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Chigiri closed his eyes and took a deep breath before raising his arms. He is looking up at the bar when Coach Prince asks with hands on Chigiri’s waist, “are you ready?”
The redhead smirks and replies, “hell yeah”
“Alright then, let’s have a good warm up,” the coach says and lifts Chigiri up until the gymnast can grab the bars.
Chigiri immediately starts swinging his legs forward to gain momentum. He then bends his body, curving it so that it extends all the way through the bottom of the swing before pulling at the bar during the upswing leading to a beautiful execution of his first giant. Then from there he goes into a backward giant 540, smoothly changing the directions of his hand grips so that he can do a one and half twist into a backward giant.
Chigiri doesn’t even have time to think before he begins to execute the horizontal bar Voronin. It starts with the back uprise into a piked vault, but because Chigiri didn’t have enough power when he let go of the bar, the gymnast’s leg hit the bar instead.
It all happened so quick, one second Chigiri was twisting his body midair preparing to catch the bar and then at the next second, the bar got further and further away from his hands while his legs got closer and closer to his face.
Kunigami was already running before Chigiri even hit the ground. He curses out loud, regretting not standing closer to the mats after he finished his own warmups. The fall was quick, but Kunigami wishes he was even faster, maybe he would’ve been able to save Chigiri. If Kunigami’s heart didn’t already drop to his stomach when Chigiri’s body impacted the floor, seeing Chigiri just lying there without a sound felt as though it was his own heart that was thrown off the eight foot bar.
Coach Prince checking on Chigiri has Kunigami slowing down because he realizes that he can’t do anything. Even though the ginger wants to just scoop up Chigiri’s limp body into his arms and cradle him until his eyes open, Kunigami knows he’d possibly cause more pain and damage if he were to move Chigiri.
Kunigami starts moving again and drops on his knees right next to Chigiri when the redhead rolls out of the way to allow other gymnasts to warm up with his head in his hands.
Chigiri, disoriented from his fall, lays there for a bit, blinking slowly as he remembers where he is. “Right, the Olympics, nice,” Chigiri mumbles out loud thinking he’s talking in his head.
Coach Prince’s worried face pops into his view, “oh god there’s blood, where does it hurt?”
Ignoring his coach, Chigiri rolls away towards what he assumes is the sidelines. The redhead doesn’t get far due to Kunigami blocking his way. Chigiri doesn’t like the look on the ginger’s face. “Why the frown? I’m alive,” Chigiri states softly.
Kunigami chokes up while holding back a laugh that would end with him sobbing. The ginger clenches his fists to hold back from reaching towards Chigiri. As much as he wants to feel Chigiri’s soft skin in his own callused hands, they’re on international television and Kunigami does not want to cause any more commotion than this freak accident already has.
It’s not like any of the rumors and articles that could be spread around and published will ever come close to the truth: Male gymnasts, Kunigami Rensuke and Chigiri Hyoma are teammates and friends. Not partners, not lovers, even though Kunigami wishes that were true especially during times it really feels like Chigiri reciprocates his love with the way he interacts with the ginger with the soft touches, smiles and staring.
Chigiri’s eye and forehead throbs as he reaches a hand towards Kunigami’s folded knee. “I’m awake, I’m alive” the redhead reassures the ginger. Kunigami nods and puts his hand on top of Chigiri’s. Leave it to Chigiri to be able to comfort Kunigami even when he himself needs actual medical attention.
“But you’re also bleeding Chigiri,” Kunigami replies with worry once again.
Chigiri raises his hand to his face, touching where it hurts. When he brings his hand back down to inspect it, there is in fact blood on his fingers. “Yikes, guess you caught me red handed,” he says calmly. It probably hasn’t hit him yet that he is in fact in pain.
Kunigami wants to shake Chigiri for that untimely joke but also wants to pull him in for a hug because he is so relieved that the redhead is okay and is talking. “That was not funny Chigiri,” the ginger replies with a huff but a small smile fights to show on his face anyway, or maybe Chigiri is still disoriented and is imagining things.
“We need to get him up and patched up,” Coach Prince explains when he reaches the two gymnasts with a few of their medical staff behind him. Kunigami grunts in agreement and before anyone can stop him, he goes to Chigiri’s side and puts his arm underneath Chigiri’s arm, wrapping it around his upper back so that he can lean on him. Had this been a regular day at their gym, the redhead would be overdramatic while complaining and telling Kunigami to come and pick him up because he’s so tired.
When Chigiri stands up with Coach Prince on his other side, the redhead looks at the retired gymnast. “That was one hell of a warmup Coach,” Chigiri says with a smirk.
Chris Prince throws his head back as he laughs, “let’s hope you can still give a great performance after getting cleaned up and cleared,” the coach replies with a confident smile. He isn’t that worried anymore since the redhead gymnast is awake and breathing okay. This is gymnastics, they’re used to some trip ups, and this shouldn’t be treated any differently or it’ll affect the entire team.
Kunigami glares at Chris but doesn’t say anything out of respect for the retired male gymnast. Even if their coach is not worried, the ginger couldn’t help thinking about all the late nights of watching Chigiri do his post gymnastics practice leg care that he has been doing religiously even though it has been years since he tore his ACL. Kunigami hadn’t known Chigiri before he injured himself, so it was just another day after practice where the gym was empty except for the two of them, when the redhead had opened up about how it took him longer than a year to get back into the sport due to mental setbacks and the fear that he will never perform the same or be as good as he once was. It was from that moment on that Kunigami’s respect for Chigiri not only increased but he has also come to understand why Chigiri gets so worried every time Kunigami complains of aches and notices a new bruise on him.
Chris and Kunigami get Chigiri seated before the medical team start looking over him. Reo comes running to the sidelines after his own warm up to look at the damage and gasps when he sees blood and bruising. “Chigiri, are you okay? More importantly, why do you keep jeopardizing our chances of modeling contracts every time you go splat on your face!” The purple haired gymnast complains while also very closely observing the doctor's work.
Chigiri huffs and rolls his eyes, well tries to, but it ends with a wince that he can’t hide from neither Reo or Kunigami who both take one of each of Chigiri’s hands in their own to remind him that they’re here and they care. Chigiri smiles when he feels Kunigami’s rough hand and grazes his soft thumb over the top of it as he declares, “guys, I got this, hell! This is nothing compared to what we’re used to so y’all better get ready to see this mug on the podium!” And that’s the last thing he says before being taken away by their medical team to get properly checked out and cleaned up.
Kunigami didn’t want to let go of the redhead’s hand, but he needs to trust Chigiri’s confidence and perseverance so that he can focus on his own events. He gets one last hand squeeze in before looking back at Reo who’s shaking his head, “this is going to get so much news coverage,” the purple-haired gymnast comments with a sigh.
The ginger remembers what Reo had said before and replies with confidence since the redhead isn’t here to listen, “Chigiri looks pretty no matter how bloody and bruised he is.”
Reo rolls his eyes, “of course you think that, now come on we’re at the freaking Olympics, we gotta do our best so that Chigiri doesn’t get an even bigger ego over us not performing well when he isn’t around.” Although Kunigami believes he performs his best and even enjoys his wins the most when Chigiri is there to cheer him on and celebrate with him, for now the thought of him will keep him going.
As Chigiri had declared, his beautiful bruised and bandaged face is seen running to the mats after Kunigami’s Pommel Horse performance secures them the All-Around gold medal. There are many photos of him jumping right on to the ginger after they’re given the final scores. Even though Kunigami had just finished performing, he doesn’t hesitate to catch Chigiri running towards him and hugs him back just as tightly while the redhead and their teammates around him scream and cheer right into his ears.
The Olympics and international news once again later see Chigiri on the podium for floor and vault, grinning even with a blue and black eye. Just a tiny part of his smile is him laughing at how this is going to make a great story: Japanese Male Gymnast Chigiri Hyoma Bringing Home Gold with a Smile and a Black Eye.