After the first attempt at doing one-shot for this couple, here is a second attempt at multi-chapter story. I still don't have the best hang on this characters. Opinions on the story-line would be appreciated. I want to know if whatever I write is interesting or not. Please, tell me if you would like more chapters.

Victor Nikiforov was a curious person, and when he was intrigued, he could go lengths to satisfy said curiosity. Living in Hasetsu with Yuuri and his family made him realize how much he desired to understand all the little things Yuuri spoke in Japanese. He sighed sometimes, frustrated, that there were things beyond his control; like being able to understand a foreign language quickly.

It took him almost three years to learn English, and English was not even that hard of a language. It was nothing like Russian, of course, though linguists assured that the two were related. To think that at some point the people who spoke Russian or English spoke a common language, was another curious thought.

Japanese was different. It was different in every sense, and he couldn't even intuitively guess what certain words meant. It made him frustrated and challenged. Maybe all he needed to do is to learn the language in secret and then surprise Yuuri.

If he learnt Japanese, he would understand what was making Yuuri blush like a summer tomato every time Mari or his parents said something with a playful smirk. A smile of his own appeared on his lips when the idea of uncovering Yuuri's secrets crossed his mind. Yuuri was so silent and shy and wouldn't probably ever answer the questions he asked. All those questions Victor burned to know would be discovered little by little.

He could probably order books, but if they arrived, Yuuri would notice them, and it would raise suspicion. He decided to buy online books and chose Russian textbooks to make sure he wouldn't have any difficulty with understanding the intricate, subtle details of the language.

He opened his calendar and decided to schedule the hours he would study. He was very serious about this, and he wasn't about to give up or let the coaching and other activities get on the way. He knew he could study and do other things perfectly fine. He remembered his school years when Mama was making him study hard and get only fives.*

But as soon as he clicked the books open, the excited expression on his face fell. It didn't seem as fun anymore when he started to skim the first few pages. Maybe, he needed to just learn commonly used phrases and hope to guess the rest of the speech.

"Victor," Yuuri called him hesitantly, his voice slightly concerned. "Did I do so bad to upset you?"

Ah, he was speaking about the practice. Victor shook his head with a smile. "No, not at all, Yuuri," he said, turning back to his cheerful self. "But you should work harder. Tomorrow we are going to get up earlier, so you can exercise more."

"Are you hungry?" Yuuri asked, blinking at him pleadingly.

Alright, those cute eyes on that adorable face of his didn't leave much room for Victor to argue. He nodded. "Let's eat together," he beamed.

They sat to eat together, and Victor kept his eyes at Yuuri. He wanted to know him so much. Victor's inner child whined and pouted displeased that Yuuri was so secretive about himself. Hiroko said something, and Yuuri blushed red. Victor sighed. Even if he asked Yuuri, he knew that the Japanese skater would just unsuccessfully lie, and even if he pressed further, he wouldn't get any answer other than a flat, stammering, "no comment."

No, Victor finally decided that no matter how hard it was, he was going to learn Japanese. He was going to uncover all of Yuuri's secrets.

...

Victor stared at his computer screen. Everyone went to sleep. Maybe, it would be better if he slept too. But here he was sitting in his bed with his computer on his lap, and Makkachin lying on the side of the bed, trying to shoo away all the thoughts and study. The book started with general introduction to Japanese phonetics. Victor pouted. Boring!

So, the phonetic structure of Japanese language had number of characteristics that made it different from Russian. First of all, most syllables ended with a vowel, which meant that each syllable had a consonant and a vowel. Second, Japanese language had a musical pitch, which meant, unlike Russian, what was important wasn't the strength of the sound, but the relative high tone. That also meant that two words with similar sounds could mean different things, depending upon where the tone went higher and where it became lower.

Victor pouted even more. How was he going to remember all the possible tonal intricacies? He knew that the stressing in Russian wouldn't seem exactly easy to foreigners learning Russian, but he just hoped that he could learn Japanese faster. It was for Yuuri after all.

He wanted to ignore these stupid rules and learn words, but he knew it was important, because what if Yuuri said something, and Victor misunderstood him, because the word meant something different, because it was pitched a certain way. No, he hated misunderstandings. He took a piece of paper and numbered and listed the phonetic structure differences.

Next was that in Japanese, the vowels and consonants could be long and short, and their length could change the meaning of the word. Warning flags rose in Victor's head. He needed to make sure that nothing stood between himself and Yuuri, not even lengths of sounds that could turn oysters into persimmons.**

He scrabbled it down and rubbed his eyes. He was scared to get lost in the world of accents and pitches and never learn a thing.

"There are sounds absent from the phonetic contents of Japanese language that are present in Russian, like the sound L. The sound R is being used if there are borrowed words, containing the sound L."

Well, this one he already knew. But he wasn't certain that whatever the sound was in Japanese could adequately be called R. He heard Yuuri pronounce r and l interchangeably, so he reasoned the Japanese sound was somewhere in between; close enough to be mixed up.

Victor wrote down examples to remember the rules better. Ruburu was how ruble was in Japanese, and it sounded funny. He smiled.

Makkachin nuzzled against his feet, and Victor leaned down to pet the cute creature. "We are doing this for Yuuri, Makka," he murmured. "You like Yuuri, right?"

The poodle made a playful sound, and Victor beamed like a sunshine, pleased that his huge puppy approved of Yuuri.

"Some Japanese sounds do not correspond to the Russian sounds, as of the way they are being articulated," Victor read. "For example, when Japanese pronounce o and u lips are not being as strained, as during the pronunciation of Russian o and u."

Whatever that meant! Victor had no idea. But he would make sure to watch Yuuri's mouth when he spoke Japanese and made those sounds. That would be his mission tomorrow to follow Yuuri's lips and how they pursed during the articulation of words.

This didn't seem as hard. Yes, he knew he could study, after all, only the beginning of everything was hard. He still remembered getting frustrated with all the unreasonable rules in English language that he learnt by heart, only to discover that there were tons of exceptions to the rule.

*In Russian school system 5 is the highest grade corresponding to A or 100%

**In Japanese Kaki can mean oyster if the accent is on the first syllable and persimmon if the word is pronounced accentless.