CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY THREE
The Patinoire seating area was almost entirely empty still at that point, save for the scattered event staffers who were making one last check for trash and readiness after clearing it out after the previous event. Spotlights and speakers were being tested as the members of Group 1 poured out to rink-side, and its skaters were starting to shuffle out onto the ice.
Viktor held back until everyone else was out there, waiting until Yuri found a spot to set down the poodle-plush tissue box and water bottle. Yurio was already on the ice, skating past to hand off his blade-guards to Lilia before pushing out towards center. Mikhail was making his way up the stairs of the stadium-style seating to find a pair of seats with a decent view of the rink and the huge screens above it. When Yuri looked up at him, he could see the man texting someone on his phone, and assumed it was Minako.
The Russian pulled the badge and lanyard off from around his neck and wrapped it over his partner's, and then slipped his long-coat off to give that over as well. Underneath was revealed to be a slim black coat, entirely covering the upper 2/3rds of the costume.
Yuri shook his head and laughed, "Yeah, that's much better than the shower curtain from Worlds." He folded the long-coat over his arm gingerly, "I wonder where you got the idea for this?"
"Some guy at an Exhibition somewhere." Viktor answered, looking himself over to see that the tails of the coat covered as much as they could. Without the fog-coat, some of the outfit was revealed; folded and 'tattered' sheer material in red, yellow, and orange with black and gold rhinestones mixed throughout, making it look like flames that reached down to his calves, coming to a singular point behind him. A small section of dark grey and then black sheer material could be seen layered overtop of the fire-like colors, but the rest was obscured by the long coat-tails of the cover-jacket. Pants were black as well, but when Viktor reached down to fold the skate-covers over his boots, the material revealed itself to look like molten cracks through obsidian, trailing up to just under his knees, "The gloves and choker are in my coat, but I'll get all them later."
"What's all this supposed to represent?" Sophia wondered quietly.
"My Freeskate theme is Rage." Viktor explained, tugging a little at the end of his coat's sleeves to pull them over the crest of his wrists, skate-guards clunking softly as he made his way to the rink doors, "The song I chose represents that emotion through the four major elements of nature. What you can see is the fire and earth aspect, but there's nods to water and air as well. Just not as much. You'll see."
"...Rage...?" She repeated, leaning over the barrier as she watched the pair walking away.
When Viktor finally paused at the doorway, leaning onto Yuri's shoulder as he pulled his blade-guards off, she saw the younger skater whispering something. Viktor held still for a moment, stopping in the middle of his task as he was nodding, and then finally pushed to get the other rubber bar and step out onto the ice. He came back around immediately, as though Yuri wasn't finished yet, and said something in return that no one else could hear before stroking the younger man's cheek and taking off. Yuri seemed quite pleased with himself as he started coming back, almost but not quite skipping as he went by the older woman.
Her dark-blue eyes watched him go, but then went back out to watching the figure skaters who were actually on the ice, and she recognized where Viktor was starting to do a few easy jumps to warm up. Only doubles at first, then easing into a few triples. It took a few passes, but once there was enough clearance from the others, Viktor raised his right arm to signal to the woman to pay close attention.
"Here he goes." Yuri commented, resting on the rink wall about 6 feet away from her.
The Russian belted into it quickly, picking up speed as he headed into the corner closest to them, then flipped around to face forward and threw himself into the jump. Four and a half super-human rotations later, he landed facing backwards again, dipping down low almost like a Salchow, and then slid off again.
It always made Yuri's heart race to see the jump. He'd never failed to see the Russian land it, but it was such an impossible maneuver that he always had a twinge of hesitation when Viktor left the ice.
"...That was always the difference between him and all the other skaters." Sophia commented quietly, hardly even surprised, watching the legend go through the paces of a few spin combos. Yuri raised his eyes towards her, but said nothing as she finished her thought, "It always seemed like Viktor could fly. By comparison, all other skaters look like they have rocks tied to their feet. I used to think he was part bird...as though his secret was that he actually had hollow bones, so he wasn't as heavy as the rest of us."
There wasn't anything that came to mind, so Yuri remained quiet, returning his eyes to where his husband was skimming across the ice. He had the itch to go out and join him, but his skates were still in their hotel room, so he pushed the thought away.
I wonder why Chris isn't down here yet?
"...So..." Sophia started again, as though she were actually trying to start a conversation with him, "...How...long have you guys been together?"
Yuri glanced at her, past where he held his head up on his chin in the palm of one hand, "In thought or in practice...?"
"Oh, it happened like that with you, too?"
He grimaced at her, but tried not to let the comparison bother him, "Viktor considered us an item almost as soon as he came to Hasetsu to be my coach. So, for him, it'll be 2 years in May."
"And for you?"
The young skater thought on it a moment, "I'm not sure there was a specific time for when I thought about us that way. I've been fascinated by him since I was a kid...so, it was a transition between loving him as a celebrity like everyone else, and loving him like a partner. I think I only slowly awakened to it over the span of time that he was my coach." He looked down at where his right hand hung off the inside edge of the wall, turning it palm-up to look at the shine of gold on his finger, "By this time last year, when he had to return to Japan to take care of an emergency with his dog, I realized I couldn't stand to be apart from him. He met me at the airport in Fukuoka and I asked him to stay by my side until I retired from skating. He commented that it sounded like a marriage proposal. I guess that's when I got the idea to get him a gold ring, in case I failed to get him a gold medal at the GP Final."
"So it wasn't him that proposed." She clarified.
"Actually..." Yuri smiled to himself at the memory of it, "When I got the rings, I hadn't thought of it as actually being an engagement. Viktor turned it into one when a friend of mine mistook us for married already. The rings were meant as a thank you, and a birthday present for him. Most of the skating world just thought they were good luck charms for the longest time. By the time the Final was over, and we were back in Hasetsu, Viktor went out of his way to make the engagement official."
"I don't just want to coach you until you retire, because you can't skate forever, so it just sets a clock until we part ways. I want so much more than that. ...Do you want more than that from me?"
"You...you really want to...to marry me…?"
"Will you?"
"It was surreal to me for the longest time." Yuri went on, telling the story almost more for himself than for the woman standing nearby, "I idolized him for years, but was always too scared to talk to him when we were at the same events. Then...there he was, out of the blue, saying he was my coach. Then he was my fiancé...and then, finally, my husband." His cheeks had flushed by then, "He'll always be my hero, though. If I was going to jump the fence for anyone, it'd be for him."
"So you'd been with women before, too?"
Yuri fell off his hand, but regained himself and gawked at her, "N-no!" He protested, "...No... He...Viktor got all my firsts."
Why am I telling her all this stuff? It's like she's making a checklist between us or something.
"YUUUUUUUURI!" He heard a woman calling from afar.
Yuri turned his head towards the sound of the woman's voice and found Minako there on the railing of the second floor at the north end of the rink, waving at him with her 'Viktuuri' flag, "Minako-sensei!" He quickly took the invitation as an easy way to flee, and rushed around to the nearest set of stairs to get up to her.
Minako did much the same thing, meeting the young skater as he came bounding up the first set of stadium steps through the seating area, "We missed you yesterday! What happened? I've heard all sorts of crazy stories!"
"They're probably half-true, if what Mikhail said is the same for everyone." He answered, catching his breath a little, "Everything's fine now though."
"So one of Viktor's old girlfriends isn't really here...?"
"Well, that's the half-true part, I guess." Yuri said, quieter than before, and thumbing down at the rink-side area, "The lady there with the platinum-blonde hair is her."
"You seem strangely calm about that." She deadpanned him as she was folding the flag over her arm, "Or did I just miss the fire?"
"There really wasn't all that much of a fire, actually." He explained, gesturing for her to continue walking with him so they could get to where he knew Mikhail had seats already.
"MINAKO-SENSEEEEEEEEEI!" They heard Viktor calling from the ice, and she waved at him as he did the same in turn.
"Watch where you're skating!"
"HAAAAAAAI!"
Sophia watched the exchange quietly.
Yuri huffed a laugh, turning onto the stairs that lead up to the third floor, and the last row of first-section seats before the nosebleed section, "Mikhail told us to stay off Instagram for a while, so neither of us is really sure what's been said...but he told us some people are speculating that Viktor was going to leave me over this lady. We're planning something to get them all back and cement the fact that it isn't going to happen, no matter who shows up."
"Yeah? What are you going to do?"
"Viktor's agreed to do an interview with her after his Free Skate, and he won't go without me, so there's that. Plus, we're pretty sure he'll be in the Exhibition later tonight, so we're going to change over from him doing his solo show to us doing one of our new Pair Skates."
Minako was almost fangirling over it, "Ahhh! I can't wait! You've really helped bring out a whole new world of programming from Viktor. I'm really excited about the Team Skate you have planned with the Russian Yuri, too!"
"Same here." He agreed emphatically, letting the woman into the row first so he wouldn't be in her way. When she finally took her seat next to the Russian, Yuri sat on the back-rest of a chair in the lower row and crossed his arms loosely to look at them both, "I've been meaning to ask... This is Yurio's last event before the Final. Are you guys going to be there for Cup of China and NHK? Flying to four different cities is expensive, I know, but..."
"Five." Minako corrected, "We'll be at the Final, too."
"Oh, so you are going to all of them? That's a relief." Yuri held a hand to his chest as he drew in a breath, "Phichit-kun is going to come back to Hasetsu with us after NHK, and then to the Final after that, whether we're all skating in it or not."
"I figured he would be." Minako winked at him, "You two spent years together in Detroit. It'd be a shame if one of you wasn't around for an event being held there."
"That's exactly what I was thinking. We're all really hoping he gets into the Six. Competition this year is really something else."
"That's what you guys get." Mikhail commented, "Phichit created a prophecy and now it's being fulfilled."
"Right?"
"It's funny that you would be at peace with having a problem like this." Minako continued, "A few years ago, you were sweating bullets over getting into the Final at all, and now you've gotten so good at this whole skating thing that you can hardly think of a situation where you wouldn't be going."
"Yeah..." Yuri nodded, turning his upper body a little to look down at the ice, finding his husband soon after, "That's all Viktor's doing though. He lit the fire under my butt and now I can't help but dance over it. He made me promise to win five World Championships, too, so I can't slack off." He turned back and smiled happily, "Besides, he refuses to let me eat katsudon unless I bring home Gold, so if I ever want to taste it again..."
"Aha! Your true motivation reveals itself!" Minako laughed.
"It's true..." Yuri lamented dramatically, "It's not the medals that drive me...it's the promise of that pork cutlet..."
"Well, you better get back down to rink-side. Practice will be over as soon as the arena fills up, and I doubt that'll take long with Viktor going up first. Tell him we said good luck." The woman finished, patting his knee gently as he nodded and rose to stand up again, "Oh, and great job on that song yesterday! I knew it would be good, but wow!"
"Domo!" Yuri bowed his head and clasped his hands together in gratitude, "I'm off!"
Within about 45 minutes, the arena had gotten full to bursting, with dozens of people clambering along the ledges of the second and third-floor when they could no longer find seats. Viktor had come off the ice a while before that though to relax and recover after the quad Axel, sipping lightly at his water bottle. By the time Yuri had returned from talking with Minako, Sophia had wandered away already, finding a seat in the audience since she wasn't part of event staff and wasn't allowed at the rink's edge during the show. It would still be a short while before the competition got underway though; it was only 2:39pm and the show didn't start until 3pm. Group 1 had around 7 skaters in it, so there would be an interlude once they were done to allow Group 2 to practice for a little while, and allow for the ice to get resurfaced.
They finally spotted Chris in the competitor's section of the stands, and waved at him from where they were sitting on the opposite side. He even started a small group chat with them via text.
[So you actually talked to her this time?] He'd asked.
[Yeah, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.] Viktor replied, [I think the worst part was hearing my uncle tell us about all the stuff being posted online.]
[Yeah...]
Yuri chimed in after that, [Neither of us has looked since the SP yesterday. Mikhail told us to avoid it, so we've stayed out of it. We have plans to get our revenge though for what we heard is out there.]
[Revenge?]
[We're going to bump up our Pair Skate Exhibition to tonight rather than waiting until NHK. We were originally going to use it as something of a celebratory performance if/when both of us got into the Final Six, but...well, yeah.]
[Makes sense.]
[I guess that means it's pretty sexy then? ;D]
Chris saw Yuri shake his head and laugh, [I wouldn't say it's sexy, but it definitely wouldn't be something we could do if Viktor was planning on leaving me.]
[What Yuri means is that once we're done, there won't be any ice left. It'll all be water. We'll be swimming back to rink-side.] Viktor chimed in.
[I'm counting on it!]
They could hear the sound of the speakers coming to life overhead, and the two skaters lifted their heads together to listen for whatever was about to be said.
"Welcome everyone, or rather, welcome back everyone!" The announcer started, causing the audience to start clapping and cheering, "We're about to get started with the Men's Singles Free Skate! What say you!?"
The clamor exploded with excitement, the volume rising to 11 right away.
"That's what I thought. LET'S NOT WASTE ANYMORE TIME THEN!"
Viktor shook his head and laughed to himself, standing up and reaching for the thin zipper on the front of his figure-hugging coat. Yuri had reached for his fog-coat for the gloves and other accessory, and watched quietly as the jacket came off to reveal the outfit that only he had seen.
The heavy black coat-tail that was revealed looked like magma, rising up through cracks of obsidian just like the pattern on the legs. From the wrists, it looked like cracks of ice, more intense at the ends and fading to slivers just past the elbows. The back and chest were designed to look like the sky of midnight, with 'stars' rising up in the center and becoming more numerous as they crossed over the shoulders, some going down the arms as well.
"These outfits will be a pair, just like our rings." Viktor had explained, revealing the costume to his husband for the first time several months prior, "The crystals will have the same pattern on the front, back, and upper sleeves. I doubt anyone but us would notice, but...I like it! We live and love under the same sky, so why not skate under the same star pattern?"
Yuri had found the whole idea rather flattering, since it was his idea in the first place to make his outfit look the way it did. Getting to use Viktor's tailors back in Russia had been icing on the cake as it was, but to find out Viktor had gone so far as to copy his idea for himself...he was sure his face was red for days after finding out.
With the gloves on, it looked like Viktor's hands were made of ice, matching where the sleeves came out underneath the cuffs to complete the pattern. The gloves themselves had two 'tails' coming off the ends as well, very similarly to Yurio's Agape outfit, but which looked more like streams of water than angel's wings. The 'wind' element came in only as a slight nod at the very end, with a loose choker of thin leather cords coming together to hold onto a downy feather around the skater's neck.
"The ISU is happy to begin this afternoon's event here at Trophée de France! Without further delay, let's get our first competitor onto the ice! Ladies and Gentlemen...representing Russia, VIKTOR NIKIFOROV!"