Disclaimer: I do not own YOI, just this fanfic.

I found a few reviews that caught my attention on the last chapter. So I'll be addressing and answering them here.

CCEEME: AMAZING description of how the skaters feel and what they are going through during the summer of 2013 in the second half of this chapter.You're really good at capturing the nerves and thoughts of these skaters! Are you a figure skater in real life? Because this is very realistic...(I skate in real life too, I can relate a lot to this fic, and to your OC, Liv)

My reply: thanks for the compliment. Yes, I am a figure skater in real life. I don't compete nationally, (my parents say it's too expensive for serious training), but I compete in regional competitions every now and then. I'm at the intermediate level and have skated for around four years. I use a lot of my personal experiences to help write this fic. When I first watched Yuri On Ice, I sympathized with Yuri. K immediately, I knew how difficult it is to perform flawlessly in major competitions. What I really liked about the anime is how realistic it portrays the skaters in personal lives and behind the scenes in competitions. Again, thanks for the review!

clalexander: I wonder about Holly...will she play a part in this anymore?. :o

My reply: good question, Holly is a major link between my OC, Liv, and the main characters, Yuri. K and Victor. In this chapter, I've included a part where I practically give away the identity of Holly. Holly is just the nickname I made up for a character that actually exists in the Yuri On Ice canon universe. Also, for those music people out there, can you guess what song Liv was humming in the middle of the chapter? ;). Again, Holly is the nickname of a canon Yuri On Ice character. I'm not going to state who, go and search her up!

*Note, I'll be releasing these chapters later and later due to increasing amount of schoolwork. But I will NOT give up on the story! At least try to...

Anyways, shout out to my other fic, Hurry Up, Skaters! Episode: Find the Code, I've reached the goal for that fic, so I'll be continuing it. Please check it out when you have time and leave some comments on what you think about it!

Onto reading! :D

Ch. 16: The 2014 Olympic Team

Wed. Dec. 28, 2016. Streets of St. Petersburg.

Later on that afternoon, Victor decided to take Yuri out for a stroll through the streets of the winter-bound city. They stopped by several new stores that were just recently opened, more and more buildings seem to be sprouting up these days.

Victor took Yuri around the city, showing him some of the best landmarks and to places of interest. By now, Yuri was warming his hands with a warm cup of coffee as Victor walked close by him. They were on the street that faced the large lake.

Yuri recognized this street as the place where he and Yurio met back when he first came to Russia around two days ago to look for Victor. He wanted to take a break here.

"Victor, can we stop for a bit?" His breath came out in tiny puffs of smoke.

Victor nodded as he led him to a snow covered bench. Yuri took a seat after brushing away bits of the snow. Sighing, he looked out to the horizon of the faraway distance. For a winter afternoon, it was fairly sunny and the wind wasn't even that harsh.

But the air was still very cold. Yuri wasn't used to this kind of weather. Victor easily saw that and gave him his mitts and hat a few hours ago. Now, with the cup of coffee, Yuri shouldn't be as cold as he was before.

Victor leaned against the stone edges, facing Yuri. His smile was warm, it nearly melted away the frostbite on Yuri's fingers.

"What are you looking at?" Yuri asked as he felt his internal temperatures rise.

"The frozen bundle of love in front of me," Victor answered.

"Very funny, I haven't experienced a winter this cold since I was in Detroit!"

Victor tilted his head. "Oh? Is it like this too in America during the month of December?"

"Yeah!" Yuri nodded. "Or maybe I'm just sensitive to the cold. Phichit never really complained about it, but that's because he wastes all of his earnings on that darn heater in our dorm!"

Victor laughed. It's been over a week since he unofficially "broke up" with Yuri. And only two days since Yuri appeared outside of the outdoor ice rink, clad in a giant winter jacket and flushed cheeks, wanting to get back together with him.

But to be honest, Victor felt as if they never broke up in the first place. That Yuri had been here this whole time when it was only for two measly days! But to Yuri, the events still happened, and the impact that it left on him still hasn't faded.

He's here with one goal: get back together with Victor, and mend their relationship for real, no matter what Victor said. Yuri could tell that every now and then, Victor would try to make him forget about Liv, and about the whole backstory.

But Yuri refuses to. The whole reason why their relationship almost got destroyed last time was because they were hiding too much from each other, to make this second chance work, he needs Victor to confess everything.

Yuri took a sip of his coffee. "Didn't Liv tell you about America? I thought you'd know it's this cold there too!"

Upon hearing Yuri mention Liv, Victor's light-hearted composure slightly hardened. "All that I heard about America was that there are not enough good fast food restaurants and how there are too many people that fit the 'typical American' stereotype, which she says is 'ruining the reputation of the country.' Nothing about freezing winters."

"Well, she grew up there. She must be used to it."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Silence. Once again, Victor was attempting to steer clear of talking about Liv. Yuri did not like this, even after everything he said to Victor, Victor was still trying to hide things.

"Alright, that's it, Victor!" Yuri put his coffee down on the bench. "Just tell me what happened to Liv! Tell what happened between you two! I promise I won't be mad! I want to know! I need to know!"

Victor nearly flipped over the edge from the sudden outburst. "Yuri, remember what I told you before? This is a difficult topic for me! Difficult and sensitive! I—I can't just up and tell you—"

"Why? Do you still have doubts about me? Or maybe you did something that you shouldn't have done…" Yuri was walking closer and closer towards Victor.

"Have you never been through something traumatic, Yuri?" Victor grabbed Yuri's hand and forced it down. "I don't believe you never had! You know how difficult it is, opening up to others and moving on! Do you even know what happened after that year's Nationals—"

Yuri's eyes widened. "What? What happened? Liv won didn't she? You said so! And Google says so too!"

Victor mumbled under his breath. "Those racist bastards…"

"Huh?" Yuri was able to make out a little bit from what he heard.

"Nothing. Yeah, Liv won. Took home the gold and title of 2014 National Champion in the ladies' singles..."

Wed. Jan. 22, 2014. St. Petersburg Ice Rink.

The afternoon's practice was over, the skaters all left the ice to go change back into their regular clothes and prepare to go home. But today was different. The feelings of anxiety and excitement were in the air.

That's right. Today was the day where the Russian Skating Union would reveal the list of skaters going to the Sochi Olympics. There were three spots for men's singles, three spots for ladies' singles, four spots for pairs skating, and two spots for ice dancing.

Even Victor's heart was palpitating as he threw his skates into his bag and rushed out towards the hall where Yakov said that he's posted the recently printed out list of skaters going to the Olympics. Actually, Yakov said that he was going to print out several and put them up in different locations in the rink.

Victor ran to the first location that popped up in his head: the wall in the snack room near the front lobby. Several of the other skaters rushed to the walls by the weight room, the washrooms, and the dance room.

His hands sweaty and his pulse racing, Victor's eyes scanned the list of names under the men's section. There he was! Bright and bolded at the top of the list: Victor Nikiforov.

He made it! He threw his skating bag down in joy. Finally, his childhood dream of winning gold at the Olympics was going to come true! He missed his chance at the 2010 Olympics, but now he's going to make it up for that at the 2014 Olympics!

Reading the rest of the list, Victor saw that Georgi and Constantine also made it. That was no big surprise, they placed second and third respectively behind him. Max was the first alternate in case something was to happen to them and the skater from Moscow who placed fifth was the second alternate.

Giddy and excited, Victor continued reading the list to see who was selected for the ladies' section. His eyes started from the top to down.

Laurel Kopeykin...Sonia Ivanov...Annie Vasin…

Victor felt the whole world come to a stop before him. Liv didn't make the cut. She placed first and she didn't make the cut. What. The. Fuck.

"Can you believe it?" A voice suddenly said from behind him. It was Yakov.

Victor was speechless. Yakov picked up Victor's skating bag and gestured towards the parking lot. "We need to go see Liv right now. Do you know where she is at this time?"

"L—Leora College. She should still be there at this time, most likely in the library. I'll text her to meet us outside. I—I refuse to accept this!"

"Good. We need to get to the bottom of this."

Several minutes later at the front parking lot of the main campus of Leora College.

Victor and Yakov slammed their car doors shut before walking up to the main stairway that leads to the large building behind them. There, a female student was sitting on the steps with a massive backpack and winter jacket, she smiled upon seeing them.

"Victor! Yakov! I received the text. I'm surprised that you'd want to come see me, what is it?" Liv asked.

When neither one of them answered immediately, she sensed that something was wrong, and with the facial expressions they had on, her assumptions were pretty strongly supported.

"What's going on?"

Victor took a step forward and looked at her in the eyes. Taking a breath before speaking. "Liv, did you see the list for the Olympic tea—"

Victor didn't even finish the sentence and Liv's knees turned to jelly as she fell to the cold hard concrete ground. Her arms clutching her stomach as she gasped and wheezed.

Immediately, Victor and Yakov knelt down in front of her and supported her fallen body, helping her back to her feet. Liv had her face covered with one hand, no sound came out of her mouth, but they could see the tears streaming down her cheeks as she gritted her teeth.

Victor wrapped an arm around her as he tried to bring her back to her feet, but it was difficult due to her weight with the additional backpack. Liv wouldn't show her face no matter how much coaxing they tried.

Yakov shook his head. It wasn't fair. It wasn't. He needs to know why, while it's still early.

"Don't worry, Liv. I'm going to speak with the RSU committee, I'll see what I can do." Yakov promised.

"We'll make things right." Victor squeezed her arms.

Liv shook her head. "It's no use...nothing I do...you two practically wasted your time on me…"

Victor was ready to cry too. He remembered the first time when Liv explained to him how difficult it was for her, competing both domestically and internationally. Back then, he thought that if he could make Liv more eye-grabbing, she would finally be given the treatment she should get.

He was wrong. It was harder than he thought. Now he knows, and Liv got hurt as a direct result.

"We'll go!" Victor pressed. "Let's go right now, Yakov! To the RSU's headquarters!"

Yakov looked from Victor's fierce eyes to Liv's broken ones. He nodded as he walked back over to help Liv to her feet. The two of them walked her to Victor's car.

"Let's go."

Hours later on the train from St. Petersburg leading to Moscow…

It was evening by the time the three made it to the front lobby of the Russian Skating Union's headquarters. Yakov signaled to Victor to sit in the waiting area with Liv while he goes to discuss things with the committee.

"We don't need any more drama than there already is," Yakov explained. "Stay with Liv, please."

Victor slowly nodded. "Find out why they made their selections as it is." He reminded as he led Liv to the couches in the corner by the large windows.

Yakov took a deep breath as he lined up behind a line of people waiting to make appointments with the RSU, he needs to go speak with them immediately, no delays.

It took a long time of discussion with the secretary before Yakov was taken to the upstairs floor where some members of the Union greeted him and asked him what he wished to complain about.

Yakov immediately brought up the subject of the Sochi Olympics team selection. The Union members were not surprised to hear that. They've been getting lots of complaints from other people, mainly about their selections for the pairs and men's events.

But Yakov's complaint was different from the rest of those. "I'm here to talk about the ladies' event selections."

"Oh? Well, that's new, what about it?" One of the members asked.

"Why did you choose the fourth-place finisher, Annie Vasin to go? That's not how the Nationals usually operate, I'm just curious as to why this occurred." Yakov stated.

The two Union members pursed their lips and thought hard before one of them answered Yakov's question. "You see, yes it does go against the practices of Nationals selections, but we didn't make a mistake."

"Basically, we did what we believed was the best for the events of this year's Olympics. It's being held in this very country after all! We want a strong team of skaters, so we did more than just rank them by Nationals performance, we ranked them by overall performance. Their international competitions and promising skills."

"Annie Vasin had more international achievements and is an overall better competitor. Yes, Olivia Nguyen won the Nationals, but we don't know enough about her to be confident in putting her on the team."

Yakov was patient in letting the men finish their reasoning before countering. "Olivia won the Nationals because she's a strong skater and competitor. She's consistent, you can't deny that. Yes, she's missed a few ISU competitions but that's not because she fell on her Nationals performances, but because of different scoring."

One of the men nodded in agreement. "She is consistent, you're right, Mr. Feltsman, but the majority of the Union felt that Annie Vasin was the better contender, and there's nothing I can do about it."

Yakov wouldn't let up. "Why? Did you ask your colleagues why? I'm sorry to press this on but, I've been in the skating world for a long time, and this is the first time I've seen something like this happen in our own national championships. It's hard for me to let this go."

"Mr. Feltsman, I already told you that the majority of us went with Annie Vasin. I don't the power to change this."

"Can I talk to the president?" Yakov asked.

The two men shook their heads. "I'm sorry, but he's very busy right now. But listen, I can bring this up in our next meeting, and maybe, just maybe. We can make Olivia Nguyen an alternate. Is that good enough?"

Yakov saw that there's no arguing with these men. But he tried one last time to find out more. "Do you have any idea as to why the majority of the Union chose Annie Vasin?"

The men turned around from down the hallway. "If I were to guess, then it'd be because she's nicknamed Russia's Queen of Ice Skating. But that's only a guess."

With that, Yakov was led back down the elevator, deflated and disappointed. But this whole experience also opened his eyes. He knows more now, he sees more. The corruption that's slowly taking over the world of competitive figure skating.

The elevator doors opened on the first floor and Yakov stepped out. Victor's head immediately turned around as soon as he heard the ding. He gently let Liv sit by herself on the couch as he rushed over to Yakov, anxious.

"Well? How'd it go?" He asked.

Yakov shook his head and sighed, pushing past Victor as he walked up to Liv. Victor's jaw dropped. "What!?"

Liv heard the silent answer Yakov gave Victor and already knew the answer. This whole attempt was futile. Yakov knelt down in front of her.

"Liv, they said they're going to put you on as an alternate, well, not really 'said' but at least discuss it. There's still hope. But other than that, there wasn't much I could do. I'm sorry." He apologized.

Liv's voice cracked. "Nothing…? O—of course...urgh! Omigosh!" A look of panic spread across her face as she suddenly jumped out of her seat and ran towards the front door, her hand covering her mouth.

Victor and Yakov chased after her out to the snowy streets of the area outside of the large building headquarters. They ran down the steps just as Liv made a mad dash to the nearest black metal trash can.

Barely making it, she stumbled and threw up a tiny bit on the street before dunking her head into the opening of the large cylindrical container.

Her hands squeezed the edges of it as Victor ran up behind her and quickly grabbed her hair to move it out of her face as she poured out the contents of her stomach onto the snow covered pile of garbage.

With each expulsion from her stomach, Liv sounded more and more in pain. Her grip on the edge of the can became weaker and weaker, tears flowed freely from her eyes until she was dry heaving.

Yakov left to go buy some water and gum from the vending machines inside the building before handing them over to Victor, as bad as he felt for Liv, he couldn't handle seeing people throw up in front of him.

Victor heard that Liv's retching had slightly calmed down and gently touched her on the shoulder, shaking her to see if she's alright. "Liv? Liv? Feeling better?"

Barely holding onto the trash can, Liv weakly nodded before slipping down onto the icy snow-covered ground. It was dark and the streets were lit up by the lamps, making the snow falling from the sky appear orange instead of white.

Victor held Liv up to prevent her from flopping against the ground. She wouldn't stop crying, she couldn't stand up either. Victor gave her the water bottle Yakov bought and she quickly took several gulps of it.

It took several minutes before Liv's sobbing lowered and she was just silently producing tears. But she still wouldn't stand up. Victor never let her go once, Yakov checked the time to see when they need to board the train back to St. Petersburg.

"Victor, we need to go, can you carry her?"

Victor gently shook Liv. "Can you walk?"

"Sure...just a bit tired…that's all…but I'll walk."

Several hours later…

By the time they reached the St. Petersburg train station, Liv has fallen fast asleep and Victor had to carry her. Throwing one of her arms over his shoulder, he helped her out of the train and towards the parking lot.

Yakov stopped in front of their cars, discussing with Victor over what to do right now.

"Does she have the keys to her apartment?" Yakov asked.

"Yeah but...I honestly don't think it's a good idea to take her to her home right now. With her current condition, I'm afraid that she might...do something…"

Yakov got the gist of it. "I see. Then what?"

"I'm taking her to my place for the night and I'll be keeping her there for a few days just to be safe." He took a look at the sleeping woman he's holding upright. "She's going through a lot."

"Alright, but make sure you don't skip out on your own practices. You're on the Olympic team, you can't waiver yet. But I'll let you skip tomorrow's practice. Only tomorrow, though." Yakov strictly reminded before getting into his car and driving away into the snowy night.

Victor sighed as he carefully put Liv inside his car's passenger seat and fasten the seatbelt over her. Getting into the driver's seat, Victor drove towards his home.

After reaching his building's parking lot, Victor carried Liv the same way he did back at the train station, up the elevator, and into his apartment. He laid her down on the couch before shutting the door behind him to grab his skating bag and her backpack out of the trunk and bringing them back up.

When he returned to the apartment, Victor saw that Makkachin was awake again and standing next to the couch Liv was sleeping on. He curiously nudged her hand, seeing if she would wake up. Victor picks the bags down in a corner in the living room before gently coaxing his pet back to his room.

He leaned against the wall facing Liv, sighing. What a terrible day today was. It was all for nothing. As much as he hated to admit it, Liv was sort of right. Nothing she did made a difference. Well, it did—just not in the way they hoped it would.

What did they do wrong?

Standing back up, Victor went to his guest room to grab a large unused comforter and pillow. Gently resting Liv's head under the pillow, he spread open the comforter over on top of her body. Then he went to the other side of the living room to grab some bean bag chairs.

He put them in front of the couch so that in case Liv rolled off, she won't hit the ground. After finishing with the bean bag adjustments, Victor left the room to go to sleep. After today's events, he was more than ready to accept the warm embrace of his own bed…

The next morning…

Victor didn't wake up until around nine, the latest he has ever woken up since he moved out of his parents' home! He immediately changed into his home clothes and went out to see if Liv was awake. She wasn't.

So he went onto his morning routine. Giving Makkachin his breakfast and water, then shoving his practice outfits into the laundry, and finally, making breakfast. He was still a bit tired, so he didn't use the stove and stuck to quick off-the-shelf meals.

It felt strange, being at home this late in the morning on a freestyle practice day. Eating bacon sticks for breakfast instead of granola bars and cold bread. Makkachin barked behind him. Victor turned around.

Liv stirred around the comforter, her "huh?" confirmed to Victor that she awake and conscious that this is clearly not her apartment. He walked over to greet her.

"Hey, you fell unconscious on the train back home so I took you here. Welcome to my place. I know that this isn't the most formal visit...but...oh well…" He sat on the bean bag chair in front of her.

She was still lying on her side, not saying a word. Her eyes were still a bit red from all the crying yesterday and partially from just waking up. Victor finished his bacon stick and knelt in front of the couch.

"Hey." He took a more gentle approach. "Feeling better?"

Liv merely nodded, still not saying a word.

"Hungry? Tired? Cold? Can I get you anything?" He asked, trying to get her to talk back.

She did. But it was barely audible. "Can you get me my phone?" Liv croaked.

Confused but obedient, Victor walked over to her backpack and asked for which pocket her phone was in. After digging through all those papers, textbooks, and folders, Victor finally found the hard bumpy case of the cell phone. He handed it to Liv as she sat up on the couch.

"Thanks." She took the phone and began scrolling through her contacts list before selecting the one she was looking for. Victor stepped back into the kitchen to give her some privacy. He couldn't help but listen in on her conversation.

"Hey, Ketty. It's me...oh, fine. Hey, Holly, it's me. What's wrong with the name your parents gave you? Sheesh...Anyways sorry for calling you so late...what? You're still up? Girl, you need to get some sleep!"

Holly...Victor thought. Liv's Detroit best friend and music composing partner. What did she have to tell her about?

"Uh, listen. I'm not feeling too well now...I'd rather not say. So, yeah. Sorry, your clients are going to have to wait."

"...but next season won't be until many months from now! Can't you cut the Thai skater's song yourself? What? You two have another skater now? His Japanese friend? Ok…"

Victor heated some spaghetti in the microwave. He decided to stop listening in on Liv's conversation and continue with eating. Those bacon sticks weren't enough.

Liv was still a bit tired while talking on the phone. She pulled the comforter higher up.

"...you liked what I made so far? But I haven't made the sheet music yet. Want me to tell you the basic layout? Ok so, it's in the key of E flat major, there's a lot of sextuplet rolls...and the beginning part sounds like this…"

Liv hums the first few notes of the melody of her unknown original song. Victor heard it loud and clear from his kitchen, it sounded nice, even though she wasn't actually singing, she had a sweet voice.

"...got that? GC chord, then octave lower G, then go up as usual to A flat, B flat, D, then E flat. Ah, you know what? I'll send you a recording and midi when I'm feeling better. Yeah ok...I'll be sure to remember that...I'll be ok…thanks, I feel sort of better now. Bye, Holly. There, I called you 'Holly,' happy? Bye."

Present time.

Yuri let go of Victor, the fire that was once burning inside of him has now simmered down. So that's what happened after the 2014 Russian Championships?

From his own experiences, Yuri knew what it was like to fail and never win, no matter how hard he tried. So he had a pretty good idea of what Liv went through that day. Probably more than Victor does.

Victor was a winner. As much as he sympathizes with people below him, he will never how it feels like to be given the short end of the stick. What people like him and Liv have to go through. To them, a gold medal is a dream, and even if it's achieved once, it's equivalent to the greatest thing in the world.

Hearing Victor talk about the events of the post-Nationals caused Yuri to unconsciously produce tears. Victor panicked when he saw them and quickly grabbed Yuri by either side of his face.

"Yuri? Are you ok? I'm sorry! What did I say? I'm sorry!" Victor looked at him in the eyes wiping away some of his tears.

Yuri shook his head, calming Victor down. "I'm fine...it just feels...familiar...a bit too familiar to me."

Victor sighed in relief. "Alright, that's good. It's good. Please don't cry, I'd feel even worse than I'm already feeling now. With each passing day, we're getting closer and closer to 'that part' in my backstory."

That got Yuri's attention. He perked up and turned around. "'That part?' So the traumatic incident wasn't the fact that Liv didn't make the Olympics team?"

"Didn't you watch the Sochi Olympics, Yuri? I thought you knew the events." Victor was surprised.

"Yeah, but, uh...I kind of only watched it for you…" A light blush formed across Yuri's cheeks. "After the team event, you got injured during one practice and had to withdraw from the singles event. So I stopped watching."

Memories of that event came back to Victor's head. "Yeah, I wasn't paying attention during that practice. That skater was careful, it was my fault. I caused my own injury. And during that time, it was too late for any alternates to replace me, so only Georgi and Constantine competed."

"I see…" Yuri nodded. That's about everything he knows about what happened at the Sochi Olympics. Victor is most likely going to explain the rest of it. But first…he was getting a little hungry again…

"Victor? Any convenience stores nearby?" Yuri asked. "I need a snack."

Several minutes later…

The two of them reached a small magazines store near a gas station. Luckily, it sold coffee and other snacks as well. Victor got Yuri some mints before heading to the washroom.

"I'll be back in a bit. Wait for me." Victor patted him on the hand before leaving.

Yuri sat at the small table by the coffee shop alone, fiddling with his packet of mints. He couldn't sit still though. Something's been coming back to mind, nagging him over and over constantly.

Why is that?

Annoyed, Yuri took his phone and earbuds to listen to some music while waiting for Victor. And to get this thing out of his mind. Scrolling through his long list of songs, a lightbulb suddenly appeared above his head. He got it.

Without a moment's waste, Yuri rushed to his contacts list and his fingers shakily tapped on Phichit's name. Bringing the phone to his ear, he eagerly shook his legs back and forth while the dial tone rang.

"Come on, come on, come on...pick up, Phichit…" Yuri really didn't want to forget this. Phichit better pick up so—

"Yawn. Hey, Yuri. 'Sup?" The familiar voice of the Thai skater slowed Yuri's pulse.

"Phichit! I know this is super random and may seem stupid but who's the music student who helped make our program songs?" Yuri asked a mile a minute.

"Huh? Music student…? Program songs…? Oh!" Phichit sounded much more awake now.

"Was her name, Holly? I checked the name of music student on my contacts list that you gave me, it says Holly Abelashvili." Yuri asked.

"Holly?" Phichit sounded confused. "Oh...yeah, I forgot to tell you something back then. Holly's real name is actually Ketty. She just likes to be called 'Holly' and I guess that's what everyone calls her. So, yeah. I discovered this when you went back to Japan after your graduation."

Bells were ringing like sirens inside Yuri's mind. The pieces were beginning to click. "That number you gave me back when I was asking you for the music student. So that was Holly's/Ketty's, right? Ketty Abelashvili?"

"Yeah…" Phichit confirmed. "But why do you have to bring this up now? And at so late in the night for me! Where are you, Yuri?"

"Oh, uh. Guess what? I took yours and Yurio's advice. I'm talking it through with Victor right now!" Yuri revealed excitedly.

An earsplitting squeal was heard on the other side of the speaker. Yuri had to pull himself away from his phone to prevent himself from going deaf. The squeal lowered.

"Omigosh, Yuri! I'm so proud of you! I'm literally crying right now! So how's it going? Are you two getting along so far? Tell about it!"

And just a few seconds ago, he was complaining about how tired he was and how it was for him on the other side of the world. Now, he sounds fully awake. Yuri burst out laughing.

"Well. We're getting along just fine. It's amazing, Phichit! Victor's telling me everything about him that I need to know! Omigosh, there's just so much I can tell you…" Yuri didn't even know where to start.

"So tell me everything! From the very beginning!"

"I can't. I'm waiting for Victor right now, so I can't really talk to you for any longer. But there's something else I've been meaning to ask you. Does Holly or rather, Ketty, have a friend named Liv?" Yuri asked.

Phichit sounded confused. "Liv?"

"Stands for Olivia. Ever heard of her? Heard Ketty mention a friend of hers before?" Yuri tried to dig deeper.

"No...not that I know of. Why?"

"Never mind, never mind. When Ketty was making my song, did you ever see her work on it? Record it? She shouldn't have been able to do all of it herself...right? Sigh. Who played the piano part?" Yuri pressed.

Phichit really didn't know what Yuri was trying to find out. "Who played the piano part? I don't know! I assumed Holly—I mean, Ketty played it all! I don't how these songs are made! I ain't a musician!"

"Well—"

"Yuri! I'm back!" Victor's voice sang from in front of him.

Yuri quickly ended the call and stuffed the phone in his pocket before facing Victor as he sat down in front of Yuri. His fingers gently tapping the surface of the table, anticipating for something to be said.

"How was the potty, Victor?" Yuri asked without thinking it through.

He felt his face turn several shades of red as Victor laughed and shook his head. "It was super! How was your sensual phone conversation without me?"

Yuri gave him a thumbs up. They sat at the table for a few more minutes of casual talk and rest. Finally, Victor decides that it's time to head on back to his place. Yuri followed back out onto the cold streets.

Victor gazed at everything they passed by. "St. Petersburg has been my home since birth. But it's strange that it feels much different now." He remarked.

"Maybe it's the buildings." Yuri suggested. "The people? Or maybe the season?"

Victor stopped walking and looked Yuri. It wasn't like his usual stares, this time, he looked at him with a different expression. Almost like he's serious about something.

"Or maybe it's love…"

Yuri felt a warm pair of leather gloves grab his oversized fuzzy mittens. Victor began walking again, pulling him a little closer than before. Yuri didn't mind. He liked this. A lot.

Victor continued with what he had to say. "There's a quote I saw once from a picture frames store. 'Love makes our house a home.' I never really understood it until now."

"Does this place feel warmer now with me here?" Yuri whispered.

Victor answers his question and a squeeze on his hand. Yes, I'm home now. Because you're here.

Again, I repeat that these chapters will be coming out later now. I need to get my priorities straight, so I'm going to have to move story writing down a few ranks. (But it was pretty worth it. I'm pretty confident with the two tests I've written today, and I got my chemistry test back too. Best mark I've got the whole semester in that class! *Slightly exaggerated.)

I'm kind of a tryhard student, so I have to recognize that school and piano come first, then this. (Doesn't mean that I'll stop posting. Just giving you all a heads up if these chapters are coming out later and later.)

I'll be answering more eye-catching reviews in the next chapter. Thanks for the support guys!

See you soon.