together we're crumbling
All Yuri knows is that Estelle is scared.
She's scared and she's recoiling and she's yelling, "You killed them!", and all Yuri can see is Ragou and Cumore and the Don before she turns away and runs and the sandy lakeshore swirls into a suffocating red sky.
She's scared and she's sobbing and she's calling, "Kill me too" just before everything around them explodes and the Fiertia becomes a tornado that just sucks him in, farther and farther away from her until he can't hold on any longer.
She's scared but her eyes are dead and she whispers, "Kill me just like you killed them", and when Yuri stabs her through and her eyes go even deader, he's certain that nothing can hurt worse than this.
He's so very mistaken, because just as she goes limp in his arms, Estelle's lips quiver with the words of her final breath.
"Kill me, you monster."
His heart shatters.
But the illusion does too.
Yuri can remember reality again once he jolts awake with a start. His body shakes and his hands clench into fists and his breath comes in rapid pants but he can remember that Estelle would never say those things and none of that ever happened. Estelle is safe and alive and free from Alexei.
…Except that's wrong, because when Yuri tries to get a hold of himself by glancing over at her bed, the princess is restless and whimpering in her sleep.
No, she's not free. It's not nearly that easy to be free.
"No more…no more…hurts…please Yuri…"
Her voice is quiet but shaky and painful and it rings like a cry for help, and Yuri instantly pushes his dream to the back of his mind because it's a selfish dream and he refuses to be selfish now. This isn't about him nearly as much as it is about her, so he dashes to her bedside and strokes her hair and brings his lips to her ear because he doesn't know what to do but he has to do something.
"It's okay, Estelle," he whispers, and it's been so long since a nightmare or anything else has woken him up in the middle of the night that he wonders, rather guiltily, if this isn't the first time she's had her nightmare. His voice seems to soothe her just slightly so he goes on, "Come on, it's okay. I'm here, you're safe, we're all together. It's okay…"
He doesn't quite believe himself and Yuri debates for a moment if he should just wake her up instead, but somehow the message or his assuring tone or whatever gets through because Estelle unconsciously relaxes and goes still. Yuri keeps watching her but she doesn't stir again, and once she looks relatively at peace, he tiptoes back to his own bed so as to not wake the others.
It occurs to him that sooner or later, they'll need to talk about this. About the toll Alexei has taken on Estelle, the toll it's taken and is still taking on all of them here. But Yuri doesn't want to deal with that now, and he's pretty sure nobody else does either.
"…It's okay," Yuri repeats to himself as he slips beneath his covers, and this time Estelle's not the one he's trying to convince.