CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR

It was odd to see the sun rise after having done so much for the day already. Yuri was sure he'd end up half-asleep again by the afternoon, even with all the coffee in the world. Viktor seemed as energized as ever though, eagerly starting to get things arranged for their move, and even trying to look up listings for apartments, condos, and houses in Hasetsu.

Yuri was waiting for it.

"Neh neh, Yuri..." The Russian was tugging on his sleeve as he sipped at his drink, "What does this all say?"

Viktor held up his laptop and the mass of Japanese text it displayed. Yuri couldn't take his eyes off how expensive it looked though.

"...Uhh...how much do you already know about what this says?"

"I was able to figure out the menus for price range and size, but..." Viktor laughed at himself, "The rest..."

"...You already know what the cost is?"

"Yeah. It's about the same as what this place cost me." He gawked, "Why?"

"And you did the currency conversion already?"

"Ahuh?" Viktor was starting to wonder if something was wrong, "What's it say?"

Yuri scanned it briefly before offering his translation, "...It's crazy-talk, that's what it says."

"Yuuuuuri!" The Russian was practically begging.

"I know the area this listing is in. It's really far away from the Ice Castle, practically on the other side of the city."

"Oh, is that all? For a second I thought you were going to tell me a family had been murdered inside or something." Viktor took up the laptop again and wandered back to the blue sofa to keep poking around.

"You want me to look into this…?" Yuri wondered, sitting a bit more upright where he was at the small table next to the island in the kitchen, just a few feet behind his partner, "It would probably be easier to find what you're wanting if you just give me a list and let me do the search. I'm going to have to read you all the pages anyway..."

Viktor was hunched over the laptop where he held it on his lap, sitting cross-legged, squinting at the screen, "How'm I gonna learn to read it if you read it for me?"

"You're going to learn to read Japanese…?" Yuri was skeptical, "You don't even speak Japanese."

"I picked up a little while I was in Hasetsu before! How else could I go out drinking all night by myself?" The Russian puffed out his chest and held up a finger, "Puramu wain ga hoshii, onegaishimaaasu~! Itadakimaaaaasu~!"

"...Mhm..." Yuri lifted a brow at the words, but then his mind went back to the World Championships, "So how much of my rant about Yurio did you really understand then?"

"Hah~!" The Russian leaned back against the sofa and turned his head slightly to peek at Yuri from behind his silver bangs, "I kind of understood the structure of it, but most of the fluff...nah. I heard a couple 'daikirai da's in there, so I guess you really hated something, but..." He spun around after that, "You should tell me what you said!"

"I'd feel bad repeating it now that Yurio and I have found common ground." Yuri admitted, scratching the back of his head.

"I guess that's only fair." Viktor turned back around to the computer, then sighed and closed it, "But you're right…there isn't much sense in me looking for places when I can't read any of the property listings." He paused for a moment and looked around, as though seeing his own house for the first time again, "It's going to be weird to leave this place for good. I've been here so long."

"...Yeah, when I moved to Detroit, it was scary." Yuri agreed, looking around as well, "That was right when your major winning streak started, now that I think about it. I was gone for 5 years and you won for 5 years. You quit skating right when I finally came home."

"Wow."

"So what kind of place were you looking for anyway?"

"Something like this, but maybe with another bedroom." Viktor answered.

"Why do we need three?"

"One of them ought to be a room for guests, don't you think?" The Russian laughed, "We've already taken over the second bedroom for our skating gear. We're sorely underprepared to have anyone over. We've been lucky that it's only been Yurio so far."

"Speaking of him..." Yuri put a finger on his chin, "We should drag him out and take him someplace fun before we leave. What's there to do in St. Petersburg besides skate?"

"A tourist might make the rounds of theaters and museums and Tsar-era palaces...but a resident lives that stuff every day so it's not as alluring."

"...Yurio likes cats, right? Isn't there something where he could see some?"

"Only at the taxidermy museum." The look on the Russian's face was dubious, "Leningrad Zoo isn't much better, and he's been there before. Don't ask him what he thinks about it."

...But, he did.

"The zoo was founded over 150 years ago and wasn't exactly designed with the welfare of the animals in mind, especially the cats." Yurio was explaining as they walked along one of the canals, "Some of the cages are still the originals, and are appallingly small. They have a black jaguar there and it's cage is smaller than Viktor's fucking liv-"

"Language." Yuri chided quietly.

"...smaller than Viktor's livingroom." He finished, glowering past the rim of his hood, "The tiger got a new habitat recently but it just looks like a human-minded rock pathway winding through a stone garden. Every time I go past the place, I want to bust all of them out."

"Don't you have a cat at home?" Yuri wondered.

"A Siamese-point Himalayan."

"Fancy."

Viktor watched in mostly-silence as Yurio spent the next half hour showing off photos of said feline while they sat at one of the many canal-side cafes. At some point after they had all decided to actually buy something from the place, and their drinks were brought to their table, Viktor finally relaxed a little and pulled his phone out to pass the time. Still though, even with the device in his hand, he still peeked his eyes up every so often.

[What's wrong?] A text message popped up on his screen unexpectedly.

Viktor looked around before looking back to realize the text had come from Yuri, even though he was still, for all intents and purposes, paying full attention to the blond.

[Just people-watching.]

This time, the Russian watched his partner intently, seeing how Yuri had the phone in his hand casually even as Yurio was still telling stories about his cat's adventures. He couldn't hear a beep or buzz, as it seemed Yuri had set his phone to silent for the day, but he checked it after a few minutes and started typing again.

[You look like a well-dressed Meerkat on the look-out for hawks and lions.]

Viktor raised his eyebrows at that, [Didn't realize I was that obvious.]

[Maybe it wouldn't be to anyone else.]

"Didn't you say you had a dog before?" Yurio was wondering, having run out of things to say about his feline for the moment.

"Ah, yeah...I had a poodle."

"...Like Makkachin?"

"...Just like Makkachin." Yuri felt like he'd gone pale, realizing where this was going.

"What was its name?"

And all the color was out of his face, "...Viktor."

Yurio gawked at him for a moment, as though unsure how to proceed. He looked across the table at the dog's namesake, and then back at the Asian skater, and thumbed over at Viktor with a brow raised as though wondering if the dog's name was connected to the man.

"...We called him Vikku-chan for short!" Yuri tried to distract away from the embarrassing admission, flailing his hands around defensively.

He was sure Yurio would just make fun of him for it, but the blond just reclined in his chair and pulled his drink from the table casually, "That's the one that died right before Sochi, right?"

"Mh..."

"...Sorry." Yurio said quietly, entirely unexpectedly. The older skater looked at him curiously, but then nodded and reclined back as well. There was a period of silence after that as they all nursed their drinks, hot cider or spiced milk to ward off the cold early-afternoon breeze, but then the blond nudged over at the entirely-silent elder amongst them, "How's Makkachin?"

"Hm?" Viktor looked up from where he'd been waiting for a reply on his phone, thumbing through Instagram in the mean-time.

"He's like...what...6 now? Maybe 7?"

"He's getting up there, yeah."

Yuri had an odd look on his face, "...If Makkachin's that young, what happened to the dog from when you still had long hair?"

Viktor and Yurio deadpanned him, "Do you have to ask...?"

The Asian banged his head down on the table and stayed there, "Iamsosorrythatwasastupidquestionahhh."

Viktor tried to make light of it, "The dog I had before Makkachin died during the off season. You thought Makkachin was the same one from that magazine article?"

"I...never heard or saw anything about your other dog, I'm sorry..." The younger skater finally picked his face up from where it had landed, "But Makkachin looks just like it...I always thought it was the same dog. I guess it was dumb...most dogs don't live past 12, but Makkachin would be like...14 or something by now if they were the same animal...and yet he's just a big puppy."

"Yeah..." The elder Russian nodded, sipping at his spiced milk, "I was a lump for weeks after Kubochin died. I wasn't even really looking for another dog, but the girlfriend I had at the time found a brown poodle puppy for sale at someone's house, and she grabbed him up."

"...Oh, you were involved with someone back then?" Yurio asked, almost too casually.

"Why do you think my winning streak only started after that?" Viktor laughed, setting his cup down, "I wasn't getting consecutive golds until she and I split. Felt like I got my soul back after that and could focus."

The raven-haired skater gawked at him. The whole realization reminded him of something Mikhail had said when they met at the cafe near the house while Viktor was doing his late-night solo practices.

"Viktor's had other relationships before that."

"Sure."

"With women though."

"...Yes."

"Has he told you about them?"

"He tried once, but I cut him off." Yuri looked at the poodle and leaned back, "That was when we were first getting to know each other though. I don't know that I'd want to ask about it again now."

"You've never wondered why he wasn't still with someone when he went to Japan?"

"He'd been a bachelor for a while before that."

"Not my point."

"No, I hadn't wondered."

"Hard to maintain a relationship when half of your life is in a sport."

"...Was she a fan or something?" Again, it was Yurio who asked. Yuri was starting to wonder if the blond had become the mouthpiece for his own anxious brain.

"Yeah, a regular groupie." Viktor admitted sheepishly, "But she absolutely hated how much attention I still gave to other fans when we were together. It was fine at first, she even seemed grateful that I had noticed her in the crowd, but she started to worry that I would notice someone else the same way and got obsessive. We'd get into fights before I'd leave for competition, even tried to tell me I was banned from interacting with fans...and, well...that's not gonna fly..."

"You don't lose anything by shaking hands! Be polite! Viktor Nikiforov is always nice to his fans!"

The Russian leaned over the table, delicately holding the ceramic cup over where his elbows held him up, "She even FaceTimed me right before I was supposed to do my second show at Skate America in Oregon, and questioned me about how I greeted the crowd while on the television! So I was just like...'Buh-bye!' and hung up." He even gave a cruel smile and waved as though he were reliving the moment.

It just turned Yuri's stomach, "...Sheesh, I hope you never do anything like that to me..."

"Maybe that's why you jumped the fence." Yurio joked, "You've only ever had crazy girlfriends."

"That's not true!" Viktor insisted, slouching back again, "The second one was nice..." He lifted his head as he thought back on it, "She was beautiful, too..."

Yuri looked a little uncomfortable, even though he told himself over and over that he shouldn't feel that way given how long ago it was.

But Viktor continued on, "Long, wavy, pale blond hair...blue eyes like the ocean. Ahh if only she hadn't gotten hurt..."

"Huh?"

"She was a skater." The Russian explained, "But she tore her ACL during practice once, and the surgery to fix it left her in recovery for almost an entire year. She was so heartbroken by the process that she got really depressed and broke it off with me, saying she didn't want to hold me back." He seemed somber at the memories of it, "I dedicated my Grand Prix Final to her that year, but she never took me back. I even started learning French for her, since she had a hard time with English..."

"So...she was French?"

"Mh. We met at the Trophée Éric Bompard."

Yurio pointed at the ponderous skater while still holding his own cup, "I feel like we're obligated to ask about the first one now."

Viktor started to laugh at that, "That was a secret scandal!" He set the cup down and got dramatic, "It was my second year in the Senior Division, and she was one year older than me. I had won gold at Skate America and silver at the NKH trophy...and then here comes this Ice Dancer with her partner at the Grand Prix Final. I was infatuated!"

"...Second year in Seniors..." Yurio repeated, "So that means y-"

"You were still in diapers!" Viktor said, cutting him off all too happily, "Baby Yuri!" He laughed.

It just made the blond's face red.

The Asian skater could tell Yurio's top was about to blow, so he reached over to put his hand over the teen's forearm, "Breathe. Breeaaatttthe." It was an oddly welcome distraction from the topic.

"...But, yes, I was 18. Hormones were running wild through me like a herd of cats. I met her on day 1 of the event, and by the end of the Short Program, we were sneaking off behind her dancing partner's back. They bombed the Free Skate part of their show because of the fight they got into over me." The Russian was almost proud of himself, "But the worst part was how, before the Exhibition, we snuck out again and that time we actu-"

"No, stop, stop." Yuri finally cut him off, "I can't."

"You almost let me tell the whole story! I'm impressed."

"It's more than I wanted to hear." The younger skater said defensively.

"It all happened years ago..." Viktor tried to explain, "It's long over and done with already. They're only memories."

"Some memories seem to be thought on more fondly than others."

"Oh, are you worried about the second one?" Viktor wondered, leaning over to take his husband's ringed hand, though he had gloves on, and pressed his own thumbed glove over where he knew the ring would be, "I told you once before that what I felt for them isn't the same as what I feel for you."

"It's still hard to hear."

"I don't know what else to tell you..." The Russian admitted, "I thought they were just fun stories I could tell."

"I guess I don't want to think about how I might just be a 'fun story to tell' one day."

"...Oh Yuri..." He sighed, feeling bad about the whole thing now, "I didn't mean to upset you."

The Asian suddenly found himself pulled over, away from Viktor, as the Russian Punk yanked him back with his arms around his head. Even Viktor had a perplexed look on his face, maybe more so than the one Yuri himself had put on.

"I egged him on. Sorry." Yurio said stiffly, the words hard to say. He let go of the older skater pretty quickly after that and went on acting like he hadn't done anything at all, even as Yuri was trying to straighten out where his hair had gotten messed up. The teen refused to make eye contact after that for a while.

Yuri and Viktor exchanged confused glances, but then shrugged and smiled, trying to move on from the awkwardness of the prior conversation. The whole point of the outing had been to do something fun with Yurio anyway.

They started heading out again, walking along the canal until they got to the bridge that would take them back to where Viktor had parked his car. Once inside and buckled in, gloves came off, and the couple loosely held hands together over the center console while Yurio sat alone in the back seat, gawking out at pedestrians and other cars as they passed.

Yuri thumbed around on his phone while Viktor drove, looking at the news from back home before checking his email. There wasn't much to see, but soon, he saw a notification bubble descend from the top of his screen showing a new text message.

"Oh...it's Mikhail." He said aloud, getting everyone's attention, "He says he'll be here tomorrow afternoon around 2. He's wanting to know where he should go first once he arrives."

"He should come to the house." Viktor answered, "We'll deal with that and then go to Yuri's place."

"Okay." The younger skater said, using his one free thumb to type the reply, then looking over his shoulder to the teen in the back, "The house thing shouldn't take us long, so we'll come by your place around 4?"

"Whenever."

By the time they got back to Yurio's grandpa's place, it was mid afternoon, and the teen was quick to hop out of the back seat, leaning forward only enough to pat the Asian's shoulder before practically fleeing. Yuri just held his hand up and waved conspicuously as the teen disappeared through the doors, "...Where's my hug...?"

"He'll resist as much as he can." Viktor laughed, squeezing his husband's hand where he held it, "I think you got more miles out of him today than you would've if he stuck to the plan, so cut him some slack." He reached into his inside coat pocket though to pull out his phone and see what his uncle had complained about him not seeing. He thumbed through his texts with the man and saw nothing he hadn't already read, but then shrugged and went to the voicemail bubble. There, he saw a message he hadn't noticed before, and it had been there since earlier that morning, "Huh...I wonder why I didn't see this?" He clicked it and held it out, putting the message on speaker since Viktor thought nothing of letting his husband hear what was being said.

"Hey, it's me." Mikhail's voice was starting, "I know you don't want to hear about this so I'll get right to the point..."

Both men's faces contorted into worried expressions.

"The lawyer overseeing your mom's Will has been trying to get into contact with you. Apparently she had a sizable life insurance plan, and...well, you're the sole beneficiary. Her Will stated explicitly that Konstantin not be made aware of the whole thing, but without any contact information for you, the lawyer had to reach out to him to try and find you. Konstantin gave the lawyer my info since he knows we're in contact, and now he's bugging me to try and find out why there's so much interest in you again suddenly. Long story short, we gotta deal with this before you leave. Sorry to drop this on you, nephew. I know you said you never wanted to deal with the family again, but I really think you should consider this. We'll talk later. I get to St. Petersburg around 2 tomorrow afternoon. I'll holler at Yuri if I don't hear back from you soon. Bye."

The message ended, and Yuri could feel where his husband's fingers had gotten tighter around his hand. Yuri wasn't even sure what to think at that point. He just sat straight in his seat and drew in a deep breath.

"...Well, at least the car wasn't moving when you played that."

"I don't want to deal with this."

"...I know."

"I really don't."

"You want me to message Mikhail back and tell him not to bring it up?"

"He's not going to drop it." Viktor said, dropping the phone into his lap as he pulled his free hand back under his bangs where his eye had started twitching again, "I just can't believe this."

"...That's two big events we've come home from only to have to deal with something like this." Yuri sighed, "Maybe it's a good thing that there's nothing else on the horizon till October."

"There's something entirely not normal about all this." Viktor went on, "Why would my mother go to such lengths to hide things from my father? Why didn't she just leave him if she was under so much pressure to conform? First, it was that package of unopened letters and photos, now this? I'm starting to wonder if the wreck she was in was entirely an accident."

The younger skater was starting to feel a yawn coming on, though he tried his best to hide it, "Let's just get back. I don't want you driving when you're all worked up and worried."

"...Mh..."