Icy Highness | Yuzuru Hanyu

17.

Yuzuru was completely dumbfounded by her question.

'Did you fall because of me?'

Maybe he should have dealt with the situation a bit differently, but sitting in the hotel room alone only made him think of calling her.

Despite being in first after the short program, Yuzu was far from happy with his performance, but it had nothing to do with her. The ice pack on his foot was the biggest proof of that.

He found himself hitting the video-call button. Yuzuru wanted to see her, he needed to see her.

On the other side of the line, kilometers away, the princess was shocked to see the request. They had never done this before, maybe Yuzuru had hit the button by accident.

Athena waited a few seconds to see if he would give up, but when she noticed it probably wasn't an accident, she accepted the request.

Her screen was graced with his handsome face and wet hair, he looked good like that but she wouldn't dare to admit it out loud, especially not to him.

"Hey" she said with her cheeks flushed. It felt weird to see his face on the other side of the screen like this. They had always stuck with text and it was far more comfortable than anything face-to-face.

"Hello, you look good" he said with the heavy English accent that she had almost forgotten about. Athena doubted his words, there was no way she looked good while sitting on her bed with hair slightly disheveled from just waking up.

"You don't have to say that..."

"It's true."

"It isn't... I just woke up, I'm not wearing any make-up and my hair is a mess."

"You look good, don't argue."

Yuzuru found her beautiful in every single situation, hell, in his thoughts she looked even better like this. He was incredibly thankful to be able to see her with her guard down, he guessed not a lot of people were given that privilege.

"Are you resting?" She asked, completely changing the topic.

"Yes... I'm on my bed right now."
Athena was silent for a second, not sure what to say next when he broke the silence. "About your question..."

"It's stupid... forget it."

"No. Why do you think I fell because of you?"

"I'm distracting you."

"You aren't... Oh, Athena...you don't distract me at all. You make me want to be better."

"But..."

"No. Look."

The camera soon turned and showed the ice that he had on his foot, making her gasp.

"Did you hurt yourself on the fall or...?"

"No, it already hurt before. I told you about it."

"I know, I wasn't sure how bad it was."

"It's ok if I don't do too much. I can still skate but my jumps are not great, it hurts to lift off."

"Telling you not to skate is useless, right?"

"Yes."

"I hate seeing you hurt."

They were both looking at each other for a few seconds without saying any words, just observing the other with a serious but adoring face.

"Thea-chan..." Yuzu broke the silence eventually, the nickname leaving his lips almost instinctually.

Her eyes widened, no one had tried to shorten her name before on a nickname, it was hard and she knew it. Even so, she liked Thea more than expected, maybe because it was him.

"That's the second time you use Chan on me."

"It is too much?"

"No... But I want to make sure you're using it for the right reasons... It's not because I'm younger right?"

"No...I..."

"That's all I needed to know."

Yuzu seemed to be relieved that she wasn't asking anything more from him on that night, he was tired and the last thing he needed was to deal with his feelings now.

"Your gift should arrive tomorrow" He changed topics once again.

"You didn't have to..."

"I wanted to." He interrupted.

"Yours will be delivered tomorrow morning to your room" she ended up admitting, it took a lot of work but she managed to get it done that way so he could receive it personally.

"That sounds like a lot of work."

"It was ok, it's worth it."

Yuzuru merely smiled and she couldn't help but smile back.

His hair was drying and looked fluffy and soft, all she wanted was to touch it, feel the softness of the black strands with her fingers and caress his head. This was all too new for her, but it didn't make it any less inviting.

"My dad watched you today" she ended up mumbling and he reacted with wide eyes and stumbled words.

"Your dad? The...the...king?"

Athena laughed in reaction, this boy was adorable.

"Well, if I am a princess..."

"Yeah, right."

It was easy to tell that Yuzu didn't know what to answer to that, he had no idea how her father was, but it made him nervous that the man knew about his interactions with Athena. Would he try to stop them?

"I think he likes you a lot."

If his eyes were wide, they could become wider. Never in his mind did he expect Athena's father, aka, the king to encourage his daughter to watch Yuzu. Unless he was reading this all wrong and Athena didn't feel the same way he did.

"That's good. I want him to like me."

The implication was there and both of them knew it, but it was a silent one, that didn't earn any reaction, not when it could bring so many complicated feelings on a video call.

"I don't think you have to worry about that."

"So he watched me fall and he doesn't think I'm a loser?"

"You're still in the first place, that tells everything about how good you are."

"Not nearly good enough."

"You're too hard on yourself. Remember Brian's words, because they are exactly what I was planning on telling you. You don't have to be always perfect."

"I have to strive for perfection, it's what makes me good."

"As long as it doesn't eat you alive whenever you don't reach it... It's not like your world records can get much higher."

"Younger skaters have more quads... I have to work on that too."

"They are not beating you anytime soon..."

"It's not about them... I have...responsa... responsibilities to make the sport better."

It was very funny to see Yuzu struggle with the English word. He had improved so much that she almost forgot how it used to be.

"I respect that... Just make sure you don't hurt yourself. I need you in one piece."

"I will always come back to you in one piece, it's a promise."

Athena's heart fluttered at those words. They danced around with expressions every single time they spoke, leaving room for interpretations, but deep down, they knew what it meant.

Her brain could only think of one thing. Her heart belonged to him and only him.