The song mentioned near the end is Geronimo by Sheppard
i.
If you asked Yuuri if he wanted to kiss Victor, you would get a yes. You could ask him when he was five or when he was fifty, the answer would remain the same. At thirty, he could recount for you at least five memorable attempts at kissing Victor.
The first was when he was small, Yuko had just introduced him to Victor, and he was watching his performances on reruns on TV. He leaned forward and kissed the screen with the innocence only a child has.
His mom would never tell him that she'd seen his cute act of adoration.
Because that's what it was, pure adoration for this boy who had stolen his heart when Yuko had showed him to him. He didn't realize it for years of course, but he had. But he'd also given him something in exchange, a drive.
ii.
The second memorable kiss was many years later, in another country, with a new roommate that spoke a different language and both of them barely spoke enough english to get by.
Said roommate, Phichit, was out and he was using the time to put up the few posters of Victor he'd brought with him to america. He'd stored them all very carefully and was relieved at the pristine pictures that greeted his face every time he pulled one out.
He put the final one up, right at the head of his bed on the wall, and thoughtlessly pressed a kiss to the paper.
Phichit had returned in time to take a picture, but never posted it anywhere. It was a private moment and well, the last thing he needed to do was make his new roommate mad at him!
That kiss was a promise, a promise to get better and skate on the same ice as him and be recognized by him. A recognition of that drive and a promise to rise to the occasion.
iii.
The next, and in his opinion most important kiss was after Victor had barreled into his life with all the subtlety of a t-rex in san diego ('Really, a Jurassic Park reference?' 'Shut up Phichit.')
Actually, it was after his first actual kiss with Victor. On the ice after his free skate in China. The first kiss that was, not this kiss.
No, this kiss was far more embarrassing.
Between the fact he hadn't slept in some time over 24 hours, hadn't eaten, skated his heart out, won silver (next to his best friend Phichit, who won gold and he couldn't be happier), and got kissed by his crush/love-of-his-life, he wasn't really thinking straight.
Honestly, his mind was stuck on a loop of the kiss; skating towards Victor, Victor looking at him with that odd expression, Victor jumping out at him, Victor's lips on his own, his back connecting with the ice, the cheering of the crowd, the quietly said words between them.
The urge to pull him back down against the ice with him and kiss him senseless.
So he was less than aware when he was dragged out to celebratory dinner. He lost track of conversations quickly and his eyes kept drifting back to Victor, and Victor's lips, and he was half asleep because everything that'd been keeping him going had long since run out.
"Yuu-ri?"
He blinked his eyes rapidly, taking in Victor's concerned face.
"Are you okay?"
"Ah-just tired." he shook it off, turning back to try and talk to Phichit without losing track of the conversation again.
Phichit was grinning at him, "Did you know #Victuri is trending on twitter?" is what he was greeted with.
He promptly spit out the sip of water he'd just taken all over Phichit, who didn't even look upset. " What is trending?!"
"You and Victor, the kiss." he waved his phone slightly, "People are going mad, in a good way." he grinned. "You know, the ones that aren't blind and trying to insist it was just a hug."
On Yuuri's other side Victor spat out his wine on Chris, who did look rather annoyed but brushed it off. "A hug? " he demanded, leaning half over Yuuri to stare at Phichit.
Phichit nodded, "Can you believe these people? A hug ." he shook his head.
Victor huffed, sitting back in his seat and pouting.
And that was what did Yuuri in, he was leaning in without even realizing it, not caring how many skaters and strangers were around them, only noticing just how adorable Victor was and he'd kissed him, so surely it was fine for him to be the one to kiss Victor now, right? He paid no mind to how far he was leaning out of his seat, focused fully on Victor.
Victor was looking the other way though and he was mildly irritated at this, "Victor…" he said softly to grab his attention.
Victor turned to face him at the same time someone bumped into his chair and he slipped out of it and half into Victor's lap, half on the floor with a squawk of alarm.
It seemed the whole restaurant went silent for a moment.
"I can't believe I got the perfect shot of the wrong thing!" Phichit exclaimed into the silence, pouting at his phone. "#Victuri #Failure #WHY" he muttered, jabbing at the screen.
Yuuri buried his face in his hands, sinking fully onto the floor and trying to hide under the table as people started laughing.
Victor pulled his hands away from his face, peering down at him worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"'M fine." he mumbled, sighing and getting back into his seat, crossing his arms on the table and putting his head on them while his face burned.
Phichit pat his back, "Don't worry, it would've been perfect if they hadn't hit the chair. It was going to look so good too!" he whined slightly. "You were the perfect distance from him!"
"Yes Phichit, I know." he mumbled, this was not helping his mortification, he peeked out at Victor who looked completely confused and pouted, Victor was sitting there looking so cute and kissable and he was far too embarrassed to do anything about it.
He made up for it the next morning when Victor was sleepy and adorable and oh so kissable and nobody was around to embarrass him if he tried again.
Those kisses were a fulfillment of that promise, Victor noticed him, even fell in love with him (which made him oh so giddy).
iv.
The fourth kiss is the most upsetting, they've gotten the news that Makkachin is ill and Victor has to rush back to Japan and Yuuri knows he needs to go even if neither of them want him to, and Victor is going back and forth about going and he needs to do something to convince him to go already.
So he goes over to him, staring at the payment screen on the laptop, and kisses the top of his head.
Victor blinks up at him, completely baffled. "Yuuri?"
"Go. I thought we settled this, you have to go."
"I know…" he moves the mouse over the 'continue' "But…"
"No." he shakes his head, reaching over him and clicking. "You're going if I have to make Yakov drag your unconscious body to the airport with me."
He laughs, smiling slightly for the first time in hours. "I guess I should make it easy for you then."
He turns Victor to look at him. "You're waking me up before you leave this hotel room." he states firmly. He doesn't care it'll be in the middle of the night, he'll stay up until he leaves if Victor doesn't promise this because he's not going to let him leave without saying goodbye.
"But you have to-"
"I'll stay up until you leave otherwise." he states.
He sighs, "Fine, please go to bed then."
Yuuri frowns, "Are you sure? I want to help any way I can."
"We already finished this argument." he replies, with a strained smile. "You won't skate well if I'm here, but I won't leave in good conscious if you're not able to do your best, therefore you need the sleep."
He nods slightly, kissing his forehead softly. "Okay. If you need anything at all, please wake me."
"All I need from you is to be properly rested for tomorrow okay?"
He nods again, reluctantly pulling away and crawling into bed as Victor starts moving around packing a random bag with mostly random stuff by the sound of it. He drifts off to the sound of Victor moving around.
He wakes up, feeling the sheets being pulled up around his shoulders gently, and a kiss on his forehead. He blinks his eyes open slightly, it's the middle of the night and he can't see much of anything, but Victor's hair stands out in the minimal light.
He watches him move around a bit, not wanting to intrude on anything Victor doesn't want him to see but not awake enough to say or do anything.
And then he sees the bag on his shoulder and how Victor starts moving towards the door and he sits up in bed, heart racing. "Victor?" his voice is rough and cracks.
He pauses and he sees him let go of the handle. "Yuuri!" he greets with exhausted fake cheer as he turns.
He opens his mouth to get mad at him for not waking him, but thinks better of it, that's the last thing he needs. Instead he stumbles out of bed towards him and just pulls him into a hug.
Victor freezes slightly at this, but hugs him back.
"It'll be okay." he slurs a bit, mind working faster than his body can keep up with. "No matter what. Don't stress 'bout me okay? You can take your eyes off me for Makkachin." his mind isn't really working that well either, half formed thoughts flowing into each other, random bits that seem important to tell him, hoping Victor understands what he doesn't. He tries to pull him down for a kiss but misses with his uncoordinated limbs and sluggish mind, kissing his cheek instead. "I love you."
Victor picks him up, putting him back in the bed and pulling the sheets up again. "Thank you Yuuri."
"'Mean it, you can catch a rerun." he mumbles, the still warm sheets quickly sending him back off to sleep.
"I wouldn't dream of it my love." he kisses his forehead again. "Sleep well."
He manages to keep his eyes open long enough to watch him go out the door before he fully drifts off. He hopes that Victor got the message that no matter what, he's there with him.
v.
The fifth kiss, now it's just frustrating.
They've been together three years now. It should not be this hard to kiss his boyfriend, it really shouldn't.
But it is.
But first, how did they get in this position?
He'd put into motion the plan which he had spent ages on. It was harder than it should've been, all he really needed was the rink, empty. But that was too much to ask for after all his plotting and planning, and there were a bunch of kids there and how could he ask a bunch of 10 year olds to get off the ice? He couldn't.
Takeshi could only smile hopelessly at him in apology through the video chat, and he just waved it off, he wouldn't have been able to tell them no either.
But this did throw a wrench in his plans for the day. For Victor's Birthday .
So, after a hushed conversation he decided to flip the schedule around. They'd have a nice lunch instead of a nice dinner, and then they'd come and skate, and then they'd go out for something sweet and then hopefully Takeshi would've had enough time and they could come back for the finale. The day was still going to be fine.
With the changed schedule in mind, he finally let Makkachin go running towards the bed, and woke Victor up that way.
Victor playfully wrestled his beloved dog on the bed and he watched with a grin until finally Makkachin laid over his legs and refused to move so Yuuri brought over the simple breakfast. "Happy birthday Victor."
He blinked at him in confusion for a moment before his mouth formed an 'o' and he grinned. "Thank you Yuuri! I wouldn't have said no to a wake up call from you instead of Makkachin though." he grinned in such a way Yuuri was sure the 'wake up call' would've involved going back to sleep.
"Uh-uh, we have places to be." he smirked.
"Places to be?" he finally sat upright comfortably and took the tray from him. "Do tell."
"That'd spoil it." he shook his head. "Nope, you made me guess all day on my birthday."
Victor sighed, "I knew you'd get me back for that."
"I have to keep surprising you." he hummed, "I don't really have anything planned until lunch though if there's something you'd like to do, besides skating." he said before he opened his mouth.
Victor pouted at him between bites. "But I want to skate with you on my birthday."
"And then we'll miss my plans when we get wrapped up in it." he replied easily.
"Hmmm…" he pet Makkachin with his free hand as he thought. "Let's go to the beach again then." he smiled at him.
"Sounds good." he nodded in agreement. It would be cold but they'd probably just sit and talk and enjoy the atmosphere. "I'm going to help out with Yu-topia, find me when you're all done cuddling with Makkachin." besides, it was nice to use his mom as a soundboard for ideas and now he needed a nice place for lunch instead of dinner.
"O-kay!" he called after him. "Sure you don't want to join me for the shower?" he grinned mischievously.
"Another day." he replied, "I'm sure we'll end up in the hot springs in the end anyway." he added at his disappointed look.
"Sounds good!" he called after him, it was much nice to relax in the hot springs with his boyfriend than anything in the shower.
It didn't take long for his mom to help him retune his day and he kissed her on the cheek in thanks, before he went on a hunt in a storage room. He knew he'd hidden the gift somewhere in here, he just needed to remember where exactly that was.
"Looking for this?"
He spun, hand on his heart. "Mari!"
"I saw him digging around curiously the other day so I snuck it out." she was waving his gift in the air slightly. "He doesn't dare come into my room, should've just asked me to hold onto it to begin with."
"I didn't want both things in there, just in case."
"Don't worry, what time did you want the other thing?" she asked, handing over the gift.
"Ah…" he paused, "Probably around 3? I'll keep you updated." he fiddled with an edge of the paper nervously. "Plans changed a bit."
"Yuuri don't worry, he's going to love it." she shook her head, "I don't know why you think he wouldn't. You could give him a piece of paper with the words 'I love you' and he'd still love it."
He laughed slightly, remembering a valentine's day where he'd done just that to begin with, just to see, and he had adored it. He was pretty sure it was laminated in a box somewhere.
She raised an eyebrow but didn't ask. "You'll need to call if you need me earlier, I might not be paying the best attention."
"Got it, thanks!" he stepped around her as he noticed Victor poking his head out. "Victor!" he called.
"Yuuri!" he grinned, eyes flicking down to the gift. "Gifts already?" they'd come to an unspoken agreement that gifts were for evenings years ago.
" A gift." he corrected, shooing him back into their room.
"Of how many?" he asked curiously, they didn't normally get a ton of gifts for birthdays, preferring to give gifts to each other randomly.
"Trust me, you'll know when we hit the last one." he couldn't hold back his smile.
"Yuuri you're killing me. Is this my punishment for some unknown hurt I caused you?" he brought a hand to his chest, making a fake face of pain. "The suspense will do my heart in, I am naught but an old man!"
"You're 30 ." he shoved him playfully. "And still act like a kid on your birthday."
"One of us has to." he huffed, turning his nose up at him.
"Just open the gift you big dork." he pulled Makkachin back from where he was sniffing at the present, worried he might step on it or something foolish.
Victor laughed slightly, but started finding the edge of the paper to tear it open. "A box, just what I always wanted!" he teased, sticking his tongue out at him.
"But of course! I know you best, a gift for Makkachin is a gift for you and Makkachin loves boxes he can't possibly fit into." he snickered.
Victor quickly found what side was open and opened it, dumping the contents out into his hand, making a puzzled face at the back of picture frames.
Yuuri held his breath slightly as he waited for the reaction, fingers curling tight in Makkachin's fur.
Victor flipped the frames over one by one, taking in the framed photos one by one. "This is the china cup." he said softly, tracing the edge of the picture. It was a bit of a collage, the kiss in the background and the looks they'd given each other on the ice in the corner.
He nodded but didn't say anything.
"This is that picture from that night that Phichit took!" he laughed slightly, Phichit had been poised to take the best picture of the surprise kiss Victor had been going to get, and instead got the hilarious picture of Yuuri sliding off his seat in mild confusion and Victor's alarmed face.
To be honest, most of the pictures were Phichit's. He had a knack for having his phone out at just the right moment.
Victor continued going through them, finding pictures as old as the time Yurio had come out to Japan to just a few weeks ago when Victor had come home with temporary dyed blue hair and Yuuri's reaction, and even a shaky picture of the time Victor had left Yu-topia for a month and come back to be mobbed by both Makkachin and Yuuri.
There were also any number of skating achievement photos, like the first time Yuuri landed the quad flip perfectly at the end of Yuri on ice, and several shots of them in the kiss and cry waiting or reacting to his scores.
"I don't know what to do with all of them!" Victor laughed slightly, picking up the first one. "There's no room for all of them."
"You could swap them out throughout the year or something." Yuuri shrugged, blushing slightly. "I'm glad you like them."
"I love them Yuuri! They're amazing!" he flung himself across the collection to pull him into a hug.
Yuuri laughed slightly, hugging him back. "Happy birthday."
"This one is going on our nightstand." he put the china kiss on the nightstand as he talked. "And it's never going away." he added, smiling at it.
"So are you ready to go to the beach?" he asked, petting Makkachin while he watched him with a smile.
"Yep!" he grinned, jumping off the bed.
The smile didn't drop off Victor's face the entire day, and Yuuri used his call with Yurio to text Mari, subtly leading Victor towards the rink as he happily chatted in russian.
"Yuri, Yuuuuri, Yuuuuriiiii!"
Yuuri snapped back to attention, "Yeah?"
Victor laughed slightly, handing him the phone, "Yura wants to talk to you."
"Oh." he blushed slightly but took the phone, "Hello Yurio."
"Don't call me that." he replied reflexively. "So you had to change plans?"
He glanced at Victor out of the corner of his eye, "Did you say anything?"
"No, I knew he'd mention it if it'd already happened, what changed?"
"It was taken, things just got rearranged." he replied vaguely. "Do you think-"
"Of course he'll like it, I don't know why he likes you when you're so thick-headed, you could give him nothing but a hug and he'd like it, and this whole thing reeks of effort, he's going to like it, so don't stutter while you give it to him you idiot." Yuri replied, a mix of fevered and exasperated with him.
"Okay, okay, you're right." he knew he was, everyone around him kept telling him Victor would like it but he was still anxious, "But-"
"Finish that question and I will appear at your side to punch you in the face." Yuri growled.
"Okay, okay, I won't finish it."
"I know you're thinking it, stop it." he huffed, "Just think about if he did it for you and how much you'd like it, you idiot. You're not that different when it comes to stuff like this."
Yuuri stopped for a moment accidently pulling Victor to a stop by their entwined hands, "Oh...you're right." he would love it coming from Victor, so Victor would love it coming from him. It was that simple.
"Good, give the phone back to Victor."
"Here you go." he handed it back to Victor, silently begging Yurio to not spoil anything.
Victor looked curious and a bit alarmed at the half of the conversation he'd heard, but quickly went back to chatting with Yuri. Yuuri wondered if he was trying to distract Victor for him.
"Oh really?" Victor was looking at him curiously.
"Yurio!" he objected, "What are you telling him?!"
Victor burst out laughing, "Nothing, nothing, I just couldn't resist. He refuses to tell me anything happening today." he pouted at him, "How did you get Yura on your side? I thought he still hated you."
"He never hated me." judging by Victor's alarmed face he'd just got the same thing in two languages from two voices, and Yuuri burst out laughing.
He continued to laugh from the memory all the way to the rink.
"The rink?" Victor blinked, looking at the building they were nearing, clearly breaking off conversation with Yurio.
"I never said we wouldn't go to the rink Victor." he held back a grin.
"But I don-"
"Taken care of." he couldn't hold back his grin.
"I have to go now Yura, I'll call you later." he waited for a reply and then hung up the phone. "What do you mean?"
"Mari brought our skates over just a bit ago, actually we might run into her on her way out." she'd also brought something else as well of course, but Victor would know about it soon enough.
"Oh?" Victor looked curious, "So you always were intending to bring me here." he grinned and nudged him in the side.
"What celebration would be complete without skating, for us?" Yuuri replied, smiling back.
"None, of course. We'd better get married at a rink."
"I dunno…" he hummed in false thought, "What if I want to get married on a tropical island?"
Victor actually looked pained. "We'll need another ceremony at a rink then."
Yuuri laughed slightly, pulling his hand up to his lips and kissing it slightly. "I wouldn't mind getting married at a rink, but I don't think it'd work very well. Imagine people just slipping all over the place on the ice."
Victor laughed, "But that's the whole point!"
Yuuri chuckled, "What about just outside by a frozen lake instead?"
"Only if it's cleared for skating." Victor was apparently very serious about skating at their wedding.
"Sounds good." it's not like he had any objections to skating at their wedding, just other people trying to skate.
He saw Mari sneaking out of a side entrance, throwing him a thumbs up.
He dragged Victor into the rink and back to the changing rooms and quickly handed him his gold skates. "Here you go."
Victor plopped down on a bench and quickly started changing, "I'm not exactly dressed for skating." he muttered, looking down at his slightly formal clothes.
"We can get them dry cleaned." Yuuri replied, "Just enjoy." he laced up his own skates, digging in the gym bag Mari had dropped off until he found what he was looking for and shoved it in his pocket.
"Of course I'll enjoy!" Victor huffed, "Skating, you, what's not to enjoy?"
Yuuri gave him a chaste kiss on the lips before he headed out to the rink. "I'll beat you to warming up, old man ." he called over his shoulder.
He hadn't even completed half a circle before Victor was stepping on the ice and skating at him, pulling him into a hug. "Noooo." he whined, "I wanna skate with you."
Yuuri laughed slightly, but skated alongside him as they warmed up, grabbing his hand and playfully pulling them into a spin.
Victor laughed, throwing his weight into the spin as well, and they kept it going until they both got dizzy.
"Okay, okay I need..I need the world to stop spinning." Yuuri said, pulling away slightly, arms out for balance.
Victor snickered, "You look dru-ahh!" he yelped as he promptly fell over onto his butt.
Yuuri looked over at him and burst out laughing, which messed up his remaining sense of balance and he also hit the ice. "This, this is better. Not moving. Not sliding."
"I have to agree." Victor laughed, breathlessly.
Yuuri wished he could have a picture of him right now.
Once the world was done spinning, they pulled themselves to their feet, thoroughly chilled from the ice.
Yuuri's mouth went a bit dry as he started to reach for his pocket before he stopped. "I think it's more than time for a drink." he skated to the edge where Victor had left a pair of water bottles.
Victor skated over as well, wrapping his arms around him in a hug from behind for several long blissful moments before he grabbed the other water bottle to drink from. "I'm having a lovely birthday." he murmured.
"I'm glad." he smiled at him, wrapping his free arm around Victor as well.
They stood there for awhile, simply warming up and enjoying each other's company before Yuuri put his half empty water bottle down and pulled away to dig in his pocket.
Victor tilted his head at him, placing his next to him and waiting, knowing something was up.
"I had an idea…" he started fighting down his nerves. Victor was going to like it, he didn't have to be nervous about this.
Victor nodded at him to continue.
Yuuri pulled the paper out and unfolded it from the small square, taking a deep breath and holding it out to him with all the confidence he could muster.
Victor glanced at him before taking the paper, looking over what was written before his eyes abruptly snapped to the top and then up to him.
He found himself holding his breath while he waited for some kind of reaction.
Victor looked back down at the paper, looking at it more closely this time.
Yuuri felt like his soul was leaving his body as the silence dragged on.
"It sounds good," he finally said, "You must've spent ages thinking this up."
Yuuri's breath finally left him in a whoosh "You like it?" his voice rose in pitch slightly.
Victor's eyes snapped back up to his, "Ah, I'm sorry, I got wrapped up thinking about it, I love it." he smiled at him, pulling him back into a hug. "Do you have music for it?" he asked.
He shook his head slightly, "I couldn't quite find anything that fit."
"Well, let's just go for it then." Victor smiled, kissing his cheek, looking back down at the paper and mouthing to himself.
They spent what felt like at least 6 hours skating the pairs program he'd made up, tweaking it here and there, laughing when they messed up, and just generally having a good time.
In fact they skated until Takeshi came out and leaned on the side of the rink and watched them, spinning and laughing and draped all over each other, for at least 10 minutes before he finally called out to them.
"Sorry you two, but I need you to clear out for an hour or two."
He found himself subjected to a pair of pouts. He stared at Yuuri in particular until the pout fell away.
"We'll come back Victor." he started to drag him to the exit, "C'mon."
"But Yuuuuuri!" he objected, "We're having so much fun! This is the best birthday!" he allowed himself to be dragged off despite his protests.
"It'll still be your birthday when we come back." Yuuri replied, pleased his second gift had gone over so well. "I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"How did you know I'd want that Yuuri? Did I mumble something in my sleep again?" he pouted at him.
"Huh? No, I just...thought it'd be nice…" he was blushing now, secretly glad he'd apparently stumbled across something Victor had wanted.
"And it was, very nice, so nice that I don't know how to pay you back." Victor slipped on his normal shoes, leaving his skates sitting out for their return. "Was that gift number two?" he peered down at his boyfriend who was still tugging on his normal shoes.
"Yeah. I'm glad you liked it so much." he smiled at him.
"Of course I did! You could've handed me a paper with complete gibberish on it and I'd still like it." he was smirking.
"Look I forgot you couldn't read Japanese okay?" he blushed brightly looking away. He couldn't believe Victor hadn't mentioned it for an age that he didn't know what that had said.
"I need to give you a letter in Russian." he smirked, pulling him into another hug.
"Victor!" he whined, leaning into the hug. "We really need to get out of here though, let's find ice cream or something."
"Ice cream?" Victor blinked, looking out the frosted window.
"Ice cream is the best in the winter and you know it!" Yuuri defended himself.
Victor laughed, happily tugging him out, "I know, I know, 'It doesn't melt Victor! It's not as messy as in the summer time! And it doesn't make you any colder than the wind!'" he quoted back at him.
"It doesn't have to be ice cream." he pouted, "Just something sweet."
"Oh? Like yourself?" Victor grinned, leaning in and licking his neck.
"V-Victor!" he squealed, dancing away.
Victor gave a big, fake, sigh, "Fine, if I can't have you I suppose ice cream will do."
"You are the worst, the absolute worst." he muttered, face red.
"You love me anyway."
"Damn right I do." he huffed, grabbing his hand and pressing up against his side as they started walking.
Victor just smiled at him, pulling him close.
Since they'd easily worked off the lunch they ended up getting ice cream and continuing to wonder for another treat of some kind.
"I'm telling you, you're missing out."
"I'm sure, but I like what I like."
"How can you not like the ice creams with candies in them?"
"I don't like hard stuff in my ice cream." Yuuri shrugged.
Victor gave a long suffering sigh before chewing up a hard bite of...whatever candy had been in his ice cream. "I have been wronged by my boyfriend on my birthday!" he whined.
"Wronged? Oh, I guess I can take back all those pictures, I'm sure Phichit would love them."
"Never!" he objected, "They're mine!"
"I mean at least half of them Phichit took…" he trailed off.
"I have been given many wonderful gifts on my birthday from my boyfriend." he stated, leaning down and kissing him with a grin.
"I know, he doesn't need doubles anyway." Yuuri smiled, returning to his ice cream.
Victor hummed as they continued walking. "I wonder what else Yuuri has planned for today.." he mused outloud between bites.
"You'll just have to wait and find out." he grinned as his boyfriend pouted.
His phone finally went off telling him they were good to come back.
"Ready to go skating again?" he asked, peering up at him.
"You bet I am!" he took a big bite of the ice cream and immediately whimpered.
Yuuri snickered, "Brain freeze or hard candy?"
"Both!" he whined through the ice cream.
"Now you see why I don't like hard candy in my ice cream." he grinned, turning them to head back to the rink. "You don't have to wolf it down, the rink will be there five minutes later." he continued eating his ice cream.
Victor made a pained noise.
Yuuri decided to stop teasing him at least until the brain freeze was gone.
Takeshi was waiting for them at the doors, "There you are, was wondering if you'd gotten my text."
"We just took it slow is all." he glanced at Victor and then Takeshi. "I have to go to the bathroom." he said, pulling away from his boyfriend and heading in, hearing Takeshi distract him as he entered the rink.
He made a b-line for the gym bag, pulling out a few things and taking a deep breath before he quickly shed all his layers, pulling on the costume and adjusting it in the mirror.
He really needed to remember to get Takeshi an amazing present for all his help today.
Well, only if he hit his cues.
He took a deep breath, fidgeting with it slightly, before he shook his head determinedly and headed out to the rink, skating a few lazy circles to calm himself and warm up.
He heard the sound of the door opening, and then the sounds of the two in conversation, Takeshi a bit loud, and he skated to the wall, crouching down next to it to hide until he heard Victor enter the changing room.
He poked his head up and Takeshi gave him a thumbs up before he bolted, rushing to the back room, picking up something and waving it just enough to show he had it.
He nodded to him, skating another couple laps while Victor laced up his shoes, taking off his glasses and putting them on the edge, moving towards the center of the rink.
There was silence for longer than he anticipated, telling him he'd counted too fast or that Victor was taking his time. He shook any troublesome thoughts out of his head.
"Yuuri?"
Victor had looked around for his boyfriend for a bit before deciding they'd just missed each other and heading over to the rink, coming to a stop at the sight of his boyfriend.
Some part of his brain absently noted that the ice was pristine, except for the marks from Yuuri warming up.
The majority of his brain was taken up by Yuuri, standing in the center of the rink, in an outfit he'd never seen before. It had smaller versions of the gems from the Eros costume along the arms, and the shape of it exactly fit the Yuri on Ice costume, but the jacket itself was different, not buttoned in the front but with golden strin-a call back to his Stand by Me outfit, he realized. The entire thing was blue, with little details in red from what he could see. (When he would see the back he would realise it was the back details from the Yuri on Ice, but in the black mesh from Eros, and in silver.) There was a line of silver down the side of the pants as well, which were tighter than the Yuri on Ice but not skin tight.
In a word, he was breath taking.
"Yuuri?" he breathed, unsure what to make of it.
He startled just slightly from his pose (which was closest to Yuri on Ice, only with head tilted upwards), waiting for music Victor finally realized.
A very distant part of his mind was connecting Takeshi's odd behaviour outside to this, but that part of his brain wouldn't be noticed until hours later. That same distant part told him Yuuri had made not one, but two programs for today. He told that part of his brain to shut up and let him just watch.
Victor was nearly startled out of his skin when the music started, far more upbeat than he'd been expecting with that pose. He dimly heard Takeshi as he snuck out of the room, where he'd turned on the music, that same part of his mind filled in. He told it to hush, yet again.
Yuuri didn't allow himself to dwell on Victor's appearance, listening closely for the music, he didn't have the second to be confused as it started and he took off. He tried very hard not to look at Victor as he skated, just focusing on the music and letting the routine flow, it was technically difficult in a whole new way, but he'd been practicing it endlessly and he was sure he wouldn't screw up.
It was not anything that could ever be considered as a short or free program, the purpose behind it was entirely different to the point it couldn't possibly count.
The music selection process itself had taken an age, trying to find a song in english that was the right beat but not in some way about sex but still about love (He'd run any number of songs through native english speakers for that express purpose, and gotten links to songs to consider in return).
After that making the routine had been simple, he already knew about half of what he wanted it to look like and the end goal, it was getting things in the right order and not screwing up that mattered.
He was still nervous as he sped into the quad flip, but he pushed it from his mind, focused on Victor, and jumped.
Victor was left breathless by the quad flip, unable to cheer out his support as the music dipped to near non-existent for a moment, before swelling again but clearly building to the end, and that was without the fact he knew this song.
Part of his mind, that he hushed yet again, wondered what 'leap' Yuuri was trying to convey.
Yuuri was the one to nearly miss his final cue, as Takeshi dropped something from up in the rafters. He barely snatched it out of the air and pulled it to his chest as it went by, and he heard Takeshi's quiet celebration before they both rushed off for their final parts.
Yuuri ended with a complex spin near the front edge of the rink, rising up into his final pose as the music faded out, and he was left with his hand tightly clenching what Takeshi had dropped to his chest, and his other hand extended, palm up, towards a blurry Victor.
Victor finally breathed as the music faded away fully, and was slightly confused as to why he'd ended over there. He grabbed up his glasses and headed for him.
Yuuri accepted them with a slightly shaking hand, shoving them on his face but resuming his pose and Victor's mouth went dry because there was clearly something he was missing.
Luckily right then the lighting completely changed, and his eyes were drawn to the ice, sparkling afresh with the groves Yuuri had put in.
(Yuuri sent up a silent thanks to Takeshi for hitting all the cues)
Victor's breath was stolen from him for the third time, and he realized, finally, why that had been so different from anything he'd ever seen before.
' Will you marry me? ' the ice asked, with his Yuuri in the dot of the question mark.
That leap the back of his mind supplied. He told it firmly to shut up as he turned to Yuuri, who's position had changed just slightly, with an open ring box now in his open hand.
It occurred to him hours later that Yuuri was probably shaking just as much from nerves as he was exhaustion.
"O-of course!" he finally managed to spit out past the lump in his throat, lifting himself right up over the edge of the rink and pulling his boyfri-his fiance! into a hug as the tears flowed from his eyes finally.
Yuuri was crying too as he hugged him back just as tightly, relieved it'd gone over so well and everything had gone according to plan.
Victor pulled back long enough to snatch up the ring and put it on his finger before pulling him tightly to him again.
Yuuri laughed slightly, over joyed and pulled back to kiss him.
And they slipped and fell on the ice for the second time that day.
His expression must've been priceless because Victor started laughing and couldn't stop.
Yuuri just sighed, pulling him into a sitting hug. "Happy birthday."
"The best birthday!" Victor insisted. "I don't think any day can top this!"
+1
"So what do you think?"
"I think it's a bit long, but I'm sure you know that."
"Yeah, I'm planning to shorten it but I couldn't stop once I got going."
Phichit laughed, leaning over Yuuri, "You should show him the full thing later."
Yuuri nodded, "He'd probably love it."
"If you asked me if I wanted to kiss Victor Nikiforov, the answer would be yes," Yuuri started. "It wouldn't matter when in my life you asked me, so long as it was after I knew who he was. When I was 10, I kissed the TV, and mom, I always knew you were there." there was scattered laughter, "When I was 19 and fresh in Detroit, I always knew you took that picture of me kissing the poster Phichit."
"Does that mean I can post it?!" he asked, looking half ready to dig through his phone for the picture.
"Not on your life!" more laughter. "When I was 23 and Victor kissed me in front of the whole world, that one you did post Phichit, many times. I'm not sure I ever wanted to kiss him more, but I didn't quite get it right." he added. "When I was almost 24 and Makkachin was sick, I wanted Victor to be happy, and to my sleepy brain that was a kiss goodbye, sorry about that Victor."
He offered him a smile in return.
"When I was 27, the age Victor was when he barreled into my life with all the subtly of a t-rex in San Diego-"
"I can't believe you kept the Jurassic Park reference!"
"Shut up Phichit." Yuuri tossed back, and whoever was next to him slapped a hand over his mouth and gave him a thumbs up, "And Victor was turning 30, and I had just proposed but I still missed actually kissing him." he paused for the scattered laughter, "All the way to now, a year later, I want to kiss Victor." and so he leaned in to Victor, standing across from him in a suit and kissed him to loud cheers from the people gathered outside by the frozen lake.
This was written for Yuuri's birthday some time ago, well before the events of episode 9