Letting out a sigh as he sat on the bench at the Kiss and Cry, Yuuri Katsuki stood up and left with his coach, Yakov Feltsman, as soon as he got his overall scores. Yuuri Katsuki, now 28 years old - second oldest figure skater in the Men's Skate -, had just won the Grand Prix Final for the third time running. Standing on the top of the podium, he closed his eyes as he received his shining golden medal, and let out another sigh. The lights of the cameras that shone in front of his eyes were irritating, and as soon as he was able to excuse himself, he let out another sigh.
Why was he sighing so much today? He didn't know, either. When he woke up, he sighed. Again during warm-ups. Another before his performance. Now that he gave a thought about it, he has been sighing a lot lately. Yuri Plisetsky and Mila Babicheva, figure skaters who were also under Feltsman and were representing Russia, also commented about his sighs not too long ago.
He got inside the car which Yakov was already inside, waiting for him and the other skaters. Yuuri leaned against his seat, closing his eyes and let out another sigh. "Yuuri, is something wrong?" Mila, who was in the front seat, turned to look at the Japanese man. "You just won first place- you should be happy!"
"Let him be, Mila," Yakov interrupted, and Yuuri was glad he did. "He must be exhausted. Yuuri, do you want to have dinner first?" The latter shook his head before replying, "No thank you, I'm not hungry." Soon the door opened and Yuri Plisetsky came in, muttering how annoying those so-called Yuri Angels were. Another sigh escaped his lips before the car started to move, and Yuuri wished it would go faster so he could lie down and sleep.
Staring out of the window, he looked up and noticed the twinkling stars shining above him, as if they too were congratulating on his win. Closing his eyes for the nth time that night, Yuuri decided to take a quick nap inside the car before they arrive at the hotel- especially since he heard Yuri wanting some McDonalds and Yakov making a quick turn.
Opening his eyes, he found himself in a dark abyss that had nothing more than an old-looking swing. It piqued his interest, and he found himself sitting on it and gently rocking himself back and forth. He held the chains and sighed, his grip tightening on them before he stood up.
Then, another playground item appeared; it was an old-looking slide which strangely brought fond memories. His lips twitched as he made his way to it, not noticing the swing slowly disappearing. The Japanese figure skater climbed it's ladder and just before he was going to slide down- he stopped and sighed once more. "What on Earth am I doing?" He muttered to himself, sliding down and standing back up, watching as the slide too disappeared from sight. He soon fell on his knees, a hand making its way up to touch his forehead.
"Hey, you okay?" He looked up as a voice who sounded so comforting to him rang inside his head. A man who looked just the same age as him staring at him with blue eyes that reflected worry. He had platinum colour hair, and he strangely reminded Yuuri of someone that made his heart ache. Taking a closer look at this stranger, he noticed pure white wings behind him and a halo on top of his head.
"An angel..?" He said aloud, and the so-called angel chuckled. He flew down in front of him, offering his hand and saying, "Give me all your sighs, and I will replace them with happiness." Brown eyes widened at those words, was he finally going to stop sighing? All those sighs that he senselessly tried to find the source of? Before he could even give a second thought, a "Please" escaped his lips instead of a sigh.
The angel smiled, and the dark abyss was suddenly filled with yellow roses, and a smile graced his lips. It looked exceedingly beautiful in his eyes; every single sigh he had had been replaced with this happy feeling he longed to feel. Winning the GPF, or the Worlds- it didn't compare to the happiness he felt right there and then. "Wanna see a magic trick?" The angel broke him of his trance, and Yuuri nodded. Cupping his hands together and closing his hands, a white dove appeared as soon and Yuuri was delighted; he had never seen a white dove before!
Soon, the dark abyss he was in disappeared and he was standing in a flower field, something he had always desired to see. Even though he had been raised in the countryside, his childhood was always in the Hasetsu Ice Castle and he vaguely remember the spring air and the blooming flowers. Instead of a blue sky, he was instead under a thousand stars, illuminating the dark space. He had forgotten about these small puffs of childhood happiness, but he didn't remember why.
Now, his sighs were buried under a smile.
Other than that, he was grateful to this angel; every time a smile graces his face, a distant memory reappears. However, he kept seeing someone he vaguely remembers in the memories and when he does see his face instead of a blurry image; he noticed that he angel and the memories are linked together.
Who was this angel? Did he know him? Why couldn't he remember him?
The answers were right in front of him now.
Turning around, he found a memory of himself four years ago, just after the GPF. He was sitting beside a bed, a hospital bed, his two hands clutching someone else's. The stars and the flowers started to disappear and the abyss began cracking, but he could care less because how could he forget?
Yuuri Katsuki and his fiance, Victor Nikiforov had a terrible accident during their gala exhibition and Victor had been rushed to the hospital whilst Yuuri only suffered minor injuries. Victor had unfortunately passed away on the way to the hospital, and Yuuri, who had just lost the love of his life, was desperately trying to warm up his ice-cold body with short puffs of air.
"So you remembered, huh?" The angel, Victor, wrapped his arms around the crying man and whispered sweet nothings in his ear to reassure him that it was alright. "Yuuri, what you were doing was not 'sighing', not at all!" Victor grinned. "Instead, you were trying to warm me up- a gentle, gentle wind that actually tickled."
"Sorry for being late," he apologised, and his wings began to disappear. He slowly let go of the male and Yuuri turned around, looking at his fiance with a tear stained face. "Finally, I was able to return the favour of making you happy just as what you did to me." Yuuri reached out his hand to touch Victor, but it was already starting to disappear and Yuuri could feel it in his grasp.
"No more sighing now," Victor stated, "Come on, raise your head!"
"Hey, pig! Wake up!" Yuuri's eyes opened immediately and only then did he realise that he was crying in his sleep. "Yuuri, you okay?" Mila was absolutely worried- this was the first time Yuuri had ever cried in his sleep, after all. Wiping the salty tears using his sleeve, he smiled.
"I'm okay!"
