Melody of You | Yuzuru Hanyu

43.

They spent the next few weeks mostly at home. Yuzu hadn't been successful in convincing her that it was more than okay to indulge in sex and that his mother wouldn't even notice.

Not only was he growing desperate, but her mood also seemed to decline significantly.

It was understandable, music for her was like skating for Yuzu. But unlike him, she didn't even have other things to entertain herself with during this hard time. Yuzuru had been enjoying this time to dedicate himself to university work and was spending a long time reading and writing.

Meanwhile, she and Yumi didn't have that much more to talk about, even if the older woman tried to bring a smile to her face almost every day, it was still hard to find topics of conversation. Yuzu wasn't wrong when he said his mother was too sweet, her concern was more than evident every time she passed near a bored Sophia.

"There must be something else you used to do" Ymi had said one of those times, almost desperate to make the woman happier.

"No... All I ever did was music related"

"And you never wanted to take a break?"

"Whenever I wanted a break from my violin, I would play guitar"

Yuzuru, who was sitting beside her reading, seemed to be brought to attention by this information.

"Guitar? You play guitar?"

"huh... yes?"

"How have I never heard about this?"

"I don't tell anyone... It's almost like a dirty little secret of mine. When I was younger I wanted to be a rockstar but my parents didn't seem to find it a suitable career for me" Sophia laughed while remembering all the fights. "The first time I earned money in a gig, the money went to buy my first ever guitar and I haven't stopped ever since."

"You only have that guitar? That is in London I presume."

"Uh, that first guitar is back at home, the one I have in London is probably my most expensive buy after my car"

Yuzu's eyes widened, he knew Sophia, and she wasn't one to just splurge money.

"Don't look at me like that. I have a very expensive violin, even if I didn't buy it. Felt like I wasn't being fair to my guitar playing if I didn't have an equally great instrument. Let's just say I'm very happy that top-range guitars are nowhere near as expensive as Stradivarius violins."

"We could ship it here, but you can't play it either"

Yuzuru seemed very disappointed that he couldn't help her any more than he had been doing.

"It's okay. I guess I have to find a new hobby" Soph answered laughing slightly.

"It's frustrating... not being able to help you."

"Actually... can you drop your books for a bit?"

He eyed her with suspicion, Sophia wasn't one to ask so directly for things and he couldn't wait to see what she had come up with this time.

"I think so...Why?"

"Can you teach me figure skating?"

To say he was surprised couldn't cover it. This was a very unusual request and one he didn't expect at all. Every single time he offered to take her to the ice she had always refused saying it would be more dangerous than fun.

"You want me to teach you how to skate? I shouldn't be on the ice right now, but I think I can teach you the basics."

"No, no, no... not to actually skate... Are you crazy? Just the technique stuff. What jump is what, the steps... You ramble about it all he time and I don't understand half of what you're saying."

Yuzuru laughed at her words, it definitely made more sense that she asked this above learning how to actual skate. At the same time, he knew she wouldn't last too long before being bored about the subject, didn't mean he wouldn't try to make it interesting.

"Ok, I guess we can watch some skating and I can try to explain"

"Not some skating... your skating"

"There are things others are better"

"Maybe, but I find skating boring if you're not the one doing it, so I don't really care if it's right or wrong, as long as I know what it is."

"You should learn the proper way" he said with a resolution she rarely sees, and Sophia decided that she needed a good example to convince him.

"Take it like this... if I tell you that a certain orchestra or violinist performs something better than me..."

"Fine, I get it" he said before she even finished her example. This was more about understanding each other than it was about truly learning his craft.

Yumi figured they should be alone and took the opportunity to go get groceries... for a long time. The woman seemed to understand that the couple needed time alone and left the house after a short goodbye.

Yuzuru brought her close and used Youtube videos to start. Going through a few of his programs, he tried explaining the difference between each jump. Turns out that watching his latest competitions made her already being able to recognize the Axel, Toe and Salchow.

"Josh and Hilary tried to explain it to me, but it was as far as I got" she said with a slight tint of sadness while mentioning the friend that passed away not that long ago.

"Okay...I never did the quad flip or lutz in programs, so if you want to see those you have to settle with the triples"

"Are they harder?"

"Yes... I can land the Lutz in practice sometimes, but my Flip needs serious edge work."

"I'll pretend I understand whatever you're talking about"

Yuzu giggled and kissed her lips in response, before taking his Ipad and showing her his attempts that Brian and Ghislain had filmed, as well as a video with a close up of how the jump should be.

"See... right there, outside edge" she heard him say.

"I do admit I can see the difference when you show them up close, but once it's fast and far away... I'm completely lost"

"It's a matter of practice, you will be a pro in no time! Now the steps..."

"Yuzu..."

"Yes?"

"We're alone... I think we can look into the steps some other time..."