Main Content653
My late birthday present for my favorite boys on their birthdays.
MY FOREVER
Victor thought his day was already sorted. Sleep the rest of the day after the hour-long performance they did for the ice show at Ice Castle Hasetsu, eat some of Hiroko's food, and then get his ass into his car and head for another skating competition, where he was judging and where afterwards the day would end with large quantities of sake and maybe some wine with other judges and senior panel members.
He wasn't competing, he had no need to claim another title to add to his ever glorious resumé. No, today he was a spectator. A biased one at that, since his fiancé was competing, and Victor just knew his mate would own whoever the unfortunate person was that he had to battle against. Yuuri did these kind of fundraiser competitions often as he had soft spot for charity causes. Not only were these for a good cause but they also turned out to be rather good practices, as many foreign and local skaters participated, and it was always nice to have these friendly competitions. Yurio especially never missed a chance to visit during these as they presented quite a challenge during the off season.
So, yeah, his day was pretty much set. And then he got an unexpected message from a certain someone.
A certain someone who was meant to be spending the remaining time he has left saying goodbye to old and dear friends, as well as his family, before leaving for Russia with Victor.
Yuuri had been all around Hasetsu lately on catch-up dates with friends the younger male had made over the years. Some were close friends like Minako and Yuuko, some were just just acquaintance's he has known during the time he lived here, and some others he got to know during his skating career. He had been busy with preparations as well, and today was no different for the male.
Or, so Victor had assumed.
So imagine his surprise when he got a message from Yuuri at ridiculous o'clock as he lay in bed waiting for the said male to finally be free.
After he had squinted at his phone for maybe a couple of minutes, willing his eyes to focus on the screen and not slip back shut into dreamland, his plan for the day changed just like that.
All the message had said was: surprise at our's, 8PM.
No context, no nothing. Just a vague tease and a time.
Sometimes, Yuuri's ideas of 'surprises' resulted in Victor having his breath knocked out of him by the younger male. Life had stopped surprising him a long time ago, until Yuuri came into it and swept him off his feet and now here he was, slowly getting excited at the thought of being surprised by him.
Victor knew the time limit Yuuri had at the moment, how much he wanted to fit everything in before he had to give up his family and his home country to train with him, so while he was excited for tonight, Victor's heart would not stop aching with how much he adored him. While Yuuri has finally come to an acceptance that these years will be hard on his family - "their" family to be exact, (for it was Victor's family too). Victor knows they will wait for them until both of them can finally return.
They'd waited before for him, and they could do it again, and Victor knew he could and would do the same for him if Yuuri wished to settle here, when it came time for Yuuri to return.
As he reaches the judges table, catching his mate's eye briefly and giving him a thumbs-up, Victor tries to control the buzz of excitement thumping beneath his skin, and give his mate the attention he deserves.
Of course, he gets noticed by the media and hides his face with his bangs to avoid any further attention on him rather than the competing players.
Soon enough, he gets sucked into the competition, playing along in his head as if he himself was up there battling against the competitors.
His mate wins, just as Victor knew he would, and after the competition is over he cheers as loud as he can for him.
As they leave the venue, a chosen hotel already booked and waiting for them to get drunk on good food and strong sake, Victor has to remind himself of his 8PM date.
He'll have a few drinks with other judges and coaches, but he won't be joining heavily in the drinking games.
His mate will be staying for longer time with the competitors as well as fans, as this will be his last time to catch up with them. Minami especially is quite sad at the prospect of Yuuri moving away again, tearing up more than once.
When his phone alerts him to get his ass to the nearest taxi rank so he can get to the little house Yuuri rented for them, it's 8PM. Victor lies to himself that he's tipsy, and though others boo at him for leaving so early, they are used to him having to cut things short due to the nature of his life and career.
The taxi driver thankfully doesn't care or recognize him, and he just chatters about how good his summer has been, and how he is thoroughly over it and needs for it to be cold again.
Victor tips him, enjoying his company too much to just only pay for the fare, and as the taxi driver briefly waves at him as he pulls away from the beachside, Victor uses the summer night's air to try to make him more alert, and less buzzed.
He needs all of his wits to prepare himself for whatever his boyfriend is going to surprise him with, so with only three minutes to spare, Victor heads to the door of the Japanese-style house by the beach.
He arrives dead on 8PM, and as he lets himself in, he feels the welcoming scent that belongs only to Yuuri alone; it warms him better than any of the previous sake ever did.
Hearing the silence in the apartment, Victor pauses in shoving his shoes off and is still. "Yuuri?" he calls, waiting for any indication the male was in.
The lights are on, but Victor knows first-hand how forgetful the younger male can be if he's being rushed, so as he gets his phone out to check to see if he's missed any messages or calls to cancel the date, he heads slowly into the house.
Seeing none, Victor puts his phone away, and it is then that he notices the box on the sofa.
"Yuuri?" he calls again as he heads over to it. "You in?"
Victor peers to inspect the gift tag, and startles at seeing his name in Yuuri's handwriting.
Victor eyes the box warily from all angles, nudging it with a fingertip and breathing with a sigh of relief when it doesn't rattle with life. Last time that he had offended his boyfriend, Yuuri had put boxful of snails in his closet. His fiancé was rather intimidating when he wanted to be.
"Seriously, where are you?" he calls again as he looks around the space, leaning back to look down the hallway that isn't lit. "Yuuri?"
His phone almost gives him a heart attack as it screams with his message tone.
Cursing how jumpy he is, he gets it out to see that it's a message from the male he is currently playing hide and seek with.
"I swear, if this says 'find me', I'm gonna-" Victor trails off as he opens the message.
Open the box
Victor glares down the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. Okay, fine. He'll play along.
Going back over to the box, Victor slowly lifts the lid up and rolls his eyes at the amount of tissue paper the younger male has stuffed in it.
As he drops the lid beside the box, Victor begins to uncover whatever it is that Yuuri has hidden.
His feet now covered in tissue paper, Victor stares down at the single strip of paper glued to the bottom of the box.
You tried to make me like it once.
It reminds me of you, always.
What am I?
Victor stares at the clue. "Wow, that can be anything, what the hell, Yuuri?" he murmurs to himself, looking around the living space, looking for any distinctive clue.
"What is here that wasn't here a few days ago," he mumbles to himself as he enters the kitchen area.
The gleam of the light on the white polished countertops makes his eyes ache, but he is thorough in his search as he inspects the space, going over the clue again and again.
The second his eyes land on it, Victor knows he's found it.
Picking up his favorite red wine, Victor bites his lip as he sees a folded piece of paper waiting on the counter where it had stood.
I am open.
I am also cold to touch.
You have been kissed and loved there too.
Victor's heart races at the last sentence, and he starts to feel the return of the excitement he had felt earlier now that he thinks he knows the game Yuuri is playing with him.
Bypassing the refrigerator, Victor easily moves around the living space and approaches the area he knows is the clue.
And as he carefully looks, he sees the next clue placed just at his feet, resting against the bottom of the huge windows that allow an amazing view of nighttime Hasetsu.
Rain is a soothing friend.
But I am a sound that is loved and adored.
Victor places the clues he's found so far back into the box as he passes it, heading for the hallway and turning into the small room Yuuri had turned into a collection room for their CDs and posters. It was mostly cleared out except for a few boxes.
Turning the light on, Victor searches for the item, his hands almost starting to shake as he gently moves things to find it.
When he doesn't find it amongst the other CDs Yuuri has, Victor retraces his steps to see if it is in the living room.
He sees it, lying in wait on the entertainment unit, next to an expensive sound system.
His fingers trace over the image of his face on his Stammi Viccino album, the signature Victor made when he skated it for Yuuri for the first time, his stomach fluttering as he tries to not feel the raw emotions the game is making him feel, and picks up the next clue.
I am soft, but also can be cold.
The times it is cold is when your touch is no longer there.
Victor takes a deep breath in, the silence heavy on him now as he turns to face the hallway again.
With every step he takes, he holds the piece of paper tighter, his chest constricting as he keeps rereading the second sentence before the darkness of the hallway swallows it.
He knows the way, he knows it and finds it with ease.
The door is partially shut, open just a crack. Victor slowly pushes the bedroom door open, his breath sticking in the back of his throat as the bedroom is slowly revealed to him.
Confusion hits him at seeing it empty, but then he notices the lit candles, and realises Yuuri has used Victor's favourite scent out of the collection.
The scent that reminds him of Yuuri's scent, soft and subtly rich with a slight heady musk.
Victor shuts the door behind him, taking in the ambiance, the way the thin chiffon curtains allow the night's light to compliment the romantic candlelight dotted around the space.
Victor sees the next clue lying on the bed, and sees a small box next to it too.
The carpet silencing his footsteps, but with now shaking hands Victor picks up the last note, and reads it out loud the best he can with the soft, muted lighting.
"I am home," he reads carefully, and starts/startles when he realises that is all the clue says.
A startled breath locks itself in his throat as arms softly link around him from behind, a warmth pressing against him as Yuuri's fresh scent makes him melt against the younger male, a soft sound leaving Victor as he clutches at the male's hands resting against his stomach.
"You are home," Yuuri whispers, his head just barely able to rest on Victor's shoulder due to their height difference. "You're my home."
Victor rests his head to the male's, squeezing his eyes shut as he feels slightly overwhelmed from this whole romantic gesture.
Yuuri listens to the way he breathes, the little barely contained tight emotional sounds he's making as he tries to calm down, and feels the younger male squeeze his hands.
Yuuri pulls away, but not completely as he reaches past Victor to pick up the box.
Victor doesn't stare at it, but at the younger male who is smiling at him.
"This time, it is a gift," Yuuri promises, but Victor doesn't move to take it from him.
He just stares at him, his fiancé and rival skater, the love of his life.
Yuuri only makes a short sound of surprise as Victor kisses him, having moved so quickly to meet the desire to kiss the male senseless.
He hears the box softly thump back onto the bed before Yuuri's hand is angling Victor better so he can kiss Victor exactly the way he wants it, deep and passionate, and Victor presses closer, hands holding onto Yuuri's neck gently as he's given such a bruising kiss.
Victor can't help it. He always loses himself when he kisses Yuuri, just how Yuuri does too. How they both become so enraptured by each other, by their taste, the sounds they make, and the way they press and hold each other, as if they can't get enough of each other.
Yuuri is weak to kissing, and Victor's weakness is Yuuri.
This is the place they come to when they want to escape the humdrum of Akatsuki Yutopia, the inn Yuuri's parents own. It's almost like their own home. Especially when they crave a little privacy. So when he's pressed down onto the bed they share, Victor completely surrenders himself to Yuuri.
By the time they can manage to pry themselves apart from each other's now red and swollen lips, Yuuri can't help but puff out a small laugh as he brushes Victor's hair from his eyes.
"I didn't plan for this," he laughs, and Victor shrugs, grinning, not at all fussed.
"I'm not complaining," Victor murmurs as he runs a hand through Yuuri's shorter hair. "Though, I think I may if I don't have another kiss."
Victor makes a soft, pleased sound as Yuuri kisses him softly, their lips pressing hard against each other.
Victor tries to make it firmer, and Yuuri pulls back with a harsh sucking air of restraint as he stares down at Victor's flushed face.
Victor stares up at him, licks at his bottom lip to savour the sensation of the kiss, and shudders slightly as Yuuri makes a deep sound in his chest as he watches him.
"I could watch you all day and never get bored," Yuuri whispers, a finger brushing over the skin of his face, over his reddened cheeks. "I could listen to all the sounds your beautiful voice makes, and never once get tired of them."
Victor swallows thickly at the compliments, his eyes turning half lidded as the slow drumming of arousal grows through his body.
His eyes flutter shut as Yuuri leans down again, nose pressed to the pale column of his throat, inhaling deeply as he presses a kiss to his sensitive neck.
Victor melts into the bed, appreciating the careful tender kisses Yuuri's lips press over his flushed skin, tipping his head back to allow room as the male moves to the other side to show it some appreciation too.
Throughout the kisses, he can hear the clear deep inhales Yuuri makes every time his nose is pressed to his skin, and every time he hears them, it burns through Victor's body and soul for a multitude of reasons.
One, to know his scent is so pleasant and needed in the way Yuuri greedily, deeply inhales sends his stomach fluttering like crazy. Two, it is such a turn-on that it causes his feet to squirm and his throat to dry. And thirdly, which battles against the arousal of such action, it makes his heart ache because he knows the male is trying to savour his scent, to make sure he knows exactly how Victor smells while he still has the time and space to do so here.
When Yuuri pulls back, satisfied, Victor cups the male's face gently, his fingertips lightly tracing it. Yuuri's eyes soften as Victor's fingers do their own savouring, committing to memory the features of the man resolved to leave his life here for Victor. Victor has known how moving can affect a person emotionally and is grateful to Yuuri for his decision.
Victor stares into the male's tender brown eyes, the eyes that are sensitive to tears, and still carry a gleam of innocence to them despite all the experiences the younger male has had. The eyes that are hard to read, yet easily convey the male's entire being when he isn't wearing his eros mask. The eyes that Victor fears will take away his soul.
He knows Victor loves his eyes as much as he loves Victors. "You can have them if you want," Yuuri teases, breaking Victor's immersive streak of thoughts. "Say the word and I'll pop them out for you."
Victor squishes his palms to the male's cheeks as he rolls his eyes. "Gross."
Yuuri shakes his head to free himself, and Victor allows it.
"It'll be fine," he says softly, the teasing having lessened the growing sadness that had started to seep into the moment. "Besides, you'll be with me."
"You finally look and sound your age," Victor says, teasing as the other male moves to lie comfortably on him, his legs bracketing Yuuri's body.
Victor sniggers as Yuuri lightly flicks his cheek. "I didn't ask you over for you to insult the body you worship." Yuuri mock pouts.
Victor has to contain his laughter with great effort. "Someone is living in dreamland again, I have never once stated I 'worship' you." Although he does in his heart, god knows he does.
"You were just touching my face with an awed look," Yuuri reminds him cheekily. "I think that is classed as worshiping."
Victor can't think up a witty enough comeback, not with his cheeks warming slightly, so he settles for messing up the male's hair as he tries to shimmy his way from out under the male.
Yuuri isn't having any of it as he laughs over Victor's muffled exclamations of having a 'cheeky' boyfriend, and easily pins Victor.
"Not that I mind being pinned by you, but didn't you say this isn't what you had planned?" Victor reminds him, out of breath a little from the squirming and mini fight he and Yuuri have just been doing before he was pinned in place.
"I don't know if I want to tell you now. You've been so horrid to me," Yuuri tells him seriously. Well, as serious as you can get with a huge dopey smile on your face.
Victor bites his tongue, not catching the bait Yuuri's offering him.
"So shall I go then?" he says instead, and Yuuri presses down on his hands a tad more, his eyes losing some of the playfulness as Victor wills down the way his body reacts to the subtle pressure of restraint before Yuuri is leaning up and sitting on his knees.
"You can go if you really want…" the male trails off as he reaches behind him, and Victor shifts onto his elbows to see what he is doing.
Victor looks at the square box this time as Yuuri turns back to him.
"But something tells me you'll regret not knowing what lies in this," Yuuri finishes.
Victor looks up at the male's expression, heart starting to thump as his mind swims with possible ideas.
"So, are you going to stay and enjoy your present, or are we ending the night here?"
Victor gives the male a look, pout threatening to grace his lips. "You know what I'm going to do."
Yuuri says nothing, only waits.
Victor makes a soft whine sound as he nudges his toe to the male's thigh to get him to stop being quiet. "I'm staying," he murmurs.
Surprisingly, Yuuri relaxes at that. "Good."
"Wait, you actually thought I would leave?" Victor asks, stunned.
"I didn't know how far you would take the joke," Yuuri admits as he settles onto his butt, beckoning for Victor to do the same.
Victor grunts at having to move, but once he's settled, his stomach is fluttering with excitement and nerves at what could be in the box.
"Did you like my little treasure trail?" Yuuri asks shyly as he carefully fiddles with the box.
Victor remembers some of the specific content that was alluded in the clues, and nods. "It was sweet, and totally your style," he praises the male, his voice honest.
Yuuri smiles, pleased. "How did it make you feel?"
Victor briefly wonders why all the questions, tries to find a possible link or reason.
Yuuri knows him too well. "No thinking. Just answer."
Victor fiddles with the hem of Yuuri's pant leg. "By the end? Raw. I felt like I couldn't control what I was feeling or thinking."
"Do you have any idea why I did it all?" Yuuri asks softly, and Victor can feel the male watching him.
Victor swallows, throat tightening as it always does when thoughts concerning this particular topic come up. "The moving?
Yuuri's hand suddenly stops his, and Victor looks up to meet the male's gaze.
"To remind you," Yuuri corrects softly, his thumb stroking the back of Victor's hand. "I'm busy saying goodbye to others, spending time catching up on years of missed moments in only a matter of weeks. We promised that we wouldn't have a specific 'goodbye' for us two, I know. But I wanted to make tonight about you, and how you make me feel. I want you to know how much your existence in my life truly means to me, and so…"
Victor can't even breathe as Yuuri's hand holding the box moves towards him, offering it.
"It's not a ring," Yuuri assures with a slight laugh. "Something subtler."
Victor takes it, and with an encouraging smile from Yuuri, he opens the small white box.
Giving him a look for the excessive use of the tissue paper again, Victor removes it to unveil the mysterious gift.
"These…are keys?" Victor states, slightly bemused as he pulls out keys attached to a key ring. From the chain, two letters dangle: "Y" and "V".
"Notice anything odd about it?"
Victor looks back, taking it out of the box, the metal cold against his fingers as he inspects the keys.
Then he realises these are house keys.
Keys of the house they are in.
Victor frowns. "Why are you giving me these?"
"Why do you think?" Yuuri smiles, and that smile screams that Victor is missing something obvious and Yuuri is enjoying it.
Victor turns the chain and the letters, eyes raking over them. "Yuuri, what-"
Yuuri makes a pleased sound as Victor trails off as he brings the keys closer so he can inspect the backside of the polished letters.
Victor is soon choked up, his chest aching, his hand shaking as a wave of emotion slams into him as he continuously rereads the inscription, the soft pad of his finger brushing over it.
This is our home.
You are my forever.
"I bought this house for us though it's going to take a year more to clear all the payments." Yuuri explains in almost a nervous whisper as he shuffles closer, turning Victor's hand to point at the keys. "You don't know it, but the day I realised I had fallen for you, I wanted a place for us, which we can call home and where we can return to."
Victor watches as the male takes his hands tenderly, the cold metal pressing between their palms, warming up.
"The home is the gift, the inscription on the back is my way of reminding you that any distance between us is meaningless. It might seem silly as we won't be living here anytime soon but I mean-"
Yuuri trails off as Victor squeezes his hands painfully. "Err, Victor?"
Victor carefully puts the keys back into the box and once the lid is safely on and placed away, Victor finally meets the confused male.
Yuuri swallows the second they meet gazes. "Vic?"
Victor moves automatically, the only driving force is that he needs to be as close to Yuuri as he physically can get before he combusts with what he is feeling, and as Yuuri keeps him steady as he sits on the male's lap, Victor tries to organise how exactly he wants to phrase his next words.
Because, once again, Katsuki Yuuri has managed to render him speechless.
As Yuuri murmurs his name again, confusion giving way to slight anxiety the longer Victor remains silent, Victor presses their foreheads together, holding onto the male with a grip he will find hard to break from any time soon.
"This isn't meaningless to me," he whispers. "And it isn't silly either," he cuts in when he hears the male about to speak, "I love this place too much. This could possibly be one of the most romantic and lavish things you've done for me to date. You make me feel things that honestly choke me, rob me of air and all coherent thoughts. And this moment in time is one of those, so I'm trying very hard to make sense here."
Yuuri makes a soft encouraging sound as he hugs Victor, hand running down his spine as they become submerged in their raw emotions for each other.
"You do so much for me; tonight once again proves the lengths you will go to remind me of not only how much you love me, but how much I fucking love you too. You bought a house for me….It's unfair how you excel me at stuff like this, and I feel like I'm being selfish in accepting gestures like tonight-"
"I don't do stuff like this in order to have it returned, Victor," Yuuri interjects, nose nuzzling over his cheek tenderly.
"I know," Victor whispers, finger twirling around the short lengths at the male's nape. "You just make me feel so treasured when you do stuff like this."
"Good," Yuuri murmurs, nose running lightly over Victor's. "You're good with words, I'm good with gestures. We match just nicely."
Victor returns the soft kiss the male places upon his lips at that, once again, falling even more deeply in love with the male.
"Fancy pizza?" Yuuri asks as they nuzzle against each other, holding onto each other securely.
Victor's stomach lets out the most savage sound of hunger at that, despite the fact he ate a little at the celebration meal.
They both snigger at the sound, and as Yuuri kisses him one last time before removing himself from Victor so he can hunt down his phone that he had left in the bathroom, since that is where he had hid, Victor lounges on the bed, his gift back in hand. In the time that Victor has spent here, he has come to realize that Hasetsu has become his home more than Saint Petersburg ever was. In all honesty he was as sad about leaving this place as Yuuri or perhaps more, and he had bottled these feelings and schooled his heart to accept that he was never returning, not to live there at least.
As Yuuri shouts to ask if they want an extra portion of sweet potato wedges, and Victor obviously shouts back an affirmative, Victor tucks the set of keys back into its little box, and places it on the bedside table, next to one of the lit candles.
Victor listens to Yuuri's voice as the order is confirmed, eyes shutting as he relaxes against the pillows, his entire body and mind feeling at ease.
The alcohol buzz he'd had is long gone, of which he's glad, because it means the current buzz he has now was all brought on by the idiot that has just stumped his foot against the doorjamb as he came back into the room. He wants to contribute to their home too but that discussion can wait for later.
"You know, the romantic lighting is only good when the only movement is in the bed, and not around the room," Victor teases as Yuuri hobbles over.
Yuuri drops onto the bed, grinning. "Well, we do have twenty minutes," the male teases, trailing off as Victor rolls onto his side to face him properly.
Victor scoffs, though his face is grinning too. "I've never heard such a romantic proposal before."
Yuuri bows his head in thanks, pleased with himself, as Victor reaches out to him, and both come together, their legs intertwining before Victor sneaks his leg over and presses for the male to move.
"You have twenty minutes to distract my stomach from eating itself," Victor smirks as Yuuri settles on top of him, just where he wants him.
Yuuri's eyes glint at the challenge.
And the kiss he gives Victor is the start of it.
They barely manage to put themselves right to answer the door when the pizza comes twenty minutes later, and Victor has to contain his giggles from where he hides in the living room as he listens to the poor delivery boy stutter around the currently half-naked, and flushed, Yuuri.
When the poor lad leaves, Yuuri dumps their meal on the kitchen counter and comes straight for Victor, where he's waiting for him by the hallway that leads back to the bedroom.
"It's going to get cold," Victor points out, voice not at all caring, as Yuuri moves him backwards towards the dining table, his hands roaming his naked skin.
Victor lets out a pleased little squeal as Yuuri hikes him up, his legs fixing themselves around the male's waist.
"Pizza tastes better cold anyway, but you on the other hand, I want just a little more of."
Yuuri had won his challenge, but all Victor cares about is having the male back between his thighs, and his hands burning over his skin as he is kissed senseless by him.
Victor had been wary about the surprise Yuuri had in store for tonight, but like all the surprises Yuuri has given him over the years, no matter how shy and embarrassed Yuuri can get when he gives them, Victor will always accept them.
Yuuri is the best gift he's ever been given, and the most treasured one he is able to keep all to himself.
Yuuri is his forever, and like the small italic font states on his gift, they are meant forever.