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14❄️

Practice goes smoothly enough for Javi the next day. Yuzuru is in the group next to him so they meet on the way out of the practice rink and exchange some brief greetings, then Yuzuru follows the coaches into the rink for his turn and Javi to the changing room to get the sweat off his body. He changes with a few people in his group, makes small talks and jokes to lighten the moods and soon steps into the shower stall. When Javi just shuts the shower room's door while balancing his dirty training clothes, towel and shower gel on his free arm, he almost drops his stuff because Yuzuru, who is not supposed to leave practice for another 30 minutes, is sitting on the bench and setting out clean a t-shirt and pants. Javi wonders if how many reporters camping since early morning inside the rink are left frustrated because of this troll. Yuzuru notices the intrusion and turns to Javi.

"I leave early." He said in a chimmy and nonchalant voice, waving aside all the expectation from the reporters and the sour taste he left in their mouths and cameras.

"People hearts are breaking out there", said Javi with a joking tone.

Yuzuru laughs, lightly and clearly. "They will see better soon." And Javi is sure he sees glimmers in his eyes when he smirks, victoriously.

Yuzuru does show better as the Games rolls on. His next practice, this time at the official rink, with Javi and some other familiar faces, is nothing far from his usual top-form practices with his own highly intense and focus bubble radiating dominating aura everywhere he skates pass. They refrain from holding conversation, allowing each other to focus, and weave through other skaters on the ice. Competitiveness in the air of the greatest stage is pervasive, tension slipping between breathes, silent scraping sound of blades gliding on the ice resonating in the sizable stadium, individual marks inscribed on the ice crisscrossing each other. Everything is familiar, but unfamiliar that the same time. Everyone in the skating world who is lucky and capable enough to be sent to international competition, regardless of significance probably submerge themselves in these experience for countless times, let alone someone who competes at the top like Javi, or like Yuzuru, or like anyone who is being absorbed into his own practice out there. Everything heaves up the nervousness but also excitement in Javi's stomach at any competition, at Sochi as well, but at Sochi, he succumbed to his nervousness and anxiety, which is the reason why he is still standing on the Olympics ice now, and he can't help but feeling a little thankful. He would have retired then, leaving intense, physically and mentally wearing competition to live a more peaceful and simple life, enjoying the warm sunshine in Spain with his family, his girlfriend, then maybe settling down with a marriage then children, alongside with establishing his little skating school. But continuing to compete was a right decision, a worthy one that brings Javi his sweet 2 world titles, and various European titles, which still remain incumbent, and fueling his journey up to here is no one else but Yuzuru and his perpetual evolution, never stopping challenging Javi, and everyone who is not Yuzuru Hanyu himself to catch up. The clock is running against him, so this time at least, he will try his best to catch up with the guy cladded in black UA who just landed a flawless combo out there, and somehow in his heart, and his mind, much clearer and more tranquil than at Sochi, knows he can.

The practice session before the short program day in the practice rink is much more relaxing than Javi has expected. He and Yuzuru exchanges smiles throughout their shared time on ice, running through their programs respectively. When they both come to the board to receive guidance from the coaches, Brian, Tracy, and Ghislain all flash them bright smiles.

"Your practice is good, and that makes me look good, too". Brian proudly looks at them with his warm, twinkling eyes, while Tracy and Ghislain break into a collective laugh.

Javi casts his eyes towards Yuzuru, who is tilting his head as if that could make him understand Brian's words easier, then turns his face back to Javi and flashes him a silly grin. He returns and they high-five each other before withdrawing some tissue to wipe their faces and drinking water to rehydrate themselves. When their assigned practice comes to an end, without prior discussion, both cool their body down with their familiar stroking session with the coaches at the Cricket Club, with Yuzuru smiling throughout the whole session, lightening the air. Javi has never reencountered this feeling since the day they were still young and nameless in the high-level skating world, the day when they could fool around comfortably without any tension looming, the day when official practices at competition could still end with them skating together, in a similar and almost habitual pattern. The nostalgic tanginess of old memories, like a breeze of fresh citrus and mint, lingers with Javi, and it helps him breathe easier amidst suffocating pressure of the Olympics, and he somehow guesses the younger man would feel the same. The old days drift through his mind, as if they were being projected right in front of his eyes, on the ice out there. He is reminded of a visit his family small garden where the fragrance of Mediterranean fruits having ripen under warm sunlight, he pampered him with reassurance, part of the heavy lump of uncertainty in his heart vanishing. Sometimes, it helps revisit something long forgotten.