A loud groan echoed through the small empty hotel room.
"Uggghhhh."
Tanned hands ran through raven locks before a shiver ran his body. A subtle glance around brought familiarity, before he squeezed his eyes shut.
"H...how did I…"
He waved a hand in front of his face, inhaling deeply. His eyes eased open before wandering again.
Bathroom.
Correction.
Bathtub.
"When did I… oh god."
He made a scramble out of the tub, grabbing for the toilet. His stomach wretched and dry heaved into the porcelain bowl. He slipped against the cool tile floor a moment later. A whine escaped his person.
"Why is everything spinning…"
His hand found its way to cover his eyes. Everything was doing a combination spin whilst he lay in agony of the stillness on the floor. And the brightness, why was everything so bright?! His other hand ran up the wall as he managed to pull himself to his feet. Nimble fingers found the light switch and flipped the offensive device into the off position.
His fingers split enough so he could see through them into the primary portion of the room and he thanked whatever gods were out there that those lights were off, just a dimmed glow bordering the window, setting a timeframe in his mind.
A thunderous pounding rattled his mind as he gripped at his ears, only realizing that the sound was coming from the door and was not just in his throbbing head.
"Yuuri!"
He immediately recognized the voice on the other side of the door. Yuuri gathered himself for a moment and with a significant amount of grievance, he approached the door. He replaced his hand back over his eyes, gingerly opening it.
The laugh that resounded through his ears was probably the most excruciatingly awful thing to happen to him since he landed himself sixth place in the Grand Prix, earning the man in the hallway a scolding grumble.
"You look like hell warmed over, Yuuri! It seems like you had one heck of an evening at the banquet! Sorry, I abandoned you there…"
The sentence trailed off as Yuuri brought his free hand to his own lips, pointer finger extended as he pursed his lips, a soft 'shhhhhhhhhhhhh' escaping past.
"Is there anything I can do for you before we fly out?"
He asked in a softer tone. Yuuri tried to peek through his fingers but the lights... The lights were so bright.
"Can you ask the hotel to turn the lights down?"
That earn Yuuri another ear-splitting laugh as he cringed in his own error.
"Celestino… How much did I drink last night?"
Even though Yuuri couldn't see him, Celestino replied with a shake of the head and shrug.
"No idea, I only saw two before I had to step away and by the time I got back to the banquet, it was already over, most of the skaters and etcetera had left. Oh!"
Before Celestino knew what he had done, a crippling sound rang through the hall, earth quaking Yuuri's world with a single, shrill clap of the hands. The black haired skater had to steady himself from almost reeling backward away from the noise.
Celestino continued on, none the wiser.
"Give me about half an hour and I'll be back with something that will fix you right up, kay?"
Still recovering from the splitting pain of what such a noise could do, Yuuri barely nodded and then held his free hand index finger up, signaling for the coach to hold off for a minute. He stumbled back into the darkness, unconcerned with the room door clicking shut.
His hand dropped from his eyes and it took him a moment to get used to the grayscale of the darkness. As Yuuri sluggishly made it over to the desk where his id, and room key, and other personal items were splayed over the wooden surface.
Abruptly, his head whipped to the side. He briefly steadied himself on the desk but he refused to tear his eyes away.
The clock.
He vigorously rubbed his eyes.
Yuuri stopped, keeping his hands on his eyes for a stressed minute.
Slowly. Steadily.
He lowered his hands, though his eyes were still squeezed shut. He swallowed past the massive lump in his throat and peered through a slit eyelid.
The clock numbers were red.
Everything seemed to freeze. His breath stopped. The only thing reminding the skater he was still there...
Aware.
Awake.
Alive.
...was the overwhelming hammering of his heart against his chest.
His gaze burned into the small machine, unable to tear himself away as the numbers changed from 1107 to 1108. Yuuri almost jumped out of his skin as a softer knock came to the door. It solidified his moment in time and he reached for the keycard.
Yuuri was feeling remarkably sober.
He returned to the door, again covering his eyes, not because of the colours but because of the intense illumination. Yuuri passed the white card to the tanned man and with a smile, Celestino repeated that he would see him in about half an hour with the best hangover remedy.
Again, the door clicked into its home and even the darkness began to get blurry. Streaks of wetness paved trails down Yuuri's cheeks as he allowed himself to overcome with his emotions.
One person.
One person.
Help. Help.
He felt as if his brain had shifted into auto-pilot as he crawled across the room's plush carpeting. At least he had the sense last night, before passing out in the bathtub, to plug his phone in. He grabbed the offending device from the nightstand table.
Yuuri reared back for a moment when the screen flashed awake, the glow and colours almost too much. His eyes took just a moment to adjust from the darkness. A tanned finger swiped away at the lock screen, quickly opening his contacts before selecting one.
He was shaking as he lifted the receiver speaker to his ear.
A deep but feminine voice came over the other end.
"Hey Yuuri-kun."
"Oneesan…"
Yuuri's voice was quiet, distraught.
"Yuuri-kun, is everything okay?"
Mari asked right away. He could hear the sound of a door closing on her end of the phone. The casual and familiar sound of a lighter sparking to life.
"...Colours."
It was all he could manage to bit out before his emotions caught back up with him and the tears fell again.
"Oneesan… I can see colours again…"
The phone was eerily silent. The soft fizzing of her cigarette could be heard.
"Oh Yuuri-kun!"
He could almost feel her smile through the line.
"How exciting!"
"I don't know who."
Yuuri's blood ran cold as he finally admitted his problem aloud, he hand to bit his lip to hold back a sob.
"...I have no idea who."
His throat felt tight.
He couldn't breathe.
This would be his fate. He must be cursed.
He failed his friends and family. He failed himself.
And now.
The person who was supposed to be his soulmate would just slip through his fingers and because of what? A pity party? His body shook harder as he tried to listen to his older sister.
"Yuuri Yuuri… hush now…. It'll be okay. I'm sure that they will try to contact you…"
"What if they don't know who I am? Some random chance encounter… Oh god…"
He could feel his stomach churning again.
"What if, what if, what if. Yuuri-kun, honestly. You are one of the top skaters in the world. They'll know who you are."
Yuuri was about to pour more of his doubts onto his sister when he heard some commotion on her end of the phone, muffled by what he assumed was her hand.
"Yuuri-kun, I have to go, Okaasan needs me. Don't worry. They'll find you."
A sound came over the receiver that signaled the call had been ended. Yuuri managed to pull himself up onto the bed, laying flat on his stomach as he sobbed into the comforter. Exhaustion warped his mind now that he was out of the cramped space of the bathroom. Before he could fight it, he dozed off.