CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

There had been an unexpected downpour while the ceremony took place, but the sun was shining brightly through the few remaining heavy, grey clouds. The wet, rocky roadway was practically glowing in its light. People were slowly starting to come out from their hastily-gained shelters. Birds were flying down to splash in the puddles.

Yuri hadn't been able to see any of it though, as he was too busy beaming over the sight of the marriage license in his hands. It was still so hard for him to believe it was really there.

He was sitting on a bench not far from the Town Hall. Viktor was right there next to him, explaining something, but Yuri was off in his own little world.

"Are you listening?"

"Huh?" Yuri looked over at him, practically coming back down from orbit, "Sorry...my mind wandered a little."

The Russian huffed a laugh at him, "I was trying to tell you how you can get your documents changed. Are you with me now? Back on Earth?"

"Yes, sorry..." He answered, carefully putting the paper back inside its envelope, making sure no corners were bent or torn as it slid back inside, "Go ahead...I'm listening."

"You'll have to start with the Court house." Viktor said, pulling Yuri close to have him lean on him where they sat, "That's where you can do the legal name change." He started playing with that black hair idly, running his fingers through it as his arm curled behind the man's neck, "Then you take those papers to the Japanese Embassy. You may not even have to tell them about the marriage thing and run the risk of them refusing to issue your new passport."

"We really got lucky that the Mayor knew who we were and waived the 2 year residency rule."

"We're citizens of the world, Yuri!"

"Would've been a real travesty otherwise..." He continued, moving to sit up a little bit so he could turn to look the man in the eyes, "Be like...'hey, we want to get married...' 'No, sorry, you haven't lived here long enough, why would we give you a certificate?'" He gave his best effort at a Spanish accent, though failed miserably, sounding more like a more-awkward version of himself than anything.

Viktor laughed, then whipped out the French accent for fun, "Bhut sir...ve came all zees vay..."

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.

.

They finally started heading away from the Town Hall area to satisfy certain primal needs when an unexpected FaceTime from Yurio came through, buzzing Viktor's phone urgently. The Russian was pulling away from a bite of the fancy seafood in front of him and gawked at the request curiously.

"Who is it?" Yuri wondered, sitting across from him; their ankles were crossed together under the table.

"Yurio." Viktor answered as well as he could, the fork hanging from his mouth idly.

"You gonna answer?"

"Hmmm..." Viktor pondered, but then sighed with a laugh and clicked to accept, holding the phone out in front of him while he propped his elbow up on the table and finally pulled the fork from his teeth, "Hey."

"Idiot, where are you!?" The blond blurted, "You've been missing from practice for half a week and Yakov's about to shit a kitten over it."

Yuri choked back a laugh, pulling a hand up in front of his mouth.

Yurio seemed to have hollered at someone off-camera for a moment, "Yeah, Viktor finally picked up. He's not dead." He then turned back to face him, "Seriously. Where the hell did you go? People went by your place and said it looked abandoned. Everyone was freaking out."

"We did kind of abandon my place, so they were half right."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

Viktor just smiled deviously, "Give me 2 minutes, then check my Instagram."

"What!? Vikt-"

The FaceTime session was cut short, and Viktor motioned for Yuri to come closer, "Get out the certificate."

The younger skater caught on quickly, and did as told, bringing his chair around to Viktor's side of the table as he pulled the envelope carefully from his backpack. Making sure there was nothing on his fingers, Yuri then withdrew the precious paper and held it in front of them as Viktor held his phone up high with the camera on selfie-mode. He reached around Yuri's back to pull him closer by the shoulder, kissing the side of his forehead as he took the photo. That done, he quickly went over to post the pic online while his new husband put the paper back into safe keeping.

"Set location...Barcelona... Hashtag #CanSolé, #JustMarried, #Viktuuri!" Viktor was practically cackling with satisfaction as he posted it. Then, he paused, "Wait for it... Waaaaait for it..."

Yuri's stomach was tight from excitement, and he checked his own phone to refresh the feed and see the new picture from v-nikiforov. It already had 37 reactions and 8 comments by the time he got there...one of which stood out, making Yuri snort with sudden laughter into his drink.

yuri-plisetsky: ...fucking seriously.

Viktor's phone blew up again, but this time it was Yakov, and the Russian held it to his ear tenderly even as Yuri could hear the older gentleman yelling, "Yes...yes we are... No, not entirely sure yet. We're going to meet you all at Worlds. ...No, probably back to Hastesu, at least for a little while."

Yuri's own phone started ringing while that conversation went on, and he smiled to see that it was Yuuko making a FaceTime request. Unsurprisingly, she and her 3 girls were in the frame when he clicked it on, "Hey guys."

"Congratulations!" They all said together. The triplets had their own phones in-hand with the Instagram feed showing the photo.

They were in their pajamas, and Yuri suddenly realized how late it must've been in Japan, "I hope none of this woke any of you up."

"Only a little bit." Yuuko admitted with a weak laugh, "Axel was the first to see Viktor's post, and it just went crazy from there."

"Is Uncle Viktor still there!?" The girls asked in unison.

Yuri nodded happily, and turned his phone around to show the Russian sitting back against his chair, still being yelled at by his coach but smiling anyway. When he saw the familiar faces, he pulled the phone away from his ear temporarily to wave at them, "Heyyyy~!"

"You guys finally did it!"

"Yes~!" He confirmed, winking at them merrily, "Just today. It's only been about an hour since we got our license."

"You have to let us arrange a big party!" Lutz said, getting in the front of the field, "You're coming back after Worlds anyway so it's perfect!"

"We'll set it up at the Ice Castle!" Loop agreed from behind her sister.

"It'll be a huge deal, like Hot Springs on Ice!" Axel pulled up on the side, trying to get into the frame but only managing the top of her face.

Viktor seemed excited for it, and threw an arm into the air, "Yeah!"

Yuri was already getting nervous, watching them making all their plans.

"We'll see you in a couple weeks! Do svidanija!" Viktor told them before finally breaking away again to listen to Yakov.

Yuri turned the phone back to show himself, "Don't make it that big a deal...okay?"

"Are you kidding!? Yuri! You just got hitched to VIKTOR NIKIFOROV. How are you not wanting to brag about it to everyone on this planet!?" Axel was saying excitedly, "It's already huge!"

"Well, sure...but..."

"No buts! We're gonna have a massive party!" Loop agreed.

"...Guys!"

"We've got this, don't worry!" Lutz finished.

"GUYS!" Yuri blurted between clenched teeth, trying not to get too loud while in the restaurant. They finally went quiet and started listening, "I know you mean well and everything, and what you want to do is really nice, but...I don't really want the entire universe to show up in Hasetsu."

Yuuko saw the worried look on her friend's face and pulled her kids close, "Yuri's not the sort to advertize, girls. Remember? We can always make it a small party."

"The big crowds are what I see at competitions." Yuri pointed out, "But everything's different since Viktor became my coach. Everything is bigger and louder and crazier than it ever used to be. But that's only okay in skating...this is my life, right? I don't want a huge deal made over somethi-"

He was cut off as Viktor suddenly pulled the phone from his hands, and turned it to face him, "Yuri only likes the lime-light when he's putting on a show. This whole thing is a little more personal, so let's just have a small gathering, okay?"

The triplets sighed audibly, but agreed, "Yes, Uncle Viktor..."

"Don't look so glum!" He said cheerfully, "Quality over quantity. If it's only a small number of people, it'll be better for everyone! I know you can do it!"

They started to get excited again, and Viktor returned the phone to its owner. Yuri was a bit surprised at him, but he decided to wrap up the conversation before addressing it, "I'll let you guys go back to sleep then. We'll see you after Worlds, okay? We'll be coming straight there, we promise this time."

"Bye, Yuri!"

"Goodnight!"

He clicked off the conversation, and saw the pop-up messages that several other people had tried to call him while the previous conversation was active. Hinako, Phichit, his parents, even Chris. He just set the phone aside face-down and set it to mute, looking up again to see Viktor just smiling at him.

"I guess I got a bit over-excited." He said, "Nishigori told me once that you had a hard time putting yourself out there and that you were something of a recluse growing up. I guess I forgot."

"I didn't mean to be a buzz-kill..." Yuri said with a sigh, "It's not like I go to skating competitions because I like all the attention. You saw how fast I fell apart when I was in the lead at Cup of China..."

"...Then why did you get into skating competitively?"

Yuri leaned back into his chair with his cup of ice water, "I started in ballet. Minako-sensei suggested I try out figure skating. Then Yuu-chan told me about you, and that's why I got into competition. I've been trying to catch up to you since you ever since."

"And how's it feel to get caught up and take the lead?"

Yuri nearly choked on his drink, "I'm not in the lead!"

"But you will be at Worlds!"

"You said I'd get gold at the GPF and I didn't." Yuri pointed out, almost sarcastically, grabbing the cloth napkin on the table to wipe the water off his face where it had splashed on him.

"By barely a difference of 0.12 points. And then I said you'd get gold at Four Continents and you did."

"Only because you and Yurio weren't competing."

"So you've already resigned yourself to bronze then?" Viktor was disappointed, "Yuri..."

"I already won the most important gold medal that I could ever hope to achieve." He leaned forward and reached for Viktor's right hand where he'd settled it on the table, thumbing his ring, "How could I ever win something better?"

The Russian gave him a happy but concerned look, "I don't want you to stop trying just because you got one thing you wanted... I'm worried about you now. Putting gold around my finger and having gold around your neck are different things."

"Huh?"

"We agreed you'd become a five-time World Champion, right? That was the price of my being your coach."

"...Yeah, but..."

"Don't give up, Yuri. You've already come so far and achieved so much." He lifted his hand from under his partner's and laced their fingers together, "Besides, if you're depressed about Worlds, think about what I'm up against. I have to set two new world records right off the bat. Imagine how disappointed everyone will be if I mess up?"

The Japanese skater could only lower his eyes.

"And Yurio, too..." Viktor continued, "He made history twice at the GPF...once by shattering the Short Program record, and again by winning the GPF Gold Medal during his first ever performance in the Senior division. Then he completely bombed out at the European Championships because of the scare with his grandpa. Think about the uphill battle he's climbing now."

Yuri could feel his heart sink, and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his arm, "I'm just being selfish again, it seems..."

"You just need perspective. We're all struggling. But..." Viktor paused, pulling his hand from his husband's and reaching out to lift his face up again with a finger gently under his chin, meeting his eyes again, "...You're the one who has the best chance at the gold at Worlds right now. I'm not even saying that as your coach, or your choreographer, or your husband...I'm saying that as a fellow skater. One that admires you and wants to see you do your best. You can win gold. Win it so you can see the look on my face when I take the lower podium!"

Yuri balked at that idea, "Why in the world would you want to be on a lower podium than me?"

"Because you're the only person in the world that I like being under."

The younger skater was practically on the floor after that, nose bleeding everywhere.

Viktor just laughed, "See? Now you have to win gold," He taunted, incredibly amused by the whole thing, moving out of his chair to help put Yuri back into his, "Just so I know exactly what's going through your mind when you step up there."

"Never mind what's going through my mind right now?" Yuri pinched the bridge of his nose to stem the flow.

"Well, it is our wedding night..."

"I'm not going to make it that easy for you." He challenged, giving Viktor quite the look, and reaching his hand to return the gesture, cupping the man's face lightly and rubbing his thumb against his lower lip.

"Yuri, stop that, we're in public."

"Everything on the ice is love, isn't it? Why not off the ice, too?" He reached to grasp his fingers around Viktor's wrist, and pulled his hand up to place it over his heart, "So...seduce me."

Cool blue eyes were staring at the man, practically in disbelief of him.

He turned away only for a second to raise his hand.

"Check please!"