The Draft

THIRD SKATE

Sexiness = Food that Gods eat

Three years ago, I was at university in London, studying to be a journalist, trying to figure out what kind of journalist I wanted to be. Even then though, I was into sports. Not participating, I hasten to add, but as a spectator. I came to the Winter Olympic sports late, but by then I was aware of Victor Nikiforov, enough to be one of millions worldwide who watched Katsuki's rendition of Stay Close To Me. On the other side of the world however, I missed the hype of the Yuri VS Yuri competition; figure skating is not as big in the UK as it is in Japan. For this interview I did some research of course, and found Yuuko Nishigori's Twitter account. It's really obvious when her daughters have hijacked it; no wonder she eventually caved and let them have their own.

In PR terms, Onsen On Ice was utterly inspired. The rivalry between the two Yuri's, or certainly the narrative of it from the outside, started here in Hasetsu. I had no idea that, for Katsuki and Nikiforov, not only did that rivalry never really exist except in Hasetsu, it ended for them here too, and if it did exist, it began in a toilet stall in Sochi.

"Honestly I don't think I really properly thought about Yurio until I saw him again in Moscow," Katsuki admits sheepishly. "I was concentrating on my own programs, so the only times I thought of him were when Yuuko-chan mentioned him, she said he got quite a work out as a prima ballerina. I just hoped that he was doing alright."

As Victor shrugs, conveying he didn't do much more than that either, I wonder if Plisetski would agree. It's kind of a let down that the rivalry was only ramped up in the imaginations of their fans, but... Plisetski's skating has never been better than his debut year, the year he was up against Katsuki. Since, whilst his skating can barely be faulted, it has lacked... oomph. I think of the torturously difficult routines he pulled off to win in his debut year... for the most part, he's not really tried so hard since.

Knowing now that Victor never intended to coach Plisetski sets me wondering many other things too. If that was the case, was the Agape program a consolation? Did he intend it as such?

"Not at all!" Victor amiable corrects. "Yurio did originally ask for me to choreograph a program for him, so I suppose I fulfilled that bargain, but Agape, and Eros, really were originally for me; I never had any thought that anyone else would perform them."

"Better than you even."

... Huh?

Both Victor and I stare at Katsuki in surprise, but he fixes Victor with a pointed look, and Victor concedes. "Ugh... hai, hai... Yurio was better than me." And Katsuki smiles, and I sense him reach out for his partner commiseratingly behind my back on the bench. I'm astonished that Katsuki has stood up for Plisetski, who earned a World Record score with Agape at the Grand Prix Final. For his World Championship, Katsuki came less than one point away from it with Eros, paving the way to his Gold, and then Victor took the record back a year later: 119.58, having spent the season making Katsuki's programs his own.

I really want to talk about that short program, but both Victor and Katsuki are still reminiscing further back. We're sitting on a bench outside of Ice Castle; the ninja house is behind us, the river below and before us, and I can hear traffic cross the bridge, Victor and Katsuki sitting on either side of me, admiring the view. When we sat down to admire the sun set over Katsuki's home town, he told me that he used to use this bench to train. It's a beautiful spot, even with the trees now bare and the final sakura of the year spinning around our feet. Katsuki also admits he once looked out over this same view, wondering what it would take for him to return to skating after his weight gain, unaware that by then his rendition of Stay Close To Me was already on the internet and racking up views, being shared and retweeted across the globe. Within days Victor would arrive, providing the impetus Katsuki needed to kickstart a fierce regime to be ice-ready. Within a month, Onsen On Ice was hosted by Victor and the Nishigori triplets at Ice Castle.

Unsure of what to make of the event, no other key figures attended, bar presenter Hisashi Morooka, along with hundreds of local supporters. Watching the footage of the event back, it's obviously clear that both Yuris took their performances to an entirely different level by the time they got to the Grand Prix Final that year; that this was just the warm-up. Plisetski himself has admitted that his performance at the exhibition was his worst ever, and looking closely, it is possible to see why. At the beginning, the wrong emotions are on show; greed, competitiveness, arrogance, sliding drastically into shame; the grimace on his face is not from concentration, but genuine exertion and discomfort when he realised that he'd automatically pandered to the audience, wanting to show off, rather than express the agape that is so vibrantly on display when he broke the world record.

In contrast, Katsuki's performance, whilst unpolished, shows erotic promise from start to finish, a narrative of hunger (supposedly literal hunger), flirtation and eventual heartbreak evident. It was a good place to start.

"Oh, so ka... Victor, what was the next stage?" Katsuki asks curiously.

"Hmm?"

"When Yurio found his agape in practice, you said he was ready for the next stage. What was it?"

Victor looks at him blankly for a moment before catching on. "Oh yeah... I meant he was ready to go home!"

"Huh?" Both Katsuki and I share a look of confusion.

"He had me worried for a moment though," Victor continues confessing. "When he found his agape, I thought I might have run out of excuses to claim he'd lost by default. Your katsudon idea proved you were committed, whilst all he was committed to was winning. That's no bad thing, but in which case Yakov was going to be the best to help him with that. Yurio proved that with his performance: it was good, really good, but no better than he had been when he arrived. He had learnt nothing. Yours however had grown leaps and bounds, literally. I would have picked you anyway."

Even though Victor smiles across at him, Katsuki glares at him. "Baka." And Victor laughs, not disagreeing. But his laughs slowly dissipate, leaving him looking guilty.

"I am sorry that it ended that way though, with Yurio. I should have said goodbye, but I figured he wanted to save face. He knew he'd lost, just by looking at my face."

What does he mean by that?

There he was...

I'd hoped from the beginning that Yuri would recapture the muse that inspired him on the pole in Sochi, that Eros would bring him out of his shell. I was starting to worry that Yuri was a lot more innocent of the concept of Eros than I had realised. That maybe, when I asked him about crushes on women and past girlfriends, he was saying 'no comment' because he really had none. Or boyfriends, even.

That meant that there was no point in sending him to the temple with Yurio to be purified, so I told myself if he didn't have an epiphany soon I'd just take him out drinking to see if that provided the necessary spark. Then he came out with it.

"Wakatta! Katsudon! That's what Eros means to me!"

It took a moment for me to realise what on earth he was talking about, particularly as seconds before he'd been tiredly silent, drooling slightly on the table, sick of beansprouts and broccoli. Then I had to try really, really, really hard not to laugh. I can't say I blamed him when he quietly made his excuses and all but sprinted out of the room and out of the house. Guessing where he was going, I gave Makkachin a nudge to follow him again.

Alone, his head still on the table, Yurio raised an eyebrow, narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.

"Huh."

"Hmm?"

"Didn't think he was your... type."

I scoffed, unthreatened and not in the least concerned what Yurio thought of me. "What's my motto again?" Yurio just groaned wearily, bored of the lecture.

"Whatever. This had better not be just so that you can get into his tracksuit..."

I let Yuri go that night, rather than follow too. Whatever Yuri's idea about katsudon was, he needed to follow it on his own. I heard him sneak past to bed late, and I'm sure his steps felt lighter. Good. It was a start. That night he let Makkachin sleep in his room, rather than disturb me by letting him into mine, though listening, I'm not sure that Makkachin gave him much choice in the matter.

I got nervous. Just as I finished at Nagahama Ramen, Yurio, dragging Yuri behind him, gushed that he'd found his agape, that he couldn't wait to show me in the morning. Behind him, Yuri looked... curious. Like he'd seen something he was still trying to make sense of. Outwardly I smiled and congratulated him.

"Let's go for a drink to celebrate!"

They both blinked at me.

"I'm fifteen..."

"Ano... I try not to drink during practice..."

Perfect. I watched them both leave, and finally dropped my fake smile. Crap. Crapcrapcrap. I went out for a drink anyway, bumping into Minako, and got completely sloshed with her. She was pretty funny when she was drunk. Even when she was threatening to cut my balls off if I broke Yuri's heart it was with a perfectly curved and poised finger. Even three sheets to the wind she was still a master ballerina. Incredible that she's old enough to be my mother.

I haven't ever told him this, but the night before the event, realising he'd vanished again, I followed Yuri to Minako's studio, watched through the window for a bit. She once said that Yuri was no genius, that he owed his talent to near unlimited access to resources, but watching him transform with femininity was... that was genius.

I went for another drink to clear my head. I really was nervous. I think I was even more nervous than Yuri, who, having found the missing backbone he'd been looking for, seemed to have forgotten the stakes. He was self-conscious in front of the cameras, rather endearingly promoting his parents' onsen whilst he had the chance. Yurio, calm and focused with an audience, was visibly nervous waiting to go on, bouncing with paranoid eyes and headphones.

I wondered if the game was up already. I just wasn't sure who for.

Then Yurio got onto the ice, and I breathed. It's cruel, I know, but I was relieved. It was a really good performance, but Yurio had already figured out he'd messed up terribly by the end. Gone was the agape his grandfather inspired, leaving behind only masterful illusion. Too focused on counting down the music for his cues instead of listening, his head repeating memorised motions... on full display was his lust for victory, not his love for those who had got him there.

Whereas Yuri... for a horrible moment, I thought he was going to be sick. I so wanted to tell him that he'd already won, without stepping a foot on the ice. But then... I remember so clearly what he said as he hugged me. It was the first time he'd reached out for me since Sochi.

"A-Ano, I'm... I'm going to become a super tasty katsudon, so please watch me! Promise!"

I remember what I said. I'd been there in Hasetsu long enough to even surprise him by saying it in Japanese.

"Mochiron sa. Katsudon daisukida yo."

I became his coach there and then.

There he was... When he tossed me that look... playful, teasing... that 'come get me, you know you want me' look. It wasn't perfect, being unfamiliar to him, but... that was it. That was why I came to Japan.

I was rapt.

I guess I could talk about how difficult it was to get into Eros, but... I feel like a lot has been said already. It was difficult to place myself into the narrative I saw in the music, in Victor's choreography. Obviously I'm really not a playboy, travelling from town to town hitting on the most beautiful women. I'm also not the most beautiful woman in town either. And a bit of me - okay, a lot of me - was worried that Victor was a lot like both...

[Hey, I'm not that bad!

... Well, now I should hope not!]

It's a really, really, really good thing that I had no idea that I had already won. I wouldn't have trained as hard, focused as much, pushed myself so far out of my comfort zones so that Victor would stay. I might have anyway, I suppose... I was determined to show him I was worth staying for. I know this much for sure: if Victor had left with Yurio, I would have been finished. Like the beautiful woman in Eros, when the playboy leaves.

Which is why, when I took to the ice, I'd already moved past her. At Ice Castle Hasetsu, this was Eros:

A playboy arrives in town, making women swoon left right and centre, with his blue eyes and silver blond hair. He sets his eyes on the princess of the town... but...

Her maid falls in love with him too. Afraid that he'll never notice her, with her short dark hair, brown eyes, spectacles and shy demeanour, she pushes herself forward at the ball, dancing beautifully, so spectacularly that all the town look up and marvel that such passion was within this quiet, bookish creature.

Look at me. See me.

The playboy falls for her, showers her with love and affection... and then he chooses the princess anyway.

The maid falls into despair at the rejection, but... not for long. She gets back up, remembers how good it felt to be seen, to be celebrated by everyone, how good it felt to dance at all... and she casts off the playboy and the princess into the past...

... And goes forth, ready to love again.

[... Segoi...

Nani?

See, this is why I picked you!

Huh? You already had picked me! What would you have done if I hadn't skated like that?!

Oh I would have left, and not coached either of you. That bit I did mean.

... Oh.]

To be continued...

Please review! x