This is the story of Ayame, a young artistic gymnast who, due to a stroke of fate, can no longer practise her sport. In search of a new purpose in life, she comes to Sendai from her home town of Sapporo by chance to work in the house of a famous fig...
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Yuzuru was floating on cloud nine. His relationship with Ayame had given him so much strength and new energy that he was able to endure the last few hard weeks before the premiere with an ease that surprised and amazed him. It had been different in previous years and had regularly pushed him to his limits.
But now he completed the strenuous and challenging training without much effort, and skated the choreographies perfectly.
They had already spent part of the time in Saitama so that they could take care of the final arrangements on site. The infrastructure in Saitama was perfect, Yuzuru knew it inside out.
And his team had done a great job! All the performances - especially the premiere on Monday! - were completely sold out. The ticket lottery had worked well again, but there were still long waiting lists for remaining tickets.
All performances would be recorded and two of them streamed live. Everything was timed for this and the preparations ran like clockwork.
The media was full of the good news that Yuzuru Hanyū would soon be premiering his new, breathtaking and emotional ice show entitled "Together : Forever?", on his 32nd birthday.
The press and media tour was exhausting, but Yuzuru took it in his stride. He had several TV appearances and interviews to do, and showed his best side. All the media raved about his strong presence and powerful charisma, even before he had set foot on the ice!
Of course, everyone also wanted to know what had been going on with him, why he hadn't been in the public eye for so long. Yuzuru had been prepared for these questions, of course!
He stuck to the truth, telling them honestly that he had been completely exhausted and had needed a break. The wave of sympathy that followed was enormous, with a veritable flood of positive reactions on all social media. The fans are now supporting him more than ever!
And Ayame? She was always by his side, no matter where he went. They had agreed to put all their personal matters on the back burner, at least until the premiere. So she continued to act as his assistant, and it worked perfectly now!
Despite the professional distance they still had to maintain while working, Yuzuru took Ayame aside whenever he could. He found a corner, a space where they could be alone and undisturbed for a moment.
Then he took her in his arms, kissed her and was so tender with her that her heart regularly skipped a beat! He wanted to be close to her as often as possible to show how much he loved her and how much her support and presence meant to him.
And their bond grew stronger and stronger with each passing day.
Ayame also knew that Yuzuru would eventually ask her, and ask her properly. After all, they hadn't talked about the subject since Yumi's surprise proposal of marriage and their subsequent conversation.
For Ayame, it wasn't even necessary at the moment, because their love was so strong by now that she didn't necessarily need marriage to feel her connection to Yuzuru at all times...
But still, Ayame was a girl, and she too was romantic at her core... She loved the idea of seeing him by her side as her husband. She didn't need to kid herself about that!
But... she knew that he had to take his next big professional step now. Everything else would fall into place at some point...
***
In the week leading up to the premiere, everything came thick and fast. Yuzuru was like a whirlwind, and he was everywhere.
The arena was sensational! The ice surface was perfect, the video walls huge.
Mikiko and he spent hours and hours setting everything up perfectly with the technicians. The sound rehearsals were challenging, but the end result was stunning.
The video material had also turned out great, Yuzuru had invested a lot of time with Masanori and the team. Now everything just had to run flawlessly on the video walls... and: it looked fantastic!
Satomi was also very happy with her work. The last costume rehearsal had only required a few changes, everything was now just right. Yuzuru loved the costumes more and more every time he tried them on, and he thanked Satomi and her whole team for their great work in a little speech.
Then he took her aside for a moment. "Satomi... a word, please. I... thank you for not making a fuss about this incident. You know..."
"Not at all, Yuzuru!" she raised her hand defensively, "I understood what was going on between you two as soon as I saw her reaction."
"You did?!"
"Of course... I see the way you look at her when you think no one's looking..."
"Oh...! You women! You can't be fooled, honestly...", Yuzuru laughed.
Satomi smirked. "I hope you'll be as happy together as you deserve to be, Yuzuru!" she kissed him on the cheek.
"I thank you! We'll do our best!"
"I'm convinced of that!" said Satomi, turning to Ayame, who was standing not far away. The two women nodded to each other with a smile.
***
Ayame and Yuzuru were in their hotel room high above Saitama, snuggled up together on the couch. They were loving every moment of their precious time together.
Yuzuru stroked small circles on her arm. "Soon it will be time, Aya, my flower..." he whispered in her ear. She lay on his chest, she loved this so much.
"Yes, my heart. And you've been so great these last few days! Your strength and energy infects everyone around you, everyone is doing their absolute best! It's so nice to see that, especially when I think about how you were when we first met..." she fell into thought for a moment.
"It feels like a very, very long time ago!" said Yuzuru. "I try not to think too much about that difficult time. But, stop! I think about the fact that you came into my life back then! If anything good came out of that crisis, than it's us!" He kissed her hair and hugged her to him.
"It's just wonderful that you see it that way. I feel exactly the same," she sighed. "And at the same time, you've shown me a path that I'm going to take. By your side, and in a new profession!"
"An eventful time indeed, for both of us!" Yuzuru grinned.
"Yes, you can say that without exaggeration," Ayame agreed.
Everything seemed to be coming together naturally.
And there were only a few days left until the premiere...
