Jjleroy!15
[Photo: JJ and Yuri smiling at the camera]
With the queen, Yuri Katsuki.
(Be nice to her, she's shy)
#worlds #figureskating #missedthepodium
#madeafriend #yurikatsuki #itsjjstyle!
yuri-plisetsky Then how the hell did you get a selfie with her?!
phichit+chu yuri-katsuki interacted with another human?
queen-vjones Glad you agree. Yuri was robbed
Jjleroy!15 Looking forward to seeing you in singles again queen-vjones!
christophe-gc Jjleroy!15 Please tell me I misread the text above.
Yūri hated banquets. She knew they were important to attend—mostly to win new sponsors and maintain ties with old ones—but she always felt out of place there. Yūri wasn't a social butterfly. She couldn't start a conversation or join one with the other skaters without feeling like an intruder. She just melted into the background, and she was fine with that.
Tonight, Yūri wasn't able to disappear so easily. While Yūri hadn't made the podium, she had landed a quad and set a new world record. Hopeful sponsors found her and Celestino as easily as any of the medalists they actually came for. Actually, they found Celestino. Her coach was a tall man who made himself known easily. Celestino did the actual talking with the sponsors. All Yūri had to do was be there to greet them with a smile.
She felt so useless, though.
Before she could down the glass she had picked up at some point, a hand plucked it out of her grasp and replaced it with a glass of punch. Yūri blinked as she tried to understand what had happened before looking at the culprit. "Sorry," JJ said nonchalantly, "but a tiny lady like you will knock out with one sip."
"You could have put it gently," an Asian woman with short hair next to him lightly chided.
Yūri couldn't help but feel—for lack of a better word—annoyed as she looked up at the two people in front of her. "How is it that I'm older but I'm the shortest one here?" The fact that she wore flats to the banquet didn't help at all.
"Because you got the midget genes?" JJ suggested.
"JJ!" The woman next to him reprimanded at the same time Yūri cried, "This isn't fair!" All while JJ laughed at the latter's reaction.
"Sorry, ladies," the Canadian apologized. "You haven't met each other properly. Isabella, this is Yūri Katsuki: world-record holder and second ladies' quad jumper. Yūri, this is Isabella, my girlfriend."
"I saw you before at the Grand Prix Final," Isabella said to Yūri, smiling warmly. "It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too," Yūri almost stammered, and she wanted to hide because of that. It wasn't just Isabella's height that made Yūri feel small. JJ's girlfriend—with her face accented with minimal makeup and neat eyebrows—was beautiful. In contrast, Yūri hardly bothered with makeup and looked plain. Truthfully, Yūri didn't use makeup for fear of overdoing it and making herself look like a clown as a result. Her friends had tried to teach her how to apply it properly, each with their own style. (In fact, Yūri felt like she should be ashamed that Phichit and He Long knew how to apply makeup better than her.)
"JJ told me your boyfriend is a short track speed skater," Isabella said. "Is he here tonight?"
Yūri considered her question before she shook her head. "No, I think he's still in China." He must still be in his home country. He Long deserved a podium winner, not a fourth place finisher. Wasn't that why he had come to Sochi, where Yūri had clinched bronze at her first Grand Prix Final?
"Just to make sure, your boyfriend's got flaming red hair, right?" JJ asked skeptically.
The Japanese skater frowned. "Red? It was brown when we were together in Seoul, but that was because he didn't have time to dye it," Yūri explained.
JJ pointed to something behind Yūri. "You sure?"
Yūri turned around, trying to find what had caught JJ's attention when a flash of red met her eye. She had to blink several times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Standing next to the buffet table—with evenly dyed hair that was more red than auburn—was He Long, deep in conversation with Cao Bin.
But how did he get into the banquet this time? More importantly, why was he here? Why did he come when Yūri couldn't even get a medal to prove her place beside him?
"Is that Viktor Ahn or Yuan He Long?" Isabella wondered, pronouncing the speed skater's name correctly.
"He looks more like Viktor Ahn—no, he's not!" JJ squinted at He Long, eyes widening in realization. "Viktor Ahn's got dark hair right now! That's the Shanghai Dragon!" he exclaimed, paying little attention to the people around them who noticed his raised voice.
"You follow short track speed skating?" Yūri asked in amazement.
"We take winter sports very seriously, Yūri," Isabella asserted. "But you should see JJ and his family when they watch hockey."
"And the look on my dad's face when Yuan beat Hamelin in the super final." JJ set aside the champagne flute he had stolen from Yūri to strut over to the Chinese skaters. "Yuan He Long!"
"Oh, no, tell me he wasn't serious about threatening Long," Yūri groaned as Cao Bin and He Long looked at the Canadian skater approaching them.
"JJ isn't a violent person. He'd never threaten anybody," Isabella said reassuringly at the same time that JJ slapped a hand firmly on He Long's shoulder. "He really wouldn't," she insisted.
"But somebody has to stop him!" Yūri left her punch glass on the table and hurried over, catching parts of their conversation as she drew closer.
"—too bad you couldn't compete in the 1000m final—you didn't get that patch when you crashed out, did you?"
"No, I got it from—" He Long seemed notice Yūri from the corner of his eye and turned to face her. "皇后!" he greeted with the nickname he had given her not too long ago.
"You call her 'empress'?" Cao Bin asked, answering the confused look that appeared on JJ's face.
Yūri was afraid to ask why He Long was here. Had he come out of genuine worry? Or had he come because he realized he deserved better than a fourth-place finisher? Just as Yūri was preparing for the inevitable breakup, that fear vanished the second she saw the large bandage covering his right eyebrow. "What happened to you?" she cried.
"Yūri, I'm all right. My rink mates and I crashed during training," He Long said, raising his hands to touch the ones cradling his forehead. "It's nothing serious," he added.
The red spot that had already bloomed across the pad of the adhesive bandage begged to differ. "What were you doing?"
"I didn't do anything," the speed skater reminded, almost sounding like Venus trying to justify why she had smacked Giles across the head for the umpteenth time. (Usually the excuse included that the guy was an idiot.) "One of their skates almost sliced my eyebrow off."
"Weren't you wearing your helmet?" Cao Bin questioned.
"Crazy things can happen with skates when you crash out," Yūri could hear JJ explain.
Yūri couldn't help but lightly touch the bandage with her thumb. "Does it still hurt?"
"A little," He Long admitted, "but maybe a kiss will make it better?"
"What?" Yūri squeaked, immediately pulling her hands away from her boyfriend's face.
It wasn't that she didn't want to kiss him—he was her boyfriend, after all! And it was a completely normal thing for couples to do. But not only did his question surprise her, it sounded way too similar to what Viktor Nikiforov had asked of her after she crashed into him during the gala rehearsal. Yūri was convinced Viktor had been teasing her then and He Long was definitely doing the same now.
He Long cocked his head. "You kissed Kenjiro when you saw his injuries the other day. Won't you do the same for me, Empress?"
When she heard the nickname he had given her, Yūri tried not to look away from her boyfriend. He stood before her as a world champion—and able to be called an emperor—and Yūri couldn't even make the podium. "He Long…I'm hardly an empress," she said softly.
Yūri backed away a little as He Long leaned down to eye level with her, amber eyes examining her like a puzzle. "Now that you mention it, empresses were usually more miserable," he noted. "Plus a kiss from the empress sounds like an assassination attempt."
"All that's missing is the pond," Yūri reminded. Too bad the fountain she had seen earlier was all the way out in the lobby.
He Long grimaced, as if he knew what Yūri was thinking of at the moment. "Lesson learned."
"Yūri!" A large hand rested on Yūri's left shoulder as Chris slapped his other hand on the Chinese skater's back, knocking the wind out of He Long. "So this is the boyfriend I've heard so much about!" The Swiss boomed. There was a gleeful look in his eyes that reminded her of Phichit when he was about to post something that would explode the Internet. In other words, Chris had something planned and it wasn't going to end well.
"You've committed a serious crime stealing one of our own from under our noses," Chris said solemnly as he scrutinized He Long. "That's a dangerous line to cross."
The only eyebrow not covered by a patch rose as if in challenge. "I'm a speed skater," He Long stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "You think I haven't crossed lines before?"
Chris barked out a laugh as he removed his hand from Yūri's shoulder, leaving her to watch as Chris stroked his chin. "Why don't we have a friendly chat together? Just you and me and a knife and a flame—"
"Hey!" JJ protested, joining Chris as he stood before He Long. Cao Bin could only shrug helplessly at his fellow countryman before sipping his drink. "I called first dibs on the shovel talk! Right, Yūri?" The Canadian added, glancing back at her.
"I never said you could threaten him!" Yūri countered, but JJ appeared to not hear her as he bickered with Chris over who would give the shovel talk first.
"If you're going to threaten me, can you make it count?" He Long suggested nonchalantly. "Only one person ever gave me the shovel talk but Venus—"
Cao Bin started coughing after accidentally inhaling his drink. At the same time, Chris pulled his hand back as though the speed skater had burned him. "Venus?" The Swiss skater screamed.
"Great, you know Venus!" JJ took Chris' reaction as a chance to lead He Long away, presumably to threaten him like he promised earlier. "I don't know what Venus promised to do but did she threaten to put you way under?"
"Well, she promised to dig four meters—"
"Why four?"
Chris turned to Yūri, gaping as he looked at her then at the two men before he ran after JJ and He Long. "Come back here! You can't just drop Jones into the conversation and expect me to believe she let you live! Do you know how vicious Venus Jones is?!"
"Chris!" Yūri cried after him. Four years had passed since the scandal that led to Venus' and Yi-Rang's suspensions, but did Chris have to keep referring to Venus like a monster?
And why did everyone need to threaten He Long?
"Because it's not often that we find a speed skater among us," an accented male voice answered.
Turning to look at the newcomer, Yūri jolted in surprise. Great, not only had she said her thought out loud, the person who heard her—and answered—just had to be her idol! "Oh! Um, hi, Viktor."
"Yūri." She didn't want to look rude, but Yūri could barely bring herself to look at Viktor. She still remembered the feel of his arms around her legs when he lifted her. "Congratulations on your world record."
"Th-thank you. It's not as impressive compared to five world titles, though," Yūri admitted.
Viktor only made a noise in agreement before they stood in silence. Yūri wanted to break it, but what could she say? It seemed that the universe was determined to make her look like a fool in front of her idol.
"Would you like to dance?"
Yūri's head spun in response. "What?" Yūri wanted to believe that she had misheard, but Viktor was looking at her expectantly for an answer. "I—you…want to dance?" she asked hesitantly.
"No," Viktor answered. For a moment, Yūri almost relaxed knowing that she had misunderstood. "I want to dance with you," he corrected.
And just like that, Yūri knew that she had to be in a dream/nightmare. "I—Viktor, I'd love to but I—I really shouldn't—"
Yūri almost backed away as Viktor bent down to eye level with her, reminding Yūri of just how small she was. "All I ask for is one dance. Surely your lover isn't the jealous type?" he asked with a sly smile.
At the mention of her boyfriend, Yūri was ready to answer with a firm no when she hesitated. She knew what He Long was like when he was annoyed, especially if Phichit cracked the old joke at his name. She had seen his rare display of controlled anger that night along Deoksugung wall. But…she'd never seen him jealous before.
Wasn't that…good?
"Yūri!" JJ seemed to appear out of nowhere, getting between her and Viktor as though the Russian didn't exist. "Sorry, Viktor, but I'm gonna need to steal the lucky lady," he called over his shoulder as he began to lead Yūri away. "One of my teammates met your boyfriend and now he wants the two of you to play the newlywed game," JJ muttered to her.
"How's that going to work?"
"Luckily some first time competitors here brought notepads and markers for autographs."
"I mean, how does the newlywed game work?"
"It's really just to see how well the two of you know each other, but you're gonna need to watch out for Scott," JJ added. "He's definitely going to try and get embarrassing stuff out of you both."
Yūri looked behind herself, hoping to apologize for her abrupt exit when she saw Chris already at Viktor's side. Viktor held his head in unmistakable anger as he grabbed a champagne flute and drained it in one go.
She looked away as the words died with a heavy feeling in her chest.
Jjleroy!15
[Picture: Yūri's face is hidden by a large notepad with the words 'Botanical Garden'. He Long is looking somewhere off-screen while holding a notepad that says 'Riverfront'. Most people gathered around are in various stages of laughter.]
The newlywed game with yuri-katsuki
and shanghai-long, brought to you by
Team Canada! #worlds #banquet
#tokyo #newlywedgame #yurikatsuki
#yuanhelong #shanghaidragon
Jjleroy!15 It was Scott's turn. He regrets nothing.
foxrainyuri What was the question?
katsu-kiss Looks like they couldn't agree on their first date.
mila-babicheva First date or worst date?
phichit+chu Should have written Belle Isle yuri-katsuki shanghai-long
christophe-gc Love at first sight?
Jjleroy!15 foxrainyuri katsu-kiss mila-babicheva christophe-gc Sorry! Sworn by Canadian honor!
Yūri found herself outside of Celestino's office, reluctant to open the door. The heavy notes of "Why So Silent" from inside only fueled her desire not to enter. Slowly, Yūri opened the door and shut it quietly behind her. "Coach Celestino?"
Celestino spun in his seat and stood up, slapping his hands on his desk. 'Why do you always have to use her against me?!' Celestino screamed. Yūri would be lying if she said Celestino was rarely angry. She remembered his anger vividly. But he never directed it at her. No, the one who drew his ire frequently was—
'Then send her back, if you can't stand it!' Venus yelled, brandishing a bandaged finger behind her, where Yūri stood. 'Take a good look at her and tell me you can make a champion out of that!'
As they screamed at each other, Yūri tried to focus on her feet instead. Anywhere, as long her attention wasn't on the two people trying to shatter the windows with their voices. But the floor was gone, replaced by empty darkness and Yūri was falling—
Yūri jolted awake, looking around the room to make sure her dream hadn't followed her.
There was her carry-on next to her closet, along with her backpack. The two Trimmiens she'd gotten from Japan sat on her desk. Venus was probably still sleeping in her room. One look at her phone told her it was five in the morning. She'd gotten about six hours of sleep since she returned to Detroit.
The hand holding her phone trembled slightly. Her dream hadn't scared her. Seeing them scream at each other—arguing about her—certainly wasn't a recipe for a pleasant dream. But it didn't scare her enough to qualify as a nightmare. Living with Celestino and Venus during their more conflicting period made Yūri somewhat used to their outrages.
She wasn't scared.
She was hungry.
Yūri slowly climbed out of bed, leaving her room to seek out the refrigerator. Just as soon as she opened it, she closed the door with an apple in her hand.
Not wanting to wake up Venus by cutting the apple into slices, Yūri sat down at the kitchen table and bit into the fruit. Yūri heard a door open, followed by footsteps before Venus shuffled into view. The American skater rubbed her eyes as if she were trying to make sense of the scene before her.
"Bad dream," Yūri explained.
"That's not what I was gonna say," Venus mumbled. "I just can't believe you're finally eating an apple like a barbarian."
"I thought—since you were still sleeping—that I didn't need to cut it up and share."
"You know I barely remember to eat those things, Yūri." Venus settled into the chair across from her, tiredly propping her head up with her hand and an elbow on the table. "You haven't gone through my fridge for a midnight snack in years." Yūri wanted to point out it was now morning, but she decided it would be better not to do so.
"Say, Venus?" Her rink mate grunted in her half-conscious state. "Did JJ train here before?"
Venus opened her eyes, looking more alert than she had been with her initial response. "Canadian, undercut, and does this thing with his fingers like 'JJ Style'?"
Yūri made an affirmative sound. "He came down here half a year after Tae got her face bashed in," Venus confirmed. "What brought this up?"
"It's just—at the World Championships, JJ told me that he used to train here. But…" Yūri lowered her apple, straining to remember even a brief glimpse of JJ at the rink. "I don't remember seeing him at all back then." But she remembered other things.
She remembered screaming.
She remembered crying.
She remembered how those two years made her feel like she was trapped at the bottom of a pit.
"JJ booked it out of here a month after he arrived," Venus yawned, preventing Yūri from delving too deep into her memories. "Got scared off by Ciao Ciao."
Much to Yūri's dismay, her nightmare followed her back to reality.
Sort of.
As the arguing on the other end of the ice continued, Yūri peered over the barrier to check on the little junior girl who hid there with Phichit. The junior watched Phichit draw hamster faces on her cast. "My mom made me learn the quadruple jump," she said as though the video that captured the moment her ankle fractured wasn't available online.
"We know, kid," Venus replied.
"Coach Ciao Ciao said I wasn't ready, but my parents said I was."
"And that's why we listen to the coach."
"—supposed to teach her to land a quadruple jump faster than—!" Snippets of the argument carried over to their side of the rink, proving just how well parents listened to the coach.
"—she learned it overnight? Her triple Axel, her quad toe—"
"That you gave to her after my daughter failed—!"
"I gave her nothing!" Celestino's voice rang. "Those two jumps, she learned out of her own determination! That was all her!"
"There's the angry soccer mom," Venus noted as a woman's shrill screams echoed across the ice.
"Don't you mean the temper tantrum brat?" Yūri asked dryly. Phichit and Venus stared at her and Yūri blinked in surprise at her own uncaring remark.
She hadn't meant to say it, but the yelling was so annoying. Refusing to try to discuss things behind closed doors in favor of airing dirty laundry out in the open—how could anyone get any training done?
Those parents had absolutely no respect for the other skaters at all!
The next couple of days didn't seem to get any better for Celestino. At least he managed to keep it away from the ice this time, but Celestino's office wasn't entirely soundproof. Even behind a closed door, disgruntled parents still made themselves loud enough to be heard. If there was one thing Yūri was confident about, it was that the volume of one's voice hardly decided the outcome of an argument.
Except Venus used to win every argument against Celestino like that.
No, she won because of—Yūri narrowed her eyes as garbled yelling made its way even to the break room.
"Ignore it," Phichit advised as Yūri set her fork down.
"That's pretty hard to do. They made my milk sour already," Yūri grumbled.
"Celestino can't convince them to stop if you go on a hunger strike," Venus said offhandedly. Yūri's head spun towards her and Venus seemed to reconsider her answer. "You think those ass-hats are gonna care about the skater who jumped a quad before their little angel?"
Not that her new response was any better, but Yūri knew Venus was right. The people screaming their lungs out at Celestino weren't her parents. Yūri's parents were in Japan, waiting for her to come home for the first time in years. Even though it pained them, they supported her dreams and let her go. They cared about her.
The junior's parents cared for nobody. Not their own child, certainly not Yūri.
Yūri stood outside Celestino's office, wondering if she hadn't misread his text. Sadly, nothing changed. He'd texted her to meet in his office at this very moment.
She tensed up as soon as she grabbed the handle, expecting to hear an argument explode inside. But Yūri was met by a strange silence she hadn't heard in years. No meltdowns from parents, no Phantom of the Opera music in the background, not even a tirade from Venus. (She reminded herself that Venus was out on the ice.)
Yūri pushed the door open, expecting to see Celestino look up at her entrance. Only Celestino sat with his head in his hands, ears barely twitching to indicate he heard her enter. "…Coach Celestino?"
Celestino finally looked up at her. Yūri couldn't make out the exact details of his expression, but there was something that she recognized with total confidence: guilt. "Sit with me, Yūri."
The odd part about his request was that Celestino wasn't sitting in his own chair behind his desk. He'd chosen to sit in one of the chairs usually meant for skaters and visitors, positioning them so that they faced each other.
Yūri hesitantly sat down in the chair opposite of Celestino, who simply stared at her like he was trying to decide what to do with her. Yūri gripped the edge of her seat, wanting the uncomfortable silence to end but had no idea what to say.
Finally Celestino sighed. "Yūri…when we were preparing for your comeback…you wanted to add a triple Axel and a quad toe to your roster. So much that you asked Phichit to help you." Yūri nodded, unsure of why Celestino was bringing this up. "Why did you want to learn those two jumps?"
"I-I wanted to show Japan—the world, I mean—that I hadn't taken two years off for nothing." Celestino knew this, so why was he making Yūri say it? "Celestino, why are you asking me?"
"Yūri," he said softly, "you've outgrown me."
Yūri stared at him with wide eyes. "Celestino?"
"You never did get the quad toe ready for your comeback in time. Now look at you. Triple Axel, quad toe, world record—but this is as high as you'll ever go with me."
"…you're not telling me to leave, are you?" The Japanese skater could hardly believe what she was hearing. There was no way Celestino was trying to convince her to retire. Even if he was, Celestino would have done so during those two missing seasons. "This is about the quad toe, isn't it?" That must have been it. He was trying to disguise the fact that she was being driven out by disgruntled parents over a quad. There was nothing he could say that would convince her otherwise.
If that was what had happened, Celestino wasn't keen on confirming it. "I can't give you an environment that will help you grow here, Yūri. That's something I've failed to deliver in the five years since you arrived from Japan."
"That's not true—!"
"Yūri." Celestino's voice was firm this time, contrasting the softer tone he'd had before. "In the five years you've lived here, I've only completely coached you through two seasons. No matter what Yi-Rang Tae did, your senior debut was my responsibility. And you lived in pain for two years because of me."
'No! No more!'
Yūri swallowed, holding onto the seat of her chair to stop her hands from shaking. "But…you let me stay…You had every right to send me away but you didn't…"
"After everything you'd been through, I had to see your recovery to the end. I owed you that much, Yūri."
No. No, he didn't. Yūri was the one who owed him everything. She had chosen to leave the ice for two years. And Celestino—who had put up with her decision, who had tolerated it without ever pushing her to return or ordering her to leave if she didn't—had let her stay.
She didn't notice when Celestino pried one of her hands free from the seat, not until he let her hand go with a small folded paper resting in her palm. "I won't expect you to do as I say," Celestino said heavily, "but there is a coach that I can recommend. If you want…whenever you're ready, you can call him. He'll turn you into the champion you were meant to be."
Yūri's fingers closed around the paper as she looked up at Celestino—why was her vision blurry?—and threw her arms around him, sobbing. Celestino slowly wrapped his arms around her, patting her back.
"Yūri…it's time we end this."
Cialdini and Katsuki Split, New Coach Unconfirmed
Celestino Cialdini, a figure skating coach based at the Detroit Skating Club, has confirmed that he is no longer working with Yuri Katsuki.
The announcement was made after the World Figure Skating Championships where Katsuki set the free skating world record and completed the first quadruple toe loop in women's singles skating.
Cialdini states that the decision to end his collaboration with Katsuki was an amicable split. "Yuri has outgrown me," Cialdini replied when asked why their collaboration ended despite Katsuki's breakthrough. "She's learning so quickly that there's nothing left to teach her."
Amid rumors and theories from followers of figure skating, the Japanese Skating Federation states that Katsuki has yet to find another coach. "We are waiting for Katsuki's response. Rumors that say she has found a new coach have no basis."
Fukuoka, Japan
The only perk to being short was that she could squeeze past people with ease.
As Yūri waited for her luggage, she felt her phone go off. Thinking it was her family checking in to see where she was, she fished her phone out of her pocket.
Only it wasn't from any of her family members. Someone on WhatsApp was calling her. Her first thought was that He Long was calling, but the caller ID said otherwise: Chris Giacometti.
"Chris?" she wondered to herself as she pulled her mask down and picked up the call. "Hello?"
"Yūri!" Chris greeted on the other end. "Did you really split from Celestino?"
"How did you find out about that?" Yūri nearly yelled in surprise. It hadn't even been a week since she and Celestino ended things! How did word get out so quickly?
Maybe the JSF already released a statement—which would explain why they had given her the contact information of one Nikolai Morozov. Or maybe Chris had a set of ears in Detroit sharing skater gossip with him. (Yūri felt strangely tempted to throw Phichit under a Zamboni the next time she saw him.) "An article came out a few hours ago," Chris explained, and Yūri abandoned the Zamboni idea. "News travels quickly across the rink. Viktor's rink mate, Mila, is trying to contact you."
"Mila?" Yūri hadn't talked to Mila much after the World Championships. Why was she trying to reach her?
"She wants to hear it from you, she said. The article was a translation from a Japanese article, so something probably went missing in English and Russian," Chris added. "Mila asked me if I had your information. I'll only give it to her if you want to talk to her."
There was little that she knew about Chris personally, but she did know that he tended to overlook personal boundaries. Still, Yūri appreciated the fact that he didn't outright give Mila her contact number. "Thank you, Chris…I think I can handle Mila."
"Wonderful," Chris said. "Keep an eye on WhatsApp, she'll reach you through there. And Yūri?"
"Yes?"
"I hope the best for you next season."
Yūri smiled. "Thank you, Chris."
Yūri spotted her luggage just as she got off the phone with Chris. Patting the pocket where her phone rested, Yūri navigated the terminal in search of the exit. With luck, she'd be able to hail a cab to the train station and catch the train to Hasetsu.
And then Mila called.
Hasetsu had changed. Not enough to make her home foreign to her, but enough for Yūri to know that her home had grown in the same five years she spent in Detroit.
There were elevated tracks in the station where Yūri used to remember stairs. Faded tiles on the walls and floors had been replaced with newer, brighter colors. While the banners hadn't changed, Yūri could now read the one with Korean script as 'Welcome'. The most noticeable difference?
There were posters.
Everywhere.
It really shouldn't have bothered her, but Yūri happened to be the subject of every poster lined along the walls. Every single one of them featured her either in one of her program costumes, the most frequent ones being those from her comeback year.
Since her phone's battery had given out before she ever reached the station in Fukuoka, there had been no way to contact her family on her arrival time. Yūri's return to Yu-topia until she set foot into her family's onsen and called, "I'm home!"
The paper screen window near the entrance immediately slid open as her father poked his head out to see who had come in. His eyes widened the instant he recognized her. "Yūri!" Toshiya Katsuki left his office at the same time Mari stood up from the lounge area while her mother peeked out of the kitchen.
"Yūri!" As her family rushed over to greet her, the familiar atmosphere of her home made her relax as if she hadn't spent five years away in a foreign country. The only thing left to complete the picture was—
Yūri grinned as she heard the jingle of a tag followed by rapid footsteps. She looked around her mother to see a tiny bundle of curly brown fur scampering towards her. "Vicchan!"
"'Here in Saint Petersburg, Russia, rising star Yuri Plisetsky is gearing up in earnest to join the senior competition.'" On TV, the Russian teen who shared her name prepared to set up a jump before he kicked off. "Whoa! Did you see that jump? Make that two jumps!" Yūri exclaimed. The lack of response made her remember where she was, with people who barely paid attention to figure skating. Meanwhile, Yuri Plisetsky was shown listening to something Yakov was telling him.
Something in Yūri dropped when she saw the aged coach on TV. Vicchan, sensing that something felt wrong, began to sniff her frantically. Mila had offered to ask Yakov to coach her, but Yūri thought she was making a joke.
Was it a joke, though? Yūri unlocked her phone and searched through WhatsApp, stopping on a chat with her new contact. Lo and behold, Mila wasted no time in getting her Yakov's contact information. But did she really mean it? Would Yakov even consider her?
"Looks like you made some friends in America," Mari noted as she sat down beside her at the table. "Whose number is that?"
"This?" Yūri looked at her screen. "A friend in Russia recommended a coach to me, in case I had trouble deciding."
"Russia?" Mari nearly exclaimed. "You got a coaching offer from Russia?"
"Yes."
"If it's Morozov, I am going to give him some strong words," her sister warned. "That man has some nerve if he thinks he can turn you into his next Miki."
"It's not Morozov," Yūri assured, refraining from telling her sister about Morozov's offer relayed to her by the JSF. "But I barely know who this coach is, too." Which wasn't completely a lie. Yūri might have had a gist of what Yakov was like through interviews, but she had no idea what kind of person he was towards his skaters. Was he kind when the cameras weren't on him? Was he every bit the authoritarian he appeared to be?
"Then ask your friend what they're like," Mari suggested. "They wouldn't have given you a number if they didn't want you to know."
Yūri was hesitant to call Mila. Given the time difference, Mila was probably in the middle of training. Or since it was the off-season, maybe she was with her boyfriend. With that in mind, Yūri sent off a message.
Yuri Katsuki
Hi, Mila! Sorry to bother you,
but I wanted to ask you what
Yakov is like. Not just as a coach,
but his personality too.
"Yakov?!" Yūri jolted, not realizing that Mari had read her message to Mila over her shoulder. "You got a coaching offer from Yakov Feltsman? Viktor Nikiforov's coach? Where are you going?" Mari asked as Yūri stood up.
"Celestino gave me something before I left Detroit. I need to find it," Yūri explained as she headed to her room with Vicchan at her heels. Once she was there, Yūri looked through the notebooks she had unpacked, grabbing one with a small folded paper sticking out from the top. Yūri grabbed the paper and unfolded it, sitting down to take in the information on it. Vicchan stood on his hind legs, begging to be put on her lap rather than settling for a scratch on the head.
Brian E. Orser
Toronto Cricket, Skating, and Curling Club
1-XXX-XXX-XXXX
It seemed so unreal to her. Yūri knew it shouldn't have. Her first glimpse of the contact info Celestino had given her was at the airport when Mila called. The Japanese skater had hours before she came home to take in the fact that Celestino had given her a way to contact Brian Orser.
It wasn't that he was a terrible coach—even if they barely had a chance at Worlds, his students still placed high enough at other competitions to be considered threats. But Brian Orser was Yuna Kim's old coach and the current coach of one of her teammates. This was the man who raised two Olympic medalists.
And Yūri was the late-bloomer who called quits in the middle of her senior debut.
Would he even want her as a student?
Unlike Saint Petersburg, there was nobody she knew in Toronto whose number she could readily call to ask about Brian Orser.
Except...didn't JJ train in Toronto? At the same club where Orser taught his students? As soon as the thought came to mind, her phone pinged. Twice, then three times.
Mila Babicheva
When he coaches, Yakov notices
every mistake we make and he'll
go off on us for it. Be ready to
take orders, Yakov hates when you
ignore what he has to say.
Mila Babicheva
He's not that different off ice.
But he's not evil. Viktor and Yuri
give him headaches often.
Mila Babicheva
Yakov is bald because of Vitya lol
Whether Mila had sent the last text to lighten the mood or not, Yūri had no idea. Sending a thank you text to Mila, Yūri prepared herself to get a hold of JJ. Finding him on Instagram was easy enough, seeing as Yūri had started following him after the World Championships and vice versa. But the time difference between Hasetsu and Toronto was greater than the difference between Hasetsu and Saint Petersburg. Yūri was sure that JJ was probably starting to call it a night.
yuri-katsuki
Hi, JJ. When you have the time,
can you tell me how much you
know about Brian Orser?
She didn't expect an immediate response. Either JJ was fast asleep or he was wondering why Yūri was asking him about a coach that wasn't his own. Now she couldn't help but wonder if she had offended him by asking about Orser. Her phone pinged and Yūri braced herself for the response.
Jjleroy!15
Brian? I've only seen him in
passing. I don't train at the
same time as his students.
He's nice enough, though.
Jjleroy!15
Why are you asking about him?
yuri-katsuki
Before I left Detroit, Celestino
gave me his contact info in
case I wanted him to be my
new coach.
JJ took longer to reply this time and Yūri couldn't help but wonder if she dropped a bomb on him with this news. Even if she couldn't remember him when he skated in Detroit, he remembered her. If Yūri did end up skating in Toronto, JJ would see her practically everyday. And Yūri didn't know how they would ignore the fact that despite sharing a rink before, Yūri practically ignored his existence.
Jjleroy!15
Seriously? He recommended
Brian to you?!
Jjleroy!15
I know Yuzu doesn't do social
media, but why didn't you ask
Venus?
Yūri sat up abruptly at JJ's second message, reading it over again to make sure she hadn't misread it. Why did he mention Venus?
yuri-katsuki
Venus? What for?
JJ's first reply came in the form of a picture, featuring JJ and Isabella along with several other people gathered at a table. Among them, Yūri immediately recognized her best friend, looking at ease with the group she was with.
Jjleroy!15
We're celebrating. Venus just
came up to the cricket club to
train with Brian. Didn't she tell
you?
"No!" Yūri yelled before she realized JJ couldn't hear her. Before she could message him saying that much, a FaceTime call appeared on her phone from the very same person they were just texting about. "Venus!"
The biracial skater waved at her from her phone. "Hey, Yūri!" she greeted while some of the other people in the background echoed some kind of greeting as well.
"Bonsoir from Canada, tiny queen!" JJ called from where he sat.
"I didn't know you were in Canada now! When did you break it off with Celestino?"
"A week before you went back to Japan," Venus said. "I wasn't going where I wanted with Ciao Ciao. He's probably celebrating now that he's gotten rid of me."
"Don't say that," Yūri protested.
Venus gave her a look of dissent. "Yūri, we both know he's been looking to get rid of me since the old incident. I didn't have the option to pick another coach until now."
"So you went to Brian Orser? Is he treating you fairly?"
"Brian doesn't judge, if that's what you mean," JJ piped in from the background.
"But he and Tracy were wary when I first called. By the way, his co-coach is Tracy Wilson," Venus added. "She's a great person—"
"Tracy is like a mother away from home," one of the other skaters interrupted.
"—and if Brian's busy, she'll be helping you," Yūri's best friend finished. "If you decide to come over, you'll make things interesting. Yuzuru has been asking me all about you."
"Yuzuru?" The name of one of the few prominent male Japanese skaters and her team mate had her tilting her head. "Why is he asking about me?"
"Yūri," JJ said with a solemn expression," when you took his present for you at Worlds, he was so happy, his scream made it to Toronto and greeted us when we returned." A few of the other skaters and Isabella chuckled at this.
"It's your choice, Yūri. You've got probably until June to decide," Venus assured.
"Thanks, Venus."
"I'll leave you to it, then. Night—talk to you later, Yūri!" her friend corrected herself.
Once the call ended, Yūri set Vicchan on her lap and leaned back in her chair. Her decision just became that much harder. Who was she supposed to call? Yakov Feltsman or Brian Orser? Russia or Canada?
What about China? He Long? Yūri sat up as she reached for her phone again. Maybe He Long could offer some advice. Once she located his contact, she put her phone to her ear, trying to calm Vicchan's growling while she waited for a response. When only the voicemail answered her, Yūri hung up.
If He Long wasn't picking up, it was likely he was busy with off-season training. Speaking of which...
"Vicchan?" Her aged miniature poodle looked at her. "Do you want to go for a walk?" She smiled widely when Vicchan tilted his head at the word. "Want to go to the rink?" Vicchan yapped in response.
They took their time walking to Ice Castle Hasetsu now that Vicchan was no longer the spry poodle of Yūri's childhood. Vicchan was more than happy to hide in Yuko's office once they arrived, preferring to rest while Yūri tried to skate her thoughts away.
"Something bothering you, Yūri?" Yuko asked as Yūri stopped at the barrier after flubbing a jump.
"...Yuko?" Her old rink mate tilted her head in confusion. "Can you help me with something?"
"Of course, Yūri. Just tell me what's going on."
Before Yūri could so much as get a word out, the doors to the rink burst open with Minako's entrance. "There you are, Yūri! Why else weren't you answering your cell?!"
"Minako-sensei—" Yūri and Yuko both started.
"—what's wrong?" Yuko finished as Minako rushed over to the rink barrier to grab Yūri.
"Why didn't you tell me you got a coaching offer from Yakov Feltsman?!" Minako exclaimed.
"How did you—?!"
"You got a coaching offer from Yakov Feltsman?!" Yuko shrieked at her.
Out of nowhere, three identical faces—each distinguished by a different hairstyle for each head—popped up over the spectator's side of the rink. "Really, Auntie Yūri?" the three squeaked in unison.
Behind Minako, Takeshi Nishigori entered the rink. "What's with all the noise?"
At once, Minako, his wife Yuko, and Takeshi's triplets turned to Takeshi. "Yūri just got an offer from Yakov Feltsman!"
Yūri wondered how some people were able to faint on the spot whether it was out of shock or pure exasperation. She really wished she could do that as the rink erupted once more with screams.
Stowed away in the office with Vicchan resting on a cushion beside her, Yūri explained the whole ordeal to the Nishigori family and Minako. By the end of it, there were several expressions of differing emotions around her.
"That's really tough, Yūri," Takeshi noted as he scratched the back of his head.
"They're both renowned coaches, and their skaters are enough to show how effective they are as coaches," Minako remarked.
"But it should be your choice. You should go where you want, Yūri," Yuko insisted.
"That's the problem! I don't know where I want to go!" Yūri admitted.
"Then let us help, Auntie Yūri!" The triplets wheeled over a whiteboard and Axel—Yūri knew that Axel liked to wear pigtails—armed herself with a marker while Loop brought over a stepping stool for her sister to stand on. Axel wrote down Russia and Canada, separating them with a line down the middle of the board. "Let's start with Russia!" Lutz giggled, rubbing her hands with a slightly evil expression on her face. "What's making you want to train with Yakov?"
"Well, for starters, it's obvious that Viktor Nikiforov is part of the reason," Takeshi chuckled.
"Takeshi!" Yūri protested as Axel wrote down 'VIKTOR NIKIFOROV'.
"Do you have any friends in Saint Petersburg, Yūri?" Yuko asked.
"Well...Mila Babicheva," Yūri said hesitantly. "She was the one who gave me his contact info."
"So he didn't contact you directly," Minako noted while Axel added 'Friend-Mila Babicheva' to the list. "Anything else?"
"...Yakov teaches solid jumping technique and consistency," Yūri recalled.
"Finally, something more solid," Takeshi sighed as 'Technique&Consistency' was quickly drawn on the board. "Is that all?"
"I think that's it."
"Then on to Canada!" Axel jumped down from the stool as Loop moved the stool to the left before jumping on. "What's good about Canada?"
"For one, Yūri actually speaks English so there won't be any problems communicating there," Takeshi pointed out.
"Brian's skating technique is decent and his skaters tend to last long in their careers," Minako added while Loop quickly wrote down the pros of training in Toronto.
"I have a few friends there, too," Yūri spoke up. "Jean-Jacques—JJ Leroy," she corrected as Loop started adding to the 'Friends' subcategory, "and my rink mate from Detroit, Venus."
All heads immediately spun to look at her in gaping disbelief. "Venus Jones?!"
Vicchan whined in response to the abrupt wake-up call. Yūri wanted to pull her hair in exasperation. "Why does everyone do that?!"
"Yūri, we're talking about Venus Jones here!" Minako emphasized, her eyes wide and panicked. "Do we really need to remind you of what she did—"
"And I suppose Tae Yi-Rang was an angel compared to her?" Yūri snapped. She immediately regretted it when Minako recoiled in response. "...I know what Venus did," Yūri slowly admitted, "and I know there are people who think she wasn't disciplined properly for it. But I've skated with Venus for years. What happened back then is not who she is and it never has been. She's a good person."
Everyone in the room looked at each other doubtfully and Yūri knew they were questioning her judgement. Slowly, Loop returned to the whiteboard and wrote under 'Friends': Venus Jones. "So... now what?"
"You can only pick one person," Takeshi said, examining the lists his daughters wrote up. "But to be honest, Brian Orser seems like the obvious choice for you, Yūri."
"But with Yakov, Yūri would land her jumps more," Yuko pointed out. "Russian skating focuses on good technique."
"You would have to learn a whole new language, though," Minako added.
"You're not making it any easier for me!" Yūri exclaimed.
"Then there's only one thing to do!" The triplets scattered and returned in the blink of an eye. Axel held a drawstring bag that Lutz poured colored marbles into, three red and three blue. Loop passed Yūri what had to be a sleeping mask while Axel drew the bag shut and shook it vigorously. "Put the mask on and pick a marble, Auntie Yūri!"
"We're really gonna leave it up to chance?" Takeshi wondered.
"Might as well," Yūri said as she took off her glasses and slipped the mask over her eyes. Once her vision went dark, Yūri reached out until she felt a tiny hand holding ruffled cloth. That had to be the bag's opening. Yūri slipped her hand in, swirling the contents around until she closed her fingers around a marble. "Which one is which?" she asked.
"Red is Russia, blue is Canada," Axel's voice explained.
Now armed with that knowledge, Yūri pulled her hand out at the same time she lifted the mask. Her eyebrows rose into her hairline once she saw what color she drew. "Oh..."
mila-babicheva
[Picture: Mila laughing at the camera while a sleeping Yuri is surrounded by cat plushies.]
Sweet dreams, yuri-plisetsky
#WaitingOnYouYuriKatsuki
Jjleroy!15
[Photo: Several skaters gathered on the ice around Venus holding up the American flag.]
Hello from Canada, with our
newest #CricketSib queen-vjones
#andnowwewait
#waitingonyouyurikatsuki