Green with envy. Also pink and blue. Orange should fix that. (Arc and Lani, private)

He blinked, turning on his skates and sliding backwards while she moved away. His brows were knitted, now, a puzzled frown on his face. Slowly, he was finally processing what it was that she was trying to tell him, but it wouldn't fully register. It wasn't a matter of him not understanding her meaning, it never really was; it was a matter of why,or all people, why, ever, would it be him? Soon, carefully, he'd made his way into the opposite corner, still watching her with his brows furrowed, but his eyes and throat pulsed a pale, spiritual blue.

Candy looked up at Rogue, as far as he could get from her on the rink. Her chest rose and fell with a sigh, and she looked back down. Since he moved away, she thought that maybe meant something. She wasn't sure, though, bit tried not to keep her hopes up too much. She couldn't see the colour when she glanced up.

Each thump of his heart caused a pulse of the coloration, visible enough against the backdrop of his face and body, and hr tried, desperately but in vane, to get the mask to somehow cover his neck note than it already did. Finding this turning out to no avail, he pushed off from the qall, making an easy glide around the rink's outta rim and towards her. His heart beat faster at the actions, but he stubbornly fought to ignore it; maybe doing so would help, to some measure of a degree.

Candy didn't notice him coming until he was very close, which startled her a little. She looked up at him and saw clearly the light at his throat. She knew that it meant he at least felt awkward. Good or bad, she couldn't tell. Many people felt awkward when turning people down. "Did you figure it out?" She asked, quietly, cheeks gaining colour once again. She chewed on her lip lightly waiting for a reply.

He watched her, the color at her cheeks a more normal testament akin to the glow at his eyes and throat. He swallowed, once, twice, and again, each time making the light bob unsteadily. Shifting on his feet was out of the question in skates; even with improved balance, doing so meant that he would likely fall and make even more of a fool of himself. He could feel eyes burrowing into his back as onlookers gaped and googled at the shy interaction, but he couldn't find words. Instead,he nodded, hands shoved thoroughly in his pockets.

She looked back down, as she didn't have much more reason to be looking. Her hands started fiddling with the fabric of her skirt as she asked another question. "And?" It was seeking for an answer from him, whether she had gotten lucky or whether she'd have go and hide somewhere for a while.

He reached a tewmbling hand out, disentangling her hand from her clothes, and squeezed gently, saying nothing. Once more, however, he fought for her gaze.

When Rogue took her hand, her heart skipped a beat. Funny how that worked. Her gaze and her face in general shot up to look at Rogue, eyes wide open. She still wasn't sure about what he was going to say or do, if anything. But he took her hand and that was good, right? Right!? She couldn't know with this guy, but she hoped that it was good.

He squeezed her hand again, smiling crookedly. This time, however, she saw; he reached up, gently tugging his mask down under his chin. There was nothing wrong with his face, there really wasn't, but seeing it in full showed clearly his Japanese roots. No scars marred his skin, no deformaties or birth marks that explained his usage of the mask. Still, however, he smiled at her, soft, crooked, and shy.

Even if this wasn't a completely straightforward answer, Candy still took on a wide smile, which honestly was more like a grin. She then looked around and reached up with her other hand to place the mask back over his face. "We have an audience..." She said, blushing even more than before.

He chuckled, saving them off idly before tugging her into movement, nodding at the rink. "Are we going to skate or what?" His eyes scanned her. "You left your gear off."

"Sure." She replied, following him, holding onto his hand. She could do that now, right? She wondered for a moment about what Aurora would think, but decided to stop thinking about that; she had a Rogue to enjoy the rest of the day with.

He tested her with his moves, alternating between just straight skating and doing shapes and tricks, a ring just how well she could keep up. All the while, he smiled and laughed beneath the mask, eyes alight.

Candy had no issues with following what Rogue did. This wasn't her first skating rodeo, so to say. Though, she looked much less at where she was going than she had at Rogue, grinning the whole time. She just sort of trusted him to guide her along.

Seeing that she didn't miss a beat, he pulled her away from the rink, leading her further into the shop. There were some ramps in this new area, designed for more experienced skaters. He raised his brows at her in challenge.

Seeing the ramps and Rogue's challenge, Candy's grin turned from happy to something that said, 'I'll wipe the floor with you.' No amount of attraction was going to make her go easy. "How about a game of Skate? One person does a trick and the other has to copy it. If they fail, they get a letter. The first one to get Skate loses."

He smirked, a gesture that reached his eyes and nodded in an almost finality. "Loser does what?"

"No idea. Winner gets to name what they want." Candy replied, raising her hand up to start a game of Rock Paper Scissors, obviously to see who goes first.

He rolled his eyes at her, but went with the little game anyway. After three hours, he topped her, two to one, and made his way into the indoor park. Kicking their start off with a series of simple tricks, he waited for her to mimic.

Again, Candy completed the simple chain, coming to a stop, blinking at Rogue. "Is this a challenge or leisurely rideabout in the park?" She quipped, turning away and heading as far from a nearby quarterpipe as she could get. Rotating on a pair of wheels, she then sped towards the aforementioned ramp; having launched herself into the air, she did a full backflip as well as a half turn. She landed back on the same ramp, now facing away from it. She rode it down and skidded to a halt by Rogue's side.

He laughed after her, a soft sound hat was nonetheless full of mirth. Saying nothing, he nimiced the moves, just as agile but less compact than his companion. He upped the difficulty, going through another series, gliding up and halting beside her.

Candy carefully watched and noted each part of what Rogue did, before she set off to do the same; she did so with relative ease, but her skates were foreign to her. She rolled across the ground, falling as gracefully as possible. It was clear she had plenty of experience doing so when she jumped back up off the floor, entirely unharmed; she did look annoyed nonetheless, however. "I got my skate caught. S." She gave herself the first letter.

OOC: If you so wish, you can just skip to Rogue winning. I was planning to let Candy lose.

Several rounds and seven letters later, between the pair of them, Rogue moved in easy circles outside the rink. He was going to take her down to the underground skate park, but at this pointbwasnt sure whether or not she would want to. "What now?" He asked instead, seemingly more awkward as she drew closer.

Candy took her helmet off and ran her hand across her head to make sure all of it was neatly in place, rather than sticking out here and there. "You win. Name your prize, what do you want me to do?"

Rogue paused, looking her up and down as he tried to think through an option that night work. In truth, he hadn't expected victory, and had not thought up a satisfactory prize, besides which. In silence, instead, he merely shrugged, gesturing with a finger for her to follow as he made his way back to get them checked out of the indoor skate park.