CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED FIFTY FIVE

Mikhail was waiting at the corner when Yuri finally managed to push through the doors, and waved to get the half-laughing skater's attention. Brown eyes glanced up, and the young Asian quickly stepped to it, catching up to go around the edge of the building to where he knew the rental had been parked.

"Was starting to think you got lost in there." The Russian mused.

"Lost?" Yuri echoed, "Oh, no, Viktor just decided to spook me."

"Spook you how?"

The skater drew in a breath, "Viktor noticed a long time ago that I tend to mess up my jumps when there's something on my mind. He was just saying that he hopes we figure this all out before the Short Program, so he doesn't have to consider pulling me from competition."

"Honestly, I'm surprised he's letting you skate at all." Mikhail paused where he stepped, forcing Yuri to do the same and turn to look back at him, "You sure that's wise?"

The younger figure raised his right hand to cup it over the tender cut, "I didn't come all this way to drop out because I banged my head. The longer I go, the better I feel anyway...I'd rather go down trying than quit and never know how far I could've gone."

"But if you hit your head again-"

"It's a risk." Yuri said simply, lowering his hand.

The Russian gave him a nervous look, "I wish you wouldn't treat it like it was such a nonissue."

"I've tripped and crashed face-first into the rink wall before and continued on." The skater explained, giving a slight shrug, "If I can finish a performance even with a bloody nose, I can do one with some staples in my forehead. I'll worry about it if it causes me problems, and I will tell Viktor if I don't feel right...I promise. For now, feeling the way I do, I have to keep going like nothing has changed."

Mikhail kept on looking at him, but then gave a reluctant nod and started walking again, the van already in his sights. By the time they both arrived on the side of it, Nikkita was in the passenger area, opening the sliding door from the inside.

"Papa's back." She said, looking over her right shoulder to the back of the cabin, "...Yuri?"

"I brought company." The elder said, hunching down to hop into the toast-warm space.

Emerald eyes peeked indignantly over the back of the middle seats, and widened slightly as they spotted the Asian skater coming in after the man, then turned away again, "Great."

"Come on now, Yuratchka. You and Yuri are supposed to be friends."

The Ice Tiger just shot daggers at him, "You do realize 'Yuratchka' is a pet-name Yakov gave me, and not my real name, right? Like 'Vitya'?"

"Would you rather I call you George then?" Mikhail huffed, sitting sideways against the middle set of seats and leaning an elbow over the back-rest, "That's what Yuri means in Russian."

"What? No. Gross."

"Yegorik then."

"Stop it, that's even worse."

Yuri watched the back-and-forth nervously, sitting on the end of the same seats Mikhail was in, and looking around the side to where the Russian Tiger was protesting.

"Papa, quit teasing him." Nikki defended, slouching over the back of the front-row seats, "I thought you were trying to make him feel better."

"I am, I am, don't worry." The Russian raised his hands, then gestured them both at the skater directly in front of him, "Yuri was saying that him and Viktor tried talking to you before they left for the airport."

"Bullcrap."

Yuri made an annoyed face and growl-huffed under his breath.

"Aaaaaand he says he basically hasn't used his phone since before he hit his head. The battery's died since then too and he never saw that you called."

"More bullcrap, the line was busy when I called." The teen argued, pointing at the older skater, "He was talking to someone."

Yuri's annoyed expression now included a slight cross-eye where he stared at the fingertip right in his face.

Mikhail gave a nonplussed look, "He'd barely woken up when Minako and the kids and I showed up. He didn't even have his phone. When did you call anyway?"

Yurio crossed his arms and looked down, "When we were on layover in Chicago, around midnight."

"Yeah, so right around 1am here, right when Yuri woke up. Chris took his and Viktor's gear back to the hotel after they went to the hospital. He was probably on Yuri's phone, trying to calm down whoever called before you did. Might've even been Mari if you both found out about the accident at the same time."

"I still haven't even called my parents yet." Yuri added, still looking a bit miffed at all the accusations, "My phone's going to blow up when I finally get a charger cable into it."

The blonde wouldn't look at him.

"And we really did come talk outside your room before we left to go to Fukuoka." The older skater went on, "You didn't answer, and we didn't open the door, so we thought you were either MIA or, more likely, ignoring us. We've basically been thinking that you heard what we said and were just holding a grudge."

"And I'd be well within my rights to."

"That's not even fair!" Yuri said a bit louder, "You were there when I said that I'd asked Viktor about the coaching thing because I knew you'd need one! I was looking out for you even before I knew Mikhail had come up with a better idea!"

"And you also said that it would be better if I just stayed in St. Petersburg!"

"I also gave Viktor crap for refusing to be your coach!" The older figure barked, "We almost got into a fight over it!"

"That's not my problem!"

"BUT IT IS YOUR FAULT." Yuri stood as well as he could, sliding forward to sit on the bench-seat next to the angry Russian Punk, pointing right at him the same way Yurio had done a moment before, "And THAT'S why Viktor won't coach you! Because I get too emotional over your well being, like I am right now! When you're angry, I'm angry, and then everyone is angry."

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE." Yurio clenched his eyes shut and crossed his arms more tightly.

"OF COURSE IT DOES."

"Papa, you should stop them-"

"Nope, this is healthy."

"IF I DIDN'T CARE ABOUT YOU THEN WHY WOULD I GET ALL UPSET OVER YOU?"

"YOU CRIED IN A BATHROOM STALL."

"I CRIED AT MY WEDDING, TOO. I CRY A LOT, OKAY? IT'S A THING I DO. AND YOU GET ANGRY A LOT."

"PEOPLE AROUND ME DO A LOT OF STUPID SHIT."

"SO DO YOU."

"NOT LIKE YOU MORONS." Yurio finally opened his eyes, turning to face the unusually hostile older figure, "YOU AND VIKTOR DO APOCALYPTIC LEVELS OF STUPID SHIT."

"NO WE DON'T."

"YES YOU DO." He sat forward on the bench-seat, shoving a finger against the skater's chest to push him back a few inches, "MR. 'I'M GONNA GET DRUNK AND NAKED ON A ROOFTOP AND THREATEN TO JUMP OFF BECAUSE MY HUSBANDO SCREWED UP THE SHORT PROGRAM.' AND LET'S NOT FORGET YOU, MR. 'I ALWAYS GET SUPER JET-LAGGED AFTER REALLY LONG FLIGHTS BUT THEN DECIDED NOT TO GO SLEEP AS SOON AS WE LANDED, AND ENDED UP STRAYING RIGHT INTO THE PATH OF D-BAG LEROY'S JUMPS'...LIKE AN IDIOT."

Yuri just blinked at him in stunned surprise, "...You think that accident was my fault...?"

"OF COURSE NOT." The teen shoved off and went back into his corner, closer to the window, "But if you were smart, you never would've gotten on the ice before taking a goddamn nap. Even Viktor should've known better than to let you get your skates on. If I'd been there, I would've told you to screw off until you'd slept."

"No you wouldn't have." The older skater growled, crossing his arms and glaring with half-narrowed eyes, "You would've still been too proud to say a word to either of us."

"Fine, then I would've yelled at Leroy to quit being a rink-whore."

"JJ doesn't even take you seriously! He'd have just laughed at you and done what he wanted anyway!"

"Otabek would've backed me up!"

"I'm pretty sure Otabek tried to get him to back off and he still didn't!"

"What difference does it make anymore!?" The blonde seethed, "You still got run down in the end, and JJ got what he deserved for it."

"Wh-" Yuri started.

"That's a horrible thing to say." Nikki interrupted him, rising up where she'd been peeking over the edge of the second-row seat, "I thought I'd heard the meanest things a person could say from Sergio already...but you've just shown me that there's a new level of viciousness people can go to."

Green eyes just blinked at her in stunned confusion. Yuri and Mikhail were surprised into silence as well.

"And what's worse is how you wrap it all up in some thinly-veiled sheet of concern, like you think it's okay to be horrible because you're supposedly doing it for a good cause." The young teen went on, fingers clenching against the head-rest, "Would you just tell him already that you're worried about how he's doing and quit trying to maintain some vapid image of apathetic toughness?"

"Nikki..." The older skater managed quietly.

"Cuz it's super annoying." She added, reaching over the seat to point at him like Yuri had, "No one wants to be around a person who hurls insults more often than he shows basic human decency! Can't you just be nice!? No one here is your enemy! Quit treating them like they are!"

The Asian was speechless, though just as he was about to crouch forward and hug her in thanks, he spotted the rest of their group coming around the corner of the building. He turned instead to the elder, "Time's up."

Mikhail lifted his head, spotting them all as well, "Seems so." He scooted forward on the seat and ushered his daughter out of the way, walking as well as he could around the first-row bench and over to the driver's seat, waving at the last four members of the entourage. Grey-green eyes lifted up to the rear-view mirror, spotting his flustered youngest child sitting back where she'd been before, but facing forward instead of looking into the last row like before, "Nikki, you okay, sweetie?"

"I'll be fine, papa." She said stiffly.

Yuri moved forward to open the sliding door again, but instead of just sitting back in the front row as everyone else got in, he hopped out and went for his husband. Arms quickly went around the confused taller figure, but all Yuri did was draw in a quick breath before turning to catch his sister by a sleeve, "Mari-nee-chan...can I use your phone to call home? Mine's out of juice."

"Oh...yeah, sure." She fished into her pocket, pulling the device out and unlocking it, "Here. Don't go digging around." She warned comically, pointing the phone at her little brother more so than anything, but he took it either way.

"I won't; I'll give it back as soon as I'm done." He answered stiffly, finding himself being turned towards the open door to follow in after her. When he finally found his seat again and Viktor was next to him, the skater huffed and started looking around his sister's contact list. He paused a moment though, thumb hovering over the button for Yu-Topia.

"What is it?" The Russian wondered quietly, pulling his seat-belt across.

Yuri moved his thumb towards the 'Recents' button, but paused again, turning back instead to look back towards his sister, "Mari-nee-chan, did you call my phone by-chance when you were on layover in Chicago?"

"Yeah...your skater-buddy Chris answered though. Why?"

Yurio sneered, but said nothing.

Mikhail just clapped once and held both hands out, palms up by either side of the steering wheel, "Nailed it." He reached his right hand back between the seats and felt a victorious clap against it from his nephew-in-law.

"What are you guys talking about?" The confused Japanese woman deadpanned them.

"...Yeah, what she said." Minako echoed, thumbing back at Mari.

"You okay, Nikki?" Viktoria wondered, taking her seat after pushing the door closed, "You look upset."

The miffed young teen just yanked her phone out and started typing furiously, eventually sending a message that caused her older sister's phone to beep.

When the multi-colored figure grabbed for it, she saw a simple message on her screen, [I just feel like we swapped one jerk brother for another, that's all.]

[Great. What'd he do?]

Yurio just rolled his eyes, knowing full well they were texting one another instead of saying what they meant out loud. Once again, he put in his ear-buds and tuned everything out, returning to his status as pariah within the group, heart still pounding from yelling at his 'friend.'

At the front, Yuri was holding his sister's phone to his ear, leaning against his husband's side where an arm was up around his shoulders, his own heart still pounding as well. The dial-tone rang a few times, but he finally heard the click.

"...Mari?" The sleepy woman answered, "What is it? Is it about Yuri?"

"It's me, mom."

"Yuri! Toshiya, it's Yuri! Yuri! We were so worried! Why didn't you call us sooner!? It's after midnight!"

"I know, I'm sorry...I wanted to call earlier, but I realized too late that no one plugged my phone in after we got back, so it was dead before I had a chance."

Viktor gently rubbed his cheek against the top of his partner's head, careful to avoid where he knew the line of staples ended, hidden in that fluff of black hair. He stroked his thumb back and forth over where his hand held to the man's opposite shoulder.

"Yeah..." Yuri went on, the conversation half-unknown to the Russian, though he could guess, "No, I've been feeling better, I think I'll be fine. ...I know. I already promised Uncle Mikhail that I'd let Viktor know if I didn't think I could do it. We're heading to practice right now, so I'll know pretty soon. Huh? ...No, not till 7 tonight. The Opening Ceremonies? Oh, no, not even Viktor's in that one this time. He only did that at NHK because it was a JSF event and they have a soft spot for him. ...Yeah, because he was in my Nationals Exhibition last year."

There was a pause for a while, which caught the silver skater's attention, and he turned his head to face his husband curiously, though Yuri spoke again a moment after.

"Yes, I'll be careful. I promise. I promise! ...Okay...I'll let you go to bed. Watch me tomorrow morning, okay? G'night." He clicked out of the call and twisted around, looking at both silver sisters in the row behind him, "Can one of you hand this back?"

Viktoria took it and passed it along, but lifted her eyes to the man she'd taken it from, "How're you holding up?"

"Huh? Me?" Yuri blinked at her, not having expected the question, "I'm fine."

"No, I mean about..." She nudged her head back to the rear corner, and cleared her throat for emphasis, "You know."

"Oh." He turned to cast his sights onto the younger sibling, and Viktor twisted to look back as well, the both of them noting how she still looked rather perturbed, "Well...I..."

"Don't worry, he can't hear if we're quiet. He put his ear-buds in. I can hear his music when the car's not moving." Viktoria explained, "Someone came into the restaurant earlier saying there was a big argument happening in the parking lot. No one was standing around though so we guessed it was you guys and started packing it in."

The young skater sighed and nodded, "Yeah...we yelled at each other pretty good. I feel really bad about it now." He shook his head a little, like he was trying to shake the memory, wishing he could will his amnesia to take it like it did most of the night before, "In the end, it was just a bunch of misunderstandings because of bad timing, and Yurio not being sure what to say about my accident."

"He said the other guy deserved what he got." Nikki interjected, looking angry all over again, "I don't like that kind of attitude. It was an accident. He didn't deserve an injury like that."

"No...I agree..." Yuri looked down at her, "...I...I think I want to go see him after practice."

"You do?" Viktor wondered, surprised.

"Yeah." He turned all the way back around to glance at his husband's confused face, "We left the car at the arena overnight...it should still be there. I know you don't care one way or another about JJ, but would you mind taking me back to that hospital?"

"Of course not." The Russian reached up to ruffle a bit of the man's hair out of his eyes, "I guess this all means that you didn't have enough time to figure things out with Yurio though."

"...Not really...it's still a bit raw." Yuri confirmed, slouching a bit where he sat, but lifting his right leg to hook it over Viktor's left, crossing his arms over his stomach, "I don't even know when we'll get a chance to finish this, or when it would even be the right time. You can't just start up again in the middle of an old argument when hours have passed."

"Let me sort it out." Mikhail said, glancing up in the rear-view mirror again, "You worry about yourself for now. I didn't mean for the whole thing to degrade into a shouting match anyway. Sorry for that."

"Oh, it's fine...it was a tiny bit cathartic, even if I didn't mean for it either."

The elder Russian huffed a laugh, "We were supposed to have the grand family meeting at breakfast this morning, but we had so many extra people tag along that we never got to it. We'll just do that after practice while you and Viktor are off on your side-quest. The ladies and I need to establish ground-rules with the newcomer."

"Aren't we both newcomers?" Minako wondered.

"Technically, but you're slightly better behaved than the other. Besides, we're all moving to your city, so it's more like we're all going to have to learn the rules of your house rather than have you having to learn the rules of ours. Japan is very different from Canada." Mikhail explained, slowing the van a bit for traffic ahead, "But the long and short of it is...he's a teenage boy coming into a house with two younger teenage girls that he's going to be getting to know rather well in a big hurry. I just need to be sure I have all my ducks in a row so there's no hanky-panky under my roof."

"DAD." Both girls argued, "Aren't we supposed to think of him like a new brother anyway!?"

"I'm just being cautious, sheesh! But yes, if that stops you, then absolutely, he's totally your brother!"

Viktor just sarcastically cleared his throat, "...I faintly recall a story about a whole village of people who oustered one of their own cuz they-"

"Yeahthatwasareallyfunnystorywasn'titVivi."

The younger Russian just huffed a laugh, "It sure was."

The two girls just gave confused glances at them both.