Moment of Truth

Chapter 29: Gold

As Yuzuru bows to the audience, I hold the single white rose I bought to give to him after his free skate. When he comes over to the Kiss & Cry, Coach Brian congratulates him on his performance. I stand off the side, knowing Yuzuru will come to me to grab his skate guards. He turns to me after Coach Brian is finished talking to him. I hold out his skate guards. I also hold out the single white rose in its plastic wrapping. Yuzuru looks surprised at the gesture but smiles widely. He pulls me into a tight hug. I hug him back. He softly thanks me. Then he pulls me over to the Kiss & Cry. I've never sat here because Coach Brian is usually with him, but Coach Brian is currently with Javier as he's up to skate.

"That was a great performance," I tell Yuzuru in Japanese. I hand him his towel and his water bottle from earlier. I also make sure he puts on his team jacket. For some reason, skaters always have to wear it during in the Kiss & Cry.

"I know, but I fell," Yuzuru says softly as he hold the rose I gave him. He smells it and smiles. He looks over at a camera in front of him and waves to it. I realize it's there and wave at it as well.

"It's okay, Yuzu. You received a great score in the short program so that'll push you past the other skaters."

"I'm still not happy about that score either."

"You are such a perfectionist, Hanyu. That was the third highest score of all time and you're still not happy. You're crazy."

"What can I say? I know what I want."

I roll my eyes at him playfully. We wait to hear Yuzuru's score. Yuzuru grabs a hold of my hand while they announce it. It's 187.37. It's not the highest Yuzuru has ever gotten, but it's enough to keep him above Nathan Chen and it might be enough to keep him in contention for gold. Yuzuru gives me a hug and bows to me. He also bows to Coach Brian who is near by watching Yuzuru get his scores. After hearing Yuzuru's score, we move out of the Kiss & Cry to watch Javier from the side. And it wasn't pretty. I don't know what happened to Javier out there, but I don't think it'll be enough to win him a medal, let alone gold. I know Javier won't be so happy about that. I'm definitely going to make him some cheer up food when we get back from Marseilles.

Yuzuru ended up with gold, making this his fourth consecutive win at the Grand Prix Finals. Javier fell short in his free skate and ended up at fourth place. I made sure to give him a huge hug after he left the Kiss & Cry. But Yuzuru pulled me off of him and we all laughed at him for that.

At medal ceremony, I watch as Yuzuru accepts the gold medal. Yuzuru looks like such a little goofball interacting with the bronze and silver medalists. Seeing him laugh and play with them on top of the podiums is so cute. Their smiles are worth the long hours and painful practices. I'm glad to be by Yuzuru's side through all of this.

After Yuzuru is done taking pictures and posing for every camera, Yuzuru comes off the ice. We head into the back area for the skaters. Yuzuru and I head to his dressing room. Once there, Yuzuru takes off his medal and places it around my neck.

"For you," he says as he goes change out of his free skate costume. "I know it's not nice because it's plastic, but it's still gold."

"You know you're supposed to put this around your coach's neck right?" I muse as I examine the medal. Well it's not really a medal since it's so light and made of plastic.

"Yes, but I thought you deserved it."

Yuzuru has just one of his practice shirts on before I grab him by the shoulders to make him face me. I place my hands on his face and bring his lips to mine. Yuzuru kisses back almost feverishly. He takes my hands off his face and holds them in his. We keep kissing in a slow but steamy pace. Kissing Yuzuru feels so good. I've kissed boys before, but none of them made me feel as good as Yuzuru does.

Once again, we're interrupted by someone clearing their throat at us. We pull away to see Coach Brian smirking at us. Yuzuru and I look at him awkwardly. We need to stop getting caught kissing. Or maybe we should've locked the door.

"Okay love birds, Yuzuru needs to get changed so we can head out to the gala dinner and we can't have the two of you playing smushy face all night long," Coach Brian scolds us while asking his head.

"Sorry, Coach," I apologize bowing to him. "I'll be outside."

I slip past Coach Brian and leave Yuzuru's dressing room. I stay outside of the door and wait for Yuzuru to finish getting changed. While I wait, I see Patrick walking in my direction. I wave at at him and he waves back. He comes over to me.

"Hey Patrick," I greet him once he's in front of me.

"Hey Marie. How are you?" Patrick asks me.

"I'm doing well. Did you just come from the rink?"

"Yeah. Just finished watching the woman's single skaters get their medals. What are you doing here?"

"I'm waiting for Yuzuru to get done changing out of his costume for the gala dinner."

"Ah. I see. Is that his medal around your neck?"

I look down at the medal and give a small smile. Patrick must have caught my smile. He gives me one back in return.

"He must really care for you, huh?" Patrick asks.

I nod my head swiftly. Patrick sighs briefly before giving me a mega watt smile. I smile back just because his smile makes me want to smile. Patrick looks down at his watch and realizes he must go and get changed for the gala dinner as well.

"I gotta go," Patrick starts to say. "But I'll see you around."

"I hope so," I respond offering my arms out for a hug.

Patrick leans in and gives me a hug. Before he lets go, he murmurs in my ear, "How could I compete with the champion? You were already his from the start."

Patrick then pulls away and waves at me as he walks away. I wave back in confusion as I watch his figure retreat down the hall. Then I realize what he meant. Yuzuru was never going to let anyone claim me as he was already doing it himself, even if he didn't realize it. I look back down at the medal and smile to myself. Just another way of marking me as his.