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It was the event that she dreaded every year, come earlier than ever before simply because the universe wanted to make her suffer.
Costume fittings.
Yuriko only took a good look at herself in the mirror when she felt in a particularly self-deprecating mood. It was a horrible experience that she only tried to subject herself to if she wanted a little more motivation to stick to her diet or commit to adding an extra mile to her runs. She was nothing if not realistic, and she knew she wasn’t a particularly pretty girl. Her shoulders were too broad, her middle was too thick. Vainly she tried to drop the last stubborn layer of pudge from her stomach, but her chubbiness was nothing if not stubborn. She might not have love handles, but she would never willingly subject the rest of the world to the sight of her in a bikini either. It hurt to look in the mirror and see all these flaws, knowing that she was as fit and healthy as possible. The truly depressing thoughts came when she pictured herself after retirement, when she no longer had a reason to stick to strict diet and exercise. She’d probably end up looking something like a whale sooner or later.
It’s not hard to see why Yuriko dreaded costume fittings. First there were the meetings with designers, where she was forced to try and express her insubstantial ideas to people who had more fashion sense in their little toes than she did in her entire body. Then there were emails of drawings forwarded to her by her coach, all of them looking equally panic-inducing to her. At this point she usually marvelled at the designer’s optimism: she was a famously conservative dresser. There was no way she would ever have the courage to wear half of the crazy shit they were thinking up.
The worst was still to come though: fittings. Stripped down to her underwear to be poked and prodded by people whose job it was to look at her body and judge. Sure, they weren’t judging bad things, they just had to estimate how her body might fit into one style of dress as opposed to another. She’d never been outright insulted in a fitting before, nor had there ever been any sort of snide remarks about her body either. Yuriko couldn’t help but feel self-conscious though. Her anxious mind convinced itself that these people were laughing at her and her bloated body in secret.
How on earth was she supposed to participate in any part of this dreadful process now, in front of Victoria? Sure, there were no designers to deal with this time, just a million suitcases of old costumes to go through, but sooner or later Yuriko would actually have to pick one of these dresses. She would have to try at least one of them on. Yuriko felt faint as she realised that she would have to go out in public wearing one of Victoria’s dresses. People would see her – and they would not be able to help themselves from comparing. How in hell was Yuriko supposed to measure up to Victoria? She was the most gorgeous woman on the planet!
“Wow…There are a lot of stupid looking ones here.” Yulia muttered, holding up something pink and feathery with a look of utter disdain. She held the dress at arms length, as if it might bite.
“Ooh!” Yuriko momentarily forgot her own worries for the moment to stare, eyes sparkling. “That’s from the Trophee de France back in 2013, isn’t it?” She gushed.
Victoria laughed. “Yeah!” She said. “Yakov got really mad at me when I secretly wore it instead of the costume he wanted; said it was too risqué.” She waggled her eyebrows at Yulia, who promptly dropped the costume like it was on fire. “He made me change to something more boring for the rest of the season.” She pouted childishly like she was unaware of the uproar the pink costume had caused in the skating world, instead choosing to blame its early retirement to the back of her wardrobe on her long-suffering coach.
“This one is from last year’s Grand Prix Final, isn’t it?” Yuriko spotted a flash of unmistakable purple fabric and lunged, pulling the costume free of its suitcase with glee. “And that one is from the last Olympics!” She couldn’t stop gushing. It was unbelievable: These were Victoria’s old costumes! Victoria had won so many gold medals in these sparkling and shimmering clothes that it made Yuriko’s head spin!
“Oi!” Yulia growled from her corner of the room, up to her elbows in her own pile of costumes. “Don’t pick anything flashier than mine!”
Yuriko ignored her. It was highly unlikely that she would step on the younger skater’s toes like that even if Yulia hadn’t warned her. Yuriko definitely didn’t want to wear anything too flashy, even if it was her chance to have her pick of Victoria’s costumes. She might consider the velvet red dress that the woman wore to her first Olympics her all time favourite Victoria dress, but that didn’t mean Yuriko was lining up to try it on!
As if trying to give her a heart attack, Victoria held up that same dress right at that moment. “What about this one?” She said brightly, showing it to Yuriko. “Don’t you think it’s perfect?! Very eros!” She beamed at Yuriko. “Maybe you should try it on?!” She all but flung the dress at Yuriko, a manic look in her eyes. Yuriko estimated she had less than a minute before Victoria started trying to pull off her clothes to stuff her into the dress whether she liked it or not.
“Uh… um… I’ll…think about it.” Yuriko stuttered, setting the dress carefully aside as if she was putting it in a pile for later consideration. “Uh… yeah…”
Victoria looked weirdly disappointed at this, but the action seemed to calm down. “It’s a pretty good option.” She said musingly. “Not to mention it does amazing things for your boobs!”
There was a loud coughing noise, and suddenly it seemed that Yulia was having a stroke in the corner. Yuriko turned to the younger girl in concern, but Victoria seemed not to notice.
“It’s the cleavage, you know?” She said conversationally, picking up another dress to inspect it before shaking her head and tossing it aside. “It really makes those babies pop!”
Aaaand Yuriko’s brain had finally just caught up with what Victoria was saying. “Huh?!” She spluttered.
Victoria turned around and winked at her, then went right back to her pile of costumes, a playful hum on her lips.
Yuriko’s brain might have short-circuited at that moment.
Stop staring at Victoria’s boobs. Yuriko told herself in vain, unable to tear her eyes away as the memories of what Victoria had looked like in that costume swam to the surface of her mind. Stop staring at Victoria’s boobs. You look like an idiot.
That’s when a sliver of dark material caught Yuriko’s eye. She leaned forward to tug the dress out, thankful that she had somewhere else to look now.
“Oh.” Yuriko gasped softly. “This is from the Junior World Championship.”
It was stunning, all black and silver swirls and full velvety sleeves. Like the pink feathers, this dress was also a little controversial, with only a half skirt covering the right hip. The dress had matching black tights with silver sequins sewed onto the left leg, completing the look. Fortunately the dress was universally accepted pretty quickly after Victoria had set a junior world record in it, and some other skaters had even copied the style since.
“Oh yeah.” Victoria leaned over Yuriko’s shoulder to look at the dress, a fond smile on her face. Clearly this costume was a favourite of hers as well. “That was just after I cut my hair really short the first time, so my costume suggested both male and female genders at once.”
Inspiration struck Yuriko like lightning. Suddenly she knew what she had to do to find her eros. “I choose this one!” She blurted to Victoria, clutching the fabric tight.
Victoria blinked in surprise at the outburst, but didn’t seem to have anything against Yuriko’s sudden choice. “Okay!” The woman said brightly, her eyes only flicking to the red velvet dress for a split second. “Good choice!”
Yuriko smiled back. She had no idea whether it was a good choice or not; only time would tell if her idea would pay off. “Thanks.” She said softly.
“If you two are done flirting, maybe we could get back to helping me find a damn costume already?” Yulia snarled from the corner.
Yuriko almost jumped out of her skin, flushing scarlet. Flirting?!
“I swear Vikki, all of these are too stupid for words.” Yulia continued her rant, waving an orange sequined… something… in their faces.
That was Victoria’s que to stick her tongue out at the younger skater. “I’d offer you that fabulous red dress, since Yuriko doesn’t want it, but unfortunately cleavage can’t flaunt something that’s not there.” She teased.
“Hey!” Yulia roared. “I… I’m not…I have…!” She cut off her protests with a sharp grunt. “Besides, I’ve gotta find something to express agape, remember? I don’t need boobs to win this damn thing!”
“That’s what you think!” Victoria sang, reaching out to sling an arm around Yuriko’s shoulders.
The evening only got more childish from there.