Yuuri could physically feel his legs shaking as he was lead out onto the ice with Victor. He gulped at seeing how much grace Victor carried himself with. Just the simple movement of his legs and skates pushing off the ice and propelling him forward was done with the utmost grace. Yuuri already felt out of his league, not to mention the shorter Yuri was staring daggers at him from the bench area. He tried his best to keep his focus on Victor and the ice beneath his skates. He'd practiced enough to at least be able to show something off on the ice, but these Russians had an air about them that screamed professional or at least Victor did. He remembered watching him in the Grand Prix a few times, and he was amazing. He remembered him having longer hair, the silvery hair that seemed to shimmer under the lights along with the ice. Now, it was much shorter, though Yuuri remembered it not being that long ago, so the short hair must be rather recent.
"Admiring my hair?" Victor asked with a slight chuckle as he let go of Yuuri's hand and circled around to face him. "I had it cut before arriving in Japan for school. My coach was practically hounding me with questions, but the culture and everything here just fascinates me so much. Sure, I could've easily stayed in Russia, but where's the fun in that? And of course, that one insisted on following me."
He pointed over to the blonde Yuri. "If we're going to get to know each other better..I think I'll have to come up with a nickname for one of you, so it's not so confusing."
Victor placed a hand on his chin as he thought for a few seconds before pointing over to the Yuri at the benches.
"You're going to be Yurio." He then gestured to Yuuri next to him. "And he's going to be Yuuri."
"You're changing my name?!" he practically screamed.
"Now, Yurio, don't be rude. It's only natural that I give you the nickname. I've known you for much longer than I've known him, which has only been for a few minutes, personally at least. You've watched me on TV, haven't you? At least I would guess so."
Yuuri tried his best to stop blushing as Victor turned to him again.
"Oh, uh, yes. I really do admire you. You're a great skater, and I hope to be as good as you someday," he said shyly.
Victor looked at him curiously as if he was studying him.
"We just met, and you already interest me so much. Alright, how about you show me a bit of what you can do, perhaps a few jumps if you want."
He then glided over to Yuuri on the ice and placed his hands on both his shoulders. Instinctively, Yuuri wanted to shrink back at the sudden proximity but managed to stay in place, though his body shook slightly.
"Take a deep breath, relax, and just skate. Don't let Yurio over there intimidate you."
Oh yeah, having Victor Nikiforov watch me skate isn't nerve wracking at all.
He nodded and backed up when Victor let go of his shoulders. Victor retreated to the wall by Yurio, crossing his arms and leaning against it to watch Yuuri.
Yuuri skated to the center of the rink and stood there for a minute, just breathing. He had to be relaxed and flexible. Stress would only make his movements rigid, and there's no way he could make jumps being like that. He pulled his mp3 player out of his pocket, deciding on a song Victor used in one of his free runs. Any sounds in the rink or voices were silenced as he put in the ear buds and immersed himself in the music. He recalled Victor's routine that he had admired so much and started with that. Putting anything else out of his mind, he simply began to skate. During the informal routine, he made sure to keep his eyes anywhere else besides where Victor was. Looking at his face would ruin his current calm demeanor. Focusing on the step sequence, he executed a few of the jumps. He ended up slipping up a bit on two of them, but stuck the landing on the others. He wasn't even going to attempt the quadruple flip, especially not in front of Victor himself.
His chest heaved once he finished, breath hanging in the air as he exhaled. He was expecting disappointment of course. It wasn't the most perfect imitation of Victor's routine. There was no way he'd be able to do it the same way. Eventually, he pulled the ear buds out and tucked them back into his pocket.
"So, what'd you think?" he asked once he caught his breath.
He turned to see where Victor was and nearly jumped out of his skin when the other was right in front of him as if he had just instantly teleported from the wall.
"I'm quite impressed," he said with a beaming smile and hugged Yuuri without hesitation. "That was my routine, wasn't it? I mean, of course, it wasn't perfect, but you have some amazing potential."
Yuuri didn't say much at first, trying to keep himself from imploding before gasping a little "thank you."
Victor chuckled as he kept an arm around Yuuri's shoulders as they casually skated around the rink.
"Well, you have my attention, Yuuri Katsuki, not that you didn't before. I mean, you're pretty cute."
"Oh, uh, y-yeah?" he stammered after a few seconds, trying to talk through being so flustered.
"So, let's get to know each other better. Tell me about yourself."
"Well, um, you already know my name, Yuuri. I recently moved into a student housing building here, and obviously, I'm going to be going to college here. I hope to still keep up with my figure skating while I'm here, and I wasn't expecting to run into you of all people here."
His voice fluctuated several times to near to cracking, causing him to clear his throat a couple of times.
"Do you know what you want to study here?" he asked, giving his shoulder a little squeeze, causing Yuuri to squeak slightly.
"Oh, uh, no..not yet. I'm taking general classes for now."
"That's not a bad move. And for now, it'll leave you more time to skate. If you'd like, I'll happily be your teacher of sorts, helping you with your different jumps and such. Our careers as figure skaters have only just begun after all."
Yuuri managed a little nod, finally turning his head a bit to look at him.
"I'd really like that actually..if you don't mind. If it ends up getting in the way of your studies, don't feel obligated."
"Oh, skating always comes first to me, so there's no need for you to worry," Victor assured and winked at him. "And if you're having trouble in a certain class, I'm sure I can help you with that as well."
Yuuri responded with another nod, still having trouble believing that this was actually happening.
The two took a few more circles around the rink before returning to the benches back to a disgruntled Yurio.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Yurio. Did you not want to show off your own skating to Yuuri?"
Victor slung an arm around Yuuri and gave the other a smug grin.
"Well, now I don't feel like it," he huffed.
He was changed back into his regular sneakers with his bag slung over his shoulders. "You two were grossing me out."
"Aww, were you getting jealous?" he teased further as he sat on the bench and slipped off his skates.
Yuuri was sure his face was permanently red at this point as he did the same. He was in the process of putting his shoes back on when he felt Victor slide up to his side.
"Yuuri! Smile for Instagram!"
He managed to look up and flash a quick smile to Victor's phone camera. Victor excitedly began typing up a caption: "One of the first people I've met at the University"
"Yuuri, do you have an Instagram? I'll tag you if you do."
Yuuri was about to say no, but the look on Victor's face made him sigh and say, "Yeah, it's katsuki_yuuri."
"One of the first people I've met at the University who's also a figure skater katsuki_yuuri."
"And…posted! Want to see? You look quite cute."
Victor smirked at just how much he could make Yuuri blush just from saying something as simple as that. Yuuri gulped and nodded, sneaking a peek at the post on his own phone when he got the notification. Of course, his face looked like a tomato compared to Victor's, but he could look worse.
"Oh yeah, looks nice."
Yurio was proceeding to make fake gagging sounds as he was putting his skates on again.
"You two can go and do whatever things you want. If you don't mind, I'd prefer to skate alone."
"Alright, alright, if that's what you want. Text me when you're done, and I'll let you know where I am," Victor said as he gathered up his things and motioned for Yuuri to follow him.
He waved to the other before holding the door open for Yuuri and heading back outside. Due to the bright sunlight, Yuuri instinctively held an arm up to block it from his eyes.
"Certainly, a change in temperature from in there. Now, let's see..where should we go next?" Victor mused, placing his hand up to his chin.
"Um, well, there's a café not too far from here. I always found that hot drinks are nice after some time on the ice," Yuuri suggested, adjusting his glasses with the top of his hand.
Victor's eyes lit up at the suggestion and grabbed onto his hand.
"Ah, hot drinks! That's a perfect idea, Yuuri!"
Before Yuuri knew it, he was being dragged off by Victor and had to tell him the café was in the other direction.
