An hour later, Otabek walked into Sportivnyy looking for Yuri. He had called to ask what Yuri wanted for dinner, but the only response he got was a string of angry swearing, followed by Victor's name, then more swearing, before being hung up on. Curious what had set off Yuri's temper, he quietly opened the door to the rink. He was greeted with the sound of angry punk music blasting through the speakers, and Yuri half shouting at no one and half singing loudly along to the music. He could only smile as he watched his husband skate out his agression.

"Stupid fucking Victor."

"Causing fucking problems."

"Even I wasn't this bad, and I was the fucking Russian Punk."

" ♪ Teenagers scare the living shit out of me... ♪ "

* * * * *

Victor:

Hi

(´･ω･`)

Chris:

OMG WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!

YOU JUST SEEMINLY VANISHED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!

YOU SAID NOTHING!

YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA HAS BEEN DEAD!

WHAT THE FUCK VICTOR?!

( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)

( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)

( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)

( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)

Victor:

I...I can't tell you...

I made a promise...

I just wanted to let you know I wasn't, ya know, dead or something

Chris:

ARE YOU SERIOUS? THAT'S ALL YOU CAN TELL ME?!

WHAT KIND OF PERSON INSISTS SOMEONE ELSE MAKE THAT KIND OF PROMISE?!

Victor:

I'm sorry!!!

All I can say right now is that I'm safe, not dead, not kidnapped, still skating, and still planning on making my senior debut

Chris:

Well...as long as you're still skating...

You're lucky I love you so much

I hope you realize how upset I've been! I always know your secrets!

Victor:

I know, I know, I'm sorry!!

<(_ _)>

Forgive me!!

Chris:

Well?

.....

When will I get to know where you ran away to?

Victor:

Um...

Possibly in a little over a week...

If not, then at my first GPF competition...

Chris:

Aaaaaaaaarrghhhhhhhh

What the hell Victor?!

ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

Victor:

Don't hate me!! I promise to spill every single detail as soon as I can, okay?!

Chris:

(¬_¬)

I have taken a screenshot of this conversation, and have no shame in admitting that I will use it if necessary to hold you to it when that time comes

* * * * *

An hour and a half later, the details of their temporary agreement had been settled upon. Yuuri would give Victor his undivided attention for the next week, and over the weekend, they would have their competition. They agreed to keep it small and only allow Yuuri's close friends and family to watch. The Nishigori's would be in charge of the technical work at the rink and recording of the programs. Yuuri's family would be the audience. And after a long FaceTime conversation filled with coercion and pleading, Yuuri convinced his old rink mate Phichit to come visit and act as a judge.

Afterwards, they had settled into a comfortable silence, both lost to their own thoughts and cellphones. Yuuri was busy silently panicking, wondering if it was too late for him to somehow graciously back out from their deal while simultaneously questioning his skills as he had absolutely no experience as a coach. Victor, on the other hand, was busy trying to find his Eros inspiration. After several minutes of pacing and no ideas, Victor gave up.

"Hey, Yuuri? Can I ask you a question?"

Bristling at once again being called by merely his first name, Yuuri decided to have a little more fun at the younger skaters expense and glanced over with a serious look on his face.

"You just did. But you may ask another if you say please."

Victor let his head fall back and groaned. "Why? Why are you like this?"

There was a pause of silence as they stared at each other.

"Well? I'm still waiting on that please."

"In this very moment, I hate you. God, you're so weird! This is definitely a side of you I didn't know about."

"That's still not a please..."

"Ugh, fine! Please!"

Yuuri immediately dropped the seriousness and went back to normal.

"Sure, what would you like to know?"

"What helped you find your Eros when you were choreographing this?"

Yuuri blanched. "It was, uh, um, god this is embarrassing. Um, I thought of..."

Yuuri paused as Victor stared intensely, bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation of the answer.

"...katsudon."

Victor brain short-circuited for a moment before he regained his composure and fell on the floor laughing.

"Stop laughing, geez, I know, it's bad. I told you I've never really had experience with relationships, so I couldn't think of a past lover or anything. So eventually I decided just to think of something that was able distract me and make me lose the ability to make normal decisions. For me, that's katsudon."

Victor had progressed passed merely laughing and had progressed to crying and wheezing from his lack of breath.

"You mean *wheeze* today *wheeze* all that sex appeal *wheeze* was inspired *wheeze* by katsudon?!"

Yuuri glanced around and noticed a few customers looking in their direction as Victor's peals of laughter echoed throughout the onsen.

"Someone just kill me now..."

* * * * *

Over the course of the week, Victor trained more vigorously and earnestly than he ever had before. Every morning was started with a small snack before going on increasingly longer runs. When they returned from their run, breakfast would be waiting for them. After that, they would run (again) to Ice Castle. Morning practice was solely focused on increasing his gracefulness and expression on the ice through yoga, ballet and other dance styles, and brute repetition. They would break for an hour and a half for lunch and a short rest period before afternoon practice began. The afternoons were dedicated to jumps, muscle conditioning, increasing his overall stamina, and anything else deemed necessary at the time. After afternoon practice was done, they'd stretch and cool down, then walk back to the onsen for dinner. After dinner, Victor was free to do as he pleased for the rest of the night, and he often spent his evening relaxing in the onsen.

Victor quickly found himself becoming comfortable with the technical aspects of the program, but after comparing recordings of both Yuuri and himself skating, Victor was displeased to find that his movements still seemed too mechanical. Yuuri had been genuinely encouraging, and promised that he noticed a change in Victor's skating, but it wasn't enough. He felt he was lacking the one thing that would serve as the backbone for his Eros program.

As the weekend approached, Victor was running out of ideas. He had tried imagining old crushes, meditation at a temple, and even stood under a cold waterfall in an attempt to focus his thoughts. Nothing. He felt so close, as if the answer to all his problems was just out of reach. The night before, in a last ditch effort to find a solution, Victor snuck out to visit Minako at her studio.

Victor arrived just as she was packing up to leave. Knocking, he poked his head in.

"Minako-sensei, are you busy? May I borrow you for a bit?"

"For Yuuri's little groupie, of course you can." Minako said with an overly dramatic smile. "Is there something in particular I can help you with? Do you need to warm up first?"

"No, I was just wondering if I could talk to you for a bit, to work through my thoughts. I'm hoping a different opinion might help."

"Okay, what have you been thinking? No need to form cohesive thoughts. Just say what you thinking as it comes to you."

"Well, for as much progress as I've been seeing, I still don't feel like I've clicked with my song. Yuuri said the more I understood the feeling, the better I'd portray it in my skating, but it's a song about sexual love, but I've never...done...'that'...with anyone."

"You don't always have to have physically done something to understand a feeling. When you watch Yuuri skate, can you see a story in the program?"

"Yes, I can. A playboy comes to a certain town and bewitches the women left and right. He decides to pursue the most beautiful woman in town, but she isn't swayed. Then, as they play the game of love, she finds it difficult to make the right choices and ends up falling for him. Then he casts her aside, as though he's tired of her, and goes off to the next town."

"Excellent. Let's work with that. Have you ever been in the positions of either the playboy or the beautiful woman?"

"No, not that I can think of. I've never been considered the world's hottest bachelor or anything, so I don't think I can consider myself the playboy. My sexual experiences and advances are very...limited. But I've also never been pursued, fallen in love, then been left, so I can't relate to the beautiful woman. I've been trying to just imagine myself somewhere in the middle, but even that seems to be hindering me, since my mind isn't sure how my body should move.

"Did Yuuri tell you his inspiration?"

Victor burst into giggles. "Yes, katsudon."

"Exactly. And yet, you've seen him skate. Would you think he was thinking of pork, egg, and rice if you didn't know?"

"No, I guess not."

"So don't trap yourself thinking it has to be about actual sex just because it's sexual. Not everyone considered sexy has reached that point by laying themselves prone to the world."

Victor sat on the floor and let her words sink in. Minako watched and smiled after a few minutes as awareness flickered across Victor's face. His eyes lit up as he looked up with a huge grin.

"Minako-sensei, can you teach me how to move in feminine ways?"

* * * * *

The day of the competition came, and Victor and Yuuri got ready in the locker room while Yuuko finished ushering the few remaining public skaters out of the building. Phichit and the triplets had gone all out. Colored filters were attached to the overhead lights, and Nishigori was manning a spotlight. Phichit had even set up a small table alongside the rink with papers and a pencil to take notes of the performances. There was a second chair for Yuuri to sit in once he was done so he and Phichit could discuss their final decision.

Yuuri had decided to go first. He knew it would put more pressure on Victor, but he wanted to see how Victor handled going in as the underdog. He had also only practiced the full routine when Victor was not around so that he wouldn't see the completed and polished program till the day of. He got on the ice and waited for the music to start.

Victor watched as Yuuri began, and instantly regretted agreeing to go second. His eyes grew wide as he saw everyone in their small audience get drawn into Yuuri's agape performance. His jumps were flawless, his step sequences so alluring, and his expression so vulnerable. By the time the music finished, a knot had settled in Victors stomach. I don't feel like I can honestly score better than Yuuri at this point, but I have to give it my all if I'm even going to have a hope of keeping Yuuri as a coach.

As Victor took to the ice, he got in his starting position and took a deep breath. As the music started, he let his mind wander. Who am I dancing for? That's right. I know now. He dug his toe pick into the ice, snapped his head around to face Yuuri, looked him dead in the eye with all the want and desire his relatively innocent self could muster and smirked. In the moment, Victor was could've sworn that he had heard Yuuri give a low whistle of approval, and used that to encourage himself through the program. As the song progressed, all his components were happening perfectly. His confidence was building with every spin, every leap, every movement he made. But then he stepped out of a quadruple Salchow, and he felt his confidence waver. A jump! The one thing I'm usually so good at, and I mess it up! Yuuri didn't mess anything up. Is that going to ruin this for me? No, no, stop, don't panic. One hand touching the ice isn't enough to make me lose my charm. I can do this. I can do this! Victor nailed his final quad-triple toe loop combination, finished his last spins, then wrapped his arms around himself as the music ended. He panted in silence before dropping his arms and looking up as applause rang through the rink. He forced a smile and skated over to where Phichit and Yuuri were sitting.

"Well? What's the verdict?"

The two older skaters whispered amongst themselves for a moment, then faced Victor.

"In terms of both technicality and presentation," Phichit began, "it is clear that Yuuri's score was higher than yours in both areas. Not only did your hand touch the ice, something Yuuri didn't do, but Yuuri showed a much more solid understanding of his song's theme and was able to show that in his performance."

Victor hung his head, determined not to cry, but was unable to hold back entirely as a couple tears ran down his face. He clenched his fists as his shoulders began in shake. I can't believe I messed up. I can't believe I lost.

"However," Yuuri quickly continued, "that was not the goal of our little show, now was it?"

Victor's head whipped back up in confusion. "But I thought -"

"You really don't like to listen, do you? If you'll recall, total points was never the goal. I do believe I said, and I quote 'Prove to me that you have the ability to learn how to connect'. And you have. What I saw from you today was something I haven't ever seen in practice. Whatever you used as inspiration, it worked, and you were able to integrate your emotions into your performance. Not entirely, as there were moments where I saw your emotion slip from the intended seduction to greed in your desire to be perfect. But it was there, and enough so that Phichit was able to easily tell." Phichit nodded silently in agreement. "Therefore, going by the terms set by me and the decision of our guest judge, I am proud to say that you have won this competition, and as such, I will keep my word and remain your coach for the rest of this season. Congratulations Victor!"

Victor stood dumbfounded for a moment before he could mentally process Yuuri's words. Once he realized what had just happened, he could no longer contain his tears. He started sobbing as he gave his biggest heart-shaped smile and lunged over the rink barrier to give Yuuri the biggest hug he could muster. Yuuri winced slightly at the tears and snot that fell onto his jacket.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! I promise I'll do everything I can to make sure I won't ever let you down!"