The Italian Opera starts playing and he leaves me behind rink side. We decided to do a partner skate to my winning 5th grand prix final free skate program to announce my return to the ice after a season off. Everyone was dying to know what my plan was the minute Yuri won his silver medal. No matter how much criticism and judgement I have received for missing a season, it has been the most fulfilling season for me yet.

I look at him in his matching blue coat tails as he skates my steps. He was born to be on the ice and he is what I've been looking for my whole life. I have been alone my whole life and I thought I found all the comfort I needed from skating and Makkachin. But I was wrong. No words can't express the love that I have for the man skating with me now.

I hear my cue and I enter the rink. This is the first time I publicly enter the rink in almost a year. The crowd starts cheering and my blue prince offers me his hand. I'm swooning all over again.

His black hair is slicked back, thanks to my handiwork. He usually doesn't do anything to his hair, so I do it for him. His costume hits him in all the right places, I made sure that it would. He is glowing in the spotlight. He is so much different on the ice when I am with him compared to when he is out here by himself.

His hand feels so natural to me He has smaller hands than mine, but they still hold their own. My fingers intertwine with his and he cups my face with the other. It only lasted a couple of seconds… It is never long enough for me.

We have been practicing this partner skate for months. Every time Yuri got stressed out, I would stop and play the music and we would just dance. We didn't need to speak or plan or coordinate our moves, it just happened. After a month of doing it, we finally decided that making an actual routine with it would be a good idea. We figured that it would come in handy eventually. Then when they asked me if I would like to skate a program to announce my return, I just looked a Yuri and he nodded and winked at me.

I put my hands on his waist to pick him up. I didn't hear Yuri laugh. Yuri can be ticklish. I learned this the hard way when we were practicing. I would pick him up and he would start laughing, kind of ruining the mood of the free skate. However, this laughter defines our lives together- true love and pure happiness. Finding what we both didn't know we were looking for. We can't live without each other's laughter, smile, presence, support, life, and love.

I put him back on the ground and he moves away from me. I feel cold… This is the moment in the program that Yuri is the furthest away from me and is out of my sight for a second. I have skated alone for the world my whole career… How did I do it? How did I live such a meaningless life? I can't imagine how I managed to do it all of those years without Yuri.

Yuri comes back into my view, grabs my hand and puts his other arm around my waist. Warmth returns to my bones immediately and I feel life pouring into my soul again. We are gliding around the big circle of the rink.

It is funny to think that in the beginning of our relationship, Yuri made me so insecure of my feelings. I had never felt anything that strong for another person ever and on top of that, he rejected my advances at first when I first arrived at Hasetsu. I remember crying myself to sleep my first night with Makkachin snuggled deep in my arms. I was used to getting any man I wanted. However, now that I think back to all of my former lovers, nothing holds a candle to how I feel about Yuri.

Yuri and I start slowing down and circle each other, getting ready to stop as the final note approaches. I put my hand on Yuri's face. The music stops, and we stop. I hold eye contact with the love of my life and he holds mine. I pull back, kiss the back of his hand, and look up to see a bright red-faced embarrassed world famous figure skater. The whole crowd goes nuts.

Over the loud speaker they announce.

"LADIES AND GENTS! WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT VICTOR NIKIFOROV IS RETURNING NEXT SEASON! GET READY BECAUSE IT'S GOING TO BE BIG!" victor

I don't let go of Yuri's hand and wave to the crowd. I have never smiled bigger.