CHAPTER TWO HUNDREDTWENTY THREE
Phichit held the camera-side corner of his phone around the edge of the last wall before the Arrivals terminal changed from the passenger-only area to one the public could access. They could already hear the sound of the mob that awaited them, but when the young skater pulled his camera back and played the short clip, he gave a nervous laugh.
"There's a barrier, at least..." He said, heading back down the hall to where Yuri and Viktor were waiting. He held the phone up to show it to the younger of the two, who immediately started to get nervous.
"Jeeze...it's even crazier than when we got back from Worlds..." Yuri sighed, "Moving back to Hasetsu has made it too easy for people to know where to expect us after competitions..."
"I don't know why you still get so nervous." The Russian mused.
"I didn't get into skating because I wanted to win popularity contests." The younger answered, "Same reason why I barely update my Instagram."
"It's a terrible irony that the guy least-interested in getting attention is married to a guy who loves it." Phichit pointed out sarcastically.
"Right?" Viktor agreed, stepping forward to start heading down the hall the Thai skater had just come back through, "In either case, let's go! The sooner we're through, the sooner we're on the train. There's a wall between us and them anyway, so you don't even have to stop to interact with anyone. Just wave and smile."
"C'mon, Yuri!" Phichit cheered, looking just as excited as the Russian
The middle skater just groaned and let them drag him around the corner. The screaming that followed was enough to make him feel like he was going to be bowled over, except for the saving grace of his partner's arm around his back. Viktor and Phichit ate up the adulation, waving happily and smiling and laughing, even as Yuri just put on a brave face and did his best not to look like he wanted to run away. He waved and gave a nervous smile, walking alongside the two other skaters as the JSF barricade held the crowd back.
While Viktor and Phichit were busy focusing on the crowd though, Yuri looked further down the walkway, seeing the media frenzy that was set-up in the next big hall, pressed up against the wall beyond a menial rope-barrier of their own. Cameras were already flashing from 30 or more different reporters and videographers, though what surprised him more than anything was seeing the RSF there in force as well. The Cyrillic on their jackets was easy to spot.
"Viktor," He started, twisting slightly while still keeping an eye on the pack, "Look. It's your people."
The Russian turned his head to face where Yuri was pointing, but smiled as though it wasn't that much of a surprise, "They must've been here already for Yurio."
"...No one but us knew he was coming here though." The younger skater pointed out, "I wonder if they even know he's here now? Maybe they missed him entirely."
"YURI! VIKTOR! PHICHIT!" Came a woman's voice.
The trio glanced up and saw Yuuko there at the front of the crowd, just opposite the corner that the press was cloistered into. Oddly, she was on her own; she didn't even have her triplets with her, but she waved excitedly as they got closer.
"Yuu-chan!" Yuri called out, looking more lively than before, and all but dragging his husband with him to get closer to her faster. He reached his free arm over the barricade to hug her, even as fans standing all around her were getting more rambunctious to see the athletes up close, "Where's everyone else? Did you really come on your own?"
"I actually didn't tell anyone except Takeshi." She answered with a sly but guilty smile, "I doubt I'll ever hear the end of it when I get back with you guys and the girls realize where I went. They've been working really hard though and I didn't want to interrupt!"
"...Working really hard?" Yuri echoed, "...What are they doing?"
"Arranging your 'welcome home' party, of course! You two have been gone for over a month, and you're coming back with four Gold Medals! How can we not celebrate? Practically everyone in Hasetsu is going to be there to congratulate you, and cheer you on for the Final! You've made it for the 3rd time in a row now, and you have a really good shot at winning!"
"...I'd like to think so, but Viktor still buried me in the preliminaries." The skater sighed, side-eyeing the man where he stood, looking innocent.
Phichit was slightly off to the side, selfie-stick out again as he took photos with fans that hadn't expected him to be there.
"That last Free Skate was something out of this world, Viktor." Yuuko pointed out, though looking and sounding more worried than happy about it, reaching a hand out to take his and pull it towards herself, "After the 5th quad, I think I spent most of my time worried you'd fall. I'm relieved you pulled through...but I hate to think about what happened that made you feel like you had to do that. You don't have to prove to anyone that you're the best...!"
The stunned Russian just looked down at her, feeling at where she moved to take his free hand in both of her own, holding it up just in front of herself. He gently folded his fingers around hers, smiled sadly, and then reached that arm around her to pull her close to his shoulder and kiss her cheek, "Don't worry about it. It's all over now. I'm doing a different Free Skate from now on."
"...You are?" She blinked up at him as she raised her head, "...But...how? Why? It's so late in the Grand Prix..."
"Come onto this side of the barrier, Yuu-chan." Yuri suggested, "We'll walk and talk."
Viktor moved his arm a bit down the lithe woman's back, and held her against himself as she hoisted her legs over, then let her go again once she was safely on their side of the wall. Yuri called back to Phichit quickly, and the four started walking down the rest of the hall, heading towards the escalators that would lead to the train station.
"Don't you have to get your luggage...?" Yuuko wondered, pointing the other way towards baggage claim.
Yuri shook his head, "We got everything to the airport in Sapporo, but right as we got to the luggage counter, we decided to just have it shipped straight home. It'll probably show up tomorrow. For now...it's just the stuff we carried onto the plane with us."
"It's for the best." Phichit laughed, recording a video of the fanfare as they walked, even turning around to go backwards and capture the scene of their departure, "They had way too many bags for the train anyway!"
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Boots and shoes crunched across snow, and the dark interior of a frigid room suddenly burst into the sunlight with the shrill, machine-gun-like clacking noise of an industrial sliding door being pushed up. It clicked into a locking mechanism, and three sets of feet stepped within.
Inside the storage unit, the volcano-red 2012 Audi TT Prestige coupe sat, waiting and ready. A tiny little thing...and two sets of eyes went from it, to the massive man who was, in theory, the new owner.
"Think we have a logistical issue, boss."
"...Mmmmhm." Mikhail agreed, rubbing his chin in thought, "Well, Viktor did acknowledge that his car was fun-size, so he gave his proverbial blessing to auction it off if it was too small."
[...Do I sit in it or on it?] Konstantin huffed glibly.
[...We're going to have to think of an alternative pretty quick. It's been so long since I looked at this thing that I forgot how little it was.] The thin Russian shrugged, turning to the bear, [Tell you what...I'll just buy you something else and recover the costs later. I need to send you home with something.]
The bear glanced down at him, [Why would you just offer to buy me a car like that? I've done nothing for you, practically across the whole of our lifetimes.]
[You're still my brother by law, even if Tat is gone.] Mikhail shrugged, [Besides...I've learned a lot about what family means since I left Russia the first time. I lost one family when I took off, but then I made another, only to come home and find the first again...I'm not going to let it slip through my fingers. I'm going to take care of you.]
Konstantin huffed a grumble of skepticism, [What's the catch?]
[Catch?] The lithe figure echoed, [I never said that my help came with a cost.]
[No kindness goes unpunished. There's a cost to everything.]
[Not always to the person benefiting from it. I told Viktor the same thing once.] Mikhail explained, glancing briefly over at his colleague, then back again, [Come step outside with me, Kon. Forget the car for a minute.] He turned back to the third man, "Benson, I'm taking this one back to Japan with me. Pull together an export packet and I'll fill it all out."
"...You're taking it to Japan?" The figure looked a bit surprised, scratching his head where he lifted a hard-hat up with a knuckle, "I thought you were going back to Canada."
"I'm going there first, but I'll end up in Japan at the end of things. I have a lady-friend out there who would just die to see this car. Plus, my nephew would probably be happy to see it again. I don't think he'll mind having it back." Mikhail answered, the three of them moving back out of the small storage garage, with Benson pulling the front door down again to close it off from the elements. The Russian tapped Konstantin's shoulder when they were out far enough, and the bear glanced back at him, taking in the sights of the stock and assembly yard as he turned, [...Ships are built on docks. Cars are assembled on factory lines. Airplanes built in hangars. ...And the biggest, baddest construction equipment is built...here, and other places just like it.] Mikhail explained, sweeping his arm slowly around in presentation of the massive complex, [When raw steel comes out of factories like the one you work in, it goes to factories that turn it into different parts. Those parts then come to places like this, where they're turned into the world's biggest working-trucks...to go out to mining operations to help find more metal ore so we can do it all over again. For me, personally, working in the steel mill with you when I was younger, and then getting out of there, was the best thing that ever happened, because I took what I learned there and I went up the chain. There's no one above me now.] Both arms extended to the side, [All of this is mine.]
[Mh.]
[I have the ways and means of being able to help your situation, so unless you specifically tell me not to, I'm going to do the best I can. If nothing else, think of it as a long-overdue apology for all the shit I did to you as a kid.] Mikhail shrugged again, stuffing his gloved hands into his pockets to shiver quietly against the bracing St. Petersburg cold, [So let's go buy you something you can actually fit into, so you get back home.]
[And after that?]
The younger figure was a bit surprised Konstantin wondered that at all, and he smiled nervously, [Well...that's up to you, technically. You said you won't leave that house because of Tat being right there, so offering to move you to the city is probably out of the question.]
"Da."
[You're going to need something to do once the mill closes at the end of the month though. What'll it be? Lonesome retirement?]
The huge figure turned his slate-blue eyes up to the sky, looking just over the roof of one of the huge assembly warehouses. His mind was blank, and he shrugged, [...Who knows?]
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The train ride into Hasetsu was even shorter than the plane ride into Fukuoka, taking barely as long as a movie needed to run its course. It was impossible to see Hasetsu Castle from the rail line, but even still, crossing the river on the already-high elevated platform was exciting and nostalgic.
The rickety, old white train with its blue stripe along the outside eventually came up behind Hasetsu Station.
"I remember the very first time I pulled into Hasetsu like this." Viktor waxed, "This city by the sea that reminded me so much of St. Petersburg, in its own way. Then seeing all those posters of Yuri inside the train station from before the Final. It felt like stepping out into a whole different world."
Yuri grumbled silently and sullenly at the idea of it, a little embarrassed at how things were back then, "I could hardly believe the town had left all those posters up in the first place. It had been 3 months since I bombed in Sochi. I thought they would've taken everything down by then...but I guess everyone got too lazy. The 'good luck at the Final' banner was still flying above the Ice Castle, too." He turned his head from looking out the window, and looked at the group sitting with him on the train instead, "It's hard to imagine that we skaters are the only thing this place really gets excited about."
The train eventually came to a slow halt, and passengers started getting up to leave, the doors clicking and hissing as they opened. Yuuko hopped out first, waiting for the other 3 to follow after, and they all quickly went inside to escape the cold of the winter winds. Even over the sound of other passengers getting off the deck and into the station, the hum of energy was tangible, feeling like a slight tingle in the air.
Yuuko was already half-way down the escalator when she turned up and waved at the skaters, pointing to the bottom where something no-doubt awaited them. The hum of energy grew more dense. Viktor closed his eyes and drew it all in, half-smirking to himself as he brought a finger to his chin in thought.
"...Oh man, half the town is probably here...!" Yuri whined quietly. His attention was quickly grabbed by the Russian, pulling him in by his shoulder and doing the same with Phichit. Whispers went between them, and Yuri could feel his face going red at the thought of it...but he was already outnumbered and knew they'd make him follow-through with the plan no matter what.
And so there they were...going down the escalator...sitting on the black rubber grip-bar with their right legs raised up dramatically. Viktor first, then Yuri, and Phichit in the back. Yuri's leg started to sag half-way down, but a sneaky hand from the Russian settled on the inside of that thigh and the leg was out and straight again, much to the young skater's chagrin.
Viktor pulled that hand back though and gave a rather charming wave as he came to the end of the railing, the decline changing to a horizontal level right before it curved back under itself to return to the top of the escalator, "Hiii~!"
The Russian quickly jumped off and made room, the previously-unseen crowd suddenly roaring to life at the sight of the trio. Banners and flags and signs were waved about, and confetti crackers popped from all angles like the cannons of a tiny army.
Yuri could hardly believe the sight of the crowd. He hadn't seen one that big since the Hot Springs on Ice event; it was even larger than the group that had gathered at Fukuoka the previous year. At least, it seemed like it, given how tightly packed the little train-station was. He was quickly pulled into a group hug between the other two skaters, and cameras flashed as brightly as ever from all sides. It was thoroughly overwhelming...and it only increased when Viktor and Phichit both grabbed for their medals, hanging hidden inside their coats, but now plain for all to see. Gold, Silver, and Bronze glinted in the lights, and Viktor nudged his shoulder to get him to do the same. Yuri swallowed nervously, but reached his hands up towards the top of his closely-buttoned dark-blue coat, moving his scarf out of the way.
I always feel so far removed from the audience when I'm on the ice, or even the podium...but standing this close to everyone, being right in the thick of it...I still get so nervous...
He could feel the discs under the fabric before he saw them, and he weaved his fingers through the two lanyards holding onto them. With a last sharply-drawn breath, Yuri pulled the two Gold medals over his head, and held them up for the crowd to see.