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Figure skating is expensive. Like upwards of 30,000 dollars expensive. While Yūri is good at it and has a handful of sponsors, both private and local, as well as a few grants and an old scholarship, he still likes to play it smart. By extreme couponing. This is no trivial feat of course. He spends the start of each week painstakingly budgeting out food and other necessities, cutting out coupons for stores far outside his prefecture. He has to think weeks in advance for what he may need to include in the monthly budget, toiletries and the like, small things that he’d like for himself. Yūri almost has this down to an art. He keeps a binder.
This habit of his. This small joy. It’s made him well-known throughout Hasetsu. Yūri quickly became a local children’s tale. “Beware the Hasetsu Ice Prince,” posters on grocery stores read, “he’ll coupon you out of house and home.” Not that anyone truly thinks that. The onsen needs plenty of things that keep local businesses running even if Yūri uses sales and coupons to ensure it doesn’t tank the business. But, still, it’s silly, and the locals seem to get a kick out of it, so Yūri will politely continue being the butt of the joke.
Then Victor shows up and he’s all anyone talks about for a while. Yūri doesn’t mind, even when he’s also the one they’re talking about and all the weight of the world to keep Victor in Hasetsu is on his shoulders. Couponing becomes harder with the addition of Victor into the monthly budget, the weekly budget, every budget Yūri has, but he still takes late nights when he knows Victor isn’t expecting him at the crack of dawn to budget. It’s almost thrilling, seeing how low he can bring their costs down with every addition to the household.
Victor snoops around Yūri’s room, this he knows. That’s alright given the fact the closet seems to generally stay untouched. As long as Victor doesn’t find his idol worship hidden away like something naughty, he can go through his stuff. Things get complimented when he finds several crucial coupons missing from his binder. The culprit is obviously none other than Victor Nikiforov as he was the last person in Yūri’s room unsupervised, but he gives the man the benefit of the doubt opting to instead think Hiroko maybe took some when she went shopping.
But then a whole page is missing. And that’s just not okay, period. He casually asks Mari if maybe she stole it from under his nose, but naturally she didn’t because even if she is an older sister, she isn’t that kind of older sister. He texts Yurio after he pries his number from Yūko to ask if he took some to go shopping before the Onsen on Ice battle but he just gets a bunch of mean looking emojis back and probably a few slurs in Russian. Yurio is not the culprit then. Minako he asks next, who didn’t even know he couponed and demanded he teach her, then his parents who smile in appeasement all the while shaking their heads no. And that leaves Victor.
Victor who he finds cutting out coupons in his room later that same day. Victor who he trusted with his stuff. Victor who should know better than to steal another man’s coupons.
“Huh! That’s a page out of my savings binder,” Yuri accentuates with various hand and arm movements. Victor tracks the motion with his eyes, a heart-shaped smile stretching his cheeks to the point where it had to hurt and his brow furrowed in mild confusion. He waves Yūri over to his bed and the laptop desk he has stacked newspapers and magazines on until the wood underneath is barely visible.
“Is it? I hardly noticed it was misplaced,” Victor’s accented English still sends shivers down Yūri’s spine, but that may also be the controlled rage at the other man stealing his coupons for his own stash. “I didn’t know you couponed, Yūri! How funny is it that I’m well known around my community for going a bit crazy with the couponing?” He’s still steadily cutting out various amazing deals that Yūri would like to add to his own repertoire. Not only that, but he has placed himself between Yūri and his binder page. Victor has another thing coming if he thinks he’ll just forgive and forget so easily.
He sticks his left leg behind Victor's back to press his right side against his shoulder and snatches the laminated page off of the portable desk. Victor screeches in a totally dignified manner as he falls backward to try to trap Yūri, but the Japanese man is far too agile and manages to roll off of the side of the bed barely breaking his fall with the ball of his foot. “This is mine, Victor! I cut these out for the onsen, stop it!” is all he can yell when Victor lunges at him. That doesn’t seem to deter the Russian man; he’s still waving his arm around in vain for Yūri’s coupons. The situation is getting out of hand. Yūri backs away from Victor’s bed just as he is rolling over to run him down for the page. If he can make it to his bedroom, he’ll be safe, but he has to move now because here comes Victor.
“Stop chasing me!” Yūri yells nearly tripping over Makkachin in the hallway. Almost there. Almost there. He’s slamming the door in Victor's face, reminiscent of the first time he tried to sleep with Yūri, while he pounds on the creaky wood, cackling. Victor’s breathing out broken Russian in between fits of laughter, but Yūri can pick up drawn out “come on’s” and quiet “pleases”. It won’t work Yūri's resolves. It just won’t. He quietly maneuvers away from the door to the bed after he doesn’t hear anything on the other side for a couple of minutes. It has a plush blanket thrown messily over the comforter courtesy of Victor who is never not cold, so that’s where Yūri hides his coupons. He’s about to release a long sigh, but Victor throws open his door with a diabolical smile.
“えぇー!!” Yūri gasps. Victor has effectively pinned him to the bed and he can barely breathe. He is questioning where the coupons went over and over, but Yūri is not about to give up their location.
“Okay, Мышонка, where did you hide the goodies? In your little nest here? I bet you did,” Victor is saying all of this with a smile, but the intent feels murderous and Yūri starts to struggle in his one-handed grasp.
“Victor, they’re my coupons! I cut them out!” Makkachin is parading around the room barking, obviously wanting in on the fun while Yūri is screaming bloody murder and it’s a wonder no one has come to make sure the pair haven’t killed each other yet. Victor’s a mess above Yūri and it takes him a minute to settle down, but when he does that same glint in his eye that forced Yūri and Yuri to become mortal enemies is taunting him and he knows that he just opened up the worst can of worms in the best way.
“Alright, it is true I stole valuable coupons from you,” Yūri nods his head emphatically, “and planned to use them before you would find out.” He mock gasps in horror. How could Victor even consider such a thing? “But how about a friendly competition?” Yūri feels rightly wary when he asks what kind of competition. Victor just smiles wider.
“You and I are going to go on a little shopping spree together using only the coupons we cut out,” he stresses this like he isn’t the one Yūri just caught red-handed. “We’ll specifically buy groceries for the family for the next week on Saturday,” it was already Thursday, “whichever one of us can get all the items for the least amount of money gets all the losers coupons and the other can’t cut, use, or even look at coupons for a month.” He can do that. Victor’s too comfortable. He probably thinks he has more experience than Yūri and will win because Victor Nikiforov never loses. But Yūri is the Hasetsu Ice Prince so Victor Nikiforov has another thing coming.
Two days later Yūri finds himself bundled up warmly for the early chill of Kyushu December mornings standing outside of the local supermarket, grocery list crumpled and slightly damp in his grasp. They have ninety minutes starting promptly at 0805 to gather every Japanese staple good the Katsuki family needs for less than the other man. Yūri would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little nervous; he’s never seen Victor shop for groceries after all and they weren’t allowed to see what kind of deals the other cut out before the competition. One wrong coupon on Yūri’s part and he’d have to forfeit his entire binder to Victor. Losing isn’t an option.
Victor looks calm, cool, and collected and maybe that’s the real reason Yūri’s hands are so sweaty. Victor is so sure of himself. He’s already probably memorized all of Yūri’s coupons from the page he stole and one upped them. No, no, no! Yūri’s going to psych himself out. He knows this supermarket like the back of his hand, Victor doesn’t. He knows which brands to buy to optimize his spending and where the best in store deals are to couple with his coupons. Yūko is shouting a cheery “on your marks, get set, go!” just as Yūri is calming down his palpitating heart.
“頑張れ!” Yūko shouts at Yūri who takes off into the supermarket at the same time Victor gives rowdy laugh. It’s a good thing it’s so early or they may have angered a few innocent bystanders.
Yūri’s grabbed a basket, but he’s lost sight of Victor. There’s no use in dwelling on that, he assures himself, he’d only cause a distraction. Knowing him, he’s probably rushed off in hopes of finding everything quickly. Yūri plans to try to use as much of his ninety minutes as possible to scour the store for the best deals. Usually he wouldn’t mind paying full price for items here are there, but his title, né his status as a member of this community, is on the line, not one thing in his cart will go without a coupon and an in store sale. Not one.
Crap, alarm bells sound frantically in his head, rice doesn’t have a deal and he has to get it. It’s on their stupid list. Yūri should have come to the store on Friday to check the deals. He double checks to make sure a brand isn’t listed and grabs the cheapest bag there is praying that Victor doesn’t think to check the very bottom shelf and opts for one of the pricier off-brands. Then immediately feels guilty.
He checks the grains and rice section of his binder, finds the best coupon to pair with the rice, and marks it off of the list all while moving on to the next section in the market. He can hear Victor giggle from a couple of aisles over since they’re really the only two in the store and that makes Yūri giggle breathlessly as well. They’re… kind of ridiculous. For a pair of professionals that is.
They’re nearing the end of their time. Yūri is rummaging through this basket checking to make sure all his ducks are in a row, Victor finished about fifteen minutes ago and is standing near the entrance with a smug little smile tugging at his lips. Yūko is beside him, chewing on her nails. She knows Victor’s total of course; his receipt is tightly grasped in her hands while she bounces on the balls of her feet. Yūri doesn’t know if this is a good or bad thing and it’s driving his anxiety up the wall.
He gets to the cashier, who’s all mirth and merriment at their little game, and waits with great trepidation as he scans each item. 29525.68 ¥ - a very liberal price for all he bought and just under the budget before sales. He isn’t about to pay that though. He hands over the coupon binder. The cashier nods his head sagely. Maybe he can see the desperation in Yūri’s eyes. He watches the screen on the cash register like a hawk, making sure each coupon is scanned through. He hears Victor snigger behind him. When the price gets cut in half Victor isn’t laughing anymore. When it keeps going down Victor’s bouncing on the balls of his feet. The last coupon is scanned, Yūri’s credit card put back in his wallet, and his receipt handed over all in complete silence. He thanks the cashier and takes his bags marching over to the other two.
They make their way to the car and back to the onsen without saying a word. The other won’t know who won until they get back to Yū-topia, but he has a feeling it wasn’t Victor with his moodiness.
Yūko helps Yūri take the bags in once they get back then gathers up the other Katsuki family members to announce the mornings glorious victor. Yūri’s mom claps her hands in excitement when the two receipts are placed on the table.
“Ah, look here Yūri took the price down by a third!” she exclaims. Toshiya squeezes his shoulder as Hiroko brings Victor’s receipt closer; “You’re very close to the budget young man,” she chastises and Victor laughs in embarrassment, “31369.76 yen, I had more faith in you.
“But…” she smiles warmly, “Yūri you paid 8857.70 yen for the week after coupons and sales. Victor’s at 8783.53 yen.” The smile on Yūri’s face is torn right off. Victor beat him by an insignificant coupon or slightly better deal even when all odds should’ve pointed to his win. He has to give up his coupon binder. He wants to cry.
Victor lays a hand on Yūri’s shoulder, “I told you, малыш. You doubted me didn’t you?”
Yūri looks up from his dead eye stare at the receipts on the table to give Victor the biggest, brightest smile he can muster, “Well, it’s a good thing we live together, isn’t it 爺?” Victor hums in question; “Now you can spend late nights budgeting until I’m off coupon probation.” He wiggles out from between Victor and the table as the realization sets in for the other man.
“Wait, Yūri! Yūri I- Come back here I want to change some things!”
Yūri yells no from the safety of his room making sure this time to place his desk chair against the knob so Victor can’t barge in and demand the rules be changed to spare his sleep schedule. And if Yūri hears banging, well, it’s just the bass from the music he is blasting through his headphones, not Victor turning his door to splinters of wood.