ACT 2

talking about michelangelo

It was three weeks after Viktor met Yuuri that he noticed the books.

'"Mary, I love him," Olivia whispered, clutching her sister's hands between her own. "Promise you won't tell Mother or Father."

Her sister gazed at her with wide, endlessly patient eyes. "God, Olivia, what have you done?"

"You have to promise me." Olivia's words were desperate, harsh, and pleading. "Promise me you'll keep this between us only. Nobody else can know about this."'

"Olivia…"

"Please," the fair-haired maiden begged quietly, her voice a sweet tremolo. "Please. I'm begging you."'

"You have her books, too?" Viktor asked Yuuri excitedly.

The young Asian man paused and glanced at the books. He glanced back at Viktor. Smiled a bit. Yes.

"Oh," sighed Viktor dreamily. "Aren't they amazing? Aren't they just so powerful and romantic? Oh—" He put a hand to his face and closed his eyes briefly, breathing in deeply before opening them again. "They are wonderful. She is such an inspiring woman, too, you know."

Yuuri smiled a bit bigger. I take it you're a fan of Yukiko's?

"Yes, yes, yes! I am such a big fan of her works! I think she is just incredible," Viktor gushed. He was so excited just talking about her that he couldn't help bouncing on his toes a bit. "I learned ASL because of her."

Both of Yuuri's eyebrows went up and his eyes grew big and wide. Really?

Viktor nodded and smiled fondly. "I read on her page online that she's deaf, so she motivated me to learn her language. If I could ever meet her one day—" He let out another long, dreamy sigh. "I would probably ask her to marry me." Maybe not marry. 'Be best friends with' was more accurate, but still.

Yuuri squirmed a bit where he stood, and Viktor noticed a light flush over his cheeks. What if she's married already? he asked. What would you do then?

Viktor pouted and ran his fingers over the spines of her books. He thought about it. Shrugged. Turned back to Yuuri with an easygoing smile. "Let's just hope she's not."

"What do you think is going to happen to Henry in the third book?"

I don't know.

"Do you think he'll survive? Or that his and Olivia's marriage will be revealed?"

Yuuri rubbed his chin and smiled slowly, hooking Caesar's leash to his harness. I'm not sure. It might be.

It was the sixth week of Viktor being Yuuri's dog-walker and they had grown to be pretty close friends, sharing a love for books and bonding over Kamata Yukiko's novels. "I hope it won't be," Viktor said. "Henry and Olivia are such a sweet couple, and I love Henry so much, I really don't want anything bad to happen to him."

He doesn't exactly have clean hands, though, Yuuri pointed out. He stole from the royal family to be able to see Olivia again.

"Yeah, but he had a legitimate reason to steal. To see his lover!"

So you think he should be pardoned?

"Well…" Viktor pursed his lips as he thought about it. "I don't know. Maybe."

He heard a soft, strange sound come from Yuuri, and it took him a second to realize it was a laugh. Then Yuuri coughed into his elbow and cleared his throat and handed the leash over. I guess we'll have to wait until the next book comes out to find out, he said, a mysterious smile on his face.

Viktor huffed. "But what if it never comes out?"

You should have a little more faith in Yukiko, Yuuri teased. It might come sooner than you think.

There was something about how Yuuri said that made it seem vaguely suspicious. Like Yuuri knew something that he didn't. Viktor was about to ask if there was something Yuuri wanted to tell him but the young man was already ushering him and the dog out the door.

"Do you think he's hiding something?" Viktor asked Caesar as he crouched down to tie his shoe. Caesar sniffed at his fingers and wagged his tail. "I think so, too. I won't bug him about it, though, it's none of my business." He stood and they bounded together off the steps to the sidewalk. "But you'll tell me if he tells you some juicy details, won't you?" Caesar snorted and huffed and panted. "Wow. I thought we were friends, Caesar. I thought we were friends."

"Are you an active reader?" Viktor asked Yuuri one day.

I try to be one.

"I used to read but now I don't do as much as I would like," Viktor said. "Besides Yukiko, of course." Yuuri rolled his eyes but smiled and said nothing. "When I was younger, they used to teach all the Russian stories in my classes, like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nabokov, Chekhov, you know, you get the idea. I always liked them."

They're good authors.

"Oh, you've read some of their works?"

A few. Especially Tolstoy. There was a short story of his that I quite liked called 'How Much Land Does a Man Need?'

Caesar's chin rested against Viktor's thigh, and he petted his soft ears gently. "Go on."

Yuuri crossed his ankle over his knee. It's about this guy who thinks that if he has a lot of land, the Devil won't be able to touch him. The Devil hears that and decides to put this guy to the test. The guy is offered certain amounts of land and he buys it all thinking it'll make him safe, and then he comes across this group of guys who say he can have as much land as he wants, but he himself has to walk around the amount he wants, as well as walk all the way back. Of course, the guy does this, because he's greedy, but on the way back he dies from exhaustion. They bury him in a hole exactly his size, and that answers the question the story poses: how much land does a man need?

Viktor listened—well, watched—in silent awe. He took a moment to absorb the story and didn't respond immediately and Yuuri went pink. "Wow," Viktor said in due course, blue eyes wide. "How fascinating. Say, what got you interested in books, Yuuri?"

Yuuri cracked a smile. You don't need ears to read; just eyes.

"Fair enough."

It's easy for me to be into books because I was born deaf, and there weren't many other alternatives at the time. All my life I've learned what I know through what I read and what I see. It's not just that I've always had an interest in literature, even though I have, he said with a quiet chuckle. It's just one of the only forms of—education, I guess, that I can share with most people. Besides television, movies, visual experience… Yuuri shrugged. You get the idea.

Viktor nodded. "That makes perfect sense," he said, and rubbed his chin. "That story sounds very interesting, by the way. By Tolstoy, you said?"

Yep.

"I'd like to read it. Is it on the internet?"

Probably.

Viktor beamed and immediately wrote down the title of the story as a reminder on his phone. "This is so much fun. I don't really get to talk to anybody about books. My best friend, Chris, he's read a few books but he's not super into it; he's more into movies. And everybody else I know just can't be bothered to read more than they were forced to throughout high school."

Yuuri tilted his head and frowned. That's too bad.

"It is."

There was a lull in conversation after that. A comfortable silence, for about a minute or two. Yuuri tugged at the hem of his light blue cotton t-shirt and Viktor watched. "Oh," he said finally, getting Yuuri's attention once more. "I want to get back into reading. Do you have any recommendations?"

To his surprise, Yuuri lit up like a firework. His eyes went wide and he grinned ear-to-ear. From any genre?

"Sure. Anything I can get my hands on."

Yuuri immediately whipped out his phone and typed rapidly on it for a second. Then showed the screen to Viktor, wriggling in his seat happily.

TOP 10 BOOKS

1. 1984 by George Orwell

2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. Animal Farm by George Orwell

5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

7. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

9. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

10. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

"Wow," Viktor said. "Did you have this just sitting in your phone in case somebody asked?" Not that he minded.

Yuuri blushed and smiled easily and a little embarrassed and nodded.

"I see." Viktor grinned. "Interesting. What kind of novels are these?"

I like to think they're all classics. They're all very different but of the themes are consistent throughout some of them. And they're fairly easy to digest, too; they're short but they're full of— Here Yuuri seemed to struggle to come up with a good descriptor. He thought about it, and decided on —love. He smiled shyly.

Love. What a sweet way of putting it. Viktor nodded slowly and beamed. "Okay! I'll give them a shot."

Yuuri looked like he couldn't be any happier. Perfect! I hope you like them. He clapped his hands excitedly.

Viktor tilted his head and watched the light dance on Yuuri's happy cheeks.

A/N: What's gooddddd. Early update yaaaa. Maybe I should update twice a week? This chap was pretty short, so. hmmmmmmmm

I decided to read Yarichin Bitch Club over the weekend. Y'all read that yet? it's getting an anime lmao coming out in september. It's pretty good! Really funny and cute. Recommend it if ya like ya0i.

Next chap coming on Friday, I guess. Stay tuned for moar.

Stay classy.