notes: hey guys, it's me. um...this is a result of me being Too Fucking Lazy to make an ao3 account. and a result of me procrastinating on my long term yoi fi so yeah. this has been bouncing around in my head for a bit (one day) so :)
my tumblr is donghyuks-gf if anyone's curious, but honestly all i post is kpop :/ and uh recently ive been reading manhua/manhwa so recommend me some good shit (all i've read so far is 'what lies at the end' and '19 days' and wnsnj so,,) tbh im trying to read the raws to practice my chinese but i always give up in the end ^^ im a failure of a chinese kid lol anyways enjoy
"Why did the Board choose to send Katsuki Yuuri?" the whispers went. "Why not send Victor Nikiforov?"
Victor was, after all, the senior and most experienced pilot on the team. It would only make sense to send him on the most harrowing mission the space center had ever received. In fact, it would be even better to send both of them. Certainly, it was no easy feat to capture and destroy only the most sought after space pirate in history alone. These were all things that Victor was wondering about.
"What if you don't come back?" he whined, clutching onto Yuuri's shirt like an overgrown baby. "What if you die?"
"Your lack of faith in me is astounding," Yuuri replied, completely deadpan. His hands, however, were shaking, revealing his nervousness and anxiety over the mission.
Thus, Victor could only watch as his husband crossed the ramp and headed into his ship after a couple measly goodbyes. Both of them had promised never to do overwhelming sendoffs because that made it seem so final - but Victor really wished he could break that rule. After all, it could be final. Yuuri could actually, and realistically, die.
A sharp elbow nudged him in the side.
"Oh, hey Yura. What're you doing around here?" Victor sniffled, trying to keep in the tears as the engines rumbled to life.
Yuri was uncharacteristically quiet. "I just want you to know the truth," he finally said.
Victor couldn't help but stiffen and turn towards the younger boy. "What do you mean?"
"I just want you to know," Yuri insisted. His eyes creased at the edges like he was fighting hard to spit it out. "The truth. That's all it is. You're a dumbass when it comes to things other than flying, so it's my duty to tell you."
"Okay, Yura. Just tell me. The truth about what?"
Yuri closed his eyes for a moment, trying to summon the power to break the news. He cared about Yuuri just as much as Victor did. It was an impossible task. "Don't hate me," he mumbled, twisting his fingers into the hem of his shirt. "It's about Yuuri's mission."
Victor's eyes widened imperceptibly and he grabbed Yuri by the shoulders. Noticing with panic that Yuuri's spaceship had already left the dock, he shook Yuri back and forth. "Nothing's malfunctioned, right? I swear, we both checked his ship and nothing was wrong."
"Oh no," Yuri snarled. "It's nothing like that." For a brief moment, green fire blazed in his eyes. "It's a malfunction, a fucking disease spreading with the Board." He maneuvered them until they were both sitting in one of the plushy cushioned chairs by the walls of the garage. "You and I and the entire planet knows that you're our best pilot. So why not send you, right? Well, the truth is - the Board didn't want to risk losing you."
The puzzle pieces were starting to come together. Victor gripped the edge of his seat, pressing his lips together so hard they hurt.
"And since this mission has a high casualty rate...they decided that it was worth losing Katsuki Yuuri for a chance at success. Victor, they sent him out to die."
Those words echoed in Victor's head until everything hurt. How could they do that? How could anyone look at the two of them and think, for even a second, that Yuuri was worth less than himself? Yuuri, whose eyes were like stars themselves, whose skills showed his passion as a pilot, whose heart was deeply intertwined with Victor's that if either of them were to die, it would be like killing the both of them...
"I know the Board figured keeping you in the dark was the best way to prevent you from being angry," Yuri said. "But you had to know. For when he doesn't come back."
"What the fuck are you saying?" Victor said numbly. "He's going to come back. If there's even a 1% chance, he will return. And if he doesn't..." He swiveled his head to look Yuri right in the eyes.
"...I'm with you," replied Yuri.
Without words, they dressed in their gear and got ready to go.
-Unauthorized Departure- bleeped the computerized droid as they smashed open the departure gate. It was too late for anyone to catch them: the best pilot of the galaxy and the next great prodigal pilot.
"We're going to fucking destroy those pirates," Yuri declared into the intercom that connected their ships. "And then we'll all go home together."
"And then it's retirement," sighed Victor. "I'm not following along with the Board anymore. They should've known better. A strike against Yuuri is a strike against me."
Yuri smirked at Victor's relaxed tone.
They both knew that the three of them, however underestimated by the Board, were capable of anything. Nothing in the universe could stand in their way.
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