LINKDING

Summary: The summer before Viktor Nikiforov's senior debut, he met Katsuki Yuuri at a joint skating/ballet training camp. The two of them quickly became inseparable...until Viktor broke Yuuri's heart. Now, twelve years later, Yuuri is a rising Hollywood star, Viktor is contemplating retirement, and Yuri Plisetsky needs a ballet coach for his senior debut. Luckily, Lilia happens to know the perfect candidate. Based on Jane Austen's Persuasion ➤ a Viktor/Yuuri YoI fic that's retelling the story of Persuasion ➤ but, and this is key, with the genius idea of casting viktor in the role of anne, and yuuri in the role of capt wentworth ➤ and hot damn the fic takes this premise and runs with it beautifully ➤ I was kicking my feet with delight regularly as I read! ➤ excellent characterisation and fun alterations from canon ➤ 50k words

Summary: <blockquote>Clearly the AMV was always going to be about Victor's pre-canon depression - hearing the lyric 'well my heart is gold but my hands are cold' was what made me want to make this, because that is perfect for Victor and I need to steal it for a fic title some day. But it also ended up becoming about the intensity of media pressure on Victor. </blockquote>

<blockquote>As chief communications officer on board the Interstellar Alliance Fleet’s Star Ship Victory, Yuuri doesn’t have to think about who he actually is on his home planet. He just has to listen to his captain, do his job, and…not fall in love with his best friend, the ship’s science officer, Victor Nikiforov. Well. Two out of three’s not bad. Then his mother calls with the worst possible news: She, the Empress of New Nihon, has arranged Yuuri’s marriage. There’s only one thing Yuuri can do: Fake a boyfriend, and fake one fast. Who better/worse to play that role than the friend he wishes was more? What can go wrong? It’s not like Yuuri can fall more in love...</blockquote>

<blockquote>AU. Before the Grand Prix Final starts in Sochi, Yuuri finds Victor's phone. He returns it--and hijinks and heavy flirtation ensue.</blockquote>

<blockquote> a longfic study in why dating someone in your highly competitive field is not, perhaps, the wisest of ideas. </blockquote>

<blockquote>After Yuuri moves to St Petersburg, he decides that learning to speak Russian is an important step in his relationship with Viktor. Russian may be tough, but Yuuri will be tougher. Probably.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"Anonymous asked: Okay friend, here’s a fun idea. YOI AU where everything is the same, but Viktor never cut his hair."</blockquote> ➤ that's....literally all this is, yup, and for some reason I'm here for it

<blockquote>(Canon-divergence. The Nishigori triplets never upload Yuuri's rendition of Stammi Vicino online. Yuuri buys himself time to decide whether he wants to stay on the ice or retire by joining Minami Kenjirou's team as an assistant coach. Victor never hears from the beautiful Japanese skater after Sochi. He choreographs On Love: Eros because he can’t quite let go, but it’s getting harder to push himself on the ice and the cracks are starting to show. Two lost individuals take a different route to find love and life, but they eventually get there all the same.)</blockquote> ➤ I really liked the dynamics between Yuuri and Minami and Minami's coach and wished it had continued to be a strong theme as the fic went towards its end, but the other things the fic is doing are good too

<blockquote>"I was ready for the downslide but not for spring to well up."</blockquote>

<blockquote>Tears pooled in Yuuri’s eyes as he rested his forehead on his tightly clasped hands. It was the dead of night, and he was bone tired from rehearsals and performances, but still he couldn’t sleep. His body began to shake and his fingers tightened their grip as he tried to control the sobs that came in quiet gasps. He bit his lower lip to stem the flow of tears, silently praying that no one else could hear him in that tiny apartment. Yuuri is desperate to finish his final year in Juilliard, and is offered an unconventional solution to all his problems.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Victor takes figure skating seriously, takes Yuri Katsuki seriously as a competitor, and really doesn't see that banquet coming.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Ensemble Yuri On Ice AMV "So level up, and love again"</blockquote>

<blockquote>"I know we only really met yesterday, and this may be skipping ahead a lot," says Victor, "but would it be all right if we told people we're dating?"</blockquote> ➤ wip through part 14, last updated in 2018

<blockquote>It's maddening to find out how much more he has to learn about Yuri -- but at the same time, Victor is glad of it too.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Yuuri wakes up in Victor’s room the night after the Sochi Grand Prix Final banquet. Did they sleep together? No. Instead, last night, Drunk Yuuri taunted Victor that he hadn’t earned the right to get in his pants…and spelled out exactly what Victor would have to do to get there. Now, Victor intends to do everything on that list… ~ “The conversation,” Victor says, “went something like this. You said I wasn’t getting in your pants that easily.” Victor says this in a normal tone of voice. Anyone could hear him. Yuuri looks around, but if anyone is paying attention, they’re pretending not to. “Naturally, I asked what I would have to do to get in your pants.” “Ah.” Yuuri blushes. “How embarrassing. What do you mean, naturally? Why would you ask that?” Victor tilts his head. “Because I want to get in your pants. I thought that much was obvious by now.”</blockquote>

<blockquote>Plagued by his poor performance at the GPF, Yuuri’s disastrous free at Japanese Nationals ends not just in eleventh-place, but deals him with a lasting injury, resulting in him retiring before the events of the show. He becomes a commentator, determined to move on from his uneventful skating career. Yet, a series of chance meetings with a smitten Viktor and his own yearning for the ice keeps drawing him back to competitive figure skating. In which everything's different, but it all ends the same anyway.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Do you still paint your nails at all?” Yuuri asks. “Yeah,” Victor says—and it’s a moment before he realizes this is a lie. He still intends to paint his nails. He still thinks of himself as the sort of person who paints his nails. But he hasn’t actually done it in years.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Yuuri's husband is possibly not as oblivious as he seems, because he grins and asks, "Have you never looked up Yuuri?" "There's a porn actress with the same name who went into politics," says Nate, "so she's most of the results, and some stuff about figure skating." "Some stuff about figure skating," Victor says ruefully to Yuuri.</blockquote>

<blockquote>At the Grand Prix Final, Yuuri misses the podium by fractions of a point. Embroiled in a skating controversy, he tells himself he'll prove his worth in the World Championships, but there's a long time in between. Or: Vicchan lives.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Yuuri, given to periodic bouts of paranoia, would often wonder if Viktor is, in fact, a Russian drug lord on the loose, seeking refuge in a nondescript town in America. This would explain a manner of things: his evasiveness whenever probed about his job; the way he’d unpredictably throw out incisive, thoughtful commentary about the morning news over breakfast; his expensive tastes in shirts, watches, and wallets alike; why he’d want to stay here with Yuuri, of all places, when the contents his wardrobe alone could probably afford him a year-long stay at any condominium of his choice in the trendiest part of town. And then he goes on to discover that Viktor actually has a premium account on club penguin, and that his five penguins are named Peanut Wigglebutt, Luke skyhopper, Zing Zing, Otto Von Longdong, and Mooshoo Vegetable, and beats the idea to death in his head.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Haruhi said to the stranger, "The food's good, isn't it? Have you tried the small quiches?" She'd spoken English on the assumption that most people in the room would likely understand it, but when the man turned it became apparent that he was Japanese. Haruhi knew this because she recognised his face. It was the face of Japan's ace skater, Katsuki Yuuri. "K-K-Katsuki Yuuri-senshu!" Haruhi clapped her hand over her mouth, feeling the blood rise to her face. "Ah," said Katsuki. He was different off the ice. His spectacles reduced the impact of his eyes, and the shape of his face was somehow softer, less distinctive. "Do I know you?"  / Yuuri makes a friend. Viktor hates it.</blockquote> ➤ I don't know the fandom yoi is crossed over with but the knowledge is unnecessary for appreciating the fic

<blockquote>"What is it with alphas in rut and feeding me?" says Yuri. It just comes out, because Yuri is a disaster. "What," says Victor. "What," says Yuri. "What?" says Victor. "I'm not in -- which alpha was feeding you? What did they feed you? Were they courting you? Did you --" "I'm going back to bed," says Yuri.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The entire hockey team falters, faced by Katsuki's dark eyes shaded by his inky eyelashes. It's very effective. Mila's going to find out what mascara he uses. "Did - did someone pull a prank on you?" says Katsuki. His Russian isn't terrible, but between his soft voice and his frankly adorable accent, half-American and half-Japanese, he sounds like a little lost lamb.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Victor wishes he had a collection of Yuuri's memorabilia. Yuuri doesn't think there is any. Yuri Plisetsky knows better. Just a silly-sweet thing, set about six months after the show. Relationships in the background and the Otayuri is very slight.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The morning after the banquet, Yuuri wakes up to a hangover, a few fuzzy memories of the previous night and the realization that he sent some guy dickpics last night...and had gotten one back.   Cyrillic guy seemed nice. Friendly. Somebody he might have wanted to hang out with, if things had been different.   Yuuri hoped he hadn't pretended the guy was Victor Nikiforov or something stupid like that. When he got that drunk, all bets were off.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In which Katsuki Yuuri fights a losing battle with chronic anxiety, the quadruple Salchow, and his own judgment four drinks in — but wins the war.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Victor and Yuuri are planning a wedding. In fact, to accomodate all their cultural traditions, they're planning three. For the Russian one, Victor is thinking a cathedral and golden crowns. Never mind that he's not religious.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It’s because of this - this tendency of Viktor’s to be all limbs, always moving, even when he’s relaxed - that the thing with the feet happens. Not the thing with Yuri’s feet: that happens a lot, because Viktor is not subtle in his interests and Yuri is not the kind of man to pass up on leverage like that. No, this is the thing with Viktor’s feet. The one that leads to Yuri’s most widely-screencapped and circulated instagram post ever, and also Viktor’s most infamous profile picture.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Living with Victor is like a dream, a hyper-realistic one that only seems logical as long as you don't wake up.</blockquote>