CHAPTER THREE HUNDRED SIXTY ONE

Viktor and Minako passed the absent members of Team Nagisa as they went back out into the hotel lobby. No words needed to be exchanged for them to know the meeting was finished, and the duo went by, wondering as to the condition of their athlete.

Viktor watched them go before turning back to the woman who'd been his partner in the mediation, "Thanks for your help. I don't know that I would've been able to get the same results without you."

"Is this what you wanted to get out of it though?" She wondered, though still feeling quite tickled at his gratitude.

"I got to confront the guy who went after my Yuri...said guy got to walk away without a black eye, and maybe some better insight into his flaws...and Yuri gets back a feeling of control. To me, those are all wins." He answered, then pulling the folder out from under his arms, "I should get this to Yuri though. Even I may need a nap when I get up there."

Minako smiled at that, and reached a hand forward to pat the side of the man's arm, "You've been a good and responsible grown-up today."

"Adulting is hard." He sighed and slouched.

"Not everyone's cut-out for it. You have your moments though."

"Hmm..." He nodded in tired agreement, but then leaned down to give her a parting hug, "It helps to have good examples floating around here and there." There was a kiss on the cheek from each of them as they pulled back again, "Thanks again."

"Anytime. Go on and get some rest. I'll see you boys at the Free Program."

"We should get dinner beforehand!" Viktor suggested, "I'll make sure Yuri's gotten some actual sleep first, too!"

"I'll hold you to it!" She waved, pushing out through the doors again and into the winter for her short walk back to the hotel next door.

The silver legend watched her go for a few moments longer, seeing her pass by on the other side of the lobby's tall glass walls, but eventually turned on a heel and went for the elevators, making his way back up to their floor, and the quiet of the room that awaited him there.

What a huge relief to finally have this done... I'm sure Yuri will feel better to know it's over, too.

The walk down the final hall as the elevator let him off was almost serene compared to the morning and previous night, and he slid his key-card into the door lock, hearing it buzz and click as it opened.

What he found within was hardly a surprise.

Viktor stepped within the dimly-lit space and shut the door, turning the deadbolt and setting the sliding-chain lock before slipping his shoes off. His long-coat was hung back up in the closet, and he unbuttoned the front of his blazer as he went to sit at the edge of the bed, right next to the waiting form of his supposed-to-be-sleeping husband. He set the folder down right next to his leg.

"You sure look awake for someone who should be unconscious right now." He commented, only to lean back and look over his shoulder at the man.

Yuri had pulled the blanket over his head and replaced the sleep-mask with his glasses, but otherwise, nothing much in the room had changed. He gave a nervous nod, "...How am I supposed to sleep, knowing what you're up to?"

"I guess I understand." Viktor mused, shrugging out of the blazer and setting it flat on the bed next to himself, and pulled up the manila folder again with that same hand, "Here you go."

Yuri took it, letting the blanket slide off of his frame a little. He looked at it for a moment, leafing through the 10 or so pages it contained, and skimming over the hand-written explanation of what had happened, "How'd he take it?"

"There was a bit of kick-back and a few tears, but...maybe somewhere inside that chicken-butt, there's a brain that'll process what was said, and maybe it'll humble him a little. I'm not letting him anywhere near you for at least the rest of the night though, at very least." Viktor explained, leaning down until he was on his back next to his partner, and could wrap one arm around his spouse's lower back, "But I guess that depends on what you do. Have you made up your mind?"

Hesitating a moment, Yuri then nodded, and came fully out from under the blanket. Wearing not but the t-shirt and shorts he'd been left in an hour earlier, he walked over towards the bathroom. Viktor rolled up to his feet to follow after, and leaned against the door to watch. Yuri stood in front of the sink, perfectly still for a few seconds, and then withdrew the papers from the folder. The water was turned on, and a moment later, he held the loose-leaf sheets under the wet stream, soaking the pages until the ink started to smear a little. Once they were soaked through, he gently ripped them into ribbons, then into even smaller pieces, and finally squashed them into a damp ball in his hands before finally casting the wad into the waste bin. He reached for a fresh towel and dried his hands, hanging it back up again before raising his tired eyes to the man who'd given him the chance to make that choice himself.

"I don't know how or why it...feels like this..." Yuri started, "The way you started this whole thing with the ritual cleansing last night, and then this meeting you just came back from...letting me decide what happens in the end, even though you could probably guess what I'd do before you even left."

"It was always going to be your choice in the end, whether or not I could guess what you would do." Viktor answered quietly, thumbs hooked into the edges of his pants pockets where he still leaned on the doorframe, "And though I'm sure Saito can guess what you'll do, too, I hope he learned a little something from the ordeal anyway. I didn't tell him until Minako and I were leaving the room that it was up to you."

"Yeah..."

Blue eyes watched for a moment, but Viktor could feel that subtle exhaustion starting to creep in, and he yawned behind a wrist as he leaned out of the doorway, "...Ahhh...I promised Minako I'd make sure you slept before tonight. I think I need to as well..."

He barely had a chance to open his eyes again after the yawn before he felt hands sliding around his sides, but when he could see again, he spotted the fluff of black hair just in front of himself. He managed a tired smile and returned the hug over his partner's shoulders, stroking one hand through that soft hair as he pressed one cheek to the man's forehead.

"Thank you for trusting me enough to let me do this my way," Viktor commented quietly, finding himself starting a slow sway, back and forth, soothing to the both of them by then, "I know you were worried I'd just reach across the table and smack him."

"I was less worried when Minako-sensei said she wanted to go." Yuri answered.

"Did you never tell him about how much you like katsudon?" The Russian wondered then, pulling back slightly to see his partner's face, "I thought I was throwing him a softball with that question...but he couldn't tell me."

"...Wow...really?" The younger figure was stunned, "...I'm sure I mentioned it..."

"I guess it doesn't matter." Viktor shrugged, and started shuffling them closer to the edge of the bed, one slow step at a time, "The way he tells it, he barely has a paper-thin understanding of any of the people around him at any given time. He'll never be able to have any kind of deep or meaningful connection to anyone until or unless he starts to listen more. Seeing people only as a construct of personality traits, rather than the stories they come with, will keep him at a distance to basically everyone."

"...That's really sad..."

"...Makes me wonder though..." Viktor commented, feeling the edge of the bed against the back of his legs as he looked up at the ceiling in thought, "...How he could've ever thought you and him were compatible, when he couldn't really tell me even one thing he knew about you. I know that you were pretty closed off before, and I heard all the stories from the folks in Detroit who said they had a hard time getting to know you because of it, too. Was it really that different for you that it was me in the end?"

"I don't follow..."

The Russian made a face, but then sat back against the bed, scooting back a little bit before waiting to watch his partner hop on as well and lie down next to him. He turned onto his side to face the man, holding his head up on one bent arm, palm against his cheek, the other hand reaching across the gap between them to cup it over Yuri's waist, "It only took a couple of weeks for you to get comfortable enough around me to open up a little bit. That day we went to the beach, and you told me about how others used to make you feel like they were intruding... Did you eventually let me in because I did something so much different than the rest of them, or is it just...because it was me?"

Yuri hesitated a moment, thinking back on those early days. He rolled onto his back then, and stared at the ceiling, feeling his partner's hand slide around from his waist to his stomach as he moved, and the fingers as they splayed out a bit and relaxed again. He closed his eyes for a moment, but then turned his head towards the silver legend and opened them again, "...I think you probably started at a disadvantage, actually..."

"...Really?" Viktor wondered, wiggling in a bit closer to close the gap a little again.

"Mh..." Yuri nodded, "I remember feeling a little jealous of Yurio when he first showed up, and how much more relaxed he was around you compared to me. I told you at the beach that I avoided you because I didn't want you to see my flaws, and that carried on for a while even after you came to Hasetsu. I didn't want to make you think less of me by saying something stupid...and it took a really long time for me to realize and accept why you were even around in the first place. Even not knowing about how you really felt back then, and not remembering the Sochi Banquet...there was some part of me that eventually accepted that you really wanted to be there, for whatever reason you had."

"I still think it's funny that we went all those months without knowing you'd forgotten asking me to come in the first place." The Russian mused, half-lidding his eyes as he looked on at his partner adoringly. His fingers started teasing the bottom edge of his husband's t-shirt, gliding gently over covered skin, "Back when you were still half-way avoiding me, I had come so close to asking, 'What was the point of inviting me here if you're just going to blow me off all the time?' I wonder how differently things would've gone if we'd cleared up the Sochi incident early on."

"...Who knows?" Yuri wondered, "I like how it turned out anyway though."

"Mmmh...me too." Viktor agreed, hand sliding fully under the t-shirt and around the younger man's side as he tilted his own frame slightly against his, lightly finding a kiss between them. He felt both of Yuri's hands come up between them before settling a palm against each side of his face, a thumb stroking there once before they parted again, nosing one another fondly, "Does it ever bother you...?"

"...Eh?"

"That I'm a guy." He clarified, even as he teased the tip of his nose against his husband's lips, "Or does it matter at all?"

"You don't remember the horrified look on my face when Mila and Sara got on either side of me in the hot-tub at Worlds?" Yuri huffed.

"Oh~!" Viktor laughed, thinking back on that moment, "You retreated from them and backed up into me so fast..."

"I think...it was weird at first." Yuri went on, pulling his hands back down again and brushing a few fingers against the inner edge of his partner's vest, finding where the two panels came closer in the center and buttoned together, "But it was less about you being a guy than it was about you just...being you. Though I guess, things being as they are, it might've taken me longer to clue in because you're a guy...I wouldn't have imagined you having those kinds of feelings for me, so I didn't expect them to be there."

"...That's what I figured." The silver genius nodded, finding another light kiss, and slid his hand a little further up along his partner's side, feeling at the ridges of each rib as he moved it slowly higher, "I suppose maybe I suffered the same confusion, just the other way around. I wasn't really sure how to seduce a man. I spent a long time worrying you'd be repulsed and horrified if you knew how I felt, so I erred on the side of caution...getting as close as I could as a friend and mentor, testing the limits of what advances you might accept from me, little by little..."

"When did you realize I wouldn't be?"

"Repulsed and horrified?" Viktor echoed, "Oh, that would've been when I took you down to the parking garage before your China Free Skate last year. When I asked if I should kiss you to make you feel better, and you yelled no...but not because you were grossed out... You shrugged it off like I imagine you would've if I'd suggested it even as we are now. Sometimes a kiss just isn't what you need. I learned that the hard way before your China Short Program this season, because that's exactly what I tried to do to stave off your looming panic attack. Remember all the good it did?"

Yuri winced a little, but managed a wry laugh, reaching one hand down to rub the outside of his hip, "I can still sometimes feel the bruise where I hit the wall..."

"Without some kind of emotional backbone, the physical side doesn't mean anything. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to learn how to help you."

"You've helped me in other ways," Yuri explained, pulling his hand back to the upper edge of the vest, letting his fingers slowly pull the button through the hole it had been laced through, "In a big way, you've helped me become so much more self-assured that I don't have panic attacks nearly as often in the first place. I don't feel like 'anxious' is my default setting anymore. It's just something that creeps up sometimes."

"Hmm..." Viktor purred, nosing at his partner's ear a little bit, feeling as each button was slowly slipped through and the garment came loose between them, "You've become so much more comfortable in your own skin in the last few weeks. All the better for me, since I've come so unglued in my own right..."

"With all the things you've had to deal with in such a short period of time, I'm surprised you held on as long as you did, especially at the end." Yuri pointed out, sliding his left hand under the edge of the vest, feeling at his partner's chest through the thin fabric of the white button-down shirt he still wore, "I pointed that out yesterday, too... If our roles had been reversed, and it was you who'd gotten hurt instead of me...I don't know that I would've been strong enough to help."

"You don't give yourself enough credit." Viktor huffed, rolling away a little and onto his back, though he kept his face turned towards his spouse, enjoying the feel of that palm against him even through the shirt, "You may have handled it even better than I did."

"...I'm not so sure..." Yuri sighed, letting his fingers sneak between the layers, fingertips finding skin even as the buttons held him back, "Maybe I'll get there one day. For now...I still kind of feel like I can only manage it as long as I know I have you backing me up. If it had been your head bouncing off the ice, I think I would've entirely fallen apart."

"Then let's not tempt it." The Russian suggested, feeling that one button coming loose, and Yuri's hand venturing all the way inside, fingers feeling lightly over his ribs, and the ridge of every muscle, "No more injuries, no more attacks, no more invasions of space from people we don't want it from... Just you and me, doing what we love, showing the entire world why we're the best."

"You don't think I'll mess up tonight?" The younger figure wondered dubiously, pulling his hand back again, toying with the one freed button with a fingertip.

"I don't think you have any reason to mess up tonight. Not anymore." Viktor answered simply, shrugging a little bit. He tightened his core and rolled upward to sit, twisting his arms to pull the vest off of himself, and brought his hands back around the front to finish undoing the rest of the shirt. As he pulled the sleeves off of himself and turned back around, he spotted his husband there reaching his own arms up above his head where he was in the middle of sliding the t-shirt off. Viktor cast his button-down aside and slipped in over his partner's bare chest while those arms were still up, the collar of the dark-colored garment still covering the younger man's eyes. Lips went to skin, and Yuri went limp with a slight gasp, legs jerking up a little from the surprise, but then relaxed again.

Yuri let his arms drop down to the blankets, in spite of the shirt still being partially on. There was something uniquely sensual about feeling his husband's teasing kisses without being able to see him giving them, and he relaxed into the sensation, leaving the collar of his shirt wrapped around his head, covering his eyes. Warmth trailed slowly from the middle of his chest, over to the side, kissing each ridge of lean muscle attached to his skinny frame, moving down towards his stomach. He half-giggled at the tickle of feeling the Russian's tongue dip into his naval, then continue straight up his center, almost to his chest again. He could feel his heart-rate starting to rise inside himself, as though the organ was quivering directly under his skin. Kisses continued working their way up the front of his body, then skipped a few inches. A few soft fingers pressed gently to the side of his jaw, and he felt the tease of the Russian's silver hair against his skin, a few warm breaths on his face, before the kiss that came against his mouth. He hissed in a breath, the heat of his husband's lips on his own, fingers trailing down his neck and over his chest again until that whole hand cupped around his waist, pulling him closer. It was almost instinct for him to raise his leg over the one his partner started to slide between both of his own, and he felt a strange, relieved feeling take over him when he felt their exposed skin press together between them.

We haven't done this since we came back from the onsen on Thursday night...and it's Saturday afternoon, now... Yuri thought, the hand around his side sliding a bit further behind him, cradling his lower back and pulling his front flush with his partner's, that thigh between his legs sliding up a little and then down again in a rhythmic, slow movement, I feel a little bad now...I didn't want him to take his hands off me for even one second when we were still at the arena yesterday, but then as soon as we got back, I barely wanted him to touch me at all... He's worked so hard to make me feel secure again after what happened...

He could feel the stiffness of arousal starting to rub against him with each upward slide of that leg, held back by far too much clothing. But, with his arms still pinned above his head by his own clothing, it was impossible to get his hands back so he could work on freeing it. It almost seemed like Viktor could read his mind in that moment though, because he felt the hand leave his waist, gliding up the side of his chest and further over the lower part of his arm, pushing the garment around the curve of his elbow enough that it freed the rest of that limb. When his hand slipped out of the loop of fabric, he reached it over the top of his head to hold the t-shirt in place so he could pull his other arm free, even as those light, teasing kisses continued. A few on his lips, a few on his chin, the tip of his nose, the side of his jaw, moving down to nibble on the side of his neck, too. The Russian's hand went back to his waist though once it had finished helping to free his own hand, and Yuri brought both of his down between them, sliding his palms over every inch of skin as they passed on their way. They found the edge of those slacks, and the flat hook-like clasp that stood in place of a button, then the zipper beyond it. He could feel the nudge of urgency in the way his partner subtly bucked his hips then, but the tease would have to go on for a little while longer.

Viktor enjoyed it regardless, rubbing against his husband's thigh, feeling the younger man's excitement grow as well. Yuri only had those figure-hugging shorts on though, so it would be a moment before the tally of their attire would be more equal. He felt fingers tease the inside edge of his waistband, dipping a bit further in as they went around his back, but with his left side still pinned to the blankets, the other hand was trapped in front. To remedy that tragedy, Viktor twisted upward a little, and laid himself down on top of his partner, giving that other arm the freedom to move wherever it wanted...and it did almost immediately. Joining the first in the finger-tip-tease just under the waistband, Yuri's right hand traveled the curve of his frame, bringing thumbs together at the base of his lower back. They slid back around the other way, thumbs edging over the crest of his hip-bones before sliding further within the fabric as they went up again. Viktor pulled up from the kiss he'd been teasing against his husband's lips when the felt both of those hands grabbing a handful of his rump, "...You should do that more often." He mused, smirking despite knowing Yuri couldn't see it.

"...It occurred to me that I should." The younger figure answered, cheeks flushed behind that dark fabric, "I've been allowed to for over a year now, and I think I can count on one hand the number of times I actually have..."

"That's a tragedy in itself."

"Considering the number of people who wish they could do what I'm doing right now?" Yuri wondered, giving his husband's backside a good but gentle squeeze, "It's more than a tragedy...it should be considered a crime..."

"Does that mean you're going to grab my butt more often?" Viktor laughed, hopeful though.

Yuri pulled his hands back some, feeling at the skin of his partner's lower back again, but then snuck his fingers under the black elastic band that had gotten in his way before, and replaced his palms against each cheek, skin to skin. He couldn't help but huff a quiet laugh to himself when he felt the sudden and, perhaps deliberate, push against his hips when he squeezed a second time, "...Reminds me of our first time."

"You'll have to slide your fingers further down for that, my love."

"Oh, you mean like this?" Yuri wondered deviously, slipping his right hand forward and his fingers down between his husbands parted legs, finding that button of flat skin Viktor had once pressed on that made him slide forward so far in the past. Viktor just hissed a breath in and pushed his hips even harder then, forcing Yuri to gasp a breath of his own.

"Mmmhh...yes, just like that..." Viktor purred, finding a few more kisses as he felt those fingers rolling that pressure against him, nudging at that sensitive walnut-sized organ within him. After a few presses, the Russian dipped his head to the side of his partner's neck, lips latching onto the edge of a shoulder. It occurred to him then that he wasn't using his own hands for much of anything at that point, and he brought the right down to remedy that, nudging his partner's left out of the way, and unfortunately out of his pants, to make room. That hand moved between them though, and quickly pushed away the last vestiges of fabric that kept them apart, withdrawing them both and circling his fingers around them to keep them together. He pulled up from his partner's neck then and looked down on the man's face, seeing the rose tint in those cheeks even under the edge of the t-shirt where it still covered those brown eyes. He gave another kiss just as he rocked his hips forward, forcing his member to slide against the other, and being rewarded for it with a whined breath. He let himself find a rhythm with that motion, rolling forward and back, feeling his husband fingers still pushing that sensitive spot between his legs, and purred the words against those soft lips, "...We should wear each other out...so we can both sleep..."

"...Absolutely..."