Chapter Text
Brazil - Few months post-canon
Yuri grunted, stumbling for the 5th time in the past 30 minutes. He knew he should take a break soon, but how could he? Not when he was the new world champion post-Grand Prix Finals, and there were still many more competitions until the end of the skating season. Not when this was his first season and he still had so much left to prove.
Never one to give up easy, Yuri persevered and made it to the end, panting as the music swelled to a close and finally dropping his arms, as sweat dripped from every pore. It wasn’t enough. The performance wasn’t good enough yet. He wasn’t good enough.
So, Yuri kept on going, trying to push through his frustrations ahead of the upcoming competition.
-----
Katsuki Yuuri was proud of himself. Today, he’d woken up early and was heading to the hotel’s public rink for some practice. He’d also managed to get up and ready without waking Victor, who’d been pushing himself hard lately. Not that Yuuri had any doubt at all his fiancé would be more than ready to face any competition. He was just happy Victor was allowing himself to sleep in these days, and not worrying too much about his own performance as well as coaching Yuuri.
He had grabbed some quick breakfast from the hotel bar on the way to practice. Being so active meant he had to eat a lot, and being a professional athlete meant he had to eat healthily, matter how difficult. Yuuri tended to be a bit lazy with his cooking (although he could cook for himself when necessary), thankfully Victor was always more than happy to cook for him as they had many of the same tastes. During the few months they’d been living together, he and Victor had introduced each other to so many new dishes that Victor’s recipe book was bursting with everything they’d added.
As he grew nearer to the rink, music sounded faintly. Was someone really practicing at this time? Yuuri crept closer, cracking the door open quietly.
Music flooded the empty hallway, and in the centre of the fresh rink was Yuri Plisetsky. He seemed concentrated as he attempted a quad axel. Yuuri watched closely as his junior skater seemed to take off so effortlessly but gasped as Yurio fell down hard onto his wrist with a frustrated grunt.
The small noise seemingly alerted Yuri to his presence, and when he picked himself up he scoffed, making his way to the edge of the rink, “What, does the pork cutlet bowl want to creep on his competition before the Worlds?”
Yuuri panicked, “No, of course not. I am sorry, that was not my intention. I had no idea you would be here, but watching you skate is always impressive, so I wanted to see you jump.”
Yuri gathered his things from a bench and began unlacing his skates, “Tch. Next time, learn to control your surprise if you don’t want to be discovered.”
“Are you leaving?”
“I don’t want to skate with a piggy anyway,” he shoved Yuuri’s shoulder on his way out, “And you’re not good enough for Victor, I don’t know what he sees in you.”
Yuuri shoved down his hurt at the comment. He knew Yuri was upset at being interrupted, and at having his mistake seen by a senior skater (no matter how much he proclaimed his superiority over Yuuri). Yuuri also knew how much he and Victor loved each other, and took a moment to breathe, remembering Victor’s breath in his ear each night, and the litany of praises that spill from his lips. Yuuri was good enough for Victor, and he knew that. He would not let younger Yuri’s projected insecurities affect his own performance.
Although he was incredibly talented, Yuri tended to push himself too hard, especially now that he had won the Grand Prix Finals, Yuuri had more than seen that during the time they’d spent in proximity to one another. He behaved as if he still had to prove himself a worthy competitor in the adult skater’s category, despite more than doing so already.
Yuuri wanted to chase after him, wanted to chase after the little boy who idolized his fiancé so obviously it almost hurt. However, he had come here to practice. And he would certainly make use of the empty rink while he could.
-----
By the time Victor entered an hour had passed, and Yuuri was leaning against the side of the rink, soaked in sweat. His earphones were in, and he was scrolling through something with his back to the door, so Victor snuck by, careful not to make a noise as he set his things down on the bench next to Yuuri’s.
Victor neared his fiancé, cautiously holding his breath so as not to alert him by accidently breathing on the back of his neck. Instead, he slowly reached out both hands and pinched Yuuri’s waist. He startled and flailed for a second, before landing on his ass with a thump, hissing, and dropping his phone to rub at the sore spot, “痛い…” (Itai / Ow…)
Then he lifted his eyes to see Victor standing there, eyes wide in a picture of shock, but still smiling a little, proud of his own stealthiness. Yuuri narrowed his eyes, muttering to himself as he lifted himself off the ground, “Ay, maji uzaiwa.” (Ay, まじうざいわ / you’re very annoying.)
Victor smirked a little, “Want me to kiss it better?”
Red bloomed on Yuuri’s face, and he shook his head, embarrassed at his fiancé’s antics, which just made the man grin even wider, “Have you been practicing well, Yuuri?” he reached out a finger to stroke Yuuri’s cheek, “You must have exerted yourself, your face is all red.”
“Oh yeah?” Yuuri leaned closer over the side of the rink, enjoying how Victor’s body tensed slightly as their breaths mixed for an agonising second, before he whispered in Victor’s ear, “Prick.”
“Hey! That one I understood,” but he was laughing slightly even as he leaned away.
Yuuri hummed, half skating, half walking over to the rink’s exit to sit next to Victor as he pulled on his skates, “I ran through the new routine a few times, but there’s one part I just can’t seem to get right. It’s the part where I make the transition from the step sequence into a quad flip and into the next part, I just can’t seem to get the right take off. Either that, or I’ll have too few rotations and fumble the next sequence.”
“You’ve been practicing the quad flip a lot lately, is there any special reason, hm?” Victor teased.
“Nothing really,” Yuuri grinned, “but it’s my fiancé’s signature move.”
“Oh, your fiancé, huh? He must be very handsome to get a man like you; do I know him?”
Yuuri’s breath hitched a little as arms snaked around his waist, pulling them closer together, but smiled and leant into the warmth, “You may have heard of him, his name’s Victor Nikiforov, he’s a 5-time consecutive world champion.”
“Wow, what an impressive guy. Still, he must be a very lucky man to be so successful and to have someone like you.”
Yuuri snorted, looking up into Victor’s eyes, “Did you seriously just compliment yourself?”
“It’s true, любовь моя (lubova moya / my love), I feel I must be the luckiest man in the world to have someone like you. Love is something that didn’t come easy to me when I was younger. Although I had many fans, and I am forever grateful to them all, I didn’t have many people who I was truly close with.”
Victor wasn’t looking in his direction as Yuuri glanced up, gazing far in the distance, but he must have felt the shift, as he looked down to catch Yuuri’s eyes. His face softened once their eyes met, and Yuuri untangled a hand to reach up and brush Victor’s cheek softly, echoing the gesture from earlier. “Vitya…”
Victor smiled, breaking the moment, “Anyway, Yuuri. You were telling me about your skate?”
“Mm, I think I’ve got it mostly done, just the bit I was telling you about is giving me some trouble.”
“Yeah, I can see why. Show me.”
So Yuuri started the music and skipped ahead to the part of the song where the routine became a bit finnicky. Victor watched with critical eyes as Yuuri spun on the ice and came to a stop at the end of his routine. He whistled and clapped, “Well done, Yuuri!”
He paused as he waited for Yuuri to come over and take a drink, “I see the part you’re having trouble with. I would recommend giving yourself a small break and coming back to it later. And if it’s still giving you trouble tomorrow, maybe we can consider changing the jump to a triple axel instead. The competition isn’t for 3 days anyway, so just do your best to take your mind off of it for now.”
Yuuri hummed in agreement, lost in thought, “I was just thinking about Yuri. Plisetsky, I mean,” he added. “He seems to be pushing himself very hard to improve the difficulty of his routine. Especially now that he’s won the Grand Prix Final, and you’re coming back. I think he wants to prove himself to everyone that he can stand against you and win.”
“I know what you mean, I’ve noticed he’s distancing himself from me lately, more than usually, that is. Before, he would be more open to listen to my advice, and he would sometimes even come and watch my practices,” he amended his statement, “But I suppose he’s not done that in a few years.”
“But more than that; Yuuri, why are you thinking of that little tiger when I’m right here with you? Am I not captivating enough?” Victor feigned hurt, bringing his hand up to his chest and clutching at his shirt above where his heart lay.
Yuuri smiled at his fiancé’s antics, leaning close to press a soft kiss to Victor’s cheek. “Just a lot on my mind is all, Vitya.”
“Oh, well I have the perfect solution for that.” Victor reached back and started scrolling through something on his phone, “Aha!”
He connected his phone to a small speaker he’d brought, and the opening chords of Stammi Vicino – Duetto started playing, the sound a little tinny from the speaker. Yuuri smiled, and they took their places in the centre of the ice.
-----
Over the next few days, Yuuri noticed that Yuri was avoiding him more than was usual for the boy. And Victor confirmed, when the 2 of them had spoken about Yuri, that whenever either of them would walk into the room he was in, he would make a hasty exit. Even when they entered the competitions rink or the gym, he always seemed on his way out when they arrived.
After what he witnessed when he saw Yuri flub the jump, Yuuri worried about the boy’s mental state going into the next few days of competition. How would he cope with the performance if he was feeling unstable? Of course, Yakov could help, but he was more of a coach than a mentor to Yuri, unlike Victor who viewed him as a surrogate father figure.
By the time Yuuri manages to catch Yuri without him running away, it is the day of the short programme. Neither he nor Victor have managed to speak to the boy, but Victor managed to cajole Yakov into speaking. Apparently, Yuri hadn’t been doing any better since Yuuri had seen him, and Yakov had gruffly asked if either of them would be able to speak to him, to ‘try and get his head screwed on right’ (Yakov’s words, not Victor’s).
After Christophe Giacometti finished at the kiss and cry, Yuuri took his place on the ice. As the music began, he noticed Yuri watching him with careful eyes, but the boy made a face and scoffed as soon as he realised he had been caught.
He and Victor had agreed the previous night that the jump he’d been struggling with should be changed to a triple axel as discussed, so Yuuri had spent an extra 2 hours rehearsing the routine with the changed move, so it would be as close to perfect as he could manage. Yuuri grinned as he pulled off his signature move with ease, landing with perfect form, moving again to perform the last section of his routine.
Cheers came from the crowd, and from the side where the other skaters were standing in wait for their own routines. Notably, Yuri was still feigning disinterest, although his eyes betrayed something resembling interest.
Victor (not competing in that day’s competition, therefore free to take his place at his fiancé’s side at the kiss and cry) threw himself down and threw his arms around Yuuri, “Congratulations, Yuu-chan!”
“A-ha, Vitya, not here!" he cringed away, still slightly uncomfortable with PDA. Then he noticed someone missing. "Where’s Yuri?”
“Hm? Oh, he left to go to the bathroom, I think. He’s 5th to skate, so he should be fine, as long as he doesn’t fall in, ha!”
Yuuri tutted at his fiancé’s childishness and held his breath while the scores came up on the big screen… 102.37! Not his best, but enough to beat Christophe’s score of 98.79. They linked hands and vacated the kiss and cry as the next skater took to the ice.
“Hey.” Victor looked at him questioningly. “I’m gonna go find Yuri, see how he’s doing, I’ll be back in a minute, just find us some seats, okay?”
“Of course, Yuuri, good luck!” Victor pressed a kiss to his cheek and bounced away, probably to annoy Yakov.
Yuuri started his search with the bathroom. There, he found Yuri Plisetsky, dressed in his skating outfit on show with his jacket unzipped, gripping the sink. He turned as the door swung open, and scowled in Yuuri’s direction, although there was less heat in it than usual. “What do you want, piggy?” he muttered half-heartedly, pushing his fringe out his eyes and trying to push out the way.
“Yuri, wait. I know you’ve been having some trouble and you’re not listening to Yakov’s advice. Please, Victor and I are worried for you. All we want is to help you if you are struggling with this.”
Yuri sneered, some of his usual bite coming back, “You think you can help me? Мудак (moron), you can barely even land a quad flip.”
Taking a deep breath, Yuuri levelled a stare, “Listen, there are people around you that care about you, and your performance in competitions is part of that. It’s okay if you make mistakes, you’re only human, and it’s important that you take care of yourself. We all care about you: Mila, Georgi, Otabek, even Yakov and Lilia want the best for you. Not just as a skater but as your friends too. We all see you as our family, especially Victor and I, and we want you to be healthy and safe.
You’re performing soon, and I just want you to know that no matter what happens, you tried your best and we all care about you. Yuri, you push yourself so hard and that’s why you’re here right now, and you’re already surpassing me and Victor. One day you’ll be far better than both of us, but for now it’s okay to take a break when you need one. We’ve all made mistakes, but it’s important you know that figure skating, and all of us will still be here after you figure everything out.”
Yuri looked almost contemplative hearing that, but scoffed, “Don’t make comparisons between us, pig. You may have curried Victor’s favour, but don’t forget that both he and I far surpass you. You should stay with the losers where you belong.”
He flings past Yuuri’s shoulder but pauses for a second on his way out. Yuuri hears a soft, “Спасибо (thank you),” before the door slams shut after him.
Yuuri thought back to their first meeting, when he’d been the one crying in a bathroom during a competition, and Yuri had come and shouted at him. Now he’d tried to console the younger boy and offer advice. He hoped his pep talk had some effect in time for Yuri’s short program.
He makes his way into the stands, Yuri nowhere to be seen. Victor, however, stands out well, with his silver hair and shouting in Yuuri’s direction. “Yuu-chan! I found us seats, come up, quick!”
Yuuri sighed, acting exasperated, but he couldn’t stop a smile twisting at his lips. He took a seat next to Victor, his fiancé enraptured with the end of Michele Crispino’s performance. “Did you find our little Yurochka?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the ice.
Amused at the nickname, Yuuri hummed, “I did. And he totally yelled at me. I think I managed to get through to him, though. At least I hope so.”
“Ah well. I’m sure you did your best,” Victor offered a warm smile.
“How did the other skaters get on while I was away, JJ and the Czech guy performed, right?”
“No, Emil’s last after Yuri, it was Georgi who performed after JJ. Georgi scored 87.09, and JJ was given 101.87, which was a bit generous given his lousy rotations but you’re still ahead so I can’t complain too much.”
Yuuri grinned at his fiancé’s words, feeling a small weight lift off his shoulders and a quiet confidence start to seep in ahead of tomorrow’s competition.
“Ah, look!” Victor drew his attention to the big screen, “They’re about to call out Michele’s scores.”
The scores appeared as Yuuri held his breath… 95.32 – that meant he was still in the lead! Although everything could change with the free skate, especially with how close all the skaters’ current point totals were, he breathed out a small sigh of relief.
Michele cleared off the kiss and cry as Yuri took his place in the middle of the ice. In true Yuri fashion, his new program was nothing like Agape, but it was also not as intense of a song as Welcome to the Madness. Instead, it began with stomp-clap beats as an English woman started to sing.
Yuuri watched closely as the music approached the part where he saw Yuri fall that time during practice. It seemed like that section had been giving him a bit of trouble. The boy also seemed a bit reserved, more held back in his skating than he’d been in months.
Then, something changed in Yuri’s mood. He switched up his approach and… Yuuri gasped, locking eyes with Victor and grinning. Clearly, his words had had an effect on Yuri.
-----
Yuri took his place on the ice as the Italian one vacated the kiss and cry. As he skated, Yuuri Katsuki’s words echoed in his head.
His short performance ‘River’ was about pushing someone to their limit, and what was the point of pushing others if he could not also push himself to improve? However, maybe Victor’s piggy also had a point. He had plenty of time left in the season to be able to reliably land the quad, after all. While he didn’t want to accept everything about Yuuri Katsuki, maybe for now he could accept the fact that he should take a break sometimes.
And maybe he should make more of an effort to ‘connect’ – blegh – with the other skaters.
In the last moment, he adjusted his approach to account for the 3.5 turns needed for a triple axel rather than a quad. Let’s see how the katsudon felt when Yuri landed his signature move better than he ever could.
He landed perfectly and carried on into the last few sequences with twice as much aura as he’d projected previously. This song was about strength, and that’s what he would show the judges and the audience, including the pig- Yuuri Katsuki (ugh).
The singer’s voice faded with the music, and Yuri struck his ending pose. The cheers of the crowd overwhelmed him, but he could hear Georgi’s voice cutting through them all as he made his way to the side of the rink, “Yuri, good job out there!”
He tutted in the older skater’s direction but couldn’t stop himself from smirking back as they walked side-by-side to the kiss and cry, “You’ll eat your words when I score higher than you and place on the podium tomorrow.”
Georgi rolled his eyes as they took their seats on the bench, awaiting the scores to be announced. “Seriously, though. You really pulled through for the last third of your performance, and you totally nailed that triple axel.”
“Was there ever any doubt that I could?” Yuri challenged.
The loudspeaker cut off whatever Georgi opened his mouth to say. “Plisetsky, Yuri. Short program score… 90.65!”
Ugh, he’d barely beat Georgi, never mind Victor’s dumb fiancé. He’d have to put some more quads in tomorrow’s free skate to make up for it. Going easy on himself could wait, Yakov might actually kill him if he didn’t place on the podium and advance to the next round, especially after he’d done so well at the GPF.
Maybe he could pull off the quad axel if he pulled an all-nighter in the practice rink. It probably wouldn’t be perfect, but it might get him some extra points…
Before Yuri could think any further, a fuming Russian man interrupted his musings, “Yuri Nikolaevich Plisetsky, you better not have been attempting quad axels during practice without a jumping harness, do you hear me!”
“Uh-oh,” Georgi grinned as Yakov stormed over, “Run, Yuri.”
Yuri grabbed his skates and ran for the door, much to Georgi’s amusement. Maybe he wouldn’t be trying the quad axel in tomorrow’s free skate, but he’d definitely be the first to land a certified one in a competition, something even Victor had never done. That much he would make sure of. He’d surpass that старик (old man) before anyone knew what was coming for them.
-----
It was at the after-party 2 days later – organised by Victor (the designated extrovert), with non-alcoholic options for the sake of the underaged skaters – that Yuuri finally managed to sit down and have a proper conversation with Yuri.
He walked out of the bathroom, pulling at the turtleneck he was wearing. Victor had been so pleased that the routine they’d choreographed together had gotten Yuuri to 1st place that he’d been a bit more enthusiastic than usual. (‘I’m so happy that my favourite student did so well today, I think he deserves a reward, hm?’)
Ever the shy one in their relationship, Yuuri insisted on covering the marks, even while Victor whined about it. Although he was beginning to regret that choice. After so many hours of celebration, the venue they’d rented was getting almost stuffy. Much like Victor, Yuuri’s choice of clothing was coming back to bite him.
Yuri Plisetsky was sitting near a corner of the room, holding a glass of juice. Yuuri smirked, the servers had been almost certainly explicitly forbidden from giving him anything else, likely much to Yuri’s disappointment.
He took a seat next to the Russian boy. “Congratulations on your score by the way, you really pulled yourself together for the free skate.”
Yuri scoffed, almost bitterly, “Well, I don’t think I would have placed on the podium this time if it wasn’t for you.”
Yuuri chose his words carefully. “Maybe that’s true, but you still did very well.”
“Are you kidding? I barely beat Giacometti!”
“But you did so much better than in the short program. It’s okay to push yourself, as long as you remember to also be kind to yourself and to take breaks when you need them.” He stared Yuri in the eyes, making sure he understood the message. “And sometimes we all need some help or encouragement from the people around us. That doesn’t make any of us any less good at skating, it just makes us human.”
Yuri took a deep breath, shifting a little. “…Arigato, Yuuri. I mean it,” he averted eye contact, “And… you may call me Yura, if you want. Yakov and my grandfather call me that.”
After a beat, he seemed to reconsider, whirling to stare at Yuuri, “But only when Victor’s not around. He does not have permission to call me that. And don’t tell him about this conversation. If you ever tell him about any of this, then I can promise that I will kick you in the face with my skates. Deal?”
Touched, Yuuri bowed his head in thanks, “Спасибо, Yura.”
Yuri blushed and looked at his feet, “Tch, whatever…”
Yuuri continued, “However, if I ever hear you insult Victor and I’s relationship again, I will give him full permission to call you Yura every day, and I’ll post the photos from last year’s GPF afterparty. Victor still has them on his phone, he’d be happy to put them on his public Instagram.”
He shot a dazzling grin, reminiscent of his fiancé, “Don’t test me, okay?”
“Ugh, as long as you keep your neck covered, katsudon, we’ll have no problems.” Yuri scowled, “No one likes the sight of you like that.”
Yuuri smirked, “I know someone who does.”
“Katsudon!”