Chapter Text
[Grand Prix Final - Sochi, Russia.]
With the end of the free figure skating program, the scoreboard consists of Victor Nikiforov in first place, Christophe Giacometti in second and Jean-Jacques Leroy in third.
Yuuri Katsuki, Japan's Ace, is in last place after a disastrous program, where anxiety, sadness over the death of his little dog Vicchan and guilt over the fact that he has not visited his family for five years.
Yuuri reads news about him on his cell phone, even though Celestino insists that he should not care. Except Yuuri cares.
Yuuri Katsuki cares too much about the opinion of others about him and his mind makes a point of insisting that those words are true.
In one of the arena's secluded bathrooms, Yuuri cries after talking to his mother and is startled to hear Yuri Plisetsky scream angrily at him.
Maybe he should retire anyway. What's the use of continuing when no one believes he's able to make a program worthy of a Grand Prix Final?
Except when the Russian teenager leaves the bathroom, he doesn't notice that someone else was in that hallway. Silently, this person enters the bathroom and Yuuri, not wanting to meet anyone, locks himself in another cabin and as he sits on the toilet, lifts both legs and hugs them.
"Hi." A man says coldly, startling Yuuri, that he didn't expect to be noticed by anyone.
"Who...?" Yuuri hears a very familiar voice, and covers his mouth, his eyes wide as he realizes it's Victor Nikiforov’s.
"Don't move. I won't miss the chance to have you." The unknown man says, and Yuuri lowers his legs, feeling a cold shiver run through his body at the way the man spoke.
Desperate, Yuuri opens the cabin door slowly, and realizes that a man in black clothes is gripping Victor tightly, and realizes the moment when Victor bites the man's hand hard, making him scream in pain and release the Russian skater, who runs towards the bathroom door to try to escape, but is grabbed neck-length by his jacket.
"Let me go!" Victor exclaims, before feeling the jacket start to tighten around his neck.
"Motherfucker!" The man says, throwing the skater against the wall of the cabins, causing a deafening noise.
Yuuri, feeling anxious, opens his backpack and removes one of the boots of his ice skates, removing the protection from the blade. He is startled by the noise and despite everything that is happening, Yuuri can't ignore the small desire to help the Russian skater emerge even when, opening the cabin door slowly, he sees the man taking a metal stick out of his jacket.
"Help me…" He listen’s Victor whispering, and finds him lying on the ground terrified.
In a strange boost of confidence, Yuuri uses his boot to hit the man's arm, causing him to drop the stick with a scream. The man looks at Yuuri in surprise, clearly not expecting to see him there.
"How…?" he asks, grabbing his injured arm.
"I was here before you guys came in." Yuuri responds, glaring at him angrily and lifting his boot again. "Should I hit you again with my skates? This time, I can hit your face."
The man pales and walks away, leaving the bathroom quickly. Yuuri lets out a long sigh, dropping his boot right there, which falls to the ground violently. He looks at Victor, and drops to his knees, touching his face to check that he's okay.
"Victor!" He exclaims, noticing the Russian skater opens his eyes in confusion. "Victor, how are you feeling?"
"An angel?" Victor whispers, looking at Yuuri with wide eyes, before frowning sharply. "My knee!"
This… Is not good.
"Can you get up?" Yuuri asks him, letting out a long breath when Victor shakes his head no. "Okay. Wait a second."
Yuuri quickly returns to the cabin where he was and takes his backpack, returning to where Victor is.
"I think it's best to immobilize your knee first." Yuuri says, pulling out a shirt and training pants.
"OK." Victor responds, not taking his eyes off him.
Yuuri, trying very hard not to blush because his idol doesn't stop looking at him, adjusts his body to sit with his leg straight and focuses on using his skate blade protections and using the clothes to hold the protections directly on Victor's right leg, who let out a hiss because of the pain. When he finishes, Yuuri throws the man's stick with the help of his jacket and his boots in his backpack, using the jacket to protect the blades and also the culprit's blood that still drips from one of the boots.
Yuuri puts his backpack on his right shoulder and, struggling with all his strength to ignore the fact that his idol's face is at the height of his groin, as he glues his feet to Victor's legs and crouches down so that his face is close. of the Russian skater.
"Hug my neck." Yuuri says, and Victor frowns as he tries to understand what he wanted to do. "I'm going to lift you up, so try to keep your injured leg steady and use the other one to get up."
"What…?!" Victor starts to say, but breaks off as he is grabbed by Yuuri and hauled up, instinctively using his left leg to get to his feet. "Wow!"
"Can you walk?" Yuuri asks him, still holding and being hugged by Victor.
"No!" Victor responds, opening a mysterious heart-shaped smile.
Instantly, Yuuri doubts that answer, but soon decides to believe his idol, who has no reason to lie. Letting out a long breath, he realizes he has no other choice.
"Loosen your arms. I'm going to let go of you and when I turn around, I want you to relax when I touch you again." Yuuri tells the Russian skater, who obeys him immediately while looking at him with a curious look.
And again he is surprised when Yuuri turns his back and crouches down a little, grabbing him by the thighs and lifting him. Victor hugs him by the neck, eyes wide, because it seems Yuuri Katsuki can carry him without any problem.
My God, how many more times does that boy want to surprise Victor? Not that he's complaining, of course.
"Help me with my backpack and keep the injured leg steady." Yuuri asks, releasing Victor's right thigh to open the bathroom door and using his leg to throw it open until it is possible for him to pass.
Yuuri exits the bathroom, carrying Victor through the empty corridors of that wing of the ice arena.
"Where are you going?" The Russian skater asks, noticing that Yuuri's face is serious.
Normally someone would be nervous wondering where to go in this kind of situation.
"To the medical wing." Yuuri responds, as they enter a hallway with some ISU officers, who look at them in surprise.
"Katsuki? Vitya?" They listen and Victor breaks into a grin as he sees his trainer, Yakov Feltsman, who is quickly approaching them with a pale face. "What happened?"
"Yuuri saved my life, Yakov!" Victor exclaims, startling Yuuri at the volume of his voice.
"Coach Feltsman, I need to take Victor to the medical ward. His knee…" Yuuri starts to say, but ends up being interrupted by Victor.
"You should have seen it, Yakov! Yuuri used the blade of his own skate to strike my assailant!" Victor exclaims, not noticing Yakov's wide eyes.
"Wait, what?!" The coach asks, causing more people to turn around to see what's going on.
"Coach Feltsman!" Yuuri exclaims, scaring everyone for having screamed. "Medical ward!"
And Yuuri passes the trainer, advancing through the long corridor full of people to finally be able to reach the medical ward, startling the nurse who was working on something on a laptop.
"Katsuki? Nikiforov?" The nurse asks, standing up immediately when he sees Yuuri put Victor down on one of the gurneys.
"Check his knee, please." Yuuri asks, taking the backpack from the Russian skater's hand with trembling hands.
"Are you okay?" The nurse asks him, going to a fridge and returning with two bottles of water.
To Victor's surprise, Yuuri shakes his head and takes a bottle out of his backpack, opening and taking out a pill and taking the water bottle from the nurse. Yuuri takes the medicine and drinks half the water from the bottle.
"Go lie down on another gurney. I'll call your tech and handle the rest." The nurse says, taking Yuuri's backpack just as he lets go of it and guides him to another stretcher, where the skater lies down and closes his eyes.
"W… what happened to him?" Victor asks, when he notices the nurse approaching him with a table and helps Victor to brace his leg on top of it.
"He had a panic attack." The nurse says, surprised to find ice skate protectors as he unties the clothes from Victor's leg. "I've been working for ISU for 5 years and he's the only skater, with the exception of Giacometti, who I have their phone number in my contacts, and so does the other nurses who replace me at the events. All because we're aware of his condition and we're prepared to help him whenever he has an attack. I won't say anything else because that's something he should say himself, not me."
The nurse frowns as he examines the knee, noting how swollen it is.
"Nikiforov, what happened?" he asks, looking at the Russian skater coldly.
"Could you call my coach and someone from security, please?" Victor asks him, who nods with his head and walks away.
Yakov enters the medical ward immediately, startled to see Victor sitting upright with his leg straight and the cuffs of his pants raised, revealing a swollen, red knee, and Katsuki lying on the gurney beside him, sleeping.
"Vitya, what happened?" Yakov asks, shocked to see the nurse approaching with a tray containing an ice pack, gauze, tape and scissors.
"This is just a temporary treatment, to prevent further damage to the knee." The nurse explains to them, placing the compress directly on Victor's knee, who bites his lip in pain. "Apparently Katsuki used his clothes and his blade guards to ensure the leg was immobilized, which was a wise decision.
When the security guard arrives, along with Celestino Cialdini, Yuri Plisetsky and Mila Babicheva, Victor tells everything he knows about what happened. When the security guard asks how Katsuki ended up in that bathroom, everyone is surprised when Yuri Plisetsky reveals that Katsuki was already in the bathroom and that he himself had confronted the Japanese skater at that time.
"Did you say the man who attacked you has an injured right arm?" the nurse asks, his face pale.
"Do you know something?" The security guard asks him, his face furious because the Living Legend was attacked there in Russia.
"I saw one of the Swiss Federation officials, who had a cut made on his right arm, half an hour before the skaters arrived. I asked if he wouldn't treat the wound, but he rudely said he didn't need to." The nurse says, crossing his arms.
"I see. Now if only we had proof that he actually did this…" The security guard comments, frustrated.
"In Yuuri's backpack there is the stick he used and his skate with that bastard's blood." Victor reveals and the security guard takes the backpack in question, opening it under the cold gaze of Celestino, who has been listening in silence.
And as Victor says, there's the stick and skates wrapped in an outfit that's now bloody and all cut up.
"I'll call the police." Security says, taking out his cell phone to do just that.
"Now, going back to Victor's injury, I suggest that he be taken to the hospital immediately so doctors can better examine his knee. From what I can see, I suggest canceling his participation in the gala exhibition." The nurse reveals, surprising everyone, including Victor himself.