Disclaimer: I do not own YOI, just this fic. Enjoy!
Yo, what's up, everyone! Welcome back to school! Hope everyone's having a great September! Unlike me...just kidding! It's been going pretty well other than my calculus course (well that's to be expected), but I'm racking up some more community service stuff since I barely did anything during my previous year. And I'm going to need it if I want a chance at getting ANY GOOD scholarship!
Why can't there be a scholarship for writing fanfiction? I'd gladly apply to that! Though I don't know my chances of receiving one...oh well, maybe I should just stick to grades! (If calculus doesn't drag my ass down).
Bah! Whatever, I've been working on this chapter for some time over the past few weeks. I barely have any spare time now, and I'll have even less come the time for university applications. But at least I'm nearing the end of the backstory section of this fanfic. Next chapter is the last section of the backstory, and from there on. It's all in the present, with Yuri being the main protagonist!
Thanks for reading!
Please FAV, FOLLOW, and REVIEW! Or else I'll forget about this fanfic and just focus on improving my calculus grade! (Not joking)
Ch. 23: That fateful day…
Present time. Victor's home.
Yuri wakes up in the arms of someone warm and soft. Victor's arms. They were squeezed together on the couch of Victor's living room, still in their clothes and still groggy from last night.
Last night…last night is awesome! Yuri smiles at the lingering memories still clear in his head from last night. Absolutely the best time of his life! Even better than the night when he won silver at the Barcelona GPF. Or the night when they slept together for the first time during the 2016 NHK Trophy.
Oh, last night beat the pants off of any moment Yuri used to consider 'the best moment of his life.' Yuri suddenly feels himself being pulled in closer by Victor, burying his head into his chest.
It feels so cozy. The warmth of Victor's body emitted from the soft cotton sweater he's wearing. And it smells like cocoa! And he has a sudden need to go to the bathroom…
He tries to pry himself free from Victor's grasp, but he is holding on tighter than he suspected! After several failed attempts, he finally uses force to push himself out of Victor's arms…and off the couch too.
"Oof!" Yuri lands on his back with a thud, waking Victor up immediately.
"Huh!? I'm awake! I'm awake!" Victor looks down at the side of the couch. "Oh, Yuri! Did I push you off by accident? I'm sorry!"
Victor helps Yuri back up to his feet and rubs the back of his head. Yuri feels slightly lightheaded at first but quickly recovers. "I'm fine. I pushed myself off because I needed to use the toilet. But you wouldn't let go."
"How could I let go?" Victor crosses his arms. "After last night, the last thing I want, is you being five feet away from my grasp! Never letting go!"
Yuri rolls his eyes and makes his way towards the bathroom. "You're gonna have to whenever either of us need the toiletries."
"Then we'll make the toilet right next to the bathroom door in our future home so I won't have to let go!" Victor declares.
After Yuri finishes his business in the bathroom and the two of them finish up the remaining takeout leftovers from Victor's mom, they slump on the living room couch again. Lying on their stomachs and contemplating on the events of the past few days.
Things had been moving by so fast! It went from a nervous first meeting after a big argument, to a long session of storytelling, to coming to Victor's home for the first time, to meeting Victor's overenthusiastic mom and understanding dad, to his even more unique bunch of rinkmates, and of course, learning more about Olivia Nguyen, aka Liv.
It's been a hectic visit. And to think. This all started back in the Barcelona Grand Prix Final after banquet, thanks to a game of 20 questions! That was when Victor first hinted at having a troubled but serious relationship with someone other than Yuri. This caused Yuri and Yurio to begin investigating deeper into the mystery person that was Victor's old flame.
And then came the revelation of the golden ring hanging on the chain around Victor's neck. That was when Yuri knew that this person, whoever he/she was, is not gone from Victor's life. That Yuri's competing for Victor's affections, and that was a competition he will not lose in! Then Yurio discovers the mystery person is Olivia Nguyen, senior figure skater, currently ranked fourth in the world standings of ladies' singles.
But when he attempts to confront Victor about it, he lashes out and snaps at him. Clearly hurt by the mere mention of Olivia Nguyen's name, which confirms Yuri's thoughts on Victor not being able to let go of that relationship with her. But Yuri is not ready to give up in what he has with Victor.
Thanks to friends and family, Yuri finds the courage to fight for this special relationship he has with Victor. So he flies to St. Petersburg, Russia right after Christmas day, with one goal in mind, to reach out to Victor again, and resume what they had before.
And just last night, the two of them just confessed to each other, their true feelings. Their love for one another. The tear in their relationship is definitely mended by now, and stronger than ever!
Victor gets up from the couch and sits in the chair across from there. "Yuri, I've booked my flight for tomorrow. That's fine with you, right? You have a round-ticket, that's the day you're going back."
"Yeah. You've been prepared for quite some time, I see." Yuri admires before quickly cutting to the chase. "Now tell me. You did tell your parents to book the same flight too, right?"
Victor breathes in, thinking hard about what he wants to say while pursing his lips and squeezing his fists. Yuri calmly waits for an answer while resting his head on a throw pillow. Victor sighs.
"They've suspected long before I told them. In fact, my mom kind of already prepared the day she brought you and me to my childhood family home. There would be no point in telling them to book a flight, they got their tickets before I got mine."
"Great!" Yuri smiles but then catches sight of Victor's slightly sulking face. "I'll call my parents ahead of time and tell them to hide the alcohol once we get home. Feel more relaxed?"
"They're going to forget when the clock strikes twelve on New Year's Eve. Then everyone's resolution will be 'I want to rebuild the Hasetsu Inn,' 'I want to rebuild the Hasetsu Inn,' 'I want to rewind time and smash that wine glass from Nicole Nikiforov's hand!' Blah blah blah!"
Yuri breaks into a fit of laughter when Victor says how everyone's resolution will be about 'rebuilding the inn,' he seriously doubts anything that violent will happen. Sure, things will be a little crazy with Nicole around to spice it up. But not so crazy that his entire family's inn comes crashing down around them…
Ding! Dong!
Yuri is about to get up when Victor pushes him back down onto the couch and makes a beeline for the door. First thing he does is peek through the peephole. The next second, Victor runs at a breakneck speed towards his bedroom, leaving Yuri confused and curious.
"Victor, hon! I know you're in there! I know sweet Yuri's in there too! Come on, open up!" Nicole's voice sang in a melodic voice that is traced with hints of threat.
The doorbell rings again and this time, Victor's dad, Kostner speaks. "Don't be afraid, Victor! The sooner you open this door, the less likely you'll be facing a screaming banshee! I don't think even Yuri will want that!"
Victor's voice emerges from the closed bedroom door. "WAIT! I'm changing! Yuri's in the shower, and I'm looking for clothes!"
"Clothes!?" Nicole shrieks. "What time were you going on 'til last night? You should've been changing about an hour earlier!"
Yuri feels himself smile and grows red from Nicole's assumption and Victor groans loudly from his bedroom. Nicole humphs behind the front door. "And I don't hear the running waters of a shower. Yuri's right out in the living room, right? Yuri, angel! Care to let your future parents in?"
This is too entertaining to not laugh at. Unable to conceal his presence any longer, Yuri walks up to the front door and unlocks it for Victor's parents. His eyes nearly bugged out when he saw what they were carrying behind them.
Nicole catches sight of his stare. "Yep! We're all packed and ready to go tomorrow. Hope all of this luggage will be enough for one visit to your home!"
"It would be enough for one whole year…" Yuri stutters.
"Oh, angel! Did you think I packed all of my stuff in there?" Nicole laughs as she one-handedly hoists her giant suitcase and enters the apartment, Kostner follows behind and gives Yuri a friendly pat on the shoulder before locking the door behind them.
Nicole places her suitcase on its side and pats the top of its bulging surface. "Half of the stuff in here are gifts for you folks!"
"She's been at every single store there is from here to Moscow," Kostner whispers to Yuri. "Never date women, Yuri. You are a smart, smart man. Congratulations."
Just then, the door to Victor's bedroom flew open and hits the doorstop with a thud! But the first thing they saw come out from the door is not Victor. Instead, a giant red suitcase came rolling out into the hallway. It was barely zipped up and had uneven bulges all over its sides as a result of unorganized sorting. Several pieces of clothing were hanging out, threatening to fall onto the ground at any point.
Yuri now understands why Victor rushed to his bedroom the moment he saw his parents at the door. He didn't prepare his travel bags and if his mom were to find out…well then, he's in for a hell of a scolding. But looking at how well he's packed his stuff…looks like a scolding is unavoidable.
Nicole covers her mouth at the sight of the messy suitcase and the person pushing it out towards her. Victor presents himself before the three of them and sits down on top of his suitcase, trying to keep the bulges at a minimum.
"Morning, folks. You have a nice breakfast?" Victor asks, trying to get his parents' attention off of the messy suitcase. "Did you walk by the waterfront park last night? The fireworks display was amazing! Yuri and I went there, tell them how awesome it was!"
Before Yuri could open his mouth, Nicole pushes Victor off his suitcase and unzips it for all to see. All of the contents nearly exploded in her face. The inside of the suitcase looked like it was ransacked by a miniature tornado! Without saying a word, Nicole begins taking several items out and refold them.
Seeing how quiet his mom is being, Victor decides to kneel down next to her and help out in reorganizing the entire suitcase. It took less than a minute before everything was finally properly organized. Victor did the honours of zipping it up, this time, properly.
Kostner finally breaks the silence. "Well, that was some decent mom and son time you two. Now, let's move on."
"What do you mean 'move on?'" Victor cries. "What on Earth are you two doing here? And with all of your luggage? The flight's tomorrow! Or am I wrong?"
Nicole pulls Victor in from behind, teasingly embracing him. "Is it so wrong to come and spend more time with my two favourite skaters? 'Sides, this way, we can all leave bright and early sharp tomorrow. No need for confusion and wasting time finding each other at the airport."
"It's very nice to see you guys again," Yuri says, trying to get Victor to appreciate the light of this moment. "Are you planning on staying here all day?"
"Nope!" Nicole declares. "But don't worry, no shopping sprees today, Yuri! I saw how you fell asleep from tiredness last time. This time, we'll just drive. Take you on a bigger tour than you've been on foot!"
Yuri smiles enthusiastically at Nicole. "Thanks for all of this, I honestly don't think I've ever met any people more hospitable than you two. It's been a fun time staying here. It really has."
Victor winks at Yuri knowingly who winks back at him. Nicole gets up from the ground and yawns. The sunlight from the window bounces off of her gold ring, partially blinding Yuri. Which at the same time, reminds him of something…
"Say, Nicole. Mind if I ask where you got that ring?"
Nicole looks at her ring suddenly to see what's so special about it to have got the attention of Yuri. "You're asking the wrong person!"
Kostner steps up next to Yuri. "It's a rose gold wedding band. Not quite as extravagant as the engagement ring though, with all its emeralds and diamonds, now that nearly broke my whole family! But worth it!"
"Mmhmm," Nicole smirks. "By the way, Yuri angel, why are you asking about this? You don't mean…"
Yuri and Victor both nod strongly. "Don't know when yet, but it's definitely a yes!" Yuri explains.
"That's the most enthusiastic I've seen you be yet! Looks like I'm a good influence on you. Just imagine how much you'll change by spending the rest of your life with me!" Victor daydreams.
Nicole jumps up with joy and does a little twirl before wrapping all of them together in a big group hug. "That's great! We'll be one big happy family!"
"Just like the tv shows!" Victor adds.
"Yeah…" Kostner nervously agrees. "So, will I be expecting any grandchildren?"
That question caused everyone to go silent. And awkward kind of silent. That was broken by the joyous voice of Victor. "We'll be adopting an entire orphanage!"
"Huh? W—wait!" Yuri forces him out of the group hug to get some air and think about what was just said.
"What a great idea!" Nicole agrees, taking Victor's hands in hers.
By then, mother and son were deeply immersed in their conversation about how to raise an entire orphanage of children and how many beds they're planning to buy. Yuri's protests were practically nonexistent to them.
Kostner carefully pulls Yuri back and towards the front door of the apartment, leaving the two silver-haired people to ramble on. He quietly unlocks the door and leads Yuri out into the quiet hall.
"Let them be for now, ok? It'll be over soon." Kostner assures.
"But what if they remember again later?" Yuri asks worriedly.
"Ah. They'll probably forget until the wedding day. No sweat! Besides, I was only teasing back there! I should've known better to keep my mouth shut. But Yuri, seriously, it's partially your choice too to raise a kid. Don't feel like you have to go along because it's the 'way married couples have to do.' Discuss it with Victor, ok?"
Yuri nods. "Of course, I will. Honestly, I really don't know. I don't want to make a mistake or anything."
Aug. 2014. St. Petersburg Rink.
Victor redoes his step sequence again of his new free program for the upcoming season. Ever since the ISU's released the new rule stating that vocal songs are now allowed, Victor's music gallery has grown exponentially!
Along with everyone else's. Nearly all of his rinkmates took advantage of this new rule and began choosing songs that were always personal favourites of theirs for a long time, but were never allowed to use. Well, not anymore!
As for Victor, after days of searching and deciding and confronting Yakov, and some more confronting Yakov and some more…he's finally landed on his choice his the free skate song.
Stay close to me, that was the one that stood out most to him. And it was also the one that Yakov found appealing to watch him skate to, which was probably the deciding factor for this song in the end.
Victor messes around with his order of turns in the sequence, changing the pattern around to see what works best. Practice is already over about 15 minutes ago, it's just him alone on the rink. Waiting for his student/promiseé to arrive.
Angela had to go for another checkup at her doctor's place, so just as promised, Victor takes over for her. And it's been going very smoothly for more than a month!
Victor starts from the beginning of his step sequence and performs his newest version of it from start to finish. It was difficult to layout the timing without the music, but not impossible.
The door to the rink opens and in walks the person he was waiting for. Liv makes her way down the stairs, not saying a word as she sees Victor in the middle of practicing. She waits until he's ended the sequence.
"Whoo! Nice! I haven't seen that before, is it your free or short?"
"Free. Ugh, I'm still in the middle of finishing it up, but I just can't seem to stick to one pattern for this step sequence! It's like I'm always changing my mind the day after! It's ridiculous! I should have my program mastered by now!"
"Then film yourself or draw it out, stop complaining and do something about it!" Liv suggests as she goes to the changeroom. She later emerges, ready to go onto the ice.
Circling around the rink with crossovers and turns, Liv gets a feel of the ice before moving on to the actual lesson. Victor waits patiently by one end of the rink until she's finished.
Liv ends the warm up with a quick triple salchow. Victor eyed the distance between the tips of her toepick to the ice below, it was a great improvement. They've been really striving towards height this time.
He nods in approval as she skates over, cheeks flushed and slightly breathless. "What's the goal?"
Victor skates around to get his train of thought working. "The gold of course. But to work towards it, we're going to need to be more technical and break things down. Time to be more theoretical and less imaginative. You already got your program songs picked, right?"
"River flows in you for the short, and Shadow of Love for the free," Liv confirms. "All planned and practiced and memorized. Ready for revisions."
"Great!" Victor exclaims. "Then we can focus more on the first major step towards the gold. A clean triple axel under your belt. You've really improved on that height. Not joking, anyone who's not blind can see it."
"I just found my comfort zone in the timing of pulling in right after using so much force in launching myself up." A loose strand of hair falls in front of her eyes.
"Mmhmm. And you've even gotten your triple lutz/triple toe consistently fully rotated!" Victor tucks the loose strand of hair behind her ear before skating towards the open ice. "And hopefully, by the end of this month. We'll have you be able to do this!"
He steps into the front entrance of the jump with great speed. The height and air position of the triple axel is flawless, all the way to the clean and steady landing. Liv nervously purses her lips at the sight of the oh-so-near perfect example.
Victor skates over to the sidelines to get something on the bleachers. The harness. "But of course, we'll be using this to start us off!"
He skates over and straps Liv into the jumping device. After double checking to make sure everything is tight and in place. Liv begins the entrance to the jump with fast forward crossovers, transitioning into backward crossovers. Victor keeps up with her speed, being careful not to get too close.
Liv glides on her right back outside edge and steps forward into the jump. Snap! Victor lifts the pole a tad bit as soon as she leaves the ice, giving some more elevation, and thus, more time for her to complete a full three and a half rotations before landing on the ice.
"You got it!" He cries. "Everything is paying is off! It's working! You're so close, Liv. We just need to push it a bit harder!"
"Then let's push it a bit harder…"
The rest of the practice is spent with a continuous repetition of jumping, reviewing on the tape recorder, lecturing and advice giving, then jumping again. And it repeats over and over and over…
The same thing happens for the next few weeks of August. Each practice ends in a bucketful of sweat and knees full of ugly bruises. There were times when Liv just had enough of the constant failures.
It was always during those times that Liv's resilience is put to the limit and Victor's ability to be a supportive figure is tested on. Which he's doing a good job of.
Always focusing on what's at hand, separating the imagination from reality, and planning for each practice. One week, Angela herself called Victor to thank him for bringing Liv's skating to the next level. And making her life here more enjoyable.
Day after day, failure after failure, Liv's wall of strength is slowly cracking, her determination refuses to let it fall down. With every fall, she gets back up. With every two foot landing, she goes through the jump in slow motion. With every pop, she takes a break from jumping and works on other elements.
And throughout it all, Victor oversees everything. Her mistakes and almost successes. It's subtle, but he can see the tiny improvements she's making day by day. Until one day…
Aug. 31, 2014. St. Petersburg Arena.
The early morning sun shines in from the window of the Forhan arena, making a sudden flash of light reflected from the surface of the ice, where Liv skates on. The only skater on the ice.
From the change rooms, emerged Victor, half asleep, half awake, carrying his bag towards the sidelines of the rink, watching as Liv warms up.
She takes a backward turn and builds speed towards the entrance of the triple axel jump. Victor reaches the sidelines and yawns, just as Liv departs from the ice.
Her leg springs up, followed by her arms, pulling her body to maximum height before pulling in tight. Her face tenses in concentration as she begins rotating.
One…two…three…
Victor's yawning comes to a stop and his eyes open wide as he witnesses the life-changing event flash before his eyes.
…and a half.
Liv lands on her right toepick and unwraps herself from the backspin position into a relatively strong landing. Her blade wobbled a bit on the edge, but she kept her core strength up and didn't fall.
Victor drops his skating bag as Liv slides to her knees on the ice, pounding her fists against the hard cold surface. Victor nearly threw himself over the boards.
Liv falls back on the ice, one fist up in the air. "YES! YES! DID ANYONE SEE THAT!?"
"WITNESS RIGHT HERE!" Victor shouts at the top of his lungs.
Liv skates over to the exit of the rink and runs to Victor with ecstasy. He accepts her enthusiastic embrace and twirls around, equally ecstatic.
"You did it! You fucking nailed it!" Victor cries.
"I know, I know, I know, I can't believe!" Liv holds her head to calm herself.
"All that blood, sweat, tears, and the mountain of cursing have finally paid off! See? What'd I tell you?"
"That I'd be able to land it?"
"That you'd be able to land it and do it again! Right?" Victor asks excitedly.
Liv loses some of her enthusiasm and laughs nervously. "The next step is consistency…"
"Lucky for you, that's your specialty," Victor reminds.
Liv shrugs. "I guess."
"Ah, come here!" Victor opens his arms and embraces her again.
The two of them just stood there, hugging, for a minute or two. Nothing else mattered but the fact that Liv just landed her first ever, clean triple axel.
Only time would tell what happened next.
Present time.
It is the morning of the day when Yuri would return home. But Yuri couldn't sleep. His insides are too tangled up to allow him to sleep. So instead, he decides to go to the kitchen for a drink of cold water. At 3 o'clock in the morning.
And surprise. In the kitchen, sat a disheveled Victor. His head resting on his arms at the center island, and he seems to be listening to some music on his cell phone with earbuds on. Yuri carefully approaches him from behind.
He places a hand on Victor's back, nearly causing him to fall off the island chair. Victor removes his earbuds and turns around to look at Yuri, his expression calms and he embraces him while still sitting down.
"You're up early," Victor whispers.
"You were up earlier," Yuri counters. "What were you doing?"
Victor tucks his phone and earbuds away in his pocket. "Just listening to some tunes. I couldn't really sleep. Too much stuff going around in my head, and stomach."
Yuri walks over to the counter to get himself some water before returning to the island. "I see. Same thing here. Can I hear some tunes too? Music may be the only cure right now for this kind of anxiety."
Victor takes out his phone and unlocks it for Yuri before handing him his earbuds. "Works better if you listen by yourself. Let yourself fall into the endless universe."
Yuri scans through the playlists and songs on Victor's phone. It was an endless list of tracks! There were playlists for movie scores, orchestral renditions, video game osts, piano, violin, or even accordion covers, YouTube singing covers, skating program songs from the past, a favourites playlist, and so much more!
As if Victor wasn't open-minded enough, even his musical tastes reflect his personality! Unable to choose a single song, Yuri goes into the Favourites playlist. The first thing that catches his eye is his 2015 free skate song, Yuri On Ice.
He feels himself smile upon seeing that song as warm memories come up. Scrolling downwards, he sees other songs such as Sentimental Waltz, Numb, His Theme, To Zanarkand, Last One Standing, Inspiration, Children, and Shadow of Love.
Suddenly, Victor stands up from the island. Yuri clicks on Shadow of Love. The gentle ballad-like piano introduction begins, followed by a beautiful female Japanese voice. Olivia Lufkin.
"You know, music isn't the only cure for this kind of anxiety," Victor says. He walks up to Yuri and takes his hand, leading him front foyer. "Come on."
The next minute, Victor has Yuri in his winter jacket and boots and out the front door. They walked down to the parking lot, the outside city is as silent as ever in the early morning. The sky still dark as if it was still the middle of the night.
Victor leads Yuri to his car and the two of them drive off into the empty road. Bright orange streetlights being the only guide they have besides the moon, they went down the suburbs of the city and towards the route Victor usually takes when he goes to the rink…
Yuri soon realizes where they were going. They left the suburbs and enter the more forested region with the smaller road. The road that Yakov took him to meet Victor at the outdoor rink. A few seconds later, that very rink shows up in front of them and Victor steps on the brakes.
They park on the side of the road since no one else is around. Victor steps out into the cold but gentle environment, Yuri follows close behind, being careful not to step on any black ice as they made their way up to the outdoor rink.
Yuri rests his arms on the boards of the rink, sighing. "You first me—"
"No matter how early, fresh air always helps, doesn't it?" Victor accidentally interrupts. "Sorry, you were saying?"
"Ahem. You first met Liv here. I can only imagine how her imitation of Yakov's Sentimental Waltz performance looked like. Must be good, to get you to put on the brakes and step out to clap."
"And your imitation of my performance got me on a plane and fly across the Pacific Ocean to take you under my tutelage."
"And I'm flattered," Yuri says proudly. "It's like a dream come true, a storybook ending. All in all, I don't think I could ever forget the day I ran to the springs and found you sitting there with that towel on your head…and everything else that happened."
Victor laughs at the 'everything else that happened' remark. But then again, maybe he was a bit too forward with his first personal meeting with Yuri…but then again, he thought that Yuri remembered that amazing night of dancing at the banquet!
"Oh, Yuri. You're just too precious." Victor wraps an arm around him. "You're never going to leave, are you?"
Yuri blinks in confusion. "Why? We practically confessed and confirmed our relationship! Why would I ever leave you?"
Victor looks at him with serious eyes. "No matter how hurt you get. You'll also keep in touch right…? No matter how serious the injury… "
"Victor…"
Suddenly a giant light bulb flashes above Yuri's head. The memory of that day when he and Victor had that argument. The day before that, when Victor tried to talk Yuri out of competing after his hip has sort of healed. Because he was scared Yuri would hurt himself again. Because he was scared Yuri would never be able to skate again.
Though the sky is dark, Yuri could see the faint glimmering of tears in Victor's eyes. Victor blinks several times to get rid of them before speaking.
"That day when you fell at the Grand Prix Final and couldn't get back up…I remembered that fateful day with Liv. It was all too similar, yet so different. It hurted. It hurt so much."
Yuri puts both his arms around Victor to support him. It feels different, usually, it's the other way around. But not this time. "Tell me, Victor. What happened that day?"
"I pushed her too hard, just like I pushed you too hard. You got lucky, it was only a hip subluxation, and all I wanted is to prevent you from getting hurt again. Could've been much worse. But Liv…oh god…"
Sept. 21, 2014. St. Petersburg Arena.
The competitive season has begun. And soon, they'll be leaving for their events of the Grand Prix Series. By now, Victor's finally put his foot down and settled on a single pattern for his free skate footwork sequence. Got it mastered and memorized, and ready to go for the first competitions to come.
Victor is overlooking Liv's program run-through today. More specifically, her short program to a strings and piano rendition of River Flows in You. She's been landing triple axels every now and then for the past few weeks. It's been going pretty smooth, she's just not brave enough to insert them into her program.
Well, not until recently, with Victor going through hours of lecturing and convincing and pushing until she decides to finally give in. Today, she's going to attempt to insert the triple axel in her run-through.
The beautiful chorus enters as Liv changes foot in her combination spin, pulling her blade up behind her in a lovely catch-foot camel variation. Then, a short pause bridges the gap between the chorus and the new verse.
Yiruma's a genius thought Victor as he watches from the top of the second level of bleachers. This piano solo twisted with a strings variation is truly a masterpiece. And Liv brings it more glory on the ice.
The long footwork sequence matches the tempo of the familiar piano verse with a bit of variation here and there, performed in time with every step and turn Liv makes. Her arms and body flourish the movements of her legs.
She ends the sequence with a near-split spiral that leads into a strong triple flip jump. Nice and high, no underrotations or anything that makes it look cheated. Anybody with a good eye can see that she's clearly improved. It's objectively true!
Victor begins walking down towards the sidelines as the music prepares to enter the chorus again, Liv builds up along with it, her steps become more jumpy and powered, her speed increases. She's preparing for the last jump of her short program. Triple axel.
"Triple axel," Victor stresses out each syllable. "Even an attempt is better than none at all! Trust me, you've been landing them recently. Insert it and work on it! Take risks!"
"Ok."
The music builds up in intensity as Liv glides on her right-back outside edge, preparing to enter the triple axel. She is nearing the boards with each passing second before finally placing her left skate down and bending really deeply into her knee and squeezing her fists tightly.
Victor clenches his teeth as he watches history being made before him. The piano plays the first note of the chorus at the same time as Liv's skate leaves the ice and she launches herself into the air.
It was as if the world was suddenly set at a faster pace because the next thing that happened, Victor still can't comprehend. All that he knew was the Liv never landed that jump.
In midair, she lost control of her body due to the great amount of force put into the takeoff, keeping everything tight was beyond her control. Combined with the nerves she was keeping down during the time.
She comes crashing down with her skates flat on the ice and her body wide-opened and upright. The power from the jump sends her flying back towards the already very close boards.
The music stops playing, replaced with the sound of hard bone hitting a hard sharp edge. Victor's eyes opened wide as his feelings of excitement and pride quickly turns to horror and despair in less than a millisecond.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" That scream he let out that day barely sounded like him. But it came from him.
Blood. Bright red blood pooled onto the glistening white ice, made even brighter by the fluorescent lights from up above.
Yep, sorry. I'm going to have to end the chapter right here. But you get the gist of it. Leave the rest up to the imagination. We'll see how things turn out! :P
In the meantime, I'll try and apply first aid to my calculus grade while Liv receives first aid from Victor, hopefully (and in the correct way)!