"Hmm... I can see why you lost all those competitions now." Viktor wore his signature grin to coincide with his quite hurtful words.

From what Yuuri had figured out, Viktor could be pretty blunt in the worst ways and still smile about it. As long as the words didn't affect himself, that same grin was always there. He knew he wasn't wrong, though, and that had to be the worst part.

Yuuri flinched towards his piano, hoping it could hide him from the icy stare of the skater. He had just finished playing for Viktor one of his own compositions that he wrote two years ago. It was his favorite, yet it still didn't impress the other.

"I know..." The words barely passed beyond a whisper. A whisper Viktor seemed to miss.

"Yuuri, you were right. It is just your confidence. If you know what the problem is, how come you haven't been able to fix it already?" Another criticism with that bright smile again. How many times in the past hour had he done this? Yuuri lost count.

"It's not like I haven't tried. I just get too nervous, and then my mind goes blank. All the notes that I spend hours memorizing just disappear." He recalled this one competition he took part in back in America, where he messed up so bad he didn't even place. His name never even made the list.

Too lost in his own thoughts again, he never heard Viktor cross the small room and sit down next to him on the piano bench.

"Yuuri,"

Said male let out a noise similar to a squeak when the all-too-close voice reached him.

"Why do scare yourself by thinking about how others view you? If you just let yourself get lost in your own music, then you could be the most sought after composer."

Yuuri could only stare wide-eyed at him as he spoke in an oddly soft tone.

"I-I don't intentionally do it..." His chocolate eyes went back into their anxious habit of looking down at his hands.

Viktor said nothing as he let the pianist continue.

"When I think about how long I've spent on a piece, I start thinking 'What if I accidently play the wrong note?' or 'What if I suddenly forget the entire song?' or usually 'What if what I'm doing isn't original and no one is impressed by it?'. It's always worse when someone asks me to write a new composition for them. I agree right away thinking it'll be fun. Then as I start working on it, I wonder if I'm only going to let them down. It's stupid, I know."

There was a silence that neither adult seemed to want to break. The skater only studied Yuuri as if trying to commit his every breath to memory before speaking up.

"Yuuri, it's not stupid. Another reason I'm here right now is because I felt that my programs have begun to lack something. I couldn't place exactly what it was until I saw the video of you playing a song that holds a lot of meaning for me." Curious eyes met Viktor's own saddened ones. "You put a different emotion into the piece that I couldn't feel. I thought that if I came to you directly, I would maybe find what I have been lacking."

"What have you been lacking?"

Viktor closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and once he opened them again, he stood up. "I'm going to ask you again, Yuuri. Will you be my composer?" He stretched his right hand out to the younger adult, a more gentle smile gracing his lips.

"When did you really ask in the first place?" Yuuri finally managed a grin of his own and took Viktor's hand, standing up as well.

.

. . .

.

Upon Viktor's insistence, the duo ended up at the ice rink within an hour. Yuuri tried to get out of it since he said all he would be doing is watch Viktor, but the skater somehow managed to persuade him. Currently, Yuuri was doing exactly what he predicted he would be doing, while the gold medalist scraped his blades against the ice.

"Yuuri, join me!"

"No. Absolutely not." He crossed his arms along his chest in defiance. The last thing he needed was a broken bone from attempting something he knew he couldn't do.

"It'll be fun! I'll even help you!" Viktor skated to where he was with the biggest smile on his face.

Yuuri was almost visibly sweating from the pressure but soon released a long sigh. "Fine, but only for a few minutes." When he was younger, his parents signed him up for skating lessons since they live so close to the rink. Little did they know how truly uncoordinated he really was. Within two months of the classes, Yuuri begged to drop them, and his loving parents agreed.

.

. . .

.

As he left the rink to ask Yuuko for a pair of rental skates, he could see the amusement on her face.

"I know. It's hilarious. Just laugh already."

With that, Yuuko just about burst into tears. "You're actually going to skate? Are you really sure about this, Yuuri?" She handed him a pair of black rental skates in his size while she continued to giggle.

"No, but Viktor probably won't stop asking even if I keep disagreeing with the idea."

"Oh, so this is because of Viktor? You just agreed even though you know you're awful?" He could hear the playful tone her voice took on as she spoke. Her eyes glinted with mischief from behind the counter.

"I-I didn't just agree with him!" Yuuri grabbed the skates from her and hurried to sit down and put them on.

Yuuko couldn't see his face, but she had to guess he was abashed by the way he responded. "It looks like you put up quite the fight."

He huffed and started tying the skates. "It's his fault if anything happens. I warned him."

After a brief moment of silence, Yuuko spoke again. "Did you talk to him?"

He knew she was no longer talking about skating. "Kind of..." He moved on to tie the left skate.

Yuuko gave him an odd look. "What did he say?"

Yuuri stopped tying his skate for a moment. After the short pause, he resumed to finish working with the laces. "You were right..."

If she didn't have good hearing, she would've missed the comment. Unfortunately for him, she heard it loud and clear.

"I knew it." She beamed with something akin to pride.

Yuuri made his way back inside the rink without another word on the topic.

.

. . .

.

Yuuri gulped as he stared at the unforgiving ice in front of him. Viktor all-too-eagerly rushed to the open gate with hands out to help the pianist. He had refused the other's help, insisting he could do it on his own. If he could even will himself to step forward.

"Viktor, this isn't a good idea..."

"Nonsense, Yuuri! Just take my hand-"

"I'm not five. I can do it myself." No you can't. You'll trip, cut your leg open, get sent to the hosp-

Viktor reached forward, grabbed Yuuri's hands into his own, and carefully skated backwards. The pianist started panicking at the loss of solid ground, gripping at Viktor's hands as if they were a lifeline.

"Don't you dare let go."

At his assertive and alarmed tone, Viktor laughed and pulled the other male closer to himself. "I won't. I promise. Now try to relax."

Per Viktor's instructions, Yuuri slowly loosened his death grip on him and eased his way forward on the ice.

"I told you it wasn't that bad."

"Just because I haven't fallen yet doesn't mean this is going great."

"It's going better than you thought it would, which means it is going great."

"Says you."

"Yep!" Viktor grinned at the smaller male, who only managed to give him a weak smile in return. One that was immediately replaced with a look of distress as they both started moving. Once again, Yuuri's death grip was back and all confidence he had on the ice was shattered.

The rest of the time was spent with Viktor steadily skating them both around the rink, while Yuuri answered any question the Russian asked as a form of distraction. They only fell once due to a terribly embarrassing story Yuuri had told about his childhood that had Viktor crying. They only stopped laughing for a moment to check for injuries before bursting into laughter once more, only this time with their backs against the ice. When they realized how late it had gotten, Yuuri scrambled to get out of the rink with Viktor trailing not too far behind.

As Yuuko watched the two converse, she couldn't help noticing how much closer they had gotten. The thought made her smile. For as long as she knew Yuuri, she had never really seen him with anyone he would call a real friend, nevertheless a romantic interest. It was refreshing to see the pianist smile so openly with only a tinge of the shyness he held. Yuuko wished them goodbye before beginning to close up shop at the rink for the night.

.

. . .

.

The duo was back at Yu-topia, casually sitting across from each other eating their meals. After their small skating session, Viktor had proclaimed how hungry he was and how only his mother's famous pork cutlet bowl would help him recover.

"Can I hear you play again?"

Yuuri almost choked on rice at the sudden question. "I don't know... It's getting late, and I don't want to be too loud..."

"You don't have to play too loudly. Please?"

Yuuri glanced up from his dish to find Viktor begging him with his eyes. "As long as you promise to keep the noise down, I guess-"

"Thank you, Yuuri! If you're going to be my composer, I have to be able to understand the way you play. That includes listening your music in close detail. I've only heard you play live once for me."

Yuuri nodded and stared at the piece of pork cutlet he held between his chopsticks. He still wasn't entirely sure if pairing up with the gold medalist was a great idea, but at least he felt a little more at ease about it.

Once they finished their bowls and rid the table of their dishes, Viktor nearly dragged the pianist to the small room holding his most precious instrument. As Yuuri settled in on the bench in front of the piano, Viktor pulled up a chair from along the wall to sit closer. Soon enough, Yuuri's fingers were flying along the keys in a gentle manner that had the skater closing his eyes. The story of a heartbreak most saddening flitting across his mind as the mellow tune of the grand instrument hummed around him. Even after the song ended, Viktor found himself left in a trance, eyes still closed.

Yuuri didn't mean to end up staring at Viktor, but for some reason, he found his gaze trapped on the Russian. He realized in that moment that he never really looked at Viktor up close, even though they had spent the past two days glued to each other. It was odd, but although he had everything about the skater memorized due to his obsession as a kid, in that moment he noticed why every girl seemed to be in love with him. It was so obvious that he almost felt idiotic for not seeing it sooner. Saying that Viktor was perfect was almost an understatement. The man had no physical flaws. Although personality-wise, Yuuri knew he could point out more than a few problems. He was about to lift his hand, when bright blue eyes opened to meet his own dark orbs. Immediately, he curled his hand back down under his other, and his cheeks betrayed him by burning red. Yuuri thought he had been caught when Viktor's head tilted to the side in what seemed to be lack of understanding.

"Yuuri, have you ever lost someone?"

The question was one he didn't expect but knew was to come soon considering he was talking with Viktor Nikiforov, the World's #1 Bachelor. "Not really... but I did lose the dog I had since I was a kid last year while I was away in Detroit." He spared Viktor the details. It wasn't much of a story anyway but heart-wrenching nonetheless. The dog, embarrassingly enough named Vicchan after Viktor himself, was quite old, so they had seen it coming. Just not as abruptly as it did.

"What about a crush? Maybe a lover?"

Yuuri didn't quite understand where Viktor was coming from but replied to his strange questions all the same. "No, why?"

Viktor brought a hand to his own chin and watched Yuuri under a scrutinizing eye. "Are you lying to me?"

"What reason would I have to lie about that?"

Viktor thought for a moment. "Why did you write that song?"

Yuuri seemed taken aback and had to actually stop to think about his answer. Why did he write that song? Was there a particular reason for it? It was an old piece, but one he remembered quite well.

"I don't really remember..." That's when it hit him. "Ah, that's right. I was homesick. It was a few months after I left here for Detroit when the melody came to mind. I guess I missed it more than I thought I would and that song became the product of how I felt. Why do you ask?"

"This is exactly the kind of emotion I talked to you about yesterday, Yuuri. You have the ability to put raw emotions into your playing and affect anyone listening. I could feel your sadness and the longing for what once was. That was beautiful."

Yuuri rubbed the back of his head in a modest manner. "Thanks."

"What other compositions do you remember?" Viktor sat on the edge of his seat with eyes reminding Yuuri of an ocean.

They spent the rest of the night analyzing more of Yuuri's compositions after he had played them. Before long and well into the next day, Yuuri was the first one to crash. Viktor, with the littlest of energy he had left, grabbed a blanket from the corner of the room and draped it over the pianist. He watched with satisfaction as Yuuri curled into the blanket sound asleep. Without a care, Viktor soon followed as his eyes closed in hope of getting some rest. He fell asleep in front of the pianist with a thin smile spread across his lips.