When Viktor Nikiforov returned to skating the year after the Barcelona Grand Prix Finals, he continued on to win two more Gold medals and a handful of Silvers at the GPF, Worlds, and European championships. All of these accomplishments occurred in just the three years before his permanent retirement at the age of thirty. During the time of his return to skating, he, Katsuki Yuuri, and Yuri Plisetsky became known for being in the top three. Although a single one of them wasn't consistently winning Gold, none of the other competitors could get onto the podium. These competitors included, but were not limited to, Christophe Giacometti (who had retired the year after Viktor's return), Phichit Chulanont, Minami Kenjirou, Otabek Altin, Jean-Jacques Leroy, Guang-Hong Ji, Seung-gil Lee, and Michele Crispino in the Men's Senior Skating Division.
Nikiforov had since gone to coach both of the Yuri's at his home rink (Katsuki Yuuri & Yuri Plisetsky). Normally, one coach can have many skaters. However, it is abnormal for a single skater to have three coaches at once, them being Yakov Feltsman (his ice skating coach), Lilia Baranovskaya (his ballet coach), and Viktor Nikiforov (his most recent ice skating coach).
When Katsuki Yuuri retired (which was just a year after Nikiforov, at the age of 27), he joined the ranks as one of now four coaches for Yuri Plisetsky.
Thus, that is the quick version of how Yuri Plisetsky was set up to win Gold at every upcoming skating championships, breaking nearly every world record in the process.
- "People shine brightest when they seek to understand what kind of love sustains them." Lilia Baranovskaya -
"Yurio~" Viktor called, already across the ice, beckoning the younger skater to join them for their morning warm up.
Yakov called to the Russian Fairy next, and he wasn't nearly as cheerful as the living legend. "Yuri! Get over here. You're already late to practice."
"Alright, alright! I'll be there," Yuri grumbled under his breath.
Somehow, Yuri Plisetsky had managed to make four coaches work, though it did help that Lilia normally trained him at her ballet studio. Viktor was eager to help Yuri with his quads, and Yuuri found himself helping Yurio with his step sequences and endurance. Yakov was still Yuri's main coach, and in his normal way, he was quick to point out all of Yuri's mistakes.
Yuuri himself was also out on the ice when Yuri arrived, and was just beginning to warm up. As soon as Yuri was on the ice, Yakov pounced, and Yurio was beginning to get tired after the hurried warm up and extra jump practice. Yuri wanted to add a quad flip to his repertoire for the next season, so Yakov was being extra tough on him.
"No! Do it again. That was under rotated."
"Grrr…"
"No. Yuri, get it together! You totally messed that one up."
Silence at first, then more sounds of skates scratching the ice.
"Get up Yuri! You're not doing it right! Listen to my instruction. Again!"
"Whatever, old geezer," Yuri said, once more building up speed to attempt the jump.
"What was that?! Yuri! Think about what you're doing!"
Viktor finally butted in. "Yakov… He's already done it five times without success. I think something might be wrong."
"Pfft…" Yakov instead transferred his instructions to the other skaters.
Yuuri skated up to Yurio, who had just gotten up from flubbing the quad flip. "What's wrong Yurio?"
Living up to his second nickname, the Russian Punk, he responded, "None of your goddam business, buta!"
He rapidly turned to get of the rink when Yuuri caught his arm. "Yurio… You've done the quad flip before. Why aren't you now?"
He scoffed before turning annoyed eyes to the katsudon. "Yakov wouldn't let me buy the cheetah print hair tie set," he said, sticking out his bottom lip. "I decided the old geezer shouldn't get progress when he won't let me buy what I want."
Really? That was it? A set of hair ties? Yuuri thought to himself, sighing. He wouldn't put in full effort over that?
"Okay, fine Yurio. How about Viktor and I take you to get them if you can get you performance for the flip up to eighty percent today?"
"You will?" Blue-green eyes looked at him doubtfully, with a sprinkle of hope.
"Of course Yurio. I wouldn't lie to you."
"Thanks Katsudon. Viktor! Get your butt over here and help me get my quad flip right now!"
Yuuri was glad to see Yuri back to his normal attitude, even if that attitude was dismissive of others and rude.
After Yuri had watched Viktor made the flip a couple of times, he skated back onto the ice to try it himself while Viktor headed over to Yuuri.
"So what was wrong with Yurio?" he asked his husband.
"Oh. He just wanted a set of hair ties that Yakov wouldn't let him get," Yuuri said as they both watched the Russian prodigy get the jump right. "I promised him we would get them if he could get his flip up to eighty percent success."
A confused Viktor put his right hand to his mouth. "Hair ties?"
"Cheetah print ones."
"Ah, I see now," he said, as if that explained everything (and to the coaches dealing with a cat-loving, moody Russian Fairy it did).
- "How can someone who can't motivate others motivate himself?" Viktor Nikiforov -
Later that evening, Yuuri found himself in Lilia Baranovskaya's house eating katsudon pirozhki that Yuri himself had made. He was surrounded at the table by Viktor, Yakov, Yuri, Nikolai Plisetsky, and Lilia. Yurio was in a good mood, and he had his hair pulled back by his new cheetah print hair ties and clips. The smile on his face was worth the chastisement of Yakov when the older man found out that they bought the clips anyways.
Yuri was animatedly sharing information from a leopard movie that he had watched recently, and only his grandfather looked like he was truly listening.
Despite this, all gathered around the table were enjoying the meal. This was proclaimed easily by Viktor.
"Vkusno~"
Slowly, the Russian Punk had gained members to his family other than his beloved grandpa. He now had a motherly figure in Lilia, and three father figures in Yuuri, Viktor, and Yakov. He couldn't have been any happier with his family sitting around the table.
- "Fulfill your dream. Only you can make it a reality." Otabek Altin -
After the GPF in Barcelona, it had been held in Marseille, France; Nagoya, Japan; and Vancouver, Canada. The competitors were gearing up for the competition to be held in Milan, Italy for the next season.
Yuri's Short Program was choreographed by Lilia, and his Free Skate was choreographed by Viktor.
His shorter skate was to be the first two minutes and forty-two seconds of "Song of India" from the play Sadko, of the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Lilia had liked the song and the skate that she had planned for it, and Yurio liked that the composer had the same name as his grandfather. Together, they had maximized the amount of points that Yurio could achieve with his talent, and for his peak, they planned on most of the jumps (especially the quads) being in the second half.
For Yuri's Free Skate, Viktor wanted to surprise the audience once more through his protégé. He originally had a very upbeat, light-hearted song to surprise the audience because it totally didn't match the reputation of the "Russian Punk".
"I hate this song. Blegh, blegh. I'm not skating to it."
Instead, Yurio himself suggested the English version of the song "Whisky in the Jar" by Metallica with no lyrics. It was a heavy metal instrumental, which made it harder to choreograph. Still, Viktor managed to make a program, and Yuuri worked with Yuri to be able to jump throughout the four minute and forty-five second song, which was longer than the average Free Skate Program (at around four and a half minutes).
Yuuri was a little bit curious as to when Yurio even started listening to that type of music, but he wasn't about to ask the moody teen.
Yakov, Lilia, Viktor, and Yuuri wanted to make sure that Yurio was as prepared as he could be. They all wanted to help him earn Gold and break world history records again. The previous year, he had just barely beat Yuuri's Free Skate, so he was only competing against his own scores for new personal bests.
Yurio wanted to beat his own records as well, and spent many hours practicing his routine over and over again. Sometimes, when one coach got tired, he called another to keep him skating for long, exhausting hours. Yuri was going to be prepared, and he was going to win.
- "Yurochka, look how strong you've become!" Nikolai Plisetsky -
With four coaches, Milan, Italy had to expand the Kiss and Cry seating options.
Unsurprisingly, Yuri had gotten a very high score on his short program and placed second only to JJ by half of a point. As he hugged a stuffed animal in the shape of a tiger, he was enveloped in a group hug when his score was announced. He was sure that he could make up the difference in his Free Skate.
Yurio had worked for long hours, even into the night sometimes, with Yuuri who helped to expand his stamina so much that Yuri could probably place all of his quads in the second half and still finish.
He had worked with Viktor, and although it had never been performed at a competition in history, he had successfully landed a single quadruple axel. Of course, that was one in the hundreds that he had attempted. The jump was not in his current program, but hopefully, within the next couple of seasons he could be the first to land the difficult jump.
Since Yuri had basically devoted every waking minute of his time to his skating, Lilia had brought his flexibility beyond what it had ever been. Never before had he been able to do the splits so easily, making his camel spin simpler to do with one arm raised and his foot above his head.
Yakov had watched Yuri's program so many times that he had it memorized to the last tiny detail. This made it even easier for him to spot the small miss-steps and slight over or under rotations. Yurio had performed his skate so many times (and had been chastised over it just as many) that he knew the second his foot was just a slight centimeter off than what he had planned.
Yuuri knew that Yurio was going to surpass even all of their highest hopes for him, and he couldn't wait to watch it happen.
"Yurio~! Davai!" Viktor called, as Yuri entered onto the ice. Yuuri noticed the thumbs up that Otabek gave the blond boy, and the nod of acknowledgement in return.
Nikolai had prepared some katsudon pirozhki for his Yurochka, and wished him good luck.
- "There's a place you just can't reach unless you have a dream too large to bear alone. We call everything on the ice love." Katsuki Yuuri -
Yuri ended up beating his own Free skate score at 225.71, and he had set yet another world record. The celebration that he got when he won the Gold was massive, as all of the other skaters gathered to cheer for him.
Yuuri was so proud of Yurio, for he had accomplished feats that no one had before again and again. He knew that all of Yuri's coaches were proud.
Yuri Plisetsky was only nineteen, after all; Yuuri could only imagine the other history making scores that the prodigy could earn as he grew as a skater.
And, as Yuri was lifted onto the shoulders of Yakov, Yuuri knew that whatever medals he earned, he would always support the cat-adoring, attitude-full young man.
- "If you don't have any inspiration left, you're as good as dead." Yuri Plisetsky -
Disclaimer: I do not own Yuri! on ICE, "Song of India" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, or "Whiskey in the Jar" by Metallica. I make no profits by writing a fanfiction including these. All rights go to the proper owners.
(This is a Fanfiction website, right? Everyone already knows that no author owns this stuff...)
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, I greatly appreciate all reviews, favorites, or follows.