CHAPTER THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY FIVE
Slower and more plodding than the shinkansen bullet-train from Fukuoka to Osaka, the meager 'normal' train from Hasetsu to Fukuoka still carried its cargo where it was meant to go. Seats lined the walls rather than jutting into the interior in 2-3 seat sectionals, leaving most of the middle wide open.
Not that Jiro was having a great time of it. The carriage still rocked too much for his liking.
Yuri picked him up and plopped him down on his lap. He sat sideways in his spot, one arm resting on the ledge of the window, right knee curled up on the seat where he settled the puppy to offer comfort, "Guess the floor isn't the best place for you, huh?"
The pup just grumbled and curled into a ball where he was, clearly unimpressed.
The carriage was sparsely populated that morning, with only about 5 other passengers occupying their shared space. None of them seemed that interested in the skaters though, and only two of them paid any mind whatsoever; a pair of foreign girls, likely tourists, who were waving a finger or two at the puppy, trying to get its attention.
Yuri just huffed a quiet laugh to himself as he kneaded his fingers between those two triangular ears, and leaned forward slightly towards his partner, "It's kind of strange for people to be paying no attention to us, right?"
"There's barely anyone here to pay attention to us." Viktor pointed out, playing somewhat forlornly with the thin leash in his hands as he watched the world pass by outside, barely faster than a car at highway cruising speed, " You're the only one between us who doesn't thrive on attention."
"I thrive on attention!" Yuri retorted with a huff, "Though only if it comes from you I guess." He raised his right arm and rested it along the top of the back-rest, fingers gently touching at his husband's shoulder where the man had pressed it against the back of his own spot. His other hand continued the pup-massage.
Viktor smiled for his affirmation, but then turned slightly where he sat, twisting his lower half around to face towards his partner like the rest of him did. He brought up his left knee into the seat, and stretched the right leg out as far as it could go, though keeping it pressed close to the base of their section of the bench to avoid anyone tripping. Attention went down then, focusing on the pup in his husband's lap just a few seconds before he found the younger man's own unfolded leg raising up to stretch forward, right across his thigh.
"Thanks for letting me bring him." Yuri said simply, giving Jiro the freedom to move if he wanted, corralled within a fence of legs, laps, and bench; the pup stayed where he was though, closing his eyes as though in meditation.
"I don't recall getting a say." Viktor teased, "But you're welcome anyway."
"Well, I mean...you could've objected, since you'll have to watch him sometimes while I skate."
"I mind only that I'm not getting to skate with you, not that I'm pup-sitting."
Yuri nodded to himself, but then just leaned his head to the side, pressing it to the glass of the window to his right. Just as he was about to say something else though, he felt a familiar vibration in his jacket pocket, and pulled out his phone to see a nerve-wrackingly familiar number, "Ah shimatta...it's our bosses."
"You say that, and I get nervous...but the fact that you can say that makes me giddy." Viktor laughed quietly, "I'm a vortex of confused emotions!"
"Yeah, me too..." Yuri sighed, hesitating to answer as he looked around the cabin, "I don't want to answer this on a train...it'd be rude...but it's the JSF...!"
"Answer! It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
Yuri just made a face at that as he clicked 'Accept,' and brought the phone up to his ear, "Mushi mushi." (Phone-call version of 'hello.')
The silver legend watched and waited, listening to the unfamiliar words. There was a nervous mirth in his husband's tone, and a slight feint of a laugh, but it was easy to tell that it was becoming an uneasy conversation, especially when Yuri took on a more serious air. He even bowed to no one in the train car, as though out of habit, with a few mentions of 'moushi wake gozaimasen deshita,' which even Viktor understood to be rather-formal apologies. It only lasted about a minute before Yuri let the phone down again, ending the conversation with a tap of his thumb against the red 'End Call' button, "...So?"
"They're mad at me for not being at Exhibition practice. I got a good scolding for being chosen as an Olympian, only to ditch on the pageantry of Closing Ceremonies." He explained, "Now I feel really bad for leaving... I mean, they knew I had to get my other outfit for my show tonight...I guess they just assumed someone in Hasetsu would bring it to me."
"That was, technically, a possibility..." Viktor agreed tepidly, "But-"
"I can't just ask someone in my family to abandon their duties at Yu-Topia to do a hand-delivery for me." Yuri interrupted, shaking his head and lowering it nervously, "It's not their responsibility to make sure I'm prepared for competition."
The Russian just kept on his uneasy smile, but nodded anyway.
"They also suggested you go home on your own to get it." The younger figure lifted his head, "I guess they think you're perfectly fine to go on missions alone just because of what the medic said in his report about your ankle."
Viktor blinked at that, "Well, technically I could've..." He said in a normal tone, "It just didn't come to mind before you suggested we both come home for the night."
"But-"
"I'm not helpless." The Russian interrupted that time, reaching one finger out to press against his partner's lips to keep him quiet, "I'm very mildly hurt, not crippled."
Yuri just made a face over the feeling of the finger, but then raised his own hand to nudge it away, "It's not that I think you're helpless. I think you could've done this for me just fine... The problem I had with the idea is that if you went to Hasetsu on your own, then that means I would've been on my own. We can debate on all the different times you could've gone and come back, but even the best case scenario leaves me alone with Asahi for a few hours."
Viktor stayed quiet.
"I told myself during my Free Program that I wasn't going to let him - or anyone else - ruin competitions for me anymore. I'm tired of giving away that much power to people. But...as long as things are the way they are, I don't want to face him by myself." Yuri went on, "Especially with all this weirdness with Minako-sensei hanging out with him."
"I could write a book on all the reasons why I'd lose my mind if you and Saito ended up alone together again somehow." Viktor agreed, reaching to pull his partner's hand down from where it was resting against the bench back-rest, feeling softly at those fingers and ring before simply cupping his hands around the whole of them, "I think he's harmless now, but...even at the medaling ceremony yesterday, leaving you with him at rink-side put a pit in my stomach. I don't think I've hopped up onto the podium so fast before. The ankle thing made it an easy excuse to hurry myself along, and let them call you out sooner than you would've been otherwise."
"Yeah..."
"Don't sweat the stuff about missing Exhibition practice though, my love." The silver legend went on, sneaking one hand forward to press a finger under his spouse's chin, lifting the man's face and eyes towards himself. He looked on into those favorite hazel eyes for a moment before leaning forward to offer a soothing kiss, hand moving up to curl around the younger man's neck, "We'll figure something out. Exhibition OCs are always pretty laid back, regardless. I mean, how much original choreography could they really plan for everyone to memorize on the morning-of anyway?"
.
The whole gaggle of Exhibition skaters was huffing and puffing on the rink-wall as the practice finally ended...minus two. The noted absence of the Men's Singles Olympians was like an eyesore in the otherwise complete group, leaving only one rather-conspicuous Olympic hopeful to stand as the lone Men's participant in the whole gathering. The Nikiforovs' truancy seemed like the lesser issue of the morning though. Eyeballs frequently turned towards the solitary Singles' skater, examining him at times, worrying at others.
It didn't escape Asahi's attention one bit that he was getting odd looks at times. A nervous flutter rushed through his core as he recalled what he'd seen being said about him on SNS overnight. He kept his head, and eyes, down throughout most of the practice session, and stayed far to the side by the end of it.
It's making me crazy how I can feel their eyes on me. Why can't they all just mind their own business? Don't they know how obvious they're being!?
[Alright, good practice everyone.] The event coordinator called, clapping her hands to get the group's attention again, [I've just been told that the final Olympic selection announcement will be made after the Exhibition, but before Closing Ceremonies.]
[Is that the committee's way of saying they still haven't picked?] One of the other skaters asked, trying to be funny, but not making anyone laugh.
[Who knows? I'm only passing on what I was just told.] The woman shrugged, tapping a toe-pick down on the ice, [At any rate, I'm done torturing you guys. Thanks for hunkering down with me to get this done for tonight. You should all scamper off so the ice can get resurfaced before the Pairs and Ice Free programs.]
[Yes ma'am.] They answered back, turning to sluggishly exit the rink.
Asahi followed after them, but quickly left on his own path once he was free from the doorway bottleneck. Blade-guards, jacket, gear-bag, all went with him swiftly out of sight, even from his management team.
Sayoko sighed as he passed, and next to her, Webber gave a disapproving look, getting more and more impatient with it all.
"Do you regret taking him on?" He wondered suddenly, though keeping his voice down.
Nagisa shook her head, but then hesitated, and nodded once, "There's a part of me that does, but only because I'm not used to coaching athletes in Seniors. I feel like I'm just part of the cheering section with him. Things were a lot different in Juniors." She admitted, stepping up to the rink wall as the Zamboni was entering from the far side, "Maybe I should go back...and do what I know..."
"Don't give up on him just yet." Webber suggested, patting the coach's shoulder as he started to move off, "What's happening now might be super annoying because he doesn't talk to us much, but we've been with him for a year and a half. This is the first time he's ever been difficult. I'm willing to wait it out...I'm hopeful this will end at some point."
"Then what about the next event? What about 4C and Worlds? It'll just happen again and again...and, God forbid he gets picked to go to the Games...it'll be nearly a month. We've almost been lucky that this has only been two days."
"We can make it to tomorrow morning, and see how his attitude changes after we leave."
"But all those dark things he said..."
The hapless choreographer could only shrug, "If he's not willing to talk to us, even after the meeting with Viktor yesterday...then there's nothing we can do but give him the space he said he wanted. For now, frustrating as it is, we can only watch him from a distance."
.
The arena's upper indoor levels were full of people waiting for the doors to the arena proper to open, loitering in the warmth of the heated building to avoid the cold outside. Like normal, people gathered into their small groups of friends to chat among themselves while they waited, save the odd singleton who waited alone.
Minako was one of those singletons.
Playing on her phone, waiting was still a chore, standing around while the event organizers gave the athletes a chance to leave without being mobbed. There were plenty of posts being made on skaters' pages though, in spite of the craziness of the competition...but two skaters in particular were rather oddly absent from most of the recent activity.
The only thing I've seen about those two knuckle-heads has been the flood of content from Russian Nationals, where Yura had Viktor on the phone right before his Free Skate... Everyone lost their minds over Yakov scolding Viktor all the way from Moscow. Guess that was bound to happen though...
She shook her head and kept scrolling, seeing a few fan pages commenting on the night's events in Asahi's regard.
It's a pity that guy doesn't use social media at all. If he knew the outpouring of support he's getting, maybe he wouldn't feel so down.
"I'm sure I'll hear enough about what was said on SMS to last a lifetime...but I don't need or want people feeling sorry for me."
Minako made a face at the memory of those words, even if they were from only a couple hours ago.
Well, maybe he wouldn't care either way...
"What do those people care!? I'm just a pretty face that dances for them. Should I really be that concerned with the opinions of people who will spend maybe 15 seconds writing out a fucking Tweet with a sadface emoji and then they're done!? They don't actually give a shit about me. They don't know anything about me!"
The ballerina sighed and went back to scrolling.
That guy is like a really messed up hybrid of both Yuri and Viktor's worst qualities and experiences. Lousy family support for his personal choices and interests, making him feel isolated and alone even when he's around people, has a hard time making or keeping friends...in that way, I guess he went the opposite direction Viktor did after his own experience. While Viktor internalized it all and became really social and outgoing, effectively rubbing the whole thing in his father's face, Asahi bent to the pressure and let the naysayers in his life lord over him. Viktor was able to salvage his situation and make the best of it, but Asahi never got that chance...and his Yuri-ish tendency of not caring what outsiders think makes him particularly vulnerable to loneliness.
She scrolled her thumb across the screen one more time then, and finally came across the one post that certain silver legend had made so far that day.
v-nikiforov
[Image: Viktor and Yuri smiling at the camera while breakfast cooks]
17,291 likes
v-nikiforov Had to make a small detour out of Osaka for the night, but it's turning out to be WELL worth it. Bummer that we're here to pick up Ϭy-nikiforov's solo-Exhibition outfit, since he's benching me over the ankle thing, but it means we got to see the pups and sleep in our own bed! Always good! We're going to be heading back into town in about an hour. Looking forward to tonight! #AJCExhibition #Osaka #SkateHusbands #YuriIsBestHubby #AnkleThings
v-nikiforov Oh! And also congrats to Ϭyuri-plisetsky for his #Gold in Moscow last night!
Minako's face went pale and her eye twitched...but suddenly all she could do was yell.
"YURI AND VIKTOR AREN'T EVEN IN THE CITY RIGHT NOW!? THOSE IDIOTS."
Aaaaaand everyone turned to gawk at her.