Victor sat perched on the edge of Phichit's desk watching his friend type diligently away at a motion which had to be filed by the end of the day. He knew he should let Phichit work, he knew that Phichit's laser focus on the computer screen was supposed to be a hint about Victor's need to shut up and leave his office, yet Victor couldn't contain his excitement and therefore willfully chose to ignore all of Phichit's context clues until something was said outright.

Tonight was his first date with Yuuri. Victor had jumped out of bed that morning, heartbeat already skipping happily in his chest and eyes filled with hearts. He cooed at Makkachin as he headed for his closet, spending a ridiculous amount of time picking out an outfit that he wouldn't need for at least twelve hours. He decided on his best black underwear and sniffed all the bottles of cologne before choosing exactly which he would wear for the momentous occasion. It didn't matter that he and Yuuri had already committed to each other and had already become intimately aware of all of each other's nether regions, Victor felt the buzz of excitement like it was woven into his skin prepared to make him jitter through his day.

His cursed schedule was packed to the brim with his own meetings and deadlines. There was only a small relief that he didn't need to appear in court, his mind torn between wanting the distraction and knowing that he would've only had his head partially in the game. Victor had no qualms about the amount of daydreaming he was doing nor did he care that he was slowly driving Phichit insane with his romanticized hypotheses for Yuuri's date plans. He had parked his ass on Phichit's desk more than thirty minutes ago, sighing until Phichit had caved and asked him what was up.

The onslaught of Victor's hopes and dreams for the night had Phichit snorting and Victor watched him turn back to his computer with a smirk on his face. If Phichit had really wanted Victor to shut up and get out, he would have said so directly, and Victor had a strong suspension that Phichit liked how happy his best friends were. He was positive that Phichit would miss their bickering, but also had no doubt that Phichit would find a new way to tease them before too long.

Glancing down at his phone, Victor frowned at the lack of response from Yuuri. He had been sending an assortment of excited emojis throughout the day, pausing in between every task to remind Yuuri how excited he was. He tried to keep it light, not wanting to add pressure to Yuuri over the event, especially since Yuuri had so adamantly insisted on planning the entire thing himself. This had struck a deep romantic chord inside of Victor, only making him swoon harder for the man he already adored with his whole heart.

"Yuuri isn't responding," Victor commented, thumb flicking over his screen as he reviewed the last few messages. The last time Yuuri had sent a text, it had been a winky face and two hearts, but that had been over an hour ago. Victor had sent two messages after that with no response.

"He's probably running all over town stressing out," Phichit said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulder. "You know how he gets about anything important having to do with you. Remember your twenty-first birthday?"

Victor grinned into his own lap with the memory of Yuuri and his sparkly blue folder which had contained every detail of Victor's now infamous twenty-first birthday party. Everything had been perfect, but Victor distinctly recalled Yuuri's maniac behavior in the week leading up to all the surprises he had planned for Victor. Even when they had been chilling in the Katsuki's hot springs, doing nothing more than resting up for an insane night out, Yuuri had been ticking through timelines in his head. Victor remembered the soft way Yuuri had stress-whispered to himself and the continuous promises he had made to make everything perfect. In the end, the celebration had been more than Victor could have ever hoped for, but the memory of Yuuri's anxiety flares in the week before it made Victor's stomach twist in sudden knots.

"Was I wrong for letting him do this?" Victor asked, brows furrowing as he curled his fingers on the edge of the desk. "I don't want Yuuri to remember our first date as a stressful thing. This night should be magical."

A soft smile appeared on Phichit's face as he sat back to look at Victor. For a moment Victor wondered if Phichit was recalling his own first date with Seung Gil, and his worry eased the tension in his shoulders. Those two had been nearly strangers during their first date, but Victor and Yuuri had almost ten years of knowledge already stored away before the front door even opened to theirs. If the thought of a first date could put a smile like that on Phichit's face, Victor was positive he was wrong to worry.

"Yuuri is going to want this to be perfect," Phichit tapped his fingers together in a steeple, both elbows resting on the arms of his desk chair. "There is a chance he goes overboard with it, but for the sake of romance, I say you go along with whatever he comes up with and know that he has all the best intentions."

Nodding, Victor jumped off Phichit's desk with an eager hop. "I mean, it's me and Yuuri! What could go wrong?"

Walking out of Phichit's office, Victor had no idea how to feel about Phichit's hysterical laughter erupting behind him.


The sun was bright overhead, beating down on Yuuri's neck and making him wish that he had thought to wear a hat. He was grateful that Phichit had willing taken the only meeting Yuuri had on his schedule, swapping Yuuri for a hearing on Monday so he could go with Seung Gil to take their dog to the vet. The trade had left Yuuri with his day wide open, giving him the time to properly devote his energy to planning the perfect first date.

Part of him wished that Vicchan was with him for these little errands, knowing that his dry cleaner would have loved the opportunity for cuddles and the florist would have happily spoiled Vicchan with treats from his own lunchbox. The pavement was hot and the lines of heat waivered over the ground, and despite his desire to have his best furry friend with him, Yuuri was glad he had sparred Vicchan's paws from the exposure to the overly hot concrete.

Still, it would have been nice to have his furball with him, especially during the moments when he could feel the anxiety bubbling inside him, threatening to drown his sanity with every passing second. Victor had said that he would be happy eating sandwiches on the roof of Yuuri's car, but Yuuri wouldn't subject Victor to something so simple. They had spent years going on that exact outing, regrouping from heartache, school stress, or other unnecessary drama over the greasy contents of overstuffed deli subs and shared bags of French fries. Yuuri wanted more for their first date, he wanted to give Victor every ounce of romance that Victor had always deserved and had never been given by any of the other idiots he had wasted time with. Yuuri still felt a little moronic in his approach to such romantic schemes, but he was Victor's moron now and that made all the difference in Yuuri's determination to succeed.

The trip into the cool dampness of the florist's shop took only a handful of minutes, dumping Yuuri back into the heat of the afternoon faster than he had expected to be. Impressed by the immaculate set of blue roses laying in the crock of his arm, Yuuri carefully maneuvered them onto the passenger seat of his car, sighing with relief when they laid unharmed in their cushioned place. Opening the back door, Yuuri hung his suit from the rear oh-shit handle and draped the bottom of the bag carefully over his seat. He dropped the bag holding his newly polished dress shoes onto the floor and quickly jogged around to his driver's seat. He had a wallowing concern that all of his plans had gone too perfectly so far and it left him with an eerie sense of unease.

Telling himself to just breathe, Yuuri backed his car out of his space and headed for home.


Pacing in his front hallway, Victor could practically feel his heart bouncing along with his feet. He had forced himself to take every step of getting ready at an unnaturally slow pace, using each minute of pampering to calm his enthusiastic nerves.

It wasn't that he was nervous to go on a date with Yuuri. When he looked back on their time together as friends, which Victor had done thoroughly throughout all of his useless hours at work that day, he had realized how many quasi-dates they had already been on. So many movies seen, so many dinners eaten, so many hours spent trash talking their way through their favorite arcade. When Victor considered their years together, it was overwhelming to discover that he had been practically dating his best friend for the better part of their friendship.

Except now there was a potential for kissing and, Victor hoped, a whole lot more.

His mind had wandered during his elongated time in the bathtub, taking him back to their time in the hotel room together. He had even let his thoughts drift back to their first night, laughing when he realized that drunk sex was never really a smart nor sexy choice but somehow it had been both when it involved Yuuri. Victor had let his hands run over his own body as he remembered their first night together, his smile unrestrained as he remembered all of the silly, teasing moments that his brain could recall.

In truth, their entire friendship had been made up of silly, teasing moments, but Victor had never allowed himself to hope that those moments could mean more. As he had buttoned up his shirt, Victor had contemplated all the moments when their relationship could have tipped and all the times he had been too scared to flick the scale. Somehow, through every moment of hesitation and stupidity, they had finally found themselves together and Victor grinned at his reflection, seeing his own giddiness reflected back at him.

Nearly tripping on his own feet when the doorbell rang, Victor took a deep breath and threw open his front door.

They stared at each other, eyes absorbing the sight of each other's outfits and Yuuri's mouth opening and closing without a sound. He stood on the front porch, irresistibly handsome in the navy blue suit that Victor distinctly remembered compelling him to buy. Victor, unfortunately, was sporting his best gray slacks and favorite casual dress shirt. They were completely mismatched and neither seemed to know what to make of it.

"I… um…" Yuuri scratched the back of his head, cursing himself for his own oversight. He had spent so much time planning their date, he had totally forgotten to tell Victor that he would need a suit. Mentally kicking himself for being an idiot, Yuuri tried to save the moment by pulling the flowers out from behind his back and placing them in Victor's arms. "These are for you. I'm… I'm sorry about not telling you where we are going. I… we can do something else if you don't want to change." He avoided Victor's eyes, hand still on the back of his neck, praying for the redness to disappear immediately.

"Yuuri," Victor took a step forward and covered the hand on Yuuri's neck with his own. Pressing a kiss to Yuuri's forehead, Victor tried to rid himself of his own awkwardness. He wasn't mad that he was underdressed, he just needed a moment to rearrange his thinking.

Pecking a second kiss to Yuuri's head, Victor pulled back to smile at his flustered boyfriend. "I love the flowers, they are beautiful. No one has ever brought me blue roses before!" A little whisper in the back of Victor's mind reminded him about past complaints regarding other dates and their lack of flowers and he smiled at Yuuri, understanding immediately why his arms were full of a dozen beautiful stems. "Do you think you could put them in a vase for me while I change? I can't go out looking like a ragamuffin when my boyfriend looks like such a studmuffin." He wiggled his eyebrows and tried not to laugh at his own bad joke, his smile breaking when Yuuri snorted.

"Dork," Yuuri rolled his eyes and took the flowers back from Victor. "You've never looked like a ragamuffin in your life. Not even when you had the flu in undergrad and puked in my shoes." The urge to smack himself in the forehead came quickly as Victor groaned from behind him.

"Maybe… let's table the discussion of all the times I have puked in or near your belongings for the duration of our date, shall we?" Victor was laughing as he proposed his suggestion, grabbing Yuuri's shoulders and chasing a kiss across his cheek. "Give me five minutes, my love," Victor called, taking his staircase two-by-two, leaving Yuuri behind to continue to blush in the middle of the hallway.

Scrounging for a vase, Yuuri stopped to smack an open palm to his forehead several times. How stupid was he for not at least telling Victor to dress up? He couldn't count himself as considerate, especially when Victor looked so shocked to see Yuuri standing there in his full suit. If he had been the perfect date, he would have found a way to encourage Victor to wear something dressier without giving away the surprise.

Strike one, Yuuri thought bitterly, standing up from where he had squatted to retrieve the biggest vase he could find. His mind continued to reel as he filled it with water and then slid the bouquet into it. At least Victor had seemed to like the flowers and he tried to let that fact alone reassure him.

Hearing footsteps on the stairs, Yuuri moved toward the kitchen door watching Makkachin finally bounding down to say hello with Victor hot on her heels looking jaw-droppingly gorgeous in his light gray suit. It was unfair how flawless Victor looked in anything he wore, and Yuuri voiced this opinion out loud, ignoring Makkachin's demands for attention in favor of watching Victor descend the last two stairs.

Victor felt the heat flush to his cheeks. Yuuri had paid him a number of compliments over the years, but somehow the ones that left Yuuri's lips a little breathless and his eyes a little wider made Victor's heart feel as if it was going to skip a dangerous number of beats. Hearing the love and admiration in Yuuri's simple words was enough to send Victor flying into Yuuri's arms, apologizing to Makkachin for stealing her cuddles before promptly stealing a kiss from Yuuri. "You're the one who is flawless, Yuuri," Victor let his arms linger at Yuuri's waist. He couldn't help squeezing them close again when Yuuri flushed. "How important is dinner anyway?" Victor asked, leaning down to pursue more kisses.

"Very," Yuuri answered, indulging Victor's advances with a quick kiss, before wiggling Victor's hands off of his hips and linking their fingers together. "If we don't go we're going to be late." Chuckling when Victor pouted at him, Yuuri sidestepped him in the hallway and tugged him toward the door. "Come on, your chariot awaits."

Laughing at Yuuri's attempt at fairy tale humor, Victor said his goodbyes to Makkachin and followed Yuuri toward his car, sliding into the passenger seat when Yuuri held his door open. Excitement and anticipation renewed, the clothing debacle now vanished from his mind, Victor buckled his seatbelt and happily bounced his knees waiting for what Yuuri had in store.


The restaurant was packed with people, despite being the most expensive location that their small town could offer. When Yuuri had presented their name at the podium, they had been informed that the restaurant was slightly behind on seating and were encouraged to take a seat at the bar and wait for their table. Sensing the disappointment in Yuuri's eyes, Victor offered him an elbow to lace his arm through and led Yuuri to the bar. Ordering the two most ridiculous drinks Victor could think of, he slid one alarmingly blue one in Yuuri's direction and took the startling green one for his own amusement.

"This looks especially terrible," Yuuri laughed, his frustration over their lack of a table clinging to the edge of his words and making his laugh sound tense. Trying to tell himself to calm down, he took a sip of the shimmering blue liquid and immediately gagged on the overtly sweet liquor.

Daintily sipping his own weirdly colored drink with a playful smirk, Victor grimaced at the sourness pouring over his tongue, failing to keep up his attempt at looking alluring while drinking. "I've made a mistake," he winced, shaking his head and placing the glass back on the bar. "It's too sour," he commented, fingers lightly guiding the glass in the circle to watch it catch the light and wondering exactly what kind of concoction he had subjected himself to in the name of making Yuuri laugh.

"Mine's too sweet," Yuuri contemplated Victor's drink, pushing his own slowly across the bar. "Want to trade?" He made the offer with a smile and batted eyelashes, knowing that Victor would enjoy anything sweet that he could get his hands on but that potentially the blue monstrosity would even be too sweet for Victor's tongue. The side of Yuuri that still thought like a best friend continued to push the drink toward Victor, keeping his eyes wide to feign innocence.

Eying the sloshing blue liquid, Victor shrugged as a simple sign of agreement. He lifted his bright green glass to trade its place with Yuuri's blue one, the exchange going smoothly until someone stumbled into Victor's back.

Blue and green liquid spilled in slow motion, splashing toward the front of Victor's white shirt and trickling off the edge of the bar onto Victor's lap. A few droplets landed on Yuuri's sleeve as he stared in horrified silence at the mess covering Victor. Strike two, his brain hissed, momentarily freezing him in place.

Snapping into action, Yuuri grabbed a handful of napkins and immediately started blotting the sticky alcohol from the front of Victor's shirt, trailing his hands down to dab at the liquid starting to stain the front of Victor's pants. Making strained, wordless noises, Yuuri patted Victor's clothing with both hands, freezing again at the sound of Victor's laughter.

"It's okay," Victor covered Yuuri's hands with his own, wrestling the napkins from Yuuri's tensed fists. "It will be fine," Victor reassured him, taking the napkins and tossing them onto the bar, "but if you keep running your knuckles over my thigh like you were, I'm going to drag you to the bathroom and eat you instead of dinner." Next to him the burly man in an ill-fitted black suit choked on his handful of peanuts.

"Oh my god, Victor, you can't say stuff like that out loud!" Yuuri dropped back onto his bar chair, burying his face in his hands and groaning with embarrassment. Considering how the night was going so far, Yuuri thought himself lucky that Victor would be thinking such things, but he didn't need the dirty looks of the graying man in his bad suit or the appalled gawking of his birdlike companion. Ducking his head away from Victor, Yuuri tried to calm the wildfire spreading across his cheeks.

"Okay," Victor leaned over to put his chin on Yuuri's shoulder, "I won't say anything else like that… until we get home tonight." Sliding a hand up Yuuri's leg, Victor squeezed his thigh as he ran his nose over Yuuri's cheek. A throat clearing behind his shoulder had Victor pausing in his attempt to seduce Yuuri away from the edge of his embarrassment.

"Um. Sirs… your table is ready." The young maître de looked anywhere but at their faces as he rocked back and forth on his heels waiting for their reply.

Nudging Victor back with his elbow, Yuuri stood from his seat and nodded at the awkward young man in front of him. "Thank you, please lead the way," he said with a curt nod, extending an arm to encourage Victor to walk in front of him. Yuuri blushed into his hairline when Victor whispered a comment about Yuuri wanting to stare at his ass as he walked. Unable to avoid doing so after Victor's suggestion, Yuuri almost walked into the chairs of four other patrons, the shape of Victor's ass perfectly highlighted in his suit and emphasized by the exaggerated way Victor was walking. Snickering at Victor's antics, Yuuri once again felt his mind beginning to relax away from the edge of the stressed cliff it kept finding itself on.

The maître de took his time pulling both chairs out for Yuuri and Victor, standing with his arm bent over his waist and waiting for them to situate themselves. Spouting off the specials for the evening and putting out the wine list, the young man spoke quickly and with purpose. Waiting to let him finish, Yuuri asked to confirm what time the band would be performing.

A big part of his surprise for Victor would be dancing following dinner, but Yuuri felt his hopes die as the maître de informed him that the band had to cancel for the evening. Disappointed, Yuuri was barely able to suppress his pout, burying his face in the offered menu and only nodding through the remainder of the maître de's spiel about wine lists and dessert menus.

"Do you remember," Victor lifted his water glass and sipped it, eying Yuuri over his menu. "When we were drunk that one weekend at the beach? When we danced on the sand in our bare feet while Phichit and Seung Gil thought they were being sneaky getting it on in the tent?" Adjusting his position, Victor pressed his leg against Yuuri's under the table.

Smiling, Yuuri nodded. "You made me lift you and we both ended up falling into the waves." He remembered exactly how beautiful Victor had looked with the ocean water crashing over him, his hair tangled and wind swept and his cheeks pink with laughter. "I'm sorry there is no band tonight," Yuuri stared blankly at his menu, disappointment making him frown. "I really wanted to dance with you."

"Yuuri," Victor reached across the table and pulled Yuuri's fingers from their tight hold on his menu. Linking their hands together, Victor tapped on the back of Yuuri's hand until he looked up. "We can dance anywhere. Hell, we can move the furniture in my living room and dance, or on the side of the road. We don't need some fancy band." Stroking his thumb over Yuuri's knuckles, Victor tried to soothe away the tension he saw on Yuuri's face.

"Yeah," Yuuri sighed, smiling at Victor. "You're right. I'm sorry. I just… I wanted everything to be perfect." Feeling sheepish for stressing, Yuuri shrugged his shoulder. "You know, I even traded Phichit a meeting today for a court appearance Monday so I had the whole day to run around and plan. You deserve the best Victor, and I wanted you to have your dream date. But I know…" Yuuri stopped talking when he looked at Victor's face. Swallowing hard, he examined the pinch of Victor's eyebrows and his downcast look. "I… Victor… I…" Not knowing why Victor suddenly looked upset, Yuuri floundered for words.

"You took Phichit's court appearance for Monday?" Victor asked slowly. Phichit hadn't said anything about the switch and normally Victor wouldn't have any idea about Phichit's schedule, except Phichit had taken that particular case from Victor. "You mean… representing Leroy?" There was a sickness building in Victor's throat as he finally raised his eyes to look at Yuuri.

Pulling his hand away from Victor's, Yuuri fiddled with his own fingers. "Um, yes…" Nodding while avoiding Victor's piercing gaze, Yuuri tried to continue. "I thought that… I don't know. Phichit said you didn't want to represent him… and after what happened last time with you and him… I thought I should…"

"What do you mean last time?" With a subtle thunk, Victor dropped his menu onto his plate. He hadn't talked to Yuuri about the interaction he had with his least favorite client in the courtroom hallway, but his brain was telling him to give Yuuri the benefit of the doubt. Right up until the reddest of blushes overtook Yuuri's entire face and neck.

"See… well… Yuri was there, you know, that day when you represented JJ. And he… kinda of recorded your argument." Yuuri looked to the ceiling, praying that lightning would burst through the roof and strike him down. This was not a conversation Yuuri wanted to be having in the middle of their date or frankly a conversation he wanted to ever have. Stuttering, he bit the inside of his cheek to control the tears that wanted to fall. "I think… I hurt JJ more than I realized… and he deserves an apology. I thought… if I represented him then I could talk to him, um, afterwards, and then, uh, that would be it…" Yuuri couldn't make himself meet Victor's eyes, he could feel the anxiety twisting inside of him, waiting for Victor to react.

"You owe him nothing," Victor spat, dropping his hands into his lap. "That man only wants you to want him, for reasons I don't understand and don't care to. You shouldn't put yourself in a situation to be mauled by him again. Or perhaps you didn't mind that." The last sentence escaped him before Victor could stop it, his emotions getting the better of him. He immediately regretted it when Yuuri's face fell. "Oh God, Yuuri… oh God… I didn't mean that." Throwing himself across the table, Victor scrambled to grab Yuuri's hands. "Yuuri, please."

"It's ok," Yuuri let his hands limply lie in Victor's, his voice shaking. "It was selfish of me not to think about how you would feel. I don't want to see him, Victor, but I have to make things right." The waitress appeared at their table, eying them warily and cutting off any of Yuuri's further thoughts on the matter. Releasing Victor's hands, Yuuri shakily lifted his menu and picked the first item he could focus on. Distantly, he heard Victor order his own dish, the words barely audible over the static sizzling in Yuuri's ears.

Strike three, he thought bitterly, eyes going unfocused as he handed off the menu to the waitress, prepared to spend the rest of their disastrous evening just trying to survive.


The car door shut quietly as Victor closed it behind him, waving at Yuuri who only nodded in return. They had barely spoken through the painful hour of their dinner and both of them had brought most of their individual dishes home. Victor hadn't found the right words to apologize and Yuuri had remained disconnected, leaving Victor feeling lost and ready to break down.

With lead feet, Victor climbed the stairs to his front door, unlocking it and letting Makkachin climb all over his legs. He felt stupid, a victim of his own insecurity and jealousy, an idiot who had spoken without thinking and destroyed everything good because he couldn't keep his mouth shut. The evil part of his brain told him this is why he had never tried to date Yuuri, because he always knew that he would be the one causing the hurt, not the one getting hurt and Yuuri deserved so much better than that.

Dragging himself up the stairs, Victor threw off his suit, locating his rattiest pair of sweatpants and baggiest t-shirt. He shoved his feet deep into his softest pair of slippers, only noticing he was crying when his tear drops hit the floor near his feet. Sliding down to sit on the ground, Victor wrapped his arms around Makkachin. "What I am going to do, girl?" he asked, burying his face into her fur. "If this was any other bad date, I could eat ice cream with Yuuri and we could hash out all the horrid details."

Head shooting up, Victor's eyes moved rapidly as if he was rereading the transcript of his own thoughts. If this date had happened with anyone else, he would already be on his way to his best friend's house, armed with gallons of cold, sugary dairy treats and prepared to obsessively analyze every detail. It was their bad date tradition: ice cream, a couch, and their most comfortable sweats.

An idea swarmed Victor's heart, causing him to scramble to his feet and jog down the stairs toward his front door. Clipping Makkachin's leash and gathering his necessities, Victor threw open his front door.

"Let's go get him, girl," Victor laughed, a little hysterical with his own emotions, but reassured when Makkachin happily barked at his heels. Leaping from his steps, Victor sprinted toward his car, determined to find his best friend and make everything right.


Driving home had been nearly impossible and it wasn't until Yuuri was standing inside of his own front door that he realized he had no recollection of how he got there. He could barely breathe through his own sobs, snot and tears making ugly streams down his face as he stumbled toward his bedroom.

Vicchan watched from his perch on the bed, his head tilted with concern as Yuuri deposited his suit into a pile on his floor. Rooting blindly in his dresser, Yuuri yanked out a pair of sweatpants, pulling them on as he moved toward the chair holding a pile of clean laundry. Even though he knew he didn't deserve to wear it, he tugged Victor's sweatshirt over his head and wrapped his arms around his stomach, collapsing on the bed to let his sorrow take over.

They hadn't even made it one date. Yuuri had been stressing over everyone thinking they would be walking down the aisle within a week and they hadn't made it three hours. They had the perfect relationship as long as they were hidden away in a hotel room where no one else existed, but as soon as they tried to function like a real couple, everything had ripped apart. Yuuri had always known that Victor would deserve someone better than Yuuri could be, someone who wouldn't make so many mistakes and wouldn't leave Victor at his doorstep crying. Yuuri wanted to be perfect for Victor, and he had failed in the way he had always known he would.

A knock on his front door had Yuuri wiping at his face, grimacing when Vicchan barked and scampered out of the room. Feeling weighed down by his own self-deprecation, Yuuri hauled himself down the hallway, not bothering to look through his peephole before unlocking and throwing open the door. His eyes went wide when Makkachin immediately tackled him to the ground.

Victor watched as Makka knocked Yuuri down, giving Victor time to recover from the sight of Yuuri tear-stained and red dressed in Victor's hoodie. He felt hopeful seeing his own grief mirrored in Yuuri's face and offered a hand to help pull Yuuri to his feet. Lifting the contents of the plastic bag dangling from his fingers to eye level, Victor silently waited for Yuuri's reaction.

"Ice cream?" Hearing his voice crack, Yuuri cleared his throat. "Are you bad dating me?" He didn't mean to laugh, but the stressed giggle popped out of him in a delusional bubble. "I don't think that's how it works." Shaking his head, he tried to withdraw his hand from Victor's, frowning when Victor refused to let go.

"I had the worst date of my life with the most perfect man in my life," Victor moved toward Yuuri's couch, pulling Yuuri down next to him. "Right now I need my best friend to help me figure out what happened." Digging into the bag, Victor produced a gallon of the despicable rum raisin that Yuuri insisted was the best flavor on the planet and his own mint chocolate chip tub. Plunking a box of plastic spoons between them and two minis of vodka, Victor threw himself backwards onto the couch cushions.

"I don't even know where to start," Yuuri sighed, picking the plastic ring off of his ice cream and flicking the lid off. Settling back with the tub between his knees, Yuuri stabbed his spoon into the perfectly smoothed ice cream. "I… just… I wanted everything to be perfect." Swirling the spoon in his mouth, Yuuri closed his eyes and let his head fall back.

"Why though?" Victor ignored his ice cream, leaning toward Yuuri to rest his chin on Yuuri's shoulder. "Why did it have to be so elaborate to be perfect?" Victor had come to some of his own conclusions about Yuuri's thinking, but had decided somewhere between the store and Yuuri's front door that he should ask instead of assuming.

"For so many years…" Yuuri felt stupid, his voice hitching as he tried to spell out his thoughts. "You always complained. All these guys… they just… they did everything wrong. They weren't romantic, or thoughtful, or kind, or attentive. It was a never-ending cycle of one jerk after another. I didn't want to be another jerk that didn't treat you right."

"Yuuri," Victor sat up, crossing his legs and guiding Yuuri to face him. "You know why those guys were never able to make me happy?" He ran his hands over Yuuri's cheeks when Yuuri shook his head. "It's because they weren't you."

The words made it past Yuuri's ears, knocking on his brain and made him look at Victor in confusion. "What do you mean…"

"You know who I was comparing all those guys to all these years? The reason they couldn't meet any standard I set? Because you were my standard. I wanted someone who treated me as well as my best friend treated me… because I was too stupid to understand that what I really wanted, what I've always wanted, was to be with my best friend." Tipping Yuuri's chin up, Victor kissed him, keeping it sweet and short. "Yuuri, you don't have to be anyone but who you are, because who you are… well, you are already perfect to me."

"I'm not perfect," Yuuri scoffed. "I screwed everything up, I didn't tell you I knew about JJ, I-" He tirade was cut off by Victor kissing him again. "You can't kiss me to shut me up you know." Yuuri laid his head on Victor's shoulder, closing his eyes when Victor's fingers found their way into his hair.

"I don't want to shut you up. I want to hear what you have to say, but I refuse to listen to you berate yourself for being human. You don't have to be perfect, you just have to be Yuuri." Wrapping his arms around Yuuri's shoulders, Victor felt his mind begin to relax. "I love you," he whispered, pressing his cheek against Yuuri's forehead.

"I love you," Yuuri exhaled, finally letting his shoulders relax. "I'll be Yuuri, if you stay Victor, and we promise to always be best friends."

"Promise," Victor answered, squeezing Yuuri again and then reaching for his own ice cream. "Even though your taste in ice cream will always be the worst." He burst out laughing when Yuuri bit his shoulder, shoving Yuuri away from him and cradling his own cold container. Leaning back against the cushions, Victor poked Yuuri in the cheek with his spoon.

"Thanks," Yuuri said, taking another bite of ice cream and letting himself fall back to Victor's side. "For not giving up on me." He shoved a ridiculous amount of ice cream into his mouth and grinned around the bite.

"Never," Victor responded, shoving in his own oversized bite, letting his cheek puff out with the ice cream in his mouth. His heart settled in his chest, his head resting on Yuuri's shoulder as Yuuri plucked the remote from the arm of the couch. "Let's watch something dirty," Victor suggested, cracking up when Yuuri choked. Laughing harder when Yuuri shoved him off the couch, Victor rolled onto his back and squealed when both dogs tackled him.

From the safety of his spot on the couch, Yuuri watched as Victor rolled around on the ground with their dogs and a thought landed at the front of his mind.

This right here, Victor, him, their dogs, and ice cream after bad days, he could absolutely do this for the rest of his life. Smiling, Yuuri grinned into his ice cream, a completely different type of plan now forming in his mind for their next big date.