Chapter Text
Date: 2nd November 2016
Venue: Russia, Saint Petersburg
After spending the entire day of 1st November 2016 sleeping away back in Viktor's apartment in Saint Petersburg, Yuuri finally emerges from the bedroom he shared with Viktor Nikiforov.
The entire month of October was spent in Japan for Yuuri but even then there was literally no time for Yuuri to visit his hometown - Hatsetsu. All he could do was to converse with his family members over the phone. As for finding time to spend with Viktor alone during the week whereby the Japan Open is taking place, all Yuuri could managed is to squeeze in an hour on their last day in Saitama, Japan.
They spend that precious hour cuddling up with one another behind the privacy of Viktor’s hotel room, before bidding one another farewell. Yuuri having to leave Saitama for the next destination on his itinerary planned for Shinos and Viktor to leave for the airport with his three temporary assigned students for the period.
The following week after Japan Open, Yuuri and the rest of the members’ from Shinos headed down to Tokyo for a series of live performances. The performance includes a fan-meeting held at the infamous Sky-tree Tower Mall, a guest performers at the Y2K Boys concert held at the Tokyo Dome and lastly a co-joint performance put up by their record company Queens Records featuring other artists under the same company in ZEPP Tokyo.
The last week was spent in Osaka, Japan for the Kansai Sectional Figure Skating Tournament. The Shinos were part of the opening and closing ceremony for the event as per the contract agreement with the JSF for the month of October 2016. Following the end of the performance at the Kansai Sectional Figure Skating Tournament, Yuuri flew back to Russia, Saint Petersburg on the first available flight he could hopped on.
The rest of the members of Shinos though remains in Japan for their own personal reasons, for Hiroaki and Kanade they had another Japan hosted ITF event just around the corner while Haruka was cast in another short TV drama production hence Yuuri is the only one that headed back to Saint Petersburg after the end of the Japan Open event.
Yuuri’s flight touches down in Saint Petersburg during the wee morning hours of 1st November 2016, and the moment Yuuri arrived back at Viktor’s apartment – the twenty-three year old promptly landed himself into the deep slumber. While Viktor was highly disappointed for the lack of chance to enjoy Yuuri’s company, the twenty-seven year old Russian knew it cannot be helped and thus decided to let Yuuri sleep the fatigue off before anything else.
“Yuuri~~ good to see you up and about. Are you well-rested now?” Viktor asks as he greeted his lover with a big cheery smile on his face. It has really been too long, even if it has only been two weeks since they last saw one another but still the last time they managed to see one another, neither of them have personal time.
“Yes, no worries. I’m quite well-rested now. Thank you for allowing me to sleep the entire day of yesterday away. So, what’s on the agenda for today?” Yuuri asks, fully awake and feeling absolutely refreshed as he settled himself next to Viktor at the dining table for their breakfast.
“Well… I think it would be good for you to drop by the rink for some practice. While I knows for certain that you are more than ready for the Cup of China event, I still want to have another look at your programs. After that, we could have a group lunch sessions with Mila and the others.” Viktor suggested after a minute of silence.
“Sounds good, I might as well take the chance to distribute the souvenirs that I’ve brought back along with me from my trip to Japan during the lunch session.” Yuuri nodded in agreement to Viktor’s suggestion.
“Souvenirs? You’d actually bought them souvenirs? When on earth did you find the time to go shopping?” Viktor stared, a look of incredulity marring his features as he voiced his doubt across at Yuuri.
“…I may have been busy in Japan, but I certainly do get time off every now and then. Seeing as most of the events attended by Shinos were held in malls, surely it’s not that impossible for me to shop around during my break time.” Yuuri deadpan as he responded to Viktor’s query.
“I see…” Viktor murmurs back in response as he shifted his attention to his bowl of morning cereal.
“Right, so where’s Yurio?” Yuuri asks, changing the subject when he noted the blond teen's absence from the apartment the three of them were sharing.
“Ah… he’s staying over at Lilia’s for the time being. Apparently, he’s due for some intensive training according to Lilia.” Viktor responded with a shrug.
“Right… somehow I keep forgetting how challenging his free skate program could be.” Yuuri sweat-dropped, now that Viktor mentioned it… he thought Yurio had made some comment about how demanding Lilia could be from their conversation before.
With that said, the duo turns their attention back to their own breakfast – which is simply just plain morning cereal complete with milk and fruits. After breakfast, the duo brought the pets next door for their neighbor to take care of before they went on their way to the rink. They would come by after their practice to pick the pets up for a walk, and probably drop by the nearby restaurant for a quick dinner before heading back home for some privacy. At least, this was the plan Viktor had in mind for today.
Meanwhile, back in Japan – a certain Minami Kenjiro was whooping about in joy. He had just received a confirmation of his nomination to take part in the upcoming GPF series under the NHK Trophy event. Depending on the outcome of his performance during the NHK Trophy this year, he might get to win himself a ticket straight for the Four Continents and on to the consideration list for the next GPF season.
Minami was so happy that he immediately shared the news with his friends and family on his instagram account, but he was also disappointed when he failed to receive any word of encouragement from his idol-figure – Yuuri Katsuki.
“Seriously, Kenjiro… this is nothing for you to mope about. For all you know Katsuki-san has yet to see your message, he’s not exactly a social-media addict alright?” Minami Kenjiro’s elder brother whom had enough of the teen’s moping finally sighed out loud and said with a tint of annoyance coloring his tone.
At that, Minami Kenjiro finally settled back down and keep his comments to himself. The realization that his moping has finally snapped his elder brother’s already fraying nerves, the elder sibling has an important examination coming up and was more than enough stressed by all the studying. Apparently, his constant moping and sighing is not helping his elder sibling and instead only ended up annoying the former instead.
Eventually, Minami Kenjiro was ship off to his coach – Odagaki Kanako’s flat to not have him around to distract his elder brother’s studies. As for his message to Yuuri with the report of his nomination for the NHK Trophy by the JSF was only acknowledged after a 48 hours delay.
Yuuri had first apologized for not responding immediately, claiming that he was tie down by his practice. That, and his phone had run out of battery in between and he didn’t knows until someone calls Viktor up to contact him hence the delay in his noticing the message from Minami.
When Minami first noticed the Whatsapp message response from Yuuri, he had stared at the screen with his mouth agape for a minute before he starts whooping about in joy. The reaction was so ridiculous that he ended up on the receiving end of his coach’s several sarcastic remarks before he finally calmed down enough to respond to Yuuri’s message.
Minami.K: It’s so nice to hear from you, Yuuri-san! *insert beaming icon*
Yuuri Katsuki: *smiley face* It’s nice to know that you have been nominate for the NHK Trophy Cup this season. All the best for your impending tournament, and I hope to see you in the Four Continents Championship early next year.
Minami.K: *Beams* Thank You! I will do my absolute best for the NHK and try to win myself a ticket to the Four Continents Championship.
With that, it wraps up the whatsapp message between Yuuri Katsuki and his number one fan-boy in Japan – Minami Kenjiro. Setting aside the phone, Yuuri shifted his attention back to the rink where Viktor is warming up. They are going to work on their ‘surprise’ exhibition programs in a while’s time. Viktor, for all his intent of secrecy had manage to talk Yakov into allowing him the responsibility to lock up the rink and hence they were now the only two people left in the rink building.
“Yuuri, are you ready?” Viktor asks, jolting the Japanese out from his thoughts.
Yuuri blinked once, then twice and soon a blush forms on his cheeks. It has been a long time since he had actually paid attention to Viktor’s skating, and thus he was so engrossed in admiring the Russian’s warm-up that he failed to notice when the man had stop skating.
“Sorry, I was somewhat distracted. Right, you were saying?” Yuuri snapped himself out from his daze-liked state and asks Viktor back in return.
“I’m done with my warm-up, so are you ready to start working on the program?” Viktor asks with a grin, if he hadn’t realized Yuuri’s distraction was due to his earlier warm-up program… he certainly does now.
“Yes, I’m ready. Let’s get started, shall we?” Eager to change the subject, Yuuri hurried to comply as he removed his skate guards and join Viktor in the rink. The entire time he was trying his best to avoid eye-contact with Viktor, it was so embarrassing to get himself caught in the act of staring after the Russian with obvious starstruck mannerism.
~ to be continued~
Date completed: 24/7/17.