Icy Highness | Yuzuru Hanyu

20.

It didn't surprise Athena at all when Yuzuru crumbled in the free program.

She cringed at every fall and fail. This wasn't the skater that she saw a few months prior. He crumbled in front of everyone and the worst was that no one knew why. Well, no one but her and some random doctor in Japan.

When he finished, Athena could see everything on his face, the pain, the regret, the thoughts of finality. It hurt her more than expected.

In her eyes, finishing with a Silver medal was incredible given his situation, but Yuzuru absolutely hated silver and she knew it as well.

Later that night, and unlike most of the previous experiences, he called again and Athena had to hold her tears the entire time.

Watching Yuzuru cry was not easy.

All she wanted was to hug him tight and tell him that everything would be okay.

But she couldn't do either, she didn't want to lie to him and couldn't fly all the way to Boston either.

They spoke for hours on that night. Well, Athena spoke and he mostly listened with tears flowing.
The princess knew that this view was as sad as it was privileged, he wouldn't allow most people to see this side and she was thankful that he trusted her enough to do so.

Athena wasn't surprised that he chose to skate at the gala, not when the thought of this being a career-ending injury was so present, but it didn't mean that she worried any less.

His strength and will were something that had always amazed her, but the sheer amount of self-motivation to pull off the incredible and emotional performance at that gala would surprise her for a very long time.

Yuzuru was a warrior in every sense of the word.

He had survived so much and still, he never judged her about her menial and superficial first-world problems of being a royal.

The next weeks were characterized by a complete lack of communication on his part. No matter how hard she tried to talk to him, text or call, the skater refused and ignored her.
Athena was almost fully convinced that he had completely blocked her number by now and it saddened her.

For a while, she tried to live with it. If Yuzuru didn't want to talk to her, she simply had to accept it and move on.

Her days got busier and a few more weeks passed before she even thought about trying again.

Athena's parents made sure her schedule was full and she merely obliged. It helped her keep her head out of him.

Still, it was no secret that in the back of her mind, thoughts of him were constant.
She would be in France visiting a museum and the mere sight of artwork was enough to make her visualize him.

Yuzuru plagued her thoughts constantly and Athena was starting to lose her mind. She had to move on... He did so as well.

None of it meant that she didn't catch up on social media, trying to get at least a glimpse of the Japanese man that filled her every thought.

And boy, it wasn't easy.

The thing about Yuzu is that he was a hermit in everything social media and every crumb of news made the fans go nuts.

Still, the crumbs of that day weren't nice.

Yuzuru had just backed out of every single show he had scheduled for the summer due to injury. They didn't say a thing about when he was returning and it only made her worry more. Maybe the injury was truly as bad as expected, but she wanted to be there for him if that was truly the case.

Somehow, her heart didn't allow her to quit that easily. She wanted to reach out and try again, a tiny spark of hope still hopeful that he hadn't blocked her after all.

It was a blank and hopeless shot, the one she threw by texting the skater again, but it was one that she still did in the end.

'Hey. I hope you're ok...I miss you. Please talk to me... don't make me fly all the way there.' was what she wrote in hopes that he would at least answer her to get the hell out of his life.

Like before, no answer came in the next hours and she promises herself that this was it. No matter how much she cared about him, it was his choice to place the distance between them, even if she tried fighting it.

It didn't hurt any less. It was almost as if she was facing her very first breakup and they weren't even dating.

Athena knew it was bullshit, that it didn't matter that they weren't dating when so many things were left unsaid. She knew how much of a refuge Yuzuru had been for her in the past months and part of her liked to believe that she was a refuge for him too.

They were so utterly different and yet, her life wasn't the same with the daily dose of Yuzu's silly emojis and stickers, without their weekly calls that ranged from serious to pure comedy. The princess was intricately connected to him and it hurt that he could distance himself from her this easily.

She spent the night crying, promising herself that these were the last tears that she was going to shed for him and that was truly the end of the chapter. Athena promised herself that she would stop thinking and caring, that she would stop sketching his face and costumes over and over again as a form of therapy.

That was what he wanted after all. 

Distance.

Her plan worked for the 4 hours of sleep she got on that night, only to be ended with a small reply from the man who ignored her for a whole month.

The two words he used, were as surprising as the reply altogether.

'Please come.'