A thousand apologies for posting this chapter way later than planned! The holidays had me away from a computer. So a late Merry Christmas, and Happy New Years! ^w^ I hope you enjoy chapter 4 of Theater Days, despite any spelling or grammatical errors I make.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yuri! On Ice, or the characters.

(This chapter kind of jumps around a bit, but I hope it is still half decent)

It was time for battle and overnight, Viktor had made a plan. He had kept it nice and simple, so even a forgetful person like him couldn't even mess it up.

Step 1: Don't talk to Yuuri in the morning. He didn't think he could keep his cool if he even looked at him, let alone while holding a conversation, so just ignore the super cute Japanese man while he is in the classroom.

Step 2: While at practice, he would do extremely well and give Mr. Feltsman no reason to yell at him. This didn't help him reach is objective, but it certainly didn't hurt him either. Simple perks of the plan, that was all.

Step 3: Walk home with everyone, oh so casually like nothing was happening. Try to avoid being too obvious, it would really defeat the purpose of steps 3 and 4 if he gave away what he was doing. (Actually it would kinda ruin the plan as a whole.)

Step 4: While almost home, say he was tired. Or maybe, Makkachin needed to go on a walk, the excuse can vary day by day. He could not use the same excuse every time since that was rather suspicious, so he had already thought up of a few he could use that made sense. Not like 'my goldfish died.' After all, he didn't own a goldfish...

Step 5: Double back in the street, and turn around so that he could watch Yuuri safely from a distance. Hearing him might be rather hard, but the theater was designed to project sound so he hoped it would work out to be fine.

Unfortunately, there was a part of the plan didn't appeal to Viktor very much. That was step one. Avoiding a Yuuri, would be rather difficult at this point. While it had to be done to fly under the radar, he really didn't want to.

Another disdainful part of his plan was how often it could be carried out. He had to limit himself to seeing Yuuri to every now and then. If people saw him it could be bad. Not just for himself, but for Yuuri. Rumors can be a killer, and Viktor watching the dark haired teen could bring up questions of his sexuality. Which was fine with Viktor, he could handle it and if anything it was probably already a huge topic, but for Yuuri... Rumors of him being gay, especially if he was straight, would really hit him. Putting such a weight and pain on Yuuri's shoulder's, the Russian couldn't even dream of doing now.

It was rather ironic to Viktor. Inadvertently, when he had caused Yuuri to get hurt, he realized he didn't want it to happen again. He had only spoken to Yuuri once, well twice just two separate conversations within the same hour, but the silver haired man felt close to him. Almost like he had known him for a lifetime, despite that being rather cliche. You never realize you are in the dark until you manage to catch a glimpse of light, Viktor thought philosophically to himself. Odd how this world turns, eh?

Viktor shook his head. He needed to be focused and clear headed to carry out his master plan without hitch. This was not the time for... whatever weirdness that was.

First, don't greet Yuuri. Easy enough, just don't look at the door. Talk to a friend maybe. No, that might distract him, he needed to do something without talking, something quiet. Make it seem like an off day so no one thinks they should talk to me or something. Pull out a book! That wasn't too strange was it? Maybe it was for him...

Viktor mentally started to cheer to himself, having thought up the perfect idea. Read his script, duh! No one would find it suspicious since he is the lead role, and everyone in the play knows he had been having a hard time recently. Best idea yet, other than his master plan of course.

The silver haired man took out his script from his bag, taking care to make sure the inside of the back cover wasn't visible. Step one of his plan was practically complete! It was just a matter of time before everything fell into place.

...

Then Viktor felt his eyes being drawn to the door. He was unable to stop them as they peeked over the edge of his script meeting with brown eyes, rimmed with those lovely blue glasses that had been the main topic of interest in the dramatic teen's past few days. Viktor felt his heart beat increase, this had not been part of his plan! Just ignore him, it wasn't too late!

However, his hand was having none of that as it seemingly grew a consciousness of its own and extended itself in greeting. But that was it. He wasn't doing any more than a friendly salutation, a gesture of greeting. That was it, nothing more.

"Yuuri, good morning! How are you today?" Well dang! It seems his turn coat hand had inspired a revolution, and now his mouth was disobeying him as well. Was nothing listening to his brain or logic today? What was next? His feet carry him over to Yuuri and give him a hug?

At this sarcastic thought, Viktor actually felt the muscles in his legs tense up. The Russian paled in horror. No! No! Even he drew the line at spontaneous hugs! (For now...)

While the teen was struggling in a mental battle with his own limbs, something surprising happened.

"Good morning to you as well! My day has been really good so far, nothing to complain about. I hope you are having a good day as well Viktor!" Yuuri smiled at him, actually smiled, and Viktor thought he could feel his heart skip a beat.

Then the dark haired teen walked over to him, and the Russian figured his heart had stopped entirely. "Sorry I didn't answer you yesterday, I just had a lot on my mind at the time. It kinda went in one ear and stopped before it hit my brain. It took forever for my brain to process, and I almost called out my response at lunch!" Yuuri laughed, his cheeks dusted with an embarrassed pink. He was too adorable for this world. 'What did I do to earn this in a previous life?' Viktor thought to himself, his heart still beating rapidly.

But he had to keep calm, cool, and collected. He gave the younger teen his best relaxed grin, "That's okay Yuuri. How-"

"Class get to your seats! Class is about to start, and if you are not sitting down by the time the bell is done ringing, you are late!" Their teacher came into view, his timing both appreciated and hated.

Yuuri shrugged apologetically to Viktor and gave a small wave before walking over to his seat. The silver haired teen was left to absently take notes the rest of the class period and wonder to himself how someone so adorable and cute and ended up walking on the same earth as normal humans, including himself.

Lunch with Yuuri

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Phichit screeched. He had a broad grin on his face and he knew it was not going to leave anytime soon. But he simply could not believe what he was being told.

"Lemmie try to get this straight, although I don't think I can. You, the bundle of fear and anxiety, Yuuri Katsuki, talked to Viktor Nikiforov, not once but twice?! And are such great pals, that you greeted him in the morning?! Why am I only hearing about this today? This is so awesome!"

"Actually, he technically greeted me first." Yuuri pointed out, embarrassed by his friends gleeful reaction to his story.

Phichit's eyes almost hit his hairline. His grin was so wide now, the Japanese teen feared for his friends face. "And you said he tried to greet you yesterday too! Why didn't you answer him then? Hasn't he been like your idols since like 7th grade when you first heard about him? Not to mention your cru-" Yuuri slapped his hands over his friends mouth before he could get the rest of his sentence out.

He cleared his throat pointedly. "Yes to both of those," He grit out between clenched teeth, "And I would appreciate if you wouldn't announce the second one so loudly." It wasn't that Yuuri was hiding, but he wasn't totally out either. He removed his hands from his friends mouth.

"Sorry," Phichit said quietly, he didn't believe Yuuri should have to be so secretive about his preference, but that wasn't his choice to make. His grin returned and he went back to business."Anyway, my question still stands. Why didn't you respond to his greeting yesterday?"

Yuuri buried his head in his hands, embarrassment returning full force, making his face feel warm. "I thought he had made a mistake!" He admitted shyly, "There was no way he was talking to me, just some random guy he barely noticed yesterday, so I ignored him...
But then today we made eye contact, and it felt rude to ignore him after that! Oh god Phichit, I must have sounded so awkward! Do you think he hates me? Maybe hate is a strong word... really really doesn't like me? Or maybe he is trying to get my guard down or something like that." Yuuri felt the dark pit of paranoia and anxiety coming up to swallow him slowly.

His friend laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Dude, you are overthinking this! He called out to you, didn't he? I do believe that means he wants to speak to and probably spend time with you!"

"Or he was just being polite," Yuuri muttered around his hands.

"Once, maybe. Twice after you ignored him the first time, I don't think so. That is more than being polite."

Yuuri peaked out from behind his limbs, "Do you really think so?"

"Absolutely! Would I lie to you?" Phichit asked, then continued more quietly, "But how cool is this? Your idol going out of his way to talk to you."

The Japanese man nodded. "Yeah, my long time idol talks to me and I'm rude and sarcastic What a blockhead move!" Yuuri said bitterly, lamenting, not for the first time, how he had spoken to Viktor that first time.

Phichit waved his hand dismissively. He placed an arm around his friend's shoulders, "I'm sure he was just fine with it if he talked to you afterwards."

"You think he didn't mind?" the dark haired teen asked hopefully.

"Yep. He was definitely fine, and that is at worst."

Lunch with Viktor

Viktor was not fine.

"Oh my god Marcus! He responded! Yuuri didn't ignore me today! He greeted me and said he hoped I was having a good day! Well I am now! Have you seen his smile? Its so bright, I'm practically going to go blind because of it!" Viktor felt like he was going to melt with the pure joy he was feeling. He had known Yuuri ignoring him yesterday had hurt his feelings, but after hearing him sing, Viktor had to admit that if he had ignored him today, it would have hurt a lot more. Even though it had been part of his plan to ignore Yuuri in the first place, the silver haired teen could not have been more happy that his plan was not fully falling into place.

"Viktor, you keep talking about this guy, yet it seems you barely have talked to him! What's up with you?" Marcus was beginning to get frustrated with his friend. All he could talk about was this Yuuri guy. It was starting get annoying.

"Marcus, he's just so cute! I can't resist! I could stare at him all day and never get bored!" Viktor flashed his friend his heart shaped smile and Marcus sighed.

"So you've said only a million times."

At practice

"Good job Viktor. I can really feel a change in your performance today. You're more focused. What ever you did today, make sure you do it again tomorrow." Mr. Feltsman, almost grudgingly, complimented his lead.

"I intend to!" Viktor called back cheerfully. Other than step one, his plan was so far on schedule, and his day was turning out pretty good. Plus there was still more to come.

As Viktor packed up all of his stuff, including his script, making sure it was exactly where he thought it was, he began to pray to any deity that would lend an ear that while he fooled his friends and back tracked, Yuuri didn't sweep the stage before he got there.

"Dang Viktor! You killed it today! Feltsman didn't have to yell at you once, which is a serious feet!" Marcus clapped his friend on the back with a wide grin plastered on his friend. "Why don't we go get some ice cream or something to celebrate?"

Carl, another one of Viktor's close friends, laughed, "What are you five? Ice cream really?"

Marcus just glared at him, "I said or something okay? Besides what's wrong with ice cream?" Then he turned his grin back on Viktor, "So what about it V?"

Viktor pulled a fake yawn, which wasn't too hard considering just how long he had been awake planning in the night. "Sorry, I'm really drained. You guys go without me, I think I'll head home early."

"Aww, what? We didn't hang out yesterday either!" Carl whined. Viktor smiled at him apologetically, "I know. I'm sorry."

He sighed, "Well, I guess we'll see you tomorrow then. Bye V."

"Bye."

"See you at school!"

Viktor turned down the road that lead to his house, then quickly tucked into a back alley way that lead him into another street. He took a left turn, leading him back to the main road he had been using to get to the center. The moment he was sure that all he had to do to get back was walk in a straight line, Viktor took off running. The quicker he could get there, the better.

He was a bit short of breath by the time he had finally made it to the front entrance. He paused for a moment to regain his breath. Maybe he start should going on his runs with Makkachin again. Not that he was gaining weight or anything, he just felt slightly out of shape which would not do.

"Speaking of his lovely dog, Viktor spotted a poodle a little ways off from the door. "Makka?" The Russian called experimentally, his poodle shouldn't be there, but there was a possibility he was. It certainly wouldn't be the first time his pooch had escaped, but Viktor definitely didn't like that his dog could wander around this dangerous world. It just wasn't safe.

At the sound of his voice, the dog looked at him and trotted over. With a sigh of relief, the silver haired teen conformed it wasn't his poodle, but certainty looked a lot like him. Viktor got on one knee to scratch the seemingly mini version of his dog.

"Why are you here, hm?" He asked, which the dog obviously didn't answer. He simply licked this human's hand.

Viktor stood and brushed off his pants, having fully caught his breath. He took out his phone and check on its battery life.

78%

That was pretty good considering how Viktor was rather fond of taking pictures and just using his phone in general. Not that he was planning to take pictures of Yuuri. No, only creepy, stalker-ish people did that, and he was not one of those people.

(However the last time something in Viktor's plan hadn't worked out perfectly, his day had turned out for the better. So que sera, sera?)

'Time to stalk,er... Time to casually watch Yuuri without his knowledge,' he thought merrily.

The moment he pushed open the door though, a warm mass of fur wriggled past him. The mini Makkachin bolted through the doorway and off into the center.

'Did I just let a poodle into a prestigious art center?...' Viktor stood with a blank face, contemplating possible consequences.

...

'Oh well! How much harm could it possibly cause?' Viktor thought with a happy shrug (famous last words). He quickly went into the center as well.

Alright...

So here's what happened. Since this was technically supposed to be posted a while ago, I was going to post another chapter really soon, like tomorrow. But you see... While I was transferring it from my notes to my fanfiction account, I kinda...deleted it. I wrote most of this a while ago in preparation since I am a slow writer. Case and point, I'm not really sure what I wrote for chapter 5 of this story, just bits and pieces. So if the next chapter is a bit different and takes a while to get out, I'm really sorry. (This is also what happened to the beginning of this chapter if it felt a bit weird.)

That said, hopefully the writing deity will take pity on me and allow my new chapter 5 to be better than the original version. ^w^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Theater Day's despite being rather late.

[A special thank you to ViktorNikiforovKearsley and mignightsky0612 for making reviews my last chapter. ]

~525Clouds