Yuri!!! On Ice Book 2

Chapter 12

May 21st, 2018- Two Days Later-

Yuri's POV- 1st Person

"Beka!" Responding to his summons, the requested male turns and finds himself cornered by an impatient Allie. "Hurry up, it's time to go!" She whines, prodding his arm. He laughs,

"Hold on, let me get my stuff- did you remember to pack a water bottle?" She nods, holding up her small pink skate bag, a water bottle safely nestled in its designated pocket. "Okay, I'll be right back," He stands and leaves the table, the younger girl slipping into his chair in his absence. 

"I haven't gone skating in so longgggg," She says, drawing out the last word, "You're coming with us right?" 

"If that's okay with you," I reply, not wanting to intrude on the limited time she has with her older brother. 

"Yeah!" She says brightly, "I want to see you skate not on TV, it'll be so cool," I smile and follow as she jumps up, Otabek reentering the room. 

"Ready?" He replies, handing me my skate bag. Both Allie and I nod and we set off, me giving him a quick kiss of thanks while our young companion isn't looking.

We make it to the rink in record time, the excited little girl hurrying us along on the short walk from her house. It's a nice facility, not very impressive in comparison to the state of the art training one we have back in Saint Petersburg, but I'm spoiled and it isn't fair to compare all places to it. Plus, when put side by side with the shitty little temporary rinks we have to use when touring for ice shows, this is a paradise.

At first, Allie is insistent that we get on the ice immediately, but after being reminded that no good figure skater skips stretching, she graciously allowed us to have ten minutes to warm up our muscles before going out. 

Luckily, the rink isn't very crowded, it being a Tuesday at 9 am, and we have nearly the whole place to ourselves, only a few stragglers hanging on to the wall at the far end. Otabek and I naturally go into our on-ice warm-ups, tracing an easy stroking pattern onto the smooth glossy surface and doing a few experimental twizzles to get the lay of the land. The ice quality here is good, it turns out, and, as apparently this is the one rink on the face of the earth that doesn't incorporate hockey (FINALLY), there are no divots or slashes marring it. 

Allie follows us as we go through a few moves in the field, doing her best to recreate them but giving up quickly, and simply stares at our imprints as she hurries along in our wake. Soon, though, she has grown tired of our preoccupation and is demanding her brother's attention, begging for a lesson in jumps. Seeing that I'm not needed, I remove myself from their immediate vicinity and start working on a few more advanced sequences. I run through the doubles and triples once, enjoying the amazed looks I garner from the spectators stumbling over their toepicks, and throw in a triple Axel for good measure. 

I begin working on my current program, the step sequence in particular. It's been giving me some trouble, the footwork is very quick and very precise, any mistake disastrous and causing a swan dive onto the ice. I've got it down for the most part but it isn't as clean as Yakov, or I, would like, so it's one of my focal points during practice and off-ice conditioning.

I practice this for a while, but become distracted by the goings-on at the other end of the rink, and, needing a drink of water from the boards, come over to investigate. Otabek appears to be trying, and failing miserably might I add, to break down a toe loop for his sister. She listens attentively and tries endlessly to replicate his motions, but can't seem to get the hang of it. 

Seeming to notice me watching their limited progress, she skates to my side, displaying a carefully calculated T-stop once she reaches me. "Beka's a bad teacher," She says and I laugh,

"You two seem to be doing well," She shakes her head,

"He doesn't know how to explain things! He just keeps saying something about 'prerotation,'" I snort,

"You tried to explain prerotation to a ten-year-old?" He looks indignant, 

"Her 3-turns didn't go far enough around, and she barely pivoted on the blade before jumping, how else do I phrase it?" I exchange an exasperated glance with Allie before responding,

"Did you say the thing about climbing a ladder? Yakov used that with me when I was like six, it's really easy to understand," He shakes his head blankly but Allie seems to have had a brainwave,

"Can you teach me?" She asks bluntly, "You're a better skater than Beka anyway, you know more than him,"

"Will you stop saying that!" Otabek looks annoyed, then, "I mean, it's true, but it's also really obnoxious," She shrugs and turns to me expectantly, waiting for an answer,

"I mean," I shrug, "I guess, but I don't know how much help I'd be, I've never exactly taught," 

"It'll be fine," She says confidently, "What was that thing about the ladder you mentioned earlier?"

"Here," I take her hand and pull her out to the circle in the center of the rink, "You want to do this," I demonstrate a simple 3-turn, "Before you lift off. You finish that and go up on your toepick so you face the wall," I show her what I mean, "At that point, you bring up your right knee and essentially do a Waltz jump," She looks confused,

"What do you mean? Waltz jumps don't use toepicks,"

"I know," I return, "But you use the same motions. You raise your knee to hip level as you jump, kicking out as if you're about to step onto a ladder," She nods slowly, eyes fixed upon me as I do the jump in slow motion.

"So it's like this," She says and does the jump experimentally, raising her knee to the suggested height and executing the turn in mid-air.

"Yeah," I reply, "Just like that, you only really do a half rotation," Under my watchful eye, she does it once more, "Perfect!" I call, applauding as she skates back to my side, triumphant. 

"Yes!" She exclaims happily, pumping a fist in the air, "You're a much better teacher than Beka,"

"Thanks," I laugh, "But not really, I just knew the one thing about the ladder he didn't- it's all in the method." She shrugs and skates away from us, executing a technically flawless toe loop to our cheers. "She's good," I say, turning to my boyfriend, "For not being able to practice for so long, it's amazing she can pick that up so fast," He smiles,

"She had a good teacher," He replies and pulls me in for a kiss, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"Ew!" I grin against his lips and pull away as the horrified little girl skates yells at us from across the rink. We both laugh as she shivers, revolted by our display of affection, and, I swear, I hear her mutter under her breath, "But it's Beka!"