Summary: In which Yuuri enjoy a hearty breakfast at Miami, arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport to find Phichit and a group of his rink-mates from Detroit Skating Club awaiting his return and congratulating him on his bronze medal achieved at Skate America, and lastly he fed the cover story to Phichit back in the privacy of their shared room on campus.

Chapter 12

"Celestino, how are we getting back to Detroit later? By flight or by coach bus service?" Yuuri asked, as soon as the Italian man took a seat opposite him in the hotel buffet restaurant the morning they are due to check out and start their journey back to Detroit.

"We are going back by flight, it's more efficient to travel via planes. I would have thought after our journey from Detroit to here via the use of land transport, you would be overjoyed by the idea of flying back to Detroit." Celestino replied, taking his own sweet time enjoying the last complimentary breakfast that the hotel is providing for them.

"I'm fine with either options to be honest, it's just a matter of finding things to occupy myself while on the journey." Yuuri shrugged easily enough, seeing as he wasn't one to complain much about traveling methods. He would be alright with any traveling methods, so long it fits into their schedule and does not exceeds the budget limits.

With the Skate America over and done with and NHK Trophy at least with another one and half month away. Yuuri felt genuinely light-hearted as though the weight pressing on his shoulders had lessen somewhat. At least, now he would have the time to work on perfecting his salchows jumps in time for the Sochi GPF taking place in early Dec.

Yuuri while having all knowledge pertaining to the quad jumps in his mind, his body still lack the ability to execute them. Therefore, Yuuri had gathered from his last attempted try on his quad salchow before Skate America took place and knew he would have to start training up his quads from scratch. While he would likes to work on the quad flips, he decided that could comes in later. For now, he would need to perfect his quad salchow because he wanted to put them into the free skate by the time Sochi GPF comes around.

How else is he going to be competing against people like Chris, Cao Bin and Viktor with only just one quad toe-loop in his program?! Most competitors had at least two quads planned for their programs for the finals, and Yuuri thought he might as well do it too. He knew he should talk to Celestino about upping the difficulty level of his jumps in his free skate programs, but that will comes later. There is no rush for him to approach Celestino on the issue yet, he wanted to make sure he could land a quad salchow in practice flawlessly before he brings the topic up to Celestino for discussion.

Granted, there is always a possibility of him landing the quad salchow in practice and not in the actual competition itself like what had happened the last time around… but at least with him landing it in practice session meant that he could do it. Now though, it's time to focus his attention fully on his breakfast. With Viktor away, and Celestino not that attentive to Yuuri's diet … it was really not much of a wonder that Yuuri had ended up getting himself food items that are rather high in calorie contents.

Looking down at his breakfast tray, Yuuri was a little guilty about getting himself a hearty breakfast but he found it hard to resist the temptation of those delicious looking butter rolls and almond-chocolate croissant. Hesitating slightly, Yuuri told himself it's fine to have a hearty breakfast once in a while so long he doesn't makes it a habit and make sure to up his exercise menu for the next few days to follow in order to keep his weight in check. With that thought in mind, Yuuri dug into his awaiting food with gusto.

The chime of his phone startled Yuuri badly, and he nearly let out a yelp in reaction. Thankfully, he managed to keep his jumpy reaction from Celestino's discovery because he really had no plausible explanation for the Italian man about his jumpy behavior. He cannot really tell Celestino that he's jumpy because he'd went against Viktor's orders about staying away from high-calorie content menu, right? That, and the fact that he'd thought the chime from his phone was actually a message from Viktor but thankfully it turns out not to be the case.

The message is actually from Miyabi and basically is asking him about his flight details, simple things like the time of his flight and what time he will be arriving at the Miami International Airport. While the questions might be considered simple questions, Yuuri found himself at a loss of answers since he usually don't take note of such things allowing his coach Celestino to handle them most of the time.

"Celestino, what time is our flight back to Detroit and are we going to check-out from the hotel after our breakfast?" Yuuri decided to clarify with Celestino before bestowing Miyabi with an answer.

"Flight's at noon, we need to reach the airport two hours earlier for the luggage check-in procedures. So yes, we are going to check-out after finishing with the breakfast." Celestino responded, without giving it much thought.

Yuuri nodded in response, before he typed out an answer on his phone and send it off to Miyabi. He had no idea why Miyabi wanted to know his flight details though, he could only hope that the girl don't suddenly pop by at the airport with the intention to send him off or something. That would makes him feel awkward, because really… it wasn't as if he's leaving America entirely.

Thankfully, Miyabi did not turn up at Miami International Airport and Yuuri ended up spending the two hours doing window shopping at the shopping area of the airport itself. By window shopping, it basically meant only looking around and not actually paying for anything. The only thing Yuuri spend his money on was a bottle of mineral water which he had every intention to finish drinking before boarding his flight. Ultimately, up until the point that Yuuri was settled into his seat in the economy class of his flight back to Detroit with Celestino by his side, he still had no idea why Miyabi had asked him for the details. At least, that was the case until he arrived at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and was greeted by the sight of his rink-mates of Detroit Skating Club crowding outside the arrival hall waiting for both Celestino and him to emerge.

Yuuri gaped open-mouthed for a few seconds before he found it in him to ask, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Why looked so surprise?! You made podium at Skate America, of course we are going to come by and welcome you back!" One of the member from Detroit Skating Club responded with a bright cheery smile, causing Yuuri to flush an adorable shade of red. Whether the blush was from the unexpected praise of his performance at Skate America, or was it because he couldn't recall the person's name – Yuuri wasn't sure, maybe it's a combination effect of the two situations?

"Oh…come on, Yuuri! Don't be a stranger, get over here and let us welcome you back officially with a group hug!" Phichit Chulanont, whom was practically bouncing on his feet with barely concealed excitement spoke up then.

"…" Yuuri sweat-dropped at the sight of Phichit's behavior, looks like he found the culprit behind this particular scenario. "I knew there's a reason why I shouldn't have introduce you to Miyabi…" Yuuri was mumbling to Phichit as he grudgingly made his way over to where the members of the Detroit Skating Club were gathering for the group-hug session.

"Aww… don't say that Yuuri, you know deep in your heart that you actually do loves me!" Phichit proclaimed, grinning cheerfully and sounding extremely proud of it. And then Phichit passes his phone over to the awaiting Celestino, and practically orders the Italian coach to snap a picture of their group hug session.

"Celestino, make sure it's a good shot. I want to upload it to instagram later!" Phichit announced, and then joined into the group hug as well.

As expected by Yuuri, the moment the picture was uploaded onto instagram – it caught the attention of Viktor, wherever that man was at this point of time.

Phitchit_Chu
[Image]
Group welcoming hug session at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
#Detroit Skating Club #Katsuki_Y #BFF #Skate America #Bronze Medalist
Posted 45 seconds ago.
250 likes, 40 comments.

"OMG! Viktor Nikiforov commented on the post!" Phichit suddenly yelped aloud while the group were making their way back to the campus dormitory building on foot, catching the attention of everyone on the streets around them.

"…Phichit, calm down… you're too excited." Yuuri cautioned, ducking his head lower to avoid being stared at in public.

"Oh! He says that we should do the group-hug more often, and that hugs motivates you to perform better. Is that true?!" Phichit turned towards Yuuri with inquiring gaze, and Yuuri nearly tripped and landed himself flat on the pavement surface.

"W... What?!" Yuuri spluttered unintelligently, and inwardly cursed Viktor for putting him in the spot. Now he probably had to endure group-hug session instigated by Phichit before and after every competition trips.

"The group hug thing, does it really motivates you?" Phichit asked out of curiosity, although he's also curious about when Yuuri had gotten so close to Viktor Nikiforov. Phichit decided that he could wait until they were back in their shared room before prying into that little issue, but for now he was more interested in finding out if what Viktor Nikiforov had been saying about Yuuri being motivated by hugs is true.

Yuuri turned red with embarrassment, before he let out a half-shouted response at Phichit. "No, don't listen to Viktor… he's the one whom gets motivated by group-hug session, not me!"

Inwardly, Yuuri was grimacing… that was a little hypocrite of him because he did do better with hugs before a competition. However, not everyone's hugs would do the job… he doubt hugs from Celestino before his turn on the ice would make any difference in his scores. It has always been Viktor's hugs that motivates him, and that was something he was unwilling to divulge to his fellow friends.

Deep in his thoughts, Yuuri failed to notice Phichit observing him with a look of silent contemplation before taking another look at the instagram posts and squealed yet again. This time, it's because he happens to see Christophe 'Chris' Giacometti commenting under the post congratulating Yuuri on winning bronze.

"Yuuri, Chris wants me to tell you to update your own social media account … he says that some fans of yours had taken to ask him questions pertaining to your exhibition program that he had no idea how to respond." Phichit was saying as they entered their shared room in the school's dormitory building.

"Oh…" Yuuri blinked, and then his mind registered what Phichit was telling him before he tilted his head slightly to the side and thought to clarify with Phichit. "What do you mean by my fans asking him questions about my exhibition that he had no idea how to respond to?"

"Ah… apparently the official exhibition gala video for Skate America had been uploaded by the ISU on their face-book page, and someone had taken to share it with Chris who then finds it interesting enough to share it on his own account. Since you normally don't update your own account, your fans had taken to stalk my account for updates about you … and now this is your first time making it onto the podium for a Grand Prix Series competition for Senior. They are of course curious about your exhibition program, and henceforth after Chris comment about your performance at the exhibition – it sparks a new round of speculation on your exhibition ideas." Phichit summarized what he had gleamed from the comments reply from his own shared video of Skate America exhibition gala, and presumed that Chris own post about it garnered the same kind of comments from the public.

"… Alright, I'll update my official twitter account later…" Yuuri sighed, he knew he probably should have make it a point to at least update his official social media accounts once in a while but sometimes he just don't know what to post about and with the sudden return to the past, it completely disrupted his plans and the idea of updating his official social media account had completely slipped his mind.

"Yes, well… just make sure you didn't accidentally update the wrong account." Phichit reminded, knowing full well that Yuuri kept his official and personal account separated unlike him and Chris whom opted to combined both their official and personal account into one.

"Right, I'll keep it in mind." Yuuri nodded as he started unpacking his suitcase, as for the updating thing he decided to leave it for later.

Yuuri's official account on social media platform includes a face-book official fan page which was mostly managed by his fans and occasionally Phichit, a twitter account that he managed himself if he could find it in him to do so. He did not bother with the creation of an official instagram account, since he believes Phichit did it enough for him anyway. His face-book and instagram account were kept solely private, and he has a private twitter account and a You-tube account that he mostly just used to follow Viktor's career created when he first start idolizing the Russian skater.

"Now…care to tell me how you and Viktor Nikiforov ends up being friends?! Were you the reason why he followed my instagram account?! When did the two of you started communicating with one another without anyone knowing?" Phichit pounced onto the unsuspecting Yuuri, literally making Yuuri thankful that he was mentally prepared for the questions coming from Phichit from the point Viktor had suggested coming up with a cover story to explain their 'friendship' several days ago.

Henceforth, after making it a point to hesitate somewhat so as to look convincing enough to Phichit… Yuuri started to launch into the tale of how Viktor and him had met up years ago when he was still competing in the Junior competitions back in Japan.

"Okay… so what you're telling me is that the two of you had known one another from nine years ago, in Japan and had been in contact with one another since then? However, because of his popularity level and your own insecurity over your status as a figure skater… you managed to talk him into the subject of not contacting you on social media platforms and instead communicated with each other through the old-fashioned way of emailing? That continues on all the way until a month ago, when Viktor had talked you into the idea of giving him your mobile number and then the two of you switched over to communicate using Whatsapp for correspondence?" Phichit asked, after Yuuri had finished his tale about the whole getting acquaintance to Viktor Nikiforov thing.

Yuuri nodded, not trusting himself to speak in case he accidentally slip up in front of Phichit. It took some time but eventually Phichit stop trying to stare him into wavering and looked away from Yuuri, re-focusing his attention back to his phone. With that, Yuuri heaved a sigh of relief inwardly and was grateful that Phichit had stopped trying to pry. As for Phichit, well… he gauges enough to know that Yuuri's story was not entirely the truth but it wasn't all lies either. Whatever it is that Yuuri was hiding from him, it must have been something uncomfortable for the man to reveal and so Phichit being a supportive, good friend of Yuuri was not going to press on the issue.

After all, Yuuri's cover story was brilliant and if it wasn't for the fact that Phichit has been staying under the same roof as Yuuri for the past few years to know each and every routine of Yuuri's daily happenings – he would not have any suspicion to the story Yuuri provided. Therefore, he was willing to leave it as it is … because the story is convincing enough to fool the majority of the public and fellow skaters with a few exceptions like himself, and maybe Chris who knows both Yuuri and Viktor to a personal scale.

~ to be continued~

Date completed: 9/3/17.