I napped for a couple of hours, which took me till around 11am. I woke up with a stretch, knowing that I couldn't let myself sleep any longer than that, or I'd never adjust to the time difference. I then proceeded to dig out the essentials that I'd need for the next week or so. Including my bikini and my robe, which I changed into. If I was going into the hot springs, even if it was just for females, I wasn't comfortable going in the nude.

I went downstairs, only to find that both Yuuri and Viktor had gone to the ice rink near Hasetsu Castle to practice quite some time ago. But Hiroko was more than happy to help me get sorted. I went into the hot springs and just took the time to relax and to think about my novel piece and the interview I'd have to do on Viktor Nikiforov. I began to make a mental checklist of the things I had already figured out about the Russian figure skater. How on earth do I interview someone like him?

There was suddenly some loud barking, followed by some loud yelping and the next thing I knew, something big and fluffy catapulted itself straight at me, crashing into the water just in front of me. A second later, Makkachin's head popped up. 'Hello there puppy! You really shouldn't be here…' I smirked and scratched his head. 'It's a good job I'm the only one here right now.'

I was interrupted from chilling in the hot springs with Makkachin, by someone rounding around the corner. A second later the person came into view, it was Viktor.

I hid my body behind the dog. 'Viktor!' I hissed, 'you can't be in here!'

'I know, I know!' He held his hands up in his defence and avoided looking at me. 'I didn't mean to, but Makkachin ran away!'

'I guess he just missed me is all.'

Viktor then stood there desperately trying to get the attention of his dog whilst avoiding looking at me. It was a pretty funny scene.

'It's okay Viktor, I wasn't comfortable coming in here properly, so I'm wearing my bikini.' At this point, it became obvious that Makkachin was deliberately ignoring Viktor, in favour of floating around with me, but his owner was looking kinda desperate.

'Tell you what, I'll cut you a deal, if you could grab my robe, I'll get out and I'm sure Makkachin will follow.'

'Deal!' And with that, he scampered off.

I scratched the dog's ears. 'How pesky you are.'

Viktor returned a minute later with both my robe and a towel.

'You're a star, thank you!'

I climbed out the hot spring and sure enough, Makkachin followed. I dried off and wrapped myself up in the robe.

I began to push Viktor out of the women's bathing area. 'We need to get you out of here!' Makkachin bounded along behind, evidently quite happy to just follow along.

'You seem to be pushing me around a lot, Autumn!'

'That's because you've been in all the wrong places!'

He simply chuckled, 'I don't mind one bit!'

Viktor led us into another area, where Yuuri was already waiting with three bowls of food on the table.

'Hey Autumn-san.'

'Yo, Yuuri-san.'

'Without the honorifics is fine,' Yuuri gave a bright smile.

'Thank you, same to you, no more Autumn-san.'

He nodded and gestured to the table with the food. 'Viktor thought you'd be hungry, so he asked for another pork cutlet bowl to be made. Would you like to eat it? If not, no worries, Viktor may have been too forward there.'

Viktor rubbed the back of his neck in a slightly sheepish fashion. 'Sorry Autumn, I never thought that you might not want it, it's really great after all.'

I shook my head, 'No, I'd love to try it! I'm very thankful, I haven't eaten properly since I was back in England! Airplane food doesn't count!'

'You're British then? Not American?' Yuuri asked as he handed me my bowl and chopsticks.

'Yush, I drink the tea and eat the crumpets.'

We all settled down to eat. 'So, I was told that you guys were practicing ice skating, are you done for the day?'

'No, not yet,' Yuuri said, 'we're just taking a lunch break before we go back down to the rink.'

'Would you like to join us, Autumn?' Viktor asked.

'Sure, it'll give me another opportunity to get some dirt on you, for the article.'

Viktor looked confused and then seemed to have a lightbulb moment. 'Oh yeah, I forgot that's why you were here.'

'How could you forget that?' I asked, 'What did you think I was here for?' I said with a smirk.

'I don't know really,' he looked sheepish again, but he soon recovered. 'I guess we were just having so much fun, it skipped my mind!'

A little while later, food had been eaten, I had put on proper clothes and we were down at the ice rink. I watched as Viktor skated his new short program routine around the rink. The one he was thinking he would do for his next season, before he decided to coach Yuri that is. Yuuri at the moment had gone out on a coffee run for all of us.

'Viktor,' I called out to the silver-haired man on the ice, 'What's the story behind the routine you're skating at the moment? Do you know?'

Viktor chuckled nervously, 'I don't really have one for it at the moment, I've been focusing on the choreography for the program at the moment.' He stopped skating and let the momentum carry him towards me. 'Is it really that noticeable?'

I shook my head, 'probably not, it's just, I'm a writer, this is one of those things I notice.' I twiddled my thumb and dropped my gaze as he rested his arms and head atop the barrier next to me. 'I suppose the only reason I noticed, is because I'm struggling to find a proper story for my new novels.'

At this point, I could hear the doors opening and I knew Yuuri was coming back in.

'Tell me about your work, Autumn.'

I shook my head. 'I don't know you well enough to divulge that kind of information just yet.'

Yuko came back at that point with a pair of skates.

'Are you skating, Yuko-san?' I asked her.

She shot me a bright smile and extended them towards me. 'There for you.'

I shook my hands, 'I don't skate.'

'Don't skate, or don't know how to skate?' Viktor teased with a grin.

'I've only done it once before, so it's the latter.'

'I could teach you Autumn, if you'd like that.' I turned around to see Yuuri giving me a bashful grin as he handed me a coffee, which I thanked him for.

'Yeah sure, why not? I'm very bad though!' I gave a nervous chuckle and thanked Yuko as I took the skates from her.

'Yuuri.' Viktor said, 'you need to practice for the upcoming qualifying competitions, you haven't got time to mess around.'

'I just thought whilst I was on a break, it might be nice to give teaching a shot. It'll be fun.'

'Don't be a spoil sport, Viktor-san.' Yuko said with a giggle.

Viktor pulled a hand down his face. 'Fine,' he said in exasperation, 'if anyone should be teaching Autumn how to skate, it should be me, I am a coach after all.'

'Come on, Autumn.' Yuuri took me by the hand after I'd put the skates on and took me towards the ice. I gave a smile to Yuko and Viktor as I went.

Yuuri took me by the hands and helped me to find my balance on the ice, every time I was going to fall down, Yuuri got me around the waist and hauled me back up again. 'T-thanks,' I said as Yuuri hauled my sorry ass back up again.

'So, tell me a bit about yourself Autumn, I feel like I haven't had a chance to talk to you properly just yet.'

'Well, I'm a writer, I write articles for newspapers and e-magazines. I've also published a couple of short story anthologies on Amazon, but they've flopped a bit to be honest. I'm now trying to work on two novels.'

'What're the novels about? If you don't mind me asking?'

'I'm not massive on talking about that just yet, I don't know you guys very well just yet. Please don't take offensive to that.'

'It's fine don't worry, no offensive is taken. Writing is a very personal thing. I don't know much about it, but I know that much. You can only talk about it if you're comfortable.'

We chatted for another ten minutes or so, and I was finally beginning to get the hang of ice skating. I glanced over at Viktor to see him leaning his head upon the railing, looking pretty miserable. 'I think Viktor's getting a bit upset over there, Yuuri.'

'It's fine, he's just being a sour puss, pay him no heed.'

I giggled and waved at the silver haired one. 'Cheer up Viktor!'

'I want to skate with Autumn too~' He whined.

'There's always later! I'm here for a week at least after all!' I called back to him.

We kept going, and I was getting to a point where I could skate without Yuuri holding on to me, I was going around the railing, Yuuri skating close by in case I fell, when I heard my phone ringing.

'It's from Damien!' I heard Viktor call, a second later, I heard him talking as he answered my phone.

'Viktor!' I shouted as I tried skating around the rink to get to him, 'what do you think you're doing?!' Yuuri took my arm in his and helped me to skate towards Viktor, cutting straight across the middle of the rink.

'I'm Viktor Nikiforov,' I heard Viktor say; 'I don't believe we've spoken before.' I heard Viktor say in English as I reached up to take my phone from him, giving him a punch on the arm as I did so.

'Yo, Damien!' I called out as I climbed out the rink. 'Sorry about that. Viktor is a pain.' I emphasised the last bit, so he would get the message, since Viktor could understand English perfectly.

I ushered the two guys away from me and they went back to the rink and practiced skating together and I sat down, leaning against the railing.

'What's Viktor doing, answering your phone like that?'

'I was skating with Yuuri, and I think he just decided to be mean, to get his own back.'

'I'm guessing someone is jealous then.'

'Haha, I really don't think that's the case.'

'You're essentially mine anyway.'

'Oi, less of that you, nobody owns me, especially not you.'

'Just messing around, I'm being affectionate for once in my life.'

'Damien, you're starting to worry me now, you being affectionate? With me?'

'Come on.' I heard him laughing on the other end of the phone.

'Alright fine, loves you too, you idiot.'

At this point, Viktor was leaning over the railing, watching me with an unreadable expression on his face. I looked up and gave him a smile and a small wave.

'I'm settling in fine, don't worry too much, Damien. I need to figure out how to interview a certain Mr. Nikiforov.' At this, I bopped the Russian on the nose, and his unreadable expression cracked and he smiled.

'Well, best of luck with everything, you need to do well with this, your reputation is on the line. No biggie.'

'Thanks a bunch Damien, alright, I gotta go. I'll be in touch.' With that, I hung up and turned to Viktor. 'What's up?'

'Are you and Damien, a thing then?' He asked, rather bluntly.

'N-no,' I stammered, nervous at being asked such a personal question in such a direct fashion. 'No, we're good friends. He's actually my landlord and he's a fan of my work, so he helps me to scout for jobs and the like.'

He gave a smile. 'I see, I see. I initially came over to ask if you wanted to skate with me.'

I looked over the edge of the rink. 'What's Yuuri doing?'

'He's practicing for his up and coming competition.'

'I don't think I can today Viktor, I'm sorry, I'm still really tired, I only got off the plane a few hours ago after all.'

Viktor pouted and his eyes seemed to take on a unique sparkle. 'Pretty please, just for five minutes? I'll go easy on you, I swear.'

'Ugh, Viktor, I'm tired.'

He clasped his hands together. 'Come on.'

'…Fine.' I sighed and he offered me a hand up off the floor. 'Thanks.'

'You weren't able to say no to me then.' He gave me a wink and I immediately started questioning exactly what had made me say yes to this man.

He kept hold of my hand as he took me towards the ice. 'Literally five minutes Viktor, cause else I'll be in danger of passing out.'

'Yeah, yeah, five minutes, got it.' The tone of voice he was using made me doubt whether he was going to keep track of the time.

I was stable enough at this point that he didn't need to keep hold of my hand as we skated, but he did so anyway and I wasn't going to remove my hand because the added safety of it made me feel much more secure.

'Why're you here Autumn?'

I was puzzled. 'To write an article on you, Viktor.'

'I'm aware of that, what's the real reason?'

I looked to my side to look up at him, but he was focusing on looking ahead and steering us around the edges of the ice rink. His eyes were focused and his bangs were bobbing up and down with each gliding step across the ice. 'I need material for my new novel – it features a love story.'

'So you came to Japan hoping to fall in love? How romantic.'

Most people who heard that phrases from anyone might have taken them as being sarcastic, but it sounded nothing but genuine, coming from Viktor's lips.

I shake my head and this time he does look at me, arching an eyebrow as he does so with his head cocked ever so slightly to one side.

'I'm not naïve enough to believe that I could find love here. I'm looking for that spark of chemistry in something. In a relationship that I see, in someone's passion, etc. I could go on and on.'

'Then go on, you fascinate me.'

I'd dropped eye contact half way through my little speech there but now I was looking back up at him again and he gave me a very gentle smile and I could feel the beginning of a blush sweeping across my cheeks. 'M-maybe I'll tell you more some other time, like I said, I'm really tired.' I could see that we were near the entrance of the rink and I started trying to skate towards it, Viktor had stopped though, so my hand had ended up pulling itself free from his.

I grabbed hold of the wall and turned back to look at him.

'You're going?' He looked so crestfallen, almost like he was about to cry.

'I'm sorry Viktor, I'm really tired. I need to get some sleep. I'll be able to have a longer day tomorrow, but if I don't take it easy today, I'm never going to be able to properly recover from this jetlag.'

I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted towards Yuuri who was on the other side of the rink. 'I'm heading back now! Thank you for skating with me!'

'It's no problem! See you later!' Yuuri called back as he cupped his own hands around his mouth.

I turned back to Viktor, 'good luck with practice, I'll see you tomorrow.' I held out a hand for him to shake and he took it, but then proceeded to kiss my knuckles. 'V-Viktor, what're you doing?' I said, flustered.

He shrugged, 'I'm not too sure really, I felt like doing it for some reason.' He gave me a crooked grin and I couldn't help my lip upturning in a little smirk of my own.

'Alright, bye bye.'

A/N Thank you for stopping by and reading this little fic of mine. Please feel free to drop a review, I'd love to hear what you think of this little story of mine. Well, I say little, it's not so little anymore :3