Endless night {yuri! On ice}

Alexandra

Once Alfie and I had started to skate, we realized we needed a mentor of some kind. That's where Alexandra, or 'Alex,' came in.

We had been attending her ballet classes since we had moved into the area and had finally worked up the nerve to ask her a question of importance.

"Alex, do you know how to ice skate?"
She looked down her nose, beady grey eyes calculating behind her thin glasses.

"No." She had replied, accent cutting through sharp and cold to curl her perfect English.

"Me and Alfie wanna learn how to skate!" I told her, my face lighting up at our idea.

"And what does that have to do with me?" She inquired, raising a penciled eyebrow.

I had frowned at the time, sad about her instant rebuttal. "I thought you'd be the best teacher."

"Fine, I'll coach you both, but I'll need full pay. £50 an hour is the starting rate for now," she said, walking out of the room, silently dismissing us.

I turned to Alfie and turned my small smile into a huge Cheshire grin, leaping about the room in ecstasy.

"We have a coach!! Alfie, we can be like Victor!! Won't that be cool?!" I asked him, my eyes glistening with happiness.

He smiled at me and patted my head. I pouted and flattened it back to normal, scowling at him. He was older by an hour, treating me like I was so much younger than him even though I really wasn't.

It wasn't even a week after that before we started our lessons with Alexandra. First, she would out us through stretches. I had decent base flexibility in my legs, but Alfie didn't. We'd both go home aching.

Next, we would practice form, Alexandra correcting limb placement with surgical precision until even our way of walking had changed.

Afterwards, we would jog down to the ice rink, Alexandra driving ahead in her BMW, shrieking at us if we slowed.

Once we got to the rink, which was usually fairly empty, we would spend at least four hours running through figures and specifics with Alex there to point out mistakes and flaws in posing.

We took breaks for water and snacks routinely, though. It wasn't good to forgo eating and hydrating no matter what we were doing.

She was fierce and terrifying, but we were extremely grateful when all that training, all the hours of back breaking work, were put to good use when we reached the Grand Prix.
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She stood before me, sunglasses on her head and bags at her side. "Nice to see you again."

"Wha-Alexandra, you're here?" I asked, scratching the back of my head sheepishly.

"You wanted me to train you, no?" She asked, foreign accent cutting through her words as per usual. I nodded, half terrified for my own body.

"Fine, but only if you win this competition. Then, and only then, will I train you" she said, folding her arms curtly and turning to Hiroko.

"I would like a room please, if you wouldn't mind," she said politely. She followed Ms. Katsuki up the stairs and left me behind.

I scuttled down the hall shortly after, slipping into my borrowed room. "Yes! Heck yeah!" I shouted, leaping about the room in joy.

I changed clothes quickly, glancing at the clock quickly, before reaching into my bag and grabbing my skates. I ran past a few confused patrons and sprinted towards the rink.

08:29 p.m.

I sped into the rink and sat on a bench, pulling out my notebook and flicking through pages and pages of notes until I came to one specific one.

It read:
Skate routine - vogue
1st step:

That was as far as I got last time I had sat down to work on this. I sighed in disappointment and pulled out my MP3 player, placing my pencil between my teeth as the song played on repeat.

I kept going for a while, listening to the theme of each verse and beginning to scribble sequences along the length of the paper, organized by different points in the song.

I stopped suddenly, pencil poised in midair. This small competition would be the first time I'd ever have skated competitively without Alfie.

I shook my head and kept writing, still listening to the music. Once finished, I sighed and leaned back only to screech,

"What the heck?!"

Yuri filled my vision, face creased with anger. He wore his skates, guards on and had taken off his hoodie. Victor and Yuuri were nowhere to be seen.

"H-How long have you been there?" I asked him, blushing slightly. When I was younger and Yuri was in the junior category, he was my idol.

Sure, I had Victor to look up to, but Yuri had been a year younger than me and amazing everyone.

"What were you doing?" He asked, in perfect English.

"Oh... um... a routine," I mumbled, my face growing even more red.

"Show me," he demanded.

"Right now?" He nodded curtly and practically pushed me onto the ice. He swiped my MP3 player and selected the song I had been working on.

He leant his head against his arms, pulling a leg up in a stretch he made seem so easy.

Alex had killed Alfie and I for a solid month with different exercises just to get us to do half of what he was capable of.

I gulped and started, trying to shake off the little bit of a jitter feeling in my bones. By the time I finished up, I could feel a thin layer of sweat dampening my skin.

Slow clapping was heard from Yuri as he hit his hands together, obviously unimpressed by his blank expression. It stung a little, but that was why I was here to improve.

"Sloppy."

I chuckled, "Nice to see you joined us, Alex."

Bello^^

Argh!! I've got exams in a week and if I had a euro for each time my teachers said "exams in a week" I would have twenty euro! Argh!! Thank you NekoAisu for editing this chapter! ^^

Ja ne

~Charlie-chan