Deep Edges | Yuzuru Hanyu

64.

The very first thing that she thought that next morning was how good it felt to be in his arms.

Yuzuru was still sleeping peacefully by her side and the last thing Izumi wanted was to wake him up. He looked peaceful.

He was holding her tight against his chest, even in his sleepy state and that was something that just made her smile.

It had been way too long since they had the chance to be like this after spending the night together.

There was even a chance that it wasn't morning anymore. They had been at it for so long that she lost count of the hours. All Izumi knew was that when she woke up, the sun was shining brightly outside of the room.

No worries, no pressure, and no faked emotions was what made that day so good, even before he woke up. It was easy to wish for this every day, to feel him close and carefree, to know that there was no one there to judge your actions or who you were with.

When he did eventually wake up, a smile was instantly on his face as he noticed that he hadn't dreamed of the previous night.

"Good morning."

"Hey."

He pecked her lips just before bringing her even closer, almost fully on top of him.

Yuzuru wanted her close as well.

"I know we can't have this every day now, but I'll hold on to the memory for when we can." he admitted

"I love you." she said as easily as ever. There were no doubts in her mind about her feelings for this man now.

"I love you too."

"We should get out of bed, though." she eventually told him with reluctance.

"Should we?"

"I'm hungry, you tired me out."

"We can just order." he said with a smirk that she knew well.

"Fine, but can we go downstairs for dinner, at least? Or you will keep me locked in your room for the next days?"

"As enticing as that is, you do have to perform at the gala."

The whole mood of those moments was so light that it only reminded Izumi of what she was losing by keeping him away.

In the end, they ended up going according to the initial plan, spending the rest of the afternoon catching up with what happened when they were apart.

They could easily talk for hours and hours without getting bored. The relationship was at a level that was easy to get lost in one another in the most random of things. At the same time, it never felt tiring or consuming. The contrast with what Izumi had experienced so many times with her fiance was more than enough to realize how special it all was.

Having dinner together at the hotel's restaurant was nice as well, even with more eyes on them.

Their friendship was public knowledge and even pointed as a reason for Yuzuru to deny being on the tech panels for the women's competition so no one found it that odd to see them having a friendly dinner at the hotel.

Well, no one except the one person who knew them better.

Tsuzuki-sensei wasn't a man that you could easily fool and all of that was shown when he caught them together on that evening.

They weren't even in the restaurant anymore, which turned out to be even worse.

It was in the elevator, the damned closed space that Izumi and Yuzu had entered by themselves that gave them all away.

The whole thing wasn't even dead obvious. The reality was that they were just talking, hand in hand, as they waited for their floor to be reached.

When the elevator stopped for someone else to enter, none of them bothered to distance themselves from one another. At least not until they realized that it was the old coach entering.

One single look at them and their entangled hands was all he needed to give them a knowing look.

"What does the Engineer think of this?" Tsuzuki-sensei asked with a smile as the door closed behind him. " No... allow me to guess, he doesn't know."

Izumi was about to answer when Yuzuru did it for her.

"He doesn't and he won't."

"Good."

The skaters were both a bit skeptical, but truly, it wasn't that bit of a surprise that the coach didn't care. Tsuzuki never liked Akito in the first place.

"That's all you will say?" Yuzuru tried, knowing the old man well enough.

"What do you want me to say? I think you both know by now that I approve of you being together"

"Just like that?" Izumi tried.

"I do have to say that doing it the way you're doing is stupid as hell. You can literally just break off the engagement and not hide."

"It's not that simple."

"What? Because of the tabloids and his family? Izumi, dear, they will always write things when they can. It's not because you have proof of his several female companions that will make it any different."

"Wait... how...?"

"You should know by now that I know everything."

Yuzuru chuckled and brought her even closer to him.

"Some things never do change."

"I do agree with waiting until the Olympics, though, but purely because I don't need to deal with media interviews and madness about you dating Yuzuru."

"You think he would say it to the media?"

"Why wouldn't he? The fact that you love each other is your biggest strength and weakness at the same time and that man knows it as well, unless he is dumb as a door."

"Yeah."

"But then again, what's just a couple of months more when you avoided each other for 2 years?"