(Author Note: Sorry for the link-error! I posted the chapter and then realized I somehow forgot to put Viktor's Aria performance into it before Yurio went up, so I deleted it with the power of a thousand suns to fix it. Here it is though!)
CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE
The photo album continued on, some drawing laughter, others leaving the audience quiet. The one that Yuri liked the most though was one that the girls waited to show last, due to it being something of an 'animated' photo. It was a particularly wide image that showed almost a timeline of his and Viktor's skating career over a period of the last 10 years, each 'slide' of animation revealing another year after the first as they came towards the center. Starting from the left with Viktor, and himself way at the other side, each year that appeared leading up to Sochi where it seemed like they were standing face-to-face staring at each other in the center of the image, only to pass each other, standing back to back wearing the next year's outfits. Himself in 'Yuri on Ice,' and Viktor with 'Winter's Prince.' The final images superimposed over the 'timeline' were much bigger than the ones that came before, featuring each of them in their Duetto outfits.
Yuri couldn't even hear the clapping when he saw it, just looking up at the final image with awe. It didn't help that the girls had been playing his YoI theme while revealing the image, with the calmest part coming up as the Duetto figures appeared on the screen.
The background almost faded into a grey tone, even darkening a little to help make the Duetto figures' colors pop even more.
Yuri lifted his head as he heard blades scratching around behind him, and he saw Viktor skating off to unexpectedly finish the YoI program, too excited about the photo to contain his energy. The audience was applauding it as he went, picking it up from the Ina Bauer maneuver and continuing on.
No matter how many times he and Viktor had done the routine together while first putting it together, it was incredibly weird to see the man doing it while wearing the Aria costume. He moved Minako around carefully to make room for any moves that would bring the Russian through where they were standing, but kept his eyes carefully on the man, only to break away in time to mirror the final quad flip and enter the last spin sequence before crossing his leg behind the other and raising his arm up to reach for Viktor, even as he was doing the same thing from the other side of the rink.
The two were laughing about it as Viktor saw him, not having noticed Yuri getting into it until that moment, and then came back to center so Minako could finish the show they'd usurped from her.
Viktor had taken the microphone with him when he did his little show, and only then finally gave it back to her, "Sorry, we should let you continue~!" He said breathlessly, catching up from the sudden exertion.
She held her hand out and let the Russian place it in her palm, curling her fingers around it with look, "Are you going to do this every time we have a break between skaters?"
"Only if you let me." Viktor mused, "Can't help it."
Yuri moved around to help give Minako her show back, pulling up behind his husband to start pushing him over to the rink wall where the other skaters were waiting. All but Yurio anyway, who had left to go get ready for his own show coming up soon.
The ballerina just shook her head and laughed, raising her free hand to gesture at the pair, "It's going to be a long day with these two." The audience clapped its approval, "But, we were about to do Viktor's part...I wonder if he's worried we might've found something embarrassing?"
"Of course!" He called back from the darkened part of the rink.
"You're too perfect for that, Viktor!" Minako called back, "Although we did find a little bit..."
"Uh oh..."
The connection to the triplets' Viktuuri account had been disconnected by that point and returned to where it had interrupted the previous display. The last photo was put back to get the timing right, showing the younger Viktor with the Eros outfit again, and Minako continued where she'd left off.
"Mhm...so, 12 years to see this outfit in person, is that where I was?" She wondered to herself into the mic, "But for a guy who was so serious on the ice...I wonder how many people knew how much of a goofball you were off the ice?" Minako watched the images change over to a video from years ago, which displayed what looked like some Banquet party or another, "Exhibit A..."
"Oh!" Viktor recognized it as soon as he saw what 'version' of himself was on the screen, and he reached over the rink wall to pull Chris closer with an arm over his shoulders, "This was from the first World Championships we were in together!"
"This should be fun then. I wonder how much footage was captured?"
"You were so serious at first, too." Viktor laughed, "How little I knew back then!"
"You were serious, too, Viktor." The Swiss skater pointed out, "Being so flirtatious with the rose you tossed me before."
"I threw a rose to you?" The Russian wondered, "...I forget."
"It was our first meeting 11 years ago."
"It was!? Ah!"
Yuri was just shaking his head and laughing, "You're too forgetful."
"Selectively forgetful." He corrected, "Ask me the score from any event and I could probably list them...but ask me about people I've met, and I'll draw a blank. There's too many!"
"Hashtag #UltraPopularGuyProblems." Yuri jabbed.
In the locker room, Yurio had his phone propped up against his jacket as he was changing, watching the LiveStream on the JSF site so he would miss as little as possible. It was hard to see what was being shown on the big theatrical screen when his phone was so small though.
I'll have to ask Yuuko to show me the slideshow properly later.
He lifted his head a little as he heard the locker-room door being pushed open and then sliding closed again, followed by footsteps. Leaning over a little, he spotted Mikhail coming towards him.
"Almost ready?" He asked.
Yurio nodded, adjusting where the long black coat sat on his shoulders as he grabbed his phone, "This will be the second time I've premiered a Short Program in this place."
"Not such a bad thing, all things considered." Mikhail added, "You want your hair done like before or no?"
"You're the only one who's seen the full show." The blond answered, "You tell me."
The older Russian just huffed a laugh, "You're asking the wrong guy about artistic style. If you want my opinion on the mechanics, I can tell you your outfit is spot on, but the flair...that's a bit beyond me."
"Ms. Baranovskaya always did my hair before a show." Yurio said quietly, "I wonder if she'd come back?"
"All you have to do is prove that you've made changes." Mikhail said, looking down at the teen, "You've already come a long way since you and I even first met."
The teen nodded, then pushed to stand, pocketing his phone as he went looking for an elastic band in his bag, "I still have a ways to go though. I'm not sure how much longer my body will hold out before I have to take time off, but I'd like to think I can mend the bridges I've burned before that happens."
Mikhail nodded, watching the teen pull some of his bangs out from the rest of where he was pulling his long hair up behind his head, tying it back into a ponytail, leaving it in a droopy bun with the last loop through the elastic, then tying a second one around it just to be sure it was secure. He took a deep breath as he checked himself in a mirror and then nodded to himself, "Viktor's about to do Aria. I don't want to miss it."
By the time they got back to rink-side, they walked into a chorus of laughter. Yurio pushed past them to look at the big screen to see what had gotten them all so loud, and saw a picture of a much younger Chris and Viktor, each one covered in cake and frosting, and looking like they were about to belt more at each other.
"...What in the world?"
He heard Viktor having a good laugh about it as well, and he moved over to get closer to hear what was being said about it.
"I remember that now!" Viktor was saying, "It's just like the other day when we were trying to drop ice in each other's shirts!"
"And you started it both times." Chris pointed out, "The cake thing really threw me off though."
"That's because you were still trying to be so serious!"
"So were you!" The blond mused, "Prim and proper Viktor Nikiforov, the guy who could never do anything that wasn't somehow innately charming or adorable. You were like a puppy back then, I swear...even in the most compromising situations, you still somehow made it look like you intended it to be that way all along."
"More like a cat then, right?"
"Oh no, a puppy for sure." Chris reaffirmed, "If you had the personality of a cat, you'd have been knocking fragile things off tables just to see if they bounce, and being a jerk about it after. I don't think I've ever seen you be mean to anyone in your whole life."
"It's been known to happen on rare occasions." Viktor said quietly, "But don't tell anyone, I have an image to uphold."
"An image like that?" The Swiss skater pointed at the screen where the photos of the pair looking rather normal at that particular Banquet had suddenly changed over to a video, grainy as it was.
"...V-Viktor!?" The younger Chris shrieked, finding his face covered in cake frosting.
"You're being too serious! Lighten up a little! You won bronze, not a prison sentence!" The younger, long-haired Viktor retorted, his hand covered in white and blue fluff. He was laughing at the Swiss' expense, only to suddenly have a huge wad of the same cake shoved in his own face.
Chris was laughing victoriously, and the two started grabbing handfuls of the same cake to fling at each other, even as both of their coaches was trying to pull them apart, only to get cake on themselves as well and suddenly give up.
Yakov looked particularly unimpressed with having his suit covered in icing, "Vitya!"
"Sorry, Yakov!" The teen joked, looking up as he heard music changing over in the room. He recognized it and looked over at the younger skater, who was busy trying to get some of the frosting off his face, looking at it on his finger and shrugging before putting it in his mouth, not wanting to waste it, "Hey! You know this song?"
Chris listened, "...Oh, yeah!"
It was hard for the audience in the Ice Castle to hear what was playing given the audio quality of a cam-corder recording from 10 years prior, but it wasn't the song that was important. It was the hilarity that ensued as the two cake-covered skaters started dancing with each other in over-the-top dramatic flair.
The two in question were laughing at the memory of it, and Viktor was wiping away a tear, "I think we became best friends right then."
"Close as could be." The blond agreed.
"So now that we've set a completely inappropriate mood for the next performance," Minako mused, watching as the impromptu dance on screen came to a close and the screen went dark again, "Let's have it for Viktor's Aria!"
Chris immediately hoisted Yuri up off the ice, pulling him to sit on the rink wall the same way Viktor had been during Firebird. Similarly to that as well, Viktor quickly wedged himself between his husband's legs and hugged him before heading out to take his spot. The audience was cheering wildly for it, and Viktor did everything he could to keep getting them riled up, laughing quickly to himself before taking his place.
He was about to get into the starting pose when he realized something, "Axel! Lutz! Loop!" He called out with urgency, much to the audience's confusion.
"What is...he doing?" Yuri wondered, just as perplexed as everyone else to see Viktor come rushing back to the rink wall, only to grab his phone and hurry off to where the triplets had gathered at the rink-wall entrance. No one could hear what they were saying, but Viktor had handed his phone to them and made some gestures before the three nodded excitedly and ran off with it. Viktor stood back up and went out to center rink again, waiting until he could see their flash-light app signal before finally getting into his starting position, "Okay, sorry! You can play it now!"
The girls had gotten to a familiar part of the rink wall and were starting to film with Viktor's phone, and the music above started to play.
Sento una voce che piange lontano
Anche tu, sei stato forse abbandonato?
The crowd had gotten appropriately quiet as the performance began and the Russian started the dance. Yuri kept looking from him to the triplets though, feeling like he should know what had just happened.
It suddenly became clear though.
E i battiti del cuore
Si fondono tra loro
Viktor came right up to where Yuri had been perched on the wall, doing the same thing to him that Yuri done to Yuuko when he did his copy of Aria a year prior, although with the added touch of his hands on Yuri's face before backing up again with his hand over his heart, and continuing on with the program as normal.
Yuri's cheeks were flushed, and he clapped even harder than the rest when Viktor entered the final pose, the drums of the song banging loudly overhead. The crowd had started cheering before the song was even over, many having done so when Viktor came to rink-side. Yuri was just over the moon about it though.
The one time Viktor had done Aria at the Ice Castle in full-costume was when he was starting to plot Duetto, and had pulled Yuri into the performance as well, so Yuri couldn't actually watch the whole thing from a spectator's perspective. There was no such 'interruption' this time though. Yuri was able to watch it from start to finish, and loved every minute of it, especially knowing that the last time it had been done in competition, Viktor had done it with his future husband in mind.
Minako-sensei was watching the World Championships at Yu-Topia that night, while I was doing Aria myself here at the Ice Castle. I wonder what she'd think if she knew what Viktor was thinking while the show was playing on the television? Even I could hardly believe it, even when Viktor told me about it himself...
As the Russian was busy catching his breath in the middle of the rink, Yuri hopped off the wall and skated out to him excitedly. Viktor caught him coming out the corner of his eye, and turned to catch his husband as he lunged for him, throwing his arms over the taller man's shoulders as they spun around together. The audience just kept cheering, many whistling excitedly.
Yurio was clapping from rink-side, Mikhail behind him doing the same.
"A world-class performance, if anyone's ever seen one!" Minako said into the mic, "I bet that even topped his last showing at Worlds in Tokyo last year!"
Viktor nodded and blew an affectionate kiss out to the woman for lack of being close enough to be heard speaking his appreciation, but then took Yuri's hand and skated back to where the triplets were waiting. He thanked them quickly as he took his phone back, "Quick, one of you guys pull up your mom's account. I want to see how close it was."
"Way ahead of you, Uncle Viktor!" Loop said happily, showing him her own phone with the video already qued up.
Viktor quickly turned his back to the rink wall so the triplets (and anyone behind them) could see what he was looking at, and put his own phone up next to Loop's. The timing was only off by a fraction of a second as Viktor thumbed play on both devices, and Yuri looked down to see what his partner had orchestrated.
"This is the exact spot where we recorded you last year, Yuri!" Axel explained, "Uncle Viktor wanted a side-by-side!"
For once, the younger skater wasn't entirely humiliated by the sight of himself in that video, and was actually quite impressed to realize how perfectly timed he was compared to the real thing.
"Even without the music to go by, Yuri hit all his marks at the right time." Yuuko said, coming up from behind her girls to spy over her friend's shoulder, "It's great to see how well he did it with a video like this! Seeing Viktor do it from the same angle, it's really obvious."
"My little katsudon knew how to move." Viktor nuzzled him affectionately, rubbing his cheek on the top of Yuri's head before giving Loop her phone back, "We'll have to splice these videos together somehow! Do it like with the photos from earlier!"
"Yeah!" The triplets cheered, "We could even put in parts of Duetto, Uncle Viktor!"
"Wow~! Yes! I can't wait to see it!" The Russian said anxiously, wanting to see it as soon as instantly, but knowing he'd have to wait. He turned to look over at Chris, but caught sight of Yurio just beyond him, and raised his arm up to wave, "Yuri!"
Both Yuris lifted their heads to the sound of their names, but they both realized who Viktor was referring to rather quickly, with the blond squeezing his way along the spectator-side of the rink wall to get closer.
"Hope you didn't miss too much of the show while you were changing!" The older Russian lamented, "I can't wait to see the one you're about to do though! You already look like you're going to go into battle as it is!"
The older Yuri nodded in agreement.
The younger Yuri was about the say something when he suddenly felt Chris and Viktor hoisting him up over the rink wall like a duffle-bag, placing him onto the ice despite still having his blade-guards on. He was too stunned to protest, and just kind of gave an exasperated look once he was upright again.
"You ready?" Yuri asked, coming around to the teen's other side and putting a hand on his shoulder, "You've had this show in your back pocket for longer than you meant to."
"Hopefully it'll be worth the wait to see." He answered nervously.
"Oh, good timing!" They all heard Minako say suddenly, and they looked out to center-rink to see her reaching for the teen, "We're about to do the part about you!"
"...About...me?" Yurio repeated dubiously.
"This ought to amazing." Viktor taunted, following after as Yuri gently pushed the reluctant teen out to meet with the woman.
"You don't really think you could come to Hasetsu and not be followed around by a trio of skating otaku, do you?" Minako wondered teasingly.
Yurio looked up at the screen cautiously, wondering what horrors the triplets must've captured if he was going to be part of the sort-of-but-not-really roast. Photos scrolled in quick succession, each showing some embarrassing image or another of his training for the Hot Springs on Ice show the previous year. Viktor had been relentless back then, leaving both Yuris exhausted at the end of each day, especially on the days where they'd been put through their paces while trying to make them find their own personal Eros and Agape. Oddly, the photos chosen were more of a showcase of the competitiveness between the two younger skaters than anything else.
The work-outs, the miles-long runs where the two of them chased after a bike-riding Viktor, the proverbial death-marches back to Yu-Topia where the younger duo was almost too exhausted to get back. There were even numerous photos from the time when Yuri had told the triplets that the training sessions were private and not to be shown online later, with half a dozen clips of both Yuris finding their ways flat onto the ice, heaving to catch their breath while Viktor laughed at them both.
"Still too average!" The old Viktor was telling them.
"Get up and try again or I won't do either of your programs! Don't forget!"
"That free leg is too loose, Yurio!"
"Too much energy! I gave you Agape, not Eros! Quit creeping on Yuri's theme! I'm not going to switch them!"
"Maybe you need the temple again...?"
"Noooo!" Yurio protested in the video, "If it's not up to par then just tell me!"
Viktor pat Yurio on the head affectionately, "Maybe you needed a repeat trip to the waterfall back then instead."
"...That was worse in its own way." The blond mumbled.
"Does everyone want to see the new program Yuratchka created?" Minako asked the audience, getting a raucous cheer in response, "What was that? Do you?" More cheering, louder than before, "I'm afraid I can't hear you..." The crowd roared, some kicking at the rink wall to add the hollow thunking of the arena to the clamor. Minako clapped, "That's more like it! You ready then?" She turned to the blond.
The young Russian nodded.
"Then let's have it for Yuri Plisetsky, debuting his new Short Program for the next season!" Minako announced.
Yuri and Viktor were clapping alongside the rest in excited anticipation.
Yurio just glanced around though, seeing how a lot of people in the audience were whispering amongst themselves, probably about what Minako was talking about given how he'd been dropped from the Russian Team, and hadn't yet been reinstated at that point. There was still a chance Yakov wouldn't take him back, and it made him incredibly nervous. He caught sight of Mikhail making his way through the crowd as he headed for the rink entrance though, and it helped him focus his mind away from the inaudible whispering.
Viktor and Yuri had suddenly pulled him into a group hug though, and he lost sight of the older Russian.
"This is going to be great!" He heard Yuri saying, "And what an appropriate theme!"
"Our little Yuri, never giving up! Bulldozing his way through the toughest obstacles to make it to the top!" Viktor added. It must've been a funny sight for the older Russian to have to bend over so far just to hug the both of them.
Yurio wasn't sure if he should answer to that, given that he'd already said enough to his Asian counterpart. The two of them finally pulled up though and beamed at him excitedly. Minako had already moved off to the rink side to give them a moment on the ice alone as a group, only to be bypassed by Mikhail as he went out to join them in her stead, awkwardly scuffling his way across the ice with his shoes.
Viktor quickly went out to skate around him, careful to watch for him to slip, only to not be needed. Mikhail stood defiantly upright despite the slippery footing beneath his feet, and did his best not to look uneasy about it.
"Time to show them what you're made of." The older Russian said with a smile, "Even though it hasn't been that long since everything changed, I think it already shows how much you've grown."
Yuri and Viktor had already started to pull away by then, heading over to where Chris and Phichit were watching from the side-lines. They all kept their eyes out on the pair standing in the spotlight, waiting for the show to start.
"What you and Katsudon did for me was more than I ever thought anyone would do." Yurio said quietly, barely audible over the continued clapping of the crowd, "I won't let you down."
"You're a soldier, just like your show tells." Mikhail nodded, "You've made it through the worst of the fighting, so now you can relax a bit before the next battle. Try to have a little fun, okay?"
"I never really thought of skating as a 'game.'" The blond said, looking down a little, "It's been so competitive and nerve-wracking that I saw it as more like a job than a sport to enjoy."
"Now's the time where you can stop doing that though." Mikhail suggested, "Especially here and now, where your career isn't on the line or being scored. This is family, friends, and fans today...no judges, no officials to pester you. It's just us having a good time."
Yurio nodded, suddenly becoming hyper-aware of his surroundings as they were pointed out to him.
...Calm down, calm down...he's right... This isn't a competition. I'm not going for grades here today. It's...like the Exhibition. The lights are down, I can't even really see the audience...it's just for...fun.
He slid forward a little and wrapped his arms around the thin older man, leaving him a bit speechless at the gesture. Even the audience was surprised to see it; Viktor and Yuri less so, but still partly.
"I've dedicated this program to you and Viktor and Katsudon." Yurio said, "You've all been my allies all along, even though I've made it so difficult for any of you to want to be. So...watch closely, okay?"
"We will. Do your thing, Yuratchka." Mikhail patted the teen gently on his head, and then moved away to shuffle back to rink-side.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Minako's voice could be heard overhead, "Yuri Plisetsky presents...'Soldier.'"