Chapter Text
It was a chilly morning. The snow of April had started melting with the telltale signs of Spring becoming apparent. Even then the end of Winter in St. Petersburg was, predictably, more cruel than it ever was in Hasetsu. In the middle of it all lay Yuuri Katsuki, current Worlds Silver Medalist (Victor reclaimed gold, pfft).
Supposed silver medalist was about to freeze his toes off. He vigorously tried to wiggle said toes to make sure they were still there. He had turned the heater down a few degrees believing he could take it. Wrong decision. For all of Victor’s talk of him being as warm as an electric blanket, he sure wasn’t feeling that warmth
Speaking of Victor, the man was currently on a weeklong trip around Europe rubbing elbows potential sponsors who had endorsement deals for himself and for Yuuri. That left Yuuri alone in their king size bed.
“I never realized how big our bed was.” He said to himself. Our bed. He rolled on the bed several times to calm his giddy self.
After rolling around, Yuuri realized something. It’s still dark outside.
He probably drifted off to sleep while using his phone of the glasses on his forehead was any indication. He fumbled his hands around the bed to find his phone. It was teetering on the edge of the side table. He quickly grabbed it and checked the time.
4:00 AM huh. He never woke up this early. Even on days with practice, the earliest e would wake up was at 7:00 AM because Victor’s ice time always started in the morning. He always saw Victor off. His own ice time came late in the afternoon right after the ice dance skaters.
Today was different. It was the first week of the off season. This is when skaters would busy themselves with things in their life that did not involve skating like traveling, visiting family or just lazing around at home.
Yurio had taken the rest of the season off, after winning the Grand Prix. He wanted to catch up on his studies under the government sanctioned curriculum for young Russian athletes. That and he made a ton of sponsor money by taking gold at the Grand Prix.
(“Watch out for me next season, pig.” He had said to Yuuri with a scowl before boarding a plane for his trip to Kazakhstan of all places. Who knew Yurio had a friend there?)
On a normal off season day, Yuuri would not be opposed to staying in bed until midday but today something was off. He felt a weird energy within him. This was surprising considering the fact that he wasn’t a morning person.
I have to get up. So he did. He went through the five basic ballet positions while using the couch in their living room as a makeshift barre. Male ballet dancers weren't allowed to dance en pointe. Yuuri had wanted to but Minako decided against it. It could affect his bone structure, she reasoned. He started dancing on of the ballet routines he knew by heart.
(Black swan. Pas de Deux) This was routine made for two people. Minako had taught him the choreography of the female counter part as she had learned herself while she was still dancing at the Bolshoi. While Yuuri lacked the flexibility of his youth, he made up for it in his near-flawless fouettes.
His turns had only gotten better over the years; so did his footwork. To end the routine, he did a grand jete and paused before doing a portion of the Dying Swan.
This routine, he never fully mastered. He could do the arm movements fine, the footwork, even better. But he never truly embodied the choreography. It demanded a fragility that he could never integrate into his style which greatly pegged on quiet strength and stability. And yet, this time, he could properly do the routine in a way that had him satisfied. Yuuri had always adored the vulnerability of the routine. Today he exuded such.
After nearly an hour of ballet, Yuuri certainly worked up a sweat. Still, he felt somewhat boundless energy within him.
What the…Something is definitely different today. Yuuri couldn’t pinpoint it but something, something, was thrumming within him, desperate to come out.
I gotta go skate, he decided.