#wcnsofic

[easyobsession]

companion piece/mood board/fan art for my Spinning Out fic What Comes Next.

(you can also read it on ao3 here)

*4 of these images are NOT mine and I make no claim as such.

[easyobsession]

What Comes Next

A Spinning Out oneshot

(you can also read it on AO3 here)

"He refuses to propose after they medal at the Olympics."

He refuses to propose after they medal at the Olympics.

They’ve just won silver in Beijing which, granted, isn’t the same as first, but they’re less than three-tenths of a point away and even landing second place is unexpected and pretty damn impressive.

(And just for the record: no, the loss isn’t to Leah and Gabe. They came close, but only just missed their spot on the Olympic team. Instead, the gold goes to a pair from Canada who are being coached by Virtue and Moir, which, really, leaves everyone else little to no shot in frozen hell anyway.)

So yeah, they haven’t won gold. Yet. But their spirits are far from crushed. Few thought they’d make it this far, and landing silver at their first Games is pretty damn impressive.

Plus, 2026 isn’t that far away. And Italy has always been on their bucket lists.

Anyway, yes, admittedly it’s kind of the perfect time. Not to mention the fact that by now their relationship is no secret to the public and damn near everyone worldwide that’s been following their careers and, therefore, also their personal lives for the better part of two years, expects it.

And obviously he has the means to pull it off. He could go as big and extravagant as he wants, maybe even getting down on one knee in the Kiss and Cry after they get their scores for literally all the world to see. They’d make international headlines and give feed for a story to be told for the ages.

But they’re not a typical couple. Kat is far from a typical girl. And Justin, while maybe not the sharpest blade on the ice, is not a complete moron.

(In layman’s terms: he knows she’d kill him.)

Plus, that’s too expected. And while he may not want to blindside her on national television, he does want it to be a surprise.

So instead he waits until three months after the Olympics; after the press has died down and they’ve both turned down offers to be on the Masked Singer and Dancing With the Stars, and decides to go the simple route, busying Kat with a daylong distraction of hanging out with her sister for a rare girl’s day out, and spends the next few hours getting everything ready.

He’s prepared for this. It isn’t just something he’s decided to do over the last few months. Justin had known this girl was special the moment they met, and every day since then has only proved him right, which is why he’s made sure to take every necessary step to nail this.

Kat’s father has never really been in the picture, and her relationship with her mother has been a rough one over the years- that’s no secret to anyone. But the Baker family dynamic changes a lot after Regionals 2020, which is why he asks both Kat’s mom and sister for permission nearly a year before the heist goes down, under the guise of asking about a Christmas gift idea for Kat, just to be safe.

(For the record, he gets a resounding yes and far more tears than he’s actually comfortable with.)

Funny enough though, it isn’t Carol or Serena he goes to when it comes to finding a ring; nor is it Jenn, whom things have gotten better with over the years with Kat, though nothing has ever returned to how it once was. He even considers asking Mandy for her input because, y’know, jewelry, until the answer almost literally smacks him in the face.

Which is how he winds up having secret meetings with Dasha and her jeweler for the better part of eight months to custom design the perfect ring. And while yes, it’s stressful and confusing and sometimes downright painful, it’s completely worth it when he finally sees his hard work come to fruition.

He’s spared no limits on the ring, though he does keep in mind the fact that Kat isn’t the type to want million dollars on her hand, and Justin knows he’s nailed it when Dasha immediately tears up at the sight of the vintage pear shaped diamond in white gold.

A part of him thought about doing it in their suite. (After about six months of dating and partnering, they’d decided to throw caution to the wind and move in together. It made sense, since they spent all their time together anyway. However, despite wanting a real place of their own, the convenience of the hotel was just too beneficial to pass up, so they’d hauled Kat’s crap out of Dasha’s and upgraded to one of the luxury suites. A week later, as they sat on the sofa of their fully decorated suite entirely spearheaded by Mandy, they knew they’d made the right decision.) But he quickly tossed that idea away as being a little too basic for his liking.

Another thought had been to do it at the rink. It was where they’d spent countless hours training, both as friends and enemies and more, growing and learning in love and sport and in life. But the rink also held a lot of other memories, with both their families and friends and other partners, and held too many negativities to mix with the positives. He wanted something special, something for just the two of them.

Which is why when she walks onto the ice of his mother’s secret hideaway, Justin knows he’s chosen correctly.

He figures he’s probably bought out enough fairy lights to power a small country, which is saying a lot since the place was damn near covered in them to begin with, as well as lanterns and candles and an array of various flowers, since Kat has never been able to choose just one as her favorite. For a brief moment he’d considered doing a table for two with dinner and dessert and a good bottle of wine, but as they live in a town that truly is fucking freezing 24/7, Justin knows he can’t afford to draw this out.

Instead he meets her at the edge of the clearing, her skates already on thanks to a tip from Serena, and guides her to the middle of the ice.

The speech he’s prepared, to be perfectly honest, flies right out of his head. Which is terrifying because it means he’s going to have to go off the cuff and completely from his heart.

Somehow, though, he manages to spill his soul, telling Kat that she’s changed his life for the better and made him want to be a better person for all the right reasons. He tells her that she’s special and beautiful and different; that she makes him smile and he loves the way her laugh lights up her entire face and how she still hums their Romeo and Juliet music under her breath when she thinks nobody is listening.

He tells her that he loves her now, he loved her way back then, and he knows he’ll love her for eternity, and he wants to spend that eternity with her at his side, not just as partners on the rink, but in life.

It feels like he’s down on his knee for hours, but in reality takes all of two seconds before Kat is screaming a resounding yes and nearly knocking him over (thank god for his good reflexes).

It’s after the dust has settled, after a kiss that could move Earth’s plates and the ring slides perfectly into place on her hand, that Justin finally locks eyes with his fiancé and grins.

And just like that very first day, after everything else has calmed, when it’s just the two of them, together, and the ice…

They skate.

♥️