Icy Highness | Yuzuru Hanyu

23.

Yuzuru was alone at home when the doorbell rang. His mom was out doing the groceries and he was in no disposition to open the door.

He wanted to ignore it so badly and mop on the couch like he has been doing for so long.

His hair was longer than he usually had it and quite disheveled. Yuzu was wearing the loosest of t-shirts and sweatpants. Let's just say that he couldn't be bothered to care about what he looked like when no one saw him.

At first, he did ignore it. They usually didn't have guests so this was probably something that wasn't important.

When he noticed the insistence, he figured he had to open it, at least if he didn't want to be nagged by his mom later.

It took him a while to get to the door, after all, he still couldn't place his foot on the ground, and dragging himself across the room took time.

Once he finally reached his destination, nothing could have prepared him for the sight of the woman that was constantly on his mind. Athena was there. Right in front of his eyes just like he had asked her the previous week.

"Athena?" He called out, still incredulous to see her right in front of his eyes.

"Hey..."

All of the conversations were immediately cut by his arms wrapping around her body.

"I missed you" he said with teary eyes "I can't believe you're here. I can't believe you came."

"It looked like you needed me, even if you ignored me for a whole month."

Athena had to say it, it was lingering in her head for ages now and she needed answers.

"I'm sorry. I swear I had my reasons."

"Good thing you have plenty of time to explain."

Yuzuru looked guilty. It seemed like he was walking on eggshells with her, afraid that any word would make the girl disappear again.

"Yeah... Please come in."

Athena looked up and down at him while he jumped on one foot through the room.

"You're alone?" She asked as she saw him slump on the couch.

"Yeah, Mom went shopping for groceries."

"Don't you have crutches or something?"

"They're in the bedroom."

"Hum."

The awkwardness was as heavy as ever, even bigger than when they first met.
It was just that on top of his actions, they had never been like this after they became close.

Their relationship was mostly virtual and it was just a bit hard to make it happen as naturally as it did through the screen.

Athena was still awkwardly standing in front of the couch, the image too disturbing for him.

"Please sit." He begged of her, he couldn't possibly see her standing like that without saying anything.

She did so slowly, trying to grasp her surroundings. It was easy to tell that the house was nicely decorated with all sorts of oriental ornaments, a clear influence of a woman's touch, an attempt to make it a bit more Japanese.

"Yuzu..."

"I'm so sorry..."

"It's ok."

"It's not... I was not nice to you."

"Will you tell me why?"

"I'm not...huh...nice to be around when I have to be out of the ice."

"And you thought that distance was the right call?"