Icy Highness | Yuzuru Hanyu

13.

Maybe Athena should have been embarrassed or shared far less than what she ended up doing with her dad, but it has been a while since they had a chance to talk like this and she certainly missed their bonding time.

She ended up telling him almost everything, more than even Joanna knew and it felt nice to have someone to talk to.

"He seems like a nice guy. How did he do in the competition?"

The interest didn't seem fake either, it genuinely looked like her father wanted to know more about Yuzuru and she couldn't help but grow ecstatic as she talked about the skater.

"ah, he did so well. You should have seen it! I honestly don't know anything about skating but he was so cool to watch. He broke the world record again, that already belonged to him before."

Her dad's eyes were now wide. He didn't realize that this skater was actually that good until now.

"So, he's the best, huh?"

"Apparently."

"Oh, pumpkin... You really like him, don't you?"

"He's a good friend."

The King looked at her with a knowing smile, he didn't believe the 'friend' thing one bit, no matter how much she tried to convince him otherwise. Even if she didn't see it yet, her father knew her well enough to know just how whipped she was for this Japanese skater that was apparently really good at what he did.

"Maybe you can invite him here."

Her father's words surprised her, it was a big step and one that wouldn't be ignored by the rest of the family. This was all very unexpected, but at the same time, unrealistic.

"It's probably not the best idea... I don't want to get ahead of myself... And he's always hyper-busy."

"Even now on Christmas? Don't they have a break or something like that? Maybe his family won't mind since it's not a big date in Japan."

"No...He's competing."

"There are competitions on Christmas?"

"Yes... Japanese Nationals."

"Well, that's a shame. Maybe some other time then."

He seemed genuinely disappointed, but Athena didn't want to think too much about it all.

"Yeah."

"We could watch him skate on the TV, no?"

Once again, her father surprised her with his suggestion.

"I don't know for sure..."

"Find it out."

"Dad! He's just a friend!" She complained with a slap on his leg.

"Alright pumpkin, whatever helps you sleep at night."

"Daddy...Can I ask for your help with something?"

"Of course"

"I want to get him a gift, but I'm not sure what."

"I wish I could help, but my only tip is to find out what he likes. From my experience, gifts are not great because of their price, but because of their meaning."

"Hum."

"That didn't help much, did it?"

"I have to think about it. Thanks either way."

Athena did think about it, but it was really hard for her to think of something that would have meaning while being nice at the same time.

On top of that, she didn't have too much time to settle everything given that Christmas was just a week away and she had to somehow ship it to Japan on time. Obviously, she would end up paying a decent amount of money to make it possible, but she still had to hurry before it was too late.

As much as she enjoyed speaking with him, Athena felt like there were a lot of things that she didn't know about him just yet. And even if they only knew each other for a few weeks, it still made the situation a bit weird.
After all, she was talking about this man to her father and this was something that she had never considered before with other guys.

Athena went shopping that afternoon with a goal, to find something cute and meaningful for him, even if she had to spend the whole afternoon searching with her bodyguards on her tail.

The few things she knew he liked were Pooh, Earphones, Strawberries, and Gyoza, she also knew he liked Science and Math, but the last thing on her mind was to gift him something related to his studies.
On top of it all, she also guessed he liked jewelry. During the time they spent together, she always noticed the two or three necklaces hanging on his neck, as well as a bracelet, so maybe he liked jewelry as well.
This wasn't going to be easy, but it was up to her to find at least something decent.

It was at a local market that she found a keychain that could be engraved with personalized words. It wasn't anything expensive, but she remembered her father's words and went on with it.
In addition to it, she couldn't resist buying a small Pooh that could be easily added to the keychain and paired together.

Crazily enough, on that small Christmas market, she found several small things that could serve as a meaningful gift to him, and she gathered a few small things as she went, probably buying too much stuff that she hoped he liked.

Athena saw that Yuzu would be doing his last program on Christmas day and figured that it was the best day for him to receive his gifts. It turns out that when you have money, it's not that hard to make things happen as you wish.
It took only a few hours to make her plan work, going as far as making sure it was delivered to him directly at the hotel after the competition.

Yuzuru deserved the best and she was going to make sure he got it.