Title: By the Boards

Fandom: Sports Night

Pairing: Dan/Natalie

Word Count: 519

Natalie stands back from the boards of the Olympic arena, watching the young woman in the gold dress skating, executing an elegant spreadeagle as tears roll down her cheeks. The thousands of spectators in the arena applaud her, and Natalie’s no different, and just like so many people here, she lets the tears fall unchecked down her cheeks. It’s the combination of grace and beauty, the delicacy of Eva Cassidy’s voice, the sheer emotion in the air that brings her tears to the surface, and she doesn’t care if she’s on her long awaited first on-camera assignment, first and foremost, she’s a human being, and a skating fan, and this is something special.

When the music finishes, Natalie fishes in her pocket for a tissue, already mentally calculating which skater she needs to interview next for CBC’s highlights package of the Olympic Gala. Of course, she’s going to need a quick trip to the ladies’ room – tear stained makeup is not a good look for the camera – and she’s on her way there, having only taken a step when she feels a hand on her shoulder.

She jumps and whirls, but only gasps when she sees that Dan is standing beside her, because if there’s one person she didn’t expect to see here, it’s him. “Danny, what are you doing here?” she asks. “If Michelle sees you…” Because even though this is ostensibly a joint venture, if Michelle Kwan, or any of her fans were to see Dan Rydell, Skating Whammy Giver extraordinaire, in the Salt Lake City ice arena, then Sports Night will never broadcast a skating interview again. And now that Natalie thinks about it, since Salé and Pelletier, also recipients of the Rydell Whammy, are up next to skate, Dan’s treading on rather thin ice.

“She won’t see me,” he says, interrupting her thoughts, interrupting them still more when he reaches up to her cheeks, brushes the lingering tears away gently. Dan’s never touched her like that before, and she tries to tell herself that she’s shivering because of the ice a few feet away.

Something’s different in the air suddenly, and she tries to tell herself that it’s the skating, tries to bring things back to normal. “You’re going to tell everyone that I cried like a baby at my first on-air gig, aren’t you?”

“Never crossed my mind.” Dan’s completely serious, and Natalie’s shivering some more, all the more so when he leans forwards, his lips touching hers. The kiss starts off tentative, but quickly escalates into something more, and then Natalie is holding onto him, arms around his neck, pressing herself against him as if she never wants to let him go.

She’s not so sure she does.

When they finally break away, it’s only because of an explosion of clapping, based on whatever Salé and Pelletier are doing on the ice, and Natalie knows she should be looking at them, knows she should be mentally preparing questions, but she can’t bring herself to care.

After all, she’s wanted to be a reporter for a long time, but she’s wanted Dan even longer.