AXIS | Yuzuru Hanyu

1.

"Axis: /'aksis/latin- an imaginary line which divides something into equal or roughly equal halves"

Brianna Tanaka jolted awake with the sound of her phone ringing. The Iron Maiden tune that was one of her favorite songs blared loud in her ears.

She groaned, who the hell was calling her at 7 in the morning?

The phone screen lit the room, her sister's name in big bold letters was displayed.

The girl answered the call.
"You better have a good reason to be calling at this hell hour" she pretty much yelled at the phone

"Good morning to you to sis"

"What do you want Mary?"

"I need something from you, you're free today right?"

"I was planning on working, I have a job, you know?"

"We both know you would never wake up early to work, you're a night owl"

"More of a reason for you not to ask me something this early"

"I literally have no other option. I need you to take Kaori to her skating practice. Koshiro is working nights and I have to leave earlier to be on time"

"When is it?"

"7:30"

"And you're calling now? Are you stupid?"

"Please just do this for me, or for Kao if that's what it takes for you to help"

"The things I do for you. You want me to pick her up after too?"

"Yes, if you don't mind. She likes it when we stay and watch. They have internet in there, in case you want to work"

"Alright, I will be there as soon as possible"

Brianna got dressed in her laziest warmer clothes, sweatpants, and a huge oversized hoodie that hid her curves nicely. After too many years of listening to all sorts of comments about how tight her clothes were, she had enough and bought an entire closet of oversized stuff. Mostly loungewear since she worked from home and rarely left. The girl kept her old clothes at the very end of the closet, almost forgotten.

She had no idea why her niece had started figure skating, no one in the family had a big interest in it. Her parents had been spending a ridiculous amount of money since she was 5 on boots, blades, and dresses so the girl was happy. 

Kaori was now 8, her sister Mei was 3 and fortunately was still far too small to join her sister.

Mary moved to Sendai with her family, looking for a more peaceful reality in comparison with Tokyo. Kaori was apparently very excited to move cities precisely because of skating. Apparently, some big hotshot skater trained there before he retired.

Brianna had been living in the Miyagi area for 1 year and had no idea until her niece told her, but then again, she barely left her house.

Looking at her watch it was more than obvious that they would be late, it was currently 7:25 and she still wasn't at her sister's house.

Kaori looked at her with a pissed expression when she pulled over.
"I'm going to be late"

"Blame your mom for asking too late"

"I can already imagine how mad the coach will be"

"I'll explain okay?"

"He doesn't like excuses"

"Leave that to me"

Something in Kaori's face told her this was one rigorous coach, and she would have to deal with him.

Brianna parked the car in the park of the rink. She followed her niece's every step to avoid getting lost. Cold hit her immediately, she had no idea how people enjoyed staying in this place, why would someone purposedly come somewhere to be cold all the time? She made a mental note to bring a blanket in case she had to visit again any time soon.

The one thing she enjoyed was the sound of the blades that echoed around the building. It was surprisingly relaxing.

"Kaori, what time is it?" Brianna heard a sudden loud masculine voice asking. The deep sound made her turn immediately to see where it came from. The deep voice didn't match its owner at all. On the ice was a frail-looking figure in a black hoodie that was at least 3 sizes bigger than it was supposed to be. The piece of clothing was so big that covered half his thighs. He looked like a teenager if it wasn't for the glare on his face, scary as hell. Brianna could see why Kaori was so worried about being late.

"7:40, Yuzuru-san" Kaori replied with a deep bow.

"And at what time is your practice?"

"7:30"

"Then why aren't you on time?"

"Brianna couldn't..."

"It was my fault" Brianna interrupted "I was the one who was late. We won't allow it to happen again."

He looked at her from head to toe, as if judging what she was wearing, earning a scoff. What the fuck was this guy's problem? They were dressed in quite similar clothes, if he had a problem then he should look at himself.

"Certainly hope so" was all the man answered her before giving Kaori a small nod towards the ice.

Brianna decided not to dwell much into the episode, sitting on one of the benches and taking her laptop from the bag to at least make the time useful.

Her niece had mentioned previously in a very excited way that she was working on her axel and doubles, whatever that meant. One thing she knew, watching the young girl propel herself in the air, rotating fast and landing on one foot amazed her. That was really cool.

"You're missing some rotation, do it again. Try to get some speed with your arms" she heard the correction from the coach. Another attempt "Did I just see a squid? Again, I don't want to see prerotation". Kaori made several attempts afterward, all with corrections from him.  It looked great from her side and the guy just doesn't shut up.

 At the time, Brianna made up her mind about him. Nothing is up to his high standards.

After about two hours on the ice, Kaori left the white surface exhausted and placed some kind of protection on the scary blades. She uttered that she was going for a shower and Brianna just stayed in the same place, more than ready to get out of the cold building.

"Next time, try to be a responsible adult" she heard from the figure in black and glared at him with all her might.

"Maybe it's better for you to shut up before making assumptions" she replied, red with fury. " Not everything is black and white, Coach"

He took her words in a surprised silence, Yuzuru wasn't normally so aggressive, but something about this girl was putting him off balance. He didn't like it one bit. As he was coming up with an answer, Kaori emerged from the lockers and said she was ready to go.

"Get rest and eat well, Kaori-chan. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Hanyu-sensei. let's go, Brianna"

Yuzuru saw them leaving, the older woman not saying a word of goodbye making him scoff. "Brianna..." the foreign name left his tongue, testing how it sounded. Not good, he concluded. I don't like this.