.
.
.
Yuuri's program was performed splendidly. He skated with grace, pushing his endurance to its limit with impressive figures. His jumps weren't as good as Viktor's, but he was relying on his spins and fast paced step sequences to make up for it, as well as his superior endurance.
The song for his program was nearly entirely instrumental, a mix of violin and piano that created a song with a sense of urgency. From time to time came a soprano voice, singing about her search for perfection in French.
Originally, the song was meant to be about finding perfect love, but the lyrics were vague enough for it to work as a song about Yuuri's desire to skate flawlessly and win.
Yuuri's program had been modified since the Grand Prix Final with Celestino's help. Yuuri's victory in December meant Viktor was very likely to have decided to step it up. It only made sense for Yuuri to react appropriately to ensure he'd get that gold medal again.
Viktor, he thought, spinning around on the ice, deaf to the noise from the crowd, are you watching me?
His spin ended up having more than the required number of revolutions, something Celestino had encouraged him to do for additional points.
The next part was harder, with an axel coming up. He didn't always manage it during training and if he failed it now, Viktor's victory was assured.
Yuuri's heart was beating fast as he skated towards the end of the rink, arms undulating with the music. His eyes searched the crowd, but without his glasses he couldn't find what he was looking for.
Do you see me?
He jumped.
The whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion. Yuuri's skates left the ice and he spun, expression serene despite his tiredness and then…
He landed wrong.
Yuuri didn't fall, thankfully, but for a second he lost his balance as he landed half a rotation early and it was only through sheer luck that he managed to stay upright.
He could hear the gasps of the crowd and his face burned with the knowledge of what his failure might cost him.
It's okay. Everything's fine. I can still make it.
But his confidence was shaken.
His legs moved at a brisk pace while he danced across the ice to the fast-paced last notes of the song. He twirled one last time and stopped, head canted to the side and arms open like a ballerina.
He was breathing rather heavily, beyond nervous about his score. He hoped he'd been good enough, but knew deep down that his mistake had probably cost him that first place.
The roar of the crowd was what brought him out of it, his head raising in surprise when he heard the numerous whistles and loud clapping from the crowd. Bouquets were being thrown towards him and despite the anxiety eating at his heart, he couldn't help letting a shy smile escape.
These people weren't disappointed. Despite his flawed performance, they were still impressed.
Yuuri waved at them and then turned his gaze to the ice. Without his glasses he had a hard time seeing what was far from him, but his sight wasn't impaired to the point that he couldn't see the gifts that had been thrown at him. He picked up the most eye-catching bouquet - a selection of blue roses - and made his way towards the kiss and cry.
As soon as he was off the ice, Celestino wrapped an arm around him and gave a small squeeze.
They sat down, Yuuri being careful not to crush the bouquet in his grasp, and waited for the score.
Yuuri was somewhat thankful that Viktor hadn't been on the ice yet. Skating after the man would have made Yuuri look worse by comparison.
When the scores finally appeared, Yuuri squinted, but without his glasses he just couldn't read anything. The reaction of the crowd was positive, though, and he could hear the announcers saying he was currently in first place. Unfortunately, that didn't mean much when Viktor hadn't done his free skate yet.
Celestino tightened his arm around Yuuri and leaned in to whisper:
"If he makes a mistake, you can still win gold."
Yuuri's shoulders dropped.
"He won't."
-x-x-x-
Yuuri was proved right when Viktor broke his personal record. Not only had the man upped the difficulty level of his program, but he'd also skated with much more conviction and emotion than ever before, making all of his previous performances seem bland and emotionless by comparison.
That left Yuuri in second place which, while impressive, felt like less of an achievement when Yuuri already knew what it felt like to beat Viktor.
Viktor Nikiforov had regained his title as best figure skater and all was right once again.
Yuuri's shoulders slumped as he stared at his phone. The news article with the image of a smiling Viktor holding up a gold medal mocked Yuuri.
It was likely through sheer luck that Yuuri won at the Grand Prix. Yuuri must have been delusional to think he was capable of winning once again.
Yuuri could feel the progression of his nerves as they practically ate him alive. The competition was over and yet the anxiety was still devouring him from the inside. He was so patheti—
"There you are!"
Startled, Yuuri raised his eyes and met Viktor's beaming face. The man was wearing casual clothes and was holding his lit-up phone. He turned his phone off and put it in his pocket as he stepped towards Yuuri.
"I've been looking everywhere for you!" exclaimed Viktor.
Yuuri's eyebrows shot up. "You have?" he asked, full of confusion.
Wrinkles appeared at the corners of Viktor's eyes as he smiled. "Of course! Did you like my bouquet?"
Distracted by the man's dimples, it took a moment for Yuuri to understand the question.
"Bouquet?" he repeated with a frown.
Viktor nodded. "The blue roses," he explained patiently.
Yuuri blinked. "Oh." Then, with a blush: "That was you?"
"Of course. Didn't you notice when I threw it?"
Viktor sat down on the sofa next to Yuuri, looking around where other clients of the hotel were mingling and talking. At this time of the day there were quite a lot of people, mostly businessmen or with a few people on vacation.
Yuuri leaned back in his place, feeling strangely relaxed by the presence of his idol. Anxiety forgotten, his tense muscles eased up.
"My eyesight isn't great without my glasses," admitted Yuuri, self-consciously raising his hand to touch his glasses with the tip of his finger.
Viktor hummed and said nothing more, appearing content to bask in the silence.
Yuuri fidgeted as the pause in their conversation grew, until there came a point where the silence felt so awkward that Yuuri tried desperately to think of something to say.
"Congratulations, by the way!" was what he finally blurted out.
Viktor turned towards him, one eyebrow raised. "Hm?"
"On winning first place," Yuuri explained. "Congratulations."
"Ah." Viktor smiled. This time, there were no crow's feet or dimples that appeared along with the expression. "Thank you. Congratulations on your silver medal." With that last sentence, Viktor's smile grew and his eyes mirrored the expression. "Your free skate was captivating."
Yuuri reddened, and his heart sang with quiet joy at the idea of Viktor watching and appreciating his skating.
"... Though you really need to work on your technique more," continued Viktor, blind to the way Yuuri's expression tensed with surprise. "Your ending was sloppy."
"Ah," said Yuuri, scratching the side of his neck. "I don't always get that part right during training sessions. I guess I just wasn't very lucky today…"
Viktor waved the words away with a roll of his eyes. "Luck has nothing to do with it. You should only rely on your abilities to win because luck isn't a sure thing."
One part of Yuuri wanted to meekly accept what his idol told him, but another part, the part that had won at Sochi and had triumphed over Viktor…
"You might be good enough to not need luck to win," he said, feeling his eye twitch, "but I'm not."
To his credit, Viktor seemed to realize he'd offended Yuuri.
"I'm sorry," said Viktor, his expression so comically panicked that it made Yuuri's expression soften. "I didn't mean to—"
"No, no! It's fine!" exclaimed Yuuri, waving his hands to cut Viktor off. "No harm done."
Viktor gave him a shy smile, and only then did Yuuri realize that he'd put a hand on Viktor's shoulder in an attempt at comfort. He ripped his hand away so fast the whole movement was a blur. He hid it behind his back, hoping Viktor wouldn't say anything.
There was a pause.
"Err… did you want anything?" asked Yuuri, fidgeting in place.
Viktor blinked, and looked away from Yuuri's face.
"Yes!" he exclaimed, retrieving a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his sweater. He handed it to Yuuri with a smile. "I thought this would be useful for you."
Yuuri took the paper with a puzzled expression and unfolded it.
"It's for when you'll be negotiating with Pios," said Viktor while Yuuri read the paper in silence. "I wrote down some details from my contract with them, like compensation, royalties, free products and so on. I also added some advice to help you when you're negotiating with them."
"... Thank you," said Yuuri, touched. Then his eyes narrowed at some of the details on the paper. "Are you even allowed to give me this? Didn't you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement when you signed a contract with Pios? Because some of this information doesn't seem like the kind of details you should be giving me." Yuuri wasn't exactly an expert, but he was pretty sure an athlete was not meant to share every detail of their contract with other people.
Viktor's eyes widened, his face the definition of cluelessness. "Non-disclosure agreement?" He frowned, thinking, and then shrugged. "Maybe. But as long as you don't tell anyone, it's fine, right?"
Split between feeling second hand embarrassment on Viktor's behalf due to his cluelessness or just feeling thankful for the paper, Yuuri just gave Viktor a smile. "Thanks for the help." He folded the paper and put it away.
Viktor beamed. "You're welcome!"
-x-x-x-
Returning to Detroit felt strange. All the other members of the skating association treated Yuuri as some sort of conquering hero despite him having only won a silver medal at World's. He already felt bad because his silver medal was making him doubt the validity of his win at the Grand Prix, and the congratulations of his friends somehow just made him more anxious than happy.
So he dealt with it like he usually did — by hiding at the rink.
It was late in the evening, but Yuuri was still used to the Japanese timezone and didn't feel very tired. He was performing his free skate program, desperate to patch up the issues that had cost him first place at Yoyogi.
Yuuri kept his mind blank as he skated, eyes half-lidded while he imagined his music playing, a large crowd watching and the atmosphere of the World Championship. Then, the moment came and he jumped.
And, like at Yoyogi, Yuuri failed. And this time, he didn't have the luck to catch himself in time — he fell on the ice, hands coming out to help him fall as painlessly as possible.
Instead of standing up to continue training, Yuuri stayed down on the ice, ignoring how cold it was becoming.
He looked at the ceiling, his mind going over every second of his performance at Yoyogi and what he could have done better. It was the kind of person he was — always nitpicking over the details, desperate for perfection.
"Yuuri… Why aren't you out celebrating?"
The question had come from the other side of the rink, echoing throughout the building. Yuuri didn't bother look. He already knew who it was.
"You know…" said Yuuri, eyes still on the ceiling. "Out of everyone, I expected Phichit to do this. Not you."
"We're not exactly best friends, but that doesn't mean I don't care about your well-being."
Yuuri turned and watched as Celestino stepped onto the ice in his normal, everyday shoes. The man was clearly nervous about falling, but he managed to walk towards Yuuri without a problem, despite not wearing any skates.
"Just because our relation is professional doesn't mean it can't be more," continued Celestino.
Yuuri went completely red. Celestino frowned in confusion at Yuuri's expression, before his eyes widened and he began backtracking furiously.
"I mean, friends! Just because I'm your coach doesn't mean we can't be friends, and I can't check up on you to see if you're all right! That's what I meant! I wasn't implying anything else!"
Yuuri just laughed off the awkwardness, all traces of negative emotion gone. This was one of the reasons why he got along with Celestino — they were both somewhat lacking in the area of social skills. The way Celestino sometimes fumbled with his words or said the wrong thing helped make him seem less imposing so Yuuri had an easier time relaxing around him.
When Celestino finally reached Yuuri, he didn't sit down on the ice. Instead he stayed upright, looking around with the kind of false nonchalance that indicated just how out of his depth the man felt.
Finally, Celestino began talking again: "You know, I was sure that gold medal at the GPF would've helped you with your self-esteem." He put his hands in his pockets, still not looking at Yuuri. "And then you got another gold medal at the Four Continents, and then a silver at World's." He slowly shook his head. "It looked that way, for a while, but lately you've been looking really down."
The cold from the ice was beginning to seep into Yuuri's limbs, making him shiver, but he didn't move.
"At the Grand Prix…" began Yuuri, "it felt amazing to know… that I'd beaten Viktor."
The words came slowly, as if Yuuri had to physically rip them out. He didn't like speaking about his feelings, especially when it came to describing his anxiety. He always felt bad when he worried over or failed at things everyone else had no trouble with. Talking about his troubles always felt like he was complaining about trivial things. But Celestino always did his best to understand, and never mocked Yuuri.
"But then," Yuuri continued, "winning at Four Continents didn't feel special because Viktor wasn't there. So winning didn't feel as" — He searched for the right word — "unexpected as it did the first time."
The first glimmers of comprehension were beginning to appear in Celestino's eyes.
"You expected to beat Viktor at World's?" Celestino asked. without even waiting for an answer, he continued, "That man is the best in the world for a reason, Yuuri. Just because you beat him once doesn't mean he'll give up. We knew that, and I made you train so much more to prepare for World's because we both knew Viktor would be working much harder for that gold medal."
Yuuri shook his head. "That's not it." He sat up, and Celestino held out his hand. With a barely-audible thanks, Yuuri grabbed his coach's hand and let himself be pulled up. For a second Celestino's shoes seemed to slip on the ice, but the man managed to stay stable as Yuuri straightened next to him.
Celestino gently nudged Yuuri. "So what's wrong?"
Shoulders slumping, Yuuri sighed. "I don't know. That silver medal just makes me feel like beating Viktor at the GPF was a fluke, a mistake. I beat him and everyone was impressed, but then after World's I've been hearing people say Viktor must've had an off-day and that's the only reason I managed to get that gold medal."
There was a pause.
Then, Celestino snorted. Surprised, Yuuri looked up at his coach, who looked beyond amused.
"A fluke?" the man repeated. He chuckled. "Of course, the only explanation you can think of is that you beat Viktor due to luck. It's not like I didn't call in half a dozen favours to get someone to help create the perfect program for you, and people to help you with your jumps and your stamina. It's not like I haven't been acting like a slave-driver for months to bring out the winner I've always known is in you." He punctuated the statement with poking Yuuri's chest harshly.
Yuuri took a step back. "I didn't mean to imply—"
"I know you didn't," said Celestino. He looked at Yuuri, expression grave. "I know you don't have a lot of self-confidence… But if you don't believe you won this on your own merit, then believe you won it on mine."
Yuuri laughed. Celestino was the first person to tell him to deal with his self-confidence issues by circumventing them, of all things. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind. But—" Yuuri looked at Celestino, who seemed very proud he'd distracted Yuuri from his troubles "—do you have any idea how that sounded?"
Celestino slumped. "I didn't mean it like that! I didn't want to imply you're not worth anything." Then he noticed Yuuri's badly-hidden smile. "Ha-ha, very funny. You know what I meant. Saying 'believe in yourself' never helps you no matter how many times I say it, so I'm trying new things, branching out my pep talk methods."
"You must've missed your calling as a therapist."
Celestino grinned. Teasing was always a sign of Yuuri's good mood.
"I'd be happy only being your therapist." He ruffled Yuuri's hair. "I could add that to my contract. 'Coach and personal therapist of Yuuri Katsuki'."
"Speaking of contracts," said Yuuri, "how's it going with Pios?"
Celestino looked down at the ice and shook his head. "Let's get off the ice first. I can't have a conversation if I might slip at any moment."
The left the ice and went to sit on one of the benches in the changing rooms. Yuuri just took his shoes off and relaxed on the bench, his socks getting wet from the puddles on the ground.
"Now that you've confirmed you're interested," said Celestino, "I've been able to discuss the finer details with Pios. I'll need you to look at some things so you can tell me how you want the contract to be, but as it is I think I'll be able to get you a pretty nice deal. That paper you gave me was helpful, so thank you for that." He paused. "By the way, how did you get Nikiforov to give that to you? I didn't know you two were friends."
Yuuri had no idea how to answer that. "He's a nice person."
"Well, I hope you thanked him, because it was useful information." Celestino took out his phone. "I've written down some details that I'd like to go over with you."
They spent the next few minutes talking about royalties, free products, incentives, fixed fees and testing products. Celestino also explained to Yuuri that compensation would be one of the primary concerns, and although Celestino was the one discussing the future contract on Yuuri's behalf, Yuuri still had to be involved and up to date so that Celestino knew what kind of contract he should get.
Yuuri was tired due to jet-lag, but he still spent nearly an hour talking with Celestino about indemnification clauses and various contract details and fees. Their discussion echoed throughout the empty changing room and the more they talked, the more relaxed Yuuri felt.
That night, Yuuri went to sleep with a smile on his face, all of his fears gone.
Unfortunately, his anxiety would come back in full force at the end of the month when, after having signed a contract with Pios, Yuuri would be on a flight to Sweden in order to record an advertisement with Viktor Nikiforov.
-x-x-x-
A/N: This was meant to be out yesterday, but this chapter was so hard to write that I ended up late. I made this rule for myself that I'd only update on Sundays (as long as a chapter has been written) so technically that means I should wait until next Sunday to post this, but I told some of my readers the chapter would be out by yesterday and making them wait any longer would just be rude.
This chapter was hard for me to write because it's an in-between chapter that shows a transition from what's been happening until now, to the actual advert being filmed. I really wanted to avoid making it boring and just writing about Yuuri and Celestino discussing contract details with Pios, so I cut out most of the boring stuff in favour of fluff and a scene with Viktor. :)
I hope you liked my take on Celestino. We don't know much about him in canon so I was wondering how to write him when I realized it would be fun to make him a bit socially awkward like Yuuri. It would also explain why Celestino was so mean to kid!JJ instead of saying 'no' to the whole JJ-style thing in a more tactful way so as to not hurt JJ's feelings. and I now have this personal headcanon of Celestino and Yuuri bonding in Detroit over their shared awkwardness and just being happy someone else gets it.
And when I wrote this:
« "I know you didn't," said Celestino. He looked at Yuuri, expression grave. "I know you don't have a lot of self-confidence… But if you don't believe you won this on your own merit, then believe you won it on mine." »
For a second I thought I should take that bit out because the line was so good I imagined Viktor saying it instead. I totally wanted to edit the line out so I could write a quick canon-compliant oneshot with Viktor dealing with Yuuri's insecurities before a competition by saying something like "Well, I'm awesome, and I coached you, so that makes you awesome by default. There, self-confidence issues solved."
I can totally see Viktor saying that and the idea really amuses me, but right now I'm too tired from writing around 2K today out of guilt for being late for my normal updating day so I don't have the energy to edit out Celestino's line and re-write the conversation so things flow the same, just so I can use that line in a oneshot where Viktor says it. Though I might write that oneshot anyway, and just be a bit annoyed that I'm re-using a line from this fic (I prefer to come up with original stuff in every new story and not quote stuff, even if it's from myself). If you guys are interested in such a oneshot, then feel free to speak up. I'm not sure if I'll write it or not, but if people are interested then I'll get to it.
Also, I aim to try and finish this story by the end of March. I am already planning my next YOI story and I have three different ideas. Since I have a hard time choosing, I'd like to let you guys tell me which idea you think is best:
1) A Viktor/Yuuri fic which is both urban fantasy and mafia AU at the same time. Everything is still like in canon and the characters are still skaters, but there's some urban fantasy and mafia stuff on top of it.
2) A Viktor/Yuuri/Chris fic that starts out as a canon divergence and then goes on from there. It features a lot of jealousy before ending up in a three-person relationship.
3) An Otabek/Yuri/JJ time travel fic with an unusual take on the time travel trope.
I plan to write them all at some point, but I have to decide which one to write first because I'd rather avoid writing them all at the same time. Having too many fanfics on my plate will just turn me into one of those authors who have over 20 on-going fics and have to abandon most of them because they can't split their attention between so many fics and update regularly.
Out of the three ideas, number 1 and 3 are the ones for which I have the most detailed plans, meaning I will be able to start writing one of them immediately and not have to waste time making up the plot beforehand (and I always plan a story in detail before writing it). Number 1 and 2 will be over 60K when complete while number 3 should be around 50K when it's done.
The three ideas are really original and haven't been done in the YOI fandom before, so I'm keeping the description vague to keep it a surprise. But I've read a lot of YOI fics and I can guarantee that my three ideas are fresh and equally interesting. Tell me which one is the one you'd be most interested in seeing.