A Crack in the Ice

Chapter 5

Once we had gotten in the plane, we quickly figured out our seating arrangement. Sarah was sitting with Elyse, Yuri with Viktor, Lilia with Yakov, and I was by myself.

Once we were up in the air, I sighed as I looked over at Sarah, as we were sitting across the aisle from each other. "So, Sarah, how did you actually meet Elyse?"
"Quite simple," Elyse said. "We met on this online service called Miiverse. ...unfortunately, it shut down about a year after the Nintendo Switch came out..."
"...but how were we able to keep in contact?" I asked.
"I was able to convince her to get a Wattpad account, then I got her to get a Kik account, then she got me to get a Discord account, then we both realized we had gmail, so we started talking on Google Hangouts."
Elyse nodded in agreement. "That pretty much sums it up."
"Interesting, I guess people can meet in the oddest of ways," I slightly mumbled under my breath in Russian.
Sarah groaned. "Come on, Yurio. It isn't that weird."
"...how were you able to figure all that out?"
She sighed. "I'm not as stupid as you think I am when it comes to Russian, Yurio. Because, you know, sometimes I think you can be a plaksivoy sukoy when you don't get your way."
I slightly growled at her comment. "Yeah, well you can be one too."
"Hey! Découpez vous deux!" Elyse suddenly shouted at the two of us.
Sarah and I both looked at her, equally confused, and spoke in near perfect unison. "Um, what?"
Elyse sighed. "I said 'Cut it out you two'."
"Well, I would prefer if you didn't shout at me in French," I said.
"Can't make any promises," Elyse said as she shrugged her shoulders.
"Amerikantsy mogut byt' nastol'ko isporcheny," I mumbled under my breath.
I then felt my phone vibrate, and looked at it. A text from Sarah. We are not all spoiled, you know. 
Whatever... I responded with a sigh

About half an hour later, we were about halfway through the flight, and I looked at the row behind Sarah and Elyse, which was where Yuri and Viktor were sitting, Viktor in the aisle seat, Yuri in the window, who was asleep. "Hey, are you planning to do anything for Yuri's birthday this year? I mean, it lands between the Rostelecom Cup and the Grand Prix Final."
"I was actually planning to take him back to Hasetsu for a few days," he said.
I nodded. "Interesting. I personally don't really like that the Grand Prix Final is before Christmas," I mumbled.
"And why's that?" Viktor asked.
"...I have my reasons," I said before turning to face the window.
"...I think I know what you're talking about," Elyse suddenly said.
"Govno..." I mumbled. "...did Sarah hear any of what I just said?" I asked, turning to face Elyse.
She shook her. "Nope. She's actually asleep with her headphones on."
"Thank god..." I said with a sigh of relief.
"So...what is it, then?" Elyse asked.
"...I'm not going to tell," I said with a sigh. "I guess you'll have to wait and find out at the Grand Prix Final, which is being held in Vancouver this year."
"Oh, you can bet that I will be there," Elyse said with a slight chuckle. "I'm just not really that fond of going overseas, but I do it when I need to, I guess."
I only let out a sigh in response, and leaned back in my chair. I had a whole plan set up for the night after her short program. It was going to be perfect, and there was nothing that could ruin it. I kept on playing out the event in my head over and over again, yet I can never find a way to set things off course.
I then put my headphones in, and listened to my music for the rest of the flight.

===

By the time we had gotten all of our luggage, it was closer to ten. And by this point, Elyse had already left, as she was staying at a different hotel than we were.
I looked over at Sarah. "You sure you want to drive to the hotel? We won't be getting there until closer to midnight."
"I'm positive," she said with a sigh, looking at the scrap piece of paper that was left with the keys to her car. "You guys stay here. I'm going to go and fetch the car. Lilith said she left it in the cell phone parking lot thing, and I think it's about ten minutes from here, so I'll need to go and get a cab."
With a nod, the five of us waited for her to come back.

When she did, she pulled up in her Chevy, sure enough, a small U-Haul attached to the back. She put the car in park, and got out. "Here. I'll open the trailer. Put your luggage in."
Once we were done, we had to figure out how seating was going to work.
"I want front passenger," I said.
"Actually," Sarah mumbled, "I think it would be better if someone else sat up front."
"...like who?" I asked.
"Lilia or Yakov."
"I'd gladly sit up front," Lilia said.
"I'll sit with Yakov," Viktor piped in.
"...and that leaves me with Yuri," I mumbled.
Yuri sleepily rubbed his eyes. "I really don't mind...I'll probably be sleeping the whole way there...too much...jet lag," he said with a yawn.
"...fine," I said with a sigh. "As long as you promise not to try to do...anything weird to me."
"I promise," Yuri said.
With a sigh, we all loaded into the car, and began our two hour drive to the hotel.

===

At one point, other than Sarah, I was the only other person in the car that was awake. "Hey...Sarah," I said in a low voice.
"Yeah? Is something wrong, Yurio?"
I shook my head. "No...are we almost there?"
"Yeah," she said, putting her right signal on. "The hotel is right off this exit."
"Good..." I mumbled. "I'm just gonna change and cuddle up with you once we get there..."
"Sounds good to me," Sarah said with a snicker.