Aaron thanked the few lucky stars he had left that Wednesdays were his lightest class day of the week. It gave him time without Bryan's questions to some studying while only having to worry about one class in the afternoon.

After a leisurely lunch, it was a simple enough to sit through the lecture, taking notes. It was a much needed break from thinking about . It was just the thing he needed after his exciting morning

As soon as Aaron left the lecture hall, his break was over. The first thing he saw when he stepped through the door was Bryan standing at the top of the stairs, grinning. He must have been waiting for the lecture to end.

"Aaron!" Bryan greeted, clapping a hand to Aaron's shoulder. "It's an ice day for skating club. I thought I'd drag you off to get changed. We don't want to be late."

"An ice day? Isn't that next week?" Aaron asked, sliding out from under Bryan's hand to finish shouldering his backpack. "Didn't we just have one last weekend?"

"Last weekend was a few of us working on jumps, not an actual meeting," Bryan explained. He started walking down the stairs, obviously in a hurry to get moving. "This is why I was waiting for you. I knew you would forget, you always do."

Aaron huffed as he started walking a bit faster. "It's not that I forgot. It's just been a rough day."

"Right, a rough day," Bryan laughed. "You still jumpy? Or are you over whatever happened this morning?"

Aaron rolled his eyes instead of answering. He had been lucky Bryan had lasted this long without asking about that morning. But he still had not decided just what he was going to say.

"You know you can tell me, right? I'm your best friend! And that means I'm not going to laugh, even if you say you fell on your face walking through the door of the cafe."

"That's a lie," Aaron laughed.

"You're right," Bryan admitted, grinning. "I would laugh if you fell on your face, especially if I got to see it. But there aren't any bruises on your pretty face. That means it was something else. Now spill."

"Pretty face? Next you're going to talk about my ass..." Aaron said bleakly, the turn of phrase reminding him of Elise.

"Your ass?" Bryan laughed, surprised enough that he actually stopped walking to look at the body part in question. "Well you do have a nice one . It's all that skating you do."

"I didn't mean you should look at it!"

"What was I supposed to do?" Bryan protested, jogging to catch back up to Aaron. "You talked about the ass, I have to look at it to properly talk about it."

Aaron stopped walking to glare at Bryan. "You didn't need to look at my ass. You never need to look at my ass. Now you are definitely not getting to meet Elise any time soon."

"Is that what got under your skin earlier? Did Elise ask about your ass?"

"Just stop, Bryan," Aaron groused, glaring darkly as he started walking quickly toward their dorm. "I thought you were in a hurry to get to the rink? You driving us or are you going to try to run with me?"

"Driving," Bryan answered, grinning triumphantly at what he had managed to get out of Aaron. "I wouldn't be able to keep up with you the whole way there if we ran. You can do your crazy run back after we're done if you want. I will happily eat without you."

"Tonight I have practice with Coach after the meeting. So I'll probably grab dinner with him," Aaron said with a shrug. "Then he'll drive me back for some studying."

"Busy, busy, busy," Bryan said with a shake of his head as they made their dorm. He pulled the door open with a smile. "I'll try not to be too distracting. But I might need back up for a game or two later. You'll complain, but I know you like it. You might think you keep that part secret, but I have learned your secrets."

Aaron rolled his eyes again as he lead the way to their room, where backpacks were dropped by their respective desks. It didn't take long for them to change clothes and shoes. Aaron checked over the contents of his rink bag before adding his skates and zipping it again. He was just relieved Bryan seemed willing to let matters rest while they moved through the simple motions of getting ready. Their companionable silence lasted all the way down to Bryan's car and for the ride to the rink.

One thing was sure, it was a lot faster to get to the rink with Bryan driving than it was when he ran in the morning. But they also didn't take the time to stop at the cafe to get more coffee. That really cut back on travel time. Soon enough they had parked, and Aaron was slinging his bag over his shoulder to walk into the rink for the second time that day.

Even with all the drama that had happened in the building that morning, walking through the familiar front doors felt like he was coming home.