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1. At the Grand Prix Final banquet, Victor Nikiforov does what he's expected to do: he chats with other skaters, talks to other coaches, winks at pretty women. He also keeps noticing a slender Japanese skater who seems to have taken it upon himself to drink all the champagne in the room. Every time he glances back at the table where the skater has sequestered himself, more empty flutes surround him.
"Who is that?" Victor asks, eventually. Yakov snorts.
"Came in last. Yuuri Katsuki," he says. "Don't you remember? He fell apart out there."
Oh, Victor thinks, remembering the falls, how the skater hadn't managed to recover from them. The real surprise is that someone with that lack of confidence even made it to the Grand Prix Final.
An hour later, said Yuuri Katsuki (or is it Katsuki Yuuri? Victor needs to find out) has lost his suit jacket and pants, and tied his necktie around his head like a bandanna. When he presses himself up to Victor and drunkenly begs Victor to come visit his family's hot spring in Japan, pleads with Victor to be his coach, Victor feels something he hasn't felt in a long time.
Watching an utterly-confident Yuuri proceed to destroy Yuri Plisetsky in a dance-off, Victor falls in love.
2. Yuuri skates his "Stammi Vicino" program.
He doesn't see the video for several days afterward, by which time it has apparently gone viral all through the figure skating world, but Mila, who sent it to him, informs him that Katsuki apparently learned it in his copious downtime after the Grand Prix Final, and that it was filmed the same day Victor was performing the routine himself at Worlds.
Yuuri has gained weight since his impromptu performance at the banquet: Victor can see it in his face, in the pudge at his belly. Despite that, Yuuri lands every jump without flaw, moves cleanly through the routine as if it was his and not Victor's.
Yuuri finishes in a triumphant pose, chest heaving, eyes wide at his own accomplishment. Victor falls in love.
3. In Japan, Victor begins to understand the enigma that is Katsuki Yuuri. He sees where Yuuri lives, meets his charming family, tries all manner of Japanese dishes he's never eaten before. He soaks in the onsen, tries katsudon, works on getting the stubborn Yuuri to open up to him about even the most trivial detail of his life.
Yuri Plisetsky tracks him down, arrives in Hasetsu in a roil of anger as always, and reminds Victor of a promise he'd made. Victor cheerfully agrees to choreograph programs for both of them, agrees to a competition to determine whom Victor will work with for the upcoming season.
(If Victor's honest with himself, he's a bit relieved at the neat solution to the dilemma. He had, admittedly, completely forgotten about the promise he'd made to Yuri -- a couple of years ago? Something like that? It wasn't as if he meant to break the promise, nor did he think Yuri wouldn't fulfill his end of the bargain. He's just... a little flighty. Victor's mind tends to get so filled up with skating that there's not room for much else.)
So he rather likes the idea of the competition. He'd been unsure which arrangement of the music to use, anyway, and he loves the irony of assigning the most unlikely music to each of them.
Yuri is outraged. Of course. Yuri is outraged at everything (and Victor sees through every moment of it and sort of adores it).
Yuuri, meanwhile, declares his determination to eat katsudon with Victor. It's ridiculous and charming and so utterly Yuuri that Victor falls in love.
4. Yuuri is distressingly ambivalent about his free skate program. No, ambivalent isn't the word. He can't seem to make his mind up about it. He's hesitant. He doesn't want to talk about it. He pushes Victor aside. He flubs his jumps and acts so preoccupied that Victor wants to scream, except that Victor doesn't scream.
Cracking Yuuri is one of Victor's greatest challenges. Yuuri won't be able to skate at the peak of his ability if he's hiding from his own truths. Victor finally gets him to talk after a walk on the beach. Maccachin goes with them, of course, breaking any tension between them by chasing the waves and the seagulls, racing down to the water's edge and then dancing back to inundate them both with wet sand.
They sit for a while, talking about nothing in particular, until eventually Yuuri opens up. Victor waits, patient, lets him talk. It's not what he expected. Yuuri tells him a story from when he was training in Detroit, how he didn't want to be comforted when a rinkmate was injured. He doesn't want people to think he's weak; he doesn't want Victor to think he's weak. As if Victor could ever think that. It's when Victor offers to be Yuuri's boyfriend and Yuuri practically flips backward in the air to deny it that Victor falls in love.
5. Throughout the season, Yuuri continues to improve, to impress. Victor can't even keep track of how many times he's been blown away by Yuuri's work. Yuuri dominates the ice. At the Cup of China, Yuuri changes the last jump mid-program and makes it a quadruple flip instead of the toe loop he'd planned. Victor falls in love. He grabs Victor's tie and pulls him in close, so close they could kiss, before the short program in Moscow. Victor falls in love. He buys rings for them in Barcelona, strips Victor's glove off and slides his on his finger. Victor falls in love. Again, again, again: Victor can't stop falling in love with Yuuri, never wants to.
5a. Katsuki Yuuri doesn't remember when he fell in love with Victor Nikiforov. It was always there, just a part of him; he simply didn't think to put a name on it until Victor came to Hasetsu to coach him. Until Victor gave him the confidence to put his desires into words. Now it's easy. Every time he stretches out a hand to Victor, he's in love.