Welcome to chapter 3. I hope you are all ready for some alcohol consumption?

Chapter Title song by Adam Lambert

Enjoy.

Yuuri stared up at his long-time idol as his hand was offered to be grabbed for what felt like the thousandth time in that evening alone. This time, Victor had jumped out of the taxi the two skaters had just been riding in, and run around the back to open Yuuri's door and help the injured man tumble out of the vehicle. The whole drive back to the hotel from the roller-rink was filled with a comfortable silence and Yuuri's hand being somewhat abducted by Victor's and help over the latter's knee. Every so often, Yuuri felt a gentle squeeze from Victor's fingers to help keep him grounded in whatever unforeseeable circumstance he suddenly found himself in.

Now, out of the taxi, the silence continued as two men were once again squished together to provide support for Yuuri while they shuffled into the hotel at a snail's pace. Victor left Yuuri propped up against the wall of an elevator while he went to press the button to take them up to the right floor. All of the skaters had been put up on a single floor of the hotel so Yuuri wasn't surprised that Victor knew which button to press from the large number to choose from. He was surprised however when Victor didn't ask for his room number and just clutched Yuuri to his side once more and began practically carrying him down the corridor and past the door to the room Yuuri was sharing with Phichit.

"Oh, uh, Victor you've actually just gone past…" Yuuri's voice was cut off as the pair stopped outside a door at the end of the long corridor and Victor rummaged in a side pocket of the coat he had thrown over his skating costume and produced a key.

"That's because I morally can't let you go until I know you have put some ice on that foot of yours." Was Victor's reply to the question Yuuri hadn't really posed but was hanging on the air between them. Before Yuuri had a chance to explain that he would be fine if he was just dropped off in his room, he was pulled into Victor's room and the door was pushed shut behind him by the heel of the other skater. "I also thought that maybe we could have a drink and get to know each other a little better." Victor added as he plonks Yuuri down on one edge of the double bed that was the main feature of his hotel room. Victor heard shuffling as he stepped over to the mini fridge that came with his room to grab one of the ice blocks he kept in the freezer section for injury related emergencies such as this. As Victor turned around to face the bed, he saw Yuuri leaning against the headboard with his bad leg stretched out over the mattress while the rest of the young man's body was curled around a pillow that he had grabbed from beneath his body to get more comfortable.

Victor wasn't really sure what kind of alcohol he grabbed from the minibar, or how much it would cost him for that matter, but he really didn't care about those little details in that moment. Victor walked around the bed and collapsed in a pile of downy duvet next to Yuuri's foot. Victor positioned the ice carefully around the bones of Yuuri's ankle before wriggling back up the bed to prop himself up against the wall next to the younger man and set a fifteen minute timer on his phone.

"Soooooo…" Victor drawled with a smirk on his face, waving the mini bottles of alcohol around slightly. "I was thinking that maybe some of this would help take your mind of the pain. Maybe we could turn it into a game so I can learn more about you at the same time!" He said, the idea making him bounce around slightly like an overexcited puppy.

"Oh, I um, I don't really drink that much" Yuuri began to say, tucking his head further into the pillow and clutching it tightly to his chest, overcome with a sudden wave of nerves.

"Awww, come on Yuuri. It'll be fun!" Victor whined out Yuuri's name which sent a blush of light pink running over his skin to cover his cheekbones. Victor was unrelenting and took hold of Yuuri's fingers to pry them away from the pillow. Once the offending object had been wrenched away from Yuuri and thrown halfway across the room unceremoniously by the enthusiastic Russian, a bottle was placed in Yuuri's hands. With Victor's fingers covering his own, Yuuri had no choice but to hold onto the bottle and try not to pay attention to the fact that the fingers ensuring his grip seemed to have no intention of leaving his anytime soon.

"O-okay, I guess that could be fun." Yuuri stutters at the thought of spending a considerable amount of time alone and in close proximity to Victor, in the man's room of all places!

"Well how about we ask one another questions and if we don't want to answer we have to drink at least a decent sized sip, okay?" After Yuuri's tentative nod Victor jumps into his first question. "What is your relationship with the guy you spent most of tonight with? Phichit, right?" Victor thought he'd start off with lighter questions to try and help Yuuri get used to the game.

"Oh um, Phichit is my best friend. We have been rink-mates since he moved to Detroit a couple of years after me and I guess we just really hit it off. We end up rooming together for most competitions and we live in the same flat back home too." Victor was watching the younger man carefully and nodded at his explanation with a small smile on his face. "Ok, my question is, which skater do you get on with best?"

"Hmmm. I get on with most of the skaters I have met because I never want to seem cold or aloof even if I sometimes come across that way when I'm focussed on competition. But I am probably closest to Chris to be honest, but don't tell of my rink-mates that!" Victor added with a wink. "Anyway, I'd like to think that we are getting on really well so you are probably high on the list too." Victor ignored the light blush on Yuuri's cheeks and decided to ramp up the interrogation with a cheeky grin. "So, I assume a gorgeous man like you has a girlfriend?" Yuuri's face went very red at that point. "Or boyfriend?" Still no reply. "Ex-lover then? Come on Yuuri, tell me something or it's drinking time!" Victor said hurriedly." Yuuri's cheeks somehow managed to become stained an even darker shade of red as he started to unscrew the top of bottle of vodka. When drinking with a Russian, one chooses vodka, right?

"That seemed like more than one question to me Victor." Yuuri whispered before raising the bottle to his lips. "Kanpai." Yuuri took rather a large gulp of vodka. As the burn of the alcohol slowly worked its way down Yuuri's throat to settle in his stomach, the next question to be asked was being considered but Yuuri's train of thought was interrupted by Victor's voice.

"Wow. If you aren't up for answering that one, we are in for a very interesting night" Victor said, a wide grin crossing his face to cover up the surprise of Yuuri being able to take the shot of vodka like a pro. Victor opened his mouth to continue speaking but instead let out a small squeak of surprise as a suddenly more confident Yuuri slapped a hand over the Russian's mouth.

"Nope, my turn to ask a question." Yuuri kept his hand over Victor's mouth as he formulated a question that he thought might get Victor to take his first drink to get them on an even playing field. "What is your most embarrassing moment ever?" Yuuri asked. When he didn't remove his hand from Victor's mouth straight away, the older man peeked his tongue out from between his lips to lick at Yuuri's hand. That prompted Yuuri to move his hand away very quickly and Victor couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh, that would probably when Yakov caught Chris and I dancing around in the showers to our rendition of 'Like a Virgin' completely naked after a competition a few years ago." This was not what Yuuri what expecting. At all. The blush that had only just faded from Yuuri's face reappeared in full force as he began spluttering on that saliva that had built up in his mouth to calm the after effects of the vodka. Victor laughed a little harder at Yuuri's reaction and reached out to rub his hand over the younger man's back to try to help ease the coughing. Once Yuuri had regained that ability to breath and had leaned back slightly into the pressure of Victor's hand, the questions continued. "Hmm, ok Yuuri," Victor asked while trailing his fingers over Yuuri's back in soft spiralling patterns, "what made you want to take up competitive figure skating?"

"Well, there is a rink near to where I live back in Japan that I used to visit with my friend Yuuko when we were young. We started off just playing around and having fun and improving slowly, but then one day, Yuuko showed me a video of the Junior Grand Prix final." Yuuri paused for a while and snuck a glance over to Victor. The sharp blue eyes were watching Yuuri closely and with a certain softness. "Well, she actually showed me your skate from that final. I guess there was something about how you moved and the emotion that you created that made me want to meet you. Actually, it was more than that in the end. I wanted to meet you, yes, but what I really wanted was to be able to share the ice with you. That was my dream for so long and it pushed me to work hard so I could compete against you some day." Yuuri seemed to realise that he had been rambling on about his admiration for Victor as if he wasn't speaking to the man himself and stopped abruptly.

"That's a really heart-warming story. I'm so touched that I was the one to push you to reach for your dreams and that I was one of your dreams for a while. What is your new dream now that we have skated together a few times?"

"Oh, no no no. It's time for my question." Yuuri pulled away slightly so he was able to twist his body to face Victor. "Actually, I think you need to take a drink for trying to break the rules of the game." Yuuri said cheekily. Victor complied with the request and grabbed the open bottle of vodka that was still in Yuuri's grasp and brought it up to his lips. Just as Victor knocked back a shot, his phone began to play the opening notes from one of his previous performances as a sign that fifteen minutes had passed and that the ice needed to be removed from Yuuri's ankle. Victor handed the small glass vial, that was nearly empty at this point, back to Yuuri and folded his body in half to grab the ice block. While Victor was distracted, Yuuri took the opportunity to drink the rest of the vodka that had been returned to his hand.

The rest of the evening was spent asking and answering and drinking. The majority of the drinking was done by Yuuri however, due to Victor's lack of shame and Yuuri's innate embarrassment. It had gotten late by the time the two skaters began to hear the other skaters returning to their rooms along their shared corridor. Victor was the only one sane enough to realise this and decided it was probably best for them to wrap up their game, which had still been going on with a variety of distractions along the way. Much had been learnt during the course of the evening's entertainment but Victor couldn't bring himself to end the questions. The thought of finding a way to freeze the moment and spend the rest of his life holed up in a small hotel room with Yuuri was too tempting and Victor had to resist every urge to just lock the door and keep Yuuri hostage. One more question wouldn't hurt though.

"Yuuri," Victor had to shake the slightly giddy man's shoulder to regain his attention "Another question for you, do you have any pets back home?" The tipsy Yuuri's eyes locked onto Victor's in a heartbeat and started to blur behind a sudden wave of tears. Victor could see that he had struck a nerve and didn't know how to help in any way so just put his hand on Yuuri's back again to try and sooth him in some way.

"M-my dog. V-Vi-Vicchan." The tears began their free fall from their starting point in the corner of Yuuri's eyes. "He was my dog, b-but he died. A few years ago. I-I don't know why I'm crying." Yuuri's soft sniffling broke out into full on wailing as he threw his arms around Victor and cried onto his shoulder. Victor was taken slightly by surprise and allowed the weight of the younger man to topple him over so they were both lying down across Victor's bed with Yuuri cradled in his arms.

"Shhh Yuuri. It's ok. You're allowed to be sad and I'm sorry for asking." Victor said in a soothing whisper as one of his hands travelled up over Yuuri's neck to lightly grip the skater's head in place against Victor's shoulder. Victor traced his fingertips through the smooth curls framing the back of Yuuri's neck while he held Yuuri to try and calm him down. The cries coming from Yuuri slowly began to quieten to light sniffles and then sporadic huffs of air as his breaths evened out to signify that the young man had fallen into slumber. Victor gently removed the hand still positioned against Yuuri's back to reach over and grab the glasses that were pressing into the delicate skin of Yuuri's nose. Once the glasses had been removed, Victor folded them delicately and placed them on the bedside table next to his head. He stretched his hand up to brush against the wall in order to find the switch that controlled the lighting of the room. The room was plunged into an almost blackness, the only light creeping in coming from the crack under the door allowing the illumination from the corridor into the space.

In the faint glow of the room, Victor watched the young man curl into his chest with a kind of fondness he had not felt for anyone in a very long time. Victor felt his eyelids starting to close as the soft breeze ghosting over his exposed collarbone lulled him into a light doze. He already knew that there was something special about his Yuuri and he would do anything to find out what it was that was so alluring. Victor gripped his fingers tighter into the loose fabric of Yuuri's shirt as he fell deeper into sleep, determined not to let the young man go.

Hooray for cute ever so slightly tipsy cuddles. Remember to review/favourite/follow to make me a happy human. Here is your teaser for the next chapter:

Yuuri's eyes landed on a small square of paper that had slipped from Victor's pillow onto the mattress. Yuuri snatched up the Post-it note with trembling fingers and had to bring it close to his face and squint his eyes to make out the lettering written in an unfamiliar hand.

Post it note messages? Whatever could this mean?

BN x