Chapter Six: Yuuri vs. The Russian Punk: Babysitting While Losing Your Mind
As soon as Yurio had left the room, the logistics of what he had just agreed to hit Yuuri in the face like a bullet train.
First of all, midnight was way past curfew. This meant that he and Victor (and maybe Yurio—Yuuri still wasn't sure where he was planning on staying or if the teachers had realized he was there) would have to sneak out of bed, steal a school Snitch and play a secret game of Catch the Snitch in the pitch dark over the ocean in who knows what weather. It wasn't just against the rules; it was downright dangerous.
"Nothing's going to happen to you!" Victor assured him when he voiced these problems, later in the privacy of their dormitory. "I'll be watching the whole time." Like Victor had control over whether Yuuri would get expelled for stealing from the school. Or whether there'd be a thunderstorm that knocked both him and Yurio off course, drowning them in the sea.
"This is such a bad idea," Yuuri wailed, wringing his hands in terror. "Oh and also, I'm going to lose and you're going to go back to Durmstrang." His stomach twisted at the thought—Victor had only been at Mahoutokoro a month, and it struck him suddenly how lonely he'd be if Victor were to leave. It was hard to believe how accustomed he'd grown to Victor's companionship over such a short time.
There was a knock on the door and Takeshi's voice said, "Hey guys? Sorry to bother you, but the angry Russian kid from breakfast is outside the shoin demanding to see Victor."
"Coming," Yuuri called back. He had been sort of wondering where Yurio had wandered off to—they hadn't seen him since breakfast and it was almost time for lunch.
"Did you have a nice nap?" Victor asked Yurio as soon as they saw him. It couldn't have been more obvious that he'd fallen asleep, wherever he'd been. His eyes were puffy and his hair was all over the place.
"I went to rest in the hot spring," he grumbled. "I didn't fall asleep. Then somebody tried to come in there while I was naked and I had to yell at them. Who tries to take a bath with other people?"
"How did you get into the onsen in the first place?" Yuuri asked him. "There's a password for— "
"I argued with that stupid frog until it let me in," he interrupted. "Now I need food. When is lunch?"
At lunch, during which Yurio (rather hypocritically, Yuuri felt) ate three servings of nabe, Victor casually mentioned what he and Yuuri had been up to while Yurio was asleep in the onsen.
"You what?" Yurio shouted.
"I sent a message to Yakov," Victor continued. "I wanted to let him know you got here safely. Was I not supposed to do that?"
"You idiot! Now he's going to know I'm here!"
Yuuri was under the deep suspicion that Yakov, whoever that was, already knew Yurio was missing. He just didn't strike Yuuri as the kind of person whose absence would go unnoticed. It was probably very quiet around Durmstrang today.
"Wait," Yuuri said. Something had just occurred to him. "How did you get into the school in the first place? The komainu are supposed to— "
"Your groundskeeper found me outside," Yurio said (probably because you were yelling, Yuuri added silently). "He let me in after checking my wand and told me to go wait in the headmaster's office so that Yakov could come get me." The fact that he didn't do that remained unsaid, but understood.
"But that's not the point," Yurio continued. "Now I'm going to have to deal with Yakov because of you."
"Did you really think no one was going to notice you were gone?" Yuuri asked before he could stop himself.
"My plan would've been perfect," he said, glaring at Victor. "I tried to take the Floo Network here but this stupid school doesn't have fireplaces. I got as far as Iwo Jima and had to fly the rest of the way here on my broom. It took all night."
"How are you planning on getting back?" Yuuri asked. Was he the only person here who ever thought anything through? Yurio just glared at him, which wasn't an answer. Yuuri hypothesized that maybe he'd been hoping Victor would side-along Apparate with him, although he didn't want to be the one to break it to Yurio that Apparation from Japan to Scandinavia wasn't within the realm of possibility.
They spent the rest of the afternoon showing Yurio around Mahoutokoro. He declared every single thing that Victor gushed over "boring" or "pointless" or "stupid," then told them he was sick of talking to them and stomped off to the beach by himself. He did, however, reappear right before dinner and proceeded to eat several helpings of everything within sight.
Bedtime was interesting because Yuuri had become very accustomed to sharing a room with Victor practically exclusively (the wall of suitcases effectively blocked them from Takeshi entirely) and Yurio just sort of barreled his way in and crashed on Victor's futon without asking. Victor looked at Yuuri and shrugged.
"Looks like it's going to be a sleepover for us then," Victor suggested, raising his eyebrows and summoning a second set of silk blankets from one of his many suitcases. The sheets tucked themselves neatly over Yuuri's futon, while Victor pulled on his pajamas and settled into bed.
"So," he asked Yuuri, "big spoon or little spoon?"
"Um," Yuuri stuttered. Yuuri had not anticipated having to answer that question, nor had he even once pondered which he would prefer.
"Get into bed, we'll try both and see which one feels right," Victor declared. Yuuri first contemplated jumping out the window, decided against it, then got into bed.
When Yuuri awoke the next morning, warm and comfortable in Victor's arms, he supposed he had his answer. Maybe I could just pretend to be asleep for a little longer, he thought, if I just...
"Katsudon!" came a piercing voice to the side of his bed. "Do you have toilets in the dormitories here or are you too special for fireplaces and bathrooms?"
Never mind. Yurio's voice brought with it the looming reminder (and subsequent anxiety) of tonight's illicit game of Catch the Snitch. At least he'd gotten a good night's sleep. If he'd been on his own, he would probably have stayed up tossing and turning until morning.
After breakfast, the whole of Mahoutokoro made its way down to the Quidditch pitch. Yuuri kept his eyes on Victor because it was always fun watching someone's reaction when they saw the stands appear for the first time.
The teachers stood in a row and raised their wands. A crash came from below as a fountain of lava shot up all around the pitch, a hundred feet into the air, and just when it looked like gravity would cause it to go crashing back into the sea, it instantly solidified, utterly rigid, into an obelisk of obsidian complete with hundreds of perfectly even benches and staircases leading up them.
Victor looked as though his jaw might hit the sand at any moment. Even Yurio's mouth was open, eyes wide with astonishment. Yuuri remembered the first time he'd seen it happen—he'd had to lean onto Yuuko's arm for support.
Yuuri had heard that at other schools, only students and teachers came to see matches. At Mahoutokoro, parents who lived in Iwo Jima or Okinawa often came to support their children. Former students who happened to be in the area sometimes stopped by to watch. Day students and their parents made an outing of it. It wasn't unusual for unfamiliar people to show up.
What was unusual was for an enormous ship to emerge from the ocean and dock itself next to the stadium.
"Uh oh," Yurio mumbled as the ship took to shore.
The deck lowered and a large, balding, angry man in deep red robes came stomping down into the sand.
"YURI PLISETSKY," he bellowed, catching sight of Yurio. Yuuri slid to the side and behind Victor, trying to stay out of the line of fire.
"Yakov!" Victor cried, rushing forward to embrace the red-faced man. He backed up in astonishment but Victor managed to get his arms around him nonetheless. "So good to see you again!"
"You'd see plenty of me if you'd stayed at Durmstrang," Yakov replied, stiff as a board. When Victor finally let go, he marched up to Yurio. "You're going to have detention for the rest of your life," he shouted. "What were you thinking?'
"He came to see me!" Victor interrupted. "We're about to watch a game, care to join?"
Yakov noticed the gaping faces of hundreds of students and adults.
"I'll deal with you later," he snarled furiously at Yurio, walking toward the staircases leading into the stands and muttering about, "No-Majs in Iwo Jima reporting a screaming Russian teenager falling out of their fireplace...the International Statute of Secrecy...Durmstrang's reputation..."
Victor, Yurio and Yakov all followed Yuuri to a spot toward the middle of the stands. Phichit sat on one side of Yuuri and Victor sat on the other, until Yurio elbowed his way in between them, plopped onto the bench and slouched down, arms folded across his chest. Yakov awkwardly sat on the other side of Victor. He had evidently been hoping to spend the match reaming Yurio out for his little stunt, but instead took the opportunity to try and convince Victor he'd made a terrible mistake.
"...can always come back," he was saying when Yuuri tuned into the conversation. "The Skrzak wrote me and said they can give you until the end of the month to change your mind— "
"You should visit us here more often!" Victor said over him. "Yuuri's going to be playing in the match next month, you and Yurio can come to that one too. It would be fun to bring Emil..."
On his other side, Yuuko, Phichit and Guang Hong were discussing Quidditch tactics.
"The Kirin Chasers have the advantage when it comes to passing," Yuuko was saying.
"But not when it comes to actually scoring," Takeshi piped in. "Murakami was a beast of a Keeper. I'd say he should've been a Beater if their Beaters weren't so good already. Wonder if their new guy's got what it takes."
"If only the Komainu Chasers were more unified," Guang Hong added. "They've just never been a cohesive team."
"Komainu has always had such a heavy emphasis on defense," Phichit said. "I guess the real x-factor of this game is going to be the new Keeper. Has anyone seen— "
The rest of Phichit's sentence was drowned out by the twin seventh-year commentators.
"Ohayo, Mahoutokoro! My name is Ruika Ikuma—
"—and I'm Emiko Ikuma— "
"—and we present to you our first Quidditch match of the year, Kirin versus Komainu!"
Applause from the crowd. The House Kirin Quidditch team flew into the pitch wearing their jasper-colored robes.
"From House Kirin," said Emiko, "most of their players graduated last year. I was sorry to see them leave even though they came in third— "
"—but Captain Arvin Cantre put together a lineup of newcomers this year including Chasers In-Jung Seong, Apinya Babpiboon, and Umi Tamura. Noriaki Noguchi will be smashing Bludgers alongside Cantre, with Ai Sekiguchi defending the goalposts and Duong Nguyen hunting down the Snitch!"
"—Duong Nguyen is my partner in Potions," Emiko added importantly.
"And from our reigning champion, House Komainu," Ruika continued, "We have returning Chasers Danilo Legaspi, Eiji Hamasaki and Hideo Fujiwara with our good old brother-sister duo Xing and Fen Chiu swinging their Beater's bats. Last but hopefully not least, Captain and Seeker Koji Ohashi has chosen a new Keeper this year to replace Hideki Murakami. Introducing...Otabek Altin!"
Next to Yuuri, Yurio shifted in his seat as Otabek Altin flew directly up to guard the goalposts without acknowledging the crowd, jade robes swirling as he turned to face the pitch.
"Hideki Murakami signed as a reserve with the Toyohashi Tengu, didn't he?" Emiko asked, though it was unclear whether she was speaking to Ruika or the audience at large. Ruika grabbed the megaphone back.
"Actually he took a job at the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry," she said, talking very fast—as though she was trying to get the sentence over with.
"That's too bad," Emiko cut in. "I know he wanted to play professionally, but I guess— "
"The Snitch has been released!" Ruika spoke over her. "The Quaffle is in the air and the game begins!"
All six Chasers collided into a jasper-and-jade mob, bumping unceremoniously into opponents and teammates alike. Yuuri peeked over Yurio to get a look at Victor's face—after seeing the Russian and New Zealand Chasers during the World Cup, he was more than a little embarrassed that this was going to be Victor's first exposure to Mahoutokoro Quidditch. Victor, however, was staring straight at the center of the pitch in concentration. Yuuri tore his gaze away from Victor and focused back on the game, or at least as well as he could while half-listening to Yurio's grumbling.
"Garbage Chasers," he was mumbling. "No excuse...wish I had my bat...could beat some sense into these people..."
"And it seems that Hamasaki of Komainu has emerged with the Quaffle," Ruika said. "He passes to Legaspi, who streaks up the pitch and—is hit by a Bludger from Cantre. The Quaffle is dropped, and it looks like Babpiboon has it. Nice catch there, narrowly missing the waves—"
"—which are really high for this time of year. We've had pretty good weather so far, so maybe a storm is coming?" Emiko ended her comment looking at the sky. Ruika wrested the megaphone from her after a few seconds silent struggle.
"And we're back to the match, where the Quaffle has changed hands a few times, with neither team getting very far down the pitch. The Beaters on both teams are keeping all of the players busy. The Chiu siblings in particular are—"
"Shouldn't they have some kind of name for their duo?" Emiko interrupted. "I think it would be cool if we started giving people nicknames or—"
"Who let this girl near the megaphone?" Yurio muttered under his breath.
"It looks like Tamura has broken through the blockade of Komainu Chasers at last. She shoots!"
Tamura shot for the left goalpost while faking a center shot. But it seemed like Komainu's new Keeper had seen through the ruse, as he glided almost lazily to the left, and punted it hard half the length of the pitch. Legaspi, who was in the rear, sped up and put it through the center Kirin hoop before Keeper Sekiguchi had time to react.
"Komainu scores, 10-0 to Komainu!"
As the match wore on, with the Chasers playing what appeared to be a feeble game of keep-away in the middle of the pitch, Yuuri focused on Otabek Altin. He played defense like no one Yuuri had ever seen. Instead of drifting from the left to right hoops with the flow of the match, he stayed center, almost still. Even on the rare occasion that one of the Kirin Chasers made it to the goalposts, Otabek always seemed to know which goal they were aiming for before they'd even decided themselves. He made every single save look effortless, and relied more on his feet than his hands.
"...who told a really funny joke during Charms the other day about a unicorn and a— "
"—so, with Komainu in the lead 40-0 and still no sign of the Snitch... But wait, there they go!"
The crowd all turned their heads as one to stare at the Seekers, who were diving after a glint of gold. Yuuri saw that the Komainu Seeker, Ohashi, had a considerable, yet quickly diminishing lead on Nguyen. Yuuri's stomach lurched as Ohashi looked backward at Nguyen and began to weave back and forth on his broomstick. He remembered it so vividly—it was like he could see it again through Nguyen's eyes, the tail of Ohashi's broom sweeping back and forth in the air...
Sure enough, it worked. Nguyen slowed, and whirled around, looking for the Snitch, which Yuuri saw hovering by the opposite goalpost.
The match began to slow. The Chasers on both teams seemed visibly tired and frustrated—Komainu because they couldn't seem to coordinate who was supposed to be where, and Kirin because they couldn't get anything past Otabek. The Beaters on both teams pummeled the midfield, adding injury to incompetence.
"I hope one of those Beaters knocks someone out," Yurio said. "Anything to make this game a little more interesting."
"Seong is moving swiftly down the pitch, ducks a hard-hit Bludger from Chiu F, and shoots! Sc—wait, no! Saved by Altin yet again!" Ruika shouted.
The crowd cheered wildly. The Quaffle took an unexpected dip below Otabek, who spun off of his broom, and, hanging under the broom with one hand, kicked the Quaffle with the speed of a Bludger almost the entire length of the pitch. Yuuri noticed that Yurio had gone completely silent and was leaned all the way forward in his seat—he looked as though he might fall into the next row if he strained his neck any further.
And then it was over. Ohashi had used the distraction of Otabek's save to dart after the Snitch, which he had grabbed practically under Nguyen's nose.
"Wait, was that it?" Emiko asked.
"It's all over," Ruika confirmed. "190-0 to Komainu!"
Yuuri expected to feel better after. After watching the Chasers fumble around in the center of the pitch—even at their most out-of-practice, Tanuki's Chasers weren't that inept—Yuuri should've been relaxed, maybe even looking forward to the match. But he couldn't shake the vision of Ohashi weaving in front of Nguyen...
"That was wonderful!" Victor called, smiling at Yuuri over the top of Yurio's head. Was he joking?
"Are you insane?" Yurio snapped. "I've touched a Quaffle twice in my life and I would've been better than three of those Chasers combined."
"But could you have scored against that new Komainu Keeper?" Yuuko piped up from the other side of Yuuri. Yurio fell silent.
"Oh man," Guang Hong said. He was still staring at the goalposts. Otabek had left the pitch, but Guang Hong was gazing in terror as though he could still see his ghost.
"We'll just have to train extra hard before our match with Komainu," Yuuko reassured him. "And don't worry—we're playing Suzaku first. They came in fourth last year!"
After everyone was safely back on the cliff, Yuuri and Victor watched the obsidian stands sink back into the ocean. The waves washed between the goalposts again as though they'd never been there at all. Which left Yuuri back where he was last night—worrying about Catch the Snitch. As though Yurio could hear his thoughts, he narrowed his eyes at Yuuri, pointed at the sky and stamped his foot on the ground. Yuuri got the message. Tonight. Right here.
Yurio spent the rest of the morning and the entire afternoon aboard the docked Durmstrang ship, with the exception of lunch, which he ate with House Tanuki again. He complained nonstop about the match through his chewing and expressed his desire to get back to Durmstrang with Victor as quickly as possible.
Yuuri had begun to feel that he was starting to get a pretty good sense of what Yurio was all about when he noticed that Yurio had spent most of the meal glancing at the House Komainu section of the shokudou.
"Who are you staring at?" Victor eventually asked him with interest.
"No one. Nothing," Yurio snapped. "Why were you watching me, creep?"
Victor stifled a giggle.