CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY

"The score for Yuri Nikiforov..."

The roar of cheering in the audience abruptly died out with the announcer's voice. Breathing stopped, mouths gaped open, people even stopped blinking...it felt like an eternity before the number was revealed.

Even the staff-skaters on the ice, picking up all of the gifts thrown out by fans, had to pause and pay attention. Participants on the rink-wall and in the prep area had stopped what they were doing to turn their eyes to the kiss and cry any way they could.

Minako was practically chewing on her banner, on her feet like everyone around her in the stands.

Back in Moscow, Mikhail was breathless, clutching the tablet to his chest like the stream on television would cut off if he didn't protect its source, "C'mooonnnnnn..."

Yurio had his hands on his hips, waiting anxiously and yet... He turned his eyes aside briefly to look at Otabek just next-to and behind him. Otabek himself wasn't sure if he hoped Yuri pulled through or not.

Yuri and Viktor were frozen where they sat in the kiss and cry; feelings of dread and excitement were difficult to tell apart. The Russian held his arm around his skater's back, grasping tighter with every microsecond-century that passed. They could feel each others' hearts pounding even through their clothing.

Thmp-THMP

Thmupa-THMP

Thmp-THMP

"... 227.56. His total score is 300.68. He is currently in first place."

SCREAMING.

Yuri had jumped to his feet, gaping at the sight of his number on the score-panel. Viktor rose up just after him, equally shocked at the number. They turned to face one another wordlessly, wondering if maybe it was a fever dream. The longer it went on though, the more obvious it became that everything was real. The young skater suddenly lunged though, throwing his arms over his coach's shoulders, laughing and crying at the same time. Viktor pulled him up, arms wrapped around his back, and spun him around in the kiss and cry.

"YUURRRIIIII!" Minako screamed, jumping up repeatedly.

"YES!" Mikhail threw his arms up, nearly losing the tablet in the process.

Yurio's eyes were wide, his hands falling from their perches and going limp at his sides, "227.56? ...Unbelievable. It's almost as high as his Worlds score." He looked on at the big screen suspended above the rink, seeing the footage of the pair still dancing around in the kiss and cry.

"I don't think I could complain, losing to a score like that." Otabek said simply, clapping still where he stood, and catching the blonde's attention, "It just goes to show that even someone as sensitive as him can have the soul of a warrior. He just needs a reason to fight."

The blond nodded, turning back away again to see across rink-side to where the pair were finally coming out, moving over to where Emil was about to go and put on the last performance of the Men's Singles. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could see from the Czech skater's body language that he was both happy for Yuri's score, and nervous that he wasn't going to be able to put on a show that would come anywhere near as good as the one that had just ended. The teen almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

"The last skater of the Men's Singles event for the Cup of China...representing the Czech Republic..Emil Nekola."

The crowd was good about their cheering, keeping up their energy in follow-through from Yuri's score to the final performer stepping into the rink. Emil got a hug from the exhausted Japanese athlete before stepping out, raising his arms up towards the crowd and bowing his head.

Yurio could see that Yuri was limping a little on the right, and realized the toll the Free Skate had taken on him. He turned to face the older skater as the pair were getting closer.

['Love Comes Again feat. BT' - Tiësto]

"You really killed it out there, Yuri."

Brown eyes leveled on the teen, and he smiled, "Thanks. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys though." He turned from Yurio to look over at Otabek, who gave him a thumbs up, and then at Viktor again before focusing on the teen ahead of him and stepping forward, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, "Thanks for helping me get my act together."

"What's going on with your leg? You weren't limping before."

Yuri blinked at him as he pulled back, though kept the left arm over a shoulder to help keep himself upright, "I hit the wall pretty hard yesterday." He explained, rubbing his hip with his free hand, "It wasn't bothering me that much until I did my Free Skate. Now it feels like I just got hit in the leg with a sledge hammer."

"You going to manage the Exhibition okay?"

"I hope so. It's not until tomorrow, so I'll have a chance to get over it." He answered, "Oh...Viktor has something to tell and then ask you."

"Hah?"

"Let's go into the prep area first. It's a bit noisy out here." The older Russian said, pulling the curtain back. Otabek was quick to go through since he was closest, and Yurio followed through soon after, eyeballing his former rink-mate curiously. Viktor just smiled innocently and waved him through, then reached an arm around his partner and went through as well.

The media frenzy kicked into high gear as soon as Yuri was off rink-side. The Russian whispered something into his ear before sending him off to do his after-skate interviews, then moved away with Yurio to an area where it was less distracting.

"What's going on?" Yurio asked, a bit anxious about the whole thing. Otabek followed him for lack of anything else to do.

Viktor finally turned and huffed a laugh at the teen's confused expense, "I'm going back to Moscow tonight to pick up my Uncle. I want to give you my original plane ticket, so you can go with Yuri from here to Sapporo."

"You're leaving tonight?" The blonde was almost incredulous, "But you're going to miss the entire Cup of China finale. You're Yuri's coach; you're supposed to be there with him."

"I can't do anything about flight schedules. The next one out of here isn't until Tuesday, and we didn't book the hotel room to include Monday night. It's up to you though. You can fly with Yuri, or you can fly with Minako-sensei again. You're going to Japan either way at this point, right?"

Green eyes blinked at the older skater, and he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, "...I'll take your ticket." Yurio said calmly, "Was that the thing you had to tell me or the thing you wanted to ask?"

"Tell." Viktor answered quickly, "I actually don't know Uncle Mimi's address in Moscow. I was hoping you would know, since Minako-sensei can't read Cyrillic and wouldn't be able to tell me herself."

"...You know I've only been to his Moscow place once, right?"

"Really? I thought you were there a bunch of times."

"No, Mikhail and Okukawa get weird sometimes, so I've stayed with my grandpa when we were in Moscow all the other times."

Viktor stifled a laugh as he heard the words, "They get weird or they stop paying attention to you?"

"What's the difference?"

"Touché." The older skater shrugged, "Anyway...I have to leave in just a few hours. The flight tomorrow is at 6pm." He pulled out his phone and loaded up his email, getting the ticket confirmation notice up so he could forward a copy to the teen in front of him, "I don't know how you and him want to arrange how and when or where you meet up."

"If you're leaving tonight, why don't I just stay with him?"

"Well...you could...but there's only one bed."

"Okay? It's competition. We've all had to double-up before. The ISU doesn't pa-"

"We've had s-"

"WAIT." Yurio cut him off instantly, "STOP RIGHT THERE. I get it. I'll stay with Okukawa one more night, God. Gross."

Viktor just huffed another laugh, "Once we're done with the medaling ceremony, we're gonna head back and sort out our stuff so I can get moving. If you don't know Uncle Mimi's address then I guess I'll just have to tell him I'm coming."

"Why wouldn't you anyway? Wouldn't that be important?"

"Always do the opposite of what people expect, that's my motto, right?" The older Russian held up a finger for emphasis, "I wanted to surprise him."

"The only one who's gonna be surprised is you." Yurio pointed out, "He's probably already booked his flight to Japan. If you don't call him to let him know you're coming, you might miss him outright, and then you'll just be in Moscow, alone, feeling really stupid."

Viktor crossed his arms, a blank look on his face, "...You're right." He turned away from the two skaters suddenly, whipping his phone out and texting furiously.

Yurio cocked a brow at him, but then turned to Otabek, "Let's go, I think we're done here."

.

.

.

Taking gold in an unprecedented underdog-victory, Yuri stood on the highest platform of the podium with the medal around his neck, and a big bouquet of flowers in the crook of his arm. On his right, Otabek held up his silver, and on the left, Michele held his bronze. The flashes from dozens of cameras blinked all around them. By the time the trio were allowed to get down, each of them was wearing their nation's flag on their backs, draped over their shoulders and fluttering out behind them like huge capes.

Yuri skated around the rink to wave at the fans, keeping his flag wrapped close over his arms as he went.

Viktor looked so sad when he saw all the 'overcome' banners. He thought, pulling the gold medal over his head to hold it up in presentation; the crowd cheered all the more to see it being held up just for them. He said he didn't realize how upset he was about the Short Program until he'd already gotten drunk...but to realize how many people had shared in that, and still wanted to show support... He kicked up frost to stop at the final side of the rink, holding his medal up for the fans on that end before turning back to go towards the exit where his coach was waiting for him.

As Yuri stepped back onto normal ground, he presented the medal to the Russian, "Last but not least, Coach Viktor."

Blue eyes smiled brightly, and he took a step forward to cup the medal in his pale hands, kissing it lightly, and then putting the lanyard back over its recipient's head, "I never doubted you could pull it off. You just had to believe in yourself."

"I'm going to do better with the Short Program at the Final. Even though I didn't beat my Worlds Free Skate score, I came really close...not bad for having only performed this version of Heroes once, right?" Yuri wondered, letting Viktor take the flowers in place of his skate guards, putting each one onto his blades before folding his flag over one arm.

"You did it beautifully. As your coach and choreographer, I couldn't have asked for better." The Russian said fondly, gently putting an arm around his athlete to start moving him back towards their spot in the prep area so they could leave, "But...as a fellow competitor, you've got me really nervous!"

"Really? You don't have any of the same hang-ups that I do."

"I have to figure out a way of getting myself in the right frame of mind for my Free Skate, but on my own now." Viktor answered, stepping slowly to give Yuri's limp time to keep up, "It won't be easy."

Yuri felt a little guilty about it, switching the arms he carried the flowers in so he could wrap one around his husband's back, "...Sorry."

"No, don't be." The Russian said quietly, "I should've thought about how it would make you feel, when I asked you to remind me of all the bad things that've happened since last year. It was stupid. I'm the one that's sorry."

"Mh..."

"Well, whatever I figure out, you'll be there to bring me back out of it, so I'm grateful." The taller skater paused in front of the benches where they'd left the rest of Yuri's gear, "It's my favorite thing to have you there at the end to make me feel better."

The younger figure's face flushed a little, thinking back on the day before, and how he'd used the same words to get his husband to make love to him. He shook his head and set the flowers down, turning around and then sitting back down on the bench. He had the laces of one of his skates partially undone before he paused and looked over to his partner, "There's still a few hours left before you have to leave."

"Yes there are."

Yuri realized they must've both had the same thing in mind, and quickly moved to get his skates off to replace them with shoes, stuffing his blades into his backpack, putting everything on his back, and then rising back up to stand. Without his skates, he was back to being obviously shorter than the Russian, but he leaned in and hugged him anyway, "Let's go then. I'm going to miss you while you're gone."

"Me too."

They started moving down the hall that lead to the exits, moving through the last set of restricted-access doors before finding themselves in the main atrium. Dozens of fans were there to see all the skaters leave, and the noise rose tremendously as the duo came into sight.

Yuri paused, still surprised by the energy of it all. He turned his head to see them all, but then laughed, and looked up at Viktor, "I guess there's one funny-awkward take-away from all this craziness about 'Overcoming the Short Program.'"

"What's that?"

"Every single one of these people has seen us both naked."

Viktor blinked, looking from Yuri to the bustle of spectators. His cheeks got a little pink again, and he laughed, "...I need to stop drinking so much."