into laughter. Enoch was looking at her like she'd gone mad and that only made her like him more.

"Yeah...well could ya get off me so I can move already?" Enoch snapped, "And before-"

"You know the idea is to skate on the ice, not lie on it?"

Olive looked up as Millard skidded to a stop beside him, his bright green eyes all but sparkling in laughter at them. "I mean seriously, there are public displays of affection and then there's that."

"Shut up, Nullings! Go stick ya nose in a book 'fore I 'it you wiv one."

Enoch managed to dislodge his skate from Olive's leg while she was still trying not to laugh as she moved away from him and took Millard's outstretched hand to help her to her feet. Enoch ignored the gesture for help from either of them and, with a little difficulty and wobbling, pushed himself up.

"I'm so sorry, Enoch...I don't-I don't even know whose fault that was." Olive's voice was still trembling with giggles she was fighting to hold back.

"Yeah well..." He grumbled and glared daggers at Millard whose hands had shot up innocently.

"I was joking!" He shook his head and to Olive's immense amusement and probably Enoch's relief, skated off.