CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED FIFTY TWO

The van was a surprise to Yuri, though Viktor had apparently been tipped off the night before about it. Still, piling into it felt more like getting into an event shuttle, filled to the brim with people, though for once, more of them didn't know how to skate than did. Dubious about how the back of the van might jerk around more than the front, Yuri took a safer seat towards the middle, piling in just behind the driver's seat with his partner just beside him. By the time everyone else had found their spots, Yurio was way at the back, Mari anxiously next to him, and the two Rozovsky sisters were in the middle row between them. Minako took her usual spot in the front passenger seat, and Mikhail, of course, played chauffer to them all.

The third spot in that front passenger row was occupied by the practice gear of the occupants next to it, and was seat-belted into place. One of the bags had a side-pouch unzipped where Yuri had gone fishing for his phone. It was a fool's errand though, since the device had never been unpacked after being retrieved from Chris, and thus had never been charged. It came on only long enough to report its low-battery status and then shut off again, leaving the young skater with nothing but a black screen to look at.

He huffed quietly and slouched back into his seat, tilting his head a little to look out the window and into the Detroit winter. Leaving the Marriott to go hunting for breakfast took them past Campus Martius Park, and the ridiculously elaborate Christmas decorations and outdoor skating rink that had been set up for the occasion.

"Did we drive by this place last night?" Yuri wondered, passing it by, "I remember how it used to look in the dark."

The Russian glanced out the window, seeing the huge Christmas tree that stood at the north end of the rink, "No, we came down a different road. We can come back tonight though if you want, after the Short Program. I bet a lot of folks from the Grand Prix will want to go."

"We could really take the rink over, then." The younger skater let himself get a little excited about the idea, "It'll be like last year in St. Petersburg, but with a whole bunch of us. We could turn it into our own little impromptu Exhibition. We wouldn't even have to pretend that I don't know how to skate."

"Just don't ask me to toss you." Viktor said warily, "I haven't dropped you yet...but...I'd rather we not tempt fate. The last thing I need is to have your head act like a stubbed toe, whacking against everything it possibly can just because it can."

"I won't." Yuri reassured, rubbing his thumb gently across his partner's leg where he rested his hand, "I think I'll be ready for just some easy skating after the SP today. Nothing elaborate...just some simple fun."

"Can we come?"

The two skaters looked up, then back into the row just behind them...and spotted the two sisters looking rather awkward. Viktoria had practically face-palmed, but Nikkita had brought both hands up to cover her mouth, looking rather surprised. She shook her head as her face went red.

"Sorry?" Viktor wondered, "We weren't paying attention...did you say something?"

Grey-green eyes glanced between one another, but it was Viktoria who spoke, "Tweedle-dee wants to know if she and/or we can come with you to that outdoor Christmas skating rink shindig you guys are talking about."

Nikki gave her sister a wolf-like growl from behind her hands, though at her size and demeanor, it came out more like a wolf-pup's.

The two skaters glanced at each other, then turned back to the girls, but cowed a little as they each unintentionally looked through the two to see a certain blonde gawking at them from the back row. Yuri grumbled a little and spoke quietly, "He won't say anything to us. How long are we going to have to deal with this? I hate it."

"Who knows?" Viktor answered with a shrug, "I thought he'd be a little more worried about you at least, given how you'd been friends. He's acting like nothing happened at all though."

"I don't want a pity party. I just want him to stop being mad at us about what he overheard us saying in the onsen."

"We already made our peace on that. It's up to him now."

"We don't even know if he heard us."

"No one knew where he was, so he had to be in his room. If he somehow didn't hear us when we were being as loud as we were..."

Yuri drew in a sharp breath, but nodded, "Yeah...he'd have to have had logs wedged in his ears to not have heard us... I don't get why he's still so angry... He got everything he wanted in the end. What we said is irrelevant now...and even if it's just the principle of the thing, I don't even think what we said was all that bad."

Viktor nodded, "Yeah, he's just being difficult."

Nikki and Viktoria watched the back and forth, but couldn't hear a word. The older of the two leaned towards her younger sibling, "Who knew asking a simple yes or no question could be so complicated?"

"Right?" Nikki's brow furrowed, but she cleared her throat and leaned a bit forward, setting her hands softly on her cousin's elbow where it had been perched along the head-rest, "If it's that much trouble then don't worry about it."

"Huh?" They both answered, lifting their heads again.

"Oh, you can come if you want. Neither of us is going to stop you." Viktor explained, glancing aside slightly to where the young teen was still touching his arm, "...It's a public event. Anyone can go."

"I meant that we want to go with you, not just go to the same place at the same time." Nikki clarified, hesitating a moment as she looked on at those skeptical slate-blue eyes, "...We're not like our brother." She said nervously, "Thinking back on it, it looked like you guys had a rough weekend too, so I guess we all came to that meeting a bit on edge already. I'm sorry for how it turned out. If Vikki was more comfortable driving long distances in winter, we wouldn't have even needed Sergie to drive us...he complained fiercely the entire way into Calgary."

"We only had the one car and Sergie was already bound and determined to go to Lake Louise anyway." Viktoria countered, "The only thing that made him agree to take us was the threat of pipaw taking the car back if he didn't."

"I know. Ugh." The younger sighed and leaned sideways against the window, her head thumping against the glass lightly, "I'm kind of glad he's not coming with us. He would've made this whole trip a complete nightmare. Just sitting around the whole time, scowling, being completely unreasonable...making snide remarks whenever he thinks he needs to get in his two cents."

"It's completely unbelievable."

"Unbelievable!" Nikki echoed, hands going up into the air, and then coming back down on the Russian's elbow a second time, "Good thing you guys don't know anyone like that! Right?"

Yurio was staring daggers into the back of the younger teen's head.

"Well..." Yuri started, turning back around to look at the back of the driver's seat, "We did..."

Green eyes turned towards the older skater.

"...But he isn't skating anymore...and he didn't really have a bad attitude per se," Yuri went on, looking to his partner for a better word, "He was just...ahh..."

"Zadnica." Viktor finished.

"Language." Mikhail barked from the front, though his nephew just laughed.

"What's that even mean? Who are you talking about?" Viktoria wondered, a brow raised in confusion.

Yuri shook his head, "I can only guess. We're talking about the guy who ran into me though. JJ Leroy. He's a good skater but he's pretty cocky. At last year's Grand Prix Final, a bunch of us went to get drinks together, but then JJ burst onto the scene and everyone left because no one wanted to be around him."

"Well, we won't have to deal with that again this year at least." Viktor added, "Circumstances be as they may."

"Yeah..."

"So I guess that means that there won't be any more trouble?" Nikki wondered, scooting a little further in her seat, perching precariously on the edge again, fingers still pawing at her cousin's elbow, "If all the trouble-makers are gone, then it should be clear sailing."

Viktor kept dropping his eyes down to where the girl's fingers were still holding to his arm, but Yuri hadn't been able to see it through the head-rest, glancing over top of it to see her as she spoke. To his surprise, those grey-green eyes turned to look right at him.

"You were feeling out of sorts when we first met, too." She said, "I'd rather it not happen again when you're feeling that way a second time."

Yuri paused, but then shook his head, "Technically it's the fourth time."

"Fourth?" All three silver Russians wondered in unison, making Viktor a bit uneasy.

"You're a hot mess." Viktoria quipped.

"Yeah." The young skater nodded, then started listing off on his fingers, "First was Calgary, when I lost my voice. Then I had the panic attack and ran right into the rink wall in China. Then it was at NHK when my glasses were broken. Now...number four, getting mowed down by JJ." He waggled his fingers up for all to see.

"Oh...you still have your rings on the right hand." Nikki noticed, seeing the gold bangle on one of those very fingers.

"This is how it's done in Russia." Viktor explained, somewhat defensively, then turning back to his partner, "I forbid you from getting hurt or upset for the rest of the Grand Prix, or at Nationals, or at Four Continents, and especially at Worlds. Forever, actually."

"...H-Hai...Viktor-kōchi...!" Yuri comically sank a bit in his seat, both hands up frantically. He twitched and blinked in confusion as he spotted the younger teen looking back down at him from overhead though.

"You okay down there?" She wondered.

"Nikki, sit like normal, please."

"Sorry papa."

Viktor watched her slink back into her seat quietly, seeing his partner rise back up as well out of the corner of his eye. All the Russian could think about was that last meeting in Calgary, and how it had gone south so quickly...but that it all rested on the shoulders of that older teen boy who wasn't even with them. He drew in a breath, as though putting that old conflict into another box and onto yet another high shelf, never to be thought of again, and resolved to move forward, "Well, if you're moving with your dad to Hasetsu, then I guess it would be for the best that we all get along. Maybe we should try that introduction thing again."

Nikki's eyes lit up, and she nudged her sister to pay attention, "Yeah!" She scooted forward in her seat as far as she thought her father would allow, "I'm Nikkita, though most people just call me Nikki." She then gestured over to her elder sibling.

"Viktoria." The older teen sounded-off, pointing at her cousin, "I guess I got named after you since pipaw couldn't actually have you."

"It was an homage, Vikki, not a replacement effort." Mikhail corrected, watching the whole thing go down with a few glances at the rear-view mirror.

"You were just salty that mom wouldn't let you name Sergie that way!" The older teen teased, sitting forward as well and pulling the sucker candy from her mouth, "Admit it!"

"I admit nothing!"

She just laughed and sat back again, twirling the small white stick to put the candy back in her mouth, "Nah, it's probably true. I didn't even know you existed until pipaw had to go back to Russia for that funeral last year. All told, we barely know anything about him from his days in the Old Country. He kept it all pretty close to the chest. Anytime something even remotely close to Russia came up, he got all evasive about it."

"It's hard to talk about." Viktor agreed, turning slightly to side-eye his uncle a bit.

Mikhail just pretended to ignore it, looking aside from where he knew the younger figure was giving him 'that' look.

Viktor shook the feeling though and gestured towards his partner, "Anyway though..."

The younger figure blinked, but then reached a thin arm around the side of the head-rest as well as he could, "I'm Yuri." He could feel Nikki's fingers clasping to his, then her sister's, "Hajimemashite."

"And you're Viktor Nikiforov, greatest skater of this generation and probably the next several." Nikki said teasingly, setting her mitts on the head-rest just by her cousin's shoulder, "I watched your shows in Japan last weekend! I was really worried after the first event, but you really put on your A-game for the second! Everyone else looked so boring by comparison. All those new World Records!"

"...Yeah." The silver Russian nodded a bit reluctantly, but shrugged, "It's probably going to be my last hurrah though. I've retired that program for something easier."

"Really? Why? It was so good!"

"When you go out onto the ice, and you put your heart and soul into a program, it's not just about competition, points, or even just about skating sometimes. There's more to it than that." Viktor explained, "I know Uncle Mimi told you guys about what happened at the funeral. I created that Free Skate because of what happened. All the fury and rage I had back then, I packed it into that program so it wouldn't spill out into other parts of my life. So when Uncle Mimi managed to get my father onto a plane to NHK, and I got to do that show for him...I got all that negative energy out of me, for good and all. I don't need it anymore."

"I guess that makes sense." The young silver teen nodded, sitting back and clasping her hands loosely on her lap, "So what are you going to do instead?"

"A solo version of the Exhibition I did at NHK."

Yurio glared from the back of the van, but turned his eyes away, looking outside instead and pressing himself up against the corner of the seat. Listening to the back and forth was getting obnoxious, so he reached to pull his phone out of his pocket and slipped his ear-buds into place, listening to his music so loudly that nothing else could sneak by.

By the time they'd gotten to the restaurant that had been chosen, chatter between the four middle passengers had become rather excitable. It got even crazier when Yuri asked the inevitable question.

"So what's your brother doing then if he's not here? Must be lonely at home with everyone gone suddenly."

Viktoria crunched the last bit of the sucker candy, and toyed with the little white stick that remained, "Nah. Sergio's decided that he's a big strong man and put his foot down about staying in Canada." She started, making elaborate gestures as she described it all, just like her father would, "So pipaw got him his own apartment, and now he can wrastle his way into college like all the other jug-heads on his team."

"...Wrastle?" Yuri echoed, "Is that different from wrestling? Or is it just semantics, like soccer and football?"

"No, it's just me being sarcastic. He's a grappler. Pipaw got tired of Sergie brow-beating about two guys being married, so he turned the whole thing on Sergie's head by showing him a clip of some video that he'd been reminded him of. Something about how grappling is super-gay, so he has no right to complain about two guys being married. I dunno. It was in Russian and I didn't watch it."

Both skaters looked at each other. The same two moments were playing out in both their minds.

.

"...Then that's Viktor Nikiforov in front, aaaaaand Yuri Nikiforov in back, Mari's younger brother."

"Shouldn't he be Yuri Katsuki then?" Sergio asked, blunt as before.

.

[IDIOTS. This is figure skating.] Yurio barked on, [We dance on ice and wear flashy costumes! The only thing more gay than that is grappling in MMA, and I don't see anyone complaining about how homo that is even when one guy's got his nutsack in some other guy's face, or even worse, if they're grappling balls to balls.]

.

The pair were practically turning blue in their attempt not to burst out laughing, but it did no good, and eventually Yuri cracked, which just lead to Viktor losing it as well. They held onto each other and wiped tears from their eyes as they hollered at the hilarious irony of it.

Mikhail just shook his head and chuckled quietly under his breath.

"Why are they laughing so hard?" Nikki wondered, speaking out the side of her mouth towards her sister.

"I have no idea. Maybe it's a foreign thing."

"Aright ya loons, pile out." The eldest of the group announced, the van coming to a stop just outside an IHOP, "It's no 5-star restaurant but it's got better reviews than the one that was closer to the hotel."

"Pipaw, when have you ever taken us to a 5-star restaurant?" Viktoria wondered, hopping out after the two skaters, Nikki following after, then Mari, and finally Yurio at the end, "You squirrel money away like a pack-rat."

Mikhail was drawing a blank, "...Uhh...well..."

"Maybe he's more like a dragon." Nikki joked, "Like Smaug or something." She waved her arms around theatrically, "Mikhail the Glorious, Hoarder of All the Golds!"

"Eeehhhhhhh..." The elder was still thinking, not hearing the quip.

"Yeah, see?" The older teen poked a finger against the man's chest, "Notta once."

"Well, maybe there'll be occasion soon." He held out his arm for Minako, which she took quickly, feeling her shoes sliding along the black-ice under her feet already as she closed the door on her side of the van, "Right?"

"Right?" She answered curiously, keeping her eyes on the ground, hoping to spot the ice before it spotted her.

"Exactly."

Yuri and Viktor watched the group go, though it was Viktor who spoke between them, "I should get him a dragon-tail hat like mine."

"The more time goes by, the more eerie it is how similar you two are."

"Yeah, it's starting to freak me out. Hopefully he doesn't have foresight, too."