Chapter Text
Victor Nikiforov’s heart was the mysterious turquoise some glaciers were.
Katsuki Yuuri knows this because the star of his Victor poster collection is a floor to ceiling piece featuring Victor in his senior debut outfit, a daring outfit that looked like gilt roses and wrought iron had been twisted around to encase his torso and shoulders like a cage.
His heart had stood out even back then, like cut rock crystal catching the light when he spun and throwing off a dazzling brilliance when he had finished his routine and took a bow, flushed and heaving with exertion. It heralded the era of Victor’s own brilliance, who took the skating world by storm with his intricate routines and perfect smile.
Yuuri had looked at his own colorless heart and wished he could grow up faster, faster, if only so he could know if his own heart could be half as beautiful.
Katsuki Yuuri’s heart was the color of the stormy ocean and was appeared about as turbulent, shifting from an intense blue-violet to dull gray seemingly synchronious with his struggle to establish his skating career.
Not that many people knew-- the trend of figure skaters baring their hearts was one of the things Victor Nikiforov may have made ridiculously popular (along with that silly poodle tissue-box and having at least one quad in a routine), even a decade after his legendary performance, but it was a something Yuuri had never attempted himself.
Phichit had asked him if he would ever skate in such a costume once, after an absolutely terrifying nine hour horror movie marathon featuring the Heart Collector series, but Yuuri had blushed.
“I wouldn’t want to display it to the whole world, Phichit-kun,” he’d smiled, if a bit nervously. “Somehow it feels like it would be, well. A lot embarrassing.”