Playing with Fire | Yuzuru Hanyu

38. Clean

The truth was, he never truly got better in time for nationals.

Yuzuru wanted to compete very badly but it took the efforts of Aria and his mom to make him see a doctor who told him to absolutely forget about it.

Skating competitively when he was struggling to keep up with his breath was just not the right way to go.

So he stayed in Canada with Aria on his side, taking care of him like a lover would and the reality was that it wasn't exactly a bad scenario either. Looking back to how his health was and even though he always wanted to compete, the decision had been right.

What none of them expected was for his mother to show up at the condo in the middle of their cuddling session.

Yuzuru had reassured Yumi that he was fine and had someone with him. Truly, he should have thought better of it because saying something like that had the opposite effect of what he wanted.

Instead of reassuring his mother, Yuzuru made her curious and that was the worst thing he could have done if he wanted her to stay in Japan.

Aria completely jumped out of his embrace when the front door opened. They were sitting on the couch watching a movie on TV in such a relaxed mood that he wished to have time like that with her every day.

Still, it was completely impossible to explain the fact that she was there, dressed in his clothes and clearly as relaxed as a lover would.

Had she been in Yumi's place, Aria would have questions too.

"I... I didn't mean to interrupt anything" Yumi-san ended up saying, making the situation even worse for an already embarrassed Aria.

"You're... You're not interrupting anything. I... I should go."

Aria got as far as one inch off that couch before he grabbed her and pulled her to sit again.

"It's fine. Just stay." He almost whispered. Aria wondered if he realized how embarrassed she was that his mother had caught them.

"Are you crazy?"

"We were just cuddling..."

Their banter wasn't as silent as they both thought it to be. From the entrance of the living room, Yumi heard the whole exchange.

"You should stay, Aria. I don't mind your presence, I'm glad Yuzuru had someone by his side while I was gone."

She got even redder as her brain fully gathered the fact that his mother was right there, watching them with interest. Aria immediately wondered just how much the older woman knew or what she was assuming in the middle of this mess.

"Yumi-san, you're here now so there is no reason for me to stay."

"Please? Please stay, Aria." He almost begged her with that puppy face that made Aria want to squeeze him. The whole situation was so awkward and unexpected that she truly didn't know what to do.

In a way, she had pretty much moved to this condo in the past few days and it wasn't even too hard to get used to his closeness and embrace. It was too easy to feel at home when by his side and for the first time in her life, Aria was slowly getting used to his constant company.

Let's just say that she had long accepted that he meant more than she could have ever expected and that those last few days had been some of the best moments of her year. (Not that her life was that interesting in the first place)

So when against all of her defense mechanisms Aria ended up saying yes to him once again, Yumi merely gave them both a wide smile.

"That's great! I will take care of dinner."

Another thing that Aria learned was that Yumi wasn't one to be contradicted because even as she tried to convince the other woman to allow her to help, Yuzuru's mother merely told her to go to him.

Going back to the couch by his side was only weird at first. Aria found that he could somehow make her comfortable again in seconds within his hold with one or two casual jokes.

They were whispering for a few minutes, just to make sure that his mother wasn't listening this time.

"Are you sure this is ok? I don't want to intrude."

"It's fine, Aria. She said it herself."

"Don't you wonder what's on her mind when she sees us together?"

There it was, a question that only brought more with it. Aria and Yuzuru had been avoiding the topic of what the relationship truly was for a very long time and she truly hoped to get something out of him eventually. It was hard to merely pretend like what they were doing was normal.

"Why would I?"

He answered back as blankly as ever, not even giving her a tiny bit of hope about truly answering her question.

"She will probably assume we're together." Aria tried, only to receive a frown on his expression. It took just a few seconds until he was standing up and dragging her to his bedroom with an energy that Aria hadn't seen in the past days."

"Yuzuru! What are you doing?!"

He was silent on the way there but as soon as the door closed behind them, her body was pinned to the door in the most passionate kiss he had ever given her.

Aria was completely dumbstruck for a good 2 minutes before noticing the smirk on his face.

"Just to make it clear, Aria, I do see you as my girlfriend, it's only a matter of knowing if that's what you want too."