CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE

Yuri had lost sight of the teen almost as soon as he'd left the common area, but there were only so many places to hide in the resort, so finding him again wouldn't take too long, assuming Yurio didn't leave entirely. The last place he thought to look though was back in the onsen, since the teen had practically just come from there when everyone had arrived.

"...Yuri?" He called, stepping through the empty shower room, seeing nothing. Finally though, he pushed the last door open that lead onto the hot-springs deck, and found the Russian Tiger there, sitting so low in the steaming water that only the top of his head, his small folded towel, and the bun he'd woven his hair into to keep it dry, could be seen past the rim of the walkway.

Cherry-hazel eyes blinked down at the blond knot, but the teen made no motion to acknowledge the figure behind him. It was too late by then to back off and take the necessary measures to be allowed to sit in the onsen with him, so Yuri did the only other thing he could think of; he just sat cross-legged on the edge of the spring and waited quietly for a moment before speaking, looking up into the clear winter night.

"Those were the first words you've said all night." He pointed out, hardly needing to speak above a whisper to be heard over the trickle of water, "I thought it was kinda weird that you were being so quiet. You sounded a bit upset when you did speak, though."

"I'm not upset." The teen argued, "I was just tired of it being a damn secret."

"...It wasn't really a secret. They just wanted to give us a break before saying something that might spoil the mood."

"Isn't it the definition of a secret that people knowingly withhold information from others?" Green eyes turned slightly, glaring past a few strands of golden hair, "Isn't that what they were doing?"

"I don't hold it against them for wanting to wait for a better time to bring it up. We all literally just got home. Mikhail knew it would sound bad t-"

"Home?" Yurio echoed, then scoffed, "Maybe for you."

It was a confusing response, and Yuri wasn't sure how to answer to it other than in the most obvious way, "...Well, yeah, I grew up here. But I meant Viktor, too."

The Russian Tiger just grumbled and sulked.

"Of all the people who were there, Viktor and I had the worst reactions to Mikhail's. I don't doubt that him and Minako-sensei just wanted to avoid a problem by waiting until tomorrow to tell us about what was going on." The older skater explained, "The way you called him on it though... Were they even aware that you knew what was happening?"

Yurio waited a moment, but then shook his head, "No... I overheard them talking in the hotel when we were getting ready to leave."

"Would it have made so much of a difference to let them wait until they were ready to tell the rest of us?" Yuri wondered, pausing to let it settle before going on again, "Forcing them to cop to it in front of everyone like that...it's like you wanted to get Mikhail in trouble. After everything that happened in Sapporo, why would you want to do that to him? He really felt like he'd messed up so badly by bringing Viktor's father along that people would send him away. In his mind, he probably thinks he narrowly avoided disaster. I can only imagine the look on his face when he heard you calling him out on what was going to be delaying him. Even Minako-sensei looked like she'd given up the ghost for a minute, and it wasn't even her problem."

The teen grumbled again, sinking beneath the water to just above his nose. He stared daggers at the other side of the spring, but then mentally sighed and pushed to rise out of the spring entirely, leaning back against the edge of the deck, water pouring off of his pale frame, skin steaming in the cool winter air, "I don't want his kids around." He admitted scornfully, "I thought if you knew about his plans before he got to Canada, maybe you'd be able to convince him not to bring them. Having him on the phone in front of everyone...it felt like the opportunity to stop everything had been handed to me on a silver platter. I couldn't help myself."

"...Why don't you want his kids around?"

"They're annoying." He answered hotly, staring at the ripples in the water.

"You barely know them."

Yurio spun around at that, the towel slipping to the side of his head as he half-crawled back onto the deck, sticking a wet finger into the older figure's face, "Says the guy who'd just met them and already felt like it was a bad idea that they were around! I thought you were on my side!"

Yuri fell back onto his elbows in surprise, but pushed up onto his hands as the teen pulled away again.

"You said it yourself..." The Tiger went on.

.

"...You made me...re-realize why Viktor...is always so...apprehensive about meeting his relatives." His whispers were hard to hear with the traffic nearby, but they listened closely, "...So n-now I regret...ever trying to convin-...convince him to come here. ...It s-seems like...no matter what, Viktor's alw-always right. Even when he's...wrong...he's still...right..."

.

"That was only Sergio." Yuri explained, trying to sit normally again, "And I am on your side!"

The teen refused to acknowledge it, simply sliding his leg back into the water and turning around.

"I don't really want them around either, but Viktor said to bring them, so what can I do?"

"Tell him no! He listens to you!" Green irises were staring back again angrily.

"They're his family." Yuri protested, "He just reconciled with his own father, a man he hated so much that he did 8 quads in a single show just to get it out of his system, and it quite literally crippled him by the next morning. What would it say about him if he can forgive a man that nearly blinded him on two separate occasions, but wouldn't be willing to deal with a kid who had an attitude problem one time?"

"I thought we were his family."

"We're the family he made. They're the family he was born into."

"You don't see me trying so hard to make nice with the family I was born into."

Brown eyes got a little wide at that, "...If your parents took interest in you, wouldn't you want to have them around?"

"No!" Yurio flipped around again, this time completely, hands slapping down on the deck just in front of the stunned man's crossed legs, "I'd tell them to screw off like they always have! They've been so self-absorbed for so long that I wouldn't believe it for a second if they suddenly turned up to ask what I was doing! I'd think they were just secretly broke and looking for hand-outs!"

"...That's...bleak..." Yuri stammered, still aghast at the outburst.

"My grandpa was the only one who ever gave a damn about me! Even though I was the one feeding my family back then, he was the only one who even bothered to come to my practices! The rest of them are a bunch of ungrateful pieces of shit who only think about themselves!" The teen went on, his hands curling into fists as he sank back down into the water, arms folding in front of himself as he stared angrily at his own skin, "...Even if they apologized...even if they came crawling to my feet, begging for forgiveness...I'd never let them have the satisfaction."

"...It takes a lot of courage to forgive someone for the wrongs they've done." Yuri tacitly agreed, "But it's just as important to know when someone is being sincere in their apologies. It's not like Viktor just heard the words and immediately forgot all the bad that happened. Konstantin had to prove he meant it."

"And now Viktor's going overboard with wanting everyone he shares DNA with to come out of the woodwork."

"...They're Mikhail's kids. They're not just random people who popped up out of nowhere. That...would kind of actually be Mikhail himself, technically. Gone for 25 years and then just shows up again after a tragedy." Yuri shrugged, "But really...you've got a lot invested in this... If all you're worried about is them being annoying th-"

"...What happens to me when they're here?"

The older skater's brow furrowed in confusion, "...What do you mean?"

"...Ever since you and Viktor convinced him to be my sponsor last year...Mikhail's always been around." The Tiger explained bitterly, staring scornfully at the stone deck just under his elbows, "At first, it was just his way of making sure I didn't fuck up. Keeping me on the straight and narrow so I wouldn't just be a waste of his time and money. But I started to get used to him hanging out all the time. At the rink, taking me places, even bringing me with him when he came back here to see Okukawa or help you move into your new house." He unfolded his arms slowly, holding up his right hand where the obvious white scar over his middle knuckle was laid bare, "...I punched a tile wall so hard back at Worlds that I gave myself this. I was so angry back then...at you, at Viktor, at everyone and everything. But Mikhail wouldn't stand for it. He held his ground and put me in my place...this guy who barely knew me, who moved mountains for me simply because you guys asked him to. He never even told anyone about the surgery he paid for to fix my hand after we got back..."

"...Surgery...to fix your hand?" Yuri repeated, not sure he'd even heard it right.

The teen nodded, still keeping his eyes down, "I busted a tendon over my knuckle. I couldn't even stick my finger out normally... I never told anyone because I was so miserable and dependant on everyone back then...but then he dared me to flip him off, and I couldn't. He caught me in a moment of weakness, and I broke down and asked him to help fix it... He had my stupid ass in a surgeon's office the next day." He rubbed his eyes on his damp skin, "He said he'd never tell anyone...that it'd be our secret, so no one would ever have to know that I had asked for help. And when it was finally done, healed, rehabbed, and I could use it normally...the first thing he told me to do was try to flip him off again...but that time, I wouldn't. How could I...? He'd done more for me in those first few weeks than my own real flesh-and-blood family had in my entire life." The small towel that had been hanging on precariously to the top of the teen's head finally slipped off, landing softly on the deck next to his shoulder, "You only asked him to sponsor my skating...but he took me on like I was his-..." The blonde's voice cracked a little, "His..."

"...Yuri..."

"What happens to me when his real kids are around all the time...?"

The older figure was stunned at the question.

...He always carried himself like he was too cool for Mikhail... Yuri thought, using his hands to shuffle forward on the deck until he was directly in front of the teen, Acting like one of those people who wouldn't be caught dead admitting they were travelling with someone, but rather, just happened to be going in the same direction. It's hard to imagine that they had actually gotten that close, considering how Yurio always made it seem like they were barely acquaintances when anyone else was around. He reached for the fallen towel and set it over his shoulder to keep it dry, and then lightly set his arms around the teen's head.

"...Is he just going to ditch me like he ditched Viktor...?"

"He wouldn't do that." Yuri said, hoped, "What happened back then was bigger than just him."

"It's just a different road to the same place." The blonde said quietly, cringing a little where the older figure held onto him, "In the end...he's just abandoning one family for another. Picking between which he likes better, as though pulling us off a shelf."

"...Give him a little more credit than that." Yuri pleaded, pulling up again, though keeping his hands on the teen's shoulders, "I think it'd break his heart to hear you talking like this."

Yurio wouldn't look up, keeping his eyes down to avoid the red in them being noticed.

"...Yuri." Viktor's voice came, just after the sound of the door opening behind them.

Brown eyes lifted and looked back, but then returned to the distressed teen in front of him, though Yurio was doing his best to shake it off in the presence of his former rink-mate, like nothing at all had happened. Yuri spoke quietly, "It's time for me to go home for the night. Try not to get yourself so worked up over this. Mikhail's coming to Detroit to watch the Final. If being there for you didn't matter to him, then he'd just stay in Canada and not even consider the rest."

"...He's only going because of Viktor and Okukawa...not for me..." Yurio said with a tone of finality, and turned away from the ledge to face the open water again.

The older skater was entirely unsure what to say to that, his brow crinkled with worry. He gave out a pained, quiet sigh, and pushed to stand up again, pulling the towel off his shoulder and folding it crisply before bending down to set it back on the young Russian's head, "Oyasumi, Yuri."

Viktor held his arm out to help usher his partner back through the bath house, looking from the younger skater's worried expression back to the Tiger sitting in the water. Unsure what had happened, he waited a moment in silence, but then nodded quietly, "Prijatnyh, Yuri."

When they got back inside, Minako was already getting her winter jacket and scarf back on. She glanced over at them as the group spotted movement from their end of the hall, but then turned back to Mari, "Yeah, my flight leaves in 3 hours. I'm heading out." She explained, "I'm giving my old ticket to Yura so he can fly with you in my place."

Mari just seemed ecstatic at the idea, "I'm going...to travel with Yurio!? ALONE!?" She was fangirling already. No one was quite sure where she'd kept her cheering-fans with the teen's image and name printed on them, but she had them in her hands suddenly like they'd been sewn to her palms.

"Calm yourself." The ballerina reached out and grabbed the woman's shoulders, giving her a firm but understanding smile, "He's barely more than half your age. You're going to be responsible for him. Make sure he gets to Detroit, okay? He won't be able to put on a show if you forget to get him on the plane."

"It'll be fine!" She insisted, "I can handle it!"

Minako smiled nervously, but accepted it. She turned her attention over to where the two older skaters were getting their own coats and boots on, "You guys want a ride?" She asked, holding her keys out.

"...Haven't you had too much to drink already?" Yuri grimaced, smiling anxiously at her as he buttoned the front of his jacket and swung a scarf over his shoulders.

The keys were suddenly airborne, and Viktor had to work frantically to catch them securely so he wouldn't drop them. He looked at them with a confused expression on his face, but turned slate eyes back at her, "...You want me to drive your car?"

"I was going to have a taxi pick me up to take me to the train station anyway...so, you can use it for the rest of the week if you want. Just drop me off on your way home." She started moving towards the sliding doors, and waved back to the rest of the Katsuki and Nishigori clans, "Thanks for dinner, Hiroko. See you guys after the Final."

"Oyasumi, Minako-senpai!" The slightly-younger woman waved, "Good luck in Canada!"

"Domo~."

"Night mom, dad." Yuri said, stepping up after the ballerina had gone out, "We'll be by tomorrow sometime in the afternoon, probably."

Hiroko reached forward to straighten out her son's scarf, then moved her hands up to cup around Yuri's cheeks, and she smiled, "Ah...we're both so proud of you. I was worried about you during your China event, but you really pulled through."

His cheeks flushed a bit, but he managed a smile and nodded, "Thanks. ...Oh, please make sure Yurio doesn't cook all night. He went back into the onsen."

"I'll send your father after him if he doesn't come out after you guys go. Your other friend fell asleep in the common room so we'll get him to bed as well." The short woman answered, turning then to Viktor and throwing her arms up excitedly, "Go easy on my baby at the Final!"

"We aren't even leaving yet!" He laughed, reaching his comparatively long and lanky arms around her as she stepped towards him.

"I have to start asking early so maybe you'll consider it!"

Yuri just smiled pensively, and snuck out the sliding door with Makkachin, stepping into the snow and cold evening air. He turned back briefly as he heard his husband following after, and waved at the sleepy Nishigoris before stepping off to where Minako had parked her car around the corner. He quickly felt the Russian's arm come around him, and he returned the gesture, even though the walk wasn't that far.

With Makkachin jumping into the back seat with the ballerina, and the two skaters piling into the front, the older boxy car was on and moving down the snowy Hasetsu streets. Yuri reached across and set his palm against Viktor's thigh, for a moment feeling like they were back in St. Petersburg again, and he slowly rubbed his thumb back and forth like he always used to when they drove those Russian roads.

Minako's apartment was a quick drive, even if it was a much longer walk, and they waited in the car while the woman ran upstairs to grab her things. They pulled up to Hasetsu Station not long later, and they gave their goodbyes and well wishes as she stepped out.

"Don't crash it while I'm gone!" She hollered, waving back at them from the sidewalk, the big sea-urchin-eating-squid statue just a ways behind her, "I'll know!"

"No you won't!" Viktor called back, "I'm a great driver!"

"Famous last words." The woman said quietly to herself, smiling nervously.

"Let us know how things go in Banff before you head to the US, okay?" Yuri asked pensively, "I don't want a repeat of what happened at Skate Canada."

"I'll put that boy on a short leash myself if I have to. I'll bypass putting the fear of God in him and instill the fear of me instead." She explained confidently, "Whatever happens, those three will be on their best behavior it you run into them."

They waved again and the car pulled back out onto the road, making the 10 minute trek to the other side of the Ice Castle towards home. Makkachin panted quietly in the back seat, watching the lights flicker by as they passed, whimpering and fidgeting with excitement as he recognized where they were going.

"...Hasetsu looked just like this when we were here last." Yuri commented, looking out the window as well, "...In a weird way, it almost feels like we never left."

"How am I going to account for all these grey hairs if we were here the whole time?" Viktor mused, smiling mischievously, though tired, "I must've aged a hundred years over these last few weeks."

"...Me too." The younger figure agreed with an exhausted sigh.

Makkachin was out the door in a hurry when they finally pulled up to their own house, setting fresh paw-prints into the unshoveled snow from the last few days. Unlocking the door, the air coming from inside was warm, and the big brown flufferbutt quickly ran in, claws clacking across the hardwood floor.

"Are you staying up?" Yuri wondered quietly, setting his carry-bag on the counter in the kitchen before returning to put away his winter gear.

"For a little bit. I want to mull some wine first."

"...That'll take a while, won't it? You've been up for hours doing that before."

"Nah, not this time...just the quick stuff. I'll be done in 30 minutes."

"I might be passed out by the time you come upstairs." Yuri commented, trying not to yawn, though failing.

The Russian came up quietly behind him, hands going under the man's arms and loosely around his sides, clasping in front as he nosed at his partner's ear, "Don't wait on me. If you're tired, go to sleep."

The younger figure stayed quiet a little while, just letting himself enjoy the moment. Eventually though, he turned around in that embrace and set his own hands over his husband's shoulders, looking into those azure eyes for a few seconds before leaning forward to set his forehead against the side of the man's neck. He drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, feeling those warm arms around him as though for the first time all over again, "...I can't believe we survived all this..."

"...It was an unforgiving 6 weeks. No doubt about it."

"We haven't even been married a single year yet and it feels like it's been 50."

"Right...?"

They both heaved a sigh where they stood, hugging a little tighter before parting a tiny bit. Yuri raised his left hand up to gently set it against his partner's cheek, stroking his thumb lightly as he looked back into those slate eyes, "...I know I don't say it enough...but I do love you."

"I don't think you'd have stayed married to me this long if you didn't." Viktor teased, "Not after everything I've put you through. A crazy long-lost uncle, a fun-hating bear of a father, a Rage Skate..."

"...Getting drunk and naked on top of a hotel and yelling off the rooftop that you'll overcome the Short Program..."

"Taking pity on an old flame and agreeing to an interview that I didn't need to do..."

"Coming home with a bloodied eye..."

"...And worst of all..." Viktor said, quieter than before, sliding both of his hands up from around his husband's waist to cup them gently on each side of his face, "...Taking my ring off, even if only for safe keeping."

Yuri felt a twinge in his chest to be reminded of it, and he reached his own hands back to set them over where the Russian's were, curling his fingers around their sides to hold them. He closed his eyes as he felt silver bangs coming closer, and then skin against his forehead, "Of all the things that've happened, I think that... Yeah...that was probably the worst..."

"I didn't want to take any chances." Viktor explained quietly, "Gold is just gold, but this ring can never be replaced. It's the ring you gave me, and I intend to go to my grave with it."

"You're going to make me cry again." Yuri huffed, trying to avoid doing just that, though feeling it creeping up his throat and behind his eyes, "I don't want to go to bed in tears on our first night back home."

"You should go before I get really sappy then." The Russian mused, kissing his husband's forehead before moving down to do the same to his lips, "Ja tebja ljublju."

"Aishiteru mo."

Viktor smiled to hear it, kissing the man one more time before letting him go, "Thirty minutes...and then, the most epic cuddle-fest ever. I'm not even going to apologize if I wake you up."

"...Oh, if that's what's happening, I'll be upset if you don't." Yuri commented back, reaching for his bag again as he passed the edge of the kitchen on his way to the stairs, "I'll be waiting."