Chapter 27: The Promise

(I've made a decision to end this story with this chapter and to make a second story covering Yuuri's training and their season together. I just think there is so much good stuff that the story would be a hundred freaking chapters, so I want to put it in sections that cover certain ground in their relationship. I can't wait to get the next one started. Thanks so very much toeveryone reading and supporting this series. I love you soooooo much!)

Victor escaped the still lingering crowd of happy ice skating fans and slipped out of the ice rink to the much quieter parking lot. He frowned and looked back for a moment, then turned and jogged away, in the direction of the nearby airport, unaware that Yuuri had slipped out as well, and was following a short distance behind him.

Not that I don't think it was good for that cocky kid to be taken down a peg, the Russian legend mused, but Yurio deserves to know that I am not underestimating him. He is a great talent that would be a huge asset to a younger coach who is trying to build his reputation. Maybe I am a fool for not taking Yakov up on coaching Yurio, but…

…I just can't ignore…

The night of the banquet replayed itself as Victor's strong legs carried him swiftly to his destination.

My future does not lie in taking the safest path. When Yuuri bit me…when he put Yume there inside me, my life stopped being about remaining safe and it was transformed. I could cry over what was lost, that day and the day that Yume died, but my heart just knows that it wasn't in vain. Yuuri and I can still be happy, but we have to walk this path to find the way there. I feel that with such certainty now. Every step we take now is a step forward from what is to what is possible.

He slowed as he reached the airport entrance, and he looked around, his blue-green eyes searching for any sign of his Russian teammate.

I don't think he will have left yet, though I can't recall what time his plane was supposed to depart.

Passing through the entrance doors, he found himself in the check in area and his searching gaze quickly found Yurio, slumped in a seat near the window and scowling as he looked down at his phone. Yuuri slipped in through the entrance and followed, concealing himself behind a sign as Victor reached his sulking teammate.

"Yurio!" Victor called out to the younger Russian skater.

Yurio's head jerked up and his scowl deepened (if that was even possible).

"Victor," he growled angrily, "what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at the ice rink with your stupid little piggy, celebrating?"

"I need to talk to you before you go."

"Huh, I have nothing at all to say to you, you stupid asshole!" Yurio scoffed, "If you want to blow me off so you can go coach that pathetic excuse for a skater…"

"You mean the pathetic excuse for a skater who just beat you to earn the privilege of having me coach him?" Victor asked pointedly.

"Fuck you! Get away from me!" Yurio snapped, jumping up and starting to walk away from him, "I don't have anything to say to you!"

"Come now," Victor reasoned as he followed, "you know that the contest was fair. You can't be angry with me when you had just as much of a chance to win as Yuuri did."

"I can do whatever I fucking want to!" Yurio seethed, "You're not my coach, so get away from me and don't talk to me anymore."

"Please don't be like that," Victor urged him, "Look, at least give me a chance to explain. You're going to go back anyway and you won't have to listen to anything else I say, but I…"

"What's to explain?" Yurio huffed agnostically, "If you want to dump your career in the toilet and waste your time coaching that stupid mess back there, I can't stop you. But if you want to quit skating, I don't know why you'd put all of your effort into an idiot who chokes and sabotages himself all of the time, rather than…"

"Rather than a young talent who would obviously make me look very good as a first time coach. I know all of that, but there are things you don't know…things related to…"

Yuuri ducked further back behind the sign as Victor paused and looked around, then turned his attention back to his Russian teammate.

"Things related to what happened at the Grand Prix Final banquet night last season."

"What about what happened between you and me? Don't you get that Yakov is worried about you? About me? He's worried about both of us, and for good reason! If anyone finds out about…"

"Shh!" Victor hushed him, looking around again, "Don't talk about that here. Just…understand and please tell Yakov for me that I am sorry."

"You're sorry," Yurio huffed, "and you wanna apologize to him?"

"Yes," Victor insisted, placing a hand on Yurio's arm and looking down into his eyes as the younger skater glared up at him, "I am sorry. I disappointed Yakov and I hurt you both, when that is the last thing I wanted to do. But you have to understand, whatever my plans were before, whatever you or Yakov thought they were…everything changed and now I need to be here, coaching Yuuri. I am not throwing my career away and as Yuuri proved at the competition, he's not going to waste the opportunity of having me here. I will see him through to the next Grand Prix Final."

"And then, what?" Yurio asked accusingly, "You think something is going to change if you get the piggy there? I am just going to humiliate him."

"Yurio…"

"No, he's going to humiliate himself."

"Yuuri will do no such thing."

"You really believe that you being here is going to change him so much? You're an idiot. You deserve the crushing defeat and embarrassment you will get!"

"I don't think me being here is what's going to change him. But, I think I can motivate him. I can inspire him by being here."

"You should be inspiring people who aren't at the end of their skating career, you fool," Yurio chided him, "Yakov knows it. I know it, The piggy knows it. You seem to be the only one who doesn't get it."

Yurio made a sound of surprise as Victor suddenly grabbed him and embraced him tightly, drawing back to kiss him once on each flushed cheek.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" shouted the younger man, "Ugh! Get away from me."

"Have a safe flight home," Victor chuckled, "If we don't meet in the earlier competitions, Yuuri and I will see you at the Grand Prix Finals."

"Yeah, right," Yurio scoffed, "The piggy will fail to even qualify and you'll be so embarrassed, you won't be able to come back to Russia ever. We're better off without you anyway."

"Yuuri is not going to fail," Victor insisted, "I promise you that your meeting at the Grand Prix Final will make you as glad as I am that I am doing this."

"The only thing I'd be glad to see right now is both of you quitting and getting the hell out of my way. How about that?"

Victor laughed heartily and patted Yurio's flaming pink cheeks.

"You know, this is why I love you so much. Go on, now, you're going to miss the plane. Don't forget to tell Yakov to please talk to me."

"I'm not going to tell him to talk to you!" Yurio shouted over his shoulder as he hurried to check in, "I hope he never speaks to you again! You don't deserve him and you don't fucking deserve me!"

Behind the sign, Yuuri blinked slowly, hearing the words again in his head.

What about what happened between you and me?

You don't deserve me!

He swallowed the hard lump that had formed in his throat, his heart pounding painfully in his chest.

Yurio…and Victor?

They…?

He sucked in a painful breath and let it go shakily.

And Victor left him to be with me?

Oh my god! No wonder Yurio hates me! Of course he would hate the man Victor left him for. And what does that say about the kind of person Victor is, if he would just leave someone who loves him like that? I mean, I'd heard about Victor's reputation with women in the past, but I never heard anything about him seeing Yurio. Of course, the difference in their ages and the fact Yurio's only fifteen would bring a scandal, so it makes sense that they would keep it a secret and that Yakov would be in on it because he knows Victor better than anyone.

Yuuri remained carefully hidden as Victor walked by him and left the airport. When the threat of discovery was gone, he walked outside, his mind in a haze as he tried to make sense of what he'd overheard. He wasn't quite sure how he ended up at the beach, sitting on a piece of driftwood and looking out at the water.

First, there was something about someone named Yumi and now it seems Yurio was also involved with Victor. He does have a reputation…but…that doesn't necessarily mean that Victor hurts people purposely. Still, he is reckless and careless. I suppose none of that matters very much as log as he is…just my coach.

But, I don't know how I feel, trusting him, knowing he would…

"Yuuri?"

The spooked skater leapt to his feet, his face turning beet red as he faced the man he'd been thinking about.

"I was a little worried," Victor said, studying him more closely, "I went back to the hot spring and you weren't there. Are you all right?"

"Ah…oh, yeah," Yuuri stammered, "It was…I was just, ah, looking for Yurio."

"Yurio?" Victor mused, frowning.

"What? Did you forget him already?"

He tried to make it sound like a joke, but in his heart, he meant it as an accusation.

"I do have a very bad memory," Victor joked, "but it's hard to forget a spirited person like Yurio, da? It will be a lot quieter here without him."

Is that all you have to say for the one you loved, Victor?

How can I trust a person like this?

"I feel bad for him. I mean, he did skate with more precision than I did."

"But, that wasn't the point of the competition," Victor reminded him, "My direction was that the winner would be the one who could surprise the audience more. You surprised them more. You skated beautifully…well, except for that horrid Salchow landing, and your triple axel has looked better. Still, you surprised me so much with the way you moved, Yuuri. That changed, as though overnight. Was that on purpose? What did you do? How did you decide to change that particular thing?"

Yuuri blushed harder, remembering the adamance of his refusal to embrace the role of the alpha playboy and feeling fresh anger that Victor seemed to take pride in his reputation as a heartbreaker.

Is that what Eros is really about, then? Is it about Victor coming to town, trying to take advantage and then leaving when he's gotten what he wants.

But…why did Victor come here?

What does he really want?

Who is Yume?

What really happened between Victor and Yurio?

"I want to help you," Victor continued, "but to do that, I need to know what you are thinking when you do things. I need to understand you better."

"Yeah," Yuuri sighed, avoiding Victor's eyes by keeping his own focused on the rolling waves, "I guess that sometimes, I just don't know. I have a feeling, an instinct."

And I really, really hate what I am.

I hate what Victor is.

Still, Victor left his own career to come here to train me. Whatever other motives he has, he seems intent on helping me improve my skating. I can tell from this competition that he really can do that, so I guess I will have to ignore everything else and focus on that.

"So, Eros, to you, is a sexy seductress who snares the playboy and then leaves him, Yuuri?"

Anger roiled beneath the forced calm on Yuuri's pale surface as he continued to avoid Victor's gaze.

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" he answered in a low, controlled voice.

"Yes," Victor said approvingly, "It worked perfectly. I was surprised and I was completely seduced."

Yuuri's heart skipped and he placed a hand on his chest, quivering.

So, he wants me that way? But, I guess he never kept that a secret. Still, I already know the story. The handsome alpha playboy comes to town and he picks the most beautiful woman to pursue. He woos her relentlessly until she can't say no to him anymore, but as soon as he has what he wants, he leaves her behind.

Yuuri felt tears burning in the corners of his eyes.

I won't let you do that to me.

"I'm starving, Yuuri, aren't you?" Victor said, changing the subject, "And since you won the competition, you get a pork cutlet bowl tonight."

"Yeah, I can't wait," Yuuri answered, trying to sound cheerful.

Victor read the conflicting signs and tilted his head, frowning.

"You don't seem very excited for someone who won and who is getting his favorite dish for dinner tonight, Yuuri. Seriously, it seems like something is wrong."

He paused, thinking for a moment, then made a sound of surprise at the thought that struck him.

"Yuuri, are you…upset that Yurio left?"

"What?"

Victor smirked.

"You know, I think that's it. I think that you liked spending all of that time around Yurio."

"Huh? I did not! He yelled at me and called me names all of the time. Why would I like that?" Yuuri demanded, "I don't like him. I just…felt bad because if what mattered was technical ability, then he would be the one you were with tonight."

"Well, you both knew the rules of the contest…"

"And you knew exactly where I could challenge him, Victor."

The Russian legend suddenly dropped all pretense of amusement and looked into Yuuri's accusing eyes.

"You think I set him up to lose to you?" he asked in a deeply serious tone, "You think I would do that?"

He paused, his eyes betraying a hint of pain.

"What else do you think about me, Yuuri? Do you think I am a cruel person? Do you think I meant to humiliate him by setting him up or something?"

"Did you?"

"Why would I do that?" Victor asked, his voice becoming angry, "Why would I purposely try to hurt him, Yuuri?"

Because that's what an alpha playboy would do when he wants to end a relationship.

"Yuuri?" Victor snapped, his blue-green eyes flashing.

"I…I don't know what I think," Yuuri answered, swallowing hard and looking away, "I don't know your history with Yurio or anyone else, so how would I know? I don't even really know you, Victor. All I really know of you is your skating…and most of that is fantasy. That says nothing about the person you are."

Victor took a long, slow breath, considering his words carefully before he spoke again.

"I guess that we don't really know each other," he admitted, "but I am learning about you, Yuuri. I hope that as you learn about me…you learn I am not the monster you just accused me of being."

"What? I didn't…!"

"But, you did," Victor replied, his voice calm and firm, "and your accusation came from somewhere. Those were honest emotions that led you to that conclusion. Before we can get anywhere as coach and student, we need to get to know each other and trust each other."

"W-well, we only have a few months before the season starts."

"Yes," Victor agreed, "and I guess those few months are going to be very busy if I am having to prove myself to you."

"Victor," Yuuri objected, "you don't have to prove anything to me. You dropped everything to come here and to be my coach. In the short time you've been in Hasetsu, you've already proven you are committed to that. You kept me from quitting and you coached me to this victory tonight."

"Even if, as you said, I set you up to win?" Victor asked, a hint of remaining anger trickling into his voice, "You do realize that if you had not been able to overcome your anxiety, I would be on that plane with Yurio and going back to Russia right now."

He bit his lip, waiting, but his student only looked back at him quietly and made no response.

"Did you look at me once today, Yuuri? Did you really look at me? Look at me now and you tell me whether you think I am sorry or if you think what I am is relieved."

"How am I supposed to know what you are feeling?" Yuuri argued.

"You don't know?" Victor asked, moving closer, then shocking the Japanese man as he wrapped his arms around Yuuri and hugged him, burying his face in Yuuri's shoulder and letting out a long, ragged sigh.

"I…"

"Did you not notice even once that I was so worried that I didn't talk to you or Yurio very much?" Victor whispered, "I made the decision to hold this competition pretty impulsively. I didn't think until later that I might have to go home to Russia, when that is the last thing that I want right now."

Yuuri drew in a shaky breath.

"So, are you running away from Russia for some reason?" Yuuri asked, "Or…are you really wanting to stay here with me, Victor?"

Victor smiled into Yuuri's shoulder, breathing in his warm alpha scent.

It's so strange how he awakened those other feelings before, when he was skating in front of me, how his scent became sweet. Now, it's the way it was before.

I feel like I will melt.

"I came here wanting to coach you," Victor answered quietly, "and when I got here, I fell in love with long, hot baths in the hot springs, your parents and sister, who treat me like their family, the delicious food…and I enjoy spending time with you, Yuuri. I know we don't know each other well, but I promise that we will get to know each other. I will keep my promise to coach you into the Grand Prix Final. Will you trust me on just that?"

Yuuri felt a painful space open up between them as Victor released him and stepped back, looking at him expectantly.

"I'll trust you," he promised, "and I'll do whatever you want me to, so that I can win."

"Very good," Victor said approvingly, "Then, in the morning it begins. Tomorrow morning, we'll both start working on our promises."

He slipped a hand into Yuuri's, making the Japanese man blush with the familiarity.

"Now then, let's go back and eat pork cutlet bowls and drink some of your parents' fine sake," Victor said cheerfully.

Yuuri felt his heart finally settle as they walked back to the hot spring inn with Victor reverting back to his happy, chattering self.

You're right that I don't know you, Victor, but I am going to get to know you. I am going to learn all of your secrets. I am going to understand who you really are. There is something in me that screams you can't just be the alpha playboy Eros that you seem. There is something deeper inside you.

I am going to find that deeper place.

And if you are that shallow, I'll let go of you.

But if you are even deeper than I thought, I will fill those depths…until you can't let go of me.

Victor sneaked a glance at Yuuri's thoughtful expression and a little, satisfied smirk found its way onto his lips.

Now, that is a very fine Eros.

I can work with that.