A/n: Thanks to my betas/prereaders - Mae_Cruz and Lady Eve. The next three should be longer.
Edit: Thanks to skyla2010star for the beta.
Quiet Moments
Yuri looked up at the Japanese Yuuri as he ate his grandfather's katsudon pirozhki. "You've been picking up Russian from Viktor," he said, noticing that he had thrown a couple of words in. "Or are you trying to learn it?"
The Katsudon nodded as he ate. "No, just a few words that Viktor says frequently," he said in between bites. "I'm not learning it or anything. I want to, but we've been too busy with practice, and I'm teaching Viktor Japanese." Yuri looked up at him, almost sure he had heard him wrong. Viktor was learning Japanese? Was he serious about staying in Japan, then? He shook that thought out of his head, but honestly, the man already spoke three languages. If he wasn't planning on staying there, why bother learning a fourth? "We should probably be heading back to the hotel room, though. It's getting late."
"You're the one who was out here by yourself," Yuri told him, but nonetheless the two of them turned and started walking back as the Japanese Yuuri continued eating on his pirozhki.
"Here, you can share with me," the other Yuuri said, holding the bag out to him. "I'll never eat them all by myself, and I'm not supposed to have stuff like this anyway. Only when I win, which I did far from thattoday."
Yuri looked up at him and noticed that almost depressed, far away look come back on his face. "So, what?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Viktor's not here. It's not as if he's going to know what you ate when he's not around unless you tell him ." Nonetheless, the blond picked up one and ate it. "Besides, it's a gift. Isn't it rude to turn down a present?"
He looked over at the Katsudon as they walked, wondering if it had been off today because of Viktor or if it was because he had always been like that. It wasn't as if this was far from what he had done last Grand Prix season. Was it really enough to throw him off just because Viktor wasn't there? Or was it maybe, that was certainly what it seemed like, and he hadn't denied it when he said that to him earlier. Love was weird. A person should be able to be away from someone for a day without becoming unfocused, right? After all, he didn't see his grandfather more than a few times a year, and he did alright. One day without Viktor, though, and the Japanese Yuuri acted lost.
It was possible that it also had something to do with the fact that he hadn't been without a coach at a competition before. Yuri could understand that. However, he doubted that. He was certain it had more to do with whatever was going on between them. Yuri forced himself to uncurl his fists because he hadn't come out here to argue about whether or not Viktor was going to come back. Besides, there wasn't anything he could do about that, anyway, no matter how much it pissed him off that Viktor had left everything for the Katsudon.
Suddenly, they heard a high-pitched scream. They both stopped in their tracks to see a young girl running up to them. She looked to be a few years older than him, brown hair that was put up in a ponytail. Yuri felt the sudden urge to flee and immediately took a step back. The girl just kept going on about how big of a fan she was, and how amazing he'd done tonight before turning to the Katsudon and telling him that he had made the Grand Prix Final and that was all that mattered. He was going to run, he decided, as she continued to rattle on. He didn't do these things kinds of things that well. That is until he felt a hand on his shoulder.
The Katsudon looked a bit stiff, but he smiled at him nonetheless. "It's okay," he said. "We can do this, but I don't speak Russian, remember?"
At first, he didn't understand that the older man was trying to get at it until it clicked. "Oh, she's just rambling about how big of a fan she is. She wants an autograph and a picture with both of us."
"Oh! Okay, sure," the Katsudon said, although he looked a bit nervous, he smiled at her anyway, taking the paper she had out, and signing it. Yuri did the same, before handing it back to her. She held out her phone, and he took it. The three of them leaned in together and took a selfie. She muttered thank you about three or four times before turning and walking off. In fact, she almost looked to be bouncing she was so happy, holding the paper and her phone like they were the most precious items in the world to her.
They both exchange a look. "I don't handle stuff like that well," he told the Katsudon.
The Japanese Yuuri gave a nervous chuckle. "Me neither," he said as they both started continuing their trek back to the hotel room. "I always used to run or avoid it, but Minako-sensei told me that I should be nice to my fans like Viktor is."
"Viktor is a…. What do you call it? Oh, right, a diva," he told him, and that caused the older man to laugh. "He loves the attention, but not everyone does."
"Yeah, I've never been good at all that," the Katsudon replied, "though I'm trying to get better." He grabbed another katsudon pirozhki as they walked.
"Yakov says it's part of life, and that we have to get used to it." Personally, he thought it was a load of bullshit. The press was something he had to get to used to it, but the crazy fans, especially in countries like this where figure skating was more popular? Yeah, he didn't need to get used to that.
The Japanese Yuuri nodded in agreement. "Viktor says the same thing." He held out the bag again. He waved him off, as there were only a couple left. They finally reached the hotel again, and the warmth of the lobby. "Oh, yeah, and one more thing," he said, as they got in the elevator. "If you leave me alone on the podium again with the Canadian Asshole, I'll kick your ass."
The Katsudon just laughed. "Okay, it's a deal." Yuri's only response to that was to give him a small wave as he got out of the elevator, leaving the Katsudon to go back to his room alone. As he walked down the hallway and reached his room, he wondered if he would be crazy as those two were whenever he fell in love.
~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~
Yuuri his elevator ride alone, the only sound was the elevator itself. The doors slid open, and he stepped out into the hallway. He walked to his room, opening the door. Getting undressed, he put on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt before crawling into bed. He pulled the covers up to his shoulders, grabbing his phone from the bedside table where he had set it. He clutched his phone tightly. He had high hopes for this competition, and it hadn't gone as planned. If only Viktor had been there… No, he needed to go back. That was what was best for him. Besides, you don't know that you would have done much better if he had been here, he thought to himself, though he knew the reason why he was unfocused was because Viktor hasn't been there.
He had made it to his second consecutive Grand Prix Final. That was a good thing, but he found it hard to be happy after he how he had skated tonight. He turned on his side, his arm stretching out in the empty space between his bed and Viktor's. If he was here, they would be able to touch right now. A physical jolt of pain went through him at that moment, as he realized that Viktor was thousands of miles away back in Japan. He unlocked his phone and looked at the message that Viktor had left for him after his performance. Don't worry about it. You qualified! That's what matters. We'll talk more when you get back home. Miss you, and can't wait to see you.
Yuuri had just replied quickly, Miss you, too. See you in a couple of days. That was right before he had gone out to think when Yurio had found him. He had been thinking about what he was going to do after the Grand Prix Final. I will win gold there, I will retire, and Viktor will go back to Russia and… No matter how much he tried, he couldn't see past it. He would stay in Japan, that would leave him and Viktor in separate countries. How was that going to work? Well, that was an easy answer: it wasn't.
That wasn't the only thing, though. What was he going to do when he retired? He could work at the rink, he supposed. Yuuko and Takeshi would always welcome his help. He could help out part-time at his family's onsen. None of that really felt right, though. Figure skating had been his life for so long. He had never thought he would be in skating forever. Now that he was faced with the end of his career, he felt lost. Even more so, he felt incredibly lost at the thought of losing Viktor.
Yuuri wanted to be selfish, and keep Viktor with him forever. He didn't think that was what was best for Viktor, though.
That ache went through him again, and he went to the pictures on his phone. He wasn't a huge camera hog, not like Viktor who almost seemed to crave the attention sometimes. There were some pictures of them, though. The two of them out at dinner, Viktor whoring for the camera like the diva he was, and more of the two of them - laying in bed in the morning, or at night during their nightly Japanese lessons. Each one brought about mixed feelings. On the one hand, it made him feel just a bit closer to Viktor though since he was far away at the moment. On the other hand, it also hurt like a bitch, more than he thought anything could because it was a reminder that the other bed was empty.
Giving a groan, Yuuri kept looking through his phone, opening up Instagram. JJ has posted a picture of himself mugging for the camera after his win. Nothing recent in the past few days from Viktor, of course. Closing Instagram, he opened up Twitter. He had never been big on social media, but Viktor had told him early on that his "presence was important, and it was important to make sure that you continue to post. You want people to remember you." So, he was trying to do that, but more often than not, it was the Russian who convinced him to post.
Phichit-kun had tagged him in a post, congratulating him on making the Grand Prix Final. He gave a small smile, clicking reply. Same to you, he wrote. See you there! There were other messages from various fans, congratulating him as well. Thanks to everyone for the congrats. I promise to skate better at the Final. I can't wait! He didn't feel that confident right now, but it sounded like something that Viktor would say. Besides, Yuuri didn't plan on giving up on his goal of winning just because of one bad skate. With Viktor by his side, he would do better.
What was going to happen after that, though? After he retired? What would happen between him and Viktor? He would have to deal with that when it came.