One Last Dance

By Spunky0ne

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After Yuuri suffers an injury trying to land a new quad, Victor shows a side of himself that Yuuri has never seen before, and one that he doesn't particularly like. Amidst the stress, an old flame of Victor's returns to the ice, leaving Yuuri worried that their past love could reignite. Is Evgeni Alenin aiming for Victor's heart, or could he have another reason for coming back to the ice?...yaoi, Victor/Yuuri, past Evgeni/Victor

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Chapter 1: Brothers in Charms

(Five years before Victor became Yuuri's coach)

His blue-green eyes sparking with anticipation, Victor Nikiforov waited at the side of the crowded skating rink, listening to the excited roar of the audience and feeling the scintillating chill of the air around him. His muscles carefully warmed up and his mind deeply focused, he watched as the last competitor, a tall grey eyed youth with curly, shoulder length blonde hair and a slim, willowy body, took up a ready stance on the ice. The announcer's echoing voice sounded, and the words made Victor's smile warm.

"Taking the ice now, we have the first of two very strong competitors, who have, so far, dominated this event and delighted everyone with their spirited rivalry and stunning performances. Over the past year, Victor Nikiforov and this young man, Evgeni Alenin, both hailing from Russia, have turned in a dazzling display of captivating performances that have resulted in record breaking crowds at their events. No one can wait to see these two compete in the Grand Prix Finals this year. Alenin pulled out a razor thin win at their first event, the China Cup, but Nikiforov leads going into the men's singles free skate, here in their home country tonight. Whatever happens out there on the ice, whoever wins, we are likely to see some new records set by one or the other of these two talented skaters. Alenin has taken position and Nikiforov waits now at rinkside."

At the entrance to the rink, Victor shot his competitor a teasing grin.

"May the best man win," he whispered.

He could see that Evgeni was also smiling and mouthing a reply.

"I will be winning tonight, Victor."

And you know what that means, Evgeni thought as the music began and he spun and danced across the ice, bringing a delighted roar from the crowd, Finally. Finally, you will let me make love to you. After all of these past months of teasing and flirtation, you are going to pay in the most beautiful, breathtaking way for keeping me waiting while you decided what you wanted. By morning…you are going to love me helplessly, just the way you've made me love you!

I won't lose now, not when I am so close to you.

He gathered speed, feeling the thrilling rush of the music and cold air as he launched his agile body into the air and spun.

"That's it!" the announcer said excitedly, "Alenin promised us a show to remember tonight, and he delivers a stunner right here at the beginning with a beautiful quadruple Lutz! Nikiforov will have to work hard tonight, if he wants to win. Alenin is pulling out all the stops."

That's right, Evgeni agreed inwardly, I know I could just take it easy and we would still both go to the finals, but this is my chance to make Victor my lover, and I'm not going to give anything but my best! Do you feel my love, Victor?

He blazed by the place where his silvery-haired competitor stood, and his mind captured an image of Victor's aroused blue-green eyes.

You can't help yourself, can you? You love a good performance, so I will dance perfectly for you tonight, Victor!

Evgeni blazed into an enchanting display of perfectly executed steps, then gathered speed, heading into a quad loop combination. But as his body flew into the air, he could feel already that something had gone horribly wrong.

No!

He tried desperately to adjust, but his body wobbled and spun out of control. He crashed down onto the ice, his heart freezing in his chest as he heard the terrifying snap of bone breaking and felt pain explode through his legs. He moved an arm to protect his head, but the impact was still unforgiving, making stars explode in front of his rounded eyes and sending him tumbling into blackness.

"Evgeni!" Victor cried, tearing the protective covers off of his blades and skating fast towards his fallen friend, amidst the horrified sounds of the shocked audience.

"Alenin has suffered a devastating fall," the announcer managed in a stunned tone, "Paramedics are rushing onto the ice to help him."

The music stopped and the facility's medical staff raced onto the ice. Victor reached Evgeni first and dropped to his knees at the injured skater's side.

"Evgeni!" he panted anxiously, touching his friend's curly hair, but carefully refraining from moving him.

Alenin groaned and started to move, then screamed in agony.

"Hold still! Hold still!" Victor hissed frantically, "Don't move, you'll make it worse! Help is coming. It's okay. It'll be okay."

He shivered as Evgeni's hand found his and squeezed it painfully tightly.

"Victor," Evgeni panted weakly, touching his fellow skater's pale face with his other hand and reading Victor's shattered expression, "Is it…b-broken?"

Tears ran in streams down Victor's face and he stared back at Evgeni wordlessly.

"Victor?"

"Lie still and let the medics help you," Victor managed, forcing a strained smile, "You'll be all right."

Shock reflected in Victor's comely features as he heard his injured friend manage a shaky laugh, and the sweating hand on his face trembled.

"I heard it go," Evgeni admitted, "We both know what that means."

"Evgeni, don't…"

The hand curved around Victor's cheek pulled him down, into a tender kiss that silenced him and left him staring again.

"Dance beautifully tonight, Victor," Evgeni whispered, closing his eyes, "Win for me."

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(…five years later, after the Grand Prix Finals)

I feel like this is all just a wonderful, beautiful dream, Yuuri mused as he held Victor tightly and the two slow danced together amongst the other skaters at the after-competition banquet, After being humiliated last year, to be here dancing with Victor again, but this time the silver medalist! It's like my dreams have been coming true, left and right since Victor first came to Hasetsu.

And now, I will be moving to Saint Petersburg to train with him.

"You are inside your head, Yuuri," Victor's voice rumbled in his ear, "What are you thinking?"

Yuuri's head turned where it rested on Victor's shoulder, and he looked into his coach's curious blue-green eyes.

"I'm trying to imagine what everything will be like now. I have so many questions. When will we go to Russia? Where will I be living? What will it be like there?"

"That is a lot of questions," Victor chuckled, kissing his slighter partner on the forehead, "but the most important one is where you will live, which is with me, of course."

"That's right. You have a house in a gated neighborhood for privacy," Yuuri remembered, "I read that somewhere."

But will I have my own room in Victor's house, or…I can't ask him that!

"You're blushing," Victor laughed, "You must have questions you're not telling me."

"Eh…" Yuuri said anxiously, "W-well…"

He froze as Victor's lips and warm breath touched his earlobe.

"You can choose to have a room of your own if you're more comfortable with that, or we can share my room," Victor suggested, "You don't need to be nervous, Yuuri. I will never do anything you're not ready to do. You know that by now, don't you?"

"Right," Yuuri managed, loosing the word in a relieved breath into Victor's shoulder, "I know that. It's just a big change. I'm happy about it. I'm just also nervous because everything will be new to me."

He thought for a moment, then lifted his head and looked into Victor's affectionate eyes.

"But, you must have felt the same way when you left Saint Petersburg and came to live with me in Hasetsu."

"I did," Victor confessed, "but you and your family and friends made me feel so welcome. You have me, you have friends at the skating rink where we will be training, and I'm sure you know, you have a lot of fans in Russia also now, Yuuri. The way you were, both in the Rostelecom Cup and in the Grand Prix Finals earned you a lot of respect from them."

"That's good to know," Yuuri sighed, relaxing further, "I guess I don't need to be worried. I moved away from Japan to live in Detroit when I was training there. I wasn't too homesick because I became friends with Phichit. And you and I are…"

Yuuri felt a tickling twinge inside and stopped mid-sentence.

"You and I are what?" Victor teased him, smirking, "Go on. You can say it. We are lovers, Yuuri."

"W-well, yeah, but I mean, we haven't really…umm…you know…"

He trailed off, swallowing hard and tensing in Victor's embrace.

"Relax," Victor said soothingly, "I told you I would never ask for more than you are ready to give. I would go to bed with you right now, if that was what you were ready for, but it doesn't hurt me too much to wait. You give me plenty of satisfaction just doing what you do now."

It's mostly just kissing and holding each other, Yuuri lamented inwardly, Victor is such a good partner, on the ice and off. He seems to know just how much I can give, and he never asks for more.

"Yuuri," Victor said, making his brown-eyed partner blink and look up into his eyes again, "I was thinking. We have another day here in Barcelona before our flight back to Hasetsu."

"Uh-huh," Yuuri acknowledged, nodding.

"Maybe we should get married here…before we go home."

Yuuri's feet stopped moving and his eyes rounded.

"G-get married now?" he asked, his voice shaking, "But I thought that you…"

Victor shrugged, trying to look casual about the idea.

"Neither of our home countries will let us be married there," he went on, "and neither will recognize the marriage, so it will just be on paper, but…when you win gold, we can have a bigger ceremony somewhere with our friends and family."

"But, why does Victor want to get married now?" Yuuri asked, looking confused, "You were just saying how there was no rush. Getting married now would be rushing, wouldn't it?"

"Don't you want to be married to me?" Victor asked, his smile fading slightly, "If not, you've been teasing me horribly over the last year, Yuuri."

"Of course I want to marry Victor!" Yuuri objected, "Why would you think I would change my mind? I've loved you forever, Victor! Married or not married, that's not going to change. We don't have to be married for you to know how I feel about you."

"Ah," Victor backpedaled, slipping his arms around Yuuri, who had stepped back slightly at the odd question, "I'm sorry, Yuuri. Don't worry about it. I just didn't like it when you said you were ending things with me as your coach. I'm not letting you get away."

"Victor," Yuuri chided him, smiling charmingly and touching his face admiringly, "I'm moving to Saint Petersburg to live with you. You are my coach and my lover. I am not going to leave you."

A flicker of doubt rose in Victor's eyes for a moment, then swiftly disappeaered. The song the two were dancing to came to an end and they moved out of the dance area to the tables to pick up fresh glasses of champagne. Phichit touched Yuuri's arm, and the two began to chat. Victor noticed Yakov a short distance away and turned to Yuuri.

"Yuuri, I will be right back. I need to ask Yakove a few things."

"Okay," Yuuri said, nodding, then turning his attention back to his Thai friend.

"Yurio, Chris and a few others and I have a bet about who can do the best quad loop."

"You can't do a quad loop, can you?" Yuuri laughed.

"No, but I'm drunk enough to try, aren't you?"

"It sounds dangerous…" Yuuri said more seriously.

"Just come and watch, then. It will be funny!" Phichit urged him.

Yuuri glanced at Victor, who was still conversing with Yakov.

"All right," he agreed, "I'll come and watch."

Phichit grabbed his hand and half-dragged Yuuri out of the banquet room and back down to the now-deserted ice rink they had used for the Grand Prix Finals Exhibition Show a few hours before.

"It was your idea, Chris," Yurio said, pointing to the darkened rink, "You first."

Chris shrugged and snickered.

"You may all just give up after seeing this. I may not land the loop, but it will be the sexiest quad loop known to man."

Yuuri and Phichit exchanged glances, laughing.

Chris put on his skates, then looked around before skating out to the center of the ice. He skated the perimeter several times, then moved back towards the middle, gaining speed. He threw himself into the air, managing a triple loop, plus a little, before landing awkwardly and falling. The other skaters burst into laughter.

"My turn! My turn!" Yurio shouted, moving out, onto the ice as a swaying Chris made his way back to the others, "Get out of the way, loser!"

"I think he's had less to drink than the rest of us," Phichit whispered to Yuuri.

"I think you're right," Yuuri whispered back, watching closely as Yurio built up speed and launched himself into the air.

"Over rotation!" Yuuri exclaimed as Yurio landed badly and barely avoided falling by putting his hand on the ice, "But he got in enough rotations. He's the best so far."

"I guess it's my turn," Phichit said, heading for the ice as Yurio exited and moved to stand next to Yuuri.

"You going to try it, pork cutlet bowl?" he asked, eyeing Yuuri questioningly, "How well do you think you'll do?"

"I've landed it once in practice, but not perfectly," Yuuri confessed.

The two watched as Phichit attempted the jump and fell, then Yurio gave Yuuri a look of challenge.

"Well?"

"Eh…" Yuuri said, looking uncomfortably at the doors to the rink, "Victor…"

"Victor's back getting drunk with everyone and making an ass of himself," Yurio huffed, "I want to know if you're going to try it! If not, then I win too easily. At least challenge me!"

"W-well," Yuuri sighed, looking out at the ice, "okay."

He stepped out, onto the ice and skated around several times to warm up.

I did land the jump in practice, but it wasn't clean, and for some reason, Victor yelled at me afterward. I didn't understand the reaction at the time. He never complains about me trying other, riskier things. He seems to hate that jump in particular. I wonder why.

Yuuri turned and headed back across the rink, gaining speed.

I have the quad toe loop, the salchow and the flip in my roster now. It would be great to add another quad…

He took a steadying breath and threw his agile body into the air. As his slim form spun, his eye caught a flash of silver near the entry doors.

Victor?

The moment of distraction proved disastrous as he over rotated and he crashed down awkwardly onto both skates. His right leg buckled and he fell gracelessly onto the ice, gasping as he felt a sharp pain in his ankle.

"YUURI!" Victor howled, running onto the ice and slipping and sliding as he rushed to his fallen lover's side, "Yuuri, are you all right?"

Yuuri lifted his right leg and touched his right foot to the ice, immediately wincing at even the light contact.

"Damn it!" Victor seethed, grabbing Yuuri's injured leg and swiftly working the foot free from the skate, "Get ice! Hurry!"

"Victor, it's probably just a sprain," Yuuri said, panting softly in distress.

"You don't know what it is!" Victor scolded him, "Yuuri, you know better than to do something stupid like this and get yourself injured! At our ages…"

He paused, noting the way the others were cautiously watching them and looking guilt ridden.

"Do you understand?" he asked more softly, taking Yuuri's shaking hand in his, "A bad enough strain on the tendons, anything that requires surgery. These things, even if the bones are not broken…they can be career-ending, Yuuri."

"I'm sorry," Yuuri whispered, his face paling to nearly sheet white, "I wasn't thinking, Victor."

Victor lifted Yuuri into his arms and carefully moved back to the edge of the rink, where he found Yakov chewing out a red-faced Yurio, while Phichit and Chris endured the same from their angry coaches.

"Do you need help with him, Vitya?" Yakov asked, pausing in his tirade.

"I have him," Victor said solemnly, "Don't tell anyone anything. We don't want everyone to get in trouble. We'll just say that Yuuri fell in practice."

Yakov nodded and glared at Yuuri, who groaned and buried his face in Victor's shoulder.

"You are lucky all of you didn't break your ankles, doing something stupid like this while drunk and in the dark! You fools! We should report this and get all of you banned! Get out of here and never embarrass your coach that way again!"

Tears filled Yuuri's eyes and he buried his face deeper in Victor's shoulder as the elder skater carried him to their waiting limousine.

"I'm sorry," Yuuri sobbed, "I'm really sorry, Victor. You're right, it was stupid. I drank too much and let Yurio tease me into playing along. If…"

"Shh," Victor soothed him, kissing him lightly on the mouth, "No more of that. You'll be fine. I promise, you'll be okay."