Today’s Translation #771

Things to read while Can You Hear My Heartbreak is on vacation #2

A Song of Fiery Birds and Endless Winter

Summary:

“Why are you helping me?” Viktor was silent for a while. “Your skating makes everyone watching feel the love you have for this sport,” he then said quietly. “It has the power to revive a heart that has withered away. It’s what drew me to you.” What is he saying? Yuuri blinked, trying to process the words. “But I thought you love skating, Viktor.” Sochi, 2014 Figure Skating legend Viktor Nikiforov knows that these winter games will be his last, for not even the magic of the Olympics can melt the winter in his heart. Having just suffered an embarrassing defeat, anxiety-ridden Katsuki Yuuri scrapes together the pieces of his confidence for the men's individual event. Neither of them could have foreseen the sudden turn their stay in Sochi takes when Viktor watches Yuuri’s group practice. As the pair gets closer, Yuuri and Viktor realise that their encounter has brought to life more than new passion for the sport they love, and their Olympic dream is no longer the only dream they share. But what happens at the Olympics, stays at the Olympics—or so the saying goes.

Tags: canon divergence, alternate first meetings, Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, slow burn, depression, anxiety, Phichit is the most intrusive best friend, dorks in love, Vicchan lives

Words: 70,535, Chapters: 15

Art by loadingbones. Posted with permission of the artist. Do not repost.

This story was part of the YOI Daydreamer Big Bang that, unfortunately, never banged. But I posted it anyway because me, my beta and my artist had poured so much work into the project.

If you love yourself a cute slow-burn that is a homage to the figure skaters that inspired the YOI characters and that handles mental health issues sensibly, this story is for you.

This is by the way the story that ended up on some anti-rec list because "Yuuri is a creepy fanboy". Please judge for yourself.

Reblog appreciated 💙💜

high school au?? more to come???? maybe??????? endgame victuuri just so were clear

I see you, here in the darkness Blinding light right where your heart is.

Pair skate

Viktor Nikiforov from Yuri on Ice.

This is one panel of a larger project which I might never finish.

The phone cases of the skaters in YoI most often reflect something they care about, as we see with Yuuri’s poodle case and Phichit’s hamster one.

Viktor’s phone case is his Stammi Vicino outfit.

Because that routine is so recent, we know his phone case is relatively new. And from the images of him at the Sochi banquet, we know his phone case at that point was bright yellow. This means that Viktor ordered a phone case that represented Stammi Vicino — a routine that was important enough that he wanted to carry around a piece of it with him everyday.

Stammi Vicino is about longing for that life and love Viktor hasn’t had. It’s about his own loneliness and his frustration with his situation. At what point do you think he ordered that phone case? When did he decide that he needed a memento from it even once he had moved on to a new season? He didn’t have enough time to get a new case after seeing the video of Yuuri, so it had to be a choice he made based on his own interpretation of the routine. We even see him watching Yuuri’s video on a phone already bearing the case.

I like to think he got it after the Sochi GPF. After he had a wild, champagne-coated night, and realized that there were more important things than medaling at competition after competition. Stammi Vicino may have been something he skated, but it was about his life outside of skating — a phone case that connects his career with his feelings about his future would be the perfect ever-present reminder to begin making a life outside of the ice rink.

husbands

In the Rivals AU Chris keeps warning Viktor about how he’ll get his heart broken and how Yuuri doesn’t really care about him specifically. And then somebody sent @kazliin this ask and I had to