(Author's Note: EMAILS ARE WORKING AGAIN! Jeeze, that only took 2 weeks and 2 emails...sorry everyone!)

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY EIGHT

Minako escorted the young skater by the arm, holding to his just above the elbow as they made the distance back to the Novotel. Every so often, Yuri would glance up over his shoulder, wondering if Viktor, or even Yurio, might suddenly show up there behind him...but neither ever did. There wasn't really a whole lot left to talk about that Minako was comfortable asking about while still in public, so she just watched over her friend's son quietly until they got back.

Once the door had been opened and closed again though, the questions were begging to be asked. She kicked off her shoes, and gave Yuri time to take his coat off and put it away before starting.

"You said Viktor's Free Skate had to be inspired by things that happened in St. Petersburg...things that were so bad that it would be enough to enrage him even this long after. Yuri, I know it's not really my business to pry, but...it's going to bother me a lot if I don't ask…" She started, sitting on the end of the bed and crossing her arms as she watched Yuri lean against the entertainment stand in front of her, "Did something happen to you boys? Russia's never been the most accepting place...and you two moved back to Hasetsu after only a few months..."

The young skater nodded, and Minako feared the worst.

"What happened?"

"Viktor...had been estranged from his family since before ever becoming a professional skater." He started, his throat a bit sore still. He kept his eyes low, "But on the last night at Four Continents, right before we were supposed to go to the Banquet, Yakov told Viktor that...he'd found out Viktor's mother had been killed."

The ballerina had her hand over her mouth in surprise, but refused to interrupt.

"Viktor was really torn about the whole thing. He hadn't spoken to his family in over a decade by then, so he was saying...he wasn't sure whether he was more upset about his mother being dead, or about the fact that he didn't care."

"Mh...yeah, after so long..."

Yuri bobbed his head, "It was hard for me to understand it at first. But the more we talked about it, the more I realized he and I are miles apart in how we relate to others. I learned that his father so passionately hated skating that he'd actually nearly blinded Viktor to prevent him from getting into it."

Minako's eyes were wide to hear it.

"After all this time...I still sometimes feel like we could've avoided the entire thing if I hadn't been such an emotional cluster about it while we were still at Four Continents." The skater explained, "Viktor didn't care one way or another about what happened. He could've just refused to answer the call and we could've gone on with our lives like nothing had changed for him...since really, nothing had. But because I'd been so upset over the whole thing, projecting myself onto him like he should care as much about his mother's passing as I would be if it were mine...he ended up agreeing to go to the funeral. Just getting the address was a challenge though, since Viktor's father was the one who had it, and demanded that Viktor come get it himself if he wanted it at all. And let me tell you..." Yuri lifted his head, and pushed off of the entertainment stand for emphasis, holding out his arms, "If people were like pygmy elephants, Viktor's father was like the biggest bull mastadon you've ever seen!"

"Wow..." The ballerina let it sink in a little, "So Mikhail wasn't kidding when he said Viktor was a Nikiforov practically in-name only..."

"It's true! I got to see first-hand what those two clans are like! The Nikiforovs are all thick and burly, while the Rozovskys are all thin and dainty. The only thing Viktor got from his father was his eyes..." Yuri leaned back again and held his elbows in his hands, looking back down at the floor, "You remember how we were supposed to come back to Yu-Topia for a bit after the FC ended..."

"Yeah, you wouldn't tell Mari or I about what had happened, just that it was an emergency back in Russia."

Yuri nodded, "Viktor tried to make me go back to Japan without him, but I begged to stay with him to see it all through. He reluctantly agreed, and the next thing we knew, we were in this huge park in the middle of St. Petersburg with Yakov, staring down this huge bear of a man. The whole thing was really tense, and just as it seemed like we were going to get the information we needed so we could leave, Konstantin saw Viktor's ring, and then noticed that I had the matching one...and it all went to crap after that..."

"Uh oh..."

"Konstantin already had Viktor by his shirt by then, since he was trying to unsettle him...but when he saw the rings, he grabbed Viktor. I freaked out and jumped into it, and-"

"Yuri, you weigh like 150lbs when wet...what were you thinking?"

"By then, I wasn't...it was all instinct...I couldn't just stand there and watch Viktor get hurt..." He reached up to rub his eyes on the side of his hand, "Konstantin grabbed me like I was just some gnat buzzing around, and literally threw me away. He did the same thing to Viktor a few seconds after, then he spat on me, kicked snow on both of us, and left. Viktor tried to keep it together, but...he must've cried for over an hour after Konstantin was gone..."

Minako had her hand over her mouth again, shocked to hear it all, "And this is all the stuff you reminded him about before his Free Skate?"

"...It's bad! I know! And this is just the tip of the iceberg..."

"Oh, Yuri..."

"Viktor refused to let me go with him to the funeral the next day. He even..." The tears were back again as he remembered, and his heart broke all over again, "He even took his ring off before he left… He gave it back to me and said to keep it safe until he came home, thinking his father would try to take it and throw it away. But when he finally did come back, the sight of him...I just… I fainted..."

"...You fainted?"

"Viktor doesn't keep his left eye covered just because he likes how it looks. You know how he worries about going bald…? He worries even more about scars...he used to cover his eye even when he had his hair long, anytime he thought someone might be able to see his face too closely. He's never once mentioned it, but I've seen how his left eye twitches a little when he gets really stressed out. It's like muscle memory from the first time Konstantin hit him as a kid." Yuri turned his gaze, looking towards the door, "When Viktor came back from the funeral, he'd gotten hit in that same eye two more times. All I saw before I dropped was how much blood was on his face and in his hair, and how the white part of his left eye was completely red...it was almost black because of how late it was already when he returned."

"Jeeze, Yuri..."

"We thought it was all finally over though, and that Viktor would never have to deal with Konstantin again...but then he showed up at the skating rink in St. Petersburg. That's how we met Mikhail...he'd seen Viktor getting the life beaten out of him at the funeral and wanted to reconnect after, absurd as it sounds..."

"Mikhail saw Viktor getting beaten up but didn't do or say anything until after…?"

"He said it would've been pointless. Viktor didn't want to have anything to do with him for a long time. Once again, because I'm an emotionally confused mess most of the time, I forced him to stay in touch. I thought...here's a guy who, upfront, accepts and understands Viktor's life and situation, wants to learn about him, wants to be involved...he even did all this skating research before he made Konstantin show him where to find us. I thought it would be great if Viktor had at least one person in his family accept him for who and what he is."

"Yeah, I remember how tense it was at Worlds...but Viktor seemed to mellow out after a while."

"Mikhail had to prove himself. Viktor was worried having him around would mean he'd have to deal with his father again at some point. In the end though, it wasn't even because of Mikhail that it happened..."

"You guys had to get involved with Konstantin again?"

Yuri nodded, looking back at her when it became clear that the door wasn't going to suddenly open, "Viktor's mother had a life insurance policy with his name on it. We had to go help with the inquiry, to make sure she hadn't just killed herself, since the policy was only a few months old when she died. It all looked really suspicious. Mikhail was going to drive us there, but he had Yurio with him for some inane reason, so all four of us ended up going to Viktor's hometown to deal with this thing. I...I saw so much. There were tanks in the woods. Old, worn down, trees growing through them… Viktor spent his childhood playing on dilapidated war machines rather than on swings and slides. He'd even hidden his first pair of skates inside one of them, and they were still there after all these years..." He snuffled and grabbed a tissue from a box on the table nearby, "By the end of it all, we learned that Konstantin's passionate hatred for skating came about because Mikhail and his sister had tormented him as a kid over some incident that actually involved skating. It was his big excuse to get on Viktor's back, and Viktor's refusal to abandon it just made everything so much worse. Konstantin was worried too that being a skater would turn Viktor gay, and well...there we were, engaged at first and then married… I'm not sure if it would've made any difference if Konstantin knew of Viktor's exploits with women in his younger days, or that it wasn't even a specific attraction to guys that drew Viktor to me… We're just...kindred spirits, and gender didn't even matter after that."

"Mh."

"Viktor did his best to patch things up when the dust settled, and we knew for sure that his mother's death was an accident. He said that his father even tacitly accepted the skating, citing religious belief that 'God Himself had given Viktor that talent,' but that Konstantin would never accept Viktor's and my relationship. But...even after all that, Viktor had already made plans to use the anger and frustration he felt over the whole thing to fuel his Free Skate this season. So, he told me to remind him of everything we'd gone through, and bring him back to how he felt before that last trip." Yuri pushed off again and face-planted in the bed next to where Minako had been sitting. His voice was muffled by the sheets, "I didn't want to do it, but Viktor made me promise… And now I have to worry about this same sort of thing happening every time I do..."

Minako counted on her fingers, "Today, NHK, the Final, Russian Nationals, Euros, Worlds...and any number of smaller events he may decide to go to..."

Yuri groaned loudly and pitifully, reaching to pull an edge of the thick comforter over his head.

"It's not healthy for either of you to keep rehashing all these horrible things that've happened. It was cruel of him to ask you to take part in it."

"He's my partner though...how can I tell him no when he asks me for help…? He'll stop asking me to help with anything if I refuse him...and I gave him so much grief over keeping things to himself before..."

Minako pat the center of his back twice, and then set her hand still there, "I remember when you were little, and you had just started skating at the Ice Castle. You'd become fast friends with Yuuko, but that bigger kid, Takeshi, picked on you relentlessly. He'd call you all kinds of horrible names, and he'd knock you down so he could laugh at you as you struggled to get up again, since the skates were always so big on your tiny little feet. You'd come running back to my studio and sat between my feet, even if I had a class, until you stopped crying."

She smiled fondly on the memory, but Yuri just turned his head and peered one eye back at her.

"But you'd always get up again, no matter how hard it was or how long it took. You grew taller, you got stronger...and one day, Yuuko introduced you to competitive skating, and its competitors...namely, one particular Junior rising-star named Viktor Nikiforov..." She opened her arms up wide and then fell down to her back, hands still up towards the ceiling, "And suddenly, you were awe-struck. Everything became Viktor Nikiforov. You lived, ate, slept, breathed him. You got that poodle puppy and named him Viktor. Your bedroom walls were covered over with his image. You put everything you had onto the ice for this dream where you could finally meet him. You became good friends with someone who was, in turn, good friends with him...and yet even when you had that chance, you never once asked for an introduction. And then, this silver Russian who'd been the center of your universe for years and years suddenly shows up at Yu-Topia Katsuki, saying he's going to be your coach...and in spite of all of your crippling anxiety and relentless self-doubt, he fell in love with you and asked you to marry him."

Yuri was still watching with that one eye, but he turned his gaze towards the sheet beneath him, his arms curling up under his chest. Minako sat back up and crossed her legs, turning to lean over and rest her elbows casually on her knees as she faced him.

"But even to this day, after everything you've been through together, you still hold him on this pedestal like you can't touch him, or you can't disagree with him. Yuri..." She reached over and ruffled his hair, "...For your health, on at least this one thing, you have to tell him no. More than that, though...you need to be the reason he comes back out of it when he's done. He's invited you in to be a part of his life, but there are some things that you don't need to do. Helping him feel terrible about himself is one of those things. Don't turn into an enabler, okay?"

The young skater finally turned onto his side, though he still kept his arms crossed in front of himself, "...I'll try."

Minako beamed down at him, "That's all anyone can ask of you. Now...I need to head back. Mikhail will already have talked to Yuratchka, but I'll be sure to talk to Viktor before he has a chance to leave."

"Don't tell him I told you about Russia."

"I won't. I promise."

.

.

.

The medaling ceremony was a lukewarm event. When Viktor got his expected Gold, he didn't even bother with his normal ritual. He simply bent down, let the lanyard be put around his neck, stood back up, wore his flag on his back, waved, and then went straight for rink-side to get his things. He hadn't spoken to or even looked at Yurio, on the Silver podium or off it. He barely exchanged a few words with Chris on the Bronze side, and even that was barely more than a 'See you at the Final.'

He changed, swapped skates for shoes, put on a pair of thoroughly unnecessary sunglasses, clipped his ear-bud cable into his phone, put the buds into his ears, and entirely ignored everyone as he started pulling his rolling blue and silver suitcase towards the exit. At most, he only tepidly confirmed that he would be at the Exhibition after the Ice Dancers were done with their final event...and then left without another word.

Or at least, that's how he saw it in his head as he was grabbing the handle on his suitcase, and turned it around to face the direction he intended to go. He made it maybe 10 steps before a certain ballerina silently latched onto the arm under which he was holding onto his carry-bag. He turned his eyes behind the sunglasses, but said nothing.

"Be nice to Yuri when you get back." She told him quietly, walking in-step with him as he led the way, "He's scared you're going to be mad at him for not being here to see you get your medal, but I told him to stay in the hotel room for his own good."

Viktor pressed his left shoulder against the glass door to push it open, and picked up the suitcase to swing it outside before sliding the rest of himself through the exit and out onto the steps. Minako was still holding to his right arm as he hefted the case up again to get to the bottom of the five or so stairs before hitting the sidewalk. They made it to the bus stop in front of the Bibliothèque Mériadeck before Viktor stopped, letting go of the suitcase and pulling the sunglasses off his face to gawk at the woman.

"I really made a mess of things."

"Even the best laid plans can go bad." Minako told him, pulling up her free arm to pat Viktor's where she still held it, "Yuri did his best to explain to me what happened before I showed up, but he can't tell me how it made you feel beyond saying what you did when it happened and when it was over."

"I wanted to throw Yurio off the podium." He answered, looking away again, "You've spent more time with him in the last year than I have...so tell me, does he even realize some of the words coming out of his mouth?"

"He means exactly what he says." She told the silver Russian, "He just doesn't always take into consideration how it makes other people feel. He'd rather be honest and have everyone hate him, than be loved for his lies."

"He can say what he means without being rude."

"He could, but learning how to speak differently takes time. His filter is still developing." The ballerina said, "I know that doesn't excuse what he said, but..."

"No, it doesn't." Viktor agreed, sighing and slouching a little bit.

"You need to unwind before the Gala later. Go take a nap or something."

The Russian nodded, and replaced the sunglasses before reaching to grab the rolling suitcase again. Minako was waving as he started to step off, but he paused and glanced back at her, "Would you walk back with me?"

"Eh?"

"You don't have to make conversation or anything, I just don't want to go alone. It's a long way."

"Oh...yeah, sure." She nodded and closed the distance, moving in to take the carry-bag off his shoulder so he could relax that side a little. He put his now-free hand into his coat pocket, waited for the ballerina to settle the strap of the bag over her own shoulder, and felt as she took hold of his arm again before he started walking, "The march begins anew!"

"...You walked all the way back with Yuri before?"

"Hai!" She answered quickly, "And now, I return with Skate Husband #2!"

The taller figure smiled a little despite the atmosphere, and turned to face forward, "Off we go, then."