Yuri!!! On Ice Book 1

Chapter 22

**Author's Note!**

Left you on a painful note there didn't I. Ahaha, sorry I'm a sadist, not really, but I enjoy slowly killing my readers! This chapter is very interesting, I don't know if you'll like it or not, but I hope you do. It leaves you in even more pain than the last one did! On the bright side you get double updates today to make up for it. Enjoy!

Yurio's POV 1st Person Omniscient

As we reach the rink where everyone is setting up Otabek and I split off in separate directions. As I turn left and he turns right I can feel his eyes on me, and I am determined not to look back. Not to show any sign of weakness or need. Never appear to slow down, never let them know how tired you are. Never give in. Yakov said these words to me when I first started skating. It really pissed me off at the time, and it still does, I already do that dammit! I don't need a prep course in competitiveness, hell, I should be teaching the class. 

I skate along the walls of the rink, where Mila is scattering rose petals, so as not to disturb the actual practice space, but creating a beautiful effect nonetheless. "Here," She says, handing me another bag of petals, "Start going around the other side, meet me in the middle," I dislike being given orders, but do as she says nonetheless. I follow the line of the wall and drop the petals neatly as I glide, and growing tired of bending at a right angle, I drop into a dip. Eventually I meet Mila in the middle, and straighten up. We dump our bags in the sound booth where Chris waits to turn on the music, and hurry over to our positions along the wall. We're the last ones to be in place, and once we are the lights click off. We wait. I check my phone, 2:57, they should be here by now. 

3:10

3:20

4:00

At this point we're all sitting down along the walls, our starting positions forgotten. Everyone is on their phones, playing games, watching TV or listening to music. "Okay, that's it." I say, fed up, it's been an hour, and they're still not here. "They're not coming." I say flatly, 

"Has anyone tried calling them?" Mila suggests, we groan collectively, for a bunch of prodigies we're idiots. It figures we're skating prodigies instead of logic ones. Immediately 6 phones buzz back into life. We takes turns calling Victor, not daring to call Yuri in case we give anything away.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, TWELVE missed calls from me alone. I shout at the air in exasperation. "Nothing?" Mila asks me gently, 

"No, I got tons of messages!" I say sarcastically, "My phone's overflowing with morse frickin' code!" She sighs, annoyed, her patience wearing thin.

"You don't have to be such a dick about it." This actually makes me laugh and Mila smiles appreciatively, What the hell else am I? "They're not coming." Mila says shaking her head, "We should just start cleaning up." Silently we all rise and begin the tedious, and yet arduous work before us. Mila and I grab brooms from the janitor's closet and skate along the rink, sweeping the rose petals into a pile in the middle. I skate off and return with a trash can to brush them into. "Where do you think they are?" Mila asks me as we corral the final petals. 

"I don't know," I say, "Victor probably couldn't wait, and proposed to him in the apartment then and there. They're probably off making out or something." Mila laughs and agrees, she carries off the trash bin and I follow with the two brooms.

In an hour or so we've finished cleaning and we return to our practice. I retire to my circle and and work on a few other jumps, I revert subconsciously to the triple axel. It's the jump I do when something's on my mind and I'm not focused on skating, though I keep going out of the necessity to appear busy before my coach. I soar above the ice and land gracefully. Why didn't Victor come? He was so excited this morning, what happened? He does still love Yuri right? Of course he does, that's stupid! I scold myself and break off that chain of thought. A person doesn't just wake up one morning and fall out of love with another. Does he? I land a jump without knowing it, and without any conscious thought, enter my Agape program. I do this  automatically, the triple axel being my first jump it's a natural segue, if not a correct one. Why did they have to fall in love? Why did they do that? Why can't they just be normal and make sense? Couples never make sense! They're stupid. LOVE is stupid! What does that even mean? It's just a word! Confusion, frustration, hatred, anger, misery, and happiness. That's what people say love is. How is that possible?! How can 'love' be so all encompassing and perfect? Nothing is like that! Nothing at all!  I skate forward,