CHAPTER THREE HUNDRED ONE

Two more romps, a hot bath, a clean change of clothes, and four hours later, there were empty plates, and a half-empty bottle of Chardonnay stacked neatly on the computer desk. The television was on to the 1998 classic, The Mask of Zorro, and a certain duo of world-class figure skaters were engaged in something of a cuddle pile, each with a wine-glass in hand.

The above-ground section of a large mine was on fire, and dramatic music played. A blonde, bearded young man with a sword ducked into the edge of a shaft, and suddenly burst back out onto the landing, expecting his nemesis but seeing nothing. Suddenly, the masked hero swooped in behind him, and asked a simple question.

"Did you miss me?"

A sword-dance began, the blaze raging all around them.

Yuri lifted the glass he was nursing, and sipped lightly at the golden bubbly in it, watching the battle on the TV just past the blanket-covered crest of his knees, where they were neatly stacked with the legs of his partner. He felt the silver Russian turn slightly where he leaned against the side of the man's chest, and turned his eyes briefly to watch Viktor set his own wine glass down on the nearby nightstand before settling back in again, leaning his head back against a pillow propped on the headboard. Those blue eyes were starting to lid though, and Yuri leaned his head back, "Getting tired?"

"Mhmmm..."

"Don't think you'll make it to the end of the movie?" The younger man mused, twisting a bit to nuzzle the tip of his husband's nose fondly.

"...Mnh...the hero wins...and the bad-guys don't."

"Hm. Spoilers."

Viktor huffed a quiet laugh as he turned inward and onto his side, closing his eyes as he finally surrendered to the idea of sleep, "Shitsurei."

The younger figure smiled and kissed his spouse's cheek, moving to sit up, and drained the last of his Chardonnay before setting the now-empty wine-glass on the opposite night-stand, "I'll forgive you this time." He said quietly, turning back to nose the side of his partner's forehead and speaking a hushed whisper, "I'll go turn everything off. Don't wait up for me."

"You know I will."

"Alright, I'll be quick."

Yuri kicked his feet out from under the blankets and moved to stand up, finding where the remote control had been discarded in the blankets near the end and clicking the tele off. He moved then to click off the hall-light, followed by the lamp on Viktor's side of the bed. All that done, Yuri returned to the warm spot he'd just left, pulled off his glasses, and cozied his way back in, reaching for the pull-chain on his own lamp and plunging the room into darkness. He finagled his way back into his partner's arms by feel alone, and got himself good and tangled-up again within that warm embrace.

And then there came a knock on the door.

Yuri's eyes were wide open despite the dark, and he lifted his head, "...Did I just...?"

"Ignore it..." Viktor recommended, "It's nothing." He lifted the arm going over his husband's waist and used that hand to nudge the younger man's head back down, kissing him once he was in place for good measure, "It's probably some drunk fans looking for a good time."

Another knock, this time heavier than before.

Yuri grumbled, "I don't think it's fans."

"I don't care who it is..."

They waited a moment, listening for any other knocks, but heard nothing for several seconds. Eventually, there was a rough thump, and a strange sliding noise, followed by silence again.

"...Whoever it is, they're sitting against the door now." Yuri said irritably, "I can't sleep if someone's right there like that."

Viktor drew in a breath, but then pat his husband's athletic tummy and pushed up onto an elbow, "I'll get this one."

"Okay..."

The Russian bitterly got up from his warm spot and rose from the bed, moving his barely-clad frame towards the hall and around the corner, feeling at the wall as he went. When he got to the door, he peered first through the spyhole, in case there was more than just the one noisy interloper. He could see the edge of a shadow on the right, but whatever or whoever it was, was too far away to identify.

"You're not just going to sit here all night until they come back, are you?" A voice outside whispered, nearly inaudible through the thick wooden panel.

"Of course not." A second voice answered, just as quietly, "We're going sit here all night until they come back."

There was a slight groan of annoyance, but then the sound of a lighter thump against the base of the door where the shadow moved under the spyhole's line-of-sight and apparently sat next to the original noise-maker. Viktor grit his teeth in annoyance, and reached to pull out the sliding lock, hoping not to make a sound. With the chain down, the deadbolt was next, and after a sharp inhalation, the irate Russian pulled the door open as quickly as he could, "Who do you people think you are-"

"AHH!" The two women yelped, rolling straight into the room with the door pulling away behind them, staring up at that pale physique with stunned looks on their faces as they sprawled out onto their backs.

Viktor had to hop back, his simmering aggravation suddenly changing to utter confusion, then back to being irritated, "What in the Hell are you two doing here this late at night?"

"O-Oh!" Minako waved nervously from where she was still on the floor, "V-Viktor! S-Sorry to bother!"

"It's nearly 2am!"

Yuri had moved to sitting cross-legged in the bed, rolling his eyes, but was somehow not all that surprised. He finally walked himself forward on his hands and knees and hopped off the end of the bed, spying his former ballet teacher and older sister still sprawled out at his husband's feet, "Minako-sensei, Mari-nee-chan..."

"YURI!" They both hollered, flipping over onto their own hands and knees in the doorway, keeping their heads down, "Moushiwake arimasen!"

He clicked the hall light on as he approached, and rubbed his eyes as the brightness beamed down, "What are you two doing here this late at night? Shouldn't you be at the other hotel?"

"Th-things got awkward there, so...we called a taxi." Mari explained, "We tried to get our own room first though."

"...Awkward?" The man echoed, "Awkward how?"

"Oh just come in already." Viktor interrupted, getting tired of holding the heavy door open, pinching the bridge of his nose. The two women scrambled forward to give the pane clearance, and the Russian let it go, bolting it like before and moving to get back into bed with a huff.

Yuri brushed his hand reassuringly against the man's bare chest as he went by, but then sat back down again as the two ladies practically stood at attention just within the hall. He turned his eyes from his perturbed husband to the pair of new arrivals, "Well...?"

"We're so sorry!" They said again, with Minako looking more sheepish than her younger counterpart, "I tried to make small-talk with Mikhail about the Free Program, but he didn't see most of it so the conversation didn't really go far. He didn't want to talk about the medaling ceremony either. So then I tried talking about Nationals, and eventually it got around to how Mari and I had planned on going together back to Hasetsu after the Final, and that I still planned on making up for not being able to go to Nagano last year...and..."

"...You're going to give that man a coronary." Yuri said, hand rolling down his face, "Why did you bring that up now?"

"I didn't mean to, it just...happened, because of the topic." Minako insisted, "I couldn't just walk it back once I'd said it."

"How did you say it?"

"Something like '...since everyone else seems to be going to Moscow for Russian Nationals, even Viktor, that means Yuri's going to be alone in Japan. I've gone to support him during competitions since he was a kid, so I should probably go, since I'll be the only one available. I'd hate for him to be there on his own, especially since Viktor won't be around.'"

"...And?"

"...Aaaannnnddddd..." Minako fidgeted where she stood, "...I told him that Mari and I had bought our plane tickets to and from the Final months ago, so I should go back with her to Hasetsu as we'd planned, instead of...going there from Moscow."

Yuri rubbed one temple with a finger.

"We've been fixing the plane arrangements for Yurio since after Bordeaux!" The ballerina went on, trying to justify it, "We got lucky after Mikhail fell off that damn roof and Yurio could take his place on the ride to Cup of China, and then from there to Sapporo since Mikhail wasn't around for that trip...but he never really asked about my plans with Mari. It's like he forgot our original idea was for her and I to come to Detroit together, and that it all got messed up because of everything else, but that I still felt like I should honor my plans and not make Mari spend 14 hours on a plane ride back to Japan on her own. I didn't want to buy another plane ticket to go from Moscow to Osaka, either, because it's probably getting crazy-expensive, and with both his kids here now, too-"

"Okay, okay..." The young skater held his hands up, "So he's mad you're ditching him to come with me."

"...I don't think he's mad, but...probably upset, for sure." She corrected nervously, "I thought he'd stopped listening to me after that, so Mari and I said we were going to take a walk...then I got a text from Yurio asking why Nikki was texting him about how Mikhail was making them go to bed at like 9pm on a Saturday...and that's when we decided to avoid going back for the moment..."

"So you spent all night figuring out where to stay, and eventually ended up here."

"...H-hai..."

"Does he know you're here?"

"I haven't talked to him."

"How long have you been in the Marriott?"

"We came up as soon as we arrived, so only a few minutes. It was our choice of last resort." The woman went down on her knees, fingers clasped together, "Believe me, we didn't want to bother you two! But Yurio is staying with the Russian Team, and..."

"No, it's fine, I get it." The skater sighed, looking back at his angry lump of a husband, then again at the ballerina, "The roll-away that Phichit-kun used is still here. You can put it on the floor and sleep across it diagonally so you get the most use out of it." He rose back up to standing and moved to the head of the bed, grabbing for one of the many pillows and handing it over, "There's a pillow and blanket on the other bed already, but here's another, since there's two of you." He pulled back the big comforter and peeled the thermal-blanket out from between the layers, much to a now-wide-awake Viktor's disapproval, though the man made no verbal protestations. With the fleece pulled clear, Yuri handed that over as well, and replaced the thicker comforter back into place over the thinner sheet that remained, "We'll deal with this thing with Mikhail later. For now, we're sleeping. Viktor and I had already turned in for the night when you guys came, so we're not going to stay up all night talking about things. Drama-time is later. Sleep-time is now."

The two women nodded, quickly pushing a few chairs out of the way to pull down the roll-away where it had been put up against a wall, and set the squishy mattress onto the floor as instructed. They kicked off their winter boots and peeled their other cold-weather gear off, and settled back-to-back diagonally across the make-shift bed like Yuri had told them, pillows and blankets in place quickly after.

Yuri went back towards the hall and had his finger on the switch, watching the pair and waiting for them to nod that they were ready...and flicked the switch to plunge the room back into the darkness it had so rudely been pulled from. He crawled his way across the top of the bed again and found, for the second time, his warm place there under the blankets and within his husband's embrace. He took a moment to quietly stroke the silver hair in front of him, nuzzling in close reassuringly, "Don't be mad..."

"I'm not mad. I'm cranky. I should already be asleep."

"I know...I know..." The younger man agreed, "If anyone else comes to the door, I'm getting out my knife-boots."

Viktor sighed a quiet breath, but nodded, and finally let the tension evaporate from his anxious frame. He wiggled a bit to get more comfortable and repositioned where his arms draped around his husband's sides, "At this rate, I'll need to reprise 'Evoke' just for the Exhibition."

"We left that outfit at home on purpose."

"I know. I'm just saying."

"Say less." Yuri advised, finding the man's lips to kiss him quickly, "Nothing about this is urgent, so don't lose sleep over it. We'll do Exhibition practice like we planned and go with Yurio after that. The rest can wait."

Again, Viktor nodded, trying to find his zen and the pathway back to blissful oblivion. However, it was coming slowly. Instead of being mad about it though, the silver legend couldn't help but smile, and he nuzzled his husband's forehead, "You're really hot when you take command like that."

Yuri couldn't help but smirk to himself at those words, and moved to drape a leg over the Russian's thigh, "Domo."