Icy Highness | Yuzuru Hanyu

45.

Athena had a total of an hour of lecture for being rude to her cousins during the Tea gathering.

The worst of it all was that as her mother lectured her, there were now remorses on her brain.

The princess was aware that hate and mean comments were never the right way to deal with problems, but she wasn't the one who started it all.

She just nodded as her mother talked over and over again, the older woman seemingly unaware that no words stayed in her mind as she spoke.

If the years of being a princess taught her anything was the ability to space out when the conversation didn't interest her one bit. This was a mechanism of survival that she had developed through years of social events and galas with boring conversations.

Once the Queen was finally satisfied with the conversation, she left Athena's room without any more words and the girl just shrugged.

Her mother never liked her anyway.

Athena knew very well that she was the unwanted younger child for her mother since the woman never failed to show her how that was, but it still hurt every time she was treated differently than her siblings.

Maybe being the only girl could be the reason for the difference, but Athena was always very aware that her brothers never had to endure half the shit that she did.

The princess found herself frustrated, she wanted to talk to him and confide her deepest thoughts like she had done in the past.

Athena knew she couldn't. Her phone was being monitored, her every step watched. One wrong move and her mother would ruin everything.

She was now even more limited than before starting her royal duties. Her mother had bodyguards following her even inside the palace and reporting back everything that she did in her room.

The princess joked with Joanna that she couldn't even masturbate without her mother knowing and both girls enjoyed a decent laughing session after it.

Making sure she was on her best behavior was the only way her mom could drop her guard. It meant that even watching Yuzuru's competitions had to be done in secret, using a second phone that she secretly bought on one of her last trips.

It had been a challenge, dodging her bodyguards was almost impossible and Athena ended up begging Joanna for help. Her dear friend was her only hope to have a tiny bit of privacy.

Thankfully, Jo was the one person she could still trust in that palace. The other girl successfully got her a device that was the exact same model as the phone that her family was carefully controlling, allowing the princess to change between them as needed.

Athena didn't take any chances. As she watched him skate for the first time since the World Championships months prior. It was his first GP assignment of the season and it was in Moscow, making the schedule food enough for her to watch without being too suspicious.

On the other phone, she played random YouTube videos so no one would find out that she was using a different phone.

Seeing him on the screen felt too good. He looked well and skated beautifully as always. Watching him skate again was very special for her. Athena would always support him, even if she has broken his heart.

Seimei was just as she remembered, even if he made a few changes to the layout, Athena felt like it was the perfect program for the Olympics and it was the epitome of his skating. That was a program that only Yuzu could pull off well and she has a feeling it could be enough to win the Olympics again, even if he didn't win in Russia at that particular time.

The princess would be lying if she said that seeing him smile wasn't hard. She loved to be the one putting that smile on his face and she would probably never have a chance to do it again.

Still, deep down as she watched him, it wasn't hard to tell that something was missing, that the smile and laughter on his face didn't come as easy as before. Part of her wanted to think that was because of her, as selfish as it was.

Athena wanted the reassurance that she wasn't the only one crumbling without his presence, even if that meant admitting that she hurt him.

She kept her distance, even if her brain begged to hear his cute accent again, her heart begged to feel his love and her body craved his touch.

It was undeniable that no man could ever replace him and it wasn't by lack of attempts from her mother.

Whether it was on galas, social events, or official dates, Athena had been introduced to more than a dozen men in mere 3 months, all of them as boring as expected.

The princess could have sworn that if she had to listen to any more conversations about soccer, golf, or cricket, her mind would eventually explode. There was so much avoiding and ignoring that her mind could endure.

These men didn't even try to get to know her. Not surprisingly they were all so egocentric that as soon as the opportunity presented itself, they would speak about themselves for hours.

If anything, all of these supposed dates only made her miss Yuzuru and his quirky personality even more.

But there was no one like him.

During the last date, Athena had made the mistake of actually doing some effort and dressing up, only for the idiot to complain about her mini-skirt by the end of the night.

"Today was lovely, but for future reference, I expect you to cover up a bit more in our next meeting" the man had said as they left the fancy restaurant.

Safe to say that Athena made sure there wouldn't be a next meeting.

Just to think that she could have been watching Yuzuru's NHK practice session instead of putting up with the jerk.

As she arrived back at the palace, that was exactly what she planned to do.

Athena couldn't help but open social media to get a sneak peek of how it went.

Let's just say that regret consumed her immediately.

Countless posts only reported one thing and one thing only.

Yuzuru injured himself.

At first, the princess had hopes that it wasn't as dramatic as everyone seemed to out it. Yuzu was injured most of the time, it was part of his reality in the sport.

It didn't take too long until she saw the reports that he had withdrawn from the competition.

Athena's worries were then on fire. November... It was too close to the Olympics. What if it was serious? Would he even recover on time?

Most of all, she couldn't help but wonder how he was feeling.
Yuzuru was a pain when he was injured and she knew this well. If the experience of when they first started seeing each other taught her anything was that he needed someone to pull him from his negative thoughts.

Maybe her instincts spoke too loud but she was too quick to take a number that she knew by heart and send a quick text before any regrets settled.

'Are you okay?'