CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE
Earlier in the Year - September
Viktor had skated around the Ice Castle more than half a dozen times, not really saying anything, and not really paying attention to his surroundings either. Yuri was watching quietly from rink-side with the triplets...and they'd given up recording the silver Russian long ago for his lack of really doing anything.
"...Is he sick?" Loop wondered, leaning closer to Yuri with a hand over her mouth to hide her voice.
"I dunno. He's just been that way since we got here." He answered, equally as quietly, though not bothering with the hand, "He said he wanted to practice his Free Skate and told me to wait here till he was done."
"He never started though." Axel pointed out, her arms crossed over where she sat on the rink wall.
"I know."
"Come to think of it..." Lutz put a finger over her chin, "He's never actually done the whole thing in one go, has he?" She turned her head to Yuri as she spoke the words.
"No."
"Why?" All three asked at once.
"I dunno!" He answered, practically cowering beneath the bombardment.
His eyes suddenly opened again when he heard a crack against the ice that he hadn't expected, and the girls looked out as well.
Viktor had stopped skating entirely, but it wasn't a normal kind of 'stop.' He'd gone down into a sit-spin position, right leg far out to the side, toe-pick against the frost. By the look on his face, and the position of his arms...it looked like he'd expected to still be turning, "Ah...that's not right at all." He grumbled to himself.
"Viktor...?"
The Russian stood up again and surveyed the ice directly around him, crossing one arm over his chest as the other came up to set a finger over his mouth, "Mmmmh...no..."
"...What are you trying to do?" Yuri asked, loud enough to be heard this time.
"Hm?" Blue eyes came up to meet him, but then turned away again, "Oh. It's nothing."
.
.
.
It wasn't nothing. I get what he was trying to do now. That's why he made me bring up all those horrible memories right before he skated.
Yuri thought back on the moment his partner had raked the ice so hard with his sit-spin entry that ice flew away from him in a full circle, like a hockey-style power-stop. In that case though, it with the toe-pick instead of the heel, and without the intention of stopping at all. He gouged the ice and kept on spinning, like it was no more of an obstacle than the air itself.
He lacked the motivation before, the anger to energize a move like that so it wouldn't stop the turn.
Hazel eyes went up to where Viktor was looking at his skates, watching as he idly reached down to flick away some of the lingering frost by the blade guards.
He wanted to leave a mark on the ice...something deep, like the mark that had been left on him.
The Russian had finally caught his breath by then, and had the tip of the water bottle pinched lightly between his teeth, holding onto it like some paper-pusher might loosely bite down on a pen. They were still anxiously waiting for his score.
"I didn't overdo it, did I?" Yuri finally let himself ask.
Viktor let go of the plastic nub and looked up, "What do you mean?"
"Reminding you about everything. You were just...really intense out there."
"That was the point though."
Yuri hesitated, but then nodded reluctantly, "Mh..."
The Russian wasn't terribly convinced that Yuri had been satisfied by the answer, but the kiss and cry wasn't exactly the best place to get into it, so he stayed quiet.
"The score for Viktor Nikiforov..."
"Oh wow, finally." The young 'coach' sighed, and both lifted their heads to listen for it.
"216.51."
Yuri blinked at it in disbelief, "...What...? That's it...?"
"...It's not a bad score." Viktor shrugged, "It's in line with what I used to get."
"Yeah, what you used to get...that's like me being satisfied with my 11th place 'victory' at my last Nationals." Yuri grumbled, pulling out his phone and looking something up. He had a sneaking sense that something wasn't quite right with the total, and when he found what he was looking for, he rubbed his temple with his free hand, "Yeah, you literally came within 1/100th of a point to your last GP Final score. See?" He held up the screen so Viktor could look, and the man lightly touched his fingers to the bottom of it as he glanced at it, "You got 335.76 back then, but only 335.75 now."
"Yuri..." The silver skater lowered his hand from where he'd reached to steady the phone, and reached instead to touch it to his husband's chin, "It's my first event of the Grand Prix. I was taking it easy with a reduced-difficulty program. Coming so close to my last Final score just means I'll beat it when I get to this Final, and bring my Free Skate back up to four quads again." He leaned forward to rise back up to his full height, taking Yuri's hand as he went and pulled him along.
"So you're actually going to?" The shorter figure wondered, having to crane his head up a little to find his partner where his skate-assisted height had made him so much taller than normal.
"I'm still thinking about it. We'll see how I feel after the Exhibition."
"Next on the ice...also representing Russia, Yuri Plisetsky."
The older Yuri was almost caught off guard by the announcement, having gotten too much into his own head about everything to remember that his Russian counterpart was up immediately after Viktor. He caught sight of the young Punk out the corner of his eye, and quickly bolted forward as he saw black blades stepping out onto the ice, "Yuri!"
Green eyes came back, and the teen turned side-face with one blade on the rink, wondering what was going on, "What?"
Without hesitation, Yuri threw his arms over the Tiger's shoulders, "Davai!"
The Free Skate outfit was a stark departure from the black, red, and magenta one-piece ensemble from the previous year. It was all black this time, with skin-tight sleeves of sheer pale material that well matched Yurio's complexion, each adorned with the patterns of skulls, snakes, roses, and other melancholy imagery, making it look like full-length tattoos. The tattered remains of a black sleeveless t-shirt clung to his lanky frame, looking quite similar to the one he wore for his previous GP Final Exhibition, but much better fit to his figure. He had the same black leather pants, though now they had ripped-up strips hanging off the sides, exposing the pale skin beneath along the outside of his legs.
"...What's all this for? You're not leaving, are you?" Yurio wondered pensively, returning the hug briskly with his free arm before any of his fangirls could see it and be inspired for later.
"Unfortunately, we are..." Yuri answered quietly, pulling back again but keeping his hands where his arms had been, "Viktor agreed to do that interview, remember?"
"...You didn't see my Free Skate in Calgary either though."
The older figure could feel the weight of his guilt piling up, and he sighed, lowering his head, "I know, I was on that call with Yuu-chan...I'm sorry... If it were any other kind of interview then I'd stay, but..."
"...Whatever. It's fine." Yurio grumbled quietly, turning his head and pulling out onto the ice without another word.
Yuri felt even worse after that, watching the blonde skating away to get his last words from Lilia and Yakov. It didn't get any better even after he felt Viktor step up behind him to slide an arm over his shoulder and chest; he held his poodle tissue-box in the other hand, having retrieved it while the two Yuris spoke.
The younger skater just brought his hands up to hold the arm in front of himself and lowered his eyes, "...I forgot that I still hadn't seen his Free Skate."
"You'll see it at the Final, don't worry."
"Can't we put off the interview until after?" The younger man turned his head to look up at his husband, "Isn't he more important?"
"It's not that he isn't important." Viktor explained, "But he knows as well as any of us that when we're done our shows, we get off rink-side to prevent people from being distracted. It's no different than putting in your ear-buds before going out onto the ice... You're not doing it because you don't like the other guys' music, you're doing it so you can focus on yourself. I'm blowing off a bunch of official interviews for this one, too. But Sophia unblocked my number and is texting about where to meet, so..."
"...So what? She waited 8 years. She can wait another 30 minutes."
"...Yuri...?"
Barely a sigh for an answer.
Viktor huffed discontentedly and started pulling his 'coach' towards the curtain that lead into the prep area, giving one last wave to the crowd before vanishing through it so they could turn their attention back to where it should be.
The music came on rather quickly after that, muffled by the barrier but still easy to hear.
[Black Veil Brides - In The End...there's an AMV for Assassin's Creed Unity that has an extended opening sequence for the song. I listen to that one when I imagine this program, cuz the violins at the start are amazing. Also the speech is neat... ...And stuff.]
"Your face is going to get stuck like that." Viktor warned playfully, trying to lighten the mood as he looked at the sour expression Yuri had put on.
"Mmh..."
"I know you don't want to go. You don't have to if you'd rather stay."
"That's entirely not the point..." Yuri growled, looking at the floor as Viktor continued to shuffle him forward. He finally had enough though and pulled himself free, gesturing back at the curtain when his partner looked back, "He means more to us than she does, so why aren't we staying to support him?"
"Because I said I'd do this after my Free Skate, and we're leaving tomorrow?"
"You said you'd choreograph Yurio's senior debut and forgot."
Viktor side-eyed him, "As nice as it would be to conveniently forget that I'd agreed to this interview, I can't use the passage of time, or the unexpected discovery of my future spouse, as an excuse. I literally just made this arrangement. I can handle this...it's just a chat about skating. Why don't you stay and watch Yurio?"
"Because I love you and I don't want you to go alone!" Yuri protested, "Whatsherface is still into you!"
"Who wouldn't be? Look at me." Viktor mused, holding up his hands to frame around himself.
Yuri gave the man an incredulous look, but his attempts at trying not to smile were futile, "That's not fair! I'm trying to be serious!"
"Just go out there and watch his Free Skate. You can meet up with me again later." The Russian held his partner's shoulders and started pushing him back towards the curtain, "We're not going anywhere private...I told her I'd do it in the lobby, where a hundred people a minute are passing by. What could go wrong?"
"EverythingcouldgowrongViktor! Mikhail already said people were speculating! What would it say if you talked to her alone!?"
"You've already missed the entire first half of the show. If you don't go now then you'll miss the rest, too. It's two minutes."
Yuri was panicking where he stood, lightly bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as he looked from the curtain to his husband and back again several times. Just as he felt like he was on the verge of deciding to stay, even if it meant hauling ass as soon as it was over, he heard the familiar jingle of his husband's phone and turned his head. It wasn't difficult to see that it was Sophia's name on the chat window, and Yuri growled at it severely.
"What? I already told you she texted me..." The Russian looked at him curiously.
"You already added her to your contact list? When did you even have time?"
"She was always on my contact list. I never changed phone numbers, and it doesn't look like she did either."
"But why wouldn't you delete her after she...?"
"I never delete people."
"...Eh? Wouldn't it just be a bad reminder when you scroll past her?"
"What's worse...seeing her name when I'm looking at a list, or deleting her, and then unintentionally answering her phone-call because I didn't recognize her number?"
Yuri gawked at him, "...You and your logic..."
"You're just anxious." Viktor mused, mussing his husband's hair a little before thunking off again in his skate-guards, "Let's just get it over with. We better be away from this area before Yurio is done anyway, otherwise he'll be mad at both of us more than he already is. We'll make it up to him later somehow."
The not-really-a-coach sighed and nodded, reaching for where Viktor held his hand out and taking it nervously. The way out to the entrance area was a proverbial land-mine of official sports and ISU press, and Yuri watched and listened as Viktor carefully declined them, saying he'd be back later and to take a rain-check until then. The more Yuri heard it, the more he wished they could use them as an excuse to delay everything even longer...but in the end, he didn't think his heart could take it much more anyway.
When they finally got out to the main lobby, Viktor glanced around and eventually spotted the platinum-blonde mane of hair through the crowd. There were a few fans walking around in the area, some even coming rushing up to beg for photos and autographs, not having expected to see the man trying to 'leave' right after his program. Yuri found himself having to do the declining in that case.
...I feel sick having to do this. He thought bitterly to himself, 'Viktor Nikiforov is always nice to his fans'...
"We just have to do this quick thing and then we'll be back, I swear." Yuri said aloud, trying to make a path as well as he could.
Viktor might've quipped about his partner's anxiety, but it was becoming more and more apparent that he himself was probably feeling it the most between them. He couldn't take his eyes off of where he knew he had to go, looking through the small group of people like they weren't even there. His fingers tightened a little around where he still held to his husband's hand, and moved reluctantly forward.
It was only then that he noticed the side of his left eye starting to twitch a little where it was hidden behind his bangs. He swallowed and drew in a breath.
"...Okay...I'm ready." He finally said, coming up to where the trio was pensively waiting, "Let's do it."
(Author's Note: Since this site is STILL not sending out email reminders, I've made a FaceBook page for this story and I'll post links to new chapters there. If you're interested, search for [ Yuri on ICE - NEXT Level: NoD ] in the top bar on FB, or attach this link to the end of the main FB URL: /Yuri-on-ICE-NEXT-Level-NoD-1856565067944065/ )