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80srockher · 6 years

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Yuri on Ice Re-Watch and Live Commentary, Episode 11: Gotta Super-Supercharge It!! Grand Prix Final Short Program!

My thoughts, they overflow.

The cutest ‘Choose Your Fighter’ menu, ever!

Well look-a-there. The kiss seen around the world is in Yuri’s grand prix replay reel.

I was NOT expected those faces to show up in the opener. Freaked me out, tbh.

Ok, I suppose that’s a thing in skating…?

Then again, Sarah seems just as confused by that statement.

Also, Mickey, just sit there and be quiet, hm?

Ahh, this is what Victor wants Yuri to remember.

And he’s determined to make his coach proud.

Wow, Minami is the ultimate stan-er.

I mean…

If this ain’t romantic then my name is Steven Q. Urkel. And it’s not.

Rawr.

So, Yuri is more comfortable with admitting he wants to win than ever before. JJ leads the field in jumps, but a few tweaks to his routine may give Yuri an advantage.

Why, yes he does. And watch him talk you into it.

Yuri Katsuki is 1,000 - 0 in getting his way from Victor Nikiforov.

Well, doesn’t this harken back to ep. 10? Victor said he has faith in whatever Yuri decides. Here’s the follow-through.

Thanks, in part, to you, coach.

These are Victor’s words. He’s quite an erudite observer, is he not?

Two graceful gazelles quad-flipping in tandem.

Unfortunately, Yuri’s hand touches the ice when he lands. I think we all know him well-enough by now to predict how he’ll react to that.

Meanwhile, Mickey. Stop. Looking. For. Reasons. To. Touch. Sarah.

Minako+Mari = Me

Of all the expressions of the fam watching from home, this is my favorite. Hiroko knows what’s coming.

This expression, right here.

Victor feels Yuri’s disappointment – his frustration at wanting to perform to his utmost capacity – as keenly as Yuri, himself. These are emotions he likely hasn’t had to experience in quite some time. Observe his inner dialogue:

“Dunno. Don’t really care.”

Victor reflects on having been able to surprise everyone when he approached every program like a new beginning.

However, he was running out of new beginnings; lacking in inspiration from a routine existence.

The quote in this cap is telling. Victor was wrong about being able to find new strength on his own.

Yep. Becoming Yuri’s coach has benefited Victor and Yuri, both.

Probably a pep talk on how perfectionism stands in the way of greatness. But that’s just a suggestion.

Yay, we get more of the skaters’ back stories in this next-to-last ep. Phichit has always been adorable.

So… did Celestino move with him to Thailand? Is Phichit his only skater, now?

I love how Phichit draws inspiration from Yuri. Unfortunately, the only thing keeping Yuri from fully acknowledging it is his own sense of self-worth.

Darn, the camera just missed me in the far, far, far upper corner.

Awww, bby! You were great!

As intimidated as he might have by Phichit after his performance, Yuri will always support his bestie.

I mean… really?

And the two parental guardians back there are just going to stand there and let that happen, huh?

Boggles my mind how or why anyone puts up with Yurio’s behavior. But okay, I guess.

LOL @ Mari. Yuri’s Angels has a seat at the table for you.

Nerves. Everyone, except for Victor, it would seem, has them.

Hm… there’s another competition before the Final? But, yay for Guang-Hong taking home another medal!

Guy to Yurio’s right is kind of a snack, too.

This is Lilia speaking. Why Yuri isn’t reflecting on this himself as he skates – like the rest of his competitors do – I’ve no idea.

So, this is an interesting POV from Yakov. Lilia mentions in a voiceover how people shine brightest when they seek to understand what kind of love sustains them. During a section of Yurio’s routine, Yakov can’t help but subconsciously compare him to Victor. This has several implications, IMO: one being that Yakov’s love for Victor was a source of strength for Yakov, himself. Another is that Yakov had never seen Victor shine brighter than when skating. That’s… rather sad, actually, because we know that competing began to eventually drag Victor down.

Yet another implication is that Yurio is the next generation’s Victor. This deserves more elaboration; probably in ep. 12 commentary.

Their faces, here. Just…. LOL. It takes a lot to surprise them but Yurio managed to do it.

Victor watching himself at 15.

These are Yurio’s internal thoughts. Well, that’s not shooting for Agape now, is it?

Meanwhile, Yuri’s been searching for Victor and he finds him… paying attention to someone other than him.

118-decimal-point-something-something is like… the highest score we’ve seen in the show so far, I believe.

Sarah is genuinely Yuri’s friend, whether Yuri thinks so or not, lol.

Chris, the human red light.

Victor’s attention is arrested by the rest of the skaters, which is a blow to Yuri’s self-confidence. What Yuri doesn’t understand is that Victor is so sure of Yuri’s new trust in his decisions that he doesn’t feel the need to constantly reassure him. For perhaps the first time in the series, Victor has taken the time to really appreciate the athletes as a spectator.

However… Yuri is still Yuri, Victor. YOU are a large part of that newfound trust in himself.

However…… it would help if Yuri told Victor that. But, Yuri is still Yuri.

Sigh.

This is Chris’ house(?) I’m assuming it’s an apartment building.

Overconfident much?

Look at Chris’ cat carrier. And the carrier he’s carrying.

You may not have won the Final yet, Chris, but you are the gold medalist of double entendres.

So, Chris outscores Yuri.

Victor is happy for Chris. Yuri is not happy at all.

I’m about to relieve Yurio of both his feet.

Aww, baby’s first Davai.

And it’s for Otabek. Go, Otabek!

I really like this music. And Otabek is a very technically skilled skater, having already shared a podium with Victor.

He doesn’t have Yurio’s grace, so he plays to an entirely different set of strengths.

This is Yuri’s observation. And he’s right.

This is the first time Victor’s ever paid attention to Otabek, someone he competed against and who medal-ed just beneath him and Chris. LOL! This is growth for him, actually. However, Yuri (being Yuri) feels inadequate in comparison.

This isn’t pro-wrestling, JJ.

Wait a sec… what’s Otabek doing in JJ’s thoughts? Why, it’s almost as if JJ feels threatened by him. Inneresting.

As opposed to another type of pressure?

Wow, people certainly make lifetime commitments at a young age in this universe. JJ is only 19 or so? Yuko’s only two years older than Yuri. And Yuri himself… well half the series is about him and his soulmate.

This is some spooky imagery, tbqh.

Did y’all drug test JJ before the stepped on the ice?

Folks, I was one of JJ’s girls that day. You can conquer those demons, JJ!

Indeed. Internal battles are the hardest to fight, which Yuri is intimately aware of. Good on him for realizing others struggle just as much as he does.

These are Yuri’s thoughts. Such progress from last season when he was so down on himself for coming in last at the GPF. Yes, Yuri, you managed to make it to the final six TWICE in a row!

Ha! The dude with the flag. He’s the most invested person in that arena.

That’s rough to know what you’re capable of yet not live up to it.

Isabella! I was wrong about flag guy; THIS is the most invested person in the arena. No wonder JJ wanted to marry her within the year.

Unfortunately, Isabella is also an enabler. LOL.

Ha ha, what a cute, jokey moment between the lovers. So sweet. So affectionate.

Nothing, Victor, forget he ever said anything!

Yuri Katsuki: undisputed champion of f’ng up his own damn life.

These last ep’s have been ripe for the screencapping, apparently. One more to go!

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dash-ie · 7 years

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Right after Seung Gil arrived at the banquet, he soon found a place isolated from the crowd to spend the entire night without being noticed by anyone.

He was quiet, of course, but observant. His eyes were wandering the room, analysing every single thing, calculating how many hours it would be enough for him to get out of all this socialization and head to bed.

That was when he saw him, the skater from Thailand, Phichit Chulanont.

They have talked a little between competitions, usually short conversations where mostly was Phichit who was doing all the talking. Seung Gil also remembered that the skater would always comment smiles and tiny hearts whenever he posted a picture of his dog.

He... tolerated Phichit Chulanont. Yeah, tolerated, that's the word.

But when he saw him wearing a beautiful black tuxedo, with a turquoise tie and the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen, he froze.

Well, Seung Gil isn't someone that easily shows emotion, but he can't deny when he knows that someone looks really beautiful.

Beautiful, astonishing, beaming, shining.

Oh, damn.

He let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding, and then Phichit looked at him.

A wave and a shiny bright smile. Even prettier than the previous one. A smile directed at him only.

Seung Gil could only raise his hand in an attemptive of waving back, but he was too awestruck to do it properly.

Phichit laughed at the vision, cheeks slightly blushed. If his trainer wasn't calling his name in order to present him to a possible sponsor, he would have made his way to the Korean.

And when Phichit turned away, heading to where Celestino was, Seung Gil finally had some time to think again.

Only to conclude that he was, in fact, doomed.

@seungchuchuweek ★

#seungchuchuweek #whenisawyouifellinlove #andyousmiledbecauseyouknew #seungchuchu #seung gil lee #phichit chulanont #yuri on ice #day3

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toraonice · 7 years

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Yuri on Ice BD booklet translation (with Jun Shishido & Yuusuke Tannawa interview) - Volume 4

The full translation of the booklet of vol.4 is finally done... Actually, one of the reasons it took me so long is that I spent most of the time I was home from Thursday to Sunday watching Fuji TV’s live coverage of the World Championships, lol. And I’m glad I did because it was really exciting. It does make a difference to watch it live without knowing the results... I will work on the audio commentary and choreography part in the next few days, and hopefully on other stuff too.

The booklet has 3 parts: 1) Character introduction for Phichit, Chris and Guang-Hong. 2) “Topics”, in other words random curiosities. 3) Interview with chief director Jun Shishido and screen designer Yuusuke Tannawa. Most of you will probably have no idea who they are (and their titles are by no means a good explanation of what their actual role was), but I really recommend reading this interview because it gives more insight on the creation process of YOI and maybe it helps understand how hard it is to animate figure skating. The parts in round brackets are exactly like they are in the original text, it’s not something I added.

***If you wish to share this translation please do it by reblogging or posting a link to it***  ***Re-translating into other languages is ok but please mention that this post is the source***

He’s going to leave a mark in Thai’s skating history with his blades!

Phichit Chulanont voiced by Kenshou Ono

Profile Date of birth: April 30th, 20 years old Height: 165 cm Blood type: B Thai

Introduction A new hope for Thailand, that didn’t have any skaters who got remarkable results. His popularity is quickly growing also thanks to his spontaneous and pleasant skating style that mirrors his friendly personality. This season he is skating both his short program and free to songs from the movie “The King and the Skater”, which is something he had always dreamed of doing. He is the first Thai skater to have succeeded in a quadruple jump and he also obtained his first Grand Prix victory. He is continuing to rewrite Thai’s figure skating history. He used to train under Celestino in Detroit, but from this season he has moved his base back to Thailand. He loves hamsters and has a lot of them. Posts about them can be seen on his SNS. The lethal weapon made of sex appeal that shines on the ice.

Christophe Giacometti voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto

Profile Date of birth: February 14th, 25 years old Height: 183 cm Blood type: undisclosed Swiss

Introduction 10 years since he moved to the senior class, he is one of the world’s best skaters fighting for the top. Beside his quadruple Lutz and his characteristic sexy moves, he is also praised for his unique and precise spins. As a veteran, he never breaks down too much, but he is a slow starter and tends to not perform at his best in the Grand Prix series, which is held in the first half of the season. Last year he came in 2nd in both the Grand Prix Final and the World Championships. With his long-time rival Nikiforov missing this season, he is one of the candidates to snatch the king’s throne. He is a popular skater who captures the hearts of women all over the world with his passionate and alluring performances that ooze the sex appeal of a grown-up man. He has a cat. To become, one day, China’s hero.

Guang-Hong Ji voiced by Yuutarou Honjou

Profile Date of birth: January 7th, 17 years old Height: 160 cm Blood type: O Chinese

Introduction A growing 17-years-old who moved to the senior class this season. In the Grand Prix’s America tournament he placed 3rd, achieving the amazing feat of standing on the podium on his debut performance. The success rate of his quadruple jumps, which he started training for this season, is also high, and as China’s new ace he is expected to grow further in the second half of the season. He has a shy personality, but at the same time he also uploads many selfies on the SNS. It seems that he also bought a lot of clothes during his training camp in Canada. Together with his friend Chulanont from Thailand and Japan’s Minami, he is called by fans “one of Asia’s 3 cutest skaters”. YURI!!!’s TOPIC

TOPIC 1: Grand Prix Series It consists in a total of 7 tournaments: 6 tournaments held in different countries every year from the end of October to the end of November, and the final that sees the 6 skaters who got the highest scores in the other tournaments as its participants. The 6 tournaments are always held in the same countries (the order may vary), but the location of the final changes every year, and this season it’s Barcelona in Spain. The participants are chosen based on their results in tournaments regulated by ISU (International Skating Union), their world ranking, recommendations by the host country etc.; however, each skater can only participate in a maximum of 2 tournaments. In addition, only up to 3 skaters from the same country can participate in the same category of the same tournament. The period when the skaters’ allocation is announced is somewhat of a festival among skating fans.

*It’s night in Japan when the skaters’ allocation is announced *The first 6 tournaments are held in 6 countries over the span of 6 weeks *In every tournament skaters receive points depending on their placement (15 points for the 1st place, 13 points for the 2nd place and so on), and the final ranking decides who will participate in the final

TOPIC 2: Quadruple Jump (*at the moment of the Russia tournament) One of the techniques that decide the game in male figure skating is quadruple jumps. Since the number and type of jumps greatly influences the score, recently it’s common for skaters to include multiple quadruple jumps in their programs. However, according to the rules the same jump can only be repeated a limited number of times, therefore skaters try new types of jumps and train hard to be able to have more quadruple jumps to put in their programs. Currently, 5 types of jumps except for the Axel have been successfully landed in official competitions. The one with the highest score is the Lutz, which top skaters such as Victor, Giacometti and JJ are using in their programs. The quadruple toeloop, which has the lowest score, is successfully used by young skaters such as Kenjirou Minami, Guang-Hong and Phichit too. Yuuri can jump the toeloop and Salchow and is currently training to master Victor’s trademark flip. After the Lutz, the flip is the jump with the highest score.

*Yurio in his junior years getting scolded for jumping a quadruple that was not planned *Seung-gil is the first who successfully landed a quadruple loop *Emil is a jumper that has 4 quadruples in his free *JJ jumps an amazing quadruple Lutz in the second half of his program *Victor uses as his weapons 4 types of quadruples, except for the Axel and loop (in the EX he landed a loop too)

TOPIC 3: Support Item (cheering goods) It often happens to spot flags and banners used as cheering goods in figure skating venues. After a performance flower bouquets and plushes are also thrown into the rink. Banners do not only feature the skater’s name and flag; sometimes they have a message or a portrait of the skater with which people try to show their support, and in some cases they are even made using photographs. Yuuri is often thrown plushes of food. The bouquets and plushes are picked up by children who are learning skating, usually called “flower girls” and “flower boys”.

*JJ’s cheering group, called JJ girls. *Yurio’s hardcore fans are called Yuri angels. *Flags are basic items. Some fans bring different types. *Present snacks from fans for Yuuri who is on a diet? *After popular athletes skate the flower girls and boys have a hard time picking up everything *Sometimes skaters will actually put on the items that are thrown into the rink

TOPIC 4: Kiss & Cry The kiss & cry is where skaters wait for their score after a performance. The name comes from the fact that it’s a place where athletes can experience both happy and sad feelings. Normally the skater and their coach will sit there, but in some cases there might be people from a country’s federation or the choreographer too. In many venues there will be a microphone, therefore skaters can also send messages to their family and fans. If you listen to the broadcast closely you might be able to hear the athlete and coach reviewing the performance or other conversations.

*Sometimes the coach might strike a pose too *It’s also a place where athletes vow to make up for a defeat *”Please support me!” addressed to the viewers *The JJ style gesture in the kiss & cry is a recurrence *Michele’s sister Sara can be seen in the kiss & cry too Chief director / Screen designer Jun Shishido & Yuusuke Tannawa interview

I want to make the gag scenes dynamic. (Shishido) The opening of episode 11 was possible thanks to the viewers’ response. (Tannawa)

Shishido: I’m the chief director, but in fact I did a lot of things. Director Yamamoto was too busy, so she mainly did sound and editing, and then since it’s an original story she focused on the story composition… Tannawa: Shishido-san was like the site supervisor. We would ask things related to the story itself to director Yamamoto, but the one who actually took action and gave directions was Shishido-san. Though in the credits I appear as “screen designer”, the anime’s screen design was created by the director of photography, and my job in this series mainly consisted in creating the footage for PVs, OP etc. and checking the final product before delivery. I started working on the PV at the beginning of 2016. I asked director Yamamoto what kind of layout she had in mind, and decided how to set the visuals of the series. Regarding the contents of the episodes I also discussed with Shishido-san about various topics – for example, “this processing can be done with camerawork, this expression can be recreated with CG” – and shared this information with the involved work groups.

-Trial and error to create the huge amount of skating scenes.-

T: In figure skating athletes perform while continuously moving around, therefore it was extremely difficult to understand where an athlete was and in what direction he was skating in each frame. In the 1st episode we created a CG model of the skater based on the real choreography footage and had it skate in a rink created with 3DCG, then we followed it with tridimensional camerawork and used that footage as a base for the animation. It was a very elaborate process. However, we realized that it was impossible to continue using this method with the production schedule of a TV series, therefore we switched to a different method where we would create camerawork on a general background map. Also, after episode 5, for certain characters we preceded the creation of the key animation with 3DCG. The final animation is all done by hand, but by having a base to use as a reference it was possible to calculate the available time frame and create the animations accordingly, thus shortening the working time. S: Even if you suddently ask the 3D staff to create figure skating animation, of course they have almost no knowledge of the jumps and techniques. They create the animation based on the reference footage, but they cannot express complex details such as how athletes balance their feet the moment they jump, so for that I and (figure skating animators) Abiko-san and Tatenaka-san adjusted the animation. Among the people working on the series, the only ones who had technical knowledge about figure skating were the 3 of us and director Yamamoto. And it’s not something that you can just explain verbally, so we took on all those jobs ourselves. We checked… everything, probably. Actually, until episode 4 the skating scenes were all created by Abiko-san and Tatenaka-san, so I didn’t need to check them, but from episode 5 the amount of skating scenes became so huge that we asked Tannawa-san and the others whether we could get help from the CG team… I completely trusted Tannawa-san, because I knew that if we explained what to do he would understand what was needed. T: I basically asked what they couldn’t do, and we did all we could to make up for that and reduce their workload. We would never have finished the series otherwise. That’s why for this anime no one ever said “isn’t that your job?”. For every episode, everyone just fought toward completion. S: Everyone took responsibility for their job and worked with extreme care, like no one was going to double-check what they did afterwards. We thought, “if we don’t do our best, this series will not make it to the broadcast, therefore we must all be responsible and work hard”…

-A scene you especially paid attention to.-

S: All the storyboards for the skating scenes were drawn by the director, but I drew them for quite a lot of daily life scenes. I especially like the scene where Yurio gives a pirozhki to Yuuri (in episode 9). I was particularly careful to make Yurio look cute. I wanted to show that, even though normally he is rude (to Yuuri), he actually rather trusts him and they do get along. I also like gag scenes, so I had fun with scenes such as the hug competition at the end of episode 9. Gag scenes do not need to be drawn as neatly as serious scenes, therefore I decided to animate them in a very comical and dynamic way. T: I paid a lot of attention to the opening. The way we changed it in episode 11 to reflect the current story development is something I myself suggested to the director. Actually, only the opening of episode 1 was still incomplete when it was broadcasted. From episode 2 onwards it was always the same footage, but the viewers wrote a lot of comments about it (and were wondering whether it was changing every time). Since everyone was watching it every time without skipping it, we decided to really change it in the end. S: My favorite character is Georgi Popovich! He’s a man who can talk about love seriously. He actually makes a few appearances since the 1st episode. When we were working on episode 1 we only had Kubo-sensei’s character plans and the storyboard saying “a character named Popovich is standing here”. We made him stand out a little because we understood that he would show up in the story later on. And what a character he was, when he was introduced in episode 6! T: He was so striking that I was actually shocked! I like Popovich too. Also, among the programs, I like Yuuri’s FS “Yuri on ICE”. It’s the first song I listened to working for this series, and at that time I used it for the PV without knowing that it was going to be Yuuri’s FS. In the PV Yuuri is skating in Hasetsu with his slender appearance from episode 3 onwards, and (the character designer) Hiramatsu-san commented “it’s a wonderful video, but now we have to make him fat”. I remember thinking “what is he saying??” (LOL).

-The power of the support that reached the studio.-

S: When we were creating the anime we were so busy with the work at hand that we didn’t really realize how much of a response the series was having. However, we received lots of presents, food, goods and letters of support from fans. T: Even items based on the contents of the series, like (retort-packed) borscht. That made us feel that fans were really supporting us because they liked the series, and it boosted our morale. Knowing that there were so many people watching and cheering on us motivated us to our best even it meant working overnight without sleeping. S: The charm of this series is the love of the original creators, director Yamamoto and Kubo-sensei, that you can feel from it. It’s just so strong. T: It also feels like you are touring various countries to follow Yuuri and the others and watch their matches. You can watch it with the eyes of a spectator and think “I didn’t know a lot about this athlete, but now I see how he skates”. I think that another element that allows viewers to really get into the world of the series is how not only the matches but also the skaters’ practice scenes and the back yard are drawn with lots of details. Everything is detailed, even the different shape of each skater’s blades. The director herself is full of very sincere love for figure skating, and that was transmitted to both the staff and the viewers. S: The animation studio had a very nice atmosphere. It’s the first time that I’m working with Tannawa-san, but when I saw his work I realized right away that he was someone I could trust. Trust and unity are something you find in the staff of many series, but for this one it was especially strong.

On a side note, Kubo & Yamamoto went to see the Worlds in Helsinki and are now in St.Petersburg. I am confident it’s tourism but with a spoonful of location hunting... (What a timing, though. I hope none of you or your acquaintances were personally affected by what happened the other day in the subway)

#YOI #Yuri on ice #interview #translation #BD #Booklet #comment #Jun Shishido #Yuusuke Tannawa #phichit chulanont #christophe giacometti #guang-hong ji

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daily-yoificrec · 7 years

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5/3/2017 recs

1. Dust and Starlight by Grassepi | Rated T, 24.9k (WIP)

Summary: Katsuki Yuuri, crown prince of Japan, is on a quest to find the lost castle of Russia- and more importantly, it's lost treasure. However, not every destiny is found in glory and battle, and the treasure that Yuuri finds might not be in the form of gold and jewels. (Some things people are infinitely better than gold and jewels)

In which: Yuuri's been looking for his destiny for a long time, Viktor's been waiting for his knight in shining armour for longer, and Yuri just wishes there was a reality where he didn't have to save their dumb asses.

Comment: It’s fantasy and has hella worldbuilding and great character interactions so far. The setup is enthralling and has me really interested in the mechanics of this world.

2. On Our High Horses by Bad_Wolf | Rated T, 11k (WIP)

Summary: Sara Crispino loves her job, riding the broad flats and hills of her adopted planet on her beloved horse. She doesn't have to talk to anyone for days, just the cows and horses she herds. Usually the only other person she interacts with is the landowner of half the planet, Yuuri Katsuki, and he's just plain shy. Sara would have been happy to go on like that, one day flowing into the next, seamless and unvaried; except when a group of uppity nobles decide to invest money into the Katsukis' business. Now while Yuuri is off schmoozing the money, Sara has to play host to an infuriating rich lady who wouldn't know hard work if it bit her in the ass.

Comment: I really like this so far! Sara’s POV is refreshing, and while the vicyuu is technically a side pairing, they’re a lot like the Jane and Bingley of this fic while Sara and Mila are Elizabeth and Darcy. This one also has interesting worldbuilding, a combination of space and western (the author makes it work, somehow) that sets up a unique mood.

3. Love and Gelato by flowercrownyuri (elevensong) Rated T, 7k.

Summary: Victor’s life consists of three things: taking classes at the local university, figure skating on the weekends, and working at a florist shop downtown. After years upon years of monotony, he’s convinced that nothing can take him by surprise anymore. However, when a new employee begins working at Celestino’s, a gelato shop across the road, Victor’s immediately intrigued. Something about watching “gelato boy” work, or laugh, or dance when he thinks no one is watching ignites emotions within Victor that he thought long buried, and soon enough he finds himself longing to meet the boy behind the counter.

In order to fulfill his wish, Victor begins leaving flowers with flirty notes attached to them outside Celestino’s, knowing gelato boy will find them the next morning. It becomes a routine, another expected part of his day, but what happens when notes written on cups begin appearing in return?

Super cute quick oneshot that’s as sweet as gelato!

4. The Structure of Trust by Axlaida | Rated T, 10k (WIP)

Summary: After a mission went horribly wrong, ex-CIA agent Yuuri Katsuki needed a career change, and Private Security was recommended by his former boss, Celestino Cialdini. Now trained as a bodyguard, Yuuri wants to overcome his past mistake and planned to take on his first assignment with confidence.

When he heard that famous figure skating coach Yakov Feltsman had received multiple threats over the coming months and was the client to his first assignment, he was thankful that he hadn’t been assigned to bodyguard the coach.

Yet, he never imagined he’d be hired as Victor Nikiforov’s bodyguard.

BODYGUARD AU. YUURI IS VICTOR’S BODYGUARD. Read it, it looks promising.

5. Love Bird by MaeIsDone | Rated M, 2.1k (WIP)

Summary: It was the summer of 1969, and Yuuri Katsuki's life was finally pulling together. He'd gotten the job of his dreams, as a police officer, and Tori, one of the most beautiful women in all of the Bay Area has asked him on a date. But the summer housed another person high on their luck; a serial killer called Lovebird, who had Yuuri in his sights.

Surviving Lovebird's attack means hours of questioning every day, a crippled body, and the image of his would-be killer seemingly painted onto the back of his eyelids.

It also means meeting the alluring Victor Nickiforov, a detective who's working night and day to catch the man that hurt Yuuri.

This reeks of murder au and there’s only one chapter, but it opened quite strongly, so I’m looking forward to how it continues!

#yuri on ice #fic rec #victuuri #saramila #fanfiction #may 2017

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afishtrap · 7 years

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I’m just going to link to the latest from @caramelcheese, but you might want to also read the previous in the discussion. I know there are a few posts from @soobaki in a similar vein, but (once again) this isn’t really a continuation so much as a branching, which is why I’m not posting this as a direct response.

Here’s the deal, from an athletic perspective: nearly every sport requires finding the right balance between power and technique. The athletes who are true world-class, Olympic-level champions are those who’ve mastered both. This (as usual) gets a little long, so behind a cut we go.

What most people don’t realize is that mastering both modes is difficult and rare; if you only watch the Olympics, you might have the impression this is common, but believe me, no athlete who’s made it to the Olympics is average, in any way. Even record-breaking athletes -- like Yuzuru Hanyu, Katie Ledecky, or Usain Bolt -- will still have a subtle preference for one over the other; you can see it clearest in their earliest competitions. On top of that, the more artistic sports will go through trends where one mode dominates, until the pendulum swings back.

I remember watching the Olympics in the early 90s as a kid, and the world of ice skating had tilted hard towards sheer power. Wave your arms around randomly a few times, skate really fast, jump, skate really fast some more, jump, repeat for three and a half minutes. Power was fully on display. Finesse and grace were an afterthought.

Finesse is technique; stamina is a huge part of power. If you lack power, then you make up for it with finesse. The better your technique, the more efficient you are, and thus the less power required to perform the same move as someone without good/excellent technique. How does that matter in YoI? Because the two Yuris are polar opposites in a lot of ways, in personality, background, and in their innate approaches to their sport.

When we meet Yuuri, he’s flubbing his jumps. Sure, he’s anxious (clamping down on his power), but we’re also inundated with comments about his incredible stamina. Takeshi, Yuko, Minako, even Celestino and Yakov all make direct or indirect comments about it. Yuuri certainly has power; he simply lacks the self-confidence. What’s important to note is that thanks to what’s probably years of practice (and that bit about how he’s had double the time on the ice of anyone else his age), he also has amazing finesse.

As a fellow athlete, I’d say Yuuri poured his heart into his technique, as if that could compensate for his anxiety about displaying/using his power. The thing is, personality-wise, Yuuri is like a textbook technique artist. He doesn’t get in your face; he hangs back and lets the art speak for itself.

In contrast, Yurio’s personality fits nicely with the kind that goes all power, technique be damned. Others may see Yuurio as the fairy of Russia, but as noted elsewhere in #yoi-meta, Yurio desperately wants to be seen as a tiger. Powerful. Why care about finesse when you’re seven hundred pounds of pure muscle and bone, and can tear prey apart limb from limb? But over and over, we're reminded of Yurio’s lack of stamina.

Put it all together and this is no Chekov’s gun, people. This is more like Chekov’s howitzer.

I’ve listened to Welcome to the Madness, and it’s no balletic symphony. It exudes power and aggression. The irony is that the story itself set up that this just isn’t Yurio’s path to winning. As Victor notes, Yurio doesn’t need the quadruple jump to win the junior’s; Yurio's victory proves Victor’s observation correct. The message here is that Yurio’s finesse has the potential to overshadow (and compensate for) his lack of raw power.

From a storytelling perspective, then: we have two characters, each who could naturally excel in one area that they’ve neglected to acknowledge, and who’ve pushed themselves to reach for (or compensate with) their secondary or less-natural skill. From the very beginning, Victor calls this out. Eros and Agape are expressions of love, but also expressions of the two modes. Victor tells Yuuri to put himself out there, push harder, be bolder; to Yurio, Victor insists aggressive displays won’t work, that Yurio must let the emotion (his technique) speak for itself. Victor can see, like any experienced athlete, where each excels innately, and he’s trying to get them to play to those strengths.

(Incidentally, my guess would be that Victor -- based on Yakov’s comments, among other things -- began his career with limited stamina, but a major flare for technique. Victor’s years of training, though, probably honed that technique into such phenomenal control that that he could overpower anyone, because they simply couldn’t use their energy as cleanly as he could. Also incidentally, the only story, anime or otherwise, that I’ve ever seen acknowledge this is Naruto, which states early on that Sakura has substantially less power than her team mates, but holds her own because she's perfected her technique. Most stories value power, coding technique as feminine, I think, and thus don’t realize just how easily someone with good technique and minimal power can defeat someone with good power but lousy technique. Technique really is all about efficient use of resources.)

Anyway, looking at the last few competitions (about ep 6-9), Yuuri is pushing himself via quantity and timing of his jumps to finally display his natural bold power. Combined with the finesse he’s learned over the years, he should be nearly unbeatable. Each time, too, when he loses -- or even just does less well -- it’s because he’s lost to his own anxieties, and not because his competition was just that much out of his reach.

On the other hand, we have Yurio, who’s damn near broken himself in half under Lila’s tutelage. Ballet requires power, but it is first and foremost (especially at Lila’s level) about perfect, flawless technique. It’s worth noting that Lila is quite unimpressed when she first meets Yurio; he’s been chasing after power and treating technique as secondary. When Lila talks about making Yurio a prima ballerina (once again coding finesse as feminine), her real goal is teaching him that flawless technique is his only option given his lack of stamina.

He doesn’t quite get the message. He’s still absolutely focused on raw power, and Otabek acts as a nice contrast. There’s no doubt Otabek is sheer power. The animation was sketchy on his pieces (and I am rudimentary in assessing ice skating performances, at best), but I got the distinct impression that if the ice skating world been in a power-heavy phase, Otabek would be at the top of the podium. With Victor dominating the charts, the world of YoI is clearly in a swing towards the artistic.

From an athletic perspective as well as a storytelling one, Otabek’s role isn’t just as an unexpected friend (and admirer) for Yurio. He’s also someone who looks at Yurio’s amazing finesse and doesn’t code it as feminine. He sees Yurio as that seven-hundred pound tiger, rather than a delicate fairy. Of all of Yurio’s interactions, this is why Otabek’s is the most important, development-wise. Yurio needs to have someone who doesn’t feminize him, but respects him as a fellow competitor, and it must be someone who does have the power Yurio covets. (Yurio and Victor are too similar in preference and style, thus Victor’s acknowledgement isn’t validation enough.) And, it’s why Yurio’s focused on Yuuri, too -- because, like Otabek, Yuuri has the strength that Yurio wishes for himself.

This brings us to the final two episodes. Going back to the Chekov’s howitzers sitting on the series mantelpiece, I expected two things to happen.

One, for Yuuri to finally power through the jumps with enough variety and quantity that there’d be no doubt he'd found the will to use his stamina to his advantage. I didn’t have a problem, on first viewing, with Yuuri doing less well in his Eros, since a low score reinforced the series’ message that love wins. When he stops thinking about (and expressing) love, he can’t win. So I was okay with that.

Two, for Yurio to either win with Agape or come very close, because it’s where he could shine. It’s about a minute shorter, so his lack of stamina is less of an issue. And if he could take his experiences of Agape, and express them artistically, then his victory lies in showing that grace (pun maybe intended). Although Yurio winning underscores Victor’s belief that Victor himself could’ve won gold with either performance, I’m not entirely sold on the idea that Yurio should’ve broken Victor’s record. I think I would’ve preferred a point or two less, just to give some leeway for future growth, skill-wise.

That said, it’d still be less that Yurio won, and more that Yuuri lost. Because really, the story has set us up all along for Yuuri to achieve his protagonist’s goals, which includes winning gold at the GPF, as we’re told over and over. And when you look at it all through an athletic lens, the GPF really should’ve been Yuuri’s to lose. Because ultimately, Yuuri’s antagonist wasn’t Yurio, or Christophe, or Victor; it was always his own anxiety and fear. If Yuuri could conquer that, the story kept telling us, he could conquer anything.

Then we come to the final episode, and the long program. This is where I expected the Chekov’s howitzers to fire. I fully expected Yuuri to have at least another jump in there. Something truly ridiculous (we’re talking Nathan Chen levels of ridiculous raw power), which would’ve shocked the hell out of anyone, and revealed just how much Yuuri had been withholding all this time.

I also expected Yurio to break apart. Not mentally, but physically. The story had set him up, repeatedly, as someone willing to work his ass off to master the art, but his body just doesn’t yet (or maybe never will) have the raw strength to push himself to Victor’s, or Yuuri’s, or even JJ’s, level. (Or even Otabek, for that matter.) And considering the amount he’d pushed himself in the short program, he should be close to empty. He should’ve lessened his jumps, maybe managed one (barely), and possibly skipped any jumps in the last half. Substitute a spin, or some difficult but elegant move that would boost his artistic scores... but his own monologue wouldn’t change much, really. ‘Cause he just doesn’t have the power left, and without that, he cannot yet truly compete. Breaking down on the ice at the end, then, wouldn’t be about -- well, whatever it was about, I never was quite sure -- but instead about desperately wanting to stand with the best, but knowing he isn’t there, yet. And also possibly recognizing that as much as he would like to be raw power like his idols/rivals (ie Yuuri, JJ, Otabek), he needs to find his own path, and make it his.

But instead the howitzers never went off; Yuuri skated flawlessly but it wasn’t enough to offset the difference. Yurio broke every rule of the physical world -- despite all the worry about ‘this is when he gets tired’ and ‘he can’t keep this up’ -- somehow pushing through in a author ex machina, enough to get gold. (And JJ, don’t even start with me on that, it really should’ve been either Otabek or Christophe.)

Which means the lessons each could learn, neither really learned them, I think. Instead, the story rewarded Yurio for believing he could power through, and letting him, when he should’ve been punished with silver at best, and a major injury at worst. (Or both, to be really dramatic.) And the story punished Yuuri, withholding gold despite the fact that it had set up his potential to be gold-worthy if only he’d master his own power.

That means we enter the mythical season two with Yurio believing that sheer aggression and power will win him the day. Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for Yuuri to dismiss his stamina and stall out on his jumps, 'cause neither seemed to make much difference when it mattered.

From a storyteller’s perspective, well, it should be obvious already just how ripped-off I feel about the story’s failure to deliver on just about any promise, howitzer or not, that it had given me.

But from an athlete’s perspective, I’m especially disappointed. For so many episodes, I had every hope that finally, someone out there actually got the tension between technique and power, and how we struggle as athletes to hone the one we naturally prefer, and master the other. For eleven episodes, I had every hope that this could join the ranks of sports stories where a non-athlete captured that essence of competition, external and internal. And then we got the final episode, and it all fell apart.

I’m not mad. I don’t hate the series, overall. But I am greatly disappointed, and somehow that’s harder to take.

#yuri on ice #yuri plisetsky #yuri katsuki #yoi-meta #yoi critical

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seungchuchufanfic · 7 years

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Summary:

To Seung Gil, Phichit always seemed far away and out of reach. When he realized he wouldn't be participating in the Grand Prix Final, the distance between them grew, metaphorically and physically, with Phichit now in Barcelona, and Seung Gil back in Seoul. As they both slowly take steps forward, they also look back and reminisce on their relationship with each other, and how a chance meeting on the rink developed into something else...something more.

Excerpt:

Phichit checked his phone for what felt like the thousandth time. No new messages. He wasn’t surprised exactly, given the circumstances, but he couldn’t deny that he was disappointed. He just wanted to hear something from him. Anything. His face fell slightly, before deciding to call Yuuri. They had made plans the night before to go exploring, but Phichit figured he either forgot or was still suffering from jetlag. He didn’t pick up, but he couldn’t wait any longer. He told Celestino that he would head out first, not wanting to miss an opportunity to take a commemorative photo in front of Barcelona’s beautiful Roman Catholic church. At this time of night, the church’s eighteen sandstone towers would be lit up in gold shining lights, and nothing could stop him from seeing it with his own eyes. His coach waved his arm in response telling him to go while sitting at a bar, and Phichit headed to the Sagrada Família.

#seungchuchu #yoi #seungchuchu fanfic

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jollysailorswan · 7 years

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My Own Worth

A/N: This is incredibly rushed, un-betaed and sloppy. But I really wanted to post it today.

@piyo-13 Surprise!

Merry CHRISmas! <3 <3 <3

“So, you’re not retiring, after all.”

Another year, another Grand Prix, another shot at the gold lost, another banquet. Chris could understand why Victor had come to find these things tedious. Last year had been special only because of a drunk fellow skater. This year things were just a bit tamer only because Yuuri refused to consume any alcohol after the recent revelations of his adventures at Sochi. And because Chris really wasn’t in the mood.

Victor is standing with him, a rare moment of privacy between them among the numerous people who wanted to talk to them both. They both have a glass of champagne in their hands. For Chris it was already his fourth. Victor is not drinking much, but it was probably because he is too distracted by the dark haired man talking across the room to Phichit, Celestino and some ISU important guys.

Victor’s answer to his question is no more than a simple no. And he still keeps his eyes on Yuuri. As if that should be enough explanation for everything that’s happened in the last year.

It kind of is, Chris thought while taking another sip from his drink.

“You couldn’t even stay away from the ice for one season after all,” Chris chuckles.

“It wasn’t the ice that drove me away in the first place,” and Victor keeps smiling, a smile more serene than Chris has ever seen. No gold medal had ever made his friend shine this bright. And he remembers a conversation they had during last season. It had been right before the GPF at Sochi and Chris had tried to tease his friend with “Are you going for another streak this year, or are you letting us mere mortals have a chance”.

Victor hadn’t said anything but Chris would have sworn that he heard him whisper something that sounded like: “at least then I will have something.”

Chris had ignored that.

Every skater in the world had detested Victor for years because they had convinced themselves that no one could ever dethrone him. Chris himself had fallen under that safety net the last few years. Silver was as good as gold with Victor in the competition so that’s what he would aim for. This year he aimed for gold. He complained about not being motivated without Victor but what his absence had done was make him complacent. And in the end, the new blood had already surpassed him.

All he got was a rose crown and while that would have been enough before - it would have been everything really, cause maybe that meant he was more like the man he’d been chasing than he thought - this year it felt a lot like a sent off. This year, he felt older than ever before.

“How do you expect to make a comeback without any training at all?” Please, Chris thought, prove to me that you are human too.

Because Chris still wondered sometimes. Even with two separate world records broken, Victor still held the record for overall points. He would have won again had he been competing with everyone else. He’s experienced enough to not allow any mistakes or let his emotions overwhelm his performance. But could he do the same in one month at the Russian Nationals without any preparation? Or at Europeans? Or even at Worlds?

“You can’t possibly think I let myself go completely after last March, Chris,” his friend turned to him again. “You were there when your boyfriend helped me and Yuuri practice our lifts. Did you see me slacking off? To be honest, training with Yuuri has helped with my stamina,” he thinks for a mere second and then adds in a hushed tone, “in more ways than one.”

Chris rolled his eyes. Had he been in a better mood he would have said something even more suggestive but he wasn’t feeling it, really.

“Besides, I’m not doing this for the gold anymore.”

Chris noticed new emotions in Victor’s voice. Emotions that were a very recent development.

“Not that I ever skated just for the gold, you know. Of course the thrill of winning is amazing but soon I realised I was more happy with a silver combined with the loudest applause.”

And Chris remembers that time at Worlds during his earlier years in the senior division, when Victor was the first skater ever to do the quad lutz in competition. He didn’t land it but the rotations were there and that’s all that mattered to the audience. Victor only got bronze but after being the first to do the flip, attempting the lutz too meant that maybe his legend had only just started. Chris was the first to land the lutz perfectly during the next season before the Grand Prix Final and it became his signature move. But in the final Victor landed the lutz, the flip and the salchow in combination in one program. And that certainly mattered more.

And Chris realised this. He is 25 years old, considered a veteran in the figure skating field, with many titles to his name and even if he’d never been able to surpass Victor he had thought he knew him at least. But it was never about the gold. And it wasn’t going to be about the gold now either.

“I will still do my best, of course. I have new inspiration, the best kind of inspiration now. And I’m going to let it guide me as long as my old ass body allows me.”

“Are you going to commission music for the ‘10 ways Yuuri Katsuki has ruined me’ routine you have in mind, then?” Chris teased and finally laughed at Victor’s attempt to hit him.

They didn’t have a lot of time to talk after that.

Chris went back home with a lot on his mind.

Victor had never been particularly interested about getting gold yet no one had been able to take the medals from him. Had Chris wasted his whole career chasing after who couldn’t be reached? Had he given up? Had he perceived Victor’s genius as his failure?

Probably.

Was he uninspired like Victor had been at the end of last season?

Not really. But then again, he’d let teenagers remove him from the podium.He’d never beaten Victor but he always fought his way to the highest step on the podium available. He was a fan favourite in his own right and he wasn’t always perfect technically but his presentation was his forte.

Still, he’d fallen fifth in the final. He went back to the ice promising redeem himself. Europeans were close.

He won the Nationals, naturally. But that always felt like a warm up. His smile was sincere but had no thrill. He watched as Victor got his first silver in years in the Russian nationals and his friend’s smile was as bright as ever. None of the gold medals of the previous seasons had evoked that smile. It was like Victor had said. Chris hadn’t been sure he’d believed him back then but it had been the truth.

He’s not going after the gold anymore.

The only difference this time around was that Victor had someone waiting for him at the edge of the rink. Yuuri had been there with Yakov to wrap a panting Victor in his arms after his programs.

He sees it up close at Europeans too. Victor gets silver again, Yurio is at the top and Chris now has a bronze around his neck. Chris thinks that Yurio would have been a bit more satisfied had Victor shown some irritation but the crowd still chants Victor’s name the loudest and he and Yuuri celebrate as if Victor had just broken the world records again.

This is what love does for you, he though as Yuuri is the one lifting Victor in his arms for once despite their height difference. It brings you higher than you were supposed to go on your own.

Chris reached the edge of the rink and next to the spectacle that were two of the most respected figure skaters in the world stood the one that could lift him higher. Mat was there again with the most proud smile on his face and the most extravagant bouquet in his hands. Chris knew his partner wasn’t one to draw attention like him. He wasn’t comfortable with big displays of affection when in public and even that huge bouquet was more than he would usually express. But even so, Mat never failed to show his pride in him. And the bitter taste of bronze didn’t matter anymore. Because now that he could focus, he could listen to the people who were still chanting his own name. He could see his scores that weren’t his personal best but still very close. Mat was there and helped him see that even the bronze was a big achievement and he should be proud.

Mat had been by his side for years. He’d followed him in many competitions and brought him more flowers than he could count and offered him words of affection and encouragement and pride. Those things always worked to make him forget that Victor had walked away from the ice with the coveted gold only to be swept away by reporters the moment his skate guards were on. They had worked enough to send him back to the ice again and again. They hadn’t worked as much after the GPF in Barcelona but that was to be expected considering he didn’t even make the podium for the first time in years.

Later, he comes back to that moment and remembers it as a sensory overload. The chanting of the crowd. Victor’s laughter and Yuuri’s softer but teasing voice. Yakov berating both his skaters for one reason or another. Reporters ready to attack at any given moment. Mat’s arms closing around him. And three memories. Two of Victor.

“at least then I will have something.”

And…

“I will still do my best, of course. I have new inspiration, the best kind of inspiration now. And I’m going to let it guide me as long as my old ass body allows me.”

Medals are not the only thing Chris has. They are not a consolation prize for his loneliness. They are not the only proof of his worth. Sure, they are cool and shiny. But there are things that matter more and somewhere along the way he had forgotten that. Victor had forgotten too.

There were better things in life than medals. Like Mat’s eyes glimmering with emotions in the privacy of their bedroom. Like the glide of his skates on fresh ice and the thrill of landing a difficult jump. Like all the precious memories of friendship and love he had gathered along the way to where he was now.

That was his inspiration. And he still had a lot of it. He had a lot to give back to the world who cheered for him, to his fellow competitors and to people like Victor who were better than him yet still admired his skating.

The third memory was from right after the GPF. He was back home and in their bed with Mat. He was tired but couldn’t quieτ the thoughts wrecking havoc in his mind. He was at a place where he thought he’d reached his limit and more new skaters would surpass him easily. And Victor was coming back with as much confidence as ever.

Mat’s arm circled Chris from behind, his hand tracing lines on his chest. His boyfriend knew him too well. He had probably waited to discuss it until they were alone in the safety of their own home. And he didn’t wait for Chris to start talking.

“I know you’ve always chased the top and that right now you feel as if you missed your last chance to reach it. But you give so much to the ice and to the sport and to your competitors and no gold is enough to prove your worth. You are much more than that. You mean so much to so many people. I know it doesn’t always feel like it, I’ve been there myself. People would still love and admire you if you placed last.”

Those words hadn’t meant much at the moment and Chris had chosen to focus on the whispered I love yous and the kisses that followed. But at this moment, with Mat smiling at him like he was the end and the beginning of the world, with people chanting his name, with Victor and Yuuri rushing to him, all smiles and love. That was the moment when he thought this, this is what I love most of all. And he realised why Victor didn’t want to do this for the medals anymore. It wasn’t that he wasn’t capable of winning them anymore. It was because the happiness is sweeter when you just enjoy doing what you love. And maybe that fuels your determination better than the desire to be at the top.

Victor started going on and on about Chris’ step sequence in the FS. And he was confident that his friend wasn’t lying. He’d openly admired Chris’ skills before, but this time he didn’t dismiss the comments.

“Be careful, Victor,” Mat teased while wrapping Chris in his arms again. “Maybe Chris will place higher than you this year at Worlds.”

And Victor’s eyes shimmered with excitement.

“Bring it!” Because Victor had never dismissed him as a competitor.

“As long as you both don’t cry because I’ve stolen the gold from your hands...”

Yuuri didn’t finish that thought because Victor attacked him with kisses making the younger man lose all the confidence he had mastered and everyone else laugh.

The celebrated together that night, along with a few other skaters. Victor and Yuuri gave Chris an early present for his birthday, saying that they thought the Europeans would be the best opportunity to do so because they would be busy with the 4CC in February. It wasn’t the first time Victor had given him his present at Europeans. But this year it only cemented what Mat had told him after the Grand Prix Final.

You mean so much to so many people.

He could live with that. He could be happy with that. He would still go after the gold. But he would never again dismiss his own worth.

#yuri on ice #yoi ff #christophe giacometti #background victuuri

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exocara · 7 years

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Turntables

or: Viktor Suffers, the fic

ao3 link

Inspiration: “you’re a celebrity who just broke up and i tweeted you a selfie with the caption “date me” as a joke but you thought i was serious?” au

It happens approximately one week after Yuuri’s disastrous performance in Sochi.

“Oh hey!” Phichit exclaims around the same time a twitter notification shows up on Yuuri’s phone. Yuuri quickly snatches it up. He has notifications set for Viktor’s tweets and only Viktor’s tweets, considering that he’s Viktor Nikiforov and Yuuri can’t help but want to know every single thing about him.

“It’s rare that you see Viktor Nikiforov tweet about his personal life! I almost thought he didn’t have one,” Phichit jokes. It’s true; Viktor usually tweets about skating, and a little about his dog. He’s nothing like Christophe Giacometti, who tweets every day about what he’s eating and the domestic bliss he shares with his husband, and definitely nothing like Phichit who’s, well, Phichit.

Yuuri taps on the notification and Viktor’s tweet shows on his screen.

Viktor Nikiforov @v-nikiforov I wish I could date pretty black haired boys who dance well.

That is… very specific yet incredibly vague all at the same time. Is this really going to be Viktor’s first non-skating tweet in months? Then again, Viktor always did love to surprise. Yuuri wants to know what he has planned up his sleeve, what he’s up to this time.

“Ooh, the candidates are already flooding in!” Phichit says with an amused grin.

“Candidates?” Yuuri asks and Phichit helps Yuuri scroll down to read the replies. Most of them are variants of “date me!” with pictures attached. It’s all very interesting.

“You should send one too!” Phichit says and Yuuri doesn’t even bother answering him. “Look, I’ll send one if you send one. It’ll be fun!”

“I’m not going to talk to Viktor Nikiforov on twitter over some silly joke of his,” Yuuri says.

“It’s just a tweet,” Phichit whines. “It’s like a meme! You like memes, right, Yuuri? Besides, it’s not like Viktor checks through every single reply he gets -- and I don’t blame him, holy shit it’s only been three minutes and there are at least two thousand replies -- so he might not even see your tweet!”

“Phichit,” Yuuri sighs. “We’re skaters, we’re under scrutiny.”

“Look, even Georgi Popovich did it!”

“Fine.” Yuuri kind of wants to try it out anyway, out of some masochistic urge to have his idol ignore him once again, like he had in Sochi. “You had better do the same too, alright? I’m not going into this alone.”

“I will!”

Phichit Chulanont @phichit+chu #dateme but more importantly date my friend @katsukiyuuri

Yuuri Katsuki @katsukiyuuri #dateme :)

“There we go, wasn’t that hard, was it?” Phichit teases. “Great selfie, by the way! Not as great as mine, but I’m proud to call you my disciple.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes. His nerves fade after five minutes pass and there is no answer from anyone -- although there are quite a few likes and retweets and replies on his selfie -- and he is relieved yet disappointed.

What else did he expect from the tweet? Viktor didn’t even know that he was a fellow competitor back in Sochi. There’s no chance that he’ll single out a single tweet in a sea of thousands. Absolutely no chance whatsoever.

-o-

Except he does.

“You look like you’re dying,” Phichit comments. Yuuri hands him his phone. Phichit looks at the screen and gasps.

Viktor Nikiforov @v-nikiforov Shared your Tweet with you.

Viktor Nikiforov: yes please )

“Did, did he reply to you too?” Yuuri asks Phichit. Phichit takes a moment to check his phone.

“Nope. I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who got a reply.” Phichit rests his chin on his hand. “What are you going to reply with?”

“Are you kidding me? Why in the world will I reply?”

“Because it’s only polite, because Viktor is your long-time idol and he’s finally noticed you, because Viktor wants to date you, because you’ve already seen his message and so he knows you’ve read it and you don’t want to deal with the idea of your idol knowing that you ignored him even if that’s what you’re planning on doing,” Phichit listed off. “Pick any one.”

Yuuri slumps and curls into a ball on his bed. His phone is still in his hands and the screen still shows Viktor’s DM.

“This is probably just a joke,” Yuuri says.

“If it’s just a joke, there’s no harm in playing along, right?” Phichit asks. Yuuri hesitates. His phone buzzes.

Viktor Nikiforov: yuuri?

Viktor Nikiforov: yuuri are you there

“Wow, I didn’t peg Viktor to be a triple texter,” Phichit says with a whistle.

“Phichit, what should I say??” Yuuri hisses under his breath, as if Viktor could hear him from Detroit.

Viktor Nikiforov: i can see you blueticking me (

“Tell him the truth?” Phichit suggests.

Yuuri Katsuki: Sorry, I was just wondering how I should respond.

Viktor Nikiforov: oh okay!

Viktor Nikiforov: you don’t have to think so much! you just have to be your normal charming self! )

Yuuri Katsuki: Um.

Yuuri Katsuki: I think you have the wrong person.

“Yuuri! How could he have the wrong person? Your name is on the twitter! And he saw your picture!!”

“He said charming, Phichit. I’m not charming at all!”

Viktor Nikiforov: ?

Viktor Nikiforov: this is yuuri katsuki right?

Viktor Nikiforov: top skater in japan

Viktor Nikiforov: born on 29 nov, from hasetsu, your parents run an ‘onsen’?

Viktor Nikiforov: we met at the sochi gpf!

Viktor Nikiforov: your short program was really good! i loved your step sequences!

“Yuuri, you’re hyperventilating.”

-o-

“Oh, he stopped replying.” Viktor looks down at his phone, at a loss for what to do. “Was it something I said?”

“Don’t ask me,” Yuri shoots back. “I’m still shocked that your idea even worked at all!”

“Oh look!” Viktor’s phone suddenly enters Yuri’s line of sight and Yuri almost crosses his eyes trying to focus on what’s written on the screen. “He’s typing again!”

“Oh my god,” Yuri hears Mila mutter from behind him. “And I thought Georgi was bad.”

-o-

Yuuri Katsuki: Do you often do this?

Viktor Nikiforov: ?

Viktor Nikiforov: do what?

Yuuri Katsuki: Start talking to random people off of twitter.

Ever since that day, Yuuri and Viktor have been exchanging messages on twitter’s DM feature. Like clockwork, Viktor would send a message at approximately eight in the morning -- which is four in the afternoon in St. Petersburg -- telling Yuuri good morning. Yuuri has grown to expect these messages, looking forward to them when he wakes up every morning.

Viktor Nikiforov: only when they’re cute )))

Yuuri still doesn’t know why Viktor has started talking to him, of all people. Is it because Yuuri is a skater Viktor met at the Grand Prix? Or is it just on a whim?

Either way, Yuuri doesn’t expect it to last.

-o-

Viktor Nikiforov: i’m curious, yuuri

Viktor Nikiforov: why don’t you ever message me on my phone?

Viktor Nikiforov: we only talk on twitter

Viktor Nikiforov: do you have whatsapp??

Yuuri doesn’t understand. How is he supposed to message Viktor’s number when he doesn’t even have it?

Yuuri Katsuki: But I don’t have your number?

Is Yuuri supposed to have Viktor’s number?

Viktor Nikiforov: i thought i gave you my number????

Oh god, he is supposed to have Viktor’s number. He can’t believe that he misplaced such a valuable thing.

Yuuri Katsuki: I’m sorry, I must have lost it. I am so, so, so sorry.

Viktor Nikiforov: oh

Viktor Nikiforov: well that explains many things

Viktor Nikiforov: +7 812 XXX-XX-XXX

Viktor Nikiforov: that’s my phone number

Viktor Nikiforov: don’t lose it again )))

Yuuri Katsuki: I won’t!!!

-o-

Once Yuuri gave Viktor his phone number, there was no going back. His conversations with Viktor are interspersed with pictures of Makkachin and calls are added to their daily conversations. Once, Viktor adds him to a group chat of him and his rink mates and Yuuri is treated to a terrifying flood of messages in both Russian and English before he manages to exit the chat.

Viktor tries again the next day and the group chat is, thankfully, milder. It takes a while but Yuuri gets acquainted with Viktor’s rinkmates, the strong-willed Mila Babicheva, the romantic Georgi Popovich, and the prickly Yuri Plisetsky.

Yuuri doesn’t mention the meeting he and Yuri shared in the bathroom, and neither does Yuri.

-o-

“Will you stop messaging Katsuki for one second and actually practice?” Yuri demands. “Yakov looks like he’s going to blow a fuse!”

“But, but Yuuri just woke up! I need to send him his daily picture of Makkachin!” Viktor whines. Yuri nearly lets a snarl rip from his throat as he skates to the edge of the rink to grab his phone.

Yuri Plisetsky: Oi, katsuki!!

Yuri Plisetsky: Stop messaging that PAIN IN THE ASS he’s neglecting training!!!

Yuuri Katsuki: He’s training right now? He told me he was on break!

Yuuri Katsuki: Thank you for telling me.

Seconds later, Viktor’s whine echoes throughout the rink.

“Yuuri says that he’s disappointed in me!” Viktor sobs. Yuri observes as Viktor tries to send Yuuri a few more messages before eventually giving up and seriously going back to practice. In fact, he practices so seriously that when Yakov tells him what to do, Viktor doesn’t complain. He carries out Yakov’s orders, shocking Yakov into silence.

“...Vitya,” Yakov says after practice is done. “Are you dying?”

“Yuuri says that he won’t talk to me unless I listen to my coach and practice,” Viktor sulks. Yakov looks at Yuri with a raised eyebrow.

“He means the Japanese Yuuri, Yuuri Katsuki,” Yuri clarifies and Yakov’s gaze turns contemplative.

“That’s Celestino’s boy, right? He was at the Grand Prix Final and the… banquet.” At this, Yakov’s expression turns a little sour.

“Yes!” Viktor sighs and god, anyone can see he is totally, utterly love-struck. “Yuuri Katsuki! Katsuki Yuuri! Yuuri Kat--”

Yuri throws his phone at Viktor’s face.

-o-

Viktor Nikiforov: yuuri

Viktor Nikiforov: yuuri!!

Viktor Nikiforov: yuuuuuuuuriiiiiii!!!

Yuuri Katsuki: Yes, Viktor?

Yuuri can’t help but smile when he sees Viktor’s messages. His personality clearly shines through them -- whiny, willful, expressive -- and Yuuri loves him for it.

Viktor Nikiforov: i’m super curious

Viktor Nikiforov: what was the theme for your skating in the gpf?

Yuuri’s mood dips a little at the mention of the disastrous Grand Prix Final, but he still answers Viktor.

Yuuri Katsuki: It’s longing. Longing and ambition.

Viktor Nikiforov: that makes sense!

Viktor Nikiforov: when i saw your short program it looked kinda sad

Yuuri covers his face with his hands so he can compose himself and not scream in the middle of a quiet library. He still hasn’t gotten used to the fact that his idol has noticed him and watches his programs.

Viktor Nikiforov: that part’s longing, right?

Yuuri Katsuki: That’s right. The short program is about wanting to reach for something, longing for it, but knowing that you will never be able to have it.

Viktor Nikiforov: your free program’s a lot cheerier

Viktor Nikiforov: well, not exactly

Viktor Nikiforov: but it’s not as sad.

Yuuri smiles.

Yuuri Katsuki: You’re right. My free program is actually the ambition part of my theme. It ties into my short program.

Yuuri Katsuki: It’s about reaching for the thing you want, regardless of impossibility.

What Yuuri doesn’t say is:

‘It’s about me trying to reach for you.’

-o-

Viktor Nikiforov: good morning yuuri!

Yuuri Katsuki: Good afternoon Viktor.

Viktor Nikiforov: where’s my morning kiss, yuuri?

Yuuri Katsuki: It’s afternoon for you, Viktor.

Viktor Nikiforov: ((

Yuuri’s face is carefully wiped off any emotion. Viktor asking for kisses -- even though they’re literally oceans away!! -- is nothing new, despite them always making Yuuri’s heart skip a beat. Yuuri never indulges him, though, despite wanting too.

Yuuri Katsuki: Also, aren’t you supposed to be practicing right now?

Viktor Nikiforov: im on break

Yuuri Katsuki: Should I ask Yuri?

Viktor Nikiforov: ((((((

Viktor Nikiforov: fiiiine

Yuuri Katsuki: I’ll talk to you when you’re really on break.

Yuuri Katsuki: ガンバ! All the best!

Viktor Nikiforov: <3 <3 <3

-o-

Viktor Nikiforov: congrats on getting gold at Japanese Nationals!!!

Yuuri Katsuki: Thank you. You’re largely the reason why I managed to do so well.

Yuuri Katsuki: You’ve always been an inspiration for me. Thank you for being in my life.

Yuuri throws his phone to the side and immediately buries his face in his hands after sending the message. It’s a little bold, especially for him, but he needs to let Viktor know how much he impacted Yuuri’s life.

Yuuri had been in a downwards spiral after the Grand Prix Final but his friendships with Viktor, Viktor’s easy presence, his kind words, his everything, pushed Yuuri to be better. To be someone worthy of being Viktor’s friend. To be worthy of standing next to Viktor.

He would be anything for Viktor, if it meant that Viktor would spend more time with him, if it meant that Viktor’s eyes would be on him.

It scares Yuuri, sometimes, this greed that he feels. He had thought that being able to message Viktor was enough but he always wants more and more with every little bit that Viktor gives him. More time, more messages, more calls.

Yuuri knows he can’t have more, because Viktor belongs to the world. Yuuri knows Viktor belongs to ice skating and he can’t take Viktor away from that. Yuuri knows, he knows.

And yet he still wants.

Yuuri hates himself.

-o-

Viktor Nikiforov spotted with Ice Dancer Yesfir Mihalov! Could love be blooming off the ice?

“Yuuri,” Phichit starts hesitantly. Yuuri gives him a curious look, closing the browser tab on his computer.

“Is something the matter?” Yuuri asks.

“Are you, okay?”

“Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?” Yuuri opens a document containing one of his assignments.

“Well, there’s the thing with Viktor and Yesfir…” Yuuri stares at Phichit blankly. “If there’s something bothering you, you can always talk to me, you know that right?”

“Of course I do. Thank you, Phichit.” Yuuri smiles. And then the smile is immediately replaced with a look of utter annoyance, levelled at the document. “Now if you excuse me, this essay isn’t going to write itself.”

“Haha, good luck Yuuri!” Phichit exits the room, satisfied with Yuuri’s answer. Yuuri glares at the screen, concentrating on his essay.

He ignores the ugly jealousy simmering deep in his chest. Yuuri refuses to be one of those people who monopolized their friend’s time. It’s perfectly okay for Viktor to go out with other people. Viktor Nikiforov isn’t his. There’s no reason for him to feel this way.

Yuuri knows this in his head. If his heart doesn’t, he will just have to make it.

-o-

Yuuri Katsuki: Hey, I’ll be busy these few weeks with school so I won’t be as active in replying messages.

Irrationally, Yuuri hopes that Viktor will figure out that Yuuri is lying. That he isn’t feeling well. That Yuuri’s consumed with dark envy and will reassure him that there’s nothing going on between Viktor and Yesfir.

Viktor Nikiforov: awww )

Viktor Nikiforov: okay. i’ll just be here. waiting for you to return.

Viktor Nikiforov: давай!!!! good luck yuuri!!

Yuuri Katsuki: Thank you.

But of course he doesn’t.

-o-

Viktor still messages him good morning, along with pictures of Makkachin, but the other messages are few and far in between and Yuuri can’t help but feel empty. He knows that he only has himself to blame.

He doesn’t want to let Viktor know about this side of him, this insecurity that literally eats him alive.

He doesn’t want Viktor to see his shortcomings and so he pushes Viktor away.

-o-

Yuuri is woken up by Phichit instead of the alarm clock.

“Phichit, what in the world?” he mutters sleepily. “It’s only six.”

“You need to see this,” Phichit hisses, shoving his phone into Yuuri’s hands. Yuuri squints at the screen and when he manages to discern the words on the screen, he is immediately awake.

-o-

“Good morning, Yuuri!” Viktor chirps.

“Viktor,” Yuuri says quietly.

“How are you this fine day?”

“Viktor,” Yuuri says again. “Why did you tell the press that we’re dating?”

-o-

“I thought you knew that I was going to do it! Isn’t high time that we told the world about this?”

“Stop making decisions on your own!”

Yuuri doesn’t know how long he hasn’t been talking to Viktor. It might be a few days, a week, a month; whatever it is, it feels like forever.

Yuuri doesn’t know what his life was like before he started talking to Viktor.

“I didn’t even know we were dating!”

“How could you not know? It’s obvious!”

“How can I know when you don’t tell me anything ?!”

Yuuri never expected his relationship with Viktor to last, but he never expected it to end like this.

Then again, Viktor always surprises him.

-o-

Viktor starts sending Yuuri messages.

Yuuri doesn’t answer.

-o-

“Oi, how long are you two going to argue?” Yuri’s voice says from the phone. “Viktor’s currently a miserable excuse for a human being. I know it’s his fault for not talking things through with you but he’s really trying his best to reach out to you right now. A proper relationship can’t work without communication, you know.”

“Well,” Yuuri says bitterly. “Our relationship wasn’t a proper one from the start. Everything’s a joke. I’m just there ‘til Viktor gets bored of me and moves on.” It only makes sense for Yuuri to cut his losses now before he gets in too deep. Before he starts to become unable to live without Viktor.

Yuri is silent for a very long time before

“What.” When he finally speaks, his voice is carefully controlled. Totally flat and devoid of emotion. “What the fuck.” Anger creeps into his voice. “What the absolute fuck are you talking about, Katsuki? You are literally the only person is the history of ever I’ve seen Viktor want to hold onto. He poured his entire heart and soul into you. He wouldn’t shut the fuck up about life and love and you think--” Yuri scoffed. “How can you just throw him away like that? How can you be so fucking selfish?!”

“Me? Selfish?” Yuuri feels indignation spring up at Yuri’s words. He’s not being selfish. Being selfish means holding onto Viktor, means continuing this mess of a relationship with him. “Viktor’s the one that decided to pick a random person out from twitter to date! I didn’t even know I was dating him!”

“You’re the one who posted a tweet with the caption ‘date me’--”

“I didn’t think he’d actually notice me--”

“How could he not notice you!” Yuri shouts. “You’re all he’s ever talked about since the banquet!”

“We didn’t even talk at the banquet!” Yuuri shouts back. Maybe he’d feel guilty about raising his voice to a fourteen year old, but he doesn’t have those qualms now.

Yuri makes a shocked noise. “Ex- fucking- scuse me? You didn’t even talk?”

“I--”

“Now listen here fuckass,” Yuri begins, and then he tells Yuuri exactly what happened at the banquet.

-o-

Viktor wins gold at the European Championships.

-o-

Yuuri Katsuki: Congratulations on the gold.

Viktor Nikiforov: thank you.

-o-

Viktor Nikiforov: hey.

Viktor Nikiforov: let’s end this.

Yuuri breathes in shakily. He had hoped that Viktor would want him around for a longer period of time, but he supposes that he only has himself to blame.

Yuuri Katsuki: Okay.

-o-

Yuri Plisetsky: Oi.

Yuri Plisetsky: Katsuki.

Yuri Plisetsky: If you were anyone else i’d tell you to go die in hell but

Yuri Plisetsky: Whatever, just

Yuri Plisetsky has sent a video.

-o-

It takes a while for Yuuri to work up the courage to look at Yuri’s messages. It takes an even longer time for him to play the video but when he does, he almost drops the phone.

The video quality is absolutely horrid, taken in the dim light of a closed ice rink and with a shaky hand. The location of the shooting is also incredibly bad, as if the person taking the video did not want to be seen by anyone.

However, Yuuri still recognises the silver haired man skating in the video, and he definitely recognises what is being skated.

‘The short program is about wanting to reach for something, longing for it, but knowing that you will never be able to have it.’

-o-

Yuuri has no idea what he’s doing here.

That’s a lie. Yuuri knows exactly why he’s here. The question is, why did he allow Phichit to talk him into it?

Yuuri knows the answer to that question too.

“You need to say something to him,” Phichit tells Yuuri. His eyes are serious, the normally jovial spark in them not present. Yuuri’s head is bowed. He doesn’t want to see Phichit. He doesn’t want to see anyone. He just wants to crawl under his blankets and never talk to another human being for as long as he lives.

“I don’t know what to say,” Yuuri replies in a soft voice.

“Just tell him the truth. Tell him how you feel and the reasons behind your actions. I think he deserves that much, at the very least.”

“He’s in the rink,” Yuri tells him. He had been kind enough to ask his grandfather to bring Yuuri straight from the airport to the rink Viktor normally skated in.

Yuuri hesitates and that gives Yuri enough time to grab him by the collar and pull him down to Yuri’s eye level.

“I’ll give you one chance and one chance only,” Yuri says in a low tone. A fourteen year old should not be this terrifying. “If you screw this up, I’ll make sure you regret your entire life.”

Yuuri gulps and nods. Yuri stares into his eyes for a moment before releasing him, satisfied with whatever he had seen.

“Go.”

Yuuri goes.

-o-

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Viktor says. Yuuri looks at the ground. He doesn’t dare look Viktor in the eye.

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri tells Viktor. “For everything.”

“Is that all you have to say?”

“I,” Yuuri takes in a deep breath. He has to tell the truth. He has to open up to Viktor, so that Viktor can meet him where he stands. “I am. In love with you. Still.”

Viktor says nothing.

“I’ve always been in love with you but I, I didn’t want you to see my shortcomings so I pushed you away. You seem to think that I’m a good skater, but that’s. That’s not who I am. I’m just a random, replaceable skater with confidence issues and horrible anxiety. I’m possessive and jealous and… And I can’t be who you want me to be. And I didn’t want you to realise that and be disillusioned with who I am. I didn’t want you to leave me so I…” left you first.

“Yuuri.” Yuuri sees Viktor step closer to him. “I’ve said this from the beginning; you just have to be yourself. You just have to be Yuuri Katsuki.”

“But--” Yuuri looks up and the words he wants to say immediately fly out of his head because

“Are you crying?” Yuuri asks.

“Of course I am! The person I love, the person who broke my heart is standing in front of me and the wound is still raw! Of course I’m crying!”

“I’m, sorry.” Yuuri feels his panic rising. “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? Like a hug, or a, a kiss, or something?” he babbles, only half aware of what he’s saying.

“You don’t have to do anything, Yuuri. I’ve already told you, I just want you to be yourself, I just want you to stay close to me!” Viktor grabs Yuuri’s hands in his. “Do you want to be with me?”

“I can’t--”

“Do you want to be with me,” Viktor repeats. Yuuri can’t help but look into his eyes.

“...I do.”

“Then have more faith in me, in us, in yourself. ” Viktor brings Yuuri’s hands up to his mouth and kisses them. “I love you, Yuuri. You’ve shown me what I’ve been missing my entire life. I don’t think I can live without you, at this point,” he says with a watery smile.

“Same here,” Yuuri breathes.

“I know you’re not perfect. I’m not perfect either. I’m forgetful, I assume things, I don’t talk to people about plans when I should.” Viktor gives a rueful smile. “And I’m absolutely horrible at picking up other people’s emotions. Knowing all this, do you still want to be with me?”

“Yes, of course!” Yuuri is offended that Viktor would even think otherwise.

“Why?”

“Because I love you!”

“It’s the same for me,” Viktor says. Yuuri is silent.

“It’ll be hard,” Yuuri says after a while.

“I know.”

“I’m a very difficult person to be around.”

“Debatable, but I still want to be by your side.”

“We won’t be able to meet up much, being skaters from different countries.”

“We’ll work it out.”

“I’m a very jealous person.”

“And I’m a very clingy one.”

Yuuri laughs. “Are you, are you really serious about this?” he asks. Viktor nods.

“The most serious I’ve ever been outside of skating.”

“Then… I’ll try my best.”

“That’s all I could ever wish for.”

-o-

“So,” Viktor says after a relatively long hugging session outside the skating rink. “Is the offer still open?”

“Hmm?” Yuuri blinks sleepily. “What offer?”

“You asked if a kiss would make me feel better,” Viktor tells him and Yuuri’s face turns red.

“I… did,” he says carefully. He looks up at Viktor and sees that his eyes are glittering.

“A kiss would definitely make me feel better,” Viktor says and Yuuri laughs, looping an arm around Viktor’s neck to pull him into a kiss.

-o-

At Worlds, a reporter asks Yuuri, “Are the rumors true? Are you and Viktor Nikiforov actually dating?”

Yuuri catches Viktor’s eye from across the hall and waves. Viktor blows him a kiss, making him smile.

“Yes,” Yuuri answers the reporter. “We’re dating.”

#fanfiction #viktuuri #yuri on ice #guess who projected all their insecurities onto a single character?#thats right #unfortunately this is not a Funny like what i usually write #which is Very Strange and it makes me Insecure

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fangirlandiknowit101 · 7 years

Text

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

“Yuuri Katsuki?”

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

And now, a foreigner is approaching him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The child is beautiful too, of course.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Wait, what’s your name?”

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

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

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

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

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

Cheeks warm, Yuuri heads for Detroit with newfound determination.

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

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