Unraveling Fate
Disclaimer: Nope, totally don't own the YOI masterpiece, unfortunately.
chapter two: reality is harsh, but that's okay
"Yuuri?" A warm hand landed onto my tense shoulder. Stiffly turning my head, I gave my coach a wry smile as I fiddled with my phone.
"Coach," I greeted softly. With a sound of triumph, I finally found and opened the soundtrack for my short program. "What are you doing here?"
Celestino gave my phone a very unimpressed look. Biting down a sheepish grin, I put my distraction away before giving the man my full attention.
"Yuuri," Celestino said again, this time with a more gentler tone. "How do you feel?"
How did I feel? Hmm, how did I feel, one sleep away from tomorrow's skating competition? And the Japanese Qualifying competitions, to boot?
Ashgdjkdgkgh.
Ahem. Did my coach want a pretty lie, or the truth?
"Yuuri?"
Well, my coach was always very supportive, so it wouldn't be fair to him if I lied when he was only trying to help. Ugh. The truth it was.
"I feel like I'm about to throw up," I responded with a convincing bright smile as I twiddled my numb fingers. If they were shaking, well, nobody needed to know. "Do . . . Do you think I'm ready?"
Silence. And then that warm hand from before was no longer on my shoulder but ruffling my hair.
"Of course, Yuuri!" Celestino gave me a big grin before continuing in a teasing tone. "Worrying is natural, but please be more confident. I wouldn't let you do this if I didn't think you weren't ready."
Despite the seemingly harsh words, I only felt myself relaxing in relief. I trusted Celestino's words, because my violin teacher, the one from Before, was the same. No teacher would push the impossible onto their students, and especially not when they cared for them a lot.
(No teacher would want to see their beloved baby students crash and burn. Celestino especially, with his hands-on methods. How terrible did Celestino feel in canon, after Yuuri had failed so horribly?)
"You should go to sleep, Yuuri," Celestino, AKA my resident mother-hen, clicked his tongue before pulling me up from the bench. Amused, I let the man manhandle me into his warm car before staring out of the window.
I was fourteen. I still had time, if you considered the events and the timeline of the canon story. Eight years of time.
Then again, following canon had never been an option.
"In life, you can either hate yourself or like yourself. If you choose to hate yourself, your life will be miserable and if you choose to like yourself, there is no limit to what you can accomplish."
―Abdulazeez Henry Musa
My coach was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Zip, zap, end of story.
Even if it was Fate who had made us meet, well, despite my hatred for Fate I wouldn't care in this regard. Celestino was awesome and the canon anime really didn't do him enough justice.
Despite his very busy schedule, as in he had a skating club to coach and run, Celestino still came along to support me at the Japan Figure Skating Championships. Come to think of it, my current dance teacher (and yes, this was probably Fate's work too), Minako-sensei, also promised to be somewhere in the crowds.
Taking in a deep breath, I followed my coach into the building even as I craned my head to see everything I could. The surroundings were all new and interesting, and were nothing like the churches or concert halls I usually find myself in for my music competitions. People milled around, all carrying stuffed animals or flowers or banners, and, well.
I was so excited.
I was also nervous as hell.
"Yuuri," Celestino murmured softly in English as he bent down to my ear. "Calm down."
Easier said than done. I sighed but nodded dutifully.
We both signed in before heading over to the benches. I eyed the other competitors nervously. It seemed that this time, I was the youngest skater at fourteen. The other competitors looked to be in their late teens at least. Hearing my name being called, I went up to pick a ballot from the box in order to determine the order.
And hey! I was first!
Which I actually liked, unlike canon Yuuri. Because one, you could get it over with, especially since I was the type to get more nervous as time went on. And two, if I did really well, I could psyche out the other competitors!
. . . Ha ha, I never did say I was kind, right?
As the other skaters got called up while I sat down, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
This was real. This was happening.
I was Katsuki Yuuri, and I was ready for this.
WAHOO
Sports News
FIGURE SKATING DARK HORSE?
Dec. XX. 20XX.
A dark horse emerged from Asia as Japan brings forth fifteen-year-old Yuuri Katsuki, bronze medalist of the Cup of China and silver medalist of Skate Canada.
[image] [image]
There's a new surprise on the horizon and that surprise is Japan's dark horse, Yuuri Katsuki, who recently turned fifteen years old and is already wowing audiences with his senior debut. With his qualification for the ISU Grand Prix Final, the Japanese community has started to call Mr. Katsuki Japan's Ace, a sentiment that is echoed even by the other countries.
Mr. Katsuki's current coach of two years is Celestino Cialdini, thirty-seven and the esteemed coach of the Detroit Skating Club. His former coach, Miss [. . .]
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(read more)
MusicWorld News
YUKA✡, Top Violinist, and Now Top Figure Skater?
Dec. XX. 20XX.
Dun dun dunnnn. Katsuki Yuuri, or more commonly known to his musical fans as YUKA✡, has qualified for the ISU Grand Prix Final!
[image]
hover to listen to YUKA✡'s recording of Caprice 16 by Paginini
Who says you can't have both brawn and brains? As a household name in classical music, Katsuki Yuuri proves this saying wrong with his surprise qualification for the 20XX ISU Grand Prix Final!
YUKA✡ is a fifteen-year-old Japanese violinist with numerous awards under his belt. His current violin, the USD$3.6 million Molitor Stradivarius, was a gift from his last teacher.
Personally, I think Katsuki Yuuri is amazing and that he should continue being a figure skater despite his musical background. It's not like he can't do both at once, right? But what do you guys think? Feel free to discuss in the comments section!
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I was fifteen and oh my god I was going to be sick.
"Yuuri," Celestino said beside me, sounding quite worried. "Please breathe."
Obediently, I took a deep breath before letting it out. It unfortunately did not make me feel any less lightheaded.
Who was it that decided to go for their Senior Division debut now? Who decided that 'fudge canon, I don't want to be a late bloomer!' and decided to throw themselves into the beginnings of competitive figure skating when they were only ten? Who decided that they absolutely needed to go to the skating rink, only two days before their first Grand Prix Final competition?
(It was really a miracle I had qualified. I had gotten in by the skin of my teeth, and I meant that quite literally. Really literally. If one of the top competitors hadn't suddenly withdrew from the season because of an injury, I wouldn't have stood a chance.)
That's right; the idiot who decided all of that was me.
"Oh my god," I forced out through straining gasps, weakly waving a hand at my panicking coach. "I am an idiot. And you really reap what you sow."
Before me, lovely Viktor Nikiforov danced across Tokyo ice, and really, this was another reason why I, unlike canon Yuuri, liked to go first. Seeing my competitors before my own performance only made me even more terrified than I already was.
Seeing Viktor, of all people. Well. Goodbye, land of the living.
None of the other competitors seemed to be as enamored with Viktor's performance as I was, with the exception (to a lesser degree) of perhaps Christophe Giacometti. This was normal, however, as Viktor was currently not the fifth-consecutive GPF gold medalist. No, Viktor had just recently entered the senior division, in which the podium was occupied by three older skaters in a tug-of-war fashion.
Nobody knew what I currently knew. Nobody knew who Viktor would become one day, and I was probably the only one who was staring at what I thought to be a living legend. A living legend who was currently skating across the ice in a completely breath-taking manner.
"Yuuri?!" Celestino sounded faintly alarmed now. "You're forgetting to breathe again."
. . .
Oh my god. I was so doomed.
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"Moshi moshi? Ah, Mari-oneechan! It's late, shouldn't you be sleeping?"
. . .
"Who, me? No, I feel completely fine . . . ha ha ha. You know me so well."
. . .
"WHAT? You guys are having a public viewing at the onsen? Ahh, I feel so embarrassed! Pfft . . . Of course Minako-sensei is heading it!"
. . .
"Oh."
. . .
"Hng . . . sniff, ngh."
. . .
"Sniff . . . thank . . . thank you . . ."
. . .
"O-Okay, I will. Goodnight, nee-chan."
. . .
Click.
Even though I wasn't canon Yuuri, somehow, I still became obsessed with one Viktor Nikiforov.
Oh, the irony.
At first, it was because I was curious as to who the heart throb of the anime was. Who was the amazing Viktor Nikiforov, the one who canon Yuuri had looked up to for years? Who was that man, the skating idol, in my world? In real life?
Afterwards, after I had gotten my answer (he's real, Viktor's real, real, so real), my stalker-ish tendencies became worse. Instead of being just curious to who Viktor was, I became obsessed with his skating. His beautiful, beautiful skating; so different from my own. Viktor became less of that silly man with the heart-shaped smile who had once took over my television screen, and more of a skating God.
Now, I was slightly ashamed to find that my feelings of worship for Viktor echoed canon Yuuri's. Wasn't it funny how Fate seemed to work?
"Yuuri, here."
Blinking out of my daze, I looked up as my coach plopped a small hot water bottle onto my lap. It had a cute cover, one that was filled with music notation.
"Warm up your hands."
I felt a burst of fondness for Celestino, even as I shakily hugged the water bottle to my chest. The reason for my coach's strange words was because of my hands, which were freezing again. It was a normal occurrence that happened whenever I was nervous, and it seemed that Celestino had remembered.
"How do you feel?" The man asked me as we watched the top contender of this year dance a gorgeous step sequence across the ice. "You seem . . . tense."
Pfft. 'Tense' was a complete understatement.
"My legs feel like they're made out of jello and my hands are ice cold," I responded in a despairing monotone as the top contender aced his triple axel. "I just . . . Ugh."
Giving up since the roar of applause from the ice rink upped my nerves once more, I dug out my phone and a pair of earphones. Maybe I should just follow canon Yuuri's example and stop watching the other contenders . . . even if their short programs looked amazing and I would probably regret it after I got mine's over with.
Plugging in my earphones, I closed my eyes as the chatter from the competition faded away and White Legend from Swan Lake filled my ears. Ahh, Tchaikovsky never failed to cheer me up and boost my confidence. Focusing on the piece, I visually imagined my choreography as I got up and stretched languidly.
Both my short program and my free skate maximized my strong points while covering up my weak ones. Celestino and I originally created my program as a way to test out the waters of the senior division. Even in my wildest dreams, I would have never thought I would qualify for this year's Grand Prix Final. Which was why, when I found out I qualified, well. Both me and Celestino went nuts trying to devise a way to give me even just a small, fighting chance.
As I was only fifteen, and fourteen when Celestino and I figured out the choreography, I didn't have a single quad to my name. Though I was at first reluctant about having no quads, it didn't take much for me to relent against Celestino's wisdom, and well, the wisdom of my medical textbook. Quads were dangerous to younger skaters, and I . . . understood. I wanted to keep skating for as long as I could, so I didn't want to ruin my chances now.
That also meant that I was at a severe disadvantage. Christophe, at eighteen, already had one quad in his repertoire (though he only executed it with a 50% chance of success), and Viktor could already do two quads perfectly at nineteen. The other three competitors, strong contenders for the podium, had three.
So. What me and my coach decided was, well, again a leaf we took out of canon Yuuri's book.
All, and I meant all, of my jumps were in the latter part of my program, in an attempt to score me higher points. Luckily, the presentation portion of my program was something I had faith in; whenever I wanted to relax, I would dance across the ice. So things like step sequences came easy to me, especially after I practiced them so much.
It wasn't a winning program, for sure. Even if I executed them perfectly. But at this point, a fighting chance was the best I could get, and I was determined to make most of it. In any case, this Grand Prix Final was already an amazing experience.
Someone patted my knee, and I opened my eyes. Taking out one earbud, my heart dropped to my stomach when Celestino hugged me reassuringly.
"It's your turn now, Yuuri."
"Yuuri," Celestino took the hot water bottle from my shaking hands and flashed me a bright smile. "Go get them."
I gave my coach a wobbly smile before moving to the ice. The lights blinded me as I skated out to meet the exuberant cries of the audience, and my breath stuttered in my chest.
Was I really doing this?
I skated to the center of the rink and got into my starting position.
I was.
As the first notes graced the air, I moved. Surprisingly enough, I felt the worries I had drain away as I closed my eyes and let my body do the work. White Legend was very familiar to me, as in, I've both danced to the ballet music and played a solo arrangement of it on my violin. Adding graceful movements on ice and moving in perfect harmony to the music . . . was easy.
Maybe that was why my presentation scores were always so high.
I danced my circular step sequence before launching myself into a pearl spin. Following that, I languidly moved my body into my spin combination, and welp, started mentally saying some prayers.
Ha ha. I wasn't joking.
After all, it was time for the jump portion of my program. Thankfully, I didn't even start feeling winded yet. Yuuri's stamina was really amazing.
Launching myself smoothing into a triple lutz, I landed cleanly before dancing some connecting steps and throwing myself into a triple axel. My jumps were timed perfectly with the swells of the music, and I smiled softly before taking in a deep breath to mentally prepare myself.
Then I began my triple jump combination. Perhaps it was because it was the only part of my short program I dreaded, but I came out of my second jump with a shaky landing. I might be given a small penalty, but it wasn't too big of a mistake, thank god.
With my jumps down, there were only two more elements left. Moving through another step sequence, this time a serpentine one, I finished off my whole performance with a lovely clam spin before striking my final pose.
The roars of the audience were overwhelming as I desperately breathed to get some much-needed oxygen into my lungs. And then, I realized.
I . . . I did it.
I did it.
. . .
Ha, take that canon!
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"I'm still so proud of you," Celestino said softly even as I stared blankly at the results. "You did amazing, Yuuri, and I'm not just saying that."
Sooooo, I ended up in last place. Aha. Maybe it was karma, for trying to get one over Fate.
In any case, I wasn't feeling too upset, to be honest. Even though the scores I had gotten were my best yet, they really couldn't compare to the scores of the seasoned skaters in the competition. My combined score was also quite close to fifth place, unlike canon Yuuri's disastrous first GPF. And I had gotten something out of this whole competition as well: very good experience.
Chris had surprisingly landed both his Quads in his Short Program and his Free Skate, and snagged fifth place. On the other hand, Viktor. Amazing, amazing Viktor had performed a gorgeous program and snagged a silver, and got a spot on the podium. First was taken by the top contender, and the other two spots left were given to the other two seasoned skaters. I was sure that the skater with fourth was feeling miffed about not making the podium for once.
"Yeah," I said firmly, pushing away any doubts. I did good, and my performance was nothing to be ashamed about. Smiling in thanks, I nodded. "Yeah, I know."
Sure, I was feeling a bit upset that I didn't prepare a better program, but I wasn't Yuri Plisetsky who could snatch a gold at the GPF when he was only fifteen. I wish I was that awesome, ugh, but I was honest to myself and knew I couldn't do that. I wasn't a skating genius. And to be honest, with Viktor as my competition, I doubted I would be able to snatch a gold anytime soon.
But, well, I could certainly try my best.
"Can we go sightseeing before the banquet?" I asked, a bit excited. I've never gone to Tokyo before, and it was on my, well, Before bucket list. Funny I was only getting to it after I was buried six feet under.
Celestino nodded, looking pleasantly surprised, before he started calling a taxi. Relaxing into my seat, I sighed in contentment.
I was fifteen, and I still had time.
A lot of time, right?
AN: Here's a quick update! Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year!
Guest Review Replies:
(if possible Guests, please pick a name for yourself and keep using it when you review! I like to see who are long-time readers and it makes replying much easier, aha)
Guest: Aafjdafh"Aasdf'haifhas that is so sweet? That is just so sweet? Thank you so much! ;o; And yup, that is definitely something I'm going to touch upon. Probably with an outsider's POV, like what happened in this chapter!
Guest: Of course~ ;)
Guest: More is here!
violinzforanime: I might be doing a music!AU sometime so please look forward to that! And thanks!
ROAR: LOL couldn't resist, hurrhurrhurr~