Just Hold On (We're Going Home) - kiaronna - Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime) [Archive of Our Own]​

“Being so ugly,” she continues calmly, as though this makes perfect sense, “I wanted to change myself so thoroughly that others would look to me on stage and say: how far Lilia Baranovskaya has come.” A pause then, carefully timed. “Katsuki. Do you think this made me prima ballerina?” The obvious answer is yes, because Lillia had been.

“Something else?” Yuuri asks, unsteady.

“When I became prima ballerina,” she says, “it was because they would look to me on stage and say: who is that beautiful monster.” She comes to him, tilts his chin up in unshaking, perfect hands. “Destroy your past self, and only use the beautiful pieces. Every time you take the stage you are a new man, Katsuki Yuuri, with something new to prove.” Her eyes, burning on his. “We do not let old lives dance with us.”

Redemption does not exist. There is only rebirth.