There comes a certain issue when you’re the son of the notorious politician Anatoly Nikiforov — one that Victor is sure no other skater has to deal with.
“I can’t believe they’re trying to kill me during the Grand Prix Finals!” Victor yells at Yakov through his phone. “What if they end up hurting other people?! How are they going to cover that up!?”
“Your father’s enemies have a lot of power,” Yakov snaps out, “So if you don’t want to risk anyone else getting hurt, stick to the less populated areas while your father’s men get here.”
Gunshots resound behind him, bullets riocheting too close for his liking. He’s in the bowels of the stadium, in the back corridors rarely used, and can only pray that he stays alive and he doesn’t run into anyone else that could possibly get caught in the crossfire-
Just as he says that, he rounds a corner and comes across someone that’s clearly a skater, judging by their jacket. Fuck.
The skater startles. “Victor Nikiforov?” he stammers. Victor doesn’t have any time to respond, just keeps running, tugging the skater by his sleeve. He looks vaguely familiar, so Victor thinks he isn’t a hitman in disguise.
“Run!” he says by way off explanation, angry Russian yelling audible from behind them. The skater’s eyes widen, and he wrenches his wrist free and runs under his own power.
More gunshots, one coming so close that Victor has to jump to the side. “Are they trying to kill you?!”
Victor nods in lieu of wasting his breath, but instead of continuing to run, the other skater ducks into a side room. Which makes sense, as they’re after Victor, not him, so if he- Victor dismisses the man from his thoughts though, continuing to run instead, his legs starting to burn with exertion. Thank god he’d already skated.
And then, instead of gunshots behind him, there’s screaming. Victor whirls around in alarm, afraid that they’d found the other skater- only to see all four of his would-be-pursuers on the ground in various states of pain.
“My name is Yuuri Katsuki,” he says. “I’m skating last for the short program. I couldn’t let them hurt you.” There’s something dark in his eyes as he picks up one of the men’s guns and fire four shots, very deliberately, at all of them.
In that moment, Victor falls in love.
