Title: ain't givin' in till I get enough
Fandom: Yuri on Ice
Rating: Teen
Length: 1K
Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Author notes: To fandom_empire bingo prompt 'Perspective' and ficlet_zone prompt Garth Brooks songs, as well as to fan_flashworks prompt 'Doubt'. The song not identified in the story or summary is "Blind Ambition" from the Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie: Pyramid of Light soundtrack; Bakura Ryou is not in the movie, and Sailor Mercury is from a different anime franchise entirely. Also Wiktionary assures me си́ний is slang for drunk, as well as meaning indigo and other dark blues, and голубо́й is the polite slang for gay, as well as meaning azure and other light blues. 😸 And while both fics ought to stand alone just fine, "here like fire burning / o tremble not" takes place during the last scene break and may be helpful context for the last scene.
Content notes: It's not underage alcohol consumption by Japanese or Russian standards, but it is by US standards and the character who's twenty and drunk (and gay) is in the US at the time?
Summary:

Viktor Nikiforov 2014–15 Competition Programs

• SP: "Katie Wants A Fast One", Steve Wariner ft. Garth Brooks
• FS: "Standing Outside the Fire", Garth Brooks
• EX: "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", Whitney Houston

Theme: Desire

('The River' is too sad and lonely a song for Viktor to want to skate to, however much it resonates. 'Where Your Road Leads' by Trisha Yearwood is not sad, exactly, but the problem is it's not lonely. There is probably a copyright issue with using the lyrics he transcribed from that video clip as his theme for the season, but fortunately there is a much more concise way to put it.)

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Skate Canada, end of October 2013

The Japanese skater uses a step sequence for warm-up that is not exactly Viktor's from his first senior exhibition program, but it's close. It's better. Viktor can almost hear the lyrics: Don't wanna be outdone, I wanna be second to none, I wanna be the hero not a zero to everyone—he's not sure whether this skater is flattering or challenging him, or both.

Viktor would tell him he skates it better and wish him luck before his short program, but he would miss at least one of the first group by leaving the stands. Or during the public practice, but Katsuki Yuri is somehow always at the far end of the rink. He tries to while warming up before the free skates, without singling him out, but Katsuki has his earbuds in and an expression that suggests less that he is contemptous of his competitors, more that everyone in line of sight is beneath his notice. The other skaters in group two hear Viktor say "bon courage, bonne chance, and may the best man win"—one straightens his spine, one grins and gives two thumbs up, one snorts, and the only one older than Viktor says "I know you mean to mean yourself, but…" to general laughter—but Katsuki's coach has to tell him Viktor said that, and Katsuki's forehead wrinkles in disbelief.

(Viktor comes in first. Katsuki, fourth. A rematch at the Grand Prix Final is not out of the question and would give Viktor another opportunity to admire his physique at close range.)

He hasn't worked out whether the rink is part of a sports complex or a municipal park, but either way it has gardens and running/biking trails alongside the rink and racetrack and roller coaster, so Viktor goes for a stroll the morning of the exhibition gala. Enough of the trees are bare and brown that the main attraction is the rear view of the runner doing laps of the half kilometer or so around the little pond. Until a jogger with a spaniel passes Viktor, anyway, and then the main attraction is petting the good girl.

The runner skids to a halt beside them just as Viktor is deciding he should let the jogger get back to her run. "May I pet your dog too?" the runner blurts out, then catches Viktor's eyes, squeaks, turns bright pink under his blue-framed glasses, and bolts back the way he came.

Viktor shrugs at the confused jogger, smiling politely, and walks on.

There's a corner where the trees are still red and gold. The runner is there doing yoga stretches. Viktor doesn't linger. If he's a fan, Viktor should probably not be checking out his ass. Professional ethics, or something.

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A few days later, Viktor is watching the Cup of China livestream—the senior ladies' singles skaters aren't his competitors (though he hears one of the skaters who is was in junior ladies' before he was in senior men's), which means he gets to just enjoy watching the artists at work—when Chris texts him a Twitter link. It's a thirty-second video clip, two of many costumed people at an outdoor party dancing to something fast-paced and twangy. The one from the same anime franchise as Viktor's first senior exhibition program music is not the main attraction: off-rhythm and dressed to conceal any muscle he has, though both are in character for white-haired blue-striped-shirt boy whatever his name is, and the character's ancient pendant may be solid gold but the party-goer's pendant is bouncing around too lightly to be anything but painted plastic. (Don't ask how Viktor knows. He and Chris will take the secret of how that tooth got chipped to their graves.)

But the other. White V-neck crop top showing pale golden skin and taut core muscles, wide azure bows on the front of the shirt and the back of the skirt, heeled indigo knee boots just in case the indigo miniskirt did not call enough attention to that fine ass. Short black hair glinting blue, and blue-framed glasses Viktor just saw in Vancouver last week. The bottom edges of the lenses are uncovered; it's memorable, especially when attached to such a beautiful body.

(Come to think, the runner had short black hair and pale golden skin, too. Probably not the same person, though, and if this dancer is not a fan then it's okay to admire her. —Katsuki is a fan but he is also a competitor; it is different.)

Viktor rewatches a few times, then transcribes the seven seconds of lyrics slow enough for him to make them out into his 'possible skate music' phone note: going down till the sun comes up, ? giving in till I get enough, going round the world in end of clip. He pastes the tweet link beside it before going back to the livestream.

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That tweet is long deleted come the end of the skating season. C'est la vie. Viktor copied down the lyrics close enough to correctly to find the rest of the song online, and then the two-CD best-of-artist set that begins with the song, and then albums by other artists in the same genre that have collaborations with this artist. And Viktor has by now watched more than enough past Katsuki Yuri programs to know that Katsuki not only looks far better in both azure and indigo (and white and black into the bargain) than the miniskirted unknown does, but would probably look far better in crop top, heeled knee boots, and miniskirt as well.

He tells his costume designer to make his free skate costume look like he's being consumed by white-hot and icy azure flames, and he shows her a photo from Katsuki's junior skate as an ethereal blue Firebird as one of the visual inspirations. Fourth consecutive victories in the Grand Prix Final, Europeans, and Worlds, and many people surprised by his music choices, here he comes.

(Viktor is not attaching Katsuki's face to the daydream of a handsome man who understands both competition and artistry well enough not to ask Viktor to choose between him and the ice. He is not. Okay, maybe a little, but only because he's a little lonely, and Katsuki would be perfect if he were only interested.)