Author's Notes: A fic written by not one but two authors!

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The Ice Prince

By Silver Miko and Sephiress

Chapter 1: The Prince and the Partner

The snow fell softly onto the busy Tokyo streets as icy blue eyes watched from the window of a small café.

"Aoshi-san, are you listening?"

He turned his attention back to the woman with long black hair and maroon eyes who was dressed in a red jacket and skirt suit.

"What did you say?" he asked, sipping at his cup of green tea.

"I said, I think I may have an idea as to who could be your new partner." she murmured.

Takani Megumi and Shinomori Aoshi were not lovers, but partners. In ice skating. Having been partners for five years, they had earned a reputation for their grace and good looks. Now, Megumi was retiring at the age of twenty-one because she was getting married to her long-time boyfriend, Sagara Sanosuke, a hockey player.

Aoshi had congratulated his partner, and had thought he could merely go back to singles skating, but both Megumi and their coach, Seijuro Hiko, had said otherwise.

He didn't want another partner, he really hadn't wanted one to begin with. Not that Megumi wasn't a terrific skater, he just...preferred to work alone. They looked in synch and that they were good partners, but both knew Aoshi preferred to work alone.

"And who is this girl who think should be my new partner?" he asked, not caring.

"She's a novice, up-and-coming, but she shows a lot of potential."

"But.?" Aoshi asked, sensing there was more than what she was saying.

Megumi sighed.

"Just go check her out."

Aoshi sighed.

"What's her name?"

"Makimachi Misao."

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Skating across a small pond, a petite girl dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt twirled around. Her blue-black hair which was braided with messy bangs in her face. She hummed to herself as she twirled and looped and jumped around the ice, only to stumble and fall.

"Ow! Darn...I thought I'd get that triple loop down."

She sighed, picking herself up off the ice.

"Misao-chan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Misao spun around and saw a tall brunette dressed in a gold kimono.

"Okon-chan, what?" she asked, looking at her tall cousin.

"Okina wants you to come back inside now for lunch."

Misao sighed and skated to the edge of the pond.

"Haaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

Reaching the small makeshift bench, Misao grabbed her backpack and took off her ice skates and put her sneakers back on and followed Okon back to the Aoiya, the restaurant owned by her grandfather, Okina.

Okon's kimono was part of her hostess routine, giving the Aoiya a traditional feel. The Aoiya, which had been in business for generations, was quite the popular restaurant and famous for its large selection of exotic teas.

Okina and the others had often tried to get Misao to give up on skating and work at the restaurant. But her love for the ice was impenetrable. She had been skating ever since she had received a pair of figure skates for her sixth birthday.

"Misao-chan, you should wear warmer clothes when you skate", her other female cousin, Omasu, stated when Misao sat down at the table. She frowned at Misao's rosy cheeks and red-tipped nose.

"Hai, Hai, Omasu-chan.", Misao replied and proceeded to eat the bowl of miso soup that had been placed in front of her.

The young figure skater finished her lunch quickly, in hopes of getting back out to the ice. Misao jumped up as soon as she was done, placed her dishes by the other dirty stack and was about to rush out the door.

"Makamachi Misao, you get back in here!"

Misao groaned at Okon's command, knowing she wasn't going to get back outside for a while.

"It's your shift in the restaurant. Don't think that you don't have to work at all missy." Misao sighed and nodded her head, knowing her older cousin was right. She may hate working as a waitress, but Okon and Omasu needed her help. So Misao trudged upstairs to change into her uniform kimono.

Misao's room was a usual clutter, skate equipment and clothes littering the floor. She searched her closet for a kimono to wear and selected a pale green one with white flowers and a white obi. Her hair came out of its usual braid and went up into a more sophisticated bun with chopsticks. When Misao was finally ready, instead of going downstairs to meet her cousins, she looked up at the posters that decorated her room, all of them consisting of the same dark-haired man.

"Aoshi-sama", she breathed, called the man by her nickname for him. "When am I going to get out of here. Will I ever be able to live my dream? Will I ever skate like you, Aoshi-sama?"

Her ocean blue eyes looked up at the poster, as though expecting it to have an answer to her problems. But all she received was the cold stare of her ideal skater. His face was taut in concentration as he had been staking across the ice, not aware of the cameras that had been snapping him. The slim, beautiful woman next to him was positioned in the same posture, the grace of the pair evident even in the picture.

Misao sighed, knowing she would never be good enough to reach his status. But she could dream…

"MIIIIISAO!!!"

The small woman snapped out of her daydreams and dashed out of the room, leaving her dreams aside for another day.

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Aoshi stood outside the public skating rink, dress in black pants, a black button up shirt, a long beige trench coat, and dark sunglasses. He was waiting for his coach, and growing impatient.

It was ten am, too early for even Hiko to be dri...

Or not.

Aoshi sighed.

He didn't have time for this. He didn't need a partner, he had worked well enough alone. His skill was what HAD given him a name: Shinomori Aoshi, a skating prodigy at age ten who spent the past twelve years honored as one the best skaters in the world. But everyone seemed to want him to be tied down with a partner, and now a novice.

At least Megumi had been pro when they were partnered.

Finally seeing the tall man approaching, Aoshi furrowed his brows. Hiko was wearing khaki cargo pants and a grey hooded sweatshirt, his hair messily pulled back into a pony-tail.

"You're late." Aoshi murmured.

"Yes well, I was sleeping."

Aoshi merely began walking inside with Hiko in tow. The first interesting thing they noticed was that was no one on the ice. The second thing was, there was no one there. Well, two people there.

A tall brunette was sitting in one of the seats flipping through a magazine as a petite figure skated on the ice. Hiko grinned when he saw the woman and pushed Aoshi towards the seats next to her, maneuvering so Hiko sat next to the woman. Aoshi merely sat with arms crossed as he watched the petite girl with a braid move across the ice.

She was wearing jeans and a black tee-shirt and was skating fast as the music changed, to a song she seemed familiar with. It had a fast, techo beat and Hiko watched with some interesting while quietly chatting with the woman who was identified as Okon, whereas Aoshi watched every move the girl on the ice made, wondering why she did not practice to classical music.

He always skated to classical music.

He watched her speed, it was quite fast, not nearly as fast as her own.

Her movements were good, but somewhat sloppy.

Her concentration was....her mouth was...moving? She was singing along to the song.

She seemed to stop doing anything like ice skating and just seemed to dance more to the song as if it wasn't on skates...

Standing up and shedding his coat, he walked towards the rink with a pair of black ice skates in his hand.

"Aoshi?" Hiko asked, but merely shook his head as Aoshi headed for the rink ansd turned his attention back to Hiko.

"Where is your friend going? And why were you guys here?"

"That guy is a pretty good skater and I'm his coach. His partner's retiring and she suggested this girl, Makimachi."

"Misao-chan?"

"Yes, your cousin's pretty good. A little rough, but has potential."

Okon laughed.

"That girl lives, breathes, and eats skating. It kind of gets us annoyed sometimes because she forgets her other responsibilities."

"It's her dream, and who knows? It may just come true." Hiko said with a grin.

Misao was so lost into skating she never noticed someone else step onto the ice as she closed her eyes and moved. She went to make a double-axle and was shocked when she felt a pair of hands slide onto her hips and catch her. Startled she looked up at her sudden partner and gasped.

"Ao..Ao..Aoshi-sama!" she blurted out, feeling her feet give out under her as she stared up at him in bewilderment.

He merely looked down at her, his eyes cold, making him live up to the nickname 'Ice Prince'.

"Get up." he said, his voice sending shivers down her spine.

She did as she asked, stumbling to her feet.

"I want you to try skating with me." he murmured.

She blinked.

"W...What? Me?"

"Yes. You. Is there another Misao here?"

She shook her head, eyes large.

Shinomori Aoshi. THE Shinomori Aoshi. She had dreamt of meeting him since the first time she saw the ten year old skate on ice, gliding across it with a grace beyond his young years.

He took her hand as they skated slowly at first, moving with speed.

"I assume you've seen my skate?"

"O..Yes." she murmured.

"We're going to try part of the routine Megumi-san and I did for last year's nationals."

"You're going to throw me into a double axle, catch me, we do triple toe loops, and finish with a death spiral."

"Very good, Misao."

They began the routine, and Misao was amazed at how fast he really did skate. She never usually had problems keeping up, suddenly she felt him pull her close and her heart beat grew louder.

Suddenly she felt herself throw high into the air and quickly shifted to the posture for a double axle. She landed as he caught her and they seperated four feet to do triple toe loops, which Aoshi completely faster than Misao, and then indeed finished with a death spiral.

When they finished, Misao was panting for breath, her legs shaking.

"Your movements are shaky and slow, your timing is off, and you wear out quickly."

Misao felt her heart almost stop, hearing her idol berate her skating.

"Well excuse me! Some of us aren't profressionals! If my skating offends you so much why did you want to skate with me?!" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

He skated closer to her, looming over her short five-foot-one frame making her gulp.

"We'll begin practicing Monday morning. Be here at five am."

She blinked.

"What..."

"For the moment, you are my new partner."

"P...partner? Like as is skating?"

"Yes. Megumi-san is retiring. She suggested you to replace her."

"Megumi-san did?" Misao asked, thinking of the black haired woman who she often saw skating at the rink but was too shy to approach.

"She thought you were good."

"And you think I suck." she said with a sigh.

Her idol was....very cold.

"You need work. We shall see how it goes. If you have any questions I'm sure my coach has already supplied your cousin with his telephone number.

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sephiress and I would like to mention we had been working on this for weeks, I had mentioned this fic to shin a week or two ago, and was not based off or has anything to do with Zerianyu's ice skating fic.

Just making a note.