CHAPTER NINETY THREE
The deafening cheering of the crowd came at him in waves as he made his slow and leisurely display, heading in lazy circles towards the center of the rink. He twizzled and rotated in a quick spin to loosen his back out a little, but then resigned himself to taking his position. Hid gold blades stuck out in stark contrast to the shimmering silver of his outfit, but he knew that would only draw the judges' eyes to his skates, forcing them to really look at his coming footwork.
The group at Yu-Topia watched eagerly, holding the same crowd of people as had been there at the Grand Prix Final the year before; Yuri's parents, the Nishigori clan, Minami Kenjirou, and various patrons who were there for the onsen anyway.
"Ganbaaaaa, Yuri-kuuun!"
"You can do it, Yuri!"
"Skater Yuri Nikiforov is 24 years old, and comes to the ice as a former underdog who went from dead-last at the GPF 2 years ago, to silver last year, and taking the gold at the World Championship after that. His nearly-350 point overall score has left quite a few skaters feeling rather intimidated...but Yuri doesn't seem to be letting it get to him...he even has three quads planned for this program, something most other skaters don't even try for in their Long Programs. The weight of Japan's hopes and dreams is riding on this young man's shoulders...can he keep it up?"
Yuri took in a deep breath, and set his skates slightly apart beneath him, his hands slightly up with his palms facing away from him. The music began.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
He raised his right hand up as his left skate twisted in an arc behind him to turn him around, bringing the hand down again as he spun.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
His blades sang across the ice in a reverse thrust, his arms making slow gestures.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
He kicked his left leg around and jerked around twice.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
The beat began, and Yuri's first jump sent him flying through the air; the triple axel.
I messed up tonight, I lost another fight, I still mess up but I'll just start again.
He slowed down with the tempo of the music, swiveling into a semi-step-sequence, listening to the sound of the audience starting to clap and stomp their feet to the beat.
I keep falling down, I keep on hitting the ground, I always get up now to see what's next.
Yuri spun off and paused, swiveling his hips and side-clapping his hands before taking off again.
Viktor watched the show intently with Yurio close by, tapping his arm with his fingers just like the audience. Yuri was about to enter the first spin, and the more of his moves timed in with the music, the more the crowd got excited.
I won't give up, no I won't give in, 'til I reach the end and then I'll start again
"Combination spin...one of Skater Yuri's trademark moves."
No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything, I wanna try even though I could fail.
"Here comes the first quad..." Newscaster Morooka said excitedly to the television audience.
Yuri threw himself high, spun four times, landed, then threw himself again.
"Quad Salchow, triple Loop! He's putting on his A-Game! His coach, Viktor Nikiforov, doesn't even seem to be worried at all!"
As though the fact that Viktor had half-started dancing along with the music wasn't enough of a clue. Yurio was trying to be cool though, ignoring him.
I won't give up, no I won't give in, 'til I reach the end and then I'll start again
To those in the home-audience, they could tell that the Russian was doing what he could to replicate the easy parts of Yuri's program off the ice.
No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything, I wanna try even though I could fail
"Now, the flying camel spin."
Yuri broke out of it for another nod to his presentation score, leaping into the camel spin with gusto.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
Try everything
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
Try everything
He hopped and built up speed again on the other foot.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
Try everything
He reached for the ridge of his blade with one hand and kept spinning, soon stretching to bring the blade over the top of his head, holding there for several rotations until he could let it go and raise his arm up in its place.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
"Huh, I didn't know he could bend that far." Yurio commented as he saw the move.
"The blade-grab was the hardest thing he's worked on this summer." Viktor explained, "He would get super dizzy lifting his head up when he was still spinning. Almost ran his face into the rink wall again...it was funny and terrible all at once."
Look how far you've come, you filled your heart with love, baby, you've done enough, take a deep breath.
Yuri slid across the ice in an Ina Bauer, then spinning back around again to pick up speed.
Don't beat yourself up, don't need to run so fast, sometimes we come last, but we did our best.
The shimmering silver blur came to an abrupt stop, sending shards of ice flying. He then cracked the ice three times with his right skate in time with the last 3 beats, then flew off again in another short twizzle to get to the other end of the rink.
"He really has the audience fired up today! This might be his most engaging program to date! Go Yuri!"
Triple Toe-loop, single Salchow, triple Loop...Yuri was really starting to have fun with the program, easily able to push away the start of the burn in his legs.
I still have two big jumps coming up...I can do it! Just like in practice!
High up in the audience, the Triple M's were watching intently, Minako and Mari holding up their signs excitedly. Mikhail watched calmly as always, shaking his head and huffing a laugh to himself as he watched his nephew almost as often as he did Yuri.
I won't give up, no I won't give in, 'til I reach the end and then I'll start again
"It's the deep end of the Short Program, and Yuri's hardest two jumps are still coming up! He looks like he's got plenty of energy though!"
No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything, I wanna try even though I could fail
The skater moved out backwards along the longest length of the rink, dipping down with his left leg going straight into the air above him as he held close to the right, gliding nearly 20ft before rising up again to switch feet, kicked off...and watched as the ice flew away from him...rotated four times, and landed.
"He did it! A Charlotte spiral into a quad Lutz! This late in the program is just crazy! But he's not done yet!"
Viktor jumped and spun at the same time excitedly, clapping as he landed and grabbing Yurio into an enthusiastic hug, "Go Yuri! You're almost done!"
I'll keep on making those new mistakes, I'll keep on making them every day,
The younger figure slid across the ice in a wide outside spread-Eagle, spinning a few times at the end as he continued on, then paused.
Those new mistakes
Shoulder waggle.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
Try everything
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
Try everything
He slid down to the center of the arena, pulling his hands up against his sides as he went.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
Try everything
He blades whipped around, spinning his whole frame, lifting his left arm out behind him at an angle as the right went low before him. He quickly flipped the direction of his skates; this time employing a mohawk turn.
Oh oh oh oh ohhhhh
He raised his arms up to about horizontal, dug in his right toe-pick and kicked off with all the energy he had left.
The crowd was already screaming and cheering before he'd even heard himself land, and with the quad flip finished, he quickly wound down, spinning into a stop to enter the final pose; skates apart, left arm bent up towards his face, looking back over his shoulder...right at his coach.
Try everything.
Viktor was comically swinging Yurio from side to side and then back again, but then abruptly let him go to rush over to the kiss and cry. The disheveled teen watched him go in a daze, clambering back up to his feet by pulling himself up onto the rink wall.
That fucker, Viktor...! He grumbled in thought, his last sanctuary for swearing all he wanted.
Yuri heaved as he bowed to the audience, waving and trying to catch his breath at the same time.
I guess it's not so bad to accept the fans' freak-out at the end of a show when I think I did a good job...
He finally turned away from the cheers of the crowd and lazily skated over to the rink door, flopping into his husband's arms to get dragged away and hear his score. The Russian pat him on the back as he slipped the track-suit coat over Yuri's shoulders, and handed him his water bottle and skate guards.
"You looked pretty relaxed out there for this being your first event of the season." He commented, watching as the younger figure dumped some of the water on his head and slicked it back through his hair to cool off.
"Everything's different now." Yuri answered, reaching for the bench before sitting on it, his husband wiggling in next to him, "I've finally gotten over what happened in Sochi and learned to have fun again."
"It took you this long?"
Yuri shook his head, "I had this weird epiphany back at Worlds...this feeling...like I thought I would never fall again. When I'm on the ice now, it's like I'm flying more than skating..."
"Mh." Viktor nodded, "I know it."
They sat anxiously as the judges replayed the program and graded each move, tallied up their points and finally submitted them for the average. The pair sat in the kiss and cry for nearly 4 minutes before they finally heard the announcer overhead.
"The score for Yuri Nikiforov...108.25."
The audience was as much in shock as the skaters were.
Yuri practically choked on himself as he heard it, spewing water everywhere, "W-what!? I didn't even break 110!? But...why...?" He turned his head and looked to Viktor for answers, but even the Russian seemed perplexed by it.
"...Maybe we overdid it with three quads. Or maybe they're being extra harsh on you because of your records?" He offered, "After I set mine, it often took most of a season before the judges would score me normally again."
"But even just the technical aspects of my SP should've gotten me a higher value than that..."
"You can still win gold even if you didn't get the high numbers you were looking for."
The viewers at Yu-Topia could see the young skater deflating before their eyes. Viktor practically had to carry him off screen.
"Don't stress about it. This is the first show of the series...we all expect to do poorly until we're back in the right frame of mind."
"...Did I under-rotate? Lift off on the wrong foot? Did I mess up the Lutz and do a Flutz instead?" Yuri was grumbling to himself, unable to listen to anything but his own worrying, "Maybe I didn't do all 8 rotations in the spins...? I had to have messed up somewhere..."
"Yuri." The Russian said more firmly, slipping his arm over the young skater's shoulder to pull his head close, pressing his cheek to the side of Yuri's forehead and forcing his attention to shift, "Calm down. You still cleared the Short Program nearly 20 points higher than the second highest score. We'll figure out what happened later."
The skater just sighed and twisted in his husband's grasp, pressing his eyes to the man's shoulder like it was all he could do not to cry for the shame of it. Viktor just hugged him where he stood. He could see past Yuri's hair that the media mob was starting to close in on them, but he could feel his partner's shaky breaths and held his hand out to stop them.
"Not right now."
Yuuko recognized the posture even from as far away as the camera had been from the pair, and winced at the sight of it, "Yuri..."
"Those judges are on drugs!" Axel chortled, "Mom, why would they score him so low!? He did more than anyone could've asked! He should've gotten graded the same as Viktor's Worlds SP score, easy!"
"...There, look." The Madonna pointed at the screen, where it finally switched over to show the breakdown of the different elements, "He scored well on the Technical side of things, but his Program Components took a big hit. I guess the judges thought he spent too much time worrying about showing off his new skills than telling a story."
"...That's practically the opposite problem he used to have." Takeshi pointed out, reaching over Loop to take the notepad out of her hand so she'd stop trying to chew on it in frustration, "Hopefully he can fix it. Is his Free Skate the same way?"
"With five quads, I'm guessing it probably is..." Yuuko crossed her arms, "They don't have much time to fix it, but I'm sure they'll figure something out. Viktor will know what to do."
Yuri's grip on his coach's coat lapels was enough to make his knuckles white, but he kept them hidden with the rest of his small frame. He kept his eyes down against Viktor's shoulder to hide from onlookers as well. There were a few tears, but he managed to stop them from going too far, and he drew a deep breath as he felt Viktor pulling him back again to look at him. To the Russian's surprise, Yuri had bitten down on the lanyard to his badge, so it pulled on his neck a little as he put some space between them; Yuri hadn't let it go yet, even as he did his best to avoid his husband's eyes.
"Don't be upset. You still scored really well! ...Being angry now will just throw off your game for the Free Skate."
Yuri nodded, but his eyes were still downcast.
"Yuri."
He just nodded again, like he wasn't listening that closely.
Viktor reached up for the lanyard hanging from his husband's lips, pulling on it a little, and then finally lifting it up to take the skater's gaze with it, but all he got was a disappointed look, "I know it was a burn. We'll swap the Flip at the end for the Lutz and take the extra quad out so you can put more effort into choreography elements."
"Swap the Flip for the Lutz?" Yuri was almost incredulous, but at least he was no longer fish-hooked on the badge, "But..."
"The Lutz is worth more than the Flip."
"But the Flip is your signature move...how can I just drop it?"
"Yes, my signature move. You want to be a history maker? Turn the Lutz into yours." The Russian explained, putting his hand aside his husband's face, gently stroking his cheek with his gloved thumb, "Stop trying to be me out there. Make your own mark on the ice."
Brown eyes just widened at him, staring for a moment before finally half-closing in understanding. He stepped closer and buried his face against his coach's neck, and snuck his arms into the man's coat to hug him.