Yuri received nothing short of a hero's welcome when he returned to the Sports Champions Club two days after returning to St. Petersburg. He had shown up for practice with Viktor to a rink packed with jubilant people, snacks and drinks. The surprise party touched him deeply and his emotional response got him promptly yelled at by Yura for getting all weepy when he was supposed to be happy. He celebrated with everyone and gracefully smiled as they heaped their praises and congratulations upon him. He felt so proud. Proud of what he had achieved and proud that he had such amazing rink mates. They had become his skate family and he cherished them dearly. They had all helped and supported each other in one way or another over the last couple of months. Yuri had an unshakable feeling that he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

The relaxed and jovial attitude was quickly set aside the next day as the push for Worlds began. Viktor and Yuri both resumed their usual training schedules, with more individual practice time being allotted now since they'd be competing against each other for the first time. Yakov had masterfully worked out schedules for Viktor, Georgi, Yuri and Yura which allowed all four of them ample practice time without the other three 'rivals' being present. Yuri was incredibly excited to be skating against Viktor. He knew that there was a very good chance that he had skated against him at some point in the past, but of course, could not remember. So as far as he was concerned, Worlds would be the first time he'd be competing against him. He wanted to give it his all. As much as he loved and respected Viktor, he was competitive and really wanted to win. Yuri only wished that the timing and circumstances weren't what they were. It seemed a bit of waste that he'd only get to skate against Viktor on the last competition of the season. But at least he'd have himself a pretty good idea of what he was up against for when the new season started up in the fall.

The media frenzy around Yuri died down significantly after the conclusion of Four Continents. They resumed a much more 'normal' line of questioning and interview requests, choosing to focus on the results of the competition and the plan for taking on Worlds against two of his rink mates. JJ's act of sportsmanship had pretty much put an end to all the speculation of 'bad blood' between them. Yuri felt incredible relief at this new development. Competing is stressful enough without having people in your face trying to create drama. They had stopped focusing so much on his accident as well since it seemed quite clear that he had recovered from it just fine. It was nice to have questions be about his skating again and not his personal life.

Some reporters from the Japanese media had shown up in St. Petersburg for interviews and his schedule had included a lot of photo shoots and promotional sound bites and video clips. Viktor had gone with him whenever possible. During those times, he had stood in the corner with a big goofy smile on his face, supporting him with his mere presence. He had stepped in every so often to give Yuri some tips and pointers whenever he had struggled with his posing and stuff. The JSU had sent him quite a few congratulatory emails and asked him if he had plans to visit Japan soon, indirectly suggesting that he do just that, at his earliest convenience.

His parents had called a few times, first to congratulate him, and then to tell him that they had never been so busy at Yu-Topia before. His gold medal had resulted in a lot of extra publicity for the city of Hasetsu, bringing in a record number of tourists and also renewed interest in figure skating and ballet. The Hasetsu Ice Castle and Minako-Sensei's studio both found themselves dealing with a sudden surge in enrollment. Yuri was truly happy that his win was having such a positive effect on his home town. The city's economy had fallen under some hard times in the last couple of years. May shops and hot spring resorts had had to close due to the lack of business. He hoped that he could keep winning and bring in some more revenue for everyone.

The month flew by at breakneck speed. Yuri put every ounce of effort into his practices, pushing the hardest and most technically difficult version of his programs each and every time. His muscles constantly screamed their displeasure at him and he'd found himself turning to the ice baths more and more frequently. His sessions with Volkov didn't hurt him as much as they had in the beginning. His body had already adapted to the new kind of torture and the sessions were more about maintaining his current level of conditioning and occasionally pushing some new limits. On the days that Viktor was not at practice with him, Yakov would step in to oversee things and give his advice and offer his expertise. Both he and Viktor made sure to keep Yuri from pushing himself too hard and over-training. He took things day-by-day, and before he knew it, he was packing for Helsinki. As Yuri stood in the bedroom going over his mental checklist of all the things he should have packed, Viktor snuck in behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist, leaning in to place a soft kiss on his cheek as he did so.

"All packed up and ready to go? Yakov will be here in about an hour, so we should double check to make sure we've got everything."

Yuri nodded and turned his face to look back at Viktor, planting his own quick kiss on the man's nose.

"Yeah. I'm good to go. I cannot tell you how excited I am that this flight is just about an hour long. It's not often that I arrive onto a competition venue in a decent state."

Viktor laughed as he hugged his lover a bit more tightly.

"Don't I know it! I'm excited, you'll be reasonably rested and ready right after we get checked in and take care of the basic stuff."

The whole team was flying in late afternoon on March 28th. Mila was scheduled to skate her short program on the morning of the 29th and they had all agreed that they wanted to be there to support her. She had practiced at the Sports Champions Club earlier in the day and would forgo the scheduled practice tonight in Helsinki so that they could all go out for dinner together. Her next official practice would start at 6:30 am the next day and she was not feeling very thrilled about it at all. She had wondered aloud on various occasions why the organizers had chosen to put almost every ladies' and men's events before or around noon. How it would torture competitors and spectators alike with their early times. Both Yuri and Viktor were very much in agreement.

Their flight to Helsinki was short and uneventful, and they landed just shortly after 5 pm. Everyone lined up at the baggage claim and picked up their bags before making their way through customs. Yakov left them alone in the arrivals lounge for a few minutes to check if the van he had rented for them was outside or not. A small pack of reporters spotted them and made their way over. Viktor spotted them and sighed.

"Incoming reporters. Everyone on their best behavior."

He turned his head and gave a certain Russian Tiger a pointed look.

The blonde Russian gave Viktor his most withering scowl before crossing his arms and snorting.

"Whatever."

Yuri leaned in for a second and winked at the younger Russian skater before turning to Viktor and speaking loud enough for the young blonde to hear.

"I'm sure Yura will be just fine."

Yuri didn't miss the younger man's smirk before he turned away to face the approaching reporters. They ended up getting split up as each reporter had someone they really wanted to interview first. Yuri got asked what he thought his chances would be against his rink mates. Did he think he would be able to beat Viktor? How worried was he about Yuri Plisetsky? Christophe Giacometti and Jean-Jacques Leroy would also be in the running for a medal, not to mention Otabek Altin and Seung-Gil Lee. How did he feel competing against such a talented group of skaters? Yuri did his best to answer all the rapid-fire questions and had to stop himself from breathing an audible sigh of relief when Yakov returned and announced that interviews were over and they had to leave. Their luggage was placed in the back and they all piled into the van. Yakov drove to the Holiday Inn Helsinki, which was only a 4-minute drive from the Hartwall Arena. There was a free shuttle service to the arena from the hotel as just about every figure skater competing was staying there due to its proximity to the arena and convenience.

They arrived at the hotel to a scene of barely controlled chaos. The lobby was packed with at least fifty people, almost all of them surely figure skaters. Gear bags and luggage had been piled up in a corner and people were milling aimlessly about. Some were visibly exhausted and others just looked really upset.

"What the fuck is this all about?"

Yuri stepped up next to the young blonde and whispered in his ear.

"Chill, Yura. Whatever it is, we'll deal with it. I'll watch your stuff if you want to use the bathroom. I think it's just over that way."

Yuri pulled back and pointed in the direction of the bathroom sign he'd seen earlier. Yura dropped his bags unceremoniously at Yuri's feet and then stalked off grumbling towards the bathroom. Yuri smiled wistfully as he watched the younger skater. He heard some rustling next to him and looked over to see Viktor rummaging in his carry-on bag for a few seconds before pulling out a deck of UNO cards. When Yuri shot him a quizzical side-eye, Viktor explained.

"Their computer system is down and they can't check anyone in at the moment. It's been down for the last hour or so and they're working like mad to get it back up and running, but they don't quite know when they'll have it back online. They're very sorry for the inconvenience and have asked us to be patient."

Viktor pointed to the far corner of the lobby to where some hotel staff were setting up a few tables.

"They're going to put some snacks and drinks for us there as a 'sorry for the inconvenience' gesture. So, I figured we might as well play some games while we wait."

Yuri was about to say something when a woman's voice called out from across the lobby.

"Mila! Yuri! Viktor!"

All three turned in unison to see Sara Crispino making her way to them with her surly-looking brother in tow.

Mila was ecstatic.

"Sara! It's so good to see you!"

The two women hugged each other and then Sara made her way to Viktor and then Yuri. Yuri could see her brother Mickey out of the corner of his eye, and he did not look pleased. Yuri released Sara with a friendly pat to the shoulder before Mickey came in and physically ripped him off his sister. He has always been so overprotective of his sister. It's borderline creepy.

Viktor was his socially charismatic self and invited both Sara and Mickey to join them in their card game. Yura came back just then and begrudgingly greeted the Italian siblings before creating a comfortable space to sit down on the ground. Mila and Georgi were invited to join in with only Mila accepting the invitation. Georgi excused himself, stating he wished to listen to read a book and listen to music quietly in the corner. So the six of them sat down to play. They started off playing with each man and woman for themselves. Yura mopped the floor with all of them, viciously annihilating them with barely contained glee in three straight rounds. But once they decided to play doubles, the tables were turned. Yuri and Viktor took the first two rounds of doubles with Sara and Michele winning the last round. By then, the computer system had come back online, to the great relief of everyone. They started getting everyone checked in extremely quickly and efficiently. Pretty soon, the lobby was completely empty and everyone was successfully settled in at their room. The St. Petersburg crew had agreed to meet back up in the lobby in an hour to go out to dinner. They had extended their invitation to the Italian twins, but they stated they already had dinner plans with team Italy.

Dinner went splendidly. Yakov took them to a local restaurant with lots of good reviews. They decided to go family style and ordered a wide variety of dishes that everyone could try. Yuri fell in love with the lohikeitto, or salmon soup, while Viktor had liked the siskonmakkarakeitto sausage soup better. Yura had ranted and raved about the kaalikääryleet cabbage rolls, stuffed with minced meat and rice, and served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. Yuri wondered if he liked them because they had a passing resemblance to pirozhki. Mila's favorite dish was the meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. She tried her hand at pronouncing the dish, but it ultimately had way too many L's for her to wrap her head around. Georgi looked like he was in love as he savored the lasimestarin, or marinated herring. Yakov seemed happy to just be eating, and appeared to be enjoying everything. Everyone had found something that they really enjoyed at dinner and returned to the hotel happily sated and with full bellies. Since Mila would be waking up so ridiculously early for her practice the next day, she'd be heading out alone with Yakov first. The four men would sleep in and wait for Yakov to come back and pick them up after breakfast. Everyone said their goodnight and turned in for the night.

_terminology_

lihapullat muusilla ja puolukkahillolla – meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam