Chapter Text
Victor stepped off the school bus. His high school was bigger than the average school, and the student body reflected that. He gripped the straps of his backpack and walked towards the steps at the front of the school. A sudden smack on his backpack sent him lurching forward. “Victor! Welcome back, buddy, how was your winter break, dude?” Chris Giacometti walked backwards in front of Victor, grinning stupidly. A group of fellow skaters Victor shared the rink with joined him and Chris.
“Hey, Chris,” Victor bumped Chris’ fist, “it was normal, really. Happy new year!”
“In two weeks we’re going to the state championships, and we’re counting on you to really bring in the points this year. You know, since Georgi kind of sprained his ankle over break.” Victor shook his head in acknowledgement at Chris. While Yakov had been vacationing with him over break, Georgi had decided to go to a public rink on his own. He was with Yakov when Georgi’s parents had called to tell them he’d taken a spill on the uneven ice.
“Yeah, cause no pressure or anything,” Victor laughed. At this point they’d made it up the steps and pushed open the front doors to the school.
Down the hall Yuri Plisetsky and JJ Leroy split the masses of students like the Red Sea. “Oh, watch out!” One kid called, “he bites!” Yuri was not loved by the student body, who flinched at his glare. He was iconic for having an attitude, getting what he wanted, and the seemingly uncharacteristic love he had for musical theatre. Although he did have his following, Yuri was popular for his good looks and talent; not for his approachability or kindness. The only person who seemed to look past all of that was his adopted brother JJ, who was always found by Yuri’s side.
“The ice princess has returned from her stunning debut!” Chris joked, elbowing Victor. “How do you think Yurio spent his break?”
“Uh, I don’t know?” Victor watched as Yuri and JJ walked past them.
“Probably shopping for mirrors.” Chris cracked, and the skaters broke out in laughter and ohhhhs! Across the hall Phichit closed his locker and rolled his eyes. The skating team could be the equivalent of wild animals.
——————
Meanwhile on the other side of the school, Yuuri and his mom walked beside the principal. Yuuri grabbed his stomach and mumbled, "I think I'm going to be sick..."
"You always think you're going to be sick on the first day at a new school. You're going to do fine! And we'll be staying here until you graduate this time, remember?" His mom patted his shoulder and gave an assuring smile.
"You have outstanding grades, Yuuri, I'm sure you'll fit in perfectly here with our IB diploma students. We also have an array of AP electives that you may find interesting...." The principal's words were drowned out by the buzzing in Yuuri's brain. His thoughts were moving too fast, and he could feel his chest tighten.
"I just-" Yuuri blurted without realizing, "don't want to be the freaky genius guy again." He looked defeated and clearly anxiety ridden.
Yuuri's mom rested her hands on his shoulders and squeezed them, "Just be yourself. Just be Yuuri."
"Alright, I'll show Yuuri to class now, Mrs. Katsuki." The principal didn't even miss a beat. Yuuri smiled weakly at his mom before following the principal off down the hallway.
——————
Homeroom was unnecessarily loud and full of chatter as usual. Mrs. Baranovskaya
was sitting at the front of the classroom with hair tight in a bun per usual and reading glasses at the tip of her nose per usual. Behind her head on a chalk board was written: Just call me Mrs. B, you’ll butcher my name anyway. In her bony hand was a thick stack of papers. Since Mrs. B happened to be the theatre sponsor, Victor could bet that she was reading the script for the spring play.
"Victor, Victor!"
"Hey, bro, how was your break?"
"Crazy about all that snow, right?"
"Oh, yeah. That was weird," Victor turned around to talk to his classmates, of only one he really knew personally. Due to Victor's unusual appearance and the fact that he was foreign, which all American girls love, he was relatively popular in school. Almost Yuri popular, except for opposite reasons of course. He had lots of friends - but Chris was the only one he'd actually ever trust with anything secret - and participated in lots of extra-curricular activities. Colleges were already scouting him for his skating abilities. His life was simple; his future path was guaranteed.
When the door squeaked open, Victor didn't turn around. He kept talking to the people behind him. "Oh man, do you even remember a couple nights ago..." Chris joined in the conversation, but his words were drowned out by the voice Victor heard at the front of the room. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it with all the other noise going on.
Victor tuned back in. "Sorry, I don't remember that. All I remember is you had a lighter...." He looked over as someone passed his shoulder. Black hair was all he could see until they turned around and sat two seats back. It was Yuuri. From New Years. Who he'd met in a ski lodge. And kissed almost immediately after they met.
"Victor!" Called a voice, and his eyes shot upward. Yuri stood in front of him, smiling cute-like and waving, "Hi!"
"Hey," Victor was clearly uninterested and tried to peak around the blonde boy to look at Yuuri.
Yuri frowned before moving closer to Victor and putting a hand on his desk. He leaned over, blocking his view of Yuuri, and in a sing-song voice began, "I never got to ask you about your brea—"
The bell rang again. "Mr. Plisetsky, please take a seat. The bell has rung! Class is in session," Mrs. B cast a look in Yuri and Victor's direction. Yuri went back to his seat defeated. "I'm sure you all had a wonderful winter break, and I would love to hear about it. Just not during my class, and if so in the form of something educational… perhaps a graded essay." The entire class groaned in response.
Chris, who sat to Victor's right, leaned over and whispered, "Are you okay? You look stressed."
Victor nodded and whispered back, "Yeah."
"... and so we'll be holding single auditions and then couple auditions for the lead roles in this year's spring musical," Mrs. B pushed her glasses up on her nose.
Victor wasn't listening to what's going on at all. Was that actually Yuuri in the flesh... right behind him? He hadn't said anything about going to a new school. Or had he always gone here? Had Victor just not noticed him? He opened the Contacts app on his phone. Victor scrolled down until he found Yuuri Katsuki, and dialed his number.
Yuuri's phone went off. The ringtone was the song he'd sung with Victor on new years. Victor watched as he fumbled through his bag, looking for his phone to silence it. When he finally found it, he looked at the screen and then up at the desk in front of him. Yuuri's eyes met Victor's. A red blush crept onto Yuuri's cheeks. Victor cancelled the call, and his mouth opened like he wanted to say something just as he was interrupted by Mrs. B.
"Cell phones... the dreaded enemy of teachers everywhere," She grumbled. Mrs. B made her way across the room, starting with Yuri and JJ. "Phones, please!"
Yuri looked up bitterly, "I have to check my social media stats every 30 minutes, Mrs B. I'm an Instagram public figure!" He rolled his eyes and handed over the phone.
"Sorry, Mrs. B, I'm his PR... I have to check Yuri's media every 10 minutes," JJ handed over his phone too.
"I don't understand a word of what either of you just said to me, but I know that your mind numbing technology isn't helping you learn a thing," She moved on down the aisles of her class until she got to Yuuri. "We have a zero tolerance policy for cell phones here, Mr. Katsuki. Phone."
Yuuri handed her the phone with his eyes on the floor. "Sorry," he said quietly.
"And you, Mr. Nikiforov. Your phone goes with me too.” Mrs. B walked back to her desk and set the phones on top. "Everyone who's phone I just confiscated, I'll see you in detention!"
Chris slid his chair back across the floor and hit his knee on his desk in an attempt to stand up, "Uh, Mrs. B, that's not really an option for Victor... see, we have practice after school and with the champ—"
"30 minutes, Mr. Giacometti." Mrs. B sat down in her chair.
"That could be difficult for Chris," Phichit laughed, "he can't count higher than the number of fingers he has."
"30 minutes!" Mrs. B called out and all Phichit could do was gasp and look appalled. "Should we keep going? Or are we finished here?" Someone in the back of the class raised their hand, and Mrs. B looked up. "Yes, Georgi?"
"How was your break, Mrs. B?" Was all he asked, and the class just stared.
The next bell rang.
Yuuri packed up his things and was last to leave the classroom. A tap on his shoulder had him spin around, and come face to face with Victor. “Hey!” Victor’s eyes were wide with excitement and the ends of his mouth curved up into a grin.
“Uh, hi!” Yuuri looked at the floor. He wished he could be more excited to see Victor, but in the end he was just nervous. How do you have a casual relationship with someone who kissed you the first time you met? Oh, God, what if he thinks this isn't casual? Yuuri’s cheeks grew red.
“I really can’t believe you’re here!” Victor wasn’t really reading Yuuri’s anxious vibe, he was too caught up in his own emotions.
“My mom’s company transferred her here from Japan…” Yuuri trailed off as Victor took his arm and started leading him down the school hallway. Shit, I’m gonna get lost if he just drags me wherever. “Um, so you really live here too?”
Victor nodded, and ducked his head down to whisper, “Yeah, I looked for you at the lodge the next morning, but we had to leave early.”
“Oh,” Yuuri whispered back, “I kind of looked for you too… why are we whispering?”
Victor’s cheeks went red, “My friends know about, you know, skating and skiing, but not about the singing part.”
“Is being a triple threat too intimidating for them?” Yuuri smirked a bit.
“Ah, no, but… my friends know me. Whoever was onstage with you was a different person.” Victor adjusted his backpack over his shoulder as the pair turned down the hallway.
“Well, either way I hope I get to know both of you,” Yuuri flashed Victor a smile. Victor felt his heart beat faster in his chest.
“Vitya!” Came a voice from down the hall. As Victor turned, Yuri hugged his arm and rested his head on Victor’s shoulder. “Are you showing the new kid around? You’re so nice!”
“Uh, yeah, I guess? We were just-”
“Vitya, are you guys signing up for the spring musical?” Yuri pointed to the poster on the wall behind Yuuri labeled Spring Musical Sign-Up Form.
“I won’t be signing up for anything for a while,” Yuuri laughed nervously.
Yuri unlatched himself from Victor’s arm, “My brother and I have been in all of this school’s theatre productions since freshman year,” he signed his name Yuri Plisetsky in a red pen, covering half of the sign-up list, “we really welcome newcomers!”
Yuuri waved his hands, “Oh, no, I really-”
“There are a lot of supporting roles in this year’s show. I’m sure we could find something for you,” Yuri turned around and capped his pen.
“Yuri, I appreciate the effort, but I really think it’s impossible for me, anyway,” Victor ran a hand through his hair.
“Vitya, don’t doubt yourself! I didn’t think impossible was even in your vocabulary,” Yuri was back at Victor’s side, smiling up at him.
“Uh, nice penmanship, but I have to get to class…” Yuuri waved a small goodbye to Victor and went off down the hallway.
“See you, Yuuri!” Victor called after him. He looked down as he felt fingernails dig into his arm, “Uh, ow, Yuri?”
“Sorry,” Yuri mumbled, his fake friendliness disappearing momentarily, “did you say his name was Yuuri?”
“Yeah, why?” Victor’s brow furrowed, confused and slightly concerned by the drastic change of Yuri’s demeanor.
There was a pause before Yuri let go of Victor and smiled, “It was nothing. Toodles!” He laughed and waved goodbye to Victor.
Victor adjusted his backpack again and exhaled. What the hell just happened?
——————
Victor finished tying his skates and rested his head on his hand. Chris, already on the ice, skated to where Victor sat on the benches and leaned over the barrier. “Hey, you know that school musical thing? Did Mrs. B say we get extra credit for just auditioning?” Victor looked up at Chris.
“Uh, who cares?” Chris asked, his brows knitting together.
“I don’t, just… extra credit is good for…. college?” Victor shrugged and stood up. He removed the covers from his blades.
“Yeah, because Olympic Gold Medalists spent their time in high school dancing around on a stage,” Chris snorted.
“I mean, maybe,” Victor stepped onto the ice. He skated over to Chris, who turned his head in Victor’s direction.
Yakov opened the door to the rink. “Alright, ladies, lets get to it!” He yelled. Chris skated over to Victor along with the two other members of the skating team, Mila Babicheva and Otabek Altin. Georgi sat on a bench further down the rink. He had stood up when Yakov walked in and hobbled down the side of the rink on crutches. “Georgi, thanks for joining us. How’s the foot?”
“Broken,” Georgi mumbled in response and plopped down on the bench closest.
“Alright, let’s warm up! Around the rink,” Yakov pointed to the rink and spun his finger in a circle.
Victor kicked off the ice. The repetitive motion of one foot after the other eventually allowed his mind to stray from reality.
Yuuri.
He collided with Mila, who threw her hands out to balance herself. Victor slipped backwards and fell onto his tailbone. “Shit,” he grumbled and rubbed his back.
“Victor, are you okay?” Mila extended a hand to him as Chris skated over. Victor took her hand.
Chris laughed and looked down at Victor, “Get your head in the game, Vitya.”