#he has one really bad day and forgets that he’s the best skater in Japan

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Katsuki Yuuri is so funny because dude is an Olympic level figure skater who competes internationally regularly and he introduces himself through narration in the first episode as very average in skill, who is doing it like him.

Your self confidence may be bad but is it deluding yourself into thinking you suck at something you rank sixth in the world at bad?

#he has one really bad day and forgets that he’s the best skater in Japan #this post brought to you because I’m watching sk8 and was reminded about my true sports anime BL bait love #yuri!!! on ice #yuuri katsuki #yoi #caitie speaks #animanga

[judithsupportsteamchampery]

Why you’ve made my winter!

- by Judith Dombrowski

My personal Team Champéry season review

This is dedicated to figure skater Deniss Vasiljevs, coach and figure skater Stéphane Lambiel and their manager Christopher Trevisan!

My very special thanks to my mother Beate. Without you nothing of this would have been possible. I can say with my whole heart that you are the best mother I ever could have imagined.

Also special thanks to:

Anastasia, Charlie, Estephanía, Jelena, Laia, Maria R., Maria T., Marina, P., Susanne, Szilvia

You all have become amazing and true friends. I love you with my whole heart!

And to everyone else whom I met because of Team Champéry this winter, either personally or via the internet. We are the best fan community I can imagine.

On March 2nd 2019, after I had been able to take THAT picture, that picture thousands of skating fans dream of, that picture I would never ever had imagined to happen, I turned around and thanked both of you: “Thank you so much for everything!“, I said. Then I looked at you, Deniss, and said: “You’ve really made my winter! Thanks!“ You looked flattered and surprised but didn’t respond anything. But you, Stéph, said something like: “Wow, you are really so positive!“ It was the second time you said that that afternoon and I do understand why you said it in this situation: For the two of you it definitely hadn’t been the winter you’ve dreamed of. It must have been a hard winter full of worries, concerns and disappointments. It seemed to surprise you, Stéph, why you’ve made somebody’s winter even though so much seemed to have gone wrong for you.

So I am writing this blog post / article / review to explain to the two of you and to everyone interested, why this sentence was incredibly true. Why I actually couldn’t have thanked you in a more accurate way. Beware, this might gonna be long. I usually fail saying things short and there has been really a lot going on this winter relating to the two of you. I will also miss out some moments because it has just been too much.

When to start? Should it be the moment when we decided to go to Grenoble? The moment I started to be your fan, Deniss? Should I go back to Worlds 2005 when I had my first big crush on that handsome Swiss figure skater? This would turn into a novel so lets start right at the beginning… of… this winter:

October

“Hey, I just wanted to tell you that I am free earlier than expected today. So if you’d like we can meet earlier?“

“I am sorry I fear I won’t be able to come over before 18.30? Hope that’s still alright?“, I replied to a good friend of mine on WhatsApp.

“Haha, yea, sure, thought you have holidays…“

“Well, yea“, … she was a really good friend so I could be honest, “but my Mom doesn’t. She’s only free from 3pm and we’ll have to watch a movie together this afternoon. This is like the only possibility before next weekend. Will explain you later!“

“Okayyyy…!“

It was a Wednesday afternoon in early October during my autumn holidays and I spent the week in South Germany with my mother and tried to meet up with as many old friends as possible. It was also the week before Japan Open, the first time you, Deniss, were supposed to skate your new free program. And it finally had leaked that you would be skating to the soundtrack of the movie “Last Samurai“. So to totally understand the program my mother and I watched the movie together, listened to the music very precisely, discussed about the plot, read and learned about the history of the samurai on Wikipedia.

We liked and appreciated the theme and that music choice right away. As we did with the whole program when it had finally been uploaded. Despite technical difficulties we saw the efforts and the great thoughts behind the choreography of this program right away and were really looking forward to see this program grow and bloom over the season.

It was different with the Short Program. When “Papa was a rolling stone“ was posted first, I listened to the song in the car and it left me quite puzzled… How was that supposed to be the song of a skating program? And those lyrics? Well… I liked the beat and the rhythm of the song from the beginning and I put all my trust in your good taste and I wasn’t going to be disappointed.

The figure skating season was speeding up: The first Grand Prix was coming along together with a small competition called “Minsk Ice Star“ - the warm up contest for you, Deniss. I spent that weekend in the Netherlands where a friend celebrated her birthday. The moment I remember best of these days is myself walking up and down at the beach streaming the free program in bad quality on my phone screaming and jumping up and down at every landed jump. This weekend brought the first fully rotated and landed Quad in competition for you, Deniss, and the first gold medal of the season. For me this weekend made me like and appreciate the short program and I “met“ my “soulmate“ because of this competition:

Until then I hadn’t been too active about figure skating on social media, because most of my followers on Instagram were my real life friends who didn’t care about this sport at all. There was no official livestream of Minsk Ice Star. But I found some Russian girls via Instagram who were in the arena and were so kind to stream the practices and the competition. That’s how I met my today very very good and close friend Maria. We started texting since then, we went through this winter together, kept each other updated all the time and finally went to Innsbruck together. But that happened many moments and stories later.

November

NHK Trophy was after all the only competition this entire season I didn’t manage to follow live. Despite all efforts I didn’t make it home from work in time for the SP, and I also missed the LP the next day because of my tennis practice. I did come home when Shoma Uno was about to start his Free Skate performance but of course he skated deep in the second group. I clicked on “pause“ and scrolled back to start watching the competition from the beginning. There had been a number though in the left upper corner of my screen I couldn’t have avoided seeing: The leading skater at the moment Shoma started to skate had the technical score of 70 points. 70 Points! DAMN! That was…. low. Very low for that moment in the competition. And 70… that was a number you, Deniss, were likely to score. My heart started racing. Could it be possible? If you were the leader at that moment you were… about to win a medal.

“It was hard to see how excited you still were!“, my Mom told me on the phone an hour later when I was full of disappointment. She had been able to watch everything live and knew that it unfortunately hadn’t been you, Deniss, who had scored those 70 points, it had been Matteo Rizzo. I felt really sorry for you, missing that opportunity. “Keep your head up, keep your heart strong…“, I kept listening on repeat during that weekend and I wished you could also hear that motivating song by Ben Howard. The next competition was going to be better. I was sure! And the next competition was: IdF in Grenoble. THE competition. Our competition. Where my mother and I would go to see and support you live. The weekend I had been waiting for since the end of June when the assignments came out. And now it was not even two weeks away…The Sunday after NHK I spent in the kitchen baking my gifts for the two of you: The lion and the ladybug as German gingerbread. I am not the most artistically talented person, and I didn’t honestly expect this project to be successful, especially drawing a lion with chocolate and sugar icing on a piece of cookie seemed like a far too motivated project for me. But I did it, every millimeter drawn with concentration and passion. And succeeded: I had baked a lion and a ladybug gingerbread. The presents were ready, the flags had arrived and got inked, all tickets were printed, we were ready to go.

You probably all remember a weekend or an event you once desperately had been waiting for. And then the moment when it is really happening. So you can probably imagine how I felt: I see myself as if it was yesterday walking from the parking lot in Mainz to the station where I had to take the train to Frankfurt airport, feeling like I was flying: It was real, yes, it was. I was on my way to Grenoble, I had everything prepared, I had gotten the extra day off at school, I had the gifts and the banners in my bag, I had your program music in my ears, I was so so ready for it!

I had high expectations for this weekend just as you probably had as well, Deniss. Unfortunately yours weren’t totally fulfilled again especially in the long program. Mine instead were outreached by far:

That moment, when I saw the two of you live right ahead of me in practice. The moment you really nailed your SP, how I was screaming and celebrating of relief. The moment I was able to give you the gifts after the second practice. The moment when you walked around proudly showing my baked lion to other fans. All those moments of wonderful and magical performances by your fellow skaters, all those people I had been admiring in front of the TV screen for years: Evgenia Medvedeva, Rika Kihira, Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, Nathan Chen, Jason Brown and Dimitri Aliev just to name a few…

And that moment, Saturday 24th of November, 6 pm during the Ice Dance medal ceremony when I checked on my emails and my heart skipped for sure more than one beat: Email by Christopher Trevisan: “Sorry for the short notice, if you are still interested you can have a fan meeting with Deniss tomorrow morning either at 10 or 11 o’clock. Let me know if you are still interested.“ If I was interested? Hell, YES. But: Our bus to the airport was booked tomorrow at 10 o’clock from the main station in Grenoble. Our flight home was leaving Lyon at 2 pm. I was in shock, excited and concerned at the same time. It was hard to think straight.

I will never forget the night from November 24th to November 25th in my entire life. So many insecurities: When exactly? Where? Who will come? How will we get home? Take the train instead of flying? Take a taxi to the airport? Skip the whole fan meeting myself?

Charlie, my mother and I were sitting together until far after midnight without having any solutions. The three of us mainly discussed the question: Where? There was no nice café that had opened Sunday morning just around the corner…

We noticed that the only space we had available on this short notice were our own hotel rooms. Probably our entire hotel woke up by us laughing loudly about the joke: “Imagine, when I come home, I will be able to say: There was Stéphane Lambiel… in my hotel room!“ We weren’t sure back then if you’d accompany Deniss, Stéph.

Sometime during the night after sleeping for a few hours I was able to calm down and think more straight again. I checked the Lufthansa App and found out that it was actually possible to change our booking to a flight that flew to Frankfurt four hours later than our original one. I got the idea to ask in our hotel if there was a possibility to hold the meeting in a free conference room or another silent place. It was all coming together. We got a space in our hotel, we had people who messaged they would come to the meeting, we had the time to sit down and think about some questions that I wanted to ask you, Deniss. You came, you had quite some time, you were incredibly nice and the two of us got more and more relaxed while the interview / meeting went on and I had the feeling that I could continue talking with you forever. You are such an interesting, intelligent, nice, humble and funny person. Before Grenoble I had liked you mostly because of your beautiful and amazing skating, after Grenoble I knew where this was coming from. Before Grenoble I had been amazed by you, after Grenoble I was totally enchanted.

December

I was on endorphins for the next weeks straight. That weekend had been far better and beyond all my expectations.

But at the same time I was afraid: Was it ever going to be that perfect again? Should I maybe keep this one perfect weekend as one magic memory and not let it get destroyed maybe by disappointments coming in the near future? Would I maybe expect too much from future events? I told around: “That weekend was perfect. I will not go again this season. Next season again!“

What a luck I hadn’t been able to resist. Because my heart, longing to see the two of you again, won over my anxious head.

Christmas time came, I followed the Grand Prix Final together with my Mom, we got up in the middle of the night to cheer for Koshiro, we were worried when you, Deniss, withdrew from a competition in Zagreb, were relieved when it was announced that it wasn’t an injury. And we decided that it was finally about time to see you skate live as well, Stéph! So we ordered our tickets for Art on Ice in Davos in February. And with booking those tickets my plan not to go anymore this season had already faded away. I spent hours on the internet searching for possibilities to make it to Minsk for the European Championships. Meanwhile I knew many fans via social media and almost all of them were about to be in Minsk to support you, Deniss. I wanted to be part of it really  badly. As a teacher though it is hard to get days off apart from the public holidays. Flights for the weekend only costed a fortune. It seemed impossible. My frustration grew. I am a person who fights really hard if she really wants something and usually tries everything to make it happen.

January

New years eve came along, together with a very nice and enthusiastic video of the two of you: “We hope to see you in Bellinzona for Music on Ice!“, you said, Stéph. And after countless times watching this lovely video and a sleepless and crazy night from the 1st to the 2nd of January my decision was made: Instead of the impossible mission going to Minsk, I would to go to Music on Ice in Bellinzona. I was going to take a train from my hometown Osnabrück in the Northwest of Germany on Friday afternoon to Stuttgart in the South of Germany. The next morning I was going to take the earliest train to continue traveling all the way to Switzerland where I would arrive in Bellinzona on January 12th at 11 am. I would go to the show on Saturday night and early Sunday morning I was going to take the train back, 10 hours all the way up to Osnabrück where I would arrive at 6 pm, ready to go back to school on Monday morning. But going to the show wasn’t the only plan I had. With help of the amazing Jelena from Daugavpils who runs the official Fan Club on Facebook we activated fans from all over the world to send me pictures with good luck wishes for you for Europeans. I was overwhelmed by the positive responses on the project. I received exactly 50 pictures, most of them amazingly creative.

When I entered the train on Friday afternoon, January 11th 2019, I felt the company of all those 50 people. I was nervous because I hadn’t heard of Chris yet, whom I had messaged with the idea of the project and had asked for an opportunity to give you the album personally.

But the sun was shining, I had motivating music in my ears, the train was riding further and further South and I felt the support of all of my friends and of my mom, who unfortunately couldn’t accompany me this weekend, so the nervousness turned into major excitement.

In Bellinzona I also wasn’t alone at all: I teamed up with two friends that I had both met in Grenoble. After our arrival we checked out the ice rink and sat down on a bench nearby the arena. The girls went through your album, Deniss, when suddenly my phone vibrated and I saw the message: Christopher Trevisan had written: “Hey Judith, can you be at the rink at 15.00?”

Have you ever been waiting for a message to come in for five consecutive days? Do you know that feeling that whenever you get a message you have that slight hope inside you that it could be the one you are waiting for and you get disappointed over and over again? And then the releasing moment comes? And you know my temper, right? Then you can maybe imagine how I screamed and jumped up and down when seeing that message. Did you maybe even hear that scream from somewhere far away that afternoon? Quite possible since Bellinzona isn’t that big and my joy was… LOUD! My two friends shared my joy and enthusiasm but not as loud. We had an “appointment”! I messaged all of my good friends right away: “Appointment at 3 pm!” I was so happy and excited. I carried the hopes and wishes of 50 people in my bag and now I knew I wouldn’t disappoint them.

That moment on the bench had only been the beginning of a day that again turned out so much better than all my expectations:

Hearing you say: “So nice to see you again!”, and being really thankful for the book. Being able to watch all three hours of show rehearsal, including the two of you practicing throw jumps.  Recording an successfully landed throw jump for all my friends and many other fans. Seeing you, Stéph, skate live for the first time in my life. You, that man that had carried me through my teenage years with all your wonderful programs. Finally seeing you perform in person was magical. Seeing that wonderful and touching duet of the two of you. I had tears of joy in my eyes. And that moment after the show when you, Deniss, were walking beneath us and you turned around and came back thanking me for the album: “Thanks for the book. It’s fantastic!” These six words meant so much to me and to all those who had participated. My heart was full of joy and my body full of dancing endorphins again. It didn’t matter at all that the train ride the next day didn’t last ten but twelve hours. I was the happiest and luckiest girl on the planet.

Thanks to my amazing two girls who were my company during these crazy 21 hours I have spent in Bellinzona. Wouldn’t have been the same without those two and we do have an appointment at our “Appointment Bench” next year.

Still… after the Bellinzona - Fun it was getting serious! Europeans were on their way and it felt like the most important competition for you this season, Deniss. The season hadn’t gone as planed yet for sure… plus: Skating really well there would give you the chance to medal. Even though I had been in Bellinzona it was really hard for me to follow the action in Minsk from home. But that week showed me what great friends I had got to know because of you, Deniss. Those girls, who kept me updated the entire week, and never forgot about me were my personal heros. Some special mentions: Jelena, who waved at me through the TV stream during the Ladies Short program. That was so hilarious and made my day. Szilvia, whom I would have loved to share that horrible hostel with. Maybe with the two of us that place would have been less spooky? And thanks to her for sending birthday wishes to my mom during the live stream of your fan meeting, Stéph. Marina, for telling me the “they-only-want-me”- story right after it had happened and for asking Brian Joubert about his inspiration for the tiger jacket. And my amazing girl Maria. Thanks for just everything. I felt with her and like her at every moment during the entire week. I shared her excitement, her fears, worries, tears and joy. And I am proud and thankful to all of the girls who organized both fan meetings and streamed it for us at home. You’ve got the most amazing fans, I really hope you know that both.

Deniss? We all know you gave your best! You wanted it so much and we know you actually are able to do everything you had planed. That makes the outcome of this competition so sad. Thanks for keeping your smile for us fans, thanks for still performing amazingly. Thanks for that intense gala-program. “Iron“ is now one of my personal top 5 programs of all times.

And Stéph? Your week must have been nerve-wracking and cruel. Thanks for being there for your students, giving them strength and confidence. Thanks for trying everything you could to support Deniss and Emmi and still staying that nice and friendly to us fans. The pressure must have been immense. Maria summed it up so perfectly as an Instagram caption, so I will quote her here: “Thanks for being in the world!”

February

During Euros you were so nice to confirm that Team Champéry would keep its tradition and would come to the Cup of Tyrol in Innsbruck, Stéph. The planing for us attending and supporting you at that event started the moment Europeans were over. That Sunday still after watching the Gala my mother and I booked the last available cheap apartment in the city centre of Innsbruck. All February long we were busy planing that trip but hadn’t there been another appointment in February? My second 10 hour long train ride was scheduled from February 15th to February 17th. Osnabrück - Davos and back. Art on Ice was about to happen. I imagined that trip to maybe be a little less exciting. I expected to watch the show, see you perform two wonderful programs and was also looking forward to see James Blunt live again after more than 10 years. Back in 2006 James Blunts concert had been the first concert I had ever visited, so it was going to be a bit nostalgic… But… probably no surprise anymore: Also this trip turned out to be so much better than expected.

The afternoon in Davos was beautiful already, the sun was shining brightly and we had an amazing walk through the snowy landscape. We managed to sneak in to watch the practice again and: I  got the opportunity to talk to you, Stéph. It was short and since totally unexpected I also didn’t really know what to say but it was extremely special for me. And I could take a selfie with you. A picture I had wanted to have ever since my teenage years. I am not the type of person who collects pictures with celebrities. I think asking for a picture is such an unreal and awkward situation. But I really longed for that picture with you, Stéph. With the guy I used to tell all of my friends about, who all didn’t know you, because figure skating is not too popular in Germany. With the guy I had admired ever since my teenage years. With the guy that is in my opinion the most passionate and elegant skater ever. With the guy that touched me to tears and overwhelmed my emotions when skating to the song Goodbye my Lover some hours later. With the guy who gave his second last performance at Art on Ice ever that night.

I read your post about quitting Art on Ice when my train had almost reached Osnabrück again. I felt incredibly sad and incredibly blessed at the same time: I had still been able to see your magic. Art on Ice will miss you incredibly, Stéph. But you surely made the right decision for yourself and we as fans will support you and keep loving you no matter what projects will come for you in the future.

I had two more weeks until the crazy road trip to Innsbruck was about to happen but well… there was one weekend in between. And I found the perfect place to go for that weekend: Barcelona, Spain.

You have already heard some names of great people I got to know because of you two, but I haven’t told you about Laia yet what is a shame because, Deniss, you would certainly like Laia as much as I like her: She’s an artist, she draws amazingly. She’s a baker and an excellent cook. She’s a bit of a philosopher. She is a big Star Wars fan. She’s incredibly funny and sarcastic but at the same time a bit shy and introverted. And she is a big fan of the two of you. Even though you know the story how Laia and I met already, Deniss, I think it’s worth telling it here again: Laia was also at the Grand Prix in Grenoble. I didn’t know her back then. And we also didn’t meet at the event itself. But she was the girl who took the picture of you holding my baked gingerbread lion. I discovered that picture on Instagram some weeks later. We started to chat, and we chatted even more. I talked with her for hours because, Deniss, in many ways she seems like a female version of you.

So at that last weekend in February I took a plane to Barcelona to finally meet her in person. She showed me some skating tricks on the ice and I showed her that the mediterranean sea is not too cold to swim in in February. She introduced me to traditional Catalan food and I brought her some Swiss Chocolate I had bought in Davos.

And she gave me the most precious gift I ever received from anyone: An amazing drawing of you, Deniss, skating to “Iron“. You have seen it in Innsbruck yourself and I am quite sure you will remember it.

So that weekend was another amazing experience thanks to the two of you.

March

“Good morning everyone”, I told my Instagram followers totally excited at the morning of February 28th, “my last big journey of the figure skating season is about to start. I will drive to work first and then I will drive from my school via Frankfurt airport and Munich airport all the way to Innsbruck. It will be a really long journey but I will pick up some amazing girls on the way. And I actually can’t wait to see Deniss and Stéph tomorrow.”

The Cup of Tyrol in Innsbruck was the smallest event I visited this season but it highlighted up everything that had happened before. At the beginning of the season my mom and I had been alone. The trip to Innsbruck ended with seven good friends from five different countries sitting together in a small apartment, laughing and celebrating you, ourselves and life.

Marina had flown to Frankfurt from Kyiv and Szilvia from Budapest. Maria had come from Chelyabinsk, Russia, to Munich. I met both, Marina and Maria for the first time in real life and that alone was really special. Suddenly sitting with those three girls together in my small car, singing along to Britney Spears songs was unreal and amazing enough. But of course we were here to support you, Deniss.

All three of you, Chris included, seemed quite surprised to see us around. Cup of Tyrol was such a small competition. Why should anyone go there? Well, we were and we weren’t the only ones, even though probably the loudest ones. Here are again some very special moments picked from many special moments:

Imitating your car karaoke to Britney’s Toxic on our way to Innsbruck with Marina and Szilvia.

Stepping out of our apartment early Friday morning in Innsbruck and seeing this city in all of its beauty: The river, the colorful houses and the mountains in the beautiful morning sun.

Watching you skate a nice and clean short program after some struggles during practice.

Chris laughing loudly about our designed shirt for you, Deniss: “I am not coaching Stéph!” Do you wear it from time to time? If you don’t I am sure Chris would…

Giving you my self knitted hat in Latvia colors.

Showing you Laias drawing and you complimenting her amazing “shade work”.

You, Stéph, telling us that we were just about to hang up our “Team Champéry banner” mirror converted. Oh dear…

Suffering with every quad attempt. Cheering for every jump that seemed “okay” somehow- especially for underrotated quads…sorry Stéph, but that’s what fans are there for.

Crying with Matilda after her Free Program. It was hard to see this but those moments belong to the sport just as tears of joy at another time. Please, Stéph, tell Matilda, that she is a very beautiful skater. She is very graceful and a joy to watch on the ice and we all hope to see her shining on the ice sometime again.

Calling ourselves to be the “Crazy Rabbit Crew” after constantly eating carrots and joking about what to throw on the ice. Carrots, maybe?

Watching your little extra show on the ice after you won the title, Deniss.

Joking with you, Stéph about our petition to bring Britney Spears to Art on Ice.

And for me, personally, receiving the compliment from you, Stéph, of being such a positive person. I am aware that you, the first time you said it, thought that my positivity was even a bit too much when we discussed the success of your Quad attempts, Deniss, but when we all said goodbye I had the honest feeling that you liked me, Stéph. And that means more than a lot to me!

And of course THAT picture. Yes, again a celebrity picture. But what a special one. Standing in the middle of both of you. In the middle of the two people who made my winter. You didn’t understand it back then, right?

I am sure you understand it now!

Of course Innsbruck hadn’t been the end of the season yet: Worlds were yet to come. Far away in Japan. The competition where you wanted to show everyone what you actually could do. In the country that you love so much and where your season had started. The country on which history your free program was built. The Last Samurai. The last dance of the season. It was a hard week for us as fans because it was obviously a hard week for your whole team. I watched the Short Program locked into the music room of my school during our break. Afterwards I had to teach a Music lesson, singing cheerful and happy songs with eight year olds. It was tough. But I can hardly imagine how tough it was for you.

The free program was a huge fight. After everything you had gone through that week, it was even an incredible fight. The score still wasn’t probably what you had dreamed of neither the placement in the end.

But you can be incredibly proud of that fight, Deniss. This whole season was surely a hard learning process. It was a season without a single competition you were completely happy with. After all the hard work you put in every single day it must be horribly frustrating. I got to know you though as a person who is thinking thoroughly about everything. And I got to know you as a person who is able to see this season as a learning process for the future. You never stopped performing no matter what happened to the jumps. All three programs this year were incredibly well choreographed and performed even better. And during that hard and rocky road you made so many people incredibly happy.

Stéph, this winter was surely also a hard one for you. One of the reasons why I like you that much is that you, just as I do myself, put your whole heart and passion into everything you do. I could feel your pain when things didn’t turn out as you wanted them to go for your skaters. It must be so hard to just watch and not being able to actually do something in those moments. I do imagine those intense emotions you had during your last Art on Ice shows. Thanks so much for sharing some of these moments with us.

And equally I want to thank you, Chris: Thank you so much for being there for the whole team whenever you are needed. Thanks for staying calm, positive and objective throughout the season. Thanks for sometimes probably being the connection between the two artists. I am sure it hasn’t always been easy. Thanks for the great cooperation with us fans. You are doing an amazing job in every way.

You as a team managed to go through this season together and I hope with my whole heart that it brought you even closer together. Success, failure, joy and sorrow are so close together in this sport. The future seasons will bring all of that again. And I am looking forward to laugh, cry and celebrate with you again next winter and hopefully many more winters. Until then I will spend time with some of the amazing people I met on the road. Next weekend Szilvia and I will visit Marina in Kyiv. It will be another amazing trip. You are about to make my spring, too!

#teamchampery #denissvasiljevs #Stephane Lambiel #figure skating #fanreview #teamchampéry #stéphane lambiel #figureskater #figureskatingfan

[zpetra]

GP Helsinki Journal - Day 4 & 5

So, I am finally getting to this as well, it has been a while now but sorting through my pictures took me longer than I wanted and life didn’t exactly stop after Helsinki XD Please excuse.

After an incredible and tiring Saturday, I woke up after a few hours of sleep. While I had a generous window between arrival at stay and leaving the next day the excitement didn’t let me sleep. I woke up at 7 a.m, got ready, grabbed some left over sandwiches for breakfast and left to the arena shortly after 8 a.m. Since the first men’s group took the ice at 9 a.m and Keiji was in the group I had to make sure I was there on time. Luckily the line (at least when I joined) in front of the Ice Hall was fairly okay. Grabbed some water once inside and took my seat, greeting all the Japanese ladies once they arrived.

DAY 4 - Sunday

Group 1 practice - Keiji Tanaka

While I am sad he was not in the top to be in Group 2, I was also happy because now I could concentrate on him, without any further distractions (Mr. Hanyu).

I really like this costume on Keiji, he looked like a fairy-tale prince and while his practice did look wobbly here and there, especially his 3A, I was worried for him but I was rooting for him because he is a good skater and deserves good scores. I filmed his run-through and took more photos of him, he is really handsome, I have to say, also the ladies next to me said the same. So there is that. XD

Group 2 - when the TCC family walks in

Nothing can describe the sound of shutters of cameras going off when Yuzuru walks in but today he did walk in with Jun and boy.... I had an existential crisis who to film or take pictures from. I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS AMOUNT OF STRESS OKAY? I was so happy when I had both of them in frame XD

It was also incredible to watch how they navigate with the coaches, rarely did you see them standing by the boards or simply replaced each other once the other left and Brian and Ghislain had their attention on the current skater, not loosing a beat. Also I saw so much respect from Jun and Yuzu towards each other, making sure both get time to consult with their coaches, give them room on the ice. It reminded me of how Javi and Yuzu used to navigate around in the past. I had feels!!

At one point during the practice Jun choked on his water or spilled it and it ran down his chin, resulting in a giggle fest in our block, while my picture is blurry I can’t forget how embarrassed he looked and quickly made a run for it, I caught a glimpse of Brian holding back his own laughter. Jun is adorable, officially obsessed with him. Not like I wasn’t slightly biased towards him before but now, I am sold. SUPPORT THE BABE HE IS GOOD AND ADORABLE TOO!

I have to admit me filming Jun run-through was a disaster... I tried to film but also watch Yuzu and I may have lost Jun a few times, I don’t dare to re-watch the footage because WOW, I failed XD but I got a few nice shots of his jumps and I was overall happy with it, he looked good with a few mistakes and some butt-slides. I have pictures of some ice flakes on his booty, which he is trying to brush off. I APOLOGIZE. 

And than there is Yuzuru Hanyu. Just like the other days I was impressed, amazed and kept swooning. My view still couldn’t be quite beaten and god... I could write an essay of everything, it was overwhelming.

THE WAIST - that’s the comment, that is all I will say. It is ridiculous and every guy who sees it has to admit he looked good.

Filmed his free run-through again and it is scary how nearly identical it is to his actual program.

Watching Yuzu do his cool-down exercise is mesmerizing. Wow. I swear there is so much to see when he is on ice, he is so expressive both when he is disappointed with a jump, the ice conditions, really everything.

Men’s Free Skate Competition

Group 1

Oh boy, it was kind of heart-breaking as the guys were falling apart. Keiji fought hard but unfortunately... it didn’t look all too good for him to podium and my worry for Jun and Yuzu grew even more. Watching Keiji in the Kiss & Cry was so sad, I tried to be loud for him as much as possible because he FOUGHT. He did well!

Group 2

I never thought I would say this but it is INCREDIBLE AWKWARD TO WATCH HIS DEMONIC LIP SYNCING... Wow. I had second hand embarrassment but I am also a person who mouths along to music on public transportation so I could also relate. It was a weird feeling. Also Jun was so chill about it, he is probably over it, used to it. I was laughing so hard.

Mr. Hanyu came for murder while Jun looked like an adorable puppy and I was dying on the inside and outside.

BABY JUN DID SO WELL, HE DID SO WELL. I WAS SO PROUD OF HIM AND GIVEN HIS HIGHS SCORE I KNEW HE WOULD PODIUM; WHICH IN SO INCREDIBLE FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS BACK-TO-BACK GP ASSIGNMENTS ON DIFFERENT CONTINENTS!!! And it turned out he was having a cold and my respect and admiration flew out of the window! I regret not having had a plush for him, next time I will do better!

And soon it was going to be this guys turn... Origin hair *drools* I am sorry but living for it.

ORIGIN COSTUME IS LIFE! I swear to God, the pictures do not do it justice, they don’t but I am happy I got a fairly good costume reveal camera roll for myself - I posted it here  - BLING CITY

AND THAN MR. FUCKING HANYU SLAYED US ALL. I swear I was deaf for a moment, nor did I have voice afterwards. My fitness tracker yet again thought I was running, nope I was just that excited. I broke out in a sweat and was ready to take off my jacket because that Free was....

190.43 POINTS A NEW WORLD RECORD 297.12 COMBINED TOTAL ALSO A NEW WORLD RECORD

You do witness such incredible performances any day let alone in person. I was so damn happy I was close to tears. Followed by laughter because Yuzuru shook Pooh-san so hard in the K&C I thought he would lose his head. XD

I threw my pooh and managed to fling it into the general direction of the K&C and I hope I didn’t clonk the waiting coaches, have not seen footage so I guess I did alright? XD

I was ecstatic and so was everyone around me, the arena was shaking or at least it felt like so. Yuzuru Hanyu is incredible.

I felt a bid bad for Michal for skating after him because I felt the attention was not utterly on him but hey I was so happy I screamed for him like a madman, also he was AMAZING TOO. Group 2 slayed... aside from Boyang and Kolyada, those two had a bad day :(

THE VICTORY CEREMONY WAS SO CUTE! There is so much footage out there but it was adorable. Jun and Yuzu full on hug? Axel-ing onto the podium? Podium selfie? Michal switching to Japan because he had no flag but than got one from a fan and the crowd was so happy for him! GHISLAIN DROP THE SELFIE. The fact Jun kept his SCI flag? The way Yuzu happily shook his shoulders before his name was called. 

YUZURU HANYU MAKING THE SUN JEALOUS WITH HIS SMILE. FIRST TIME HE WON HIS FIRST GP ASSIGNMENT SINCE HE GOT TO SENIORS WITH 3 WR ON TOP. BOY!!!

My cheeks were hurting and just... I have to repeat but it was incredible. Truly.

I was high on adrenaline and the Gala was meant to follow. 

WTF WAS THAT GALA? I WAS DYING. IT WAS SO GOOD. The performances, naked Italians, Gaming performance feat the Russian male skaters? KEIJI!

FUCKING KEIJI TURNING UP THE CHARM AND MAKING EVERYONE SWOON. I am happy he did his smirk on the other side of the Kiss & Cry because I felt it from the distance and looking at the footage, HIS SMIRK AFTER!. He knew what he was doing that little shit. If I hear that song now all I see his Keiji charming everyone. Wow.

Helsinki gala was the best I have seen this season and I am not saying it because I was there! 

It all came down to Haru Yo Koi....

I am usually not an emotional person who cries but 3 tunes in and I couldn’t see shit. Even now as I am recalling, it is such an incredible program, the softness, the elegance the meaning behind it all, his soft smiles. I didn’t intend to film but ended up taking my phone out and while miss like 20 seconds from the beginning I think I did a pretty good recording of it, for myself to enjoy. I was fighting the tears and some did fall, me not being the only one. HYK is just...beauty. It’s pure beauty. 

And than during the Finale...>.> He does a LGC slide in the a fairy costume, runs his hand through his hair turning up the charm like Keiji did... wow, I felt attacked. XD I guess we also can’t have now a finale where this sunshine doesn’t get lifted. BUT HE WASN’T JUST LIFTED BY ONE BUT TWO IN A FREAKING MERMAID POSITION! OMG. HE WAS LIVING THE BEST TIME OF HIS LIFE AND I WAS LIVING FOR THAT! 

After the Gala I was hurrying away, somehow catching the first tram because it was late and I had to wake a few hours later to catch my plane back home. I ended up being so high on the excitement, I barely managed to catch like 2,5 hours of sleep. T.T It was worth it and I would do it again.

DAY 5 - Monday

Queue me dragging my ass out of bed after like 2,5 hours of sleep to finish packing, double checking I didn’t leave anything behind and leave to the train station. First train to the Airport leaving at 4:18am. I was so happy I ended up taking the day free because fuck I was done. Bought myself water and coffee , ignoring the horrendous price I had to pay for it... and off I went.

Security check-in was chill which I appreciated a lot, got a few souvenirs, had expensive breakfast and more coffee. Boarding started 10min before scheduled departure... guess which plane didn’t leave on time? ON ANOTHER NOTE: Nobuaki Tanaka the sport photographer who shoots at FAOI (is responsible for a gorgeous Yuzu x Javi picture) was on my plane! I tried not to stare too much LOL. Full plane, landing late somewhere in the middle of no-where. Rolling around for ages, followed by a long bus ride... train waiting time taking ages... It was like 11am I was home and I was dead. I wouldn’t have been able to go to work afterwards. 

Conclusion - Final thoughts:

IT WAS THE BEST WEEKEND OF MY ENTIRE LIFE AND BARELY ANYTHING WILL BE ABLE TO TOP THIS!!!!

I knew I will have an amazing time because I will see Yuzuru in person but I didn’t expect it all go down the way it did. Meeting so many lovely fans, the Japanese ladies giving International fans so many things, me too. Practicing my Japanese and happy it is actually any good. Watching Yuzu win his first GP assignment in a season, let alone 2 WR winning programs. Finding so many new amazing skaters I like now and want to support. It was truly amazing. Wort every single penny, lack of sleep, overflow of emotions. Best time.

Thank you to those who made it special, the members of our fangroup and people I have met in general. They all added to the experience. I know for sure that I will try to go to more events next season.

I guess all there is left to say... Until Europeans 2019 in Minsk. If anyone is going let me know! I am going to support Javi for his very last competition.

#gp helsinki 2018 #𝓅: your thoughts are your reality #yuzuru hanyu #junhwan cha #keiji tanaka

[yukirin1408]

Japan Open 2017: Interviews with Team Japan before the competition

Interviews with Shoma Uno, Mai Mihara, Marin Honda, and Nobunari Oda after practice the day before Japan Open 2017. Parentheses () indicate press notes in the article. Please do not use/repost my translations without my permission.

Shoma Uno: I can’t skate my current layout naturally

(On his condition) It’s no good. I couldn’t jump today. My condition isn’t bad, but today didn’t go well. The waves have been intense recently, and I didn’t have periods of time when my condition was good, so I have nothing to say, but for now I want to try my best tomorrow.

(On Lombardia Trophy) It went well only by luck, so I had absolutely no sense of accomplishment for working hard during practice. The fact that it went well even though I didn’t really practice is a surprise to me rather than an accomplishment.

(On 4S) It’s as a jump that I have the capability to jump. The success rate went up after I became self-aware of how to jump it and the fact that I could do it. I thought it was difficult to jump up until then, and that’s why I felt that I couldn’t jump it.

(On his attitude) It was good for the first competition. It’s not certain that you can do definitely do something because you practiced it, but it also isn’t the case that you can’t do something because you didn’t practice it. I don’t think I thought this way two years ago, but I think my results starting showing from the first competition last year. (If your practice goes badly, you don’t become uneasy for the real thing?) Uneasiness is uneasiness, and there are many ways it can influence me, but I have no choice but to do it, so I try my best. (You’ll be going with this program layout for a while?) Until I feel that I can skate this layout naturally, I intend to use it. I don’t like thinking about what I can’t do, so I tell myself “look at reality.”  I can’t skate my current layout naturally, so rather than attacking it, I want to do this layout well and stabilize it.

(On the perfection of the expression) My uneasiness hasn’t disappeared that much. I do feel that I still have a ways to go, but an image of what I want to do is slowly forming. However, jumps often take all my effort and my brain thoughts become muddled. Even so, I’m practicing [my expression] separately from jumps, so I’d like to be able to do that kind of performance when I put the jumps in.

(Doing this many jumps isn’t tough on your body?) Going through the program every day is tough. After going through my short and free twice in one day, my body won’t move the next day, and it’s no good after doing that three days in a row. (What part of skating do you think is fun despite such tough practices?) It’s not so much that practice is fun every day, but I’m doing it with no pain at all, and it’s fun when I show the results of my practice in competition.

Mai Mihara: This program’s image is “an angel”

(This season has begun.) I scored 199 points in my first international competition, and that’s higher than my score for my first competition last year, but I wasn’t able to perform in a way that I could be satisfied with, so I want to perform in a way that I can be satisfied with this time. (What did you think was lacking?) Everything. Especially my expression - when I rewatched my performance, the number one thing was that my steps were smaller than I thought they were, and I thought that I have to make them bigger. (How do you think you’ll correct it?) By treasuring each and every movement, making every movement seem big, and making my arms and legs seem long. For my facial expressions too, Saitama Super Arena is a really big arena, so I want to pour my heart into reaching the audience sitting at the top.

(How did your first competition go?) There were many bad points, but a good point is that I was able to finish without making any big mistakes. I found many points that need to be improved on, which is true for the expression side as well. I want to be able to earn positive GOE on every jump. I was able to watch Canada’s Kaetlyn’s timing on her jumps from nearby, and I thought that I really do still have a ways to go, so I want to approach [her level] as much as I can. (What can you do to approach [her level]?) I can’t make big changes and end up unable to do my jumps, so it’ll be a little bit at a time, but I’m thinking about increasing my success rates, and I’m practicing while prioritizing not making mistakes.

(On David Wilson, who was in charge of her choreography) He told me “express with your hands.” His explanations were really easy to understand. This program’s image is “an angel,” and I want to express from my heart so I seem like an angel. (How are you handling the fear of your second senior season?) I think fear becomes a source of confidence in myself. I felt fear recently in my first competition, so I want to be able to face [competitions] while thinking that there’s nothing to fear. (What was your fear last season?) I had none at all, and I just strongly felt really happy to be participating in competitions, so I think I’ll be fine if I skate this season without forgetting those feelings.

(What she grasped from her first competition) What made me the happiest was that the fans in Canada said that I seemed like a completely different person in the short and free. I aimed for my expressions to seem like they were from two different people, so I received those words happily. (Did you grasp the trick to doing 5 jumps in the second half?) I’ve always practiced while inserting a break in the middle when I can let out my breath. The second half starts at my 3F, so after the 3F, 2A+3T, and 3Lo, I have a little choreography, and there’s a part where I skate a long distance. I insert a break there and I think “it’s from here on.”

(Right now, how do you see Pyeongchang Olympics?) I went to Four Continents at the Olympic arena last season, and I strongly feel that I want to return to that stage, so I want to skate a performance I can be satisfied with at each competition, and I want to do my best at this competition too.

Marin Honda: I’m experiencing the fun of skating the most right now

(How was your senior debut?) I didn’t set any goals like winning just like I did in juniors, and I didn’t have any goals in terms of score or what kind of performance I wanted to do, so I was able to really have fun. (On the location of her debut) I went in a little early, but I watched thinking “everyone’s so amazing and so good” from practice… My coach told me “you’re competing with them, so you can’t lose in terms of emotion,” and I faced the competition while the realization that I became a senior was forming little by little, so I’m glad that I went early. This competition only has a free program, and it’s been a long time. If I had to pick, I always get more nervous for the short, but I don’t feel nervous at all now, so I can’t get nervous little by little while I practice.

(On the completion of her new short program) I went to have it made after my first competition finished. It’s a program that really brings out the strong points of my skating, so I’ll do my best. (On the announcement) I haven’t decided on when, but I’ll say on the day I feel is right. (Note: She later announced that it is “The Giving.”) (On the jump layout) I’ve been practicing the short while trying various changes, but the free won’t have any big changes. I want to think about various things while watching the condition of my practices.

(On 3Lz+3T) I’m doing it in practice. I used to always do a lutz+toe, and I’m doing it in practice after a while. I don’t know how it will show up in competitions, but I’m testing it in practice. (What does increasing the types of jumps mean for you?) I don’t have a particular goal for seniors, and I was getting bored of the same jump layout, so I thought I’d try it (laughs). (Did you purposefully not decide on a goal, or did it happen naturally?) Naturally. Even I don’t know what level I’ll reach if I perform cleanly. I won in juniors in my first year, so I do want to win no matter what competition it is and aim to place first, but that isn’t for seniors yet, so I decided that it would be good to decide on a goal from now on. I want to go through competitions without a goal and think about have fun.

(You felt that you’ll do better without establishing a goal?) Every competition I go to is like the ones I’ve watched on TV, and I don’t feel that I’m in any particularly big competitions this season, and I feel that I won’t know unless I try. I don’t feel like I’m being chased the way I was in my second junior year at all, so I’m having fun with how much I can keep up with everyone I’ve seen on TV and doing things while excited. I’m really experiencing the fun of skating the most right now.

(On the highlights of her newly made short program) I think programs with a sense of speed are good, and we’ve made a wonderful program that’s the same as what I imagined when I heard the song. Like the free, rather than creating special highlights, I want to go through the program as one whole. (A program that brings out the strengths of her skating is?) Things like skating with lengthy steps and increasing my speed and doing steps - I think programs without a perfect form are my specialty. I think programs that I can skate the way I picture them suit me the best, so I thought that I should skate to this song this season and changed to it.

Nobunari Oda: I’m challenging two quads

I think my condition is coming together well. At this season’s Japan Open, in addition to Uno and Javier Fernandez, Nathan Chen is coming. They’re jumping beautiful quad lutzes and flips even in practice. Part of me is overwhelmed from seeing the level up in mens skating from last season, but I'm also receiving motivation from young skaters and I want to do my best.

(What do you want people to take away from this competition?) I only had one quad at last season’s Japan Open, but I'm challenging two this time. I've only ever successfully jumped two quads once in an international competition, and I've never done it in front of fans in Japan, so I set that as my goal and practiced. Just like last season, [I’m skating to] Jeffrey Buttle’s choreography to a very popular song, so I want to show an outlook on the world. 

(You're not putting in a 4S?) I practiced while thinking I'd put it in, but I can't win against age in the end, and my body can't catch up to thinking about how many I'll put in (laughs). This time, I want to do my best to land two quad toes. (Next year?) I don't think I can participate anymore (laughs). (Your last official competition?) I'm 30 years old now too, and I'm thankful just to have been able to participate last season and this season. I want to bring out my ability just like last season and skate a good performance.

(Confidence in a personal best?) I'm putting in two quads, so my base value is higher than last season. Of course, if I skate without mistakes, I think I can surpass last year's TES, so I want to skate clean.

#shoma uno #mai mihara #marin honda #nobunari oda #fstranslation #THIS IS ALREADY LATE SO IT'S COMPLETELY UNEDITED FOR NOW BUT HERE

[sachiro]

Victor/Yuuri and the Media

Alternately titled “Sachiro can find Victor character development pretty much anywhere he looks”.

As an attempt to get over the writer’s block that has been plaguing me for a month and a half, I decided to try and tackle something new. Something that’s a more outside-of-the-box idea in terms of analysis (at least I think) so let’s take a look at an aspect of the series that I haven’t seen talked about too much in terms of character development: the media!

I started thinking a while back about how we can actually see a clear change when it comes to Victor and his interactions with Yuuri in regards to the media, especially when we compare the earlier episodes to the later ones, and it got me thinking. Why does Victor act so protective of Yuuri in front of the media in earlier episodes and what changed by the later ones to the point that he’s so noticeably not there (and at what point did this shift take place)?

Victor himself actually enjoys the media attention and we have that shown to us repeatedly over the course of the show. Yuuri, on the other hand, tolerates the media but while he doesn’t enjoy the attention he isn’t actually a terrible speaker in front of the cameras.

Before we get into the meat of the discussion, let’s take a quick look at how each of them interact with the media when left on their own (at the start of the show anyway).

Victor

The very first time we see Victor, he’s in front of the cameras. His heart may not have been into it but he was still able to pull out a big smile. Even more in our faces later, we see him winking at the crowd at Worlds and sending everyone into a tizzy. He’s very much an extrovert and gets his energy from others around him.

Even after he moves to Japan, and especially once Yuuri and Victor get back into the competitive circuit, we see him thriving off any media attention he can get; whether it’s interviews, at the kiss & cry, or from the attention given to him by his fans.

Yuuri

On the other hand, Yuuri is very docile in front of the cameras. He’ll respond with phrases that you can tell he prepared ahead of time. You can see that he doesn’t really enjoy the attention but he’s been at this long enough to know how to deal with and tolerate it. In contrast to Victor, you don’t see Yuuri waving at the cameras and actively seeking out attention from his fans.

We can see examples of Yuuri on the far side of this spectrum in episode 1 where he actively tries to avoid interacting with his fans. We can also make the assumption that he avoided all media and social media in the space between the GPF and the Stammi Vicino video due to no one having an inkling as to what his career plans were (even though him skipping out on Worlds as the only Men’s Singles skater for Japan would have already been suspect – I wonder what excuse he gave because it definitely would have hit the press either way).

Edit: he didn’t qualify for Worlds at all due to his poor performance at Japanese Nationals, my bad!

As you can probably guess, putting both of them in the same frame would certainly cause some interesting interactions, and that’s exactly what happens! So let’s take a look from the start and see how they managed to somehow get to a point where Victor is leaving Yuuri to deal with the media alone/actually been tame in front of the cameras as seen in the last episodes!

(More under the read more due to length/images so please enjoy the rest of the analysis!)

Victor and Yuuri interactions

The way that Yuuri handles the media is something that we can see Victor clearly doesn’t understand. He saw Yuuri being nervous and decided that the best way to help would be jumping in to support him, many times literally. We see the first case of this in episode 3 at the Onsen on Ice.

It begins with us seeing both of them interacting with the cameras separately. Yuuri stutters a bit and is nervous, falling back on a practiced speech about his hometown (or more notably, not about himself). Victor, on the other hand, goes all out with a costume and is overjoyed to talk on camera -- even going so far as to forget about why he was out there in the first place.

But once you get them both on the same camera, we get to see them interact with each other in front of the media for the first time. In this case, it’s after Yuuri wins the Onsen on Ice and is standing up on the podium with Victor. This moment also begins a pattern for the two of them. Yuuri gets slightly nervous and Victor jumps in to “save” him.

This first moment might have set the precedent but it’s actually really tame compared to the following examples. In episode 3 Victor provides a silent support. He doesn’t actually say anything and lets Yuuri handle himself.

In contrast, the next time we see them dealing with the media together is in episode 5. Victor doesn’t even let Yuuri answer the question about his own skating plans, deciding just to answer for him. And you can tell this wasn’t pre-planned because Yuuri immediately shuts him down for what he chooses to say.

We see Victor do this multiple times in just this episode. Although he lets Yuuri deal with his fans on his own (Minami for example), he gets into the habit of trying to “protect” Yuuri from the rest of the media and will physically jump in front of Yuuri when he’s getting interviewed or answer questions for him. He even goes so far as to give Yuuri a back hug and gives him his advice directly in his ear before his short program knowing that all the cameras are trained on them. Even the times he doesn’t jump in he’s still close at hand such as during Yuuri’s post-SP interview.

And then up comes the press conference in which he physically can’t do any of that. I’m positive that Victor was itching in his seat back in Hasetsu to jump in and give his “aid”, as unwanted as it would have been, and that he ultimately came away with the conclusion that “see what happens when you try and talk in front of the cameras without me?” (for various reasons).

Skipping forward a month, we see them next at the Cup of China. The first time we see the two together here, we actually get something interesting in regards to how they individually handle the media even though they’re both in the same shot. Yuuri gets thrown by a question he didn’t expect (“how strong is my power of love?”) and Victor is hyper and distractible, asking Yuuri about going for food in the middle of the interview.

The only real thing to note here is just how Yuuri reacts to questions he doesn’t expect—that is, he doesn’t. So in a way you could even see Victor excited off-topic question as another attempted “save” although I doubt it was intentional this time.

Victor, however, returns to enjoying the camera attention at the kiss & cry as well as continuing to either jump in front of Yuuri (ep 7 post-skate interview) or comment from the background (ep 6 post-event interview). And of course we can’t leave out his tackle kiss on international TV.

But then something changes at the Rostelecom Cup, and I’m not talking about Victor leaving to go back to Japan before the free skate. 

We see him in an interview at the beginning of the event attempting to actually move the attention away from himself and towards Yuuri. While the words make sense for how far he is in his character development, we then get to see how he follows that up. Victor is then seen basking in the attention of his fans at the stadium before Yuuri yanks him “down to his level” and tells him the performance has already begun.

This is the moment that marks a definite shift in how Victor interacts with the media in regards to when he is on camera with Yuuri whether that be during interviews or at the kiss & cry. The next time we see the two of them, Victor is kissing Yuuri’s skate in a gesture that seems to say “I am stepping down off my pedestal and passing the reigns of media attention off to Yuuri, just as I said I would, so please focus on him. He’s the real star here”.

Going into the final 2 episodes, their interactions with the media have noticeably changed. Victor no longer jumps in front of the camera. He no longer waves and makes heart shapes at the kiss & cry. He becomes a silent supporter for Yuuri or is just straight up absent such as during the post-skate interviews.

I actually feel that this speaks a lot to his character development in multiple regards.

Victor’s focus has changed. Whether he realizes it or not, he stopped thinking about any kind of attention being targeted towards himself and instead has started redirecting that attention to Yuuri. It’s no longer about him on either a conscious or subconscious level. And I think this moment illustrates this point perfectly:

Before we end this analysis, however, we need to take a look at the post-skate interviews for the GPF. Victor is absent in both and we as viewers know that it’s because he has other things going on (concerning, respectively, his grief and then his return to skating). I would like take a second to revisit these moments, however, to look at these disappearances from a slightly different angle.

I mentioned back at the start that Victor jumping in front of the cameras or answering questions for Yuuri was done in a misplaced desire to “protect” Yuuri from them or as a way to support him. At the end of the day that desire came down to one simple fact: he didn’t trust Yuuri to handle himself in front of the media without his support. Whether that be because of the knowledge that Yuuri gets nervous confronting situations where he doesn’t have complete control or because Victor himself is more comfortable taking the reigns in regards to media interaction as a whole, it still boiled down to the same thing.

But comparing where we started in episode 1 to the GPF, as well as the drastic shift in episode 8, I feel like we can truly get a sense of the scope of the journey Victor went through in those 9 months since he flew to Hasetsu. The ultimate reason, not the “why” he left Yuuri to deal with the media alone but the fact that that happened in the first place, is because he trusts Yuuri. He trusts Yuuri to be able to handle himself. He now has the confidence that Yuuri will be okay even if he’s not standing at the ready to jump in front of him if a question gets thrown that Yuuri isn’t completely prepared to answer.

And I feel that more than anything, it ties back into a line we hear Victor say to Yuuri within his first month in Hasetsu because while it may have been Victor’s goal to make Yuuri feel confident about himself, he definitely picked some of it up along the way.

#yuri!!! on ice #yuri on ice #yoimeta #meta #victuri #yuuri katsuki #victor nikiforov #my meta #my post #this was meant to be short #*2k words later* #hopefully this means my writer's block is done with though! #:D

[crippledboyfriend]

pie-for-everyone

replied to your post

“Here’s one where Yurio gets a bad cough and Viktor and Yuri worry....”

This was lovely <3 is there going to be more? The end just sounds, like there is more to come and I would happily read it!

You know, I had pretty much forgotten about this, but I do want to continue it!

Missed Practice Part 2

        Yuri stood outside the door to Viktor’s room.

        “This cough medicine hurts my throat going down,” complained Yurio. “Can you get me the kind we had in Russia?”

        “Probably not, kitten,” Viktor sounded remorseful. “But I’ll ask Yuri if there are any kinds he thinks might be more agreeable to you. It would be hard to find one with as pleasant of a taste as to what you’re used to, though.”

        Yurio coughed, and Viktor rubbed his back for him.

        “Let me take your temp. It’s been a while,” suggested Viktor.

        “It has not been a while,” Yurio grumbled as the older man stuck the thermometer in his mouth.

        Yuri frowned. From what he could hear, Yurio didn’t seem to be feeling much better. He didn’t want to eavesdrop anymore.

        “Yurio?” Yuri opened the door, making the sick boy jump a bit. He gasped and started coughing, turning his head into Viktor’s chest as he struggled to keep the thermometer in his mouth.

        “I didn’t mean to startle you,” Yuri touched his chest, a bit surprised himself to find that Yurio was cuddled up in Viktor’s lap. “I just brought a fresh cold compress.”

        “Oh, thank you, Yuri,” Viktor smiled as he rubbed Yurio’s back.

        “I’m really sorry,” Yuri blushed. He wasn’t expecting Viktor’s hands-on approach to cuddly caretaking. The forehead touching he’d seen was already cute, but now Yuri was starting to picture being the sick one while with Viktor, and it was absolutely not the time. He was trying to have a conversation! As Yuri daydreamed, Viktor continued speaking.

        “I think the fever’s just making him act anxious,” explained Viktor. “I’m sure you understand, Yuri.”

        “No, I completely understand!” said Yuri. “I’m not sure what to do about your cough syrup predicament, though. I’ve never known any to taste good.”

        “Maybe you could just find some that’s weaker. He’s sensitive,” said Viktor, realising that Yuri must have been waiting outside of the door. “His throat’s starting to get sore.”

        “Oh, I didn’t know,” said Yuri.

        Yurio nodded to Yuri, looking pissed off. He was hyper-aware of his throat.

        “I’ll have whoever goes to the store next buy another kind to try,” promised Yuri as the thermometer went off. Yurio took it out and read it himself.

        “100.2,” Yurio told them.

        “What is your fever doing?” asked Viktor, cupping Yurio’s forehead. “That’s a little better, but maybe your virus isn’t almost done running its course after all…” Viktor brought his fingers through Yurio’s hair, trying to be soothing.

        “I’ll just leave this here. Let me know if I can do anything,” Yuri sat the cold compress next to the sofa. “Should I go to the store now?”

        “No,” Viktor shook his head. “I doubt you’ll find exactly what he wants for his cough.”

        “Sorry,” Yuri bowed slightly as he exited.

        Yuri rested in bed, playing Animal Crossing. It was weird having the day off of practice. Viktor told him he could get a bit of work in if he wanted, but not to do as much as usual in case they were starting to come down with this, too. Something was going around Hasetsu. Yuri did work out a bit, but he didn’t want to get on the ice without the others, and his mother agreed that he should be taking it easy if something’s going around. Yuri hadn’t had much free time since Viktor decided to be his coach, but he still struggled to relax when given the chance, even with his degree out of the way. He focused on the chores in his game to distract him from real life. It did help a lot, but he was drained from spending the day wondering if he was fussing over Yurio too much or not enough. He really wanted Viktor to think that he was good at taking care of sick people. Suddenly, Yuri’s phone alarm went off and startled him.

        “Change Yurio’s Cold Compress” Right. Yuri closed his DS and swiped away the notification, hurrying down to the kitchen. It was his turn again. He couldn’t help but overhear Viktor, who was on the phone in the living room. This eavesdropping was starting to become an awful habit.

        Viktor was speaking Russian, but Yuri could understand a little of it. He’d gotten curious before and learned a few terms for cold related things.

        “That’s good advice…Yeah…” Viktor listened to Yakov. “But can you describe how I take oral temperatures again? I’m just not sure I know how to do it accurately enough. The readings of his temperature are all over the place.”

        “Well, remember that there’s a conversion. His normal temperature in his mouth is going to be 98.6. If he’s coughing all the time and drinking hot tea like you say, that’s going to distort the reading a bit,”

        “We do want to fit in with the Katsuki’s while we’re in Japan, but I’m just not so sure continuing with this method is best for the poor baby,” frowned Viktor. “He’s been coughing so much, and he seems like he gets dizzy and has trouble breathing after his fits. Do you know how to take pulse?”

        “He’s not going to lie around and let you examine everything, Viktor,” Yakov reminded him. “Just do your best to keep him medicated and help him hold the thermometer under the side of his tongue.”

        “Alright,” Viktor touched his temple. “I’ll call you again later. Thanks for letting me complain to you.”

        “Goodbye, Vitya. Tell Yurochka he’s welcome back at the rink whenever,”

        “Bye,” Viktor hung up.

        “Uh, Viktor?” Yuri asked, getting his coaches’ attention. “Are you not sure you know how to take Yurio’s temperature?”

        “Wow! I didn’t know you understood Russian that well!”

        “Oh, no, no,” Yuri blushed and made a frantic gesture with his hands. “It’s hard to speak, and also hard to respond to, so even if I overhear something, don’t think much of it. Please speak English with me.”

        “I understand. Well, Yuri…Back in Russia I would’ve tested Yurio’s temp under his arm, you see?” Viktor explained. “But here in Japan, I feel like I’m getting inconsistent readings.”

        “Oh,” said Yuri. He tried to pretend that he didn’t already know this from stalking Viktor on social media over the years. When his mom wanted to take Yurio’s temperature orally, he just went with it because he didn’t want to discuss any of this and get unnaturally flustered.

        “This is dumb and I’m probably interrupting you,” admitted Viktor, getting embarrassed. “Were you up to change the ice out for Yurochka?”

        “Yeah, it’s my turn,” said Yuri, holding up the cold compress and shuffling on his feet. “But when I’m done, do you want to meet me in my room with the thermometer? I can show you how to take temperature. It’s not dumb to be worried about someone’s health.”

        “Ah, okay,” Viktor gave a slight nod.

        “You don’t have to,” blushed Yuri. “I could just be the one to take his temperature since I know what I’m doing, if that would make you feel better.”

        “No, I’ll come to your room with you,” Viktor stood up. “Let’s just get this to the sick little boy first, да?”

        “うん,” Yuri looked away and headed up the stairs with Viktor following.

        “Yurio?” Yuri called, opening the first door into Viktor’s room. “Yurio, it’s time to change out your cold compress.” Yuri slid open the door to Yurio’s small “room”. The blonde was curled up on his futon.

        “Here you go,” Yuri bent down and took care of the ice for the younger skater. “This should feel better.”

        “Спасибо,” said Yurio. The boy couldn’t believe that Yuri and his parents were coming in every 20 minutes without forgetting to change out his ice pack. Mari came in instead of one of them every now and again, too. The whole family was making sure that the kid wasn’t forgotten about it. None of Yurio’s family ever takes the time to keep checking on him like that, even though he does have people in Russia that know what will make him feel best and will coddle him when he’s willing to put up with it.

        “Can I do anything else for you?” asked Yuri as the Russian Fairy coughed.

        “No,”

        “Okay then. I’m going to borrow Viktor for a little bit,”

        “A-alright,” Yurio cleared his throat and coughed a bit more.

        Yuri closed the sliding door to give Yurio a bit of privacy and stepped out with Viktor, who had picked up the thermometer and alcohol wipes. Yuri’s heart was pounding as he let Viktor into his room. Yuri immediately shut the door behind them and sat on his bed.

        Viktor looked around the small room curiously.

        “You hardly ever let me in here,”

        “There’s not much to see,” said Yuri. “Sit down and I’ll show you how this works.” Viktor slowly made his way to the bed and sat down. He was as close to Yuri as he could be without touching him. Yuri swallowed nervously.

        “It won’t work properly if Yurio speaks, coughs or has just taken a drink,” Yuri explained. He quickly wiped the thermometer and turned it on.

        “Open,”

        Viktor opened his mouth and let Yuri push the thermometer under his tongue. He closed his lips around the device.

        “You have to make sure the tip is under the side of his tongue. There’s a heat pocket under each side. Just push it far back there and hold the end up for him,” Yuri’s heart pounded as he sat next to Viktor, holding onto the thermometer. This was feeling like even worse of an excuse to be alone playing doctor with his idol the longer that Yuri thought about it.

        Viktor touched Yuri’s knee, not breaking eye contact. Surprised, Yuri had to look away and blush, but he didn’t retreat. When the thermometer went off, Yuri gently slipped it out from Viktor’s pretty lips and showed him the result.

        “Here, see? 98.6. It worked perfectly,”

        “Ah, yes. I’ve forgotten about that number being the norm under the tongue and it’s frightened me a bit. But, it’s a degree up from auxiliary,”

        “Mmhm,” Yuri nodded, cleaning off the thermometer with an alcohol wipe.

        “…and a degree down from anal. It’s more of a middle ground. I need to remember it that way,” Viktor smiled, but Yuri couldn’t help but turn red at how easily Viktor was able to talk about that.

        “Why would he word it that way?” Yuri thought to himself. “He literally just said ‘anal’. Oh my god.”

        “Y-y-yes,” said Yuri, nervously touching his chin. “It’s obviously a lot harder to take Yurio’s temperature since he’s coughing, but do you feel more comfortable with it now?”

        “A bit. I think the important thing I should take away from it is that I should probably start holding unto the thermometer for him. Like this, right?” Viktor took the thermometer from Yuri and put his hand on his shoulder as he forced the device into the Japanese skater’s mouth.

        Yuri blushed and smiled at first, but then he nodded quickly and spit out the thermometer.

        “Yeah, exactly. You’ve got it,” said Yuri.

        “Good,” Viktor sighed and folded his arms. “I’m sorry you’ve all had to help with this. I’ve been rather worried. He’s not normally like this. While I’m lucky to have all of you and Yakov, I ended up calling Yurio’s grandfather for some Yurio-specific help. But, they all act like I’m doing everything right.”

        “You pretty much are,”

        “It doesn’t feel like it. And Yurio depends on me. I need to pull myself together,” Viktor fixed his hair. “Yurio doesn’t have much family, and his grandpa…Is very ill. Too ill to take care of himself, much less Yurio. It was very obvious when Nikolai got worse. Yakov told him that Yurio could live with him and that he’d looked after his skaters before. Nikolai was surprised and didn’t want to give Yurio up, but he’s certainly quite grateful. Yurio’s always looked up to me and I often let him spend the night or a weekend with me so Yakov can have a break. I owe Yakov,” Viktor smiled.

        “Besides, I like taking care of Yurio,” said Viktor.

        Yuri touched Viktor’s arm, a better picture coming together of Viktor and the other Yuri’s relationship. He was realising the past day that Viktor had to be a lot more responsible for taking care of the brat than he initially thought.

        “If it makes you feel better, you CAN use this thermometer under the arm. We don’t mind. We’re all trying our best to make him feel better.”

        “I might just do that,” said Viktor. “I’ll ask him which method he likes best.”

        “Good,” Yuri stood up quickly, but Viktor took his time, carefully looking around the room.

        “It’s amusing to picture you growing up in here,”

        Yuri didn’t know what to say. He looked at Viktor, and then brought his gaze down and started to head out of the room.

        “That sounds awful,” Viktor frowned, rubbing Yurio’s back as he tried to soothe him through a particularly rough coughing spell. “I can’t get you more cough syrup yet, though.”

        Yurio bent forward a bit, covering his mouth even harder as he gagged a little.

        Viktor yanked a few tissues out of the box and covered Yurio’s face for him. The blonde took the tissues as vomit started to drip between his fingers. The older man quickly brought the trashcan to Yurio’s lap and started to rub his back again as Yurio let go of the tissues and gripped the rim of the trash. He spit up the vomit in his mouth as his coughing fit continued, triggering his gag reflex again. Not holding back now, Yurio vomited a little more.

        Unable to handle the situation, Viktor quickly ducked forward and sympathy vomited into the same receptacle. He wished he could stop himself, but there was no way. He grabbed some tissues to clean himself up with as he continued to rub Yurio’s back.

        Yuri’s mother rushed into the room without knocking.

        “Was he just ill?”

        A bit embarrassed, Viktor nodded and took a tissue to blow his nose.

        Yuri appeared behind his mother.

        “Oh, Vic-chan,” Yuri’s mother looked exasperated. “Not you, too…”

        “It’s just kind of a reflex when I see him get sick,” admitted Viktor, sweating. “I’ll be fine after a glass of water. Yurio’s our main concern, да?”

        “Viktor, oh my god,” Yuri rushed to Viktor’s side and felt his forehead. “Viktor, you’re warm.”

        “Help Yurio,” Viktor insisted as he pulled himself together.

The blonde spat into the trash before grabbing another tissue. Yuri helped and used a tissue to wipe a drop of vomit from Yurio’s face.

Yuri’s mother, however, let the boy be and checked Viktor’s forehead while the 2 tried to pull themselves together. She didn’t say anything after she pulled away.

“Are you done, Yurio-chan?” asked Hiroko.

“Yeah,” Yurio’s voice came out weak and he wouldn’t look anyone in the eye.

Hiroko cooed and touched Yurio’s arm before getting the trash from them.

“Mom?” asked Yuri. “Did he feel warm to you?”

“I think he’ll be fine once he calms down,” said Hiroko as she left.

“Do you both have water?” asked Yuri, and Viktor nodded and blew his nose again.

“So you sympathy vomit?” Yuri kept talking.

Another nod and a bit of a gasping noise came from Viktor as he started to breathe normally again.

“I know your instincts make you want to go to his side when he’s ill, but you have to get me to help when this happens,” said Yuri.

“It happened too fast,”

“I know,” Yuri touched Viktor’s shoulder. “I’m not blaming you. I just don’t want you throwing up.”

Yurio seemed to be feeling much worse as he slumped back into the couch and swore. He let himself tilt over until he was cuddled into Viktor’s side. Viktor put his arm around Yurio.

“I know, I know,” Viktor tried to be comforting to the sick one.

“Did he just cough too hard and gag himself?” asked Yuri.

“It sure seemed like it. That’s all that was, right, Yurochka?”

“Yeah,” Yurio coughed.

“Can I do anything?” asked Yuri.

“No, I’m alright. I’ll be back to the caretaker role in just a minute,” Viktor flashed a victory sign.

“Tell me if you think you’re getting sick,” insisted Yuri. “I can help.”

“That’s very sweet of you. I’ll be sure to let you know.”

Yuri’s mother came back in the room with the trash cleaned out.

“Do you think you’re done?” she asked, and everyone nodded.

“Good,” she bent down and felt Yurio’s forehead. “You haven’t eaten much. Dinner may help settle your stomach. What would you like me to cook?”

“I don’t know, just some soup,” Yurio sat up slowly. He looked pale, and his eyes seemed tired.

Hiroko bent forward and kissed Yurio’s forehead.

“I’m sorry,” she frowned. “You’re so far from home and I don’t think you completely understand what’s going on, do you?”

        “What’s in this?” asked Yurio, putting his spoon back into his soup. “This is weird.”         Viktor made himself a spoonful and blew on it before trying it, not thinking about germs at all as Yurio coughed.

        “Onion. Mushroom and tofu, too,” Viktor said simply. “It doesn’t have a strong taste. You can drink this.”

        “I know, I just want to know what it is,” said Yurio, taking another soup. “I can’t remember if I like tofu.”

        “You’ve eaten it before,” pointed out Viktor.

        Yurio had a few more spoonful’s and sat the bowl down.

        “Viktor?” Yurio’s’ voice barely came out.

        “Yes?”

        “I’m nervous that I’ll puke it up. I haven’t been hungry. Maybe that’s for a reason,”

        “Can you not try to eat anymore?” asked Viktor.

        “I don’t think I should,” said Yurio. “I feel all hot and gross. I just want to pass out.”

A bit surprised, Viktor felt the warmth from Yurio’s sweaty forehead. “Oh. Well, go brush your teeth while I put this in the fridge.”

        “You’ll be right back?” Yurio coughed.

        “I promise, Yurochka,” Viktor kissed Yurio’s temple. “I’m proud of you for trying to eat.”

        Viktor brought the bowl downstairs.

        “He didn’t eat much,” mentioned Hiroko.

        “No,” frowned Viktor.

        “Did he like it?”

        “I think so. He’s just scared that he’ll vomit,” said Viktor.

        “Try to get him to have something else in an hour or so. Viktor, you’ll be staying up and comforting him tonight, right?” she asked, a bit nervous that Viktor wasn’t mature enough to think to do that on his own.

        “I don’t think that will be necessary. He looks like he’ll sleep through the night. He’s quite tired right now so I’m going to be putting him to bed. He may be an early riser tomorrow since he’s falling asleep at 8, but he might just need the extra rest.”

        “If he’s up, someone needs to be up with him,” insisted Hiroko.

        “Oh,” said Viktor. “Well, I will get out of bed and take care of him if he wakes me.” Viktor hoped this was the right answer, but he was a little unsure why she was questioning him about this to begin with.

        “But, if you want to go to sleep, you have to let someone know that he’s up so they can take care of him,”

        “We’ll be fine,” Viktor smiled. “Thank you for worrying about us.”

        Hiroko reached up and felt Viktor’s head with the back of her hand. Viktor thought to himself how the Katsuki family seemed to do that a lot as she pulled her hand away.

        “Alright, you cooled back down,” she smiled. “My Yuri gets anxious a lot and it can unfortunately be contagious. I was starting to worry that you were coming down with this, too. But, you’re not even coughing. That’s ridiculous.”

        “Ah,” Viktor smiled. “Thanks for your concern.” Viktor covered the soup and put it in the fridge while Hiroko finished putting the dishes away and left. Viktor then took out a bottle of rum, which he poured into a shot glass and drizzled in honey, just for assurance that Yurio would go straight to sleep.

#pie-for-everyone #yoi #yuri on ice #yuri plisetsky #yuri katsuki #emeto #fanfic #//alcohol mention

[fangirlshrewt97]

Adoption Day (Morning)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: no warnings

Summary: The morning of a very special anniversary between Yuuri and his daughter. Too bad, Viktor and Yurio are away and can’t spend it with them. (First of a series)

[Victuuri Week 2017, Day 5: Domesticity, Victor: Anniversaries, Yuuri: Family]

Link to A03: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9666485

“Otou-san!” was the only distant warning Yuuri got before a small creature jumped on him, managing to hit his bladder and sternum with accuracy. Getting his breath knocked out of him was certainly one way to wake him up, Yuuri thought as he tried to orient after the rude awakening.

Groaning at the pain that was spreading through his chest, he tried to get up, but was unable to because of the heavy wait still there. Looking down, he saw the a blur of black hair, so he just patted it as he shifted to his side, taking the weight with him. He kept rolling until he heard giggling, which in turn had him going.

“Otou-san you are going to squish me!” came the cry from underneath him. Laughing, Yuuri slid his hand down to tickle at his daughter. “Maybe I want to squish you Hana! I’ve told you not to jump on me before! This is your punishment!”

“Hahahahaha - stop Otou-san, hahahaha” Hana said as she tried to push her father off of her. The Japanese man just grabbed those hands pressing a kiss to the back of each hand and blowing a raspberry into his daughter’s stomach making her giggle more.

He finally settled back onto his side after a couple more minutes of tickling, tucking his daughter in close and breathing her natural scent, the familiar smell making his chest warm with affection. Hana Katsuki-Nikiforov was not one to sit still for too long though, a habit she picked from her Oniichan. Soon she was squirming in her father’s arms pushing at him so he was on his back again. Sitting on his stomach, she looked at him. Her Otou-san always looked funny in the morning with his hair going in every direction.

“Otou-san, don’t fall asleep!” Hana urged as she saw him with his eyes closed. Yuuri opened one eye, before pretending to sleep again. Hana tried to wake him again shaking his shoulders, but when he didn’t budge, she tried to pat his cheeks. Unfortunately she misjudged her own strength and ended up slapping her father instead, getting him to sit up as she almost toppled off the bed. She squeaked as Yuuri caught her and settled her on his legs, rubbing his cheek.

“Hana-chan, what was that for? Do you hate your otou-san?” Yuuri asked, putting on a fake pout, the slap didn’t actually hurt too much but it had still caught him off guard. At his words, Hana’s eyes widened as she furiously started to shake her head. Hate her otou-san? Never. Especially not today.

“Gomen, Otou-san. I just didn’t want you to sleep again. I didn’t want to hit you again. I could never hate you otou-san, i love you!” She finished, sounding close to tears.

Yuuri pulled her close, kissing her chubby cheeks until she was laughing again. “I know, Ha-chan, I love you so much too. So much, I don’t have the words to tell you how much. Now, why are you up so early, it is barely 7 and it is a weekend.”

Hana looked at her father, conflicted for a second as she tried to gauge whether her father was joking. “Otou-san! Did you forget? It is Adoption Day!”

Yuuri pretended to look pensive but when his daughter looked like she might start crying again, he bent to rub his nose against hers. When she giggled, he headbutted her softly “Of course Otou-san didn’t forget about Adoption day Hana, how could I when it was one of the most important days of my life?” Reaching over to the bedside table, he grabbed the table he kept, flipping it to show today’s date, February 11. It had ‘ADOPTION DAY’ written over it in red marker, circled with hearts by Viktor. “See, we even marked it to make sure we wouldn’t forget.

Hana took the calendar from him, tracing her small hands over each letter. She smiled for a second before looking more down, a pout forming on her small face. Taking back the calendar, he pushed back her hair so he could see her eyes. “What is wrong Ha-chan? Why do you look so sad all of a sudden?”

The little girl started to sniffle as tears gathered at her eyes “It-It’s just, Papa isn’t here” Hana said before she started to cry. Yuuri sighed, pulling her to his chest so she could hear his heartbeat. “Gomen Ha-chan, Papa said he would try to make it but you know Yurio-niichan had a competition and Papa had to go right? He is Yurio-niichan’s coach after all. He would never have missed Adoption Day if not for a competition.”

“I - I kn-know, but we always spend it together.” Hana said through her sniffles. Yuuri didn’t really have a response because she was right. Ever since they adopted Hana four years ago, they had spent the whole day just the three of them, celebrating the day they officially became a family. It had taken them almost two years of paperwork and bureaucracy, because even though their marriage was accepted, it was still harder for two men to adopt a child. But it had been worth it when Hana was handed over to them. God, Yuuri could still picture the day so clearly, Viktor for once being the nervous one as he paced because the social worker was not there yet. Yuuri had been the one to calm Viktor down, because regardless of his doubts in other areas of his life, after three years with Viktor, he was secure in them. And he knew that Viktor would make a wonderful father.

He had been right, as over the last few years, Viktor had proven himself to be the best father Hana could ask for. He insisted on being the one to take her to school, to pick her up, to attend all the parent-teacher meetings. He taught her how to draw and ice skate, was patient as she tried to pick up her Papa’s Russian. He loved the girl with all his heart, making her the center of his universe alongside Yuuri.

Yuuri for his part was also a great father, as Viktor assured him when Yuuri’s anxieties reared their ugly head. Though it happened a lot less often now, Viktor always saw the signs and was quick to end them. He would hold Yuuri close and tell him all the ways in which he was a perfect otou-san. He would talk about how Yuuri would get up early even when he didn’t have to prepare bentos for the two of them. About Yuuri helping their daughter with her homework even when he got back home late. About Yuuri being so level-headed when Hana was sick or upset, because Viktor went crazy when his daughter was not smiling and laughing. He would whisper all the little things that made his daughter love him just as much until Yuuri felt more like himself, and then just to cover his bases, Viktor would kiss his husband everywhere to assure Yuuri he was the perfect husband as well.

The two of them had moved back to Japan after Yuuri finally retired three years ago. While Yuuri had loved the home they had built in St. Petersburg, and the family they found in the skaters there, Viktor had asked to come back to Yuuri’s homeland. He stated that though Russia would always be where he came from, he also had so many awful memories but no family besides the skaters and Yuuri. In Japan though, he had been welcomed with open arms, even though he was a stranger. And even those who hadn’t known him as Viktor Nikiforov, the most decorated ice skater in history, had still been so kind to him. He told Yuuri he wanted that kindness, the same kindness he saw in Yuuri. Russia had given him so much, given his his name, his identity, his fame and the chance to meet Yuuri. But Yuuri and Japan had given him love, shown him kindness and warmth where Russia had been cold and unforgiving. They had moved there after Yuuri won his second Grand Prix gold, retiring together.

Viktor ended up becoming Yuri’s coach when the angry teenager had barged into their apartment a few months after they moved. He had been angry but he had also been heartbroken, and they had been expecting him. Yakov had called ahead to let them know that Yuri was missing and that his grandfather was dead. Even though Yurio still called them geezer and Katsudon, he thought of them as family, as did they. Somedays, Yuuri thought of Yurio as a wild younger brother, but more often as a pseudo-son. Letting him grieve, Viktor and Yuuri made space in their home for the younger Russian, being there for him in any way he let them be.

Yurio went back to Russia to complete the skating season but left asking Viktor to be his coach. Viktor told him that he couldn’t come back to Russia, so Yurio had come to Japan, moving in with them. When they had told him they were thinking of adopting, he had put up his walls again, withdrawing from them. They didn’t realize what they did until Minako-sensei hit Yuuri over the head one day when he was telling her about Yuri. She explained how the boy, and he was still a boy even if he had experienced too much pain for his age, had come to see them as his parents, or something close. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy that they wanted a kid, he was probably just afraid that with a kid, they would forget about him.

Hearing the explanation, Yuuri had rushed home to Viktor, telling him what Minako-sensei had said. That night, the two had sat down with Yuri and explained everything to him, even if the younger was reluctant to hear it. They explained that just because they got a kid did not mean they would ever stop caring about him. They promised that they would always be there for him, and through tears that they would never leave him. Yuuri had said that even if they didn’t get a kid - “Shut up baka Katsudon, as if those fucking workers could find better parents for a kid” - Yurio would always be family for them. Yurio had threatened and cursed them for their words but both saw that the words had hit their mark, because the three ended up holding each other that night. To cement their promise, Viktor had gotten into contact with Yakov and Yurio’s mother, beginning the process to become his legal father. The day they had shown that legal document would also be an unforgettable day for Yuuri, remembering how Yurio had fully cried and made himself vulnerable in front of them.

“-san? OTOU-SAN!” Hana shouted in his ear, bring Yuuri back to the real world from his trip down memory lane.

“Ah Hana, gomen, I was thinking of Papa.”

“I know, you had that look on your face niichan always talks about.” Hana said as she tilted her head at him. Yuuri blushed, embarrased at being caught by his daughter.

You know what it isn’t important. It is adoption day right? I know that Papa and niichan aren’t here but I am so why don’t we spend the day just the two of us? I feel like it has been too long since I got Ha-chan all to myself. Whatever you want, we can do.” Yuuri proposed to his daughter.

“ANYTHING?” Hana exclaimed, eyes sparkling at the promise of a whole day with her otou-san. Yuuri felt bad, he had gotten a job as a professor and researcher at the local university, which unfortunately kept him busier than he liked. He knew that Hana sometimes wished he was home more often, but he hadn’t realized how little time he was home. Usually they only got time alone during situations like these, when Viktor and Yurio were travelling for a competition. But even then, during the week, Hana stayed with her grandparents or the Nishigoris till Yuuri got off work and came back to Hatsetsu.

“Anything.” Yuuri promised.

“Okay, I want ice cream for breakfast in our pjs then.” Hana said. Yuuri blinked not expecting that. “Ice - cream for breakfast …?” Is that all Hana?”

She shook her head. “No that is just to start. I want to have ice cream for breakfast. Then I want to go to the park with Macca, then the beach. I want to go see grandpa, grandma and Mari oba-san. I want to skate with Otou-san and then come back and have Katsudon and Pirozhki for dinner while we watch your old skating videos. To finish, we see the Adoption Day video.” Hana took a deep breath after that rant, watching her otou-san’s reaction expectantly.

Yuuri kept blinking before a smile started forming, small at first but growing larger until he felt like it would split his face. He lifted his daughter, tossing her up in the arms, and catching her, cuddling her as he felt a warm rush of affection and such strong love for this beautiful girl.

“That sounds absolutely wonderful Hana, let’s do it!”

“Yeah?” Hana asked, her eyes growing wider as her mouth parted in surprise.

Yuuri nodded his head, “Mmmhmmm. Absolutely. But I need you to do something for me first.”

“What?” Hana asked impatiently, she wanted the day to start already!

“I need you to go brush your teeth and put food for Macca. Otou-san will do the same and then join you.”

“Okay Otou-san! See you downstairs!” Saying this the girl hopped down and rushed to do as her father said, excited for the day ahead.

Yuuri watched her grow, partly nostalgic at how big she had gotten and partly still tired. But slapping both his cheeks he shook his head to wake himself. He had a busy day ahead and if everything Hana asked was to be done, then he needed to get out of bed. And call his husband, if he and Yurio couldn’t be here in person, they could at least talk with them.

If you like this story, check out my other fics at: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlshrewt97/pseuds/Fangirlshrewt97

#victuuri week #day 5 #victor prompt #anniversary #yuuri prompt #family #my fanfic #katsuki yuuri #victor nikiforov #yurio plisetsky #yuri plisetsky #kid fic #yoi fanfic #yuri on ice fanfic

[jinlian]

like a design

like a design / is written in his head every time

Summary: At twenty-five years old, Yuuri Katsuki makes his first Olympic team. This comes with its own set of responsibilities and questions, and a three-time Olympian husband only might be prepared to handle them. Or, in regards to love: tramp stamp tattoos. You read that right.

Word Count: 3,864

A/N: This started out as a joke and then it became serious. I don’t know what happened. The competitive swimmer in me apologizes for the Ryan Lochte mention here, especially in the context it’s used.

You can also find this posted on AO3.

Yuuri Katsuki is many things: a figure skater, a dancer, an athlete, a Grand Prix Final gold medalist, a trained pole-dancer, five-time Japanese national champion, a married man, a first-time Olympian, an anxious mess. He’s all of these things and more, the extent of which his husband would be happy to try to explain in great detail—Victor loves any excuse to talk about Yuuri Katsuki—but if there had to be only one thing used to describe him, however, Victor would have to call him mysterious.

This might be an odd thing to call one’s husband whose ears turn red at the slightest moment’s embarrassment and who is currently shirtless in front of their bedroom mirror, twisting in angles that only a ballet-trained figure skater can as he inspects himself. But he is a mystery. Even after a year of living together and months of marriage, Victor struggles to understand precisely the way his mind works. This isn’t a bad thing, exactly; Yuuri is a question wrapped up in a revelation, a breath held before an answer. Of course Victor does his best to know him, and for the most part, he has learned. When Yuuri is happy, when he’s anxious, when he’s desirous—Victor has placed hours of study into every line of his body and each blink of his eyes. But sometimes Victor just can’t fathom what is going on in Yuuri’s mind, and the only thing he can do is wait to see where it leads him.

That’s all part of the joy of loving Yuuri Katsuki, after all.

It has been exactly one week and a day since Yuuri claimed his second consecutive title at Japanese Nationals (his second second consecutive title, Victor has been sure to emphasize, even though Yuuri waves him off each time he does with a red face and a pleased smile). There aren’t any other male skaters in the Japanese senior division who even come close to challenging the current world record-holder in both the short and free programs. But Yuuri treats this win the same as he treats every one of them, with a strange sort of bewilderment that he has managed yet another accomplishment to add to his ever-growing list. Because of this, and despite his win at last season’s Worlds and this year’s Grand Prix Final, it has only been one week and a day since Yuuri began to take it as certain that he will be on the team representing Japan at the Olympics in Pyeongchang. Perhaps this has something to do with his strangely distracted behavior throughout the past week. Perhaps that has something to do with his current inexplicable fixation on his naked torso in the mirror.

Or perhaps none of that has anything to do with anything, and this is just another one of Yuuri’s unrelated mysteries. Victor doesn’t know. But he does know that a self-inspection in this manner isn’t usual Yuuri behavior.

Victor simply watches for now, sprawled on their bed with one arm tucked on the pillow behind his head and the other scratching absentmindedly behind Makkachin’s ears. Yuuri does not even seem to notice Victor, despite the fact that Victor’s reflection in clearly visible in the mirror over Yuuri’s shoulder with his eyes trained in quiet curiosity on his husband’s antics. Yuuri is half-twisted, apparently trying to see something on his back that simply doesn’t exist, and then upright again, frowning as he runs a hand across his ribcage. He repeats this: once, twice, again. Puffs his cheeks with air, blows it out. Sweeps his hair away from his face, pulls, leaves it a finger-combed mess.

“…Yuuri.”

Anxiety, Victor has learned in his few months of marriage, is not something that can be cured. It’s not something that he can anticipate. But he can learn when to recognize it, at least in Yuuri: it’s in the twitches he sometimes gets in his cheek from clenching his jaw too hard or incessant drumming of his fingers against his thigh, in his unusually rapid blinking or biting on his lip so hard it bleeds. Something repetitive, as though Yuuri’s desperately trying to hold something in that threatens to explode from him in the thunderclap of a storm. This is what Victor sees now, or he thinks he does; so his voice, when he says Yuuri’s name, is as steady as it is light.

Yuuri turns, snapped out of his study. Victor raises his eyebrows. Yuuri’s own face is scrunched and drawn, a scowl evident on his lips.

Is it his weight? Victor wonders. Certainly Yuuri has had plenty of excuses to eat in celebration lately. It would be a concern for Yuuri’s jumps, but beyond that he hadn’t ever thought of it as a source of worry for either of them. Besides, he thinks, eyes tracing the shadows on Yuuri’s abdomen and the sharp V of his hips leading to the waist of his too-loose sweats, the strength training they’ve been doing in the early mornings seems to be paying off well enough.

“You’re beautiful from every angle, milyy moy,” Victor informs his husband, a smile playing at his lips. He lifts his hand from Makkachin’s head and extends it to Yuuri instead.

Yuuri groans, and with that, releases the tense focus carried in his face and shoulders. Victor so rarely uses nicknames and endearments for Yuuri that when he does, he’s almost invariably trying to express something specific or demand Yuuri’s attention. The attempt works, and Yuuri crawls back onto the bed, settling onto his knees as he takes Victor’s offered hand.

“I’m trying to figure out where to put it,” Yuuri mutters.

He squeezes and lets go, opting to pat Makkachin a few times instead. Victor drops his hand.

Well. That answered precisely nothing.

“Put what?”

Yuuri doesn’t respond immediately, and Victor doesn’t push him to do so. He waits, watching Yuuri’s red-eared focus on Makkachin, who is soundly asleep on Victor’s stomach. Finally—just as Victor is about to repeat his question in slightly firmer tones—Yuuri reaches across his chest and traces a line up the arm Victor has tucked behind his head, from the curve of his elbow to his bicep where the sleeve of his T-shirt has tugged its way up Victor’s arm. Victor takes this as a sign that Yuuri is about to say something, so still he waits; but Yuuri still says nothing.

Victor likes to think of himself as a very patient man, but sometimes he just really doesn’t get what is going through Yuuri’s head. He takes a breath, drawing his insistence between his teeth, but when Yuuri begins tracing tiny circles on his skin Victor suddenly understands that Yuuri already has answered the question.

The rings.

If tattoos weren’t permanent, Victor honestly might have forgotten that he’d ever gotten one at all. It’s small as far as tattoos go, despite the simple laurel pattern added for embellishment, and even the colors on the rings are hardly noticeable.

“I was thinking I should get one,” Yuuri says in explanation.

Olympic rings, Olympic rings, Victor reminds himself about the tattoo. So he hadn’t been wrong about Yuuri’s strange behavior having something to do with his win at Nationals, even if the connection takes a number of turns along the way to get there. For a three-time Olympian and medalist like Victor, it’s just a tattoo; but for Yuuri, who still somehow credits his husband with his own world records, it must seem just a little rather more significant. And he’s probably more familiar with Victor’s body than Victor is at this point. With the upcoming Games it must have felt like Victor’s own tattoo was taunting him.

Victor smiles and reaches his free hand back up to tuck Yuuri’s hair behind his ear. He trails his fingertips down Yuuri’s jaw, ghosting patterns on his cheek and chin.

“Do you admire your coach so much to be like him? Or are you finally listening to his advice and thinking of a permanent reminder that will ensure no one, not even you, can forget what you’ve achieved?”

He rests his palm flat against Yuuri’s cheek. Yuuri snorts a laugh but leans into it, and Victor strains to lift his head from the pillow to press his forehead against Yuuri’s. Makkachin, disturbed by the movement, grunts and steps on Victor in his hurry to jump off the bed.

“Ouch,” Victor says weakly, a few inches from Yuuri’s lips.

Yuuri bites his smile and leans away, ignoring Victor’s gasp of indignation. He takes Victor’s hand from his cheek and spreads it palm-up in his own.

“Well, I wonder.” Yuuri bounces Victor’s hand lightly against his before meeting Victor’s eyes with a determined set to his jaw. “Victor. Tell me? How you decided to get yours, and how you decided where to get it.”

Now that a source for Yuuri’s fixation with his upper half has been identified, Victor no longer worries about the lines of thoughts and explanations running through his husband’s head. Either it will all make itself clear enough that Victor will understand, or it’ll simply resolve itself as Yuuri works through the things that he needs. Either result is a good one as far as Victor is concerned, so he relaxes back into his pillow and hums, trying to remember. It’s not an easy thing to remember. How had he even decided? He doesn’t think he’d ever really wanted a tattoo at any point in his childhood, and it certainly wasn’t a common practice among the Russian figure skaters at his rink.

The idea must have settled somewhere in his mind when he was fifteen, then.

The summer Olympics had been that year. He had just changed coaches, his first season with Yakov Feltsman, and they had decided to postpone his entry into the senior division until they had a better sense of their relationship as coach and athlete. Victor was also recovering from injury: a sprained ligament in his knee, punishment for the quadruple flip he’d been insistent that he could land (and he could land it — but, as his knee reminded him, land it poorly). He’d been ordered to take a week off the ice and to “try harder to understand what it is you give to the sport in the meantime, Victor. Your body belongs to figure skating now, not to your whimsy.”

So he’d had little else to do but to ice his knee and watch television, which he didn’t often do. Victor didn’t follow any sports besides figure skating, but swimming and diving were easy enough to understand—and, he’d thought at the time, he truly admired the look of a nice Speedo-clad male body. Swimmers particularly were built differently than figure skaters. Their shoulders were much broader, and their backs muscled beautifully. Did water roll off most male athletes like that?

It must be nice, Victor had thought while watching relay swimmers peel themselves halfway out of their too-tight fastskins right there on the deck and slap each other on the back in celebratory group hug-piles. It must be nice to be able embrace one’s teammates. Surely these were sturdy, heartfelt hugs. He might like one.

In any case, with a lot of wet skin left bare for his inspection Victor had begun to notice that swimmers and divers alike—and even some of the gymnasts, when he watched them, too—had many a similar tattoo. It was mostly obvious on the Americans, but they weren’t the only Olympians who had the five rings tattooed bright and obvious somewhere on their bodies. They wore it like a badge of pride: I made it this far, it had seemed to say, and it’s a sign that I’m sharing in something so much bigger than just myself. It had been a sort of pride that fifteen-year-old Victor Nikiforov had admired.

“I had,” he says in a slow response to Yuuri’s question, “inspiration.”

Yuuri pushes his glasses back up from where they’ve slipped down his nose.

Victor pulls his hand from Yuuri’s and mimics the motion, pushing at the bridge of Yuuri’s glasses and keeping his finger there, preventing them from slipping any further. He’s grinning now, and he can see the dawning of exasperation that Yuuri fully expects whatever joke it is that Victor holds now on his tongue. Victor doesn’t plan to disappoint him; when he speaks draws out each consonant with an amusement he offers for Yuuri to share.

“I spent a lot of time studying photoshoots of Ryan Lochte.”

He waits three seconds. During those three seconds, the blank look on Yuuri’s face is clear enough indication that he doesn’t recognize the name, but the sudden brilliance of color in his cheeks at the end of them confirms that he’s understood the implication.

“Victor—“ And then he’s pushing Victor’s hand away all while he rolls over to straddle Victor’s hips. “That can’t really be your answer—“

“Are you jealous?” Victor cocks his head, does not bother trying to blow his hair out of his eyes as he lifts his own hips up to grind against Yuuri. “You’re much more beautiful than he is, my Yuuri, more pleasing to the eye, though I’m afraid I’m already married, for we can’t all be so lucky to marry the man of our posters—“

“Oh, be quiet,” Yuuri says, and he shuts Victor up with a kiss.

This succeeds in keeping Victor quiet for a little while, happy as he is to become nothing but lips and teeth and tongue with Yuuri. But Yuuri had asked him a question, and Victor, in all his heady happiness, has been made very determined to answer it.

“Yuuri,” he breathes against his husband’s lips.

“Mm,” Yuuri responds, pressing hard, hard down on Victor’s groin as he drops his head to bite and lick Victor’s neck.

Victor’s eyes flutter half-closed as he tilts his head back to extend his neck and ask for more. “I have an idea.”

Yuuri stops, frozen bent over Victor and his mouth open and wet against his skin. Victor can practically hear his thoughts in the sudden petrification: This is either going to be very good or very bad.

“What’s your idea, Victor?”

Victor sits upright, almost slamming into Yuuri’s head as he does so, and clasps Yuuri’s cheeks between his hands to make sure they’re looking at each other when he speaks.

“Let’s get matching tattoos!”

Yuuri splutters. “Victor! What are you even—“

“Since you’re jealous—”

“I am not jealous—”

“I’ll have to do something to make up for it. I even know where we can get it. I’ll get a new one, and we’ll have—oh, what’s the English word—tramp stamps—”

This time Victor does not have to wait for Yuuri’s reaction. The moment Victor says tramp stamp with all the enthusiasm of an earnest eight-year-old, Yuuri releases any tension still bunched in his muscles in one immediate, ebullient wave of laughter. He sags against Victor’s chest; Victor, still holding Yuuri’s face up in his hands, has front row seats to seeing Yuuri completely lose the fight to maintain any sense of control on his mirth as he gasps for air.

Victor’s own grin only grows wider.

“You’re not serious,” Yuuri chokes out when he finally manages to speak through his laughter. “I can’t believe you just said tramp stamp.”

“Matching tramp stamps,” Victor corrects Yuuri, and he's rewarded with seeing Yuuri snort so hard with laughter his glasses once again slip down his face.

“Oh, right,” Yuuri guffaws, “excuse me, of course, matching tramp stamps—Victor, do you even know what a tramp stamp—“

“I know,” Victor says solemnly. “On the lower back, just above the waistline. Easy enough to hide, unless you take off your shirt or your pants drop just a little too low, and equally easy to show off…” He drops his voice to a murmur, just barely above a whisper in the lowest register he can manage. “But mostly where it’d be just for you and me.”

It isn’t Yuuri who shivers at that, but Victor himself. He’d been joking, mostly. At least about the tattoos. But as soon as he makes his pitch to Yuuri, he realizes that he wouldn’t even mind. If Yuuri wanted to do it, Victor would drop everything and get that tattoo above his ass in an instant.

The realization is frighteningly exciting, really.

Yuuri, for his part, is still laughing. His hair is still swept back from his earlier inspections in the mirror, but long as it is it’s falling easily back now into his eyes. Victor admires that black of his hair against the flush of Yuuri’s skin, left either from Victor’s teasing or their kissing from moments ago, and the way Yuuri’s smiles strain against the limits of his cheeks. His laughter is throaty, clouds the air around them and wraps Victor up from head to toe.

“What would yours even say?” Yuuri wants to know. “Or be? If mine’s going to be the Olympic rings, but you already have one.”

“Hmm.” That’s a good point. Victor gives this some serious consideration, tapping his fingers against Yuuri’s cheeks while he does this. “One specific to this year’s Olympics in Pyeongchang. Like the logo, maybe. Or the year in Roman numerals.”

Yuuri takes off his glasses and wipes his eyes, his shoulders still shaking a little with his laughter. “But you’re not skating, Victor. You retired permanently this summer. And you never got anything specific to the Olympics in Torino or Vancouver or Marseilles.”

Well, and Yuuri would know that better than Victor himself would at this point, wouldn’t he? It’s reassuring to know he hadn’t gotten anything on his back he should know about.

“No,” Victor agrees, “but this is my glorious Olympic debut as coach to the top figure skater in the world. And as your husband. Even after you so cruelly kept me from my sixth straight World Champion title and left me to take silver and retire in shame, that alone is momentous enough—”

“Vityenka,” Yuuri protests, and his voice is firm and warm.

Victor had never been happier to stand below anyone else on the podium as he had been that March. He’d made certain that everyone knew it, too: even with Yakov’s grumbled instructions to behave himself, Victor had not been able to hold back the swell of pride in his chest as Yuuri had taken one step higher and bent his head to accept the ribbon around his neck. The medal had been right there, and so had been Victor, whose hazy pride had reached out to that medal and lifted it to his lips. First the medal, and then Yuuri himself—which, surely, should have surprised no one. It hadn’t been the first time they’d kissed in front of the cameras on an ice rink. And if he’d made sure that his ring was as visible in every picture as he could make it, no one could think that was coincidence either. Every question regarding how it felt to return only to lose his title, how to be defeated by his own student, if he’d been too ambitious in trying both to coach and skate—Victor had simply waved it all off, uncaring, with nothing to tell the cameras but that there could be no no greater bliss as a coach than to be defeated by one’s own fiancé.

“Anyway,” Victor murmurs and lets his hands fall away from Yuuri’s cheeks. “Where are you thinking that you’d like to get it?”

“That’s why I wanted to ask for your opinion,” Yuuri responds. Victor falls back against the pillows, but Yuuri only shifts with him to stay exactly where he’s been. “I don’t think I want it on my arm in the same place as you. It looks good on you, but it’s just—not me.”

Victor begins to draw lines down Yuuri’s chest with his fingertips.

“…So where do you think I should get it?”

There’s some irony in his own lack of hurry to answer, in light of Victor’s near-impatience with Yuuri earlier. He considers this distantly before returning seriously, and this time truly seriously, to his search for all the answers Yuuri needs.

In the end, it’s all up to Yuuri alone. Your body belongs to the rink, Victor will never tell him. Everything you do to it, everything that becomes it. You give everything to the ice, body and soul. Pristine. For your performance, for the audience. Your body isn't yours alone.

Victor will never tell him this.

Yuuri is twenty-five, not seventeen. He’s not making the decision impulsively nor alone. He isn’t doing it only to forget about it later. He’s doing it for pride, a reminder to himself.

Victor takes a breath. This he would tell him.

“Well, if you’re concerned about making sure you could cover it up if you wished, your shoulder blade would be a good place to start… but then I wouldn’t be able to touch it like this.” He stops his journey of fingertips across Yuuri’s bare chest to trace rings over his heart.

“Vityenka,” Yuuri says again. He’s still smiling, even through all his blushes.

“I think maybe here, where you could see it, too—“ Victor resumes his trail down Yuuri’s side, lightly scratching a thumb just below the broad lat muscle of his back before following it across his ribcage. “Or here—“

He circles across Yuuri’s hipbones, watching Yuuri’s abdominal muscles flex and shiver beneath the light touch of his fingers. Victor runs his thumb over the band of Yuuri’s sweatpants before hooking it beneath the elastic and beginning to pull down, down below his hips—

“Vityenka,” Yuuri says for a third time, and his admonishment is only a whisper.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Victor asks him, his own quiet voice dreamy as he raises his eyes to meet Yuuri’s across the distance between them that is too far, always too far. “My husband is an Olympian. He’s even going to win gold. Wow, Yuuri!”

It’s Yuuri’s turn to reach out to Victor, and Victor leans into his touch. Yuuri touches Victor’s lips, and Victor keeps them parted, breathing warmth onto his fingertips.

“He sounds quite a lot like my husband,” Yuuri says softly. “Except mine already has won gold. Many times.”

“I think we both have good taste in husbands,” breathes Victor.

“Mine is better. He’s always been—”

“No,” Victor says, suddenly vehement, and his eyes snap wide open. “You’re insulting my husband. My Yuuri, that’s untrue. Mine broke your husband’s world records. I think I’m lucky to have him, really. And best of all, I’ll get to be there to kiss mine when he wins.”

“You can kiss him now,” Yuuri whispers. He lowers his head, weight rested nearly entirely on top of Victor as he presses nose to nose, forehead to forehead, and closes his eyes.

“Wow,” Victor says again, equally breathy. “I really am the luckiest husband, after all.”

And he obliges.

#yuri on ice #victuuri #yuri katsuki #victor nikiforov #anna writes fic #i didn't really read over this before posting so there may be weird shit in here lol #anyway.. i said i'd do it and i did

[chocolatechiplague]

Best Friends and A Bad Movie; Yuuri & Phichit friendship fic

A gift fic focusing on the friendship of Yuuri Katsuki and Phichit Chulanont for @official-phichit-chu​ after they had a really hard day, though this is coming in late due to drama and bad family trouble the last three days, but it’s here! Hope you like it.

Ao3 of story: Right Here

Prompt: awesome slumber party for Yuuri and Phichit with hot cocoa, snacks, shitty movies, and gossip/talking

There was no way for the two skaters to not have a two person slumber party while the outside world was coating the city in a thick blanket of snow. A laptop was set up on on a small table, a playlist of the worst rated movies going on strong, the scent of cooked frozen pizza with a mingling of BBQ chips, popcorn, and Yuuri's favorite concoction that made the rest of the world's population shudder in horror. Really, the smell of pickles and marshmallow fluff was not something Phichit imagined he would adjust to when he first roomed with Japan’s top figure skater.  

May the deities take pity on the poor soul who fell for Yuuri's natural charm and won his heart, because it was something they would have to accept his horrible sense of taste, with an added pickle and marshmallow aftertaste kiss every time.

They were currently watching a horror comedy movie about every holiday being turned into a nightmare like horror. They were at Easter so far, the rabbit being a horrible, frightening rabbit man that was cursed, switching it onto the small girl because she saw him as he birthed baby chicks from the hole in each hand along the house. It changed their views on what the Easter Bunny was, some disturbing, hairless mix of Jesus and a rabbit man. For some reason with a slimy face.

“Do you think they’ll have the Fourth of July in this?” Phichit questioned, mouth full, spewing half chewed crumbs.

“No idea, I don’t think this is an American film but maybe? It’s a known holiday after all, an insane one too. Also, you’re disgusting, close your mouth.”

Phichit simply responded with opening his mouth wide, tongue out to show off the mashed chips. When it came to his and Yuuri’s time together being the top brotp of the world, he had no shame, no limit to his ways to gross Yuuri out. As the holidays in the movie switched to Mother's Day.

“Has gotten pregnant twenty times? Jeez.”

“Reminds me, I heard one of the female skaters from England is pregnant, third kid.”

“How do you know this, Phichit?”

“I have my sources.”

Yuuri glanced to see Phichit slide his phone out of sight slowly, a smile on the other man's lips. It was something that Yuuri never pushed to know, never wanted to fully know if anything as it would require him to go into every bit of dirt and dark secrets he held of the entire skating community. Phichit was a man full of others secrets, blackmail, and the entire world stored on multiple devices, hard drives and whatever else. Yuuri was convinced he had a little black book as well.

“By the way, have you seen Victors charity EVENT? The routine he did was from last year.” The Thai man grinned, watching the pink that creeped up along the others ears. Why yes, Yuuri had seen the charity event, he had watched it live on stream, forcing himself awake in the wee hours of the night, cradling his third cup of coffee to keep himself from passing out mid routine. Why must he suffer through watching other, very talented skaters before Victors skate? The Russian was the only reason he was giving up precious sleep when he had a morning class the next day.

“I think so.” Yuuri murmured, playing it off as if the event wasn’t on his mind the entire last week, like it wasn’t downloaded to his phone, watched every few hours to ohh and awe at the beautiful moves.

God, he had such a problem.

He got a pat on the back from Phichit, followed by a silent gift of a potato chip held out against his mouth. Yuuri accepted the offering,

As the Christmas holiday in the movie began, the two had slipped into soft conversation about class, the strain and stress that came with coming up spring finals that would lead into a summer of practice, of new routines to figure out for their next competitions. Yuuri already qualified for the Grand Prix, having to just go through the two cups slash compeitions to make it to the Grand Prix, to skate on the same ice as his first love-er idol. Yeah, idol. He would get to see his face in real life, not in high definition on his computer. It was honestly embarrassing how excited he was about seeing the man in person, how he knew the closer the competition came, the more he would feel the bouncing excitement, energy and pure dread that couldn’t be avoided.

Phichit could see it on Yuuri’s face, how reality of what was going to happen at the end of the year was beginning to fully hit.

“You’ll do great.”

“Only great?”

“Fabulous.” Phichit corrected.

“Victor is fabulous, I’m not.” Yuuri shot back, a small smile on his lips, pushing and prodding his best friend lightly.

“Fine, then you’ll be a spectacular, riveting, sparkling, show stopper ball of perfection that will make Victor get on his knees as a babbling mess, begging to have your babies.”

At that, Yuuri snorted and took a bite of pickle and fluff, deciding on a large bite just to horrify the Thai man for the teasing. The words were nice to hear though, to know that even it was coming from his biased best friend, he had support. It was too early to resolve himself into his ‘i'm going to fail’ mindset, so he soaked the words of confidence up to bottle for later use.

“Just promise to label as as Godfather to future kids.”

“Sure thing, Phichit.”

“And best man at the wedding.”

“Wouldn’t pick anyone else.”

“And I also want to have one grandchild named after me, I’m gonna do the same for you.”

“You told me for the last year that you refuse to live past twenty-five so that you don’t have to face the slow decline of ‘your beauty’.” Yuuri pointed out, smiling fully now. Phichit, the ever dramatic knew how to slip the first signs of stress away in moments like this.

“So?”

“So, how are you going to enforce a grandchild named after me?”

“Friends for life, Yuuri! I’ll do it when I’m in the afterlife.” As if it were obvious.

“‘Friends for life’ doesn’t say anything about ghosts.”

“It’s implied!”

The childish tone pushed Yuuri into laughter, Phichit wiggling his perfectly manicured eyebrows in victory before smacking him with a cushion, the movie drawing to a close.

“You’re my best friend, you know that right, Phichit?”

Yuuri was a man that may be hard to understand with certain things. He may hide his emotions over what hurts him, when upset, when his mind is yelling at him to quit, give up, just crawl back into bed with the curtains drawn to sleep the next week away. When it came to his loved ones though, he tried to make it obvious how important they were to him. Phichit very much was in that short list of people, sitting at lines best friend and the closest thing to a brother he would ever had.

It wasn’t a confession, they had made clear how close they were many times in the years together as roommates and friends, but Phichit gave a surprised look, followed by a bright smile.

“So long as you know that you’re my best friend, Yuuri. Don’t you ever forget it.”

“I don’t think I ever could. After all, you’ll be my best man if I ever get married, future kids godfather, and going to haunt me as a ghost at the ripe age of twenty-five.”

“Sounds like we’ll both have a good life.” Phichit hummed, leaning against Yuuri after spreading a blanket over them, starting up The King and The Skater for the third time that night.

“So long as we have each other, I think we’ll survive.”

“Agreed. Now we just need to start working on ‘Operation: About TIme’.”

“What’s that?”

“The plan where we get you to seduce and marry Victor Nikiforov.”

“PHICHIT!”

“Good start! But I think he will be offended if you scream out another man's name, so start practicing screaming his. A little moaning never hurts either.”

#yuri on ice #yuuri katsuki #phichit chulanont #victor nikiforov #best friends #i know there is a ship name for yuuri and phichit but would it also apply for them as best friends or just for romantic shipping? #questions questions #my writing #fanfic #official-phichit-chu

[fangirlandiknowit101]

A little sneak peek of the proud skater dad!Viktor au i shouldn’t write but can’t stop myself from writing anyway, featuring Yurio as Yuuri’s biggest fan. 

“Yuuri Katsuki?”

Yuuri’s mind blanks out. He’s in a small park behind a skating rink larger than any he’s ever visited, wondering how he ended up there in the first place.

And now, a foreigner is approaching him.

Maybe if he closes his eyes and pretends he’s a statue, the man will ignore him.

“You are the figure skater Yuuri Katsuki, right?”

The man smiles at him when Yuuri peeks through his lashes, tall and pale and oh god, he’s gorgeous.

Yuuri is 19, by some miracle debuting internationally at the Four Continents (he placed third at Nationals, how even), does not know how to deal with having fans, and now this beautiful foreigner is trying to talk to him when all Yuuri wants to do is wallow in shaky nerves alone.

Maybe don’t pick a public spot next time, he berates himself.

“Y-yes,” he forces out, stumbling over even such simple English.

“Fantastic!” The man beams at him, his mouth a pretty heart-shaped phenomenon that Yuuri can’t look at for longer than the second it takes for his heart rate to triple. “My son is a huge fan of yours! His name’s Yuri too, so he was really happy when he found out you were competing! Oh, let me show you a picture!”

Blinking in surprise, Yuuri dutifully looks at the pictures on the phone screen, trying (and failing) not to notice how close the man is. Has he never heard of personal space? Maybe it’s a European thing (is he European? Yuuri is too afraid to ask but the accent hints at it).

The child is beautiful too, of course.

“He’s seven, so he hasn’t really started competing yet, but it’s his dream to win the Olympics!” The man laughs fondly, his eyes sparkling as he continues to talk about his son. “He’s so determined, my Yuri. Watched all the competitors and already decided that you’ll win!”

“Me?” Yuuri can’t help the shocked question, immediately pressing his hands over his mouth in embarrassment.

“Oh, you know how kids are. He even made a sign so he can cheer for you! But it’s your debut, right? Good luck!”

While Yuuri isn’t the most proficient in English, a year spent in Detroit convinces him he isn’t misunderstanding things. There really is a beautiful man with a beautiful son hell bent on cheering for him – he thinks he feels a little faint.

“I almost forgot!” The man claps his hands together, excitement shining on his face. “We noticed you didn’t have a proper napkin holder when you competed in Japan, and we were going to throw it to you on the ice after your short program, but if you don’t mind?”

Yuuri can only stare dumbly as the man (god, Yuuri wants to know his name so badly now) rummages through a messenger bag before producing a fluffy toy poodle.

“You don’t have to use it or anything, but Yuri would be so happy if you’d accept it! It looks just like our dog Makkachin, and he always brings good luck so I hope this one will do the same for you!”

Almost trembling, Yuuri slowly reaches out to hold the fluffy thing in his hands. There’s a tissue box inside already, which is handy because he might just start crying. For days he’s been thinking that he doesn’t belong here, that he was picked on a fluke and took someone else’s rightful spot. Even though he’s been working hard for this, has moved abroad and found a real coach and didn’t see his family for months, Yuuri couldn’t quite accept that he deserved this.

“Thank you,” he breathes, flushing fire truck red when he receives a bright smile again.

“We’ll cheer for you, so do your best out there!”

He wants to say something more, but the man winks at him and Yuuri dies. Is he a celebrity? He should be, with that presence and face. When the man leaves, Yuuri’s throat clogs up and he clutches the poodle to his chest, sure he made a terrible impression. And yet, something about the carefree and casual way the man hoists his bag higher up his shoulder gives Yuuri the courage needed to finally ask.

“Wait, what’s your name?”

Pausing, the man turns to him with eyes wide in surprise. Then they soften in a smile, and Yuuri has to clutch the poodle a little tighter.

“Oh, it’s Viktor. Viktor Nikiforov. Nice to meet you!”

Viktor, Yuuri thinks in awe, waving in response to the man’s – Viktor’s – raised hand. He watches him go, waits until he’s disappeared behind a corner. Glancing down at Makkachin, Yuuri heaves a sigh and feels some of the tension leave his body. There is a least one person here who wants to see him skate, someone who even bought him a gift in advance. Maybe he can actually do this?

In the end he finishes in the lower half of the scoreboard, messing up half of his jumps, but it’s not bad for a debut according to his coach. Yuuri isn’t sure he agrees, but when he leaves the rink after watching the price ceremony he spots two familiar faces through the crowd of fans waiting for the winners. He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget Viktor’s face, to be honest, but little Yuri is perched on his shoulders, blond hair tucked into the hood of a leopard print onesie.

The child waves, Yuuri’s heart positively melting. He holds up Makkachin, smiles as wide as he can, unable to stop for a chat in order to make it to his flight. His coach Celestino is already pulling ahead, but Yuuri lingers for a moment longer. Both son and dad give him thumbs up, and Yuuri thinks to himself, so this is what it’s like to have fans?

Cheeks warm, Yuuri heads for Detroit with newfound determination.

#yoi #viktuuri #i have too many feels and too little time haha #but i couldn't not write this

[crystallinekai]

Straight to Heart

☆ For YOI Week 2017 Day 1: Le Parfum des Fleurs — Beginnings and Firsts

☆ Pairing: Viktuuri (Viktor Nikiforov x Yuuri Katsuki)

☆ Rating: Teen

☆ Word Count: Over 1,500

☆ Summary: Viktor was the only one for Yuuri. The only one who waited for him to open up and accepted him for who he was and loved him. He was his first love.

☆ Notes: At the last minute, I am participating in YOI Week 2017! I am frustrated at myself for not being able to write more than my usual amount of words, but my day was almost up, so… Hope you like!

Read on my AO3 or under the cut! ₍₍ (̨̡ ‾᷄♡‾᷅ )̧̢ ₎₎

More often than not, unexpected things happen. Whether it was good, bad, or worse. That was life. And no one is exempt from it. That included figure skaters.

Yuuri happened to be one of those people who he thought anything good would happen to him in the last few years. He thought he wouldn’t be as lucky as anyone else to have someone like Viktor be his coach. It was a wish. An emotional, drunk and embarrassing wish he made to Viktor in front of everyone. While half naked at the GPF banquet nearly a year ago. He doesn’t remember that he made that proposal to the older skater or the whole pole dancing scenario, but everyone else does and has photos. Yuuri will never live that down nor will he drink again. Though he owed that mortifying moment a lot because it brought Viktor to him.

Ever since Viktor Nikiforov unexpectedly came into his life, there were a vast multitude of firsts he began to experience. Never in his life did he expect the man he idolized for more than half of his existence to ever coach him. And it was an experience he will never forget. His eyes were opened to new possibilities and better relationships with those in his world.

A lot can happen in less than a year. In this amount of time, Yuuri had regained his passion for skating, he had Viktor fly all the way to Japan to coach him, he found a side of himself he never thought he had — especially when it was deep inside him the entire time. He opened up to Viktor as he realizes he was beginning to fall for him, his feelings were developing from something more than an idol admiring or respecting his coach. Whether he loved Viktor was questionable for himself to assume because he never experienced even a little romantic attraction to another person before. The prospect was terrifying and made him anxious since his heart was like glass already. He didn’t want anyone to see into his heart and force unwanted feelings onto him. It was something that he disliked the most and he closes off his heart as a result.

With Viktor, the Japanese skater found him flirtatious, yet he never made him uncomfortable. It was only when the older man was literally inches away from his face the first time they met in Hasetsu that Yuuri freaked out. However, Viktor never held that against him or when he was rejected from coming into his room a few times. Over time, their relationship became something more than friends, but not like lovers. It was more meaningful for Yuuri at the time. What he felt for his coach was adoration…or maybe love. He wasn’t sure. Yuuri never knew what being in love with someone felt like. Fortunately, his coach was there to teach him that. Viktor taught him how to love and increased his confidence on and off the ice. He was patient and caring, allowing Yuuri to open up to him easily when the time came and never mocked him when he did. It was the most at ease Yuuri has ever felt around someone, other than Phichit.

The Russian skater was his idol for a long time and now his coach. Yuuri was glad he was in his life because he would not know what this wonderful feeling was. Before he didn’t know what to call it other than love. Now he knew exactly what it was. He was scared to love someone so much. Scared to love Viktor so much. However, Yuuri figured it will be worth it. He did give Viktor a good luck charm, while inadvertently proposing to him after all. Well, maybe he did because he made no move to deny Viktor’s comment referring the rings as engagement rings at the mini party with the other skaters. Marrying Viktor would be a dream come true.

Yuuri smiled to himself as he lied there in bed, thinking over the events of last night and probably a year prior from what he could remember. A lot of things happened between him and Viktor. They laughed together, had fun together, bonded over various things whenever they were not skating, and he fell more in love with Viktor. He even remembered last night he and Viktor were intimate. It wasn’t a blur as he could still feel the simmering heat beneath his skin that was a raging inferno wherever Viktor’s hands and lips touched. Sweet words in Japanese, Russian and English were exchanged between them as their bodies moved together in tandem. Last night was a wild ride, but then turned into something beautiful like Viktor skating to “Stay Close to Me.” Yuuri never felt closer to the man as he did last night. Literally. It was quite an experience and he has a full ache in the lower half of his body, but it was a wonderful ache. His heart felt warm and full, satisfied.

His first time being intimate with Viktor would not be the same if it was with anyone else. And Yuuri was sure he wouldn’t want anyone else. No other person would make his heart feel like it does the way his beloved had. His body and soul craved every inch of this man. There would not be anyone else who will make him feel anything as intense. Viktor was the only one for Yuuri. The only one who waited for him to open up and accepted him for who he was and loved him. He was his first love.

‘He met me where I was,’ The thought crossed his mind as a smile of warmth crossed his features. He held up his hand and stared at the ring on his right hand. In the dim light of morning, his ring glinted faintly. He was happy about that and how he may get to have Viktor Nikiforov as his husband. At this point, he really did steal Viktor from the world. Somehow Yuuri can’t bring himself to feel guilty about that. Viktor’s heart belonged to him. It always belonged to him just as Viktor had his heart.

A yawn left Yuuri’s lips as he wondered where his fiancé was, pushing away the negative thoughts that he may change his mind. Yuuri had to believe Viktor will come back to him. He loved him as he loved Viktor. He was still kind of sleepy, having to wake up while Viktor was gone. The side he was laying on was cold, Yuuri’s hand felt along the soft sheets as he laid there in bed of their hotel room. The twin beds were pushed close together yet Viktor spent his time on Yuuri’s bed, memories of last night rushing into his head like a dam had broke or something. A blush crossed his features as he remembered everything he said and done with Viktor, begged for him to hold him tight. So embarrassing, he never thought he would react like that when they made love. Yuuri buried himself in the blankets as he felt like he wanted to hide.

The door to their hotel room opened and he flinched. Viktor had came back… Thank goodness. He felt relief wash over him like a tidal wave and relaxed completely when he felt arms around his petite frame. The blanket covering his head was moved and Yuuri’s chocolate brown eyes met with beautiful ocean blue. The smell of salt water hit his nose and he figured Viktor was at the beach. His hair didn’t look wet…

“You smell like the ocean,” he commented, burying his face into the man’s shirt. It wasn’t a bad smell. He liked it as it only clung to Viktor, making the older skater’s natural smell more prominent. It was like he became home for the younger male.

“I wanted to see the sun rise over the ocean,” he responded, leaving out the part he unexpectedly met with Yurio. He hoped his fiancé won’t sense his currently waning ire caused by the fifteen year old skater. “Kind of like When we were back in Hasetsu.”

“Mmn, do you miss it?” A gentle kiss was placed on the top of his head, Yuuri smiled with content.

“I do. Hasetsu is the best place ever,” Viktor admitted softly.

“Why? Is it because of my family’s hot springs?” Yuuri half joked, but actually hoped that wasn’t Viktor’s reason.

Once again, his worries were washed away as Viktor pulled the robe covering his skin down and kissed his shoulder, the appreciative kisses trailing up his neck before they grazed his cheek. Their lips met for a loving kiss with Yuuri allowing himself to melt against Viktor. Of course, the answer was clear. He shouldn’t have any doubt as he was aware with how blatant Viktor’s feelings for him were ever since they met. His arms found their way around Viktor’s shoulders and he began playing with the silver locks of hair. They pulled away and Viktor gave him a look that spoke many words of love and devotion to him.

“Yuuri, I came to Hasetsu for you. I will say it as many times as possible until you believe me,” Viktor murmured, his lips brushed against Yuuri’s once more. “The way you move was like poetry and full of passion. I saw something in you that had a lot of potential to flourish with the right coach. I have no regrets taking you on as my pupil. And now you are my best friend and fiancé. I love you more than words can describe, Yuuri. Are you going to continue doubting me?”

Yuuri shook his head and rests his forehead against Viktor’s. “No. I won't…”

Another yawn slipped out and Viktor laughed. How did he gain such a cute fiancé? Since it was still early, Yuuri needed sleep. They would have to go practice later anyway. Viktor only pulled away to pull off his clothing until he was in only his boxers. Yuuri snuggled close to him again as soon as he slipped under the blankets beside him.

“Sleep, love. You have a very important day in front of you. I will be here,” Viktor whispered and held him close. Yuuri murmured a thank you to the Russian skater then closed his eyes.

Today will be another first for him and Yuuri was excited and nervous. However, he knew Viktor will be there with him no matter what. He will show the love of his life how much he loved him. And the world will know it too.

#yoiweek2017 #yuri on ice #viktuuri #viktor nikiforov #yuuri katsuki #my fanfics #i wrote this in a matter of hours...... #i didnt beta shit lmao #i will do it later maybe #lololol validate me pls #;mine

[chubsonthemoon]

Waiting for the Rain (Ch. 10)

chapter title: Snow

summary: Yuri meets Yuuri. Yuuri meets Viktor. It’s all very simple, really.

pairing: viktor/yuuri

words: 3432

also on ao3 (previous chapters are there as well!)

for @wistfullywishing. thank you for always being there for me <3

December

Fuck, it’s cold as balls.

Yurio steps inside the entrance to the rink, teeth chattering slightly. One would think that after all the years he’s devoted to dancing on literal ice, in fucking Russia no less, he should be well-equipped to deal with sub-arctic temperatures. But the world has a weird way of screwing him over sometimes.

Now, where the hell is Viktor… He checks his phone to make sure that this is the right time and place, and then his bag, for the package he was asked to deliver to freaking Katsuki Yuuri in return for getting some killer advice on his step sequence.

Not that he needs it or anything. He’s just here because he wanted to check out the competition.

Yeah, that’s why.

Instead, he spots none other than the fake Yuuri —I’m the real Yuri, dammit—and is even more pissed off.

He’d assumed that the one giving him pointers was going to be Viktor, but…

“Oi, Katsudon,” he says, by way of greeting. The guy looks up from breathing into his palms and smiles genially, like he isn’t facing down the Ice Tiger of Russia.

“Hello, Yurio,” he says pleasantly, breath still fogging up his glasses. “Chilly today, isn’t it?”

For some reason, this makes him even angrier. “As if,” he scoffs, forgetting his earlier chills. “Your ass would be frozen solid if you ever came to St. Petersburg.” With an annoyed it tsk, he stomps away.

But for some reason, his leave me the fuck alone body language doesn’t seem to be getting through to this guy, as always.

“Oh, Yurio!”

He rounds on him like a demon. “Don’t call me that!”

Yuuri holds his hands up in defense “Sorry, my bad.” The dude looks almost apprehensive for a moment, and Yurio feels both pleased and pissed off. “Listen, I was told…well, do you need any help with your step sequences? I’m not too great at them myself, but I was just wondering… ”

Oh, he cannot believe the nerve.

He mumbles something like “Stupid old man, tattling like a baby.”

“Sorry, what was that?”

“Fuck you, that’s what.”

He continues his angry, hands-in-pockets stalk to the locker rooms. Who does he think he is, anyway?

Then he slows, face dissolving into one of worry. Unfortunately for him, Viktor was still the best in his field, and that meant his advice actually stood for some shit. And if he set him up to work with this loser on something Yuri has always struggled with, then…

Besides, your step sequences have always been sloppy, so I can see where Yakov is going.

Shit.

When he emerges from the locker room, properly livid now, he sees the fool stretching leisurely, like he has all the time in the world. What the hell?

“Oi. Are you just gonna sit there or are you going to actually…”

You know you need to work on it, Yuri, says a voice in his head. Shut up, he responds. “…help me, dammit?”

“Of course!” Yuuri replies brightly, reaching into his bag for his skates. “Just one sec.”

Yurio figures that’s good enough, and turns heel towards the rink entrance and removes his guards.

“Stupid Viktor for making me come all the way here. Dumbass. Idiot. Where the hell is he, anyway?” Yurio mutters under his breath as he steps on the ice.

“Hey, do you know where—?” Yuuri follows him, his own skates flashing under his feet.

“No idea,” he retorts while he skates as far ahead as possible, because it makes him angry he was unknowingly caught worrying about the asshole. “He’s probably off doing something stupid again. Not that I care,” he tacks on, just in case anyone noticed.

Yuuri takes note of this with an all-too-knowing nod, then lags slightly farther behind to watch Yurio’s movements. Yurio does the same, observing the enemy from afar. Although it pains him to admit it, the guy is good. His movements are fluid, like a true dancer’s, and he definitely has the skill for some of the more complicated jumps. He does not look like someone who has never been in a real international competition.

“Your timing is off just slightly,” he supplies helpfully when he skates past.

I take it all back.

“Shut up!”

But no one comments on anything when Yurio does the drill again and again, changing his feet alternate just slightly until they’re nearly perfect.

Nearly.

At the end of their first set of drills, they head back for a water break. At the gate, he notices when Yuuri glances at him a few times nervously.

“Hey, could you teach me how to land a quad Salchow?” Yuuri finally asks in a rush, gesturing to himself. “I’m still not able to get it right.”

Yurio can’t help the startled expression that flashes across his face.  Me? He thinks back to countless hours toiling at his home rink, jumping again and again until he gets his movements exactly right. He’s seen the bruises on Yuuri’s feet, the way the guy skates to his own music, and knows that he’s not the only one who practices until his legs give out.

This is stupid. He blushes slightly and turns his nose up, like a housecat who just fell and didn’t want anyone to see. “I guess,” he says after a moment, trying not to look so pleased.

Yuuri smiles. Yurio refuses to admit that he looks like a nice person, not a pathetic loser, when he does, and steps back onto the ice with an annoyed scowl.

Eventually, the large clock on the wall reminds them that it’s almost time for the rink to close up for the day, and Viktor still hasn’t showed. Not that he’s surprised in the least.

Unless, of course, Viktor set him up to work with the other Yuuri. Now that he thinks about it, that’s exactly the kind of shit the smiling baldie would pull on him.

Bastard.

He watches the other Yuuri step off the ice and wonders if he should just go ahead and drop his end of the bargain, because the stupid old man didn’t do jackshit to help him.

But…

He thinks of his newly improved step sequence.

He hates owing people anything, especially competitors.

Ugh.

“Wait, Katsudon,” Yurio says, voice resigned. The idiot turns around, a question on his features. It pisses him off even more that he can read the other guy so easily, even though they’ve only known each other for a few weeks at most (and thanks to a certain lovestruck idiot, he knows the guy eats pork cutlets like a madman, hence the nickname).

He skates up, steps off the ice, puts on his guards, plunges his arm into his bag. Pulls out the parcel, stomps back to an inquisitive Yuuri, and shoves the package in his unsuspecting hands. “I was told to give that to you,” he huffs. “It’s not from me.”

Yuuri looks down and sees a small envelope. It’s wrapped in dark blue paper, with little designs that look like sparkling jewels and red accents.

“Thank you?” Yuuri says, like a question. With a scoff, Yurio returns to the ice, determined to get in a few more minutes of practice.

He tries to act uninterested as Yuuri opens the package, slightly curious himself. What was so damn important that he had to deliver this stupid thing by hand?

Yuuri seems to squint to read it, his glasses no doubt somewhere else.

And then he bolts, nearly tripping over himself to remove his skates and jamming his glasses onto his nose.

“Where are you going, Yuuri?” asks—who is that again? The skater from Thailand always calls him Ciao-Ciao. The man seems appalled when Yuuri sprints past him, still shoving his skates into his bag, not even acknowledging the man.

Yurio almost ignores the concerned look that flashes across Ciao Ciao’s face.

But because he knows the look of someone who feels like they need to run to get somewhere before it’s too late—

Sirens, bright lights, reporters,

“wait, what do you mean, the old man fucking fell?”

“…semi-permanent damage…”

“awww, was Yuri worried about me? Don’t worry, it’s just a little break, nothing serious!”

one month.

then two.

then three.

“I think I need to take some time off. Just…for a little while”

then four.

“There’s nothing in skating for me now.”

five.

“I’m going to Japan.”

six.

“Yuri, I think I’ve found my new inspiration! His name is—”

“He’s going to see that idiot Viktor!” Yurio finally hollers from the ice, shoving all the memories down. To his relief, his voice sounds normal.

But because no one can see him from this distance, he almost allows his eyes to soften slightly. Almost.

Stupid Viktor, he thinks as the other Yuuri runs out of the rink like his life depends on it. Stupid, stupid.

He goes back to perfecting his step sequence.

~

The air is cold, and his breath unfurls in front of him like smoke. With a shiver, he readjusts his hamster-patterned beanie (courtesy of Phichit), then approaches the gate to Shinjuku Garden.

Because of the winter conditions, he supposes, there is no one here. His change slides into the machine with a soft click, as familiar as taking off his shoes when he arrives home. Aside from the crunch of snow underfoot, it is completely silent.

He thinks of his no-doubt warm apartment (Phichit can’t stand the cold), ready with dinner.

I should be somewhere else right now.

Past the now-frosted banks of the pond, its surface as still as glass. Of course, he can’t skate on it, but he wants to.

I should be somewhere else right now.

Over the creaky wooden bridge, taking care not to slip on patches of ice.

I should be somewhere else right now.

Finally, after ducking slightly under the vines that watch over a little alcove he knows all too well, their once-pink fingertips dusting the top of his head with snow, he sees a slight curve of a smile, a foot tapping a little impatiently, childlike. He smiles.

I should be nowhere else but right now thinks Katsuki Yuuri, age 24, lost in the beauty of the man sitting before him. He watches the slight smile on the other’s lips grow into pure light at the sight of him, and simply admires.

“Yuuri!” Viktor says, perking up. “You’re here!”

Yuuri snaps out of it, and can’t help but raise one eyebrow, holding up the note reading “meet me in the garden” in loopy handwriting. “You said to meet you?”

Viktor claps his hands. “Excellent, I see Yurio was able to give it to you! How were his step sequences?”

“Someone taught him well,” Yuuri replies in amusement. “I just helped him a little. I think. Although, he did seem really angry about something. Something to do with meeting you and a bargain?”

Viktor waves the comment aside easily. “Ah, he’s always like that, don’t worry.”

Yuuri has his doubts, but he elects to keep them to himself. With a semi-nervous laugh, he says, “So? Is everything alright?”

He had run here like something was chasing him, so his heart still has yet to return to normal. Thoughts of Viktor leaving for good, of returning home, leaving him alone…there could only be so many reasons why Viktor would want to talk to him here, of all places.

Viktor stands up and pats him on the shoulder reassuringly. Yuuri feels his still-stuttering heart try to jump straight out his chest. “Don’t worry, Yuuri! No need to look so frightened. I have a gift for you.” With a flourish, he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out—

A CD case. He waves it in the air, and Yuuri watches as it glints and reflects the muted sunlight, then as he presses it into Yuuri’s gloved hand.

Yuuri stares at it, comically similar to how he stared when Yurio handed him the envelope back at the rink. “Um.”

“You have to open it!” Viktor says excitedly. “C’mon, go ahead!”

Yuuri does. Unsurprisingly, there is a single CD sitting in it.

Before he can speak, Viktor says, “Don’t worry, I have the song on my phone, too, so we can listen to it.” He pulls out his phone and fiddles with the apps until he’s found whatever he’s looking for, and hovers his index finger over the play button. Then, he holds his free hand out to Yuuri invitingly.

“May I have this dance?” he asks, breathless, and if Yuuri didn’t know any better, he would almost say that Viktor looks…nervous.

He almost laughs. What could Viktor Nikiforov, world champion figure skater, poodle lover, rainy park frequenter, possibly be afraid of?

Of course, there is only one answer Yuuri could possibly have.

He nods, and takes his hand. Viktor laces their fingers together (there goes Yuuri’s remaining heartbeats), then lets the music play.

Even though his phone speakers are no stadium sound system, the snow around them seems to mute the rest of existence into the background, leaving them in their own little world, the music ringing loud and clear.

The first thing he hears is the piano. Lilting, dancing, beautiful. He sucks in a breath, and Viktor begins to move.

One, two, three, four.

(He moves his hand to the small of Viktor’s back and bunches his fingers in the material of his coat).

After a few measures, he hears a violin, soaring through the sky, in harmony with the piano chord after chord, bringing memories that seem nearly forgotten; a half-dream, a part-reality.

(Viktor twirls him with a breathless laugh, dips his head back like they’re on the edge of the world).

Together, for awhile, the two weave around each other, playful and longing, sneaking glances when they think the other isn’t looking.

(On the contrary, Yuuri can’t stop staring. For the record, neither can Viktor).

Then, the quiet. The violin is gone. The piano notes seem almost lost for a few endless beats, unsure of their place, how they fit in the song.

(Viktor lets go of his hand momentarily to swing Yuuri out into the snow).

But somehow, some way, the piano picks itself back up, gaining dynamic, tempo, emotion. Its own kind of quiet strength.

(Yuuri does a graceful pirouette in the snow and ends with his hands extended high above his head, much to the delight of Viktor).

And then the violins sing again to rejoin the music, quiet at first.

(Yuuri nearly leaps back into Viktor’s outstretched arms).

Then, in joyous harmony—

(The winter wonderland holds its breath—)

The two burst forth, two halves of the same whole, beautiful and bright and alive.

(Viktor moves so close Yuuri can see the faint laugh lines under his eyes, feel nose bumping his).

It sounds like triumph incarnate.

And as the last chords of the song fade away, Yuuri meets him halfway.

(He tastes like chocolate and coffee).

The song ends.

They break away at some point. Yuuri isn’t sure when, his ears ringing.

“Back when I used to be…well, when I was still competing,” murmurs Viktor suddenly, breath fanning across Yuuri’s cheeks. “I had my music for all my programs composed for me. Recently, I got in touch with some old friends, and…well. Here we are.”

Yuuri is speechless, still lost in the lingering chords that sound like wedding bells in his head.

“If I were your coach,” Viktor says, eyes twinkling. “I would highly recommend you consider using it in the upcoming season.”

After a moment, Yuuri takes a shuddering breath. “You still want to coach me? And for me to…use this song? That you had composed… for me?”

Viktor nods, once.

“I—I don’t think I’ll be able to…live up to it. To…you,” he whispers.

Viktor places both hands on Yuuri’s face and brings their foreheads together softly. “Yuuri. You are the most extraordinary person I’ve ever met in my life,” he says. “You have a dream, and you’ve worked for it. Still are working for it.”

Yuuri wills the water pooling in his eyes to disappear. Rain, rain go away.

“Whether or not you want to use it is completely up to you,” Viktor says, voice gentle. “Whether or not you want me to stay by your side is your decision.” He shifts slightly, so that they’re eye to eye. “But please just know this— that you’ve earned the right to skate on any stage you wish, to whatever music you make for yourself.”

“And no matter your decision,” he continues, fingers stroking the sides of Yuuri’s temple, “Please know that I am here for you. Always. You are so full of life, Yuuri,” Viktor finally breathes, and so Yuuri does too. “That you helped me find mine again.”

Oh, dear. Yuuri’s eyes, despite his best efforts, overflow anyway. He wraps his arms around Viktor and doesn’t let go. Viktor mirrors him.

“Thank you,” he chokes. “Thank you.”

Viktor holds him tighter. “No, thank you, Yuuri.”

They step apart once more. There’s a silence, a defining moment, those few seconds after a jump in the air, a leap of faith.

Yuuri opens his mouth.

“Yes.”

And he sticks the landing, notes the garden around them, amused.

At the same time, Viktor lets loose an overjoyed yell, then picks him up by the waist and spins them in a circle together, much to the protest of a very red Yuuri.

“Viktor! Put me down!” he says, but he’s laughing. Viktor does so with a wide grin, and once Yuuri’s feet are planted solidly on the ground, he brushes a feather kiss to Yuuri’s cheek.

And with that, Yuuri could probably melt the snow with the heat of his face right now, but there’s more he needs to say. “I promise,” he begins, and Viktor sobers up almost immediately, “that I will do my absolute best. I’ll show the world that I’m worthy.” His eyes are serious, the kind reserved for before a competition. “Worthy to skate on the same stage as you.”

Viktor acknowledges him with a solemn nod. “I expect nothing less from my beloved student.”

Student. “Thanks…Coach,” he says, and Viktor protests immediately.

“Hey, now. None of this ‘coach’ business, please! Just call me as I am.”

“Let me think…Ok, lover, then.”

“Yuuri!”

Oops. Perhaps he’s been skating to Eros for a little too long.

After the ensuing tackle-hug that inevitably occurs, pink faces all around, Viktor suddenly gets quiet.

“Oh, and for the record,” he says with a wink, “you already are. Worthy, that is.”

Yuuri blushes again, and mumbles a gracious thank you.

His embarrassment only intensifies when they return to the benches to retrieve their scattered belongings, and Viktor somehow sneaks his hand into Yuuri’s, lacing their fingers together as they walk back towards the entrance.

Phichit is going to have a field day with this development, he thinks wryly.

“What did you think of the piece?” Viktor asks, grinning ear to ear. Yuuri tears away his thoughts of horrid Instagram stories and prospective family dinners to answer.

“I loved it,” he says, with enough conviction to crack glaciers. “It was so…beautiful.”

“Yes!” Viktor swings their linked arms together triumphantly. “I’m so happy you think so too! It reminded me of you when I first heard it, you know.” Glossing over the fact that he just called Yuuri beautiful—good God, how is he going to survive this—he says excitedly, “What do you want to name it? Honor’s all yours!”

“Hmm…”

As they walk away from the little alcove, Yuuri glances at the silver sky dusting the world in white, at the glass pond that will thaw come springtime, at the snow ahead of them untouched by their footprints. A new chapter, a clean slate.

He remembers months and months of this being in this place, listening quietly to more than one kind of music. When he thinks of the many more to come, he smiles.

His days of waiting are over.

“How does Yuri on Ice sound?” he finally says, eyes shining.

If the garden left behind them, hushed with snow and the promise of warmer days, agrees with him, it remains silent. For now. Really, anything it could possibly say is already tumbling out of the once-stranger’s heart-shaped mouth delightedly, so there’s no need.

Besides, if it wishes to see the two again, all it must do is be a little a patient.

And so, it does what gardens do best, and waits for the rain.

Fin.

#yuri on ice! #Yuri!!! on Ice #viktuuri #fic #garden of words #yuuri katsuki #Viktor Nikiforov