CHAPTER THREE HUNDRED FIFTY TWO
The crowd was cheering excitedly as Minami flew forward, his charming snaggle-toothed self waving happily. He quickly veered back towards rink-side though, finding his coach and idol there waiting to send him off.
"I didn't realize how huge this crowd was until I stepped into the rink just now." He said eagerly, "It's kind of like Four Continents last year."
"The crowds at Worlds can be even bigger." Yuri commented, looking around as well, "I'm actually kind of nervous about what it'll be like at the Olympics. People are probably going to be watching our sport between other events they're there for, so the stands will be absolutely jam-packed."
"I can't wait to see! Maybe I'll get to compete next time!" Minami was fawning back and forth as though he were the fan rather than the competitor right then.
"Maybe." Yuri nodded, "If everything goes the way I think...the next time the Winter Games come around, it'll be my last year in competitive skating."
The younger athlete's excitement came to a crashing stop, and the big happy eyes he wore suddenly started warbling as they filled with tears, "Y-Your last year!?"
"Shimatta!" Yuri half-yipped, reaching over the rink-wall to shake the figure, "Minami-kun! Don't think about it! It's still four whole years away!"
"Yuri-kun is going to retire after the next Olympics what am I going to do if I don't get to skate with him then it'll be the end of the road and I'll never get another chance for as long as I live and I just can't understand why this is happening aaaaaaaa..."
"Shakkari shiro, Minami-kun!" (Pull yourself together.) Yuri harped, "It's half a decade away!"
"And I'm going to be old tooooooo..."
Viktor's smirk twitched as one eye crept open at that, "...I'm going to be even older..." Dark circles comically formed under his eyes, and a black and ominous aura swirled around him, forcing both Yuri and Minami to hug each other over the wall and back up and away from him, "...In another four years I'm going to be 33...I'll practically be dead by then..." The Russian half-whined, that eerie smile making his visage all the more creepy.
Cheek-to-cheek, the two younger athletes clung to one another.
"Minami-kun."
"Hai."
"Ganba."
"You too."
"Thanks."
The coach just shook her head and smiled nervously.
Thankfully, Minami finally took the stage, departing from the rink-wall and making his way towards center. The fun-size but springy youth wore a dark ensemble; pin-striped black pants that, in old-style, rose up to his navel, with silver suspenders going over each shoulder, and a pin-tucked dark blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to just below the elbows.
He tapped his toe-picks a few times on the ice before taking position, flat on the rocker of the left blade while the right leg was slightly angled away from himself, arms prone at his sides, head bowed towards the tilted skate.
['Sing, Sing, Sing.' - Benny Goodman (Performed by The Jazz Ambassadors)]
The drum-roll started overhead, a lively pace from the get-go, and Minami snapped the fingers on his right hand along with the beat. When the saxophones and trombones joined in, he jumped up in a slight hop, kick-starting his three-step toe-pick run before hopping again to flip around to slide backwards. Arms out to the side in presentation as the trumpets finally picked up, he quickly rounded past the flat of the rink-wall, grazing past it swiftly with a number of quick turns and swivels.
Yuri glanced from the skater to the audience, seeing a number of them clapping to the beat of the music, "Ah he's doing it again...getting them all riled up within a few seconds of starting."
"I like it." Viktor mused, coming out of his darkened mood again to look more normal, "It's like a bit of ginger, resetting the palate of the whole Short Program after the mood set at the start."
The audience clapped at the first jump of the program, with Minami vaulting for the triple Salchow on a quick trill in the music (0.36-0:37).
"Yeah...I can see that." Yuri agreed, looking back out onto the ice, leaning onto the wall and perching on his elbows, "Though I get this feeling you're planning something."
The silver legend stepped closer, pressing his right hip to Yuri's left as he draped an arm over his partner's back, "Nothing particularly out of the ordinary. It's like I told you before though...I skate the way I think the audience expects me to. It's my big debut as a member of the JSF. I have to make it worthwhile."
Minami hopped into his first spin, the flying camel, rotating quickly with right hand over his chest and the left up in the air.
"I wonder what it's looking like in Russia right now." Yuri wondered, "Yurio's probably in the middle of the morning's official practice. We should check on him later, right?"
"Or at least find out what order he's skating in." The Russian nodded, rubbing his thumb idly back and forth where his hand hung close to his husband's right hip, making something of an effort to feel through one of the wider mesh gaps in his partner's costume leggings, "It'll probably be way late before he goes out if he's up close to the end."
"I'm just kind of curious about how things are shaping up without you there."
The clarinet solo began (0:57) and Minami jumped into it with his triple Axel, landing it into a long outside spread-eagle, spinning through a few twizzles, and immediately pushing into his step sequence.
"Oh, because of the protest threats?" Viktor huffed, "I'm kind of flattered, but at the same time, I don't think the rest of the Russian skaters deserve to deal with it. I feel a little bad for them."
"Most of your fans are probably watching All Japan at this point anyway." Yuri added, "I wouldn't be surprised if the ones who do turn up at Russian Nationals do whatever they can to make the RSF feel like you're there even if only in spirit."
"How so?"
The step sequence ended, and the music changed again, going from the full wind orchestra to just the drums (1:13-1:14). Minami's step sequence ended on a difficult note, with a set of traveling 3s; backward-entry sit-spin like rotations that moved in a line across the ice. His free leg kicked high as he rose up again, moving into an illusion spin with his head briefly angled towards the floor and free leg up in the air, then dipped quickly into the backward sit-spin. The combination spin started in 'shoot-the-duck,' rising into a donut camel spin, and ended on a swift scratch spin.
Yuri lifted his head slightly to catch a glimpse of his partner over a shoulder, "Maybe it's short notice, but I think it would be kind of funny if fans turned up with banners that looked like the scoreboards they see on the television...showing your SP marks as though it were a score you earned in Moscow that the others had to measure up to."
"I could see that happening." The Russian laughed, "Maybe when we're done here, we can make an Instagram video challenging the Russian Men's group to beat us. Link up our two events as if they were one."
"Prove to the RSF that they can't wash their hands of you like they thought they could."
"I can only wonder what next year might feel like if either one of us ends up getting sent to Rostelecom." Viktor pondered, stepping closer to the wall then as he spotted Minami stepping through the forward cross-cuts for the single quad of his program, "...Ease into it..."
The young athlete slid on a left forward inside edge, pivoted through a right inside 3-turn to flip backwards, glided backward then on the right backward outside edge with the free leg stuck out behind himself. As the toe-pick went down, Yuri leaned down into the rink-wall, and both he and Minami jumped at the same time. The right blade came down after the four rotations, and the young skater landed cleanly, following up with a double Loop immediately after.
Yuri joined the audience in excited applause before leaning into his spouse, one arm around the man's back as the other came up to cup a hand near his mouth, "Yatta! Minami-kun!"
Another drum solo started (1:48) and the skater was off like a shot, really starting to have fun with the program now that he'd landed his hardest element. The crowd was getting even more pumped as well, bouncing in their seats to the beat. As the finale started to close in though, Minami got ready for the final program element, and flew into a death drop for the sit-spin. The heel of his free blade barely skimmed the ice's surface for the first rotations, and he squished himself down into the pancake variant after that, switching feet beneath himself before morphing into a twist variant. By the last few beats, he'd risen back to standing, and descended again to rotate around on both knees, coming to a stop with his arms cocked halfway up from his sides.
The crowd roared their approval, and Minami clapped excitedly before pushing off to stand again, waving and bowing happily towards all sides. He hop-skipped a few paces to get back to rink-side and braced himself for the score to come.
"That was really good, Minami-kun!" Yuri told him as he came off the ice, pulling blade guards on, "You nailed that jump combo."
The petite athlete bowed deeply, "Domooooooooo!"
Sitting in the kiss-and-cry a few moments later though, Minami's adrenaline rush crashed and he found himself wondering if time had stopped. Eyes were glued to the scoreboard.
[The score for Kenjirou Minami-kun...] That voice finally called from overhead, causing everyone to go silent to hear it, "Hachi-ju ni, ju ni."
"82.12." Yuri translated, leaning slightly towards Viktor as they all started clapping again.
Minami was all-but bouncing off the walls, dancing around in the kiss-and-cry even as his coach was trying to corral him out of it.
Even with the young skater's excitement though, it was easy to tell there was a change in the air of the arena. Just as Minami went by, Yuri waved, but then took on a more serious expression...though not by much. He drew a deep breath, and reached up to the top of his white Olympic jacket, pulling on the zipper to undo the front as he exhaled.
"It's going to be the first time in weeks where you're not going into your Short Program upset about something," Viktor commented idly, taking the opportunity to place his palm against his husband's chest, feeling the thin black fabric that separated him from the man's skin, and slid his fingers beneath the glittering silver lapels on either side, "Nothing to worry about anymore."
Yuri nodded, lifting his head as he shrugged the jacket off his shoulders, "What few worries I do have were kind of put at the back of my mind after your little presentation earlier." He explained, his cheeks going a bit pink again. Viktor suddenly had arms around him, but only enough to flip him around and start walking him forward, pinning his arms to his sides where the jacket was still hanging off his elbows. The audience was starting to cheer for them as Viktor waddled them both over towards the rink door, stealing a few kisses from just above the edge of the black turtle-neck sweater, and the ear just beyond that, which made the pink shade grow deeper. It even coaxed something of a ticklish laugh from the younger figure, which gave Viktor some relief from the two missed regular kisses to that point.
It could've probably been more like...fourteen missed kisses, considering how many I wanted to give him right after the proposal... He thought, but trying not to let it bother him. His cool blue eyes watched adoringly as his husband turned around in his arms again to face him, trying to get out of his jacket before he got tangled in it, "You're going to do great. Don't think about the scores at this point. You just go out there and have fun, okay?"
Sleeve-covered fingers came forward to find the Russian's right hand, and Yuri brought it up to kiss the ring on it, holding those fingers there for a few seconds, "I plan to. I can hardly get into the competitive spirit right now as it is." He raised his sights to look into his partner's gaze, "But I guess it's like you said before, we don't really have to worry so much since we already have our jackets."
[Next to skate, from Hasetsu in Saga Prefecture, Kyushu...Nikiforov Yuri-san!]
The applause and cheers were enough to be felt in the floor, and Yuri finally slid out of the coat, letting his husband take it to fold over one arm. He held to the man's shoulder as he reached for the blade guards after that, passing them off as well before sliding out onto the ice.
It's been a while since I've come out for an SP and felt excited for it. I think the last time was at Skate Canada, right before I threw that little hissy-fit over not scoring more than 110... Yuri thought, waving and bowing to the crowd before making a wide curve to come back to the rink-wall. I've only ever scored more than 110 twice in my life, and both were at the end of last season. I don't know what I was thinking when I got it into my head that I could pull that off again at the first event of this season.
Viktor set the white jacket down over the wall, and leaned forward, sliding his hands up his husband's forearms, then snuck under them to find the younger man's waist and pulled him closer, "Ready then?"
Yuri raised his arms up as he closed in, settling them loosely over the Russian's shoulders. He closed his eyes and turned his head, pressing his brow to the crook of his husband's neck, drawing in a deep breath and savoring the man's smell while he could.
"Seduce me with all you have, my love." Viktor purred, patting his spouse's back a few times before pulling back. Cool hands cupped his face, and he looked forward into his favorite hazel eyes, "Melt the ice with your eros."
"I have to leave something behind so you can skate." Yuri pointed out, stroking one thumb before leaning closer and touching their foreheads together, "I'll give it about 70% of what I've got, okay?"
"70% of your eros is still something to be reckoned with."
"It'll be enough to let the rink freeze again before your turn." He added, leaning his face up to kiss the spot his brow had just been, "I'm off."
Viktor gave the best smile and nod he could manage, but he was still somewhat dumbfounded.
Fifteen kisses I've missed now. Is he doing this on purpose or am I just reading too much into it?
He turned his eyes towards the audience, looking at the lower rows. He spotted Minami nearby, clapping excitedly near the curtain to the prep area, and the other two skaters that Viktor recognized from Yuri's Regionals competition 2 years prior, and who had eaten breakfast with them at the 'Kyushu Table' earlier that morning - Hikaru and Yuto - though he couldn't remember their names. There were a number of Ladies Singles skaters who'd filtered into the audience to watch the Men's event as well, but Viktor stopped skimming when his eyes settled on the black chicken-butt and its teal highlights.
Maybe Yuri's avoiding kissing me because of that guy.
He narrowed those eyes briefly, but then turned them back out to his husband on the ice, taking his place in the center of the rink.
I wonder if he's even aware he's doing it.