CHAPTER SIX HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE
Yuri gasped aloud and sat upright, nearly knocking the MacBook off hip lap in the process, "Scandalous!" He called out, and twisted around to where Viktor was chortling behind him, "Did you...!?"
"Terrifying, isn't it?" He mused, "And they post like this about him all the time."
"...I'd heard that Otabek basically saved Yurio from his fangirls back in Barcelona...but this..." Yuri added, and turned back to the laptop screen, which showed the Yuri's Angels fanpage on FaceBook. It was a semi-private group; anyone could see the posts, but only members could comment on them. The post on the screen was a Photoshopped image from the GPF Final Exhibition, wherein the face of one of the fans had been cut and pasted over Nikki's during her brief moment in the spotlight, fingers under Yurio's chin. Yuri exhaled a disturbed-concerned sigh, and settled back to lean against his partner's chest, "This is bizarre."
"They're all pretty young, mostly younger than Yurio himself," Viktor attempted to explain, "Without older fans to moderate them, they're basically ravenous. It used to be goofy stuff like pasting him into group photos that he hadn't actually been there for, but it took a slightly darker turn when Nikki popped up in his Exhibition. The prevailing curiosity was where she came from and how they'd never seen her before. It's not like she's a skater herself."
"Where do they think she came from?"
"Well, they know now that she's my cousin, but it took a few weeks for that to come down the pipe to them." Viktor explained, "But since it's not exactly public knowledge that Papa Mimi's all but adopted Yurio, they really don't have any idea about their relationship right now. The prevailing belief is, obviously, that they're dating."
Yuri made a weird face, "Does he know that?"
"I doubt it."
Tak tak
All six doggo ears pricked up at the sound, and Jiro trotted over to the door, snuffling at the bottom. His curly tail swayed, and he looked back at the bed-bound humans with an expectant head-tilt.
"Guess it's time to be adults." Yuri supposed, and pushed down the MacBook lid, "Coming." He called as he threw the blankets off his pale frame. Ghost licked at her person's hand as Yuri went by, and soon, Viktor got out of bed after him. Some clothes were quickly thrown on, and Yuri reached for the handle, surrounded by excited pups on all side, "Alright, alright...back up from the door or I won't be able to open it." He pointed out, and started to pull the panel back. Ghost took point, and Jiro wiggled out after her, then Makkachin at the end, and they each flitted about in the hall excitedly. Ever the social booger, Makkachin quickly found the person who'd knocked, and he reared up to nearly her own height to greet her. Yuri was a bit surprised to see the teen, "Oh...you came out."
Viktor leaned in to pull the poodle off, "I guess it went well?"
Nikki nodded meekly, "Minako...wants me to talk to papa with her... But..."
"But?" Viktor echoed, still holding his wiggly boofer upright.
"She thinks if we all go...maybe he'll actually listen."
Viktor just made a face, and let Makkachin go back down to all fours again, "...This is just such a weird thing to me." He commented, and shook his head.
"What do you mean?" Yuri wondered, gently kneading Ghost's noggin where she sat against his side, tongue lolling out.
"Having to go to one guy to get consent to live your life." He answered, and rubbed the back of his neck, "As a kid, I barely noticed, but the older I got, the more it seemed like tyranny."
Yuri puffed a laugh, "Viktor, you never listened to a word any of your elders told you. Bar none, you were a wild child. Yakov could probably tell tales about you."
"All lies." Viktor offered with a wink, "Anyway...His Imperial Highness, Papa Mimi the God Emperor awaits."
.
Except that he was out cold on the couch, head cocked back on the back-rest with the laptop still on and open, though it had long-since gone into sleep-mode, just like he had. There was something ominous about the air around him though, and something deep inside him made him wake up a bit, one eye peeking open at a time...to spot the audience. He snorted and coughed in surprise, and grabbed the laptop shelf so it wouldn't go flying in his fit. No one said a word though until he recovered and glared up a them in the kind of annoyed tone one could only manage after being startled out of an unexpected nap, "What...?"
"The Committee of Non-Mikhail Persons has come to the conclusion," Minako started matter-of-factly, "That you should tell Otabek to unblock your daughter. For the sake of peace and stability."
He just blinked at them in a daze, "...Heh...?"
"Nikki, come please," Minako said, this time reaching past the elder's peripheral vision. When the hand came back, attached to it was the youngest member of the group. Minako positioned the petite teen in front of herself and put a hand on each shoulder, "As you may know, this is Nikki. She lost her mom, she lived under the secret tyranny of her older brother, then got uprooted from home, lost all her friends, and got moved halfway around the world with only one familiar face to go with her, all within the span of a week. She's made one friend since then. He happens to be older than she is. He blocked her because some certain people around here are convinced that guys aren't capable of behaving themselves, which has offended him enough to want to put a stop to it. So, after careful consideration and a thorough investigation, it's this Committee's opinion that you, as The Mikhail, should inform Otabek that he and Nikki can, in fact, be friends."
"The Mikhail?" He echoed incredulously. But, eyes went around the room more carefully at that point; it seemed as though even the pack was on the Committee's side. He sighed and grumbled, and slouched where he sat, ruffling his hair in annoyance, "I'm not even the one who gave him the idea to block her in the first place."
"But you are the one who can make it right again," Viktor pointed out, partly in his own defense, "As Nikki's dad, you're the first and last gatekeeper to any guy-friend she may have. Not to mention, given the fact that Otabek lives full-time in Almaty, outside of competition, they'd be a thousand miles away from one another. Letting them talk to each other online is hardly the worst thing they could do."
Mikhail didn't look even marginally convinced, "Distance just makes people desperate for those few occasions where they are in the same place."
"DAD!" Nikki barked at him finally, "Why do you think so badly of me!?"
That surprised him, "I...don't? It's not you I'm worried about."
Viktor quirked a brow, "Mimi, the more emphasis you put on how forbidden you think the whole thing is, the more likely you're setting them up for failure."
"...I agree with Viktor," Yuri added, "One of the worst things about America is how hard they push the drinking age. Then kids drink in secret, or they go way overboard when they're finally legal, and get themselves killed. The more strongly you push this taboo, the more likely it'll be that something happens."
Still...
Viktor grumbled slightly, "And you have no room to talk about age-appropriate sexual activity given your own illustrious history."
Mikhail snapped his fingers as he pointed at his nephew, "And that's precisely why I'm so ornery about this." He stated firmly, "The last thing I want is for my kids to make the same stupid mistakes I did. They should learn from the things I did wrong so they can avoid it without doing those things themselves, and dealing with how much pain it caused others."
"...Dad, we literally have no clue what any of you people are talking about right now." Viktoria deadpanned, "We can't learn shit if we don't know what the mistake was."
"Language." He grumbled, and rubbed his head with the flat of his fingers. A thousand things went through his head all at once as those days were brought back to the fore of his mind, but he knew there was no way to avoid it.
"What did you do?"
"Tortured my entire hometown with my bullshit," He answered grimly, "By repeatedly swapping out with my sister in an attempt to drive Kon away from her..."
Viktoria's brows both went up high on her face, "...How did he not murder you?"
"A question for the ages." He said, keeping his eyes down, "But that's not even the only thing."
All eyes looked around in surprise, but Yurio was the one who spoke on the group's behalf, "What else did you do...?"
"When...I was a teen," Mikhail began grimly, visibly tensing up in front of them, "Arranging marriages between families wasn't that unheard of. It was easy for the town elders to approve of Kon and my sister...his family was as smitten with her as he was, and the two of them were already pretty inseparable. I was the problem. Even without my stupid possessive behavior around Tat...I was a Hellion. They figured they could calm me down by matching me with someone of my own. I..."
Minako scrunched her shoulders up, "We already know you ruined that arrangement. It's hardly that bad. You basically threw a tantrum over it and they never bothered again."
"No..." He shook his head, and Minako gave him a look. It was obvious that he struggled to come up with the words to explain himself, and after a moment of finding no way to dull the blow, he just shot out a frustrated gesture and came out with it all at once, "I took the girl's virginity and then threw her out. I refused to marry her, I refused to ever speak to her again, and I basically treated her like she didn't exist, effectively ruining her life, soiling her honor, and spoiled her for anyone who came later. According to the customs of the day and place. That's why they gave up on me." He explained quickly and bitterly, "I never tried to make it up to her, her family, to the town, or...to anyone. I'll take that shame to my grave. ...Part of why I was always pestering Kon this past year is because I...was ready to make amends for how I did wrong by him when we were kids. In the end, I'm not even sure he forgave me...or if he'd just gotten so tired or bored of hating me that he gave up."
Yurio growled slightly, "So all this crap is because you're worried Otabek is going to be you."
"Of course it was." Mikhail grumbled, and shot the teen a glare from under his upheld hand.
"Otabek is nothing like you!" Nikki defended unhappily, "How can you think something like that!?"
"Because most guys are like me!" He harped, "And the last thing I want is for someone to do to you what I did to that girl back in Russia. I was a hateful and angry guy back then... I didn't care who I hurt. I was selfish and horrible... There isn't even a word to describe the depth of my arrogance back then... It took years before I really saw the damage I'd done to the people around me...and it took Viktor being born for me to finally turn my shit around."
"That's not fair..." Yuri pointed out, brows furrowed, "You're putting fifty years of guilt on Otabek's shoulders and he doesn't deserve that. I can't even imagine a scenario where doing the things you did would even cross his mind. Why don't you talk to him...?"
"Because up until now it's just been easier to say no." Mikhail explained, "...There's...too much more important stuff going on for me to worry about one guy's hurt feelings."
"It's not just one guy now though, hun." Minako added with a sigh, "Your apathy for what's happened has hurt Nikki's feelings, too, and she's going home with us. Let her have her friend... He's the one person outside this motley group of ours that can understand her situation, especially since he lives this same lifestyle we do, because of the boys."
"If I tell him to unblock her then it's just going to open a Pandora's Box of bullshit."
"Language." The whole group shot back at him.
Mikhail groaned, but nodded, "Sorry, sorry... I just... Argh this is so difficult. I don't want him to get the idea that everything's fine."
"So tell him," Yuri suggested, "We're asking you to talk to him, not just tell him some words and leave. I'm sure he'd feel better about the whole thing if he talked to you directly, too. I mean, just the fact that he approached Viktor - someone he's never really talked to - just to ask about Yura is a testament to how he worries about his friends. He's not just some shallow jerk looking to take advantage of people. He's the kind of guy that other guys would look up to..." He said, but then cracked a wry smile, "I mean, if he talked more... You could do worse."
Mikhail rubbed his temples with a hand stretched across his brow, but he felt outnumbered and outgunned. Both hands went up in surrender, "Alright, alright..."
The whole group seemed relieved to hear it; some were happy, others were just glad the trouble was over.
"But I'm not going to be the one to hunt him down," Mikhail stipulated, "If any conversation is happening, it'll be because he comes to me, not the other way around."
"Fine. Jesus. I'll drag him over myself." Yurio complained, "Just tell me when so we can get it over with."
"I'll leave that up to you to decide." The elder huffed, "Before or after his skate...I'll defer to my esteemed colleges in the Not-Mikhail Committee to figure it out."
"Great~!" Viktor clapped his hands together, and it set off a chorus of dog barks, "Now that that's been settled...the only thing left to do is dinner. Shall we?"
"Absolutely, I'm famished..." Yuri agreed, and took his husband's arm as they headed back out of the room again. Yurio followed soon after, then Viktoria, and finally Nikki, though she waited a moment in quiet before she stepped off.
By the end, it was just Minako that was still there, and she took her fiancé's hand where she found it balled-up on the arm-rest, "I know it's hard to let your kids grow up. I always used to think it was funny, since I could watch Hiroko from a distance, trying to keep Mari reigned in while she chased after all the cute boys in school."
"...I hope I'm not making a mistake." Mikhail said quietly, and rubbed his thumb over that soft skin, "She's too good a kid to be treated like a cheap trick."
"I really think you're reading it wrong," She supposed, and moved to half-sit on the arm-rest, their hands folded over her leg, "Give the guy a chance to prove he's decent before you decide he's a monster. Yura looks up to him. I'd say that puts a few points on the board in his favor."
"Is it weird that I'm glad I haven't had to do this yet with Viktoria...?" Mikhail wondered dubiously, "It's like I got to put off the inevitable for a few years longer..."
"Better late than never. At least Nikki's a smart kid, unlike me or Mari. We were the sort who looked for easy thrills. Before either of us settled down into our lives, we made things very difficult for the our families. Hiroko used to joke that chasing after Mari was like déjà vu after what she saw me do as kids. It was like she had practice."
"...The world of my youth is so different from how it is now. In a way, I envy it...but in another way, it scares the Hell out of me." He admitted sullenly, "Being able to talk online with people on the other side of the world... I couldn't have imagined it back then."
"We can't stop the speed of change, hun...we can only go with the flow." The ballerina said, but then cupped her second hand over the first, and pat the hand she held there, "...This is the first I've heard that you feel overwhelmed though."
"I didn't put it quite like that..."
"Too much more important stuff going on to worry about some guy's hurt feelings?" She echoed, "Is the Olympic stuff for Yura weighing on you that much?"
"If that were the only thing, I'd be fine... But the closer we get to the end of the weekend, the more I...think about what's coming after." Mikhail explained, his tone dulled, "Putting Kon to rest is something I never thought I'd have to do...and I never thought it would feel this bad."
"I didn't think you two were that close."
"We weren't...that's the thing. We only tolerated each other because of Tat." He said grimly, and shook his head with a sigh, "But in the end...the way things went, it's like Kon was only holding on so he could get some closure with Viktor. With me though...it didn't matter. I'm going to bury him next to my sister in a few days, never knowing if he forgave me for how I used to be."
