I am not a dancer or a figure skater whatsoever so I did a lot of research while writing this story, but if anything is blatantly incorrect (aside from the stuff that's obviously inserted for the sake of the plot), please let me know and I will fix it!

Yuri watched the dancers on stage in awe. While a few of them clearly needed a lot more practice, most of them left him speechless. He considered himself a pretty good dancer since he'd been taking lessons ever since he could remember, but his ability paled in comparison to those on stage.

He and Viktor had traveled to America because an old friend of Viktor's, Katerina, was competing and she had invited Viktor to come watch.

Viktor told Yuri to come with him because watching all the dancers might help him with his figure skating if he could get inspiration for his own routines.

Yuri's expectations had been pretty low, but he was blown away by the sheer amount of talent everyone possessed.

An older girl wearing a black ballet dress came onstage. Yuri checked the program and saw that this was Ryleigh Weaver dancing to a song called "First Love" composed by Joe Hisaishi. He thought he recognized that name, but he wasn't sure. It was definitely Japanese, so he already felt a sense of connection to her performance.

The song began and Yuri watched the girl start her routine. Something about it felt off though.

Her movement was choppy and abrupt which didn't fit the smooth flow of the music, and her eyes seemed lifeless, completely separated from her body. It felt like he was watching "Dance of Death" more than "First Love".

Halfway through the song, she went to do a standing split, but her center of balance was off and she went tumbling down onto the hard stage.

Yuri winced, painfully reminded of all his screw-ups on the ice during his own competitions.

The girl put her hand to her forehead, and he could tell that she was trying to hold back tears. With the song still playing in the background, she rushed off the stage.

Yuri leaned forward a little, part of him wanting to run after her.

Viktor raised a curious brow at Yuri's reaction to the girl's failure. He was pretty sure it struck a certain chord with him.

Once the competition was over, Viktor and Yuri headed to the lobby to meet Katerina once she came out with the other dancers.

"Viktor!" someone squealed.

"Katy!" Viktor called back as he opened his arms.

Katerina happily rushed into them. "I'm so glad you could make it!"

"You did an amazing job, Katy! I was very impressed!"

"Thank you!" While still in Viktor's arms, she looked over at Yuri. "You're Viktor's student, Yuri, right?"

"Yeah, that's me," Yuri answered as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. He noticed that her Russian accent wasn't as thick as Viktor's.

"He's done a good job with you. I've watched your routines."

"Oh, thanks. You did a really good job out there yourself."

"Thank you."

"Katy, who was that one dancer in the black dress?" Viktor asked. "Is she all right?"

Katerina lost her smile. "Oh, you mean Ryleigh? Well, she…she just got rejected from another dance school yesterday, so she really wanted to win this competition to prove to herself she's a good dancer."

"I see it didn't go so well."

Katerina shook her head. "I feel so bad for her."

Yuri looked towards the door and noticed the very girl in question. "Isn't that her?"

Katerina followed his gaze. "Yep."

"I'll be right back."

As Yuri left, Katerina asked Viktor, "Is he a friend of hers or something?"

"No," Viktor replied. "I think he just relates to her is all."

While Viktor and Katerina began to converse in fluent Russian behind him, Yuri slowly went up to the girl from before and lightly tapped on her shoulder.

When she turned around, he noticed her eyes were really red and swollen. She must've been crying for a long time. He suddenly remembered locking himself in a bathroom stall and crying his own eyes out after one of his routines. There was really nothing like the awful feeling of utter defeat.

"Uh, hey," Yuri stuttered, quickly bringing himself back to the present. "I saw your performance tonight. I think you're pretty good."

The girl looked at him as if he had just called her fat and ugly. "I messed up and didn't even finish the routine," she snapped. "Were you watching what everyone else was?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"Get lost."

The girl whipped around and left the building, leaving Yuri standing alone in stunned silence. He now remembered why he rarely talked to other people.

On the other hand, he knew from experience that no one's positive comments, however well-meaning, could really help when faced with that level of humiliation.

Katerina came up behind him. "Don't take it personally, Yuri. Ryleigh's not much of a people person to begin with, so a loss like tonight won't help."

He couldn't believe he was about to ask this. "Do you know where she lives?"

The oven beeped loudly, signaling the freezer-bought lasagna was ready to come out. Ryleigh put on her oven mitts and pulled the dish out of the hot oven.

Just as she was about to cut it up, the doorbell rang. She sighed and prepared to throttle whoever was interrupting her precious dinnertime.

She went over to the door and opened it. There stood the same guy who had stopped her after the competition.

"Hey, remember me?" the boy said. "My name's Yuri, and I—"

Ryleigh slammed the door in his face. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to anyone right now. Currently, she just wanted to wallow in self-pity for the next several hours.

Besides, it was super creepy that he had followed her home.

The doorbell rang again…persistently.

Ryleigh groaned and opened it again. "What?" she snapped.

Yuri nervously took a step back. "Uh, I know you're probably really embarrassed about what happened tonight, but I just wanted to say that…I get it. I had the same problem when I was figure skating. I just…wanted to talk to you…"

Ryleigh looked the guy over. He was clearly of Asian descent, and if she recalled correctly, Katerina had mentioned a friend of hers was coming to the competition and bringing along someone from Japan. He looked like he couldn't harm a fly even in the direst of circumstances. He also looked like he feared that at any second, she was going to kill him.

Which she kind of still wanted to do.

She supposed if he tried anything, it would probably be pretty easy to take him down.

She sighed and went back to the kitchen area. "You going to come in, or are you just going to stand there with the door open and waste all of my air conditioning?"

Yuri gave a relieved sigh and stepped inside the small apartment.

He watched with curiosity as she served herself a huge helping of lasagna. "I thought dancers didn't eat food like that."

"Well, I haven't eaten this much cheese at one time in four years, and after that horrendous performance, I deserve this." She leaned against the counter as she began to eat while standing up. "You're from Japan, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"You speak English really well."

"I spent five years in Detroit training for competitions."

"That's good because my Japanese is limited to 'Hello', 'Good-bye', and 'Thank you', and honestly, I butcher even that."

Yuri laughed lightly, his nerves finally beginning to settle as she seemed less inclined to maul him. "Your name is really original. I've never seen it spelled like that."

"Yeah, in all my 22 years of living, I've yet to see it on a keychain. My parents wanted to give me something that would stand out, so I would be remembered in whatever I did. Fat lot of good that did me. Now I'll be remembered as the girl who had an emotional breakdown in the middle of a dance routine."

Yuri awkwardly looked at his feet. For a while, he was remembered as the Japanese skater who completely floundered his skating routine at the Grand Prix.

"How'd you find out where I live anyway? You some kind of stalker?"

"No, Katerina told me."

"That blabbermouth."

"She was worried about you."

"It's not her fault I suck."

"But you really don't."

Ryleigh looked at him pointedly. "I've auditioned for several dance schools, and all of them rejected me. I couldn't even finish my routine at the stupid competition tonight. Face it, I'm not good enough, and I never will be."

Yuri sighed. "I'm a figure skater. And two years ago, I made it to the Grand Prix but I really messed up my routine because I was so nervous and I came in dead last. That caused me to mess up my next routine and I was booted out really early."

"Is there a point to all this?"

"I kinda fell off the face of the earth for a while. Then Viktor Nikiforov, a really famous figure skater I admired, came to Japan to personally coach me for the next Grand Prix. It was really tough, but I worked hard and I ended up winning silver that year."

"Great story. So basically, this Viktor guy who just happened to be your idol showed up and made you good? Congratulations."

"No. I always had it in me. I just needed his help to realize that."

"I hate to burst your pep talk bubble, but not everyone's like that. Even if Gene Kelly was here to suddenly start coaching me, which would be pretty difficult considering he's dead, clearly, I'm not cut out to be a dancer. Maybe I never was." She dejectedly put the now empty plate in the sink.

"I think you just lost your reason for dancing."

Ryleigh froze for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you dance?"

"I dance because I…I love it."

"Not because you want to be admitted into dance schools or win competitions?"

Ryleigh started to answer but then stopped herself when she realized he had a valid point. When was the last time she danced and actually really enjoyed it? Lately, it felt like all she'd been doing was either auditioning or performing with the hopes of being the best. It was exhausting, and it took all of the fun out of the activity she loved.

"I think you got so focused on winning that you forgot why you started dancing in the first place."

"How…how would you know?"

"For a long time, I forgot why I enjoyed skating. When I lost the Grand Prix and everyone commented on how terrible my routine was, I wanted to quit. Then when Viktor started coaching me, he helped me remember why I loved it so much and why I wanted to keep competing."

Ryleigh hated this guy for being right, and she hated herself for letting it get to the point where someone she didn't even know had to spell out her one major flaw.

"Katerina told me and Viktor that you choreograph your own routines. That's really impressive. From what I saw tonight, you've got real talent for that."

"Yeah, I just can't execute it."

"Maybe if you remember your reason for dancing, you will."

"Figure skating isn't dancing, you know."

"Maybe not, but I do some dancing as well. I started out dancing when I was young. My teacher was the one who suggested I start skating. Even then, I continued taking dance lessons because it helps out with my skating."

"So just because you dance and skate, you know everything?"

"No."

Yuri was getting a little frustrated with Ryleigh's constant jabs to everything he was saying. But he really couldn't complain. Everyone dealt with defeat in different ways. He shut down and refused to talk to anyone while Ryleigh just shot down anyone who did speak to her.

"But I saw your performance," he continued. "While you had plenty of skill, you weren't part of it. You had distanced yourself so that you were just repeating the moves back, not actually getting into them."

Ryleigh wondered if anyone else had seen what this boy had. How she could barely hear the music and how her feet moved automatically as if she was a robot.

Yuri placed a CD down on the counter. "Here. This helped me when I was in a bit of a slump. Maybe it will help you too."

Ryleigh looked at the disc. Written in Sharpie were the words, 'Yuri On Ice'.

"I gotta get going. Viktor, Katerina, and I are going out for dinner. But it was nice to meet you. I hope things work out for you."

She watched as he left her apartment without another word.

Ryleigh sighed and picked up the CD, curious as to how the song on it made someone with no hope left in his chosen profession suddenly gain all his inspiration back.

She would listen to it tomorrow since she was in no mood to focus on dancing or skating or anything artistic for the rest of the night.

Ryleigh woke up much too early for her taste. She had always been a morning person, but she had desperately wanted to stay sleeping for as long as possible so as to forget the horror that was her performance the night before.

The CD Yuri had given her rested on the nightstand. She picked it up and looked at it, even more curious to know what song it held now that she was better rested.

With a sigh, she got out of bed and dressed in her workout leggings and an off-the-shoulder t-shirt.

She put the song from the CD onto her phone so she could listen to it while she put away the dishes in the dishwasher.

As she began the chore, she listened to the pretty melody. It started off with a repeating piano sequence which gradually gained more notes and a faster tempo.

Her feet began to move of their own accord as she moved around the kitchen area to return the dishes to their respective places.

More instruments then joined the piano. Ryleigh abandoned the clean dishes in favor of focusing on the song instead.

Her body led her around her small apartment with various steps and jumps in time with the beautiful music. She felt herself get lost in the gorgeous melody, as if it had claimed her very soul.

It wasn't until the song stopped did she realize what had just happened.

For the first time in years, she had actually enjoyed dancing. She had felt the music, each precious note, and she danced with actual feeling. She had become one with the music and the steps.

Maybe that skater kid knew what he was talking about after all.

Ryleigh finished the dishes and then immediately headed down to her dance studio. She rented out one of the smaller rooms so she could practice to her heart's content without any interruptions.

She connected her phone to the stereo in the room and played 'Yuri On Ice' again.

When Ryleigh choreographed a new piece, she danced to it freely the first time around to see what her feet did naturally, and she made quick mental notes of what she liked. After that, she worked on the technical parts of it to ensure that each move fit the notes and the tempo and was actually possible for her to do.

It had been a while since Ryleigh had had so much fun working on a piece. It struck her that Yuri had been absolutely right.

She had started dancing because she adored it. Every little piece of it. All the money she had to spend on classes and new shoes, all the times she had to cancel hanging out with friends in favor of practicing, even the intense pain she experienced on a daily basis. All the aches, sores, and blisters, not to mention the pain that came with dancing en pointe, were all worth it in the end once she got up onstage and started performing.

But somewhere down the line, she had become much too preoccupied with being the best, whether it be at a competition or an audition, and it had greatly affected her performances. She had lost sight of why she even danced in the first place.

It was no wonder why all those schools had rejected her. She had become detached from all her routines. Her mind was so full of attempting to win that there was no room to connect with the music or the dance itself.

What was all that pain and money for in the end if she didn't get her act together?

While she choreographed this new routine with a song that had reminded her of her purpose for dancing, she pushed out all thoughts of winning or auditioning. Instead, she focused completely on the music and the notes and the moves and doing what she loved.

By the end of the day, Ryleigh had created a loose version of a routine to the song. It would need more practice, but she at least had the basic framework done.

She then went home, feeling the most satisfied she had felt in who knows how long, and pulled out her laptop.

She wanted to know if this Yuri guy was really as wonderful as he made himself out to be.

The first video she found was him skating to 'In Regards to Love: Eros'. She found that when he removed his glasses and slicked back his hair, he was actually incredibly handsome, nothing like the nervous twig who had visited her the previous night. Of course, the sleek black skater outfit he wore really helped.

It was an interesting performance. The theme of it was supposed to be sexual love. It surprised her that he went with that since it didn't seem to fit him very well. His skating was very…feminine. But it worked for him and it fit the overall tone of the song. She had to admit, she was pretty impressed.

The next video she pulled up was him skating to the song she had now heard a hundred times, 'Yuri On Ice'. This one was longer, and he wore a blue suit-like costume with multiple sequins. It looked even better than the black one.

His skating was mesmerizing. It was the best performance she had ever seen, not that she had seen a lot. But just the way he got completely into his performance was incredible enough. Each jump, each move, every little piece of it was flawless.

She scrolled down to read the comments, and every single one of them expressed admiration for his performance and the extreme difficulty of all of the perfectly delivered jumps.

She found another video where he copied a performance of the famous Viktor Nikiforov he had told her about. Someone had put his performance (an unprofessional one since he was only wearing workout clothes) next to Viktor's official performance.

There wasn't an error to be found. Yuri had copied it perfectly.

The only difference was that Yuri looked…upset and lifeless. She looked at the timestamp and realized this was long before the amazing performance she had just watched. This was before Viktor had even started coaching him.

It was night and day between the two performances. They were both incredible, but only one of them really drew her in.

If she had looked anything like the lifeless Yuri while dancing in the more recent months, she felt sorry for anyone who had had to watch her and even more sorry for all the judges and instructors who probably felt she was murdering the art of dance.

She proceeded to watch some of the other skaters Yuri had competed against, such as Yuri Plisetsky who looked like he wanted to rip someone's head off, Christophe Giacometti who put so much sex appeal into his performance that it made her a little uncomfortable, and Jean-Jacques Leroy who seemed too pompous for his own good.

None of their performances affected her quite the same way Yuri's had. They weren't bad, it was just that Yuri's was…different. Maybe it was because their stories were so similar.

A video appeared in the suggestions bar that piqued her curiosity.

When she clicked on it, she almost died laughing.

It was at an afterparty with all the skaters, and Yuri had gotten insanely wasted. He got into a huge dance-off with the other Yuri, and then started dancing with Viktor. To her shock, he even took off his pants and coat and started pole-dancing at one point. Where had a pole come from?

Things got even more interesting when Christophe joined in on the fun. The two men stripped down until they were wearing just a tie and underwear. She was impressed that Yuri, who looked like he could barely stand up straight, had enough strength to do all the intense moves that went with pole-dancing.

What was even funnier was that he wasn't half bad.

After she pulled herself together, she ended up re-watching his performance to 'Yuri On Ice' several more times, more drawn to it than any other performance.

Then she pulled out her phone and called up Katerina.

"Hey, Kat, do you have Viktor Nikiforov's number?" she asked.

"Why?" Katerina replied.

"I need to get in contact with that friend of his."

"You mean Yuri? How come?"

"I just do."

"Oh, do I sense a secret crush?" Katerina teased. "It's about time."

Ryleigh rolled her eyes. "Do you have his number or not?"

Katerina laughed. "Yeah, I do. I'll text it to you. By the way, are you doing okay?"

"You know…I haven't felt this great in years."

"Wow, that was not the response I was expecting."

"I just got a hard but necessary wake-up call. But I went out to the studio today, and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've danced like that."

"I'm glad to hear it. Did Yuri have anything to do with this?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot for giving him my address," Ryleigh said sarcastically. "What if he was a stalker who wanted to kidnap me?"

"Oh, please, you don't give me enough credit. He's a friend of Viktor's, and if Viktor trusts him, I do. He just wanted to help you. And from the sound of it, he did. No wonder you have a crush on him."

"I do not have a crush on him! I gotta go. Text me his number."

Ryleigh sighed as she hung up the phone. Katerina really was a piece of work.

Not too long after the phone call had ended, her phone buzzed with a new text message containing Viktor's number.

She quickly texted him, asking if he could give her Yuri's number.

He too joked that she must have feelings for him if she wanted to contact him. She sarcastically responded that he and Katerina were thorns in her side.

Finally, Viktor sent her Yuri's number.

Ryleigh sent a new text to him: 'Hey, Skater Boy, it's Ryleigh. Come see my next competition in a week. Believe me, you're not going to want to miss this.'