To Grab the Gold
Request: Could you maybe do a yurio x reader where the reader is a skater in the girls league at the same level as him. And though she almost always wins gold like her brother victor she’s always hard on herself saying she could do better. Either headcanons of how he would handle it or a Scenario please and thank you!!!!! Love work by the way!!!!!!!
Title: To Grab the Gold
Genre: fluffy, strays a lil into angst-y territory (but it should be fairly short)
Pairing: Yuri Plisetsky x Fem!reader
Notes: Okay, so thank you for this request! I’ve always wanted to write something about the reader being a sibling of Victor or someone, so this gave me the prime idea!
Otherwise, I feel as if I can relate to this idea in itself - being hard on yourself. It can literally be seen on this blog. It’s so nice and it makes me so happy to see that people enjoy the work I put out. So, I will thank you for that.
That said, I went with headcanons. Small warning, though:
These ideas will stray into territory that can be triggering. I would give it a specific label, but it is simply amplified insecurities, so if you deal with that - please proceed with caution.
KEY: (Yuri = Plisetsky, Yuuri = Katsuki)
Below the cut!
we have to cover this before anything else is said:
the figure skating world is brutal.
with that in mind, seeing as you had managed to jump the ranks as quickly as you did, people knew you as a formidable competitor.
yuri in particular knew how fierce of a competitor you were, seeing as he had trained with you and your brother victor under yakov for as long as he remembers.
so yes, while you two did grow up beside each other, you never really talked to anyone besides yakov, victor, and mila (from time to time)
in short, you two barely knew each other despite growing beside each other.
funny occurrence when you consider that he was of the few that knew of your habits when skating.
in similar fashion to your brother, you were almost a natural on the ice, and the way that you moved even off the ice was graceful yet intimidating.
it frankly shocked the other people competing against you in the senior division in which you debuted.
yuri was beside you the whole way.
literally.
when victor had made the claim that he was going to coach yuuri katsuki, he had suggested that you join him and train under him for the year.
you reluctantly agreed, though you also avoided saying anything to yakov as you weren’t as straightforward and recklessly fearless as victor is.
that said, yuri was a little disappointed and jealous.
he knew it was baseless, you were victor’s younger sibling, after all
what right did he have to keep you here?
what really bothered yuri was the fact that victor had made him a promise.
and he intended to make sure he kept it.
so when he showed up at the local ice rink out of the blue, you were left jaw-on-the-floor.
were you really surrounded by people that were purely impulse and nothing else?
you didn’t let the event prevent you from working on your senior debut pieces, though.
while yuri and yuuri were being coached by victor, it was only when they were done for the day that victor stood by and helped you with your senior debut.
you already had high expectations, after all - if you couldn’t hold up, what would happen?
you and yuri are the best new entries, so if either of you couldn’t hold up, what would go down if victor decided to quit coaching for competing in the next season and you had to go back to yakov?
what about if you had failed to grab even silver in your debut?
you knew you could do it, and you wanted the satisfaction that came with the draping of the medal around your neck, standing on the highest pedastal on the winner’s platform.
at least, that’s what you were trying to convince yourself to do.
you had been trying and failing to do an even more advanced jump than what you usually did.
and you wanted to use it in one of your routines
but the best you could do was the mount.
your landing was flawed at best, and a wipeout at worst.
it was starting to get to you.
many things swung around in your head.
‘is it my weight? is it being distributed incorrectly or did you just gain some?’
‘maybe it could be the routine itself. is it good enough to shock a crowd and win the gold?’
‘or, maybe, it’s just the fact that victor wasn’t able to focus and help you when you needed it most?’
the ideals that had been drilled into your head differed greatly from victor’s
and the fact that you had the expectation to live up to his abilities was starting to get to you for once.
normally, you’d just brush it off, but your competitive nature kicked into full gear and you felt the overwhelming need to avoid disappointing and losing.
you loved the feeling it brought to you. what else was there to say?
that, and you knew how victor could get when he had expectations.
just because you’re his family, doesn’t mean that you are exempt from his expectations of nikiforov gold.
which is why you worked your ass off.
you lost weight in favor of toning, you made sure to reach the rink before and after the three males entered and left.
more often than not, you would be eating a meal in your designated room in at the hot springs later at night, after your daily workout.
the new jump that you had been trying to accomplish was barely coming along
your routines were starting to slack.
you didn’t know what was going on, as things like this were normal, but they never reached this extent.
either way, you worked and worked and worked.
eventually, you had begun to skip dinner
you had begun to lose sleep
you had started to pass out at random times.
despite how much you tried to hide it and play it off as if everything was normal, everyone that saw you could tell that wasn’t the case by any means.
yuuri was trying to get you to stop and relax, but in your work-induced mindset led to you lashing out at him. no matter what he did, nothing worked.
yuri and victor had been aiming to get you to relax and stop working as well, but even they knew that you wouldn’t do that unless some more powerful entity forced you to.
that, and the sheer amount of disappointment that had started to rain over your being was starting to transform into anger.
you were beginning to have outbursts, your were beginning to perform as if you were a simple novice.
you were beginning to look as if you were going to fall apart after a single breath.
you failed to realize and care about your wellbeing until you wiped out on the ice and couldn’t get back up.
you were lucky that yuri had stayed back to get something he forgot, otherwise you might’ve been stuck there all night.
which is why you had to face the music and realize that this wasn’t the way to go about it.
he had made quick succession in making sure that you were okay as soon as he was exiting the rink and saw you passed out on the ice.
he panicked, frankly, but he made sure to get you off the ice and on a bench before calling yuuko over to tell her to call victor.
everything was moving fast, and he swore he could feel his heart racing in his ears as he saw you still on surface.
you looked pale, a weird mix of purple-blue and green, and the image left him speechless.
victor and yuuri rushed over to the rink as soon as they could, and when yuuri saw you his jaw fell to the floor
victor, on the other hand, ran to your side and picked you up.
he was able to notice the way you fell limp.
long story short, you looked dead.
it scared him senseless, and yuri could understand the sentiment.
over the time that he had spent in Japan, he had grown to appreciate the amount of work that you had put forth to succeed.
sadly, even he didn’t know that you would push yourself to this extent.
and he now knew why he became even more drawn to you.
you took pride in your abilities, but he never knew that you pushed yourself this far to achieve whatever goal you had set for yourself.
this event was what forced him to become aware of his feelings for you.
he could now realize why he always watched you, mesmerized at the way you carried yourself.
and he now understood why he wanted to make you feel safe.
after you were taken to the hot springs and taken care of, victor and yuri stayed by your side as you were still unconscious.
a warm towel was resting on your forehead and you were covered with a blanket.
for extra measures, they had even kept a small heater beside you to make sure that you didn’t freeze while resting.
“yuri, can i ask you something?”
“ah- what is it. victor?”
“if she decides to go back to yakov, watch over her for me.”
“...”
“i can tell. she has taken a liking to you, and i know you have taken one to her.”
“...”
“she trusts you, yuri. and after this, i fear that this could happen again, so please. make sure she takes a break.”
“...i promise, victor.”
“...thank you, yuri.”
victor left after that, patting yuri on the back
(he wondered what he failed to notice, despite his overprotective nature when it came to you.)
yuri sat there, overnight and into the next morning.
yuuri and victor came in to check on you, brought him breakfast, but everything the next day seemed to slow down.
eventually, you woke up, but you were lost. you were even more disappointed than you were before.
if you needed the cloth on your head changed out, yuri did it.
if you needed the heater turned on, he did it.
if you needed literally anything, he did it or got it for you.
otherwise, he’d just be silent and act as a safespace for you if you ever needed it.
similarly to how he might handle insecurities that you may have, he would be very careful with the subject.
he’d be a little awkward, though he’d power through for your sake.
after a few days of just relaxing and stretching, doing some light exercises (and i mean E X T R E M E L Y light exercises), he’d do some slight skating with you to calm you down.
if you wanted to see something from him on the ice, he’d do it for you.
hell, he even did his developing competition piece for you so you could have entertainment in analyzing his technique and ability.
he loved seeing the way your face would light up when you would watch him perform.
eventually, the time passed by.
you came to realize yuri plisetsky as himself completely, aside from just facing the persona that he projected to the media, people he worked aside, and to his fans.
it made you realize what you had been feeling the whole time.
you had been put on light work by victor, as he didn’t want to see this happen to you again, so weeks had passed before you went through your intense debut routines.
it was only on the night that the competition for who victor would coach came up that you were able to go through even a snippet of it.
yuri, following his loss, was distraught.
he still powered through the night, though.
when you saw him after the event, you asked him to join you on the ice.
you had a speaker set up on the edge of the rink, playing some lofi music to make sure the mood had stayed calm.
you two just skated around, no real reason as to why except to settle from the day.
“hey, yuri.”
“hmm?”
“you were amazing. as usual, but...”
“...but?”
“...i wanted to thank you.”
he stayed silent to let you continue, but you knew that he was listening. his skating had ceased just the slightest as he had been slightly ahead of you in the rink.
“i...i made a stupid mistake by failing to pay attention to my health, and i wanted to thank you for helping me.”
the silence that followed was comfortable, and as the both of you were very hesitant to say what loomed over your hearts, you were both already aware of what the both of you did meant.
‘i love you.’
the rest of the time in the rink was passed by you and him holding hands and making rounds around the rink
he even slipped some fancy ballroom moves in, making you flush and laugh. he did the same alongside you.
the next day, there was something melancholy in the air.
and even though you had told him that you wouldn’t be returning to yakov for the season, you did emphasize that you wanted to continue talking to him.
“hey, yurio!”
“how many times do i- don’t call me yurio!”
“not gonna happen. either way, before you leave, promise me something?”
“what is it?” (it was gentle, and the scene made victor, yuuri, and yuuko gush)
“i better see you on that pedastal kissing that gold medal, plitsetsky.”
“only if i see you up there as well. though you better be careful, or i am going to ignore it.”
“got it, got it. now...promise me?”
“i promise.”
