CHAPTER THREE HUNDRED FIVE

Despite the Russian Tiger's best efforts, being foisted into the air by Mila quickly devolved into something much worse; a lifts competition. The first time the redhead had gone past Viktor and Yuri, the duo seemed to get the same idea, and gave a wry look at one another before following after towards the center of the rink.

Yuri hadn't even set blades to ice before going through three different lifts, rotating around his partner's frame with grace; hand-to-hand vertical position, feet spread out to the side with legs coming forward in a V-shape as the two faced the same direction; lower then as Viktor glided on his left blade, right leg held up behind himself as his torso bent forward, cradling his left hand behind his partner's neck and upper back as Yuri practically laid down in the air, arms out to the side as his crossed legs folded over Viktor's outstretched right leg; then even lower still as Viktor went down to a shoot-the-duck spin position, right leg bent under himself as the left was straight and out to the side, and Yuri was in full-Biellmann in his arms, torso facing the ice as he held the blade of his right skate above his back with his left hand, the right hand and free left leg straight out in front and behind himself.

Mila watched in surprise and awe, but it only spurred her excitement and she immediately dragged the hapless kitten into an array of their own moves. Yurio could do little more than go along with it, at least insofar as he needed to maintain his balance and not be thrown to the ice unintentionally, and so...he found himself lifted up again, this time with one hand on the side of his waist. For a split second, he was acutely aware of all the people on the rink-wall who were watching suddenly, and his mind went into 'gotta make this look good' mode. Legs spread into a near-full split, arms out above his head as he made the best of it. Mila noted his willingness immediately, and smirked devilishly, rotating as she moved across the ice beneath the Russian Punk-turned-Prima. They breezed past the Nikiforovs and quickly changed position, going from the one-hand lift to a curved lift, with Mila sliding sideways in something of an outside spread-eagle, and Yurio was bent over backwards in front of her, left leg bent against one side, hand holding to that blade as the right leg went straight out by the other, with the woman's arm under the teen's back to hold him up. The blonde then went fully upside-down, left arm wrapped around Mila's bent left leg as the right dragged behind her in a lunge-like Ina Bauer, with the teen's legs up vertically before her. His left leg bent to put his black blade just above his head as he looked forward, his right hand gripping to the white boot just beneath him, feeling where Mila grabbed his left leg to hold him steady as they slid across the ice.

All seemed to be going well until someone cried out embarrassingly that the two should try Pair Skating for real, and Mila lost her grip when she laughed and whipped her head around. Unfortunately, that left Yurio with nowhere to go but face-first into the frost, and he skidded forward comically before finally coming to a stop with his arse in the air and knees down on the ice.

"Ahh! Sorry sorry sorry!" The flustered redhead called, going down on a knee to slide in next to him, trying to help the teen back up again.

He just turned his head where he was still face-down on the rink and glowered at her with frost clinging to his skin, "...Youdroppedme..." He grumbled between grit teeth, a red skid-mark throbbing on his forehead.

"You slipped!"

Viktor and Yuri just smiled innocently as they glided by, Yuri giving something of a nervous clap as he sat sideways against his partner's bent leg, "Heh...you okay?"

The Russian teen pushed up onto his hands and knees, lifting one to rub the frost off his face on the back of a wrist, "...My pride's hurt more than the rest of me is."

"Well that's good."

The silver skater twisted his back-facing leg and dug a toe-pick into the ice, bringing them both to a stop, "That was fun~! But we should probably get going." He suggested, leaning forward slightly to rock upward and get back to his full height, draping an arm over his spouse's shoulders when he got there, "I want to have enough time to eat before the Gala tonight, too."

"Ah, yeah, good point..." Yuri agreed, "Oh, we should try that Mongolian place we saw on the way there on Thursday. The one near the zoo."

"I'm game." Viktor nodded, then looking to the Russian Tiger as he was finally getting back up to his own feet, "You?"

Yurio was busy rubbing his face on his sleeves still, but at least he was upright, and glanced over one hand towards the pair. He drew in a breath and shrugged, "Can Otabek come?"

The Kazakh's ears perked up to hear his name, and glanced over the edge of the rink wall where he was gathering up his gear.

The duo looked at one another, and then back at the teen, "Sure. If he wants."

.

Before he could even mount an argument about having other things to do, Otabek found himself piled once again into the rental car's back seat, deadpanning the back of Viktor's headrest where he was stuck on the driver's side, "...So...where are we going? I thought it was the Detroit Skate Club."

"It is..." Yuri explained shyly, turning to look at the younger skater, "But it's kind of in the suburbs outside the city."

"Where is it?"

"In Bloomfield Hills, just south of Pontiac. The whole drive is about 45 minutes."

Otabek stared, unmoving, but eventually relented and turned to look out the window instead, "...Fine."

"...We can turn around if you'd rather not come." Yuri suggested, "We're not that far."

"No, it's fine."

"Wouldn't you rather practice more than be stuck in the hotel until tonight?" Yurio huffed, slouching in his own seat, one knee wedged up into the space between Yuri's seat and the interior panel of the door, "Or did you actually have plans?"

"No. This is fine." Otabek repeated, "I was just reminded earlier of a similar thing that happened before."

"...Eh?" Yuri quirked a brow, "What thing?"

"Last year." The younger man answered, "I was getting ready to leave the hotel and meander around Barcelona when JJ asked if I wanted to go out to eat with him and Isabella. I'd just passed Yuri and his rabid fangirls, and overheard him yelling about how 'people who wear sunglasses on their heads are scum.'" He explained, giving air-quotes for the end.

"I don't remember that." Yurio shrugged.

"You called me an asshole cuz I looked at you."

Viktor nearly choked on himself laughing.

"Wh-" The Russian teen was aghast, "I don't remember that!"

"Then I saved you later from those same fangirls despite it."

"...I remember that..." The blonde tilted his head back against the seat, "I never did ask where you got the motorcycle from. I doubt you drove it all the way from Kazakhstan."

"No. That would be crazy." Otabek seemed to agree, "I borrowed it from a friend who lives in the city."

"...You have friends in Barcelona?" Yurio tilted his head to look at the dark horse skeptically.

"Believe it or not." He answered, "How else do you think I was able to DJ in the club that you followed me to? You can't just walk up and get the gig out of nowhere."

"I guess that's true."

"So you must know someone who works at that club?" Yuri wondered curiously.

"Mh. The barkeep. I had just finished checking in at the hotel and was going to meet him for lunch before borrowing the bike. I found him hiding in an alley a while later, with those fangirls trying to track him down." Otabek nudged his head towards Yurio, "So I offered him a lift. After a while, we ended up at that outdoor restaurant that everyone else showed up to eventually."

"Oh right, Mari-nee-chan and Minako-sensei begged me to introduce them so they could sit with you guys." Yuri mused at the memory of it, "Viktor and I had been shopping around all day and were tired, so it was as good an excuse as any to sit down for a little while."

"If they wanted to sit with us then why were they crying?" Otabek recalled.

"Overcome with joy, I guess?" The older skater gave a nervous laugh, "My big sister is a huge fan of Yuri's, and Minako had always meant to use me as a way to meet other skaters. Phichit-kun and Chris had turned up by then, too, so she got to sit with the entire Men's group. At least she didn't ask me to give out hotel room numbers that time. When it comes to skating, she has no shame."

"JJ wasn't there, so it wasn't the entire group."

"Oh..." Yuri turned to face forward again and looked out through the windshield, "...Truth be told, JJ is the only skater she doesn't cheer for. To her, Viktor was the 6th competitor, even if he wasn't competing." He reached his hand across the center console and settled it against the aforementioned man's thigh, rubbing his thumb there back and forth slowly, "I'm actually not sure why she doesn't like JJ that much, but I noticed it a long time ago. She never has a Canadian flag in her cache...at least not because of him. I've seen her cheer for other Canadian skaters before, like at Worlds or something."

"Speaking of other competitions..." Otabek looked more towards Viktor then, "Are you guys competing at the Olympics?"

"Yuri is." Viktor answered quickly.

"I am...? But we just had that big talk about how complicated it would be for us."

"I insist." The Russian went on, lowering his right hand from the wheel to settle it on top of the hand resting against his leg, "It's your time to shine for the whole world, not just for skating fans. The Olympics are a big deal. Putin gifted that little red Audi to me after I won in the Sochi Olympics."

"You got a car from Putin?" The backseat entourage asked in tandem.

"Sure." Viktor nodded, "He also gave me the 'Order of Friendship' medal since it was a friendly competition with the whole world. The Olympics are always treated a little differently than any regular international event the ISU puts together. I can't remember what I got after winning in Vancouver though..." He laughed, "Oh well."

"Sounds like you're not competing this time though." Otabek said, bringing things back around to his original question, "I guess you'll be there only as a coach?"

"I haven't entirely thought it through yet." The Russian answered simply, "I probably should."

"No kidding." Yuri huffed, still a bit surprised, "It's a lot of logistical work to go through and we only have until Nationals to figure it out. Euros, Four Continents, and the Worlds after it all...the next three months are going to be almost as crazy as the last two."

"Maybe then I should just go ahead and say no." Viktor shrugged and smiled, "There's plenty of other Russian skaters who can compete instead of me."

Yurio examined his older counterpart carefully for a moment, green eyes moving over to Yuri after, seeing the anxious look on his face. He decided not to say anything though, turning his eyes out the window instead to watch the world go by...and seeing the billboard for that Mongolian restaurant that had been mentioned earlier.

.

Arriving at the Skate Club for the 3rd time felt different than it did the previous two, as there were far more cars there than had been there before. Yuri go a bit nervous, but not for the obvious reasons.

"...I wonder if the rink will even be available?" Viktor wondered on all their behalf, looking around as he got out of the car, "There's a lot of people here now."

"If it's anything like it used to be," Yuri started, moving towards the doors, but pausing as he waited for the others, "Hardly anyone will be on the ice. Folks usually take the weekend off when there's a competition. Everyone usually wants to see the event...or avoid all mention of it, if they didn't make the cut for some reason."

Yurio and Otabek came up on either side of him, looking at the blue awning over the doors, "Looks kind of old." The blonde noted, "This is where you trained before?"

"Mh. I was here for five years." The older skater answered, keeping his eyes fixed on it, "...Though honestly, standing in front of it the few times I have this weekend, it feels a lot like I never left."

"Why'd you leave?"

Yuri turned his eyes, though they were somewhat hidden behind the glare from the sun on his glasses, and he made a face, "Oh you know...something about being screamed at by some other skater to retire after my disastrous performance at the Sochi Final."

Yurio's eyes got small, and his face went pale, but he said nothing. Otabek gave him a silent, skeptical look, quirking an eyebrow.

The older skater turned back towards the doors though, and as he felt Viktor's fingers lace through his own, started stepping forward, "I had other reasons for half-quitting when I did. I didn't qualify for Four Continents or Worlds, but part of me was trying to figure out how to keep moving forward anyway. I just wanted to go home for a while and get my head together after everything else that happened. Coming back here now just gives me a weird sense of déjà vu."

They pushed through the side doors and made their way in past the check-in counter, heading through to the small cafeteria-like area before spotting the rink behind it...and about two dozen people hanging around it, both on and off the ice.

Yuri examined each face as well as he could, but didn't recognize many...at least not until he spotted the wavy, shoulder-length black hair and dark olive skin of someone he hadn't seen in years. His jaw dropped and he paused, forcing the other three to stop as well, each of them glancing from his stunned expression to where he was looking, though none were able to figure out which of the many people he was focused on. He practically choked a gasp, but then started sprinting forward, dragging Viktor along quickly until he roughly pushed through the doors. The noise of the outward slam of hands on the frame caught many peoples' attention, and the woman he'd been so surprised to see spun her head around suddenly.

It seemed like slow motion then, but Yuri couldn't take his eyes off of her, "I...I don't believe it...it's you..."

"Hey, Yuri!" Another voice called, that time more recently familiar.

Viktor looked from where Tess was waving, and made a face as he glanced to the woman who'd been sitting nearby, suddenly realizing why his husband was acting so strangely, "...Yuri?"

"Why'd you freak out like that?" Yurio asked, somewhat impatiently, looking up and around as others were quickly coming to the rink wall near where they were standing, the whole group of them recognized by literally everyone, "Katsudon!"

"I can't..." Yuri started, feeling a knot in his chest. He raised up his free hand to press against the tight feeling, but despite the anxiety welling up inside him, he couldn't help but let the tears run freely down his smiling face, and he jumped forward, "It's really you! I never thought I'd see you again!"

"Yuri-" Viktor started, thoroughly confused as he was dragged along.

"It's been a really long time, hasn't it?" The unknown woman said, rising to stand, towering over the shorter medic standing next to her, "It's good to see you, Yuri."

He quickly took her hand, getting a flustered look from his increasingly jealous-and-confused partner, "It's good to see you, too! I didn't think you'd still be in Detroit!"

"I wasn't." She smiled sweetly, "But Phichit told me you were here, and that you planned on coming back to the Skate Club for Gala practice. I couldn't pass up the chance to see you again before you left."

"Absolutely!" He agreed, suddenly lurching forward to pull the woman into an unexpected hug.

She blinked at him in absolute astonishment...and Viktor gaped in perplexed horror. Yurio and Otabek just watched quietly, neither really passing judgment, but waiting patiently for their cue to get onto the ice.

"Yuri-" The older Russian said more stiffly, squeezing his hand in an effort to get his husband's attention back.

"Sorry!" He answered, pulling back from the unexpected advance, "I can hardly believe I actually get the chance to introduce you two." Yuri turned to face his partner, lifting his free hand to gesture between the two, "Ketty, this is my husband and coach, Viktor Nikiforov." He explained proudly, looking back and forth between each of them, "Viktor...this is Ketty! She's the one who composed 'Yuri on Ice' for me last year!"