if i was an animal and i knew i was being observed and researched i would do something super fucked up. but only once. never again. ruin their lives. keep them guessing.
Does anyone else think about what Viktor’s face must have looked like as he watched his fiance, the love of his life, his beautiful Yuuri, do the opening steps to Stammi Vicino? Stammi Vicino, which was Viktor’s lament to his own loneliness and, ironically, the very thing that brought them together? Do you ever think about Viktor standing there, waiting to go on, watching the man he loves in this beautiful jewel blue costume raise a hand to the sky, melancholy and painfully gorgeous. They are about to make figure skating history together and all Viktor can think about is the color of Yuuri’s hair in the blue light. Do you ever think about Viktor looking down at his ring and realizing that something good must have been watching this program when he did it alone, something powerful and benevolent, because his prayers have been answered in the best way he can possibly imagine.
Here are a few language headcanons, because I know you kids love them:
Viktor’s English doesn’t really get proficient until he’s in his late teens, probably after the Turin Olympics. He’s spoken French flawlessly since he was small, but English doesn’t come to him as quickly for a variety of reasons, so there are plenty of remnants of his pre-fluency days–interviews where his accent is thick and his articles are nonexistent. Viktor is embarrassed by them; Yuuri covets them.
Yuuri, on the other hand, has been more or less fluent in English since a young age, through the combined efforts of Minako and maybe his father. His time in America only improved his fluency. He speaks in a midwestern lilt, tends to speak with sibilant S’s, and drops double consonants. People have called his accent ‘feminine’–which is hilarious to Yuuri, because he grew up speaking Japanese in an incredibly gruff accent.
(An accent, by the way, that Viktor picks up)
There are many people, however, who don’t realize that Yuuri speaks such good English. He has a long history of letting others–his coaches, Viktor, Phichit–speak for him, and many people assume that this is because he doesn’t speak English well. Of course, the truth is that Yuuri just doesn’t want to talk to the press.
Yuuri is perfectly happy to let them think he’s not fluent–and even encourages this misconception by bowing-and-nodding his way through crowds of reporters.
Sometimes, when he’s caught by a reporter and has to say something, he deliberately says something to Viktor in Japanese, who then translates it into something more palatable than what he actually said.
“Tell her my legs feel like they’re going to fall off and I want to go the fuck home, Viktor.”
“Yuuri’s very tired right now! We’ll answer questions at the presser tomorrow, thank you!”
(This has gotten them in trouble a few times. Yuuri’s Japanese is difficult to understand for even a native speaker, unless that speaker also comes from Kyushu, but Yuuri receives a very cross Skype call from his mother after a press interview during which the microphone picked up Yuuri telling Viktor to tell a reporter that his toupee looked like a bird had made its nest on top of his head. Toshiya was in the background of this Skype call, trying to look stern and failing because he kept having to look off into the distance and push down his laughter. Mari wasn’t even trying–Yuuri could hear her laughter from the kitchen.)
Yuuri’s Viktor Nikiforov Obsessed Ass took a Russian minor in college. He’s conversational in Russian by the time Viktor drops into his life, and his fluency only increases from there.
It gets to the point where Yuuri and Viktor flip semi-randomly between Japanese and Russian. This is 50% because they don’t even notice themselves doing it anymore, and 50% because neither of them likes their marriage being surrounded by microphones and cameras 24/7.
Of course, there are large teams of dedicated fan translators who have made it their solemn duty to figure out what it is that Yuuri and Viktor are muttering about in the kiss-and-cry, because sometimes it’s boring stuff (Technical things, groceries, Makkachin’s next vet appointment) but sometimes it’s things like “I’m going to eat a whole cheesecake when this competition is done and you can’t stop me” / ”I’ll watch you.”
“Who on earth has this much time on their hands?” Yuuri mutters to himself, when someone sends him a link to an archive of translations, and Viktor just makes a vague noise and keeps scrolling.
just remembered how the last thing mafuyu said to yuki was “would you be willing to die for me then” and god i am thinking about the psychological impacts of screaming that at your boyfriend and then finding him dead. what the fuck.
Malagueña / Andalusian, 30, cisfemale, bisexual / pansexual, body positive, feminist, leftist, classic philologist and teacher.