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“That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard.”
Yuuri kept his back to Victor as he washed their dinner dishes. He scrubbed diligently at the sauce leftover on the pan, almost aggressive in his quest for cleanliness. As Victor admired his fiance's back muscles flexing under his shirt with each scrub, he responded.
“What’s so dumb about it?”
Yuri tipped his head to look at the ceiling and gestured wildly with his sponge. “What isn’t?” He dripped soap suds on the counter next to him and hung his head at the extra work he just made for himself.
“I like it! It would be great for your image! And the contract is very generous, honestly. They must really want your endorsement specifically.” Victor scrolled through the offer on his laptop screen, stopping at the very large number that had made him bring it up with Yuuri in the first place.
“What image would that be? The sporty twink you stop to ask directions during a run in Seattle or the Los Angeles hipster who drinks homemade kombucha and wears overalls with fake vintage band t-shirts?”
Victor stopped scrolling and cocked his head at Yuuri’s back. “I don’t know what any of those words mean…”
“Forget it,” Yuuri said, wiping down the counters. “I am not shaving my head just for a photoshoot.”
Victor scoffed. “It’s an undercut, Yuuri. For goodness’s sake, if you do the shoot in May, it’ll grow back out by September for the beginning of competition season.”
Yuuri tossed the sponge into it’s dish and used the faucet nozzle to rinse the sink of extra suds. “Are you kidding me? What happens if it doesn’t grow back long enough? It would cost thousands of dollars to have to reimagine my entire look for my programs.”
“We wouldn’t, though! Maybe we change a component or two to better fit your look, but Yuuri, it would look so good!”
Yuuri shut off the water firmly. Then he turned and leaned against the sink, crossing his arms and looking unimpressed. “You think everything looks good on me.”
“Because everything does,” Victor assured him with a bright smile. “But this especially would. I wonder if we can get a rendering done so you can see what it would look like.” He pulled up a new window on his laptop to find a rendering website.
“All I see is a goof who wants me to shave my head.” Yuuri pushed off the counter and walked around the island to shut the laptop. As he continued towards the living room, Victor shot him an annoyed look and opened it back up.
“Yuuri, you’ve had the same hair for years, and though I find your disheveled-college-student-the-morning-after-an-all-nighter look endearing, an undercut might be a nice change. You might even find you like it. Plus, I’ve chopped off my hair before, it’s no big deal.”
Yuuri poked his head back in the kitchen. “Oh, it’s no big deal? You shook the entire skating world with your haircut and suddenly it’s no big deal.”
“Honestly, Yuuri you’re so dramatic,” Victor sighed.
Yuuri narrowed his eyes and frowned. “Okay, fine.” He stalked out of the kitchen, and Victor heard him slamming open drawers in their shared bathroom. When he came back, he had Victor’s wireless razor in his hand. He set it gently next to his fiance and then hopped up on the counter himself, legs swinging freely. “If it’s no big deal, then you’ll be happy to get an undercut yourself. In solidarity and to further my personal brand, of course.”
“I-What?” Victor looked back and forth between the razor and Yuuri, mild panic building in his eyes.
Yuuri gestured as if he were imagining the headline in the air in front of them. “Victor Nikiforov rocks skating season with debut of undercut to match his competitor and fiance. I can imagine the public’s reaction,” Yuuri sassed.
“Yuuri, let’s just talk about this.”
“We are talking. I’m talking about both of us getting new hair styles. You should get the side done, though, so you can keep your adorable trademark bangs. And then mine can be under the back of my head. What do you think, darling?” Yuuri fluttered his eyelashes sarcastically as he leaned in closer to Victor so he could run a hand through the Russian’s silver locks, barely brushing their noses together.
Victor gently pushed him upright, eyes wide and pink coloring his cheeks. “Yuuri, if you don’t want to do it, I’ll speak to the sponsor for you. We can arrange something else…”
“Maybe you’re right, maybe it is time for more change. It’s not like I almost retired, left the home I called for five years, got pulled back into competition by my idol, beat my personal bests and said idol’s world record, got engaged and then left my home country to move in with my fiance in a country where I don’t speak the language while also skating competitively and planning a wedding. Sure, pile on more change.” Yuuri had ticked off each item on his list while he ranted, ending with a pointed look at Victor and open hands.
Victor could do nothing but rub his face with his hands. He had no power when Yuuri decided to be this way. He pushed his silver fringe out of his face and leaned forward on the counter with his head in his hand. “Darling, please be reasonable.”
“Call them, tell them we’ll both do it!” Yuuri grabbed Victor’s phone and held it out to him. “Think of the payout they’d get on a double spread.” The Russian stood and grabbed his phone, tossing it away so it landed on the sofa. He turned back around and looked his fiance dead in the eye. “Katsuki Yuuri.”
Yuuri met his gaze, eyes blazing with something like murder. “Victor Nikiforov.”
The two of them stared each other down, like dogs sizing each other up before a fight. Yuuri sat on the counter, his fingers gripping the edge and his posture straight. Victor stood in front of him a foot away, arms crossed and eyes assessing the younger skater before him. He broke the silence with an offer of his own.
“If you do this, I will fly us both to Barcelona for a week of vacation before the season starts.”
Yuuri widened his eyes in surprise. “....Bareclona, Spain?”
Victor nodded, face completely void of emotion. “The very same.”
“For a whole week?” Yuuri turned his head away, suspicious of the methods Victor proposed to entice him.
Victor stepped into Yuuri’s space, hands on either side of his thighs and lowered his voice seductively. “Seven full days of relaxing, pampering, shopping and sightseeing.”
Goosebumps broke out on Yuuri’s neck at the timbre of his fiance’s voice, but he remained completely still on the counter. “With you, in the city where we got engaged.”
“That’s right.”
Yuuri hesitated. “...First class seats?” he asked. Normally, he would never ask to fly first class, but if Victor was going to use bribery, he had to figure out how much he could get out of him.
“Of course. And a suite overlooking our beach.” Victor leaned forward so that the tip of his nose brushed Yuuri’s cheek. He felt more than saw the beginning of a blush rising one at it. He smiled at the reaction he was getting and nearly purred, “Only the very best for you, my love.”
Yuuri didn’t move, his gaze locked on something far away as he contemplated the offers before him. “Do I get to keep the gear?”
“It’s already in the contract.” Victor put a light kiss on Yuuri’s cheek, one hand moving to cover the Japanese skater’s where it still lay on the counter.
“And how many days is the shoot?”
“Three days in London for the photoshoot.” Another kiss, this time closer to Yuuri’s ear so Victor could whisper, “Followed by seven in Barcelona.”
Yuuri smiled and succumbed to another wave of goosebumps, this time all over his arms. He rolled his eyes at himself for being so easy to bribe. “Tell them I’ll do it. I’ll get the undercut,” he sing-songed.
Victor pulled back and grinned. “Wonderful! I’ll email them back with the signed contract right now.”
He plopped back down into his chair at the counter and woke his laptop. This time, Yuuri leaned over the top to see what the contract entailed. Standard stuff - contact information, the project leads, accommodations, the undercut - until he saw the section titles “compensation.” When he saw the number, Yuuri nearly toppled off his perch.
“Victor, darling?”
“Yes, my love?”
“Is that number right?”
“I called this morning and double-checked with the project leads myself. I told you, Mizuno really wants you specifically for this campaign.”
“That amount could fund almost an entire year of skating.”
“Yes.”
“Or our wedding.”
“Also yes.”
“...So, why didn’t you lead with that?!”