AN: Oops I did it again, made everyone cry, accidentally made a fanfiction go viral, oh baby baby-. Oh and by the way! Although this is angsty as heck if anyone like draws or writes anything from it, please let me know, because as with all my stories, it's super cool! Anyway, I'm gonna safely say that the trigger warnings from last chapter still stand. Enjoy!
-AP

Yuuri's POV

I didn't notice the other person there.

Run, Yuuri. Run away. This isn't safe.

Despite all my thoughts I found myself moving towards him fast, before stopping a couple meters away, suddenly hesitant again. I felt a dull ache in my left arm and bit my lip as I watched him skate.

Viktor's style hadn't changed one bit. He still seemed completely infatuated with the ice; every movement he made varied from making love to it to pining over it. The only difference was how much slower it had gotten...his movements seeming more gentle, more reluctant, more...sad. He surprised me by starting the actions for a quadruple flip, the movements being quicker as he jumped, spun and then...

I looked in complete astonishment as he fell onto his knees instead of landing the jump, making an obvious, loud grunt of pain at the force of the fall.

Viktor's signature jump. And he missed it. He missed the only jump that he'd consistently landed throughout my entire time of knowing him. Never...never, not once, until then, had I ever seen Viktor miss a quadruple flip.

Oh my God.

He seemed still oblivious to my presence, and made a small sobbing sound, slamming the ice with his fist before pushing himself up, seeming to find a lot more trouble than he used to dragging himself to his feet. He held on to the wall for a couple seconds before regaining his balance, letting out a frustrated sigh and wiping his face with his hand. He was...crying? I somehow felt even worse, but I didn't have time to contemplate because after that he turned around.

Only then did I realize I'd forgotten a coat.

Viktor's POV

Another fail. And another. And another.

Unlike Yuuri, I never usually lost the ability to skate well whether something was on my mind or not. In fact, I usually improved when I was thinking too hard on the ice; A lot of the time it was my stress reliever. But apparently, this was different.

Every other jump I failed hadn't bothered me as much as this. It was my signature move. Everyone knew me for it. Or at least, they used to. Whether they cared anymore, I didn't spare a thought. And I could...I could no longer do it. Another fail and I slammed my fist down on the hard ice, letting tears pour out of my eyes as I bit my lip hard. It took more time and effort than it should have to get back up.

Yuuko had been kind enough to give me one of her five spare keys so that I could go before and after Yuuri would show up, and being once again unable to sleep in hours that were natural for any healthy human being, I decided a skate couldn't go too far amiss.

I wiped my face with my hand before turning around, ready to start again, but when I opened my eyes, I was paralyzed.

"Y-Yuuri." I said without even remotely thinking. He was...why was he here? So early, as well. Well, Yuuko had told me that Yuuri started coming in stranger hours, but I honestly didn't expect the man to be here when I was. Unlike my dream, I felt much more panic in the pit of my stomach as I gulped.

"What are you doing here?" The tone was tired and resigned, a voice I'd never heard from the skater's lips before. It's almost as if he didn't have the energy to yell at me or tell me to leave. I opened my mouth and then closed it, still undecided on what exactly I planned to say. I looked him up and down hesitantly.

His hair was a complete mess, and there were dark circles under his eyes that suggested he hadn't been sleeping well either. His lips seemed to have found comfort in turning their corners down, despite the fact they seemed to hate the position, looking as if Yuuri was about to smile, which was of course, impossible, because he didn't want to see me here. His cheeks seemed to have lost some of their colour, and his eyes seemed to have lost their sparkle.

He'd lost a little weight, his shoulders slumped more than they used to; If you want me to list all the ways that Yuuri Katsuki looked overwhelmingly different then, it would take years and years of monologuing to myself before I'd even completed a quarter of the list. He was different. But the most noticeable thing had to be the slightly bloodstained bandage on his left arm.

"You're bleeding." I said simply, completely ignoring the question he asked me as I stared at his arm. His eyes widened and he put a hand over where the pool of red was blooming, letting out a what otherwise would have been quiet curse, were it not for the echoing emptiness of the rink. "Fuck!"

"Are you okay?" I asked hurriedly, completely abandoning all hesitation for concern over his health. When did he hurt his arm? Why was it bandaged so hurriedly and incorrectly that the wound reopened that easily? That definitely wasn't the first aid work of Mrs Katsuki, she was much more skilled with treating wounds. (Being the clumsy person I am, it was something I had learned whilst living at the Katsukis' house.)

Yuuri nodded, looking down at the bloody bandage helplessly as if he could will it to clean itself up. I shook my head and let a forlorn-sounding, yet fond chuckle escape me, taking his uninjured arm and skating him to the side, before dragging him out of the rink and sitting him down in the skate-changing rooms. I pulled out the first aid box from the top of a set of lockers, sitting myself down beside him.

He was sitting awkwardly, trying to hide himself from me as if I hadn't already seen that he was hurt. "Yuuri, whether you want a clean break or not, you're bleeding and I need to assess the damage, and after that we can stop being around each other." I said it gently, trying not to provoke the vulnerable man sitting next to me.

He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, but held the injured arm out to me anyway. It was too easy to unwrap the stained cloth from his arm, proving that it really had been one of his rush jobs. I got antiseptic wipes from the first aid kit and began to clean the bleeding wounds, only to finally notice their nature.

Thin, but obviously deep lines, littering the front and back of his arm. Thin, but obviously deep lines, that were very, very much purposeful. I didn't pause, although my mind was already running at a million miles per hour, just continued cleaning and then properly wrapped the wound (a particularly deep cut near the other's wrist) after it stopped bleeding.

When I was done, Yuuri finally looked at me. His expression was one of a man who was absolutely riddled with guilt. I licked my lips nervously before speaking. "Yuuri." I said in a stern voice, and he flinched a little. He almost seemed to brace himself before I continued. "I'm not an idiot." I decided that I better avoid actually saying it for as long as possible.

"I know." He whispered tearfully, and I wanted to hug him, but part of me was still screaming that he wouldn't want me to, so I didn't. I let myself pause before saying something, more gently and kindly this time. I couldn't just scream at him; That would no doubt just make him feel worse. "Yuuri...what happened? Why?"

"I-I..."

"Because I can't, I can't..." I tried to stop myself from rambling, but I was already doing it. I let it happen, deciding that resisting against saying my thoughts out loud wouldn't do good for me or for Yuuri. "I can't...I mean, Yuuri, with all due respect this is what you said you wanted! And I'll admit it's been hard for me, especially living here, and avoiding you-!"

"You've been avoiding me?" He spoke as if the very idea completely mortified him, looking at me like I'd announced I was moving to Mars. I stopped, looking at him and evaluating the expression before letting out an exasperated sigh. "I thought you wanted me to!" I replied, now looking confused as he looked at the floor.

"A-and I mean, but you know, Yuuri, I thought, you know what, Yuuri's fine, Yuuri's happy, I'll just have to deal with it, and I can come around in my own time." I stood now, pacing back and forth across the floor and crossing my arms across my chest as if that would stop the thoughts from flowing from my mouth. It didn't. "But, but you're not, are you, Yuuri?! This is hurting you as much as it's hurting me, if not more, so what's the point?! What are we doing?! What are YOU doing?!"

I let myself stop, standing in front of him and panting as if I'd ran a marathon, confuddled at the sentences I'd just spoken. Was that really what I thought? Of course it was. What was the point of this if it was doing neither parties any good? I didn't get to orchestrate my own possible answer though, because Yuuri actually spoke. He sounded like he was about to burst into tears.

"I-I...when I saw how you were looking at the other skaters in the Grand Prix final...I-I just thought that...that y-you missed the ice. Y-you were b-better off there, w-without...Without me tying you down." His voice was getting quieter and more scared, and it cracked when he spoke, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. "A-And I k-keep convincing m-myself that you'll be better off, Viktor. So why can't you be better off?! Why can't you skate?! W-why.." Yuuri had descended into sobbing at this point, and I let go of the insecurity that he might not want me to because suddenly that seemed too insignificant to think about.

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him upwards into a hug.

"Yuuri...when I skated before, it had no meaning. Or maybe it did, maybe it did once, but the best skating that I've ever done was focused entirely upon you." I whispered it into his ear, rubbing circles onto his back. "When I met you, skating became my passion again, it meant something, it regained colour I thought it would never have regained." I wasn't thinking, but I didn't need to, because it was possibly the most truthful thing I'd ever uttered in my life. "Being your coach will forever be the highlight of my life."

His sobs died down into short little sniffles, and I almost wish I hadn't said the last part.

"Yuuri...won't you let me coach you again?"

AN: D'awwww...OK since the final episode is out tonight, there's only gonna be one more chapter of this. What can I say, it's a short story, I never said it was long. Hey, maybe I'll write more Yuuri On Ice, who knows? I take this opportunity to remind you that I have a ! The link is on my profile and if anyone wants to support me there, although I can't make money off of fanfics, it'd be super appreciated. Anyway, review if you liked and thank you very much for reading!
-AP