AXIS | Yuzuru Hanyu

6.

Another Wednesday came, which meant an empty rink for the session. It was Brianna's most productive day of the week now, the quiet and peace made her focus easily. The only sound the occasional Yuzuru's instructions to Kaori and the blades scraping the ice.

Today, they arrived early, as usual, Brianna had kept her promise, often arriving before Yuzuru. Maybe she would turn into a morning person after all.

She watched their session this time, Kaori was doing a run-through of one program and wanted her aunt to watch and give an opinion, her laptop was kept safely guarded in the bag.

It was beautiful, the sound of Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 filled the building, every moment the small girl made on the ice hitting a note. The jumps were still scary to see for Brianna, she was always afraid of the falls. The spins Kaori did made her wonder how her niece didn't get dizzy, but even those were perfectly timed.
Kaori did her finishing pose and Brianna clapped.

"That was amazing! I don't understand anything, but it looked really great"

"Thank you Aunt Bri" she answered with a big grin.

"Hanyu-sensei?"

"The steps need a bit of work, I know you don't need an official step sequence under the new rules but it doesn't mean I want you slacking on skating skills. Jumps were good, we can also work on smoother landings and your lutz edge."

"Jesus, you always have something to criticize" Brianna uttered before she could stop herself.

"It's my job, Brianna. If Kaori had everything perfect there was no need for me to be here. But overall, it was a great performance. Well done Kao-chan."

She wasn't expecting an answer or justification, when he said that she almost felt bad, he was right.

"Thank you" the small girl bowed to her teacher.

They worked on the details Yuzuru mentioned and before they knew it, it was the end of the session. Time flew.

"Gym time" was all Kaori said before leaving the ice. "You're staying here today?"

Brianna spent the other weeks in the cafeteria, but there was always more noise, as well as a TV that took most of her concentration.

"Yeah, less noise"

"Okay, see you in one hour"

They said their goodbyes and Brianna expected the ice to be filled with some sort of class or free skating group afterward but was surprised with an empty rink. Weird, Mary said it was really hard to book ice time here.

Not long after, Yuzuru showed up again with his skates on and a yellow plushie. Is that Winnie the Pooh? She had to know what was going on.

"Where is everyone?" She asked him.

"Oh, You're still here. What do you mean by everyone?"

"Kao is in the gym" She saw him nod in understanding. "I meant the skaters, this place is usually packed and now it's empty"

"That's because it's my private practice time. I usually train at night, but this slot was empty and it's convenient because of Kaori"

"Oh...I'm so so sorry, I didn't know. I'll find somewhere else to work"

"You can stay, I don't mind"

"You sure? It's just more peaceful here. If you feel like I'm bothering...."

"Brianna, it's fine"

She just nodded and took her laptop out of the bag to start working.

Yuzuru was wearing a large oversized white jacket over his training clothes and glided around the ice for a while to warm up his muscles properly. He started doing little hops in different directions, it was weird, but if it worked for him...

Brianna was carefully analyzing her screen when her ears noticed an increase in the intensity of the blade sounds. She looked at the ice to see Yuzuru gliding with way more speed now. He took a sudden turn forward and jumped in the air rotating very fast and landing perfectly on one foot seconds after.

"Woah" escaped her mouth, making him laugh.

"You really never watched figure skating, did you?"

"No, I have no idea what that was, but it was really impressive"

"That's a triple axel, my favorite jump"

"Are you any good? Like, do you have any cool medals?"

He really wanted to be serious but kept laughing softly at the confused woman.

"I'm decent enough and yeah, I have a few"

"That's great!" was all she answered, suddenly too shy to make any more conversation.

"Do you want to see anything in particular? I don't mind showing you" Yuzuru said in a low voice.

That made Brianna stop what she was doing. She looked at the figure on the ice and for a second she wished they had been nicer to each other from the start.

"I really don't know anything about skating, so I have no idea of what stuff you could do. I get curious sometimes because I always find Kaori amazing but I've never seen anything else to compare."

"Alright, have you ever seen any of my programs online? Is there any that you like better?"

"Online? There are videos?" She asked him, genuinely surprised.

"Yes... From competitions... I guess it's a no then. Well, I have a few run-throughs to do for a show, if you want to watch... "

You really have no idea, do you...?  Yuzuru thought. "Is it okay if I play music?"

"It's your practice time, I'm the one intruding. You don't have to ask, Yuzuru"

While he was preparing the music, Brianna made a mental note to search for videos later.

"Alright, this is an old one, it's a song by Prince"

"Prince? You skate to rock stuff?" she was now very excited.

"Occasionally... From your excitement, I take it you like rock?"

"Yesss"

Her reaction made him laugh, this girl was truly one of a kind.

And just like that, Yuzuru removed his jacket, revealing an under armour short sleeve that clung to his body. Brianna's jaw slacked and she was sure some inhumane sound left her mouth. Holy shit...Has he been hiding THAT body? Her initial thoughts of a frail figure couldn't be further from the truth. His body was lean, very lean, but completely made of muscle.

(Pic for reference, as if you're not very familiar with this sin of a man)

Brianna found him, of course, very satisfied with himself while observing her reaction carefully. She half expected a comment about it, but it never came.

"Shall we start then?"