LONG POST I’M SORRY I NEED TO STOP DOING THIS (Reads Left To Right, Top To Bottom)

so @kazliin‘s hogwarts au was so fonkin cute that it inspired me to write this songlet, ohmygod.  this melody played in my head while reading it and i just!!! i need like an animated short to pair with all of this, stat. thank u to kaz for ur writing, it is a gift, ur a gift, and for being cool with me writing/recording/sharing this. from ffyc yuuri’s POV:

i’ve fallen for ya it’s not a surprise you’ve got a lot of charm

i’ll rein it in cuz you’re clearly too nice and i’d do a lot of harm

so i’m not gonna bother you with my heart pretend’s a game i’ve got down to an art so it’s okay if you won’t stay away i’ve had years of a headstart falling for your charms

now available for stream and download! chords can be found here.

I may never get over how Viktor looks at Yuuri

okay in ACTUALLY Yuri!!! On Ice related-summer-olympics things, please accept this fic recommendation!!! it's one of the first ones I read back when I started reading a ton of YOI fic in like.... 2020? and I think about it SO CONSTANTLY. gymnast!Yuuri and skater!Viktor and falling in love across seasons and timezones and worlds <3

From the summary and author's note by thehandsingsweapon:

The gymnastics edition, in which Viktor is still a skater because he's too pretty on ice and I couldn't take it away from him. A story about how sometimes love comes slow and soft, and how hearts get bigger when they break. ... I also wanted to do a gymnastics story because there's more competition elements to play with; e.g. each character can have their time to shine on Vault, or Floor, or Rings *and* there's a team component, which means that over time characters like Georgi and Kenjirou also have a role to play that's important. For the purposes of the story, I’ve taken some liberties with ages, timelines, and the host cities of various events, including the Olympics themselves. Where these changes exist they are always for plotty-type purposes (or, if you prefer, because I like breaking things before I fix them, gosh). When the story starts, we're at the 2012 Summer Olympics, which are hosted in Tokyo. I've also made up SNS handles when I can't find them on the wiki because I am a lazy internet hag. Phichit and Yuuri are now the same age, and they are roommates at University of Michigan, where Cialdini is Head Coach. Leo, who is from Los Angeles, is one year younger, and an expected Michigan commit, because Cialdini’s one of his coaches via the Team USA system. The University of Oklahoma winds up playing a bit of a villainous role later on. Apologies to anyone who has strong feelings about either school or who has conflicting college loyalties; I attended neither and it's just for story purposes. Ahead of each chapter, I’ll be posting a timeline so you can see what's been happening for each character within the little YOF! world that I'm creating here.

it's SO SO GOOD y'all. literally cannot recommend this enough

Thank you for everything,

my champions 💙💜

Scoring, Music, and Programs

So people new to figure skating through the YoI fandom may not be aware, but the scoring system used in the show is actually relatively new, having only been around a decade (and oh man watching the shitstorm that lead to the change was fascinating). A part of me thinks that the old ways really stands out among the oldest skaters - Victor, Chris, Georgi and to a lesser extent Yuuri, because they’re the last of the generation that would have had to adapt roughly during their transition from Junior to Senior. Yuuri is probably a BIT too young, since it changed in 2005, but he’d have seen its effect. 

Before the scoring change figure skating was, IMHO SUPER conservative, because it wasn’t a system of so many points for this, and so much for that. It was much more subjective and relied on the judge’s opinion of the program more. Yeah, the skaters would be docked for a fall, or if a landing wasn’t clean. But there would be times that seemingly flawless programs would get lower scores just because the judges didn’t like it. 

Music choices were a huge factor in playing to the judges… like I remember in the ‘94 olympics one skater used the instrumental theme from Jurassic Park, and I thought that was pretty bold when compared to the overwhelming number of Beethoven and Mozart pieces. 

Back to why I think it affects the oldest YoI skaters though… look at when they play with their music. They make bolder music choices in the short program: Intoxicated, Eros, Carabosse but fall back to more traditional/conservative in the free skate. (I do think Tale of a Sleeping Prince is a more conservative piece than Carabosse)

But look at the upcoming generation and their free skates - Minami does a boogie, Phichit chooses a movie piece that isn’t defined by western norms of music, Guang Hong’s Inferno, and Emil’s Anastasis all let them tell a story that nobody would have dared a decade ago because if the judge didn’t like the music it could affect scores. And since the Free Skate is worth more, that’s where the oldest skaters would have learned to play it cool and not rock the boat. 

It’s subtle, but I like that detail in how the age gap is presented in another way. 

a cruel katsudon

Yuri is such a bi icon. Down horrendous for both men and women.

Viktor and Yuuri Answer The Web's Most Searched Questions

“I’m Viktor Katsuki-Nikiforov!”

“And I’m Yuuri Katsuki Nikiforov!”

They turn to look at each other and grin, attempting to speak in unison.

“And this is the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.”

They’re a little off on the wording, but what is simultaneous is the way they break out into giggles right after saying ‘interview’. It’s only been a few seconds since the cameras have begun rolling, and Viktor is already feeling charmed by the pink tint staining his husband’s cheeks.

“Aww, and we even practiced that a few times!” Yuuri says, now donning a cute little pout.

“It was my fault,” Viktor automatically pipes up, before letting his heart-shaped smile take over his face. “I started speaking a half-beat too late because I was too busy admiring your pretty eyes, love.”

Giggles and hushed whispers immediately break out on the WIRED filming set, but Viktor only has eyes for the way Yuuri’s lips instantly morph, curving into a pleased, albeit shy smile. 

“You’re sweet, Vitya,” he murmurs, before reaching over to hold his hand. 

There’s not much space between them to begin with on the bench they’re seated on, but Yuuri closes that miniscule gap so that their thighs are pressed right up against each other. Viktor hopes the audience is grateful; the slight tension his love is now holding in his leg will give the cameras a nice view of his immaculate, muscular thighs, outfitted in the sleek trackpants that Mizuno specifically designed for him. (After some sleuthing, Phichit had informed the two of them that Kenjirou had gone ahead and bought four different pairs.)

Nyala – the WIRED production assistant in charge of this episode taping – then hands them the show’s distinctive looking question tableau. On it, are Google’s top ten most searched questions containing their names. They’re partially covered, which adds to the fun: they’ll be taking turns reading them aloud, while unpeeling the adhesive covering to reveal each query.

As they’d agreed earlier, he will read and answer the first question, so Yuuri holds the board steady.

“What did Yuuri and Viktor…”

Viktor pauses to draw out the suspense, and then whips off the adhesive in one rapid motion, his enthusiasm almost causing Yuuri to topple over.

“Oops! Sorry, Yuranya!” he exclaims, feeling a bit flustered as he helps his spouse right himself and presses a kiss to his temple. 

Nyala’s eyes are glittering with amusement, so he aims a sheepish smile at her before facing forwards.

“What did Yuuri and Viktor do before they met?” he reads off, feeling quite pleased with this clear opportunity to extol Yuuri’s praises (and, additionally, to lambast certain International Skating Union officials for not recognizing how talented he was prior to that silver medal win at the Barcelona Grand Prix Final).

“Well, the short answer is that we were both competitive figure skaters, but the long answer is more interesting! Let’s start with my Yuuri, because my side of things is boring, not to mention quite sad,” he chirps, not even batting an eye when his husband begins to splutter in protest next to him (“Vitya! Five gold medals at World’s is not sad!”)

But Viktor feigns an inability to hear Yuuri’s counter, and whips his phone out. 

One of the first things he’d done after they’d met at the banquet was to look up as many of Yuuri’s Senior division competitions as he could, hungry to expand his personal archives with any video or photos he could get his hands on. By now, his love is aware of his meticulous culling efforts, because he wears a pained expression as Viktor begins to talk and flip through his photo gallery.

“Where to even begin?” he says, allowing his voice to slide into that grandiose tone that Yurio claims “makes you seem even more punchable than normal”.

“Since we only have an hour for this taping, I will unfortunately have to limit myself to the year of Yuuri’s skating career before he and I met,” he continues on, making sure his annoyance is plain. “And, for those that don’t know, we met in December 2015 at the Sochi Grand Prix Final.”

It’s a testament to their many years of being together, because Yuuri doesn’t even tense at the mention of Sochi. He knows Viktor would never try to embarrass him by contextualizing the event in a way that makes him uncomfortable, and, besides, his spouse now shares the opinion that pole-dancing into your soulmate’s life is a pretty badass meet-cute. Even so, it had taken awhile to convince Yuuri’s anxiety of this, and Viktor owes a lot to their couples’ therapist for that mindset change. 

“Look at this picture of my beautiful Yuuri on the podium at Four Continents’ in February 2015!” he exclaims in triumph, holding his phone up so that the camera operator gets a perfect view. 

Taken in Seoul’s Mokdong Ice Rink is a photo of an adorable, 22-year-old Katsuki Yuuri, wearing a shy smile and holding a bronze medal. Next to him is an obviously ecstatic Celestino Cialdini.

“Now, no offense to anyone, but take it from me: my husband was severely underscored at that competition and should have been standing higher on that podium. Well before he ever broke my World’s winning streak, Yuuri was commanding audiences the world over with his stunning artistry. Particularly, his dazzling interpretation skills,” Viktor states declaratively, his tone brooking no argument.

Well, almost no argument. 

Yuuri makes a barely perceptible noise of disagreement, but it’s enough to make him turn and bestow his most unimpressed expression onto him, as if daring him to issue a rebuttal. 

“Something to say, Yusha?” Viktor prompts, a bit goadingly. “Do you wish to argue with “Living Legend” Viktor Katsuki-Nikiforov, who, I daresay, might know a little something or two about judging politics and biased scoring?”

His love gives him a light smack on the bicep, and when he replies, his tone is prim.

“If you want biased scoring to be the focus of this question, then I’ll have to bring up your European Championships score from 2013, where you were unfairly beat out for gold by our good friend, Christophe Giacometti.”

An “oooohing” sort of taunting sound ripples around the set, but far from flustering Yuuri, he just raises a brow and sets his jaw. (Viktor feels quite turned on at the look, as well as his protective instincts.)

“I know how the internet loves to spin things but there’s nothing to spin,” Yuuri continues, dryly. “Christophe, himself, made a big stir at the post-skate press conference about judging bias, and he still regularly tweets at the officials from that competition…so much so, that two of them have blocked him on Twitter.”

Viktor gasps with delight at the memory of this juicy event and his spouse’s answering smirk is all the permission he needs.

“Ok, let me set the scene for you all!” he eagerly volunteers, sitting up straighter on the bench. 

He makes a big show of clearing his throat and Nyala – who, evidently, has the patience of a saint – hides her smile behind her hand. It’s a wonder that she hasn’t redirected their attention back to the question list, yet.

“January 2013: Zagreb, Croatia,” he continues on, in the grave “I’m narrating a documentary” tone that he knows will make Yuuri laugh. “Twenty-three-year old Viktor Nikiforov takes his starting position on the ice of Dom Sportova arena. Unlike present-day, his hair is much more lustrous, and he has not yet needed to start using thickening oil as part of his nightly primping regimen.”

Yuuri smacks his bicep a second time.

—

Hope you enjoyed this ficlet! I adore writing post-canon interview/game content featuring sappy/extra married Viktuuri, so if I get the energy (and need the distraction from my WIPS *nervous laughter*) I may expand this into a proper fic.

If you’re also a fan of this type of thing, you may like my story on ao3 featuring their joint appearance on Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector Game series. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever written :)  

Yuri!!! on Ice (ユーリ!!! on ICE)

Yuri Katsuki and Victor Nikiforov get up close and personal on Phichit’s instagram in new poster art from December’s Animedia Magazine (Amazon US | Japan), illustrated by key animator Yuka Kudo (工藤裕加).

I will NEVER get over this arrow placement 🥹