Abandon Ship

When they'd first met, Yuri hadn't had time to notice. There were a lot of things he hadn't noticed. Between Jeanne, Sapientes Gladio, and the – and really, who named this thing? - Mistletoe's curse wreaking havoc on his soul, he thought he had a good reason not to have noticed. Escape had been his first priority, navigating the Ardennes Forest with her, Blanca, and Geppetto at his heels, stumbling through the haze of malice.

But then the ordeal had settled, and Yuri still didn't have his wits to notice. Karin was a beautiful woman, young and spirited and her German accent was endearing. If Alice hadn't left such a devastating hole inside him when she died, he might have tried to bed her, tried to watch her writhe in the sheets.

After all, it wasn't easy finding women who knew about Harmonixers. It was even harder to find women who weren't going to condemn him for it.

But Alice was still an agony he'd rather not mull over and the time had never come, so Yuri had left Karin alone. Things went smoothly, as smoothly as their Trail of Tears through Europe could go, dodging Steel Claws and keeping their sanity in the midst of facing down Godless abominations and whatnot along the way.

It was in the port town, half-carrying and half-battling Karin up the stairs of the inn that he started getting looks from her. In her drunken state her language was a mess of mottled English and German, but Yuri understood some of the flattering things she spewed, things she wouldn't remember in the morning.

He never mentioned them to her, handed her some medicine for her hangover instead, deciding that the blow would be below the belt. After all, if he pretended she'd never said anything, he could pretend that he wouldn't have to tell her no.

But as they'd journeyed, Karin's looks lingered. Yuri would sometimes look back.

Sometimes he'd see a girl with white-blond hair and a blue dress, smiling softly, before he remembered that Karin had wildfire red hair and dressed like a warrior. They were so different, Alice and Karin, but they attracted him the same way, like a moth to flame.

Still, he would have to tell her no. If Karin asked, Yuri couldn't do it. His heart ached beneath the constant throb of the Mistletoe, and tragedy after tragedy chased after him like a friend in a game of tag. The curse was slowing him down, and he feared one day tragedy would catch up to not only him, but to everyone he surrounded himself with: the innocents who merely wanted to help for reasons he didn't know, and her.

But by the time they reached Japan, Yuri finally noticed it.

When Karin smiled, he remembered his days as a boy, eager to help his parents, eager to laugh and play. When Karin smiled, she looked just like Anne. She had his mother's smile.

So even when Saki pushed, seeing the adoration Karin projected, Yuri couldn't do it. When Karin finally came to him, he couldn't, his thoughts racing in a spiral of

Alice Anne Alice Anne blood tears PLEASE DON'T DIE

If Yuri went along with her, he'd feel Oedipal. If he went along with her, he'd feel responsible. It was a no-win situation for him, one that would probably bleed unto her. There was nothing more that he wanted than to make the hurt inside him end, felt moving forward would do it, but here was Karin, offering that road and it just wasn't right.

When he and Karin visited Alice's grave, when he'd shown that, really, he did care about her, trusted her, he gave her Anne's cross.

This was supposed to help with moving forward, too.

But when Karin wore that cross and smiled, Yuri felt the blackness of the past spike through him. He didn't let it show, didn't let her know that he'd doomed himself.

Yuri knew he had a lot of sins to atone for, but falling for someone baring such striking likeness to his mother in place of his dear Alice was something that he felt called for some serious heavenly wrath.

But, perhaps the Mistletoe was here to deliver that...?

A/N: I think that anyone that thinks YurixKarin is a good idea needs to be slapped. Yurice is definitely the OTP.