Skate With Me (Victor Nikiforov x Reader)

Chapter 47: Fanboy

"Good luck, Yuuri!"

"Goodluck!"

The audience began raising their banners up for Yuuri. He skates to the center of the rink. He is going to skate to Eros, by the way. We are expecting a delicious pork cutlet bowl once again. Not everyone saw the face-off with Yuri so not everyone has seen him skate to this before.

And so, Yuuri began as soon as the music started. He gives off that seducing look and smiled at us. We, on the other side, gave him a trusting smile.

The music gets faster and Yuuri began to move around the rink. The audience is quite silent. Only the music and the sound of his skates on ice can be heard.

The people's response is different from that back at the Hot Spring. The people back there are way more enthusiastic. Here, they're giving some lukewarm expression.

He is now about to do the first move: a spread eagle into a triple axel. He does it perfectly, the audience gave a round of applause. Next is the quadruple salchow. But unfortunately, he over-rotated and fell. Luckily he was able to stand back up quickly but the audience isn't pleased. You can tell it by their cries of disappointment.

He is undeniably good. He was able to make up for his over-rotation. It seems as if a switch was turned on and now, I remember why we went here, why Victor and I chose him. He skates as if his body is creating music. He never fails to amuse me. I don't regret doing what we've done.

"Great, Yuuri," Victor says.

"It's perfect," I agreed.

The last jump is a combination so it's worth the most points. It was supposed to be a quad into a triple but he slipped up, making it only double. And to finish the story Yuuri is telling, the woman casts aside the man she seduced and leaves for the next man.

"That was so cool, Yuuri-kun! That was awesome!" A fanboying Minami shouted. Yuuri looks up to the audience, looking for the owner of the voice. He bows and waves to the crowd before making his way back to us.

Though, I know that both Victor and I were bedazzled by Yuuri's performance, Victor gave an unimpressed clap to scare Yuuri.

He was welcomed back by some of the VIPs that managed to get to the three of us. He quickly wore his tracksuit while being showered with compliments from the nine people around.

"The first half was great. But you were too focused on jumps in the second, so you're performance got sloppy." Victor began.

"Right," Yuuri answered.

"I don't really like that kind of thing," I say.

"Right," Yuuri replied.

Victor was in the midst of telling more observances when the host spoke up. "The scores, please, for Katsuki Yuuri-san."

The three of us looked towards the scoreboard to see a score very pleasing to us all. "His short program score: 94.36. He is currently in the first place." The host said.

Applause erupted from the audience. He beat his previous best by almost ten points.

Before I could show my happiness for Yuuri, a reporter and his cameraman were already standing in front of us. "While this won't be an official record, this would've been among the top ten scores in the world!"

We were asked for an interview and we found ourselves in the waiting room in no time. "Hmm... since you weren't under pressure, I thought you'd score in the hundreds," I say.

"I thought so too," Victor agrees.

"Right, you two have scored above a hundred points to break the world record multiple times," Yuuri answers.

Now that we're inside, it's my turn to criticize Yuuri's performance. "Oh, right, Yuuri," I began.

"About tomorrow's free skate, lower the difficulty of the jumps and focus on performance."

"Huh?"

"You've never nailed them during practice, have you?"

"But..." Yuuri tries to defend but Victor eventually backs me up.

"It's not a bad idea to lower the difficulty early in the season, is it?"

"You should prioritize adjusting your programs to help you reach your peak for the Grand Prix Final," I say taking a step forward. "Are you saying you can't listen to your coaches?"

The host spoke up and although the sound was distant, it seemed to have calmed the air around us. "Representing Kure Higashi High School Skate Club, please welcome Fujiwara Hikaru-san."

After a few whiles, the reporter from before walked towards us and asked a set of questions. Mostly about our opinions, future plans, the Grand Prix and the usual questions.

"How do you feel looking ahead to the free skate?"

"Huh? Tomorrow's free skate-" Yuuri started.

"Of course you'll see Yuuri be perfect,"  Victor cut him off.

*Timeskip...

"This concludes the men's single short program," I hear the host say. This interview took a lot of time. I'm really disappointed I wasn't able to watch the performances of the rest.

"And I managed to land the triple axel, too!"

"That was your best performance yet!"

We heard two voices coming from the entrance. We all looked toward the source of those voices to see Minami and his coach.

"Oh!" Minami exclaimed, surprised to see us. "Did you see my 'Lohengrin' performance?"

"I was being interviewed, so I didn't. Sorry," Yuuri replies.

A look of horror flashes across Minami's face. Then his eyes got so watery, he could cry any second. And I was right, he's crying now. "I even had a similar costume made to the one from your 'Lohengrin' program."

Minami then unzips his jacket to show his costume to Yuuri. Yuuri gasps and his body turned to a hundred shades of red. "That's a costume from my dark past..."

"You don't have a dark past! Don't make fun of me for looking up to you for so long and trying to catch up to you! I'm gonna give tomorrow's free skate everything I've got! Please give it all you've got, too, Yuuri-kun! I won't forgive you if you slack off!"

My jaw dropped in amusement at Minami's statement. "Man, I like the spirits of this little guy!" I say, and slap Victor's arm playfully. This guy's getting me fired up.

"Wow! Skater Minami's issued a challenge! At last year's Nationals, skater Minami Kenjiro finished ahead of skater Katsuki. His first senior division competition will be a clash over a possible changing of the guard! Here in Okayama, skater Katsuki will face him with the first public performance of his free skate program!" The reporter said, looking as lively as ever.

Minami's challenge sure fired a lot of us up. He has the energy I would love to see in Yuuri but Yuuri is who he is, and that makes him better, in my opinion.