Chapter Text
oikawa pov
it took me 18 years, or 9,467,280 minutes, of training to reach this point, and yet i only get 4 minutes to prove myself to the world, one mistake and my entire existence will come crashing down. of course, i would never worry about such a thing, confidence came as naturally to me as breathing, and my extensive experience only boosted that confidence. even so, i always get jittery before a program. one minute left to straighten my costume, this time a teal and navy blue taffeta and silk tulle blouse adorned with thousands of rhinestones, matching opera gloves, and navy pants. i double check my moussed hair and makeup, and of course breathe.
the overhead speakers blared with a woman speaking english, “next to skate, representing japan, oikawa tooru.” my choreographer and coach, ittetsu takeda, gave me a final ‘good luck,’ before fastening on my tiara, and i glided to the center of the rink. my nocturnal serenade was his music choice for this program, he said that it suited me because my on stage persona was that of a ‘fantastical prince.’
the cheers were silenced and a good ten seconds passed with only the sound of my own heart beating when the music began. as the music played, i found a sense of comfort and familiarity, having practiced hundreds of times, it was engraved in my mind.
first, a quadruple loop.
“a perfect landing by oikawa!”
i glided some more, following the choreography, leading to my next jump, a quadruple lutz.
“and another beautifully done jump!”
a flying choreography combo spin 4.
as the music picked up, the crowd began clapping along, but i didn’t notice until after when i watched the replays, in the moment all i could focus on was the sound and vibrations of the music.
triple lutz. nailed it.
3 quads lined up.
“and there’s the first!”
drift into a quadruple salchow.
“here comes the next two,”
quad .
“AND ANOTHER,”
quad- ah dammit.
“AND HE JUST ABOUT HANGS ON TO A TRIPLE FLIP AT THE END!”
it’s okay, i’ll do one more quad.
“AND HE DOES IT, WITH A DOUBLE TOE AT THE END!”
my knee is aching, but it’s fine. i just need the triple axel.
“he’s looking worn out, must be from his knee injury last year, he was out of practice for 5 months but still hanging strong.”
yes, i’m strong i can do this .
“and indeed, that was supposed to be a triple axel and ended up as a single.”
stupid. stupid. stupid. i can’t miss this chance, papa spent his life’s savings on me i can’t let him down .
i arched my back as i curved along the rink, my gloved hands reached enough to slide along the ice. somehow, the chill of the once smooth surface now engraved by my blades, sent a shock of energy through me.
fly sit spin 4.
combo spin 4.
i have just enough time, just enough energy, to fit in the triple axel.
“he seems to be attempting his triple axel again and- A QUADRUPLE AXEL?!”
the music stopped abruptly and i fell from my ending position to my knees. what the hell did i just do? i began sobbing out of exhaustion right there on the ice in front of the whole world, my head was aching, and i could only hear the loud ringing in my ears.
a few moments later i could begin to hear again, the sound of the crowd cheering and many, many , stuffed animals being thrown onto the ice. i lifted my head to see an overwhelming neon green sea of various alien plushies. little girls entered the rink and began picking up the bouquets and toys.
my brain still hadn’t quite processed what just happened, or how it had happened as i absentmindedly skated to the boards where takeda ran to me with open arms.
“YOU LITTLE RASCAL!! SINCE WHEN WERE YOU HIDING THIS FROM ME??” he said as he gave me a suffocating bear hug.
“coach, you’re strangling me.” i gasped, my older sister, tsuna, suddenly appeared by my side, pulling me into a hug after putting on my jacket.
“tooru that was beautiful!!” she squished my face and i could feel a jewel pop off my cheek.
“oh get off!!” i pushed the both of them off me and stumbled to a bench to put on my skate guards, keeping my head lowered so they couldn’t notice i was still crying.
only four minutes, and yet somehow i’d done something i’ve never done in my now 9,467,284 minutes of skating.
“tooru,” takeda held a hand out for me and i looked up to see him smiling with tsuna who was holding a particularly large alien and a bouquet from the rink, “let’s go wait for the results.”
my sister had gone off to answer a call from papa while we went to the kiss and cry, skating lingo for the waiting area where skaters and coaches wait while the judges announce the final marks. i bounced my knee while takeda continued to congratulate me. one of the little girls who cleared the rink of gifts handed me a bottle of dragon fruit juice, i thanked her and drank it while continuing my fidgeting.
my short program score was 103.98 and the current lead has a combined score of 310.05, i was gonna need more than 206.07 to beat him, but that was just numbers. i’m thankful for numbers, it means there will always be an exact way to calculate the perfect outcome, unfortunately i was still so dazed i couldn’t think much about calculations.
takeda rubbed my back as the announcer began, “here we go, scores for oikawa tooru,”
i held my breath, i tried to focus on something, anything, to calm down my nerves.
“AN ASTOUNDING 231.83!! GIVING HIM A COMBINED SCORE OF 335.81, THIS BEATS THE PREVIOUS WORLD RECORD OF 335.40 BY 00.41!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OIKAWA TOORU HAS DONE IT!!”
and just like that, i had forgotten how to breathe.
the plane ride back was uneventful, having been traveling around asia for a year and a half for training and on top of that the olympics, planes have become just as boring as watching paint dry. i slept the entire time, the closing ceremony was exhausting and i wanted to collapse in my bed at the olympics village, but nooo , papa wanted to have a 4 hour skype which was 60% him crying and 40% him yelling at me for “overworking” myself.
him, tsuna, and takeda had become especially cautious about my training since my injury last year, even insisting i get an eating disorder therapist, which probably was a good idea but i was able to negotiate with them that i’ll get one as soon as i come home, at the time i needed to focus on recovery training before the olympics. of course, they still paid close attention to the amount of food, training, and rest i got. i understand that they worry, but honestly i’m fine.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO SKATING?” i could not believe the words that came out of my own fathers mouth. “HELLO? OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST HERE!! I CAN'T JUST NOT SKATE!!” when i arrived home, i was expecting a warm welcome, not an intervention in my bedroom.
“tooru, don’t raise your voice at me.” papa said sternly with his arms crossed. He was usually very sweet, lenient, and carefree, but sometimes he could get very scary.
“um, what your father means to say is,” takeda maneuvered through the pile of plushies and sat on the window seat, “well we think you deserve a break, just a month of relaxing and then we can get back into training. we can all go to a rink together for fun if you want, but we just want you to focus on your sessions with dr madoka yachi for now.” he said with a kind smile.
“yeah tooru, you were always focused on achieving your dreams, and now that you’ve done it, you can take a short break before going at it again.” tsuna was next to me on my bed, cradling the large alien plushie from the rink.
“i don’t want to take a break, i just want to catch up on all the training i missed last year.” i sighed and fell back onto the even bigger pile of plushies on my quilt. i think it must be some kind of unwritten law for every figure skater to have an obsession with plushies.
papa sighed and rubbed his temples. he had gotten a bit older than i realized, a couple streaks of gray hair on each side of his head, his skin seemed a bit more worn and wrinkled, no doubt from working in the sun all day at the construction site. he’s still really cute for his age, i’m glad to have his genetics. “tooru, you can catch up on training after you take a break, and i don’t want to hear any more protests or god help me-“
“fine. no training okay?” i rolled over and laid face down to roll my eyes without him seeing. i guess i can just train on my own without them knowing-
“i know you’re rolling your eyes, and don’t even think about going to the rink, i’ve already had takeda tell them you’re blacklisted for the next month.”
i groaned and tsuna laughed, rubbing my back, “aww papa don’t treat him like a criminal.”
“i just want my baby to stay safe.” papa said and patted my head, “now take a nap and when you’re ready i’ll make you some food.”
“…whatever i want?”
“within reason.”
i perked up, suddenly having a momentary happiness, “how bout tempura udon, with a side of tsuna’s milk bread and butter?” my mouth watered at the thought of no longer having to regulate my diet. maybe their break plan had its perks.
“i’ll get started right away.” papa ruffled my hair and left for the kitchen down the hall.
“well i guess i better get started too,” tsuna left the plushies and followed him, leaving me with takeda.
“tooru, you should take a nap.” hegot up from the window seat and shut the curtains. “i’ll go help them with the food, okay? we’re all so proud of you,” he gave me a hug, much gentler than his usual ones, “and it would give us a peace of mind if you focus on taking it easy, just for a bit. promise?”
i smiled and held up my pinky, “pinky promise!”
“oh thank you tooru! now go to sleep.” he closed the door on his way out, not noticing my other hand had its fingers crossed behind my back.
iwaizumi pov
one month ago
“haha very funny.”
“kid im not joking.” coach ukai sighed and looked to the lake. it was nearing sundown and the sheet of ice on the surface sparkled. “im just an old fart now, i want to do things i never got a chance to when i was younger. i understand you’re upset but-“
“no, you clearly don’t understand. you know those stupid seniors keep trying to get us off the team and you were the only one keeping us together, if you leave now what then?” i can’t believe him, he coached me since i was a kid all the way into college and just now he’s deciding to retire?
“hajime, don’t worry i took care of it. my grandson is going to coach you from now on, he was real talented at your age, i think you guys will get along.” coach put his hand on my shoulder, “again im sorry hajime, but i believe you can keep the team together, that’s why i named you captain.”
was i pissed? hell fucking yeah i was. but was i sad about coach leaving? of course. he’s like a dad- well grandpa i guess- he was like that for the whole team, keeping us together. i want to put my trust in his grandson, i really do, but i just don’t know if things will turn out okay for the team.
“come on iwa, let’s do it for coach.” daichi patted me on the back as we rollerbladed to the arena. he’s vice captain, my right hand man and always has a steady head, meaning he got over coach leaving quickly and was actually excited to meet his grandson, keishin ukai.
“i heard he used to play for the bulldogs but got kicked off.” bokuto slid in next to me. good height, buff with lots of energy and an amazing enforcer, can’t skate very well though. he and kuroo are known as the ‘bash brothers,’ but he’s been down in the dumps because after coach left, kuroo had to go home for a family emergency and we don’t know when he can come back.
“i heard it was for punching his own coach.” tanaka said, he‘s a two way forward, amazing at both offense and defense. he’s always gets the other team riled up by talking smack and ends up in the box, which only encourages him even more, often ripping his shirt off and hyping up the crowd.
“damn that guy sounds like a real jerk.” kiyoko the cat, one of the two girls on our team. she’s an insanely good goalie, and the object of tanaka’s affection.
“whatever it’s not like we can do anything about it let’s just warm up.” i held the door open for the rest of the team to zoom in and to the locker room while mumbling arguments. i followed them and we changed out of our street clothes and into gear.
“iwa what can we do until the seniors and new coach show up?” aran clicked his toe picks together as we gathered into a circle on the rink
“..i think we can mess around for a bit, amanai?” kanoka amanai, the other girl on our team, taller than me and well built but a bit of a wild card. off the ice she’s quiet and a bit jumpy, then suddenly she becomes a bulldozer, the perfect grinder. she also happens to be extremely enthusiastic about dodgeball on ice.
“my pleasure!” she rolled out a cart of beach balls to the ice and set them on the center red line while the rest of us divided to either side of the rink. “ALRIGHT GO!”
amanai wasn’t the only one enthusiastic about dodgeball, it’s one of the many unconventional training exercises coach ukai taught us. seeing the team laughing and playing together reminded me of what coach said, ‘ i believe you can keep the team together, that’s why i named you captain,’ and i think i’m starting to understand it, we aren’t a team because of who coaches us, but because of the team itself. sure we have a ton of jerk face seniors, and an unfamiliar coach, but we’re still a team.
kageyama and tsukishima were butting heads again and yamaguchi single handedly peeled them apart, scolding them about their childish behavior when a whistle shrieked through the rink. everyone skidded to a stop, except for terushima who always had trouble stopping and crashed into sakusa.
a man probably in his mid thirties who reeked of cigarettes stopped in the center of the rink. he had a bored expression on his face as he looked down at bokuto being suffocated by a pile of beach balls. “everyone line up.”
the team scattered into a semi circle around him, where were the seniors? “alright listen up, my name is keishin ukai, you can call me coach or coach ukai.” he looked around at the team, judging each of us. “i know my grandpa is a bit of a cuckoo head and probably had you guys do all kinds of, unique, training, but im your coach now, and i have training far past his little games. i do think an occasional team exercise is good, but let’s stick to actual training from now on. okay?”
the team mumbled some kinda agreements but i wasn’t having it, “what do you mean actual training?”
he furrowed his brows at me, “name?”
“iwaizumi hajime, captain.” i held out my hand for him to shake, he ignored it.
“well iwaizumi, being captain is something earned, i’ll decide if you’re fit to keep that status. and to answer your question, the training you guys have been doing since you were kids is exactly that, kids training. if you want to be bigger and better than before you have to step it up.” the team didn’t respond and he rolled his eyes, “look if you don’t want to be here you can leave, now if you want to stay, line up and count off to 2.” he blew his whistle again and the team began counting in a line.
“excuse me, coach, but in case you haven’t noticed, the rest of the team isn’t here yet.” i stepped out of the count off line and closer to ukai, who has been nothing but a passive aggressive jerk.
“right i forgot to announce it,” he mumbled “ALRIGHT EVERYONE!” he announced to the rest of the team, “now i don’t know what the hell kinda bad blood you guys have with the seniors but apparently when ol’ gramps left they demanded the teams be split so as of now they are the varsity team and you are junior varsity.” the whole team was shocked and started to protest “shitty, I know, especially considering only about two of them ever play in games… ahem anyways if you wanna try talking to the school about it go right ahead. i have absolutely no idea how those things work so i won’t be of much help to you.”
“how the hell did they even manage that?!” i said again, this time even angrier than when i had been with the new coach ukai.
“i don't know and i don't care, you guys can figure that on your own for now let's play scrimmage.” the rest of practice was hell, the new coach and i did not get along as coach ukai said, during scrimmage we had another argument about my plays and he made me do laps, fucking dickhead. after practice our muscles ached and we collapsed in the locker room.
“i have never hated a practice so much in my life.” sakusa dropped onto the bench next to me and took a swig from his water bottle. the rest of the team agreed and began complaining about ukai junior.
“you guys are out of shape,” said coach burst through the door with his clipboard and continued talking while he pinned a sheet of paper he'd been writing on to the bulletin board, “i dont think youre a lost cause though. once you guys get used to a more vigorous training routine you would definitely be able to start racking up wins when the season starts.” he turned from the board with his arms crossed again, “the school requires you to have at least a C average to play, i think that's a shitty rule.” the team whooped a bit before he continued, “i expect Bs or better. now that that's settled, we have training on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays. the varsity somehow managed to get 4 days reserved for themselves so let's do the best we can alright? now i want you cleared out within 20 minutes.” and he left through the double doors.
“20 minutes? i can barely move.” amanai groaned and fell on kiyoko, “lord and savior kiyoko give me strength.” kiyoko rolled her eyes and fed her the gummy worms she was snacking on.
“hey look, he posted our positions.” daichi read the paper and the rest of the team followed.
“i play right, not left,” yamaguchi groaned.
“third line?! damn he must think i suck,” osamu sighed.
“daichi, who’s captain ti-bi-duh?” kageyama said and slurped loudly on his protein drink.
“thats captain t-b-d, to be determined.” i suddenly felt the rest of the team’s eyes on me, “he took your c iwa.” of fucking course he did.
our first game was the shittest one yet.
we had been winning 9-0 the first 3 quarters and then the team started falling apart. the other team matched our score and we ended with a tie, i hate ties. coach was pissed too, but it’s not our fault we barely get any rink time. i mean yeah we play street hockey for fun, but that’s completely different.
the team was completely unmotivated, barely getting by in practice. i heard a couple of the “varsity,” what a joke, guys were bothering kiyoko, tanaka and teru stepped in for her but she insisted she could take them down herself, so im glad she’s okay. i was losing motivation too, daichi said just cause he took my c doesn’t mean they don’t still see me as captain but it still upset me, everything was just off . at the very least we didn’t have the seniors anymore, with them still on the team it would have been even worse. we also have been getting more and more used to the practices, which is okay i guess.
my moms been mad with me for staying up late to stay on track of all my classes and then waking up early for practice, rink day or not. she told me it’s going to ruin my body or something. i know it is, i am a sports medicine major after all, it kinda pisses me off when she’s the one telling me that though.
i’ll be fine, i know my limit and with the little ice training we’ve been doing, it’s just enough to get a decent training regimen, anything under or over will only cause even more issues with the team.
currently
“i’m sorry, but that the hell did you say?” kyoutani was trying just as hard as the rest of us to not lash out on coach ukai, funny, this guy has started to grow on me despite being an asswipe.
“i know i know, it’s stupid but that’s was the school emailed me this morning. i heard the guy’s kinda famous or something so they agreed, i don’t really know anything about figure skating though.”
“so the school is letting some twirly boy take up the rink during OUR time, just because he has a couple medals?!” amanai was usually pretty quiet about her opinions, but this was ridiculous.
“hey hey it will be fine we can just do drills while he um, i don’t know what he’s going to do but im sure he’s willing to compromise.” daichi said, trying to calm them down.
“uh right what he said, anyways he’s gonna start coming on wednesday so let’s appreciate having a full rink today and carry on.” ukai blew the whistle and we started our drills.