CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN
The night was an uneasy one. Mikhail had left to go to his hotel, having a taxi come pick him up instead of making Viktor drive him around. When the younger Russian finally closed the door, he pressed his forehead to the dark panel.
"See? We should have a proper guest room."
"You sure you want to wish for that right now?" Yuri wondered, standing slightly behind him with his arms crossed, "You always get a bit randy after a conflict, and I doubt you'd be so eager if your family was in earshot."
"Keyword being 'after.'" Viktor corrected, hardly being eager at all in that moment, "This is 'in progress.' I don't even feel like I can breathe right now. I'd rather just drop this whole thing and let the money vanish than go back up to that stupid little town to find out if Konstantin drove my mother to run her car into a tree on purpose or not."
"You wouldn't be going alone." Yuri pointed out, stepping up behind his partner to wrap his arms around him, "Whatever the results end up being...I think this would be a good opportunity for closure."
"That's what I thought last time."
"We really should've seen this coming. After the package your mom left behind, it's a wonder an inheritance of some sort didn't come up already."
"And if my mother was pushed to suicide, then I'll have a black mark on my soul and I'll be out the insurance payment. The money isn't worth it to me. I'll be bald from stress by the time this is all done!" Viktor cupped his head with both hands, "My hair means more to me than that!"
"Viktor..." Yuri gawked at him, but then reached up to pull the man's hands off his head, cupped it in his own, and pulled him down enough to kiss his crown, "I won't let any of it fall out. Not one strand. Now, come... You said before that you wanted plum wine, so I'll get you some."
The Russian found some kind of dry humor on that, and smiled in spite of himself, "Well, at least my Japanese was understandable... There's hope for me yet."
Yuri nodded enthusiastically, "There's always hope."
He moved his husband back into the livingroom and put him on the couch, going back to the bedroom only long enough to grab several blankets from the linen closet, return, and wrap the man in each and every one of them.
"There, now you're a Viktor burrito...a Vikturrito." He mused, leaving the man in the newly-made blanket nest on the floor just in front of the aforementioned couch.
Viktor was starting to enjoy the strange attention, and he nestled into the warmth of the pile as he faintly heard the clinking of glasses and the uncorking of a new bottle of wine in the kitchen behind him. If there was anything Viktor was good at, it was keeping an ample supply of a variety of drinkables. There was something for every occasion...especially the plum wine he'd developed a taste for while in Japan for the Grand Prix Final in Fukuoka; the very city that they'd use to fly out of Kyushu on any of their competition adventures.
When Yuri finally returned with two glasses of the wine he'd promised, Viktor looked at him curiously. He slid one hand out through the folds of the numerous blankets and took the glass as it was offered, smelled the aroma as he spun the purple liquid around in the flute a little bit, and then sipped at it.
"It occurred to me...this wine came from Fukuoka." He started saying as Yuri sat cross-legged next to him and was starting to sip his own wine, "I was in Fukuoka once for a Grand Prix Final."
"Yes." The man nodded, "I was still in Detroit at the time. I had to watch you on TV after the fact because of the time difference. I made everyone around me crazy because I was complaining so much about how close you were to my home town, especially since Skate America was in Detroit that year, and you'd been made to go there for the GP Series. I could practically throw a rock at the Joe Louis Arena from where I was staying at the time. Ahhh I was so mad I couldn't go... I had gotten a really bad cold at the time and was delirious in my apartment while on meds. Felt drunk the whole time. Phichit-kun could tell you."
"Drunk on cough medicine...that would've been a sight to see."
"...Yeah, except for all the snot and coughing and misery." Yuri pointed out.
"You know, when I was in Tokyo for Worlds..." Viktor went on, "I'd considered going to your family's hot spring, but I thought better of it. Even without knowing you'd forgotten what you said in Sochi, I felt bad thinking I'd go there to dangle myself in front of you, only to leave again without agreeing to be your coach."
"I would've legitimately died if you'd come for any reason other than the coaching thing...that in itself was already hard to believe for a long time."
"Yeah." Viktor nodded, "So being in Japan at the time was really weird. Yurio even told me that I had this dead look on my face when I got my gold medal there, like I didn't have my heart in it even though I'd just won. It was the last time I'd done Aria in competition...my siren-song for someone who wasn't even listening anymore...! I had my whole heart in that Free Skate...I just didn't have the energy to be excited about winning anymore." He had such a sad laugh at that, "I just went home after that and took some time off to be a lump, not knowing what else to do."
Yuri stretched his legs out and leaned against the couch, holding himself up with one arm on the seat cushion as the other held his half-empty wine glass, "Do you ever wonder what would've happened if we'd have run into each other after that, if not for you coming to be my coach? I was trying to get back into shape on my own, so I might've seen you in competition if you'd found your inspiration some other way."
"I like to think I would've done the right thing." Viktor drained the last of what he had and set the glass aside where his blanket-pile wouldn't knock it over, "But you were so timid back then..."
"Yeah, I probably would've run away." The younger skater admitted, "Slightly less gracefully than I did in Sochi, too. Might've involved some screaming."
Viktor shook his head and laughed quietly, twisting around to grab the remote control for the television, and clicking it on to resume watching footage of the World Championships from the night before. As he set the controller down next to his leg, he held that same hand out to invite Yuri closer, pulling the blankets away just enough to wrap them around his husband as he sat in front of him, between his crossed legs.
It was already nice and warm under the pile when Yuri settled, leaning into his partner's chest as the man's arms came around him beneath the blankets. Viktor pressed his cheek against the back of Yuri's neck and shoulder, holding for a moment before finally looking up again to see what was on the screen ahead of them.
"Ah...your best Eros performance ever." He mused, "Not one mistake. You even did the lip-lick again at the start...nice touch."
"I had a lot of fun doing that one." Yuri said, watching his own performance curiously, "Even after Yurio barged in on us." He turned back to look at his husband with the Eros-face he'd gotten so good at, "I think you'd done just enough to get the results you wanted, hm?"
"Just enough." Viktor repeated, moving his hands again suddenly, "...for then."
For once, Yuri didn't jump or flinch when his husband took hold of him, he just leaned further into him and let him do what he wanted, "...Viktor..."
"Hm...maybe I am getting too obvious..." The Russian wondered, doing as he will down below while starting to nibble at his partner's neck.
"This is a good obvious." Yuri insisted, "An...incredibly good...amazing kind of obvious..."
The performance on the screen went on entirely unnoticed. Neither could even remember who'd gone up after Eros ended. Paying attention to the television wasn't on either of their minds anymore anyway. Viktor kept on with his play and Yuri continued to do his best to keep the blankets over them. Fairly soon though, his fingers lost their strength, and the layers started falling away, landing in a circular heap around them.
The longer it went on, the more Yuri pushed back against Viktor's chest. It was almost to the point where Viktor couldn't even hold himself up anymore, and was about to lean against the seat-cushions of the couch when he realized...he was too far away for that. Mild confusion quickly turned to internal panic, and his hands came away to brace himself before he fell completely backward.
As the Russian thumped down onto his back, Yuri found the whole thing rather funny, twisting around despite himself to watch his husband reacquaint himself with his surroundings.
"Ah...sorry about that!" Viktor mused, a little embarrassed, "Thought the couch was closer than it wa-"
Yuri was on top of him, pressing firmly against the taller man's hips as he kissed him. He held there for a moment, but then pushed up where his hands had become set on either side of Viktor's lithe frame, "...I don't...feel anything..." He commented, pressing against him again as though second-guessing himself, but still confused, "Viktor... You're not...?"
Pale hands went between them again to retake what they'd held before, and Viktor raised his legs up on either side of Yuri's waist to pin him close. He craned his head up to touch his nose to his partner's, "I'm doing this for you, not for me."
"But...nh..."
"Later." Viktor insisted, continuing his expert movements, "Sometimes all I want to do is make you happy, because that's the only way I'll be happy."
Yuri pressed his forehead against his husband's, stuck as he was, and kissed him just as Viktor's tugs and strokes finished him. His body became weaker after that, and he slumped down, lying directly on top of the man in the heap of blankets on the floor.
Viktor snaked his hands under the man's shirt as he moved them back around him to hug him close, and held him there as long as he could.
.
.
.
The trip began early. Too early. And somehow, despite having it explained some 4 times already, no one could understand how or why Yurio was in the car with them as Mikhail drove them north.
...Something about the skating rink not being open yet...? And his grandpa couldn't pick him up so he called Mikhail? Huh...? It's not bright enough outside yet for any of this to make sense...
Viktor had given up trying to understand it after the second attempt anyway. He and Yuri had piled into the back seat of his car after Viktor handed his uncle the keys, and the both of them proceeded to sleep for as much of the trip as possible. Thankfully, no one really tried to make any conversation. Yurio listened to music on his phone while the radio played quietly for the elder, and the other two were too unconscious to care what was playing either way.
There was a brief intermission to the trip and Viktor was forced to be awake for a moment. He blinked blearily at the small woman who greeted him in the last big town before the ramshackle hills of his childhood. She sounded familiar...
Oh, she must be the lawyer lady. She seems nice. Konstantin will eat her alive, but she seems nice.
She was saying something, but he couldn't really hear the words. Mikhail took over the conversation after that, mercifully, and soon after, Viktor was asleep again in the back of the car. Yuri was fully awake though by then, and he quietly held onto his husband as the last leg of the journey ended.
...He wouldn't be so tired if he could sleep properly... Yuri thought, stroking the man's hair idly as he watched the countryside pass by, Hopefully this can all be sorted out today...I don't want him thinking about this when we get back to Hasetsu. He's been looking forward to that too much for it to be ruined now by something like this.
He started to feel a little guilty though.
I wonder if all of this would've even been half as bad if I hadn't been there for the first meeting? If Konstantin hadn't seen our rings...?
Viktor suddenly sneezed lightly and was up again, looking forward and then out the window like a zombie newly risen from the grave, "Are we there yet?"
"Not quite..."
Grumbling, Viktor pulled out his phone...and realized there was no service, "The world conspires against me."
"It'll be maybe 20 minutes." Mikhail said.
"Remind me again why I agreed to this?"
"Because the voice of reason prevailed." He answered, "And also because I said so."
"Yes, dad."
Mikhail practically choked on himself the same way Yuri almost had the night before when they'd heard the benefit total. Viktor found it oddly funny, and had a devious smile on his face where he leaned his head back against the seat.
"Does...does Konstantin even know we're coming?" Yuri wondered for both of them, "Or is this going to be some huge surprise?"
"Mix of both." Mikhail answered, "I talked to him after I got to my hotel room last night."
"Isn't that kind of like tipping off the enemy?" Yurio asked dubiously, pulling one earbud out, "Now he's just gonna hide everything."
"I don't think he has anything to hide." Mikhail said with a shrug, "He would never have cooperated with the lawyer in the first place if he did. He may still have a rotary phone, but Konstantin isn't an idiot."
"What's a rotary phone...?"
In that moment...Viktor suddenly felt very...very...old.