Stand by me

Parties Are For Losers

We waited in the little coffee shop for a while until Chris and Pichit's flight landed. They came through the gate laughing at something on their phones.

"Hey guys, how are you?" I asked,

"Great, you?" Pichit hugged me with his free arm and kept laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked,

"Look what Otabek posted on Instagram!" He waved his phone in my face, Otabek had posted a picture of Yurio sound asleep with his cat laying on his chest pawing at his face. The caption read "Parties are for losers - Yuri".

I burst out laughing and Viktor started trying to get to Pichit's phone. I can't believe Otabek actually posted that. Yurio's gonna be furious. It's like when Mari posted those pictures of him with all those cats on a park bench.

"He's gonna hate him."

"Yurio won't stay mad at him for too long." Chris chimed in,

"How do you know?" Pichit asked,

"Oh, he loves him too much to stay mad. You can tell. It's like these two, so obvious." He pointed at me and Viktor and I could feel my face going red.

"No, no! We're not like that at all, we're just friends that's all!" I waved my hands to try and get him to shut up.

"Aww, Yuuri we're just friends?"

"Yes Viktor, just friends! It's not like there's something going on between us! We're just friends!" My hand waving got more persistent and that just made the others laugh. "Ugh, let's just go!"

Chris and Viktor wanted to catch up so they sat in the back while Pichit and me sat up front. The rain had cleared up a bit so by the time we got back people were starting to arrive at the hot spring. There were a couple of fans there so we took some pictures and signed autographs before going through to get food. Viktor wasn't very happy when me and Pichit both got pork cutlet bowls.

After we ate we took the guys to their hotel and told them about the changes to our party plans. Turns out they were staying at the same one as JJ and Mila. We ran into them in the lobby and Mila was incredibly happy about the picture of Yurio. By the time me and Viktor got back to the hot spring it was the busiest time of the day so me and Viktor went up to the rink. There was no one there so Yuuko let us skate in peace. We didn't have anything particular in mind, we just skated. After about twenty minutes we ended up doing a freestyle duet with some music playing on his phone.

"You know, I was thinking of choreographing a duet program for us to this." He said,

"It sounds familiar, what is it?"

"It's the Sleeping Beauty Waltz, by Tchaikovsky." He smiled as the violins picked up along with the flutes and he lifted me. He seemed to know exactly how to dance along with the music, like it was part of him.

"That sounds like fun." I said, "who'd play who?"

"Well, we should always try to surprise people but I thought we could typecast this one."

"So?"

"Well, you'd be the beauty because of your sensitive nature-"

"And you'd be the prince because you saved me."

"What?"

"Before the last Grand Prix, I was ready to give up on skating. You brought back that love I had. You saved me." He blushed slightly and I smiled at him, "thank you Viktor."

The music faded quickly and moved on to a more dramatic piece.

"What's this one called?"

"Tam O Shanter. Have you heard it?"

"No, never."

"It's about a Scottish poem. A drunk man is riding home on his horse on Halloween night and shouts at some ghosts having a party at a church. He gets away but his horse loses her tail."

"Oh, kinda sad, don't you think?"

"Hm, I guess. Oh! Give me a second." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started skipping through songs. Eventually he settled on another classical piece that I recognised instantly.

"The theme from Swan Lake!"

"One of my favourite pieces to skate to."

We start to try and recreate parts from the ballet and laugh when the other forgets a step.

"We're terrible at this!" I laughed,

"You're the one forgetting most of the steps!"

"At least I haven't almost tripped over my skates." I really shouldn't have said that. I wasn't paying attention to where I was putting my feet and lo and behold, I tripped. Tumbling headfirst, I slammed right into the ice and off the wall.

"Yuuri!" Viktor rushed over to me and crouched down.

"Are you ok? You're bleeding, what hurts?" He pulled me up onto his lap and started dabbing away at the blood on my face with his sleeve.

"Don't, you'll ruin your sweater."

"The last thing I'm worried about is my sweater. I'm going to help you up and we're going to go find Yuuko." He says,

"Ok."

He helped me up and I felt a sharp pain in my leg.

"Oh, you can't stand."

"Viktor it's fine."

"No, it's not. I'll carry you."

"Viktor." Before I could say anything else he swung my legs up and carried me off the ice. He's weirdly strong for someone of his build. He sat me down on a bench, took off his skates and sheathed mine before taking me out to the front desk.

"Yuuri!" Yuuko came round to the front of the desk and started hovering around me and Viktor. "What happened? Why are you bleeding?" She asked,

"I tripped on the ice and smashed into the wall."

"He's hurt his leg." Viktor's grip on me tightened.

"Did you twist it or is it broken?"

"I don't know."

"I think we should take him to the hospital" Viktor's voice had gotten increasingly worried, I don't think I've ever heard him like that, he didn't even sound like this last night.

"I'll drive." Yuuko grabbed her keys from behind the counter and shouted on Takeshi to watch the front desk.

"You guys don't need to make a fuss, I'm fine." I say,

"Shut up." Viktor started following Yuuko out to the parking lot. He sat in the back seat with me and laid me down with my head in his lap.

"You really don't need to do this."

"Stop saying that. What if you've broken something? What'll you say then?" Yuuko glanced at us through the rearview mirror,

"She's right Yuuri, it's bad enough that your nose is still bleeding." Viktor started dabbing at my face again, the sleeve of his navy blue sweater now a brownish-purple. I gave up trying to stop their worrying and stared up at the grey felt of the ceiling.