Lost and out of sight

VII

VII

Mikaela got silver at Skate America. She still had Viktor's question on her mind. She hadn't answered it. She had just asked them to leave so she could get ready. And throughout the day, he hadn't asked her that question again.

And now, a few days later, she and the two boys were in China for Yuuri's turn at the Grand Prix Series. Mikaela had agreed to join them, but they knew she'd also be cheering for Christophe, as he was a good friend of hers. Mikaela watched, smiling softly as she heard Pichit say that he couldn't have refrained himself from posting that picture of Yuuri and a half-naked Viktor. That did make her regret to not have come to the hot pot place with them.

Yuuri seemed to inwardly panic, so Mikaela just turned to Guang-Hong, Pichit and Leo, to chat with them, as she then suddenly heard Yuuri 'squeal' behind her. That's when she heard a familiar voice say "Yuuri, why didn't you invite me?"

"Chris..." Yuuri said. Mikaela turned and smiled brightly as she noticed the blonde. "Looks like you've gotten into shape. Guess your master's given you very thorough training." At that comment, Mikaela snorted and hid her mouth behind her hands to hold herself back from laughing. To that, she earned a raised eyebrow from Christophe.

"Chris! How's it going?" Viktor asked as he joined the group. Mikaela still had to recover from her laughing attack. "I'm not motivated without you." Christophe said and took a look at the ID card hanging around Viktor's neck, showing that he's a coach. "You're always like that at the start of a season." Viktor simply replied.

"Viktor! Chris is right. He can't get serious without you." Chris' coach suddenly butted into the conversation. "D'you hear that Vicchan? Poor Chrissy can't get serious without you." Mikaela pointed out, still holding back her laughter. She knew Chris'd attack her any second now.

As two girls from team Russia then called for Viktor — also distracting Mikaela for a short amount of time — Chris decided to strike and took Mikaela in a headlock, ruffling her hair with his fist. "O-Oi, Chris! Stop it!" Mikaela called, trying to free herself from the elder males grip. He just laughed and said "No way in hell."

After a while he then voluntarily gave up, to her relief. Mikaela then ran a hand through her hair to smoothen out the curls a bit. "You should let your hair grow out." Someone all of a sudden said beside her, who she then recognized as Viktor. "What?" She asked, although she got what he had said.

"You should let your hair grow out longer. The curls suit you." Viktor smiled gently and brushed a strand of her blonde curls out of her face. A small blush found its way onto her cheeks and she quickly looked away.

"Mikaaaaaa!" She then was nearly tackled to the floor by someone who jumped at her from behind. "I thought you're skating at Rostlecom?" The voice then said, as their arms were wrapped around her tightly and their cheek snuggled into her head. Why was every female competitor taller than her?

"Nice to see you too Kristjana." Mikaela said with a small smile as named woman still continued to rub her cheek into Mikaelas hair. "And I'm here to support Yuuri. You met him at Skate America, remember? He came to support me so I came to support him, too." Finally, the honey blonde haired woman stopped to rub her face in Mikaelas curls and stepped beside her, her arms still wrapped around the slightly shorter female.

"Ah, Yuuri! The cute little piggy!" Kristjana said, smiling brightly at Yuuri, who immediately blushed and looked away in embarrassment. "Kris, come on, don't embarrass him." Mikaela said, to which the other female simply replied "I really love your curls, Mika." "Everybody seems to love my curls." "Well, they're cute, so why wouldn't they?"

The blonde sighed and then said nothing in response.

-

The next day came by and Mikaela spent half of it in town with Kristjana and Kristjana's little sister Hana, until Kristjana had to go back to the ice rink to skate her free program. Out of all her rivals, Mikaela got along with Kristjana the best. She liked their friendship. Kristjana was a sweet person.

Mikaela sat somewhere, hearing the music blast from the rink. It was Yuuri's turn soon. Mikaela sighed and leaned back in her seat. She felt demotivated again, like nearly always. She hadn't answered Viktor's question because she was scared of what he would do. It was true, she had suffer from depression. And in fact, she still did.

She didn't go to therapy for this. Skating was her medicine against this depression, as well as her friends. She decided then to get up and slowly head back to the rink, when she heard someone call "You're Mikaela, right?"

When Mikaela looked into the direction where the voice came from, she couldn't believe her eyes. There stood her idol, Ashley Wagner, a polite smile on her lips. Mikaela at first didn't know what to say, until she finally found her voice "Y-Yeah, that's me!" She couldn't believe it. Ashley actually recognized her! At Skate America she was paired up with Ashley, but there her idol hadn't once approached her except to congratulate shortly.

"You did a great job at Skate America." Ashley said with a smile directed towards the blonde. Quickly Mikaela bowed — out of habit — and said "Thank you very much!" She heard the other woman chuckle and quickly stood straight again, blushing awkwardly "I-I'm sorry, it's just a habit." "It's totally fine Mikaela. You'll be watching later, I hope?" Ashley asked.

Quickly the blonde nodded her head and smiled at the other "Of course I will! You're my inspiration!" Okay, she didn't really mean to say the last part, but Ashley took it with a laugh "Why thank you, I have to say though, it should be me looking up to you. You're a great skater. I hope I'll see you at the Grand Prix Finals."

And with that said, Ashley Wagner left Mikaela behind, heading to wherever she needed to go.

Still in slight trance, Mikaela then slowly headed towards the rink to go and watch Yuuri skate. Although she didn't quite get there, as a call made her stop. Mikaela took her phone out of her pocket and answered "Lewis."

"Hey hey hey! It's your best friend, Marie! How's it going?" Her best friend said from the other end of the line and Mikaela couldn't help but smile "Hey Marie, how are you? I'm good, by the way." "I'm fantastic. Just watching the free programs. That Russian guy, Georgi? In his short he reminded me of Nico from Tokyo Ghoul." Marie stated, to which Mikaela had to laugh.

She also was a part-time otaku, if you could call it that, and her current obsessions were Tokyo Ghoul and Haikyuu. She would secretly obsess over those with Marie. And since the episodes were out earlier in Japan than anywhere else, she'd always be first before Marie to watch those.

"Yuuri is about to start. How's he doing?" Marie asked, to which Mikaela sighed "I hope he's okay...he's been extremely nervous throughout the day, from what I've heard of Viktor. Oh and, by the way, I just met Ashley Wagner." "You already met her at Skate America, didn't you?" "Yeah, but this time, she approached me by herself and talked to me!"

The two best friends began to squeal in joy. "What did she say?" "She congratulated me, asked if I'm watching her skate later and she also told me that she should be the one looking up to me, after I accidentally told her that I'm totally looking up to her." Mikaela explained, to which she heard Marie squeal in happiness for her again.

"Hey, Marie, I've got to go now. I can't miss Yuri's whole routine." Mikaela quickly excused herself and after short goodbyes, she hung up and shoved her phone back into the pocket of her jacket, after turning it on silent, before heading to the rink to watch at least a part of Yuri's free program. For the full one she was already too late, as his music was already running loudly.

Mikaela entered the rink and stood beside Christophe, watching Yuri skate to the song he called Yuri on Ice. A friend of his supposedly had composed the song for him and the way he skated fitted perfectly to the song. She couldn't see Viktor's face, but from certain hand movements, she tried to read his expression.

Yuri's last quad was also a flip, although he over rotated that one. But the flip hadn't been planned, everyone had expected something else, so that was quite a shocker. But Viktor seemed a little happy that Yuri made the quad flip.

When the black haired male then ended his performance, Viktor began to run over to the kiss and cry to meet Yuri, who then also skated towards Viktor, hoping Viktor was happy with his performance.

But what Mikaela then saw, did surely not surprise only her. It definitely surprised everyone watching — it just had to. And the thing that should surprise everyone, was Viktor kissing Yuuri.

And just in that moment something broke inside of her. Her heart.