Chapter Text
Yuuri woke up in the morning on December 4th, two days before the Sochi GPF. He was sleeping in a hotel room, as he and Celestino had gotten to Sochi early to try and let his anxiety settle before the competition.
It wasn't working.
The entire time Yuuri had been in Sochi, he was paranoid that he would run into someone who recognized him, or worse, his competitors. Even though Yuuri doubted many people would recognize him, the thought of someone walking up to him in the middle of the street terrified him.
How he had even made it to the GPF was a mystery to Yuuri. He was a dime-a-dozen skater, he didn't have the talent or skill to keep up with the likes of Christophe Giacometti, Jean-Jacques Leroy, and definitely not Viktor Nikiforov.
Yuuri decided that he might as well get up, he still had to practice after all. Getting out from under the covers, Yuuri shivered in the cold hotel room. He had been feeling off for months now, everything he did felt wrong.
It was... unsettling. He felt it in his and Phichit's shared apartment, at the Detroit rink, college, the grocery store, on the streets, and everywhere he went.
He hadn't told anyone about it, he thought it was just his anxiety. His anxiety had overwhelmed him in the past, but in the back of Yuuri's mind, Yuuri knew this was different. His anxiety had never been as intense and constant as this.
Yuuri stood in his hotel room, a cold breeze chilling him even more. Russia really was freezing in winter.
Wait. Breeze?
Yuuri looked at the window, the curtains were drawn open and the window was cracked slightly. 'That's weird, I swear I didn't leave it open last night...'
Yuuri walked over to the window, peeking out before shutting the window, making sure to lock it. He went to his suitcase and pulled out some running clothes, putting on extra layers so he wouldn't freeze.
When stripping his night clothes, Yuuri got a sinking feeling. He rushed to put on his clothes, not wanting to feel as uncomfortable as he just did. 'Why am I feeling like this? '
Grabbing his keycard, phone, and earbuds, Yuuri made his way out of the hotel, taking off onto the streets of Russia. Yuuri started jogging, tuning out the world around him. He focused on the music pounding in his ears, in time with the pounding of his steps.
He ran around the local area for well over an hour, trying to keep the nagging feeling out of his mind. As he slowed to a stop outside the hotel, he leaned over to catch his breath. Running had always been a good exercise to test his stamina.
Walking up to his hotel room, as he neared his door, Yuuri heard a crashing noise coming from inside.
'What the hell...' Yuuri quickly swiped the keycard, barging into the room. He swept the room quickly, looking around the room for what had made the noise.
Seeing nothing, Yuuri walked into the bathroom and closet, nothing was out of place. There was no trace of anything happening in the room during the time Yuuri was gone. 'Maybe it didn't really come from my room. Maybe I'm just hearing things.'
His phone ringing cut through the silence in the room. He looked at the contact, it was Celestino. He accepted the call, "Yeah, Coach?"
"Yuuri remember you need to be at the rink in half an hour, we really need to work on your quad toe-loop, and iron out your triple axel."
Yuuri nodded, "Mhm, okay, I'll be there," he said absently.
There was silence on the other side of the line, Celestino mumbled something about the rink before hanging up. Yuuri dropped his phone to his side, staring blankly at the wall.
He took a quick shower, changing into clothes to practice. Leaving the hotel once more, Yuuri decided to walk to the rink. He enjoyed the outdoors, and with the weird noise coming from his hotel room, he needed some time to think.
The GPF was only days away, and this would decide everything for Yuuri. He and Celestino had already discussed his coach's need to move to Thailand with Phichit so that he could train in his motherland. With Phichit as the most up-and-coming Thai skater, Celestino needed to be able to focus on him, which he couldn't do with the number of students he currently had.
Yuuri was also homesick. He hadn't been home for over 5 years, so he would be returning to Hatetsu once the competition was over. This could be his last performance, so he was ready to make this his best performance yet.
Well, not actually ready. Yuuri wanted to be ready, but it was hard to connect his mind to his body. His technical scores usually suffered due to his anxiety, and he was not hopeful that this competition would be different. He knew it wouldn't be.
Once he got to the rink, he quickly laced up his skates, doing a couple of warm-up laps on the ice before Celestino came out so he could start practicing. He started with singles and ran through them before moving on to doubles, and continued until quads.
"Alright, Yuuri run through your toe-loop, we need to make sure your form stays tight through the whole jump." Yuuri nodded, skating around the rink before building up speed to complete the jump.
Yuuri flew into the air, spinning around three rotations before he realized he had underrotated the jump. Falling towards the ice, Yuuri tried to save himself from a harsh bruise, landing on two feet, and stumbling to the ground.
"That's okay, Yuuri, try it again."
Yuuri did so, trying to land the jump, again and again, each time getting into his head. Eventually, Celestino had Yuuri take a break, getting him an ice pack to hold onto one of his legs from where he took a particularly nasty fall.
Why couldn't Yuuri just do the jump? He knew he could do it, he had done it perfectly many times during practice and on his own before. Yuuri took off the ice pack and went to the locker room. Yuuri took out a pill bottle from his bag, popping two anxiety pills into his mouth.
Despite doctors not recommending that he use his pills while skating due to the higher risk of injuring himself, Yuuri didn't care. He needed this feeling to settle down.
Why couldn't he handle his emotions like a normal person?
Yuuri left the locker room, Celestino calling for Yuuri to get back on the ice. For the rest of the practice, Yuuri tried his jumps and routine in a haze. He landed some but still fell on most. While leaving the rink, Celestino stopped Yuuri by the door.
"Yuuri, please don't feel discouraged by today. You can still do well at the GPF," Celestino's voice was confident, but Yuuri knew he was just putting up a front for this last season. Celestino should really already be preparing in Thailand for Phichit's next season.
"Thanks anyways, Celestino." Yuuri nodded to his coach, walking back to the hotel. Many of his competitors were arriving today and tomorrow, so Yuuri felt the need to hide and hole up in his room. Everyone was so intimidating, and he knew that he would just stumble over his words.
It was embarrassing, hiding from interactions like he did, but he had to. The next couple of days would be chaotic, Yuuri just knew. Chris had already told him during his last Junior competition, that at the first GPF that they were both at, Chris would take Yuuri out clubbing as soon as the competition was over.
While that could be fun, Yuuri really wasn't in the mood for it. Not after what's been happening lately.
Walking through the hall to his room, Yuuri was hesitant to open the door. 'What if what made the sound earlier is back? ' Quietly scanning the keycard, Yuuri opened the door without a sound.
It was hard to see without the lights on, Yuuri thought he could see someone outside his hotel room, outside the window. It was a black, tall figure. The figure moved slightly out of view, placing something on the outer windowsill before leaving.
Yuuri almost thought he had imagined it. How could a person get up to a third-story window so easily?
Walking into the room, Yuuri made his way to the window. He hesitantly looked out the glass, hoping something wouldn't be on the windowsill. 'Please don't let there be something. Please let me have imagined it.'
Yuuri looked at the windowsill, there was a black, squarish object taped on it. Yuuri leaned closer to it, trying to figure out what it was. 'Is it a device of some kind? Why would someone leave a device on my windowsill? Maybe they messed up the rooms...' Either way, Yuuri was confused as to why someone would put a device outside a hotel room.
Yuuri pondered that for a moment before an unsettling thought crept into Yuuri's mind, 'What if it's a recording device? '
The square did have a circular lens in the front, but why would someone want to record someone's hotel room? Why would someone want to record someone in their hotel room? It just didn't make sense.
As much as there was a possibility that someone got the wrong room, 'Maybe they meant to record Viktor Nikiforov instead,' Yuuri knew that would be unlikely, as from the window you could clearly see into the room and could see things that identified the room as Yuuri's.
Now that Yuuri knew it was a recording device, there was the question of what to do with it. Should he throw it in the trash? Should he report it to someone? Should he leave it there? That last possibility seemed like the worst, as whoever recorded him could continue to do so.
'What if they're recording me right now? '
Making up his mind, Yuuri opened the window and quickly grabbed the camera. Holding the camera in his hand, he chucked it down onto the floor. It cracked, and Yuuri stepped on it, squishing and breaking it completely.
Yuuri closed and locked the window, pulling the curtains closed completely. Taking a deep breath, Yuuri felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. The feeling wasn't completely gone, but it lessened.
Finally, after months, it felt like he wasn't being watched. Yuuri didn't want to think about it, but Yuuri knew what this could mean. The paranoid feeling he's had for the past couple of months, only lessening now that he's destroyed an actual camera that had been watching him.
It was too close to the Grand Prix Final. He couldn't worry about this right now. He needed to focus, and telling someone about this would only dig up more drama that would take away his focus even more.
Making up his mind, Yuuri knew what he would do. He would keep this a secret for now, and after failing at the GPF, he would tell Celestino. They would figure out what to do about it then. Not anytime earlier.
With the device broken, Yuuri slumped down onto his bed. Celestino would kill Yuuri for not immediately telling him about the camera, even more if he found out Yuuri felt like he'd been watched for months now, but Yuuri didn't care.
Yuuri felt his eyes close, letting the darkness consume him as he drifted into the world of sleep.
"Oh Yuuri, my Yuuri, please don't ever destroy something of mine again." A mysterious man said, caressing Yuuri's sleeping face. He leaned down, his breath tickling Yuuri's cheek. "I hope to properly meet you soon, my Yuuri. Maybe then you can make it up to me for breaking my camera. All is forgiven, baby."
In his sleep, Yuuri stirred, feeling something wet hit his neck, a weird sensation lasting for what seemed like forever in his dream.
The man stood up, smiling down at the black-haired man sprawled naked on the bed. Quietly, the man walked out of the hotel room, closing and locking the door behind him.
On the morning of December 5th, Yuuri woke up feeling weird. He felt bare.
Turning around in the bed, Yuuri pulled the covers up closer to him, frustrated when they wouldn't move. He was cold and didn't want to get up. Yuuri kept trying to get under the covers, quickly giving up. Opening his eyes, Yuuri looked into the light-filled room, looking around his hotel room to see where the light was coming from.
'I swear I didn't leave any lights on...'
When Yuuri saw the window curtains drawn open, he was shocked. Not only were the curtains that he closed last night open, but the window was also unlocked and open, letting the freezing Russian air drift into the hotel room.
'And I definitely closed and locked that window.'
Looking down at the bed and himself, Yuuri was terrified. The clothes he fell asleep in were no longer on his body, instead folded up nicely at the edge of the bed. Yuuri ran to the bathroom, going straight for the toilet. Yuuri gagged into the toilet bowl, throwing up what he had eaten for dinner the night before.
He shakily stood up, looking into the bathroom mirror. On his neck, there was a large, dark purple bruise. 'What the fuck.' Trailing his hand over his neck, the spot was very tender. It was obvious what the bruise was, and Yuuri was disgusted.
Someone, likely the person who was watching him, somehow got into his hotel room, took his clothes off, and sucked a huge hickey onto his neck and jaw.
At this point, Yuuri should go to the police. Yuuri only truly knew that he was being watched for a day, and the person had already gotten to him. Touched him. Maybe if he told Celestino they could tell the JSF, and they could deal with it.
They would probably just notify the police, but at least the police could potentially find out who was watching him.
The only thing holding him back was the thought of someone he knew finding out. His family, friends, competitors. Anyone finding out would be mortifying.
Yuuri would just make sure to lock the window and doors of his hotel room. He was only in Sochi for a couple more days, he could make it that long without telling anybody.