Playing with Fire | Yuzuru Hanyu

23. A strike of chance

Yuzuru was fully dedicated to forgetting about the woman that plagued his every thought.

Now finally being back on the ice, the scary thought of not being able to skate ever again seemed to gradually disappear. He was lucky enough for his foot to be almost fully healed and the prospects were very positive.

All of it made him busier and it also meant that there was less time to think about the obvious change.

Now that he considered everything that happened, it was easy to realize just how messed up things were.

He paid Aria to teach him sex and in the end? All they did was sleep together and for some kind of reason, none of it felt like a contract.

Her words were still very much lingering in his mind as he thought of their last moments together.

It was almost as if she wanted it as bad as he did. Almost as if she wasn't being paid to be by his side.

In the end, Aria made it clear that she didn't think she could help him any further and he was still recovering from their goodbye.

It had been weeks since then and his schedule also changed quite drastically given his return to practice.

Even so, none of that meant anything when he could only think about her at night.

To be truthful, Yuzuru knew that he should forget and move on but it seemed oddly difficult to let go of her.

For weeks on end, he was a bit down, trying to figure out all of those conflicting thoughts going through his mind.

None of it worked.

Trying to just get ahead and move on was a concept that seemed almost foreign to him then.

The interesting part about all of it was that fate decided to intervene for him.

It was a regular day like any other when his mother entered his room with a serious expression and looked him straight in the eye.

"I need you to come with me to the supermarket."

He looked around jokingly. In no world did she ever ask him to go with her so he was really wondering what the hell was going on.

"Me?"

"Is there anyone else around, Yuzu-kun?"

"No... But I never go."

Her face seemed a bit disappointed in him but she didn't say a single thing.

"My back has been hurting, I could use some help to carry things if you don't mind."

That made his expression change. Yuzuru hadn't noticed that his mom was in pain and when it was bad enough for her to need help at the grocery store, it was probably worse than he could've expected.

She had always been there for him and this was how he repayed...

"I'm sorry I didn't notice. I will go with you, of course. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

She smiled at him and nodded no.

"You're busy with your training, it's ok. And everything else is settled I just don't think I can do groceries by myself."

"Okasan, it's the least I can do."

So that's exactly how he found himself going to the grocery store with his mother by his side.

Getting out of the house for something other than skating in Canada was so rare that he could probably count on his fingers the number of times he had been in that store in the last 4 years.

Even when he had been there, it was mostly out of need of something when his mother was in Japan than anything else.

Because Yuzuru would never voluntarily do groceries if he could avoid it, especially not if it meant speaking English.

Now at the grocery store, he couldn't help but look around at everything as if it was fascinating. His first thought was that he would probably never be able to live on his own when he saw just how many different choices of everything existed.

How were you even supposed to choose between brands? Weren't they all the same?

He didn't say anything out loud under the risk of being scolded by his mother, who already thought him to be useless in most aspects outside of skating. It was probably best not to reveal exactly how bad he was.

Yuzuru still watched intently as his mother picked up each item and placed it on the cart he was dragging. She was so used to it that it seemed like the woman didn't even need to think before picking up everything she needed.

Yumi didn't even have a list in her hand and he knew she had done one.

It was only when they were in the meat section waiting for their turn that she picked up the paper and pen and started scrabbling the things already in the cart.

As soon as she was done, Yuzuru was immediately handed the same paper.

"This will take a while, can you go ahead and pick up the rest?"

To say that he started panicking wouldn't cover the whole scenario. Yuzuru just had no clue about what to do.

"M...Me?"

"Yes... I think it's probably easier than triple axels and quads. You will manage."

He highly disagreed with that but his mother wouldn't budge, he knew that well.

"But how do I know which one to pick?"

She analyzed his expression for a few minutes before starting to laugh.

"Yuzu-kun, just pick up the cheapest option!"

Now embarrassed, Yuzuru just took a deep breath and looked at the list. Most of it was already done so it couldn't be that difficult.

Looking at each aisle, he started better than expected, getting things easily without much trouble and picking up whatever was cheapest like his mother had said.

It was only when he reached the detergent area that things got a little more complicated. There were too many to pick from, a few for colored clothes, others for white or dark, he was completely lost.

The strategy of picking out the cheapest item didn't seem to pan out on this particular thing.

Panic started settling in.

Yuzuru was sure that his mom would lecture him if he didn't gather everything and the last thing he wanted was that.

He wanted to take some of the weight off her shoulders and make sure she got better.

Then, like an angel out of the sky, he heard the sweetest and gentlest voice behind him.

"Hello, Can I help you with anything?"