1. The New Coach

Dear diary

'It all started with Yakov deciding to take a coach as temporarily replacement. The reason behind his idea is what insulted me the most.'

Mila was ranting about her hockey boyfriend, Dmitri, but I wasn't really listening. I was too busy with reading the sports magazine that was filled with articles about world champion figure skater, Yuuri Katsuki. I sighed dreamily upon seeing the pictures of Yuuri holding his gold medals. My biggest dream was not only becoming just as good as Yuuri, but also having the chance of standing next to him one day. Maybe even have the chance to skate a routine as pair skaters. I know it's a silly dream, because he lives far away in Hasetsu, Japan, and I live in the cold country called Russia. There's no way he would, casually, meet me on the street or something. And at the competitions he's too busy with the paparazzi and millions of other fans swarming around him like bees around honey. No way he would ever notice me around them.

"Viktor, are you even listening?" Mila asked, snapping me from my fangirl (or is it called fanboy, idk) moment. When my reaction wasn't fast enough, she snatched the magazine from my hand and gave the content a quick glance. "Of course you weren't." Mila rolled her eyes.

I steal my 'Yuuri Katsuki' skate edition back and send her my most charming smile. "You know me, I can do two things at the same time. You were talking about Dmitri."

"She always talks about Dmitri. I'm surprised you haven't dumped him yet."

Mila glared angrily at Yuri Plisetski, the eleven year old skater that entered the skating rink's lunch room. Yuri is Yakov's newest skater. Just like Yakov, Yuri looks grumpy all day and growls at people. Mila and I always make jokes about them being related because of this trait. Yuri suddenly smacked at the back of my head and growled; "Thanks to you, Yakov is taking an early retirement!"

My jaw drops then stutter, perplexed; "W-what? B-but he can't."

"Wait, didn't he threaten us with retirement last week?" Mila frowned.

"Yeah, and the week before last week," Yuri replied. "And in case you're thinking it's a false alarm, again, you are terribly wrong! I saw him and Lilia packing suitcases about this sizes!" Yuri widened both his arms to allow himself to show us the measurement of Yakov's and Lilia's suitcases.

Not doubting there would even be suitcases with the sizes Yuri described to me and Mia, I turn pale in shock then gasp; "I have to stop Yakov from making a terrible mistake."

"It won't work like the previous times, Viktor!" A lopsided grin worked its way up on Yuri's face. "He said, and I quote, 'this time sweet little Vitya and his blue eyes won't stop me from keeping me away from my well-earned retirement.' He's even wearing dark sunglasses to prevent him from seeing your eyes."

"NO!" My bottom lip starts to tremble. Of course I knew Yakov would retire someday, but I'm only seventeen years old and so far I hadn't even won a silver medal. I at least expected him to stay by my side until I did win one. But now thinking about silver and gold medals, maybe Yakov grew tired of waiting. Maybe he lost his faith in me of ever winning one. Yuri's right, it is my fault Yakov is taking an early retirement. I have to do something. I have to stop Yakov from leaving. I still need him.

"What are you doing?" Yuri asked when I jumped off my seat, as if it was on fire. I ignored his question and ran towards the door then as I ran out, Yuri yelled loudly; "I told you, you won't be able to stop him anymore. You ARE JUST WASTING YOUR TIME, VIKTOR!"

"We will see about that," I thought. I ran down several corridors, climbed three long stair cases then ran down two more corridors and finally reached Yakov's office. I charged down the door and entered, looking very exhausted. I have a very bad stamina.

While I was catching up my breath, and locked my frightened eyes onto my coach who sat behind his desk near the large window, looking outside. Then the seat slowly turned, and Yakov said, mockingly; "Vitya, I was expecting you."

The supply of fresh air I managed to drag in and out of my lungs, suddenly cut off again and I choke out; "Yuri was right! You are wearing sunglasses."

"Oh, you mean these?" Yakov asked, pointing at the item on his nose and his grin grew. "Yeah, I can't see a thing with this, which is a plus because now I can't see your sad pouty eyes filling with tears. They always stopped me from leaving, but not this time, Vitya. This time Lilia and I will go to Spain and forget the horrible ice and snow of this country and enjoy the traits and sun Spain has to offer us."

Despite knowing Yakov won't see my tears, they still fall silently down my cheeks. Barely louder than a whisper, I mumble; "Yakov, I promise you I will do my best and get a high score in tonight's short program. Please don't leave me. I know it's taking long for me to win a medal, but please keep faith. I will win one soon, I promise."

"What are you talking about, my little malysh?" The Russian pet name surprised me. Yakov hadn't called me kiddo since I was eleven years old. I frowned confused.

"Yuri said you're going to retire because of me."

"I am not retiring because of you, Vitya! I'm taking a vacation because of you!"

"But why?" I choked out, feeling utterly offended.

"Because you hardly listen to anything I say, you run off whenever you like, drool all over sports magazines during practice, and make random selfies and put them on your Instagram! I'm totally fed up with it, Vitya. I need this vacation before you made me completely bonkers."

I step towards Yakov's desk. "I promise to listen from now on, Yakov. Please don't leave me alone with that horrible, eleven year old figure skater. You know he's always picking on me, insults me, and…

"Vitya, you are seventeen years old. I'm pretty sure you won't need me to protect you from that little kotyonok."

My eyes widened. "Kotyonok? He's not a sweet little kitten, Yakov! He's a monster! You have no idea what he's capable of. Three days ago he replaced my shampoo with nair. Luckily the bad stench alarmed me before I put it in my hair."

"Stop being so dramatic, Vitya."

I ignore my coach's snarky comment, look around to see if Yuri is eaves dropping on us then whisper; "Yuri once kidnapped Makkachin and kept her away from my reach for 2 hours. It were the two, most horrible and dramatic hours of my life."

Yakov just glares, unimpressed, over the top of the glasses at me before taking them off completely. Then he pulls in a deep sigh, rises to his feet, straightens his vest and says, dully; "No matter how amusing this conversation is, I have better things to do like, finding myself a reporter and have him drop an article about me taking a vacation with my wife and therefore need a replacement coach for three unruly skaters." Yakov thought for a moment. "You know what, maybe I should leave the 'unruly skaters' part out."

Yakov strolls out the door followed by me, begging; "But Yakov, I don't want a replacement coach! I want you. You are the best coach a teen skater can get!"

"It will only be temporarily, Vitya! Now stop complaining and go find Mila and Yuri! I want the three of you, with the most sweetest faces, on the ice rink within thirty minutes. The reporter also need to make pictures of you three for the article."

I had no chance to object because Yakov already grabbed his phone and dialled the local newspaper's phone number, asking them to send a reporter for a sudden announcement. Thirty minutes later he roared at Yuri to stand still for the pictures and smile. But Yuri being Yuri, disobeyed to everything. Especially the smiling part.

"Yuri can't smile, you should know by now, coach Yakov," Mila said with a playful smirk.

"SHUT UP, YOU OLD HAG!" Yuri yelled furiously. Mila just laughed which angered Yuri some more.

Mila and I prepared for the single women and single men short program when Yuri walked towards us with the biggest grin imaginable.

"Ha, it looks like Yakov won't find a replacement any time soon! I just saw him kick out the sixth person who responded to the article."

I open my mouth to respond, but suddenly a crowd of girls screamed their lungs out in excitement. We turn around and see Yuuri Katsuki enter the building, sending smiles as he made way through the crowd. He stopped every now and then to sign autographs and making pictures with his fans. I felt a giddy feeling inside and wanted nothing else but hurl myself towards him, but I was too shy.

Yuri, knowing I was a big fan of Yuuri and always ready to humiliate me, put his hand in the air and yelled; "HEY, PORK CUTLET! YOUR BOWL HERE WANTS A PICTURE OF YOU AND HIM!"

My heart froze and I could feel the color drain from my face, turning white as a sheet as Yuuri stops in his tracks and slowly turns to face us. His eyes land on Yuri first, then slowly follows his index finger that points at the person beside him, me. The moment Yuuri's eyes met mine, the look on his face softened and his charming smile returned. What else returned was the familiar warmth of the blood rushing through my veins towards my face, coloring my cheeks bright red. I didn't hesitate and turned around.

"Viktor, you don't want a picture with Yuuri?" I heard Mila ask as I rushed away as fast as I my legs could carry me. No way. Right now I wanted to hide my face forever.

After that embarrassing moment, the evening didn't become easier for me. During my performance, which I choreographed myself and named 'hold me close,' my idol's sad face kept playing over and over in my mind. I just couldn't forget the painful look in his eyes when he looked at Yuri. It was like the words had insulted him. It was like the words had struck his heart deep. But why? What did Pork Cutlet even mean?

I slowly skate across the ice preparing myself for my first jump. I always put them in the first half because of my low stamina. Sometimes I wish I my stamina was more like Yuuri's. He always kept his jumps for the second half.

"Maybe there are ways to train your stamina," I thought then felt my right foot slip from under me as I landed on it. Before I could stop myself, my left foot slipped away as well and I landed on my butt, painfully. I could hear Yuri's uproarious laughter echo through the rink.

I decide to put myself together and get back on my feet to finish the routine. I would definitely lose a few points, but Yakov would never forgive me if I gave up this easily. Sadly, my right leg had a different opinion on that matter, because when I tried to scramble up, a sharp pain weakened my ankle and I slipped again.

Tears start to cloud my vision when I saw Mila and Chris enter the rink and skate towards me to assist me back to the 'kiss and cry.' This time the seat definitely felt more like 'cry' than 'kiss.'

"Best evening ever," Yuri laughed. "Sad though I didn't bring my camera. I bet Otabek would have loved to see this."

I shoot an angry glare at Yuri when a paramedic iced my ankle. Luckily my ankle was only sprained and the paramedic told me to not use it for at least 48 hours. Even though I should be happy with the news, I wasn't. All I could think of was that I not only failed horribly in front of thousands of people, but also my idol Yuuri Katsuki. Now he would definitely think I'm the biggest loser on this planet, and I wouldn't even blame him for it.

The next day, Yakov and Lilia hopped onto a plane to Spain and wouldn't be back for at least 8 weeks. On the airport, right before they boarded, Yakov told us he had found a temporarily coach and that this person expected us to show up at the rink, 10am tomorrow morning. I spend the entire day with Makkachin, which she loved of course. Makkachin is my brown poodle and the only person who truly cares about me. She could listen at my endlessly ramblings about Yuuri for hours. She always licks my tears from my face when I cry. And she cuddles up next to me during the night.

The next morning, with heavy heart, I enter the indoor rink. I was ten minutes late and I doubt this new coach would like it. As I walked across the corridors, my mind tried to come up with an excuse, but nothing came up.

"Glad you decided to join us, Vitya," a male voice said soon I opened the large doors that lead to the ice. I looked up in surprise and saw Yuuri Katsuki standing in the center of the rink assisting Mila as she pulled her right leg, straight up.

'So yeah, it all started with Yakov deciding to take a temporarily coach. To be honest, I'm not insulted anymore but happy that I am the reason why Yakov needed a break. I mean, who needs a grumpy old coach when you can have a world champion figure skater, showing you the ropes of the sport?'

"I don't know about you, Yakov, but I'm going to have so much fun without you." Yuuri, my new coach, tilted his head to one side then his lips curved into a smile, and I realized I had said that out loud.

Without saying anything, I grabbed a handful of my long, silver hair and covered my red blushing face before rounding on my heels and ran off.

So, what do you think. Please fav/follow or review if you like me to continue this story LOL