This is dedicated to the lovely alexandra/lexi, my best friend and love of my life. Happy birthday! snowinsummer8

Ps, this'll mostly be in shoma's pov, although occasionally it'll switch to lexi's just so you see her story.

...

(Shoma's pov)

She changed my world when she became my everything.

I never planned to see her, nor did I plan to meet her.

And I'm pretty sure, falling for her wasn't part of the plan either.

But life never goes exactly as planned.

...

It started with one word.

Her name.

July 15th 2018 was the date.

I was in Kobe, Japan, starring in Dreams On Ice.

She was in the crowd.

Somewhere.

I left the back room for some fresh air right before the show to calm my nerves down.

But when I walked out, I saw tons of people, still queuing up to get in and I can't imagine the chaos that would occur if I left through that exit and they all saw me.

So I sneaked to the back of the building and breathed a sigh of relief when there appeared to be no one.

I inhaled deeply and tried to settle all the butterflies in my stomach.

"You're shoma. Shoma Uno." A voice stated bluntly.

My eyes jumped open and I turn to the direction of the voice sharply.

My dark eyes met with curious blue ones.

Truthfully, I wanted to be alone. But this girl, she kept looking at me as I processed her words and silently translated her question to Japanese in my head so it would make sense to me. She must be a fan.

And then she did the most adorable head tilt, "aren't you?"

"Yeah. I am."

She smiled after I managed to answer her question with my limited English vocabulary.

But the moment she smiled, I let out a soft gasp, unable to take my eyes off her.

I never noticed how beautiful she is, but in that moment I took in everything I could about her, her cute smile, her ability to not scream after discovering me, her gorgeous eyes that just cuts right into my soul, her calmness, her presence.

I don't know what it was, but something drew me to her.

"Don't you have to go skate soon?"

"Yeah. I...nervous." Even I didn't realize how nervous I had been, my hands were shaking.
Was I this nervous when I left or did seeing her somehow make me even more nervous?

She takes a step closer cautiously, as if she were afraid I'd run or something.

I stepped closer too.

"Don't be. Have fun instead. You love skating, don't you? I love watching people who love skating. You can just tell how passionate they are about it and how they pour their soul onto the ice, and it's beautiful. Forget about being perfect. No one's perfect anyways, perform not cleanly, but freely."

She spoke slowly and gently and smiled at me again.

Her words, the way she said it, seemed to settle in my mind.

I smiled, wanting to talk to her more, but the MC's loud booming voice could already be heard and I knew the show was starting. I was in the opening number and I couldn't afford to miss it.

While turning back to the door, I asked, "Your name is...?"

For a moment she looked shocked but then quickly pulled herself together.

"Lexi."

Lexi, Lexi, Lexi...I'll remember that.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful person." I smiled, before running through the door.

I wonder where she went after? If she was running around the arena, like she was running around in my head.

The crowd was loud and excited as usual, the roaring filled my ears.

After the opening number, I breathed in excitedly. The high of the crowd's cheers drawing me in, rushing adrenaline into me.

I performed my new short program, Moonlight by Yiruma.

I could hardly remember the whole program, everything was a blur to me even right after the performance.

I rushed off the ice, out of breath and gas. Inhaling deeply, I smiled. Even though I don't remember it, that felt like a good program I just did. And the crowd's cheers in the end helped big time. I wonder if she was in the stands?

It's been a while since I've performed like this.
God, I miss skating.

I mean, I know I basically skate everyday, but it's not the same.

I haven't skated with that much joy and freedom in so long. The pressure of the Olympics, and then the pressure of living up to the title of Olympic Champion and the World Championships and trying to prove that I deserved to be Japan's number one had been weighing on me without me realizing it.

I don't know why, but I managed to skate with so much lightness and true enjoyment.

Yes, this is what skating is suppose to be like.

Before competitions and rankings became important, skating with joy was as easy as breathing. I loved it. You didn't need to force me to do it.

But when not falling and skating clean suddenly became more important to me, my love for skating deteriorated.

I need to find it again.

Without it, I'm lost.

I was lost as a skater.
But she found me.

The girl.

What was her name?

"Lexi"

...

Once again, happy birthday lexi-chan! Hope you enjoy this :))