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 51
Yuuri and Viktor spend the earlier part of their morning together in bed until Yurio came knocking on Viktor's door looking for the twenty-seven year old. With Yurio's arrival, Yuuri hurried to make himself decent by borrowing Viktor's shower. Otherwise, anyone would just have to take one look at Yuuri and knows just what exactly the duo had been up to last night.
Yuuri stepped out from the attached bathroom to Viktor's hotel room clad in nothing but the hotel's bathrobe.
"Katsudon…what are you… never mind, don't tell me." Yurio's eyes widen at the sight of Yuuri coming out from the bathroom clad in nothing but the hotel's bathrobe and felt the sudden urge to bash his head on something. He really should have known the Katsudon would stay the night in Viktor's room, why didn't he call before coming by?
"Viktor, can you do me a favor? Go to my room and collect some clothes for me? My room card-key is in my Japan's team jacket." Yuuri just smiles apologetically to Yurio, before turning to Viktor and requested.
"Sure… anything for you." Viktor snapped his zone-out mind back to reality, and beams at Yuuri. Being an early bird, he was up and awake a good hour before Yurio drop by and was already dressed for the day ahead. While his logical sense of mind had told him to wake Yuuri, he had against his better judgement allows the Asian to sleep in instead. Thus, resulting in this particular scenario. Thankfully though, Yurio had already knew of their relationship with one another so it wasn't so terrible to have the teen witness such a sight.
Yuuri, like Viktor was very much relieved that the person whom drops by is Yurio. At least, with Yurio… Yuuri knows the teen won't teased him as much compared to Chris. The sheer idea of Chris being the one finding him in Viktor's room clad in nothing but a bathrobe makes Yuuri's face burns.
"I'm not one to gossip if that's what you are thinking." Yurio suddenly spoke up, jarring the Asian back to reality.
Yuuri blinked before shaking his head in response, "I know… I'm not worried about you going around telling people of what you had witness just now. I… I'm just thankful it wasn't Chris or your red-head rink-mate that drops by…"
"How long do you supposed that old man will take with a simple task of collecting clothes for you from your room?" Yurio asks still staring at his phone browsing on the net instead of facing Yuuri, the sight of the Katsudon clad in nothing but a bathrobe was incredibly uncomfortable for the fifteen year old blond skater.
"Frankly speaking, I had no idea. Let's just hope he doesn't dally too much and runs into Celestino instead." Yuuri sweat-dropped at the image of Viktor running into Celestino in his room while rummaging his suitcase for clothes.
Honestly, if Yuuri weren't so particular about sharing underwear with another… he would have just borrowed something from Viktor's wardrobe and make do with it. He cursed inwardly at himself for not planning ahead for such a situation arising, and did not have the insight to bring with him his own underwear before dropping by Viktor's room yesterday evening. Then again, he wasn't expecting that he would do the deed with Viktor last night either…
While Yurio was timing how long it would take for Viktor to collect clothes for the Katsudon, the twenty-seven year old Russian was surveying Yuuri's hotel room in detail. This is the first time he was allowed entry into the twenty-three year old Japanese's room hence his curiosity. The man only started to move towards Yuuri locked suitcase when he had satisfied his curiosity with the decor of Yuuri's hotel room itself.
Despite the suitcase being locked with the TSA pass code lock, Viktor had no problems guessing the correct combination to the pass code. Knowing Yuuri, it can only be something of relations to him. Hence, it took Viktor only three tries to smoothly unlock the suitcase. He first tried their engagement date which is a day before GPF Barcelona next year, when the suitcase TSA lock fails to click open – the Russian tried another set of code he could think of. The second set of code he tried was the date of their registration of marriage to one another in France, when it fails to match either… he went for the third date in mind. The date they moved back to Hasetsu and settled into their own house.
It was a close shave for Viktor and Celestino to cross path, because no more than five-minute after Viktor left Yuuri's room. Celestino came over only to find that Yuuri was not in his room, the next thing Celestino did was to call Yuuri on the Asian's mobile. Celestino's call came in the moment Yuuri re-activated his phone from its' switch-off state, he turned off the phone last night to avoid anymore interruption during the night.
At first, Yuuri fears the worse that Celestino had called him up because Viktor was snooping around in his room but when he saw Viktor re-entering the room – he knew Celestino must have had another reason for calling. Signaling for Viktor to set his clothes down, he answered Celestino's call.
"Yes, Celestino?" Yuuri started as he collected the pile of clothes Viktor collected for him, switched the call into speaker-mode and then carried the pile of clothes with the phone lying atop of the pile into the bathroom to change.
"Yuuri, I would not be accompanying you over to Hokkaido for the Nationals. I would be heading back to Detroit to oversee Jeremy and Phichit's training after Sochi, Russia. I had spoken to my ex-student Marcus, and he had agreed to go with you on the trip to Hokkaido for your Nationals." Celestino was telling Yuuri over the phone connection, and since it's on speaker mode the duo outside the bathroom heard it as well.
"Okay, I got it. By Marcus… I'm assuming you meant Marcus Lopez?" Yuuri had a clear idea of who's the Marcus that Celestino was speaking of but just want to double clarify, since he knew a few people going by the name of Marcus over the past years.
"Yes, either way you will get to meet him later together with that junior of yours he's chaperoning for Sochi GPF this year." Celestino was telling Yuuri, and then he told Yuuri that they would be meeting Marcus and that junior of Yuuri's for lunch.
"I guess, I'll see the two of you later at the exhibition gala then. I need to head back and meet up with Celestino now." Yuuri said after he finished dressing up in the bathroom and headed back out to re-join the Russian duo.
Viktor pouted at the idea of separating from Yuuri for the time being, causing Yurio to roll his eyes at his idiotic behavior.
"Geez, get a grip of yourself – old man! It's just a few hours, it won't kills you." Yurio scoffed at Viktor when the twenty-seven year old starts directing puppy eyes to Yuuri after the Asian announced his decision to leave and meet up with Celestino.
"…Viktor, behave… I will be back in time for the exhibition gala. Seeing as Marcus Lopez is chaperoning Kitamura Eriko, and Eriko is the bronze medalist for Junior Ladies category… she is involves in the exhibition gala. It's now 10 a.m., even with the lunch meeting … I expect my return no later than 1.30 p.m. Surely, you can survive three hours or so without me being around?" Yuuri said patiently as he gave the older Russian man a hug of comfort.
"Can't I go along with you?" Viktor implore as he pulls on his best pitiful look in his arsenal.
"…Unfortunately no, you had press conferences to attend to before the exhibition gala so you need to start getting ready for them." Yuuri responded, giving Viktor a chaste kiss on the cheeks before he leaves the Russian's room.
"Yurio, you can kick him if he gets too annoying for your liking." Yuuri patted the blond on the shoulder lightly as he whispered before his leaving the room.
"…" Yurio's face redden somewhat and he yelled at Viktor to stop dallying when the man attempted to question him on what Yuuri had said to him before leaving.
"Yuuri-sempai!" The fourteen year old girl waved enthusiastically at Yuuri when he appeared in the hotel lobby.
"Hi, it's been a long time – Eriko-chan. How are you doing?" Yuuri greeted politely as he reaches the trio waiting for him at the lobby of the hotel.
"I'm good, thanks for asking." Kitamura Eriko beams, before pouting at Yuuri as she pointed out that Yuuri has not been coming by to watch her performance.
Yuuri sweat-dropped as he apologized, "Sorry, Eriko-chan… but I've been busy with my own performance."
"No fair, you watched Yuri Plisetsky performance… I know because I saw you in the spectator stand." Eriko protested, a mischievous smile tugging at the corner of her lips when she noticed Yuuri was starting to lose his calm composure while scrambling to find a plausible reason to explain his not staying to watch her performance.
"Eriko…" Marcus Lopez, whom had been silently observing all these while finally put a stop to Eriko's antics before turning to Yuuri and did a self-introduction.
"You must be Yuuri Katsuki, I have heard a lot from Tsukishiro Asami and Celestino about you. Kindly ignore Eriko's protest as well, she's just messing with you."
"Ah… Marcus Lopez, I presume? I've heard a lot about you from Andrea and Emily in school." Yuuri, glad to escape Eriko's teasing hurried to acknowledge Marcus's words.
Upon Yuuri's words, Marcus Lopez then remembers – his sister and cousin were both studying in UNIKII Detroit Campus. Andrea, his younger sister being a classmate to Yuuri majoring in Flute as well and seems to have work together with Yuuri on multiple performance before. Emily, his cousin, on the other hand shared the home rink of Detroit Skating Club with Yuuri Katsuki.
"How are they recently? I haven't been calling home to check in on them…" Marcus asks Yuuri then.
"They are doing well, from what I know Andrea is now involved in the winner recital for the American protegé Music Talent Competition 2015, Fall Season. So, she is supposedly in New York by now. As for Emily, she was cast in the Musical on Ice project as one of the main female lead character so I assumed she is busy rehearsing at this point of time?" Yuuri wasn't so certain of the musical rehearsal schedule as Phichit didn't think to speak with him on the musical last night during their video call conversation.
"Oh… the musical, I didn't know DSC is looking at the prospective of doing ice-shows now too." Marcus then said, directing his words to Celestino on his other side.
"We weren't thinking of it, this show is a project brought to us by Yuuri and his project group-mates. It only make sense for the DSC to involves itself since they are going to use our rink facility and borrowing skaters from us for the show." Celestino commented dryly as he responded to Marcus question.
"Well… think of it this way, if the show is well-received by the public. It might provide the DSC with another route of income source. For all you know, it may help to bring in more students for the DSC skating academy as well." Marcus patted Celestino on the shoulder as he said.
The group of four then went for the brunch session, since Eriko has press conferences to attend before the exhibition gala took place. Yuuri make sure to watch Eriko skates her exhibition program this time around, and that is exactly where Viktor found Yuuri later when he ended his own press conferences session.
"Hm.m… is that your junior skating on the ice now?" Viktor asks, startling Yuuri out from his thoughts.
"Huh? Oh… yes, she is… and in a way she is my junior from all angles when you think of it. She's currently training her figure-skating under Tsukishiro Asami, whom under official record was my coach in Junior days. On top of it, let's not forget that she's also studying in Chiekan which I graduated from and she is also a member of the school wind band. She plays the Trumpet though… still I can't believe she is using the compulsory piece of music for this year's All Japan Band Competition for her exhibition program. Haven's she gotten sick of listening to it yet?"
"Actually no, because I wasn't able to take part in the Nationals this year so I figured the least I could do was to skate to it." Eriko's voice caused Yuuri to jump slightly, and he sweat-dropped when he realized the music for Eriko's exhibition has long ended and the girl was now standing in front of him and waiting for him to introduce Viktor to her.
"Right, Viktor… this is Kitamura Eriko. My junior from high school, and figure skating…" Yuuri sighed and resigned himself to the idea of introducing the duo to one another.
"Hi Viktor, nice to meet you." Eriko smiles but made no requests for signature or commemorative photograph from the Russian.
When Viktor turn to Yuuri in surprise, Yuuri sweat-dropped and told Viktor that Eriko is a fan of his… hence her lack of reaction to Viktor's presence. After which, Yuuri turn back to Eriko and asks.
"I heard you are flying to Hokkaido, Sapporo first? Any particular reason about why you are not flying straight to Kanto? From what I know, the Nationals for Junior Category is taking place in Ibaraki this year from 21st to 23rd Dec."
"Hm..m…? Oh… that, Chiekan is having a joint band practice over winter vacation with a local high school in Sapporo, Hokkaido between 16th to 18th December, 2015. We are having a joint school Wind Ensemble Band Concert for the New Year in Suntory Concert Hall of Tokyo, coming next year."
"Is Marcus going to run around in circles after you like what Celestino used to do with me?" Yuuri asks raising his eyebrow in question as he regards Eriko.
"Not really, he's staying in Hokkaido for your sake. Coach Asami will be accompanying me to Ibaraki after my combined band practice session in Sapporo. Don't you dare to question if I could handle the stress level of both figure skating and band practice commitments, I don't see any reason I can't do it when you managed the impossible yourself. Besides, unlike you I haven't actually decided which path I want to go for my future… and I wasn't competing in both music and figure skating like you used to do in high school. The only music competition I did was the All Japan Band Competition which is only possible with a group performance, and I could pull out of the competing team any minute and it would not affects things much."
"…No need to get so defensive over it, I'm not questioning your ability to handle the stress." Yuuri commented dryly.
"Oh… then what were you trying to say just now." Eriko fell silent and ducks her head in embarrassment of her over-reacting response earlier on.
"I was going to ask what was the date for the combined school concert…"Yuuri responded dryly.
"2nd of January 2016, why?" Eriko asks sounding curious as she responded to Yuuri's query on the concert date.
"Hm..m… depending on my schedule, I might decided to drop by for moral support." Yuuri smiles as he patted Eriko on the head gently before the girl was pull aside by Morooka Hisashi for an interview.
"Katsuki-san, I'll be looking forward to that upcoming concert event of yours in Sapporo. All the best for your impending Nationals as well." Morooka Hisashi told Yuuri before he turns his attention back to Eriko's interview session to come.
Yuuri sweat-dropped at the thought of the reporter buying ticket for the concert, but he knows it is highly likely for that scenario to happen since the man was bound to send for the National Championship by TV Asahi for coverage of the event in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
"… Well, at least I know who to expect on 22nd December in Kitara Concert Hall among the audience crowds. Morooka-san being one, and I bet Minami-kun will attend dragging his coach along for the ride." Yuuri sighed out loud and momentarily hoped that Minami's coach could keep him in check during the concert. After all, unlike a pop concert – a classical music concert is mostly filled with quiet audience crowd who is mostly there to appreciate the music.
Yuuri humored Viktor by giving the man a loose hug for a minute before the man stepped on to the ice and performed his exhibition program. Despite knowing that there will be official videos released at a later point of time, Yuuri still choose to record down Viktor's performance on his mobile with the intention to re watch it later.
After the exhibition gala, there was one hour of break time in between before the banquet is to take place at the hotel's ballroom. The one hour grace period is for the exhibition participants to change into their formal wear, but Viktor spend the hour ravishing Yuuri's lips in the privacy of his room instead.
It once again took Yurio hammering on Viktor's door to snap the man out of it, and to speed things along Yuuri decided to wait for Viktor outside his room with Yurio instead of staying in the room. Celestino was with Marcus and Eriko, when Viktor approaches the ballroom entrance with Yuuri and Yurio in tow. Yakov was already in the banquet hall with Mila waiting for Viktor to show up impatiently then, and the minute Viktor entered the banquet hall he was drag off by Yakov to meet the various representatives from his sponsors.
Yurio was about to heave a sigh in relief that he wasn't a part of it, when he felt himself being pulled along by the one and only Viktor Nikiforov.
"What the hell are you doing pulling me along to meet your sponsors?" Yurio whispered harshly as he was pull along by Viktor.
"If I have to suffer, you are going to suffer along with me." Viktor flashes a beaming smile at the sullen teen he had pulled along with him, and proceeds to introduce his wonderful junior to his various sponsors awaiting him in a corner of the banquet hall.
Yuuri sweat-dropped at the sight of Viktor's actions, and boy was he ever so glad that there are no potential sponsors awaiting him in this banquet. His sponsors are mostly Japanese companies that would rather wait to ambush him after the National Championship event, most of the time. Either that, or they would send along their intention to sponsor him directly to the JSF and requests for a meeting with him through the official channels.
~ to be continued~
Date completed: 17/4/17.
