#i’m upset over yuri on ice although not At All surprised

[omgrandomwords]

november 5th’s grandchild

[hopeisour4letteredword]

personal furnace, ch3

Summary: Winter renovations at the inn in Zaphias leave Yuri in need of a warm bunk for the night. Good thing he can always count on his good buddy Flynn.

Read it below or at the link to AO3 in the notes.

When Yuri climbs in through the window again that night, Flynn looks up with some disbelief. He'd gotten the impression Yuri was upset with him that morning, or at least upset about being woken before he was ready. Flynn does feel guilty about that. He knows Yuri doesn't always fall back asleep after disruptions as easily as Flynn can. He should have been more empathetic to that this morning. "They still haven't fixed up enough of Mariam's rooms?"

"I know," Yuri says. He looks frustrated about it. "Sorry, man. I can find somewhere else to crash if—"

"No, you're always welcome here. I'm just surprised."

"Yeah. I don't know. I keep stopping by at the end of the afternoon to check with her and she said they're still getting separate rooms ready for the people who were forced to share before." The winter already seems harsher than usual this year, so it's not completely implausible that more folks than usual are seeking shelter from the elements. Yuri continues, "I guess I could at least try sleeping in my usual room for part of the night and see if it's tolerable."

"I just told you, you're always welcome here. You don't need to settle for tolerable, and you certainly don't need to risk worse. You can sleep here for as long as you're willing to put up with the inconveniences of sharing a bed with me."

"It's not that it's inconvenient," Yuri says. He's got the grim, irritated look he gets when he's about to say something sincere about his emotions. "It's just annoying to watch you work yourself to death."

Flynn pauses. "Oh. You're worried."

"I didn't use the word worried," Yuri snaps, cheeks flushing a darker pink that Flynn suspects has nothing to do with the cold he's just fled. It occurs to him belatedly that Yuri still hasn't moved away from the window to get himself a blanket or go closer to the fire. Maybe he's waiting for Flynn to indicate that he's welcome? But Flynn already said he was. He stands from the desk to grab a blanket from the bed and toss it at Yuri, who has the nerve to look surprised.

"Nobody says working yourself to death unless they're worried."

"Well maybe you shouldn't be giving me things to be worried about!" Yuri draws the blanket around himself in a facsimile of a cloak, as usual, and glowers at him. "It's one thing to get up early if it's standard for the Knights, but then what the hell are you doing going to sleep at the same time I do? And working right up until then?"

"Yuri—"

"I can't stop you from self-destructing if this is how you get your rocks off, but what the fuck, Flynn. If you're gonna live like this, at least have the decency not to turn around and act like I'm the one who needs to rest more."

"You do need to rest more," Flynn protests, weakly. He'd known Yuri was upset with him, but he wasn't prepared for it to involve actively combatting Flynn's attempts to look out for him. "At least I sleep consistently. You don't, always."

"Yeah, but at least I fucking try." Yuri tucks his hands close up against his own body. It's difficult to take the glaring seriously when he's swaddled in Flynn's quilt. "And I don't spend every second I'm not in bed working."

"I don't either," Flynn insists. "I usually—"

"Three nights in a row I've come here past eleven to find you still at your desk—"

"That's not—"

"So unless you're writing a fucking novel on the side—"

"Yuri, stop interrupting me." They both stop to take a deep breath. Flynn soldiers on. "I don't usually work this late so consistently. It's just a hectic time of year. There are a lot of bureaucratic deadlines that we—the Knights—need to be prepared for before the new year, but I won't be able to spend all of that time working because I have political and social obligations for the winter festivals. I'm trying to burn through this now so I don't have to worry about it at the last minute."

The tense line of Yuri's shoulders relaxes a little. He studies Flynn warily. Flynn adds, more gently, "I swear, I take some time to relax most of the time. You think all those books on the shelves are just for decoration?"

"Nerd decoration," Yuri mutters, but the fight slumps out of him. He makes no objections when Flynn closes the gap between them to take the edge of the blanket in hand and lead Yuri over to the hearth again. Their hands brush when Yuri adjusts the drape of the quilt around himself as he settles down, and Flynn jerks away on instinct. He's absolutely freezing to the touch.

"No wonder you're grouchy. You're like ice."

"A pipe burst in Ted's apartments right at the end of the evening," Yuri says, tiredly. Flynn takes the hand he'd brushed against back into both of his own and tries to rub some warmth into Yuri's cold fingers. Yuri redirects his glare from Flynn to the flames, cheeks flushing red again. "I got freaking drenched earlier while I was trying to help him."

Aghast, Flynn says, "You got completely doused in freezing water in sub-zero weather and you just threatened me with trying to sleep in the cold at the inn?"

Yuri smacks at him half-heartedly with the hand Flynn isn't massaging. "How is doing stupid things that only hurt myself threatening you?"

Flynn isn't even going to dignify that with an answer. He catches the hand Yuri bopped him with and tries to massage warmth into that one, too. "Is Ted going to be alright overnight?"

"Yeah, Hanks is putting him up for the night."

"That's good. Is someone—"

"Yeah, yeah, your people already have a plan for dealing with it." Yuri sighs. He gives Flynn an exhausted smile. "Don't go getting a big head about it, but you've got a pretty good thing going with the Flynn Brigade."

"You say that and then you refuse to make nice with Sodia."

"I am specifically talking about everyone except Sodia."

"Witcher?"

"...Yes. Fine. I'll include Apple-Head."

Well, at least that's something. Although Flynn is pretty sure the only grievance Yuri ever had with Witcher was in solidarity with Rita.

"Shall I draw a hot bath for you? Since you got soaked."

Yuri hesitates. That's a yes, then. If it's tempting enough to make him consider letting someone else take care of him, he's definitely cold enough to need it.

"I can do it," Yuri manages to say, without any sincere enthusiasm, when Flynn nods briskly and heads into the bathroom. "You've been working all day too—"

"I've been at the desk most of the day, aside from a training session," Flynn says. Yuri trails behind him and hovers in the doorway as Flynn opens the faucet to begin filling the tub. "And frankly, with all due respect, please do not try to do magic in any part of my quarters. Especially not fire magic. I have to live with whatever destruction you wreak."

"No faith," Yuri says, with a faint grin.

"Not for this." Flynn shakes his head, watching the water fill the tub. "Not before, and definitely not now that it's all mana."

"Rita says magic with mana is probably actually more intuitive for beginners to learn than magic with aer. She thinks it seems harder right now because everyone's trying to unlearn aer magic at the same time."

"If Rita is encouraging you to try fire magic, I'll have to have words with her."

Nonetheless, Yuri stays out of the way while Flynn uses careful application of fire magic to the porcelain basin to heat the water. He shuffles forward when Flynn steps back. Flynn takes the quilt back and leaves Yuri to disrobe while he goes to change into pajamas and fetch another set for Yuri.

He comes back in right as Yuri climbs into the bath, clothes in a pile on the floor. His hair pools on the surface of the water in inky swirls as he sinks deeper into the bath with a long, contented sigh. Flynn has to tear his eyes away before his gaze can follow the elegant curve of Yuri's neck below the water line. He turns to the bathroom counter.

"Better?"

"Yeah, lots. You're a hero."

"We're safe in my quarters at the end of the night. Nothing I need to save the energy for."

"Mm. Still." There's a gentle splashing sound behind Flynn, presumably as Yuri shifts. "Thanks."

"Maybe I should have been more careful," Flynn muses, more to himself than Yuri, as he reaches for his toothbrush. "In specialized climate training they always tell us you shouldn't put someone with hypothermia directly into a hot bath."

"I was not hypothermic," says Yuri, indignantly. "Just cold."

"Mm-hm. I don't know. You were more worked up than you usually get in your right mind."

"I get to be crabby when I can barely feel my hands without that meaning I'm on the verge of death," Yuri says, "And I was still right. If I find you staying up past midnight doing more paperwork after the new year, we're gonna have a real fight about it."

"Alright, alright."

"I'm serious."

"Hi, serious. I'm Flynn."

After a moment of furious silence, Yuri says, with deadly calm, "I am going to fucking drown you."

Flynn bursts into laughter. He had begun to put the toothbrush into his mouth, but now has to remove it so he doesn't choke. Yuri continues, "I'm going to have to explain to Cecelia why you're dead in the bathtub, fully clothed, and I'm the last person who saw you."

"Nobody else knows you're here," Flynn says, cheerfully. He glances at Yuri in the mirror. The mirror is safe. Yuri only exists from the shoulders up in the mirror. He glares sullenly back at Flynn. "You could get away with it."

"Yeah, nobody could solve that incredibly confusing riddle."

Flynn grins at him in the reflection and goes ahead with brushing his teeth. Yuri settles into the bath water up to his chin with another, surlier sigh.

"I take back everything nice I said."

"You can't take back being grouchy because you were worried about me. I'm going to remember that," Flynn says, around his toothbrush. He knows Yuri cares no matter how reluctant he is to put plain words to it, but it's still a treat whenever he slips up.

"I was grouchy because it's cold as hell," Yuri mutters. He rests the back of his head against the rim of the basin. He's quiet for a moment. Then: "You know in some places, people's whole concept of hell is a frozen wasteland?"

Flynn makes an interested sound. He had not known that.

"Estelle told us that," Yuri continues. "And I guess that's what they think in Dahngrest, because Karol was like, 'yeah, that's what hell is, what are you talking about?' And then we had to explain the concept of hell as a fire pit to him. He was so weirded out, it was hilarious."

"I can't believe you argued with a twelve year old about the concept of hell," Flynn says, except he can, actually. It's a very Yuri thing to do. He finishes brushing and spits into the sink.

"We weren't arguing," Yuri protests. "It was a cultural exchange."

"You can't just repeat Lady Estellise's euphemisms to me like I won't know that's what you're doing."

Yuri laughs. "Ah, fine. You got me there."

"I wouldn't mind hearing more about Dahngrest, though," Flynn says. He rinses his toothbrush under the faucet and puts it away, then turns around to lean back against the counter with his arms crossed. He's careful to keep his eyes on Yuri's face. "You started to say the other day that it's almost as though the citizens hibernate through the winter?"

Yuri lights up. He twists in the tub, water splashing dangerously, so he can face Flynn and rest his chin on his arms along the basin's edge. "Yeah. It's so wild. I mentioned the dawn's later, right? Well, the sunset's earlier, too."

"You're messing with me."

"No. It's dark a lot. And mostly people just sleep when it's dark, because it's colder there, too. So a lot of folks just stay inside and try to stay warm. Stay in their blanket nests or whatever."

How... gloomy.

"You'll never believe me, but I'm one of the most productive people in the city right now."

"You always seem to find plenty to keep yourself busy in Dahngrest," Flynn allows. Guild life is good for Yuri, after all. "But so does everyone else. It must be strange, for it to be a ghost town after dark."

"Not quite a ghost town, there's still a little nightlife. But it is weird. Good for Brave Vesperia as a business venture, I guess. There's less people taking jobs right now, so we're getting plenty."

"If it's colder there, are you staying warm enough? They aren't having the same issues as Zaphias?"

"Yeah. I mean, the Empire already restricted the Guilds' access to blastia, right? So the buildings are built better for the winter, already, because most of them couldn't depend on furnace blastia. Lots of fireplaces and ventilation systems. I just sleep with plenty of blankets and bundle up when I go out."

"As long as you're doing alright," Flynn says, doubtfully. He doesn't like to think of Yuri in the cold and dark, but at least it sounds like he's staying active.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm getting by okay. It being dark all the time sucks more than the weather, honestly. Anyway, I'm going to be in Zaphias for a while."

Flynn perks up. Yuri doesn't always stay in town all that long. "Really?"

"Really," Yuri says. His grin goes a little less smirk and a little more soft and fond. "Gotta be here for the solstice festival and then new year, don't I? Or Ted'll kill me. And I thought I'd stick around for a bit after that, see if there's any chance we can establish a little guild business in Zaphias."

Flynn beams at him. "Pleased to hear it."

Yuri shakes his head, still smiling, as he lifts his arms from the edge of the tub and sinks back into the hot water. "You'll be sick of me by the time I go, don't worry."

Flynn really doesn't think he will be.

---

Yuri doesn't leave fast enough in the morning to miss Cecelia bringing breakfast for two. Flynn and Yuri both stare at her, befuddled. Yuri's got one boot on.

"There were two sets of pajamas set aside on the dresser last afternoon when I left for the day," she says, flustered. Flynn had re-folded Yuri's set along with his own so that they wouldn't create an absurd amount of laundry when he could just wear the same ones again if he showed up. "Sir. Um. I'm sorry. I can take one of these back to the kitchens, if you don't—"

"I mean, I'll eat it," Yuri says, reaching out to take the tray from her. "But you really didn't have to. The renovations seem to be going alright, it should be done soon. And Mariam's always willing to feed me when I get back over to the Lower Quarter. I'm not your problem, Cece."

Completely red in the face, Cecelia says, "It's my job to maintain the Commandant's quarters and if he's decided you're to be included in them then yes, you are my problem. Good day."

She curtsies aggressively and sees herself out before either Yuri or Flynn can say anything about it.

"Well then," Yuri says.

"I've no idea what that was about," Flynn says, baffled. "She asked if she should bring two breakfasts after the first morning and I told her not to."

"Hope I haven't offended her by declining her hospitality or something," Yuri says, which is a new layer of social etiquette Flynn doesn't want to think about so early in his morning. Shouldn't he be the one dictating the hospitality levels of his own quarters? Is Flynn also in hot water for telling her not to be hospitable? "Well, whatever. Yay for free breakfast."

"Indeed." It does sound nice to take a meal with Yuri, instead of just having him hop right back out the window. And it is. Flynn enjoys it immensely.

[erindoodless]

a magical kind of love

CHAPTER 1: A NEW BEGINNING FOR DANIEL HOWELL

author’s note: sorry for taking so long to write this! school is very tiring. i hope to post at least every sunday! let me know if you would like to be on my tag list so you will be notified of future chapters and works.

summary: dan gets accepted into hogwarts and meets a new friend on the hogwarts express.

type: modern phan hogwarts au

wc: 2.3k

honorable mention: to my beta readers for their amazing editing skills and being able to read it very last minute @violetofthesea @some-angelic-flowers ​ @hermit-with-friendz

read on ao3 or continue reading below!

As Dan walked through the train station, he felt nervous butterflies in the pit of his stomach. He never liked normal school so the last place he wanted to go was Hogwarts. The idea of being among loads of obnoxious, magical people his own age stressed him out. All he wanted to do was stay home and go on the internet for the rest of his life because it was the only place he could be himself.

While he strolled into the station, it started to rain. Dan didn’t like the rain very much, so he sped to the entrance of the building. This made him believe that going to a wizardly school was such a terrible idea that the sky started to cry. In reality, it was raining to represent a new phase in his life. A brand new beginning for him.

When Dan first got his letter, both he and his parents were very confused. Although neither of his parents are Muggles, and he had exhibited magic before, he lacked any passion for it. They were sure that Dan wouldn’t get accepted for that reason, but his letter came anyway, and their attitudes changed. They were very excited for the first time in a long time for their son. Even though he didn’t want to leave his bedroom, Dan felt pressured by them to go. His bedroom was the only place he found peace. Yet, despite all his complaints, his irritating parents still made him go.

Dan’s mother took him along to the station on the day he was sent to Hogwarts. Similar to him, his mother had mouse-brown hair and dark brown eyes. Dan imagined that he used to have a more trustworthy relationship with his mother. Unfortunately, that was lost as soon as both of his parents shared their opinions about certain topics that he disagreed with. For being just 11 years old, Dan was intelligent for his age because he was able to form opinionated thoughts about controversial ideas due to his free access to the internet. They walked along with the platform. Dan still felt upset about the whole situation while he pushed his loud trolley. He was glad that his parents let him bring his dog Colin along so he could have some sort of friend. He was happy that Hogwarts updated their policies to allow dogs.

“Oh, don’t look so miserable Daniel. This is an opportunity that most children don’t get! You should feel lucky,” his mother said to him with a disappointing look on her soft face. The only thing that brought Dan ease from his mother is her tendency to feel empathetic for him. But in this circumstance, he didn’t feel any love at all and his mother was just disappointing him. “I’m sure you will meet loads of new friends.”

Dan let out a heavy sigh. He never had good friends at his primary school so he wasn’t sure why his mother believed that Hogwarts would be any different. The one time he had a friend was in his 4th year of primary school. His 8-year-old self tried to kiss him after they had a conversation about kissing, but the boy ran off before anything could happen. He never heard from him again.

As Dan was thinking about his time at primary school and walking through the station, his mother suddenly stopped in front of a pillar while Dan is lost in thoughts about primary school. “You’re supposed to run into the pillar. Didn’t you read the letter at all? The train is at platform 9 and ¾,” his mother asked, annoyed at Dan’s disinterest obvious in her voice.

“No? Why would I read a letter about a place I don’t want to go to? And why do they make you go to a platform that doesn’t exist?” Dan replied, not bothering to hide his misery. “And I’ll probably regret going even though you all think I’ll feel guilty about not going.”

This was a drastic moment when Dan’s awful life was changed forever. Without listening to his mother’s response, he just ran into the stone pole with his trolley and Colin yelped.

And there he was. He was standing right in front of the Hogwarts Express with loads of other wide-eyed children and their supportive families. Since it was 10:55 am, and the train was due to leave at 11 am, he decided to just get on the enchanted train so he could avoid his crazy mother as much as possible.

Fortunately for him, he was able to find a seat in an empty compartment. He sat down with a sigh of relief. The compartment consisted of 4 seats, 2 shelves to put up luggage, and a giant window. The luxurious seats were so squishy that one could easily sink into them.

The brown-eyed boy set his stuff down and let his dog out of that horrid cage. He was fully against putting Colin in a cage because he knew he was perfectly capable of walking to the station, but Dan’s mother and father said he would have to put the dog in a cage or leave him at home. Since he found comfort in Colin, he chose to put him into the confinement even though it made him feel very guilty. When the small dog came out, he did a long stretch and laid down on the comfy seat. Dan began petting him lovingly.

He came prepared for the 9-hour train ride to Scotland with his tablet, earbuds, and downloaded the whole season of Yuri On Ice!!! ‘It took 4 hours to download the episodes so this better be worth it’, Dan thought to himself. Thankfully, he also remembered to bring his portable charger in case his tablet battery got too low.

Just as he was about to start the first episode, he heard a soft knock on the door. Startled, he looked up to see a pale-skinned boy with bright blue eyes and bright ginger hair in the slightly opened doorway. Dan was not expecting to have any visitors so this was quite a surprise for him.

“Do you mind if I sit with you? Everywhere else is full,” the pale boy stammered out. He had a strong Northern accent and seemed very shy. Dan hesitantly nodded and the boy quickly sat down.

Dan avoided eye contact with the boy as long as he could and took a few glimpses at him while he was looking out the window. He had lots of colors in his eyes. His soft, orange hair was styled in a quiff. And damn, he was pretty. Even though he was just 11, Dan knew that he found boys nicer to look at than girls. This was another part of him that he had never told anyone in fear of rejection besides, of course, the one friend he tried to kiss. Thankfully, his old friend was somewhat a good person and never told anyone about what happened, even if he made a point of not talking to Dan after. The other parts included his Tumblr URL and his love for anime.

A few minutes later, Dan felt light taps on his shoulder. He looked up and saw that the boy was trying to speak to him. He paused his anime and took an earbud out to listen to what he had to say. “Hey, uh… My name is Phil Lester. What’s yours?” The boy, now known as ‘Phil’, questioned, somewhat awkwardly, his face turning even more red than his hair. He had a high pitched voice, though that might’ve just been nerves. Dan thought it was cute.

“Dan,” was all he said while not looking at Phil in the face. He returned to his anime because he knew he would start crushing hard if they began to have a conversation.

In the next hour or so, Dan noticed Phil eyeing Colin while the dog stared right back at him. Dan took his earbud out again and said, “You can pet him if you want.” Phil looked up at Dan surprised while the brown-eyed boy still wasn’t looking at him in the eye. The pale boy timidly placed his small hand on Colin’s head and began gently stroking him. Dan had never seen someone stroke an animal so delicately in his whole 11 years of being alive. The dog was having the time of his life as Phil began petting his belly.

“Wow, he really likes you,” Dan said out of confusion. He was shocked because it usually takes a while for Colin to trust people.

“Well, I guess I do have a way with animals,” Phil replied with a small smile on his face. “I live on a farm with my parents filled with lots of unique creatures. Maybe if I get to know you better, I can bring you home one time! We have thestrals, house cats, thunderbirds, and loads more. My favorite would have to be my own thestral, Henry,” he babbled on. Dan was distracted by when Phil said he could take him home. Does that mean someone finally wanted to befriend Dan?

“Did you bring a pet with you?” asked Dan. He was curious because he was the other way around where his parents never told him much about the magical world. Since they assumed he would never get into Hogwarts, he didn’t have an opportunity to learn much about special creatures.

“Yes! I have my lovely pygmy puff. She’s a bit on the crazy side, especially since a dog is here, so I’m going to leave her in her cage for now. I’ll show you her another time,” Phil smiled while looking at the small cage.

“Anyway, what are you watching on the screen thing? I’ve been curious about it the whole train ride,” the pale boy questioned. Dan wondered why the boy was suddenly being so talkative after sitting for an hour and not doing or saying anything. “Is that Muggle technology? My parents would never let me have technology.”

Dan was astonished to hear this. “You mean you’ve never watched anime, been on Tumblr, read fanfiction…?” Phil shook his head and had a puzzled look on his face. “Alright then. Come over here and we can watch this anime together.”

Phil blushed a bit again and went across to sit next to Dan. He was more fascinated by Dan’s tablet than anything else. He had never seen a piece of technology in this life besides the few times his parents took him out in public. Colin laid between the two boys while the blue-eyed boy was delightfully petting him again. “So, what exactly is an anime?” Phil inquired. Dan was even more shocked to hear this.

“Japanese cartoon. I need to show you everything now,” Dan responded. Phil let out a squeaky giggle and it made Dan’s checks turn deep red because of how angelic it sounded. “This one I download for the train is Yuri On Ice!!! It’s a competitive figure skating anime and it’s super gay.” That was another word Dan had learned from the internet. He had discovered all the different sexualities.

Phil looked even more excited now because if it’s a cheerful story, then it must be a great story. His parents had told him very little about the Muggle world and they didn’t want him to be involved with technology. All they wanted was their little boy to be a happy farmer. He spent the majority of his childhood reading educational magic books on the different creatures and plants on his family’s farm. He remembers reading the word ‘gay’ in one of his books and it was used to describe pure bliss.

“Oh, I love happy stories,” Phil stated with a small grin.

“I mean, this story has some sad bits. What makes you assume it’s a happy story?” Dan asked in a perplexed voice.

“Because it’s gay.”

Dan burst out laughing. “You know what, nevermind. You’ll learn eventually.” This made Phil even more bewildered than ever, but he just went along with it. Dan gave Phil one of his earbuds and showed him where to put it because he was originally trying to put it in his nostrils. Then they finally began watching. It turned out to be very depressing at the beginning. In Phil’s opinion, it wasn’t very gay. However, throughout the 22 minutes, it became quite funny with all the characters’ dramatic reactions.

After watching the first episode, Dan took out his earbud, and Phil did the same. “So, what did you think?” Dan asked in curiosity.

“I thought it was not happy at all. But I like the characters. And the theme song was good,” Phil responded, still unsure of the whole anime thing. They continued to watch the remaining episodes. Phil began obsessing over Yuri because of their similar love for dogs.

About 5 hours had gone by when they finally finished the anime. They had mini discussions between each episode so it took much longer than Dan expected. They still had 3 hours left on the train. The boys were struggling to think of something they could do or talk about because they didn’t want to be bored out of their minds.

While Dan was thinking of what they could do next, he felt something lay onto his shoulder. He looked over at Phil and realized he had fallen asleep with his head on Dan’s shoulder. Dan let out a sigh and accepted that he wouldn’t be able to move for a long time. He was feeling pretty tired as well so he rested his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes.

He slowly fell asleep, happy that he possibly made a new friend.

authors note: please reblog and like if you enjoyed reading! again, let me know if you want on to be the tag list!

[winglesscrows]

The Bern Incident

AO3 I Patreon I FF.net

Yuri on Ice I G I Chris & Victor I 4k 

"An epiphany struck Chris at that moment. Between the two of them, the awkward one wasn’t him, it was Viktor."

The story of how Chris went from being just one of Viktor's fans, to realize how much of a mess he is and become his friend.

Read under cut or on AO3

The first time Chris had seen Viktor had been through a television. He had just turned fourteen and he was supposed to join the junior ranks in figure skating in the upcoming season. It had therefore been important to him that he watched the Junior World Championships live, so that he would know what the competition was like. After all, Chris had dreams of winning an Olympic medal, and while he would be just a year too young to go to Torino, he had his eyes set on Vancouver. And surely, the skaters at this Junior World Championship held those same dreams. Chris wanted to know how far behind he was.

Chris had watched with awe as people only a couple of years older than him had mastered things he could only dream of. The triple axels that some of the older juniors performed were so good, and Chris thought they would definitely go senior next year. They were amazing and Chris hoped that when he joined them, he could be just as good. No, even better, they were his competition. However, for as good as these nameless skaters were, no one caught his eye like a young Russian competitor.

The skater stood out amongst the others, not only because of his long silver hair and his pretty costume covered in rhinestones, no, it was the way he held himself and smiled to all the people around him that made Chris’ heart beat faster. He didn’t know his name until it was called on the speaker, and he committed the name to memory. Viktor. Viktor Nikiforov.

His skating was just as beautiful as his looks and his smile. It was light and smooth and playful, and suddenly Chris didn’t understand what the others had done that could have impressed him. Not when there was Viktor.

It felt only natural that Viktor would win the competition with the highest score ever set by a junior.

The very next day, Chris asked his coach about Viktor and she showed him some of his programs, which she had on a tape. Chris was bewitched by his skating, and he told her that he wanted to compete against him. She smiled and told him that Viktor would turn senior next season. Chris smiled back at her. He still had one year until he could legally turn senior, so he would use that year to its fullest.

The first time Chris spoke to Viktor was two years later and it was during Chris’ first season as a senior. As the World Junior silver medalist, Chris had gotten two grand prix assignments, but none of them had coincided with Viktor’s. Viktor, who was now World bronze medalist. He had hoped to join Viktor in the Finals, but he hadn’t medalled in any of his competitions and he had watched the Finals from his bedroom, watching as Viktor has fought his way to a silver medal.

But now, here they were, together, in the same arena, for the same competition. It was the European Championship, and after winning silver at his own Nationals (although not as good as Viktor’s Russian National title), he had been assigned to attend the competition. He had been very proud of his accomplishment, and he felt even luckier to be able to witness Viktor skate in person for the very first time.

Chris remembered skating in the free skate group just before Viktor, and he remembered thinking about how he would like to stand on that podium with Viktor today. He wanted nothing more than for Viktor to acknowledge him. From what Chris had read, from what Chris had seen, Viktor didn’t have a rival. All top skaters had a rival, Chris believed that to be true, and he would like to be Viktor’s. He would like to be the one Viktor would want to beat, he would want Viktor to pay attention to him, and he would want the two of them to be friends.

When Viktor won the competition and received his medal, Chris was in the stance. He was not sad that he didn’t medal. If anything, he was proud of his personal bests that he had acquired today, but still, he would like for Viktor to notice him. He saw his chance as Viktor exited the rink and called out to him.

With a blue rose and a promise to meet again at worlds, Chris smiled.

Over the next couple of years, Chris exchanged few words with Viktor. He still felt starstruck when Viktor was close. It was the same feeling he got whenever he met with Stephane Lambiel, another idol of his. The feeling of watching someone so awe-inspiring and amazing, the feeling of wanting to be like them. The only difference was that Viktor was so close to his age. Idols are normally someone much older than you, someone who inspired you while you were young. And Viktor had inspired him, but he had been so young himself as he had, and Chris could not help but think that watching Viktor grow and mature, could only be a blessing.

Four years after that first meeting, the European Championship was held in Bern, Switzerland. It was the very first time that Chris would represent Switzerland as its national champion, and he wanted to prove himself by winning this event in his home country. Last year, he had gotten the closest to a European medal he had ever had. A fourth place finish, half a point away from bronze. This year he was stronger in every way. He had matured, his body had grown and his skills had been polished. He was ready.

Viktor hadn’t won the event since he had given Chris the rose - it had been all silvers since his last victory. Although, Viktor had not even attended last year. Instead, he had prepared for the Olympics, which he had taken by storm, and won with another world record set. After he had won, people had wondered if he would retire. Chris had laughed at the rumours. Viktor wouldn’t retire just because he won the Olympics, no, Viktor lived to perform on the ice. It was what made him different. It was why Chris loved to see him skate, more than anyone, because Viktor didn’t just do it for the gold and the victory. Viktor skated for his audience. Chris would like to think that he was the same, but upon entering the rink for his first practice, all he thought of was gold.

“Good luck tonight,” someone said and patted him on the shoulder. Chris turned and looked at Viktor, who smiled at him. Chris didn’t know if smiled back, but he did notice that he had grown as tall as Viktor. Interesting.

“Thank you,” Chris said quickly, and then after a second added, “You too.”

Viktor flashed a bright smile at him before exiting the rink and joining his coach. Those were the kinds of interactions they had had over the last couple of years, and while Chris treasured each and every one of them, he wished to be able to talk to Viktor without getting tongue-tied.

Chris didn’t have the chance to talk to Viktor again until after the free skate. They were standing by the rink, waiting for the staff to set up the necessary things needed for the medal ceremony. Chris was quite pleased with his result. It wasn’t quite the gold medal he had dreamed of, but a silver was good enough. Viktor was back as the European champion, and the point difference between the two of them had been so incredibly small that it hardly mattered to Chris what the colour of his medal was.

This was the perfect opportunity, Chris thought, and turned around to hopefully start a conversation with his idol. But one look at Viktor made Chris rethink his decision. Viktor was looking at him. Intensely. It was almost like Viktor had something to say, something Chris thought he didn’t want to hear, but he didn’t say anything. Chris couldn’t possibly think of why or how he had upset Viktor, but he felt like he had done something wrong, and the couldn’t talk to him unless he figured that out.

Chris didn’t get the chance to talk to Viktor before the ceremony started, and when it did, Viktor put on his famously beautiful smile as he waved to audience and received his medal.

After the press conference, Chris was surprised when Viktor came running up to him in an empty hallway. The only person other than the two of them was Chris’ own coach, though it seemed like Viktor’s coach wasn’t far away, judging by his non-stop yelling of Viktor’s name.

Viktor had that intense look in his eyes again, and Chris was about to apologize for… something. He didn’t really know what, but surely, Viktor wanted him to apologize.

“I want you to have this,” Viktor said suddenly and held out his gold medal, as if expecting Chris to take it. Which was insane. Why would he take it? Chris could only stare dumbfounded at Viktor.

“Excuse me?” He said, bewildered. Clearly, Viktor had to be joking or pulling a prank.

“Please take it,” Viktor insisted, but Chris did not take it. Viktor had won that medal, he had regained his European title. Why on earth would he want Chris to have it? They didn’t even know each other that well.

“I don’t understand-” Chris began, but he was interrupted by Viktor’s angry coach.

“Vitya! I told you not to-” His coach sighed, “I’m sorry to have bothered your skater, Josef,” he apologized and then took Viktor by the arm, “I’ll free you from him.”

Before the angry coach could drag him away from Chris, Viktor placed the medal in Chris’ hands.

“I can’t keep this...” Chris mumbled to himself when he was back in his hotel room. He had disregarded his own silver medal, to admire Viktor’s gold. The only difference between them was the colour, but the gold medal in Chris’ hands felt heavier than his own. Perhaps it was because it wasn’t his, and how could he look at this without thinking that he hadn’t won it. Viktor had won it and gifted it to him. For what? Because he felt sorry for him that he didn’t win the event in his home country when he had been just a point away from it? Pity didn’t seem like a trait of the Viktor he looked up to, so therefore, that couldn’t be it. Viktor was a man of respect and honour, and Chris mentally facepalmed when he realized that he was more or less describing the qualities of a noble knight in the middle ages.

He had to find Viktor. Hopefully before the banquet. Chris didn’t know when Viktor would be leaving, and he couldn’t be seen giving the medal back to Viktor in public. What if people thought that he had stolen it? He really didn’t want those kinds of rumours about himself. Especially not with how he was rising through the ranks.

Without knowing what room Viktor was in, Chris began to search the hotel.

Chris went through over twenty rooms until he knocked on the door of a person who knew where Viktor was. During that time he had gotten weird stares, an autograph from a Spanish skater he quite liked, and the number of a French ice dancer, who was a year older than Chris and ridiculously handsome. He would save that for later, perhaps as a reward for giving Viktor his medal back.

He found Viktor at the restaurant bar. In his mind, Viktor never got drunk, he barely even touched alcohol, only ever the celebratory champagne or perhaps a glass of the finest red wine. Chris realized that he had so many assumptions about Viktor that he didn’t really understand where came from. It was almost like he had painted this perfect picture of him in his mind, and perhaps that was why he found it hard to talk to him. Chris was a sociable guy. He got along with everyone, but with Viktor it had always been a little strained. The few conversations they had had were always something of a formality, and when it ever extended past that, it turned awkward. Chris knew that it was because of how he viewed Viktor, which was why he had wanted to befriend him. So that it would be, perhaps, less awkward.

“Hi,” Chris greeted Viktor cheerfully, and he was met with a smile. A signature Nikiforov smile which made all of its victims weak in their knees.

“Christophe,” Viktor smiled, “Did you come to get a drink.? I’ll buy you one.”

Although that wasn’t really among Chris’ plans, who was he to turn down that offer, “Sure, thanks,” he said and took a seat beside him, “You can call me Chris. All my friends do.” The words were out of his mouth before he knew it. Would Viktor think him presumptuous to call them friends?

“Do you consider me a friend?” Viktor asked curiously, and Chris averted his gaze.

“Only if you do,” he said, “I mean, consider me a friend.”

“I would love to be your friend, Chris!” Viktor said cheerfully. Of course, Chris couldn’t know how much Viktor had drunk before he got there, but an epiphany struck Chris at that moment. Between the two of them, the awkward one wasn’t him, it was Viktor. Who on earth made friends like that? He wanted to laugh, but that would have been weird.

“I actually came to give you back your medal,” he said and fished it out of his pocket, “Here. You shouldn’t just give these to people.”

Viktor sighed as he took back the medal. He examined it for a while, before pushing it aside. The bartender refilled Viktor’s glass and gave Chris his drink.

“Why did you give it to me?” Chris asked curiously, and was surprised to see Viktor’s face slowly morph into a pout.

“You should have won,” Viktor said, almost whined, and to preserve the image of him that Chris had made in his mind, he blamed Viktor’s behaviour on the alcohol.

“That’s dumb,” Chris stated plainly, and Viktor would probably have looked hurt at the statement if he hadn’t looked so utterly offended.

“It is not dumb,” Viktor defended, “It is a fact.”

Chris looked at him like he was going mad, “If it was a fact that I should have won, then they would have given me the gold medal. In fact, I think you were underscored in the short program.”

Viktor looked even more shocked, “You think I was underscored? Look, Chris,” Viktor said his name like Chris had offended his dog. Viktor was known to only ever be rude to people who spoke ill about his dog, “You are clearly blind, because you definitely got robbed of a personal best in the short program-”

“You know what my personal best is?” Chris interrupted, because he didn’t even know that Viktor had paid attention to his score or his skate, let alone knew what his personal best was. Hell, Chris only knew what Viktor’s personal best was because most of them were world records.

“Of course I do,” Viktor said as if Chris had asked if he knew that the sky was blue, “But the real issue was the free skate. I was never that good at the lutz-” Viktor began, and Chris felt a monologue coming so he started sipping his drink, “-but I have been improving, you know. But tonight it just didn’t work for me, I knew before I even jumped that it wouldn’t work. So when I saw my score I was so happy, because it was high even with my mistakes, so clearly the GOE would have been really good.”

Chris nodded along as Viktor rambled on about why Chris should have won. He wasn’t quite sure yet what Viktor was trying to say.

“But then I looked at the protocol, and they hadn’t marked my mistake. And I know I made a mistake because Yakov wouldn’t shut up about it in the Kiss & Cry, like, I get it. Yakov, my lutz is horrible. But then you started to skate, and I really like you programs this year, by the way-”

“Thanks...”

“And I was so sure you were going to win, and then you didn’t, and all because they didn’t mark my mistake. This might be a judged sport, but some things are just unacceptable, and I really think you should keep the medal,” Viktor slid the gold medal across the bar again, but Chris refused to take it and shoved it into Viktor’s hands.

“That is ridiculous, Viktor,” Chris began, “You were clearly better than me during both programs. One unmarked mistake shouldn’t change that.”

“But it would have changed the standings! This isn’t an issue about fourth or fifth place. This is about who wins!”

Chris shook his head, “Mon Dieu, you are an actual idiot.”

“Excuse me?!”

“The gold was clearly yours, mistake or not. The points you would have lost if they called out your mistakes they just took elsewhere. I mean, how have you not received a ten in presentation, or interpretation or any component yet? It’s clear as day that the judges don’t award you the scores you deserve. Everyone knows this.”

“But you had two clean programs and I did not!”

“I had easier programs than you! That’s like saying that a person who only jumps doubles should win against a person who only does triples, if the last person falls once. That makes no sense.”

Chris shook his head in disbelief. Was this really Viktor Nikiforov, Russian star and Olympic champion, or was this some twisted drunk version of Viktor that Chris had just happened to find? He couldn’t tell. Clearly, Viktor was not entirely sober, but he didn’t slur his words, or even smell of alcohol. With the exception of the ludacris nonsense that he was spouting, he did not seem drunk.

“You know what,” Chris said at least, “If you really think I should have beaten you, then let’s wait and see at Worlds. If I win then, I will accept your wild theory.”

“And you will accept the medal?” Viktor asked brightly

“Absolutely not. Thanks for the drink,” Chris said and bid the gold medalist good night. That, Chris thought, was enough for tonight.

At the banquet, Viktor approached him again, although this time, he didn’t try to give him a medal. He just handed him a glass of champagne.

“Sorry for what happened at the bar,” Viktor said quietly, not letting anyone listen in, “I was just really upset about the results.”

“But now you understand that you deserved to win?” Chris finished for him and Viktor looked at him in confusion.

“No, I still think you should have won and if you ever want the medal, I’ll give it to you.”

“Maybe we should start having conversations when you’re sober,” Chris wondered out loud and Viktor grinned.

“Sounds good,” he said and pulled up his phone, “Can I have your number?”

Chris gave it to him gladly.

Having Viktor’s contact in his phone would make him a friend, that was what Chris thought at least, but friends should text each other. Chris texted with his other friends. Maybe not often, but he never went more than two months without texting someone he considered a friend. With Viktor, however, it had been four months of radio silence. Viktor was fairly active on social media, and Chris had assumed he would be the same with him, but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Viktor Nikiforov was a mystery to Chris. He had always kind of been mysterious, but Chris had taken that as a part of his brand, not as a personality trait. Chris wasn’t like that. Chris loved his friends, and Chris would text his friends no matter what.

Chris opened his phone and found the text messages him and Viktor had exchanged. There were exactly two messages. The first one had been from Viktor and it said: good luck! It had been sent the day before the short program at Worlds. Chris had replied with: good luck to you too! And had cringed at how awfully stiff it sounded.

Chris didn’t actually know what he wanted to talk about, so he just stared at his phone for a while before typing up a question he had always wanted to ask Viktor: why did you cut your hair?

It took Viktor three full days to answer, and when he did answer, it was the most anti-climactic answer Chris could have imagined: just felt like it.

Chris frowned. He was not that bad at holding a conversation, clearly, Viktor was the one at fault here. He typed up another message: why didn’t you reply?

Soon after, Viktor responded: lost my phone, accidently put it in the fridge.

Chris looked at the text, whether Viktor was joking or completely serious, it didn’t change the fact that he was clearly a lot weirder than Chris had ever thought. Wasn’t Viktor supposed to be perfect? An angel who had come to graze humanity with his skating? It would seem that that was not the case.

Chris tried to text Viktor often, and despite the sometimes boring or extremely weird replies, he began to find it fun and looked forward to whatever Viktor had to tell him that day. Chris also started putting some things about his new friend together. It was clear that Viktor didn’t have a whole lot of close friends. He would sometimes mention going out to dinner with friends, but they hardly seemed like people Viktor would invite over to his apartment for sleepovers. Viktor was also a huge bookworm, apparently. The longest reply Chris had ever gotten from him was when he had asked what his favorite book was and Viktor had replied with five extremely long messages explaining what exactly he liked about his favorite book (Chris may or may not have bought that book the next day just to understand Viktor’s enthusiasm).

Chris also learned that Viktor was a bit of a loner. Not necessarily in a bad way, but the third time Viktor texted him saying that he wanted to lock himself in his apartment and just cuddle with his dog all day long, Chris kind of knew that he wasn’t naturally a people-person. Or maybe that he wasn’t a people-person all the time.

The two of them also started exchanging pictures and videos of their pets, which gave Chris a small look into Viktor’s more childish nature. The more Chris learned about his new friend, the less the Viktor of his mind made any sense. He wondered how he had ever been so wrong about him.

When the season began again, the two of them met at a grand prix assignment. This time Chris approached Viktor and didn’t hesitate giving him a hug.

“Hey,” Viktor said, faking being in shock, “You’re taller than me now!”

“Maybe this is the season I finally beat you then?” Chris teased and Viktor gave him a mischievous smile in return.

“You already beat me in Bern though.”

“You are hopeless!” Chris exclaimed and gave Viktor a shove.

Viktor laughed, and Chris was certain that he had found a friend for life.

(That season, Viktor won every single competition he competed in, and when Chris got silver at Worlds, Viktor didn’t ask if they could swap medals. He only asked if Chris wanted to visit him during the summer.)

[mizuki-rin-reblogs]

Stronger Than I Look

Yuuri has been living in Russia for a few months now it took a while to get use to the cold weather and new environment, but with the help of Victor and Yurio he’s adjusted well. Yuuri can even speak and understand a little bit of Russian, although it isn’t often that he leaves the house without Victor or Yurio so there is always someone around to help him. Today though he was on his own thankfully a lot of people in Russia know English so it isn’t too difficult.

As he was walking he heard some people speaking English which is a little unusual Yuuri guessed they were tourists and carried on walking, until he heard them mention Yurios name. He stopped in his tracks.

“Don’t you think it’s weird how a kid like this Plisetsky won gold in the grand prix final? Like seriously there were some amazing competitors and yet a kid won. That seems fishy to me, maybe he cheated, y’know bribe the judges or something.” This guy said to his friend.

“I don’t really follow ice skating but I guess I see where you’re coming from but maybe he just worked really hard like everyone else and got lucky. Isn’t that what happened when you started doing judo? Anyway I’m going in here wait for me outside.” When the friend went into the shop Yuuri turned around to look at the guy who just insulted Yurio.

The guy was a few inches taller than Yuuri, tanned, black slicked back hair. He wore black skinny jeans, snow boots and a thick coat zipped up. He was frowning at a poster which had a picture of Yurio on with his gold medal. Yuuri approached the man.

“Excuse me sure but what did you just say about Yuri Plisetsky?” Yuuri asked.

“Oh my god. Your Yuuri Katsuki I loved your free skate in the last grand prix final.” The man said in a hurry clearly excited to see Yuuri,

“Thank you. Now answer my question.” Yuuri relied.

“Oh yes. I said that Plisetsky didn’t deserve to win, that he probably cheated. Do you think?” The man smiled at Yuuri. Yuuri just sighed.

“I thought that was what you said...You’re wrong Yuri extremely hard to win, and if Yuri hadn’t won I would have retired so please take back what you said.” Yuuri tried to reason he didn’t want it to get violent.

“No, I WILL NOT take it back I know I’m right and I won’t back down.”

This made Yuuri angrier and he had already run out of patience with this man. He clenched his teeth and growled out.

“I said...TAKE IT BACK” Yuuri yelled as he punched the man in the face causing his nose to bleed.

The man stumbled but quickly regained balance with enough time to dodge Yuuri's next punch and landed on himself successfully splitting Yuuri's lip. But Yuuri didn’t even stumble as he landed another punch on the guy face, they continued fighting for another minute or two but if felt longer it all ended when Yuuri landed a kick in the man's gut successfully winding him and causing him to fall to the ground. As Yuuri stood up straight the guys friend left the shop and froze.

“I heard you say you didn’t agree with him so you’re okay but tell your friend he needs to be careful what he say and who he says it to.” Yuuri said as he started to walk away heading home the friend just nodded before helping his friend up.

Yuuri hurries home wanting to avoid the press and questioning looks from the locals, he may have won but he wasn’t unhurt he had a split lip and eyebrow, small cuts on his knuckles and he could feel the bruise forming on his cheek. What was he going to tell Victor?

When he got home he was greeted by Makkachin, he heard Victor before he saw him.

“Yuuuri~” Victor called.

“Yuuri I was so lonely while you wer-” Victor cut himself off when he saw Yuuri's face.

“Hi Victor” Yuuri smiled, wincing when it pulled at his cut lip.

“What happen to you?” Victor asked gently holding Yuuri's face in his hands.

“I’ll tell you but can I get cleaned up first?” Yuuri responded.

“Of course, love” Victor gently kisses Yuuri careful of his cuts.

Victor leads Yuuri to the sofa and sits him down telling him to stay there while he gets the first aid kit. When Victor returns he gives Yuuri an ice pack to put on his cheek. Yuuri winces and every now and then lets out a sound of pain as Victor cleans the cuts on his face and knuckles. He wraps Yuuri's knuckles in bandage just to be safe and puts a small plaster on his eyebrow. Whilst Victor was cleaning him up Yuuri tells Victor everything that happened. And by the time he was done so was Victor. Yuuri and Victor changed into some pyjamas and curled up on the sofa with the tv playing in the background. Yuuri had a new ice pack on his face as well.

“So you defended our Yurios honor?” Victor chuckled at the thought.

“Yeah, I guess I did. I don’t know why it made me angry but it did.” “You stood up for him because he wasn’t there to do it himself. I’m surprised I never thought of you as the fighting type.” Victor said as Yuuri snuggled closer.

“Yeah I got bullied a lot about my weight growing up so I learnt to defend myself in a fight.” Yuuri was about to kiss Victor when the front door burst open.

“WHERES KATSUDON!!??” Yurio yelled as he marched into the house.

“I’m here Yurio what's wrong?” Yuuri responded while trying to hide behind Victor.

Victor stood up and stepped between the two Yuris.

“What's wrong Yurio? Why are you so angry?” Victor asked calmly.

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE DID!? IT’S ALL OVER THE INTERNET!!” Yurio yelled.

Yuuri checked his phone and sure enough on all social media and news sites the story of what happened was being reported. Thankfully it seemed like everyone supported him for what happened, one of Yuris angles must have seen or some of the press either way someone reported it and made Yuuri out to be a hero.

“Yes Yurio I’m aware of what happened he told me whilst I was patching him up.” Victor responded. It seemed that only then did Yurio notice Yuuri's injuries.

“Shit, are you okay katsudon?” Yurio asked sitting next to Yuuri.

“Yeah I’m fine just a few cuts and bruises, Victor could you put this ice pack back please I don’t think I need it anymore. Could you also make something for us all to drink please?” Yuuri asked. Victor nodded and gave Yuuri a quick kiss and left the room with the ice pack.

“So why did you do it?” Yurio asked.

“Why did I do what?” Yuuri tried to play dumb.

“You know damn well what you did. Why did you get into a fight with someone over me?” Yurio asked looking at his hands.

“Well I don’t know to be honest...I heard what the gut said and I got really angry and when he refused to take it back I lost it and couldn’t help it. It wasn’t a big deal.” Yuuri said looking at Yurio’s bowed head. Yurio seemed to lose it at that.

“NOT A BIG DEAL!?DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW STUPID THAT WAS!?” “Yurio lis-” “THAT GUY WAS A HIGH CLASS JUDO FIGHTER! YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN YOURSELF SERIOUSLY HURT, YOUR SKATING CAREER COULD HAVE ENDED IF THAT GUY HIT YOU HARD ENOUGH IN THE RIGHT PLACE.” “Yurio ple-” “OR WORSE WHAT IF HE HAD SOME KIND OF WEAPON YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!! DID YOU NOT THINK ABOUT ANY OF THAT?? WHAT WOULD HAVE ME OR VICTOR HAVE DONE THEN!! WHA-”

“YURIO PLEASE BE QUIET AND LET ME SPEAK!” Yuuri yelled above Yurio. Yurio immediately shut up and looked up at Yuuri with tears in his eyes. Yuuri pulled him into a hug.

“Yurio listen to me I’m stronger then I look I have experience in fighting and I knew what I was doing and look I’m fine. I couldn’t just walk away when that guy bad mouthed you. I had to do something, you’re like a son to me and I refused to let that guy get away with what he said. I would do it again without fail. Come on don't get upset.”

“I'm not upset I just got dirt in my eyes.” Yurio grumbled but didn't try and pull away. “Just try and be more careful even if you do know what you're doing.”

“I promise you that I will be more careful.” Yuuri promised.

“I think Victor is coming back now do you want him to see you crying?” Yuuri smiled.

Yurio quickly sat up and rubbed his eyes “I wasn't crying it was dirt.” Yurio said as Victor walked in.

“I thought one of you was dead one minute I hear shouting and the next silence what happened?” Victor asked.

“Yurio was just telling me off for putting myself in danger.” Yuuri responded. Accepting the cup of tea Victor gave him.

“So does that mean I don't have to tell you off about it now?” Victor asked passing Yurio his drink.

“I think you should as both his fiancé and his coach.” Yurio smirked.

“I think your right Yurio but I'll do that later.” Victor smiled.

“Come on Victor you don't need to do that I've learnt my lesson I promise.” Yuuri whined.

“Enough of that Yuuri. So what have you two planned for tomorrow seeing as it's your day off?” Victor asked.

“Well I was going to ask Yurio if he wanted to spend the day with me tomorrow and then tag along when I come and meet you once you've finished training.” Yuuri responded.

“I suppose I could keep an eye on Katsudon so he stays out of trouble. I didn't have anything else planned.”

Victor just nodded along. A few hours later they all had dinner and went to bed Yurio stayed the night because there was no point going home if he was coming back in the morning.

The next day when Victor left for training Yuuri and Yurio went out for breakfast, then Yurio made Yuuri buy him a bunch of new things to make up for worrying him yesterday, they had lunch in a quiet café then Yuuri took Yurio to Leningrad Zoo so he could look at the tigers, lions and other animals. Even if Yurio did complain say that he's too old for the zoo he really enjoyed it and even persuaded Yuuri to buy him a stuffed tiger, Yuuri also brought Victor a stuffed polar bear. They arrived at the ice rink just in time to meet Victor as he left. Yuuri gave him his polar bear which he loved while Yurio told him all about what they did not even trying to hide how happy he was.

They all went out for dinner and went home Yuuri and Victor walked Yurio home and then headed home themselves hand in hand.

“It sounds like you had a lot of fun today.” Victor smiled.

“Yeah I'm glad we managed to avoid the press. Next time though you can come as well. It'll be even better that way.” Yuuri responded leaning closer to Victor.

“Do you think he has forgiven you yet for worrying him and making him cry?”

Yuuri nodded “Yeah but that isn't why I took him out. I took him out because I wanted to spend some quality time with him.” Yuuri yawned.

“I know. Come on let's go home and to bed we have training tomorrow.” Victor said as he pulled Yuuri to the direction of their home.

-----

Meanwhile Yuri was on Skype with Otabek. Telling him everything that happened yesterday and what he did today.

“Next time you come to Russia I'll take you to the zoo and show you all the animals and if you're lucky I'll buy you something.” Yuri said Otabek smiled and nodded. “I'd like that Yura.”

Soon they got off Skype and Yuri went to bed, and quickly sent Yuuri an message before going to sleep.

Yurio: ‘Thank you for today Katsudon…and for yesterday’

Yuuri: ‘No problem Yurio I was happy to next time we go out though Victor wants to come along… and about yesterday you don't need to thank me I'd happily do again just remember that I'm stronger then I look. :)’

The End.

[ladybloo]

Harry!!! On Ice, the Reprise

So months and months ago around when I first watched Yuri!!! On Ice I got really into the fanfic type where crossover adoptions happen. And since Harry definitely could of used some parental love during his childhood, he becomes the adopted kid of Victuuri. A lot of the original head-canons can be read here. @cinnappo helped out a lot with the initial stuff and got me really into it too!

Flash back to the present, I notice some comments on the original post, and I was honestly surprised it managed to break 100 notes, but I figure if people like it, then that’s enough to motivate me to do more!

So here is Part 1 of how I think the adoption and life of Harry Potter goes with Victor and Yuuri. 

Harry!!! On Ice (working title)

Synopsis: Harry Potter is adopted by Victuuri (Victor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki)

(Part 1) Before Hogwarts and adoption

Victor and Yuuri are visiting England, potentially taking a brief break between seasons to visit and sight see. Inevitably they come across a skating rink.

The Dursley family is at the rink because a classmate of Harry and Dudley’s invited ALL of their class to the rink for their birthday party. The Dursley’s were not able to foist Harry off to the crazy cat lady neighbour, nor to Vernon’s sister. Plus it would look odd if Dudley went and Harry did not (Dudley complained, no one was happy)

At one point Dudley ends up complaining because he fell one too many times (…so…once) and thus Vernon and Petunia take him to the cafeteria to get ice cream. ((added point- Vernon was probably not too bothered by ice skating because Hockey is a MAN sport))

Little Harry is left by himself, with maybe a concerned parent or official helper dude around the rink asking if he’s okay.He mostly shies away, but determinedly keeps doing his best.

Enter the Nikiforov and Katsuki

Victor and Yuuri notice a little boy who is so small trying his absolute best to skate around the rink. Of course they look around and no one seems to be really looking out for the boy, and for someone his age and obviously very new to the ice, there should be Someone keeping an eye on him. But bar some quick concerned or curious glances, no one really looks twice at the kid.

One moment Harry is alone and doing his best not to fall down again, the next suddenly to adults are beside him, wearing friendly and warm smiles. Now, Harry has heard all about stranger danger in classroom by teachers, and once from Aunt Petunia (and he’d unfortunately never forget Aunt Marge who threatened bad and strange little boys got taken away by terrible men)- however he is in a public space and they seem so friendly and nice (he doesn’t get nice very much these days).

Yuuri and Victor introduce themselves to little Harry, and ask where his parents are-

“They died.”

“…oh…”

When they ask where his guardians are, he points towards where his aunt, uncle and cousin are. Victuuri are then introduced to the sight that is Dudley scoffing down a large ice cream, hot dog and can of fizzy juice, Petunia sneering down at her cheap ice rink tea but smiling and wiping at her precious ‘Dudders’ face, and finally Vernon cheering his son on as he’s a growing boy, going to be just like his dad. What they take not off however out of all of this, is their complete lack of concern for their missing child, who is presumably the boy next to them.

For now however, Harry seems quite content on the ice, and his supposed family don’t show any concern. So instead of leaving the boy to it, Viktor and Yuuri offer to help Harry skate, would he like that?

“Yes please.”

SO. Victuuri keep company with Harry, going around the rink and helping him out and time just flies by. They get small bits and pieces from Harry as he grows more comfortable with the two men. Then it all unfortunately comes to an end. Vernon can be heard, yelling ‘BOY! Where are you!’, causing Harry’s head to snap up alarmingly fast.

((I’m not quite sure what happens in between, Perhaps Yuuri and Victor go and introduce themselves to the Dursley’s? Maybe they ask if they’ve thought about putting Harry into classes, because in their opinion he has some potential and talent? I don’t quite know, but either way Victuuri watch as Harry leaves with his family, and they are left with a bitter taste in their mouths and their insides clenching with worry.))

The Dursley’s aren’t happy with Harry talking to Victor and Yuuri (and I’m fairly certain Vernon would have some extra choice words, especially after seeing the matching golden rings on their hands), and make sure to ground him and so on- the usual Harry is unfortunately familiar with. But as he curls up to sleep that night, he can’t help but remember the warmth he felt despite the chill of the room when Victor and Yuuri skated with him, endlessly patient and kind. Little Harry falls asleep that night and wishes.

((This is where somehow Harry meets Victuuri again and they keep up steady communication whilst they are in England. I can’t say what yet, however I am swaying towards either Victor maybe offering skating lessons to both kids (dudley only going cause vernon thinks it could get him on hockey path who knows), or magic from Harry somehow brings them together again, who knows?? I certainly don’t!))

Eventually their stay in England is coming to an end, and everyone is heartbroken about it. Harry is so upset, and Victuuri have fallen in love with the kid who seems to have taken to ice skating and also with them. They also know enough (but not all) of the kid’s home life and they think ‘we could do better’. And that pretty much how Victor and Yuuri both decide that they want Harry to be their kid.

Harry cries because he doesn’t want Victor and Yuuri to leave. They care about him so much but they are leaving and he’s going to be alone again with nothing but disdain and neglect. Harry doesn’t want them to go.

Insert Victor and Yuuri jumping through various internet searches and appointments with officials on how to adopt a child, especially on how to adopt a child and take them back home abroad.

A/N Honestly I’d love for the Dursley’s to be arrested for child neglect and so on, but I have a feeling the magicals would keep butting in somehow if such a big fuss occurred. For instance, perhaps in the past Harry was taken by social services, only to be returned later due to the work of some memory charms being applied liberally. Granted, with this being set in a modern AU, social media would definitely beat the magicals hands down, especially with news like ‘Top Figure Skating Couple, Victor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki Press Charges For Neglected Boy During England Holiday’. But I kind of want to do a Matilda sort of route with this, where the Dursley’s freely give Harry to Yuuri and Victor (with maybe just a little bit of threatening or pressure from Victor, showing them just how far they’ll go to gain custody of Harry. Social media is a weapon Victor is very skilled with after all, not to mention the other friends they have. Obviously there are still various forms to fill out, and they’d definitely more than likely have to rearrange stuff about (i think i read something about staying 10 weeks in total with kid before adoption?) but they’d work it out somehow.

Both Victor and Yuuri tell Harry they have some, hopefully, good news. Harry asks if they are staying.

“I’m sorry Harry, but we can’t stay here in England with you.”

“…but if you want, we’d like for you to come home with us.”

Cue happy crying.

A lot of crying, and hugging.

A/N For concerns about the whole ‘blood wards’, I think Harry would be okay. He’d be taken to either Russia or back to Japan to meet the Katsuki family, and since Voldemort was more of a UK threat when he popped up, I doubt the rest of the world had much concern over him, especially if supposedly a child killed him, so they wouldn’t be too starry eyed over the ‘boy who lived’, or even at all. Kids wouldn’t have grown up with him as their bedtime stories, nor would they have bought (grossly inaccurate) books that claim what happened that night. Magicals wouldn’t really look twice at the kid for the time being, other than him being the newly adopted kid of figure skating celebrities. So with his scar covered by his hair and outfitted in some new attire with a new passport, Harry makes his way safely out of England and the UK entirely.

SPEAKING OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND CELEBRITIES, Harry is more than likely first introduced to Japan where he can settle in with brand new grandparents and a new, much more nicer and pleasant auntie in Hasetsu. Hasetsu is also much more relaxed, the perfect place to get Harry more used to a life with his new loving parents and all that comes with them (although they eventually return to Russia and harry is introduced to the life of being in the media’s eye because he has two amazing dads).

[splattershotsundae]

Better Eight Than Never --- Chapter 36: In your dreams!

Toda awoke slowly, his limbs felt light and… strange, like they were hardly even there, and as he opened his eyes… he had to blink a few times to take in his surroundings.

He was standing, in what seemed to be a moving elevator…

Wait... red? Was this red? What!? It felt red, he didn’t even know what red looked like, and yet… here it was, right before his eyes...

The elevator came to a stop, and the doors slid open.

A restaurant... It had the same color scheme as the elevator, but it looked like a rather weird spot for an elevator to come out. Waiters walked back and forth, carrying trays, but all of them had these weird half-faces. Just enough that you knew it was a face, then it sort of blurred. There were people at the tables, supposedly talking, but they too were blurry and didn't actually move much. There was only one table which wasn't effected by this lack of detail, a booth by the window.

Simon.

The music in the restaurant began to pick up.

"-beside the green green grass. Swing swing~ (Swing swing~)"

Toda stood in the doorway of the elevator, still trying to wrap his head around all of this. There was so much... color. Why? This didn't make any sense, what was he doing here? What were they doing here? He hesitated, then began to walk toward Simon, the restaurant around him slowly grew still and began to dull in color. As he drew near to Simon’s table, the music dropped sharply in pitch and slowed down.

"-You'll weeearrr thooosssee shooeeess aannddd I'lllll wear that dreesssss~ Ooooohhhhhhhh~"

They spun toward him, a look of terror on their face.

“… Yuri.”

Lightning flashed, and suddenly the scene changed.

Yuri? He turned, expecting to see someone behind him, but was faced with tall windows, and a stormy sky above. Angry paintings stared down at him, their eyes following him as he moved. A nightmare, this had to be a nightmare, but it was unlike any he’d had in recent memory, those were fairly straightforward... He turned back, looking around wildly, but Simon was gone, leaving only a maze of dark hallways. He called out for them, but it wasn’t his voice.

It was Simon’s.

He clapped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide. That had never, ever happened before. Another thing that had never happened before was an answering call, in the same voice.

“GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!!”

"Simon, where are you!? What's going on!?" He tried calling out again, still startled at the voice he was speaking in.This turned to fear as his words bounced around the halls, turning into the words ‘You’ll never be rid of me’. Oh no... He started running down the halls, trying to find them. “SIMON!!!”

"GET OOOUUUUTTTTTT!!!!!!!" They screamed from somewhere in this labyrinth.

Toda heard their scream and tried to follow it,hands starting to shake with a fear that seemed to almost grow thick around him. "Get out of what!? I don't understand!" He turned a corner, and saw Simon there at a dead end. “Simon!”

"NO, NO STAY BACK! GET AWAY FROM ME!" They screamed, a Slosher appearing in their hands as they flung ink in his direction.

"Si--WOAH" He stopped and scrambled back when they flung the ink at them, putting both hands in front of his face to shield himself. "S-Simon?”

Wait a second.

He could see his hand, watery and translucent, with streaks of ink running through it.

This wasn’t his dream at all...

This was Simon’s.

"... Oh Judd..."

Simon advanced, holding their slosher threateningly. "Don't make me do it!"

Toda backed away as quickly as they were advancing, hands still raised. "S-Simon, it's me! It's Toda!" They weren't going to believe him, were they? They didn't seem to recognize him, they were so scared.

"YOU'RE LYING!" Simon screeched. "TODA WOULD NEVER DO THIS TO ME! TODA WOULD NEVER HURT ME!"

He cringed and shrank away, finding himself stuck with his back up against a wall that he hadn’t seen before. "I'm not trying to! I don't know what's going on!!"

"You can't fool me. I know you’re… you’re some octoling trick! They know about this stuff! You’re some trap so they can get information out of me!" They sloshed Ink toward him again, leaving him with nowhere to go.

"Simon, please." He begged. This 'place' that they were trapped in wasn't helping, he had to get them to calm down somehow...

“Do… Do you remember the day we met? Do you remember the sundae shop?”

"And it felt cool inside, and there were all the pictures on the wall of Callie when she came and ate there? And you could smell the waffle cones being made in the back, and it was full but not too noisy? Before the after-dinner rush? And we stepped up to the tiled counter and gave Emma our orders, A Mega Mochi Sundae, and an Ice-cat Sundae? And then we sat at that table next to the window and ate our ice cream, and we talked about forming a squad for a while?" He was rambling now, but he had to keep going. "And you called your sister and I called Bato and it turns out they'd already met and wanted to team up too, and they pretended to be someone else to try and trick us? I mean, I guess I should've figured it out sooner; who has such a long name like that, and asks you to call her by her initials when they spell 'Shithead'?"

They stared at him for a long moment, as if thinking this over. “… Yuri could have seen this. What password did I give you yesterday?”

Password? They’d given him a password? Wait… Toda paused, then smiled. “We’re no strangers to looove~ You know the rules, and so do I~!”

Simon's eyes widened in recognition as he sung, and 'never gonna give you up' started up in the background.

"~Never gonna make you cry, never gonna saaaay good bye~"

"TODA!" They jumped up, the table vanishing from between them as they ran up and hugged him. "I-I'm sorry! I-I was..." Their clothes changed to the clothes they'd worn for splatfest. Their squid-stitch cap, Waffle-tee, blue lo-tops.

Toda hugged them back tightly, or as tightly as he could as water. "I'm sorry too, I didn't mean, I-I don't know..." He was shaking a little bit, his body rippling, not unlike Yuri's had after reliving what'd happened at the rig. If he was in their head... what did this mean? He could feel their own concerns, about how they were just attacking him, they could have killed him, what had happened to Jill, The hug was burning them-- He pulled away quickly, feeling his body ripple more intensely. “I’m hurting you, I should get out of here.” As he spoke, his voice began to sound more and more like himself, as Simon began to imagine his voice.

“Do you know how?” They asked.

He paused. “… Not really… Last time I was… in your position. I just don’t want to hurt you.”

“It’s just a little sting. Honest.” Simon said, but he could tell there was a bit of a lie there. His very presence was causing them pain.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." He whispered.

“Toda, What happened? Why are you here?” They asked.

“I…. don’t know.” He admitted. “I just woke up here, I think.”

“Can you see color in here?”

“… Yeah, I can.”

"Is... it anything like you imagined?" They asked slowly, although the thought had bounced around a few times before they said it, so Toda knew it was coming, they wouldn't have even had to say it.

"In some ways, yeah." He said after a moment. "It's... it's a lot to take in. But it's amazing." He watched as they giggled, then blinked in surprise at some of their thoughts. “You were saving money to buy me colorblind glasses?”

They jumped. “Well… yeah, it was probably gonna take a few years, if ever, for glasses that work for you would be developed… so I was gonna set aside a dollar a day until it happened, and then I’d have enough money for you.”

He felt his cheeks grow hot. “Oh Simon…! That’s...You didn’t have to do that!”

“But I wanted to!” They said. “I want you to be happy. And… Judd. I’m gonna get you out of here somehow.”

Toda saw through their eyes, their memories of being brought down into the domes in a small tank, and being knocked unconscious… He remembered his own predicament as well, flashes of the things Orvokki had shown him while she was in his head ran through his thoughts and his body started to ripple again, worse than before. "... This is my fault..." He said, then cringed as Simon grabbed their arm as he remembered a particularly bad wound Orvokki had shown him.

“Toda, what happened?” They asked.

"Orvokki, the one the Sisters thought was an executioner? She's not, not exactly; She's like Yuri, like... like me, she's made of water, she got into my head, she saw who else Yuri had been in, she... she..." He gritted his watery beak, although his form was shaking so much it was hard to make out distinct features.

The first thought they had was; 'I doubt she's anything like you.'

But what they actually said was; "I'M GOING TO GIVE HER A PIECE OF MY MIND." Then they froze, shuddering at their poor choice of words. "Beat the CRAP out of her." They corrected, baring their beak. Toda's memories of Orvokki were starting to drag up their memories of Yuri, his foul language, taunting them. They felt cornered. So much pain around them.

“Simon” Toda said. “Take a deep breath.”

They glanced at him, then followed his lead, slowly inhaling, then exhaling.

"... Are you ok?" He asked after a moment.

"... I think so.”

He nodde, gaze lowering. "... Sorry..."

“… We’re stressed out, it’s bound to happen.” They said. Didn't things just... slip out in here? Thoughts were impossible to control, and water hurt... it wouldn't be a good combo for anyone. They thought about how glad they were to spend time with him anyway.

Toda bit his lip as he sensed their thoughts. He knew he still had to be careful, though; it had been Yuri getting upset that had sent Jill into that state all those weeks ago... How much was he hurting them? And he meant physically, too, not just the mental and emotional strain it was clearly putting on them... he'd just have to keep calm until they figured out how to wake up. He stared at a flower, only to notice that it looked a bit hazy, like when you're trying to focus a camera but it kept insisting on focusing on something farther away. He cast a quick look around; all the flowers seemed to have that similarly fuzzy look about them, except for one... the one Simon was looking at. He glanced at them again, giving their hand a little squeeze, which... probably felt a little weird, given that his hand was still water. He could feel their confused thoughts as he did this, and couldn’t help feeling some regret.

‘This was their mind in a dream, had they even been touching Toda at all?’ He heard them think. ‘Was this some dream manifestation of Toda made out of water? If they were asleep, did that mean Toda was also asleep? Or was he technically awake and visiting/eavesdropping in on their dream? Could he fall asleep in here, separately from them? Like inception?’

He tried to tune out their thoughts, it felt a little intrusive to be able to hear all of theirs... but he wasn't really having much luck. It was weird, Yuri had seemed to have some control when he'd been in his head... No, actually, he hadn't; he'd manipulated Toda into thinking about things that upset him, but the only thing he himself had been able to do was make a watery recreation of what'd happened on the Rig. Well, that and the... no, don't think about that, not now. Simon vaguely acknowledged a foghorn sound, and then Toda heard it as well, coming in and out steadily. What was that?

"What is that?" They asked at about that time, starting to rub their ears.

"I'm... not sure." He shook his head. It was beginning to grow louder, and higher pitched, and then a loud crash of thunder could be heard, and the field lit ablaze.

"Simon!?" He turned quickly towards them.

"I Don't- Make it stop!" They shouted. “I can’t get it to stop!”

There was another crash of thunder, but it sounded more... metallic? It was hard to describe. The horn noise had upped to being heard once a second. Really REALLY annoying and painful. Toda stumbled and clung to Simon, trying to stay upright, but his body was rippling with each noise the horn made. Was he doing this somehow? He tried to focus, trying to make it quiet, but to no avail.

“Toda, hold on!” Simon said suddenly, then disappeared.

The field, the fire, everything, disappeared.

What had happened? Were they okay?

Just then, he saw two cracks of light, and his perspective shifted. He felt Simon open their eyes. They were okay, they were awake, thank Judd.

"It wasn't just a dream..." They whispered quietly, noting the red flashing light in the corner of their vision. 'What happened... I'm so dizzy…'

"They put you out with the gas, too?" Asked a familiar voice nearby.

Simon squinted and turned their head to see Bato beside them, cradling a helmet in his arm. He wasn't the most comforting sight, wearing Octoling clothes, mask, and now dented armor, and with a nick in his ear dripping light purple ink onto his shoulder. But he still looked glad to see them awake.

"B-Bato?" They groaned, screwing their eyes shut. The alarm was still painful to listen to, and they felt all stiff. They twitched a couple of their fingers.

"Hey kid, welcome back. The dizziness will probably last for half an hour or so..." Bato said. “And unfortunately, we may not have that kind of time."

Toda felt so strange, like he was watching a movie. “Simon, his ear!”

Simon opened their eyes again. "What?" They replied aloud, glancing at Bato's ear. At first their befuddled mind said that Bato had gotten a piercing. Well... it probably wasn't the piercing that first comes to mind that had caused it. "That doesn't... look good..."

“Huh?" Bato turned back to them, noticing where they'd been looking, "Oh... it's not serious," He said with a small shrug. The helmet he was carrying began to move somewhat. "Take it easy." He said gently.

Simon tried to sit up, but then their head spun and they curled forward, groaning and clamping their hands over their head. "Uuuughhhhh....."

Bato stepped a little closer. "You be careful, too; like I said, it'll be a little while before it wears off.”

"Careful, Simon." Toda couldn't help saying quietly.

Simon groaned again. "Stop using my mouth." Toda was talking, Bato was talking, the alarm was going off, flashing lights everywhere, there was banging on metal from the direction of the door; and they couldn't take it. They just wanted to scream at it all to stop.

“Sorry.” Toda said, then realized he’d accidentally made them speak again. How many times had he just done that? He was so sorry.

Simon took a deep breath, plugging their ears for a moment. ’Toda, it’s okay. We’ll just… We’ll work something out, but please be careful.’

’I understand’ He thought.

’Sorry for getting snippy.’ They added.

’It’s okay. This is a lot to take in.’

’Your thoughts are hard to tell from mine at first. Are you dizzy?’ They asked.

’... Sort of? I think?’ Toda replied. ’It's like, I feel it, but I'm also... apart from it? It's hard to explain... It's like I'm in two places at once.’ He wished there was a better way to keep their thoughts separate, but he wasn't sure if he could just, say, turn off his own thoughts.

Simon uncovered their ears just in time to hear some banging on a door across the room, accompanied by some shouts.

"What do you mean you can't open it, you outrank her!"

"It would have HELPED if you hadn't SHOT IT WITH A BAZOOKA."

‘That voice, is that Orion?’ Simon asked.

Toda felt a chill go through him. ’Yes, that’s him.’

’He could just come out whenever he wanted.’ Simon thought. ‘Can you do that? On second thought maybe you should wait to find out, it might make my headache worse.’

’Yeah, I don't know.’ Toda replied. ’And yeah, I'll wait.’

Just then there was a sound of rushing water, and Simon sat up a little straighter to look over at a tap on the wall, which had water gushing out of it.

“We have company!” Bato said, accompanied by a few muttered curses.

Toda felt another chill. ‘That’s Orvokki!’

“Oh no.” Simon said, then tried to get up, but they had to slump against the wall to keep upright.

“Careful!” Toda squeaked.

Just then an orange squid jumped from the helmet Bato was carrying and pounced onto an octoling who neither of them had noticed before. She transformed into Stacey, which filled them with some relief, but she didn’t look too good.

The tap stopped pouring water for a moment, but then a purple glop fell out of it into the pool of water below. The purple glop began to shift and transform, growing into an all-too familiar form. Green eyes, purple tentacles, and a dusting of freckles across her cheeks.

“I’d be careful if I were you~!” Taunted Jill.

Bato and Toda are Knitter’s characters

Simon, Jill, Hachi, Orvokki, Orion, Yuri and Stacey are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Guess what, none of the lyrics in this chapter belong to me either.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

[<PREV] [INDEX] [NEXT>]

[akatsuki3519]

Tag time! :)

I was tagged by @helloanime247 to answer the following questions, thanks so much!! <3 Some of these were really difficult!! T.T

1. Who are your favourite male anime characters?

Killua Zoldyck (Hunter x Hunter): I’m a sucker for good character         development and Killua’s is exceptional. I loved seeing him slowly break away from the ideologies of his (quite frankly) messed up family and choosing his own path. He’s such a sweetheart I just love him... T.T <3

Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass): I don’t really have an explanation for this one since he’s kinda like Light from Death Note (whom I don’t like lol), he’s so cold and calculating but I loved watching him play essentially a game of chess with everyone. Also, the ending of the series... no spoilers but you know lol...

Yuuri Katsuki (Yuri on Ice!!!): I think a lot of people can relate to Yuuri as a character (myself included), which is probably why he’s so popular as a character in general. Watching him slowly overcome his anxiety and become more confident as a person was great, but I also love his stubborn and competitive side too, he’s too cute lol <3

Makoto Tachibana (Free!): An actual angel who has never done, and can never do, any wrong... that is all... T.T <3

Nicolas Brown (Gangsta.): Throwing a bit of a curveball in here since I don’t talk about Nico that often by comparison to some other characters but my God I love him so much <3 He’s such a terrifying and intimidating person on the surface but he’s actually incredibly caring and sweet, as seen mostly by his interactions with Nina (and also Alex). I pray he stops being so reckless...

Rin Okumura (Ao no Exorcist): My favourite demon child who is just the sweetest, most excellent person and who deserves all the hugs in the world! T.T 

2. Who are your favourite female characters?

Yona (Akatsuki no Yona): She is just such an incredible person and is my fave female anime character by country mile. Another one with fantastic character development too, going from a naive and slightly spoilt princess to this incredibly charismatic, kind-hearted and strong-willed individual. It was amazing and I can’t wait to see how she continues to develop in the rest of the series <3

Ochako Uraraka (Boku no Hero Academia): I love her commitment and dedication, her match against Bakugou particularly was incredible. She’s such a great and positive person, I love her a lot and I’ll be rooting for her all the way, she’s gonna be such an amazing hero...! <3

Celty Sturluson (Durarara!!): I love her so much, she’s such a fantastic and interesting character <3 Also, she’s Irish (technically) which is pretty neat, especially that one part where she speaks Irish (okay like one sentence, but it was seriously surprising for me to hear my native language in an anime lol). I love her friendship with Shizuo a lot also <3

Nico Robin (One Piece): Oh look, a One Piece character with a tragic past, what a surprise lol... Robin’s whole character arc was so good, the ‘I want to live’ moment in Enies Lobby is so iconic, if you say you didn’t get even remotely upset in that moment you lie lol. Seeing her so carefree and seemingly just happy to be alive and accepted while with the Strawhats just reminds you that life is actually pretty great when surrounded by the right people <3 (sorry that got a bit dramatic haha)

3. If you could meet an anime character who would it be?

Oh jeez em... I think I’m gonna say Luffy from One Piece because he’s a literal ray of sunshine all the time (except... well, you know...), and he’s such an open and accepting person of everyone. I think it would be pretty fun to be around him tbh!

4. What is your favourite thing about anime?

It’s just pure escapism, if you’re having a really bad day you can just come home and watch your favourite show and just forget about everything for a while. It also tends to deal with more controversial and interesting topics than other forms of media I find, which is pretty cool.

It’s also really helped me with my confidence, since going to conventions and stuff really helped me get a little bit better with my social anxiety because I find it SO much easier to talk to people when we have shared interests!

I guess it also led to me starting a few more hobbies too, like making cosplay, actually starting to write, draw and sing again, starting a Youtube channel with my bestie, starting to learn Japanese and taking it for my Leaving Cert exam (our end of high school exams over here), and actually pushing me to FINALLY buy my own pair of ice skates which I’ve been talking about doing for years (thank you Yuri on Ice lol), and also hopefully start lessons, which I’ve also been talking about doing for years lol

5. What is your least favourite thing about anime?

The fandoms... people get so defensive about everything and seem to always forget that we’re all in a fandom because we all love a certain show, usually because they’re too caught up in who’s the best character or why a certain ship is unacceptable. Also, people giving others hate about their favourite shows, and being like ‘oh *blank* is WAY better than *blank*, how could you like that show?!’, it really, REALLY bothers me... it doesn’t take much to be nice, it really doesn’t... you can have a discussion about why you personally think another show is better than another or whatever but that doesn’t give anyone the right to essentially bully someone else over it, and I 1000% won’t stand for it on my blog so you all know (sorry to get so serious, but I’m really sick of this carry-on at this stage)

6. Who are your favourite anime couple?

Viktor and Yuuri from Yuri on Ice!!!, but also a huge shout-out to Yato and Hiyori from Noragami and Makoto and Haru from Free! because I absolutely adore them too... T.T <3  

7. Who are your favourite anime animals?

Kuro (cat demon, Ao no Exorcist), Tony Tony Chopper (reindeer, One Piece), Makkachin (dog, Yuri on Ice!!!), Toboe (wolf, Wolf’s Rain, does he count??), Nigou (dog, Kuroko no Basuke), Black Hayate (dog, Fullmetal Alchemist), Ao (squirrel, Akatsuki no Yona), Gamabunta (toad, Naruto), and uhh he probably doesn’t count at all since he’s not technically an animal but Mao (cat, Darker than Black). I pretty much love all animals in anime lol.

8. What’s your favourite type of anime?

Hmmm I usually go for action/adventure or physiological thriller type shows <3 I also really like action/adventure type shows with romance as a sub-plot; Noragami or Akatsuki no Yona for example would be good examples of that!

9. What anime would make a good game?

Huh emm... I agree Hunter x Hunter would make a pretty good game! I’d also love a One Piece game that wasn’t strictly a fighting one (although I love them too), like an RPG type game would be awesome!

10. What was the first anime you ever watched?

Unknowingly Pokemon, knowingly Naruto!

11. Do you think you’ll ever stop watching anime?

I highly doubt it, although I may watch less because of time constraints... T.T I’m always going to be an anime fan because I don’t think anime has a age limit. They’re TV shows essentially, and there’s always going to be another new one that’s right up my alley! And I’m not likely to finish my backlog of old shows anytime soon either haha... ^^”

I won’t tag anyone atm, but go for it if you want!! ^^

[sneezehq]

Irresponsible

Birthday fic for Megan of @feelingalittlesick here! Happy (early) birthday! This is based on one of her scenarios and set post-series. I hope that I did it justice! Getting sick when you're only two weeks out from a competition is never good timing, but Yuri has never had good luck when it comes to his immune system. So when he wakes up with an upset stomach and a fever, he determinedly ignores the obvious signs that he's ill and gets ready for practice. He needs to be ready for this match, and something as small as a stomach bug isn't going to stop him. His plan to simply skate his way through this illness and not miss training goes without a hitch for the first three days. Sure, he can barely keep any food down and he's beyond exhausted at the end of practice each day, but he pushes all of that out of his mind and skates until he can barely move. He refuses to let an upset stomach defeat him. The fourth day, he takes a turn for the worse. He wakes up feeling about the same, but as time progresses, his condition rapidly declines. Everything feels surreal, and he's extremely lightheaded and nauseated, making his movements clumsy and awkward. After he runs through his short program for the fifth time in a row, Yuri is forced to come to a sudden stop when his stomach cramps alarmingly. The pain is so strong that he's forced to double over; it's hard to breathe against the urge to throw up. He blinks against the black spots filling his vision, then decides to just close his eyes against the unrelenting dizziness. He doesn't feel himself start to fall, and only notices that he's not steady on his feet when he feels the impact of colliding with the ice. The coolness of the ice feels good on his burning skin, and he's much too tired to get up. Instead, he just lets everything fade into the soothing darkness. Yuri's collapse takes everyone by surprise and sparks chaos in the rink. Yuuri and Victor are at his side in an instant, with Yakov hurrying to join them. "Stay where you are!" he commands the other skaters, not wanting to crowd the clearly unwell Yuri. Between the heat radiating off Yuri and the fact that the teenager hasn't regained consciousness, the adults are left with no choice: they need to call an ambulance. Yuuri and Victor carefully move Yuri off the ice under Yakov's watchful eye, and wait with him. He hasn't moved since he passed out, and his face is deathly white; if his skin wasn't so hot to the touch, one could easily mistake him for a corpse. The ambulance arrives, and the worried paramedics swarm their little group and take Yuri into the ambulance. Victor offers to ride with the teenager, while Yuuri follows behind in the car. Victor watches anxiously while they check Yuri's vitals. Upon finding a 40 degree fever, the reason for Yuri's collapse becomes obvious. He wrings his hands nervously; there's no room to fidget in the back of the ambulance, but he's far too concerned to sit still. When they arrive at the hospital, Victor is forced to stay behind in the waiting room while a doctor sees Yuri. Yuuri joins him shortly after, and they exchange a glance before settling down for a long wait. After fifteen minutes of attempting to sit still, Yuuri is up and pacing the length of the room. Victor is messing with his phone; ostensibly, he's playing a game, but he can't find it in himself to concentrate on something so silly while Yuri is so sick. A sudden thought occurs to him. "I should call Yuri's grandfather and let him know what happened," Victor says to himself. He dials the familiar number and tries in vain to keep his voice steady over the course of the conversation. Yuri's grandfather is very patient and understanding of Victor's distress, and thanks him for notifying him of the situation. "He says that he'll be here as soon as he can," he tells Yuuri when he asks. "He's taking the next train from Moscow." His phone buzzes with another demanding text from Yakov, and Victor is forced to report yet again that there's no update on Yuri's condition. They continue to wait for what seems like an eternity, but eventually a nurse comes out and tells them that they can go and see Yuri now, if they want. They follow her back to the room where Yuri is. "We managed to get his fever down to 39 degrees, and he's on some pretty heavy medication, but he'll probably be coming around soon," she says. The petite teenager looks even smaller than usual, tucked into a hospital bed that's way too long for him. True to her word, Yuri is blinking awake in a few minutes, groggy and disoriented. "I'm in a hospital?" are the first words out of his mouth. Even doped up, his disdain for hospitals is still intact. Yuuri smiles a little, glad to see the teen acting like his normal self. "Your fever was very high," he explains gently. "They had to give you some antipyretics to bring it down, and they also gave you some medicine for your stomach. Do you feel any better?" Yuri gives a tiny nod. "A little. But I feel a little weird," he responds, his voice barely above a whisper. He sounds rough and raspy, and Yuuri feels terrible for not noticing how sick he's been sooner. "That's probably the painkillers," Yuuri soothes. Despite the residual fogginess clouding his mind, Yuri narrows his green eyes suspiciously, refusing to be comforted. "When can I get out of here?" he demands, slowly starting to become more alert. Yuuri fidgets uncomfortably, knowing that Yuri isn't going to like the answer to that question. He looks desperately over at Victor for assistance, but his fiancé is on the phone with Yakov. It's up to Yuuri to deliver the bad news. He sighs heavily. "I'm afraid that I don't know," he admits, and Yuri immediately opens his mouth to protest. "What do you mean you don't know?" the teenager demands as loudly as he's currently capable of, sitting up indignantly. He winces as the movement jars his stomach, but refuses to lay back down. "I don't have time to be laying around in here. I need to be practicing!" Yuuri tucks a pillow behind Yuri's back to help support him. "Yuri, you're very sick. You were running a very high fever, and although they managed to get it to go down a little, you still need to stay for observation until it's completely gone. Unfortunately, we don't know when that'll be." He pats Yuri's hospital gown-covered shoulder. "But I'm sure that if you get some rest, you'll feel better soon." Yuri gapes at him as if he just suggested that Yuri quit ice skating and herd goats instead. "Do you even listen to me, katsudon? I have a competition coming up, I can't sit around and do nothing!" "You're not doing the competition," Yakov announces brusquely as he walks into the hospital room. "Yakov, are you serious? I can't miss this competition, or I won't be able to make it to the Grand Prix Final!" "I think that your health is a bit more important than a skating match, don't you?" Yuri doesn't answer him, just glares and crosses his arms. What the hell is Yakov talking about? "Even if by some miracle you were better in time for the competition, I'd have to be completely irresponsible to let you skate." The expression on Yuri's face goes from furious to miserable. "But, Yakov," he croaks out, sounding on the verge of tears. Yuuri gently rubs the stricken teenager's back, trying to console him. A few tears slip out and Yuri wipes them away angrily, swallowing hard against the lump in his throat. He feels awful, and to make things worse, he's going to miss the whole season? The thought causes a soft sob to slip out of his mouth, and he clamps a hand to his lips, willing himself to stop crying already. "Fortunately, I spoke to some of the higher-ups, and they've agreed to let you skate in one of the later qualifying matches if you're healthy enough," Yakov announces, and Yuri's head shoots up, his eyes filled with hope. "Thank you," he whispers gratefully. "Don't scare me like that again, brat," Yakov scolds. "And I don't want to see you at the rink for at least another two weeks after they let you out of here." "What?" Yuri squawks, shifting to being outraged again. Yakov doesn't acknowledge his complaint, already on his way out. "What am I going to do sitting around in here all day?" Yuri grouches to Yuuri and Victor. "I'm bored already. And how long are you two going to stick around and bother me for?" "You mean you don't enjoy our company?" Victor teases. Yuri scowls at him and sticks his tongue out. Yuuri sighs at the antics of the two children in the room. "Your grandfather is on his way, but we thought that we'd hang around until he arrives, if that's okay with you?" "Whatever, I don't care," Yuri huffs, making a futile attempt to keep his eyes open. Yuuri smiles at the obviously sleepy teenager and carefully removes the pillow from behind his back, gently pressing him back to the bed. Yuri grumbles incoherently but doesn't struggle. As soon as his head hits the pillows, he can feel sleep tugging at his mind. Yuuri chuckles. "Go ahead and get some rest. We'll be here when you wake up." Yuri doesn't respond, but his lips twitch up in a tiny smile.

[littlefraygirl]

otayuri for the ship meme ^^

General:

Rate the Ship -  Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs

How long will they last? - they’ll grow old together

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - yuri realized his feelings for otabek when he was reaching adulthood while otabek wasn’t aware until several years later

How was their first kiss? - drunkenly. otabek had invited yuri to a night out with his college friends and the blond had snuck too many drinks when otabek wasn’t looking

Wedding:

Who proposed? - otabek

Who is the best man/men? - katsuki yuuri

Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - hinako

Who did the most planning? - yuuri and viktor helped otabek and yuri

Who stressed the most? - otabek, although he’d never admit it

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - no one

Sex:

Who is on top? - otabek (although yuri sometimes power bottoms)

Who is the one to instigate things? - yuri, although sometimes unknowingly (when otabek finds the blond brushing his teeth in an oversized shirt, yuri’s red boxers showing slightly and a faint hickey seen on the side of his neck)

How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? - they last until both are satisfied

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - yuri has a kink in giving pleasure, and sometimes he overstimulates otabek to the point that the blond finishes in the bathroom with his own hand, or with the help of otabek’s

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - none

How many children will they adopt? - two (a boy and a girl)

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - yuri does, otabek is always busy showing the children tricks on the ice or getting their stuff ready for the next day

Who is the stricter parent? - otabek, he worries about their safety greatly (the first time he saw one fall on the ice he immediately rushed them to the hospital only to find that nothing was wrong)

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - yuri, he enrolls them in tutoring to calm their nerves before their night ice practice

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - otabek (and he always slips in sweets)

Who is the more loved parent? - yuri, because he lets them fall asleep in his lap

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - they both attend regularly

Who cried the most at graduation? - yuri

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - otabek (he’s a force to be reckoned with when upset)

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - otabek, he likes cutting food into the shape of animals for the children (and yuri)

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - yuri, he always complains about the vegetables being too crunchy

Who does the grocery shopping? - the family goes together

How often do they bake desserts? - mainly for special occasions only, but sometimes otabek will suprise everyone with a pie or food cake after supper

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - they fluctuate, although yuri prefers salads and otabek prefers meat

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - yuri, surprisingly. he feels bad that otabek cooks so often and takes pride in making a meal for his lover

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - neither, they would both rather stay in and watch movies while cuddling

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - yuri

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - yuri, he can’t stand when a mess gets too large and clutters the room

Who is really against chores? - neither

Who cleans up after the pets? - yuri, since his cat prefers him over otabek

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - otabek does when he’s too tired to clean properly (and gets scolded by yuri later)

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - yuri, he worries that the house isn’t clean enough, he doesn’t look nice enough, etc.

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - yuri (and knew it was because otabek hadn’t been cleaning properly)

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - otabek

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - yuri (he has a thing for animals, and although he typically doesn’t like dogs he settled for a calmer breed that otabek picked out)

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - yuri hates the thought of setting something up just to eventually take it down but otabek is a slut for holidays and overdecorates the entire place

What are their goals for the relationship? - land that triple throw salcow (pair skating term - i just want to hint that they retired from competitive mens singles to go on to adult competitive pairs)

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - otabek (yuri has to push him out of the bed to wake him up)

Who plays the most pranks? - yuri (he’ll never forget the reaction otabek made when he put shrink wrap on the toilet seat and otabek didn’t notice until it was too late)

[iprincezzinuyoukai]

VictUuri Week, Day One: Firsts

Title: Shall We Dance?

Author's Notes: Dance AU, Yuri!!! On Ice with the exception that skaters are dancers. And since they are dances in pairs it does not matter the gender or even if they have to be of the same nationality ㄟ(≧◇≦)ㄏ I'm sorry, I make the rules here (๑•̀ㅂ •́)و

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: None.

Summary: After that low score in the previous GPF and that his partner has finished hurt, Katsuki Yuuri has decided that he will leave the dance for a while... He didn't think that time would last so little when a Russian dance prodigy appears naked in his house.

Link to A03: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9615062/chapters/21722000

Edited: January/05/2018

He didn't lie when someone asked him who inspired him to continue his dream of dancing, obviously the one who prompted him to take the flight was Minako-Sensei, but his real inspiration was the Russian Viktor Nikiforov, when he first saw him at the age of eight years-old in the Junior category.

Viktor Nikiforov was 12 years-old when he had already won his first gold, and even before Yuuri and Yuuko-chan enrolled in Minako-Sensei’s Dance Academy. Day by day, both trained admiring Viktor Nikiforov and imitating his dance routines. Yuuko-chan said that Yuuri could imitate him perfectly as if he danced like Viktor. Yuuri asked her to stop saying it, although her comments persisted when Yuuri had bought a poodle similar to the one Viktor had at home, calling him Vicchan.

Later Minako-Sensei enrolled him in his first dance competition with another of her most outstanding students. Both were entering the first three places, and Viktor had already entered the world of professional dance earning another gold.

Yuuko stopped dancing when she got married, but continued to visit the Academy in the company of her husband, Nishigori, and the triplets; They, his family, and Vicchan went to leave Yuuri to the airport when the Japanese dancer made the decision to study in Detroit.

With the help of Celestino, his new coach and dance teacher, and the support of Phichit, his best friend and also a dancer from Thailand, Yuuri and his dance partner, Keiko, had reached the quarterfinals of their first Grand Prix

Unfortunately, the odds weren’t in their favor.

Their score had been low compared to other dancers and their more complicated dance routines. And their bad luck didn’t just end there, Keiko had fallen, which caused her a big hip fracture that would keep her in bed for a while, and Yuuri got the bad news that Vicchan had died, it also didn’t help a teenager shouted at him in the bathroom calling him a fool. Keiko and Yuuri apologized and separated their ways. Keiko had decided to stay in Detroit and Yuuri returned to Japan after five years without returning.

Minako-Sensei came to give him a warm welcome and scolded him for the weight he had gained. He gained too much weight easily, it could be because his parents had wide bones, but Mari-Neechan had never had this problem.

Yuuri was received by his parents and his sister, and went to pray for Vicchan to then take a relaxing bath and think about what he would do from now on. Maybe he would continue dancing, helping at the Academy, Minako-Sensei had told him that nobody wanted to learn to dance, so she closed earlier than usual to go to meet him at the station.

While on the other side of the world, the Grand Prix was finally over and it hadn’t been a surprise when Viktor Nikiforov and Thalia Ivanov had been consecutive winners, followed by Christopher Giacometti and Lara Rorschach as second place, and third was Otabek Altin. and Aybek Wyagorow.

However, it also seemed to be the last, Thalia announced her retirement due to family matters, the entire press ran to Viktor asking if he would also resign or seek a new partner. The Russian dancer was thoughtful, but the interview ended.

Upon returning to Japan, Yuuri returned to his previous room, his belongings, such as clothes, records, books, posters, had returned to its places. A sense of nostalgia seized him and, taking a coat, he decided it was time to leave for a moment. He ran to Minako-Sensei’s Academy.

So many things had changed in these five years that he had left, most of the hot springs business had closed and only his family’s was still open. The Dance Academy soon appeared in his range of vision.

It was a joy to see Yuuko-chan after so much time. He had changed so much that she almost didn’t recognize him. “You looked different on television.”

Yuuko had reported that the Academy was closed, but that she could cover his time.

The ballroom had also changed, it seemed that no one used it anymore, despite how good it looked. Yuuri gave Yuuko his cell phone asking her to play one of the main tracks. She connected it to the sound amplifier while Yuuri was in the middle of the dance floor. He still lacked a dance partner, although it wasn’t necessary in this song.

Stammi Vicino, Non te ne Andare sounded in the background, flooding the room with its sonata. Yuuri let the music enter his body, flowing through his veins as well as his blood. Each fiber of his body moved as if it had a life of its own. Stammi Vicino, Non te ne Andare was the song that Viktor had used as his choreography in this Grand Prix, he had watched from afar, watching carefully every movement, turn, and step that Viktor and Thalia made to impress their audience. And to him.

Viktor has never ceased to surprise him over the years.

His dance routine ended and Yuuri felt too exhausted to continue, but at the same time he felt satisfied with himself; Yuuko gasped and covered her face, had he done something wrong? Did he make a mistake in any part of the choreography? It wasn’t his intention if he –

“Yuuri!” Yuuko screamed happily, even tears of emotion gushing from her eyes. His childhood friend kept hitting one of the tables with her hands, “That was beautiful! It was exactly like I was watching you and Viktor dancing together!”

Yuuri smiled, relaxed that Yuuko-chan wasn’t upset, “For real? I felt a little depressed and I remembered when we spent hours imitating Vik–” Yuuri stopped talking as he felt three pairs of eyes watching him from the other table.

“Ah, Axel, Lutz, Loop, they have grown too much, don’t you think?” Yuuko approached her daughters.

“Yuuri, you’re fatter!”

“Don’t you have a girlfriend yet?”

“Will you dance again next year’s Grand Prix?”

Yuuri was surprised to hear the triplets scream such personal things. After Nishigori and Yuuko apologized for the attitude of the triplets, Yuuri said goodbye, not without first hearing that he is welcome every time he wants to dance.

Yuuri was happy to be back... As for a couple of hours more. Almost at midnight he received a call from Nishigori, when he saw his cell phone, his earthly soul had finally left his body.

‘Katsuki Yuuri imitates Viktor Nikiforov’s choreography, Stammi Vicino.’

The video had only been uploaded to the Internet a couple of hours ago, but it already had thousands of visits and hundreds of comments. His cell phone started ringing and vibrating through missed calls and messages that entered his inbox. He even heard Minako-Sensei arrive at his house and start trying to enter his room to ask for an explanation as to whether it was true, since it could well be a montage, but that dance studio was hers.

Yuuri turned off his cell phone and fell on his bed. Now was a good time for snow to fall on him.

Yuuri lost count of how many days and nights had elapsed since he locked himself in his room, however, his mother knocking on his door and asking him to help them remove the snow made him get up and turn on his cell phone only to see the time and date. He didn’t want to see how many messages and missed calls he had.

Opening the curtain of his room, he let some white light produced by the snow and combined with the light of day enter his room.

Yuuri wrapped himself to protect himself from the cold and leave his room. Going to the front door, just as he opened the door, a bark caught his attention. In front of him was a poodle identical to Vicchan. The friendly dog pounced on him and licked his entire face.

His father appeared at his side, “It’s too identical as Vicchan, Yuuri.”

Too identical, he had bought Vicchan when he had started to admire Viktor because he also had a poodle... No, wait, it couldn’t be possible that Viktor is in –

“It came with a handsome guest this morning, he’s taking a bath in the hot springs at this time.”

His eyes opened when he heard his father talking and without thinking, Yuuri got up and ran to the public baths, entering and opening until reaching the hot springs.

In all his glory, splendor, and nakedness, Viktor Nikiforov was inside the hot springs. Why did he come here? He also watched his video? Was he angry? Would he come to claim him for stealing his choreography?

“V-Viktor?” The words seemed to get stuck in his throat.

The Russian dancer got up and smiled when he approached Yuuri. “Yuuri~” The silver-haired Russian said melodiously, “From today I’ll be your dance partner.”

Yuuri at first thought that he was listening badly, or that he had finally fallen into a kind of deep sleep because of his depression and anxiety.

But no, Viktor Nikiforov was here in person, winking at him.

In what kind of magical universe had he fallen?

[hideyoshineki]

AU where Yuri is the older, established skater and Viktor is the younger, hero worshipping skater who wants Yuri to coach him (but with no change in personality or anything). What changes and what stays the same?

I usually shy away from the role reversal AU because it’stricky to keep them entirely in character while changing their originalexperiences that played a big part in shaping who they are. HOWEVER, becauseyou have sent this to me anon, I am going to take on this challenge and try mybest!

This took me a while because I ended up talking about this alot more than I originally planned (close to 2k words whoops) so I’m gonna putmost of it under a read more.

—

Victor, 23 years old, made it to the GPF for the first timeto compete against his childhood skating idol, 27 year old Yuuri Katsuki. Somethingthat remains the same, sorry to say, is that Yuuri’s dog (who is not namedVicchan) still dies. In this AU, Yuuri doesn’t come dead last since in this AUhe has had more years of skating and GPF experience, but his anxiety (and griefat the death of his dog) is still a thing so he does mess up his jumps, so I’mthinking he comes third. Victor doesn’t come last either; I’m thinking 5thor something.

Another thing that stays the same is that they stillproperly met and connected at the banquet. Difference is that they’re BOTHdrunk. Yuuri gets drunk because he really doesn’t want to be there and have totalk to people and on top of his dog dying he’s also upset about the bronzebecause he knows he should have wonbut he didn’t he screwed up what if he can’t win gold anymore maybe it’s onlydownhill from here and he should just retire… so he ends up drinking a lot.Victor gets drunk… because the alcohol was there and he kept drinking it.

We already know that Victor is an affectionate drunk so hegoes up to Yuuri and holds onto him while spilling how much he admires him andgoing on about how he’s been watching his skating for years and hey! You shouldbecome my coach! Yuuri drunkenly challenges him to a dance off saying that ifVictor wins he’ll be his coach. So Yuuri and Victor dancing together and havingthe time of their lives and feeling happier than they’ve been in a long timestill happens in this AU.

Another thing that remains the same: Yuuri doesn’t rememberthe banquet night. Victor does.

(Even though their roles are reversed, I feel it’s a littleout of character for Yuuri to drop everything to spontaneously decide to go toanother country with the intention to show up at another skater’s place tocoach him. Hence why I’m keeping it as Victor remembering while Yuuri doesn’t)

Victor shows up at Hasetsu, announcing to Yuuri “You’regoing to be my coach!” Yuuri’s like “what?” but he agrees because ever sincethe GPF his motivation for skating has dropped and he’s been struggling with adecision on what he should do and not knowing if he should retire, plus notonly does he recognise Victor as the skater who he saw a video of onlineskating Yuuri’s free skate perfectly, but there’s also something about Victorthat draws Yuuri in and makes Yuuri want to coach him.

Yakov is just as done with Victor in this AU and he’s like “Don’tcome crawling back to me!” while Yuri is just as pissed and follows Victor toJapan because oh my god Victor I’m finally going to be competing against youand you said you’d help me create a program for my senior debut but you’reflying off to Japan all because of that skater you’re obsessed with that youdanced with at the banquet which by the way was one of the most humiliatingnights of my life.

Hasetsu’s Hot Springs on Ice happens, Victor v Yuri, eachwith a short program that Yuuri had created. If Yuri wins, Victor will go backto Russia, keep his promise and drop this fantasy of his. If Victor wins, he’llstay in Japan with Yuuri. Yuuri gives Eros to Victor because he had this storyin his head that he himself struggled to play the part of but he is veryinterested in seeing what Victor does with it.

Yuri leaves before the competition is even finished becausehe can see from Victor’s Eros that this guy is firmly determined to stay inHasetsu and he’s not going to let up and besides, Yuuri’s watching him skate sofixatedly that Victor has definitely won. (While Yuuri had figured that Victorwould play the part of the playboy he wasn’t expecting Victor to portray theplayboy as the one who was cast aside in the end.)

Victor and Yuuri training together in Hasetsu and themgetting to know each other still happens. As Yuuri and Victor get closer Victorgrows to understand Yuuri not as the perfect idol skater that Victor had builtup in his head for years but instead as a person,a human being with his own struggles and insecurities. Meanwhile Yuuri noticesthat although Victor was the one who wanted Yuuri to be his coach, Victor tendsto approach his program as a self-imposed challenge that he’s used to goingabout alone, needing to surprise everyone more each time. (He calls Yakov, who’snot too pleased to be receiving this call, but he tells Yuuri about how Victortended to choreograph his programs himself, and also mentions how Victor is oneof the most difficult people to coach because he just does. not. listen.) DespiteVictor usually having created his programs on his own before and Yuuri still beingunsure in making decisions as a coach, the two of them create Victor’s freeprogram together.

Idk if Victor has to compete in something in Russia beforethe GP series starts and I also just realised how many Russian skaters are inthis AU what with Georgi, Yurio AND Victor.

GP series begins. The skating world is wondering why Yuuriis coaching Victor and when he’ll come back and Victor skates his Eros like “Yuurido you realise how much the skating world desires to have you? I’m the one whohas you right now and I will show you what keeping you all to myself has doneto me and how it has made everyone hate me because of it”

This is where I get really stuck in this AU because a lot ofwhat happens in Episodes 7-9 changes, particularly the carpark scene andMakkachin getting sick.

The conflict occurred in the original universe because ofYuuri hitting breaking point from his anxiety running wild at him coming first,getting no sleep, putting pressure on himself that his skating reflects onVictor and Victor handling it very badly. So if something like that were tooccur in this AU, either Yuuri panics over something different and Victorscrews up handling it, or if we flip it around, Yuuri fucks up somehow causing a conflict between him and Victor. Eitherwhat happens is one of those options or the conflict just doesn’t occur (atthis point) in the AU.  

Kiss scene when? Either Victor is still the one to jump atYuuri and kiss him after his free skate in an adrenaline rush, Yuuri in a raremoment of spontaneity leaps at Victor after Victor changed one of the jumps toYuuri’s signature jump, or the kiss is initiated by Yuuri not in a public setting.

Makkachin getting sick changes things because in this AU,Victor as the competitor is unable to fly back to Japan to be with him.

(I considered having here as the point where Yuuri fucks up,like perhaps he keeps that information from Victor until after Victor skates, maybe thinking that telling him beforehandwouldn’t help matters since Victor wouldn’t be able to do anything and it wouldjust worry Victor, but I also feel as if that it out of character for Yuurisince after all he had been in the same situation with his own dog and wouldn’tkeep that sort of important information from Victor, but on the other hand Yuuri couldn’t do anythingwhen he found out about his dog and he messed up his skating because of it sohe thinks that telling Victor would just place him in the same position Yuuriwas in leading to argument because Victor is not Yuuri, but then again would Yuuri actually do that because despite the news abouthis own dog’s death affecting his skating I’m sure he’d would have been upsetif that was kept from him so he knows that he should tell Victor?? Anotheroption is better than this happening.)

Another, more likely, option would be that Victor tellsYuuri to go to Makkachin for him sincehe’s unable to be there and Yuuri is the next closest person to Makkachin. WhileYuuri is gone that’s when Victor’s realises he doesn’t want to be alone hewants Yuuri to stay by his side (and never leave him *insert Stammi Vicino* andactually thinking about this that’s what Victor’s long program that he and Yuuricreated together is in this AU yes yes).  

The conflict in the last episodes happens due to Yuurithinking that once Victor wins gold at the GPF he would feel as if he’s donewhat he wanted, had a season with Yuuri which was new and different enough tostop him from stagnating, so now he won’t need Yuuri as a coach anymore and hecan now go on to do bigger and better things. So Yuuri plans to end beingVictor’s coach so he doesn’t hold Victor back as an inexperienced coach, and he’salso unsure about whether or not he himself will retire for good.

When he tells Victor “Let’s end this” Victor is pretty hurtbecause he thought that Yuuri was as happy being his coach as Victor was butnow not only is Yuuri wanting to end this but he also might not going to returnto the ice either?? Why didn’t he tell him this before?? Victor knows that Yuuri still wants to be onthe ice he could see it in Yuuri’s sparkling eyes as Yuuri watched his friend Phichit’sskating and saw Yuri break his short program record. (Side note: Phichit’s agehas changed to be about 24 in this AU to keep the same age gap between him andYuuri so they still went to college and trained together in Detroit when theywere both younger).

Victor skates his heart out in his Stammi Vicino free skate,wanting to convey everything he’s feeling right now and everything he wants toget across to Yuuri, and he breaks Yuuri’s free skate record.

Yuri skates like “Yuuri you fucking idiot don’t retire Victordidn’t skate all these years to finally get to you and skate on the same ice asyou only for you to retire fuck you I haven’t even gotten the chance to skateagainst you yet you know you want to keep skating and compete against us sincewe’ve both given you the ultimate diss as competitors by breaking your recordsfuck you”

Yuri wins gold while Victor wins silver. Both of them madeYuuri realise that yes, he really does want to keep skating, and Victor’s freeskate showed him that Victor really wantsYuuri to stay with him as his coach and that he wants Yuuri not as a “new, changeof pace” sort of thing but because he wants to be with Yuuri for Yuuri. Yuuri remains Victor’s coachwhile also making a return to the ice.

Same: They move to Russia and train there and remaintogether.

—

Ok I tried, if you have different thoughts about any of thisor if I said anything you seriously disagree with feel free to tell me becauseI’m interested!

Thanks for sending me this, anon! It was out of the blue andI liked it! (Feel free to send me out of the blue messages whenever!)

[holdmeriku]

Once Upon A December (YOI Anastasia AU)

Shreya has ruined my life. I’m in Yuri!!! on Ice hell. Save me. It’s on AO3 too.

Grandpapa was leaving Russia once more but this time it was to Barcelona. Victor hated the thought of Grandpapa leaving. It seemed that he had only just returned from his last trip but there was nothing Victor could do to stop it. Instead he was left to get ready for the ball that was being held to celebrate both Grandpapa’s return and departure. The balls were only ever fun for Victor to watch the many friends and family members dance around in such a manner it made him jealous. Of course he wanted to dance as they did but his Grandpapa said it would be best for him to learn when he was older and had grown into his body. Apparently his small frame wasn’t something to get used to as his body would change once he became a man. That’s what Grandpapa said at least.

Victor did his best to follow what he was told but he did sometimes sneak off to watch some of the other children practice their ballet and dancing in one of the many great rooms of his home. He just had to make sure it was done in secret or he would get scolded for acting secretive in his own home which would be seen as suspicious. What reason would a Nikiforov have to hide while in their own home? Victor liked to pretend he had many secrets but in all honesty the only secrets he had were between himself and Grandpapa, although he figured his parents were in on those as well.

 Victor was in his nice black dress pants, a pair of shiny black shoes, and a freshly ironed white shirt paired with a red tie. Red was always the color he wore for Grandpapa because it created a twinkle in his eye that made Victor feel proud. It wasn’t a hard thing to do and Victor actually liked the color red more than any other color in the world. His tie had his initials sewn in gold so that no one could dare claim it belonged to them. Not that anyone would ever pass for him with his silvery hair that matched his mother’s. Grandpapa’s own hair looked similar but had lost some shine due to his age.

 Once Victor deemed himself ready he hurried out of his room and through the halls to reach the ballroom. Even before he was there he could hear the music playing from the orchestra that his father had arranged for. He slowed down a bit just to spin and twirl for fun before he’d have to remain still next to his Grandpapa during the rest of the ball. He laughed to himself while he spun, pretending to have a partner to dance with before he composed himself to walk into the ballroom.

 He saw the many colors of the lady’s dresses moving gracefully around the ballroom as they moved in turn with the men. It was easy to just get lost in thought while watching them waltz about, which Victor had done plenty of times before. He didn’t have the chance this time as he heard his Grandpapa call his name from the top of the staircase to his right. Grandpapa was seated in a golden chair almost resembling a throne and watched Victor as he approached.

 “I see you still enjoy watching the others dance.” Grandpapa said as he looked Victor up and down. Victor caught the twinkle in his eye at the sight of the red tie he had chosen.

 “Yes.” Victor answered with a nod, “I am eagerly awaiting the time it is deemed fitting for me to learn how to dance. I’ll also be eagerly awaiting your return. It’s not fair that you’re leaving again so soon.” He looked down at his own shoes, thinking about how dull the home would be without Grandpapa.

 Grandpapa sighed knowing that the conversation would be a repeat of the many others that happened before when he left to travel. “I know Victor but this time I have a surprise for you.” He offered with a smile.

 That immediately caught Victor’s attention as he looked up at his Grandpapa questioning, “Really?” The excitement on his face was obvious enough that it made Grandpapa chuckle a bit. Surely the surprise wouldn’t be about learning to dance because he hadn’t grown enough just yet but Grandpapa never did disappoint with any sort of gifts or surprises.

 “Yes but it will be our little secret.” Grandpapa said with a wink as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small red velvet colored box. He held it out offering it to Victor and his eyes watched patiently to see his response.

 Victor slowly reached for the box, not wanting to seem too impatient or eager, and held it in his hands. “Spasibo Grandpapa.” He said before he opened it to reveal a pendant. It was on a silver chain and in red lettering against a silver background it read “See You In Barcelona”. Victor raised his eyebrows in shock as he read the words. “Really Grandpapa?” he questioned in an excited tone.

 “Yes, really.” Grandpapa replied. “You’ll be joining me there soon enough. It’s about time you joined me for a trip.”

 “I can’t wait!” Victor said with a smile as he closed the box and clutched it tightly. This was better than learning how to dance because he wouldn’t have to be separated from his Grandpapa. On top of that he would finally be able to travel outside of St. Petersburg and visit somewhere new in the world.

 “And don’t forget this.” Grandpapa added as he pulled out a small red and gold music box, “Our lullaby to keep you company for while I’m away. Your necklace is the key to make it work, without it no one will ever know what it is.”

 Victor nodded and took it in his hands, all ready hearing the melody play in his head. Grandpapa was very creative when it came to finding a way to keep things a secret. Now he had two surprises and a grand trip to be excited about.

 Before Victor could begin to imagine what other surprises Grandpapa would have in store for the trip the music in the ballroom abruptly halted and he saw a man walking amongst all the men and women dancing. They immediately moved out of his way, clearing a path for him to walk.

 The man was someone who Victor recognized but hadn’t seen for quite some time. JJ had been banished from ever coming to the Nikiforov home by both his father and his Grandpapa. Victor didn’t understand everything that had happened between the men but he knew that it was enough to end the years of friendship that they had shared. Victor looked at Grandpapa to see his reaction but only saw a stone cold gaze that followed JJ as he moved towards them.

 Victor’s father soon appeared in the way of JJ’s path. JJ came to a stop, looking between Grandpapa and Victor’s father before a grin appeared on his face.

 “You know better than to be here JJ. Leave at once while you can.” Victor’s father commanded, his loud voice reverberating in the ballroom for all to hear.

 “What makes you think that you can get away with this Nikiforov? After all these years you think that you can just toss me aside?” JJ questioned, equally as loud.

 Victor knew that they were both trying to be heard by everyone in attendance in order to prove a point. One could never back down from their word so it was best to make sure everyone heard and knew what you were willing to do.

 “You know damn well what you did JJ. Now leave this house.” Victor’s father answered calmly, which only served to anger JJ even more.

 “Humor me then and explain to everyone what happened.” JJ countered. The delightful mood that filled the ballroom previously was now replaced with an eerie feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong. The only answer JJ received was silence even though Victor was curious to know what happened. Surely not everyone in the room knew what happened but they probably knew well enough to mind their own business.

 “I’ll leave, but I swear on my life all of you Nikiforov’s will die by my hand. You will pay for what you have done to me!” JJ shouted as he unsheathed his sword and raised it towards Victor’s father. “You will regret what you’ve done to me and it will be your fault for what happens to them.” Slowly he backed away and moved out of the ballroom.

 Victor’s father had his hand on the hilt of his own sword that was at his side but didn’t remove it as JJ left. With a nod of his head though Victor watched as some men discreetly left the ballroom, likely to follow JJ and make sure that he never returned.

 “Never fear my boy.” Grandpapa said to Victor, “Men like him never get far in life because they can’t be trusted.”

 Victor only nodded in response as the orchestra began to play once more and dancers began to move about gracefully once more. The atmosphere returned to what it had been and it seemed as though everything regarding JJ had been forgotten.

 While Grandpapa was away to Barcelona Victor did his best to keep busy while at home. He attended to his studies and did what was expected of him. It would have been the same as usual but he had heard some of the servants whispering about the people in the city. They were upset with the Nikiforov’s for some reason or another, which made no sense to Victor or anyone else in the household, but it was all word of mouth. Sometimes people said things to cause trouble so Victor ignored it.

 Soon enough Grandpapa was back home from his trip and Victor enjoyed his presence. There were no more whisperings or rumors of what the people in the city were saying about the Nikiforov’s. Everything had been forgotten it seemed.

 Then one-night Victor was awakened by his mother’s worried voice, “My love you must wake up. We have to leave.”

 “Hmmm?” Victor questioned, still half asleep and wondering why his mother was crouching beside his bed in complete darkness save for the flicker of light coming off from the candle she held.

 “Get on your warmest coat quickly we have to leave now.” She said a little more sternly as she shook him a bit before removing his blankets.

 Being exposed to the cold outside of his blankets woke him up a bit more and he realized this surely wasn’t any sort of game. “Yes Mama.” He sighed as he sat up and went over to his closet to get changed.

 “You must be quick my darling. We don’t have much time.” She added as she stood and moved towards the door to his room, placing her ear against it.

 Victor changed out of his night clothes and put on a shirt and pants before grabbing his warmest coat as his mother had instructed. He grabbed a pair of boots and slid his feet into them before moving towards his mother.

 “What is going on?” he questioned as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.

 “We must leave. It is not safe here. Stay close to me and we will meet with your Grandpapa.” She answered.

 Victor nodded before she slowly opened the door and grabbed his hand. She lead the way through their large home with fast quiet footsteps while Victor did his best to keep up. He realized that everyone was leaving their rooms and heading the same way they were. Why it was no longer safe in their home he did not know but it didn’t seem right. Home was always a safe place to be.

 They were in the large ballroom when his mother started to move faster. Being quiet was no longer useful now as he could hear men shouting and gunfire from outside. It was then that he thought of his Grandpapa and remembered that his pendant necklace was still back in his room.

 “My necklace!” he yelled at his mother, who didn’t hear him as she continued to move forward. Victor yanked his hand from his mother’s grasp and took off sprinting back to his bedroom.

 “Victor!” she called out, but by then there were so many others in the ballroom that her voice was drowned out with the pounding footsteps from inside the room.

 Victor raced into his room and grabbed the red velvet box that held the necklace from Grandpapa. As he reached for his music box his mother appeared in the room.

 “Victor!” she shouted as she slammed the door behind her and wrapped an arm around him.

 “I couldn’t leave them.” He started to answer but he realized it didn’t matter as the gunshots got closer and he knew that the men were in the hallway.

 It was then that the wall opened, revealing a door and a small plump dark haired boy.

 “You must leave now!” the boy said pointing inside the door he had emerged from, “This will take you to safety.”

 Victor looked between the boy and his mother, unsure of what to do. He had never known there was a secret door in the wall of his room before but now didn’t seem to be the time to ask questions. His mother only stared at the dark haired boy as if weighing their options.

 “Hurry!” the boy said, “There isn’t time for this!”

 Victor’s mother pushed him forward before following after him. Victor held on tightly to the red velvet box and slipped it in his coat pocket. Before he could put away the music box though he realized that it had fallen to the floor after his mother had pushed him. It was too late now as the door in the wall was closed behind them and he heard the men yelling in his room.

 With his mother guiding him from behind and the faint outline of the candle creating a little light around his shadow he walked forward. He didn’t know if the dark haired boy was safe or not because while they traveled through the walls all he heard was destruction. It sounded as though the house was being torn apart and although he wasn’t there to see it that didn’t make it any harder to imagine.

 The secret tunnel that they walked through soon came to an end outside of house and Victor was immediately grateful for his boots and warm coat. The ground was covered in snow and he could see his own breath. His mother immediately blew out the candle and tossed it aside before taking his hand to lead the way once more.

They hurried towards the gardens, which Victor imagined would help them lose anyone who tried to follow them. As they started to cross the bridge that was just before the garden a cloaked figure appeared at the end holding a sword. They stopped in their tracks, unsure of who it was now blocking their path.

 “Give me the boy Nikiforov and you may be spared.” The cloaked figure said while waving the sword at them impatiently.

 “Never.” Victor’s mother answered as she moved to stand in front of Victor. He was left to peer around his mother’s leg, now knowing that it was not a friend in front of them.

 “You could live if you do.” The cloaked figure offered as they removed their hood, revealing that it was JJ who stood in their way.

 Victor’s mother knelt down and faced Victor saying, “Hold tight.”

 Before Victor could even nod his mother had picked him up and rushed over to the side of the bridge. The next thing he knew they were falling down, although it wasn’t a long fall, and he landed hard against his mother but knew she took the brunt of the fall as she let out a loud gasp. They had landed on the ice from the stream that ran beneath the bridge. Victor moved off his mother and stood up to help her to her feet as well.

 “No!” JJ shouted from up on the bridge before he too jumped down to follow after them.

 Victor and his mother hadn’t moved too far away due to the slippery ice but Victor soon fell as JJ grabbed onto his ankle.

 “You’re not going anywhere!” JJ shouted as he was laying on the ice, clutching onto Victor’s ankle to keep him from leaving.

 “Let go!” Victor shouted as he tried to kick at JJ while his mother pulled on his hands to try to help him break free.

 CRACK!

 The sound made all three of them stop what they were doing as they looked at the ice below them. The cracks started forming from beneath JJ and were spreading out from under him towards Victor and his mother. The temperature under the ice was surely colder than what they were dealing with above it which made JJ quickly grab on tight to Victor.

 “You’re coming with me!” JJ shouted in desperation, knowing that his weight alone was causing the ice to crack beneath him.

 “No!” Victor screamed as he slid closer to JJ. With the shortened distance between them Victor kicked as hard as he could landing a blow right on JJ’s face. This caused JJ to yell out in pain and loosen his grip just enough Victor’s mother to pull free him from his grasp.

 The ice finally gave way and Victor watched as JJ slid into the freezing cold. His mother tugged his hand and they slid their way across the ice towards the gardens once more. They moved as quickly as they could considering they didn’t want the ice to give way beneath them as well. Victor wasn’t sure how long they ran through the night but when they did finally stop he was greeted with hugs from both his father and Grandpapa.

 He couldn’t stay awake long enough to hear what was going on and was soon fast asleep. When he did wake up he was greeted by Grandpapa with a bowl of warm stew. Victor quickly took the bowl and began eating it, grateful for the warmth it provided as well as something to fill his belly.

 “We have to leave the country Victor. It’s time for us to go to Barcelona. Your mother and father are all ready on their way there.” Grandpapa finally said once Victor was done eating.

 “They left me?” Victor questioned with tears in his eyes as he looked up at Grandpapa.

 “Only to keep you safe.” Grandpapa answered, “It’s safer for us to travel separately.”

 “That’s not safe.” Victor replied, “We all need to stay together.”

 Grandpapa shook his head while mumbling something about not understanding but Victor did understand. How could they stay safe if they weren’t together? They were only safe with each other it seemed.

 “We need to get going to the train station to leave for Barcelona.” Grandpapa stated as he stood up and walked towards the door.

 Victor didn’t know what to say but knew it was best to do what Grandpapa asked of him so he got out of the bed he had slept in and followed. It seemed like Grandpapa was in a disguise though as he wore more layers than usual to try and hide his face. Victor was given a furry hunting hat to put on his head and was told to tuck his silver hair under it.

 The walk to the train station seemed to take a long time but Victor had never been to the train station and after all the running he had done with his mother the previous night he felt like any distance was too great to travel by foot.

 There was a large crowd of people at the train station and Victor couldn’t make out much of anything with all the noise. He clutched Grandpapa’s hand and followed. It was getting dark meaning that the last of the trains were leaving the station, which accounted for all of the people there. Grandpapa moved towards the tracks before starting to hurry after one of the trains ahead that was just taking off.

 “Keep up my boy!” Grandpapa shouted as he pulled Victor along.

 Victor did his best to keep up as it seemed with each step he took Grandpapa pulled him another two. He almost wondered if his feet were moving at all as they got closer to the slow moving train. Grandpapa jumped up onto the back of the train pulling Victor behind him but Victor was unable to get up onto the back of the train. His weight caused his Grandpapa to fall forward but the men on the back of the train grabbed onto him.

 “Don’t let go!” Victor cried out.

“I won’t!” Grandpapa replied.

 Just as Grandpapa started to reach out for Victor’s other hand to make it easier to pull him on board Victor hit into a pole on the edge of the platform. This sent Victor falling to the ground as Grandpapa lost his grip on him. The sight of his Grandpapa was the last thing Victor saw before everything went to black.