A Crack in the Ice

Chapter 8

The next day, I was waiting for Sarah to take the ice for her free skate, and she was scheduled to do so at noon, and it was two minutes before the top of the hour. I was about to lean against a wall so I could watch the program, as I already had my headphones in, and had everything set up, but someone suddenly poked my shoulder.
I turned around, and found Sarah's friend, Elyse, standing behind me.
"...what do you want," I said with a groan.
Elyse sighed. "What? Am I not allowed to just, like, drop by and say hi?"
"...sorry," I grumbled under my breath.
Elyse shook her head. "It's fine. Anyways, I'm gonna go watch from another spot. I guess I'll see you after her performance?"
I nodded. "Sounds good to me."
With a nod, she walked off.

"And now, coming onto the ice, we have Sarah Calian, who is currently in first place with a score of 62.42 after her short program," the announcer said.
I looked up, and sure enough, Sarah was skating onto the ice.
"Continuing on with her theme of Recovery, Sarah's free skate program is done to a song called On Top of the World. Her jumps are spread pretty evenly through the program, so let's see what she has in store for us," he said.
The music then started to play, and Sarah stayed put until her first cue came, and it was a flawless start.
"Her first planned jump in this program is a triple toe loop-double salchow combination. ...and here she goes, triple toe loop....followed by a double salchow! A perfectly executed sequence!"
I clenched my fist.  "That's it. You've got this gold medal in the bag, Sarah."

Her free skate continued on, and her only flub was that she touched her hand to the ice after her triple axle-double salchow-triple flip combo, which greatly annoyed me, as we specifically spent time on it, as it was basically her signature move.
"...and up next, we have a double lutz, closely followed by a quadruple toe loop."
I bit my lip as she went to go in for the double lutz. I didn't think she had enough speed built up, but I was proven wrong when she landed  perfectly.
"Another perfect jump from Sarah," the announcer said. "But up next, she has the quadruple toe loop."
As I watched her go in for the jump, my fists were clenched. It was an understatement to say that I was nervous. What worried me the most was how she was going to take off.
Sarah then went in for the jump, and as she took off, my heart nearly skipped a beat as she was closer to the middle of the the blade, and just as I had feared, she tumbled to the ice.
"...blyad'," I mumbled under my breath.
"It looks like she messed up her quadruple toe loop, which will result in a one point deduction, but she did get enough rotation in."
I grit my teeth, and continued watching her performance.

Everything else was done flawlessly, and by the time she was getting to her ending pose, I could see that her face was all red. She must've pushed herself real hard after flubbing her quadruple toe loop.
I then went over to the kiss and cry, and waited for her.
Once she got over to me, she threw herself in my arms, and began to cry. "Y-Yurio...I didn't do good..." she mumbled into my shoulder.
I rubbed her shoulder, and then made her look at me. "Sarah. Listen to me. You did the best that you could. There's nothing more that I could've ever asked for."
She sniffed, and wiped some tears from her eyes. "Y-You do have a point..."
We then snapped our attention to the screen in the middle of the rink as a voice began to talk. "And the score for Sarah Calian's free skate is...122.72."
She let out a shaky sigh. "I-I did good...Th-that puts me back in first with a score of 185.14," she said with a slight smile.
I nodded and rubbed her back. "That was great. If you hadn't flubbed those two jumps, it would've been a 124.72, but that's besides the point. I'm proud of how you did," I said with a smile.
She nodded, and gave me a hug. "Th-thank you Yurio,"
"Not a problem, little princess," I said before placing a quick kiss on her forehead before moving from the kiss and cry.

Viktor then came over to us. "Sarah! That...I don't even know where to start," he said, shaking his head. "That was a great performance, but you-"
I cut him off as I stood up, basically shielding Sarah from Viktor. "Ne seychas, Viktor," I said, slightly spitting at him.
Viktor then put his hands in the air, obviously confused. "...Yurio? What did I do wrong?"
I sighed, crossing my arms. "...sorry that I snapped, but now probably isn't the best time to be giving Sarah a lecture on what she did wrong. She's in a lot of stress right now."
"Yurio...I swear, sometimes you can be way too protective," Sarah said with a sigh as she gave me a hug from behind.
Viktor nodded in agreement. "She actually does have a point, Yurio. I think that in some cases, protecting her as much as you do does her more harm than good."
"Well, well. Looks like someone's still a big crybaby," Lilith said from behind.
I whipped around, and there she was, wearing her free skate costume. It actually reminded me a lot of the costume I wore for my free skate the year I skated to Agape. The only real changes were that the tufts faded to white, and it seemed that it had...some sort of wings, incorporated into it.
Sarah growled at her. "I am not a crybaby!" she said before she tried to lunge out at her.
I had to grab her by the waist to stop her. "Sarah. Don't end up doing anything you'll regret."
Lilith slightly chuckled. "Oh. Would you look at the time! It looks like I have to go! Guess I'll see you on the podium, kapriznyy rebenok," she said before going onto the ice.
I then looked Sarah in the eye. "Sarah. Don't take anything Lilith said to heart. I don't even know how she knew how to say that in Russian, but don't let it get to you."
Instead of responding with words, she gave me a hug. "I'm going to show Lilith that I'm not a crybaby. I'm going to watch her performance."
"Sounds like a plan," I said with a slight smirk.