Deep Edges | Yuzuru Hanyu

19.

The news were unexpected, leaving her mouth agape and she had barely realized the crazy reaction her body had until she felt her heartbeat increasing in anticipation.

"Yuzuru?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"His home rink will be under maintenance, they are changing part of the coolers to make the building more sustainable to maintain. He asked me if he could come here and I couldn't deny."

The crazy amount of information being placed in her brain was a bit too much to process. It was one thing to face the man in a competition, it was something else completely different to see him every day.

"Hum... yeah... I guess it makes sense."

"He wanted to practice at night but I figured that having him here during your hours could be good for you as well."

Izumi effectively glared at her coach.

There was no way he was telling her that he had invited Hanyu to train at the same time that she did. Why did Tsuzuki-sensei even think that would help? 

If anything, her usual conflicting thoughts about the man would only come back stronger and distract her from focusing on the important part of her training.

And well, she was just coming back from an injury and needed all the focus she could get.

Her coach didn't cave, going as far as telling her that the Olympic Champion had been very useful in the past, guiding him on the things that she needed to improve and the things she could have done differently.

It was only then that she fully realized that the men had been talking about her and from the looks of it, quite often.

The suspicions about her coach's attempts to set her up with Hanyu only increased but it wasn't as if she could do anything about it. Tsuzuki-sensei was the only one who could make decisions in regards to the use of the rink and it wasn't as if she was paying for exclusivity.

Even if she was, there was no doubt that Yuzuru had far more money than she could even think about.

A single nod was all the answer that the coach needed before he sent her home.

Well, it's safe to say that she had plenty to think about.

🩵

Yuzuru still barely believed he had asked Tsuzuki-sensei to train there.

The whole thing had been so impromptu that he barely knew how to react when he said yes so easily.

It was a solution, of course, but part of Yuzu's brain knew that the decision wasn't entirely innocent.

He tried to ignore the little tinge of pressure in his heart in the past months. Unlike any other time before, he found himself often thinking about a certain younger skater who had captured his attention at NHK.

Yuzuru wasn't at all used to getting attached to a woman and even the smallest hint of affection would make him go away and never return. All he wanted was peace and quiet in his life.

The thing was that more often than not, you are taught that nothing is as easy as it seemed.

His brain had constant images of her flowing on it and it wasn't even just her skating. Her smiling, excited face was a recurrent picture in his mind as he realized that he missed her in more ways than he could have ever expected.

Not only that, the whole thing had been a nightmare to his body again.

It was no secret that he had gotten a bit overly excited as he saw her free program but it was a very well-kept secret that he hadn't managed to get intimate with any other girl without images of her constantly popping up.

He felt guilty every single time but while he tried to come up with all sorts of solutions, nothing seemed to be working.

Well, now he was about to see her again and from the looks of it, train by her side. The thoughts he had before as she skated filled his mind, his questions about how she was outside of the glam and glitter seemingly being very close to being answered.

Truthfully, Yuzuru only hoped that he wouldn't be a distraction to her. He could handle everything that they wanted to throw at him, but he wanted her to be immune to the chaos and confusion that the sport could bring. Even if she was constantly a distraction for him, that didn't mean he wanted to have the same effect for her.

It was only when he spoke with his old coach that Yuzuru realized that the girl had injured herself in the last month and would be missing yet another competition.

He was instantly reminded of his competitive times and how frustrated he always was when he had to be out of the ice.

Now, as she would be slowly coming back, Yuzu had some tiny little hopes that she would allow him to help, even if it meant abdicating part of his training.

Whatever the whole situation would bring, there was one thing that he knew was certain.

His self-control was about to be tested to the limit and there was nothing he could do to get away from it. 

Maybe it was time to finally let go and allow things to happen naturally in his life.

But would he be ready for all the implications that it could bring?