Ever since coming to Japan, Yuri was becoming more and more aware of his own cultural ignorance, and the fact that it was always happening around the other Yuuri did not make it any better. From figuring out how to use the damn currency to the fact that Japanese people actually ate Japanese food everyday, Yuri was just praying that the routine Viktor would make for him would be worth it. However, the culture part was at least bearable since he thankfully wasn't as bad as Viktor. No, the worst part was everything else.
Being fifteen years old and dedicating a life to skating meant you lived and breathed skating. It was a life Yuri chose and never regretted. He was going to be the best, and he aimed to achieve that goal. The other Yuuri didn't seem to have the same drive, which just proved that Yuri was superior. However, it didn't seem to stop the imposter from trying to one up him.
"Yuuri? Are you filming our training sessions?" Viktor asked one day. Since their fated "competition" if you could even call it that, Viktor had decided to stay in Japan in order to train them and the eventually move back to Russia with both Yuuri and Yuri in tow. Since then, Viktor has thrown them into all sorts of different training regimes. Yuri was used to Viktor's more eccentric training ideas and took them in stride. He did his best not to sneer when the other Yuuri was thrown for a loop though.
What Yuri was not expecting was that the other Yuuri would be just as weird as Viktor. As a result, when the other Yuuri appeared on the rink with cameras and computers, Yuri tried his hardest to not contort his face into confusion.
"Yes! I mean, yes, if that's okay," the other Yuuri confirmed to which Yuri only scoffed. If there was one thing that Yuri hated more than the other Yuuri sharing his name was the fact that the other Yuuri couldn't spit out his own. Yuri conveniently blocked out the memory of him trying to speak in Japanese the other day.
"Of course, but could I ask why?" Why else? The other Yuuri probably just wanted to see how much of a failure he was.
"Oh, well, I feel like my spins could go a little faster if I just tighten my arms and decreased my angular momentum. I have a computer program set up that will trace my movement during the routine. Through that, I can make accurate measurements and calculate my angular rotation and angular acceleration. This way, I could more reliably ensure my quads during my… routine?" the other Yuuri explained but dropped as he saw the confused look on Viktor's face, and Yuri's brain just exploding.
It's not that Yuri was stupid. When he went to school, he honestly was a good student despite what his teachers might say about his appearance. However, the key word was "when." Being a professional figure skater meant that school came second to tournaments, and now the other Yuuri was using his lack of drive to his advantage? That had to be considered cheating.
"Ah, that's right. Yuuri finished college after the season. I'm guessing you were a physics major?" Viktor asked as soon as his brain finally connected the dots.
"Yes. It was a little difficult considering how much time I had to dedicate to skating and studying, but I did manage to graduate! I've always liked physics because it helps with skating, and so I try to use it anytime I can," The other Yuuri explained. At some point, the idiot Yuuri realized that he was wasting time (finally) and finished up setting up his equipment.
Yuri tried not to stare, but when the other Yuuri was making so much noise and pushing over his camera, it was a little hard not to. Of course, Viktor took this completely wrong and thought he was just curious or something.
"Didn't you want to be a biology major when you were younger?" Viktor asked Yuri. Yuri scowled at him and glided away to complete another warm up lap.
There was no argument that the other Yuuri was definitely worse than him in skating. After all, he saw his performance in the Grand Prix. However, now the imposter was trying to beat him in a game he didn't know the rules. That was absolutely not fair.
Besides the camera fiasco in the beginning, practice seemed to go quite smoothly. Yuri didn't like the weird look on Viktor's face when he watched the two of them skate. There was no way in predicting Viktor's next move, but judging from that expression, Yuri was not going to like it.
The other Yuuri also favored one side over the other since the camera had a better view or something. That was completely fine, and Yuri was half-tempted to go over and block the view. However, Yuri wasn't that much of a jerk. If the imposter wanted to record himself, go ahead.
Once Viktor excused the both of them for dinner, Yuri lurked secretly behind the other Yuuri to see what exactly he was doing. If he wasn't going to play fair in this game, that made spying completely fair.
"Oh, Yurio – ah, sorry, Yuri!" the imposter squealed.
"Quiet dammit! I'm hiding behind you!" Yuri demanded and crouched further down. He didn't miss that fond sigh but said nothing in response to keep his position.
After a moment of silence, Yuri slowly popped from his hiding spot and watched as the other Yuri placed dots all over the footage. It was slow and meticulous work and made Yuri just sleep from exhaustion of practice and how boring it all was.
"Where's this angular moment thing you were talking about?" Yuri asked.
"Huh?" the other Yuuri jumped a little as if he was surprised that Yuri was still there. "Oh well, that comes after. First I need to find my rotational speed, that's how fast I'm spinning."
"I know that!" Yuri did not know that, but hell if he was going to let the imposter know.
"And then from there, I can calculate my angular momentum. Using that number, I can see how much more I need to tighten my arms in order to ensure that quad in the air, or if I need to improve something else."
"You can get all of that from a video?" Yuri asked, unable to catch himself from being curious.
"Yup!" the other Yuuri was looking too smug for his liking. "I did something like this for my senior thesis project in college. Since then, I've been doing this for a lot of famous figure skaters. Oh! I think I might have some of your data too."
"So you can copy me like you do with Viktor?" The other Yuuri stopped typing and stood still.
At that moment, Yuri considered three things. The first thing was that the other Yuuri was pretty damn smart. Yuri could remember countless times that he couldn't quite figure out why he could do something right and was only damaging his legs as he just tried harder and harder. If gravity was going to make his fail, that he was going prove gravity wrong. The second thing was that the other Yuuri was a pretty nice guy. While Yuri didn't understand how a guy like him would be able to survive in the world of skating, he still managed to stay pretty nice. Finally, Yuri was a bit of jackass himself.
"No," the other Yuuri began. "I just think you're skating is really good." He then shut his computer, collected his equipment and left Yuri alone in the rink.
All the while when the other Yuuri began walking, Yuri cursed him for making him feel so guilty for what he said.
Yuri must have sat on bench for a good hour before he could push himself to return to the inn where both Viktor and the other Yuuri were staying. Yuri was never a person to think about what he said or pretend that how other people thought about him bothered him. They were always the same comments.
This was probably the first time he has been bothered by someone complimenting him though. That was what was bothering him too. Because out of everyone to compliment him, the one that made him think this much was the imposter. The thought had him scowling the entire way back and ignoring the call for dinner in favor of a bath and sleep.
It was about another hour of tossing and turning and trying to sleep at 6 PM on an empty stomach before Yuri gave up on forgetting what happened.
He read the articles and the interviews people gave him. All of them were impressed with his ability at such a young age and gave some meaningless summary about his stats and background and other useless information. This was the first time he felt like some kind of equal was complimenting him though, and that equal was the imposter? It didn't make sense, like a lot of things in Yuri's world. Yuri thinking that the imposter was an equal made about as much sense as the angular momentum stuff the other Yuuri was talking about.
"Wait," Yuri said as he sat up from bed. The reason why he thought they were equals was because the other Yuuri knew all that stuff. That means if Yuri learned about it, then he wouldn't be as bothered, right?
Grabbing a notebook and putting go on a smile for his great idea, Yuri marched out of his room and through the hallway.
"HEY!" he screamed as he banged on the door. It was probably like 8 PM or something, so there was no way that he was asleep.
The door opened soon enough, and the other Yuuri seemed surprised that Yuri was there at all.
"Yuri, what are you doing-"
"Teach me physics," Yuri interrupted.
"What?"
"I'm missing a whole bunch of school while I'm here, and since you're the reason why Viktor is here and thus why I'm here, you should teach me," Yuri lied. He tightened his grip on his pencil and prayed to whatever god watching that he it would work.
The other Yuuri looked curiously at Yuri as if he saw through his master plan, but it seemed it worked when the he looked like he was seriously considering the offer. The other Yuuri placed a hand on his chin in deep thought, and Yuri had to hide the smirk in order to not give away his plan. After a moment of consideration, the other Yuri smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah well, I'm not really a great-"
"Oh are you getting Yuuri to teach you physics?" a voice asked from behind. Both of them turned to see Mari standing around.
"Onee-san!" Yuuri tried to stop but to no avail.
"Yuuri used to tutor kids in college to get some extra cash you know. You picked a good tutor," Mari explained. Yuri tried to stop the growl forming in his chest. Not only was the other Yuri good at physics, but he was also good enough that other people wanted him as well? He was going to have to increase his study time from what he initially planned if he wanted to catch up.
"Tomorrow we'll meet in the library before practice. I'll pay you afterwards," Yuri settled and stomped his way back to his room to show dominance of the situation. Obviously he won that argument, but after seeing that small smile from earlier, he just had to make sure.
The weight on his chest felt immensely better and he could almost laugh everything off. However, the gloves have now come off. Being the better Yuri meant that he didn't have to just be better in skating and also had to be better in this physics. It couldn't possibly that hard.
Truth be told, Yuri had faced worse.
Yuri wasn't really expecting much from the lessons. He could remember vague topics from when he attended his lessons. There was something about movement and another things about space and some more things about the universe exploding at some points. Other than that, it was a complete blur. As a result, when the other Yuuri came to the library stocked with three or four college textbooks, a few notebooks, and a computer, Yuri couldn't help but feel a little intimidated.
To make things worse, the other Yuri had that smile on his face still.
"Okay, so I thought I'll give you a small practice test to see where you were. I figured you must have some experience, and it's not good if we start from a place that's too easy for you. Take your time, and let me know if you have any questions," the other Yuuri explained as he passed a piece of paper to him. There was a formula sheet attached on the back.
Nodding at the instruction, Yuri began the test. He didn't miss that the other Yuuri had opened his computer and was doing exactly what he was doing yesterday with all the clicking and watching. Needless to say, it was a much better time than doing whatever witchcraft that was required to finish this test.
After an hour of staring and cursing, Yuri submitted his test with half-assed answers and prayers. He didn't think that he would be this bad, and now he had to physically give proof of that?
As an afterthought, Yuri just ripped his test in half.
"This is dumb. I want you to teach me physics so I can be better at skating," Yuri growled. The other Yuuri looked up from his computer and pouted. He glanced at the ripped shreds of paper on the table and that smile came up again. Yuri was beginning to hate that smile.
"Okay, how about we review your video from the skating open from last year then? Maybe I can just teach through example," the other Yuuri introduced as he opened up a new window.
The data was already analyzed and sorted from what Yuri could see. Dots littered the screen, but in a quick click, the visual disappeared and Yuri had an excellent view of his own performance.
"If I remember right, you were penalized for your first triple axel," the other Yuuri said as he scrolled through the footage.
"Here," he said as he stopped and began playing. Yuri remembered the day perfectly. It was a dumb mistake, and it was apparently so below him that Yuri honestly could not figure out what was going on. Even Jakob was clueless as to what had gone on that day. Yuri put it own just being a bad day but it was always something that bugged him.
The other Yuuri hummed as he scanned through the footage and frowned as he paused at a specific frame.
"Do you see this panel?" the other Yuuri pointed out to the side of the screen. "This shows your angular momentum during this jump. Judging from the height, you needed to tighten your arms just a few more centimeters to make it. Your jump seems like a normal height in comparison to rest, so I think that you were rushing just a bit during it."
The other Yuuri rewound the footage and pointed out where Yuri might have failed and then went on to explain what exactly he just said.
"If you think about position, speed, and acceleration, they are all words to explain the previous…" the other Yuuri explained, and the conversation went on for the hours. If what happened could even be called a conversation. It was mostly just the other Yuuri talking and Yuri trying to absorb as much information as possible. Yuri was still in shock that the computer was able to understand what went wrong better than he could in a million of years. Now Yuuri had access to such a program?
"Wait, are there words to describe acceleration?" Yuri asked, his interest peaking.
"Yes, but that's a bit too far-stretched than what we need to know for now."
"Tell me! I want to know. I need to be the best skater on that rink, and you are going to help me with this physics," Yuri demanded. Yuuri smiled and giggled.
"Okay, okay, but what about after practice? It's almost lunchtime, and then we have practice right after. I promise we can look over more footage then too. Did you bring your computer too? I can probably download this program on your computer too," Yuuri promised as he held out his pinky at him.
Yuri stared at it, unsure what he was supposed to do.
"Oh, so you take your pinky and wrap it around mine. Then bring up your thumb so we can 'lock' the promise… good! It's a promise!" Yuuri smiled for the last time and began to pack up.
"I'm a lot better than Viktor with promises, and that's probably one good difference between him and me, right?" Yuuri asked.
Yuri didn't really know how to answer to that and merely grunted in response as he dumped his notes in his own bag. He also took in one of Yuuri's textbook in order to study some during his downtime during practice.
"See you at practice!" Yuuri waved as he ran out the library, leaving Yuri alone with his thoughts. Yuri glanced back at his right hand.
"A locked promise," Yuri muttered as he stood up to leave as well. Yuri couldn't help the fond smile forming on his face as he left through the library's doors.
It seemed that the imposter – no, it was Yuuri - had a few true surprises of his own as well.
A/N: Two episodes in and I am obsessed with this show. Right now praying for edgelord 5000 Yurio chills and bonds with Yuuri at some point.
I hc that Yuuri is 100% a physics major considering how much he loves skating and the fact that the only thing I can remember from my physics 102 class was this class demonstration about figure skating. I am hoping my engineering knowledge is right at that I got some physics right. I just remember doing this lab where we tracked motion, and figured that there had to be some program that did the same with sports.
Anyways, I hope you liked this. Thank you for reading!