CHAPTER SIX HUNDRED SEVEN

Mikhail slumped against the closed door and heaved a long breath. He could hear Minako stifling a laugh where she'd stayed in bed while he investigated. He paused a moment before pushing up to stand normally again, and moved to return the lamp he'd carried off as a make-shift weapon.

"...So, was I right?"

Looking over tiredly, he shook his head, though not necessarily to indicate that she was wrong, "...It's unbelievable." He said, not bothering with plugging the lamp back in before he shrugged his robe off, and shuffled back to his spot under the blankets, though they'd gone cold along ago, "It was Viktor."

"Well I was half-right then." Minako mused, leaning forward against her upturned, blanket-covered knees, "I knew it had to be one of them. Yuri's gotten me up in the middle of the night for practice before, and I've heard of Viktor doing similar."

"The whole gang of them was down there when I showed up," The Russian added, nudging his slippers off at bedside, and turned into the comforters, "Apparently they heard the thumping and thought it was ghosts. Figures."

"So what was Viktor actually doing? Practicing something?"

"Yeah...he said it was an old program though. He wouldn't go into detail." Mikhail explained, "But he and I talked about that sort of thing the other night, so I'm not entirely surprised that's what it turned out to be. His obsession with surprising people, even those he spends every waking moment with, really is unshakable."

"Yura once said that someone who gets predictable might as well be dead," Minako pointed out, and started wiggling her way back under the blankets to lie down, and tilted to her side, holding her head up with one bent arm so she could see the man beside her, "But I'm not sure 'middle of the night inspiration' counts as predictable behavior with them."

Mikhail just deadpanned towards the ceiling, "Why can't inspiration strike them at like...3 in the afternoon, like it does with normal people?"

"They're not normal people, hun."

The silver just groaned pitifully, "It could be like this for another 15 years... Maybe even longer..." He whined, and turned with a pouty-face to his partner, "I don't know if I'm going to survive this weekend."

"You are forbidden from quitting, sir." Minako pointed out, and poked his shoulder, "You don't get to turn me into a single mom to seven kids."

"I'd come back from the dead to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Ghost Dad." The ballerina teased, and flopped onto her back with a long stretch before finally reaching for the lamp switch, "Scarier than any Ghost Mom movie they could watch."

"That's only because I'm real."

.

Yuri herded the pups back into their room, and Viktor followed in after them, closing the door like he had earlier in the night. Cool blue eyes followed the younger man through the cozy space until Yuri sat back on the edge of the bed, and bent forward to pull Jiro up onto the high mattress. The puppy licked and wiggled, but eventually found his teething bone and laid down with it to start gnawing. Yuri reached into the nearby nightstand and withdrew a white tube with blue lettering, squirted some of the liquid onto his fingers, and put that on the hard rubber bone. Jiro took no notice and continued chewing, and Yuri put the tube away, heedless to his partner's approach on the other side of the bed.

Viktor crept up onto the high level, and crawled the short distance across until he could pull his beloved back against himself. Yuri looked up at him in tired surprise, but leaned back into the warmth of the embrace. One pale hand came up and moved a few strands of black hair away, "Sorry if I worried you."

Yuri smiled nervously as his glasses were pulled up and away, "I thought from the start that the thumps and bumps were you."

"So you didn't think I was trying to run away again like in St. Petersburg?"

"It hadn't crossed my mind."

"That's good... It hadn't crossed mine either when I stepped out." Viktor said quietly, gently stroking his partner's hair, "I guess it should've though. It could've looked bad..."

"If it wasn't the eve of a competition, maybe I would've been more worried. But at least right now...I get the impression that you're happy." Yuri answered, and reached up with both hands to cup around the sides of his husband's head, "Though I am still really curious..."

Viktor smiled as well as he could despite it all. He brought up his hair-petting hand and lightly clasped his fingers around one thin wrist, and turned to kiss into the palm, "I talked to Papa Mimi the other night... All this stuff about the Russia ban, and me being Russian, but skating for Japan now... I want to do something to prove to everyone that I was never involved in the things Russia is being accused of. They can test me from top to bottom, but it'll never change what Russia did in Sochi; tampering with the samples before they were sent off. I can never really prove that I didn't need the extra 'help,' if you could call it that."

"You've been tested at every event you've competed in for going on six straight years, Viktor...eclipsing the Sochi Olympics. Before, during, and after. If there was ever going to be something to find, they'd have found it by now...and if you didn't need the 'help' for ISU competitions, you didn't need it for the Games either."

"I know...but it's the principle of the thing." The silver answered, speaking into his partner's hand, "So I'm going to do one of my old shows, as my Exhibition here at Four Continents. Even though I have four more years experience since doing it, this is the best thing I can do, to show that I could do that program clean. I'll do that program better than before."

"So all the thumping..."

"The jumps, that's all. I'd been going pretty hard for almost an hour when you guys showed up. I had just flopped on the floor to catch my breath. I'd only been down for a few seconds when Yurio barged in." He answered, and kissed lightly at each of the curled fingers before him, but then lowered that hand down to his partner's chest and held onto it there, "I thought no one would hear me. I guess everyone was hyper-vigilant after 'Mama.'"

"Guess so." Yuri smiled, and rubbed his thumb on the hand that held to his, "It's all okay now though. With any lucky, Phichit-kun and Minami-kun have settled down, and we can all go do the spa thing together without any hiccups."

Viktor gave a somewhat skeptical look, "You offered to bring Phichit with us, but not the nugget. We wouldn't have a reservation for him."

"Inviting Phichit-kun was already short-notice. I'm still shocked that any of us have gotten reservations at this point, considering how far out that spa is booked most of the time. We should've been told no from the start."

"Maybe Mimi had something to do with it," The silver shrugged, "Or maybe it's because we're requesting these appointments from here. We're extra-special VIPs."

"Yeah, maybe."

There was a brief pause, with neither really knowing what else to say, though not ready to stop anyway just yet. Viktor huffed a quiet laugh, "...Tomorrow will be the last full day before competition." The silver added, his tone almost reminiscent, "You know, in all the years I skated for Russia, I was never nervous about anything. Maybe excited at some big occasion, like my first Olympics or something...but never nervous. For some reason...this competition has me very nervous."

"Really? ...Why? Is it your ankle?"

Viktor shook his head gently, "My ankle feels completely fine. It was a bit sore after Euros, but not anymore. I actually can't really put my finger on what's got my gut in a knot. It's a...weird feeling."

Yuri just puffed a tired laugh before he wiggled up to sit, and reached to 'help' his husband get re-undressed for second-bedtime, "Now you know how I feel every time I go out there."

With a wriggle and a twist, the Russian's t-shirt peeled off of his tacky skin, and he realized just how gross he'd gotten again. Fingers pawed at his chest and he shook his head, "I should shower again before settling in..."

A nod answered, but Yuri didn't let the man go without a parting kiss, "Don't take too long. Our goodnight ritual has to be redone."

"Perish the thought, my love. I'm just going to hose-off." Viktor teased, and moved silently to the other side of the room, stepping over a few dogs in the process. He glanced back one more time, watching his partner slip out of the long bathrobe he'd gone on his adventure in, and was surprised to realize..., "...You went commando?" He asked, almost snorking a laugh as he pressed an elbow to the nearby corner in the wall, "My love, I would never have suspected."

Yuri could feel his face go red, but he deadpanned anyway, "I wasn't expecting basically everyone to end up joining me. Besides, the robe was long. No one had any way to see."

"But that means I couldn't see either."

"Viktor you literally see me naked several times a day." Yuri sputtered, which only made Viktor snicker even more.

"It'll never be enough, Yuri. Always remember that."

.

Though slightly red-eyed, Minami and Phichit were up with the rest and shuffled to breakfast. It was a relatively somber affair, with the Nikiforovs being comparatively subdued after the early-morning sleep interruption. Of the whole group, Yurio was the only one who was - in theory - well rested. Viktoria was a zombie just like the rest though, despite having slept through the whole thing. Whether Otabek felt right or not, no one could really tell, as he stayed typically quiet. One thing he had finally mentioned though, was that his coach had eventually arrived and was at their hotel, albeit having only crash-landed into bed 3 hours prior to Otabek's awakening.

"One of his layovers ended up fairly prolonged, so he was stuck abroad with nothing to do but hurry up and wait." Otabek explained, "I'll probably just go back to sleep when I get there."

"Oh, so you are tired." Yurio pointed out mid-shovel into his fancy cinnamon-raisin grits, "You don't look it."

"As they say, 'but by the grace of God,'...I don't look tired, but I am."

Nikki looked up from the two skaters to her sister beside her, who looked like an extra from a zombie film, "You slept more than all of us but you look like you slept the least."

"I'm not used to all this traveling." The elder sister confessed, nursing a cup of coffee, dark circles under her eyes, "I think I'm still trying to recover from the first trip from State-side to Japan."

"So you should feel better here. It's the same time-zone as back home."

"You'd think." She replied, but shook her head sadly and looked down into the creamy brown concoction, "...Nay, I am dead. Deceased. Departed."

"Sleep sounds so good right now." Minami whined quietly, eyes closed where he sat, "I think I might have to get some later."

"Couldn't sleep after everything?" Yuri wondered, a hint of a teasing smirk on his own tired face.

"Every shadow was alive, even after we found out Viktor was the one making most of the noise." The slight teen explained, only then to bow his head, "Actually, I think it was worse after Viktor, because I was too awake to go back to sleep, and all I had to think about to pass the time was the movie..."

"Phichit-kun?"

The hazy Thai skater lifted his head, looking pretty groggy himself, eyes squinted, "I'll feel better once we've been moving around a bit."

"That's fair."

.

The first round of go-homes brought everyone around front where the SUV was waiting to load-up. Otabek and Minami's things were put into the back, and the younger of the two waved happily, albeit exhaustedly, before plopping inside to drape across one bench and try to sleep a little more. Otabek straggled, deciding with Yurio whether he would go meander around the rink later or not.

Minako made quick work of that decision though, "We're going to the Cave of Winds today, Yura. You should come. They have zip-lines."

"Zip-lines?"

"Yeah, they shoot you into a canyon at a hundred miles an hour. It looks like something right up your alley. The Bat-a-pult is pretty neat, too...it's a 1200ft round-trip."

Otabek pulled his scarf up a little, "You should go. That does sound like something you wouldn't want to miss."

"What?" The teen scoffed, "You're sounding like you're going to be heartbroken if I decide to skip out."

"It's not even your event. What are you going to do? Spend the whole time sitting in the stands cuz you can't get on the ice? How is that more fun than zip-lining?"

"Oh, well, when you put it that way." Yurio mused, entirely unseriously, "Then I abandon you to your endeavors. Do svidanija."

"Poka."

"Au revoir!" Nikki added, trying to emulate the older two with their sudden foreign-ness, though missing a beat speaking in French instead of Russian.

Otabek seemed endeared to it anyway though, and nodded at her before turning to raise a hand at the Nikiforovs in the back, "Cya later. Thanks for the invite."

"It was better than thinking you'd be sleeping outside your own room, but...probably not much better." Yuri said sheepishly, waving his free hand meekly, "Hopefully you can get some sleep when you get back. Minami-kun is already catching up."

"My coach snores. We'll see."

Yuri nodded, and drew in slightly closer to his partner as a cold breeze passed over them. His attention was grabbed though by Nikki seeming to short-circuit in front of them, moving her hands and arms, then retreating, then trying again, then backing off. Just before Yuri was about to say something though, he could hear the sizzle out her ears and an exasperated grumble right before she stepped forward and gave a dutiful hug to the surprised Kazakh.

She held on tight for a second, then released, and let out a sigh of relief, "Sheesh, trying to avoid being normal is exhausting. Sorry, you must've thought I was being snooty this whole time."

"...Mh...not really?" He answered, "People are always different online than in person. There's still the whole weekend to settle down."

"Yeah... Thanks again for helping with my phone."

Otabek's eyes glanced a millimeter up to see Yuri behind the petite teen, but he didn't react, so Otabek just nodded and turned towards the car, "Yeah, no problem. I'll message you later."

"Mh!"

With the door closed behind, the SUV started to move off, and the small gathering on the steps of the Estate House waved it off. It turned out of sight at the end of the driveway, and Yuri looked to Viktor and Phichit, "So, we ready to head over then?"

"I'm going to fall asleep in the middle of it." Viktor said happily, "It's going to be great."