Main Content'Till We Meet Again, My Love
Notes:
Kuya - any male older than you (brother, cousin, and stranger)
Ate - female for Kuya
Bunso - younger ones
Lolo - Grandfather
Lola - Grandmother
Tita – Aunt
Work Text:
Family reunions are mostly happy times. Cousins race to the grill to get the hot and fresh meat cooked by one of the kuyas. The uncles are also by the grill, bottles of beer or sodas in hand and cases more right by their side. Aunts can be seen in the kitchen, baking some cakes and putting some pies in the oven. Some ates are spotted under the shade, lounging on a blanket either babysitting the bunsos, while the others would be by the food table, arranging the food or simply taking the first pieces of the delicacies. Sometimes, Lolo joins the kids by under the tree and tell them a love story of two star-crossed lovers, and Lola lightly slaps her husband on the arm with a huge grin on her face. A tita shouts from the balcony and let the whole generation know that her niece's baby wants their mother. All in all, seeing all your loved ones in one place, and getting to meet the new ones is a jubilant occasion.
Only when they aren't reuniting to commemorate a life's that passed.
Christmas in Hasestsu is a joyous occasion. Sake bottles are being passed down from adult to adult and a certain Russian blonde would try to get a hold of one of those ceramic liquid holders. Laughs echo throughout the room as people share stories of the present or reminisce on memories of the past. This year's Yuletide season is extra special as friends from across the world are squeezed into Yutopia's biggest dinning hall until some of them are just lounging at the inn's vast garden. Another reason for the joyous celebration is the form of a silver-haired Russian skater affiliated to a certain raven-haired Japanese skater, who is missing in action according to their closest friends.
Sounds of metal scraping over the ice emulate through out the whole building as Yuri skids to a stop in front of he boards where Victor claps enthusiastically at the successful quad axle his husband lands. A hug and kiss there and Yuri pulls Victor with him on the ice. With a tune only they can hear, the couple dance through day and laugh and smile on the beautiful memories of the past and dreams of the future only to be stopped when a dog barks and a blonde teen crashes on their sweet moment. Yurio shouts a "the party wouldn't be complete without the celebrant, old man," and Victor delightedly teases and the love of his life laugh along at the display.
Little did they know, great sorrow and grief are right by their doorstep.
Two days later, the Katok – Dvorets Sporta Yubileynyy office telephone rings and wishes to inform the answerer that Yuuri Katsuki was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night, complaining about chest pain, difficulty breathing, and was being revived. The wrinkly man looked turned to the woman beside him and shook his head. All the woman in the tight bun can do is gasp and took the man into her arms and rubbed circles on the man's back.
Victor Nikiforov just stares into blank space as the doctor interprets the various scans on the wall and reads the written reports of the laboratory tests. He had a stroke they said. The left side of his body is paralyzed they said. His heart was too large they said. He's in a coma they said. With all that said, he continues to stare off at the wall.
The rest of the family rushes through the doors, and the doctor repeat what he said the Victor and remains to be the bearer of bad news as a sniff can be heard from the older, bespectacled Katsuki.
Wishes of recovery fill the JSF page as the news of their star skater reached their ears. Japanese fans organized meet-ups at the Yutopia to offer their gifts of wellness, and international fans did the same.
Phichit, with Celestino in tow, knocks at the hospital door and tries to hold himself as the sight of his best friend on an inclined hospital bed with wires and tubes connected to his veins. The oxygen machine can be seen pumping at his side along with a heart monitor beeping faster.
Yuri's eyes are open, and can be seen watery, and this prompts his previous coach to speak,
"Hey, Yuri, it's Ciao Ciao," the Italian starts. "We miss you." He stops just before his voice becomes hoarse from the tears welling up in his eyes. He excuses himself out of the room to shed those tears.
Mari, who was staring outside of the window, turns to the newcomer and says, "His eyes are open but he can't see us." Phichit nods at the obvious. "But the doctor says he can hear our voices, so speaking to him might help lift his spirits up." Mari finishes, as if the last part is such an obvious matter, and it really does.
Right that moment, Victor appears from the bathroom in the hospital room, still wearing the same clothes when Yuri was rushed to the ER. He nods at Phichit and proceeds to sit at the empty chair by the bed, takes Yuri's hand into his, and looks into eyes of his love that stares right back.
Phichit is usually the one that makes the frowns upside down, but he himself couldn't fight the tears trying to escape his eyes.
Ciao Ciao enters the room again, now with a Swiss couple right behind him. Mari excuses herself and invites Phichit to the canteen to get food. The Thai complies and the room is suddenly cold. Only the buzz of the air conditioner and the life-support can be heard in the background. Masumi clasps Chris' shoulder and Chris do the same to Victor. No response is given, but Chris' hand is still on his dear friends shoulder.
Once they reach canteen, the eldest of the Katsuki confronts the Thai. "He's getting worse by the day," she inhales deeply. "He can't breathe on his own anymore. We're given the choice to allow them or not to insert a tube straight into his throat." Phichit's face scrunched up, but Mari keeps talking anyway. "We don't know how long he'll last. Even the doctor says so."
"How's Victor coping?" Phichit may have an answer to his own question already, but he asks anyway.
"If being cold and heartless is his way of coping, then I guess so."
New Year's has passed and no changes in Yuri's state were reported, in the news, social networking sites, or by the relatives themselves. Each day, a different visitor walks through the door, offers encouraging words to Yuri then Victor. Those days, are filled with laughter and tears. Laughter from reminiscing and tears for the same reason too. All of them would clasp Victor's shoulder and no response would be given.
The rays of the Valentine's Day sun leaks into the hospital room and shines on Victor's face. He stands up, splashes some water on his face, and proceeds to sit in his usual spot by Yuri's side. The sun finally reaches his face and total peace can describe it. Victor looks to his side to check if the heart monitor is still beeping or if the machine supplying the oxygen is still pumping. He let out a breath when they were both in sync.
Yuri's eyes are now covered in bandages so he can't really open his eyes. The doctor says it's to prevent the eyes from totally drying out. Despite this, he looks through those bandages and finds the brown orbs he came to love.
Out of nowhere, a long-high pitched sound echoed throughout the room and all Victor can do is run to the nearest nurse's station. A doctor arrives a few seconds later but all he was able to do is shake his head and apologize. Just like what happened in Barcelona, tears just flow out of his eyes, but this time, there was no one there to sweep the bangs away. Not anymore.
Once the news reach he Katsuki household, every customer keep silent to pay respect to the family's loss. The hot-headed customer just shut up and lowers their head. The regulars watching the match turn off the television and offer the youngest Katsuki and his fiancé prayers.
From across the globe, a Thai and his coach break down in the middle of the ice which earned them weird looks from the other skaters in the vicinity. A Chinese calls his American friend despite the ungodly hour and states his woes. In a certain Russian rink, practice is suspended until further notice due to the head coach being gone for a month with his top skaters. In the Swiss Alps—and what's supposed to be a celebration of brith—two men board their flight to Hasestsu, Japan.
The wake lasts a week for everyone to get a last glimpse of the beloved skater. People from all walks of life walk in through the doors of the inn and offer the family condolences. They try to do the same to Victor, but when it's the break of dawn, he leaves the inn and goes to the rink to do some of Yuri's old routines. That is according Yuuko when she was told to find the Russian.
The last day of the wake comes and Victor stays the whole day by Yuri's casket, but he leaves when the sun sets. He excuses himself and proceeds to grab his skates that are in Yuri's childhood room.
The said room is still how Yuri left it. Differences in the color are evident, and the posters that once adorn the walls are in the drawer right beside the suitcases filled with clothes that are to be given to charity. Victor drags a finger across the desk then stops at the laptop, blinking for battery. He plugs it in and his breath starts to hitch when the video of their last exhibition appears on the screen.
Their matching blue and pink costumes shimmer under the dim lights of the stadium, and love is evident not just at their moves, but also in their eyes. Victor closes the laptop and searches for his skates. He spots them right beside Yuri's own pair in all its black leather and silver blades glory. He grabs both and starts his trek to the Ice Castle. He pushes the double doors open, brings his skates and Yuri's out of the bag, and then wears his own. He sets the other pair on a high desk where he would see them even if he's on the ice.
After a short warm up, he opens a folder on his phone and starts to play a set of songs. The strums of guitar strings of the first song sound throughout the rink. Blades and ice clash at every jump, sway, and stop.
The next song starts with a note from a piano. Memories flood Victor's mind. Memories of a fateful banquet full of life and love, and a figure approaching him and coaxing him to dance with him. It was a night of pure joy and contentment. The next flash was of a confused man locking him out of a room. He smiles at that bittersweet memory.
From there, everything was playing out in Victor's mind as he skates Yuri's programs—their first kiss, first date, first time making love to each other, first fight, and first everything. He also saw their last kiss, their last night together before the night he was rushed to the ER, last everything.
As the chords of the next song play from his phone, he skids to a stop and stare at the rink as if someone was dancing. The emotion of this figure captivated the observing man. Victor skates to the middle again when a soprano sings out a certain Italian word. He dances the duet with the figure as if it there was an audience, and to tell you the truth, there was. The other Yuri just sits silently by the bench and watch as the broken man dance with his invisible partner. When the song fades to a decrescendo, the figure moves to caress Victor's face and kiss him, and finally speaks,
"'Till we meet again, my love."
Notes:
I tried my best for a death fic but in Yuuri's take, get it? All I've read is Victor dying with a brain tumor/cancer. So I was like, "Hmmm, how about Yuuri with heart enlargement? That sounds nice and that happened to my family." So, here it is! So, yeah. Please tell me what you think. Comment or you can talk to me at Twitter. I'm AnjaBagarraGPL by the OTW