CHAPTER THREE HUNDRED SIXTY NINE
GROUP 01 - FINAL SCORES
1, 北‧海斗 (Kaito KITA) (19) - 81.15 - 168.25 - 249.4
2, 汐田‧和喜 (Kazuyoshi SHIOTA) (25) - 78.14 - 156.73 - 234.87
3, 小橋‧偉雄 (Hideo OHASHI) (21) - 78.02 - 127.62 - 205.64
4, 田邨‧伸郎 (Nobuo TAMURA) (17) - 73.61 - 110.25 - 183.86
5, 原口‧主 (Mamoru HARAGUCHI) (20) - 64.26 - 115.62 - 179.88
6, 下野‧陽介 (Yosuke KANO) (16) - 63.79 - 106.92 - 170.71
7, 武良‧勝麻 (Shoma MURA) (23) - 61.69 - 107.54 - 169.23
8, 原山‧誠 (Makoto HARAYAMA) (18) - 60.7 - 104.29 - 164.99
9, 枦川‧竜亮 (Ryusuke HASEGAWA) (23) - 58.51 - 105.64 - 164.15
10, 山口‧一基 (Itsuki YAMAGUCHI) (17) - 56.75 - 105.2 - 161.95
11, 大西‧悠人(Yuto OMIKI) (19) - 54.18 - 94.37 - 148.55
12, 椙田‧且美(Katsumi SUGITA) (15) - 54.16 - 91.42 - 145.58
GROUP 02 - UP NEXT
13, ニキフォロフ‧ヴィクトル (Viktor NIKIFOROV) (29) - 115.75
14, 齋藤‧朝日 (Asahi SAITO) (26) - 112.14
15, ニキフォロフ‧勇利 (Yuri NIKIFOROV) (25) - 101.26
16, 南‧健次郎 (Minami KENJIROU) (19) - 82.12
17, 佐埜‧優 (Yutaka SANO) (20) - 75.91
18, 村田‧冨美雄 (Fumio MURATA) (19) - 68.73
19, 山基‧審 (Shin YAMAMOTO) (22) - 67.62
20, 譽士太‧乃輔 (Daisuke YOSHIDA) (21) - 61.29
21, 藤原‧晃 (Hikaru FUJIWARA) (20) - 60.85
22, 宮川‧実 (Minoru MIYAGAWA) (23) - 59.37
23, 安東‧延也 (Nobunari ANDO) (15) - 57.31
24, 鬼原‧銀 (Gin KIHARA) (16) - 53.19
[That's it for the first half of the Men's Group.] Morooka said, looking over the ice from the JSF Official media table, Oda next to him as always, [There'll be a short intermission to resurface the ice, and then the final group will head out for their warm-up period.]
[The next group will be the most hotly anticipated of Saturday's event.] Oda added, [With its conclusion, we'll be finding out - hopefully - who in the Singles category will be chosen to fill the last slot on the Japanese Olympic Team...and not only that, but the real heavy-hitters of the Men's Singles are going to be coming out. Rising star Yuri Nikiforov, returning favorite Asahi Saito, and newcomer to the JSF, Viktor Nikiforov...it's going to be a nail-biting event, to say the least. All three are neck-and-neck coming out of the Short Program yesterday.]
[And I'm sure Viktor is caught between wanting to make a good impression and not wanting to completely eclipse our native sons. It's an awkward spot to be in. What do you think he'll do?]
[Hmmm...hard to know. He's currently in the lead by only a few points, but he's always had very strong Free Programs. On the other hand, though...he's really brought Yuri to the fore by tapping into that seemingly-endless reserve of stamina. The both of them have both held the World Record for the Free Skate in the last year, but Viktor did retire his record-breaking program after NHK.]
Morooka laughed, [I'm not even sure it's fair to count that program. He skated like a man possessed that day.]
[Seems like all the best things from Viktor come from or happen in Japan, wouldn't you agree?] Oda mused, turning towards his co-host.
[Absolutely!]
Yuri swung his arms around in circles, stretching his chest and back a bit while the Zamboni worked its magic in the rink. A hum of energy was starting to buzz in the prep area where the remaining skaters were gathered, surrounded by those who had already gone out and were anxiously awaiting the final show.
Viktor had his phone out, recording a video for Instagram, and offered his own sort of narration to the thing, as though he himself were a sportscaster, "...As you can see, everyone's pretty psyched for the second group to go out. There was one Olympic contender in the first, but there's one more with us, plus Yuri and I, so it's bound to be interesting. I can't wait to see how everyone does. Right, Yuri?"
"Eh?" He lifted his head, not having expected the camera to be on him just then, but there it was, and Yuri waved nervously, "Oh...ah, yes!"
"Ahh...he's so adorable. I'm so lucky~!" Viktor smirked, mostly to himself, but then turned the phone around and waved as well, "Wish us all luck! Davai to my Russian friends back in Moscow going into their own Free Skate later tonight! And spasibo to all my fans who've been so great and supportive with all these changes!" He suddenly put one finger against his lip and gave a sneaky wink behind his bangs, "Maybe we'll see all of you much sooner than the Winter Games. Bye~!"
Yuri watched as his husband rather-proudly clicked off the recording and started writing the post that would go online with it, "You're that sure we're going to Euros?"
"I did say maybe." Viktor teased, reaching his left arm out to the side to find his partner's back, continuing to type with just the one thumb, but then looked over as well, "Are you that unsure about us visiting my papa beforehand? We could skip it. It's not like he knows we're even thinking about it."
"...Unless Minako tells Mikhail, and Mikhail tells Kon, who is literally right there with him right now."
The Russian just made some sputtering noises, "I've thought so little about my uncle lately that you'll have to forgive me for not even considering him as part of this equation."
Yuri made a face at that, but slid in closer under the arm that was reaching for him, wrapping his own around the silver legend's core, "You and him are going to have to sort things out if you ever want to relax again back home."
"I can be surprisingly civil when I want to be."
"That's not the same thing."
Viktor slouched a little, already tired of the segue, "I don't have to work out anything with him. If he wants to have his own life in Hasetsu, then that's exactly what he's going to get...his own life. He doesn't have to have anything to do with me while he's there, and if he doesn't care what I think about him being there in the first place, then he's not going to know what I think of him while he's there."
"Now you're just being stubborn."
"Him and Minako and Yurio can have their own little family thing far away from me, preferably on the other side of town somewhere. It has nothing to do with me and I don't intend to get involved anyway."
"Viktor-"
"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, my love." He tried to sound more reasonable then, looking back at his phone to type a few last letters, and posted his video, clicking his phone off and putting it back into his pocket to free up that hand. He turned his frame to face his husband evenly, and pet the top of the man's head, stroking back against that slicked-back black hair, "We had a good thing going before he ever turned up anyway. I'm content to go back to that."
"But Minako-sensei isn't just going to stop coming to Yu-Topia just because of him, and your cousins are going to be around Yurio a lot, probably, so it's-"
Viktor cut him off with a kiss, and held there until he was sure the thought was gone, at least for the moment. Still, when he lifted his head back again, his eyes caught sight of a familiar figure coming into view, and he lowered down again to find another. He could feel Yuri's frame relaxing into it, at least temporarily accepting that the conversation was over, but by then, the kiss was less about the prior topic than it was about preventing the start of the next one.
Yuri hasn't seen Saito since the assault. I can't stop them from seeing each other during the warm-up, but...
His eyes cracked a little and followed the other skater around, through the crowd, waiting for Asahi to be far enough away that he couldn't easily be spotted. He closed them to enjoy the end of the long kiss, but wasn't that surprised to find those cherry-tinted hazel eyes already looking at him before it was over.
"...He's standing right behind me, isn't he?"
"I can't just kiss you for a long time because I like it?" Viktor wondered, hoping to stave off the obvious.
"I saw your eyes wandering."
"He's moved off." He explained instead, "Just breathe. Think happy thoughts...think about Jiro and Makkachin's reactions when we get back home...and about how much fun we're going to have when we take them with us abroad. I'll get to show you some real Russian auroras, we'll get to do the winter campfire thing, too...and the train ride from St. Petersburg into Europe is actually pretty scenic, too. I've done it a few times on the way to a European competition. La Première isn't the only fun way to travel."
"...I suddenly feel really weird, wishing you weren't competing with me here..." Yuri sighed, dropping his forehead down to his husband's shoulder and hugging a bit tighter, "This is hardly the worst thing that's ever happened to me, but I feel like I'm reacting to it a lot more strongly than I have to other stuff..."
"Oh, trust me...if anything threatens to happen to you while I'm skating, I will step out of my show to intervene. I'll have my eyes on you the whole time. But...I got the impression from Saito this morning that he wouldn't do anything else...and not just because he meant for it to be the end, either." Viktor reassured, returning the tighter hug and gently rocking his partner slowly from side to side, speaking the words against the man's neck, "So please try to relax. You said you wanted to have fun..."
"...I say things, but that doesn't always mean I get to do those things..." Yuri explained anxiously, fingers clamping to the white jacket, "I can already feel my heart racing."
"Shhhh..." Viktor cooed, "You're safe. I'm here. I'm not going to let you go."
[Will the skaters from Group 2 please enter the rink. The 6-minute warm-up will begin shortly.]
"Shimatta..." (Damn it...) Yuri grumbled, sighing and lifting his head, "You'll have to in a second."
"It's a warm-up, my love, not a practice. I don't have to let go of you if I don't want to. Stammi vicino, Yuri." (Stay close to me.)
The younger skater lifted his head, eyes looking on that pale face in surprise...but then relaxed, and Yuri let himself smile a little, "Hanarezu ni soba ni itte." (Stay by my side.)
Skaters amassed at rink-side, but when the Olympic duo approached, many quickly cut a path to let them through first. They approached the wall, and watched as one of the event staffers pulled it in to open the door, and as if the arena was welcoming royalty into their midst, the moment those two set blades to ice, the audience roared with approval.
Even for just a warm-up, seeing the Nikiforovs skating was still an event in itself. They slid clear across the rink before anyone else followed after them, hand-in-hand, waving up at the crowd.
Of course, fanboy-extraordinaire Minami rushed out third, soaking up the last bits of the extra cheering before it faded down and the regular warm-up could begin.
Asahi waited until Yuri and Viktor went by and were circling away from the door again before stepping out himself. Still, when the audience cheered a bit louder for him, he was obliged to raise a hand to acknowledge them, hoping the pair further out front wouldn't look back. They did anyway to do backwards cross-overs around the short-side of the rink, but for the most part, it seemed like they focused on Minami rather than himself...which was a relief, in a way.
With them going out 4th and 8th, they won't be able to stray far from rink-side for the whole rest of the night. It should be safe to wander around once we're done out here...
He twisted away from the group, finding some space and throwing himself through a triple Axel, landing it easily enough before moving off again. Other skaters were starting to do the same thing; vaulting through jumps, or at least practicing some more complex moves. So far as Asahi could see, neither of the Nikiforovs tried any jumps...they stayed glued to each other, skating around as though they were a couple of Ice Dancers rather than figure skaters.
They're not even taking the warm-up all that seriously. Are they that sure of their performances or are they that indifferent because they were already picked...?
For some reason, there was a brief moment where Asahi felt like Viktor was looking at him, and he quickly turned his head again, focusing instead on his own surroundings.
"I gotta try one jump..." Yuri said, even though he was holding a bit harder to the Russian's hand than he had been a moment before, "I'm going out close to the end so even if I fall..."
"You know what happens when you try to jump with something on your mind..." Viktor pointed out, smiling nervously, "It happens every time..."
"Wakatta, wakatteru yo!" (I know, I know!) Yuri whined back, "Still!"
"Well, I guess I'll take any excuse I can get to touch your butt, even if it's because I'm trying to rub out the soreness of a bruise from where you fell on it."
Those cheeks just went red in spite of himself, "Viktor-"
The silver legend grinned unashamedly, "Go on then. I'm ready." He pulled the one free from his husband's grip and flexed his fingers eagerly.
Minami just chortled a laugh under his breath; next to him, Hikaru was watching nervously, more worried about the fact that he was skating first than because of the butt-groping that was about to take place.
Yuri finally snuck away, sliding in a wide curve and picking up speed as he moved. There was a quick 3-turn, and Yuri dipped down onto the outside edge of his left blade, almost tucking it in under himself as he leaned and the right leg went out behind him.
Viktor kicked out frost as he came to a stop and watched, with Minami doing the same next to him, each of them watching eagerly. The Russian crossed his arms, watching his husband...and his nemesis sliding by in the background.
The toe-pick went down, and Yuri launched, spun three times...and fumbled the landing, just as Viktor had expected. When he finally came to rest, the right side of his arse was throbbing where it hit the ice, and the front of his pants and jacket were frosty. The audience winced, but with the silver legend going over to collect his skater, there was nothing much to worry about. He slid down to one knee and dug a toe-pick down to brake, just as Yuri was picking himself up onto his knees and elbows.
"You had to go for the Lutz." Viktor teased, "Even as a triple, falling from it can hurt more than the others. You have a habit of trying the worst possible jumps when you're trying to prove a point. You went for the quad in Detroit, too."
"I can't help it." Yuri whined, drooping his head even as he felt Viktor pawing down his arms to find his hands and help him back up again, "The Lutz was the last jump I tried to master... I feel like if I can still do that when my mind is wandering, then I can still do the others, too..."
"Your mind is wandering?" Minami echoed, "How come? Cuz of the stuff that happened yesterday?"
Yuri thought he could feel the blood draining from his face, but then he remembered that the younger skater technically didn't know what happened, so he nodded and made up an excuse to explain it away, "...Yeah... I guess my anxiety is just shooting through the roof because I got picked for the Olympic Team. It's just like back at Worlds when I skated as a Nikiforov for the first time...I feel like I'm under extra scrutiny because of it..."
"And I keep telling you that you've earned both of them." Viktor reassured, gently pulling on his husband's left hand to guide it behind his back, and let his own hand shimmy down to the frosty spot on his partner's bum, kneading it carefully and grinning from ear to ear the whole time, "And especially then, cuz yikes, you took out my new World Record for the Free Skate just 5 minutes after I reset it myself, and in doing so, swiped the Gold from me right and proper."
Yuri's face went red again, in equal parts because of the story and because of the groping that he was certain every pair of eyes in the arena was watching. He narrowed his gaze and raised both brows though as a few certain cogs turned in his brain, and the arm that was clinging to his husband's back suddenly slid lower, his own fingers grabbing a handful of skater-butt. The Russian seemed rather gleeful about it though, as did the audience, given the laughter they both heard from a few who'd spotted it.
"It's going to be a good night." Viktor mused then, twisting around suddenly to skate backwards in front of his spouse, both hands groping at the man's backside then. He grinned seductively as he felt a second hand come around to grab him on the other side as well, "The last time you had your hands on me like this before an event, you set a new record."
Yuri tilted his skates and forced them both into a curve, following the wall around as he returned the same sultry look with one of his own, eyes half-lidded, "The last time I did this at a competition, I was talking about how I had a pair of knife-boots I'd use on anyone who upset you."
"I have some of those too, you know..."
That earned the silver Russian a quick kiss before Yuri twisted around as well, finding a hand between them as they both slid through some reverse cross-overs to turn around again. Yuri let go half-way through it though, and stared down the center of the rink like he was glaring at his destiny. He spotted the silver-white-blue blur passing on his right side, and the much-darker black blur with its yellow and red accents alongside it, but Yuri kept his eyes forward. Picking up speed again, he twisted this time through a mohawk turn, and again leaned on the outside edge of his left skate, the right stuck out behind him. A quick jab, and he gouged his blade down into the ice, this time spinning four times...and landed perfectly, earning him an applause.
He drew in a quick breath of relief just as Viktor came up aside him again, matching their speeds, "That was a 3+ GOE quad Lutz, my love. Just stay where you are in your head right now and you'll be perfect tonight."