CHAPTER FOUR HUNDRED TWO
The end of the Banquet came for them all, sweeping over the sleepy crowd like a big, dark blanket. The gift bags that were given to medalists were collected from where they'd been stowed under chairs, and those who remained at the very end started making their way towards the elevators.
Yuri yawned against the back of his hand, then rubbed his eyes. He pawed at his husband's blazer in an effort to find a handle-hold to grip, but instead felt the outline of his glasses under the fabric, and started reaching his fingers inside instead. Viktor held still for a moment, smirking as his partner rummaged around inside his clothing, trying to find whichever layer actually had his spectacles. In his haze, Yuri had passed it over a number of times.
"Let's just get you to bed, my love. You won't need your glasses then."
"Lez ghet you to vehd..." Yuri echoed sleepily.
"...Senpai..."
Viktor's hackles raised immediately, but he turned to the source of the voice, and spotted those teal wings of hair, then the man they belonged to, "...Hey."
Yuri looked on blearily, but he barely had the focus left to stand, so he just leaned, hoping his legs wouldn't give out from under him before they started walking.
"...Sorry to bother at the very end of the night, but..." Asahi started, his frame rigid where he stood, eyes down, "This will be goodbye, I guess, until we meet again for Four Continents next month."
He's not going to Yu-Topia with us? Viktor wondered first, but dared not offer a reminder, "Leaving early tomorrow?"
"Hai." The younger skater answered, "I'm going straight to Wakkanai from here. I... I didn't want to be rude and turn down Yuri's invitation as soon as he made it, but...I think it's best if I go north instead of south right now." He bowed slightly, "It would honor me to partake some other time...but I'll leave that up to you."
The Russian watched carefully, tired as he was, but nodded, "Maybe someday. I think we all need some time to recover from each other for a while."
"...Hai, Senpai." Another bow.
Viktor grit his teeth, but then exhaled, "You don't have to be so formal. 'Viktor' is just fine."
"Maybe someday."
The Russian offered a wry smile at that, then his hand, "That's fair. Until the next we meet."
Surprised by the gesture, Asahi hesitated, but eventually reached for it, "Sayōnara." (Goodbye for now.)
"Good luck with everything. And..." Viktor said, unexpectedly having more to say than that, "If you need anything before the Games, feel free to message me. We're all representing Japan now. We need to be at peak condition."
"So you can smoke Russia, right?"
The silver legend smirked, "And you can smoke Chris. I hope you don't mind that Yuri and I tackle the Team Event. We've been making plans since we got our jackets last weekend."
Asahi shook his head, "After what I saw this weekend, I think the Team event is best left in your hands. I haven't been at a major international competition in two years anyway. I think it'd be...kind of dumb to throw me into the deep end before I've had a chance to get used to things again. I don't have any backup programs to use for a third bracket either."
Viktor nodded, "Then we'll be in touch after Euros. It sounds like we'll all be pretty busy for the next two weeks."
"Hai."
.
It took some effort to get back to the hotel room, but once they were there, clothing came off and the blankets were thrown back. Yuri barely managed to pick Jiro up to cradle under the blankets close to his chest before he already felt himself slipping into sleep. He held on to wait for the lights, and the presence of his husband's frame against his back. Once Viktor was there, and arms went around him, he managed one last effort to turn his head for their goodnight kiss.
"Six competitions down...four to go..." Yuri mumbled.
"Only three, my love. Euros is a freebee."
"...Mmhhmmmm..."
.
5am came sooner than Asahi expected, despite the fact that he hadn't been able to sleep. His coach and choreographer both knew he would be gone before they woke up, and he'd already said his farewells for the time being.
'I booked my trip so that I'd be back in Imari by Tuesday night.' He'd explained, 'But I'm going to take off for this whole coming week. I...have a feeling I'll need the time to recover from being in Wakkanai.'
'What about your future plans?' Nagisa wondered.
Asahi quietly gathered up his things and made his way towards the door, pulling it open quietly and holding it so it wouldn't slam shut once he was through. The air in the hallway felt colder than he remembered, but he supposed that was because of his nerves running hot.
'I haven't thought about it that much.' He answered, 'My first and only plan after getting back is finding my own place to live. By the time I'm done explaining to my family why I took extra time coming back, I'm sure the rest will be a quick process. Beyond that, nothing else has really changed.'
'So you're going to tell them?'
'I'm...going to tell everyone. When I saw Riku's apparition, he kept telling me about his phone. I don't know if it was a buried memory of mine that was trying to resurface, but...there must be a reason why I was hallucinating Riku's insistence that I find it. If it still exists, and it still works...'
He could hardly imagine the trove of photos and videos that were on the device, even after so much time had passed.
Asahi made his way through the night-time cold, traversing the brief outdoor area between the hotel and the underground train terminal. As he sat on a bench to wait for the first train, he pulled out his phone, and scrolled through the history of text messages. It wasn't a long list of people; most of them were other skaters he trained with in his home rink, other coaches, and his family...but deep at the bottom of the list...was the undeleted last message he'd shared with Riku. He nervously clicked into it, and read over those last few texts.
伊藤‧陸 (Riku Itō)
Text Message
Dec 26, 2015, 7:16 AM
Me:
[Where did you go? I got up and you were gone.]
Riku:
[Morning, sleepy ʕథ౪థʔ]
[I went to get coffee. You want something Christmasy or just the usual?]
Me:
[Ugh the morning is evil]
[Can I get one of those salted caramel things with a shot and an energy packet?]
Riku:
[You're gonna be bouncing off the walls before we even leave]
Me:
[I need it. I couldn't sleep. This whole trip we're about to go on has me freaking out.]
Riku:
[Relax, lover. ತ ⌔̫ ತ We haven't even left the city yet.]
[There's still hours to go before we're in Kyoto.]
[Just get there, THEN get nervous if you have to.]
Me:
[I wish I had your optimism.]
[You don't know what we're about to walk into.]
Riku:
[We already have everything figured out. Even Hana is used to you being in my place and she never likes ANYONE.]
[Oh, I'm at the front of the line. I'll have my hands full so I'll kick the door when I'm back lol]
Me:
[Okay]
Asahi tilted his head at it, Hana...? His eyes widened, Oh right, he had a dog...! She even pooped on my things during the first few days after I moved in... I wonder if Riku's family took her in? Maybe they just took her to a shelter...
The train suddenly appeared, and the skater quickly picked up his things and rushed for the loading platform. He could see through the windows that almost no one was on board yet, but on instinct, he still stayed outside the edge of the doorway just in case someone was behind it that he couldn't spot from the terminal. No one was there though, and he quickly boarded, finding a seat before the railcar could start moving again. It didn't take long, and before he knew it, the train came up above ground and he could see the silhouette of the hotel fading into the night and fog. The last few lights on the building disappeared as well, and Asahi signed slightly.
I'm really doing this...
Eyes went back down to the text messages in his hands. With a nervous swallow, he started typing.
If that phone still exists, it's probably in a drawer somewhere... I think I remember what model it is. I'll have to buy a charger on the way.
[I'm coming, Riku. I'm finally coming.] He wrote, sending the message as though there were eyes to read it on the other end. To Asahi's near-immediate surprise, there was no error message that answered him. Nothing to say that the phone line had been disconnected or that the message hadn't gone through. He started to get nervous. 'Sent' was written under his words.
Oh fuck's sake, what if someone else took over his number now? Why didn't I think of that...? My message archive is going to be all messed up if someone else answers! Goddamnit!
For what felt like ages, 'Sent' was all that reflected under his message. It never switched over to 'Seen.' No reply came. Asahi's nerves calmed...slightly. Even as he got out of the train to walk inside Kobe Airport, the text window persisted unchanged.
...Maybe it really is just in a drawer, but his service was never turned off? Why would they even do that?
He dared to tempt the idea of calling the phone instead. His heart fluttered, trying to shake off the weight of the pain it had suffered...but something in him made him click the button and put the phone up to his ear. The dial tone answered, making Asahi's gut twist itself into knots...and then, it clicked.
[Hiii~! You've reached me, Riku~! Please let me know who you and what you need, and I'll get back as soon as I can~! Thanks!]
Bip
Asahi felt his throat clench up, and he choked his next breaths. He lost his grip on the telescoping handle of his suitcase only moments before he dropped to his knees with it, landing on the concrete sidewalk, [O-oh...my god... It's Riku's voice...] He managed, both hands coming to hold the phone up as he felt his strength fade. His voice cracked under the strain, but he forced himself to speak again, [I miss you so much... I wish I could've told you back then how much you meant to me... I'm...so sorry, for everything... I'll be in Wakkanai later today. I'll come see you, okay? I love you..I still love you... Bye...] He pulled the phone back, and promptly dropped it, shaking hands fumbling for the flat device against the ground. When he finally managed to get his fingers around it, and closed out of the call window, he exhaled a pained breath and coughed.
...I haven't even left Osaka and I'm already struggling with this trip... Can I really do it on my own...? Everything is so raw and fresh again, like it all just happened yesterday... I can hardly breathe or see straight...my throat feels like it's being clenched by a vice...
It took everything he had to push back up to his feet, and slowly started heading across the traffic bloc to get into the terminal. He could only hope that no one had seen him and would be staring. He quickly pulled his scarf up as the automatic doors parted to let him through, and rubbed the sadness off his face as well as he could.
...I have to do this... No matter what...I have to get there...
.
Jiro's licking and whining woke Yuri up before his alarm had a chance. He mumbled incoherently and started to open his eyes, spotting the blurred outline of his puppy and that nervously wagging tail.
"Mmnnhh...what is it...?"
Another yip-bark, and Yuri was suddenly wide awake.
"Oh...!" He said, startled. Carefully, he unwrapped himself from his husband's pretzel-like grasp, and hoisted Jiro off the bed, taking him quickly into the bathroom before any accidents could happen. Without a patch of grass, all Yuri could do was set the pup down into the shower stall nearest to the drain, and reached for the shower-head. Warm water sprayed soon after, and he let the warm wet liquid trickle around the puppy's paws. The trick seemed to work, and Jiro's fluffy frame relaxed, tiny-puppy-bladder emptying and giving him quite a bit of relief in the process. Once the trickle ended, Yuri quickly pulled a small hand-towel down and set it on the floor next to himself, putting Jiro on it to dry his pink toe-beans before he could wander around and step in what may have remained of his own pee, "I'm suddenly really glad we brought you with us. You're pointing out all these things that I'm not sure either of us would've thought about before leaving Hasetsu." He said quietly, carefully patting each paw dry before setting Jiro down again with a pat on the head, "With Makkachin, he can hold it for a long time...but you're still so young...you need way more breaks."
Another few tail-wags answered those words.
Yuri went about rinsing off the floor, then set the shower-head back into its holster. He clicked the light off and made his way back to the main room, wondering what time it was; 9:14am.
Only 45 minutes before the alarm would've gone off anyway... I guess I'll go ahead and get our things packed so we can leave, and let Viktor sleep as long as he can.
A fresh tin of puppy food was put down on a paper plate, and Yuri refreshed the small water bowl, then went about the business of sorting himself out for the morning. He got himself cleaned up, found a fresh change of clothes to get dressed with, and set out the 'Monday Outfit' Viktor had pre-arranged before leaving home the Thursday before. Everything that wasn't clothing was quietly packed away, including the Gold and Bronze medals that he took a moment to admire - even if to one of them, his admiration was slightly dour - before putting them up.
By the time the silver Russian's instincts kicked in that the space in his arms was empty, Jiro had finished eating, and Yuri set the pup on the bed to act as his surrogate. Viktor seemed content with the substitute for the moment, feeling the warmth and fluff against his chest as though it were his husband's head.
I don't know how long that'll trick him, but I guess it works for now... The more I can get done before Viktor wakes up, the less he has to move around or watch me do it later anyway. We can just get him dressed and go straight to breakfast.
At least, that's what seemed like the easiest plan. When Yuri had everything arranged and ready to go, he had only 2 minutes to spare before the alarm was set to sound. He stepped up close to the edge of the bed and turned it off before it could trip, and cast his eyes over the Russian's pale frame. Something about the moment struck him...and when Viktor rolled onto his back, he knew what it was.
Jiro was set onto the floor again, and Yuri took the pup's place on the bed. However, instead of merely being a cuddle partner, Yuri carefully set himself down over his husband's hips. He was diligent in making sure he didn't jostle the man awake unexpectedly, and lowered himself down with surgical precision. Blue eyes were still closed, and Yuri deftly pulled back the linens.
I turned him down all night... The least I can do is offer an alternative until my head's back where it needs to be...