Victor:

Hi again

(´･ω･`)

Chris:

You're making that face again

That's your "don't hate me" face

What Victor?

( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)

Victor:

And that's your I'm super grumpy with you face!

Please don't be mad, but...

I can't tell you where I am...still...

Chris:

Uuuugggghhhh

Can you tell me anything?

Victor:

Um. Hold on. I'll try to tell you without breaking the rules

Well

I'm not training in Russia. Obviously

I'm not on my own. I won my new coach

I never knew being a well rounded skater would be so difficult btw

Chris:

Wait, wait. You WON your new coach? What does that even mean??

Victor:

Well, Yurio didn't know about my plans

You didn't even know about my plans

Do you think my new coach knew of my plans?

Chris:

You didn't...

ಠ_ಠ

Victor:

I did

(#/ 0 #)

I just showed up and asked

He was so mean to me at first!

Chris:

Gee, I wonder why...

Victor:

Hush!

But he told me I had to prove myself, otherwise I had to go back to Russia

So I did

So maybe I should say I earned my new coach?

Ugh!

It's hard to say it without actually saying it!

I'm sorry!

༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ

Chris:

HOW DO YOU EVEN MAKE THAT FACE WITH YOUR PHONE?!

Victor:

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Chris:

I'm so confused by you right now...

@-@

* * * * *

"Victor," Yuuri called across the ice, "have you called or messaged anyone to let them know you were okay? Once we get to the GPF, I have no desire to be mobbed and accused of kidnapping Russia's up and coming talent because your friends filled a missing person's report."

Victor laughed as he unlaced his boots. "I messaged Chris Giacometti. He's my best friend."

"Anyone else? Like your old coach perhaps? Didn't you think that he might be a bit concerned that his student just up and moved, leaving no information behind?"

"Yeah..."

"But...?"

"Well, I didn't want to call him at first. And then when I decided to, all I could think of was how mad he'd be at me for not talking to him for so long and I got all apprehensive. So now I'm torn between guilt and nerves."

"If I had known you were this torn up about talking to him, I would've told you sooner. He actually knows you're here. I called him a couple days after you arrived. He's been a competitor and rival and actually a really good friend for many years, thought he'll probably deny any semblance of friendship till he dies. When it didn't seem like you had told anyone, I couldn't in good conscious not tell him. I don't know how he's feeling now, but he didn't seem to upset then."

Victor stopped mid-step and stared at his coach.

"You called Yurio?"

"Uh, yes. Did the two of you have some weird unspoken deal that there wasn't supposed to be contact when you left or something?"

"No, but...I just...didn't want him to know. At least not right away."

"Oh, well now you don't have to worry." Yuuri picked up his bag. "Did you want to go do anything today?"

Victor gripped his backpack straps and hunched over slightly.

"No, it's okay."

* * * * *

For the next couple days, Yuuri noticed Victor becoming more and more withdrawn. He tried to talk to him to bring back the energy, but nothing seemed to work.

"Victor, let's go take a bath and relax. You worked really hard today."

"I'm just going to go to sleep."

"Victor, do you want to come join me for a movie?"

Victor just shut the door in his face.

On the third day of being a social recluse, when Victor didn't even show up to the rink for practice, Yuuri had had enough.

* * * * *

Victor laid on his bed and argued with himself. He didn't know. He didn't do it on purpose. Did I get too upset for the situation? I should apologize. But he still went behind my back. Who knows when he would've told me. But he was just being nice to Yurio. He just cares. I think I overreacted. Is he gonna be mad. Crap, will he still want to be my coach? I have to talk to him. But I can't, not after how I acted. But I need to. After several minutes of this debate he hit his breaking point.

"I can't stand this guilt!"

As if on cue, Victor's bedroom door slammed open, and Yuuri stood there with his hair hanging down over his eyes and a frown on his face. Victor gulped in fear. Suddenly, Yuuri looked up and was back to his usual friendly demeanor.

"Good morning Victor. Let's go to the ocean."

"O-o-okay..."

* * * * *

When they reached the beach, Yuuri walked over to some rocks and sat down. He smiled gently and patted the stones next to him. Victor sat next to Yuuri, but couldn't think of anything to say. Suddenly, he heard a very familiar caw. Victor looked up.

"Oh, seagulls."

"They're black-tailed gulls. I thought about it, and I realized that you've been here but you haven't really spoken much about home. I don't know much about Saint Petersburg, but I know it's a port city, so I thought coming here might be able to remind you a little of home, hearing the sounds of the waves and birds."

"I'll be honest, I never thought I'd leave that city. I grew up there, my coach lives there, one of the best rinks is there. There was no reason for me to leave. So the sounds of the waves and the seagulls' cries...I never really paid particular attention to them. It was always there, so it quickly blurred into the rest of the sounds of the city. But coming here, I started to notice it more. It's the same, but different. I like it though."

They remained silent for a few more minutes before Yuuri spoke up again.

"Hey, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn't realize it was that big of a deal for me to contact Yuri without telling you. But we've known each other for years, and I didn't feel right housing his runaway student without at least easing his concern about where you went."

"No, I'm sorry. I know you were just being your usual caring self by calling him. I really should have, I know that, but -"

"I know, you said you felt guilty that you waited so long. If it makes you feel any better, when I did call, he wasn't mad. I mean, he was a little, but he was more worried what you were doing during the off-season before your senior debut."

"I just...until I knew if I'd be able to keep you as a coach or not, I didn't want to call. I didn't want to hear all the reasons why I shouldn't be here. I knew he'd give me a hard time, and I didn't want any reasons to second guess my decision. I even considered the possibility of never telling him if I lost. I hoped I could just go back, beg him to take me back, and he'd decide that me being so upset would be considered punishment enough. And then when I considered calling him after you agreed to coach me, I thought about how long it had been, and I lost my nerve. I imagined all the things he'd tell me. 'Just because you won doesn't mean you should be bothering him uninvited'. 'He wanted a year off. Do you really think he'll really be happy being your coach right now?'. And then as time went on, it got to the point where I felt calling would actually be more awkward than just not. That's when you brought it up, and I snapped, and I'm sorry. Ugh, I'm such a bad student. I'm sorry for causing so many problems."

"Victor, you aren't even old to drink alcohol. Well, at least not here in Japan. You're allowed to make mistakes in your life, but you need to learn how to take control of a bad situation and fix it. Now fixing it might not be a fun or easy thing to do, but that's how we grow as people. Gives you character and all that crap." Victor weakly laughed. "Take this whole experience and learn from it. No one can fault you for mistakes. What they can fault you for is when you make the same mistakes over and over again. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Besides, with my mind so often in coach mode, I'll admit I sometimes forget that I'm really not that much older than you. Just because I've lived a few more years doesn't mean that I can't remember what it feels like to move up to the Senior ranks and want to prove myself and my decisions."

"It's okay. I just need to remember that you aren't the perfect idol I've always seen you as. Wait, that sounds bad. I still think your perfect, I promise! I mean, just because you can mesmerize an audience with your grace and talent on the ice doesn't mean you're some godly being that won't accidentally do something to upset me. When I can keep that in mind, I don't get as upset, because you're just human, and humans make mistakes."

"We both have a lot to learn, but if we can be honest, we can meet each other halfway and help each other. Deal?"

"Deal. Thanks for bringing me here. It really cheered me up."

"Well, if you're feeling better, I have something else back home that I'm hoping will cheer you up even more. Come with me."

* * * * *

Yuuri put his hand on the door, but turned back to face Victor with a nervous smile.

"I-I hope you like this surprise."

Yuuri pulled open the door, turned on the light, and walked in. Victor's breathing hitched as he looked over the contents of the room.

"This is the room where I keep all the costumes I've ever worn in competition. I have so many memories in these, both good and bad, so I've just kept them all over the years. So my offer is this. We can either have something new made for your programs this season, or you can look through these and pick something. The choice is yours."

"I...I can wear one of your old outfits? Really?!"

"Yes, pick what you'd like if that's what you want to do."

With that, Victor ran into the room, and started digging through the racks of outfits. Occasionally he'd find one that he'd instantly recognize and would prove his ultimate fan status by yelling when and where Yuuri had worn it.

"Hey, you wore this one at the Grand Prix Final last year!"

"This was your senior debut outfit at Four Continents!"

"Okay, yeah, your outfit for your second Junior Grand Prix Final is kinda weird, especially up close."

Victor finally pulled out a black outfit with mesh cutouts, crystal-like embellishments on the shoulder and waist, and a swath of fabric on one hip.

"This is from the Junior World Championship!" Victor proclaimed.

Yuuri smiled. "You're not the only one that has done an androgynous routine. How much do you know about my formal dance background?"

"I know you used ballet as your other means of training, but you never really went into great detail about it."

"As soon as I could stand on my own two feet, Minako-sensei had me in ballet. It wasn't until I was a little older that Minako-sensei and Yuuko introduced me to ice skating, and I fell in love with it. But as much as I loved the ice, I couldn't just forget about ballet. So I studied and practiced both, quite equally actually. And with that came a great deal of flexibility and movements that I realized other skaters didn't have. But there were still reporters and fans of the sport that didn't understand what a benefit it was. They just thought it was 'girly' and tried to shame me for it. So for Junior Worlds, the three of us decided to go all out and make a routine and costume that suggested both male and female genders at once. And once I won with my 'girly' routine and costume, it quickly shut up the hecklers."

Victor let a small smile spread on his face. If Yuuri can tell the world to accept him as he is, then I can tell them to accept this new and improved me too! He pulled it in close to his chest and looked up at Yuuri.

"I choose this one!"

* * * * *

"Zdravstvuyte, Sportivnyy Klub Chempionov."

"Hey, it's Yuuri. Well the other Yuuri. You know what I mean. Hi."

"What has Victor done now?"

"Wh-what? No, nothing! Victor hasn't done anything! Well, nothing bad. I just wanted to call and let you know he won our little challenge, so as long as you're still okay with it, I'm staying on as his coach for this season."

"Good riddance."

"You don't really mean that."

"Shut up katsudon, you don't know me. No one knows me."

"Not even Otabek?"

"We're married. Beka's an exception. Why are we even talking about this? Did you actually need something? Or was this call simply to harass me?"

"No, no, sorry. I did actually have a purpose in calling. Victor and I had a bit of an argument recently, and it took me a bit to pull him out of his funk. So I was just wondering what kind of person Victor is, and figured you probably knew him best. What is he like to work with? What things can I use to motivate him? Or cheer him up? That sort of stuff. I still can't quite figure him out."

"He's a mix of a dog and octopus in human form."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Ugh, how can I describe him. He's 'Victor'. He's needy and clingy and overly affectionate. He comes across as an outgoing and confidant young adult, but in reality, he's constantly seeking approval. It's not that he thinks he's unworthy or something. He just likes to know that he met the expectations set for him. Just talk to him. He'll be stubborn, but you just have to keep pushing for the answer. In his mind, asking once is just a polite societal norm, but if you keep asking, it shows him that you actually care what's on his mind and that you're not just saying the words."

"That makes sense. I kept asking if he wanted to do stuff to try and cheer him up and he eventually agreed, so I guess I inadvertently figured that out on my own."

"As for motivation, anything Katsuki Yuuri related will work. Trust me when I say that his walls back here are literally, and I do mean literally, covered in posters and pictures of you."

"I've kinda figured the fanboy part out too. I let him go through all my old costumes and pick one to use this season."

"I hope you aren't expecting to get it back, because he'd probably rather die before giving it back."

"He can have it. What else would I do with it? Let it hang with the rest for forever?"

"True. Oh. And he thrives off of physical contact, especially hugs. Giving or receiving. Willing or forced upon. Usually forced upon in my case. Anyways, yeah, a hug is usually a cure-all for an upset Victor."

Yuuri suddenly had the mental image of a young Victor with all four limbs wrapped around a very irritated looking Yuri and he couldn't help but smile.

* * * * *

The music stopped and Victor closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath.

"Victor!" Yuuri called as he skated over. "That was perfect! All the jumps were flawless! Good job. You're being much more emotive as well. You've made so much progress lately."

Victor blushed and his eyes lit up at the praise. He leaned in closer to and blurted "I did great! Right?"

Yuuri jerked back and felt his entire face flush at the sudden enthusiasm. After all the weeks of living and training together, Yuuri still periodically found himself struggling with Victor's random moments of close proximity. In his dazed state, all he could bring himself to do was look away and awkwardly pat Victor on the head.

"O-of course...keep it up."

Victor felt his chest grow heavy. Why? Why won't he let me get close? What more do I have to do?

"That's all? You don't have anything else to say..."

Yuuri quickly turned his head back when he heard the quiver in Victor's voice and his eyes went wide at the sight of tears falling down Victor's face.

"...'Coach'?"