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Victor had a lifelong enemy. He hated that specific someone with a passion, and he vowed that he would give the person a piece of his mind if he ever met him face to face.
That specific someone was a guy by the name of Potya Popovich and unfortunately, he was one of the Presidents of the Katsuki Yuuri fan club (there were three of them), a figure to be respected because of his contributions to the club. He somehow shared the last name of his own rink mate as well, and Victor was almost surprised that the President of Yuuri's fan club was a Russian.
Since a young age, Yakov had told him that a skater had to be in good terms with his or her fan club, because they were in charge of everything. Fan-meets, merchandise ordering, design of banners in competitions. Well, Yurio completely ignored his words and he would swear at his fans all the time. Still, they thought he was incredibly sweet and called him ' a pure little angel', which Victor was 101% sure he wasn't.
Anyways, back to Potya Popovich. He knew that this guy was going to be a thorn in his side since he first went to Hasetsu to coach Yuuri. He did some research (yes, research, not stalking) on the Katsuki Yuuri fan club in the quiet evenings in Japan, and he discovered a lot about them.
Apparently, the Katsuki Yuuri fan club was pretty small-sized at the moment, and there were only 100 people in the board committee (Victor had a thousand people in from all over the world in his fan club's board committee), 'ruled' by Potya Popovich, their President and a small panel of vice-presidents.
To his utter annoyance at the time (Yuuri was still ignoring him), Potya Popovich seemed to know more about Yuuri than most of the other fans. He wrote lengthy paragraphs on Yuuri's previous performances, commenting on his choice of music, jump techniques and crossovers, and he seemed to be able to point out the problems with his Quad Salchows. It was obvious that Potya Popovich knew a great deal about figure skating, or maybe he was a figure skater himself too.
The most alarming of all, Potya Popovich also knew about Yuuri's anxiety problems and he cared a lot about it. Especially after the disastrous GPF Sochi.
Potya Popovich: Guys, Yuuri's been through a lot lately. We should give him all the support he needs. Don't scream at him in the Japanese Nationals please, he's just stressed.
It also seemed that Potya Popovich wasn't too fond of Victor. After Victor made his presence in Hasetsu known, Potya Popovich posted this on the fan site:
Potya Popovich: Oh well we are screwed. We all know that Victor has never coached skaters before and now he's coming to coach our Yuuri? Woah, no offence there, Victor Nikiforov fans, but we just don't trust this airhead enough to hand our skater to him. Maybe he should return to competitive skating. Just saying, guys, just saying.
Victor was literally burning up in anger when he saw this. Who was he to doubt his coaching abilities?!
This is so unfair and stupid!!! How come an unknown person behind a screen seem to know more about my Yuuri than I do? And he's just savage. Victor gritted his teeth angrily. Guess what, Potya Popovich, I'm going to be Yuuri's biggest fan. I'm going to know a lot about him, and it's going to be great! Yuuri's going to be mine!!!
When his Junior, Yuri Plisetsky or Yurio, as newly dubbed, stormed into Hasetsu and demanded for his return to Russia, Victor had a feeling that Potya Popovich was cackling evilly at his failures behind his computer.
I'm not going to let that guy write about this, Victor thought, and he brought up the Onsen On Ice event.
Still, the night the event was announced, Potya Popovich made a prediction of Victor's programs for the two.
Potya Popovich: I have a bad feeling that Victor's programs are going to be weird. Just saying.
And he was right.
Victor gave Yuuri the Eros program and Yurio the Agape one.
Happy, happy.
Potya Popovich went missing until the night before Onsen On Ice, where he wrote this on the official website:
Potya Popovich: Believe it or not, Yuuri's going to win Onsen On Ice.
He was right again.
Yurio returned to Russia with his new SP, and Victor stayed behind with Yuuri.
In the next few months, Victor didn't check the fan site as frequently, because he was too busy building up a good relationship with Yuuri. And he only went back to check the website after The Kiss™ at the Cup of China, just to check what Potya Popovich had to say.
Potya Popovich: Well... I had a feeling that this was going to happen.
That was all. Victor was triumphant for many days, like, take that, Potya!!! Ha!!! Yuuri is with me now!!!
And the other two presidents (KatsukiYuuri-fan and Natsumi loves Yuuri) posted #Victuuri. Victor was so pleased with it.
In the next few months, Potya Popovich disappeared completely.
Natsumi loves Yuuri: Hi guys, please note that President Potya will be taking leave for several months because he has college stuff to do. Let's wish him the best of luck and hope that he will return soon!!! :333
Good! Victor almost forgot about him.
Potya Popovich didn't really resurface in his life, until the fan-meeting after the World Championships...
***
' Yuuri! How was your fan-meeting?' Victor kissed Yuuri's cheek softly, as he helped him with his luggage.
Yuuri had just returned from a fan-meeting in Hasetsu, and originally, Victor was going to go with him, but Yakov made him stay behind to work on his programs ( ' A silver medal? You're losing your touch, Vitya.')
' It was brilliant,' Yuuri beamed. ' My fans were really nice and heck! I still can't believe I have fans.'
' You're amazing, of course you have fans. The Skate Fam is waiting there. Georgi's driving,' Victor said. ' Don't worry, he's emotionally stable. Anastasia's been keeping him sane.'
' That's good to know,' Yuuri smiled.
The Skate Family was packed into Georgi's car. Mila was sitting at the front, and Yurio slouched at the back, looking very grumpy.
' Hiiiiiii,' Yuuri said, and squashed into the back next to Yurio.
' Let's go!!!' Georgi cried, and he started the engines.
Mila turned back to grin at Yuuri, ' How was it? I've seen the pictures. It looks really fun.'
' I wish I could have been there,' Victor pouted.
' Boringgg,' Yurio grumbled.
' They're all very nice, and I talked to the Presidents,' Yuuri said.
' Presidents?' Victor asked, the unwelcome presence of Potya Popovich popping up in his mind.
' Yes, Natsumi and Matt,' Yuuri showed them a picture on his phone. It was a selfie with a pretty, dark-haired Asian girl and a light-haired boy, and the both of them looked like they were going to cry any moment. ' I think there are three presidents, and the third one couldn't make it. He's Russian, by the way.'
' Oh, Potya Popovich?' Mila said.
Yurio choked.
' You know him?' Victor said, hiding his disgust.
' Of course. I've seen him many times on the fan site, and oh, in case you are wondering, I'm part of the Katsuki Yuuri fan club. Honorary division,' Mila said with pride.
' You are in Katsudon's fan club?!' Yurio said, aghast.
' Yep, Victuuri plus Lifts, that's me. I was thinking if Potya is related to Georgi or something,' Mila poked at Georgi.
Georgi frowned, ' Don't think so. There is no Potya in our family. Though we have a handful of Alexeis.'
' They told me that Potya is probably the most dedicated fan ever,' Yuuri said appreciatively, not noticing Victor's dismay. ' He writes on the fan site all the time and I've seen his stuff while I was waiting at the airport! He sounds really sweet. I wish I could have met him.'
' Sounds like a stalker to me,' Victor crossed his arms. He almost cracked his tooth just now from clenching his jaw too hard.
' No he's not,' Mila said. ' That guy is so sweet.'
' Eurghhhhhhhhhhhh,' Yurio made a face.
' Maybe I should write to him,' Yuuri said. ' Or we should meet.'
' He might be a psycho,' Yurio warned darkly. ' I don't think that's a good idea.'
' I agree,' Victor said, agreeing with the Russian punk for once.
' What's wrong with the both of you?' Mila scowled. ' He's just a sweet guy that is a fan of Yuuri's. It's a good thing.'
Good thing?! It seems that Yuuri is very fond of him, Victor's mind screamed. Okay, he might be constantly jealous (aka the Chihoko accident), and he knew he should have more faith in Yuuri. But he just didn't like the idea of Yuuri conversing with this... Potya Popovich guy. Victor just didn't like him.
' Let's talk about something else,' Georgi said. ' Like my date with Anastasia!'
' Oooh, how did it go?' Yuuri asked.
While Georgi recounted his very dramatic date, Victor was thinking about one thing:
I need to overcome this Potya guy.
***
Victor overcame Chihoko without a problem. So overcoming Potya should be easy, right?
Nope.
Yuuri seemed to be really really really really fond of this guy. He read through all of Potya Popovich's posts, and kept saying that he should thank him properly.
And Victor was literally boiling in anger.
He couldn't be upstaged by this Potya guy!!! He should be Yuuri's favourite fan! Not him!
And Mila wasn't helping at all, because she kept gushing about how nice Poyta was.
Yurio didn't seem to happy about it, ' Still talking about Potya, are we?'
' What? Is it wrong to appreciate our great President? It's thanks to him that the Katsuki Yuuri fan club is flourishing,' Mila said crossly.
That was it. Victor decided that he should do something about it.
To let Potya know that he was Yuuri's greatest fan.
***
v_nikiforov: #overcomePotya #yuuriismine
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phichit+chu: Ummmmmm... First things first... shouldn't it be Overcome Chihoko? Secondly, who's Potya? And thirdly OMG IS THERE SOMETHING GOING ON WITH VICTUURI!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! ANSWER US YUURI!!! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!!!!! ARE THERE SOME PROBLEMS? TELL ME MATE!!! I CAN HELP!!!! DON'T DO THIS TO US!!!!!!! @_katsukiyuuri
christophe_gc: Who's Potya? :/// I'm confused. @_katsukiyuuri What's going on?
Yuri_angels: Hah? I thought Potya is Yuratchka's cat. (He's adorable by the way.)
***
Yuuri knew that there was something wrong when his phone kept buzzing throughout practice. At last he fished it out of his skate bag, and he saw Victor's Instagram post.
What on earth?!
Overcome Potya?! Yuuri is mine?!
And his friends and fans kept tagging him, asking him what was going on with Victor. Phichit seemed to be most anxious, tagging him in fifty different posts using different accounts.
Yuuri walked to the rink calmly, and showed Victor his screen, ' Care to explain what is this?'
' Overcome Potya!' Victor had the nerve to say this confidently.
' Oh my god,' Yuuri groaned (flash-backs to the Chihoko accident). ' Are you jealous again? Victor, I told you, Potya is just a fan. There's nothing going on between the two of us. You can stop being jealous about him.'
' But you talk about him all the time,' Victor wailed. ' He's becoming your favourite fan!!! I'm being upstaged!'
Victor was making such a scene that the entire Team Russia was just staring at them in confusion.
Yuuri resisted the urge to bang his head on the wall of the rink. His fiancé was such an insane child. A jealous Victor could be cute at times, but in situations like this, Yuuri had no idea what to do with him.
' I told you many times, Victor, I can search the whole world and no one is better than you!' Yuuri pinched the bridge of his nose.
' Oh my god, can we all stop talking about Potya Popovich?!' Yurio demanded murderously, gliding past them.
Victor announced, ' No!!! I'm going to tell that young upstart I'm the boss here, and I'm Yuuri's greatest fan and I'm Yuuri's present and-'
' OH LORD!!!!!!!!!!!' Yurio blew up. ' SERIOUSLY?!!!!!!! THIS IS EVEN WORSE THAN THE OVERCOME CHIHOKO THING. LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, DUMBASS. I'M POTYA POPOVICH.'
The effect was almost like the 'No, I'm your father' scene in Star Wars. Except no one was screaming 'NO'. Yet.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
' W-w-w-w-what?!' Yuuri gasped and he collapsed on the ice.
And at that point, the rink exploded.
Mila surged forward and shook Yurio's shoulders, ' YOU ARE POTYA POPOVICH?! HOW?! HOW?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?!'
Georgi shrieked, ' YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE KATSUKI YUURI FAN CLUB?! WHAT THE HELL?!!!!!!!'
Victor screamed, ' WHAT?!!! I THOUGHT YOU HATED HIM BEFORE THE GP QUALIFIERS BEGAN!!!!!! MY LIFE IS A LIE!!! OH GOD!!!!!!!!!!!'
And Yurio was dodging them, his face burning, ' Get off me!!! Go away!!! I'm not answering any questions!!!!' He fled into the nearby changing room and locked himself in.
Victor helped Yuuri up, and his ears were still ringing.
Yurio is the President. Yurio is Potya Popovich. What the heck?!!!
Yuuri collapsed again.
' W-well, Victor,' Mila looked as if she had just swallowed a coin. ' At least... Potya Popovich is not a threat anymore.'
Victor couldn't agree more. At least no one would be stealing his Yuuri.