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Viktor might have thought Yuuri wouldn't notice, but he did.
Yuuri noticed everything. When they went out, Viktor looked distracted. When they watched a movie, Viktor would only pretend to pay attention. Even just in conversation, Viktor would be uninterested and distant.
Yuuri didn't know what to do. He and Viktor had never had this kind of problem before, they had always been so attentive to each other. Yuuri had never even considered Viktor could act like this at some point.
Yuuri had asked Viktor if everything was okay and reassured him that he could tell Yuuri anything, but Viktor never told him what was on his mind. He just told Yuuri that he was fine, just busy.
Of course, Yuuri had considered all the possibilities.
In the beginning, Yuuri thought that Viktor was just planning some kind of surprise for Yuuri. It wouldn't be the first time that Viktor had become almost distant to keep a surprise a secret from Yuuri, but this had been going on for far too long for that to be the case.
Viktor could just be focusing more on skating, after all, he did have a lot on his plate. With coaching both Yurio and Otabek and needing to choreograph their programs for the upcoming season, he did have a good reason to be stressed.
Except Viktor never stressed about skating. Especially as they both retired from competing, Viktor never worried about doing anything perfectly anymore. He still gave his absolute best effort into coaching and making routines, of course, he just didn't stress about it anymore.
As this persisted even after Yurio's and Otabek's routines were fully choreographed, Yuuri had to face the reality that this was not what was making Viktor so distracted.
Yuuri didn't know what clued him in that Viktor might have been cheating on him, exactly. It was more of a realization over time. It started when Yuuri watched an episode of a show that was airing on TV.
The plot was the same as any other show, except this episode in particular made Yuuri pause. The episode featured a woman, stressed while trying to put together the perfect wedding for her and her fiancé. The woman was so stressed with the upcoming wedding that she didn’t see the warning signs of something being wrong with her partner.
In the show, the woman's fiancé would stay at "work" longer and longer every day and started going on many multi-day "business trips" much more frequently than he had been going on before.
This continued until, a day before the wedding, the woman found her fiancé in bed with her best friend and maid-of-honor. The woman was so shocked that she didn't know what to do. She yelled at her fiancé and best friend, not letting them speak a word until she finally kicked them out, telling her fiancé that they were over and her best friend that they were no longer friends.
The warning signs were there for Viktor too.
Yuuri didn't want to be the kind of person who went searching through their partner's phone to see if they were cheating, so Yuuri refrained. Instead, he waited and watched. He looked for the little clues.
Did Viktor start coming home late? Yes. Did Viktor start becoming distracted? Yes. Did Viktor stop paying attention to him? Yes. Did Viktor start spending more and more time on his phone? Yes.
While that didn't automatically mean Viktor was cheating, finding Viktor making out with a woman, both of them half-naked, did.
When Yuuri saw them, they were too entranced in each other to notice Yuuri. This was for the best, as Yuuri knew he wouldn't be able to take it if Viktor started spouting excuses at him, or worse, told him the exact words Yuuri never wanted to hear.
Yuuri was proud of himself for how calm he stayed. He watched them for a moment, just to make sure that he was really seeing correctly, and took out his phone. Yuuri silently snapped a picture of them mid-make-out, Viktor’s hands caressing the woman's bra and waist, while she held onto his chest and neck.
After he took a couple of photos of them, Yuuri left the room as silently as he came. He wanted to throw up. But Viktor didn't deserve that. Yuuri shouldn't waste any more time on Viktor.
Making a decision, Yuuri took off his wedding ring, and left it on the side table near their front door, leaving a note underneath it.
"I hope you're happy with her. -Yuuri"
Yuuri left their apartment and walked to his car, getting into the driver's seat with a blank expression on his face. Immediately, Yuuri pulled out his phone.
He looked at the pictures Yuuri had taken of Viktor and the woman. At least Yuuri could say that he had no idea who Viktor was cheating on him with, unlike the woman in the TV show he watched.
That would have hurt more if Yuuri had been lied to and cheated on by two people.
Not wanting to look at the picture anymore, Yuuri closed his camera and opened his Instagram account instead. There was no point in keeping any of the pictures of Viktor. That, and his pictures with Yurio, Otabek, Phichit, and the rest of their skating friends were most of what he posted about.
But he mostly posted pictures of him and Viktor.
Making up his mind, every post Yuuri saw of him and his now ex-husband, Yuuri deleted. He didn't need reminders of what Viktor had done to him.
Yuuri only realized he was crying when one of his tears landed on his phone screen. By now Yuuri had deleted over 100 pictures of Viktor, keeping the ones of Makkachin because he couldn’t bring himself to delete them. Makka hadn't done anything wrong, anyway.
Deleting and looking at all those pictures made Yuuri remember just how much he loved Viktor, and how much Viktor had broken his heart. All their good memories were now tainted, never to be salvaged.
Viktor didn't deserve a reaction, but Yuuri also didn't deserve the pain of having to look at all the pictures of Viktor, and all the comments about how "sweet" and "adorable" they were together.
Yuuri knew that someone was going to notice soon. It wasn't every day that someone suddenly deleted all the pictures they posted of their husband from their social media pages.
As Yuuri unfollowed Viktor and made sure all posts featuring him were deleted–which was a fair amount–on all accounts, Yuuri felt relieved. He didn't need that lying cheater anymore. He could fair well enough on his own.
The only problem now was telling people. Yuuri felt ashamed that he could have let something like this happen to him, even if it wasn't his fault.
His followers would ask questions, the shippers would be mad, and Yuuri didn't know what his friends would do. His family would always support him, so Yuuri knew that they had his back. But what about Phichit? Chris? Yurio? Otabek?
Would they say that what Viktor did was fine and that Yuuri should just live with it? That Yuuri was overreacting? Or would they choose sides–those who agree with Yuuri vs those who agree with Viktor?
Cheating was considered bad everywhere, or at least Yuuri assumed it was. Based on what people online had said, cheaters usually morally thought themselves above their partner and felt that they could do whatever they wanted without consequence.
Yuuri didn't know if that fit Viktor exactly, but it at least strengthened his argument that cheaters were bad people.
But Viktor was famous. He was the Living Legend of figure skating. No one could beat him, at least not while he was skating. (Yurio was certainly determined to, and if what Yuuri had seen of his skating so far, he wasn't far from doing just that.)
Instead of staying parked outside his apartment complex any longer, Yuuri drove away, leaving his cheating ex-husband behind.
Yuuri didn't know where to go, exactly, seeing as he was in Russia and not in Detroit or Hatetsu. So Yuuri drove to the one place he thought of.
Standing outside Yurio and Otabek's apartment, Yuuri was now unsure of himself.
He had driven twenty-five minutes to get here, but now he was having second thoughts. What if Yurio and Otabek didn't believe him? What if they sided with Viktor? He was their coach, after all.
Not wasting any more time overthinking, Yuuri knocked on the door. The door opened not long after, revealing Yurio in a hoodie and sweatpants. "Da, what is it, Katsudon?"
Yuuri didn't know what came over him, but he lost it. He started to sob right in front of Yurio, in the middle of the hallway of their apartment building. "Huh?" Yurio sounded shocked, "What are you doing, Katsudon? Are you trying to flood the hallway?"
Yurio pulled Yuuri inside his apartment, closing the door behind them.
Yuuri had never known Yurio to comfort anyone, except for maybe Otabek behind closed doors, and Yuuri thought even that was rare. Whether that be because Otabek didn't need comforting that often or Yurio just wasn't the type of person to give it, Yuuri didn't know.
Yet, when Yurio carefully wrapped his arms around Yuuri's shoulders, it felt right. Yurio held Yuuri until his cries weakened and died down some, Otabek having joined them at some point, rubbing Yuuri's back soothingly.
"What happened, Katsudon?" Yurio's voice was rough, but not unkind as he stepped away from Yuuri.
Yuuri didn't know how to explain, "Viktor- he-" Yurio's face became worried immediately, "What about the old man? Is he okay?" Otabek wrapped an arm around Yurio's shoulder, grounding him as they waited for Yuuri to calm down enough to tell them what had happened.
Yuuri shook his head, "I don't ever want to see him again." Yuuri's voice was firm and unwavering as he told Yurio and Otabek what he saw when he came home earlier that day.
Once Yuuri had finished telling them, Yurio was- to put it mildly, furious.
"That damn idiot! I would have walked right up to him and that- that tramp! And told him exactly what I thought of him." Yurio's voice got louder and louder as he continued, "He should know just how big of a mistake he's made!"
Otabek was silent, but Yuuri could tell based on how tightly his hand not on Yurio's shoulder was gripped, his knuckles white, that he was just as mad as Yurio was.
"You said you took pictures of them?" Otabek asked, cutting his boyfriend off. Yuuri nodded silently and took out his phone, showing the two skaters said pictures.
Otabek thought for a moment before he looked up at Yuuri, determined. "Here's what we'll do..."
A couple of hours later, Yurio had ordered take-out for the three of them, sitting on the couch together as they watched some action movie that he had been wanting to watch.
A satisfied smile was on Yurio's lips as he ate his burger, content with knowing that whenever someone thought of Viktor Nikiforov, it would no longer be about him being "The Living Legend" of figure skating. Instead, Viktor would be known as the figure skater who was stupid enough to cheat on Japan's former ace, Yuuri Katsuki.
Earlier, he, Otabek, and Yuuri posted the pictures of Viktor and the woman on all of their social media accounts, all posts without captions, only tagging @v-nikiforov and #cheater.
The internet exploded soon after, originally doubting the legitimacy of the posts, but when people saw that the same thing was posted by Yuuri, Yurio, and Otabek, they started to believe it.
People began to bash Viktor, tagging him in enraged posts while asking how he could cheat on the man he supposedly loved.
@skateonmeplz
I never thought I would see the day VIKTOR NIKIFOROV cheated on someone, maybe there really was basis for those playboy rumors a couple of years back
@aPotatoFlewAroundMyRoom
yuuri deserves better. i'm glad yurio and otabek are supporting him with this!!
@Viktuuri_fc
Our ship has sunk, what are we going to do???
@CHRISnoticeME
The living legend really fucked up this time
@phichit+chu
Holy shit is this tru??? Yuuri asnwer me
@BuzzfeedCelebNews
BREAKING NEWS! Figure skating legend Viktor Nikiforov caught cheating on his husband, Yuuri Katsuki with...
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The three skaters had silenced their phones, ignoring the internet for tonight.
The next morning, when they all woke up from where they were curled up on the couch, they would see numerous texts and missed calls from their skating friends, particularly Phichit and Chris.
Yuuri had been nervous about what his friends would say, but that fear was quickly extinguished when Phichit immediately began ranting about how he would kill Viktor for hurting Yuuri. Georgi especially showed a lot of support for Yuuri, remembering how heartbroken he was when Anya cheated on him all those years ago.
Viktor never called Yuuri, only sending him a long text that basically said how sorry he was, but that he would agree to whatever Yuuri wanted to do about their relationship. When Yuuri texted back, asking for a divorce, Viktor reluctantly agreed.
Viktor also took the initiative to make a post saying that he regretted what he had done and wished Yuuri all the best, and deleted all posts of Yuuri as well.
Yuuri had always hoped that his and Viktor's relationship would only end "by death do us part" as their vows had stated, but with how much support Yuuri was getting from ex-Viktuuri shippers and his fans, friends, and family, Yuuri was content with how it all turned out.
Yurio and Otabek offered to let Yuuri stay with them until he got his own place, to which Yuuri offered them a coach until they found a new one.
Yuuri eventually found his own apartment, but he never stopped being Yurio and Otabek's coach. They were content with what they had and managed to survive and live past the absence of Viktor in their lives.
(Yurio and Otabek eventually stole all of Viktor's old records, and landed their own places in figure skating history.)