Yuri!!! On Ice Book 2

Chapter 13

May 24th, 2018- Three Days Later-

Yuri's POV- 1st Person

"Yuri!" Allie calls excitedly, and I turn, leaving my crossovers and skating to her side.

"What is it?" I ask as she's so clearly thrilled by something.

"I landed my Toe loop- toe loop combination perfectly!" She says, bursting with pride, "Come look!" I oblige and watch as she begins the jump, and, as she said, executes the combination flawlessly.

"Good job!" I tell her as she returns to my side, "Why don't you show your parents? I'm sure they'd love to see it," She follows my gaze to where they sit on the benches, Otabek in tow, putting on their rented skates. I was surprised to find that they didn't have their own, both of their children being such avid skaters, but had been informed that they'd only skated about three times in their lives. Allie told me this in a low voice, shaking her head as if it were the family shame.

"I guess," She replies, shrugging, "But they get so annoying about me doing jumps, they make me wear knee pads and a helmet- I'm not six!" I laugh, understanding her frustration. Not that it was in any way the same thing, but I remember how mad I used to get when Yakov wouldn't let me do quads, it was the single most irritating thing on the planet. 

"Yuri!" I snap out of my thoughts to Otabek's call and join him as he attempts to coax his helpless parents onto the ice. "Here," He says and hands his mother off to me as he prises his dad off the wall. "Can you help her? I can't take them both," I nod and start to move away, almost being knocked off my feet in the process.

"Sorry!" His mother gasps as she clings to my arm for dear life. 

"It's fine," I reply, "Try to stand up, if you hunch over it's harder," She nods and does as I say, keeping her back straight and moving very slowly with a determination that has yet to be rivaled by any competitor I've seen on the ice.

Gently extricating my arm, I move so I stand in front of her, taking her hands and pulling her along after me. She squeaks slightly when we first move forward, but, apart from that, she proves to be an okay skater. Better than her husband at any rate. I have to hold back a laugh as I glance over to the other side of the rink where he and Otabek are making absolutely zero progress, the older man falling as soon as he gets back on his feet, often taking his son with him.

Mrs. Altin, following my gaze, laughs out loud, and releases my hands, gliding past them with ease. Otabek looks incredulous as I pass by in her wake, and I shoot him a smirk, to which he responds with a glare.

Eventually, with Otabek's mother skating quite well, and his father still an absolute mess, we retire our teaching careers, letting her deal with her abysmal husband. At this point, however, after having had time to mull over the decision, Allie calls us all over, waiting impatiently as her father stumbles inexpertly to the spot.

"I want to show you something, okay?" She asks us, and we nod,

"Go ahead honey," Her mother replies kindly, "Just please-"

"Be careful, I know, I know," She responds impatiently, waving the comment off. With a quick thumbs up to me, which I return, she skates into the center and begins her crossovers. Her parents watch in awe as she glides effortlessly around the circle in clean, fluid strokes, then gasp when she leaps into the air for the Toe loop combination. The look on their faces is priceless as she comes down, only to go up once more as she stabs the ice with her left foot and revolves in the air a second time. She checks out proudly and returns to us after a graceful, unnecessarily long, spiral, beaming. "What do you think?" She asks her family excitedly, especially Otabek as he'd never seen her land this sequence before.

"That was great Allie, very clean!" He says smiling and gives her a hug.

"Thanks!" She chirps,

"That really was excellent," Her mother chimes in, stealing her for her own embrace, "You made it look so easy! Did Otabek teach you to do that?"

"Nope," She says, "Beka's a terrible teacher. Yuri did," The older of the pair turns to me. I shrug,

"She did most of it, I just gave her a few pointers. She picked it up really quickly,"

"How often did you two work on it?" She asks me, looking interested, and, to my relief, not mad that I may have endangered her daughter.

"Every day," Allie responds before I can open my mouth, "He helped me practice every time we came to the rink,"

"Yuri, that's so sweet of you!" Her mother exclaims, looking surprised but apologetic, though I can't fathom why. "But dear, you must not have gotten any practice of your own!" I shrug,

"That's okay, it's the off season, I barely know the program anyway," Otabek rolls his eyes,

"Uh-huh, and I can do the quad Axel," He responds, then, turning to his parents, "He's known the whole thing since last season ended, he choreographed it himself," They look impressed,

"That's so cool!" Allie exclaims, "Can we see it?" I start to protest but, with all of their eager eyes on me, I feel it would be rude to say no.

"It's really rough," I warn them, "I'm not a very good choreographer,"

"It'll be wonderful," Mrs. Altin says reassuringly, "If it's anything like the competitions Beka's made us watch it'll be spectacular," At this, Otabek grasps his mother's arm and leads her away, seemingly talking to her sternly. I laugh slightly at the memory of the horror in his face as she said those words, but, as they all turn to look at me, take the cue and fall into my starting position.

Overall the program goes well, no falls at least, but the landing of my quad Lutz was shaky at best. Otabek and I discuss this on the walk back from the rink, having stayed late to practice.

"They loved it anyway," He replies, "You're too hard on yourself, my mom said it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen," I roll my eyes,

"That's funny. But actually," I pause and look up at him cheekily, "There is something she said earlier that I wanted to discuss with you," He groans,

"Can we not talk about this?" He begs me,

"Nope!" I reply, "So, you made them watch some of my competitions?" He blushes slightly,

"I did not make them, she was exaggerating,"

"Okay, so you strongly encouraged them to watch them though?" I respond immediately, "Because, if you did," I continue more quietly, "That's really sweet," He smiles,

"Not stalker-y?"

"Oh no," I reply, "Very stalker-y, but in a good way," He laughs,

"As long as I'm good stalker-y,"

"It's the goal," I reach up and kiss him, feeling quite happy with how the day's gone. "And Beka," I say against his lips, "You're a shitty teacher,"