Victor Nikiforov, an everyday businessman, was a big fan of a superhero known as The Dragon, which was a bit of a weird name given he only controlled fire but, who wants to be known as that guy that points it out to him? Nobody that's who.
His outfit didn't even really scream dragon either, blue spandex and a visor; which stayed on his head with the aid of something that looked like headphones on the side and also were the most reptilian part of it, clipping on to the top of his ears and making them look bigger and pointed.
And he may have had a crush on said superhero, The Dragon, if he was completely honest. But he knew his chances were slim to none and had quickly moved past it and instead ended up with his wonderful boyfriend Katsuki Yuuri.
The Dragon was often seen fighting side by side with...well he changed his name at least once a month so he was most widely known as 'The Dragons' Partner' The Dragon himself always looked exhausted every time his partner picked a new superhero name.
Said partner had also promised to pick one and stick with it, but that was at least half a year ago. Regardless the partner's abilities were much more mechanical, as in, man made. Though he was seen controlling electricity now and then so it could be assumed that was why. He had clearly been inspired by the Iron Man comics, though he'd put his own spin on the design and the ideas, after all what was possible in a comic wasn't what he could do in real life.
They were only two of the superheros that existed, they were a growing...community? Nobody was sure how to refer to the sudden, growing population of super powered humans. And sometimes aliens. Honestly it felt like the real world was part of a comic book, things were reaching that point.
But still, Victor was just an average guy with a favorite superhero crush, which was far from weird in this new age. He didn't have any information that wasn't public, besides anything he'd seen himself but that was nothing of note. No secret shady meetings overheard, no secret society he was part of, no known identities, just an average gay guy who was madly in love with his boyfriend. Valentines was coming up and he had been too distracted trying to come up with a plan to really worry much about the super hero/villain stuff if it wasn't in his face.
So he really had no idea why both him and his boyfriend were tied up in this abandoned warehouse, after being kidnapped.
Now, he might be biased, but it was entirely possible that the villain simply had a huge crush on his beautiful, stunning, sexy, boyfriend, and wanted him all for himself. He would be completely willing to fist fight him for Yuuri though, superpowers meant nothing to him for Yuuri.
"...I'm not interested in your boyfriend." the villain, some guy in an all black spandex hiding in the shadows stated.
"Oh, I said that out loud?" he laughed a bit. "Well why are we here if you're not just in love with him?"
Yuuri, off to the side, was blushing brightly and trying to bury his face in the front of his own shirt. He wasn't having any luck, what with his hands tied behind him.
"You really have no idea." mystery guy said, looking him over. "In that case my plans change just a little bit. But the jist of it is, I have reason to believe your boyfriend over there, knows the identity of the super hero 'The Dragon' and possibly his partner."
"What? And he didn't tell me?" Victor pouted, not sure if he believed the guy. "He knows I'm a big fan, he'd totally tell me if he knew something like that." But heck, he could try and just talk the guy out of this.
"Nice try, but I'm not just letting you two go."
Victor slouched in his bonds, unsure what to do now. He didn't want to push too far and provoke the guy. Yuuri, by a different wall than himself, was sending him worried glances about every second, between staring at the guy as though to make sure he didn't vanish when he was checking on him. He was touched by Yuuri's worry, but he'd unfortunately made himself out to be the more worthless one so anything the guy did would be to Yuuri to try and get information he may or may not have.
Victor wasn't so self centered as to think he had a right to superheroes' civilian identities, in all honestly Yuuri probably wouldn't tell him if he did know who his favorite superhero was, and that was perfectly fine. I mean, they have costumes for a reason, they don't want to be known.
The guy didn't seem to be in any kind of rush though, as he just moved to a corner and stared at them for awhile, in utter silence.
"So, what should we call you? Thinking of you as 'that guy' is getting annoying." Yuuri was the one that spoke up, and Victor's head shot over to him in bafflement. His boyfriend, love of his life, getting smarmy with a super villain? What? Maybe it was the stress.
"You don't call me anything."
"So your name is 'Nothing' got it."
Where had this sass master been hiding the last year he knew him? Victor could practically feel the stars in his eyes as he looked at his boyfriend. He knew that Yuuri was still adjusting to being himself around him, never wanting to let him down and all that rot, but this? There was no need to hide this if this wasn't just the stress getting to him. Quite the opposite, Yuuri coming back at him with some smart ass response to some ridiculous statement he made would be very welcome, maybe he had to make that clear to him…
Nothing, on the other hand, was not amused, which meant he was probably telling the truth about not being interested in his boyfriend. "Shut your mouth."
"If you didn't want me talking you should've gagged me, Nothing." Victor didn't know how to make heads or tails of Yuuri taunting a supervillian. The attitude itself? Great! The attitude directed to a super powered human that kidnapped them? Not so much.
"I'm tempted to."
"Look just give me a name, it doesn't have to be one you actually use. I need to know for my twitter after this is over." Victor was trying very hard not to laugh as Yuuri continued goading him.
He could practically feel Nothing's eyeroll, "Arachno." he offered.
"Got it, Arachno." Yuuri nodded to himself, "So, are you going to do anything or are we just sitting here in silence for ten hours?"
"I'm waiting." Arachno leaned against the wall.
They shared a very baffled look. "For...what?"
"For him to show up."
"Wa-what? He doesn't even know we're here it's not like I made a twitter post 'being kidnapped by some dude, save me dragon!'you didn't give me the time." Yuuri looked at the super villain with a raised eyebrow. "Besides, how will that show you his identity?"
"Ah well, I'm actually more interested in the identity of his partner, but I figure if you know him well enough to know who he is, he'll be willing to show up and save you, and then things get interesting." he gave them a toothy grin. "But, I'm not telling you all of my plan."
"He still doesn't know where I am then." Yuuri pointed out, "He's not psychic." he huffed.
"Unless he hasn't seen a single TV screen, then he knows. I made the 'post' if you will, anonymously."
Yuuri didn't have a counter to that and slouched against the wall with a huff.
Victor didn't know what to make of all this, he was not expecting Yuuri to act like this at all. Maybe he really did know the dragon, maybe he'd gotten into some scraps and proven helpful and was used to this? Maybe his anxiety was mixing with anger and worry and making him sassy? There was no way to know at the moment.
Maybe Yuuri was just different with him? He certainly had his confident, sassy, moments with him, but not to this degree. But was that difference comfort or discomfort? They'd have to have a talk.
Yuuri flashed him a reassuring smile. "We'll be fine Victor."
Victor felt like he'd been tossed in the ocean without a life preserver, he'd never imagined a situation where they were kidnapped by a supervillain, but even if he had it certainly wouldn't have gone like this. He never could've imagined something like this, Yuuri like this.
Then again, Yuuri had always been better than his imagination.
It didn't take much longer for Arachno to huff in irritation. "Where is he?"
"Maybe he's not an idiot that realizes the kidnapper is the one that told him about it?" Yuuri offered innocently.
Victor blinked and missed what happened next, but Yuuri had a wide-eyed panicked expression on his face and there was a sliver of blood along his cheek.
"Will you be quiet, now?" he hissed as blood welled in the thin cut.
Yuuri shook himself out of his shock, sending a few drops of blood flying off his cheek, as Victor fought against his bonds. Nobody, not some dumb super villain, not some random person on the street, nobody, hurt his boyfriend and got away with it, not on his watch, and certainly not right in front of him.
"Does the boyfriend want in on the fun too?" Arachno stepped towards him, near silent on the concrete floor. "I'd be happy to oblige."
"Don't you touch him!" Yuuri snarled, and Victor's eyes snapped from Arachno to his boyfriend, who was doing his own thrashing against the wall.
"Oh?" Arachno stepped closer to him. "Maybe I won't if you tell me who the dragons partner is."
Victor leaned back, glaring up at him, but he wasn't looking at him, Arachno was staring at Yuuri.
"I don't know you big idiot!" Yuuri snapped, "Just because you think I do doesn't mean I do!"
"Mmm...I suppose there's a chance of that." he stepped closer to Victor though his eyes stayed on Yuuri. "Maybe I'll accept the dragon's identity."
"Get away from him!" he demanded, "Or you'll regret it!"
"You know, that's pretty much an admission of knowing, you're pretty much saying I'll piss off a superhero right?" he laughed a bit at having 'found out' the truth.
Victor had enough of this guy and threw himself forward with all his strength, headbutting him in the head hard enough to make himself see stars. He was distracted by Yuuri after all (and who wouldn't be? His boyfriend was amazing and stunning and he was frequently distracted by him himself).
He could see perfectly as Arachno made a gesture towards him and he heard a high pitched noise in his left ear a moment before he felt a cut along his cheek. Oh. he realized, something to do with his power, an important note for later, for the dragon, or whoever did show up.
The next thing he knew there was a jet of flame an inch from his face, which Arachno had scrambled back from.
"I told you…not to touch him." Yuuri's voice got very deep and suddenly Victor found himself cradled gently in a blue claw several times his size and he looked up and realized, very disconnected, oh, he's dating the dragon.
Who has apparently been able to turn into a dragon this entire time? A 100-foot long, blue, serpentine dragon? And just never has before?
Kinda makes him feel special that Yuuri brought out his full powers because a guy gave him like, a papercut. It's the thought that counts though, and his heart feels full. It also explained a lot of the past like...hour.
Said blue dragon looked down at him worriedly, bringing his head close to him. "Are you okay?"
"'M fine." he was just going into shock is all. He even still had his pretty brown eyes, only now they were wider than he was tall.
"Good." he closed his claws around him, gently. "This might get bumpy." he left his stomach somewhere behind him as he pulled the limb to his...chest? He could only assume, to keep him safe. In his blue cocoon he could do nothing but inspect what he could see of this form of his boyfriend, resisting the urge to poke and prod at the scales and possibly distract him, but looking at them as closely as he could. They were shiny and varied sizes, and light fluttered in between his talons enough to show that. The talons by the way? Easily thick as his torso. Bone white and sharp, tips pressed right up against scale, moving slightly with movement.
While Arachno might've wanted something to do with the Dragon, he was not prepared for the dragon to become…an actual dragon, so he heard faint screams of terror and the sounds of a lot of fire, and then he was leaving his stomach behind again and the swaying movement made him think they were now somehow flying through the air.
He wondered what the general populace was thinking about what just happened, fire, dragon, screaming? He hoped nobody tried to attack his boyfriend.
"Dragon!" he heard a greeting, the partner, but couldn't hear much besides that as they started talking.
The talons did close in around him a bit more and he pushed back against them as a reminder. He was then lifted up higher as the talons pulled back to reveal him to his boyfriend and his partner.
"Oh he really is in there. Hi Victor!"
Victor blinked in surprise at the friendliness of the voice, "Do I uh…know you?"
"Sure you do I mean you know who the dragon really is!"
"Shut up, he's in enough danger if anyone sees him." Yuuri hissed, and only then did Victor realize they were above the tallest buildings in the city, and even then Yuuri was doing his best to shield any view of him.
"If you just waited a little longer I would've turned up." His partner replied.
"How was I to know that? Besides, he hurt him." He huffed, fire spitting out between his jaws.
"How are you going to play this one off anyway? The guy knows who you are now."
"Not if I say I swooped in and grabbed both of them." Yuuri countered, scales ruffling in the wind. "Besides I think I turned him into ashes."
"I'm just glad you're finally showing off your full powers! Look at you! You're so cool!"
"I'm dating a real life dragon." Victor said softly as it finally sunk in. "A dragon. What the hell?"
"OO-I wouldn't-"
"I know I'm weird I'm sorry, you don't have to date me anymore-really you shouldn't you're in danger just by knowing me, today proved that and I'm sorry." Victor didn't know dragons could look sheepish but Yuuri of course managed it, always surprising. Looking anywhere but at him and coiling his body up tighter to appear smaller, all without jostling his tiny boyfriend.
And of course, this was a Yuuri Victor knew how to deal with, unlike the Yuuri of the past hour. "None of that!" he objected instantly. "You're not weird first of all, you're super cool! How many people can say they know someone that turns into a dragon? A dragon Yuk-my starburst. A dragon. Like is there a cooler animal? I'll wait for you to name one." He challenged. "And look at you, I don't know how you're flying and if I try to think about it my brain hurts because you're just that cool!" he paced a little in the middle of the claws. "And you're so big. Like….huge. I can't wrap my brain around how big you are like look at these!" he wrapped his arms around a talon in an almost hug. "HUGE! And you're a superhero! My favorite at that! That I ignored my not-so-little crush on because I fell head over heels in love with you you big idiot!"
The only answer to his rant was clapping. "I told you I liked this guy, he's a keeper."
"But I could get him killed!" he objected, "I couldn't live with myself knowing I got him killed."
"I'm right here, and I'm not in much more danger than I was just living in this city! My building gets people thrown into it at least once a week, knowing you isn't a danger."
Smoke flitted out between his teeth, "We'll talk about this later Vitya, when we're not in the sky."
Victor huffed, "There's nothing to talk about! I love you and you love me and you being a superhero and dragon doesn't change that at all!"
"You know him well enough to know you have a fight ahead of you there Victor." The partner teased. "So dragon, you want me to take him home and you make your own way back after you turn back?"
"Yeah, that's what I was hoping."
"Wai-I don't want to leave you!" Victor objected as Yuuri tried to hand him off.
"I'm not going to just vanish into the sunset never to be seen again. I'll meet you at home." Yuuri brought him up to his eye level. "Okay?"
"You wouldn't break our babies hearts like that would you…" he hummed playfully and leaned over to kiss wherever he could reach (which turned out to be a scale near his eye). "I'll see you soon." He allowed the partner to pick him up this time, and the feeling of flight was a lot more disorienting than it was being held in Yuuri's claws. He missed it already.
"He's safe in my arms dragon." He drifted backwards and down slowly, stopping some distance away.
"What-"
"Shhh-watch."
Victor turned his gaze skyward, seeing Yuuri fly in circles above the city for awhile longer before he finally choose a direction to fly off in.
And then he was just gone.
"What the-"
"He can fly super fast." He spoke in a secretive whisper. "I don't know if he's ever pushed it to the limit but I think he needs to work off some nerves. Just don't worry if it takes him awhile to get home okay?"
He nodded slightly, "Why doesn'-"
"We can talk when I get you home okay? The buildings have ears."
Victor blinked and realized they were being stared at through windows.
The partner laughed loudly and set off again, faster this time, and he was home in no time, placed down on his balcony carefully. "You can get in right?"
Victor dug around in the pot and came out with the back door key to let him in. "Are you going to come in or are you going to leave and come back?"
"I'll be back." He replied with a laugh and sped off into the sky.
Victor looked around the house, nothing was disturbed so Yuuri had probably been nabbed on the street like he had. He picked up a little just for something to do, nervous about Yuuri, nervous about finding out who his partner was, coming down from the whole 'kidnapped by a super villian' fight or flight feelings, just all over kinda shaky.
The sharp rap on the door nearly startled him out of his skin from where he'd been standing in place holding a piece of trash and he dropped it in the trash on the way to the door, tugging it open a bit nervously.
"Phichit?" he blinked, "Uh, now isn't the best time, Yuka's out."
He grinned back at him. "I told you I'd be back."
Victor stared for a moment as it clicked in his brain. "Oh…I feel like an idiot." It was so obvious that if the dragon was Yuuri then the partner being Phichit just…made sense.
He laughed a little, letting himself in. "I figured I'd hang out with you until he got home so you wouldn't worry, answer any questions so he doesn't have to, give you tips to show him he's an idiot for wanting to break up with you."
"Help is always appreciated to stop him from doing that." He smiled a bit at him.
—-
"I'm home." Yuuri called.
"Yuka!" Victor grinned, rushing to the door to greet him with a kiss, Phichit laughing softly in the background.
Yuuri squeaked slightly, grabbing onto him to steady himself. "H-hi Vitya…" he blushed.
"Welcome home Yuuri!" Phichit greeted with a slap on the back. "I kept your boyfriend here company, but I'll head out now."
"O-oh thank you!" he called as Phichit was already halfway down the hall.
"Yuka!" he hugged him, "I know you said you'd come and I believed you but I was still worried when you were gone so long…" he talked as fast as his mouth could keep up with his brain. "And you should really thank Phichit later because I've been asking him a million questions so I wouldn't overwhelm you-like I'm doing now I'm sorry." He pulled back quickly.
Yuuri blinked at him for a moment, "Oh, thank you." He smiled, "I was trying to figure out how to explain everything but I guess it's best to just let you ask questions? I don't…" he sighed and looked away. "I don't want to break up but I don't want you to be put in danger because of me again…"
"Yuka, I already told you, I'm not in danger. How often is someone going to somehow connect you to a superhero? I mean the dragon is a bigger deal now but that doesn't mean people will go after Katsuki Yuuri." He was trying to remember things Phichit had told him. "I don't want you to break up with me because of some unknown person, that's like me breaking up with you because someone else has a crush. You realize how often everyone in this city is in danger just because of all the super-humans right? I'm really nothing of note to the super-world."
Yuuri didn't quite look up at him, but he did grab his hand and take him back to the living room to sit down before letting Makkachin and Yuki out from the back room. "I mean-you understand right? How would you feel if I was in danger because of your job?"
He bristled slightly at the idea of Yuuri being in danger before he realized, of course, Yuuri was always in danger, and tried to look at it more objectively. "Sort of, but then don't you understand how you would feel if I tried to break up with you because of that?" turnabout was fair play.
He flinched back a little at the idea. "Y-yeah…but I just…I don't want you to get hurt V-Vitenka." He looked up and met his gaze finally.
"I understand." Victor replied, "But you know what?" he smiled, "Given today, I trust in you to get there before anything bad has the chance to happen to me. Regardless of if it has anything to do with you. You're just full of surprises aren't you?"
He went a bit pink, "Thank you for the vote of confidence…I still feel like I screw up a lot…but…" he looked away and looked back with eyes set with determination. "I'll keep at it, and I'll keep you safe."
Victor blushed slightly, "You almost make a man want to be in danger." He laughed slightly. This was the superhero confidence that was hiding under the surface, maybe one day it would be part of the surface as well.
"You'd better not-"
"No-no I won't go looking for danger, that alone might make you break up with me, regardless of everything else." He was quick to interrupt, "I just meant, it's nice to see you so confident."
"O-oh…" he turned red.
He laughed a little and leaned in to kiss him. "So we're still good, right?" he asked just to be sure.
"We're perfect." He smiled back.
I had a lot of fun with this, especially with Victor's willingness to fight a supervillian with his bare fists. Victor is so extra and it's wonderful.
Also Yuki is just Vicchan but of course Yuuri wouldn't have had a reason to call his dog Vicchan so I just picked a new one.
