Just Friends?

Written by: SadieAnnabethMellark ( porkcutletbowltrash)

Summary: Yuuri comes to Franklin, MI (a small suburb outside of Detroit) to train under one of the best coaches that money could buy (well…that his money could buy) in order to prepare to go to the international level. New rink, new coach, new home, new family, and (unfortunately) a new school. Enter Viktor Nikiforov, a foreign exchange student like Yuuri who has come to stay with his Aunt and Uncle while his parents travel for a majority of the year. While his constant questioning had been absolutely horrific, Yuuri somehow finds himself being taken under Viktor's wing. Are they really just meant to be just friends though?

Chapter One

o.O.o

"Young Love

like drugs,

keeps you chasing

first highs." – Atticus

o.O.o

Looking back, I suppose we were doomed from the beginning. Two kids in love who didn't even know what we were doing. But while it lasted, it was bright. It was passionate. It was toxic.

What did we know? When your 16, everything seems to be perfect when you find someone who understands you in a world full of people who don't.

We were young. We were in love.

And we crashed.

We burned.

Our ashes flew into the wind.

o.O.o

The first day of being in a new place where everyone seemed to know everyone, was that you were the odd man out. Everyone had their story figured out; everyone was comfortable with each other.

Yuuri sighed as he looked up at the big building in front of him. How did he even get into this mess? Why had he suddenly decided to fly off to America to coach and be a live-in student of one the few coaches who could bring him to the world level that was in his parent's financial ability? How had this happened?

Oh, that's right, he had begged for it.

He had saved for this.

He had followed his dream.

Overall, it wasn't a bad experience so far in Franklin, MI for Yuuri. He had found that he genuinely enjoyed his new coach, Celestino Ciandini, and his wife, Maria and their bright smiles and warm home environment. He had somehow slid right into the comfortable arms of their care, falling into the safe nest that they had created. He'd already been here a week and he could feel like this would be a second home for him while he was away from Hatsetsu.

The anxiety hadn't set in until Maria had smiled at him one night over the dinner table.

"Yuuri, are you excited to start school?"

"I guess. When will my tutor be starting with me?"

Maria's smile became a little tighter as she eyes Celestino from the other side of the table, "Well, we actually enrolled you into the high school here. We thought it might be the best experience for you while you're here in America. The teachers here are absolutely—"

"I'm going to a real school?"

"Is that all right Yuuri? Since this is your first time in the United States, we thought it would be a good experience for you to learn the culture and be able to make some friends." Celestino added. Yuuri wasn't sure the culture that Celestino was implying he'd be learning was very accurate outside of high school culture, but he wasn't going to tell the older man that.

"Plus, it'll give you a bit more of a routine and structure while you're here. You won't have to worry about having to learn to fast when your tutor for each subject only turns up for an hour or two each week." Maria was looking at him with hopeful eyes.

"An American high school…" Yuuri's mouth had seemed to be stuck on that fact alone.

"Yes," Celestino gave a slight chuckle, "As Maria was saying, the teachers are very good and the students are very friendly. It'll give you an authentic American experience." Yuuri had no doubt that the experience would be authentic at all. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen Western movies about American high schools before; he'd had an idea of what the experience would be like and he wasn't sure that he was ready for it, "It'll allow you to broaden your horizons. It'd be really great if you could try it for us Yuuri. Who knows, you might enjoy it."

There was a moment of silence as Yuuri stared into the abyss of his hamburger steak (they'd called it something different in America, but he couldn't remember what).

Maria seemed to see the look in Yuuri's eyes and began to back pedal as she set down her fork, "But if you don't think it'll work, we can try to find a tutor…"

Turns out, Yuuri was a sucker and found himself standing here in front of his new high school. Maria had dropped him off in front of the building, giving him a kiss on both cheeks in goodbye and a simple "Buona fortuna!" as he got out of the passenger seat. As she drove away, he couldn't help but study the large cinderblock building; it's large exterior looking more like a fortress than a school, a large whale-like creature was drawn over two large metal doors with the Franklin Senior High School: Home of the Manatees! written underneath it. Students were milling around the large path up to the doors, some talking to friends as they shuffled to the door, others walking fast as they hurried to get to their classes, some hiding behind the bushes and taking a drag off a cigarette when no one was looking.

A sharp shove came to his shoulder, making Yuuri stumble forward.

"If you're just going to stand around, go into the lawn. Some of us actually have places to be and people to see." A boy in a pair of faded blue jeans and an athletic t-shirt tossed him a sneer over his shoulder as he passed by, a friend in tow.

"Oh…uhm, sorry…" Yuuri called after him, giving a short bow as he cheeks flushed a deep maroon.

Both boys have a short chuckle and kept walking towards the front doors of the school. They were right; he probably should go inside. He didn't know where he was even supposed to have class yet.

o.O.o

It didn't take long for Yuuri to become even less enthusiastic about high school. It was nearing the end of the day and he was already wanting to go back to his host family's home and hide under the blankets. This American high school wasn't quite like what the movies had shown; there wasn't much of a silver lining, none of the teachers seemed to have a soft side for the poor exchange student, there wasn't any dramatic singing and dancing to vent feelings (thank God!), and he hadn't gotten his head dunked in the toilet…yet. Nobody seemed to be crowding him, wanting to be his friend (another plus). However, he was incredibly lost with the twists and turns of the hallways, while trying to get to his next class in the five-minute passing period. It didn't help that his nerves never seemed to settle, instead of being a rollercoaster of highs and lows in each class.

Thankfully, it was the last class of the day for Yuuri, Advanced Biology and he only had fifty minutes before he'd be able to meet Maria and Celestino outside where he was tossed to the curb this morning. He kept his head low as he walked into the small classroom where other juniors were talking to each other. In front of the classroom, the teacher, a bubbly blonde woman in her mid-30s sat at her desk talking animatedly to a girl who was half listening to her. He leaned against the back wall a moment, trying to find a seat to sit in. This was something he had learned in the few hours he had attended Franklin Senior High School; seats were practically personal property once chosen. It was practically a sin to sit in one's seat if it was already taken. Yuuri had made this mistake once and felt like the brunette girl who had now been tossed to the seat in front of him would jump him once class was out.

His eyes gazed around the room at the lab tables and his eyes landed on an empty spot towards the left that was open still. Thank god. It was out of the way from the rest of the students. However, karma had other ideas for him.

The bubbly woman looked up in time to see him shuffling to the side and she gave him a huge smile, "You're the new foreign exchange student! Yuuri, right?"

Yuuri stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, "Oh. Uhm…yes sensei."

The woman blushed softly and smiled at him, "That's the first time someone has called me sensei. It's nice to meet you. I actually have a seat for you already."

Yuuri felt his stomach drop and yet ease at the same time. A planned seat would mean he wouldn't accidentally be murdered by one of his classmates, but as the woman made her way closer to the front of the room expecting him to follow, he was having second thoughts of the beauty of it all. She came to a stop at a lab table at the very front where three kids were sitting and motioned for him to take a seat. He did as she slid a textbook over to him, "My name is Mrs. Price and it's nice to meet you Yuuri. These three will be your lab partners for the semester. This is Michael," A slender boy with messy highlighted hair and deep brown eyes nodded at him as he looked up from his phone for a moment. He looked as if he had walked off a runway after showing off the top fashion sold at Walmart.

"This is Shelby," Next she gestured to a girl who was sitting next to him, her soft brown hair flowing around her shoulders and around her gentle oval face. The long sleeved mustard yellow shirt made her green eyes even more noticeable (not that Yuuri minded, he'd always was envious of green-eyed people). She was very pretty with her plain face in a subtle way. She smiled at him softly and then turned back to staring off into space and fiddling with her pen.

"And then this is Viktor. He's a foreign exchange student like you, Yuuri." The final boy sat across from him and as Yuuri's eyes met his, he couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated. Viktor gave him a friendly smile and winked at him with sky blue eyes. His hair was a shocking silver blonde that made his pale skin even more sallow and his angular cheeks even sharper.

"Hello, Yuuri!" Viktor greeted with heavily accented English. He was the only one who was still looking at him and Yuuri couldn't help but blush and look down from his gaze.

"Hi, Viktor." He mumbled softly so the other boy could hear him.

"It's very nice to meet you. Where are you from? I'm from St. Petersburg, Russia. Why'd you decide to come to the states? Do you like it here? What do you think of the food? Is your host family-"

"Jesus, Viktor," Michael glanced over at him, "You're talking too much. He can't answer."

Yuuri's blush deepened as he heard Viktor beginning to apologize to him for being excited, "I-It's not a problem. I'm from a small onsen town in Japan called Hatsetsu. It's right off the coast. I came here to—"

"Japan! That sounds like a fun place." Viktor smiled at him more, his lips turning into one of a heart-shaped smile, "What's an onsen? Is it fun?—"

Michael seemed to sigh from where he sat, "Viktor—"

As the bell rang, Mrs. Price called over the chatter, "We need to get started. You all just have to make it through the hour and you can go home. But we gotta get to work on the new unit. Everyone, turn to Unit Three: DNA & RNA. Who can tell me what the difference between DNA and RNA is?"

Yuuri could feel Viktor's eyes trained on him through the entire lesson and while Yuuri wasn't paying attention to Mrs. Price anyways, Viktor's eyes weren't very comfortable as they stayed trained on him. It was seeming to go on forever. Did Viktor ever blink? If he did, it sure didn't feel like his soul was getting a break from his pure blue eyes.

His fingers played with a loose thread that was on his faded dark jeans that Maria had set out for him that morning, trying to ease the anxiety that was washing over him like the tide.

He was stuck between his anxiety and Viktor's eyes until a shrill rang through the room and students hurriedly slammed the book shut, shoved them into backpacks and then rushed out into the hallway.

"Read the section of Bases tonight and answer the questions on page 46 before tomorrow. YOU WILL BE TURNING IT IN." She called after the stampede of students, who didn't either hear her or care (the later seemed more the case to Yuuri, though). Michael had already fled from the room, but next to him, Shelby was slowly trying to force the biology textbook into her heavy backpack. Across from him, Viktor was still eyeing him with intensity and when their eyes met once more, Yuuri flushed again and hurriedly stood from his seat, grabbing his new textbook and backpack.

"Yuuri—," He looked over his shoulder at the Russian boy who was standing to meet his eyes, trying to put his notes and book away so he could follow.

"See you tomorrow." Was all Yuuri said as he quickened his pace and fled from the classroom to the safety of the car that was supposed to be meeting him.

o.O.o

"How was school, Yuuri?" He slid into the passenger seat of Maria's 1999 Ford Explorer and buckled his seatbelt as he shut the door. When he didn't say anything, Maria's smile faded a bit, "That bad, huh?"

Yuuri held his backpack in his lap and sighed, "Not bad…just…"

"New?" Maria supplied as she tried to pull out into the busy traffic of the school parking lot.

"Yeah." Yuuri sighed and leaned back into his seat, "Where's Celestino?"

"He's going to meet us at the ice rink. It's about half an hour away from here, so if you want to start on your homework, now's a good time to start."

With a barely there nod, Yuuri unzipped his backpack and tried to fish out his math textbook, but instead pulled out the novel he was supposed to read for his new English class; The Scarlett Letter, by. Nathaniel Hawthorne.

"The Scarlett Letter, huh?" Maria had glanced at the cover, "Not one of my favorites, but I didn't mind reading it with Nicholas a few years ago. Who do you have as your English teacher, Yuuri?" Nicholas was Celestino and Maria's son. Yuuri had never met Nicholas in persona, but he had seen pictures of the slim muscular boy with dark hair and brown eyes hanging on the wall. Celestino had told him that his son was studying abroad for the rest of the school year through Europe, which Yuuri had found to be pretty cool.

"Mrs. Mayze? I think that's who I have anyways." Yuuri mumbled.

Maria chuckled, "She's a good teacher, but she's tough. You'll like her Yuuri."

Yuuri hummed, "I'm worried though. I'm pretty good at speaking English, but I'm not fluent by any means. I got above average marks while at home, but everyone else here…their native language is English."

"Well, that is true and it will be tough, but you're a hard-working student Yuuri. You'll do just fine."

"H-How do you know?"

"Because you wouldn't have give Franklin High School a try otherwise." Maria glanced over at him with a smile as she finally was able to pull out onto the busy street that was overflowing with school buses and students trying to hurry home.

o.O.o

Between the traffic and the drive, he had sat next to Maria, hurriedly scribbling out answers to basic math equations and answers to the science questions Mrs. Price had assigned, for over an hour. Thankfully, the by the time the Ford Explorer had pulled into the parking lot of the rink, Yuuri's homework was almost completely done with his homework for the day.

"You better hurry, Yuuri. Celestino was expecting you forty-three minutes ago." Maria mumbled to him as he began taking his seatbelt off. Was he really forty-three minutes late? And on his first day at the Detroit rink?

In a hurried frenzy, Yuuri tossed his book-laden backpack into the backseat and twisted his body trying to reach the backpack with his skates and training gear which was situated behind his seat in the back. While the stretch would normally feel good, allowing his muscles to be pulled in a new relieving direction, his panic to not disappoint his new coach (he'd only been in the States for a week. One whole week…) made the stretch more of a nuisance than a pleasure. He was struggling to reach the straps of his bag, it always being just too far from the tips of his fingers. He just needed a few more inches.

The bag was suddenly pulled from his sight and the back door slammed shut once more as Maria opened his door, sending him reeling out the side of the passenger seat. Thankfully, he was able to catch his balance before he was spilled onto the pavement onto his butt. When had Maria gotten out of the car?

"Here. Hurry on inside." Maria pushed the thick canvased bag into his arms as he righted himself and gave him a thumbs up, "If he gives you a hard time, I'll vouch for you." And with that, she gave him an encouraging push towards the rink doors.

The Detroit rink was twice the size of the ice rink at Ice Castle Hatsetsu and didn't share the slight shabbiness that his home rink had from all the years of use. From the skate rental counter for the public to the new paint on the walls to the ice itself, everything was rather pristine; an observation that had made Yuuri a little in awe of the place. As he stumbled down towards the ice, his legs pumping in a steady jog, he could see Celestino standing by the wall watching a few skaters practice jumps and spins as he shouted out comments and criticism.

As if he could sense Yuuri approaching, he turned and gave him an irritated twinged smile, "Yuuri! You've made it."

"I'm here," Yuuri gave a soft pant, "Maria and I got stuck in traffic. There was a car accident on the way and—"

Celestino waved him off and Yuuri could see the irritation leave his face, "It's alright. How was your first day at FSH?"

"Well," Yuuri bit his lip, "It was…"

Celestino gave a hearty chuckle, "Interesting? New?"

"Yeah. I guess you could say that."

"Well, you'll get the hang of it soon. Go change for practice and then I'll introduce you to a few of your new rink mates."

After Celestino had directed him to the locker room and he had changed out of his jeans, he came back towards the rink side where three guys and two girls were standing, taking sips of water and listening to Celestino talk to them in a hushed voice. Yuuri automatically felt his insides squeeze in anxiety; were they talking about him? What were his new rink mates thinking of him already?

"Don't just stand there," Yuuri jerked his head up as a thick-accented voice called over to him.

"We promise we won't bite." This came from one of the girls who was standing next to the boy who must've called out to him first (he figured by how Yuuri had just managed to catch the girl smacking him in the back of the head before commenting). Her blonde hair was cut choppily and short, like she had hacked her hair off with a pair of kitchen scissors (but it did seem to suit her), framing her heart-shaped face and kind hazel eyes. He shuffled over, his hands fiddling with the sleeves of his long sleeved t-shirt, trying to keep his anxiety from over powering him.

The girl smiled at him, "You must be Yuuri. Celestino told us you'd be coming to the rink soon. You're from Japan, right?"

Yuuri nodded, "Yes. I'm from this small seaside town called Hatsetsu."

"I'm from a small town too. But I grew up here in the States; Arkansas to be more precise." She hummed before sticking out a hand, "Christie Roads, it's nice to meet you."

Yuuri returned the gesture with a small smile as he shook her hand softly, "Its good to meet you too."

"Introduce yourself, knuckle head." This was directed at the boy next to Christie, a short lean boy with shaggy dark hair and fierce green eyes. He eerily reminded him of a wild cat with his piercing gaze, sharp features and his fierce attitude. The boy growlled at Christie who just smacked the back of his head once more.

Christie gave a chuckle, "Well, this little demon is Connor Edens from Ireland. He may be small, but he's debuting on the Junior level this season."

Yuuri tried to give the dark haird boy a small nervous smile, but it didn't seem to do anything; Connor just glared back at him, his green eyes felt like he could see every single thing Yuuri had ever done wrong in his life.

"If there's anyone who you have to worry about biting, it's him." This came from the other girl, "Although, I wouldn't worry. He's all bark and no bite." This girl was small and slender, with big brown eyes and a sweet smile. Her hair flowed down her back past her shoulders in a wave of rainbow colors; pinks and purples, greens and blues, even mixing a bright yellow and a soft orange into the wavy curls of the rainbow. She definitely stood out amoungst the crowd of skaters.

"I'm Alex Gilbert. I'm the only one of these losers who actually hails from Detroit."

"We aren't losers, we're just slightly more washed out than you are." Called one of the other guys.

"Was that supposed to be a compliment? Somehow that doesn't make us sound any better." The other boy said next to him and as Yuuri looked at them both together, he almost had to do a double take.

The other was silent for a moment and then shook it off, "On the bright side, people like foreigners here. Both girls and guys in Gahramstown and in Port Elizabeth never were interested in either of us."

The other boy chuckled and he gave a slight shove to his friend, "I'm Bheka and this is my older idiot twin brother, Nathi. You can call him Nate though." Nate winked at him and gave a soft wave as Bheka smiled at him. Both seemed rather friendly as their deep brown eyes twinkled happily at him and their soft brown hair fell lightly into their eyes. Both were taller than Yuuri…by a lot, but even with the big height difference, they both seemed to be gentle giants with a niche for mischievous behavior.

Yuuri jumped as two firm hands set themselves on his shoulders, but felt the tension ease slightly when his coach's voice spoke, "I'm glad to see you are all getting along well. However, we need to get back to practice.", when everyone nodded he started doling out instructions, "Nate and Bheka, go practice your jumps. Nate work on your triple salchow. Beck you work on your triple axel. Christie your camel spin is a little wobbly, so work on that. Connor, I want you to run through your short program. And Alex, why don't you cool down and help Yuuri warm up. Maria is expecting you for ballet in 20."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Alex saluted Celestino as the others gave simple nods and went to different parts of the rink to get to work.

Yuuri skated next to Alex for almost 15 minutes, listening to the bubbly girl talk excitedly to him about the either rink mates. He didn't mind letting her talk to him endlessly either; he actually preferred it. It was times like these when he could look like he was socializing, but it gave him a break from having to actually put much thought into what he was doing. It allowed his mind to rest for a moment.

However, instead of his mind going into the vast void of thoughtless nothingness, his mind decided to drag him through his first day of school.

From his awkward encounter with the school secretary to almost being murdered by a girl who had accidentally had her seat by him. He even reflected back on his sorry lunch of vending machine fruit snacks and half a bottle of room temperature of water. It's not like he really had a choice. He had no idea how the lunch system worked in the US. He was barely familiar with the system in Japan; his mother had always packed him bento boxes to go between his strict skating diet and her desire to show him that she was still his biggest fan (she often told him so with short hand written notes that had been set a top his rice).

He hadn't had a hand written note from his mama in over a week now. He had absolutely adored his mothers notes as a child, but as he got older he had simply thought of them as a routine – less adoring and more embarrassing.

He missed them now though.

He missed his mama.

He missed his dad too. His dad who was all smiles and corny jokes as he stood behind the wok pan on the stove and cooked for the guests at the onsen.

He even missed his sister, Mari, who was notorious for her teasing.

The thought of his family and of home seemed to bring a sour taste into his mouth. Was coming to the United States really worth it in this moment? Would he really trade his moms hand written notes, his father's smiles and his sisters teasing for this? For a shot at the national level competitions?

When he'd left, the answer had been yes.

But now, he wasn't so sure.

He needed to pause his thinking on home for now. He couldn't risk a possible breakdown right now; not in front of his new rink mates who had been so nice to him. Unfortunately, the thoughts of his family had been replaced with something he wasn't so sure he wanted to think on either.

Viktor.

Viktor's crystal blue eyes were still looking at him as he tried not to meet the gaze. His airy Russian accented English was still flowing through his ears as he watched the boy give him a smile, making his lips twitch into a faint heart shape and his silvery hair to fall into his eyes.

Why did he have to think about him of all the people he had met today?

A/N:( Hello, lovelies! Did you miss me? It's been like a week or so since I posted. No? You didn't, well, I missed you. I'm excited to finally be doing another WIP and I hope you all like it. I know this chapter isn't all that "interesting", but we will get there. I promise. I'm actually planning on this being a series, so hopefully, it will go well enough? *shrugs* I hope it does anyway. For this fic, I am planning on updating every Friday (possibly earlier if I'm really motivated), so keep an eye out for updates! As always, I hope you all are having an awesome day and be sure to let me know what you think! –Sam)