Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

	Kai
	How do I fix him? I thought about it on the entire drive from Detroit to London last night and I don't know how to fix him. None of his team knows how to fix him except for you.
Alexei I'm just the jump coach. I only comment on his jumps.
	Kai
	This isn't time for your jokes!
Alexei It's not a joke. I can't comment. I can't, Kai. Line in the sand. Do not cross. That was the deal when I came on or Celestino wasn't going to let me do the virtual coaching. I can't coach Yuuri behind his back. I have to stay out of his lane. I stick to the jumps.
	Kai
	I don't care about Celestino's rules
Alexei I don't either. It's an ego thing with him. But I do care about Yuuri and his skating. So I need to stay in my lane even if it means Yuuri crashes at Worlds this season. He won't crash so bad that Japan won't get a spot. Japan will probably still get two spots unless Murata screws up too.
	Kai
	That doesn't help me now
Alexei I'll give you his aunt's number Or well, the closest thing he has to an aunt Advising you to contact family should be all right Don't worry, she speaks english

***

81-xx-xxxx-xxxx

Kai
Hi, I'm Coach Kai Tamm, and I'm part of Yuuri Katsuki’s coaching team
His jump coach, Alexei Turov, advised that I reach out to you
He's… struggling and I don't know what to do about it

***

The phone started ringing in Kai's hand, showing the same Japanese number that she had just texted. Kai stared at it for a minute before swiping and holding it up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"So you want me to talk to him and set him straight," the very familiar voice said through the phone. "All right. Put him on."

"MINAKO-SENSEI?!" Kai pulled the phone away and looked down at the caller information again before bringing it back to her ear. "Alexei said this was his aunt's number."

The woman snorted. "Of course he did, and he's not wrong. Yuuri is family. Not by blood, but in the same way that Yuuko's kids call him ‘ojichan’, the first thing Yuuri ever called me was ‘Mina-obachan’. I was friends with his mother when we were growing up. If Alexei was worried about butting heads with Cialdini's ego again, telling you to call his aunt was the better option. Cover Your Ass, as they say." She huffed. "Now, put Yuuri on and let me talk to him. I'm not there, but I'll do what I can."

"No!" Kai paused to take a breath and modulate her tone. "Sorry, but no. No. I don't want you to talk to him. We're always doing that, relying on someone else to fix Yuuri because we can't figure him out. Viktor at Nebelhorn, Skate America, and even the Grand Prix Final. Viktor and Alexei last season. Imamura-san and Alexei just managed him at Four Continents so we never even got close to this. Even his Japanese friends! How can we coach him if we can't even help him over the mental hurdles and just keep passing the buck to someone else? Or ignoring it and hoping he figures it out himself? I'm done with that!"

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

"Good. Glad to hear it." Minako exhaled slowly. "Alexei wasn't perfect with him, you know. They were a natural fit, yes, but what you see now with them is also the result of not just working together but living together for years. I was there at the beginning when Alexei first took over as his primary coach, and I think he watched me deal with Yuuri more than I realized. And when I left, Riku was there, and she's a lot like his mother. Both in that she mothered him, and at fourteen he still needed that, but also just quiet and strong in a similar way to Hiroko. She could also understand where he was coming from culturally on a level that Alexei just couldn't." Minako sighed. "My point is that there is no magic recipe for dealing with Yuuri, but there are things that you can do and learn. And, for the record, I think that you do a pretty decent job with him. He hasn't fallen apart like this in a while, and I think it started before he even got to Canada."

"Yeah. A lot has been going on and we didn't mitigate his anxiety as much as we should have, and probably didn't look into just how much more anxiety he was hiding from us." Kai leaned forward on the bed. It'd been easy not to look too hard into where Yuuri's brain was after 4CC. He'd been the one who came out of the competition with a medal around his neck, and a gold medal at that. Yuuri wasn't the one they felt they needed to worry about.

"He's come really far this season confidence-wise," Kai continued. "And I don't want to kill all the mental progress and momentum he's made by just letting him completely crash and burn at Worlds and then having to start from scratch again. And I still – we still – don't know how to manage him in crisis mode like this."

"Right now I guarantee that he's being incredibly fatalistic,” Minako said. “Everything that can potentially go wrong is what is going to go wrong. That is what he's thinking. So, what I would suggest to you is to give him a non-hypothetical hypothetical to think about instead."

"What?" Simple instructions. Why couldn't people just give her simple instructions? Step one, step two, step three kind of instructions. An Ikea pictogram of instructions. Some people might have hated them, but Kai never had trouble.

"Let's say I want Yuuri to make a Zen garden. I have the sand and the rocks and the rake. I don't want to make the Zen garden, I want Yuuri to make it. I could ask him to do it. He knows how, knows where everything should go, but he won't. He'll just worry about doing it wrong. That it won't turn out the way he wants, or that he won't do as good a job as I expect. So he'll freeze and not do anything until right before I show up, and then he'll just throw the rocks around and dump the sand and sort of rake it and it'll be a disaster, ironically proving to himself that he was never capable of making the Zen garden at all, and that my belief in his ability to do it was therefore misguided. That's where he is right now. No matter what he does, it's going to go wrong." There was the sound of something being set down before the ballet instructor continued. "Instead of that, I could ask him what he would do if he were to make the Zen garden. He knows the space and the number of rocks and how the designs that should be raked into the sand should go." A pause. "He knows where the sand may not want to be raked…"

Or where the ice was really hard and it was a struggle to get a good grip with his edges. Kai wasn't an idiot. She'd seen the white lines in the overhead shots. The ice quality at the arena wasn't good. "Mmhm."

"Yuuri's the one with that knowledge. Now I'm definitely not asking him to make the Zen garden, but as someone knowledgeable about Zen gardens, very specific Zen gardens and very specific Zen garden layouts, I'd ask what he thinks should be done for such a Zen garden."

"Take the expectations out of it,” Kai echoed. “Don't ask him to fix it, just ask him to identify any potential problems and then maybe what he thinks potential fixes might be given what he knows about the rink, et cetera."

"He's the one who skates the program, he's the one who can see where the problems are going to be. You just want him to communicate that to you, and you need to push him to do that. He'd rather struggle on his own than be a bother. Just adjust your approach. You aren't asking him to fix anything. Yet. Remind him that he needs to talk these issues through with his coach. That's why he has one."

Kai nodded. "I can do that. Yeah." It was the obvious answer, really. It wasn't so much that Kai didn't know she needed to ask. She just tended to forget how to approach asking Yuuri. Especially in crisis mode, where a casual "everything all right?" before or after a skate when he was already feeling the pressure and anxiety weighing him down never yielded an actual answer. Yuuri knew that half his demons were in his head, so he was always more likely to play down any concerns, legitimate or otherwise, as something that he should be able to deal with on his own.

"It also might not be a bad idea to try and get him to eat something. If he puts it off too long—"

"He'll go for the junk food options and make himself feel sick." Kai nodded, even though there was no way that Minako would be able to see it. “I know.”

***

Murata startled a bit at the sudden knock on the hotel room door. The lump under the covers in the other bed didn’t so much as shift at the sound; if someone was going to open the door, it would have to be him.

Katsuki had been in that same spot since Murata got back to the room last night, completely hidden from view under the blankets. In fact, if it wasn’t for the occasional twitch of movement – and the charging cable snaked under the covers from the outlet next to the nightstand – Murata wouldn’t have been entirely sure there was actually a person under there. But Katsuki undoubtedly had his reasons for hiding, so it probably was best to just leave him alone – especially after Nishigori had chimed in on the Team Japan chat claiming this was pretty normal behavior for the other skater.

Whoever was standing out in the hall knocked again, this time more insistently. With a soft sigh, Murata set his comb down and went to open the door. He was faced with a small woman with warm, tawny skin and black hair pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail, the lanyard with her credentials caught between her bright turtleneck and dark peacoat. Murata quickly placed her as part of Katsuki’s coaching team, though her name escaped him.

"Is he in there?" she asked. Murata nodded and stepped to the side. With a quiet “thank you,” the woman walked straight over to the giant lump on the far bed and sat down next to it.

"Go away," the lump said.

"Up. Shower. Get dressed. It's almost eleven." There was no room in her tone of voice for argument.

As soon as he heard the voice, Katsuki practically threw the covers off the bed before sitting up to look at his coach with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?!"

Thinking about it, Murata realized that might actually be a good question. He hadn’t seen this particular coach at any point since they’d arrived in Canada. In fact, Katsuki had spent most of his time with a svelte but fairly generic blonde with a bob; his head coach, the loud Italian, had mostly been preoccupied with the American Ladies’ skater that was chasing Masao even though the gulf between the two of them was widening, not narrowing.

Katsuki’s coach shrugged. "I only answer questions from skaters who have gotten out of bed, showered, dressed, and are in the skaters’ lounge at the other hotel in an hour."

"But–"

"Out of bed, into the shower, clothes on, to the skaters’ lounge. You have an hour. Go." With that, the coach stood up again and headed out the door.

The most surprising thing to Murata was that Katsuki actually listened after she left.

***

Kai stepped through the sliding doors and looked around the room. She had been about to call Celestino when Instagram notified her that Maddy had just posted a selfie with Jaxon in the hotel lobby. And sure enough, there she was, hands gripping her skate case as she nodded at whatever Celestino was currently saying.

Kai walked up to them with a smile. "You're going to do great, Maddy!" That wasn’t just an exaggeration for encouragement: Maddy might not manage to make the podium, but Kai was confident that she was going to sit solidly in the top five at least.

"Kai! Oh my god! You're here!" The skater instantly jumped forward for a hug, which Kai promptly returned. "Are you going to watch me?"

"I'd love to. But the final group of the Ladies’ Short overlaps with Yuuri's practice block over at the practice rink, so I'll be over there at the boards with him. But I wouldn't be surprised if they have it on a TV somewhere there, so I'll do my best to try and watch your skate."

Maddy frowned for a second, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

Kai reached out and rubbed her arm. "I need to talk to Celestino and make sure that we're all on the same page in regards to the plans and schedule for the day."

"Oh, OK!"

Celestino gave Maddy a nod. "Go and rest for a bit and I'll meet up with you during warmups in the practice room at the arena, all right?" Maddy returned the nod and headed over to Jaxon, who was currently talking to the US Ladies’ silver medalist. Celestino waited until she was out of earshot before turning his attention to Kai. "The plan was you staying in Detroit to keep an eye on Phichit."

"Plans change." Kai tilted her head toward a deserted area in the corner of the lobby and started walking. Celestino followed her lead with a scowl; it wasn’t exactly private, but as close as they could get under the circumstances.

"I don't want to hear it, Kai."

"Too bad, Boss, because it's going to happen." Kai sighed. "We mismanaged this. We thought that the win at Four Continents would come with a boost of confidence and Yuuri would coast through to a top five at Worlds." She crossed her arms over her chest. "It wasn't like we were planning on ignoring him the last couple of weeks, but with Madison finishing off podium in Osaka and just how upset and frustrated she was about that placement, followed by Phichit's injury and him having the expected meltdown over not just the injury but missing Worlds, it was easy to just pretend that Yuuri was fine—no, better than he usually is—because he was doing his turtle, ostrich, platypus, whatever thing: head in the sand and just working through things. We thought, 'good, he's focused' and not 'he's internalizing his anxiety and hiding it and it's going to blow up'. So yeah, I get it. I see where we dropped the ball."

Celestino crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "How is Phichit?"

"Seriously?" Kai shook her head. "Phichit is fine, the follow-up went fine, and is not the topic of this conversation. Doug is going to check on him, and honestly, I think we've babied him a bit too much. He knows the rules and the consequences and can manage a couple of days on his own. I'll head back on Saturday." She took a deep breath. "I know you don't want to hear it. No one wants to hear that they've fucked up. But look, Yuuri was falling apart way before he stepped onto that ice last night. He was falling apart Day One of practice—"

Celestino’s annoyance was obvious in the clipped tone he used to cut her off. "I know that. How do you know that?"

Kai frowned. "Anna told me how his Main Rink practice went, so I texted Yuuri about it. He just brushed it off as ice conditions and played down just how much he was struggling."

"So my assistant coaches are talking about me behind my back?"

"Damn straight we are. You're the one with more coaching experience, and you're the one with the Olympic bronze, and you're the one who is the head coach. But one of my jobs is to tell you when you need to pull your head out of your ass." She paused, staring Celestino dead in the eyes. "You need to pull your head out of your ass."

Celestino shook his head at her. "Some people would fire you for talking to your boss like that."

"Then it's a good thing I don't work for them." Kai glanced around at the general hustle and bustle of the hotel. "You're his coach. I'm more than happy to do the heavy lifting with him since it seems like I'm the one that he gets along with best, but you still need to be his coach. Especially at competitions, and especially when I'm not here to back you up. You're supposed to be the wall at his back, and you weren't there when he needed it. That's on you, and you need to own up to that. Own up to the fact you played a role in what happened on that ice last night. You better not miss another practice with him after the Ladies' short, and yes, I know we have another overlapping issue between Maddy and Yuuri tomorrow morning. Main Rink practices take priority." She frowned at him. "Whoever has practice in the main arena has the attention of the head coach unless there's a medical issue. That's the rule. That's your rule."

"Is that all?"

Kai paused. "No. I deserve a raise and a promotion. Not to his primary coach or anything, but I want the ‘and’ when talking about his coaching team to the press, and I get listed before Turov."

Celestino took a deep breath. "You probably do deserve that. We'll talk about it after Worlds," he added, pursing his lips. "OK, consider me chastised. What are we going to do about Yuuri?"

"I've already gotten him moving, and I have a vague idea of how to get him out of the pessimistic spiral he's in. We'll see how it goes at this afternoon's practice. I'll keep you informed, and tonight you need to be at the boards at the practice rink even if you don't know what to say to him. You don't need to be the perfect coach that understands everything about each of your students, but you do need to be part of the overall support for each of them."

***

Viktor looked at the time on his phone. It was getting awfully close to noon, which meant he should probably think about leaving the skaters’ lounge and finding some lunch before he had to warm up for his practice slot. That in turn meant he should probably think about calling or texting Yuuri again to talk him into coming with Chris and him on this lunch adventure. It could be fun and take Yuuri's mind off things – without it seeming like Viktor was trying to take his mind off things.

Yuuri had shown up at the draw for the Free Skate order with his eyes tinted red, not talking to anyone. Which wasn't that strange, really; Yuuri didn't talk to many skaters, even ones that he was on good terms with, at competitions. He was too in his head for that. But he had obviously been upset – enough so that even the people who would usually ignore Yuuri's standoffishness and approach him to talk had hung back and given the skater his space, Viktor included.

But that had been last night and almost half of today, so it should be safe to call or maybe text. Right?

Chris walked over. "Have you heard from him?" the Swiss skater asked as he settled on the armrest of Viktor's chair. "I called earlier, but it went straight to voicemail."

Viktor shook his head. "He'll be all right." At least he hoped so.

Chris sighed. "It would be nice if Yuuri wasn't ignoring me."

"I'm not ignoring you or your messages," Yuuri cut in from behind them. “At least not specifically.” Both skaters immediately turned around. Sure enough, Yuuri was standing behind them, toeing the carpet in the event space turned skaters' lounge, twisting the bottom of his Team Japan jacket in his fingers. "I was just hiding under all the covers on my bed and hoping that the world would vanish. Ergo, I wasn't really paying attention to the messages on my phone since I'd set it on Do Not Disturb. I'm sorry. It wasn't directed at you personally. I just needed time."

"So you're feeling better?" Viktor asked.

Yuuri shook his head. "Not really, but I'm where I was told to be and when I was told to be here. That's good enough for now."

"Yuuri." Kai had entered the lounge with a small cardboard box tucked under one arm. She pointed at one of the tables with her free hand. "Sit."

Kai was here? Now Katya's heart-eyed excitement about her girlfriend being the most amazing woman in the universe—at least all the heart-eyed excitement she could get out before Viktor escaped to the skaters' lounge, leaving Georgi to deal with Katya’s gushing in his stead—sort of made sense. Kai must have come up from Detroit.

Yuuri nodded at his coach and settled down as ordered. Viktor glanced at Chris and with twin shrugs, the two skaters followed him. It wasn't like they had much to do before practice, though Viktor supposed he could have gone and found a light lunch or just watched the competition. Neither of those things seemed terribly interesting at the moment.

Once Yuuri was seated, Kai set down the mysterious box and pulled out a bowl-shaped plastic takeaway container filled with rice, placing it in front of Yuuri. "Lunch. That is rice and everything else is numbers, so…" She waved vaguely at the box. "Have fun." She looked over at the two other skaters and shook her head. "Sorry, didn't realize you'd be loitering about. And even if I did, you aren't my responsibility to feed."

Viktor just laughed. “Oh, that’s fine. We have options,” he said, waving his hand toward the far wall of the lounge.

Yuuri was not the only skater that was eating lunch in the lounge, though most of the others were opting for the provided food that had been laid out buffet-style along the far wall. It was an unexciting selection: premade sandwiches, packaged salads with the various expected toppings, cold pasta dishes, and a couple of soups being kept hot in large tureens. Still, since Yuuri was eating here, Viktor could make do, even though it hadn't been his original plan. He was curious about what Kai had ordered for Yuuri, however. Foreign Japanese restaurants were mostly sushi with the occasional ramen or hibachi options and therefore had none of Yuuri’s usual go-tos.

Yuuri reached into the box to extract a long, thin foil container and opened it, bringing it close to his nose. "Grilled salmon." He paused, sniffing more deeply. "Grilled salmon with white miso..." He arranged the salmon on top of the rice in large chunks before returning his attention to the box, this time pulling out a small takeaway soup container.

"I love miso soup," Chris said.

Yuuri popped the lid. As far as Viktor could tell, it was just broth, not miso soup proper. Again, Yuuri stared at it for a moment before leaning in to smell the contents. A smile spread on his face as he poured the broth into his bowl like some heathen before turning to Kai. The expression was happier than any he had shown at any point at this competition so far. "How?"

"Phichit told me you've been making it for him because it's a quick comfort meal." The coach shrugged. "I ran into Keiko and asked her to type the name of it into my phone in romanji. I called around to a few of the local sushi places to see if they could handle a custom request, and one agreed. Keiko also suggested I order five pieces of tamago nigiri without the rice, which led to the person on the phone laughing before asking if I just wanted tomagoyaki. I better not have been wrong when I said yes."

Yuuri remained all smiles as he reached into the box once more and found another small container. There was, in fact, a rolled omelet sliced neatly into five pieces inside. "You weren't wrong. Thank you." That left one last item Viktor couldn’t identify at first glance; thankfully, Yuuri was quick to chime in. "Ah. I bet they have a white miso grilled salmon don as a lunch special, so they just packed the pieces separately, which easily turns the avocado and cucumbers with a…" Yet another sniff. "...a ponzu-based sauce into a side salad." Yuuri took the garnish off the top of the vegetables with his chopsticks and transferred it into his rice bowl, then checked the box again.

Kai gave him a questioning look. "What do you need?"

"A soup spoon," Yuuri replied sheepishly.

"I'll be back." She pointedly looked at the food Yuuri had arranged, then at him. "Start eating."

Yuuri nodded, gently putting his chopsticks down in front of him and holding his hands together. "Itadakimasu." Gathering his chopsticks back up, he picked up one of the omelet slices and put it in his mouth, humming happily before chewing and swallowing. "They put just a bit of dashi broth into the eggs before making it and it is so good. I miss Japanese food that I don't have to cook myself."

Chris laughed. "I apparently need Japanese food lessons, because this looks like nothing I've come across. No tempura. No sushi. No noodles."

Yuuri echoed his laugh. "This is closer to normal. How someone would make food at home, sort of. Though ochazuke, while you can order it at some restaurants, is, as Kai mentioned: a comfort food, or a study food. Or something to eat when you get home late and are starving. Usually just something quick and small. This is a larger portion, though. And it doesn't always include fish, but I do tend to eat it with salmon. I do that for the extra protein, and because I always have grilled salted salmon in the fridge."

"Why not just cook the rice in the soup?"

"That's not what ochazuke is. Ochazuke is green tea poured over rice. Though if you order it from restaurants, a lot of times they add dashi broth to the tea. The packets you can buy for ‘instant’ ochazuke also usually have some dashi powder in them. And I usually add just a tiny bit of dashi powder when I make it, but then…" Yuuri shrugged and ate a large bite of the rice. "Tastes almost like home," he remarked before pulling some cucumbers from the small bowl.

"Watching him eat is making me hungry. I'm going to get food." Chris pushed away from the table and headed toward the buffet, passing Kai on her way back.

She dropped the requested spoon next to Yuuri before sitting back down. "Eat as much as you can. I know that you haven't had anything to eat yet today."

Yuuri just nodded as he used his newly acquired implement to assemble a perfect bite of rice, salmon, and tea. Viktor wasn't actually surprised to hear that Yuuri hadn't eaten anything, but he didn’t like hearing it, either. However, that thought was instantly derailed once Yuuri held his chopsticks out to Viktor, offering up a delicate bite of fish. "You need to try it, Vitya. The white miso is so good."

Viktor swallowed as he leaned forward to take the fish from Yuuri’s chopsticks before smiling. "You’re right. it is. I should have you tell me how to make it."

Yuuri shook his head. "I won't be held responsible for you burning down your apartment building."

Viktor stood up with a huff. "So mean, Yura. I'm going to go and get my own food."

"It's not mean to tell you the truth." Yuuri replied, chopsticks hovering over the omelet. "You burned a pot of water when I stayed with you."

Viktor just shrugged and headed back toward the buffet. Why did Yura have to keep making such a big deal about the pot? Even if Viktor had damaged it, pots were made to be replaced. It didn’t warrant that much fuss, let alone Yura immediately rushing out to buy Viktor some fancy and totally frivolous egg cooking gadget. Admittedly, that purchase meant Viktor could now enjoy some wonderful soft-boiled eggs on toast instead of trying and failing to poach them in water, only to end up with a kind of scrambled egg soup—assuming he didn’t forget about the pot altogether.

As Viktor walked away, he heard Kai’s voice—low, but not quite low enough to escape his notice. “So now that the two other stooges have left for a minute, I want to ask you a quick question about your free. Not for you to answer, but to just think about."

"I'm not one of the stooges," Yuuri groaned. "I don't want to be one of the stooges. And I can't just go out there and skate my free like I did in Osaka. It’s not possible."

"I know. I'm not asking you to. What I am asking is now that you know what the rink is like, what do you think? I haven't skated on the ice, so I don't know what it's like out there. You do. I need information."

"Oh. Well, the ice isn’t great. It’s so much harder…"

Viktor nodded to himself as he headed over to the pasta bar. Apparently, he didn't need to worry. Yuuri was actually in good hands for once.

***

Yuuri laced up his right boot before looking around. Only three other people from his warm-up group had shown up for the morning practice: Mickey, who was currently in 7th, Stephen, who was in 10th, and Murata, who was in 12th. The others had probably opted to sleep in.

Yuuri took a deep breath as he approached Murata. "I have a stupid question to ask, and feel free to tell me 'no.'"

The other skater sighed and shook his head before replying in Japanese. "I hate your stupid requests."

"If you have a problem with it, I won't even ask the other two."

"I don't actually care," Murata said as he leaned forward and started digging around in his bag. "Go ahead. I just think the whole exercise is ridiculous. I know how to skate around you; I’ve done it before."

Stephen gave Yuuri a sideways look, clearly lost in the exchange.

"If you want a corner for figures, go ahead, I don't mind," Mickey chimed in, answering the younger skater’s unspoken question. "Katsuki wants to waste his practice time skating figures in the corner, so he was going to ask if we'd be all right giving up one. He'll move during a runthrough if you need him to, and he skates far enough from the edge that he's easy to go around otherwise, so I don't care. Your choice. If you say no, he won't do it."

"I wasn't going to skate them for the whole practice," Yuuri replied. His voice got softer. "Just half the practice."

Stephen's jaw dropped open. "Seriously? This is the stuff I missed by not skating in Juniors? You use competition practice time to skate figures? The things that no one cares about anymore? That haven't been a part of the competition since who knows when?"

"1990," Yuuri muttered, but Murata's answer was louder.

"When he is moody, yes." The Japanese skater stretched his back on the wooden bench. "Also when he is bored. Or… that word for thinking."

"Pensive," Yuuri supplied, mostly on instinct.

"Or when he wants to confuse everyone–" Murata continued.

"Or when he's struggling to get his edges clean on hard ice." Mickey interjected, shaking his head as he pulled out a small towel from his bag. "It's why he faceplanted on the quad Salchow in the short. He didn’t have as much grip on the edge as he’s used to." He looked over at Yuuri. "It's our first and only time back on the arena ice before the free since then. If you've been watching Yuuri during the last couple of practice sessions at the other rink, you'll have noticed he was running all his step sequences shallower than he typically does, and failed a lot of the toepick jumps because he was trying to mimic how he'd have to pick on the ice tonight. Though the ice at the practice rink is slightly softer, which is annoying because there’s no consistency between the two rinks."

Yuuri sighed softly. "Thank you for telling them my strategy, Mickey."

"Figurati. (You're welcome.) Sara and I watched your short four or five times last night to figure out what happened. Once we did, your weirdness at practice started making a lot more sense." The Italian skater shrugged. "Glad to see you aren't giving up yet. Too bad I'm already ahead of you, though. And my Free at Euros outscored yours at the Grand Prix Final."

Stephen laughed sharply. "Did you watch him skate his free in Osaka?"

"Sara was watching it, so I may have seen some of it. But he's not going to be able to skate it like that on this ice. Even spending half a practice session doing figure eights."

Stephen simply shrugged in response. "OK, Katsuki. You can have your corner."

***

"What is he doing?" Chris sighed. Technically, he and Viktor were supposed to be warming up, and had in fact been doing so. But Viktor wasn't about to go all out in practice, and neither was Chris; after all, they weren’t jumping straight into competition afterwards. So when Viktor suggested taking a break to go off and watch the very beginning of Yuuri's warmup group, Chris was quick to agree.

Viktor grimaced. "Figures."

Chris shook his head. "Figures? Figures? His coach just lets him do this?" He glanced over to the coaching staff. Celestino was standing next to Kai with his arms crossed over his chest, nodding at whatever the assistant coach was saying. The man definitely seemed more at ease than he had during the run up to the short program.

Viktor, who had been craning his neck in search of a better view, suddenly relaxed. "Hm. I think it might be one of the crosses. I've seen this one before, though it's messier than usual."

On the ice, Yuuri had his head down and his attention focused on his feet. Chris gave his friend a skeptical look. "You are both so weird. Do the two of you seriously skate old figures for fun?"

"Oh, I don't. I most definitely don't. Please, no. I don't have the patience for that, and Yakov says that I don't have the skill, but he doesn't actually mean that. At least I don’t think he does. No, I don't do this for fun. Only Yura." Viktor paused. "Well, I suppose that other people in the world probably do as well, but he's the only competitive skater I know who does this. There are skaters competing now that have never heard of patch ice, let alone have a scribe."

Chris at least knew what that was. His first coach as a kid had one, and Chris still remembered how much he’d hated it every time the man had brought it out—not that it happened often. "Do not tell me that Yuuri has his own scribe."

"It’s bright blue and engraved with his name on it, even." Viktor laughed. "I don't think that he uses it that much any more. Only if he's trying to match a tracing for something."

At that moment, Yuuri's free skate music was announced for his runthrough. He seamlessly moved from the figure he was doing to circling the rink as the music played, occasionally skating bits of his program. He ran through one of his spins before moving on and hitting the point for his quad Lutz, opting to jump a triple with a Tano instead and landing it cleanly.

If Yuuri was a sailor, Chris would say that he'd gotten his sea legs back. His coach must have thought the same, because the Italian was smiling as Yuuri went into a step sequence—not his actual step sequence, but a random series of steps across the rink at speed. Chris was maybe beginning to understand why skating against Yuuri was so much fun for Viktor. It might just be fun for him, too.

***

[overhead image of Yuuri skating a somewhat elaborate cross into the ice. The tracings aren't perfectly overlapped, but are still quite good.]

lafemmekitti I don't know what he was doing, but it looks so cool! Can't wait to see Yuuri and all my other Men's faves skate! It was totally worth getting up super early to make the drive from Detroit to watch some practices. My bf is the best! ♥️ (heart emoji)

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a_jonas_bro Thanks, babe. ♥️ (heart emoji)

[Jamal, Jonas, Kitti, and Becky in front of the Arena and the large sign for the 2013 World Championships]

lafemmekitti Only here for the day, but I'm so excited! Going to grab lunch somewhere if we can all agree on a place since concessions are $$$ as usual and then I'm going to try and learn about pairs skating as we watch the last two groups perform. Don't know what we're going to do during all the downtime before the Main Event!

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[Canadian pair skaters doing an overhead lift]

lafemmekitti I'd be scared of breaking my neck. But I think the toss and catch thing is even scarier. (The toss thing is called a Twist lift apparently.) Ladies of Pairs are BRAVE!

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[Most of the Michigan group at Covent Garden posing in the crowded market]

lafemmekitti Apparently the whole arena (OK maybe not that many people) decided to walk to Covent Garden market after Pairs as well

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[The group holding up a 'Go Yuuri!' banner]

lafemmekitti We are ready! We've given Jonas the plush to throw since he has the best arm. Thanks to the 3musketeer fan for taking a picture of us with our banner!

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***

[X]

Get Ready with Me!!! To watch the Figure Skating World Championships!!! (Men’s Free)

phichit_chu 15 videos

605 views

103 likes 20 dislikes

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So I broke my ankle and my roomie is in London and I am stuck in Detroit and mad and sad and stressed and my friends all said that I should maybe just journal it all out, but that's not me. So instead I'm going to vlog it all out! So I'm going to beat my face and talk about the Men's Short and what I think is going to happen with the Men's Free and try to upload it before the Free starts so you can all have my predictions!

===

Top Comments

nb_charming
There is so much tea! I love you!

weshallskate
Not saying that you should do vids like this all the time, but you should do vids like this all the time. I would so watch them.

Lion_in_wait
This is not what I meant by saying you needed to vent, Phichit

Leeseunggil
…
……………………………..

darkchocolatespaceegg
Your roommate seems like he's really high strung. It's just going to watch figure skating. Like seriously, it's not like he's competing there!!!

vanillaicesk8 replying to darkchocolatespaceegg
Um, actually his roommate is competing there. In fact, Phichit was supposed to compete there. If you look at a couple of other videos on his channel, one of them is one of Phichit's practices in Osaka last month at Four Continents. Did you actually watch anything past the 2 minute mark because the whole video was about this??? You know he's an actual figure skater, right?????????

darkchocolatespaceegg replying to vanillaicesk8
People lie on the internet all the time!

ice_queen_drag
Was expecting drag. Didn't get drag, but did get to find out stuff on figure skating that I didn't know, so that was cool. Would totally watch another video like this.

sk8_madonna
He's going to be fine. You just make sure that you take care of your ankle.

frozenritas
Did you really call out the Lutz Talk podcast???? Is there going to be Twitter drama????

einhorn_chan
I'm sorry to hear about your ankle. I must have missed the posts about it on instagram. I had wondered why you withdrew, but I'm not like super super dialed into fs fandom spaces so only knew because you didn't compete in the short. That sucks so much

iceiceskater
Noooooooo! Get better soon!

Icekingniki
Was looking for an upload of the Men's short and this came up in the search results so I clicked. I am definitely a fan! Consider me subscribed! Because I am going to hope that you keep doing things like this

skatellama
Had expected more since someone mentioned there was tea, but like I guess there was, but it was all like how you broke your ankle and a bit about your roommate feeling bad about it but like I thought there was like actual drama. Though I guess calling Lutz Talk mean might be drama, but you wouldn't be the first skater to do it and you won't be the last, and I mean you might have a point but like he owns that he's mean.
Maybe I'm just a drama llama

milawarriorprncss
All the thumbs up or likes or whatever! Feel better!

***

“OK. I found it.” Tabitha squinted at her phone. “He’s skating in the… second to last group, according to Skate Trails. I don’t really keep up with Men’s, though, so I can’t tell you anything about Katsuki.”

Jade just shook her head before leaning back into her seat. While she had vaguely understood that this event was going to be an all-day thing, it was really an all day thing. But as long as her wife was happy though, Jade didn’t mind. The skating was interesting enough, and coming gave her a chance to support one of her students “That’s fine. I just wanted to see if we’d missed his skate because it’d be nice to see how he does.”

One of the women suddenly behind them leaned forward. “I didn’t realize that you were a Katsuki fan!” Jade recognized the face but scrambled for a name; she remembered they’d chatted with her during the Pairs event before going off on an antiquing excursion with the friends they were staying with. Despite the sizable break between the Pairs event and the Men’s, they’d ended up missing most of the first two groups altogether since dinner had gone long.

“I, uh, actually don’t know a lot about him. Found out about him from a girl in one of my fitness classes.” Which was technically true; Jade suspected Yuuri probably wouldn’t want it to become public knowledge that he took pole fitness classes.

The woman just nodded. “That’s always the way it is with him. I mean, I follow Juniors too, so I’ve known about him for years now. But it’s only his second season in Seniors, and I’m constantly talking to people who saw a skate of his and then were instant fans.”

That kind of made sense. Yuuri performing, even in her class, was quite different to Yuuri just existing, and he was still a relative newcomer to the world of pole dancing. The difference between Yuuri existing and Yuuri skating was bound to be much more explosive.

Tabby twisted around to join the conversation. “I’m mostly a dance girl myself, but I’ve heard the name before. I’m sure I’ve probably seen at least one of his programs, but I can’t remember them.”

“Well, he’s definitely getting his name tossed around more. His skating at Four Continents a couple of weeks ago was incredible and he definitely deserved the gold there, though you won’t find many Canadians who agree!” Laughing lightly, the Katsuki fan shifted forward a bit to close the gap between them. “I’m just kidding. I guess there are those fans that put country over the skater, but I’m not one of them, and Keith did great too, totally deserved the silver. I’m just partial to Yuuri’s skating and I think he’s a bit underrated among fans. A lot of Viktor’s fans won’t admit it, but they really dislike that Katsuki beat Viktor’s World Records in Juniors, and just can’t stand the idea that there is a skater that has the potential to be just as good so can be kind of mean about him. It just sucks about his short program Wednesday, though.”

That got Jade’s attention. “What happened with his short program?”

The fan sighed and offered a helpless shrug. “I wish I knew, but it wasn’t a good skate. He fell on his quad and slid hard into the wall. I hope he’s all right, but the rest of the program was a mess too. Which is such a shame, because I love his short program this season. It’s usually gorgeous.”

Another spectator joined in their little conversation from a few seats down. “Yeah, but the short program for a lot of the men was a complete disaster. Katsuki wasn’t alone in falling. Not even Viktor made it through unscathed. It seems like everyone decided now was the perfect time to try for a quad and compete with Viktor.”

“No. Yuuri has been landing that quad Salchow all season,” the Katsuki fan replied “It’s not his prettiest jump, but he’s been landing it. It wasn’t a throw-caution-to-the-wind kind of jump.”

“All right,” the newcomer demurred, “Fair point. I’ll give you that. At least it’s not his Lutz. I swear every time he jumps that quad, I think he’s going to break an ankle.”

The other woman behind them—presumably the Katsuki fan’s friend—started laughing. “His Lutz is perfect! He’s the only one who actually has an edge on his Lutz! Unlike Manu, who gets an edge call almost every single time. Though I’ll admit that Chris’s Lutz has been getting better. I don’t know if I’d be as picky as the caller at Euros, though. I’d say he had a slight outside edge there.”

“I know Katsuki’s edge is great on his Lutz, but it doesn’t change the fact that I think he’s going to break an ankle every time I see it with how deep it is,” Newcomer argued.

Jade just shook her head. “I don’t even know what a Lutz is.”

Tabby patted her knee affectionately. “It’s a really difficult jump, sweetie. I had heard that some of the men had it this season, but I didn’t realize that Katsuki was one of them.”

“Oh. I mean, there’s usually one person that tries it,” Newcomer replied. “It doesn’t go as well as they hope, either because of edge issues or falls, or because it’s just not quite there. Pretty safe bet that's why not even Nikiforov skates it any more since he got his flip. I’d say that Katsuki is the first one who really had it down. The judges are being stingy with their GOEs, in my opinion.”

Below them, the group who had fanned out across the ice with their buckets—apparently filling in divots and deep scratches from the previous competitors—were starting to head for the exit, meaning a Zamboni was no doubt on its way to put down fresh ice.

Katsuki Fan’s friend sighed after a moment. “I wish I could have afforded a trip to Nice last year and seen Liebestraum live.”

“Honestly, I’m a much bigger fan of Viktor’s, so I was happy since I managed to see him skate at the Grand Prix Final last season when it was in Quebec.”

“I heard that a Grand Prix thing is coming to Detroit,” Jade replied, just happy to have something to add to the conversation.

“Really?” Tabitha looked at her, eyes suddenly alight. “To Detroit? I haven’t looked to see where Skate America was going to be next season yet.”

Katsuki Fan nodded. “Oh yeah. And I really hope that Yuuri gets assigned since he trains in Detroit because I will definitely drive down from Guelph if he does. I’d love to see him live again. And when the events are smaller like Grands Prix, it can be easier to meet the skaters if they have the time and inclination.”

"Time and inclination? Katsuki?" No one could have missed the snark from Newcomer, but given that she already knew Yuuri wasn't the most… outgoing person, Jade wasn’t in a position to disagree.

Katsuki Fan smacked her hands on her thighs. "Let me dream!" Then she broke out into a wide smile and laughed.

A second later, her friend tugged at her arm. “Looks like they’re going to let them onto the ice.”

Jade and Tabitha turned around in their seats. Sure enough, almost as soon as they had settled, the announcer was declaring the start of the group. The skaters all took off onto the ice, some handing things off to the people standing on the other side of the boards before scattering.

“I can’t tell who is who,” Jade remarked.

“Fluffy hair in the Japan jacket is Murata, he’s the other Japanese skater. Slicked back hair is Yuuri,” Katsuki Fan supplied.

Over the speakers, the announcer started calling out the names of the skaters and the country they represented. Each was greeted with cheers and applause, even though none of the skaters broke from their warmup to acknowledge it. Katsuki Fan cheered for each skater, but was especially loud when Yuuri’s name was finally called, bellowing out, “Yuuri, Ganbaaaaa!”

Down on the ice, Yuuri unzipped his jacket before handing it over to a woman standing at the boards.

“Oh my god! Is that Kai Tamm? Kai showed up? Hallelujah!” Katsuki Fan certainly sounded overjoyed. “Should have been checking the forums. I bet her showing up was already mentioned.”

So did her friend. “My prayers have been answered! Do you think if I pray hard enough, he’ll come to his senses and go back to Alexei?”

Jade glanced over her shoulder at them.

“Kai is the assistant coach at the Detroit Skate Club that Yuuri works with,” Katsuki Fan explained. “She’s the tiny Hawaiian woman next to the idiot Italian with the big hair who is supposed to be Yuuri’s coach. Sorry, I’m just from the side of Yuuri’s fandom who isn’t really pleased with how Cialdini is coaching our boy.”

And when Jade looked back at the ice, it was the woman who was talking to Yuuri. Another skater came up and stopped in a way that sprayed Yuuri with ice; he just leaned over and brushed the crystals off his black pants without looking away from his assistant coach.

“Rude,” Tabitha muttered. “Shouldn’t he get in trouble?”

“It’s Michele Crispino. It wouldn’t be a competition where they competed together without Yuuri getting sprayed by a Michele hockey stop.” As Newcomer finished their commentary, Michele left the boards, though not before patting Yuuri once on the shoulder. Yuuri didn’t look back, but held out a thumbs up to the other skater. Yuuri’s coach seemed to approve of the gesture, since he looked like he was laughing.

“Michele is going to regret that because KAI IS HERE!” Katsuki Fan cheered. A few people around them chuckled.

“Using the Goncharov (1973) soundtrack for his free is reason enough for Mickey to come ahead of Katsuki!” someone commented.

“Are you a Mickey fan or a Goncharov fan?” Newcomer asked.

“Does it matter?” came the reply.

Fair enough. As long as the music included the famous Clocktower Theme, Jade was on board for watching the Italian skater perform to the Goncharov soundtrack.

“Wait, so did Katsuki just not have a coach for the short if she wasn’t here?” Tabitha asked Katsuki Fan.

“Oh, he did. The Italian guy, Cialdini, is his official coach. Like when you watch on TV and the chyron says who the coaches are, it's listed as C. Cialdini, A. Turov, and sometimes K. Tamm. But Cialdini also coaches a handful of other people and is the head coach at the Detroit Skate Club. It’s not confirmed, but a lot of Katsuki’s fans think that the bulk of his coaching is done by Kai Tamm. But even if it isn’t, Kai is the coach that seems to settle Katsuki’s nerves the best at competitions. At least with this coaching team. She’s no Turov, but I’ll take her over him having another breakdown rinkside again.”

“Turov? As in Alexei Turov?” Tabby asked.

“Who’s Alexei Turov?” Jade countered. The announcer called the end of the warm-up and all but one skater headed for the exit.

“If it’s the Turov I’m thinking of, just one of the best Men’s skaters ever under the 6.0 system. He won the Olympics in 2002. People cried when he announced his retirement due to a knee injury,” Tabby answered.

“The same. Turov was Yuuri’s coach when he was a Junior and led him to back-to-back Junior World Champion titles before he aged out and started skating Seniors.” Katsuki Fan sighed. “Turov really was such a good coach for him. I wished he’d stayed with him.”

“But didn’t you say he’s listed as a coach?” Jade asked.

“Mmhmm. He was brought on as Yuuri’s jump coach this season, and works with him when he’s in Japan. But you won’t see him at a competition with Yuuri as a coach ever. Even when he’s at the competition,” Katsuki Fan’s Friend replied.

Everyone quieted when the music started for the first skater. Now they were all focused on the program, applauding for each competitor in turn.

Yuuri was the third skater, taking to the ice right after the other Japanese competitor in the group. The previous skater had been good, but definitely came across as nervous and seemed to struggle after falling midway through his program.

Behind her, Jade heard Katsuki Fan’s Friend ask, “If Yuuri skates as well as he did in Osaka, he can get into the top six, right?”

“I think so. If he skates really well, he has a chance to really move up. But a lot is going to depend on the other skaters that still have to skate. I mean, the first two skaters in this group have already been a mess.” Katsuki Fan sighed. “I am seriously bummed about his short. I wanted him to get on the podium and to at least win bronze! Would be such an iconic podium.”

Bronze? Jade hadn’t realized that Yuuri was that good, but when he started his program, it was clear that he really was more than just the "all right" he’d offered. No, Yuuri was an amazing skater. The control over his body positions that had always surprised her in class made so much more sense in the context of how he was moving now. Of course, someone who could do what Yuuri was doing out on the ice—it wasn’t like Jade had never strapped on skates before, she lived in Michigan and knew how critical balance was just to move around the edge of a skating rink—would need immense balance and control. And Yuuri leaned into the movements in ways that the other skaters she’d seen did not.

“Holy shit! Did he just Tano his quad Lutz?” Newcomer gasped.

At the end, Yuuri went into a spin, finishing by bending his back and then grabbing the blade of his skate to lift his foot above his head in a tear shape. And really, Jade shouldn’t have been surprised he could do that, either. She’d already seen him do it on a pole, and that very pose was named the ‘extended skater’ after a figure skating spin. Probably even this figure skating spin.

“His Biellmann spin has returned from the war!” Katsuki Fan cheered. “Thank you, new dance lessons that helped his flexibility!” The woman stopped clapping long enough to pick up a little brown creature plush from below her seat; Jade couldn’t identify it, but it was wearing ice skates and a costume that looked suspiciously like the one that Yuuri was wearing on the ice, right down to the glittery rhinestones. Jade was still taking in the details when Katsuki Fan suddenly chucked it at the ice before resuming her applause.

“What do you mean, ‘dance lessons’?” Jade asked after a moment.

Katsuki Fan resumed her applause as she glanced at Jade. “Oh, apparently he’s been struggling with his flexibility the last year or so. Just typical getting older and going through puberty stuff. He’d stopped doing the Biellmann this season since he didn’t want to damage his back until he could get the range of motion back. If he could get the range of motion back. He mentioned in an interview last month that he’d started a new dance class a few months ago, and it was really helping him regain some of the flexibility he’d lost. Not that he wasn’t still crazily flexible, but Biellmanns for male skaters are hard, I mean they’re hard anyway, but it’s why you don’t see many men do it. Catch foot camel spins, yes, but laybacks to Biellmanns, not so much.”

Jade just nodded politely and turned back around.

“Jade?”

Tabby’s tone made it clear she was about to ask the obvious question. Jade looked back at her wife, then thought of all the ears around. “Later.”

***

Breaking his ending pose, Yuuri took a deep breath and gave his bows—first to the judges’ side, then to the rest of the audience. He was happy with the end result of his free. It wouldn't erase the short, but it'd been a good skate; hopefully as good as it had been back at Four Continents. He glid in a lazy circle before starting for the exit, only to stop when he heard his name being called above the applause.

"YUUUUURI! YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURI!" It was not a chant, which in and of itself would be strange, but a very determined group shout. "YUUUUURI!"

He squinted up at a line of people that he couldn't quite make out. One of them looked like they were about to throw something, so he preemptively put his hands up in front of him. A stuffed animal of some sort went flying; a blue bandana and bright yellow "M" came into focus, wrapped around what Yuuri could only assume was a wolverine plush. It was definitely ugly enough, and he didn't think having his glasses on would make it any less so. He laughed.

There was a whoop, followed by a booming "That's my boy!" That could only have been Jonas. Yuuri shook his head as he skated to the exit, holding the stuffed wolverine aloft.

Kai chuckled as she took the plush from him while Yuuri focused on slipping his guards on. Once he was done, he retrieved the wolverine and headed to the Kiss and Cry, making a point of waving it at the cameras before setting it on his lap so he could pull his white Team Japan jacket on.

The wait in the Kiss and Cry seemed interminable, Yuuri's fingers flexed into fists on his thighs as he waited for his scores to come back. It had felt good. Better than good, really. And even better than that, Yuuri had skated cleanly. Not super perfect—some of his edges were less than ideal—but cleanly.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you finally managed to get a 3 on the quad Lutz. Or at least something north of 2.7 on it once everything averages out," Celestino remarked next to him. "I was worried the Tano might make you go off axis, but it is the most solid of your quads, so I probably didn't have to be."

Yuuri just nodded. A moment later, the scores came up on the monitors in front of him. Yuuri leaned forward to try and make them out. Hard as it was to see the numbers, it was still easier than trying to parse what the announcer was saying over the speakers.

He didn't need to make the podium. He just wanted to redeem this program from the dumpster fire it had been at the beginning of the season and redeem himself from his short program. If he did a little better than he had last season at Worlds, he'd consider it a bonus.

"Yuuri Katsuki of Japan is currently in first place," the generically pleasant announcer's voice proclaimed over the speakers.

That current placement wasn't going to last, obviously, but there was enough of a buffer in the points that Yuuri could make the top six. The entirety of the last group needed to skate, and a lot could happen in that time.

***

As it turned out, a lot did happen: a complete upset in the rankings allowed Yuuri to get the small bronze medal for the free and land just off the podium in fourth. The small medal was about the size of a 50 yen coin and hung off a ribbon that was easily twice as wide as the medal, which made the whole ensemble look pretty comical. Not that it mattered; it wasn't like he was actually ever going to wear it. Well, ever again.

Still, he had a World Championship small medal. Not as good as a World Championship medal, and not as good as a World Record, but right now it almost felt like it to him.

Luckily, he didn't have to stay for the remainder of the press conference after the free and ducked out as soon as he could. Viktor, Chris, and Dušan could have all the attention they wanted. He didn't want it, and since he wasn't the random skater drawn for doping control, nothing was stopping him from just taking off back to the hotel.

Yuuri pulled his phone out intending to text Katya, asking her to tell Viktor and Chris that he'd already gone back. However, he was greeted by a fresh message notification just a few minutes old.

Jonas Are you ever going to leave the arena or should we just give up?
	Yuuri
	You're still here?!
Jonas Well, everyone who drove is trying to leave, which means we'd be sitting in a traffic jam for like forty minutes to an hour anyway, so we decided to just follow this group of die hard Viktor fans who were saying they were going to wait to see if they could get his autograph at the skaters exit where you all apparently pick up the shuttle or something We did not follow the fans that said they were going to wait outside of his hotel because that sounded a little creepy There were definitely skaters coming out of the exit (Kitti recognized those Italian siblings and got the girl's autograph), so we're in the right place but no you
	Yuuri
	Good thing you didn't follow the fans to the hotel. I'm not in the same hotel as Viktor. I'm on the other side of the block. I'm heading for the exit now, actually. I had to go to the press conference because of the small medal ceremony and only now escaped.
Jonas Great! What's a small medal?
	Yuuri
	At Championships they give literal small medals to the top three skaters for the Short and for the Free. I had the third best Free Skate of the night, so I got a tiny bronze medal. I'll show you when I get out in a minute.
Jonas YOU MEDALLED! WE'RE CELEBRATING!!!!
	Yuuri
	No! It's not a medal medal! It's a small medal! Just for the Free!

Yuuri shoved his phone into his pocket and hurried for the exit, hoping he could explain it better when he finally saw his friends in person. Not that it did any good; they thought his small medal was even cooler than he did.

***

Yuuri shifted from one foot to another as he waited for Katya to open the door to her room. This could go horribly. For one thing, they could be busy. Yuuri was really hoping they weren't.

But his luck held, even if Katya looked less than pleased to see him when she opened the door. Her Russian was snappy and sharp, even by her standards. "Just because you did well and salvaged your total score doesn't mean you get to barge in and ruin my night!" she huffed. "You've been monopolizing her since she's gotten here."

Yuuri pressed his lips together to keep himself from laughing. "If I'd been doing well in the first place she wouldn't have come up to London at all."

"I don't approve of your logic." Katya crossed her arms over her chest but moved to the side to admit him. "It's not like I wanted you to do bad to summon her here."

Yuuri looked over at Kai who was just standing uncomfortably next to the small hotel table. One hand crossed her chest to grasp her elbow as she listened to what probably sounded like an argument, even if it was just friendly bickering. He switched to English. "Sorry for interrupting."

Kai shook her head. "If you needed something…" The assistant coach trailed off.

“Sort of.” Yuuri crossed the small space and hugged her. "Thank you. You didn't need to come up here to help me, but you did. And I haven't actually thanked you for doing it yet, and I needed to tell you that before you left in the morning. And I'm still selfish enough to not want to have to get up early to do so," he whispered.

Kai patted his back. "I'm part of your coaching team. It's my job."

Yuuri pulled away and sniffled. "Yeah, I know that, but you weren't assigned to come here because Phichit needed someone to go to his follow-ups with him, and you rearranged things so that you could be here because you could tell I needed the extra support." He pushed up his glasses with the heel of his hand as he rubbed at one eye. "I know that I'm weak and lack confidence and let the pressure get to me. That I'm not the skater Celestino thought he was getting when he took me on. And I know that he doesn't understand me. Very few people ever have."

"Don't make it out like I did something worthy of your thanks." She rubbed his arm. "Because I didn't."

"You did, though." He sighed. "Do you honestly think that I would have managed to get a small medal if you hadn't shown up?"

"You would have gotten the silver if we'd noticed what was happening earlier," Kai huffed. "You should have been on the podium, and we both know that."

Yuuri shook his head. "I don't think so. I would have needed more time on the main rink ice. Three sessions wasn't enough."

At that moment, Katya jumped up onto his back and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "That's not what she meant. She meant that if she hadn't missed that you were bottling up everything and blaming yourself for Phichit and who knows what else in that silly brain of yours, that you would have blown Chris out of the water and finally scared Viktor!"

"Get off, Katya."

"No! You never listen anyway, so maybe if I become as annoying as you–"

"Aren't you already?"

Kai snickered. "You really do sound like siblings."

"Why wouldn't we?" Katya asked, still hanging off of Yuuri despite his best efforts. "You didn't know him when he was just this little twerp of a ballet dancer that Yakov had taken on. Tiny and preternaturally graceful, but couldn't land a jump on the main rink to save his soul unless he thought absolutely no one was watching him." She finally slid off his back and walked around him. "He used to let my little sister boss him around,” she told Kai. “It was pathetic."

"Hey! Mila is a force of nature!" Yuuri exclaimed.

Katya just scoffed at him. "She literally would huff at you and stomp her little skate until you did what she told you to. She ordered you to Russia last summer and you showed up."

Yuuri shrugged. "That was only because she was paying me."

Katya rolled her eyes. "My point was that someone needed to defend you, so of course I stepped up. Vitya certainly wasn't going to. He was too busy getting you into trouble." She crossed her arms. "Look, I know I'm probably a sorry excuse for an assistant coach, but Kai isn't. She means it when she says she doesn't want you to thank her because she doesn't think she deserves it. Now, I might not agree with that, but I understand where she's coming from. So accept that she's sorry she failed you, and she'll accept your thanks. And then you can get the hell out of my hotel room so I can spend some alone time with my amazing girlfriend!"

***

Yuuri came to a stop a few feet from the top of the steps that he’d just climbed and fidgeted. There was no way that he was going to join Viktor and Christophe in getting mobbed by a horde of figure skating fans, and the fact that they kept willingly subjecting themselves to that kind of hell amazed him. For his part, he was happy to stay put on the side of the stanchions that blocked off the area from the general public and looked down at the carpet instead, shifting from foot to foot.

“Yuuri!”

Yuuri glanced up and caught sight of Jade holding hands with another woman who was hissing something at his pole instructor under her breath. So much for alone time. He lifted his hand in a little wave before heading over, taking care to still keep a little distance between himself and the blocked-off space where Viktor and Chris were hosting their little meet-and-greet.

“Caught your skate last night. You did good! Really liked the extended skater at the end there,” Jade said.

Yuuri nodded with a small chuckle. “Well, if you had to see one of my programs, I’m glad that it was that one. Though in skating, the pose is called a Biellmann, after the skater who first did it.”

The other woman—Jade’s wife, he assumed—groaned and turned her face into Jade’s shoulder. “Stop,” she moaned. “Don’t try to talk skater.” At a second glance, she did look a little familiar, and Yuuri suddenly realized that he had actually seen her working around Latte Heart from time to time.

“I guess I should say ‘Happy Anniversary’,” Yuuri continued. “Though I don’t know when it actually is. I hope the competition is as enjoyable as your wife hoped, though.”

“Thanks! Tabby, this is Yuuri! He’s that guy I told you about that Celeste dragged into my Thursday classes. The one who only shows up half the time.” Jade pushed her shoulder against her wife’s. “He’s also the one who got me the tickets for this. I thought he’d run afoul of a scam, but no, he legitimately saved my butt so I didn’t have to hit up the mall jewelry store and beg your forgiveness for putting off buying the tickets for too long.”

“It's nice to meet you. If you want, I can remind Jade when tickets go on sale for Skate America this summer. They usually go on sale in July, I think, since it’s traditionally the first of the qualifiers. I should be back in Detroit by then.”

“You know Yuuri Katsuki, an actual internationally ranked figure skater, and you didn’t say anything?” Tabby looked back and forth between her wife and Yuuri in visibly growing amazement.

Jade sucked in a breath between her teeth. “Didn't know he skated until he offered up the tickets. And to be fair, I was really enjoying being the super awesome wife that pulled off the amazingly good tickets at the last minute to make your anniversary dreams come true. I had no idea if you’d know who he was, since you usually just talk about the ice dancers. And I didn’t even know if we’d run into him here.”

“I was glad to offer up the tickets, since I didn’t know anyone wanted them. Even my friends who came yesterday never mentioned that they were coming to see me skate.”

“Oh right, the wolverine plush they tossed at you!” Jade nodded. “You know, a fan of yours was sitting behind us and was helping me understand all the things. She tossed a little brown creature onto the ice and I suspect it was wearing a custom outfit since it had ice skates and what looked like your costume.”

Yuuri was taken aback. It wasn’t unheard of to get an occasional custom thing thrown onto the ice, though it happened much more often to Viktor. Yuuri, however, didn’t think anyone had ever gone through the trouble of making a replica of one of his costumes before. “I’ll have to check my bag for it. They gather up all the plushes and just bag them, so mine is sitting in my room.”

“Yuuri! Photo time!” Yuuri looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, Viktor was waving his hand for Yuuri to come and join them on the other side of stanchions.

Yuuri sighed. There probably wasn’t any getting out of this one. “Now that I’ve been spotted, I should go. Enjoy the rest of the competition!”

“Congratulations on coming in fourth!” Tabitha said.

“Thank you!” Yuuri smiled. “I’ll see you at Thursday’s class, Jade!”

***

[A Little Big Planet Sackboy dressed in Yuuri’s Free Skate costume chilling on a hotel bed with an ugly UofM wolverine plush. The ribbon of the small bronze has been folded over and the medal draped around the Sackboy plush’s neck, the scale almost perfect for the plush.]

katsukiyuuri found this little guy hiding out with some other stuffed friends. thank you all so much for your support! I haven’t had a chance to play much Little Big Planet, but the Vita edition is definitely on my to play list! Thanks for the reminder! #wcfs2013 #figureskating #sony #playstation #psvita #littlebigplanet #sackboy #worldchampionshipsfs

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poutineontheritz OH MY GOD! I didn’t know what would happen to it, but I’m so glad that you saw it! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! You skated so awesome!

katsukiyuuri @poutineontheritz I may have been tipped off to go looking for it by a dance instructor of mine who saw you throw it. also the detail on the costume is amazing!

poutineontheritz @katsukiyuuri thank you! I sewed it myself! (not the sack boy, I can’t do plushies like that, but the clothes. I made the outfit!)

katsukiyuuri @poutineontheritz you are seriously talented! Also please tell me that you used the knock off AB rhinestones because the real ones are too expensive! Trust me, I know.

badbiscuit what happens to all the plushies and flowers you get?

katsukiyuuri @badbiscuit I try to keep a few from each competition, but there is no way that I can keep them all. Neither my apartment in Detroit nor my home in Japan have the room for them, so I’ve taken a page from @v-nikiforov’s book and most get donated to various charities at the end of the season. Some do get adopted by friends and family, however. There was a cute stuffed narwhal from nationals that @alexeiturov’s son kept. I offered LOVE-ly their pick after the 4CC as a thank you for performing at the gala. My mother found a daruma plush with a poodle face a couple of years ago that she keeps on the sofa. (I’m almost jealous that I somehow missed that one). But all of them are very much appreciated.

katsukiyuuri @badbiscuit Not many of the flowers survive the throwing and manhandling, so it depends. Sometimes it’s just enough for one bouquet. Many of the skaters I know, including myself, take whatever flowers are still in good condition and make up bouquets for the housekeeping staff at our hotel or give them out to the volunteers that work the events.

icebabyice would you get mad if I tossed a chew toy for the Pipsqueak onto the ice?

katsukiyuuri @icebabyice Not at all! I’d have to check it over, but as long as it was safe, I bet Vicchan would love it! (it would have to obviously be a dog toy… I know some dog toys look like stuffed animals, but I try not to give him many of that type)

3musketskaters are you replying to comments on your instagram instead of watching ice dance?

katsukiyuuri @3musketskaters No. The ice is currently being resurfaced and @v-nikiforov and @giacometti-cg are off in search of coffee.

phichit chu are you going to let me look at all the plushies and pick one or two since I couldn’t go to London

katsukiyuuri @phichit chu yes. though you’ll have access to the bags before I do, technically since they’ll get to Detroit before I do.

phichit chu @katsukiyuuri true, but I’d never break the roomie bond of trust we’ve got. I can wait until you’re back from your side trip. did you find anyone to use my concert ticket?

katsukiyuuri @phichit chu where am I going to find someone to go to a show with me last minute?

***

Yuuri skated out to a spot just off center ice, bathed in blue and purple light. He had planned on skating the newer exhibition, but had brought the costume for "Shake it Out" just in case. Given the circumstances of his short and free programs, it felt like the right choice. He wrapped one arm around his chest and waited for the music to start.

He rolled his shoulders and torso as the heavy organ music started, head following the movement just a beat later. With that, he pushed off, gliding backwards with his head bowed. By the time the bass drum beats came, he was dancing across the ice and picking up speed into a flying camel spin. He twisted into a bent leg, upward and slowing as he let his arm reach up as if he was drowning under the expectations of himself and those around him, then sped up as he changed feet and switched into a back sit spin. Exiting the spin, he skated a quick series of steps before exploding out with a quad toe. He knew the quad was unnecessary, but it certainly got his point across.

The first chorus was one of his favorite parts, with the transitional steps leading into a triple Axel in combination. The bridge was arguably the favorite, as the sharp step movements went into a slide and then spun into the one-handed freeze before Yuuri came down on his skates and twisted as he pushed off to get back into an upright position, spinning away.

Then it was right back into his favorite thing about skating: the steps. And because he could, and because so many people wouldn't be able to so close to the end of any performance, he changed the last jump to a quad Lutz. The World Championships might have taken a bite out of him, but he was going to bite back.

He entered his final spin and it felt good. Right. He was where he should be, for now. Because Yuuri knew he wasn't done yet. And given the applause that rang through the arena when he finished, skating wasn't done with him either.