Finn and Robbie had no intention of performing that routine. They weren’t even using the same music. Finn had sneaked into the sound booth and renamed the music file so their production team would be none the wiser. The costume department had already designed their getups for this week to match the original song.
The simple black leggings and tight shirts—Finn’s with a deep V, Robbie’s sleeveless—would work just as well for their replacement song. Just because they were throwing the competition didn’t mean they weren’t going to put on a good show. Finn had simply omitted every single requirement for the weekly challenge to ensure they were disqualified.
The arena lights went low. “Game faces on,” Robbie said, doing an absolutely terrible job of it. He followed up with a slap to Finn’s ass that Finn was almost certain the cameras caught.
And then it was just a matter of taking their places and waiting for the spotlights to find them and the music to start.
Finn closed his eyes and took in the murmurs of the audience. If this was going to be his last performance as a competitor, he wanted it to be a good one.
The spotlight hit Finn first. He opened his eyes with a grin as the song track let out a wolf whistle.
Across the ice, Robbie turned around to face him. The piano came in, followed by the iconic bass riff.
John Travolta proclaimed his chills were multiplying. The audience screamed.
Finn didn’t think he made a particularly convincing Sandra Dee. For one thing, no way in hell was he doing that to his hair. But from the predatory way Robbie watched him as he approached, first in a slow S-shape, then in a controlled spinning slide that ended with him on his knees at Finn’s feet, Finn was doing just fine.
The stop was illegal, of course. If Robbie didn’t get up from his slide and continue skating, it counted as a fall.
Finn put his foot on Robbie’s shoulder and shoved him back. “This is so unbelievably hot,” Robbie had told him in practice. “I’m sorry in advance if my boner ruins everything.”
Finn had reminded him of the miracle of dance belts. Now, in the moment, he was grateful for his own, because attempting anything like a sashay on ice with an erection would’ve been impossible.
The back-and-forth continued, and so did the intentional rule breaking. They dance-stepped forward with Robbie’s hands on Finn’s waist, both facing front, then did the same sequence with Finn going backward, still in hold—far longer than permitted. The entire time they faced each other, they held eye contact, grinning like fools.
Most of the audience would have no idea that they meant to throw the competition. But for Michelle, it would be obvious.
Robbie rotated too many times between the assisted jumps—Finn had never gotten to be on that end of it, and he couldn’t keep the smile off his face at having Robbie basically throw him into the air. He could feel the warmth of Robbie’s smile as he did it.
But he loved the last move the most: Robbie putting him in an illegal upside-down split lift with his ass pointed at the ceiling for three rotations, and then swinging him down to catch him with Finn’s legs around Robbie’s waist and his arms around Robbie’s neck just as the song ended.
The arena erupted.
“Jesus Christ,” Robbie said through his grin. His grip on Finn didn’t falter. “I want to kiss you so bad right now.”
Finn let himself throw his head back as he laughed.
Robbie set him down in a showy twirl, then grabbed his hand for their final bow.
And then it was time to face the music. So to speak.
Finn and Robbie skated over to the broadcast box to do their post-performance interview with Michelle.
It took a moment before either of them tried to say anything; no one would have heard them. Finally the cheers died off and Michelle offered, “Guys, uh… what was that?”
More roaring from the audience. Finn couldn’t answer over them, so he scratched the back of his neck and waited for things to settle.
When the volume lowered, Michelle cut in before either of them could speak. “We’re just going to explain for the people in the audience—this was a forfeit on your part? You didn’t complete any of the elements of the challenge, aside from the style of dance, and you broke just about every rule of ice-dancing competition in a way that feels deliberate.”
“That’s pretty much it, yeah,” Finn said ruefully. He looked at Robbie, hoping he didn’t have too obvious hearts in his eyes but aware that hope was probably futile.
Robbie took his cue. “I’ve got some important stuff going on in my personal life that needs my attention—you’ve probably seen some of it in the news—and I just felt like I couldn’t give the competition the attention it deserved. So I made my own donation to Youth Line and asked Finn to help me figure out how to bow out without disappointing anyone.”
“Well….” Michelle looked up at the stands. “I don’t think anyone here tonight is disappointed. Broken rules or not, that was fun to watch. Any significance to the song choice? We had you down for ‘Waterloo.’”
“Which would’ve been on theme,” Finn admitted. “You know, forfeit and surrender and whatever. But I guess, doing it on purpose, it didn’t feel like giving up.”
“And, uh,” Robbie broke in, “my senior year of high school, the music department put on a production ofGrease. I desperately wanted to be Danny Zuko, but it would’ve interfered with hockey, so. This was very healing for me.”
