Fond Farewell
Yuri is freshly eighteen when Viktor announces his official retirement.
The man is thirty now, he's not getting any younger, and he has six Grand Prix golds, and he's happy with it. He knows Yuuri will continue on for a little while longer, and he wants desperately to stay by his side as a coach and husband, not as a competitor.
He makes sure to tell Yuri to take Russia by storm for him.
"I know you can," he says. "The entire country is watching you now, Yuri."
"B-but…" Yuri doesn't want to admit. He doesn't want to admit a selfish desire deep within him to beg Viktor to stay on the ice. He wants to win another gold against him, he wants this to never end.
"Yuri," Viktor whispers, bringing the blond boy into a tight hug. "I'm doing this in hopes that one day I can be good enough to be your coach. That one day you'll see me worthy enough to teach you."
"Worthy? I already think you're worthy, old man," Yuri retorts, and Viktor laughs. Despite his wishes, Yuri feels hot tears in his eyes and frantically tries to blink them away. "But I'll think about it."
"Good." Viktor smiles and pulls away. "Take a selfie with me, Yurio."
"That's not my name," Yuri mumbles, but smiles softly when Viktor holds up the phone anyway. His face is red and blotchy on the screen, but he doesn't care, because Viktor looks the same.
"You sound distracted," Otabek notes that night while they're on skype, and Yuri hums in response, petting his cat's head softly. "Wanna talk about it?"
"Viktor's retiring," Yuri murmurs. "He announced it to the rink today."
"Oh. Well, based on the way you treat him, shouldn't you be happy?"
Yuri snorts. "I can't. I could never. I love Viktor, Beka." The tears come back full force, but this time, Yuri can't blink fast enough. "I don't want him to retire, and it's selfish, and I hate myself for thinking like this. I thought, maybe because he's fucking Viktor Nikiforov, he'd try to stay a little bit longer."
"But he's smarter than hurting himself just to stay on the ice."
"He says he's happy where he is." Yuri sniffles and drags his sleeve over his eyes. "He's happy with his amount of medals, he's happy being Yuri's coach, he's just...so calm about it."
"...You really are his son," Otabek muses fondly, and Yuri smiles through his tears as his phone lights up with a notification from Instagram.
"Yeah," Yuri agrees, as he double taps Viktor's newest photo. "I'm the best damn one he has."
❤️️ otabek-altin, phichit+chu, yuri-plisetsky & 14,757 others
v-nikiforov finally retiring but with my heir at my side #champion #dontletmedown #fatherandson
1,275 comments
author's notes
did yall think otayuri week was the last of me
nah fam
this is a series now
kill me breath of the wild comes out tomorrow and imma be out of commission for about a week lmao