Title: Stop, Pause & Rewind: Butterfly Effects

Featuring confident Yuuri, and a love-sick Viktor… Original Characters involved.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to YOI characters. However, I do own the rights to the Original

Chapter 50

"…Viktor, can you please wipe that look of disappointment off your face? It's very rude to Cao Bin otherwise." Yuuri stood in front of the twenty-seven year old Russian as he tried to get the man to stop looking so dejected and start getting ready for the awards ceremony in a few minutes time.

"I know… but I can't help but wish you were the one on the podium instead." Viktor pouted as he responded.

"…I know you're disappointed that I didn't made the podium, but Cao Bin deserves the Bronze medal. His SP scores weren't that bad overall, he only ranked 4th because he messed up the landing of one of his jumps in his program. However, he makes up for it in the FS… his scores was at least fifteen points ahead of me in the FS. Therefore, it is really no wonder that he ended up taking bronze instead of me. Now, would you quit being childish and wipe that look off your face?"

"Actually, I'm more surprise that you aren't taking this harder…" Viktor then sighed and said to Yuuri, the childish pout finally missing from his features.

"I admitted I'm disappointed to a certain extent, but at this point I'm just glad that I didn't end up making a fool of myself. Besides, compared to the other time whereby I completed bomb the entire thing and ended up last in place… ranking 4th on the overall for my 'first' GPF isn't so bad." Yuuri explained his lack of dejection at his own results to the Russian then, the only reason he was so depressed the other time is partly due to Vic-chan's death and his results being the final outcome of his self-destruction. This time around though, there is no self-destruction on the ice and so his results is a reflection of his performance at his current best level.

Yakov Feltsman look over to Yuuri and nodded with gratitude when Viktor finally seems ready to get a move on to the awards ceremony. Viktor plastered on the smile he reserves for public and media attention as he pressed a kiss to his newly attained gold medal while posing for pictures with the other two medalist of the Grand Prix Series.

Yuuri was content in watching Viktor from the corner where he was standing, so he was quite surprised to find a few reporters swamping him when he was about to turn and go. Morooka Hisashi from TV Asahi News he was mentally prepared for, but he was most definitely not expecting reporters of NHK News and Fuji TV to interview him at all. Therefore, he was actually caught off-guard that he nearly froze when he found a total of three microphones being shoved into his face.

"Thank You but is it possible to move the microphones a little further away, they are a little too close for my comfort." Yuuri started sounding quite apologetic as he told the three reporters from his home country.

"Is this distance better?" The reporter, a female from NHK News asks then.

"Yes, that's much better. Thank You." Yuuri nodded as he smiled a small smile at the female reporter interviewing him.

The questions asks were about the standard questions one usually would ask someone taking part in a major competition. Questions such as how Yuuri had felt about his results from the event, coming in 4th for his first Grand Prix Finals since his senior début. Other questions includes his expiring contract with Celestino, and what are his plans on that… and the circulating rumors on how he might consider retiring after the season.

For a while, Yuuri was confuse until his mind caught him up with the fact that his past self might have accidentally gave off the vibe of an impending retirement during past interviews.

"You can rest assured that I would not be retiring yet, and that I would announced it officially when it happens." Yuuri told the reporters with patience as he awaits the next question to come, he kept his expression neutral and blank as he answer questions for the media. This is the best he could do, seeing as he wasn't Viktor whom could just smile and bluff his way through. Yuuri only smiles when he deems it necessary such as being praised for his achievements or performances, otherwise he kept to his neutral expression when handling media attention.

"Sorry to go off-topic for a minute, but news has it that you would be performing as a guest performer during the upcoming Christmas Concert at Sapporo Kitara Hall. Is that true?" Just then, the reporter from Fuji TV asks and while the question was outside of Yuuri's expectation, it wasn't exactly unwelcome.

"Yes, it has been confirmed that I'll be performing at the Sapporo Kitara Concert Hall on the 22nd of December as a guest performer together with the Sapporo University Philharmonic Orchestra." Yuuri heaved a sigh in relief as the interview was steered towards the Christmas Concert event instead of centering on his figure skating career plans.

Although he was a little surprised by how someone obviously send to cover sports event would end up interviewing him on a totally unrelated topic, but he was glad for the change of topic that he went along good-naturedly with it. It wasn't until the end of the interview session that he finally noted the oddness of it.

A quick search on-line later solved his dilemma, Fuji TV recently had a change of staff in the news department. Apparently, they hadn't managed to find a new staff to handle sports reporting and had used reporters from other fields to fill the post on temporary basis. The reporter interviewing him earlier on is one that specialized in covering cultural and arts events, hence the interview conducted spontaneously on the upcoming Christmas Charity Concert at Kitara Concert Hall in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

Yuuri's phone buzzed with an incoming message then, and a quick glance had Yuuri's eyes nearly bulged out. It was a message from Kasumi with a thumbs up icon, thanking him for the spontaneous interview did with Fuji TV during the GPF event because the concert tickets was completely seized up within the span of an hour after the news came on locally.

"Yuuri?" When Viktor finally managed to escape from the press conference with his newly attained gold medal dangling in front of his chest, he found Yuuri staring dumbfounded at the mobile phone in hand outside his hotel room door in a daze-like way.

"Oh… you're back." Yuuri slowly shifted his eyes from the phone to the figure in front of him, and murmured.

"Yes, I'm back… care to enlighten me on the reason you are staring at your phone with such a dumb-founded look on your face?" Viktor prompted, his brows furrow in concern as he glances at the still daze-like Yuuri.

"No… nothing really, I'm just surprise by the after effect of a spontaneous interview I did with Fuji TV on something totally unrelated to figure-skating and yet garnered such an overwhelming response from the public that I failed to expect." Yuuri shakes his head still reeling from the disbelief of how his randomly given interview could have resulted in the complete sold out of the concert tickets within the span of an hour.

To Yuuri's surprise, Viktor laughed out loud at his words. Before Yuuri could react, the door to Viktor's room was kick closed by the heels of the Russian and he was once again trapped in the Russian's arms.

"Oh… Yuuri, do you know how adorable you look when you're so oblivious?" Viktor murmurs as he hugs Yuuri tightly savoring the moment after being forced to stay apart from his beloved for the entire day.

"Viktor…I know you are carving for skin-ship contact, but care to loosen your hug a little. You are going to cut off my air supply if you continue to squeeze me." Yuuri struggled somewhat as he voiced his protest mildly, to signal to the Russian about his discomfort.

"Oh… sorry, I… I just missed you so much." Viktor hurried to let go when he realized how tight he has held Yuuri before responding with a crestfallen look on his face.

"It's fine, I miss your hugs as well… I just weren't as desperate for them as you do. Anyway, what do you mean by me being oblivious?" Yuuri then steered the conversation topic back to Viktor's earlier statement.

"Well… you are aware that you have fans right?" Viktor prompted and waited for Yuuri's nod of acknowledgement before continuing his elaboration of his earlier statement. "Right, and you basically just announced in front of TV to the audience and supporters of figure skating that you would be performing in Sapporo, Hokkaido for that Charity Christmas Concert. What do you think your fans will do?"

"…Surely, you aren't suggesting my fans from figure skating career will buy tickets for the concert just to see me performs on stage?" Yuuri asks sounding slightly nervous.

"Of course they would if they truly support you. I know I will if my schedule allows me to do so, but unfortunately I'm not… Besides, you are not one to broadcast your presence on social media so your fans does not have a lot of channels to reach you and gets to know you. However, your announcement just now basically provides your loyal fans an alternative channel to know more about you. While the number is low at this point of time, but you do have fans whom supports both your figure skating career and musician career." Viktor smile his heart-throbbing smile at Yuuri as he said.

"Are you talking about yourself?" Yuuri raised an eyebrow up as he questions Viktor on the fans supporting him both on ice and on stage thing.

"Well, I won't deny that I'm one of them… but I'm sure there are more of them out there. Probably with time you will be able to discover them yourself." Viktor said these to Yuuri before changing the subject to the events of the next day.

The following day, 13th of December is the last day of the GPF event. Basically, it consists of the exhibition gala that will take place at the rink in the afternoon and then more press conference to attend for the medalists. As for the non-medalists, they are generally encouraged to mingle and interact among themselves and some might be interviewed by local press and local TV reporters.

If the exhibition gala is an event organized for the media and press, the banquet that will be held at the hotel ballroom at a later timing is no doubt meant for the sponsors to interact and mingle with the competitors. It is a chance for competitors to meet with representatives from their existing sponsoring companies to deepen their collaboration ties, or they could also make use of the opportunity to get acquainted with new potential sponsors. Henceforth, coaches tends to force their students to attend the banquet at most if not all the time.

"Yuuri, you wouldn't skip out on the banquet right?" Viktor asks as they cuddle one another in bed later.

"…I don't know… I guess it depends on how adamant Celestino is at making me attend it tomorrow. The last time around, he makes sure I attend it because he was hoping that the banquet would shake me out from my depressive state… but I think we both know how well that works out. This time around, I'm not depressed… so he might not insists on me attending it." Yuuri was telling Viktor before he falters at the sight of a pitiful Viktor Nikiforov.

"What's with that expression?" Yuuri sweat-dropped as he caught sight of the pitiful look on the Russian's face.

"Please don't leave me alone to the mercy of the sponsors…" Viktor half-wailed as he pleaded with Yuuri, while a part of him had hoped for a repeat of having a drunk Yuuri humping him and requesting for him to visit Hasetsu… another part of him was wary of it. He knew how affectionate he could be at times, and there is a chance that he might 'out' their relationship with Yuuri completely drunk off his ass.

The thought of the repercussions that might occur if that were to happen makes Viktor hesitate slightly but he didn't feel like attending the banquet without Yuuri. Hence the pleading for Yuuri to attend the banquet, he just have to watch both their alcohol intake during the banquet – Viktor silently vowed.

"… Fine, I'll attend the banquet but please keep an eye on my alcohol intake. You know how I gets when I'm drunk… and I really don't think us getting drunk together is a good idea." Yuuri eventually agreed to attend the banquet, causing Viktor to beam brightly in response before tackling him down for a kiss.

The duo fool around for sometime on the bed before their attention were drawn towards their respective vibrating phones. Viktor's phone is vibrating from the dozen of messages received from his fans congratulating him on his newest gold medal, while Yuuri's phone is a call from Phichit.

Yuuri accepted Phichit's call without much thought, it wasn't until he heard the gasp on Phichit's side did he finally realized that Viktor is in view since the man was like directly beside him. Yuuri could only thanked his lucky stars that Viktor wasn't cuddling him now as the man is busy dealing with communications with members of the Viktor Nikiforov official fan club.

"Where are you, Yuuri? Is that Viktor Nikiforov beside you by the way?" Phichit gushes out in a rush after he had gotten over his initial shock at seeing the Russian next to Yuuri.

"…Erm, yes… that's Viktor Nikiforov in the flesh." Yuuri sweat-dropped as he answered, purposely avoid touching on the subject of whose room he was in.

"Wow… so the two of you does actually hangs out together?" Phichit was very curious to find out how close Yuuri and Viktor were, thus he makes no attempts to hide that he was fishing around for information.

"…Yes, we do hangs out from time to time." Yuuri responded, and this wasn't a lie since they now do not have the luxury of seeing one another on daily basis.

"Either way, help me congrats him for the gold medal he had once again attained for this year's GPF. Speaking of, congrats to you for coming in 4th in the first GPF you participated." Phichit then shift the focus of his conversation back to Yuuri as he said.

"Thank You, although you can convey your well-wishes to Viktor directly. Don't think I don't know… the two of you has been messaging each other on Facebook and speaking about me – isn't that so?" Yuuri throws out without batting an eyelid causing Phichit to yelp in a startling way.

"…How… how did you know?"

"Oh… I know a lot of things you have told him in fact, don't you know he has the habit of speaking his mind when he's conversing with me?" Yuuri smirked then, enjoying the flustered look on his young friend's features through the video call as he spoke.

Just then, Viktor seems to have finish dealing with whichever is happening on his side and turns his attention back to Yuuri. Upon the sight of Phichit on the other end of the video call, the Russian greeted the Thai skater enthusiastically.

"Ah… Viktor, congrats on your newly attained gold medal. I just remember I had something on, I'll speak to you next time – Yuuri!" Phichit gushes out in a rush before ending the call abruptly, causing Viktor to blink stupidly at the screen before shifting questioning eyes to Yuuri.

"What was that?" Viktor asks looking confused over Phichit's abrupt end of the video call session.

"Nothing my dear… that was Phichit getting flustered over the idea that I may have caught on to his ploy of making money off the sales of my pictures that he had snapped of me over the years thinking me oblivious to it all." Yuuri commented, before turning his eyes on Viktor and asks. "He didn't try to sell you any pictures of mine, did he?"

"Erm… no, that he didn't ask of me. He only requests for me to take some pictures of you skating in your costume…" Viktor responded with a quick shake of head to assure Yuuri that he didn't pay Phichit a cent for those pictures and videos he had managed to get his hands on via Phichit on-line.

"Don't send them to him at all. I do not want to end up being featured in the school's latest issue of the newsletter, again." Yuuri said in a warning tone of voice, while he usually wouldn't care if he is feature in the school's newsletter. This time around it's different, because the upcoming issue would be focusing on the top ten male and female students on campus fully based on the popularity level survey conducted among the students' population.

For Yuuri, it was one thing to get feature in the school's newsletter to promote an upcoming event but totally another to get featured and interviewed over something silly such as his popularity level among the students' population. He might be a student under the performing arts' faculty but he certainly wasn't aiming to launch his career in the showbiz industry hence he usually avoid being in the limelight as much as possible.

The last time around such campaign was held in school, he was able to escape attention and stay hidden in the background. That was before Phichit's arrival to Detroit, after Phichit's arrival… things changed. For one, at first only the school board and management team is aware of Yuuri's figure-skating career but after Phichit's constant posts on instagram about it – nearly everyone in school knows of it within the span of a year after Phichit's arrival to Detroit.

If that was all to it, Yuuri might not have minded so much since it does helps to save the hassle of having to explain his absence reasons to his classmates. However, after the leakage of one of his official skating pictures from Phichit's instagram – he ended up being featured in the school's newsletter making the headline. People are commenting how different he looks on and off the ice, and if he made an extra effort at styling himself on daily basis – his popularity level among female students may rise to a whole new level. At the end of that school year, during the annual UNIKII popularity survey… his name suddenly appears in the top 25 lists.

Last year, after the 'Battle of the Bands' held in school where he was part of Kanade's background dancer team… his name rises again in the popularity survey chart listing him among the top 20. Yuuri had a feeling if Phichit leaks anymore of his official figure skating performance pictures to the school's population, his name will rise again on the chart putting him on the top 10 thus garnering more attention from his school-mates'. He thought about how Kanade and Haruka was always mobbed by female students and shudders, that was something he wouldn't want to meet with at all.

"Yuuri?" Viktor started sounding concern when he noticed how gloomy Yuuri had looked, for a while fearing that Yuuri had gotten lost in his own mind.

"Viktor… kiss me." Yuuri suddenly raised his eyes to Viktor Nikiforov and requested.

"Gladly, but why the sudden requests?" Viktor beams at Yuuri's request before cocking his head to the side in a quizzical way.

"I want to forget, makes me forget…" Yuuri says before he took the initiative and kisses Viktor instead.

"Yuuri… can I?" Viktor paused when he realized he was in the midst of undressing Yuuri, it seems like their kisses had gotten out of control again.

"Well… I'm not the one having to skate tomorrow, just don't go overboard with it. I would appreciate the feeling of being able to walk tomorrow." Yuuri responded with a glazed look in his eyes, his cheeks flushed with red and sounding absolutely breathless.

~ to be continued~

Date completed: 16/4/17.