(Horee sheet I should've been done with this story like 20 chapters ago lol. Ahhhhhhhh!)
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
Viktor's fingers were starting to cramp where he'd held tight to Sergio's face. Even though he'd looked away briefly, his eyes came right back to where they'd been a moment before, boring holes into the forehead of this boy who could call himself 'cousin.'
"Leth me go...!"
The Russian furrowed his brow angrily, "Your opinion means less than nothing." He said darkly, clenching just a little bit harder, "But if you're going to insist on taking shots, take them at me. Leave Yuri out of it. If you say anything to, at, or about him again..." Viktor leaned in close, whispering the next words, "...I'll show you first-hand exactly what happened at that funeral."
Yuri had given up trying to pull Viktor away from behind, and instead wedged himself into the tiny space between the relatives. Viktor was too strong and confident, so moving him would be impossible...but after seeing the look on Sergio's face, Yuri knew. He put his hands on the teen's chest and shoved him off as hard as he could, ripping him from Viktor's clawed grasp and sending him sprawling to the ground several feet away. The young skater then backed up a step, until he could feel Viktor's frame behind him, and then reached back to hold to the side of his legs as well as he could.
"...I th-thought...it would be fun to..." He coughed behind his surgical mask, but then reached up to pull it down, tucking the edge under his chin, "...To meet Mikhail's family. I thought...it couldn't be worse th-than dealing with Konstantin... But you..." The young skater pointed at where Sergio was still trying to process his situation, "...You made me...re-realize why Viktor...is always so...apprehensive about meeting his relatives." His whispers were hard to hear with the traffic nearby, but they listened closely, "...So n-now I regret...ever trying to convin-...convince him to come here."
Viktor listened quietly. He couldn't help but be a little moved by his partner's sudden courage, and it helped to quickly dissolve his previous feeling of fury.
"...It s-seems like...no matter what, Viktor's alw-always right. Even when he's...wrong...he's still...right..." Yuri went on, his eyes starting to water from the strain.
He was a little surprised to find Viktor suddenly wrapping his arms around his torso, right arm going around his chest as the left curved up to hold his shoulder. The Russian leaned forward a little to account for the difference in their height, and set his chin next to his fingers, resting it on Yuri's scarf and casting those slate-blue eyes down on the Rozovsky teen.
Yurio recognized the smile. It was the same one Viktor had given to him on the concrete pier in Barcelona; the condescending look that said more than any words could. He even huffed the same single quiet laugh. Seeing it from an outside point of view gave the blonde a chill down the back of his neck.
...Viktor can be scary when he's pissed. That kid was lucky Katsudon was here. He looked like he was about to shit his pants.
"Is everyone done being super melodramatic?" Mari asked, the solitary voice of impartiality in the whole group, "Seriously, you're all way tense over one stupid question."
"He's just jealous that he doesn't have a perfect husband like I do." Viktor mused, his voice eerily optimistic despite what he'd just done a moment before, "I'm the luckiest man in the world to have Yuri."
The younger skater's face was red at the sound of it, but at least it was a relief to hear Viktor uttering something other than threat-like warnings...or nothing at all, which was worse, in its own way. But, he could sort of tell what Viktor was trying to do, and decided to play along, raising up his left hand to touch it gently to the side of his husband's face, feeling as the man tilted his head slightly to nuzzle into it.
Sergio looked bristly at the sight of it, especially as he saw Yuri turning his face to lightly kiss the side of his husband's bare forehead, and the look of sheer bliss on Viktor's face as he did it.
"Psht..." Mari retorted, "You didn't grow up with him." She hardly noticed the teen on the ground anymore, and even less so as his younger sister came up to get him back to his feet.
Pale grey-green eyes stared almost hatefully at the slate-blue ones that looked back at him, but Sergio finally turned away. He dusted himself off and turned his nose up slightly as he walked with heavy footsteps into the hotel lobby to get away from it all. Viktoria was waving at him sarcastically as he went.
Mikhail sighed, looking down where Nikkita was still standing close to him, "Christ, what crawled up his arse today?"
"We made him drive us out here even though he had plans." Viktoria answered, pulling the candy stick from her lips again, "He's been giving us shit all day because of it."
"Plans? What sort?"
"He was gonna go canoeing at Lake Louise with some school friends." Nikkita answered, looking up from where she held her father's arm with both of her small hands, "You'd think the lake was going to vanish overnight or something with as much as he complained on the way out here."
"Why didn't your sister drive then?"
"I've only had my license for a few months, pipaw...I didn't want to go that kind of distance."
Mikhail shrugged, lightly patting his youngest daughter's shoulder where he held it and then letting her go again, "I guess that's fair." He turned to the couple, "...Sorry about him. He's a momma's boy and listens to her craziness too much. He'd never made his opinion on this topic known though so I had no idea he'd get a stick up his butt about it."
"Maybe he needs something else." Viktor teased.
"V-Viktor...!" Yuri gasped, his face bright red.
Yurio gave a disgusted look, sticking his tongue out like he was going to barf, but Minako just laughed. Mari seemed entirely unimpressed.
Mikhail just huffed a laugh to himself, "...He probably does."
Viktor found that hilarious, nudging his head against Yuri's in his mirth, the previous tension entirely forgotten.
"So what...are we going to do now?" Yuri wondered quietly, feeling more relief as the seconds went on, "...Our flight isn't for...another 5 hours."
"You guys are sure staying late. My flight leaves in less than 3." Yurio said, "Why are you waiting so long to get out of this place? I thought you were going on a mini-vacation before the Bordeaux event."
"We are. This is part of it." Viktor explained, turning Yuri so he could see the blonde more easily, "But we're taking a special flight from Washington DC to Paris, so we had to wait a little longer for the connecting flight out of Toronto."
"...A...special flight?"
"Mh." The Russian nodded happily, "We're flying La Premiére."
"...Seriously?" Mikhail repeated, "How much did you spend on those tickets?"
"I can't say. Yuri would have a coronary if he knew." He purred, turning his face to mouth the words across what little of his husband's neck he could get at past the scarf, "But don't worry, I got a $500 credit for each of us from our sponsors for travel expenses." He moved up to whisper in his ear, "Perks of being World Champions. Subarashii desu ne~?"
Yuri nodded, "Maido."
I get this weird feeling the $1000 credit is probably just a drop in a rather large pair of buckets. Although... He looked up, staring at a dim light in the roof of the hotel rotunda, ...I'm starting to get used to this kind of travel... Viktor spoils me.
Yurio had pulled his phone out to do some research, and was silently bugging his eyes out when he saw the amenities...and then the prices.
Viktor saw the look on his face and held out his hand to cover the teen's mouth, "If you say one word about the cost, I'll do something you won't like."
The Russian Tiger just gawked at him from behind the hand, his eyes getting big and watery like the day he spotted the Tiger-face T-shirt in Hasetsu, "...Take me with you..."
Viktor just guffawed at him, "Oh don't give me that look... You hauled ass to get back to St. Petersburg just being around my uncle and Minako-sensei when she went back to Moscow with you guys. You wouldn't last one day around Yuri and I while we're on vacation, and we'll be staying in Paris until the morning of the Short Program."
"Couldn't I just go with you on the plane and then take the TGV train to Bordeaux without you!? I'm doing the train ride anyway!" Yurio begged, "Yakov's making us fly coach! I'll die!"
"Pfft...you're shorter than Yuri and he does fine in Economy Class." Viktor teased.
"It's a NINE HOUR FLIGHT just to connect in London!" The teen pleaded, practically clinging to Viktor's back the same way Viktor clung to Yuri's, "Smuggle me in with your carry-on bag! I'll survive if it's only for a little while!"
"...If you pony up the money and there's still a seat, you can book it yourself." The Russian pointed out, gawking over his shoulder at his former rink-mate.
"Viktooorrrrr...!" Yurio whined, "Leaving me like this should be child abuse!"
"Why don't you talk to your sponsor about a ticket then?" The older man winked.
Mikhail just turned on his heel militarily and started walking off, "Nope, nope, nope..."
The two silver-haired daughters followed after him, snickering to themselves about Yurio's plight...only to bump into their father's back abruptly. Mikhail had stopped in the space between the two sets of doors, then turned like Frankenstein's monster to go right back out again.
"...I forgot...I have to take all you guys back to the event hotel." He turned to his kids, pulling the key-card out from his coat, "Room 825. Find your brother and keep him out of trouble if you can. I'll be back in a little while."
Nikkita took the card as Viktoria started heading in to find Sergio, and she turned to look at the group. Her eyes went from Viktor to Yuri, who had since turned to look right back at her. Brown eyes met grey-green, remembering what the young teen had said earlier about their rings. She smiled sweetly and motioned with her hands as though removing a ring from the right and putting it onto the left, then bowed dramatically and turned to skip away, waving goodbye as she went.
Yuri just looked down at where his hands had been settled over Viktor's right arm where it crossed over his chest, and stared at the golden band.
...I never even thought about which hand was the 'right one' for a wedding band...but when I put the ring on Viktor's finger, I wasn't thinking that it was a wedding band at all. Viktor never said anything about it either...even after he said they were engagement rings.
He pulled his phone out as Viktor started nudging him back towards the car, even as Yurio still clung to him in turn like a ravenous monkey. A quick internet search revealed the truth of the matter. It almost blind-sided him that they'd been wearing their rings on the wrong side that whole time.
"Hey, Yuri..." He heard his sister's voice, "I'll see you back in Japan when you get home."
"...You're not...coming to the other events?" The skater wondered, surprised.
"Mom and dad said I could go to one event before the Final, so I picked the one where it was you and Yurio. I still have to help at the resort though, so this is goodbye for now." She explained, "I'll be cheering you guys on from Hasetsu until Minako and I fly to Detroit."
Yurio was growling from where he was already sitting in the front seat of the car, "The way these two idiots are, I'm surprised she's not going to Detroit straight from St. Petersburg."
The trio looked over the top of the car to leer at the pair, seeing what looked like Mikhail pulling back from kissing the back of Minako's hand...but they weren't quite sure.
He gave her his spare room key and put his hands together in front of his nose as though in prayer, "Please don't think you're babysitting them...I really didn't think they'd come like this, but I can't transfer my rental car to Viktor, and there isn't enough room for everyone to tag along..."
"Relax." She pat his shoulder reassuringly, "I've kept an eye on kids and teens before. I'll just start teaching them ballet or something until you get back."
"...It'll only be like 45 minutes, pending traffic through downtown..."
"Relax. I got this."
Viktor made a funny face, remembering saying the same thing to Yuri after Worlds...but his funny face quickly morphed to shocked horror as he saw his uncle lean in and steal an unexpected, albeit short kiss from the woman. Her eyes were still open as he frantically got into the car and barked at everyone to get in, too. Yuri's eyes were as wide as Minako's from what he'd seen, not sure what to make of it. Yurio just put his feet up on glove compartment impatiently. Mari...still, unimpressed.
"Welp, all right then, see you later little brother. Good luck in China again." She pat his head over the Flames beanie, but then morphed into a fangirl as she waved at the blond, "Davai, Yurio~!"
"...Spasibo."
"...Bye, Mari-nee-chan..." Yuri said weakly, waving as she finally started to leave.
She waved more urgently though at her travel companion, "Don't wait too long! I'm not packing your stuff, too! We have to be checked out by 2pm or they'll charge us for another night!"
"...Oh...yeah." Minako finally said. She looked down through the driver's side window, but only saw the top of Mikhail's hat and some of his silver-grey hair, and where his fingers were clawed around the steering wheel like he thought the car would drive itself away if he didn't hold it down. So, instead of trying to get his attention and put him on the spot, she just set her hand against the glass as she walked back around the car to say her farewells as well.
Mikhail side-eyed her as she went, his heart pounding in his chest, but he then looked straight ahead again.
Yurio was just deadpanning him severely.
"No." The older Russian said flatly, "No. No...no..."
"I ain't even gonna." The teen looked away again. He felt his phone buzzing in his pocket after that, and when he looked at who was calling, saw Yakov's name there in Cyrillic. He answered it trepidatiously, answering it on speaker and holding it far away from his face, "Da?"
"WHERE ARE YOU? WE HAVE TO GET TO THE AIRPORT."
"I'M IN A CAR WAITING FOR TWEEDLE DOOFUS AND TWEEDLE DUMBASS TO GET IN SO WE CAN LEAVE." He yelled back, rolling down the window to hold the phone slightly outside the car, "TELL VIKTOR AND KATSUDON TO HURRY UP."
"VIKTOR!?" The older man yelled, "GET IN THE CAR ALREADY SO YURATCHKA CAN COME BACK."
"Hiiii~ Coach Yakov~!" Viktor mused, "We're just about ready, so don't worry~!"
Yuri was busy getting his cheek pinched like a child by his ballet teacher, "Don't stay up all night and get jet-lagged. You sorted out all your troubles here at Skate Canada so you should be able to focus on just skating from now on, right?"
"...Mh."
"I'll see you guys in Bordeaux then. Safe travels. Viktor, keep him out of trouble."
"Da. Do svidanija." He held her left shoulder gently as he kissed her cheek, "On vous vera à Bordeaux."
"...You know French?" She was a bit surprised at how natural his accent sounded.
Viktor nodded happily, "Je suis à l'aise en français, en fait."
"GET IN THE CAR OHMYGOD." Yurio barked again.
Yuri piled in, holding to the sleeve of Viktor's coat as he went, and waving at the woman at the same time. Viktor huffed a laugh and finally followed, waving as well once the door was closed. The car started to pull away, faster than it probably should've, and Minako just waved anxiously at it, putting her hands on her hips as it disappeared into traffic. She shook her head and sighed, but then huffed a laugh to herself and started heading for the hotel doors.