Blades and Balance

Posted on Mon Mar 23rd, 2026 @ 1:04am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Following "Snow Place Like Home"

"You know," Henry said when they finally paused from each other, "it's a wonder you kissing me doesn't make me melt straight down into the snow." He grinned up at her and hugged her tight.

"Oh stop it, you." Tessa laughed back down at him, then waited a few moments before frowning at him, "I didn't mean it!" She objected, face stricken as she struggled to get back up as Henry reluctantly let her go, "I really didn't mean it, I like it when you compliment me!"

Henry grinned and flipped her over into the snow and kissed her again. "Don't worry, I'll never stop," he said. "But, there's another wintertime activity we could try, if you're interested. In fact, you'll love it. It involves blades and tests of balance and agility."

She had automatically breathed out as he'd flipped her over so she didn't lose her breath, but her blonde hair splayed out behind her as she reached up to his face, "Oh? I think I will!" Her mind was full of swords and knives, but couldn't figure out where the balance and agility came in, but maybe it would be on some sort of ice field, or something involving the snow, "But how would you be at it?"

Henry shrugged. "I'm not the greatest at it, but I can hold my own. Are you up to the challenge, Your Grace?" He brushed some snowflakes off her cheek and grinned excitedly.

Her eyes glimmered at the thought that she and Henry could fight side by side at last, at least in a planned event rather than a desperate last stand. "Of course I am! Cass would be proud of you for this, I'm sure of it!"

"Oh, I highly doubt that," Henry said, grinning. He stood up and helped Tessa to her feet. "Computer," he said, "I need a good sized pond, frozen at least seven inches thick, and a pair of skates in each of our sizes."

The computer beeped and the scene changed, the forest gone and instead a clearing with a large, iced over pond. "Computer, bench please, with a padded path to the lake."

A bench appeared for them to sit on, two sets of odd-looking shoes next to it.

"Come have a seat. I'll show you how to suit up," he said.

Tessa brushed her pants down and glanced around for her jacket, not seeing it, then shivered slightly before sitting down and giving the skates a very confused look, "We're going to be fighting with foot-blades?" She asked him, looking up at him, "I've never done that before... I don't think Cass would have, either!"

"Well, it isn't--" he stopped, seeing her shivering. "Computer, one medium-sized sweater, extra thick." The computer beeped and the garment appeared on the bench. "Here, wear this," he said. "Better freedom of movement anyway." Not minding the cold as much, and his jacket a bit less bulky, he didn't do the same. Instead, he pulled off his boots and replaced them with the new shoes. "As I was saying, it isn't quite like that. It's less a fight and more like graceful sliding. The skill is in remaining upright."

"Wait, you mean we're going to be strapping knives to our feet and going out there?" She wriggled the sweater on as she spoke, "Are you CRAZY? That's like... Balancing on a skinny tree limb that is trying to come out from under you!"

"Yes and who would be crazy enough to try that?" Henry teased, grinning at her. "C'mon, get 'em on." He handed her her skates. "Careful about the blades, they are sharp, and they will cut you. Pull the laces as tight as you can handle, then pull them a bit tighter. There's no such thing as too snug with these." He showed her how, pulling on his laces at every junction of his shoes until they were snug against his socks.

Tessa gave the skates a close look in her hands, "I'm not sure about this." But despite her words, she put one on the bench and examined the second, running a finger beside the blade in a safer way of checking the sharpness of the blade before removing her shoe and smoothing the sock tight before shoving her foot in and mirroring his movements to tighten the laces as much as she could before holding the first foot out towards him, "Can you check this one?"

Having done up both of his skates, Henry knelt down in front of her, putting her skate up on his thigh. He tugged her laces a bit tighter and tied them off. "There we go. Second one, and then we'll work on standing up." He grabbed the bench and awkwardly lurched his 6'3" frame to an upright position, standing somewhat steadily on his skates.

"I can't move my toes!" Tessa complained as she began to pull on the other skate, but the fact that she was actively putting it on belied the complaint. After she laced up that one, she tightened the lace even more to the point where it was at the same feeling as the other one. She sat there as she looked at the ice, then up at Henry again, "I think I can stand.." She angled the skates outward to widen her stance a fair bit, before pushing herself up and bending her knees to get upright, then held her arms out for balance until she worked her skates to a point under her, still on the ground. "All right, standing."

Henry watched her wobble like a new fawn and grinned at how adorable it looked. "All right," he said, "now that we're vertical, we're going to carefully walk down the path to the lake, and get on the ice. Friction is going to be nearly nonexistent there, so watch your involuntary movements."

She took each step carefully, keeping them at least slightly angled outward "Right. No friction." She wasn't sure what that would actually mean, concentrated on walking as she was.

"Hey look on the bright side," he said, walking next to her. "If you fall and land on your butt, I won't stop massaging it until you feel completely better." He squeezed her rear playfully.

Tessa squeaked but didn't jump outright, then giggled as she grabbed his hand for a quick squeeze, "I'll take you up on that, though you'd better not stop with just my butt!"

They got to the edge and Henry stepped on first, holding onto Tessa for support until both feet were on the ice. "All right," he said, getting his balance and turning to face her, holding his hands out. "Let's give this a try."

The young woman hesitated before reaching out and grabbing both hands before sliding one foot out on the ice and transferring part of her weight to it, but her foot began to slide out from under her and she leaned back on her still-stable skate, "I don't think I can do this, Henry, there's nothing there, it isn't stable."

"It's ice," Henry said. "It couldn't get more stable, and it's very much there. It's like learning to walk all over again. You don't have toes anymore, or an ankle. Your legs end in those blades, and that's all you have to distribute your weight, so center yourself accordingly." He looked into her cornflower eyes and smiled supportively. "You can do this, Angel."

"No toes, no ankles." Repeated Tessa as she tentatively transferred her weight to the skate on the ice once more and pushed off with her other one to try to get it under her as quickly as possible, locking her knees to try to keep her balance under her and flew right into Henry as her feet tried to abandon her altogether, wrapping her arms around him tightly to stay upright.

Henry immediately dropped down and crouched, lowering his center of gravity, holding her tightly as she struggled. "Relax your knees," he said.

Her feet slipped front and back several times as she tried to adjust and stay on her feet, swaying front and back as her arms windmilled, then she grabbed onto his shoulders to steady herself again with a shake of her head and her eyes closed before she took a deep breath and tried again with his urging. Her knees bent slightly on the third try as her center of balance found itself.

He held onto her arms as she figured out her foot position and as she steadied, he stood up slowly. "Congratulations," he said. "You're standing."

She swallowed hard as she finally became comfortable with the standing position, even if he was still holding onto her. "This is just not natural." She said quickly, "But what's next?"

"Okay, now, the trick to moving is to gently push off with one foot. Think of it like gently stretching your leg behind you and a bit to the side. Stand and watch." He backed up a bit and held her hands until he was sure she was steady, then let her go. He turned and pushed off slowly, then stood and glided, shifting his weight a bit to gently turn and make his way back to her. "And when you want to stop," he called, "Aim your toes towards each other a bit!" He aimed towards her and angled his feet so that he stopped near her. He carefully stepped over to her and stood in front of her. "Want to try?"

Her hands grasped wildly as he let go of her hands and her feet shifted, her arms windmilling again as she used them to balance herself once more, though she was sure that she was going to fall. As he made it seem to look easy, she slowly nodded, "No, I'm good here." She said, looking down at the ice and then back up, taking another deep breath.

"Take your time, there's no rush," Henry said, calmly. "I was just like you the first time I tried doing this. I fell every which way the entire time. Took me a few tries to get it. Watch my leg." He lifted his leg gently made the pushing motion in the air. "Find your balance, and give it a try. I'll be with you the whole time. Whenever you're ready."

Finally she nodded and steeled herself at the second demonstration, then tried to replicate the move that he made. The push off worked and she moved forward, Henry keeping pace in front of her, but as she brought her foot back forward to get under her, it slipped out from under her and after a moment of arms windmilling again, her other foot left from under her as well and she fell on her rear end with an audible 'THUMP'. "Owwwwww!"

Henry winced and stopped himself and squatted down in front of her. "Are you all right?" he said, looking concerned. "If you want to stop for now, we can. We can always try it again later." He smiled at her. "And I'll get started on that massage."

"No, I'm gonna do this." Tessa stated stubbornly, "I'm not going to give up on the first try." She drew her legs back under herself to get to her knees first, reaching out and taking his hands with hers for support and getting up on one skate before taking a breath and quickly getting the other up under herself again and balanced before squeezing his hands and releasing them again. "I can do this." She stated to herself.

She pushed off again, this time keeping her balance as she quickly brought her foot back underneath her and slowly moved forward, using the same leg to push off again, but this time overbalanced forward too much and fell forward. His hands nearly caught her, but she impacted with her shoulder this time. She grumbled after another 'Oof' but started to scramble to her feet again with his help. "What if..." She reached out with her hands for his, "Can you just hold onto my hands while we do this?"

"Absolutely," he said, taking her hands and moving in front of her. "Alternate your feet as well," he said. "Push with one, then the other. Baby steps. Just nudge yourself forward this time. No big movements." He looked into her eyes and held her gaze. "And when you succeed, I'm going to do something that'll make it all worth it. Deal?"

"Deal." Tessa looked back down at the ice and made sure the one skate was straight before she pushed off minimally with the other foot, putting that skate back to being straight before taking a breath and pushing outward with the other one, again just a little bit. She glanced up, then back down again before repeating it with the other, this time wobbling hard and squeezing his hands tightly for the support.

Henry held her hands and kept her steady, keeping pace in front of her, grinning at her in support. "There you go, you're doing it," he said. "Before long, you'll be moving smoothly. Once you know how to stop, you'll be about as good at it as I am."

"And to stop, I just turn my skates sideways... Like this?" At the speed she'd gotten up to (still slow), the turning of her skates was too much and her feet went out from under her as she fell backwards at the sudden stop. She gripped him tightly and took him down with her, but locked up his arms so he couldn't do anything but land on top of her, face into her chest as the fall knocked the air out of her.

The familiar and enjoyable position Henry found himself in was dulled by the pain in his knees, and the realization that Tessa might be hurt. He pulled himself up off of her and stayed over her, checking her for injuries. "Are you all right?" he said, looking concerned.

Tessa rolled over on her side as she heaved in breath after breath, curling up into a fetal position as she did so, arms crossing over her chest to hug herself tightly, compressing her lungs so they didn't have to work so hard, "Fine." She said during one of them, "I'm fine... Just need... To catch... My breath..."

"End program," Henry said, quickly, leaving them safely on the holodeck floor. "Computer access medical replicator override, authorization Taylor-Gamma-Four. Hypospray with ten ceecees tri-ox compound," Henry said in rapid-fire medical staccato, medical training taking over.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Tessa reached up towards him with one hand, flailed upwards at least, still gasping for air, “Just got my… Breath knocked out.” She managed to get out.

A hypospray materialized on the ice next to him and he grabbed it and pressed it to Tessa's neck. "Steady breaths," he said, rubbing her back. "I'm so sorry, Tessa," he said, his expression looking like he could feel the discomfort she was in and it was causing him physical pain.

“Not your fault.” Her breath was coming easier to her and she uncurled a fair bit, looking up to him and evaluated herself. Bruised ribs, minimum, but those would heal, he’d do it if she didn’t take the slow route of natural. She breathed in deeply and winced once, a scan was needed for sure, but she shook her head and looked around, “Where’s the ice? What did you do?” She uncurled a bit more, “I’m not made of delicate pottery, you know, if I’m going to learn how to do that, I gotta get back up on my skates.”

"It's not about pottery it's about pragmatism," Henry said. "I didn't know how injured you were, so I removed obstacles in case we needed to make a hasty exit. No point slipping on something if we don't need to." He climbed up carefully and held out a hand. "If you want to try again, I'm game, just so long as you don't get hurt any worse."

Tessa took his hand and helped him haul her to her feet as she exhaled and suppressed the wince this time, "I'm not sure if you've noticed, Henry Taylor, but I'm a bit stubborn. So yes, I do want to try again, but maybe if you're behind me, supporting me, then I won't take you down if I fall again?" She gave him a sly smile, "That way you can can protect my butt a bit better and give you something to look at."

Henry smirked at her and brought her hand to his lips, kissing it gently. "Tessa'e'Sera, I am well aware of the legendary amount of stubbornness you possess, an amount exceeded only by your beauty and intelligence." He looked up. "Computer: reinstate previous program, placing us at the edge of the lake."

The computer beeped and they were once again at the frozen lake's edge. Henry stepped onto the ice and stepped aside. "All right," he said, holding out a hand, "one foot at a time."

"That would be Baroness Orion to you, peasant!" Tessa corrected him in an imperious voice, but the soft smile soothed the words to let him know she was just being a brat, while she made sure the skates were under her again. This time getting onto the ice was easier and she was standing a couple feet out and balanced, this time watching how Henry was standing and letting her knees remain slightly bent as she not only paid attention to his stance, but also for his instructions.

Henry kept smirking and as he circled around her, gave her a pinch on the rear as he came up behind. "Steady pace, don't worry about stopping for now, just lean gently and shift your weight more to one foot to angle into a turn," he said from behind her, then leaned down and kissed her ear. "Whenever you are ready, Your Grace."

She turned her head and stuck her tongue out as he pinched her rear, not letting it hurt her balance, then felt his hands on her hips to support her and followed what he was saying, pushing outward with the skates and slowly gaining some speed until she was moving at perhaps six kilometers an hour and suddenly she felt his hands leave her hips, but she remained upright as she gained a hair more speed.

"There you go," Henry said, grinning and moving to catch up to her. "Knew you'd get the hang of it."

Tessa grinned and turned her head slightly to get a glimpse of Henry behind and to the side of her now, "I can do this, see!" She pushed off again for a few more strides and saw that the edge of the lake was starting to approach. "Lean gently and shift my weight to one foot." She reminded herself, starting to lean, glancing down, then up, then down again and up again, eyes widening as the edge approached rather more quickly than she was expecting, "Um...." She started ever so slightly to turn, but she ran out of ice first and fell over into a snow drift with a shriek of laughter and started to pull herself out of the pile of snow and to her feet and back towards the edge of the ice.

Henry moved in a tight circle, coming back to her position and stopping near the edge. "Okay...so we need to work on turning now," he said, trying to stifle a laugh. "Once more around?"

"Yes!" She said excitedly, this time getting back onto the ice without his hand and shimmying herself back into motion, reaching out with one hand to him as she gained some more speed, glancing over with a thought in her eye as he took it. She bit her lower lip gently before pulling on his hand and using him as an anchor while she leaned in and angled her skate a bit more than before to use him to change her direction. "That works, doesn't it?"

"Yes, so long as I'm keeping in sync with you," Henry said. "But it'll help you get the basics." He held her again, anchoring her turn again as they continued to trace the edge of the lake. "At some point, we'll need to work on stopping as well, unless you want to go snow diving again."

"Stopping on the ice and standing sounds like a much better idea." Tessa agreed heartily, "I'm not sure my butt could stand another bruise or I won't be able to sit down!" She tentatively released Henry's hand to try a turn on her own again, it being much more gradual, but she still stayed away from the edge if just barely and she stayed in that more gradual turn as she approached the middle of the ice, but was slowing down significantly and she realized that if she stayed in the turn she'd eventually come to a stop.

Henry had turned to line up with her, and hold her hand again, but hadn't realized how slow she'd gotten, and quickly moved to avoid crashing into her, hooking the tip of his skate into the ice and going down to one knee, quickly spinning around and coming up in front of her to avoid taking her down with him.

Tessa panicked as she saw him go down to one knee and turned her skate to a much sharper angle to avoid him and in a move she couldn't have made if she'd intentionally tried it, spun once and came to a stop in a graceful motion with her skates in a 'T' shape.

As they both came to a stop he looked up at her, realizing he was down on one knee in front of her, looking up into her eyes. On the one hand, it was a perfect moment. On the other, his plan wasn't ready yet. He smiled up at her and winced slightly as he got back to his feet. "Well, letting entropy eventually stop you is one method," he said, chuckling.

She smiled brightly as she maintained the pose that she found to be oddly stable, "Much better than my primary method of finding a pile of snow, I think. Sooooo..." Tessa smiled in an interested manner, "Hopefully that wasn't your preferred method of stopping?"

Henry shook his head. "No, I prefer to remain standing and unbruised when I stop," he said. "But how about we do one more lap around, and practice stopping, and then I can show you what else I had in store."

"Maybe you should demonstrate stopping for me?" Tessa asked with a shrug, "I think I find it easier to learn if I can see it happen. But..." She pushed off and past him, even if it was slower than he skated, "You may have to catch me first!"

Henry watched her go, admiring her for a moment before smoothly pushing off and quicky catching up. He passed her cleanly and once he was well enough ahead, tilted his skates inward, coming to a quick and clean stop outside of her path.

Tessa watched him carefully as she glided along, then took a breath and mimicked the move, angling her own skates inward into a V with her arms out to the sides to help her keep her balance until she came to a stop and then went backwards as her skates wanted to move outwards, but she stopped quickly and remained on her own feet. "Like that!"

"Exactly," Henry said. "Note how your blades stop each other, and your butt remains ice-free." He glided up to her and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her rear affectionately and leaning down to kiss her. "Starting to see what humans see in it?" he said, teasingly.

"Not yet." Tessa said, happily hanging onto him because it really did feel more stable than what she had been doing without him, besides, she knew that there was probably a bruise forming and that was just really a good teacher of what not to do, "But give me some time and I might." She settled her weight back down onto the ice and her skates, holding his face in her hands, "But an ice-free butt is always good!" As soon as he released her, she started off again, practice always made things easier.

Henry watched her move ahead of him, admiring her....stance. He got an evil grin and sped up slightly. "As opposed to a hand-free butt?" he said, giving her left side a playful smack, angling it so it wouldn't knock her off balance, then taking off ahead of her.

"Hands are fine!" Tessa said as she tried to speed up to catch up to him, but putting on the brakes rather quickly instead. "So long as they're your hands. Anyone else's? They may lose them." She made the turn slowly, focusing on maintaining her blades, taking a tentative step in mid-turn as she'd seen him do and kept her feet until she straightened out and sped up again, "That cross-over you do when you're turning, you accelerate through that?"

Henry turned quickly and headed back towards her. "Yes," he said as he got near. "You push on the blade as you cross over to gain speed in the turn, rather than lose it. Mary taught me that. She took figure skating lessons when she was younger."

"You know, we're going to have to do this again..." Tessa smiled up at him, taking her eyes off the ice, "This actually is fun when you can stay on your feet! When I get used to this, I may have to try out this 'figure skating' thing. What sort of designs did she have to learn how to skate on the ice?"

Henry cocked his head in confusion, then grinned at Tessa. "Well, traditionally it's perfect circles, figure eights, overlapping loops, et cetera. However, modern figure skating is much more intricate and is more about the motions of the skaters. How they move and practically dance on the ice."

Tessa's face drew up in wonder, "That would be fascinating to watch! This ice stuff is really interesting!" She hit an imperfection on the lake ice and lost her balance once more, sprawling face-first on the frozen water, sliding for several meters before she popped up on her hands and knees and shook her head, "Dammit!"

Henry winced. "The dangers of nature," he said, moving closer, being careful to keep back from her hands. He held out a hand and leaned down to help her to her feet.

Tessa carefully got to her feet again, but didn't let go of his hand this time, pulling herself over to him and hanging onto his arm, "The dangers of nature indeed." She agreed with him, "Thank you for this, it's been a great evening!"

Henry smiled and got a gleam in his eye. "I'm glad you had fun," he said. "But there's one more winter activity I thought we could do together." He looked up towards the sky and the hidden intercom behind it. "Computer," he said, "load program Taylor-Winter-Three."

The lake and their skates vanished, leaving them in their socks on a large wooden dais. Next to them was a churning cauldron of water. "There are places in Earth called 'hot springs', pools that have naturally hot water flowing into them. Ohio doesn't have them, but we have artificial ones we call 'hot tubs'. They're very relaxing on a cold day. The contrast in temperature is good for the body as well."

The sudden chill through her feet forced a brief shiver, but she finally was able to wiggle her toes again which was a great relief. Of course, there was another factor as she glanced around, "We didn't bring any swimsuits, though, isn't that a tradition of Earth when swimming?"

"Well, swimsuits aren't essential," he said, grinning as he quickly shucked his winter clothes and got out of the cold air and into the hot water. "Assuming you can withstand a moment of chill," he challenged.

"You think I'm going to freeze to death for you?" Tessa scoffed with a smile on her face, "And I would, because I do love you, after all." She took off the sweater first, then shivered and removed the rest a lot faster before getting into the hot tub quickly as well, wincing ever so slightly at the temperature difference before she sighed in relief. "This would do even if it wasn't in the freezing cold."

Henry grinned at her and pulled her to him, kissing her hard. "Well then, next holodeck adventure, we do something tropical," he said, kissing her again and pulling her onto his lap.