Playing with Fire | Yuzuru Hanyu

53. Perfection doesn't exist

Aside from the obvious fact that Aria could see EVERYTHING through those tight pants, even in the distance, she truly wondered how those judges would be able to focus on his skating.

You could be certain she wouldn't be.

Yuzuru was the unicorn on the ice, the only one in color and for sure, the most attractive skater from the bunch, at least in her eyes.

Not that she spent much time looking anywhere else but him. He and his ass but no one could blame her, he was literally asking for it.

Even throughout everyone's performances, her eyes were on him and his slicked-back rockstar hair that made him even more attractive.

Now this Yuzu? He was dangerous. All she wanted was to pounce on him.

"Are you ok?" Saya asked, still in a teasing tone as she watched her carefully.

"I just... I can definitely understand why they call the costume that..."

The other woman could only laugh in reaction, being way too entertained for Aria's sake.

"I always tease him about it but Yuzu is very proud of that costume. I can bet you that he's smiling from the inside every time they scream in reaction to any of his costumes."

"I can bet he is."

Maybe if her mind should have been elsewhere, Aria could only think about what was clearly some kind of exhibition kink on his side and you could bet that she had a lot of ideas to explore that side of his.

His return on the ice, as his time to perform came, was what made her ignore those thoughts for the moment.

She watched him ask his coach to place the Pooh on the boards and squeeze the bear after crouching on the borders.

As if she needed any more views of his ass on those pants...

The truth was that she still didn't know anything about the sport. All Aria could understand was how fast he was in comparison to everyone else and how many more cheers he got from the crowd but everything else was a bit of a blur to her.

If it wasn't for Saya's devastated whine when his knee went on the ice after one of the jumps, Aria would have never even realized that he hadn't been flawless.

She still allowed him to finish, more than proud of his handsome figure, looking like a handsome rockstar in skates, legs longer than her future.

Still, when he left the ice, she quickly turned to the woman by his side.

"Did something bad happen? You made some noise, I don't understand much of the sport."

Saya didn't even look surprised, giving her a reassuring smile.

"We will have to see from the judges but with his knee hitting the ice, there's a chance they invalidate the combination jump, which means a lot of points down the drain for him. It might place him lower than what he's used to."

"So it's a very bad thing, just because of that tiny mistake."

"If you were to ask him, he would probably say that it was a huge mistake."

"Can it cost him a medal?"

"Depends on the Free but one thing I can tell you, he won't be happy when he returns to you so be brave and don't forget that his frustrations have nothing to do with you."

It was hard to even imagine Yuzu frustrated or mad when he was always so sweet to her but this was a situation that she hadn't experienced before. They had never been by each other's sides when a competition of his didn't go as planned.

Complete foreign ground for her.

The score made him end up in 5th place to the sadness of every fan in the venue.

Aria heard Saya's sigh as soon as the scores were out and knew right away that it wasn't great.

"He can make up for it, right?"

"I've learned not to underestimate my brother through the years but it will be a fight, for sure. Yuzu is usually really good in the short because it's not so physically demanding for him. The Free has always been a challenge so I truly don't know..."

She didn't know what to do. Until she realized how mad the situation was, Aria had been happy for him and loved to see him skate but there were still a lot of things that she couldn't understand about the sport and it definitely showed.

It was with a pout on her face that Aria left the venue with Saya. They ate lunch together and it was easy to tell that the other woman had been trying to cheer her up.

"It will be fine."

"I just worry that it's my fault."

Now that made Saya stare at her seriously. It seemed like she wanted to pat some sense into Aria.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know... Just being here. It's probably distracting for him since he's usually alone, right? Maybe he just has too much on his head and that's why today didn't go great."

"You are not a distraction. Don't be silly."

"You said it yourself that he's usually strong in the short program. The one difference is my presence here."

"He's usually strong, yes, but if you think that he's always perfect, then you would be very wrong. Falls happen. He's out there jumping higher than half a meter on the ice and landing on a thin blade, it's inevitable."

"You really don't think he will blame me?"

"Aria, if anything, that puppy-like man will only be disappointed that he couldn't show you his best performance."