CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY SEVEN
Dinner was as boring as could've been expected, but at least no one ended up face-down on a table somewhere, frothing at the mouth. Viktor barely poked at the fare in front of him, having lost his appetite entirely after the earlier encounter at the Leopalace. He put on his happy-face-mask and waved politely as other competitors, coaches, and ISU officials trickled in and out of the restaurant, but never went too far out of his way to do more than greet those who saw him.
Yuri kept a close eye on him. It was a stark situation for him to watch, and it surprised him to no end how obvious the man seemed now despite everything.
...How could I have ever been so blind to him before? He wondered to himself, I'm not even sure anyone else at the table, or passing us by, notices how different Viktor is...but to me, it's like night and day... Is it only so obvious to me because he told me how anxious he is...? Would I have even picked up on anything it if he hadn't...? The question put a pit into the young skater's stomach, and he reached a nervous hand under the table to set it gently on his partner's leg, slowly stroking his thumb back and forth a few times before he felt Viktor's hand come down on it as well.
"We should soak in the onsen later." The Russian said idly, "After we get back from the rink."
Yuri did his best to put on his own happy-face-mask, and smiled as well as he could, curling his fingers where he felt his husband's doing the same around the back of his hand, "Sounds like a good idea."
Everyone made one last trip to their own hotel rooms before assembling out front to wait for the shuttle. Black sweat-pants and a black form-fitting t-shirt went under the black and red Team Russia track-suit while Yuri gathered up skates and other supplies in a duffle-bag. The silver skater clicked into his phone before pocketing it, checking the time, a little surprised how late it already was.
"It's almost 7:30. The rink will only be open for practice until 10."
"...I don't think Phichit-kun is going to be upset if you don't work a miracle over on him in one session." Yuri noted, rising back up to his full height and pulling the bag over his shoulder, "You need to focus on your own practice, too. He knows that."
"Have you watched his other event?" Viktor wondered, pulling the door open and glancing at the Russian Tiger so he'd know to start moving, "I'm not even sure which one he went to..."
"Skate America. We really briefly went over it during our first weekend in Bordeaux, while Rostelecom was underway." Yuri explained, stepping through the door after Yurio and watching as his partner followed after that, hearing it click closed. The trio stepped off towards the elevators, and the Russian reached to take his husband's ring-hand, "Admittedly, I only just watched his shows this week... He's scoring about as well as he did at this point last year."
The silver skater put his free hand on his hip as they rounded the corner to the elevators, "He's going to have to step up his game if he plans on beating Chris for that last slot. Even if he wins silver, if he doesn't score quite a bit higher, his GP points won't mean a whole lot."
"...I know..." Yuri sighed a little, looking up as he heard the ding for the elevator's arrival, and stepped over towards the opening doors, "I can still hope though."
"Your optimism is endearing." The Russian mused, leaning over to kiss the side of the man's fluffy head.
The snow hadn't let up by the time the group reunited in the hotel lobby. The lighting of the rotunda lit up the shuttle easily enough, and the headlights of that same vehicle shone out into the dark of the driveway, illuminating each clump of falling snow like fireflies. Bracing against the cold, they all moved through the sliding glass doors and piled into the passenger seats, buckling in and waiting for the vehicle to start moving off. It was a relatively slow journey, taking great care not to slide off the road where snow was packed down by prior traffic, but they made it without incident several minutes later.
Between the lack of daylight and the continuing storm, getting a good look at the Makomanai Ice Arena was difficult. The obvious part was the concrete staircase in front, and the Olympic logo above the wide front doors, but behind that, the massive circular building and the Olympic field surrounding it was hard to see.
The skaters and first coach all piled out, feet crunching on the fluff collecting on the sidewalk. Yuri held back a moment to confirm when the last shuttle would be coming back to pick them up, and then jumped out after the rest, retaking his partner's hand before they all started moving up the stairs and in through the big arena doors.
The rink-side area had been decorated in much the same manner that had been done at Cup of China, with the walls and railing covered over with long, royal blue drapes, likely to hide the age of the venue. Sponsor billboards lined the inside walls of the rink, and the stadium seating rose on all sides, expanding out into a big circle rather than the usual rectangle. Decorative boards lined the upper part of the nearest rink-side walls, mimicking the imagery of the aurora borealis on a clear blue night sky. The flags of all participating nations lined the upper part of the walls on the next level, dividing the audience viewing area from front and center to nosebleed section. In the center of the rink, the huge blue NHK Trophy logo was built into the ice, blade-scratches going over it from every direction.
That late at night, there weren't many skaters still around practicing, but there were at least 4 that Yuri could spot immediately. A skeleton crew of event organizers and staff were making last-minute adjustments before the following day's last official practice, and the beginning of the event.
"Did it ever make sense to you that they have competition before Opening Ceremonies?" Phichit wondered randomly, pulling his phone out again and attaching the selfie-stick as he spoke, "...It's like...Pairs Short, Ladies Short...oh right, yeah, hi everyone and welcome to NHK!"
Yuri nodded and smiled, "I think I've mentioned a curiosity about that once or twice." He looked over to where Viktor had let go of his hand, trying to find somewhere to set his things down and swap shoes for skates, "And then they always put Men's Short right after."
"It's because of the money and time." Viktor answered quietly, rifling through his bag, pulling one skate out and then the other as the two younger skaters looked over at him, "It's the same at the Olympics, where they start competition before the event's even officially started."
Both gave a confused expression.
The Russian sat down and pulled an ankle over one knee, reaching to undo the laces on his sneakers, "There's only three days for any given skating competition, right?"
"Yeah."
"So they have to make do with the time available and the fact that there's only one skating rink. When people watch the event on television, the Opening Gala is during Prime Time, followed by Men's Singles, since we do the hardest jumps and draw in the most viewers because of it. Ladies are often nicer to look at, but they max out at triples, and they're scored way less on the scale than we are." One shoe was off, and the skate came on to replace it, but left unlaced as the second foot was pulled over, "So Pairs go on first to get things started in the early afternoon, then Ladies, then Opening Ceremonies, then Men, then it's over for the day."
"...I always wondered about that." Yuri said, scrunching up his shoulders, "Why the women only do triples."
"Weight." Viktor answered curtly.
"...That doesn't make any sense. Men weigh more than women."
"The distribution is different though. We're heavier around the upper body, them around the hips. It's harder to jump when you're practically dragging your legs into the air, and have less upper body strength to force it through." The Russian said, eyes on his second skate, and the gold shine under the rubber guard, "The triple Axel can be hard for most Ladies, too. The first wasn't even landed in competition until 1991."
"...How do you know this stuff? You've never coached a lady skater." Phichit wondered, forcing the Russian to all but stop what he was doing for a moment. Yuri noticed the pause and gave a dubious look. The Thai skater felt the awkward tension between them, and pulled his hands close to himself, each one grasping a length of the selfie-stick in front of his chest, "...What?"
"I was doing triple Axels before my teen years, so to me, they're easy. But I pushed a lady skater I knew too hard to do the same, and she was so badly injured in the process that she had to quit the sport outright." Viktor answered simply, "That's all."
"...Oh. Well." Phichit coughed nervously to clear his throat, and looked around, spotting Celestino not far away, "Ahhhh I think I need to go get ready. Ciao Ciao will want me to get on the ice as soon as I can."
Once the younger skater was bounding off for his own gear, Yuri turned back and slid in next to his partner on the bench, "...Sophia?"
"Yeah."
"Hm..."
Before anything else could be said, the pair lifted their heads to the sound of an awkward commotion rising from further down the rink wall. Half a second later, a certain red-haired lady skater was carrying a certain blonde over her head, passing them by and laughing as the teen flailed and protested to be put down. The duo blinked as they looked over the top of the rink wall, watching curiously as the spectacle went on.
"I'm so jealous!" Mila was saying, sliding across the ice with grace, even in spite of the teen thrashing about overhead, "I wish I could've gotten to skate with Beka like that!"
"Who the fuck is Beka and put me down, Baba!" Yurio yelled angrily, limbs going in every direction as he watched the world go by upside-down.
"Otabek, duh!" She clarified, "Beka sounds cooler! I saw you and him do that pair skate thing at the China Gala!" The lithe woman turned the teen around in her hands and brought him down in front of herself, pulling him in close to see him clearly, even as she had to keep holding him up with both arms around his back, pinning his own arms to his sides, "I should make you introduce him to me at the Final."
"Fat chance!" The blonde argued, suddenly planting his sneakers onto the frost, still sliding along but putting up enough resistance to slow Mila down, "I'd never introduce a harpy like you to Otabek! Go find another hockey player!"
"YURI PLISETSKY."
Green eyes turned, as did blue, the duo looking to the rink-wall where cherry-hazel were gawking back at them. The older Yuri was giving the younger a severe look.
"What?"
"Don't say stuff like that. It's rude." He explained, gesturing at the woman, "You should apologize."
Mila ate it up, giving the man a pleasant smile before turning slyly back to the teen still in her clutches, "He's right, you know."
Yurio just grit his teeth, "...FineI'msorry."
"What was that? I couldn't hear you." The woman teased, moving to skate backwards instead so the blonde couldn't put up as much of a fuss.
"I already said it! Let me go!"
She did as bid, and quickly withdrew her arms, leaving the hapless teen to slide along the ice on his shoes until he came to a disgruntled stop in the middle of the rink. Mila just skated amused circles around him as he slid and stumbled his way back to the nearest rink exit, clutching at the wall before he ended up on his arse.
Yurio muttered something between clenched teeth, but then turned his head over to the second source of his sudden irritation...only to raise an eyebrow instead of making some sarcastic remark, "Your booty-call is running off."
"Eh?" Yuri lifted his head a little higher, turning around sharply to see Viktor wandering away, skate-guards quietly thunking along the floor as he moved, "Viktor...!" He pushed to the other side of the bench and started to head after the man, but then stopped dead in his tracks as he realized where the Russian was even going; Yakov was at the corner of the rink, watching his former student approaching.
"You're not going after him?" Yurio wondered quietly, feeling more sure of his footing again now that he was on normal ground, "I thought we were going to have to find a crowbar to get you two to let go of each other so he could skate tomorrow."
"...I don't know that I should be part of that conversation." The older skater said anxiously, "Viktor told me a lot, but...he didn't really get that specific about his history with Yakov. At least not yet. I feel like I'd be butting in if I went over there."
Emerald eyes squinted at the man, but then rolled a little as Yurio moved to lean over the rink wall, "Suit yourself."
Yuri continued to watch quietly, settling to lean over the rink wall next to the teen while he waited. It was impossible to hear what the two Russians were saying to one another, but when he saw Viktor leaning down to hug the man and hold there for a while, he understood.
He just said Konstantin's here. I wonder what Yakov thinks of that...? He's not yelling a lecture like normal, so it must be pretty serious...
Viktor remained at the corner of the rink for another minute or two before it seemed like he and his former coach had come to some sort of agreement, and he finally started coming back the way he'd gone before. Slate eyes seemed to look a bit less heavy as the Russian stepped ever closer, finally coming up on the two other skaters where they were leaning on the wall.
Yuri watched him quietly, but was desperate to find out what had happened between the two men. He didn't dare ask though. Instead, he just held still as his partner came up behind him, leaned against his back, and wrapped both arms around his small frame.
The silver Russian stayed there for a little while, pressing the side of his face against the back of his husband's shoulder for a moment before lifting his head and setting his chin down in that same place instead, "...I asked Yakov to be at rink-side for me before my Free Program."
"Oh." The younger figure said nervously, "Okay."
"That way you don't have to worry about feeling like you need to get me worked up before my Rage Skate." He went on, "So you can be there when I'm done instead."
"...You don't want me to be at rink-side at all beforehand...?" Yuri was a little surprised...and a little hurt.
"It's hard for me to stay mad about anything when I see you." Viktor explained, letting his arms loosen a little so his partner could turn around to face him, and he set his hands on the rink-wall by his sides instead, "When I need to be angry going out there...I can't very well have someone sending me off who makes me happy, can I?"
Hazel eyes blinked, "...I get it...but...I don't..."
The silver skater just smiled, "You're my Rage Skate antidote...but I can't use you before I go out there. So I'll get my well wishes from you about 30 minutes before I start, and I'll have Yakov send me off instead, that way I have plenty of time to get my head in the right place. I want yours to be the first face I see when I come back." He nosed his partner lightly as he spoke the last words, leaning in to kiss him lightly, all the while heedless of the teen who was glowering at him from less than two feet away.
"Ugh, gross, get a room." Yurio muttered, turning to look away finally. Just as his eyes moved off, the teen suddenly felt an arm reach around his back and hook around, yanking him closer, until he was shoulder-to-chest with each of the older skaters, "Oh Christ, what now?"
"We have a room." Viktor explained in a cheeky tone, "But you're sharing it with us. Since you'll be there all night long, why not get started early on all the fun you'll have to listen to?"
"No, no...no no, let me go." Yurio started to flail a little bit, but found it difficult with two sets of arms pinning him down at the same time.
"I don't know, Viktor..." Yuri chimed in, "I don't quite think he has a full appreciation for the quality and depth of our love."
"I don't either." The taller Russian agreed, "Maybe we should show him by having him experience it first-hand."
"GROSS. LET ME GO." He flailed with earnest then, kicking his legs out like he thought it would do any good. It didn't, and he struggled and squirmed all the more, right up until the moment that he felt two pairs of lips on his cheeks, one set on each side. Yurio felt all the blood leave his face, and he went still as a corpse, hardly moving even as he felt himself finally being freed from the pair's grasp. He blinked dead eyes as he stared straight ahead, and took a few breathless steps forward, "...I'm...I'm going...over there..."
Quiet chortling followed after the blonde, and the duo slipped an arm behind each others' backs as they watched him slowly retreating to safer territory. Once he was finally out of earshot, Viktor turned back to where he'd been before, rubbing one cheek against his husband's forehead as he held him tighter than before, "...Guess that's one way of getting him to go away without having to ask him to leave."
"Yep." Yuri agreed easily, bringing his second arm into the hug as well, then looking up into his partner's gaze, "So you told Yakov about the rest?"
"Da." The silver legend nodded.
"No lecture about what a terrible idea it was?"
"That'll come, but it's intended for Uncle Mimi, not for me. He's going to get an ear-full when Yakov sees him next." Viktor explained, "Yakov will unofficially be coaching me this weekend as well, so he'll be with you tomorrow at rink-side when I go out for my Short Program, and in the kiss and cry after both shows."
"Oh..."
"Don't worry, it's not because of anything you did or didn't do." The Russian went on, "But Yakov's been around since everything started, way back 20 years ago. You talked about things coming full circle to Ciao Ciao...I think this is the same. I don't really believe in stuff like fate or destiny...but it's certainly a strange kind of providence that Yakov ended up coming to NHK when I really needed him."
"I get it." Yuri nodded, "...And I agree. Yakov was the one that your mom entrusted you to, so it makes sense that he be here for you now."
Viktor nodded, giving his partner one last tight hug before letting him go again and reaching down for his skate-guards, "Thanks. Now...let's go show your friend how quad Loops are done."