Safe Haven | Yuzuru Hanyu

5.

In the next few days, it was still quite clear that Yuzuru was pissed at her.

They would leave in the early morning and come back hours later.

He would stay at home after practice, she would go out for a run or to the gym. It was very important for Emma to keep her shape impeccable since she considered it to be crucial for her job.

Part of her kinda wished to try the ice again, but that would raise too many questions that she didn't want to answer.

They didn't speak any more than absolutely necessary, with him avoiding her as much as possible and cutting communication as soon as they were inside the house.

His eating habits stayed the same and it only made Emma wonder if he planned on living on pre-made food for the rest of his life.

It was very weird for her that everyone still looked at her weirdly every single time she went to the rink. Emma eventually guessed that it was because Yuzu wasn't one to bring people there, especially those who weren't his close family.

She learned quickly that he was very intense while he was on the ice. Unapproachable when in focus and very determined. His methods of training could probably be studied by other skaters that wanted to improve.

The first time she saw him get the harness she was confused. She had seen him jump pretty much every single quad, even if the flip had a constant incorrect edge. Why would he need the harness if he could already complete the rotations?

It didn't last too long when Emma saw the axel attempt the first time, it amazed her beyond words.

He was trying a quad axel? What?

It didn't even stay at the Quad Axel. It seemed like one of his training methods for the said jump was attempting quints on the harness. It was scary how close he came to land an almost rotated Quint Toe.

This dude is mad, completely crazy.

Not only did he keep attempting crazy jump after crazy jump, but he also made sure to do it constantly for a whole session.
After a few weeks, she understood that he did a whole session of this every week. Emma didn't even want to think of how high the risk of injury was. He didn't seem too worried though.

In one particular session, things quickly went off control.

He seemed particularly on edge, something that his coach Brian had mentioned, but no one seemed to take it into account.

There was this one thing that Emma had gotten to know about.

She knew Yuzuru was always nuts, but he went particularly crazy whenever he was training without his coaches, especially on Axel day.

The girl watched him jump time after time after time and fall over and over again.

Some of the falls made her flinch very hard, even if she knew he did this every week and was used to falling, Emma knew that the ice wasn't a particularly soft surface and it hurt as hell to fall.
She could only imagine how much when he came from such a high rotation speed that the Quad Axel required.

Yuzuru didn't take a single break, just jumping over and over again without any success.

Her mouth kept shut. She had no right or authority to say anything. If he was going to jump without his coaches, that was beyond her control.

After all, her job was to keep him safe from others, not himself.

It was only after about an hour of this that things got bad.

From the moment he stopped, Emma noticed how hard he was breathing.
It was something that in most situations is normal from physical activity, but it looked a bit different from that, especially on someone who suffered from Asthma.

"You should stop for a bit." She found herself saying out loud, earning a glare from him. It was scary, she could see why everyone at Cricket left him alone on these days.

"I'm fine."

But he wasn't fine, not at all.

Emma was going to allow him to do whatever he wanted, but as soon as he started coughing and wheezing she knew she had to act.

"Yuzuru, get out of the ice." Emma ended up ordering, mustering her most authoritative tone that was mostly used for soldiers in training.

"I told you... I'm... Fine."

The shortness of breath told her otherwise.

"You either get out on your own foot and get your inhaler or I will drag you from that ice, it's your fucking choice, superstar."

Yuzuru's eyes widened at her sudden words. He quickly realized that she had searched him up, even if he had expected that but what surprised him more was that she had recognized the attack before he did.

Everyone around them was staring since her words were spoken a bit too loud, but Emma didn't care about that now.

She was hired to protect this guy, she couldn't just let him go on a full-blown asthma attack on ice just because of his stubbornness.

He looked like he was about to argue but decided against it, gliding out of the ice as she watched carefully.

As soon as he was near the edge, she took his almost limp body and helped him get to the nearest bench.

"Where's your inhaler?"

"Bag" he pointed to the carry-on that he had brought.

"You know your breathing exercises?"

He just nodded.

"Do them while I get it. Slowly."

Yuzuru was in the middle of an asthma attack and all he could think of was how well she was dealing with it. Did she have asthma too?

Breathing slowly was helping it all under control, it wasn't a big attack or maybe he had stopped just in time before it got worse.

Emma was quick to be back at his side and handed him his inhaler.
Yuzuru didn't waste much time before quickly doing the well-rehearsed routine of calming his attack down.

She stared at him as if slowly examining his every action.

"I'm fine now."

"You said that before."

"I'm ok. I didn't realize it was an attack before."

"What else would it be?"

Oh, Emma wanted to lecture him so badly. How could he be so stupid after having asthma for so long?

"I always get tired during jump training so I didn't think it was that bad."

"How are your peak flow levels?"

He now stared her down.

"Do you have asthma too?" He asked, very curious as to where her knowledge about the matter came from.

"No."

"Then how did you know how to act?"

Shit, Emma thought, Last thing I need is him finding out that I'm a doctor.

"Family member"

"Ah...ok. Makes sense."

Wait until he finds out that all of your family is dead...

"Yeah"

"The levels have been fine. I might have pushed a bit too far today."

"Just a bit..."

"I forget about my limits sometimes. And I want to land the axel."

"Is that what you've been doing? That jump or whatever you call it?"

"Yes. It's never been done before."

"Is it even possible?"

"I think so. It's just hard."

"Very hard, probably."

"Yes."

"And why are you going for it?"

"Why not?"