Chapter Eleven: Yuuri vs. A Cliff Round II: Also, How Not to be an Asshole!
Yuuri spent the rest of the day avoiding everyone, but especially Victor. He went for a run, even though Victor had told him not to. He puttered around on the beach, ducked into an empty classroom and hid behind a screen so he wouldn't have to talk to Minako, and did some extra credit Herbology work in the gardens, which earned him a trip to the nurse to treat a welt on his nose where a vine had smacked him across the face.
I have to focus on me, he thought. I need to concentrate on myself.
Yurio was at dinner, but Victor wasn't. Yuuri stubbornly decided not to ask where he was (even though he was curious), but luckily Yuuko did it for him.
"He's eating with Yakov," Yurio told them, slurping up his udon. "Idiot." Yuuri wasn't sure whether the insult was in reference to Victor or Yakov, but knowing Yurio it was probably both, and for no reason.
Victor didn't come to bed until Yuuri was already asleep, and he had left the dormitory by the time Yuuri got up. Yuuri was worried about humiliating himself in front of the whole school again, but fighting with Victor was...almost worse. And yet he didn't want to apologize because it wasn't his fault that Victor was giving him terrible advice.
Victor was at breakfast, so apparently he hadn't decided to totally abandon him. Yuuri sat awkwardly next to him, but neither of them said a word to one another.
A first-year boy approached their table, visibly bouncing with excitement and Yuuri knew he recognized that red streak in his hair, but he couldn't remember the name of this kid if his life depended on it.
"Yuuri!" the boy squeaked. "I just wanted to say good luck! I can't believe I get to watch you play again, you're so amazing."
What game had this kid been watching last month?!
"Uh..."
"I got this shirt," the boy continued, unzipping his jacket and revealing a nauseatingly yellow t-shirt emblazoned with "GO YUURI KATSUKI!" Great. He was pretty sure he wasn't being mocked because the kid was too young to truly grasp the finer points of irony, but that didn't really make him feel any better.
"Oh."
"Do you...do you not remember me?" the kid asked, looking utterly crestfallen.
Yuuri squelched the guilt rising in his chest. Focus on you, he told himself sternly.
"Sorry," he said, but it came out sounding incredibly insincere.
The kid hung his head and walked away from their table. The rest of the team appeared to be too busy talking amongst themselves to have noticed the exchange.
"Yuuri," came Victor's voice from next to him. It was the first time he'd heard it in twenty-four hours. "How can you find the strength to motivate yourself if you can't even try to motivate the people who look up to you? I'm disappointed in you."
And then, apparently not even noticing Yuuri's astonishment, Victor got up and left the table. Yuuri's heart dropped somewhere in the vicinity of his shoes.
Can we talk for a second about what you just did to my motivation?! Yuuri thought.
Yuuri and the rest of his team had almost reached the cliff by the time Victor reappeared. He was wearing those stupid fancy robes again.
"Now remember," he said to Yuuri, as if they weren't fighting right now, "I want you to..."
Yuuri couldn't decide whether to apologize to Victor or yell at him, so he settled for saying nothing and striding right past as though he hadn't heard him.
"Ohayo, Mahoutokoro!" came Ruika's voice from the megaphone. "Today's match will be a fight for third place—Tanuki versus Kirin!"
"How are you?" Emiko said.
"How are who?" Ruika asked.
"How are you?" Emiko repeated.
"How am I?"
"Yes."
"Fine? Why do you ask?"
"Well, I just feel like we don't get to spend that much time together during the school year since we're in different houses and— "
"Yuuri." Victor's voice came from behind him. He spun around.
"What?"
"Turn around." Victor commanded. Yuuri huffed, rolled his eyes and turned to face the pitch.
"What, like this?"
Victor didn't answer. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Yuuri's waist from behind and rested his chin on Yuuri's shoulder.
Yuuri stopped thinking, stopped breathing, stopped everything. Without saying a word, Victor had brought them back to yesterday morning before they started snapping at each other, when they were nuzzled in bed together, comfortable and quiet. The ridiculous dress robes sent a message too—I'm still proud of you. No matter what.
And then Victor pulled away, and Yuuri stared after him as he descended the steps down the cliff side to reach the stands.
"C'mon," Phichit, nudged him and Yuuri shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He mounted his broomstick and kicked off.
"—will be the last match before our winter break—" Ruika was saying.
"—during which me and Ruika are going to Seoul to see the greatest wizarding band in the whole world—MAJIC 8—perform live— "
"The players take to the sky— "
Yuuri caught sight of Yurio's loud leopard-print jacket in the crowd. He sat slouched next to Victor with his arms folded over his chest. On his other side was Otabek Altin, though they didn't appear to be interacting. For some reason, Yurio, Yakov and Victor were all sitting in Komainu section of the stands.
"—was totally sold out in the first day but mom got tickets through work! It's the first show of the tour for their new— "
"The Snitch is released! And here comes the Quaffle— "
"Sung Choi is my favorite; he usually wears— "
The beautiful calm Victor had bestowed upon Yuuri with his hug continued to linger and his mind felt clear, focused. He caught a glimpse of the boy in the crowd with the red streak in his hair. Minami. That was it.
"HEY MINAMI!" Yuuri shouted at him. "I LIKE YOUR SHIRT! THANKS!"
Minami didn't miss a beat. "YOU'RE AMAZING!" he shouted back. Yuuri watched him dance in his seat for a second. It made him feel a lot better.
"The Quaffle is released and the game begins!" came Ruika's voice.
Yuuri barely had time to wheel away from the stands before the Quaffle was in the air. Guang Hong had reached the Quaffle first, and was dodging Umi Tamura, one of Kirin's Chasers. He made his way through the other two Chasers with ease, but stopped abruptly as a Bludger from Arvin Cantre blocked his path. Hot on Phichit's trail, In-Jung Seong knocked the Quaffle away from him, allowing Tamura to grab it close the water's surface.
Yuuko and Phichit soon caught up with the action, and all three Tanuki Chasers descended on Tamura. The waves and the speed of the brooms kicked up spray, temporarily obscuring the action from view. Phichit soon emerged from the confusion with the Quaffle, and scored Tanuki's first goal.
"10-0 Tanuki, and a great start for them in a match with much better conditions than their last..."
It took all of Yuuri's concentration to tune out the commentary and tear his thoughts away from the previous match. He closed his eyes and tried to fill his mind with things that kept him focused. Katsudon, soaking in the onsen, Victor. The clarity he had felt at the beginning of the match came back to him. He reopened his eyes, and stared at the pitch as a whole for a minute, waiting for a sudden movement or glint of gold to capture his attention. With no luck, however, he switched tactics.
He watched the action developing below more closely. All the players were drifting slightly to the right, meaning that, at the speed they were all going, the wind was consistently blowing hard in that direction.
He gave up scanning the entire pitch for the Snitch, and focused on the right half. The Snitch would be less likely to go against the wind—that would slow it down, and make it much easier to spot. Yuuri descended in a wide circle, sweeping his gaze up and down the right side. He caught Victor's eye for a moment.
"Yuuri!" he heard Takeshi yell.
Yuuri blinked, then ducked instinctively. A Bludger zoomed over him. He looked up, and saw Arvin Cantre circle the pitch after it. Apparently Cantre was focusing his attacks on more irreplaceable players instead of going after Beaters and Chasers. The Keeper would likely be next.
The match was turning into a massacre. Yuuko, Phichit, and Guang Hong were performing exceptionally well—it appeared that the Tanuki Chasers had not been idle during the practices in between this match and the last one. Thirty minutes in, and the score was 90-30. The Kirin players were visibly tired—few of them had probably ever trained more than a half hour at a time. Soon Yuuri might not even have to catch the Snitch to win at all.
Tamura had the Quaffle again—she managed to stay in the scoring area for almost a minute, ducking and weaving, waiting for her beleaguered teammates to catch up. And then several things happened at once. A Bludger came out of nowhere, almost unseating Yuuko, and slammed into Mitsumi. Yuuri spotted the Snitch hovering on the other side of the pitch near Team Kirin's right goalpost. He accelerated, speeding toward the other end, but stopped as he heard screams from the megaphone as Mitsumi slid off her broom and plummeted towards the water.
"Mitsumi!" Emiko cried. "Foul!"
Yuuri's prediction had been right. Cantre had evidently seen the opportunity for what it was and aimed the Bludger for Mitsumi while the Quaffle was near the goalposts. Yuuko and Phichit both abandoned their pursuit of the Quaffle and dived to catch her. Before the referee could blow his whistle for timeout, Kirin had scored.
"—technically not a foul," Ruika was explaining to Emiko, who looked close to tears. "Aiming a Bludger at the Keeper is a legal move if the Quaffle is within the scoring area— "
A column of lava, smaller than the ones used for the stands, formed a platform for the Tanuki players to land. Yuuri was considerably farther away than the rest of the team. He had lagged for a moment, looking around wildly, but the Snitch was nowhere to be seen.
Yuuko managed to support a breathless Mitsumi to the rest of the team. Yuuri saw that she was having trouble talking, but was gesturing feebly to her broom, which was still floating next to the goalposts where she had fallen from it. Yuuko was arguing with her.
"—not happening," Yuuri heard her say as he landed.
"I can still play," Mitsumi wheezed, "just—" she heaved a shuddering breath, "—get me back on my broom, and—"
"This isn't a discussion," Yuuko cut in, as forceful as Yuuri had ever heard her, "I'm the Captain, and I'm taking you out of the game."
Fuming in between gasps, Mitsumi was escorted to the school nurse. The whistle blew, and it was time to take to the air again.
Without a Keeper, the Tanuki players quickly lost their advantage. The Kirin Chasers seemed energized, at the very least because they were no longer fighting a lost cause. Cantre appeared to sense that Takeshi and Seung-Gil were itching to level the playing field, and kept up the offensive, knocking the Bludgers all over the field, keeping the opposing Beaters occupied.
Five minutes later, the match was tied. The wind was blowing harder now, the waves crashing ominously against the obsidian stands. More than once, a Chaser dived into the water after the Quaffle, and emerged waterlogged and spluttering.
Yuuri had just ducked a fifth Bludger assault from Cantre when he saw it again. The Snitch was struggling against the wind near the middle of the field. Yuuri put on a burst of speed—Kirin's Seeker was nowhere to be seen. The Snitch abruptly turned away from the wind and sped off, almost at water level, dancing amongst the churning waves. Yuuri turned as well, flying faster than he ever had.
He sensed that the Snitch would veer up when it reached the stands. If he turned too soon, he would overshoot, and he might not get another opportunity. There was only one thing to do. In a fit of reckless abandon, Yuuri accelerated even faster. The pillar of rock was coming closer and closer. There was no way he could stop in time, but no time for the Snitch to turn.
With a sickening crunch that sounded above the roaring of the sea below and the crowd above, Yuuri slammed into the rock, pinning the Snitch to it with his body. Blood spurted from his nose like a faucet. He could feel the Snitch struggling against his chest, and he carefully maneuvered to grab it before it could escape.
They'd won. He had done exactly what Victor had told him not to do, but they'd won nonetheless. Yuuri wiped his streaming nose on his sleeve once before giving it up as a bad job and accepting the hugs and cheering from his teammates.
They landed together as a mass on the cliff side and Yuuri stared wildly around, looking for Victor. He found him—standing apart from the crowd, arms crossed over his chest.
Yuuri detached himself from Yuuko and Phichit and stared at Victor, still clutching the Snitch in his hand. Victor slapped a hand to his forehead. Oh...
Then he straightened up, looked Yuuri in the eye and stretched out his arms in front of him, beckoning Yuuri to run to him.
"Victor!" Yuuri cried, leaping forward and intending to rush straight into Victor's embrace. At the last possible second, Victor retracted his arms and side stepped him, leaving Yuuri sprawled on the grass. I guess I deserved that, he thought.
"Not on the robes please!" Victor said with a smile. Oh yeah. Yuuri glanced down at the blood spattered all over the front of his robes, then took out his wand and mended the break with a simple spell.
The House Tanuki party on the beach lasted well into the evening. They played suikawari, which was something most of the wizarding kids had never done before. Yurio wailed on at least a dozen watermelons by himself before being hauled bodily back onto the Durmstrang ship kicking and screaming by Yakov. Yuuri and Victor sat together, watching the ship set sail and disappear under the waves against the sunset.
"Do you miss it?" Yuuri asked him.
Victor somehow knew they were talking about Durmstrang. "No," he told Yuuri, smiling. "This place feels more like home than Durmstrang ever did."
"Speaking of home," Yuuri started, "um, the winter break is coming up. Are you going back to Russia, or...?" Yuuri had been avoiding this question up until now because the thought of two weeks without Victor was pretty depressing. When did I get like this, he wondered?
"No, I'm going to Hasetsu with you," Victor told him. Yuuri had not even considered that an option; it hadn't even occurred to him to invite Victor. "Unless you don't want me to, then..."
"No, no, no," Yuuri said quickly. "I mean, yes. I mean...I want you. To come to Hasetsu. I want you to come to Hasetsu."
Nice save.
"Really?" Victor asked. His face lit up as though he seriously thought Yuuri was going to say no.
"Yeah," Yuuri told him. "My parents own an inn with an onsen. They're No-Majs but it's...I mean, I don't know what you're used to, but it's home, I guess, so..."
"I'm sure I'll love it," Victor assured him, resting his head on Yuuri's shoulder. "You'll be there."
The next morning, Yuuri sat in the aviary laboring over a letter to his parents.
Dear Mom and Dad,
It's going to be great to see you again next week. I just wanted to let you know before we arrived that Victor is going to be staying with us during the break. I guess since we share a dormitory he can just stay in my room if that's Can you get one of the guest rooms ready for him?
Love,
Yuuri
PS: If you could take down all the posters of him in my bedroom before he gets there, I'd really appreciate it. And hide the action figures in the second drawer of my bedside table. Also I think there's a lock of his hair in there that I bought from the charity auction last year. Please just throw that away.
As one of the crows flew away with Yuuri's letter (but not without rapping him hard on the head first for no apparent reason) and Yuuri was contemplating the relative merits of owls over the vicious crows, Guang Hong arrived in the nest.
"Making sure your parents have everything ready for you?" Yuuri asked him.
Instead of just nodding or replying like Yuuri expected him to, Guang Hong turned beet red and hid the letter he was holding behind his back.
"...or not?"
"It's, um..." Yuuri couldn't imagine what on earth could be in the letter that would be this embarrassing for a thirteen-year-old.
"You don't have to tell me," Yuuri reassured him. "Unless it's something against school rules. Then you probably should tell me."
"It's just..." Guang Hong hesitated. "It's just a letter to my pen pal."
Yuuri could immediately tell that whoever this pen pal was, Guang Hong was sincerely hoping they would not just remain a "pal."
"Where's your pen pal from?" Yuuri asked.
"He's American," Guang Hong told him as though he couldn't help himself, still blushing furiously. "He goes to Ilvermorny. I met him at the World Cup when we had dinner on the shoutengai. I..." Guang Hong clamped his mouth shut, as though he'd given away too much.
"That's really cool," Yuuri said.
"Yeah?" Guang Hong clutched the letter in front of him. It was addressed to Leo De La Iglesia, Thunderbird House Dormitory, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "I'm hoping if we make it to the final he might come to watch the match."
Yuuri smiled at him and went to exit the aviary, leaving Guang Hong alone with his super embarrassing letter.