CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE

It was reasonably late by the time the pair of skaters made it back to their hotel room...the ripe old hour of 8:15pm. Both were still rather sore from their way-overdone-it Free Skates, but they felt immeasurably better after getting to soak in the hot tub and swim for a while.

They'd each already showered off the chlorine of the pool before leaving it. When they'd finally gotten in and the door softly clicked closed behind them, Viktor silently watched his half-conscious partner head straight for the bed.

Yuri yawned and stretched before hazily pulling at the loosely tied belt around his hotel bathrobe. His swimsuit beneath it was a little damp still, but it wasn't so wet that he felt like changing, so when he discarded the robe over the back of a nearby chair, it was nothing to him to just flop face-first onto the covers as he was. He was about to get serious and pull the comforter over himself properly when he realized Viktor hadn't followed, and was still standing on the threshold to the main part of the room, just...looking at him strangely.

"You okay?"

The question seemed to rouse the Russian from some thought that had turned him into a space-cadet, and he shook the feeling off quickly before nodding and giving a fake-as-hell smile, "I'm fine, Yuri."

"Mhm... What is it?"

Azure eyes scanned the room, seeing the skates piled next to each other by a mound of luggage containers with the rest of their gear, ready for the Exhibition tomorrow afternoon. Their gold and silver medals were flat on the empty table, the lanyards folded over one another lazily. Viktor stepped over to them and touched the gold, and the flash of Yuri falling on the ice replayed in his mind, superimposed over the image of seeing him flop onto the bed a moment before.

"Guess I'm still a little on edge from when you fainted after your Free Skate. Seeing you drop just now reminded me of how you fell on the ice."

Yuri sat up and cross his legs in the bed, a worried look on his face, "I pushed myself too hard, I know...I won't do that again."

"It's not just that." Viktor shook his head as he shrugged out of the bathrobe, setting it over the same chair Yuri's had been left on, "What do you remember from waking up?"

The younger skater rubbed his head as he thought, "I remember everything fading to black...and then..." His words trailed, "It's a bit spotty after that. I don't remember anything all that clearly until we got to the kiss and cry. All I have is this feeling, just...this overwhelming sense of dread, like I really messed up somehow..."

Viktor didn't bother changing either before slipping under the covers on his side of the bed. Yuri watched him quietly as he sat there, wordless for a moment, then turning his head just enough to see where the Russian's hand was reaching for his own, clasping the one with the ring on it.

"It was scarier than anything that involved Konstantin." Viktor explained, thumbing Yuri's ring idly, "For a while, you acted like you thought it was Sochi again."

"...Really? Sochi?"

"Mh." He reached one hand up to rub an eye on the back of his wrist, "That 30 seconds was the longest of my life. I thought I'd lost you. If you hadn't come around when you did and remembered-"

Yuri cut him off with a laugh.

"Why...are you laughing? I don't really find this all that funny..."

"I know why I thought I'd gone back in time to such a specific moment." Yuri answered, slipping in under the covers finally, "You'll see soon."

"Why do I get the feeling you're plotting something…?" Viktor crossed his arms, "...and that it's something at my expense?"

"It's not at your expense." Yuri reassured, "But it's something I have to do."

"...Is there anything I can do to help?"

Yuri shook his head, "Stammi vicino...that's it." He leaned over to cut off any other thoughts from the Russian with a kiss, both hands cupped around the back of Viktor's neck to hold him close. He continued on and kissed him twice over again before pulling back, pressing his forehead to his partner's, "And don't ever let me forget. If I do, make me remember. Don't give up even if it seems hopeless...I'll always want to remember and come back. This...happened...we happened. I don't want to lose it, ever."

Viktor nodded, then moved to push Yuri down so he could lay his head on his chest, "Me neither."

Yuri reached up only to turn the last light in the room off and then settled in, feeling Viktor holding him tighter than normal. He returned the gesture to make the man feel better...took a deep breath, and then smiled to himself.

"...Can you hear, my heartbeat? Tired of feeling...never enough..."

Viktor's eyes opened, but he dared not move. He just listened to the barely-whispered singing.

"I...close my eyes and...tell myself that my dreams will come true..."

"There'll be no more darkness when you believe in...yourself...you are unstoppable..." Viktor joined in, much to Yuri's pleasure, "Where your destiny lies...dancing on the blades, you set my heart on FIRE…!"

.

.

.

It was time to get ready for the Exhibition of Champions, and Yuri was the happiest kind of anxious he'd felt since he and Viktor had planned Duetto for Four Continents. To keep from spoiling the surprise though, once Yuri had changed behind closed doors, he wore his full track-suit, not just the black coat with cerulean lettering. All Viktor could see was a short white turtle-neck poking up from under the rim of the hood.

"Ahhh I wanna see!" He whined as they went to the shuttles.

"You will soon."

"I wanna see noooowwwww!"

"You haven't even shown me your Exhibition outfit."

"That's different!"

"How?"

"...Reasons."

Yuri shook his head and laughed as he hopped up into the shuttle, taking a seat at the very front, with Viktor coming up right behind him.

I wonder what Yakov and the rest are doing since Yurio didn't make the podium? I doubt they've already left since they probably expected he would…

He turned away from the window as the last people from the hotel were getting into the big van and put a hand onto Viktor's leg, "Did you ever decide what to do with Mikhail's proposal?"

"Mmmmmh...no..." The Russian admitted, putting his own hand over Yuri's, "I would need to actually talk to him about it. I'm selling my house...normally that means I wouldn't expect to get back into it later. It's not like I have enough furniture for two places."

"Yeah." Yuri nodded, "You'll consider it though, right? It seems like a really good deal. He'll probably even give you what you ask for it instead of trying to haggle it down."

"Since when did you know about selling houses?"

"My family's hot spring isn't so different. People try to negotiate prices for their stays all the time."

"Guess I should be glad they aren't charging me. I'd have probably run up quite the bill by now~!"

"Enough to pay off your coaching fees?" Yuri teased.

"Not even close! You'll be paying that off in installments for years to come! But you've done well with the last two payments, even if you missed the first."

The skater pulled the gold medal out from where he'd had it tucked inside his coat, hanging around his neck proudly, "It's still hard to believe it really happened." He rubbed his sleeve on its face to make it shine a little brighter, and the shuttle started moving at the same time.

It wasn't long before they were back at the skating arena, and they disembarked from the van to quite a bit of fanfare. It almost felt like the Exhibition had drawn a bigger crowd than the competition itself...though Yuri thought that wouldn't be entirely unexpected since it meant the audience would only be subject to the best of the best performances.

Yuri spotted Minako and his sister in the crowd near the pathway that had been designated for the Champions, and they waved him over eagerly. Viktor followed close behind with his rolling suitcase, and he saw his uncle waiting just next to the ladies. Unlike the ladies, who were dressed loosely for the nice weather and the mostly-climate-controlled stands, Mikhail was done up proper Russian style with a heavy long-coat, scarf, and a brimmed hat.

"Hey guys!" Yuri called out affectionately, stopping just on the other side of the barrier, "Shouldn't you be inside already?"

"Mikhail got us box seats so we can take all the time we want!" Minako said excitedly, "So we figured we'd stay out here and wait for you two to get here so we could see you! How do you feel?" She reached her hand up to touch it to the skater's forehead, but he felt normal.

"I didn't drop cuz I'm sick, Minako-sensei..." He protested, "And I feel fine now. I just know better than to do five quads in a single program from now on. With all the other jumps, even my stamina can't hold out forever."

"Are you drinking enough water?"

Yuri blinked, but then turned his head and put a finger on his chin, "Maybe that's what it was..."

Viktor squeezed Yuri's shoulder, "Don't even think about it."

"Yes, coach..." The younger skater scratched his jaw anxiously and laughed, but then turned back to his ballet teacher, and the others as well, "Why don't you guys come down with us? We can give you a small tour before we go up, especially since you don't have to fight people for seats anymore."

"That'd be so cool!" Mari cheered excitedly.

Viktor held the barrier tape up so the trio could come under, and as Yuri walked ahead to talk to Minako and Mari, Viktor held back to walk with his uncle.

"This is all really interesting." The elder commented, "Even though Minako had to explain to me what happened yesterday in both of your shows, I'm really starting to get into this whole shindig."

"You think you'd want to come to other competitions then?" Viktor wondered, waving to the fans that greeted him along the way.

"I don't see why not. This is the last competition of the season though isn't it?"

"Da." The younger confirmed, "For some reason that never made any sense whatsoever...the ISU skating season starts in the summer of one year and continues into summer of the next year. The Grand Prix Series in the fall is the first major event, leading up to the Grand Prix Final in winter. Most countries usually host their National competitions after that, right before or just after the New Year, then the European Championships are hosted for Europe and Russia, Four Continents for everyone else, both in February, and it all leads up to this, the World Championships in March. All these events are squashed into a period of basically 4 months, so the rest of the year is kind of dull by comparison."

"There's other competitions though, aren't there?"

"Sure, but if they aren't recognized by the ISU then anything a skater does or wins there doesn't count towards their record. Plenty of records have been broken by people during non-official events but they didn't get noted."

"I see."

"Then there's the Olympics...which basically everyone wants to be a part of, but only the best from each nation go."

"You've done the Olympics before, too."

"Da, a few times." Viktor nodded, "Won gold there across the board the last go-around."

"Would you and Yuri go next time?"

"I thought about it briefly when we were at Four Continents, since the next Olympics is being held at that same venue...but..." He put a finger on his mouth in thought, "...I'm not sure it would work out. It wouldn't be fair to Yuri to ask him to take part in a competition where I don't think I'd be allowed to be his coach. He'd be all alone there."

"Why wouldn't you? You've been his coach all this time anyway."

Viktor pointed to the 'JAPAN' letters on the back of Yuri's coat, and to the R U on his own chest, "Conflict of interest. The Olympics are a different organization from the ISU, and they are really strict with their rules and regulations. Maybe it wouldn't be an issue if I didn't compete as well, but I'd never get away with ditching the Russian team to coach the Japanese one. The whole idea of 'national pride' suggests athletes are trained by their own countrymen anyway."

"Ah...right."

They were finally descending into the belly of the stadium, where the scant few skaters who had made the cut were getting ready; men and women alike, as well as the pair skaters and ice dancers.

"Wow...look at this place!" Mikhail said enthusiastically, "This is great! So official! I got to see a little bit of it when we talked before, but...we were talking so I wasn't paying attention to the rest of it."

"It's a mad house when competition is in full swing, but the Exhibition of Champions is always much more subdued. We're just here to have fun and show off now."

"Speaking of having fun and showing off..." Mikhail turned back to his nephew, "Minako and Mari were saying you two were going to Hasetsu for your honeymoon?"

"Yeah, but we're going back to St. Petersburg to deal with the house thing first."

"Did y-"

Viktor held up his hand, "Yuri just asked me earlier. I haven't thought about it yet, really..."

"It's a big change." Mikhail said simply, "You're not just going to Hasetsu like before...you're leaving Russia behind, the only place you ever really knew. You have roots there. Much as you like to think you've cut most of them off and gone free, you're still part of that place. You've just made your own roots anew."

Viktor was watching him quietly.

"New roots are green and they can grow deep again somewhere else though, right? It's not like you can't come back at some point."

He was about to answer, but Yuri jumped at him suddenly, "Viktor! They're almost ready to start! We should get to rink side!"

"Okay~" The Russian said quickly, returning the hug with his one free arm, "Go on ahead. I'll be right behind you."

"Don't take too long! It'll be weird if you aren't in the group when we all go up!" Yuri gushed excitedly, stroking Viktor's cheek lightly with a thumb before turning to his attention to the elder Russian.

"Go get em, kid." Mikhail said happily, extending his hand, which Yuri took eagerly, "We'll be cheering you on."

"Spasibo!"

Yuri had already gotten his well-wishes and farewells from his sister and ballet teacher, so he quickly swiped the wheely-suitcase-thing from Viktor and ran for the rink-side exit to get his skates on.

Mikhail watched him go, "He's a keeper. You caught a good one."

Viktor's expression softened, "...Sometimes I think he's too good for me. I've been cruel to him."

"...How'd that happen?"

"He was freaking out before his Cup of China Free Skate earlier in the season." The younger Russian explained, "I thought...if I made him think of something else, to get his mind off other peoples' scores, he'd perform better, but...it just kind of backfired spectacularly. I meant to just get him worked up a little, challenge him, break his heart just enough to make him want to fight for it...but..."

"Oh boy..."

"Yeah..."

"You dun broke'd him entirely into pieces."

"It was bad. So bad that when I offered to kiss him to make him feel better, he didn't even really seem to register it...just yelled no at me and moved on."

"I guess that means you hadn't to that point yet?"

Viktor shook his head, "When I jumped at him after that very skate was over, that was the first time." He tussled his hair a little bit but then started to shift his feet, "Anyway, I should get out there. This Exhibition is kind of a big deal to him." He held his hand out, "We'll see you after, okay? We have a red-eye flight back to St. Petersburg so we'll be up late."

Mikhail nodded and took the hand firmly in his own...but then leaned ahead, and pulled Viktor towards himself to press their shoulders together and pat Viktor on the back unexpectedly, "Have fun. We'll talk about the house thing later if you want, or I can just shut my big yap about it." He laughed, "Whatever you prefer."

"I'll think about it, I promise." The skater said, pulling back from the surprise half-hug, "Thanks, Uncle. I really appreciate your help in all this."

Hearing Viktor say those words made the elder Russian quite proud of himself.