How about right now?

I’m assuming you mean as in, how is their coach/student/competitor/fiancé relationship gonna work, and so to talk about this, I first wanna address how they both deal with stress (as far as we’ve seen anyway). 

Let’s start with Yuuri, since he’s the easiest to look at.

Yuuri’s reactions tend to be outward. I’ve discussed this in a post dedicated to Yuuri’s anxiety, but it’s relevant here: Yuuri enacts avoidance behavior. 

When his anxiety starts ramping up in ep4, he automatically turns to avoiding Victor instead of discussing things. 

(victor’s face lol…he goes from happy fun times to disappointed balloon animal)

(yuuri does this w/ others too but we’re specifically highlighting victuuri)

But it’s also important to keep in mind that, while Yuuri physically moves away, he internalizes his emotions. He doesn’t talk, he doesn’t address the issue, just ignores it and hopes it’ll go away.

Honestly, same.

I think Yuuri knows it’s ineffective, as most anxiety sufferers do. I think he’s at least partially conscious of what his anxiety does to him. 

He knows.

So, Yuuri internalizes to the point that he misses what’s going on around him. His mind singles out one interaction, or expression, or experience, and he starts to doubt. That’s where the trouble begins.

I’m sure you remember the whole ep11-ep12 cliffhanger and miscommunication angst debacle. 

(KUBO WHY U GOTTA DO US LIKE THIS)

Yuuri didn’t talk to Victor about anything. He jumped to conclusions, and hurt the both of them in the process. Yes, Victor was reinvigorated to compete again, but he wouldn’t abandon Yuuri to do it. 

The unfortunate thing about anxiety is that it convinces the victim that they’re a novelty. Nobody is really interested in you, you know? You’re for now. Everyone will leave, so why chain them down? 

Anyway, concluding: Yuuri avoids, internalizes, and jumps to conclusions.

How about Victor?

Yuuri is highly expressive, while Victor tends to mask. I wrote a meta about that a while ago, but the gist is that Victor has been in the public eye for so long, he doesn’t know how to differentiate the sides of himself anymore. 

Where does the masking end, and Victor begin?

When Victor is upset, stressed, angry–aka, “negative” emotions, ones you don’t show to the press–he represses it and plasters a pleasant smile to his face. 

At first, Yuuri’s sort of scared of it (ep4) but by the time we roll around to ep10, he just finds it insulting that Victor won’t be honest with him.

Also, I’ve only very rarely seen this discussed, but Victor seems to turn to alcohol during especially stressful points. 

The first time it happens is ep2. At this moment, Yuuri has essentially just rejected him. Victor has come out to Japan to finally reunite with the man of his dreams, and that man shrieks at his presence and seemingly runs away. 

Yeah. 

He isn’t drunk, but we do see that sake is present. 

But, of course, they do run a bar, so that could easily be a stretch.

The next time we see Victor drinking is during ep3. We see him drinking beer at one point–which, really, not a big deal, it’s only one glass and Vitya is an adult–but after Yuuri does…this

we get the information that Victor apparently spent all night drinking. 

I don’t think that’s a coincidence. 

Skip to the Cup of China. Victor and Yakov probably haven’t had much–if any–contact after Victor left Russia, and the first thing Yakov does is yell at him, tell him he’ll never be a real coach, and refuses the dinner invitation. 

I assume Yakov to be a father figure to Victor. He certainly models his coaching after Yakov’s to some extent; it must be a huge blow to Victor for Yakov to basically tell him he wants no contact with him. 

So what does Victor do? 

He gets drunk. 

This is the last time we see Victor hammered during the series, but he drinks alcoholic beverages pretty frequently. Of course, those may be scattered, but I think the evidence here points to the fact that when Victor is really upset, feeling absolutely alone, and needs to get his mind off things, he masks and drinks.

That’s not healthy.

Alright, so. We’ve addressed their coping mechanisms. Now let’s talk about their future relationship to each other. 

Much more talented authors than me have tackled the issue. My personal favorite is a small piece by @lavenderprose you can read here. Please do, it absolutely hits the nail on the head. 

I think it’ll probably be difficult for the both of them to leave work at the rink. It’s your fiancé who’s criticizing you all day, the same voice that says “please” and “thank you” at the dinner table, that whispers “I love you” before turning in at night. The same figure that holds your hand, and cuddles you when you cry. 

There’s got to be some whiplash there. 

There’s going to be points where they clash; they’ll miscommunicate; Victor will take it too far; Yuuri will jump to conclusions and tell Victor what Victor thinks; they’ll fight and cry and it won’t always be pretty.

They’re going to have to really step up their communication game to be able to do this. Both of them have unhealthy ways of dealing with fears and anxiety–only a few have been sampled for this post. I’m not saying the whole affair is doomed to fail, just that it won’t be easy.

I hope we get to see them going through the trials of such a complicated dynamic and growing together, as individuals and as a couple.