CHAPTER THIRTEEN

-Back, back, back to work! Gold medals don't win themselves!-

January 19

The first time Yuri set eyes on the St. Petersburg Skate Club, he had to pause, looking up at the architecture in stunned silence. He'd seen it a number of times before on the television, but being there in person...was different.

"I thought you said it was too cold to wait around?" Victor mused, coming up behind him suddenly, "You were all too eager to rush inside, but now you're just standing out here."

"I just..." Yuri started, looking from his fiancé to the building again, "The cold suddenly doesn't matter... I've seen this place from a distance so many times... I mean, right before you came to Hasetsu, I saw a program about this rink, and I saw Yurio do the quad Salchow for the first time... I feel like I have history here, even though I've never been here before. It's just...surreal to finally be standing in front of it. It's definitely a different kind of building from the Ice Castle, too."

"Ah, yeah...the show. RSF people come here all the time to do interviews." The silver nodded. He hefted his backpack a bit further up onto his shoulders, keeping his thumbs under the straps as he looked up at the building as well, "Usually after big competitions, especially if someone won something. I'm sure they've already come and gone since Yurio got back though." His right hand came down then and pressed gently to the back of his partner's jacket, "Shall we?"

The outside of the rink looked like a European palace, in its own way. Inside, huge windows overlooked the nearby river, and Yuri could see the bridge they'd come across on their way over. The walls around the rink were a dark aqua green-blue color, with the pillars around it a lighter version of the same. Three Russian flags, suspended vertically, with their signature double-headed eagle were on the far wall. Yuri was absolutely beaming to see it all, like he was about to recede into utter fanboy-mode, especially as he saw familiar faces out on the ice; Yurio, Mila, Georgi, and Yakov was there too, but he was on the rink-wall on the opposite side. Their presence was quickly noticed, and Mila yelled out at them loudly in greeting, letting the entire building know they'd arrived. Yurio just crossed his arms and scoffed. Georgi looked, but returned to what he was doing. Yakov on the other hand...

"VICTOR! YOU WAITED A WEEK TO COME!"

Victor smiled and sighed, glanced at his fiancé briefly, gave the man's hand a squeeze, and stepped forward towards the rink, "Sorry, Yakov! It was a holiday! I wanted to show Yuri before it was all over."

"YOU'RE THE WORST COACH! THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH YURI STILL NEEDS TO PRACTICE BEFORE FOUR CONTINENTS!"

Yuri could only blanch nervously where he stood in the background, "...Maybe that's where Victor gets it? It's like he thinks I'm the worst skater."

.

Quadruple Salchow...single Loop...triple Toe-loop...

Combination spin...

Single-knee slide...twist...quad Flip...

Yuri quietly cursed himself, landing the Flip without a problem and wishing he'd done the same when it mattered most.

If I hadn't touched down with my hand, I'd have scored higher in the Short Program and would've won Gold despite Yurio's higher GOE modifiers... Why did I score so low in the SP anyway!? Where did I lose 10 points from!? I scored over 100 at both the previous events, and I performed better at the Final!

He lifted his head and glanced around, trying to get his mind off the torment of that one mistake. Victor was nearby practicing as well, but that just lead to other thoughts though.

Things were so much easier when I had Victor as just my coach...but with him coming back to competition, it's like I can't focus. I'm anxious to see him skate again, but so scared that I won't live up to his expectations... How can I though? He's the greatest skater of our generation; the best in all of history, really. How can I possibly compete against that?

"Yuri!" He heard the man's voice calling from rink-side, "Bring it in!"

Yuri blinked in confusion, But he was just...in the rink a second ago, wasn't he? He thought frantically, wondering how Victor went from a step sequence to being on the rink wall with his jacket on in the seconds that passed between. Yuri just shook his head though, I must be over-thinking things again... Nodding though, he clicked his heels and started skating for where the silver legend was standing within one of the rink's many exits, and noted that the man had a notepad in one hand, "So you've finally put your program to paper?" Yuri wondered, coming to a stop just a step or two away, frost sticking to his chrome blades.

"Oh, this?" Victor held it up, "No, I was tracking what you were doing. What was all that, anyway? You started and stopped half a dozen times. I saw bits of both your programs out there, but nothing consistent. Then you just kind of quit at some point and stood there for a while, not doing anything."

"Oh." Yuri stammered, "So that's what happened. I guess I'm just...distracted."

"You know where that leads." Victor mused, reaching out to ruffle his beloved's hair a little before sliding his finger along the man's jawline, tracing to his chin, "What's wrong? You're not still upset about the RSF conference are you? That was almost 2 weeks ago already. Even I'm over it at this point."

"It does still get under my skin a bit, yes...but..." Yuri sighed, "Maybe it's just starting to sink in that you're actually coming back as a competitor. I mean...I know that's what I wanted, but... I'm nervous about competing against you. I don't know if I'll be able to live up to my end of the bargain, and win Gold...not when you're there trying to win it, too. I can't come close to beating your scores."

"You beat my Free Skate record!" Victor reminded him, "Plus, you're not the only one that's nervous." He used his finger to draw his partner closer to the rink wall, "Both of my records were shattered at the Final. You've gotten so good in such a short amount of time...it scares me a little to think about how high your scores can go, moving forward." The hand slid from jaw to the side of the man's neck, fingertips lightly brushing through a few strands of black hair.

Yuri's face flushed, but his brows furrowed with worry, "...Please don't say something like that, Victor..."

The silver blustered a confused laugh, "Why not? It's true. You and Yurio are really forcing me to step up my game." He said. He put both of his hands on his fiancé's shoulders and used them to turn the anxious skater around, then pulled him back until the heels of his blades were grazing the edge of the ice, where frost met concrete flooring. He pressed in against his partner's back, arms sneaking against the man's sides to put his hands across that scrawny chest, "Close your eyes."

Yuri did as told, and felt those arms hug him a little tighter.

Victor set his chin down on the shoulder he'd been looking over, and closed his eyes as well, "The crowd is cheering, anticipating the next skater to step out. There's a hum in the air; everyone can feel it. The best skater in the world is going put on a show..." He said, setting the stage, but then leaned in closer to one ear and whispered, "Next to take the ice, representing Japan...Yuri Nikiforov... Aaaaaah~!" He added, mimicking the cheers of an imaginary audience.

Cheeks flushed again, and Yuri opened his eyes a little, "Are you sure I didn't have a heart attack and die when we got to your house? It's all too perfect, like my ideal afterlife."

Victor gave him quite the look, one eyebrow raised, but then huffed a laugh and licked the back of his partner's neck.

"Yeek!" Yuri's whole body quivered when he felt it, and he brought his hands back up to his mouth, as though somehow that would put his shriek back inside.

The Russian just laughed at him and held him tighter, resting his chin on the man's shoulder again like before, "That works better than a pinch, I guess. Have I convinced you that you're alive and awake now?"

"...O-oh sure...fully awake..." Yuri answered from behind his hands, lowering one to hold where Victor's were flat against his chest, while the other went back to rub at the spot where the man had left a wet trail on his skin, "No doubt about it."

"Is there anything in particular you want to work on?" Victor then wondered casually, "The quad Lutz maybe?"

"...I've been trying to figure out what I did wrong at the Final during my Short Program. Replaying it in my head, over and over..." He answered pensively, and lifted his eyes to look out through the massive windows that lined the river-side of the arena, "Even though I did the Flip, and lost a point for dropping my hand down...I can't think of what I did wrong to cost me so many points in other areas, compared to me other scores. I went out there thinking I'd skated the best show of the season, but then barely scored better than at Regionals." He turned his head back, trying to catch a glimpse of his partner, "...You saw the show from the Judge's perspective. What did I mess up?"

"Do you want to pull up the score cards again?" Victor offered, "See the actual numbers they gave you?"

"I know I was nickel-and-dimed to death on a lot of things." Yuri recalled, "But the numbers are just the answer...I want to know the reason they scored that way."

"Sometimes they're pretty stickler about things." Victor shrugged, and pulled back again to slide his hands from chest to shoulders. He gave a gentle thumb-rub into those tense muscles, "Other than putting your hand down during the Flip at the end, I didn't see anything wrong with your SP."

Yuri went quiet for a moment, trying to lose himself in the feeling of the shoulder-rub. He lifted his right hand and looked at the gleam on his ring before turning his blades to rotate around and face the man, "I have to keep getting better." He slid forward a little and set his hands on his partner's waist, moving in close, "You've been able to push me this far in just one off-season... It's more than Celestino was able to accomplish in all the years I was in Detroit. How much further do you think you can push me...? Is there a limit...?"

Victor extended his arms out over his fiancé's figure, but then bent back his right, and tapped a finger against his lip in thought, "I think there'll be a point where you can do six quads in a Free Skate. If you do most, or even all of them in Tano form, then..."

"...Raising my arms up like Yurio did..." Yuri said aloud, and lowering his eyes a little as he imagined it. When he lifted hazel orbits again, he found his intended words being cut off by a kiss. Eyes went wide for a moment, but Yuri soon settled, closed those eyes again, and let himself exhale his tension.

Victor huffed a laugh, "One thing at a time. Get good at what you haven't mastered yet, and then worry about making things harder for yourself." He spun his beloved around again and pushed him out a bit further onto the rink's surface, then turned to remove his own blade guards, and joined him. He sped past like a silver blur, twisting around to skate backwards around the short end of the rink, warming up a little, "Come on, let's practice 'Duetto' while it's clear."

Yuri nodded, and reached out to take his partner's hand as they came close to each other. They headed out towards the center of the rink, and let go again only to let Yuri take his position; Victor moved off a little bit to give the man space. Perhaps unknown to the pair, or maybe even in spite of it, Yurio gawked at them from the rink's edge, on the opposite end of the ice from where they'd been talking before, slouched motionless over the wall like a can of frozen paint. He watched them quietly as Yuri performed the first part of 'Aria,' completing his two initial quads, though stumbling on the Lutz like he had been. Emerald eyes skimmed over to where Victor entered the stage after the second jump, touching Yuri's face briefly before they clasped fingers and started skating backwards together in an arc. Yurio couldn't decide if the display was weird or fascinating, so he reserved judgment for the moment.

A few seconds later, Yuri pulled out in front of his partner, and the Russian held fast to his waist. In one fluid motion, Victor hoisted him up into the air before the flip brought him back around and down, then held him low against his side to drag Yuri's bladed feet behind them. Yuri held onto his fiancé's left shoulder with his right hand, letting himself hang as low as he could before being pulled back up again, then spun over the Russian's back until he was upright and they could skate on their own again.

Shit, they're doing pair moves now? No wonder it looked all weird. Victor wasn't teaching him 'Aria' at all! They're doing a new program as a duo! Yurio realized, but then suddenly gasped at something else, "KATSUD-" He started.

Yuri abruptly went tumbling down with a crash and a shriek; Victor could do nothing but keep sliding, though he looked back in stunned confusion before putting the brakes on to go back.

Yurio grimaced and slid his hand down one side of his face, "Uugghhh... I should've said something earlier." He grumbled, and pushed off the wall.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Victor asked, now returned to his partner's side. He crouched down to a knee and looked his beloved over, "You were doing really well."

"My blade got caught on something," Yuri explained, still feeling a bit of whiplash from the sudden tumble. He rubbed his head and looked at his hand, "...That really hurt."

"You're not hurt-hurt, are you?"

"Only my pride. ...I'm just glad you didn't catch it." Yuri said, shaking his head, "We both might've gone down if you had."

"Tsh... Victor doesn't fall." The teen grumbled quietly, unheard by the duo as he came out onto the ice in his sneakers. He carried with him a bucket of shaved ice, with a hockey puck and a spray-bottle of water.

"You sure you're not hurt?" Victor insisted, helping his fiancé back to his feet, "I saw how hard you went down...it was like you were pulled."

"I caught the crack just right."Yuri retorted as he brushed the ice dust off his backside and thighs, then looked around at the ice, "...Now that I look at it, it's like the ice hasn't been resurfaced in a while."

"That's because the zamboni was down this morning." Yurio said indifferently as he finally got close enough to be heard. He stepped over to where he remembered Yuri getting snagged, found the crack, and packed it solid with the shaved ice. He smoothed the small white pile down with the puck, forcing the ice into the deepest reach of the crevice, and misted it for good measure. "The morning class was full of a bunch of asshole kids who thought it would be funny to smash their heel-picks into the ice and make holes as deep as possible. That's why I'm not skating right now. Only you two idiots went this far out...the rest of the team stayed to the far side of the rink. We don't plan on breaking our legs before going to Euros."

"...Are you the only one left?" Yuri asked, looking around briefly.

"More or less. Some people are in the side-rooms cooling down."

"Hey Yurio, you want to come over tonight?" Victor then asked, "I'll make you some katsudon."

The teen paused, shifting his eyes towards the sound of Victor's voice from where he stood facing away with his bucket. Before he knew what he'd even said in response, he realized he was following the pair outside the skating arena and was crossing the bridge with them. He walked on Victor's side of the sidewalk, while Yuri was on the other, holding onto Victor's hand like a duckling-toy being lead along with string. He couldn't help but gawk at their hands.

"You two turds don't make any sense." Yurio finally said. "You know that?"

"What do you mean?" The oldest of them wondered, looking over at him.

"You two." He waved one hand at where they held theirs together, "That. This...thing you have going on."

"You mean our relationship?"

"Call it whatever you want; it's weird. I never expected you'd play on that side of the fence."

"Truth be told, there isn't really much of a fence for me." Victor explained, and gave Yuri's hand a little to reassure him that what he was about to say was just that...an explanation, "I've had girlfriends before, as you know. I appreciate beauty in all its forms."

"Katsudon wasn't exactly beautiful when he did 'Aria' last year. He was just some fat, depressed quitter."

Yuri blanched, but said nothing; he did gawk back over his shoulder though and gave the Tiger a pouty-faced look.

"Even diamonds start as coal. Kobuta-chan just needed a little pressure to shine."

"Aw c'mon, don't go back to that..." Yuri begged, "I lost the weight just like you wanted..."

"And you're the tastiest little pork cutlet bowl in the whole world right now, don't you worry, Yuri." Victor mused, and reached over to pinch his beloved's cheeks with his free hand, much to Yuri's chagrin, "I won't let you get a squishy tummy again."

"Ugh gross." Yurio stuck his tongue out like there was a bad taste there, "Are you gonna make me listen to that crap all night? If so, I'll just go see if my grandpa will make his katsudon pirozkhi instead."

"Don't worry." Victor reassured, "I'll only be eating the food tonight."

Yuri dropped face-first into the snow, needing to be dragged along from then on.

Yurio nearly jumped off the bridge.

Victor just kept laughing.

.

Rice.

Eggs.

Breaded pork cutlet.

Katsudon was fairly simple as a dish, but that special something extra that only Yuri's family did made them taste even better.

Yurio practically vacuumed his out of the bowl as his older rink-mate put it in front of him, "This isn't half bad, Victor."

"Spasibo~!" He answered cheerfully from where he was on the other side of the kitchen island.

"So you really have a new routine already to take the place of 'Agape'?" Yuri wondered, surprised to hear it, "When did you come up with it?"

"After the Final. I'm just not feeling it with 'Agape.'" He explained, "But it's not like it's a bad program. It's just not my style. I asked Victor to arrange a program that would get me gold at my senior premier, and it did that, so it served its purpose."

"What are you going to change it to?"

"A song you've probably never heard of." Yurio answered curtly, and returned to his katsudon.

"Ehehe...probably..." Yuri said meekly, eyeballing the bowl of food like a starving animal. On his own plate, after all, was not katsudon. By comparison, it looked like rabbit food, at least to him. His stomach growled, begging for the pork cutlet...even just a bit of rice that had fallen from Yurio's plate would be enough. Just one...little...piece...! Drool dribbled from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were wide like saucers.

"Quit gawking, fatty!" Yurio barked, whapping him across the hand with his fork, "BACK!"

"I wasn't anywhere near your food!" Yuri protested, coddling his hand, "You attacked me from halfway across the table!"

"You're hovering!"

"No I'm not!"

"No fighting, kids, or you're both grounded." Victor said, cleaning up the dishes he'd been using.

"BUT VICTOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR." They both argued.

"I won't hear another word." He said with finality, only to find Yuri practically crawling onto his side of the kitchen like an emaciated snake.

"Victor...I'm so hungry...please let me have just one pork cutlet bowl...I promise I'll go running after...I'll run twice as far...!" He begged, "This is torture!"

"You did this to yourself by rejecting the fact that you won Gold at Nationals." Victor insisted, "So the sooner you win Gold at Four Continents, the sooner you get your katsudon."

"But it's still weeks awaaaayyyyyy!" Yuri whined, practically a puddle on the ground now, grasping at his coach's leg in desperation, "I won't make it!"

Victor sighed and picked him up.

Yurio just glared at them in disgust, and turned his nose up to scoff at the quietly, "God, you're so domesticated, Victor. You really are dead."

"You never came over before now, so how would you know?" The elder mused, setting the wet rag - previously known as Yuri Katsuki - back into his chair.

"Tsh..."

"When are you leaving, anyway?" Victor wondered, sitting down at the table now with his own food and a cup of hot mulled wine, "Euros is this weekend."

"Yakov booked our plane for tomorrow. Didn't he tell you?"

"No, why would he?"

"Why wouldn't he?"

"I'm not competing? We all agreed at the RSF conference that it was too soon. I don't even have my new outfits yet."

"But you're part of the team, you should be there to support the rest of us." Yurio explained, "It would boost everyone's morale if you came to cheer us on instead of keeping it all for Katsuki over there."

"We were both cheering for you before." Victor pointed out, "You just got all mad because you thought we were being condescending." He had that knowing smile and winked at the teen.

"You were just making out with his skate!" Yurio protested, using his fork to point at Yuri, "What was I supposed to think you meant? You were trying to get me all worked up so I'd make mistakes."

Yuri could watch the pair for hours, he suspected, and neither would ever bring him into the conversation, even though he was half of what they talked about. He was fine with that, though, for the time being. His attention was half-grabbed by his fiancé's cup of hot wine anyway; it smelled of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

"You were already worked up." Victor continued, and pulled off a piece of bread from the heel in a basket between them, "Maybe it's for the best that you part ways with 'Agape.' You have too much spunk for that still."

"Too much spunk!?" Yurio was half on the table at that point, "I can do 'Agape' all I want!"

Victor leaned against the counter as he nibbled on his bread, "But you don't feel 'Agape' when you dance it, Yurio. That's my point. You're still shockingly unaware of yourself. Look at how you're practically bouncing off the walls with energy. Maybe you need to visit a temple again?"

Yurio grumbled and got back down off the table, subdued by the memory alone, "No, it's fine."

"A polar-bear dip might even work better for you."

"I'm not jumping into an icy lake." The blond finally sat back down with a gruff sigh. He tossed his fork into the bowl casually, and knocked a bit of rice onto the table...right in front of Yuri.

Cherry-hazel orbits eyeballed it carefully, practically trembling at the temptation. But...Victor was always on top of things, and before Yuri could try and grab the morsel, the Russian had already wiped it away, moving behind the pair's chairs to clear Yurio's dishes away, then took it all to the other side of the island to the sink.

The blond just grumbled, sitting sideways in his chair with one leg bent up so he could hold his knee close to his chest.

"I'd go cheer you on if I could." Yuri said quietly, "I'd really like to see your new short program in person. We'll be watching the LiveStream for sure."

"Do whatever you want." Yurio huffed.

Yuri lowered his eyes away at that point, feeling a little defeated. Every time I try to reach out to him, he rebuffs me, Yuri grumbled inwardly. He narrowed his focus, and thought back on the training they did together before the Hot Springs on Ice event. Maybe that's all he knows how to do. He's such a blow-hard, but his skating is unlike anything most people will ever see. If he pushes himself this hard to keep one step ahead of me, then...his skating says more about what he thinks of me than he could ever put into words. He thought on, then gathered his courage up again and turned back to the Punk, "...I'm going to win Gold at Four Continents, Yurio, and then again at Worlds."

The blond turned his head, as though not sure he heard correctly. Even Victor had to turn his head over his shoulder to hear what else was going to come flying out of his fiancé's mouth.

"And then, I'm going to win Gold at the Grand Prix Final in the fall next year." Yuri leveled a stare at the Russian Tiger, straight in the eyes. So if you have any respect or affection for me whatsoever...then try and stop me! He thought, so loudly he thought Yurio could hear it.

Perhaps he had; Yurio lowered his face slightly and gave a knowing smirk.

.

Once dinner was over, Victor left to drive Yurio back to the new house that the teen and his grandfather had moved into. One hour...two hours... When he didn't come back in the time frame that was given, Yuri started to worry. He started pacing around the house, holding onto his phone, waiting for a call or a text or anything. Makkachin watched him go...sometimes following, sometimes not.

"I should message him..." He said to himself, opening the text window to do just that.

[Victor, where are you? Everything ok?]

He sent the message, but none came back immediately. In fact, it was another ten minutes before something finally came back. He stared anxiously at the little Delivered icon under his words, pleading for it to change to Seen. When it finally did, Yuri sat upright, seeing the three dots appear on Victor's half of the window.

[1s]

1s? What does that mean? Yuri wondered.

A moment later, the phone rang in his hand, startling him into throwing it in the air. He quickly snatched it back and answered, "Victor!"

"Yuri, I'm so sorry." His voice wasn't normal, "I meant to call you sooner, but everything just got so crazy all at once, and I couldn't get a hand free to even pick my phone up."

"What happened? What-...Victor, what's going on!?" Yuri had to hold both hands to the device for fear of dropping it.

"We got to Yurio's new place, and he went inside. I waited for him to let me know everything was good before I left, but he came running back out in a panic. His grandfather...he found him on the floor in his kitchen. We're at the hospital."

"...Do they know what's wrong?"

Victor looked from where he was standing at the nurse's station to the doors of the ICU. Yurio was standing close, and Victor held him in place with one arm across his chest and shoulder, "We don't know a lot. The doctors are still doing what they do. ...Oh, wait, here comes someone now...hold on."

Yuri held the line, trying desperately to hear anything, but whatever words were spoken, they were Russian anyway, and he realized again that it made no difference whether he heard them or not. He sat back down at the kitchen table, propping his phone-arm up on a knee while his other hand held at his cheek with worry.

"Yuri."

"Yes!" He sat upright with a start.

"Get some bedding ready from the hall closet. Yurio will be staying overnight. His grandpa had a heart attack."

"A...heart attack...?" Yuri repeated with disbelief, "Is he going to be okay?"

"They're taking him to surgery. The doctor said he was stable for the moment but they need to find where the blockage took place and fix the damage. He'll be in there for a while...there's nothing more we can do, so I'm bringing Yurio home now."

"Be careful coming back, okay?"

"I will. Don't worry."

Yuri could feel his throat clenching, "I love you. Please get here safe..."

Victor paused a moment, surprised to hear those words. They'd been tossed around in conversation prior to that moment, but never said so directly. He smiled despite himself, "I love you, too. We'll be home soon."

Yuri pulled the phone away from his ear and watched the window change from an active call to the text message window he'd been looking at before. He closed the device and watched the screen change to black, and tried to calm his shaking hands. At the hospital, Victor did much the same, but put his own phone back into his pocket before he turned his attention to the teen trembling in his one-armed embrace.

Yurio looked blank, unblinking. He just stared ahead at the doors to the ICU, imagining all the horrible things that might be happening beyond his line of sight. He could feel Victor tug on him in an attempt to get his attention, but he couldn't really find the energy to react. Tears welled in his eyes and started to roll down his cheeks, dripping off his chin. Victor saw that much, and turned the teen around, pulling him close to his chest in a tight hug.

"Yuri..." He whispered, "Vse budet horošo. On budet v porjadke. My ego vovremja našli." (It's going to be fine. He'll be okay. We found him in time.)

[He could've been on the floor like that for hours.] The blond finally said, staring blankly ahead as Victor held his head protectively, [If I had gone straight home when I found out the zamboni was down, or if I'd gone back when you guys left, instead of...instead of...]

[Don't think about it like that. You had no possible way of knowing this was going to happen.] Victor explained, desperate to prevent the teen from blaming himself, [There's nothing you could've done differently. You did everything right.] He leaned down a little and held the blonde's shoulders, looking straight into those emerald eyes, [This is not your fault. Listen to me. Nikolai is a strong man, but he needs you to be strong for him right now. Can you do that?]

Yurio was still blank, staring ahead at nothing.

"Yuri!" Victor barked.

That seemed to snap him back to reality, and his glossy eyes became shiny again. He blinked a few times and looked around, but soon the energy of awareness escaped him, and he fell against Victor's chest, pulling him to kneel on the floor with both hands clinging to him desperately as he finally let himself cry.

.

It was nearly 3am when Victor finally pulled into the garage, and helped escort his charge back inside the house. Yuri had done as asked, and set up a makeshift bed in the living room for the teen to hole-up in for the night.

"Thanks for doing this, Yuri." The exhausted silver said, unburdening the blond onto the couch.

By that point, Yurio had cried himself out and was ready to pass out, falling into the heap of blankets and pillows like a corpse; Makkachin trotted close and whimpered, licking the teen's hand gently. Victor pulled the Tiger's shoes off and hoisted his feet up into the comforter before pulling the blankets over top of him and made sure they were snug.

Yuri felt helpless, watching everything unfold while trying to keep out of the way.

Eventually, Victor came up and put his hand on his partner's hip. Yuri was quick to respond, sliding his hands over his fiance's shoulders to hug him long and tight, doing everything he could not to cry into the man's neck. Victor spoke quietly, "I'm going to sleep out here tonight and keep an eye on him, okay?"

"Yeah. Sure thing..."

He could feel the worry in Yuri's voice, and pulled back just enough to offer a kiss, "It'll be fine."

Yuri nodded, "I know, but..." He lowered his voice, "What about the European Championship? He can't go like this...he'll bomb like I did in Sochi..."

"I'll call Yakov in the morning. We'll sort things out." The silver answered as well as he could, keeping his sights on his partner's soothing visage, "The best thing for him right now is rest, and to know that he's surrounded by people who care about him. I'll find out tomorrow how the surgery went and, who knows, if Nikolai pulled through, Yurio may not suffer too much of a loss from this blow. He just needs the night to recover from the shock of it."

"Right..."

"You get some rest, too, Yuri. There's no sense in everyone losing sleep tonight. Makkachin will keep you company." Victor insisted, trying to reassure his fiancé as best he could, "He's good for cuddles."

"I wish there was something more I could do. I feel like such a lump."

"Wait for me." The Russian suggested, "Let me take care of Yurio. There's nothing anyone can do about what happened, so there's no point lamenting it. But, I'll need you when this is all done...so, wait for me."

Yuri nodded, and pulled into another long hug before Victor could return his attention back to the teen; Yurio appeared to have fallen into a dead sleep by that point. He watched as his partner moved to lift the Tiger's feet and sat down where they'd been before, setting them on his lap so he'd be immediately in sight if Yurio woke up in the night. Yuri then turned back to head towards the bedroom, with the big brown poodle trotting close behind.

.

By mid morning, Victor had already been on the phone with the hospital and their coach, just as he said he would be. With Nikolai making it through surgery, and stable in the ICU, Yakov decided it would be fine for Yurio to go to competition...if he felt up to it.

[If Yuratchka decides not to skate because he's worried, then he can't blame me for not letting him on the ice.] Yakov said, [At least he'll be there and he'll have the chance. That's the best anyone can do to that end.]

[Agreed.] Victor nodded, [Do you want to come get him or should I bring him to you?]

[I'll get him.]

[Alright, we'll make sure he's ready when you get here. Bye.]

Yurio still looked partly catatonic where he lay on the couch, the blankets pulled up near his head. Everyone in the house had dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep, particularly Victor, who had taken the bulk of the responsibility for the night's watch unto himself. Yuri could sense the fatigue press down on him, but continued his lonely vigil, as told, and without complaint.

By noon, Yakov had arrived with Lilia and collected the young skater. The former Prima Ballerina did her best to console her young pupil, but he couldn't hear her. He sat in the back seat of the black Mercedes and waited to leave in silence. By the end of the day, Yurio would be in Ostrava, Czech Republic. With any luck, there would be better news of his grandfather before he was set to compete.

Victor found himself looking up at the sky, and said a small prayer for the teen as the car pulled away, and hesitantly closed the front door. He slumped into the living-room and took in the sight, now that it was calm and the tension had been lifted. Yuri had already started picking things up to wash or put away, and while Victor had intended to help, he ended up just falling into the pile of blankets on the couch, exhausted.

Yuri saw him go down face-first, and shook his head, "You're going to bed properly." He said, and moved over to help hoist the half-conscious Russian down the short hallway.

When he finally tumbled to the side and landed on his back, Victor let out an audible sigh of relief, spreading out on the covers as though he'd never known such comfort before. Yuri went to draw the blinds and pull the curtains closed, just as the Russian had done for him after they'd first arrived. When he went back to see if his partner needed anything, it looked like he'd already fallen asleep. So, not wanting to wake him, Yuri smiled and went quietly for the door.

"...Wait..." Victor mumbled, getting the younger man's attention, and raisied his left arm to reach for him, eyes still closed.

Yuri stopped and looked back, seeing the hand as it reached, and moved back to return the gesture. As he felt his fiancé's fingers against his skin, he sat on the edge of the bed, "What is it?"

"I need you." Victor answered quietly, barely louder than a whisper, "I roughed it last night and I'm all sore."

"Aww..." Yuri cooed, "Poor Victor, all tuckered out from being responsible."

"Being an adult is so hard..." He pouted, and cracked one eye open to look through his silver bangs, "Help me be irresponsible again." He raised his hand and pulled the younger man up with it, guiding him to sit over his stomach. He already seemed in better spirits just with that, "I can't sleep right unless I'm with you. Look what you've done to me, Yuri."

"I couldn't sleep well either. Makkachin's a nice cuddle-buddy and all, but he's not you." Yuri agreed, trailing his hands down his partner's chest until they reached where his thighs parted over the man's abdomen. One hand came up to pull his glasses off, and Victor gently took them to set them on the nearby nightstand.

Just as Yuri wiggled out of his t-shirt, and it came over top of his head, Victor stopped him. Hands came up as the silver sat up, trapping Yuri within the garment, leaving him unable to see or lower his arms again, "V-Victor..."

"Shh... It's no fun if I don't get to help get you undressed." The Russian whispered, and cast his eyes on every inch of skin now revealed to him. His hands came from around Yuri's back to his sides, and then up his chest, then down again, and he leaned forward to trail his tongue from sternum to collarbone.

The sensation gave Yuri goose-bumps, and he laughed as he shuddered under it, squirming all the more to get the garment untangled from his arms.

Victor allowed his fiancé the freedom to move again, and as the man finally pulled the t-shirt off and tossed it to the floor, Victor did much the same with his own; he was still wearing the same sweater from the day before. That went quickly enough, and so did the undershirt beneath it. When the cool air touched his skin, Victor breathed another sigh of relief, falling back to the pillows with his arms up above his head. His face was tilted slightly away, but he looked up at his fiancé with that one visible slate-blue eye, "I want you, Yuri..."

"I'm yours. Always."

That single eye smiled, but the tired Russian just turned his head to look on a bit straighter than before, "Mess me up a bit... Take me...all the way... I want to feel you..."

Yuri's face went pink immediately, and his hands clenched into tight balls where he'd set them against his partner's stomach, "Y-you...want me to...?" He stammered.

Victor slid his arms back down, and slowly pressed his palms against the younger man's thighs, thumbs caressing inward until the side of his wrists rubbed against his beloved's. Turning his hands, Victor gently wrapped his fingers around those thin arms, sliding down until he could feel the edges of his pinkies moving under the back of Yuri's palms, and was able to lift them up. He brought those hands up between them, and laced their fingers together before reaching his own arms up above his head again; Yuri came down over-top of him in the process.

They were nose-to-nose, but Yuri was still too stunned to speak; he was sure Victor could feel his heart hammering in his chest, where they were now skin-to-skin. He'd known his partner's body a few times already, but somehow, in this new context, he was too nervous to do anything. He felt the Russian's hands slowly pull away from his own, leaving his fingers to clench at a pillow instead. Fingertips grazed his skin ghostly-soft, going over his shoulders and down against his sides, raised up over the arch of his lower back, then went back down again to glide over the curve of his backside. He didn't have a chance to twitch in his anxiety before those hands went flat against the back pockets of his jeans and those lips caught his own; a quiet, needy whimper breathed against his skin.

Yuri soon lifted up again though, and his anxiety took control, "...V-Victor...I'm not sure that I can...do all that to you..."

"How come?"

Pink cheeks turned red, and eyes looked away, "I just... I don't know what to do... You said when we tried before that it was a good thing we didn't, because we didn't have supplies...but it would never have even crossed my mind...so I'm..." He managed, feeling his frame starting to shiver where he sat, "I don't want to hurt you... You just spent all night watching over Yurio; I should be able to make you feel good now, right? How can...how can I do that when...?"

Victor smiled tiredly, "But I want you to..." He said, and reached lackadaisically towards the bed-side table. He fumbled for the drawer and pulled it open, and finally retrieved what he was after; a velvet satchel with a rope tie at the top. He unthreaded the clasp and pulled the small bag open, and let a few bottles tumble to the sheets beside himself, "I even got these...hoping maybe we could try..."

Yuri's face went white and his eyes went wide, "When did you even have the chance?"

"Oh," He laughed weakly, "I got these online. There's different kinds... I got them with English writing so you could see for yourself."

A shaky, nervous hand went forward, and Yuri lifted up the two nearest bottles; one said it was water-based, another oil. The next two bottles said one was silicone-based, and the other came with peach flavor. The last of the five said it had a warming mechanism. Yuri swallowed a hard knot in this throat, "I can read them but I don't...understand."

"Let's try one." Victor suggested, and tapped the bottle his fiancé still held in his hands, "This one has good reviews."

"...When am I supposed to...put it on?"

"Not for a little while," The silver purred, and cleared the bed of the other bottles. He set their chosen type onto the night-stand and went back to paying his beloved attention, "We just do like we've been doing for now... Help me to feel good, Yuri... I'm so tired..."

Yuri swallowed again, but the look on his idol's face was enough to inspire him; if doing this one thing would make Victor happy, Yuri would do it as well as he could. I have to try...even if it scares the Hell out of me... He thought. This will be my first time taking charge... I can't disappoint him...

Just as Victor had explained, their bedroom-romp went largely like they had over the past few weeks. Gentle touches, soft strings of kisses, tasting skin on one another's necks, backs, chests, and lower. Yuri still hadn't quite gotten the hang of the idea of using his mouth for anything below the belt, but Victor didn't press him to on that. Instead, they focused on what to do with their experiment, and Victor drizzled a bit of the clear, scentless fluid onto their aroused members, and let Yuri's finger-rubs spread it around.

"...It's just like the stuff I make myself..." Yuri commented, feeling the slick liquid move around, "Just...there's a lot more to go around... Now I wonder if I don't make enough?" He asked, and laughed quietly, only to notice the sudden tingle, "Oh...mine can't do this...ohh!"

Victor hummed happily, letting his beloved take command of their touches, "It feels good..."

"It's getting so warm... It feels so different..." Yuri added, only to bunch up his knees as his body quivered, "I think I just found my new favorite thing." He explained, and looked up to his fiancé's face. He set one hand down against the man's waist, and gave it a gentle pat, signaling he was ready to try and go forward with his partner's request.

Victor didn't need much else to convince him, and he wiggled in place to turn over; a pillow was grabbed up in his arms, and he waited for the feeling of his beloved behind him.

Yuri drew in a deep breath, and tried to figure out his positioning, keeping one hand working on himself so he wouldn't lose his arousal while he thought. Do I just lay down against his back? Do I make him get on his knees? No way, I could never... Should I sit again him...? He postulated, and eventually settled to sit on the back of the man's thighs. His cheeks were bright red, and he was once-again caught by the fact that...I've never seen Victor from his side before; not like this anyway. I hope I don't mess up... He pleaded inwardly, and pressed forward. He closed his eyes, and used his hand to guide himself between those mounds of perfect, unmarked pale skin. The tip of his arousal slipped into the cleft, and he felt his way down, feeling the growing heat of his fiancé's body surround him. Though it took a moment to find the right spot, once he had it, and pressed against it, he could feel his partner's whole body tense up in anticipation of it. He pushed in a little bit harder; the circle of flesh that wrapped around him was unlike anything he'd ever felt; it was tight, but soft, and hot; completely different from a mouth and tongue.

To Yuri's horror though, he only managed to get half-way in before his own body betrayed him, and climaxed right there. He quivered and trembled, but he dared not move for a moment, save to dip his head down against his fiancé's back.

"You okay...?" Victor asked, eyes trying to catch sight of the man over one shoulder.

A coughed laugh answered, and Yuri pushed up against his hands, "I...I'm sorry... You're just...so perfect, that I finished already..." He said, trying not to sound as mortified as he really was, "I got...about halfway..."

The silver nodded and exhaled a breath; he reached his left hand back to hold his beloved where he was, and slowly tilted over, putting Yuri and himself on their sides, "Stay as long as you can...?" He asked, "I want to feel everything..."

Feeling guilty though, even as Yuri did as he was asked, he reached around to take his partner's member into his hand, "Let me do this part then..." He requested, and started his novice stroke, "I'll get better at it..."

"Hmm...my Yuri..." Victor hummed happily, despite the situation, "You continue to surprise me, every day. Don't ever stop..."

The heat around Yuri's engulfed member continued to pulse around him, and he did his best to stay in the heat. It feels so good, even though this is the weirdest thing I've ever done, he thought, paying close attention to his fiancé's muscle twitches as he rubbed and pulled at the front. I never even imagined doing something like this to Victor, ever... This will take getting used to... I should let him try it on me before I do it again to him; I don't know what I did wrong. Am I supposed to finish that fast? No...

Victor's body sang out and quivered as it reached its peak, and Yuri pressed against the man's back in a tight hug. He kissed the back of one shoulder, and felt the Russian's arms cross and hold to his own arms where they wrapped around his larger frame, "Ah...hah... Thank you...for indulging me... I know it was strange for you..."

"Did I...at least give you what you...what you hoped to get?"

"You gave me everything I wanted." The silver answered, and he turned back, just in time to feel that now-flaccid member withdraw from him. One hand went to his beloved's cheek, and he pushed up to give a quick kiss, "I keep learning new things about you."

"You should try to sleep now..."

"Oh, I plan on it... I feel a lot better now."

Yuri felt relief wash over him, like a thin mist that became a cool stream, and it washed away his nerves. He pulled their blankets up over their bare bodies, and hugged tight to his partner's back. He heard a satisfied sigh escape the man's smile, and he slowly let himself relax enough to drift off as well.