It was December 25th. For most people, it would be the day of great happiness and family, as people open their Christmas presents. And for Victor, it is his birthday.

Yuri knew that he needed to do something special for Victor. Overload him with presents, maybe take him out for dinner. Heck, even a bout of surprise birthday sex would probably be enough for Victor, as long as it was more than one (ten) rounds.

But Yuri couldn't focus on that. All he could focus on was his need to go to Norway, as quick as possible. The fact that he now lived in Russia with Victor both made it easier, but also harder. Easy because it was closer, harder because how does he explain this to Victor?

Yuri must have been making some noise, since Victor woke up, and spoke up from beside him.

"What's wrong Yuri?" Victor asked in a sleep rough voice. "You have been sighing for like an hour now. What's going on?"

Yuri jumped when he talked, but other than that was completely still. Maybe he could play it off, as him still sleeping.

"That is not gonna work Yuri," Victor said, yawning in the end. "As I said, you have been sighing very, VERY, deeply in the last sixty or so minutes."

Yuri sighed, and turned around to face his fiancé. "It's nothing to worry about Victor," Yuri tried to smile as he said this, but it seemed sadder and more fake than anything else.

"Yuri, please don't lie to me," Victor said, taking hold of Yuri's left hand. "Please tell me what is wrong."

"It is nothing. It really is!" Yuri insisted. When Victor's serious facial expression didn't change, Yuri changes tactic. "It is not something you should have to think about on your birthday."

"If it is something that is bothering you, then I should be hearing and thinking about it, no matter what day it is," Victor insisted. Yuri really wished that Victor would just drop it. Yuri was slowly starting to get frustrated.

"I don't want to drag you into my small problems. Really, it isn't really anything important," Yuri insisted. His tone had gotten an edge to it, but either Victor didn't hear it, or he chose to ignore it.

"Yuri," Victor started. "Every problem you have is also mine. I want to help you. If you would just let me- "

"I said, leave it ALONE!" Yuri finally yelled out. He had had enough. He couldn't take it anymore. He just couldn't.

A tense silence rested between them. Victor had been shocked by the outburst and didn't know what to do. He had just been trying to help. A muffled sob sounded from beside him. Victor was a little baffled. While Yuri being upset wasn't something he wasn't used to, it had been almost a year since Yuri had cried. Victor decided that enough was enough. Whatever Yuri was so frustrated about, was enough to make him cry. He needed answers, and this time, he wouldn't take no for an answer. He wrapped his arms around Yuri, and simultaneously pulled and rolled Yuri, so he was pressed chest to chest with Victor.

"Sweetie," Victor cooed, making Yuri cry more, and snuggle into him. "This isn't healthy for you. Please tell me, so we can go back to sleep, with a smile on our faces."

"I just," Yuri started, seeming to have a hard time getting the words out. "I just didn't want to ruin your birthday, and Christmas at the same time."

"I don't care if it is my birthday, Christmas, Valentine's day or even our anniversary. No matter what the day is, I will always want to support you, help you, comfort you. And do you know why Yuri?"

"No?"

"Because I love you, and therefore it is my job to make sure that you stay happy all the time," Victor explained. "So that is no excuse for not telling me anything."

There was a minute of silence between them before Yuri finally confessed.

"Someone I knew died on this day."

Whatever Victor had been prepared to hear, it hadn't been that. Before he could comment, Yuri continued.

"He was my former lover."

That sentence almost broke Victor's heart. Almost. Victor couldn't fault him for having a relationship before he got to know him. It was just the thought of someone else being with Yuri. He couldn't take it.

"We weren't that old yet. I was fifteen, and he had just turned sixteen. It was one of those young romances that weren't meant to last. But if it hadn't ended like it did, it could have."

Yuri sounded so unhappy. Victor couldn't stand it.

"How was your relationship?" Victor asked, out of curiosity.

"It was amazing," Yuri answered, sighing, eyes glazed like he was stuck in a daydream. "It was kind of like ours, but the roles were reversed. I was the confident one, while he was the shy one. I know now, that the reason for my confidence was because of his faith in me."

"How was he?" Victor asked. "Like a person, I mean, besides shy."

Yuri laughed a little. "He was so sweet. He used to do the choreography for my ice-skating. While he couldn't skate to save his life, he had good sight in how it should look. He always stood by me in the stands, when I was at small competitions, before…" Yuri trailed off, suddenly looking very pained.

"Before what?" Victor asked, knowing that this had to be connected to why this mysterious lover wasn't alive anymore.

"He, uhm, he got, he got," Yuri had a hard time coming out with the words. Victor hugged him close, hoping to calm him down enough to be able to continue, and it worked. "He got sick. He had gotten cancer in his legs. The doctors were very optimistic, and told him that they were ninety-five percent sure that the treatment would work."

"It didn't, did it?" Victor asked, but it sounded more like a statement, which it most likely was.

"It did in the beginning," Yuri said, trying to be a little more positive in the dark conversation, which was a lost cause. "But just when he was supposed to be done with chemo, he back lapsed. The cancer hadn't been on the way to be cured but had instead been spreading. It was now in his bones. They talked about removing his right leg, where the cancer was sitting. But he refused."

"Why would he refuse that? Wouldn't it have given him a better chance of living?" Victor asked surprised.

"Because it wasn't bulletproof," Yuri explained a little sad. "They weren't sure it would be completely removed. There was a thirty percent chance that it wouldn't work. He didn't want to die and be buried with some of his body parts missing. As he saw it, it was a waste of time and money, since he would be bound to a wheelchair no matter what. Besides, he had already accepted his fate."

"How did you react to his decision?"

"I was angry. We had a huge fight over it. I remember not talking to him for a month, hoping that it would make him change his mind. I now regret not having that extra month with him."

"You were angry. Don't delve in the bad things. Just be happy with the time you had with him," Victor said with a wise smile.

"That's what he told me, the last time I saw him," Yuri told him, smiling softly. "I started talking to him when his mother called me. He had two months to live in, and even that wasn't guaranteed."

"So, you guys knew he would die around Christmas," Victor asked. "That must have been some sad knowledge to have."

"No, he was supposed to die two weeks after Christmas, if he had had his two months," Yuri explained, sobbing softly as he started to cry. "It was a surprise, came out of the blue. I was visiting, having brought flowers, and was hoping to get permission from the hospital to take him out for dinner. But when I came, his mother was there to greet me, tears in her eyes. She told me he was dying, and probably only had a few more minutes left. I got to talk to him, hold him for ten minutes before he was too exhausted to talk. It was almost like he fell asleep and I would have probably told myself just that if I hadn't heard the heart monitor flatline. He died three days before he turned 17."

Yuri broke down after that, clutching Victor like a lifeline. Victor wasn't fairing much better either. While he wasn't bawling his eyes out like Yuri, he cried for the soul that had been Yuri's first love. The soul that had been the reason for his confidence. The confidence he lost the moment he lost that boy.

"What was his name?" Victor whispered while giving Yuri a kiss on the head and rubbing him on his back.

"Sven," Yuri sniffed out. "Sven Andersen. I used to tease him about how his first name was Swedish and his last name was Danish, so there was nothing Norwegian about him. He would get so annoyed and start talking about how technically his last name was Danish-Norwegian, and how his mother was part Swedish. The whole ordeal would make his face pink, and later red when he realized that he had had a temper tantrum."

Victor was snickering at the end of the tale. "Kind of sounds like you when you get passionate about something. So that is where you got it from."

Yuri nodded into Victor's chest slightly.

"Where was he buried," Victor asked. Yuri tensed and started to shake his head. "No, Yuri. I want to know. I need to know so that I can make you happy again. So, Yuri. Where is Sven buried?"

Yuri was shaking like a leaf. He raised his head and looking into Victor's eyes with the tearful eyes of his own. "Oslo. He was buried in the family cemetery in Oslo."

Victor smiled at Yuri with tearful eyes. "It is still very early in the morning. How about we get a couple more hours of sleep, and then we take a plane to Oslo?"

Yuri tensed in shock before his eyes started to tear more up and he clung to Victor for dear life.

"Thank you… Thank you!"

Victor just held Yuri tighter, while he cried himself to sleep. "Everything for you my dear. Everything for you…"

When they woke up again, they made quick work in booking some tickets. Luck seemed to be on their side, and they got the last two seats on economic class. It wouldn't be comfortable, but it was just a small flight to Oslo. They packed their bags with clothes enough for a day, before they left for the airport.

The plane ride was short, but for the young couple, it seemed like an eternity.

'This is it,' They both thought.

'I finally get to see you again,' Yuri thought with a sad smile.

'I finally get to meet you,' Victor thought with a small smile.

When they landed in Oslo, they were quick to rent a car and drive to the cemetery. Yuri gave directions, while Victor drove. Yuri didn't trust himself enough to be able to drive in his emotional state, and to be honest neither did Victor.

The arrival of the cemetery was a surprise. At least for Victor. He was expecting something small since it was a family cemetery. But in reality, it was gigantic.

"Surprised?" Yuri asked. Victor nodded dumbfounded. "I was too the first time I saw it. Apparently, on Sven's father's side of the family, they are kind of like royalty. Or maybe noble is a better word to use. They used to be a big support for the royalty is Scandinavia and therefore were gifted with wealth. They were also gifted with a lot of land, to build manors and therefore cemeteries. While some of the land was sold over time as they slowly lost favour with the Royal family in Norway and Sweden, the cemetery was prioritized. For them, their ancestors and their bodies were worth more to them, than any money or land. So, while Sven was wealthy, he hardly used the money. It was one of the reasons why he refused the surgery. Why waste money on something that might fail?"

"What a wise young man," Victor smiled, before getting out of the car with Yuri.

After Yuri unlocked the gate with a key, he had gotten from Sven's mom a long time ago, they walked into the cemetery hand in hand. A united front in the face of grief and mourning.

They stopped in front of one of the graves in the back. There was a stone plate on the ground, with something inscribed on it.

Here lies Sven Jakob Andersen. A beloved son, a beloved grandchild and a beloved lover. May you rest in the heavens where you always belonged.

Behind the plate was a statue of an angel. And when Yuri looked at it, he couldn't help but cry silently. For he was staring into the face of his beloved Sven.

The statue was made to look like him before he got sick. Neck long hair, while being stone grey now, used to be pale blond and would shine like it was from the heavens when snow touched it. The lean body was dressed in a knee long winter coat, with fur trims at the end and neck. Legs dressed in skinny jeans, which had holes around the knees. While on the stone the so-called skin was smooth, the reality was it had been scarred from all of the times slipping in the snow while running. On the back were the wings he had used to fly all the way up to the heavens, where he now was smiling at them, with the same close-eyed smile, as he had on the statue. Closed eyes which hid lovingly green eyes.

Yuri kneeled by the plate and statue. "Hello Sven," he said softly. "It has been a long time. I wanted to visit you today. Do you know what today is? Today is the day you died. Died two weeks too early. No… Two eternities too early."

Victor just stood silently and looked on.

"I used to blame myself for not noticing sooner that the treatment wasn't working. Used to blame myself for wasting a whole month of our life together being mad at you for taking a decision about your own life. Used to think that no one else would ever love me like you did."

Victor smiled at Yuri sadly.

"But I was wrong. I found a new love. Someone who treats me better than I treated you. His name is Victor. He is a figure dancer like me, and I know you would have loved him too. It is actually his birthday today, so I hadn't wanted him to find out about you. But he convinced me to come here anyway and visit you with him."

Victor kneeled down beside Yuri.

"I know you loved me. And I know you wouldn't want me to never move on. So, with Victor, I can finally move on. I will always love you. But now, there is also another man for me to love with half of my heart since you hold the other half. And this time, I won't lose him."

Wind blew past their faces, and for a moment Yuri could swear he felt cold lips touch his forehead, in a sweet goodbye kiss. When they both looked up, the sun hit the statue from behind, making it glow in what could have been a heavenly light. And the statue of Sven seemed to smile just a bit brighter.

"Take care of him…"

Victor was sure that only he heard that voice. A voice of bells that could only belong to an angel.

'I will,' Victor thought with a smile, as he and Yuri walked out of the cemetery, leaving some white lilies in front of the statue.

This is one of six one-shots which were written at Nanowrimo before I didn't have time to write more. I hope you enjoyed it.

~Little S