Hey guys, so I thought I'd try something new for the summer. This what what I wrote for Camp NaNoWriMo last month and thought it was going to be a lot shorter than it actually was. I could talk for ages but I won't so here is the prologue and I hope you enjoy it :D

I knock at the door, three sharp raps before I bring my frozen hands to my mouth to blow warm air on them. My breath fogs in front of my face the second it leaves my mouth and a part of me wonders why I didn't take the chance to interview Otabek Altin – is Almaty even warm this time of year? Fuck only knows but either way I didn't and I'm standing on the doorstep of the Katsuki-Nikiforov's in the middle of winter in St Petersburg freezing my arse off. Realistically I don't really care all that much about the cold, getting to interview Yuuri has been my mission in life ever since I saw him take silver in Barcelona way back in 2015.

I can here excited yapping from inside and a muffled voice telling someone (presumably the dog) to 'sit... stay' before the door opens. My breath catches in my throat as I come face to face with the man I've admired for so long. God, he's beautiful... I can see why Viktor suddenly dropped everything for him. I've never seen him in person this close before and I think I'd sell my soul for a chance to spend more than an hour in his company. ...Actually I'm going to spend more than an hour in his company and I'm getting paid for it. Holy shit, I hit the jackpot.

"Hi," he says, a smile that lights up his entire face (and stops my heart) spreading over his features, "are you here for the interview?"

"Y... yes," I stammer. I fumble for a second with my business card and wondering if a hand shake is too formal whilst thinking anything else isn't formal enough.

"Come in," he says still beaming at me. "It's cold outside."

He steps aside and allows me to enter. The second he closes the door behind me a tiny, energetic ball of fur comes bounding towards me. He's way too small to do any kind of damage to me but does insist on trying to lick every single part of exposed skin he can find, putting his paws on my thighs and stretching up as tall as he'll go.

Over in the corner of the huge open living room another, older poodle is curled up in a basket. She lifts her head slightly at the commotion but, upon seeing that it's not worth her time to investigate as the tiny sentry is doing enough of a good job, lies back down and goes to sleep again. The excitable poodle still trying to get eye level with me is not content with being ignored and barks up at me.

"Katsu, down!" Yuuri tells him firmly. Oh my god, his name is Katsu! That's adorable! The dog turns to look at Yuuri and barks once, as if answering defiantly. Yuuri raises an eyebrow at him and Katsu seems to take the hint as he gets down and sits at my feet, tail wagging expectantly. "Sorry about that."

"I don't mind at all," I smile. "I love dogs."

"Well he loves the attention, don't you?" Yuuri asks Katsu, bending down to stroke behind his ears. Katsu lets out a tiny bark so high pitched it's almost a squeak and I feel my heart melt slightly. Yuuri looks up at me and smiles pure radiance again. "Shall we get started?"

"Um... yeah," I stammer. I can feel my face heating slightly every time he looks at me. If anyone asks I'm going to pass it off as suddenly coming in from the cold.

"Great," Yuuri says getting to his feet. "We've got a sort of office just through here that will be perfect. Would you like any tea or coffee or anything?"

"Um... tea would be lovely, thank you," I say. I'm not used to this. Normally when I do interviews it's right after competitions so we're still at the rink or we're in a café or restaurant or somewhere similar. I've never done an interview at someone's house before.

"Okay," Yuuri says, utterly accommodating for my lack of experience. "If you want to go ahead and get set up the office is just down the hall and it's the first door on the left." He gestures and I follow the graceful line of his hand.

"Sure thing," I nod, feeling a little stupid.

"You can hang your coat up if you want," Yuuri says, "but if you could take your shoes off that would be great."

"Sure," I say. I slip my coat off and hang it on one of the pegs on the wall behind me before bending down to start work on my laces. It's a little tricky as Katsu seems to want to help (here reading licking my hands as I struggle to get my boots off). I finally managed to get them off and I give his head a stroke. He licks my hand again before trotting off to flop down with Makkachin, bored with me now he's said hello.

I head off in the direction Yuuri pointed out. The office is incredibly easy to find – it being the only door on the left – and I begin to set my things up. I pull notebook and pen out of my bag along with a Dictaphone and camera, setting the Dictaphone on the small table in the middle of the room before I look around. It's a lovely, quaint little room with a nice view of the garden (which I imagine is beautiful in the summer) with pictures of their lives adorning the walls.

One in particular catches my eye; a candid shot from their wedding. Neither of them are looking at the camera, both of them much to fixated on each other to notice anything of the rest of the world around them and they're laughing at some kind of shared joke. It's quite possibly the most perfect photo I've ever seen, something so precious and private. My attention is so focused on the photo I barely hear the office door as Yuuri enters.

"That's my favourite too," he says, his voice making me jump slightly. I turn and give him a sheepish grin.

"It's a lovely photo," I say, as if trying to justify my staring.

"I can't even remember what we were laughing about," Yuuri says. "I just remember Viktor said something daft and them neither of us could stop." He smiles wistfully at the memory, bottom lip caught between his teeth and a dusting of pink on his cheeks. God, he's so pretty I want to cry! After a moment of quiet reflection he shakes himself and hands me a cup of tea. "Shall we get started then?"

"Yes please," I say, excitement suddenly replacing any nerves. He sits down on one side of the little table and I sit on the other. Putting my tea down I pick up my notebook, take a deep breath and set the Dictaphone to record. "So Mr Katsuki-Nikiforov..." I begin.

He chuckles. "Yuuri is fine," he says. "Katsuki-Nikiforov is too long and too formal, don't you think?"

"Okay... Yuuri," I say and I'm not ashamed to admit that my heart flutters slightly as I say his name. "You took the skating world by storm when you won silver at the 2015 Barcelona GPF, after a comeback from the previous year's sixth place with a broken world record and your career has spiralled upwards from there. How does it feel now, about to take your retirement from professional skating, to see just how far you've come?"

"Honestly?" Yuuri asks. "It still doesn't really feel real."

"How so?"

"When I look back on where I was before I met Viktor, both professionally and emotionally I sometimes can't believe that I'm actually the same person. I kind of want to go back to talk to my younger self and tell him 'keep doing what you're doing because it will get so much better'," he says.

"Do you think he'd believe you if you did?" I ask.

"Not in the slightest," Yuuri laughs. "He'd tell my I was being ridiculous, that there was no way someone like Viktor would ever have the time of day for someone like him."

"Well you proved him wrong," I say. "You proved everybody wrong."

"Yeah," Yuuri agrees. "When Viktor first started coaching me so many people wondered why he was wasting his precious time and energy on someone like me so I knew that I had to prove that I was worth it, both to him and to everyone else."

"Well you certainly did that," I say with a smile. I feel a little more at ease. The longer you spend with someone who you've revered as a god for so long the more you begin to realise that they are, in fact, human. Yuuri probably went through the same thing with Viktor.

"Looking back at everything I've accomplished since then is one of the most rewarding things and I have so many people to thank for where I am now," Yuuri says. "Almost too many to mention but every single person who has come into my life has enriched it for the better and I own them everything."

Should I ask? Should I ask now? I had planned to do it later but it feels like the right time to drive in for the hard stuff.

"But it hasn't always been this good," I say, deciding to just jump right in and go for it. "I don't mean at the very start of your career, before Viktor became your coach, I mean five years ago when you had that accident that forced you to pull out of the 2016 GPF, only a year after your rise to success, and nearly ended your career all together."

"Ah yes... that," Yuuri says on a soft exhale.

"You've been pretty tight lipped on the subject so far..." I press slightly, hoping against hope for the answer I've been longing for.

"I have," he replies. "It's never felt like the right time to talk about it. After everything that's happened it's never felt like I really can talk about it, just in case I jinx myself."

"It sounds like there should be a 'but' at the end of that," I press again. My heart is in my throat, my pen poised and I'm hanging off his every word. I might be about to get the story that every journalist balls deep in the figure skating world would sell out their grandmothers to get but at the same time it might be cruelly snatched away at the very last second.

"But I guess now that I'm retiring I don't need to worry," he finishes with a smile and my heart all but stops. Oh my god, this is actually happening!

"So let's talk about it," I say, my voice more breath than word from my nerves. This is really happening. I am getting to hear this. The story that everyone has speculated over for years, I get to be the first person to actually hear the truth.

"It's a very long and complicated story," he warns.

"Well I've got time if you do," I say giving him a reassuring smile.

Yuuri lets out a soft exhale. "I guess I'd better start at the beginning then..."