Hearts as Fragile as Glass

Chapter 3

Hearts as Fragile as Glass

Chapter 3

Yuuri left AP Chemistry with an impending need for sleep and what seemed like the start of a cold. He couldn't think of any way his day could get worse. Luckily for him, it was my last class of the day.

Of course, he forgot it was also his first day of ice skating club.

He was halfway back to his dorm when he realized he needed to be on the other side of campus. "Oh god, I can't believe I'm going to be late the first meeting!" He didn't know his feet could run that fast. By the time he made it to the rink, the door had already been closed. He opened it, embarrassed, and sat at the end of the bleachers with everyone else.

He glanced at the other students in the club with him. He saw Phichit sitting on the other end, waving to him, but Yuuri didn't think it would be a good time to walk over. He also saw Viktor talking to his friend Chris, along with the other Yuri and Georgi.

"Good to see that Mr. Katsuki chose to join us," Yakov said, before looking back down at his notes, "Now that you're all here, it's time to divide you into your groups."

Groups? How much had Yuuri missed? He guessed that he'd just have to ask his partner what they were supposed to be doing. He watched as Yakov assigned the students into groups of two.

There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to his choices; some of them looked like best friends, while others seemed like they'd never even known each other. He didn't even separate by grade, which was something Yuuri had expected him to do. He watched as a very uncomfortable freshman was forced to stand next to a junior Yuuri knew all too well: JJ, the loud and annoying kid in half his classes who wouldn't shut up about his girlfriends and "academic talents."

He started wondering: what if he did get grouped with someone like JJ? He scanned the other students still remaining on the bleachers. They didn't seem arrogant or anything. Right as he turned his head back to face Yakov, he heard his name being called.

"Yuuri Katsuki, Viktor Nikiforov."

Yuuri felt his face go red. Why did it have to be Viktor? Well, he had no reason to not want to be with the senior, of course, but it just felt weird, especially after the day before. He watched as Viktor stood up and walked to where the other groups were standing. With no other plan, Yuuri joined him.

"Hello again, Yuuri! Isn't great that we're partners?" Viktor said rather enthusiastically, putting an arm around his shoulder. Yuuri flinched slightly, but didn't move the older boy's hand. He could hear himself screaming Why? in his head, but stood still, blood still rushing to his face.

"H-hi, Viktor." He finally mumbled quietly, increasingly aware at the amount of time Viktor's arm had been wrapped around him. The silver-haired senior hadn't seemed to notice, and only moved his hand back when it was time for them to go on the ice.

Yakov had instructed the members of the club to skate around the rink for 3 laps to see how good of skaters each of the students were. It was then Yuuri realized that there weren't many experienced skaters there. He had stumbled when he first got on ice of course, but like riding a bike, easily got back into the movements he had spent so much time on as a kid. He could see the others all looking at him with jealousy, but most were envious of Viktor's incredible skating ability that far surpassed Yuuri's own.

Viktor glided to where Yuuri was skating, no doubt ready for conversation. He looked down on him with his beautiful blue eyes as he said, "Impressive! I didn't know you were this good at ice-skating."