A/N: WOW! It's been a while since I've written anything. In that time I've discovered anime and I love Yuri on Ice. I am currently writing three Yuri on Ice stories (something I don't normally do) and this one will be the longest. Hang on it is going to be a bumpy ride. And, the chapters will be longer and longer as we go on. And Here…..we….go!

Just Because

Prologue/Chapter 1

Beep...Beep...Hissssss...Beep...Beep

Yuuri closed his eyes as the rhythmic cacophony of the machines was giving him both a headache and hope. The conflict stirred with in him, not wanting to hear the machines anymore so Victor could be with him, but knowing if he didn't hear them, Victor wouldn't. As much as he didn't want to, Yuuri needed to hear the staccato of the machines.

In between every two beeps monitoring Victor's heart was the hiss of the ventilator that kept him breathing. It was an odd musicality that Yuuri was sure Victor would skate beautifully to. Victor could skate beautifully to anything.

Yuuri sat back exhausted and looked over Victor for what felt like the hundredth time.

Victor's hair was parted to one side. Yuuri kept running his fingers through Victor's hair in an effort to keep it full of life and not matted. Something had to be full of life in this room. On the right side of Victor's head, where the hair parted away from, was shaved and a large white bandage was affixed. Yuuri didn't know what lay under the bandage, nor did he want to. Coming out of the top of the bandage was a thin, clear tube that ran to a machine with a container in it. Yuuri remembered the doctor's using the terms 'shunt' and 'drainage'.

His eyes ran over Victor's now pale face, his eyes gently closed, but his mouth forced open by a tube taped there that went down his throat and into his lungs. What was visible on the outside was the tube connecting to a larger one that ran to a machine that kept him breathing…..kept him living.

Various other tubes and wires were spread around him: heart monitor, oxygen monitor, catheter, a couple of IV's furnishing antibiotics, medications, and nutrients. Soon another tube would be needed, a feeding tube, making the life and death situation all the more obvious.

Victor's pale arms, marked with a few bruises lay above the sheets. There was hardly a contrast between the hue of Victor's skin and the paleness of the hospital gown. The only difference being the light green dots throughout the gown. The head of the bed sat partway up to put less pressure on his heart and lungs they said. It made it easier for Yuuri to keep his constant watch on Victor. Yuuri felt a new appreciation for medical science after everything he had heard.

Yuuri reached out and intertwined their fingers together, looking at his own ring on his finger, and lamenting that Victor's had to sit in his pocket for now.

It had been two days since everything had…..happened. Things were being noticed…..and questioned.

Yuuri looked up as the door opened and in walked Yakov and the young Russian skater, Yurio. The young blond practically hid behind the older coach. He hadn't come to visit Victor on his own, and never talked when he was in the room. He seemed to stick like glue to Yakov and Yuuri could only guess what all this was doing to the teenager. His grandfather had gotten sicker and had to be moved to a senior living facility leaving Yurio without a place to go back to when in Moscow, and now…..Victor. The poor kid probably thought everyone was leaving him too soon. No wonder he wouldn't leave Yakov's side.

As Yakov took off his hat, Yuuri tried to read his eyes for an answer. Yakov slowly shook his head and cast his eyes downward, Yurio as always, remained silent.

"It's a no. I'm sorry, Yuuri," Yakov said.

Sighing and not letting go of Victor's hand, Yuuri hung his head as he tried to keep in the tears.

'Shit,' he thought, 'This is going to get a lot more complicated.'