Yuuri was actually excited when her alarm went off in the morning, a far cry from her usual morning persona, as Phichit would attest to. Normally she had to be all but dragged out of bed, and didn't feel fully human until she had had coffee or the sun was out. She felt a fluttering in her stomach that was tied with the fluttering of her eyelids, a sudden rush of adrenaline serving to wake her up far better than a shot of caffeine. She felt like a teenager mooning over their first crush, which she supposed was true, aside from the fact that she was no longer a teenager. But she had been pining over Victor since she was a teen, so she figured that counted.
Yuuri was elated to see that no one was waiting outside of the rink. Granted, it would take a highly dedicated reporter to wake up early enough to catch the skaters entering, but it wouldn't be anything she hadn't heard of before. The high status of the skaters at the rink probably meant that they had systems in place to prevent that sort of thing anyway. Yuri had been a little dramatic when he had gone on about being stalked yesterday, she mused.
She was glad to see Victor waiting for her when she emerged from the locker room. Yakov wouldn't be there for nearly a half hour, which left them plenty of time to warm up. They did some dynamic stretching near the bleachers to get their muscles warmed up a little before holding out static stretches. Yuuri sat on the floor and reached to touch her toes, pressing her head to her legs in order to deepen the stretch. She shifted to a straddle and progressed through her normal routine in order to avoid any pain or tightness from the splits she did before getting on the ice. Skating demanded intense flexibility from all those who competed at the top level of the sport, and even more so from female skaters. Yuuri pushed her body as far as she could in order to pull off elegant movements like Bielman spins. Displays of flexibility added to her spins, which she had relied on heavily in her early days before her jumps grew more consistent. The familiar tension in her muscles was welcome to her, bringing back good memories of dance class as a young girl.
She observed Victor out of the corner of her eye as she held her foot next to her head. The tight pants of his warmup suit offered a great view of his muscular rear end as he bend over to stretch the backs of his legs. She flushed when his eyes landed on hers, nearly losing her balance, embarrassed to have been caught staring. Feeling suitably limber, she sat down to lace her skates before heading out onto the pristine ice. Yuuri loved to be the first one to skate on resurfaced ice. She skated a lap around the outside before transitioning to a figure that she had learned when she was younger, blades tracing familiar shapes below her. Half the reason her step sequences were what they were today was the focus placed on technique and crisp edges when she was still learning how to skate.
Victor joined her on the ice a few minutes later, skating large laps around where she was working in the middle. He soon transitioned to trailing behind her as she skated, copying the pattern she traced onto the ice. Their impromptu game of follow the leader brought out a competitive streak inside her. She finished the figure but instead of stopping, she launched immediately into a new one that was substantially more difficult. But Victor wasn't the reigning men's champion for nothing and he easily followed her. Yuuri turned her focus away from him and back to her blades as she started a particularly quick turn sequence.
Yakov came in as they finished, walking over to where the pair waited.
"Willingly working on footwork, Victor? Yuuri is obviously a good influence. t's a good thing you chose started to with figures today because we need to focus on footwork. You two very skilled individually, but pair skating demands perfect synchronization between the both of you."
The fun and excitement that yesterday's choreography and successes had brought vanished as the older man put the skaters to the test with demanding combinations, repeated endlessly. Yuuri felt her mind begin to wander because of the monotony but did her best to focus on every movement. She felt hyper aware of Victor's motions compared to her own. They managed to synch up nearly perfectly, but every mistake that they made felt jarring. The mistakes lessened the more that they skated though. Even as they tired they remained connected. Yakov put the music from yesterday on and had them skate the same choreography as yesterday now that they had done a lot of work on the combinations.
The difference between the two practices could not have been more distinct. To Yuuri, it felt like night and day. Yesterday she had been very proud of what they had accomplished, but looking at what they managed today, she had had no right to be. Before they had a tenuous connection between them that was buoyed by emotion and poor technique as a unit. Today, as the music started, it matched with both of them, and they finally had the proper form to begin showing the emotional connection that they were nurturing.
Yuuri nearly faltered because of her own amazement at how different it all felt after the first sequence they did together. She was far more sure in her own motions and less afraid of what would happen if she messed up. Practice had gone a long way towards soothing her worries. They approached the first lift, and Yuuri was up in the air before she realized what was going on. She felt her center of gravity begin to shift but she tightened her core muscles and tried her best to stop the motion that had begun involuntarily in her limbs as she tried to correct her slide. His strong arms hardly wavered underneath her, though Yuuri felt a deep sense of relief when Victor placed her back onto the ice. The two began side-by-side spins, extending an arm up as one, twirling at the same speed. When they came to a stop, Yuuri felt absolutely elated. She hugged Victor, putting the taller Russian off-balance because of her exuberance. She drew back quickly, embarrassed, when Yakov coughed. She wasn't sure if it was an intentional move on the older man's part, but it certainly made her remember his presence. Victor steadied himself and stood attentively as his coach began to give them a run-down of their performance.
Evidently it was satisfactory enough for the coach to feel confident introducing more choreography. With the combination of Yuuri's opening solo and yesterday's work, they were nearly halfway through the song already, though Yuuri had yet to learn the beginning portion. They completed more footwork with another set of spins before pausing right before a more elaborate lift. Yakov seemed to contemplate the idea of trying it on the ice, but decided to quit while they were ahead. That was an activity best suited for when their muscles were fresher. Yuuri didn't protest, even though she didn't feel particularly tired at all.
She regretted even thinking something along those lines, because not a moment later, Victor was dismissed. But only Victor.
"Katsuki, we need to work on your opening, especially the jumps." Yuuri deflated slightly, feeling nervous about working with the coach one-on-one. He was far harsher than Celestino was, and she wasn't usually on the top of her game in practice. She was afraid that she was going to embarrass herself terribly. At least she was already there in Russia so her invitation couldn't be so easily rescinded.
Yakov outlined the modified beginning section. Yuuri ran through it in her head, comparing it to the routine that she already knew. The two were different enough, with the new segment being harder than beginning of the other routine, but they were very similar. Similar enough that Yuuri kept accidentally reverting to the older program. And the new variant called for a triple axel which was no easy feat for a female skater. Yuuri hadn't landed one cleanly in competition yet, so she was definitely feeling nervous about that being in the opening of an exhibition. This routine had the potential to be absolutely amazing, something talked about for years to come, or a complete and utter disaster. For Victor's sake, Yuuri hoped it was the former.
Yakov sent her to one side of the rink to practice as some of the other skaters took to the ice. Mila winked at her while she got onto the ice, and Yuuri flushed. The Russian woman was gorgeous. Yuuri realized that if things had gone differently here in Russia, if Victor hadn't secretly been goofy and kind, there might have been some truth to the tabloid rumors about the two of them. Yuuri tried to acknowledge the gesture with a not-so-casual nod, but Mila had already continued on her way.
She tried to regain her composure and prepared for a triple axel, but stopped herself before actually taking off. In her next attempt she did a double axel to try to build some confidence. Yuuri felt scared to try the jump and fail now that there were more people in the rink. Including Mila, who had landed a triple axel in last year's Rostelecom Cup.
Yuuri practiced the steps and spins to better cement the differences in her mind so that her muscles wouldn't automatically revert to the version that she knew. Mila was still warming up, but Yakov had disappeared and probably wouldn't return for a little while until his skaters were all ready. Feeling emboldened, Yuuri glided over to where the redhead was standing.
"Um, Mila?" she asked timidly. The other woman turned to look at her.
"Please teach me how to do a triple axel!" The other skaters turned and stared because of the sudden volume that the statement carried. Yuuri tried her best to look confident under the weight of the stares.
"Sure, I'll try my best until coach comes back." Yuuri was slightly surprised that she had agreed to help her, but she certainly wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. The two went over to the other side of the rink.
"Show me what you've got so far."
Yuuri took a deep breath and began to gather speed for her takeoff. She dug her toe pick into the ice but knew as soon as she was in the air that her jump wasn't going to be a success. Instead of trying for the full amount of rotations, she turned the jump into a double, landing off-balance but luckily staying upright. Mila's expression was unchanged when she turned to look at the other girl.
"Try it again," she encouraged.
Yuuri went to do the jump again, getting a solid takeoff and the proper rotations in the air. She managed to land it, but just barely. She was so shocked that she hadn't fallen that it caused her to forget exactly where she was. Yuuri wavered on the ice, nearly tripping over her own blades.
Mila smiled at her.
"That's a good start. I want to show you something. Watch my takeoff?" Yuuri moved away from her so that she could better see the jump. The Russian woman skated very deliberately, executing a clean and precise jump. Yuuri was envious of how easy it seemed to be for her. But having observed the other skater's body positioning, she was ready to try again.
Yuuri started moving, and she could almost feel the difference in this jump. She wasn't able to pinpoint exactly what the change was, but she felt more balanced on her landing, coming out of the jump nearly as quickly as she had entered. She skated over and pulled Mila to her.
"Thank you so much!" she said before releasing the Russian from her hold. Yuuri would have like to keep doing the jump to make sure that it hadn't been a fluke, but she wanted to try to fit it into the routine even more. The appearance of Yakov made the decision for her. With butterflies in her stomach, she began the routine again.