CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED THIRTY
Though exhausted, seeing the sights of their target subdivision was something of a wake-up for the tired ballerina. Most every front yard had some Christmas-themed decor of some form or another, some even having a manger set-up, but the houses beyond the dazzling lights and big displays were like castles in the eyes of a woman who lived out of a tiny Japanese apartment.
"...These places are all bigger than Yu-Topia..." Minako commented nervously, "...It's hard to believe that only a few people live in each one."
"Japan doesn't have as much space to work with, especially inside cities." Mikhail shrugged, "Was starting to feel a little claustrophobic on the road. It's nice to have space again."
"...Are one of these actually yours or are you just messing with me?" The woman turned and gave him a look, thumbing towards the street.
"Mine's coming up. You can tell because it's a big black void in the Winter Wonderland of Lights." He laughed dryly, pointing a finger from the steering wheel towards a dark plot of land just around the curve of the road, "Sometimes I feel like I kill the mood around here when I'm not home for the holidays."
"Why, are you the kind of guy who wears ugly Christmas sweaters and plays cheery music?"
Mihkail scoffed, "Hardly. I like the season for the gift-giving and creativity...some people really put a lot of work into their displays...but I have to put ear-buds in when I go shopping because the holiday music makes me insane after a while. I can only handle 15 different musicians singing Jingle Bells so many times before I lose it."
The ballerina huffed a laugh, "I can see that."
The rental-car pulled through the row of shoveled snow, ice and frost cracking under the wheels as it pulled onto the softer fare further up the darkened driveway. Motion-sensors caught the vehicle and lights started turning on, revealing the front of the two-door garage. Mikhail pulled his phone out of his coat and pulled something up with it while the car idled, and a moment later, more lights came on, and the second of the two garage doors started to open.
Minako's eyes were wide, "...Did you just turn your house on with a phone-app?"
"...Yes?" He blinked at her, as though it were the most obvious thing, "...Don't you?"
She deadpanned him, "I live in a tiny apartment. There are no apps for that."
"Tiny...?"
"It would fit inside the Snack Bar."
The Russian was still a bit stunned, "But that was practically a closet."
"By your standards, apparently." She pointed at him, but then turned to get out of the car, walking sideways down the driveway to get a better look at the place with all the lights on. The midnight air was biting, and each breath was a fog, but even through the crystalline mist, she could make out the shape of the building.
Mikhail stepped out of the vehicle once it was parked safely within the empty car-port, and followed the footsteps through the unshoveled snow to where Minako was still gawking at the obscured structure, "...It's kinda hard to see when it's so dark out. All the curtains inside are drawn, too, so you can't even see past the windows."
"How far back does it go...? Even from the front it looks like two houses squashed together into one."
The excited Russian fiddled with his phone again, finding yet another newfangled app for the house and held the device out to the ballerina, "Click and find out."
"...You're kidding." She deadpanned him again.
He just smiled and shrugged, "What's there to be worried about? That it's not actually mine?"
Minako blinked at him, but reached an ungloved hand towards the phone's touch-screen, and clicked the big sliding button at the top.
With that, it sounded like several spot-lights were bursting to life, and like many of the other houses on the block, the one before her was illuminated in a dazzling display of silver and light-blue. Two huge evergreens burst with light, the outline of the front lawn glowed, and everything around was bathed in brilliance.
The ballerina was practically star-struck at it all, looking around like she'd just stepped onto some other planet. Once it had settled that it was real, she turned back to the amused man standing next to her, "...I'm suddenly rather acutely aware of how little I really know about you."
"Hah!" Mikhail guffawed, "I'm still the same guy I've always been. Now I just...have stuff." He held out his arm, "Come on insi-"
"Rozovsky!? Is that you!?" A voice across the street called, drawing both figures' attention back behind them.
"Depends! Am I in trouble!?" Mikhail called back, looking at a husky man of similar age to himself. The door behind the figure was open where he'd come out, and the shadows of a woman held back where it was still warm.
"We thought you were dead or something, ey!" The man called again, "No one's been here in weeks! The street's looked like Hell with your dark and brooding black hole over here!"
"Someone should've called me then! I can turn the lights on from anywhere!" The Russian hollered, holding up his phone and waving it around.
"Where the Hell have you even been!? We haven't seen you since Summer!"
"Traveling all over the world! I just got in from Moscow earlier!"
Minako looked between the two as they yelled at each other from the back ends of their stupidly-huge driveways.
"Traveling!? What for!? You used to brag about how you didn't have to do that anymore!"
"Not unless I want to!" The Russian answered, "Didn't I tell you!? My nephew's famous!"
"You have a nephew!?"
Minako chortled a laugh behind her hand, but Mikhail just looked dumbfounded, "Yeah! He's a five-time World Champion figure skater with Russia! I just found out about him last year!"
"You mean that Viktor Nikiforov kid!?"
The ballerina blanched, "Your neighbors knew about Viktor but you didn't?"
Mikhail was again stunned, shaking his head a little, "Yeah! That's the one! How do you know about him!?"
"We live in Canada, idiot!" The other man laughed, "It's all hockey and ice-skating up here! How did you not know about him!? You said he was your nephew!"
"I was never into that stuff before, and I lost track of him for a bunch of years! Ran into him after I made that emergency trip back to Russia last spring! I've been going to all his competitions this season!"
"People are going to start coming outside to tell you two knuckleheads to quit yelling." Minako pointed out, "Also it's like 500 degrees below out here."
"Aright aright..." Mikhail agreed hectically, turning back to the man across the street, "I gotta go! I'll be on the couch in my own house if I don't get inside!" He laughed, waving as he turned to head back into the open garage.
As they both stepped onto the concrete floor, the air warm within in spite of the cold from outside, the door started to descend again. Minako looked around, spotting a second car in the first car-port; a sleek blue hybrid of some kind or another. She blinked at it curiously as they passed, heading for a door that lead into the house itself.
"...Is that one of your kids' cars?" She wondered.
"What, that thing?" Mikhail thumbed at the 2014 Mercedes Benz S550, "Psht, no way. If I'm buying a car for my kids, they'll be getting a 10 year old Volvo first. Make them appreciate what they have so they're humble."
"Your son had a nicer car than a 10 year old Volvo..."
"Sergio got it from his mother...but I guess I did technically buy it since she used my money to do it." The silver Russian shrugged again, pushing the door open and waving his lady love through, "I stopped trying to bargain with her over how to raise the kids ages ago. But that's depressing... We already have enough to worry about, so why not just enjoy the peace while it lasts?" He waited until Minako was nervously through before closing the door again, lights already on within the dwelling.
She looked around the small inner-hallway, kicking her shoes off and setting them against a wall before moving further in. She held her hands over her elbows, taking in the sights of the massive interior, immaculately decorated and well-kept. There weren't any Christmas decorations inside though, in stark contrast to the outdoors. Either way though, the woman was speechless at the sight of it all.
"So?" Mikhail wondered, coming up behind her to take her scarf and coat.
Minako just turned back at him, as though slightly startled. She kept her arms around herself, looking nervous, "...Normally I'd be bouncing off the walls with excitement over this sort of thing...I mean, I've seen stuff like this before when I was still actively dancing. I'm no stranger to fancy digs. But this...for some reason it feels different. I feel like I'm way out of my league here."
The Russian huffed an anxious laugh, "Well...I haven't exactly been super liberal with bragging about what I have..." He stepped up next to her, looking at the huge open space encompassing the kitchen, living-room, dining-room, and entertainment room, with the lazy-spiral staircase to the far side leaning to the second floor over an already-vaulted first-floor ceiling, "I guess it would be something of a surprise to see it all up close now. Everything else has just been rentals or temporary stuff. The limousine at Worlds, the condo in Moscow, the flights, hotels, and dinners... All transient stuff."
"How come you never said anything?" The ballerina wondered, glancing over at him.
He glanced back and shrugged, "I already had a lot to worry about with how I was introduced to everyone. Vivi was mad at me just for being around, and then Yuri's big sister introduced me as 'Vintage Viktor' without knowing how much it would piss him off. I didn't want to make it worse by seeming a braggart." He shrugged out of his coat and hung it on the tall coat-rack nearby, setting his flat-cap on one of the high hooks, then reaching a hand out towards Minako again, "I gave enough of a hint that Yuri and Vivi could feel safe asking me to sponsor Yura through my company, but I never wanted that part of my background to overshadow who I was as a person. Fighting off the image of just being an aged-up Viktor was already hard. I'm me, not him."
The ballerina felt a little embarrassed, but slipped out of her coat as well, handing it over sheepishly, "I guess it didn't help that I kept putting your hair into his style."
"It made Vivi a bit prickly, but I don't think it hurt anything in the end."
"I feel bad that I never noticed." She said quietly, holding onto her scarf around the back of her neck, "He never let on."
Mikhail nodded and breathed a quiet sigh as he hung the second coat, "I don't think even Yuri really knew. Vivi built a fortress of amnesia around himself, and the walls were fortified by a lot of repressed anger. His family, myself included, came in like an unwelcome battering ram, trying to break everything down that he'd spent his whole life trying to maintain. He was just trying to keep it to himself like he always had. Hell, he only really started telling Yuri about where he came from this past weekend."
"...Eh? Really? Why would he hide that from Yuri?" Minako was stunned, her eyes following the elder Russian as he moseyed towards the kitchen.
"He didn't want to remember anything about it in the first place. He split his life in two...the one before the ISU and the one after. The one before caused him a lot of pain. I don't blame him for wanting to keep it forgotten." He answered, pulling open the stainless-steel doors of the big refrigerator, "You want something to drink? There's eggnog, iced tea...I think there's a beer in here..." He went digging, glass bottles rattling around as he went.
The woman just cocked a brow at him, "Didn't the guy outside just say no one's been here in weeks? Wouldn't it all be bad?"
That silver-haired head popped back out again, "Huh? Oh, no. A bunch of us here share a private housekeeping service. They come in and dust the place once a week or so, and get groceries if the kids or I say we're coming home. Everything in here is fresh from yesterday."
Again, Minako deadpanned him, and slouched over the edge of the big kitchen island, holding her face in her hands as her elbows went down on the marble countertop, "...You're too much..."
"...What'd I do?" He gave a curious look, holding the carton of eggnog in one hand.
"I guess I was just so used to us hopping from hotel to hotel that I never really thought about what it would be like where you had roots." She answered pensively, looking at him between her fingers, "This is just...a lot to take in. You live practically like a King here."
Mikhail just watched her for a moment, then set the carton on the counter and went to grab two glass mugs from the cabinets; wooden panels with crisscross inlays across the window-panes and silver knobs. When he set the two mugs on the counter and poured the thick creamy drink, he shrugged, "I don't normally show people this stuff. This is the family home. Kids and I only sort of thing. I've had a couple flings across the years but none of them ever graduated to getting to see this stuff." He reached for a spice-jar of nutmeg, and another of cinnamon, dusting the top of each drink with a bit of each, then offered one out to the anxious woman on the other side of the counter, "You're the first."
"...Why me?" She wondered, accepting the glass and holding it up to smell the sweet aroma, "I'm hardly special."
"You're the only one so far who never made an effort to pry." Mikhail answered simply, taking a sip, "Even with all the costs you saw mounting, it was never your idea to spend the money."
"At least until I bullied my way into coming here." Minako huffed, giving him a look like she wasn't sure whether it was a laughable irony or not.
"Well..." The Russian's cheeks got a little pink to think of it, "I had already half-seriously asked you to marry me, so I don't count it against you." He took another sip to hide it, but then set the glass down, "Besides...you didn't phrase the request to come here like you were trying to get something out of it. You said you wanted to help me. That made a world of difference, in my opinion."
Brown eyes lifted to meet grey-green, and she smiled nervously, "Well, it honestly never occurred to me that you should have to face this alone... I guess I kind of went into auto-pilot after that, thinking, well...of course I have to help. Although as soon as I said it, I felt a little bad, thinking I was practically demanding you buy this plane ticket that you hadn't expected to have to pay for..."
"And that's why you graduated." Mikhail mused, raising his glass again as though in toast.
"Seems like you have, too. In a way." The ballerina nodded, raising hers as well.
"I did?"
Minako smiled in her usual devious way, "You stopped being scared of me. After 8 months of knowing me, and 7 of pretending you could avoid mention of what happened at my Snack Bar during the snowstorm...you're finally willing to admit to 'us' and not just 'you and that crazy Japanese ballerina chick that follows you around everywhere like some lost puppy.'"
Mikhail shook his head and laughed, "I guess I was a bit slow. So...then, to both of us graduating, Kanpai."
"Za zdorov'e."
The silver man blinked at her, "...Your Russian accent is off."
"And you don't have sake." She grinned.
.
Yurio twiddled away on his phone in the resort common-room, idly watching some Japanese drama or another that one of the other guests had put on. Each thumb-slide across the screen moved Instagram's feed a bit higher. He saw the usual fare; Chris and JJ each posting that they were already on their way to Detroit, and on his private account, Otabek was making final arrangements as well. The last three members of the Final Six were all in Hasetsu, plus one, and had posted very little since arriving. Save one picture...Yurio thumbed his way past it, seeing Viktor winking at the camera while Yuri was practically asleep, leaning against his shoulder in their kitchen.
v-nikiforov
[picture]
v-nikiforov Finally back home in Hasetsu! The air off the water, the sound of winter seagulls, and my precious Sleeping Beauty who still won't get up! I don't mind though...he can stay there all day if he wants. ;) #HomeIsWhereTheHubbyRests #SkateHusbands #Hasetsu #SagaPrefecture #y-nikiforov #AlsoMakkachin #CountDownToTheFinal #GPFDetroit #FinalSix #FourGoldBladesFourGoldMedals #LifeAndLove #SkateDadsToACoolKidWhosSometimesAnArsehole
"Blech..." Yurio groaned, sticking his tongue out, "He thinks he's hilarious."
His attention was grabbed by a knocking on the resort's front doors. No one seemed to answer it though, and the knocking came again.
"Oi!" The teen yelled, "Someone's at the front!"
"If they're not coming in then it's not a guest!" Mari called back from the kitchen area, sticking her head out quickly, looking like she was in the middle of something annoying, "Would you get it?"
"...I don't work here." The Russian Tiger said stiffly.
"Pleaaaaaaase!" Mari begged.
Yurio grit his teeth, but rose to stand indignantly, "Fine." He said bitterly, heading over to the panel, where a third knock came, "Hold your damn horses, I'm coming." He grabbed the two handles on the inside of the door and slid them both apart, seeing a delivery man there. Two of them, actually.
"Oh..." The first of the delivery men noticed him and looked down, "...Isn't Hiroko here?"
"They sent me." Yurio crossed his arms, "What are you leaving?"
Each of them looked at their delivery clipboards, though the teen just looked past them. One of them had a small cart with a huge arrangement of flowers in it, and the other had a massive box on a small trolley.
"This is for Yuri." The first one said.
"So's mine." The other added.
Yurio's eye twitched, and he took a single step back onto the cowskin throw-rug, "KATSUDON, THERE'S SHIT AT THE DOOR FOR YOU."
"Oh wait, no..." The second corrected, looking again, "This one's for...YurA? Who's that?"
Green eyes turned back again just as it sounded like footsteps were coming over from another hall, "Yura? ...That's...me." He said, stunned, looking from the delivery guy to the huge box behind him, "What is it...?" He wondered quietly, mostly to himself.
Yuri was there a moment later, looking through the doors and rubbing his arms where they were barely protected from the cold wind by the green resort robe over them, "What's all this? ...Flowers?"
Viktor chortled behind his hand when he realized what was there, but stayed back a little to watch it all play out.
Yurio just pushed the older skater aside and made room, looking at the two men, "Bring it all inside. We don't have shoes to go get it."
When it was done, and the two huge articles were inside the entrance-hall, the doors were slid closed again and each of the two Yuris glanced at their deliveries with confused looks on their faces. Yuri reached for what looked like a card within the big arrangement, opening it and reading it quietly to himself. When he was done, he was even more confused than he had been in the first place.
"I don't get it. Why did you buy me a giant apology bouquet?" He wondered nervously, turning his head towards his husband, "...Viktor?"
The Russian just calmly stepped forward, a deviously innocent smile on his face, leaning in close with an arm around his partner's back, and a well-placed hand sliding across the younger man's backside, giving the other side a gentle squeeze, "I'm very sorry, and I hope we can be friends again soon. Neh? Yuri..."
The younger skater's face just went beet-red, and his hands let the card slip free from the shock of it, "V-VIKTOR."
Yurio just rolled his eyes at them, even as Viktor was howling with laughter at his partner's expense. The annoyed teen went around the huge box, trying to find the best way to open it, and in the end just cut the tape with a pen he'd found on the guest check-in table. With the top folds free, he pulled the flaps back, and gazed within. He saw nothing that was a dead give-away to the box's contents, just sheets of green translucent plastic. Reaching in to start pulling it away, he threw the long bits away until there was a clear-plastic bag containing something big. It looked like faux-fur, colored orange, black, and white. The teen was stunned, but realization set in, and the banter between the two older skaters quickly died down as the Russian Kitten dismantled the box in a fury...then coming face to face with a life-size plush Siberian Tiger.
"...Whoa!" Yuri commented, distracted from his husband's teasing by the sight of the huge, regal beast, "Who got that for you?"
"Look, Yuri, there's a note." Viktor pointed out, raising a finger at a small envelope hidden just behind the big cat's neck.
The stunned teen went around to grab it, "It's probably from my annoying fanclub back home." He judged, flicking open the paper tab and pulling out the small card within. Green eyes scanned the inside, reading a simple line.
'I'm not mad at you. Please answer your phone. -Mikhail'
"...It's from the old man." Yurio said quietly, still a bit shocked to realize it, eyes moving over the paper to look over the huge tiger replica again.
"Wow~!"