CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY SIX

Tess followed quickly after her old friend, but was still glancing back at the other skaters as she walked, giving a strange sort of 'well that was unexpected' smile, slowly turning forward to face Yuri, "I'm really surprised at you. Compared to how you used to be, seeing you feeling-up Viktor like th-" She practically tripped all over the skater, finding him stopped in the middle of the hall right as she caught up. The medic scrambled to stay on her feet, but ended up on her arse anyway, while Yuri looked down at her in surprise. When her eyes turned up to see him and ask why he'd stopped, Tess could see how the man's face was bright red.

"G-gomen!" He said, practically yipping the word and quickly twisting around to bow in apology, then reaching a hand out to help her back up, "I just got caught-up in how embarrassing that was...! I wasn't watching where I was going..."

"...Or where you'd stopped going..." She half-corrected, taking the offered hand and rubbing her thigh where she'd stumbled as she got back up onto her feet, "...As I was saying though. The way you were just then...it's like some alien took over your brain. I know it's you in there, but..."

"...It's different with him." Yuri tried to explain, moving aside so the woman could walk next to him rather than behind, and stepping forward again.

"...How? I mean, last I remember, you were too terrified to even be in the same room with him. But 30 seconds ago..." She held her hands out towards him as though putting him on display as some weird specimen she'd found, "...You looked about ready to start fingering him right there in front of everyone."

The skater just brought both hands up to cover his face, sweating bullets where he stood, his face practically glowing from how red it was, "...I know...! He'd just reminded me of this other time though, and I went with it..."

"...Other time?" She quirked a brow at him, "Yuri, were you making out in public somewhere else?" Her voice was teasing.

He flailed his arms around in an embarrassed panic, but then held one hand to the medic's shoulder as the other came up to his lips to shush her, "Tsst! Not so loud!"

"Sorry, friend...I think you're a bit beyond getting to feign modesty."

"I'm not feigning!" Yuri insisted desperately, "The only reason I'm not passed-out-cold from the humiliation is because it was you three that walked up! If it was basically anyone else, I'd be on the floor, frothing at the mouth!"

Pale eyes examined the skater, but Tess eventually just smiled and huffed a quiet laugh, "Yeah, that sounds like the old you." She started walking again, and Yuri followed, "I wish there was more time for you to regale the story of how it came to this. I can only imagine."

"Would it help if I said that it all started when I got drunk one time?"

The medic stopped in her tracks again, gaping at the man, and pointing at him, "You're not saying..." She pointed back the way she came, "...All it took for you to talk to him was a bit of booze?"

"...Basically..." Yuri answered shyly.

"And you had that Code of Conduct all those years that you'd never drink during an event cuz of how crazy you get!" She was still in stunned disbelief, but was starting to find the hilarity in it, "Why'd you go against it!?"

"It was a while after you left, but..." He started, his anxiety changing over to a more somber mood, "...I made it to the Grand Prix Final for the first time three years ago. The pressure was already a bit too much for me to handle, and I started binge eating to calm down...and then I found out my dog back in Japan died..."

"...Vic-chan...?"

Yuri nodded quietly, the memory of the pup still heavy on his heart, "I completely fell apart after that. By the end of the event, I'd scored some 100 points less than Viktor did, and then Celestino dragged me to the banquet after... I couldn't stand to talk to anyone, so I just ended up drinking to pass the time, and tried to forget. In the end, I drank so much that I did forget...and found out a whole year later that I'd actually propositioned Viktor to come to Hasetsu and be my coach after Worlds. That's the whole reason why he turned up." He perked his head up and shook it, then defensively waved his hands as well, "I mean, not that I think he had ever seriously considered it at the time, since I was just some nobody that had been running away from him for years already... But he explained that he'd been in something of a slump at the time, and was trying to find his motivation, so when he saw a video of me that had gone viral, replicating his Free Skate from that season...he said it inspired him, and he remembered what I'd said in Sochi. Not knowing I'd forgotten, he turned up at my family's hot-spring resort, and said that he was going to be my coach, and make me win the next Grand Prix Final."

"It must've been crazy to just see him turn up then, if you'd completely forgotten what you'd said before." Tess assumed, putting her hands into her jacket pockets as they started walking again, leaving the safety of the competitors-only lounge area and heading out into the main hall that circled around most of the stadium.

"Oh man..." Yuri put his hands up on his face again, pulling down on his cheeks a bit so the pink under his eyes showed, "I think half of Hasetsu probably heard me scream."

"I believe it." She laughed.

"But he made good on his word." The skate went on, lowering his hands down to cup around his elbows, even as he looked down slightly in residual shame, "If not for one stupid mistake I made last year, I would've won Gold at that Final. I missed it by like a tenth of a point to Yuri Plisetsky."

"Ouch."

"Yeah... When I brought the Silver back to rink-side, Viktor got all weird about it, saying that he only wanted to kiss it if it was Gold, since that was a thing he did with his own medals. He said that he'd have to figure out something else to do then since I didn't get one." He looked up then, remembering the after-events rather fondly, "Up to that point, we'd been forging ahead with the idea that he'd go back home to St. Petersburg after the Final. Getting me there had been our only real goal. I hadn't even thought I'd still be skating after that...but I'd been bugging him to come back to competition, and at the end, decided that I wanted to keep going, and asked him to stay on for another year with me. I never expected that he'd keep on as my coach though, but he said right away that it would be hard for him to make a come-back if he was coaching me, too, like the idea of resigning wasn't even an option he'd considered. I think he would've tried to convince me to keep going even if I had thought to retire after the Final."

"That's all fine and well, but..." Tess explained, gesturing one hand out towards him, "...How did you two go from coach and student to married...?"

"Kind of by accident, actually..." Yuri answered with a nervous smile, his cheeks a bit pink, "When we were in Barcelona for the Final, I started to worry about whether I could really win Gold, and thought that there was no way I could send Viktor back to Russia without something gold, especially since it wasn't guaranteed to be the medal. So I bought him this gold ring, as a thank-you gift, for being my coach, for helping me be a better person, for all of it...and when I gave it to him, I learned that he'd bought the matching one to give to me. At the time, he told me that he just wanted me to show him the skating that I honestly liked the best...but maybe an hour later, we met up with friends, and Phichit-kun confused the rings for being wedding bands, and started freaking out about it in front of everyone...!"

The medic just burst out laughing, "That sounds like him!"

"'Congratulations on your marriage!' he was yelling. I was desperately trying to calm him down and explain that he had it all wrong, that the rings were just a thank-you gift, but then Viktor..." He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes watering suddenly at the memory of it. He drew in a shaky breath and tried to move on, smiling at it all, "...Viktor said something like, 'That's right, they're not wedding rings...they're engagement rings,' and that 'we'll get married after Yuri wins Gold.'" He held up his hands to emphasize the words with air-quotes, "And of course, I was just so taken aback by it that I couldn't even really question it. Everyone got really competitive after that...half of them wanting to see how badly I really wanted it, the other half just mad that Viktor said it like the Gold was mine no matter what. But the moment was ruined when JJ popped up suddenly, saying the only one who was getting married after the Final was him and his fiancé, Isabella."

"What a buzz-kill..."

"Yeah...we all left after that... Viktor already disliked JJ and didn't want to spend a second longer around him than he had to. By then though, the way I thought of Viktor had started to change already. The ring already meant a lot to me, even before I knew he'd secretly bought the other one when I had my back turned. After he gave it to me, and especially after he so excitedly suggested we were engaged...everything seemed so different. Up until then, everything he ever did to try and get close, I think I tried to explain away as just him being flirtatious anyway. The way he waited until I was used to him before he tried to hug me, then using that as a way to manage my anxiety... The way he'd touch my hands or face, like it was just the normal thing he always did... Even when he lunged out and kissed me after my last skate in China...somewhere in my head, I tried to rationalize it as just his normal way of doing things. That nothing was really special about it. I've seen total strangers kiss each other after they've just witnessed some incredible thing, and we were both really happy with my Free Skate at the time. ...Turns out, as he explained when we got back to Hasetsu after the Final...he had fallen for me way back at that banquet in Sochi, when I'd drunkenly asked him to be my coach. And all that time, he'd been trying to get me to fall for him, too. The hugging, the touching, the kiss...the rings...the accidental engagement... Everything... It was how he was trying to tell me how he felt. But I was too blind to notice, or believe it. I mean, why in the world would a super-star like him fall in love with a scrub like me, right?"

"I can see that." Tess agreed, "You were always the kind of person who kept others at a distance. Like you didn't think you were worthy of peoples' notice. I guess that's half of why I tried to hug you when Phichit got hurt. I thought you needed to know that you were worth it. That you didn't have to suffer the worry on your own."

"...Yeah... I told Viktor about that incident some weeks after he'd shown up. He was pretty surprised at my reaction, too." Yuri sighed, "Even though, the first time he had tried to touch me, I threw myself out of the room trying to get away." He slowly came to a stop again, parked in front of the huge moving projection screen in the Via Concourse, prompting the older woman to stop as well and turn back for him. He lifted his head, "...I'm sorry for how I treated you back then."

"I'm sorry for violating your space. I should've known better."

"Think it's too late for a do-over?" He wondered, gesturing his arms up a bit in a bid to look welcoming.

Tess was surprised at him, blinking in confusion for a moment as those arms kept rising, until they were practically beckoning her forward. When it finally settled in her mind that she wasn't seeing things, the lanky woman nodded and stepped forward, putting her own arms over the skater's shoulders as his went around her sides. She held tight, but not too tight, facing away from him where she pressed a cheek against his shoulder, "I'm glad that things worked out with Viktor the way they did. It's good that you finally found someone that you can trust enough to let into your space." She said, pulling back again and patting the sides of both shoulders before eventually letting go, "From everything I've seen, he absolutely adores you."

"And I him." The skater answered, reaching up with one hand to rub the moisture from his eyes, "Even though it took me longer than it probably should've to let myself believe it."

"Habits are easier to form than they are to break."

"...We're...going to go to that outdoor skating rink at Campus Martius. If you want to come..."

Tess just held up a hand and smiled, but shook her head, "Can't."

"Eh?"

"My boss is being generous tonight, letting me take a long break so I could finally say hi, since I couldn't before your skate." She explained, "I'm still on shift though, and will be till midnight. When we're done packing things up here, I'll be hopping on an ambulance to patrol the city and wait for calls. Thanks though."

Yuri gave a reluctant but understanding nod, "Mh..."

The medic looked on at him curiously for a moment longer, "I'm off tomorrow though. I'll be sure to swing by and cheer for you and Viktor properly." She reached a hand up and nudged the athlete's arm with a finger, "Assuming you don't somehow end up in the back of my wagon again tonight, anyway."

"No offense, but...if I never find myself in the back of an ambulance again, it'll be too soon."

"Agreed." She laughed, twisting a bit on her carbon-fiber leg, "I better get back though... See you around?"

Hazel eyes smiled, and he nodded, "Yeah...!"

.

By the time Yuri got back, Viktor had finally gotten his sneakers on, and was struggling with Chris for possession of the car keys. Nothing the Russian did could change the fact that the Swiss skater was an inch taller than he was...except, perhaps, a well-laid plan.

Viktor caught sight of his husband over Chris' shoulder, and briefly thought to call out to him in an effort to garner sympathy, or perhaps distract the man enough that he could snatch the keys with a quick swipe. But, he thought better of it...and hoped Yuri would play along.

The young skater just looked around at the scene; his partner and Chris practically dancing around one another in the middle of where he'd last seen them, with the blonde's back to him. Phichit had wandered back towards the bar area, tethered to the counter almost as much as his phone was, having found someone to take pity on him and offer a charging cable. He just watched whatever was playing on the televisions while he waited.

True to instinct though, Yuri quietly snuck in behind his much taller friend, getting by without being seen easily enough. He tip-toed towards the couch where they'd previously left Viktor, and stepped on top of the seats...waiting for the right moment.

"Give me the keys!"

"But I'm driving."

"It's my rental!"

"And you'll be in sitting in it...while I drive it."

"Chris! Dajte mne ključi!"

"Nyet."

"Telling me 'no' in Russian won't endear you to my noble sensibilities!"

Swipe.

Lime-green eyes lifted to the feeling of those jangly metal bits being yanked from his fingers like sand, and he glanced back in time to see Yuri hopping back down off the couch, rather proudly holding onto them. The younger skater quickly trotted out of arm's reach though, and tossed the two-key chain to his partner, who caught them with a grin.

"I thought we were friends, Yuri." Chris pouted.

"We are," He laughed in response, feeling the Russian's arm come around him and pull him closer. He returned the gesture, one arm around the man's back as the other settled a hand on his chest, "But I sleep with this one, so he's slightly more favorite than you."

"I'll sleep with you."

"Over my dead body." Viktor defended, both arms around the younger man then.

"I'll sleep with you too, then." Chris huffed, extending his arms out and stepping closer to the duo, only for them both to feign panic and try to get away.

The commotion finally caught Phichit's attention, and he lifted his gaze away from the television long enough to spot Chris chasing the two other skaters around the lounge. He reluctantly unhooked his phone from its borrowed power cable, seeing it's sad 9% charge, and put it away.

"Quick! Yuri, run and save yourself! I'll hold him off!" Viktor teased, gesturing for his husband to flee through the open doors.

"He's after you, idiot!"

"Oh, you're right! Take these and go!" The Russian stuck the keys into the younger man's hands and again pushed him towards the door.

Chris was quickly onto them though, and snaked past Viktor like vapor, making Yuri half-scream for the surprise of it.

The keys went flying after that, "Viktor! Get them!"

K-kaSShhh

Phichit looked down at where they landed between his sneakers...reached down, and picked them up. When he stood upright again, all he saw were three people coming running at him, each one eagerly reaching their grabby-hands straight for him, each one calling out his name...some sweetly taunting him to stay, others barking for him to run. Eyes went wide, and the Thai skater flipped around on his heel, taking off faster than any of them anticipated, "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALLIIIVVVEEEE."

"Ph-Phichito-kun! RUN!"

"PHICHIT GET BACK HERE."

"Fly like the wind, hamster-man!"

"AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAA!" His shriek faded as he ran out of the room and around the corner to the main concourse.

Viktor and Yuri huffed and puffed, but laughed and boasted proudly of their evasive maneuvers.

The blonde just glowered at them, but then stood upright, closing his eyes and chuckling quietly to himself, "...Well, that's just great. Does he even know where you parked?"

"...Ah..." The pair looked at one another, then at Chris, then out to the hall, "...Well. Damnit. PHICHIT COME BACK."