Potential To Be Strong

Chapter 12: Comeback

Today is the short program for the men's event. I hold my breath as I watch Yuzuru skate in the six minute warm up. He's going first and I know everything is anticipating how he's going to do. He's been looking great in the warm ups leading up today, but there is a factor of uncertainty in his performance. I watch behind the boards with my official Team Japan jacket and official identification. I did all the paperwork to get to the Olympics even though I didn't think it would work. He looks comfortable skating right now. He did take pain killers before taking while he was warming up. It won't impair his performance, but it's the only way he can get through the pain he is still experiencing.

"Are you ready?" I ask Yuzuru as he comes over to the coaches and I.

Yuzuru takes a swig of his water before nodding his head. "I'm as ready as I could ever be. Some pain, but I will think about that later."

"Just do your best, Yuzu," Coach Brian says patting him on his shoulder. "That's all you can really do at this point."

Suddenly the announcement come for all of the skaters to leave the ice. Yuzuru is the first skater of this final group so he stays where he is. Yuzuru bows to his coach's before he turns to me. I grab his face and give him a kiss on the lips before pushing him toward the center of the ice. The stadium goes up in a roar as soon as they see the kiss. I move towards the wall so I'm not too close to the boards. I don't want to be too close or else I'll go crazy.

Yuzuru takes his starting position as the announcement is made for Yuzuru. I hold my hands together as the music starts. Yuzuru begins moving to the music taken away in this moment. I clutch my hands together as he goes into his first element, the quad loop. As soon as he jumps in the air, I suck in my breath. When he lands the loop flawlessly, I let the breath go. I keep that pattern going though all of his jumps. Those were things I was scared about him doing. But his quad Salchow and quad Loop were pretty solid jumps. And he never fails his triple Axel. Seeing all of his jumping passes complete means I can relax for the moment.

Yuzuru finished with a roar from the audience. Poohs begin to shower into the ice. I take out the little Pooh I brought with me to give to Yuzuru after the short and the rose I bought for him. Coming off the ice, Yuzuru gives Coach Brian a big hug and I can hear him say, "Comeback," which is exactly what he did. He came back to the ice and dominated it. Yuzuru comes over to me and gives me a kiss on my forehead. He presses his to mine and we have a brief moment together.

"I see you have some gifts for me," he whispers before pulling away. He takes me hand and leads me to the Kiss & Cry. Coach Brian follows suit.

"Well, I am your number one fan," I say jokingly as I place the gifts into his hands.

We all sit down in the Yuzuru takes them and places them on the board in front of us. He wraps his arms around my waist. We wait for the scores to come through. We watch the playback in the mean while. Then the announcement comes.

"Yuzuru Hanyu, received in the short program, a score of 111.68," the announcer's voice echoes in the stadium. "He is currently in first place."

I look at Yuzuru with a happy and shocked expression. Coach Brian holds up Yuzuru's hand in victory and Yuzuru just smile happily. I clap excitedly knowing Yuzuru is creeping closer to his dream. Soon we leave the Kiss & Cry to go back stage. I follow Yuzuru back to his dressing room. Coach Brian stays behind as Javier has yet to skate. Once the door closes, I launch myself into Yuzuru's arms.

"You did it," I murmur into Yuzuru's chest. "You really did it!"

"I almost thought I wasn't going to be able to do it," Yuzuru admits softly. He clutches my body to his. "There was a chance it wasn't going to happen."

"But it did happen. You're currently in the lead. There is a chance you could win this thing."

"There are still many of my friends left to go. They can pull ahead."

"Either way, you showed everyone that you are back and better than ever. It's like you never even left the ice."

"I'm just glad to be back. It felt really good to land all of my jumps. Everything else came with ease."

"You looked so good out there. And your score is so close to your world record. I'm so excited to see how the free skate will go."

"That will be the hardest test. You think it will go well?"

"I have so much confidence in you. As long as you stay centered and focus on yourself. You'll do well. Now, time for you to change and wait for the event to end."

Yuzuru changes into comfier clothing so we can hang out in a lounge where the skaters can hang out it. We make small talk as other skaters begin to trickle in. Javier comes over to us and lets us know that he's made it into the top 3. Shoma comes into the room and he tells us he's in coming in at 3rd place. Yuzuru's currently first and we couldn't be happier. Coach Brian comes over to the whole lot of us and tells us we need to head to a conference meeting. I know I need to be there for Yuzuru to translate. Once the interviews are over, we all head out to have dinner before a good night's rest. I think tomorrow will be a good day for all of us.