A/n: Thanks to my betas/prereaders - Mae_Cruz and Lady Eve.

Edit: Thanks to skyla2010star for the beta.

The Color Green

After Yuuri and Viktor had got back home from the Cup of China, it was business as usual. Well, mostly anyway. One big thing had changed - Yuuri now slept with Viktor in his room. This made Viktor happier than he could have possibly imagined. He had made a decision as soon as they got back, though. The morning he had woken up with Yuuri snuggled into him, he had known what he wanted to do. He wasn't going to tell Yuuri about his idea, just yet. He wanted to figure out how to adapt the choreography before he told him about what he was going to do.

Viktor had already been going to the rink early. Yuuri was a late sleeper; Viktor, on the other hand, was not. He had always been an early riser, ever since he was little. Every time he had a spare moment when he wasn't training with Yuuri he went to the rink. He'd done this a lot since he had arrived, as he hadn't completely ruled out going back to competition. Although, the longer this went on, the more he was sure that he couldn't - and wouldn't - leave Yuuri. He wasn't sure exactly how things were going to go. On the off chance that he did go back to competition, he wanted to be prepared ahead of time, so he was already working on choreography from music that he had done.

Dmitri, his composer, had adapted the music that he'd had done for his free program this season into a short program. He had then created a new piece for a free program. If Viktor did decide to retire, then he was sure that he could use the music and choreography for something. It wouldn't be a total waste. Yuuri had never seemed to think much of Viktor going to practice by himself, although he admitted that now it was a bit harder to go for practice early before Yuuri woke up.

Waking up with Yuuri was a joy for him. There was nothing like opening his eyes in the morning and finding Yuuri snuggled up beside him, before the Japanese man woke up, smiling up at him. It was much better than waking up first, and leaving the sleeping beauty in bed. This morning, though, he was jogging with Yuuri instead of riding his bike like he usually did. This was a great to make sure that he was staying in shape - or getting back into shape if one preferred to call it that - and Yuuri seemed to like the idea of them running side-by-side.

Suddenly, as they passed a store, Yuuri groaned. "I left my water bottle at home," he said, stopping his running.

Viktor stopped alongside him and turned to look at him. "I thought you said you were going to go get it?"

"I did, and then I set it down to put my shoes on and left it sitting right there on the floor," he said, giving a groan.

Viktor smirked at him. "I thought forgetting things was supposed to be my area."

Yuuri's expression remained neutral as he said, "I guess I'm taking a page out of your book then." Viktor was visibly taken aback, and it took everything he had not to grin at him. The Russian opted for just smirking back at him. "I'll be right back; I'm going to go buy one. I'm not going back home now. It can't hurt to have another." With that, Yuuri turned and walked into the convenience store, walking straight past a trio of giggling school girls.

Viktor was content just to stand there until he noticed the school girls were still staring at him. Fans most likely, he thought to himself. He was right when a few moments later, the trio of girls walked over to him; they look to be in their late teens. They started going off in Japanese, speaking too fast for him to understand. He just smiled politely at them. It was true that he was learning Japanese, but he was nowhere good enough to be able to understand the rapid, giggly speech of the girls.

Suddenly, the girl on the right, who had a long ponytail, elbowed both of her friends. "Speak English," she said, before turning to Viktor, a slight blush on her face. "Sorry, we are…. Excited. Huge fans of yours." Her accent was thick, though he had no room to talk there. She spoke it well enough for Viktor to understand despite the obvious language barrier. "Can we have autograph, please?"

Each girl produced a piece of paper for him to sign with bright smiles on their faces. Viktor gave them his most charming smile, and all three immediately went into fits of giggles again, blushes appearing on their faces. He grabbed the paper from the first girl, the one who had spoken from him. "What are your names?" he asked them.

"I am Ami," she said. "This is Miki, and that is Kyoko."

"Such beautiful names," Viktor said, glancing up at each of them with a smile and a wink as he signed their papers one by one. All three giggled every time he did this, covering their faces. He could see the deep blushes each one of them had at the moment. "Now now, none of that. We can't take pictures if you cover your pretty faces." That only made the girls giggle louder and blush harder.

"So, were you three headed to school?" They nodded and smiled up at him. "Shall we take pictures now so you can get on your way? Can't have you being late now." Viktor took a picture with each girl, putting his arm around each of them. He had to lean down a bit, as none of them were very tall.

"Thank you very much," Ami said, and both of her friends echoed her statements.

"My pleasure, ladies," he said, smiling at them again. They giggled as they clutched their bookbags and then walked off. It was then that Viktor looked up at noticed Yuuri standing at the entrance to the store he had gone into. Surely, he couldn't have taken that long in the store. He noticed that the Japanese man had an unreadable expression on his face. Why had he not come over? The girls had been figure skating fans; they would surely have loved autographs and pictures from Yuuri as well.

~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~

Yuuri told himself that it shouldn't bother him. They were fans, but it did. Seeing Viktor flirting with those three girls just annoyed him for a reason he couldn't explain. It made him angry. It's called jealousy, said a voice in his head. He told himself that it shouldn't bother him. They had been sharing a bed since they had gotten home from the Cup of China. Viktor had kissed him in front of the entire world. He had professed his love for him more than once in the past month since they had first said that to each other, and yet… Seeing Viktor flirting and charming those girls had made him want to rip their heads off.

Yuuri had been distracted the rest of the day. He felt off, and he knew why. Viktor kept asking what was wrong. "I'm fine," he finally snapped. He most certainly wasn't fine. What was he supposed to say? That he had been annoyed to see his boyfriend flirting with someone else, even if it was a fan?

Boyfriend…

Was Viktor his boyfriend?

Yes, moron, said the same voice inside his head. You two say you love each other, you can barely keep your hands off each other, and you sleep in the same bed every night. What else would you call it? Yet another small part of him said that it couldn't be true. Viktor would never fall for someone like him, especially when he knew the relationship was only temporary. Yet, that's exactly what seemed to be happening. He tried to tell himself it was perfectly normal to not like to see someone you love flirting with someone else. To be quite honest, though, he had no idea what the fuck normal was. Even if he did, he and Viktor would be far from it.

You know how he feels about you, he tried to reason with himself more than once that day. Yet another, much darker voice echoed, How he says he feels about you. No. That wasn't right. He could see the way Viktor looked at him. He saw how Viktor acted towards him. He could tell how the Russian felt. It shouldn't bother him. He should just be able to let it go. He knew how Viktor was. It didn't matter what he thought or how he tried to reason with himself.

He was upset, and nothing he could try and tell himself was going to change that.

~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~

Yuuri's temper hadn't dissipated throughout the rest of the day. He knew Viktor was confused, though he would never show it. He didn't know what to say. Maybe there was nothing that could be said. He was no good at these things; he didn't know what to do. He didn't even know if this was something that he was supposed to be feeling. Was this normal? Should he be jealous at all, or was he just being stupid because he couldn't let this go?

"Yuuri," Viktor said once they were back home, "can we talk?" They were walking back towards his - their - room. Yuuri just nodded, as he felt his heart sink. Those were never good words. He followed Viktor inside, shutting the door behind him. Viktor took off his shoes, setting his bag down on the floor. The Russian sat down on the bed, looking expectantly up at Yuuri. Yuuri kicked off his shoes, and set his stuff down, too, and carefully sat down on the edge of the bed, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"I think we need to talk about Russia," Viktor said, and for once, he was being unusually serious. "I think we should plan out how we act around each other there, our… interactions." The Russian ran a hand through his hair. "I have a hero status there, and like it or not, it will affect you. I don't want you to be influenced by any added attention that might be reflected on you because of me, or any complete lack of attention because I am there with you." When Yuuri didn't respond, Viktor continued. "It will affect you whether either of us want it to or not."

Yuuri didn't respond, he couldn't. It was almost as if he could feel every wall around him just come up, and he subconsciously scooted away from Viktor on the bed. A million thoughts ran through his head right then; they all said the same thing. He regrets it. He doesn't want you around. He said it himself - he's a hero there, and he wouldn't want them seeing the two of you together. He clutched at the bed sheets so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Every worst fear had come true, and he felt like such a fucking idiot for not seeing through it, for allowing himself to fall as hard as he had.

"What's wrong?" Viktor asked, moving a bit closer to him. Yuuri forced himself to stay where he was, but he didn't respond; he just sat there, looking down at the bed. "What's wrong? You've been acting off all day. What's the matter?"

"I saw you," Yuuri said, the words coming out of his mouth before could stop them. "I saw you this morning flirting those girls. And now… now you're sitting there, telling me that you don't want to be around me, that you want to tone down the way we've been acting after you've been the one that instigated everything." He was breathing slightly heavy now, as he had said most of that in one, long angry breath. He thought he also felt a few tears stinging to his eyes, too, but after taking a long, shuddering breath to try and calm his racing heart, the tears dissipated.

"Hold on, I was just handling them," Viktor responded, "the way I handle everyone." There was a slight defensiveness to his tone. "It has nothing to do with us, and I wouldn't be bringing this up at all if I didn't think it was what was best for you." Yuuri glanced up at him, a look of shock echoed on his face. The Russian took that opportunity to continue, a smile crossing his lips. "I think that my hero status in Russia will negatively affect you, and I don't want that. Think about how I'm treated here in Japan, the attention that I get here. Now increase that ten-fold. That's how I am treated there."

Yuuri couldn't deny the logic of what Viktor was saying, he felt some of his anger and jealousy going away slightly. Maybe it had been stupid of him to feel that way. He wasn't given much time to think it over, though as Viktor edged closer to him. "You know I don't want to suggest any of this, but as I said, I think it's what's best for you. I know how much you dislike the press, and I want you to be subjected to that as little as possible." Viktor reached his hand forward, his long elegant fingers brushing down Yuuri's cheek. "I'm only trying to protect you."

Yuuri was still shocked by Viktor's words, though part of him knew that he shouldn't be. It all made sense that Viktor had been thinking about him. Yuuri had let his emotions get the better of him. Perhaps he had been overacting. No, he had most certainly been overreacting. He could see that now. He took another deep breath, allowing himself to smile just a bit. "Okay, what did you have in mind?"

Viktor went through his ideas, and they discussed a fews before coming up with a rough plan. They were leaving in about a week or so, so maybe it was good that they were discussing it now. After a while, they had come up with something that might work. It would shield Yuuri enough from the insane press that Viktor was going to get while they were there. After they were done, Yuuri was pulled in a tight embrace. He wrapped his arms around Viktor, laying his head against the older man's chest. "I'm sorry," Yuuri said.

Yuuri could almost feel Viktor smile. "For what, lyubov moya?"

"It was stupid, how I was feeling," he said. "I'm sorry I took it out on you."

Yuuri felt Viktor's hand rub gently up and down his back. "Oh, no, don't apologize for how you were feeling. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it's cute that you love me so much that you were jealous just because I was flirting with some overeager fans."

Yuuri looked up at him, their eyes meeting. "You think it's cute?"

"Yes, I do, quite cute, and endearing," Viktor said, before leaning down, capturing Yuuri's lips in his own. He melted into the kiss and felt the arms that were around him tighten, pulling him closer. Slowly, though, Viktor pulled back, smiling down at him. "It's okay to be jealous. I get jealous, too."

Yuuri's eyes widened in shock. "Jealous? You? Of Who?"

"Pretty much everyone, actually," Viktor said with a chuckle. "Anyone who knew you and was close to you. I was jealous of because you kept pushing me away, like Minako when she teased you when I first arrived, your friend Phichit when we were in China because you were so comfortable with him, Chris for getting a bit too friendly with you." He shrugged his shoulders. "I just hide it a lot better than you do."

"Then again, in China, you did get so drunk that you started stripping in a public restaurant," Yuuri pointed out

"That is true. Next time, though, can you talk to me about what's up upsetting you instead of being angry at me all day without me even knowing what I did?"

Yuuri couldn't help it, but he chuckled. "Deal." As he snuggled into Viktor's warm embrace, he realized that he didn't feel upset anymore.