✍🏻 Little Matchmaker

2 - According to Plan

Akira was sitting on the bed and was carefully cutting up a sheet of paper into smaller rectangular ones with a proud smile on his face.

Just a while ago he sneaked out from his bed and printed out his own business cards that he designed.
And tomorrow he will finally meet his idol. Hanyu Yuzuru.
He swallowed on empty and tried to focus on the task at hand.
What wasn't adding to his stress level was that his mum still seemed completely disinterested in her future husband.
Anytime he tried to bring up the topic of Hanyu in the past week, she kept shrugging her shoulders and soon changing the subject to something that she found more interesting.
But anyway, the first steps should always come from the man, no? And he had a plan.
He knew that all the romantic comedies mum made him watch would eventually pay off.

First, he will have a man-to-man talk with Hanyu. Just casually chatting about the girls at the rink and then, just as by the way, he will point at his mum sitting at the benches and mention that his sister is single.
And of course, sooner or later Hanyu will find out that she is actually his mum, but at that point, he will be already in love with her. And he and Hanyu would be also best friends, so it wouldn't matter. He wouldn't lose his interest in her for having a kid as the others did.

He cut out the last business card and arranged all of them into a neat pile, stuffing them into his backpack. An addition to his second plan. Brian Orser.
Because he was the one he needed to impress with his skating skills, Hanyu being a coach but working under Orser.

So the morning was reserved for getting Hanyu Yuzuru interested in mum and his evening session for getting Mr. Orser interested in his skating because Sophie would not be there and he would have a chance to talk to him alone.
He will first give him the business card and introduce himself, then tell him he wants to be coached by his team. And probably Mr. Orser will be skeptical about that because he is only a novice, but then he will just say 'watch this' and will go to the rink, jump the perfect double Axel with the same entry and exit as Hanyu does. Being not only the only novice but also the junior who can do that.
And Mr. Orser will be so amazed that he will call Hanyu over and ask him to do it one more time.
And he will and both of them will be cheering for him and be all amazed and all that.
Akira grinned widely just picturing the scene behind his closed eyes.

Then he will arrange the details of the transfer and when mum will come to pick him up, he will introduce her to his new coach and they will move to Canada before Christmas. Or maybe after Christmas, because a wedding in the snow in Japan would be actually really cool.
It was a perfect plan. And he was confident it will work out.
So he turned off the night lamp and slipped under the duvet, for a moment fighting with the excitement but in the end falling asleep quite quickly.
Because the plan was flawless.

__________________

The first hiccup came right when he saw Hanyu leaning against the rink's barrier from the outside and just watching the skaters gliding around.
And Akira lost his words. He was just several meters from the coolest guy on the planet.
Yuzuru was dressed all in black, looking as glorious as he imagined him to be. Smooth hair combed to the side and a figure shaped perfectly for the best sport on earth.
Akira looked at his own arms and legs, wondering if he will also soon look like that if he keeps up with the training. And most of all if he also grows up to the same height.
But now he had to first find the guts to actually talk to him and pretend like it's not a big deal.

He looked around if he would spot Yuki, but she didn't show up at the rink for several days now and today was no exception.
So he closed his eyes, took several deep breaths, and skated towards his idol.
And the moment he was just almost at the edge he turned around and did a quick lap around the rink.
Attempt number two was the same. Also the third and fourth.

Akira bit his lip and skated to his things. He took a piece of chewing gum from his backpack to feel cooler, whipped his head around to casually fling his hair from his forehead, and then finally skated towards Hanyu, chin up.
This time actually stopping in front of him.