CHAPTER THREE HUNDRED SIXTY FIVE
Yuri slowly came to on the floor, his head spinning still from the fall. When the world stopped rotating all around him, and he gradually hoisted himself back up into his seat, he pulled the jacket off the back of the chair and pulled it over the top of his head, cinching it from the inside so only his glasses could be seen from without.
Minako, of course, was just smiling innocently on the other side of the table, "Sorry." She mused.
"You shouldn't say stuff like that in public so loudly." He grumbled, voice muffled within the jacket, "Who knows who might understand what you're saying."
"I didn't realize you were still so sensitive about it." The woman grinned, "I'd have thought you were used to it by now."
"It doesn't matter what I'm used to. Don't you remember how fast I dropped last year when you guys all did the scorecard thing at Yu-Topia cuz everyone heard us by mistake?"
"Scorecard thing?" Minako echoed, "When did that happen?"
"Eh?"
Viktor turned his head stiffly, "She wasn't there, Yuri."
"...Eh?" He pulled the coat down off his head to see better, but turned his eyes back to Minako, "Where were you then?"
"Where was I when?"
"The night before the wedding party! Chris and Phichit-kun and Yurio all showed up, and you and Mikhail were there, too! Viktor and I got into an argument and I ran off, but after we all got back to Yu-Topia and things settled down..."
"Oh." Minako shrugged and huffed a laugh, "If it was that night, then Mikhail and I were both absent for all the fun, cuz we were off having fun of our own."
Both skaters stared blankly at her.
"A bunch of us split up into search parties after you ran away." She nudged her face towards the younger of the two, "I had Mikhail drive my car because I'd been drinking, but then we ended up at my Snack Bar and...well."
"You did it at your Snack Bar?" Yuri was incredulous, "Minako-sensei you're so inappropriate!"
"That's what I said about you, too!" She laughed, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth.
"What did I have to do with that!?"
"Not then." She smirked, "Way later; more recently. At NHK." She tried to explain, "Viktor had just finished his Rage Skate, and there were only a few skaters left until the medaling ceremony. When it was over and no one could find either of you, Yurio said he bet it was because you both snuck off for some hanky-panky. I said I doubted it, and he made a bet out of it...then we all ran into Papa Nikiforov outside, and Viktor literally spelled out that that's exactly what you two did. Yurio demanded his winnings, Mikhail confirmed the translation, and I yelled that 'you were so in appropriate' while I fished for the money I owed for losing." She laughed again, remembering it all fondly.
Yuri just whipped his head to the right to gape at his partner.
Viktor held up both hands defensively, "It was before the Final. Anything I said before that night at Campus Martius is protected under the Articles of 'Before Yuri Told Me To Shut My Face About Sexy Time.'"
Minako glanced over at the Russian, "He actually told you to stay quiet about it?"
He nodded.
"It's not something other people need to be talking about." Yuri explained stiffly, "I don't even see why anyone would think they need to. Our private life shouldn't be fodder for jokes."
"I didn't mean to make you think I was poking fun at it." Minako leaned back in her chair, one finger slowly dancing around the rim of her beer glass, "I just wonder how and why you guys even want to go visit Kon on your own. Just last year, you were both terrified of him, and for good reason. I know he's changed a lot in the last few weeks...but the operative word is 'weeks.' This is a new development. There's no telling how easily he'll slip back into old habits."
"That's why it's still just something we're considering." Viktor explained, "I think it would be good in the long run for my papa to see how Yuri and I are normally...or at least as normal as we can be when he's around. I really feel like he's trying to make amends, given how he reacted when he found out I'd been cut from the RSF. The least I can do is give him a chance, right?"
"He's trying to do the right thing regarding the skating...but it wasn't the skating that got you punched in the face last year." Minako pointed out, "I mean, just earlier today when I was chatting with Mikhail about how Kon's behaving in Moscow...apparently Kon had mentioned in days prior that he still doesn't consider you and Yuri to be together. Period. Full stop."
"Then what's all this I'm hearing about how he's loving every minute of the RSF being punished by Yuri?" Viktor asked pointedly.
"You and Yuri don't have to be in a relationship for Yuri to be an instrument of your vengeance on the ice. He's your skating student...that's all he is in Kon's mind."
"Even after everything I said before the NHK Exhibition...?" Yuri wondered.
"I wasn't part of that so I'm not all sure what was said, but the way Mikhail explained it, Kon responded more to the fact that you stood up to him, not that you defended a relationship he doesn't approve of." Minako explained, "But you two are practically inseparable. Even I could see how upset Viktor was when he got to the airport in Sapporo and couldn't immediately find you. If you guys plan to spend even one day out there with him before Euros, it's one day that no one else is there to help keep an eye on things...and if you try to be close with one another like you usually are, and Kon gets a wild thorny hair up his arse over it...it would take until Euros for anyone to know you're in trouble."
Both men seemed to go quiet after hearing those words. Viktor cast his eyes down in thought, but Yuri was looking at him instead, seeking some kind of sign as to what the Russian was thinking. Viktor eventually abandoned the thought though, reaching his left hand between them to find Yuri's right, and brought it up to kiss the ring. He kept a hold of it though even as he relaxed their hands against the table again.
"Nothing is set in stone." He said quietly, "We still have other things to worry about before that anyway."
.
The day before...
Moscow, Russia - "Megasport" Sports Palace, [дворец спорта "МЕГАСПОРТ"]
Men's Singles Short Program
The warm-up period was about as routine as anyone could expect. The Opening Ceremonies, and event-introduction by the RSF suits, was well received...but the arena was only half as full as anyone had hoped. Yurio grit his teeth in annoyance at the whole thing, glancing up into the sparsely-populated stands as he glided along.
With everything that's happened in Japan over the last week, the RSF must really be shitting themselves now.
He peeled out from the corner he was sliding towards and vaulted through an easy triple Salchow, then moved off again to let the next person through.
If they didn't feel like idiots before, firing Viktor and making it sound like it was a mutual decision...only for him to join the JSF instead, and be given a spot on their Olympic Team...they must really feel like idiots now.
It wasn't hard to spot his personal cheering section. Both of them. 'Yuri's Angels' amassed as close as they could to rink-side, right in the middle of the long section, so they could see as much as possible without having to look up at the big screen held above the ice. 'Team Rozovsky + One' was almost exactly opposite the fangirls, sitting in the mid-section but in the third row. Like in Sapporo, Konstantin occupied several seats on his own.
...It's still fuckin' weird how he showed up. I didn't think he actually would.
The gruff old man wasn't exactly watching though. His eyes moved around the audience, watching the fans, then moving down to rink-side where officials and event-staffers were moving around, going about business as usual despite the small crowd size. Occasionally, those Nikiforov-slate irises would graze the ice itself, but would wander away again shortly after.
[That concludes the warm-up period...skaters, please return to rink-side for the start of the Short Program.] The announcer called overhead.
Both silver teens lifted their heads for a moment to glance over their phones, looking around as the words bounced around the walls of the arena. It didn't take a literal translation for them to know what was going on though. Nikki looked back down at her own phone, careful to keep Yurio in the view-finder as she recorded his last slide towards the exit in the wall. Once he was blocked from view, she closed out of the camera app and clicked her phone off until later, and turned to her father on her right, "Do you think they'd let me go down there when Yuri goes out so I can wish him luck?"
"Probably not." He answered.
"Do you think they'd let you go down there?" She asked instead, poking at the outline of the badge he had in his coat pocket.
"Probably."
Nikki arced up where she sat, and leaned dramatically to the side, until her head touched the edge of Mikhail's shoulder, "Doooooooo you think they'd let me down there if I had your badge?"
"Do you speak Russian?"
"...No."
"Then no."
"Papa." She whined, "You should take me! With as few people as there are in the audience, I'll bet all the skaters are feeling burned right now. Yuri will feel better if someone other than Yakov is seeing him off."
"Lilia is down there too."
"You know what I mean!"
"I'm comfortable though."
"Dad."
"Mmmmmmhh..."
"DAD."
[The first skater of the Men's Singles event, coming from Yekaterinburg in central-western Russia...Maxim Lutai.]
The meager audience cheered as a young, thin man in traditional-looking clothing glided out to wave, heading back to rink-side to speak with his coach. Just as he arrived though, fans started to raise their banners and flags...and the hastily-made signs that listed both Nikiforovs' scores from the Japanese Short Program.
[Виктор НИКИФОРОВ - 115.75]
[Ыури НИКИФОРОВ - 101.26]
Konstantin caught a glimpse of a rather ostentatious banner just above the Yuri's Angels gathering, hanging from the banister to the second level...and laughed deeply. He whopped the side of Mikhail's knee with the back of a hand and then gestured over at it, [See? They can't get rid of my son that easily. These cucks made him leave physically, but his fans make sure to remind them that he's still out there.]
Mikhail looked a bit dazed, and his knee throbbed from the clobbering. He reached one hand up to adjust where his flat-cap had been tilted off-center from the strike, then reached down with the same hand to rub the side of his leg, [Of course they would. Before he was fired, he was called 'Russia's Hero.' Now they don't have one anymore.]
"What are you guys talking about?" Nikki wondered, leaning forward to see around her father's shoulder.
Mikhail turned his head to look at her, and leaned back in his seat, "Kon thinks it's funny that Viktor's fans are making his presence known here." He gestured across the ice to the score banner, "That's Viktor and Yuri's names in Cyrillic. Those are their scores from 6 hours ago in Japan. It's 1am there now though so they're all probably asleep."
"Oh..." She mumbled, squinting her eyes to see it better, but then turning back again, "So can we go down? He's going out third..."
The first skater's music suddenly started playing overhead, Mozart Piano Concerto No23., drawing up their attention again for a moment. Nikki started putting on the puppy eyes though, and set her dainty pale hands on the man's black coat-sleeve.
"Pleeeeaaaaaasssseeee?"
Mikhail was already half-convinced just by the urge to want to walk the ache out of his knee, and he nodded before puppy-eyes became crocodile-tears, "Alright, alright...let's get going." He started to rise up, and Nikki quietly cheered her victory, "Viktoria, we're gonna go down and wish Yuri luck. Stay here." He turned to the bear, [Kon, we'll be right back. Watch Viktoria please.]
"Da."
Viktoria looked up from her phone to see the two pass in front of her knees, but she nodded and went back to her YouTube feed. Though happy to show support to her new younger brother, watching figure skating still wasn't the teen's first choice of activities. Until Yurio hit the ice, she was content to watch music videos.
Mikhail followed after his youngest as she found the path down under the stands, practically skipping once she found level ground after the stairs. She paused and waited for her father to catch up, but then curled her fingers around his wrist, just above where he'd been hanging his hands in his coat pockets, "So when are you and Cousin Viktor going to start talking to each other again?" She asked pointedly, catching the man by surprise.
"When he feels like it."
"You were the last one to speak between you though..." She pointed out, "I don't know what you guys said, but you were kind of mean to him at the end."
.
Those crystal blue eyes went back to the skater's direct relation, a finger pointing at the elder silver Russian to single him out, "You need to back off a little bit. I gave you an inch and you took a thousand miles from me. You've basically done everything that I told you last year not to do."
"Vivi-"
"No..." The silver legend shook his head, "No more. Vivi is the child you left behind. He's gone. I was stupid and naïve to think that we could pick things up again where we left off, but neither of us is the person we were back then. I need you to stop treating the weight of my opinion as though I'm still 5 years old, when I was to be seen but not heard. I'm turning 29 in 2 weeks and I'm going to be heard. You don't just get to decide to move to Hasetsu without talking to anyone else about it first! Just because you and Minako-sensei are engaged doesn't mean the rest of us don't count! Hasetsu is our place. You don't just get to force your way there! Did you even ask her what she thought!?" His hand gestured towards the ballerina, making her hyperaware of herself suddenly.
Mikhail looked on steadily, giving that same steely-eyed gaze that he'd done when the two of them were in Russia and Viktor had been obstinate about sleeping under his father's roof. He just shrugged and shook his head, "No."
"Then maybe she should be the first person you have that conversation with. I may ask you to seek mine and Yuri's approval before you move, but it's her consent that you should probably have first."
.
"Uncle," Viktor called, half-walking-half-skipping to catch up, "Wait."
"Haven't you said enough already?" Mikhail said stiffly, pausing only long enough to look back over one shoulder before moving off again, "If you don't want me involved in things then quit coming after me."
"I never said that. Don't put words in my mouth." The younger figure said simply, stuffing his hands into his team jacket's pockets, "All I meant was that you're doing too much at once. If you still plan on moving everyone to Hasetsu, th-"
"Minako called off the engagement because of you." The elder said bitterly, stopping where he was, but not looking back. Both of his daughters were stunned to hear the words, and Nikki put her hands over her mouth, both pairs of eyes looking from their father to their cousin. Mikhail held his ground though, "Because of what you said."
"I can't make choices for her." Viktor explained, only then switching up his language preferences to something the girls wouldn't understand, for their sake, [But taking it out on your kids by playing keep-away from Yurio, like you don't want them getting too attached while you scheme your way out of moving to Japan, is childish.]
[Says the guy who slept in the car because he was too proud to sleep in his father's house...when it was your idea to go out there in the first place.] Mikhail retorted, [I did everything you asked of me and you still threw me under the bus in the end. I knew you'd be different from the kid I left behind 20 years ago, but I didn't think you'd grown up into an ungrateful jackass.]
.
Mikhail drew a breath and quietly let it out again as they continued to walk, "It's hard to explain."
"You think the world of him though," Nikki added, "After you found him again last year, you would always talk about him. I hate to see you guys fighting."
"I can hardly remember exactly what it was that set him off in the first place." The elder explained, "I knew I messed up when I brought Kon to Japan for Viktor's last show before the Final...but I thought it was sorted out. Now Viktor seems to be getting testy over the fact that I'm starting to have a life of my own within his circle. I don't think he appreciates or understands that grown-ups all have lives of their own and he doesn't get to decide for others what they can or cannot do."
"I don't think he said he wanted to decide for you." The teen said quietly, following her father around another corner that lead towards the skaters' prep area. She let go of his arm long enough for him to pull the badge out of his pocket and take it in his other hand, "He just thinks you're doing a lot...and you're doing it really fast."
Mikhail went quiet as he held up the badge to the security staffers that blocked the way to the athletes, and they stepped aside to let the two through, though not without getting a slightly dirty look from one of them. Mikhail ignored it, hoping his daughter didn't notice it in the first place, which seemed to be the case.
"Anyway, I hope you guys can sort it out soon." Nikki went on, spotting Yurio by Yakov and Lilia not too far away, and waved, "It's gonna be super awkward in Hasetsu if you two don't get along. We share too many mutual friends now, and it'll be hard to avoid running into one another because of the figure skating stuff that the two Yuris and Viktor do."
"I know."
Jade eyes looked up, but then gave up, unsure whether Mikhail would put in any effort towards resolving their small crisis. She sighed and let her father's wrist go, skipping ahead to get closer. She crouched down excitedly where Yurio was doing a few final leg stretches on the floor, "So you're ready?"
"Always." He said confidently, "I'm going to crush all these people."
"Did you see the banners with Cousin Viktor and his Yuri's scores on them?" She asked deviously, smirking behind one hand, "Your bosses must be mad."
"They're too proud to be mad." The blonde explained, legs spread out in a V away from himself, and he walked his hands forward until he was chest-down between his knees, arms straight out, "What little I've heard has been a mixture of righteous indignation and mockery. Some are even trying to say that the JSF took on Viktor out of pity, because of Katsudon."
"...Speaking of him." Nikki said, lowering her voice as she glanced back briefly to spot her father starting to talk to Yakov casually, far enough away that the noise around them drowned out both conversations, "...Could you give me his cell number?"
"...You want Katsudon's cell number?" He echoed in confusion, pushing up onto his hands to rise up a little, "...Why?"
"Papa and Cousin Viktor aren't on speaking terms, and papa won't admit he's the one who should be the one to offer a truce, since he was the last one to say anything between them at the Final. Maybe I can get Yuri's help. I was thinking about asking Minako too but I get this feeling she's too much of a fan of Viktor's to be able to help with personal stuff."
"...That's not entirely untrue." Yurio nodded, and shrugged as he pushed up to sitting straight. He leaned back, legs still stretched out, and shuffled through his gear back until he found his phone. A few clicks later, and Nikkita felt the buzz of a new text message, and she saw Yuri's contact information in a bubble there, "Anyway...it'll only be a couple more days before we get to Hasetsu. If they don't sort out their shit sooner, it'll just have to be later."
"I'd rather it be sooner." She replied, sitting back and crossing her legs to formally add that contact to her own list, "I want to be able to go to their second wedding without Viktor being apprehensive cuz of papa."
"...Second wedding?" Yurio quirked a brow, "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, you didn't see the Japanese Opening Ceremonies?"
"No, I was gonna watch later."
"Ah okay...well...Viktor got a mic and he asked Yuri to marry him again in front of everyone. I'm not sure if he meant it as a stab at the RSF, given what you said you'd heard them say about why they really let Viktor go...but..."
Yurio huffed a laugh and shook his head, "That sounds like something he would do. If the RSF hates his thing with Katsudon enough to fire him for it, then he's gonna use his thing with Katsudon to rub it in their faces that they can't hurt him."