Axels and Heartstrings

Autumn Classic Pt. 2

A/N: I umm.... am so tired.  I also... don't really like how this turned out. It is very mushy.  It will likely be heavily edited in the future.
  Hope it is at least okay.  Thank you for reading.  Now I must sleep.  Words aren't even making sense anymore.

Chapter Seventeen

There were a lot of things Yuzuru Hanyu had been wrong about in the past few months.

Among them, was his belief that soulmates were inherently selfish beings, destined to cast shadows upon his existence. Likewise, he had always envisioned his soulmate's presence to burden his life, forcing him to alter his plans.

Yet, amongst his miscalculations, there was one thing he had been right about— that the taste of his soulmate would be impossible to indulge in just once.

He was proven right as soon as he had parted from their first kiss and he couldn't stop himself from pulling her into another.

And then another.

Kissing her had rendered all his prior experiences with the opposite sex insignificant. It was new, addictive, and something that would consume him if he was not careful. Whether it was the influence of the soulmate bond or something deeper, it felt unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

Slowly, he had become acquainted with the way their lips danced together, his fingers delicately tracing the curves of her jawline. Then, with each tender touch, he had reveled in her reactions, marveling in the way her fingers intertwined with his tousled locks.

The night had passed that way, as he carefully watched her every reaction to his touches, as though he were exploring the act of kissing for the very first time.

______

On the day of the free program, Hana felt like something was off from the moment Yuzuru came into the rink for the six minute warm-up.

He entered flanked by his coaches and a pair of Toronto Cricket Club companions, an air of irritation about him. The tension only thickened as he grappled with two right-handed gloves, his frustration mounting visibly. With a sharp glance towards where Saya sat, he pierced her with a look that could freeze a person cold.

After a brief pause, he shrugged it off as if it was no big deal, but Hana knew him too well to accept such a flippant response. Beneath his outward calmness, she imagined his mind buzzing with countless scenarios, each one analyzing how this seemingly minor incident could ripple through his performance. 

There was always more going on under the surface for Yuzuru, something Hana had only recently grasped.

Unfortunately, the gloves were just the beginning of the evening's mishaps.

The free program that followed did not go as planned. Although it was a pleasure to see Seimei with her own eyes, the program was riddled with errors.

Yuzuru had singled out his lutz to open, left countless points on the table during multiple jumping passes, fell on his triple axel, and his quad toe was downgraded for a two foot landing.

It was the kind of program that made one realize that no one was infallible- not even the prince of figure skating.

Hana felt terrible for him, and even though he looked like he held it together in the kiss and cry, she knew he otherwise.

______

Hana was no stranger to the challenges of offering solace to others. As a nurse, she did this daily, comforting others during some of the most vulnerable times in their lives.