Deep Edges | Yuzuru Hanyu

Epilogue

A few months later...

Izumi was trembling behind the dark curtains that gave access to the ice.

She still couldn't believe that she had said yes to this complete madness but it wasn't the first time that she had been completely unable to say no to that man.

Looking at her hand and the ring resting on her finger, Izumi found herself thinking of how she had dodged a bullet with her ex-fiance. Akito had made a few headlines just a couple of months after they broke up because he apparently had gotten a minor pregnant. 

As much as the whole thing should have been a nationwide scandal, the idiot had managed to keep the whole thing under wraps on the tabloids. Something that everyone could explain easily.

Now, after getting engaged to someone else entirely different, she couldn't be happier. Yuzu had proposed on one of their nights at the rink and she teased him a bit before saying the obvious yes. To this day, he still speaks about it with an indignant face.

It had been a while since he convinced her to do this, to skate in public again in one of his shows and get back to skating as something more than a hobby.

They had worked in her program for the last months together. Yuzuru was such a natural in choreography that she had a feeling that his future would probably involve plenty of it. Those nights on the ice were effortless, even if filled with distractions and small intermissions every now and then.

The buzzing crowd made her legs shake.

Yuzuru was out there skating and you could hear it every time he jumped or did something cooler. Another sold-out solo show, except that this once, Izumi had stepped in to give him a small break in between.

She was nervous, it was completely inevitable.

Those people weren't expecting her, they probably didn't even want to see her skate but the reality was that Yuzuru couldn't care less. He wanted her on that ice.

Izumi's legs were shaking when she realized that Yuzu had finished his program.

They had rehearsed this time and time again. How he would take a microphone and talk a little bit, eventually announcing and introducing her on the ice.

Everything seemed like a blur from the moment she first heard his gentle voice. Yuzu sounded nervous as well as he talked a bit with the people watching and spoke of different experiences of his competitive life.

When he eventually started talking about a special guest, the buzz only seemed to increase. She understood that he spoke briefly about her achievements but everything else was blacked out of her mind as she focused on her performance.

Izumi stared at her shaking legs and the skates on her feet, her glittery dress shined even in the darkness of the backstage and so did her eyes.

A member of the staff smiled at her reassuringly. It seemed like everyone around could tell how nervous she was and was trying to make it better. Yuzu really did have the best people around him. It was no wonder that everything went so well in every show.

Her mind drifted back to his voice, Yuzu was rambling adorably about how much he loved her skating and wanted them to see it as well. 

Eventually, he did stop and finally announced her. The curtain in front of her opened and Izumi quickly discarded her protective guards before hugging Yuzu, who was waiting for her on the other side.

"Ganbatte, my love. I can't wait to see you."

It really was just like that. She would be skating for him just as she had done so many times before. The one difference was how many more people were watching at that time.

Truthfully, the number didn't matter because it didn't change a thing about how she did it. 

When the music eventually started, the motions that she had practiced so many times just came naturally. It seemed like all of her fears were unfounded as she allowed her body to take over and ignore the big crowd around her.

If anything, the claps and cheers that came with her jumps were a mere sign that maybe no one minded their presence. Maybe they really enjoyed watching her, even if they came there for her fiance.

Izumi eventually realized that she still loved it. Skating had been her life for so long that it was hard to explain the change that seemed to happen on that day. It was no longer about scores, no longer about the difficult paths that took her to the Olympic Medal or the Super Slam.

She was completely in a world of her own on that ice, nothing around mattered but the music and Yuzu's eyes on her. Because yes, he was right there at the edge of the rink, Yuzuru had made sure she knew he was there and watching her every move.

And when the song came to an end and everything else seemed to slowly go back to reality, she realized how many cheers those people gave her.

One look into his eyes and she knew that he had realized it too.

Izumi enjoyed those short minutes. Yuzu would probably be able to convince her to do it again and now, more than anything, she wouldn't be able to refuse him.

The truth was that by his side, Izumi always believed everything to be possible, whether that was her degree or anything related to the sport they shared, Yuzu was her home.

Whenever, Wherever, Forever.