CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED THIRTY EIGHT
Nibbling on a piece of toast with a fried egg on top, Yuri scanned the timeline for the Final on his phone.
EVENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday December 10
All Day...Arrival of Teams
...Registration at Event Center
Thursday December 11
All Day...Official Practice ALL DISCIPLINES
09:00...MEN - Technical Panel Meeting
10:00...PAIRS - Technical Panel Meeting
11:45...ICE DANCE - Technical Panel Meeting
12:45...LADIES - Technical Panel Meeting
14:00...Team Leaders Meeting
17:00...Referees and Technical Controllers Meeting
18:00...Judges Meeting
20:30...ISU and Judges Dinner
Friday December 12
08:00...PAIRS - Official Short Program Practice
10:00...LADIES - Official Short Program Practice
12:00...MEN - Official Short Program Practice
14:20...PAIRS - Short Program
16:10...LADIES - Short Program
18:15...OPENING CEREMONY ON ICE
19:05...MEN - Short Program
Saturday December 13
06:00...ICE DANCE - Official Short Dance Practice
07:00...LADIES - Official Free Skating Practice
09:00...MEN - Official Free Skating Practice
11:00...PAIRS - Official Free Skating Practice
13:45...ICE DANCE - Short Dance
15:35...PAIRS - Free Skating
...Victory Ceremony PAIRS
16:50...LADIES - Free Skating
...Victory Ceremony LADIES
19:30...MEN - Free Skating
...Victory Ceremony MEN
19:30...PAIRS - Technical Panel Review
Sunday December 14
07:00...PAIRS - Judges Round Table Discussion
08:00...ICE DANCE - Official Free Dance Practice
08:15...MEN - Judges Round Table Discussion
08:30...LADIES - Technical Panel Review
09:30...LADIES - Judges Round Table Discussion
09:30...MEN - Technical Panel Review
11:45...ICE DANCE - Free Dance
...Victory Ceremony ICE DANCE
15:00...ICE DANCE - Technical Panel Review
16:00...ICE DANCE - Judges Round Table Discussion
17:00...EXHIBITION GALA
18:45...Closing Ceremonies ON ICE
20:00...BANQUET
Another bite from the toast...and then a rather unexpected phone call.
"Minako-sensei?" The skater mumbled to himself, seeing the screen change over from the white of the email to the black screen with the big green and red call answer/end buttons. He clicked green and set it to Speaker, "Hey!"
"Yuuuri~!" The ballerina called from the other end, sitting in the front passenger seat of the blue hybrid Mercedes, "Please tell me all about why Yura thinks everyone in Hasetsu hates him?" She asked pleasantly.
Brown eyes blinked at the phone, "Uh...well..." He sat more upright and rubbed the crumbs from the corners of his mouth with the sleeve of his bath-robe, "The story kind of comes in chunks and I wasn't there for all of it. Long story short, Yurio got really upset at the idea that Viktor wasn't going to volunteer to coach him if he moved to Hasetsu with Mikhail, and then he overheard a conversation Viktor and I had about it in the onsen later... His big take-away was that we both thought it might be easier for him if he just stayed in St. Petersburg, and Mikhail could go between the two locations like he did over the summer, except Yurio took it all way out of context and now he's mad at us like we don't care."
"Why would you even think that though? I guess I can see why he'd be upset. You guys obviously understand the reason why Mikhail offered to have Yura come live with us...but-"
"Yurio isn't going to quit competing to do that though." Yuri interrupted, "And Viktor doesn't want to be the lynch pin to the success of the whole plan. He's..." The figure sighed and crossed his arms on the table, moving a plate aside as he slid down and rested his chin on his wrists where they crossed, "...He's worried about how having Yurio around all the time will impact the rest of things. Namely me."
"Is Viktor still salty about everything that happened in Bordeaux!?" Mikhail's voice suddenly blared; Minako was in the background trying to get her phone back.
Yuri was on the floor though by then, the surprise of the sudden unexpected outburst having knocked him backward off his chair, leaving him splayed out on the tile-wood intersection between the kitchen and the living room.
"Yuri!" Mikhail hollered again.
"Uuhhh..." The skater groaned from the floor, trying to push himself up onto his elbows, and hobble over to put his seat back upright again. Just as he was about to get himself up high enough that he could sit normally again though, he could hear the sliding glass door to the meager back yard opening, and Makkachin rushing in, as well as the silver legend who'd gone out with him. The tak tak tak of nails on the hardwood got louder, and the dog barked once excitedly, but then rushed off to his water bowl.
Viktor came up soon thereafter, swapping winter boots for slippers and quietly sneaking in behind his partner. Yuri had a hand on the back of his head, rubbing the spot where he'd bounced a moment before, but looked up when he felt a palm slide down from shoulders to lumbar, and glanced up to see the crystal blue eyes of his husband. The Russian gave him no time to speak, simply leaning in to kiss him, and again, and then move off with a smirk, "Who are you talking to?" He wondered, seeing the Kanji on the screen.
"...A small crowd, I think." The younger skater answered, pulling his hand back from where it had been in his hair to make sure there wasn't a tint of red. Seeing nothing, he just rubbed the sore spot again before turning in his chair to look at where the silver Russian had moved off into the kitchen, "...It's Mikhail and Minako-sensei at least. They're asking about Yurio."
Viktor just spewed the coffee he'd barely managed to get a sip of before hearing the words, "Blyat...!" He cursed in surprise of himself, turning then to look on at his partner incredulously, "...Mimi and Minako-sensei? What for? To give me grief?"
"...Would you explain to them at least why you don't want to coach Yurio? It would sound better coming from you."
The Russian just gawked, but tried to look a bit dignified as he stepped over to the sink to dampen a paper towel and wipe the coffee off his face and the counter, then stepped over to the phone and leaned over it to speak directly down at the faceplate, "Who exactly is listening right now?"
"Just us two." Minako answered, finally having gotten her phone back, "We're not asking because we want to try to guilt-trip you into agreeing to take Yura on anyway. We already figured out a Plan B. We just want to understand why you said no."
"Plan B?" That was something of a relief, though not entirely, "There's a lot of reasons why I said no. The long-and-short of it though is that Yurio is still volatile, and is prone to periodic emotional outbursts that deal a lot of collateral damage to the people around him. I can handle it, but Yuri can't."
The aforementioned skater just sulked at that, but made no argument.
"My first priority is and has always been Yuri's emotional well-being." Viktor went on, "Ever since Day One when I came out here to be his coach, I knew that half the battle to get him back to the Grand Prix Final was rebuilding his confidence. He's got that now, but he's still sensitive to the things people say to him, and when Yurio gets a hair up his arse about something, his traditional response is ripping people apart with his words." He pushed up to his full height and crossed his arms, "I already did my due diligence with this by refusing to be part of what brings Yurio permanently to Hasetsu. Unfortunately, Yurio did what Yurio always does when he doesn't get what he wants...and launched into a verbally abusive tirade...directed straight at Yuri, which puts me in a weird position because it is technically my fault that it came to that in the first place, given how I'm the one who denied him."
"You don't have to worry about it anymore." Minako said nervously.
"That's what you said a minute ago. What exactly are you doing? I can't imagine you guys all packing up and moving to Russia just for Yurio." Viktor wondered skeptically, giving the phone a rather serious look.
"No..." She confirmed, "We'll be coming to Hasetsu like Mikhail said. It'll just be Yurio and the girls though. Sergio won't be coming."
"Well that's a relief in itself. Why not, pray tell?"
Even Yuri gave a sigh of hesitant satisfaction to hear the words.
"He's only got the last half of this school year to finish before he's going to college anyway. Mikhail's going to fix him up with an apartment in the mean time and sell the house they were all in before, and in a couple months, he'll be 18 and a legal adult anyway, so...there really is no point in dragging him to the other side of the planet. He did say he was sorry for the things he said in Calgary, if it makes any difference."
"Words are wind." Viktor blew it off and shrugged, "He can prove it in Detroit."
"He won't be there either." Minako said simply, "...He's too embarrassed."
The two skaters glanced at each other with looks of disbelief on their faces.
"...Say again?" The Russian asked.
"He talked big about how he thought you were weak because of the skating and the 'being married to a guy' thing...but Mikhail set him straight by showing him a subtitled version of that old RSF conference from last year. Specifically, the part where Yurio was yelling about how grappling is 'way more gay' than anything in figure skating. Guess what Sergio does for school."
"...He's not." The two gaped at each other in surprise.
"Captain of the Wrestling Team." She answered happily, her voice tinted with a chuckle, "Go Banff Bears!"
The skating pair were in stunned silence for a moment longer...but then burst out laughing. Viktor had to crouch next to the table to stop from falling over entirely. Makkachin came trotting up and draped himself over his human's back, licking at the man's face in an effort to be part of the fun, and panted quietly. The Russian just reached up to pat the one paw on his shoulder, and looked to his husband, "A joke almost a year in the making."
"Anyway though..." Minako said, trying to bring things back around, "We found a different coach for Yura, so you won't even have to worry about it."
"A different coach?" Yuri echoed, "Who? Someone we know?"
"Someone you know very well." She nodded; the car was pulling into the parking lot of the Moose Hotel, "Care to take a guess?"
"...The only coaches either of us knows 'very well' are Yakov and Celestino...if Yurio's moving to Hasetsu then Yakov is being dropped, not added." Viktor started, sitting back on the tile floor with a finger on his lip, the dog still panting quietly over his shoulder, "...I doubt you'd inflict him on Ciao Ciao and Phichit, but..."
"Oh, no..." The ballerina laughed, "It's me!"
"YOU!?"
"I may not have experience coaching figure skating specifically, but I've been a fan of it as long as Yuri's been alive." She explained, "And coaching ballet isn't all that different."
"...But you could barely stay on your skates at the wedding party." Viktor pointed out, "I had to catch you, remember?"
"Oh boy do I." The woman mused, blushing as she said it, bringing her free hand up to cup her cheek.
Mikhail just gawked at her, but then reached over to grab the phone where it was on speaker and held the faceplate towards himself, "That's my future wife you're tempting! Quit making her lust for younger men!"
The duo just made a face at Yuri's phone, "...Future what?"
Minako blustered, "I haven't agreed to anything yet!" She yanked her phone back, pushing the man off with a hand flat against his face, "Don't listen to him, he's getting excitable! He's been saying crazy stuff since NHK!"
"It's not crazy!" He insisted, though his voice was harder to hear as the pair got out of the car.
The ballerina reset the phone from Speaker so she could speak more easily while they went inside the wooden-lodge-looking three-story hotel, "Anyway...yes, I'll be coaching him. We're kind of hoping that, between me being his new teacher, and him coming to live with Mikhail and I in Hasetsu, maybe he'll get a fresh perspective, and all the stuff that's been making him angry again lately will simmer down. He needs structure; something outside competition. He needs a family and support, something that he's been looking for in the wrong places until now. It'll give you boys some breathing room, too, since we'll coordinate his time at the Ice Castle to be when you're not there. Maybe cordon off half the rink during one of the regular classes that happens there now. You won't even know he's around unless you go there unannounced and run into him on your own time."
"I guess that's a relief then. Viktor's officially off the hook." Yuri said, "...I feel really bad that it's come to this though. When we asked Mikhail to be Yurio's sponsor at Worlds last year, we never really expected it to end up this serious."
"It's mostly Mikhail's fault." The ballerina laughed.
"What'd I do?" The elder Russian wondered as they passed through the sliding-glass doors, and into the lobby.
"You've been a dad too long. It's your instinct to want to nurture your kids, and you've been around Yura too long to count him out."
"Oh." He huffed, "Then I blame Viktor. If he hadn't flipped the switch in me, I'd probably have been childless all my life. Now, look at all these kids I have..." He held his arms out as though he were holding them, "I can't even keep track anymore."
Minako laughed, "Well, in either case...we've got this covered now. You two can go back to doing whatever you were doing before and not have to worry about Yura. Maybe you'll even be pleasantly surprised by how he adapts. I think this change will be good for him."
"Hopefully." Yuri agreed, "Will you still be doing your regular ballet classes though?"
"Oh sure." She nodded, "I'm even kind of hoping that taking Yura on will bring in more students. Maybe it'll be like the old days when you originally learned it from me."
"What are you going to do about choreography though?" Viktor wondered suddenly, "Ballet isn't really a competitive sport. You put together pre-arranged routines that've existed for decades, even centuries in some cases. Putting together new skating routines is a different world of expertise."
Minako blanched nervously, feeling the blood drain from her face. She covered the speaker on her phone and whispered at her partner, "Hun, Viktor's asking about choreography already!"
"He would." Mikhail huffed, getting the key card for their room and raising a hand to guide the way, "Don't tell him anything yet. There's still Nationals, Euros, and Worlds to get through before Yura even has to think about new programs."
"True." She nodded, then returned her attention to the phone, lightly taking the arm that was offered to her as they walked, "We'll figure it out when the time comes. For now, we just need to get Yura to Hasetsu and settled down." She explained, stepping into the elevator, "We talked it over with the girls and decided to go straight to Russia after the Final, so Yura can get ready for Nationals and then pack after the competition is over. We'll probably stay for Christmas and New Year's, too, since we're there in Moscow anyway, and then be back in Japan after that."
"...Weren't we still thinking of doing New Year's in Moscow this year?" Yuri whispered, moving down to the floor as well.
"Sure...we can probably avoid them all though if we wanted." The Russian answered, "The Red Square is humongous."
"Guys?"
"Sorry, Minako-sensei." The younger skater answered, "It sounds like you two have it all sorted out. Does Yurio know yet?"
"He knows up to the part about me being his new coach, but not about the travel timeline yet. Mikhail told him to go to sleep since it sounded like he'd been awake all night seething about everything. We'll tell him later."
"...Wish we could've been more help than we were." Yuri went on, ruffling Makkachin's ear as the pupper came by for some second-human lovin's, "We probably won't even see Yurio again until we're all in Detroit. There's only about two hours left before we go grab Phichit-kun and take the train to Fukuoka, and if he's sleeping..."
"It's okay. It just gives him more time to think things through. We were planning on talking to him again before his and Mari's flight leaves anyway. Maybe we can convince him to apologize for the things he said."
"What time are you guys getting there?" Viktor wondered then, "We'll be there by around 3pm local time, and we'll be going on the grand 'Pre-Sochi Tour de Yuri' once we get our stuff in the room and collect our badges."
"Wow, that's ambitious!" Minako laughed, "Yuri will barely be half-conscious coming off the plane!"
"I'm counting on getting a second-wind once we land." The younger skater admitted nervously, "Being back in Detroit after almost 2 years will be pretty crazy. Especially since I'll be there with not just Phichit-kun, but Viktor, too..." His face started to get a bit red at the thought of hearing everyone's reactions, "...It's going to be completely nuts..."
The ballerina gave a wry, knowing smile, and walked into the hotel suite in the verge of laughing, "How big of a Viktor-fanboy were you out there?"
"...Pretty big..." He lowered his head and covered his face with his hands, though the Russian just smirked, "I wasn't the only one though!" Yuri insisted, "At least half the people who trained at that Skate Club were fans, too!"
"Only one of you managed to seduce the man though!" Minako mused, sitting on the edge of the big bed and kicking her feet up as Mikhail put his coat and scarf away, "They're all gonna be super jealous!"
"I'm kind of nervous about how they're all going to react, honestly." Yuri admitted, feeling his husband's hand sliding over where his own held him up on the tile, "I bet they've been following the competitions so I doubt it'll be a surprise when we show up together, but even still...it'll be the first time they see us together in person. I'll never hear the end of it."
Viktor huffed a laugh, "I can't wait."
"Well, I fully expect Phichit will post a million pictures, so I'm looking forward to it." The ballerina said, smiling at the idea of the whole thing, "But anyway...we finally got to our hotel room and are going to decompress for a while. Today's been a lot of work. We just wanted to let you know about Yura and to tell you that only the girls are coming to the Final with us, so hopefully there won't be too much drama. We can corral them on their own if you'd rather just not deal with them."
Hazel eyes glanced up at the only person whose opinion on the issue really mattered, but Viktor shook his head, "It was only Mimi's boy that got under my skin. The girls seemed okay. I'm sure they'll be fine."
"Okay. We'll leave you to it, then. Safe travels, and we'll see you in Detroit on Friday morning."
"Oyasumi, Minako-sensei."
"Byebyeeee~"
The phone clicked, and the screen went white again, returning to the GPF time-table email that Yuri had been looking at before. The skater locked the device and set it back onto the table before heaving a deep sigh, "Whew...well, at least they're taking us into consid-"
Viktor cut him off. A hand around the back of his head pulled the young skater forward and into an unexpected kiss. Cherry-brown eyes were wide, but slowly closed as the kiss went on, his own hands finding their places on the Russian's lithe frame. When the man finally pulled back though, Yuri felt the nuzzle against the tip of his nose.
"You know what this means?" Viktor purred.
"...Post conflict...carnal urges...?" The younger figure guessed anxiously.
The Russian had his husband in his arms bridal-style and was standing upright a few seconds later, and started moving towards the stairs, "And awaaaaay we go~!" He laughed.