Chapter Text
It all began when Yuuri arrived at St.Petersburg to train with Victor.
Pretty much everyone else (even Yurio, who was starting to grow on Yuuri) were bending over backwards to make sure Yuuri feels at home, since they knew how prone the Japanese skater was to anxiety attacks. And Victor would know how Yuuri felt, since he had the first-hand experience of moving to a completely foreign country.
They tried learning basic Japanese phrases on Duolingo (it was disastrous) and stuffed the break room of the rink with all kinds of Japanese snacks.
When Yuuri arrived for his first day of training at the new rink, they tripped over each other to welcome him. Their hospitality surprised Yuuri, and they were initially alarmed when he actually cried out of happiness, but proceeded to engulf him in a warm group hug.
(Yakov yelled at them for slacking off.)
They became inseparable afterwards. Mila dubbed themselves the Russian Skating Family and posted selfies of them on Instagram everyday.
It took Victor a while to sort out Yuuri's training schedule. In the morning, he would train at the rink to further refine his skate programs until the end of the skate season and in the afternoon, he would have ballet lessons with Yurio at Madam Lilia's studio. The former prima ballerina had decided to take Yuuri under her wing as well after watching him skate, and was most pleasantly surprised that his teacher was Minako Okukawa. It turned out Minako-sensei had studied for several years under her before getting her Benois de la Danse prize.
The rest of the season went by.
Victor lived up to his reputation of the Living Legend, and somehow managed to cook up two temporary programs in just two weeks for the Russian Nationals. It definitely wasn't his best work, but he won gold, placing above Yurio by 10 points.
Yuuri managed to garner a gold medal for the Four Continents (Phichit had been bugging Victor endlessly on the matter of getting married after the gold medal via Instagram) and yet another silver for the World Championship.
The skating season was officially over, and all of them were expected to come up with a new theme before choreographing their new programs.
***
' Right, in case you have all failed to notice,' Yakov snapped at them. ' You need to create a new theme for the new season.'
The male skaters were summoned to a short but important meeting before training officially started to discuss their new themes with Yakov. Victor was supposed to do that with Yuuri since he was his official coach, but Yakov took it upon himself to be Yuuri's advisor.
' I have one,' Georgi said passionately. ' Newfound love!' He finally got over Anya, and recently started dating an ice dancer called Anastasia in the Russian team.
' If you can find songs that fit this, it's fine. It's definitely better than heartbreak or revenge,' Yakov sighed. ' Show me the songs tomorrow.'
' YES!' Georgi pumped his fist in the air.
Victor smiled, heart-shaped and all, ' Oooh I have one too! My theme shall be about my undying love for Yuuri!'
' Whaat?!' Yuuri spluttered, flushing.
Georgi teared up dramatically, ' Oh my!'
' GROSS!' Yurio screamed. ' Cut it out, Old Man! Continue to be like this, my theme this year shall be about murder!'
' Don't you dare, Yuri Plisetsky!' Yakov growled, ' And be serious, Vitya!'
' No! I am serious,' Victor insisted. ' My theme shall be Life and Love.'
' Fine!!!!' Yakov roared, looking as if he wanted to strangle someone to death. ' What about you, Japanese Yuuri? Your theme had better be good.'
Yuuri nervously answered, ' Well... I don't exactly have the proper wording for my theme, but I want it to be... Like, striving for success.' He added quickly, ' I have found the song for my Short Program.'
' Good,' Yakov said, obviously relieved. ' Finally. Show me the song, later. You still need to find a song for your Free Skate. Are you planning to search it or commission an original piece?'
' I will talk to Victor later,' Yuuri said.
' What about you, Yuri?'
Yurio snarled, ' I won't be using a theme! I didn't use a theme in the last season, so I won't be using a theme this year as well!'
Yakov knew better than to start a yelling match with Yurio in the morning, so he just let it slide.
***
Yuuri sat in the break room of the skating rink, anxiously waiting for the assignments of the newest Grand Prix Final.
It was going to be an exciting year, as Minami too had qualified for the finals and Victor was coming back. This meant the competition was going to be extremely, extremely tough.
Victor and the others had gone out for lunch, and he didn't go out with them because he was too anxious to eat. After much fussing from him and Mila, they relented and left him alone at the break room.
' Oi Katsudon, remember to check for our assignments as well while you are at it!' Yurio barked.
He nearly jumped when the page of the website was updated. The assignments were out.
Finally. Let's get this done with so he could eat. And frankly, he was curious about the others' assignments as well, so he scrolled through the entire thing.
Skate America. JJ, Yurio, Phichit, Chris and Leo.
Trophee de France. Ah. Victor was assigned to that, as well as Guang-hong, Georgi and Otabek, and Mila, for the female skating event. Maybe he could somehow bug Yakov into bending the 'avoid jet-lag' rule and let him tag along. He was sure Yurio would do the same, because... Otabek was in it. *wink*
He was assigned to the NHK Trophy, along with Phichit, Emil, Minami, Michele and Seung-gil. He had a feeling the Russian skating family would flock to Japan just to support him.
Skate Canada. Guang-hong, Leo, Seung-gil, Otabek, and Michele.
Cup of China. Emil, Seung-gil, Georgi and Minami.
Yuuri had the feeling that something was wrong by the time he finished reading the list of the competitors for the Cup of China.
He scrolled down to the Rostelecom Cup, and his eyes widened to the size of saucers when he spotted the list.
Victor, Yurio, JJ, Chris and him. Mila for the female skating event. The skating federation had somehow assigned most of the Russian Skating Family to the same event. Georgi will probably go, because his new girlfriend Anastasia was competing for the ice dance event in the same place as well.
But he couldn't get over the fact that he had to skate against Victor before the actual Grand Prix Finals. It was not everyday you get to compete against your longtime idol, even if you were actually engaged to him.
' Yuuuuuriiiiiiiii! We even got you lunch!' He heard Victor's voice behind him, so he turned from his laptop to stare at him. Victor, Yurio, Georgi and Mila had returned from lunch, and Victor was even holding a small bag of takeaway, shaking it at Yuuri's face with a wide heart-shaped smile.
' Just in time,' Yuuri took the bag from Victor appreciatively, and turned the laptop screen towards them. ' Assignments are out. And look at the Rostelecom Cup.'
' Huh?' Yurio bent down to take a good look. ' Wait. What?!'
Victor beamed, ' WE ARE ALL ASSIGNED TO THE ROSTELECOM CUP!!! THIS IS AMAZING! Well, except for Georgi.'
The said skater huffed, ' This is unfair. But Anastasia is competing, so I will definitely be coming along to support her.'
' Yep, I guessed,' Yuuri smiled. Victor hugged him tightly, ' This is wonderful, Yuuri! That's it! We should all go to the NHK Trophy to support Yuuri!'
' Yeah yeah yeah,' Yurio muttered menacingly, glowering at the Skate America list. ' This time, I am going to beat JJ for the gold medal at Skate America.'
At the same time, Yakov banged open the door, and roared at them, ' The assignments are out! All of you had better work hard, so we can medal in all of the events! I expect no less from you, Japanese Yuuri.'
' OH YEAH!' Victor shouted suddenly, ignoring Yakov. ' Are we going to continue our little tradition? Except we are changing the criteria to gold medals?'
' Oh man,' Yurio groaned. ' Not that again! It is stupid.'
It was a tradition made up by Victor to motivate each other. Everyday at training, they would be betting against each other on a different criteria. For example on this day, whoever managed to do four consecutive Quad Salchows without flubbing could ask one of them to do whatever they wanted or basically do whatever they wanted.
Yurio won the bet today, so he made Victor treat him to ice-cream earlier that day.
' We shall!' Georgi said enthusiastically.
v_nikiforov: Assignments are out! We are all extremely excited! :DDDD @_katsukiyuuri @yuri_plisetsky @georgi_p @mila_b #russianskatefamily #blessed
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nikiforov_fan: AHHHHHHH! THEY ARE ASSIGNED TO THE SAME EVENT!
victuuriforeva: This means Yuuri and Victor will be skating against each other! O.O
Yuri_angels: <33333333333