Viktor Nikiforov was feeling excited, he was literally bouncing on his feet as he awaited for Yuuri to join him in the audience seats so that he could give Yuuri a 'brotherly' hug to congratulate the Asian for the new personal best result attained from the short program earlier. Granted, Viktor would very much likes to do more than just giving Yuuri a 'brotherly' hug that he often did with Yurio, Georgi or even Mila when he's in the mood to do so… but he knew not to do them where the public eyes could see. Behind closed doors however is another matter altogether, but in order to have that Viktor would have to behave himself or Yuuri could be annoyed with him enough to deny him the more intimate shower of hugs and kisses later on back in the privacy of the hotel rooms.
Due to Viktor's popularity in the competitive skating industry, he had been granted the opportunity to view the competition from the VIP seats area where usually members of sponsoring companies or fellow competitors whom had finished their turn but do not wish to watch the rest of the competition from the TV screen where the changing room came equipped would be seated. Viktor, being Viktor of course had requested for Yuuri to join him where he was at the VIP box seats as soon as possible after receiving the results from the Kiss & Cry.
When Yuuri appeared with his glasses and the jacket of Team Japan back on at the VIP box seats, Viktor had all leap into action hugging Yuuri with all his might and wishing Yuuri a 'Congratulations on setting a new personal best' for all to see and hear.
"… Thank you." Yuuri upon noticing that Viktor's actions had gained themselves an amount of attention from audiences sitting nearby, flushed crimson as he hurried to step out from Viktor's embrace.
Viktor pouted briefly at the loss of contact, but then recovered almost immediately. He pulled Yuuri down to a seat next to him, and asked idly. "Where's Celestino?"
"Ditched him with the reporters." Yuuri responded easily enough, never one whom enjoy having the media attention on himself… Yuuri excused himself as soon as the score was announced feeling no guilt on his part for leaving his coach alone to deal with the press. Besides, Celestino should be more than used to this particular habit of his and it was suspicious enough for him to somehow befriending Viktor Nikiforov without anyone knowing until yesterday itself. There was no need to add on the sudden ability to face the press without the overwhelming need to hide away as well.
"So any idea on how you want to celebrate your win for the short program yet?" Viktor then asked, jolting Yuuri out from his thoughts.
"Huh? Celebrate? What's there to celebrate about?" Yuuri looked confused as he stared at Viktor.
"Your new personal best record for the season, of course!" Viktor exclaimed.
"… It's hardly my best and you knows it. I didn't even come close to beating your world record for the short program." Yuuri commented dryly, but he do admit that was his best short program scores ever for a program routine choreograph by Celestino.
"Well then you can take it as a reward for not losing yourself to the nerves without me watching you from the rink side." Viktor then announced, either way he was adamant on taking Yuuri out for a celebration.
"Oh fine… you win. So what do you want for us to do? But I'll have to insist on the no drinking part." Yuuri eventually relented, he could never resists Viktor for long anyway.
"Don't worry, I won't let you drink much before your free skate competition day anyway." Viktor commented back in return.
"Even if there is a day break in between?" Yuuri questioned with some skepticism as he listened to Viktor's claim.
"Of course!" Viktor proclaimed innocently.
"Whatever." Yuuri rolled his eyes at Viktor's innocent act, he was more than certain that Viktor had something planned in mind for the next day. After all, it wasn't in Viktor's nature to laze around all day and do nothing.
True to Yuuri's premonition, Viktor woke him up early in the morning of the next day claiming that he wanted to go and do some sight-seeing.
"Sight-seeing? It's only 6 am, my dear … there's nothing much to see at this hour." Yuuri said when he took a peek at the time reflected on his phone's home screen.
"I know, that's why we are going to get breakfast together first. Then we are going to the rink for some practice time and then we shall go on our sight seeing trip." Viktor beamed cheerfully at Yuuri. It took quite some time for Viktor to wake Yuuri up for his plan, but eventually he managed.
It took half an hour for Yuuri to be fully awake, and then the day officially begun. They took breakfast again at the hotel buffet restaurant with Celestino, and that means Viktor need to limit their physical contact to a minimal with a few touches here and there under the dining table and away from Celestino's prying eyes.
After breakfast, Viktor joined the duo at the rink for some morning practices. As there would be no competition going on for the day, or at least the early morning part of the day due to the scheduled ice maintenance at 9 am. The competition for the ladies short program would only starts after 11 am, whereas the men's competitors get the day off. Since the hours are still early Viktor was allowed to gain access to the rink for the first time in the morning hours since his arrival at Miami, Florida. His usual rink time while at Miami, Florida was mainly arranged in the evening hours after the competition event was over for the day. Well...excluding yesterday, the pair-skating event over-runs due to some technical fault in the sound system and thus resulting in the delay of the usual evening round of ice maintenance session that took up Viktor's usual practicing time so he ended up traveling to the Intercontinental Hotel about 30 minutes car ride away just to use the hotel's outdoor open rink for his practice.
Either way, Yuuri's morning practice regime for the day was exceptionally light and Viktor was more than willing to bet his money on the fact that it's due to Celestino wanting Yuuri to rest well seeing as even with the nap before his short program the day before... It was obvious that Yuuri was still lacking in the sleep department. Although, the man did at least managed a seven hour sleep yesterday night if one could discount the fact that Yuuri woke at freaking 3 am in America time to call Japan, so he would not disturb whoever was on the other end of the line from their work (?) since 3 am in America is pretty much equivalent to 5 pm in Japan.
"Yuuri, have you given any thoughts about your exhibition skate yet?" Viktor voiced his question across to Yuuri who was busying himself with doing some laps in the rink by drawing figures with his skates on the ice.
There was a pause, and then a wide-eyed look shared between the coach and the student before Yuuri answered. "Erm…no… I mean, I didn't really think about it."
"…" Viktor said nothing but turned towards the Italian coach and waited in silence. Celestino only sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose wearily and answered, "No… we didn't really thinks about it. I mean, Yuuri was contemplating on withdrawing from the competitions several weeks ago and then he had a meltdown not long after, when he returned for practice he only has like two weeks to train up his routines and make the relevant adjustments to the routine arrangements. Moreover, I didn't want to stress him out by making him think of the exhibition skate because it might otherwise pressure Yuuri into thinking that he needs to make the podium or else he would be letting everyone down."
"… Well, its' not like I'm really going to make the podium right?" Yuuri started sounding rather unsure right now, if it was the previous time around he could very much says that he would not make the podium since he had quite a number of points deducted on the technical elements of the program and ended up in the fourth position instead. Now though, he couldn't say for certain anymore… not only did he ended up gaining a new personal best from his short program executed the day before and he had also ended up with a temporary ranking of 2nd right behind the Chinese skater Cao Bin.
"Yuuri… let me be frank with you, assuming that you'd performed as well as you did for the short program on your free skate tomorrow. Even if you only had 1 quad which is the toe-loop planned for your free skate, if you managed to not flub every jumps of yours – I can guarantee that you will make the podium for sure. Granted, it would not be Gold with Cao Bin around but with the more challenging opponents not being involved in Skate America this time, I would think you could easily attained a Silver or a Bronze. Besides, even if you missed the podium for Skate America in the worst case scenario… you would still be on the podium for the NHK Trophy, so an exhibition skate would be needed either way." Viktor informed his future husband in a matter-of-fact tone that caused Yuuri to wince inwardly in response.
"Fine, I'll start thinking of one…" Yuuri sighed aloud as he responded. Thinking about the exhibition skate makes his head hurts, he thought of re-using the program he'd done for the exhibition from his last experience at the NHK Trophy when he earned himself a spot for the Sochi Grand Prix… but he found himself wincing at the sheer memory of it.
"If all else fails… you have my permission to do an old program of mine for your exhibition." Viktor eventually took pity on Yuuri and said, he knew Yuuri knows all of his program routines by heart seeing as before Yuuri went into competitive skating of his own … both Yuuri and Yuuko tends to mimic his programs for their own practices.
"… We'll see." Yuuri muttered in response, before stepping off the ice and headed towards where his belongings was placed and started rummaging through for his mp3 player. Yuuri then proceed to spend the rest of his sight-seeing trip with Viktor thinking about the exhibition program skate that he would need, one way or another either for Skate America or the NHK Trophy to come. After all, in order to make it into the Sochi Grand Prix he would need to make the podium at least in one of the qualifying tournaments.
"So how's it going for the exhibition program? Any solid idea on what to do yet?" Viktor had asked later when they were back in the hotel room of Yuuri.
Speaking of the hotel room, Viktor realized that he's practically using his own reserved room as a walk in wardrobe since the only time he's in there is for a shower and a quick change of clothes. The rest of the time he'd spend in Yuuri's room, and because Yuuri tends to avoid mingling with fellow competitors… no one would come by and pay a visit except for the Italian coach whom only do so in the morning to wake Yuuri up in preparation for the day ahead.
Viktor, being Viktor was always up and about by the time Celestino drops by and somehow he had managed to avoid crossing path with the Italian coach every morning following his spending the night at Yuuri's room. The man either fail to suspect the nature of Yuuri and his relationship is not as simple as what their cover story made it out to be, or that the man chose to ignore it altogether. Either way, Viktor opts to not pry and simply chuck it all up to his luck and definitely the good security measures the hotel had implemented.
"There's no particular rules for the music involved in exhibition skate, right?" Yuuri had asked, looking up at Viktor putting a pause to whatever music he had been listening to on his mp3 player.
"Yes… the music for exhibition are typically less constrained than for competitive programs. Why, do you have something in mind for it?" Viktor asked, sounding very much eager to know what music Yuuri is thinking of using for the exhibition program.
"Well… I was thinking of using this." Yuuri said as he hand over the earpiece to his mp3 player and press the 'resume playing' button on his music player.
"Graduation – Friends Forever by Vitamin C? How cliché, you do know you don't have to stick to the theme for exhibition program right?" Viktor questioned with a slight raise of his eyebrows.
"I know you offered me the choice of using one of your old programs, but I don't want to downgrade your jumps to suit my current level of skills. I may have the knowledge to do more than the quad toe in my mind, but my body is not train for them yet. Pulling off a quad flip now is reckless and impossible, but doing your program without the quad flip doesn't seems right." Yuuri explained, trying to explain his reasons for turning down the offer to do one of Viktor's old program for his exhibition.
"Hm…m… well, it's your choice so I'm not going to say anything against it. So if you are going with this graduation song… have you thought about how you're going to skate it?" Viktor then steered the conversation off to the arrangement for the song Yuuri had in mind for the exhibition.
They then spend the night throwing ideas back and forth between them with Yuuri outlining his base arrangement and Viktor adding in his own inputs in between, and then the following morning before any competitors reaches the rink for warm up… Yuuri shows Celestino what he had for the exhibition program, and between the Italian coach and the student they tweaked the arrangements some more before finally deemed it alright enough for the exhibition, They will work further on it after Skate America, but the main thing now is that they had a program ready for the impending exhibition if they needed it.
Yuuri's free skate music was 'Canon in C Major' but not exactly the original piece, but is more of a modified piece and essentially merged three styles of the Canon variations into one. It comprised of the original Canon at the beginning of the music, and then moved on to the rock version of the Canon variation by Takushi Koyama before ending with the version performed by George Winston. Celestino's initial pick was Canon in D, but Yuuri thought Canon in D sounds better on string instruments as compared to on the piano. Hence, Celestino changed it to Canon in C instead.
Since generally for free skate programs, skaters tends to use music with different mood and tempos… and seeing as the short program music used is already soothing enough, Yuuri thought it might be better to add more variation to the Canon piece. And then one day Phichit approached him with the current version of the Canon he's skating to, he did not ask who had given Phichit the music but he suspected it to be Miranda Cornwell – the girl majoring in music and had previously tried composing a song for his free-skate program which Celestino shot down thinking it too bland. The thought of that girl reminded Yuuri of his original free skate music 'Yuuri on Ice' for the next season, he probably should start approaching Miranda again before he actually graduated in order to get the music done and ready.
Taking his position on the ice, Yuuri willed himself to lose himself in the music so he could better ignore the fact that there are dozen of eyes upon him as he skated his program. For his free skate, he had arranged for the majority of the jumps to take place during where the rock variation of the music came in. This time around, he did his combination spins sequence first, followed by his jumps arrangements and ended with his enchanting steps movements. By the time he skated to an end of his program, he still had plenty of stamina to spare but then again considering that Celestino's choreography has never been anything too challenging and difficult to handle – it was to be expected.
His free skate score was 160.5, considering he scored mainly on the PCS rather than the TES and combined with his short program score which is 89.2, he managed a total of 249.7 – quite average he would say, but nonetheless considering he only had two weeks to train for everything he thought it alright for now. In the end, he managed to make the podium by getting a bronze medal for Skate America. Still, he knew there's a pretty big gap between the scores of Cao Bin (Gold) with a score of 288.9 and even the silver medalist whom unfortunately Yuuri could not place the name even if he could remember the skater's looks.
"Congratulations Yuuri! I told you that you would made the podium, didn't I?" Viktor greeted him after the award ceremony, and after he managed to escape the press once again.
"Well… but it's a close thing. If I had flubbed more than one jump in my free skate, I'll be off the podium for sure." Yuuri sighed aloud as he responded to Viktor's words.
"Yuuri… Come on, don't dwell on what has already happened. What matters most is you'd managed to make the podium. Now let's get you ready for the exhibition, shall we? Although, unfortunately I won't get to see it in action so you would have to get Celestino to record it down and later send it to me, okay?!" Viktor was saying, and he added his last bit with his most convincing puppy eyes look.
"Fine, either way Phichit has already talked Celestino into recording it for him. If I didn't send you the video, you can always nicked it off Phichit later when he posted to his face-book account since instagram does not allow videos more than a minute long." Yuuri was telling Viktor as he started heading back to the hotel, because he had just realized that he may have the exhibition skate ready but not the costume for it.
~to be continued~
Date completed: 7/3/17.