A Crack in the Ice

Chapter 9

I tightly held Sarah's hand as Lilith took to the ice.
"She knows love always wins," Sarah mumbled under her breath.
"That's true, but your cousin is really good at conveying feelings," Elyse said, suddenly speaking up from behind.
I quickly glanced at her. "Oh, hey Elyse."
"Hey," she said as she stood on the other side of Sarah. "I must say, your cousin is truly one to beat. I can see why you're big rivals."
Sarah nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We've been rivals ever since we both stepped on the ice. I mean, it was hard enough growing up with her, but on the ice...that's mainly where we fought."
I looked at Sarah as Lilith went into a layback spin. "Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"Well," she sighed, "my parents died when I was young, so I spent my childhood with Lilith and Leo."
"Interesting," I said as I turned my attention back to the ice.
Lilith went in for a triple axle, which was flawlessly executed.
"Honestly, I'm surprised she didn't put any salchows into her short program," Sarah said.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"She's really good with them," she mumbled as Lilith did a triple salchow-double loop-triple flip combo.
"I see what you mean," I said as I gently bit my finger.

We continued to watch her program, and then I heard Sarah gasp as Lilith went intoba Y-spin ankle hold.
"...something wrong?"
At first, without any words, she let go of my hand, and backed away from the rink. "Th-this isn't possible...! She's n-never been able to-"
She was cut off as Lilith went in for a jump. Just by the takeoff, I could tell it was a salchow. One...two...three...four rotations!
"Wh-wha...?" I said, confused. "A quadruple salchow...? How did she..." I then turned to look at Sarah, but she...was gone.
"...dammit," I mumbled under my breath.
I looked at Elyse. "Stay here and look for Sarah. I'll start looking elsewhere, okay?"
She nodded, and I ran off, looking for her.

===

As I was searching, I ran into Yuri.
"Yurio? Is something wrong?" he asked.
I sighed. "Sarah. She..ran off when Lilith pulled off that quadruple salchow."
Yuri bit his lip. "...this isn't good. Come on. Let's go look for her."
I nodded. "R-Right..."
I then froze as I heard the announcer over the intercom who gave the scores. "And the score for Lilith Calian's free skate is...124.49."
Yuri gripped my arm. "Yurio. Don't worry about that right now. We need to find Sarah."
I nodded, and we ran off.

When we found her, she was sitting on a bench, crying.
"Wh-why...? I-I did my b-best...but she still beat me!"
I sighed, and tried to walk over to her. "Sarah, you need to-"
She cut me off. "Y-Yurio! Shut up! I-I don't need to talk to you right now. "I-I want to be l-left alone..."
"Sarah, I know you're better than this. You need to toughen up, and face the truth. There is no running away from this. Lilith won this competition, yes, but there's always next time! You cqn prove to her at the Grand Prix Finals that her victory here today was by sheer chance!"
"You d-don't understand!" she spat at me. "J-just....please! Leave me alone!"
"Sarah...I..."
The truth was, I had no clue what I should say or do. Under normal circumstances, I'd probably give her a kiss, but right now, the only thing that would do would be making her more upset.
Then I figured it out. With a sigh, I walked over to Yuri.
"I have a job for you," I whispered.
"What is it?" he whispered back.
I took a deep breath. "...trust me that I won't go crazy on you for doing this...but I need you to kiss Sarah."
Yuri bit his lip, and nodded. "...alright. I'm going to take your word, and I'll do it."
I nodded, and watched as he walked over and sat next to her. "Sarah, I need to talk to you."
She turned away from him, clearly not interested. "...what do you want..."
He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Sarah, you need to listen to me. This isn't like you to crack under pressure. You need to have confidence in yourself."
"That's e-easy for you t-to say," she said, wiping tears from her eyes.
"Sarah, I know exactly how you feel," Yuri said with a sigh. "Remember when I almost lost it at the Cup of China that one year?"
She nodded as she slowly turned to face him. "Y-yeah...why...why do you ask...?"
Yuri embraced her in a hug. "Then you know that you'll be fine. Though Lilith beat you, that doesn't mean your season is over. In fact, it opensj up a whole new window. It gives you time to improve. You'll be able to show your cousin how much you've grown. You need to keep Faith, okay?"
Sarah nodded, and squeezed him a bit. "Promise that neither you or Yurio will leave my side this year."
"I'll try my best to keep that promise, okay?" he somewhat whispered into her ear as he tucked some hair behind her ear.
She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thank you Yuri...and you too, Yurio."
"Not a problem," Yuri said, stroking her hair.
He then shot me a glance, as if asking if I still wanted him to do it, and I nodded.
Yuri then took Sarah's chin in his hand, producing a small gasp, and drew her in for a kiss.
I only sighed to myself as it happened.
Sarah was obviously surprised by Yuri's action, but she did kiss him back.
They held the kiss for a bit, and just by looking, I could tell that they, without a doubt, were in a relationship before at some point. Yuri then started to trail his hands to the back of her skating unitard, and I cleared my throat.
"Ahem."
Yuri slightly jumped, and then immediately broke away, and turned to face me. "A-ah...sorry Yurio...I got carried away..."
"It's fine," I mumbled.
Sarah's face was a bright red. "Y-Yurio...did...did you actually agree to letting Yuri do this...?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I honestly thought that it was the only way to get you out of your piss-poor mood."
"Well...you were right about thst," Sarah said with a nervous chuckle as she scratched her head.
Yuri sighed. "Anyways, we should head back now. The award ceremony will be staring soon."
I nodded. "Right.