CHAPTER FOURTEEN
-Yurio abroad at the European Championship! Ganbatte, ne?-
[Grandpa!] Yurio called out frantically as he rushed into the kitchen, skidding to a halt on the floor, [GRANDPA!]
The old man was clutching at the middle of his chest with his right arm; his left seemed paralyzed. His breathing was labored.
"VICTOR!" Yurio screamed, [VICTOR, CALL 112!]
No answer came though, and Yurio could only guess that his rink-mate was still in the car waiting for a signal that he could leave. He didn't want to leave his grandfather alone though. Torn for what to do, he touched his grandpa's forehead.
[I'll be right back, I'm getting help!]
He ran past the edge of the kitchen wall, leading into the short hall to the front door, and grabbed the wireless phone from its charger as he went. In his panic, he entirely forgot about his cellphone. He kicked the door open as he pushed buttons, and Victor saw him immediately, practically bouncing off the inside of the car door in his effort to get it open. Yurio was struggling with the antique device in his hands when Victor finally came up to him.
[What's going on!?]
[My grandad! He's on the floor! I can't get the phone to work!] Yurio panicked, [Call an ambulance!]
.
"Yuri!"
His eyes fluttered a little where he'd been leaning his head against the car window, and he glanced up at the sound of his name. Everything was such a blur though. He couldn't tell who'd called to him, or if anyone was still talking to him now. His eyes eventually trailed over to the window again, watched the world as it passed him by. The signs for the airport whizzed past; thankfully, it wouldn't be a long flight to the Czech Republic. It was practically a stone's throw from the Russian border.
As the bright outdoor light morphed to the subdued lights of the departure terminal, Yurio could see people talking around him; their mouths moved. He thought he could hear the far-off sound of muffled voices, but he was too numb to care what they were even trying to say.
He pulled out his phone and looked at its black screen for a few minutes before finally turning it on, went to his contact list, and saw Victor's name there. The thought occurred to him to FaceTime his rink-mate, but the longer he hovered his thumb over the touch-screen, the harder he found it to rationalize why he should press it.
I wish you were coming... You're the only one who really understands... The rest of these people, they're just...I can't even hear them anymore.
He became aware again when they were on the plane, and it was just starting to gain that final burst of speed before lifting off the ground. It all sounded so terribly hollow.
I wish I could go back under that pile of blankets. I wish I could've stayed there forever.
.
Yuri looked up from his phone and glanced at the sky, and spotted a plane flying overhead on a westward trajectory. He wondered if that was the plane his Russian counterpart was on. Makkachin rushed around the back yard, catching snowballs as Victor made and tossed them. The sound of a bark as the poodle missed one brought Yuri's attention back down to earth, and he returned to his phone. The Euros website was loaded, and he clicked through a few links until he could find the local skate-times for the Men's Program.
"It's so weird to think to think I'll be able to watch the show live this time." He commented, "Normally I have to wait until it's over, and watch it when it airs on television wherever I am. Avoiding spoilers about the scores and who won was always hard. I had to avoid Instagram for whole weekends."
"We should call Chris and wish him good luck." Victor suggested.
"Yeah." Yuri nodded, and checked through his contact list to find that particular name. A few seconds passed before the screen switched over, showing Christophe's face, happy to receive the message.
"Yuri!"
"Hey, Chris. You ready?"
"I'm always ready." He answered with a wink, "So it's true then."
"What true?"
"You convinced Victor not to compete until Worlds. You're calling from his place, and he wouldn't leave you there to go skate." Chris shook his finger at the camera-phone, "I was sure he'd be at Euros after he said he was coming back to competition for Nationals, but this will be the second event he's shunned."
"I actually had nothing to do with that." Yuri said, smiling nervously, "Victor doesn't have everything ready yet. His new outfits still haven't arrived."
"That's a shame. After hearing him say he was going to come back, I was really hoping he'd step on the ice right away." Chris sighed, "Now I'll have to wait until the end of March." He moved his phone to prop it up against something, freeing up his hand so he could cross his arms and rest his chin on them, "In any case, I don't think I ever got to congratulate you on winning Gold at All Japan."
Yuri just sighed a little, "It wasn't much of a competition. I only really went to secure my invitation to Worlds. No one else in Japan has made it to the Grand Prix Final in a few years, and with the scores we saw, it might be a few more years before that changes. Everyone I used to know that was any good has either retired or fallen off the radar."
Chris paused a moment, and held onto that last comment, but then lifted off his wrist-perch and bowed his head, "Well, it's good that you're going." He started again, "I missed you at last year's Worlds. You're going to Four Continents next, right?"
"Yeah." Yuri eagerly nodded, "It'll be the last chance I have to win Gold before Victor comes back to competition, so I have to make the most of it. I never beat him before, and I doubt I'll beat him once he's out there again."
"You'll win Gold at Worlds, Yuri! Quit saying otherwise!" The Russian hollered from off-screen.
"You should be in bed!" Yuri called back.
"...Isn't it mid-afternoon in St. Petersburg...?" Chris wondered idly.
Yuri sighed with a laugh and nodded as he looked at the screen again, "Yeah, but Victor was up all night being responsible. He only took a short nap afterwards though. He's going to be delirious by night-fall."
"Being responsible, huh?" The Swiss skater echoed, "What's the occasion? Normally, if he's up all night, it's because he's drinking."
"Mhhh..." Yuri hesitated and lowered his eyes a little, but then looked back up again, "Yurio... His grandpa had a heart-attack yesterday. Victor was up all night making sure everything was okay after they got back from the hospital. He spent the night with us."
"Yurio? You mean Yuri Plisetsky?"
"Oh...yeah, we call him Yurio because our names are the same." Yuri explained sheepishly, "Way back when he first barged onto the scene in Hasetsu, my sister said it would be confusing to have two Yuris, so she immediately added the 'O' at the end of his to set us apart."
"I bet he looooves that."
Yuri deadpanned for a moment, "...I...actually don't think I've noticed. The last time he said anything about it, it was when my sister was still pointing at him. I thought he just got used to it." He explained, and lightly kicked his feet out a bit from where he sat on the concrete step off the back of the house, "He'll be there at Euros though. We're hoping to have good news for him before he skates. His grandpa was still in recovery when the plane took off."
"I see..." Chris nodded, unsure what else to say on the matter given how he had no relationship with the teen, "Well... In any case, you were saying you thought All Japan was a dud...Four Continents ought to be better, right?"
"Yeah! Phichit-kun is going to be there. He's won more real Gold medals than I have so far." Yuri scratched his cheek with a cold finger, "Besides...looking at all the scores, Phichit-kun would've won Bronze if he'd been at Sochi with those same numbers. He scored even higher than JJ did back then."
"Really? I hadn't noticed that!" The blonde laughed, "But in all seriousness, Yuri...you'd have won Silver at Sochi too, if you scored the same there as you had in Barcelona. You need to have more faith in your own abilities."
"That's what Victor keeps saying."
"Sound advice."
"How's Czech Republic?" Victor suddenly asked, popping up unexpectedly in the background behind his partner, "Are you already there? Oh wait, no, that looks like your room at home..."
"Correct. My plane leaves late tonight." Chris waggled a finger at his rival, "I won't be able to take it seriously without you. I was really hoping you'd come."
"Such is life." Victor mused and crouched down. He leaned his elbows across the back of his fiancé's shoulders, and tilted slightly to see around the mess of raven-black hair between him and the phone screen; Yuri lifted the phone up to make it easier, "I'd have gone if I had my outfits already. I know what programs I'm doing. Been planning them since last year...I just hadn't picked which ones I'd be using until after Yuri convinced me to come back."
Chris made a light-hearted but sour expression, "Skipping Nationals and Euros...you're letting your legacy slip through your fingers, Victor. These kids are making it look easy."
The silver shrugged and smiled, "It's not like I wanted it to be this way; All Japan and Russian Nationals were happening at the same time, and I absolutely wasn't going to abandon Yuri and make him go to competition completely alone, just so I could go twiddle-off to Moscow. I have one shot this season, and I intend to take my record back when I'm there." He set his knees on the step on either side of his partner's seat, "I can't retire unless I do so with the record and the Gold."
Yuri blinked and looked back, "...Retire...? What about next year...?"
"Ohhhh~?" Chris asked longingly, "What about next year, Victor?"
"I'm competing next year, too! I only meant this was my one shot this season. My winning streak is already shot, but I can still hold on to some things."
"Ah, okay...had me scared for a second," The blonde mused and fanned himself in relief, then turned his lime-green eyes to Yuri again, "You'll have to work harder than ever. Victor got you this far, but he's still a sore loser; he won't just hand you Gold. You'll have to pry it from his cold, dead hands." Chris pointed out, then gave a knowing grin at his older friend, "His 28 year old hands."
Victor tossed his head back in dismay, "I only just turned 28 last month, Chris! Give me the year before you start making it sound like I'm about to get older again!"
The Swiss skater smirked, "And I'll be turning 26 while you two are in South Korea. Even I know I can't push my limits much farther. You should take your post-skating career more seriously. If you get hurt because you got greedy at the end...you might not even be much of a coach to Yuri for his own final years."
Yuri's brows furrowed at that, "Victor's too good for that. He'll know when it's time."
"This is so depressing!" The Russian lamented, "I thought coming back to competition would be more exciting than this...but all anyone has done so far is give me grief about my age and time management skills and a bunch of other not-skating-relevant stuff..."
"Ahhhhh yesss..." Chris purred, "I think everyone on the circuit has seen the RSF press conference footage by this point, where they asked about some very not-skating-relevant stuff. That was quite a speech Plisetsky gave at the end, too."
Yuri lowered his gaze away.
"I'm actually still a little surprised Yurio would say the things he did." Victor admitted, huffing a single chuckle, "But I guess he's more offended by the idea of the team being insulted than he is by the idea of my being involved with Yuri. He'd never defend my legacy so strongly if it were just between him and I. That whole thing was in protection of Team Yakov. Yuri and I being a thing outside of that shouldn't have even come up."
"Speaking of which, have you two tied the knot yet? You made such a bold declaration that you'd get married once Yuri won Gold, and he has at this point." Chris wondered, "I never got an invitation; I'll be quite upset if you went ahead without me."
"Don't worry. It hasn't happened yet." Victor answered; Yuri was still quiet, "We've been so busy getting ready for Four Continents and Worlds that we haven't really had time to go over any wedding plans."
"I'm still surprised at you, Victor." The blonde pointed out, and tilted his head a little on his crossed arms, "It was one thing to surprise the world with dropping competition to be Yuri's coach, but the rest... It seems so out of character for you. You're not just trying to shock people now, are you?"
Yuri's stomach dropped at the very mention of it, and he turned to glance at Victor with a worried look on his face, "You wouldn't..."
"Of course not." Victor answered immediately. He swiped the phone from his fiancé's hands and glowered at the man on the other end of the FaceTime call as he stood up, "Yuri, excuse me a moment."
"O-Okay...?"
The silver quickly vanished into the house again, taking Yuri's phone with him. Even Makkachin had to pause his rummaging to look up; he spotted Yuri alone and anxious on the step, and started to trot over. Cold nubbins stepped onto the concrete and the poodle sat next to his solitary human, panting quietly. Yuri pursed his lips a bit in worry, and kicked his feet. He couldn't hear what was being said inside, and that just made his heart race. All he could do was reach over and cling to the pup beside him, grateful at least to not be alone out there, waiting for whatever would come after.
Inside, Victor held his hand firmly to the back door to make sure it wouldn't stayed closed, then turned and put his back against it instead. The fun-loving look on his face had already vanished, but when he turned to finally confront the figure on the call, his brows were wrankled and his visage clearly showed anger, "You couldn't have picked any other time to ask something like that? You had to ask in front of Yuri? You know how much he worries! I'm going to spend weeks trying to convince him this isn't some damn act!"
Chris stayed defiantly neutral about it though, "Yuri was my friend long before you and him started talking. I've protected him from bad actors before. I trust you, Victor, but all of this has come on so fast that even I'm not always sure what you're doing."
"And you've been there for all but one of my ex-girlfriends; I've never held onto anyone this long. You know I mean this. And what the Hell do you even mean, 'bad actors?' You think I'm screwing with him for fun?" Victor snarled, his heart pounding, "What kind of deplorable human being would do something like that?"
"You've had a long and steady career, Victor, but I've seen what you can be when you're scared." Chris pointed out firmly, and pointed at his friend through the phone, "You're teetering on the edge of retirement; coaching someone, an underdog like Yuri, has boosted your popularity quite a bit. Getting involved with him intimately has made you a celebrity beyond what you already were...and Yuri, too. However...you can be quite nasty at times; vicious even. I don't want Yuri to end up being the fall-guy for your questionable attempt at staying relevant. If this whole thing turns out to be a charade, and you were just using Yuri to prop yourself up on the way out...I'll never forgive you, and I'll make sure no one else does, either."
"Which is exactly why I can say with certainty that I'm not doing this for nefarious reasons! Jeeze, Chris... I thought we were friends."
"Victor... Victor, listen to me closely." Chris said, gesturing for the Russian to lean inward, as though they were trying not to be heard in a public place. Once the silver had settled down a tiny bit, Chris went on, "For as popular as you are, famous, well liked, loved by all your millions of fans...on this earth, you have a grand total of one actual friend, and that is me. I know you keep secrets from me; I accept that there are some things you don't want me to know. But in spite of it all, it falls to me, as your one friend, to be the little shit on your shoulder, making sure you keep on the straight and narrow when Yakov can't reach you. You can handle another break-up...Yuri can't. You're different for him, from everyone else in this world. I want you to be sure that you're in this for him, not just yourself, because it will devastate him if it turns out you weren't actually invested."
Victor could say nothing; his eyes and throat stung fiercely, and he could feel a drip from his nose.
"Just be honest with me, Victor... I know what I've seen of you over these last ten years, and I want to believe you mean it. But I've also seen what you're like when you get tired or bored with something. Just tell me you're thinking about this long-term." Chris asked, his tone on the edge of pleading, "If you're not, I need to figure out how to help get Yuri back home, so he's not stranded in a strange land."
"Do I look like I don't mean it?" The Russian finally spoke, tears falling free from his eyes. He snuffled and reached up with his free hand to rub his nose, "You're trying so hard to prevent Yuri's heart breaking that you're breaking mine instead. You're making me doubt everything. You don't even know the things I've done to try and show him how much I care about him...to make being with me easy..."
"And he's doing okay?"
"Well, right up until now I thought he was! He's probably out there wondering what the Hell is going on." Victor growled, then snarled low, "I swear, if you were right here, I'd punch you so hard. This was really uncalled for."
"I just had to be sure..." Chris sighed and grimaced, and rubbed a hand through his short curly hair, "...Alright... Invite him inside and I'll apologize for this."
"Thank you." Victor growled bitterly. He set the phone down nearby and rubbed his face, in an effort to 'reset' himself so he wouldn't look like such a mess. Once he'd composed himself, he left the phone where it was and opened the door, "Yuri, please come back in." He asked quietly, and spotted both his fiancé and dog looking back at him in tandem. They both pulled up from the step and moved closer, and Victor pushed the door open from within, holding it there until both were clear of it. The panel clicked, and Victor held his hand there like before, "Chris has something to tell you." He explained, trying to keep the rock in his throat from hurting his voice more than it already had.
"...What's going on?" Yuri asked.
"Yuri...! Yuri, pick up the phone; everything's fine." Chris' voice sounded, small and hollow where the phone was on the nearby counter.
Brow furrowed and heart rating, Yuri reached for it and lifted his up slowly. That dubious face greeted him on the screen, "...Someone needs to explain what's going on before I stroke out."
"There's nothing to worry about. I made a mistake and said some things that I shouldn't have." Chris tried to explain, "What I wanted to ask came from a good place, but the words I chose just made me look like an ass."
Yuri grit his teeth, but he could feel his pounding heart start to calm, and the nervous-angry look on his face gradually softened, "No kidding... You had me really scared for a minute."
"I truly didn't mean it that way. Sometimes I get so protective of my friends that I end up causing pain where I was trying to prevent it." Chris said, feeling quite guilty by that point, especially as he could see Victor skulking in the background of the call, "There was never anything for me to doubt."
"...That's...good to know...?"
"I'll go ahead and take off then," Chris added, "You called to wish me luck and I made a mess of it. Please don't let what I said ruin your night."
"...Bye Chris."
Victor grumbled a sigh when he saw the light of the call dim and go black, "I can't believe he did that."
Yuri stared at the darkened screen, and let out a long sigh of his own, "I've known him for so long... I know he can be forward sometimes, but that was beyond the pale."
"Right!?"
"Did you give him the gears, too?"
"Oh you bet I did." Victor agreed adamantly, and finally stepped forward from his darkened corner. The red in his eyes - and the darkened circles under them - were rather obvious at that point, and Yuri couldn't help but reach up with his cold hands. Victor pressed his own on top of them, sandwiching those frigid digits between his palms and cheeks, hoping to warm them up, "I'm so mad at him right now..."
"You've been crying..." Yuri said quietly, and brushed his thumb over that pale skin. In the dim hall-light, it was hard to tell for sure, but Yuri thought he could see the fainted shadow-line over his fiancé's left cheek, right in midst of those normal eye-creases. A scar...? He thought, but shook the notion from his mind quickly to return to the moment, "Jeeze... Did he at least apologize to you before you handed the phone off?"
"...Not directly, but..." The silver said, and shook his head where he could. He reached forward, over his beloved's shoulders, and wrapped his arms around the man's thin frame, hugging tight, "I'm sorry now, too. He's always been a bit selfish of me. I should've considered he'd get like this..."
"Is he interested in you?" Yuri wondered pointedly, and slid his arms around his partner's back, "Do I have to compete with him for your affection?"
"You don't have to compete with anyone for my affection." Victor affirmed, and pressed his face to his fiancé's neck to kiss him there reassuringly, "You're the most important thing in my life. No one could ever hope to replace you."
"...Then we have to get him back for this somehow."
"We'll crush him at Worlds." Victor suggested, trying desperately to bring the conversation back around in the end, "Then he'll have to look up at the both of us from the bottom of the podium. It'll be our revenge."
Yuri nodded, and despite his anxious heart still fluttering a bit, he smiled, and pressed his brow to his partner's, "He'll be so jealous."