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For as long as he could remember, Yuuri had been able to hear snippets of songs in his mind. But, more often than not, it was the same part repeating over and over again.
It was on a day when he couldn’t stand it anymore that he got so frustrated with the never-ending gibberish song playing in his head that he went to his mom to ask her if there was a way he could make it stop.
That was the day that little Yuuri learned about soulmates and soulmate bonds.
There were different ways that soulmate bonds could manifest. For example, some people shared a symbol or drawing on their skin, others could hear their soulmate’s thoughts, and some unfortunate people swapped bodies at random times until they found each other.
When his mom told him that his bond was most likely hearing the song that his soulmate had stuck in their head, Yuuri thought he had the worst bond in the entire world.
It was distracting, to say the least. He knew that it was bound to get him into trouble at some point.
And he was right.
His teachers scolded him more often than Yuuri would’ve liked to because he was distracted during classes. He tried to explain his situation to them and that he didn’t do it on purpose, but everyone just passed it off as a half-baked excuse. Yuuri couldn’t blame them.
As soon as he got home, Yuuri listened to the most annoying songs he could think of so that his soulmate would get a taste of their own medicine.
The worst thing happened during his first ice-skating presentation.
Yuuri had trained for months on end for all to fall apart when the ‘annoying-song-of-the-week’ distracted him mid-performance and made it impossible to follow the rhythm of his routine. His jumps were already inconsistent to begin with, always slightly wobbly. Still, the distraction just made them downright impossible to land.
That day Yuuri wished he didn’t have a soulmate.
The bond wasn’t that bad of a thing sometimes.
There were moments where Yuuri’s heartbeat was faster than it should, breathing was difficult, and the only thing he could hear was his panicking thoughts that those repetitive melodies helped him calm down.
It didn’t always work, but knowing that his soulmate was out there, probably humming the song in Yuuri’s mind, soothed him.
Little by little, Yuuri learned how to put those foreign songs —he still didn’t know the language, but he was sure that it was neither Japanese nor English— in the back of his mind.
He couldn’t ignore it entirely, but they weren’t as distracting anymore.
He still slipped every once in a while and hummed along to his soulmate’s song.
“Hey! I know that song! I didn’t know you were Victor’s fan.” Yuuko said excitedly to his friend.
Upon seeing Yuuri’s face of confusion, the girl took one VHS from her bag and put it in the TV’s VHS player.
Yuuri’s eyes widened when the song on the TV matched the one in his head.
He wanted to immediately explain everything to Yuuko, but for some reason, he couldn’t take his eyes away from the young skater on the screen.
Yuuri told his friend all about his soulmate bond, and the girl beamed and told him his soulmate had to be Victor, no doubt.
It became a running joke between them after that.
Yuuri didn’t take it seriously, but Yuuko seemed to be convinced. He tried explaining to her that just because he could hear Victor’s song programs before the Russian ever performed them didn’t mean that they were soulmates. Yuuri’s soulmate could be one of Victor’s rink mates for all he knew.
“You still have to meet him someday, Yuuri.” Yuuko declared one day. “You’re a great skater, and I’m sure you’ll be on the same ice as him, competing, and I can’t wait to see that happen.”
Looking back, Yuuri had always thought that what his friend had said so many years ago wasn’t even remotely possible. Yet here he was.
It had taken him years of hard work, countless falls and endless tears (from both happiness and frustration), two different coaches, and even moving abroad, but he had done it.
He was going to the Grand Prix Final.
Things couldn’t be any worse.
His dog, which he hadn’t seen in five years, had passed away the night before. Blinded by his grief, Yuuri completely messed up his routine and humiliated himself on international television and in front of his idol! And on top of that, an angry teen berated him and told him to do everyone a favor and retire.
If it had been any teenager, Yuuri wouldn’t have minded as much, but the teen in question was none other than Yuri Plisetski —one of Victor’s rink mates.
Yuuri went back to his hotel room as quickly as he could. If he felt like crying when Victor didn’t acknowledge him as a fellow skater and offered a photo, he didn’t show it.
He had planned to stay in his room and sulk. Maybe take a bath and definitely cry himself to sleep. But Celestino made Yuuri get ready and dragged him all the way to the banquet to socialize with skaters and sponsors alike.
If you asked Yuuri what had happened that night, he would shrug and say he got drunk and then got back to his room to sleep.
That’s why —months after that terrible night— Yuuri couldn’t find a plausible explanation as to why Victor had suddenly arrived at his family’s onsen and announced he’d be his coach and make him win the next Grand Prix.
Even weirder things happened after the Russian’s arrival. Like Plisetski’s sudden appearance and the subsequent competition to see who’d have Victor as their coach —which Yuuri won—, or his first place at nationals, or his silver in the Cup of China, or his relationship with Victor becoming romantic.
Deep down, Yuuri felt guilty for falling in love with someone else. And even more for getting in the way of Victor and his soulmate.
The Russian assured Yuuri constantly that he had nothing to worry about, but alas.
The Japanese couldn’t understand why Victor didn’t seem to care about his soulmate at all now.
He was sure that he had heard Victor state in previous interviews that some of his routines had been choreographed with his soulmate in mind.
It all made sense the night before the final; after Yuuri was made aware of what had happened during last year’s banquet.
Victor promised to have a proper talk once they were back in their room.
That talk, however, never happened. Both men were too busy thinking about the upcoming competition and the future of their careers.
Neither wanted the other to retire, nor they wanted to budge from their decision to not continue with their career so that the other could keep competing.
The following days were a mix of tears and uncomfortable silences.
The tense atmosphere wasn’t broken until after Yuuri skated his free skate. After that, both men said they would like to keep competing and maintain their coach-student relationship.
Once in their room, after both having taken a shower and getting ready for bed, they finally had their talk.
“So...” Victor started.
“So…” Yuuri mirrored.
“You were falling asleep at the end of the banquet, and no one could find Celestino, so I took you to your room.” Victor said and looked Yuuri in the eyes. “I put you to bed and thought you had fallen asleep. I was about to leave, but you grabbed my wrist and told me to please have private practice sessions because as lovely as the songs I skated to always were, you’d like to be surprised like the rest for once.” He chuckled.
Yuuri groaned and fell backward on the bed.
“I asked you to explain what you meant by that, and you said it was your bond, and that you tried to get revenge on them for distracting you with this annoying song, and you started humming.” Victor continued to explain. “I recognized it instantly.” He said fondly.
Yuuri sat up straight in a bolt and looked at the man beside him with wide eyes.
“I wrote my number on the room’s notepad and told you we could talk more about it when you were sober but, well.” Victor frowned and looked at his lap.
“I never saw the note.” Yuuri muttered. “My bags were already packed, so I just took a shower and left the next morning.” He recounted. “Erm, you’ve known we were soulmates all this time?” He inquired.
“I wasn’t a hundred percent sure.” Victor shrugged. “But I knew it when you started humming a bit of your free skate program.” He smiled at the memory. “I had no doubts, no one else had listened to it, aside from your classmate, and you told me she had already found her soulmate.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Yuuri questioned.
“Because you always avoided the topic, and I figured that if we actually were soulmates, it would all turn out in the end.” Victor carded his fingers through his hair.
Yuuri nodded, trying to process what he had heard.
They stayed quiet for a while.
“Did you really mean it?” Yuuri broke the silence.
“Mean what?” Victor asked, confused.
“That we’ll get married when I win gold.” Yuuri smiled.
Victor beamed.
“I can be convinced for it to happen sooner.”