Work Text:
Yuuri was tired.
He had just won the gold medal of the Grand Prix Finals in Marseille, was going to get married and had the time of his life at the skating banquet with his fiancé and friends. He just didn't want to wake up the next morning, because boy, his feet was slightly aching from all the dancing he did last night.
But the constant beeping of notifications from his phone didn't help.
He groaned softly, extracted his hand from the blankets without waking Victor up (his arms were wrapped around Yuuri) to grab his phone. The light from his phone almost blinded him, and he had to blink for several times before looking again at his phone.
All of the messages were from Phichit in the figure skating group he had made.
hamsterboy: GUYS
hamsterboy: GUYS!
hamsterboy: GUYSSSSSSSSSSSS
russianpunk: IT IS SEVEN IN THE MORNING CHULANOT! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU
otabekaltin: Yeah. What's all the fuss?
hamsterboy: I HAVE AN EXCELLENT IDEA
russianpunk: Great. What is it?
russianpunk: It had better be good or else I will kill you.
handsomechris: Wow, what's going on
hamsterboy: I NEED EVERYONE TO BE HERE WHERE IS YUURI AND VICTOR
hamsterboy: YUURIIIIIII
russianpunk: What is with all the capslock
katsudonyuuri: I'm here, bro. Victor's still sleeping.
hamsterboy: Oh well whatever. He can read the messages later. I HAVE AN AWESOME IDEA!
otabekaltin: Yes?
hamsterboy: The exhibition gala is tonight, right?
handsomechris: Uhuh?
hamsterboy: Let's all dab in our performances!
katsudonyuuri: ...
otabekaltin: ...
russianpunk: What the hell, are you kidding me?! I ain't dabbing in my exhibition!
otabekaltin: I have to agree with Yuri. Dabbing doesn't go well with my planned program music.
hamsterboy: It doesn't have to go with the program music!!! You can all dab at the end after your program!!! Pweeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaassseeeeeeeeeee???
handsomechris: But why lol
hamsterboy: Because we can all be a thing! Like, like, to show we are friends! Dabs are sooooooooo trendy right now. Please???
russianpunk: You do realise the Pig and Victor are secretly switching their solo routines to pair-skating for their final exhibition, right?
hamsterboy: So?
otabekaltin: So they will have to dab together?
hamsterboy: Yep. PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAASSSEEEEEEEEEEEE? Everyone dabs in ice skating!
katsudonyuuri: No...? I don't think so?
hamsterboy: Victor dabbed in his Stammi Vicino program! You dabbed in your Eros program! Heck, Chris also dabbed in his Intoxicated program!
katsudonyuuri: ... It wasn't meant to be a dab.
hamsterboy: PLEEEEEAASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE???? JUST FOR ONCE???
russianpunk: UGH FINE!!! I WILL ONLY DAB AT THE END OF IT OKAY?
otabekaltin: Okay fine. If Yuri's doing it, I can.
handsomechris: Me too then. Won't be hard.
katsudonyuuri: Oh well. I have a feeling Victor would approve. Let's do it.
hamsterboy: Excellent! We are going to have so many likes worthy photos! And the skating federation is going to be so confused!
handsomechris: Are we including the ladies in this as well though?
hamsterboy: We could. Someone tell Mila and Sala later.
The rustling sound of moving fabric tore Yuuri's attention away from his phone, and Victor was looking at him with a sleepy smile, ' Morning, beautiful.'
Yuuri smiled, ' Morning.'
' What was that?' Victor squinted at Yuuri's phone. ' Is that Phichit and Yurio yelling at each other?'
Yuuri sighed, ' Look at your own phone.'
Victor groped around for his phone, and scrolled through the long string of messages in just a matter of seconds. He brightened up, sleepiness gone, and quickly tapped:
vicnikiforov: Sounds great! We'll do it.
hamsterboy: Great! Let's all meet up for breakfast at the lobby to discuss our plan, okay? Half an hour later.
russianpunk: huh? what plan? I thought it was just dabbing
hamsterboy: yes. but we need to plan!!!
***
The skaters did show up at the lobby for breakfast half an hour later. Yurio turned up latest, dressed in his favourite tiger hoodie, scowling down at Phichit. Even Sala and Mila were invited to the small breakfast gathering as well. Michele wasn't there, which was a first, since he would never let Sala out of his sight.
The Russian Skate Family had to eat healthy (this meant fruit smoothies and cereal), since they still had to keep themselves in a perfect shape for the Russian Nationals and Yuuri for the Japanese Nationals. But Phichit ordered himself an impressively large full breakfast, since he only had to compete again in February at the Four Continents.
Yurio sniffed in disgust at his bowl of banana and blueberry oatmeal, and stared sourly at Phichit's plate, ' Continue to eat like this, Chulanot, you'll be severely out of shape by the time the Four Continents come around.'
' Dude, I'm just taking a break from my strict healthy diet for a day,' Phichit stabbed a fork into his fried potatoes. ' Go on and eat your oatmeal.'
' Urgh,' Yurio said, slamming down his spoon. ' I am sick and tired of rabbit food!'
' Tell this to Yakov and Lilia,' Mila snorted, stirring her cup of tea. ' So I heard about the dab plan. It's a wonderful idea, I think. Sala and I are definitely going to do that in our own exhibitions.' Yakov and Lilia were the worst enforcers in their diets.
Victor buttered his toast, ' We can all go down to the rink for warm-up and skate our routines with music and stuff before the actual dress rehearse at 5.'
' The press will be there at the dress rehearsal,' Yuuri noted. ' Are you sure you want to dab in the dress rehearsal? And we are expected to shorten our programs in the rehearsal too.'
' Nope we won't,' Phichit winked. ' We will keep this a secret. So just skate through your original routines, and only switch your end positions for the dab in the actual gala.'
' Wait, so we are dabbing at the end right now?' Otabek frowned. ' Oh, so it's easier this way. I won't have to change my jump elements or step sequences.'
' Right,' Yurio growled. ' Only at the end. I ain't dabbing while doing my Quads!'
***
The warm-up wasn't very eventful, seeing that the skaters occupied every space of the rink to do simple jumps or parts of their routines without music.
The coaches weren't present, which was a good thing. Mila stated that Yakov would never approve of the dabbing thing.
Finally, Chris turned on the music player, and had them all go through their routines, ' Ladies first!'
Sala skated to a rather catchy pop song, and the happy melody really suited her bright and bubbly personality. At the end, she almost forgot to dab.
' That's right, Sala! Dab!' Phichit applauded her.
Mila seemed to have taken a leaf out of Victor's book, because she chose an Italian aria. Yuuri would have thought the dab would be out of place in the classical music, but Mila pulled it off just fine.
Chris was scheduled to go first for the men's division, and he skated to a disturbingly erotic piece dedicated to his mysterious boyfriend. Yuuri had to admit his step sequences were extremely passionate and suitable for well, his chosen piece. He spun quickly on the ice as his last move, and dabbed while he was at it.
' Who even dabs while they are spinning?!' Yurio complained, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the crescendo of notes at the end of the piece.
Otabek went next. He had chosen a much more relaxing classical piece, and he focused more on his choreographic sequences than doing jumps. After his Quad Toe loop at the end, he dabbed. It was kind of ridiculous and funny, as Otabek was doing it with his trademark somber expression. Yuuri could imagine all the memes on Instagram and Twitter.
Phichit, as expected, was skating to yet another piece from the King and the Skater 2. He was having so much fun spinning around the ice, even bursted out laughing in the middle of an Ina Bauer. He nearly lost his balance at that.
Yurio's chosen piece was the same as the one he did at Skate America and Rostelecom Cup. The piece was called Tigers, from his favourite band The WildTigers. It was loud, screechy and the clangs of drums were deafening. It suited Yurio, alright, and he looked like he was ready to go break dancing, only on the ice. How he didn't fall or slip was purely anyone's guess. And he imagined Lilia's disapproving face. If Lilia had her way, Yurio would be skating to something like the Sugar Plum Fairy or Swan Lake.
' Oi, Old Man and Katsudon, it's your turn,' Yurio said, slightly panting from his routine, and clipped on his skate guards.
Supposedly, it was Victor's turn first, so he skated out onto the ice and adopted the very familiar position.
Their pair skating was still a secret. Some of the media had speculated they would be doing pair skating again this year, but no one confirmed it, and all of them did a good job in keeping it from the reporters.
The familiar musical theme of Yuri On Ice played on the speakers.
They had long decided to pair skate to Yuri On Ice after the Stammi Vicino pair skate.
' Seriously,' Yurio snorted. ' Are you two going to skate each other's free programs every time?'
' Yep,' Victor had said. ' But Ketty is going to modify the song for a bit.' Ketty had agreed to make a more powerful orchestral rendition of the piece, just for them. Oh, she is going to extend the ending too. Or... The three of us could skate to History Maker, like how we did for Yakov's birthday.'
' H-HELL NO!'
' Then I will be saving that for the World's exhibition.'
The beginning was the same, with the calm jingling of melody on piano, right up to the addition of violins and cellos and Yuuri would join in at that point.
Victor did an amazingly good job at altering the choreographic sequences to fit pair skating but keeping just enough for nostalgic effect, though he did swap out most of the jumps for lifts and throws.
At the end, they would do a synchronised Quad Flip. Yuuri could land Quad Flip for most of the time now. It was no longer considered a signature move, Yuuri had said, since he could do it. But Victor would say both of them were still the only skaters to do a qualified Quad Flip.
And they dabbed, as Phichit had requested, with Victor to the left and Yuuri to the right.
' Excellent!' Phichit clapped at the other side of the rink. ' The dab plan is going well! I am looking forward to the exhibition tonight.'
***
The short dress rehearsal was only open to reporters and certain officials, so the reporters' zone was stuffed with many reporters, and that included Morooka. Yuuri tried to avoid him, because he didn't want the reporter to try and interview him on his program. He wouldn't want to accidentally reveal anything. He and Victor got dressed in their 'fake' exhibition outfits. His was a dark blue dress shirt studded with small rhinestones and Victor was yet another princely suit in dark purple. At the back of their skate bags, they had their more simple dress shirts.
They watched as Chris skimmed around the rink in his rather revealing and half see-through costume, and female reporters swooned. He ended his routine with his original position, and he was half kneeling on the rink. The female reporters screamed, not wanting him to go.
Phichit giggled behind his phone, ' Chris still has a lot of admirers.'
Otabek skated out, in a glimmering suit of royal blue and gold.
' Excellent costume,' Victor commented. ' But I do prefer blue and silver, just like your Free skate costume.'
Yuuri could almost imagine Lilia's (fortunately the former prima ballerina was nowhere to be seen) horrified face when Yurio skated in all his punk glory, his outfit consisting of his favourite leopard print shirt, dark leather jacket, ripped jeans and sunglasses. Seriously. Sunglasses in the dark rink?
Victor performed an excellent version of his fake exhibition, and the reporters seemed amazed by his *cough* 'improved' routine.
Yuuri too, did well in his fake exhibition program.
Afterwards, it was the ladies' turn. A stream of performances by female skaters they didn't know well, and Sala took off in a superb amethyst coloured costume. Mila was dressed in silver, the many rhinestones on her outfit glittering like stardust.
Then, they went out for food, since Yurio was hungry. The skaters could only have a very light meal of sandwiches, and they promised Yurio that they would go out for a real French dinner after the exhibition.
***
The lights dimmed, and you could basically hear a pin drop as the audience quieted down in anticipation for the night's events.
Victor sat close to Yuuri, holding his hand. They had to wear their team jackets over their costumes.
The announcer said overhead, ' Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Grand Prix Final Marseille's gala exhibition. We are going to have the first exhibition of the night, performed by Christophe Giacometti of Switzerland. He will be skating to an original piece called "Have some fun with you".'
So Chris skated and the girls screamed, as usual. But at the end, when people were expecting Chris's rather, er, disturbing ending combination spin, he dabbed according to Phichit's plan.
There was murmuring of confusion, and Phichit cackled. Yuuri resisted the urge to laugh when the reporters stared.
Even the announcer seemed baffled, ' Er... Thank you, Christophe. Otabek Altin of Kazakstan is taking the ice.'
The audience got even more confused when Otabek too, dabbed at the end of his program with that somber face of his.
Yuuri could hear Morooka speaking urgently in front of the cameraman, ' What is this? Are the skaters dabbing?'
Next, came Phichit.
' Phichit Chulanot of Thailand will be skating to the song "Shall we Skate the Reprise" from the musical "The King and the Skater". '
The mastermind behind the dabbing plan literally dabbed for ten times in his program. He dabbed after landing his Quad Toe Loop, dabbed throughout an Ina Bauer and of course, dabbed for his ending position.
At this point, everyone was laughing. They all knew the skaters were messing with them with this meme worthy dabbing chain.
' Bronze medalist, Yuri Plisetsky of Russia is skating to "Tigers" by The WildTigers.'
Lots of screaming. Screaming. Screaming. From Yuri's Angels. More screaming. It was complete mayhem at the end, when Yurio tossed away his sunglasses and dabbed.
The announcer was on the verge of fainting. He choked, ' N-next, we have silver medalist of the year, Victor Nikiforov of Russia, skating to the piece- Wait.'
People were now muttering about Victor's sudden change in costume, and they literally went nuts when instead of the original classical piece, Yuri On Ice streamed through the loudspeakers.
Amidst the confusion, Victuuri shippers were fainting.
' There has been an unannounced change in the exhibition piece! Silver medalist Victor Nikiforov will be skating to Yuuri Katsuki's "Yuri On Ice" from last year's Grand Prix Finals!' The poor announcer immediately corrected.
When it was about time, Yuuri unzipped his Japanese team jacket, unclipped his skate guards, and skated out into the open ice right when the violins joined in.
The applause and screams were deafening, but they didn't care much about it. Even when the announcer bellowed happily into the microphone, ' ANOTHER CHANGE IN PLANS! Victor Nikiforov is joined by gold medalist, Yuuri Katsuki of Japan!!! Oh, wonderful! They're doing a pair skate, just like how they did last year at Barcelona!'
Phichit cackled again, taking videos and pictures of the pair for the Victuuri fan club.
' Ew, disgusting,' Yurio said, but the small smile on his face said otherwise.
When they dabbed, more people screamed.
***
The next morning, Phichit posted a collage of everyone dabbing in their programs onto his Instagram.
phichit+chu: Dabbing on Ice! See you all next year! #victuuri #dab
32k likes
View all 19k comments
janiceonice: Thank you all! It has been a fun and amazing season. :) The dab tho... XDDD
victuuri-: Loved the dabs!
fansandskates: See you next year! Looking forward to the Four Continents.