CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY EIGHT

It was becoming painfully obvious that coaching someone other than Yuri would be much harder than Viktor realized. Phichit didn't lack of confidence or skill, so finding the crux of his problem was being quickly narrowed down to a combination of needing more physical conditioning and experience in general.

The Thai skater clung to the rink-wall, frost-covered legs shaking, and sweat beading on his forehead. Celestino was just on the other side, arms crossed and giving a sour expression, slowly handing the skater his water as his green eyes glowered at the Russian beyond the wall.

"...One more time...?" Viktor suggested, scratching his head, trying to think of what else he could do to keep his end of the bargain.

Phichit just let go of the wall and slid slowly to his face on the ice, "No more... I can't...skate...anymore..."

The silver skater just crossed his arms, feeling a bit defeated, This is way harder than coaching Yuri... I don't even know what to do with this guy.

The Japanese skater slowly slid out onto the ice from a nearby open gate, gold blades scratching across the frost until he got to his friend and offered a hand to help pull him back up to his skates. Once he was up, Yuri stuffed his hands back into his coat pockets, "...Sorry, I thought it would be a lot easier than this... I feel like I got your hopes up."

"It's not your fault." Phichit sighed, still keeping his spirits up despite it all, "Viktor made you really good in a big hurry... I guess his genius doesn't stick to me as easily as it does to you."

"...It's not that. Not really, anyway..." The Russian slid in closer, hands on his hips, setting a toe-pick into the ice to stop, "But you don't lack any of the things that Yuri did before. I'm not sure what I could offer you that Celestino isn't already giving you."

"You spent the better part of 7 months in Hasetsu before we all got to see the results of your coaching. What did you do back then?" The Thai skater wondered idly, rubbing his face on a towel sitting on the rink wall, "Yuri was never a bad skater, even way back in our Detroit days."

"He only really lacked confidence." Viktor answered, reaching an arm out over the aforementioned skater's shoulders, feeling Yuri slide his own arm around his lower back, "I just helped him learn to believe in himself, by believing in him first to get him started."

"It's not like no one else did." Celestino interrupted, "We all believed in Yuri. He just got stuck in his own head and dragged himself down when it mattered most."

Brown eyes looked down at the ice, avoiding the gazes of the two men in front of him.

"This was different." The silver skater went on, "He was in Detroit for 5 years training under you, building himself up to the moment he finally got into that first GP Final. He crashed in the end and felt like his only answer was to quit. He needed something else to get back in the saddle."

Phichit leaned lazily against the top of the rink wall, resting his head on his folded arms, "Yeah? What'd you give him that we couldn't?"

Viktor smiled and raised his free hand, holding it palm-up as he presented himself, "All this." He said proudly.

Celestino just quirked a brow and looked on stoically, but the youngest skater just laughed.

Yuri kept looking away, though glancing up now with his cheeks lightly flushed rather than looking down, "I'm not sure how explaining what got me here is at all helpful to Phichit-kun."

One blue eye winked at him, "It's important to be able to recognize that different people need different things to succeed. Everyone learns a little differently. What works for you wouldn't work for him." Viktor explained, "I doubt I would've had the same success with Yurio either." He glanced up at where the blonde was talking to Yakov on the other side of the rink, then raised his free hand to cup around his mouth and yelled, "RIGHT, YURI!?"

The teen turned his head glibly, "WHAT?"

The silver skater laughed to himself, then looked back at the group from before, "See? Trying to coach him would've been like trying to herd cats. He'd have done whatever he wanted regardless of what I said."

"So what do you do these days, then?" Phichit wondered, "Yuri came out of last season feeling pretty good about himself. What he needs now must be entirely different than in the beginning."

"Sure." Viktor nodded, settling his hand back onto his hip, "Maintaining what he gained is as important as trying new things though, so it's not like I've stopped keeping faith with him. The way I express it has just changed a little."

"...A little?" Yuri muttered, giving his partner a knowing look.

"Huh?" The Thai skater's eyes opened a little wider, "What? What do you mean?"

The older skater's face was already going red before he noticed the devious grin shining in his husband's eyes, and he was helpless but to let him demonstrate. The arm over his shoulders quickly moved off, and Viktor moved to stand behind him, hands going around his sides to settle on his chest, nosing at his ear over his shoulder.

"Just doing this used to be enough." The Russian purred, huffing a quiet laugh as his husband's growing embarrassment, "But now..."

Celestino had already face-palmed before it got any further, but Phichit seemed naïvely confused, and watched curiously.

Those pale hands went down Yuri's front, suddenly grabbing him by his hips and pulling him back against the eager lap behind him. The younger skater had his own hands up in front of his face, trying to hide behind them as he heard his husband laughing.

"V-Viktor..."

"Oh my."

Smartphone camera clicks went off rather quickly after that, but still, Yuri refused to move, feeling somewhat paralyzed, even as he felt the man jokingly starting to roll against him, just like after the Japanese Qualifiers so long ago.

"Yuuuri~ Look like you're having more fun!" The Russian teased, sliding one gold-bladed skate between his partner's to nudge at the inside of his heel, "You don't look like you're happy at all!"

"Jesus fucking Christ, you're humping him in public now." Yurio groaned, suddenly turning about-face on his heel, "That's what I get for coming over here to ask what the Hell you were talking about."

"I'm going to go over there...where it's less weird." Celestino sighed, moving off to sit in the stands.

Phichit just kept taking pictures.

Viktor eventually let go though, turning his husband around to start dragging him across the ice, grinning the whole way. Yuri kept his hands over his face even as he felt his toe-picks dragging across the frost. They went a little while before the younger skater had the courage to uncover his eyes again, glancing at the silver legend for all of half a second before wrapping his arms around the man's shoulders and burying his face there instead.

"Wow~ Did I really embarrass you that badly just now?" The Russian mused, carrying his husband gently across the ice, "Sorry."

Yuri slowly lowered the heels of his blades, feeling them glide along the smooth surface evenly before putting weight down on them, one skate between the Russian's legs and the other just outside them, "...That's...not it..."

"Oh?" Slate eyes opened a bit wider for a moment, "What then?"

"...At f-first...yeah..." The younger figure admitted, tilting his blades a little as he felt the turn coming, "...But then..."

"Yes?" Viktor hummed, curiosity piquing quickly.

Yuri could feel his heart pounding, "...It just...really sank in that we..." His cheeks went red again, but he pulled his face away from the man's shoulder and lightly pressed their foreheads together, "...We won't get the chance to really be like that until tomorrow night...assuming Yurio actually goes back to Mikhail and Minako-sensei's room..."

"Attention skaters...the Makomanai Ice Arena will be closing in 10 minutes." A voice boomed overhead, grabbing everyone's attention at once, "Please begin to assemble your belongings and make your way to the exit. The rink will re-open for practice tomorrow morning at 7am."

The announcement repeated again in Japanese after that, but hardly anyone beyond Yuri understood it, though he wasn't really paying attention by then anyway. His focus was on the blue eyes in front of his own, "...Shimatta... You didn't get to practice any of your own stuff."

"Hard to believe I just spent 2 hours working on a quad Loop..." Viktor sighed quietly, closing his eyes as he slowed their skate, stopping close to the middle of the rink, "But I guess there's always tomorrow morning."

"Yeah..."

The cogs were still turning in the Russian's mind though. He could hear the sound of other skaters' blades leaving the ice, and the chatter of coaches and athletes as they packed it all in, but he still wouldn't move from that spot. Instead, he brought his hands up from his husband's back and slid them across the man's arms, hooking his thumbs under Yuri's wrists to pull them gently back down again. He kissed the ring on the right hand first, then nudged it back until he could touch the back of his finger to his partner's nose, "We'll figure something out."

.

.

.

The onsen at the hotel was a welcome respite from the cold, but unlike in traditional hot-spring resorts, the hotel version was a family bath, open to both sexes and all ages...so it was a semi-crowded place at the end of the night. Men and women came from different private washing areas, but converged at the open air deck of the wading pool. People wore the big white towels of the hotel spa right into the water, rather than needing to fold a small one and keep it on their head for safe keeping.

Yuri glanced around as he sat on a ledge near a wall of big opaque windows, finding the sight of everyone in the bath to be the weirdest thing. For him, the water barely came a few inches up his legs, most of him still barely damp from the previous shower. In front of him, Viktor was submerged up to his nose, leaning way back against the wall with his ankles crossed out in front of himself, soaking up as much of the salty heat as he could. Under the water, the Russian had his arms loosely wrapped around his partner's lower legs, wrists hovering by ankles.

The chatter around them was still barely a whisper, with the occasional giggle and wave as people recognized each other from across the room. Thankfully, most people respected the fact that the onsen was meant for relaxation, not excitable conversation, so fanfare was at a minimum.

Yurio and Phichit were in the spring as well, relaxing in their own respective places along the edge of the pool. Even Mila had joined in. Yakov was nowhere to be seen, not being the sort to want to participate in such an affair. If he were going to bother trying to enjoy a hot bath, it'd be in his hotel room, on his own.

Yuri drew in a deep breath, then leaned forward as he exhaled, hands sliding down his husband's chest as he parked his chin and nose against the wet silver-grey hair in front of him, holding there quietly for a while. Viktor peeked an eye up, but then went back to relaxing again as well, only moving as much as he needed to so as to take Yuri's hands beneath the water with his own.

"This is nice, right?" The younger skater asked quietly, eyes closed as he idly waved his forelegs forward and back again, "...Though it does kind of feel like some quasi-hybrid of the onsen back home, and the hot tub at Worlds..."

The silver Russian hadn't answered, simply staying where he was, submerged to his nose.

Finding it weird, Yuri lifted his head and looked down on the man, "Viktor?"

The older figure finally fidgeted a little and pushed to sit more upright, pulling out of his partner's grasp in the process so Yuri could only keep his hands on his shoulders by the time he was done, and then turned slightly, "We've been soaking for about 20 minutes. We should go upstairs."

"Already?"

"...I'm tired." He slowly turned those blue eyes towards his younger team-mate, "Yuri, we're going."

The teen's over-tired eyes blinked slowly in acknowledgment, and he turned under the water to start making his way, like flotsam, over to the nearest ledge that lead to the men's washroom.

Yuri nodded and rose to stand, water coming up to his thighs as he waded forward, holding quietly to his husband's hand as they moved. However, he paused, turning back to his Thai friend, "We're going to bed."

Viktor corrected him quietly, "Well, not right away, but soonish. I'm starting to prune though." He looked at the wrinkles starting to form on his fingertips and smiled tiredly to himself, "I've been cooking in here long enough."

"You want to come up with us?" Yuri wondered suddenly, "It'll be a bit crowded since Yurio's going to be with us, too, but otherwise...it'll be like our old Detroit days. We can watch a movie or something."

"We should watch The Ring." Phichit teased, pushing to stand up from the water, and holding the thick, wet towel around his waist with one hand.

"WeareNOTwatchingTheRing." Yuri said emphatically, face going red, then putting his hand over it quickly as he realized he was being too loud for the onsen.

Phichit was having a hard time not choking on his quiet laughter, desperately keeping his free hand over his mouth, eyes watering already.

The older skater just turned and followed his amused partner out of the bath.

"I agree with your friend. We should watch The Ring." Viktor added, looking back over his shoulder as they pushed through the doors. Inwardly, he was cackling as much as Phichit was trying not to, remembering the story as it was told during their La Premiére flight from Canada.

"WEARENOTWATCHINGTHERINGVIKTOR."

The Russian couldn't help but laugh a little at that, giving Phichit a knowing look. The younger skater's eyes went wide as he realized...and he pointed at Yuri, then back at Viktor, as though to confirm. Viktor nodded and smirked, and Phichit's mouth opened wide behind his hand as he realized Viktor knew the harrowing tale.

"Why would we want to watch The Ring this late at night...?" Yurio wondered sleepily, grabbing a bathrobe from the rack by all the onsen towels, "You'll just give yourselves nightmares or something."

The Thai skater was literally dying as he tried to stay quiet, still laughing behind his hand, "Y-yeah...nightmares...right, Y-Yuri...?"

The Japanese skater just grimaced, watching as his friend and his husband actually reached out in front of him and bumped fists with each other at his expense, "You are both awful."

By the time they'd all gotten their slippers and bath robes, and Phichit had made a side-quest to his and Celestino's room to gather a set of blankets and pillows from the second bed, as well as tell his coach where he was going, they made it to the upper level. Viktor slid his key-card into the door and pushed it open until everyone else was inside, then stepped in after them, hanging his track-suit and practice clothes as Yuri set their skate-bags against the wall.

Yurio had already laid claim to a corner of the extra-wide bed, glowering dubiously at the pair as they finished sorting out their things by the hall closet, "I'm going to assume that you guys kept your sexcapades to the center of the bed."

"Relax." Viktor huffed, still smiling from the previous teasing, "Since we knew you were coming, we asked the hotel people to bring all new sheets today while we were out. Everything's fresh."

"Still."

"Whine whine whine..." The older Russian huffed, "I'd say you could get out a black-light if you wanted, but you'd probably not like what you saw even if none of us had been in here before now. It's a hotel room. What can you do?"

"Not put that image into my head."

"I don't think you're going to win." Phichit laughed anxiously, sitting cross-legged on one of the plush chairs near the window as he looked on at the silver legend, "It's a hotel room. What can you do?"

"See, Yuri?" Viktor pointed at the teen, "Phichit gets it."

"Pfft." Yurio scowled, "He lost his shit when he realized you guys had matching rings last year. He'd probably be bringing rose petals for the bed if he had half a chance."

Slate eyes moved from the Russian Punk over to the other skater, then went wide with wonder, "...Really~? You'd do that?"

The younger man just reached a hand behind his head and smiled, "...I wouldn't go that far, but...after knowing Yuri for so long, the fact that he finally hooked up with anyone is cause for celebration. The fact that it was you, well... I'd only been listening to him go on about you for years already before you went to be his coach." He laughed again and waved his hand, "...So, well...maybe I would a little bit. Go Yuri! You won the lottery!"

"...I'm brushing my teeth." The Japanese skater said, deadpanning them all as he went in through the bathroom door and closed it behind himself.

Viktor laughed quietly, but then leaned in to knock on it, "Let me in. I want to clean up, too."

The panel clicked open half an inch, and a single brown eye looked back, only to vanish again as the door opened a little more. The Russian gave another smile before stepping in, and the door closed once again behind him.

"...Clean up?" Phichit echoed, "But we were just in the hotel hot-spring..."

Yurio gave him a look, "...You must be new to this."

The older skater blinked, but then eyes went wide as he glanced back towards the wall that hid the bathroom door, "Ahhh! Yuri! That's so dirty!"