Chapter Text
Two weeks after the world championships, Chris and Viktor got together for their traditional weekend getaway. Right off the bat, Chris sensed that something was off, and he didn’t think much of it at first but he began to worry when Viktor still looked glum after his fifth glass of vodka.
"How's your dog?" Chris asked, because he knew this subject always cheered his friend up.
Viktor sighed. “Makkachin is the only thing that brings me joy anymore," he answered in his Romanov-exiled-in-Paris-after-the-Russian-revolution accent.
“Wow," Chris raised his eyebrows. “I mean, your last gold medal too, right?"
Viktor just poured himself a sixth glass, chugged it down in one gulp, put it back on the table with a bang and proceeded to get spectacularly drunk, even for him.
Chris woke up the next day with the worst hangover of his life and regretting every decision that had led him to that moment. Viktor, of course, was fresh as a daisy. He handed Chris a glass of water along with a paracetamol and sat down on the window sill.
The morning light brushed his skin with angelic softness and Chris felt a twinge of regret that the days when their relationship was sexual were over. But Chris was now sharing his life with a wonderful man, and Viktor had sincerely wished them the best when he was told the news.
Also, Viktor at this moment had nothing angelic about him at all, unless you’re talking about a fallen angel, and he looked as soft as a thirty-eight ton truck about to run you over.
And for once, that wasn't a sexual metaphor.
"I'm going to retire," said Viktor.
The shock made Chris forget all about his nausea.
"What??"
Viktor did not repeat himself. He looked terribly serious, sad, even. It wasn't an emotion Chris knew him to have. It wasn’t an emotion Viktor allowed himself to have, perhaps.
“Nononono!" Chris shouted in panic. “You can't do that! You have to wait, like everyone else does, for someone... for me to dethrone you!"
The man took a deep breath.
"Are you hurt?” Chris’ eyes widened. Shit. “How bad is it?”
“Deadly," Viktor answered miserably. “It’s my soul...”
Ugh, Viktor, Chris mused, reassured, as he ran his hand over his face.
"I don’t have a program for the next season."
Chris frowned. "I thought you were wavering between two themes?"
Viktor mumbled something in Russian and shrugged.
"That was for the press, a mere fantasy. The only theme there is is the death of my career.”
“Aren't you being a little dramatic?"
That was a redundant question, because Viktor was always a little dramatic, but his solemnity worried Chris.
"Stammi Vicino was the work of a walking corpse.”
“You’re being hard on yourself. And on us, given the massacre that was the world championships."
Viktor looked at him with a deadpan expression that made the Swiss man feel uncomfortable.
"You felt it, right?"
Chris hesitated. Maybe he did. Maybe this year Viktor had seemed less unreachable to him. He had chalked it up to his own progress, and it wasn’t pleasant to consider that in reality, Viktor may just have not given it his all.
"You felt it," Viktor repeated, this time in an affirmative tone.
Chris felt his face fall.
"Truth is, I don't enjoy skating anymore.”
This sentence felt like a punch in the face for the Swiss man.
He tried to imagine what that would feel like, but couldn't. The thought alone sent a shiver down his spine.
Not knowing what to say to that, Chris laid back down again and fell asleep without meaning to. When he woke up, Viktor was no longer in the room they shared (out of sheer habit, since they always ended up drunk and it was more convenient, even though they didn't share a bed anymore). Chris looked for his cell phone on the bedside table to check the time and saw that he had a new notification.
Yuri On Ice has released a new video.
Chris smiled automatically. He put on his glasses and clicked on the link. It wasn't an instructional video but a demonstration, Yuuri skating Cao Bin's free program. Chris watched it once, then again, nodding in admiration. The Japanese skater had made a lot of progress. He glanced at the description, where Yuuko had put the link to a poll to know which program the subscribers wanted to see next.
He went to vote for his own, because he knew that Yuuri had already mostly mastered it and that it was misplaced embarrassment that prevented him from filming it. Yuuri had everything of a showman, he knew how to lose himself to the music, and just because a program was more technically difficult, it didn’t mean that he needed to hold himself back. When Chris returned to Yuri On Ice’s Youtube page, Viktor's name caught his attention in the comment section.
LordoftheRink 5 hours ago
Still no Viktor Nikiforov program in the poll :( :( :( :(
hellahello01 5 hours ago
@Yuri on ice you know we're ready to start a revolution just to get a video of Yuuri skating a Viktor Nikiforov program, right?
Yuri On Ice 5 hours ago
I'm sorry! Yuuri doesn't want to do Viktor programs. ~Yuuko.
yuriplisetskybestyuri 5 hours ago
Why? Because he doesn't feel capable of it? sounds cowardly to me
treeswhattrees 5 hours ago
I don't see why he wouldn't feel capable of it, he skated many difficult programs and just lowered the level of the jumps when it was too hard - we're not here for the jumps anyway
badtimesgoodtimes 5 hours ago
I bet Nikiforov banned him from it legally
treeswhattrees 5 hours ago
that would be really shitty
Yuri On Ice 4 hours ago
We are not in contact with Viktor! Yuuri is choosing not to, for personal reasons. Please respect his decision :) ~Yuuko
kevin76 4 hours ago
Yuukooooo my goddess, when will we see you again in a video!?!?!
yuriplisetskybestyuri 4 hours ago
I say it's cowardly because it would do good to Viktor to see that his programs are being copied
MusicSavedMyLife 4 hours ago
a lot of people have copied Viktor
yuriplisetskybestyuri 4 hours ago
only losers
Hamsterslife 4 hours ago
ha ha @yuriplisetskybestyuri you should change your nickname
MusicSavedMyLife 4 hours ago
yurikatsukibestyuri lol
yuriplisetskybestyuri 4 hours ago
fuck y’all!!!!
Chris blinked, leaned back against his pillows and bit his thumbnail.
When Viktor came back a short fifteen minutes later, his ears and nose red from the cold, but a steaming cup of coffee in each hand, he said:
"Maybe you just need to take your mind off things. And I have just the thing for you!"