Title: Les Patineurs
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Rating: Teen
Relationships: Chris/Ezra
Characters: Nathan, J.D., Vin, Chris, Ezra, Buck, Josiah
Challenge: 212: Ice
Word count: 2,294

Summary: A pessimistic Nathan is surprised by an apparently promising outcome


Nathan declared there was no way he was going anywhere near it unless one of them fell through, or got themselves knocked down and split their skull open.

“Sounds like you don’t have much faith in us,” Chris observed, voice dull and broody as it had been all trip.  By that time he’d already completed several circuits of the frozen lake on his own.  They’d discovered it by chance at the edge of the forest, a mile or so below the mountain town where they were staying.

Pretty spot, in a clearing amongst the snow-covered trees.  A very few local folk were out enjoying the last of the daylight, and a bewhiskered old gent with an entrepreneurial spirit was hiring out rusty pairs of steel blades from a hut hung with paper lanterns.  He was mighty pleased to see them.

It was the not the kind of scene they’d expected, and not one Nathan had ever come across, excepting for in picture-books.

Chris, being the first to avail himself, chose the best looking pair of blades on offer – which wasn’t saying much – strapped them on, and set off with no comment.

Josiah raised a brow at Nathan as if to agree that yep, Larabee was still battling his seasonal glooms.  And it looked as if they were getting worse instead of better.

There were no fancy moves on display, but Chris was sure on his feet, and of course drew the eye.  As he moved away from where Nathan was standing at the other side of the fence, his long black coat flew out behind him in a faintly sinister fashion. 

Buck and J.D. had followed him out there, of course, and Buck was even now staggering around on the other side of the lake, amusing some watching ladies in muffs and fur bonnets, and only ever a wobble away from being flat on his face.

“Saw a feller get his fingers sliced off once,” J.D. said coming back to try and tempt Nathan once again.

Nathan gestured at him, grumpy. “Get your fingers sliced off and I might come help you out.  Anything short of drowning, freezing, or blood, forget it., I’m staying right here.”

J.D. laughed, breath puffing in the freezing air.  He pushed away from the fence, picked up speed with ease and sailed out into the center again. Wasn’t a winter of his childhood in Boston he hadn’t been out on the ice, or so he kept telling them.

Well that was fine, Nathan thought, for easterners.

He muttered to himself, jammed his hat further down over his ears.  Some trip this was shaping up to be.  It had been his refrain almost as soon as they’d left home behind.  Since they’d come up into the mountains to source a decent tree for town,  to be paid for by the Judge and Mary between them, Ezra had caught a chill, Chris had been sunk into an impenetrable gloom, and they’d all spent so long arguing over how best to transport the giant beauty they’d chosen it had been sold to another buyer so they had to settle for second, or even third, best.  And now Nathan couldn’t understand, the main business of the trip being complete, why they weren’t all shoulder to shoulder in some quiet little saloon somewhere with a crackling fire, playing cards, and drinking something sweet and seasonal. 

Safe.  Celebratory even, Larabee’s depression notwithstanding.

Ezra, perched on an upturned log, seemed to agree. He was shrunk into a huge overcoat, the collar turned right up. From time to time he shivered, somewhat theatrically, and then took a nip from his flask. 

“Go easy on that stuff, it’ll just make you colder,” Nathan grumbled at him, not able to shake the niggling worry over the damn fool’s health.

Ezra waved a dismissive hand.  His head emerged, turtle-like, from the collar.  “Seein’ as we’re socializin’ out here instead of sitting around a table in the warm, I’m drinking-“

“Your dinner, yes,” Nathan interrupted him, baleful.  “I can see that.”  He stamped his feet, rubbed gloved hands up and down his arms, vigorous.  Behind him he heard the sound of someone coming to a sharp halt, blades cutting into the ice.

“Ain’t you boys coming to join us?” a humorous voice inquired.  Vin, face flushed from exercise and long hair a bright hatless tangle, was leaning on the fence.

Ezra groaned.  “Not you too?”

“Well,” Vin said, eyes alight.  “Never done it before but don’t seem too hard.”

“Just take it easy,” Nathan said.  “I seen how fast you were going out there.  You take a tumble at that speed, ain’t going to be pretty.”

“I think you should try it.”  Vin grinned from ear to ear.  “Feller over there in the hut says he has plenty of skates.  They’re kinda beat up but reckon he could find some that fit.  Ain’t gonna cost you more’n a few cents.”

“Someone’s got to stay here and be sensible.”

Vin wasn’t about to give up on it.  “Ezra, how about you?  Seems to me you ain’t doing your bad chest much good just hangin’ about in the cold. Need to get your blood moving. I’ll hold your hand if’n you’re feeling nervous.”  Another grin split his face.  “And I’m sure Chris will too.”

“Ha!” Nathan said before Ezra could answer, although it did look as if he couldn’t quite work out what to say anyhow, and a faint flush appeared on his colourless cheeks – anger, perhaps, or maybe something else. 

“There will be no hand holding,” Ezra said, voice rough from his scratchy throat.  He lifted his flask.  “And this is doing my chest just fine, thank you.”

Vin shook his head.  “Aw, come on, Ezra.  No need to be scared.  Even Josiah’s out there.”

This was true enough.  Josiah, face wreathed in childlike glee, could be seen taking tentative steps near enough to Buck that he was likely to be brought down any second.  Which didn’t seem to worry him one bit.

“I am not scared,” Ezra said, clearly stung.  “Just got a head on my shoulders.  And in any case I have no need to fear the ice, Mr. Tanner, since as it happens I am more than proficient on skates.”

Vin shifted on the spot, looked out over the silvery expanse to where Buck and Josiah were now clinging on to one another’s upper arms and laughing fit to bust.  J.D. was circling around them yelling encouragement – or maybe abuse – and Chris was executing watchful figures of eight around the whole scene.  The locals seemed to have given up in the face of all the cussing and hollering.

Adjusting his gloves, Vin looked back at Ezra.

“Five dollars says you ain’t,” he said, and there was enough hell-bent mischief in his voice that Nathan winced.

“Ah damn it, Vin,” he began, and then, “Now, Ezra, you stay right-“

Too late.  Ezra stood up and set his flask down with a rap on the smooth top of a fence post.  His green eyes were gleaming and his shivers had gone.

“Make it ten dollars and I’ll skate backwards.”

Vin snorted.  “Hell, Ezra, you skate backwards and I’ll throw in ya dinner as well.”  He shook his head at him again as he never did think much of Ezra’s boasts, and then turned to skate back over the lake.

Since there was money involved, honor, and maybe free food, Ezra was across the snowy path to the hut in a moment.  Nathan saw him haggling with the bewhiskered gent inside, before he turned around and stalked back to Nathan, sat down again on the log, and proceeded to strap on some skates, puffing with the effort.

“You sure about this?” Nathan demanded.  “You ain’t well.”

“A little congestion is not going to stop me provin’ my point,” Ezra said, getting unsteadily to his feet.

“Or winnin’ some money.”

Ezra just gave him a lofty look.  He took his hat off, placed it on a fence post, and then walked tentatively out on to the ice.  Once he’d located Vin he pushed off into a slow glide straight towards him.

And yes, he could skate pretty good.  Well, for a man who generally wasn’t fond of exerting himself.

“See?” Ezra called out to Vin in barely disguised triumph, drawing near.

Vin was still laughing.  “That ain’t bad,” Nathan heard him say in a provoking tone, “but it ain’t backwards.”

Immediately Ezra executed a shaky swivel, keeping his momentum somehow, although he could no longer see where he was going.  Hell, the man really did want a free dinner.  Apparently alarmed at his own daring, Ezra swiveled back again, almost tripping over the point of one blade.

Vin passed him with a jaunty wave.

Nathan tutted to himself.  Just because they were out of their home environs he didn’t see why they all had to make a show of themselves.  Or always want to do things that put life and limb in danger. He wasn’t sure where to look.  Josiah had gone down with a thump over the other side, although he seemed to be all right, judging by the guffaws, and Buck was stuck, frozen, splay-legged like a newborn calf, unable to move in any direction.   J.D. seemed determined to show he was much better at skating backwards than any vainglorious southerner he could name, and Chris was still swishing about on his own.

Ezra, keeping his feet, had set off after Vin.  And he seemed pretty determined.  Picking up speed rapidly, he was hurtling crossways across the lake.

“Oh now for Pete’s sake...” Nathan said under his breath.

Vin saw Ezra coming and came to a swift stop, a skill that – Lord save us – Ezra didn’t seem to have acquired.  He continued to pick up speed, heading right past Vin, right across the lake, and... Nathan’s heart started to beat fast.

He grabbed hold of the fence and hollered, loud as he could, “Chris!  Chris!  Look out there!”

No good.

Ezra, at full speed, careered into Larabee, carried them a little way and then brought them both down with a crash.

Ah hell, some damn trip this was shaping up to be.  All Nathan could see in his mind was split skulls, breached ice, and broken bones.  He vaulted the fence and began to run-slide across the ice to get to them.  Buck, Josiah and J.D. were scrambling towards the accident from the other side.

It was a tangle of legs, boots, arms, skates, and coats.  As Nathan got nearer he could see Chris was unmoving, lying flat on his back, winded, or worse, and Ezra was sprawled on top of him, a dead weight.  Their faces were mashed together, and that didn’t bode well for either teeth or noses.

Vin had skidded to an ungraceful halt next to them, a spray of wet ice arcing over their still forms.

Dead, Nathan thought, both of them.  But then again, he usually thought that when any of them were in a scrape.

He’d dropped on to his knees on the ice, ready for damage, when Ezra lifted his head. 

To Nathan, and clearly Vin’s complete surprise and relief, underneath Ezra Chris’s eyes were open.  They were wide, surprised – and whose wouldn’t be after being pole-axed like that. 

One of Chris’s spread arms came up and closed around his unexpected attacker’s back, fingers pale from the cold grasping tight at a fistful of coat.

Oh hell.  Angry now, as well as gloomy.

There was a beat of silence, a long one, while Chris stared up at Ezra and licked his bottom lip as if he could taste something interesting there. 

Nathan shook his head slightly, as if to clear confusion.

Ezra’s face still hovered mere inches above Chris’s, as if they were... as if they’d just....

Then, “Ezra,” Chris said in a slow, breathless growl, eyes locked on his face.   “You could have just asked.”

Nathan couldn’t hear anything for a second except the sound of Vin, thoughtful, sucking his teeth.

“Come on now,” Buck barged in, cutting across the strangely loaded atmosphere.  “Let’s get you two knuckleheads off this dang lake and into the warm.”  As soon as he’d spoken there was a general pitching in of willing hands to help haul their friends back to their feet.

“Guess it’s getting dark,” J.D. said with regret as they moved, en masse, back to the fence and the hut.  “Guess we’d better come in now.”

Nathan, dragging his eyes from his suspicious tracking of how well Chris and Ezra were moving, regarded the surface below his feet with distaste.

“Don’t see the attraction,” he said.

Vin, lending Josiah a hand to get to the edge of the lake, still seemed in good spirits.  “Reckon the attraction is that when you’ve gotten yourself all iced up, you go get yourself all thawed out,” he said.

And that was exactly what they did, retrieving their patient mounts from where they were tethered, snorting and stamping under the white trees, and heading back up into town.

Straight into the nearest and smallest saloon, quiet, cosy, and offering whiskey, peace, and sustenance.

There was even a crackling fire in one corner. and Nathan made sure to bundle Ezra right into the chair nearest it.  He wasn’t expecting what came next, though.

“Well, reckon I’ll just shimmy in next to you,” Chris said.  Sure enough he sat down, close enough they were knee to knee. 

“Be my guest I’m sure,” Ezra rasped out, and for the first time in weeks Chris’s lips curved into something like... pleasure.

Nathan looked from Ezra to Chris and from Chris to Ezra. 

Some trip this was shaping up to be.