Yuuri fell down to the ground in a exhausted heap. A few other men followed suit, their bodies just as sore and their eyelids just as heavy. They had walked nearly 25 miles at least, starting at dawn and not stopping until the sun had totally disappeared. Emil had insisted on a journey to Italy, saying that there were more people there who would help them and Michele's nationality being Italian would help a lot. He could speak to the locals, asking for food and other commodities.

Michele was very giddy about going to Italy, offering to lead the group. Yuuri didn't blame him; if they had been going back to Japan, he probably would have jumped for joy. But, his heart would most definitely would fall to the ground when the fact that Russia and Japan were worlds apart would sink in. He and Viktor still might never see each other again if Yuuri were to go back home now.

"I might even get to see Sara again, so long as we end up in Riva del Garda." Michele said.

"Who's Sara?" Yuuri asked. Michele reached into his pocket, pulling out a thin wallet that was unlikely to hold any actual money. Yuuri's wallet didn't hold anything. He suddenly wished that he had taken a photo of Viktor. They had probably had a camera somewhere. If he had done so, he would be able to have a moment with Viktor, completely immoblised by the click of a shutter and thus, immortalised.

Michele pulled out a photo of his sister, however, from how excitedly he spoke about her, some would probably mistake her for a lover. She was pretty, with black hair and tan skin. She was smiling brightly in the picture, her dress being pushed by the wind, but stopped from flowing too high by a basket full of cloths held on her hip. She almost reminded Yuuri of his own sister before she cut her hair.

"Do you have a sister? Anyone to get back to after all this?" Michele questioned. Yuuri nodded.

"I have a sister. Her name is Mari. I don't have any photos of her with me, but she has short hair and she kind of looks like me." He said. "But she's not the one I'm most desperate to get back to, as much as I love her."

"Who's the lucky lady then?" Michele winked. Yuuri rolled his eyes while trying to think of how to break it to the one who had been nicest to him that Viktor was certainly not a lady.

"Well, er, it's not exactly," Yuuri started. "His name is Viktor."

Michele looked a little shocked for a moment, but then nodded. He seemed a little shaken, but wasn't about to go ballistic on Yuuri, which was good.

"What's he like?" He decided to say. Now it was Yuuri's turn to be shocked. He had expected the Italian to at the very least try to avoid the conversation. "You know, what does he look like, what's his personality, etcetera."

"He's got really pale blonde hair and his eyes are the bluest eyes I've ever seen. He's a dancer and he's really good at it and he's the sweetest man I have ever met." Yuuri said, trying not to gush about his lover. His perfect lover he desperately missed.

"Sounds nice," Michele said. Yuuri was happy he wasn't having an outburst, but he didn't want Michele to act reserved around him, either.

"You know, if you don't like it, just say so. I'll stop talking about him." Yuuri said. He was a bit more prickly due to his fatigue, but he most likely would have said such a thing regardless. Michele told him that he didn't mind, but Yuuri just hadn't seemed the type. Yuuri took it, since that was as close to acceptance as he got.

Eventually, they all started separating and huddling into their flimsy blankets. The nights were a bit colder where they were, but they had ended up in a valley, so the wind travelled more. Yuuri shivered as he wrapped his own moth-bitten covers around himself. The time he had spent out here had begun take a toll on his equipment. By now, he had been in the squadron for nearly three weeks. He was too busy and too tired to really let anything hurt.

He had been sleeping lightly, his eyes not truly getting heavy despite the fact that he always fell asleep quickly. He found himself missing the nights in a warm bed with Viktor pressed against his back. He wanted to kiss him again. Now that he was settling down, emotions were bubbling to the surface, their sharp spikes pointed straight at his heart. Yuuri felt the tips pierce him and start to dig as he thought about how he was moving farther away from Viktor. This wasn't the first time he'd thought of turning around and running as fast as he could to get back to his lover.

But, in his situation, he knew that it was a cowardly choice. He would never actually do it. Yuuri told himself that he would not cry either. If not for himself, then for Viktor, whom he had convinced himself he was protecting by doing all of this.

And so, he fell asleep with the picture of his silver-blonde love in his head.

He woke up to the sound of whistling. He wondered who could be up at this hour aside from the guard, and adjusted his glasses. But then he heard it; a deafening sound, almost like thunder. His heart sank.

An air strike.

"All of you, move out! Grab a gun and let's go!" Emil yelled. Yuuri quickly grabbed the nearest rifle and began sprinting, leaving behind the rest of his supplies. He could smell the burning grass from the explosion and the feeling of the acrid smoke burning his nose, but he kept running. He felt like this was retreating, but Yuuri didn't care. There was no way a measly group of punitive soldiers could shoot down a fighter pilot.

Another bomb dropped, closer this time. It fell on their camp, causing it to be completely obliterated. The ground shook, sending a jolt up his body, but he kept going because he knew he couldn't stop. Not of he wanted to see Viktor's smile again. Yuuri used that as motivation to get him to hightail it out of there. He could feel tears prickle his eyes, if not from the smoke then from the memories. The reality of his life was more clear than ever. He might die tonight.

He made it behind a tree and took a short moment to breathe. He was just about to run when he saw another bomb drop.

Right on top of a few of his fellow soldiers.

They werent crushed on impact, but the force of the explosion tore them apart. A few puddles of blood splashed out around the scene. The fire erupted shortly after, but Yuuri couldn't look away.

Semenov had just been murdered by a lead ball full of death, and there was nothing he could do about it. He just let it happen. Yuuri felt his mind break a little. The finishing touch was one of them yelling for help before succumbing to their injuries. Bile rose in the Japanese man's throat, acidic and foul-tasting..

Emil yelled for him to stay down, but Yuuri could not let Semenov, a rough but calm man who had been his friend, go with being avenged. Yuuri took a leap of faith, stepping from his hiding spot and aiming. The others were shouting at him, but it never reached his ears. It all spounded like it was underwater. He looked for the plane's propeller and shot. He knew that the plane wouldn't be going down in flames and ash, but he hadn't wanted that in the first place. He only wanted the plane to leave.. The damage would force an emergency landing. He stared as the plane putted away. He crumpled down to his knees and threw up.

The other ran over to him, Michele crouching beside Yuuri as he vomited up what little he had eaten. He couldnt believe he just witnessed such a death at the hands of a stranger in a cockpit. He just couldn't.

When he finished throwing up, he stood. However, as soon as he was on his feet, he was grabbed by the collar and yanked towards Emil's face, eyes full of anger and many other emotions. Fear, glee, maybe even a bit of empathy.

"What the hell were you thinking?! You could have gotten us all killed if that fighter pilot hadn't had a shitty plane!" Emil fumed, shaking him. Yuuri hung limp like a ragdoll. "That plan was awful and you are lucky the rest of us survived!"

The rest of us.

"What about them?! What about the ones that didn't survive?! Do they mean nothing? Were just going to let them die without even trying to at least avenge them?" Yuuri screamed back in a sudden fit of courage. If only it were liquid. "Half of our squad was just killed by a bomb and all you can think about is us? They are dead, Nikolai, have some courtesy!"

"When someone dies, they die, Katsuki. There is nothing we can do about it." Emil growled, his teeth gritted. His hands travelled to Yuuri's neck and began to squeeze, choking him. It was a painful reminder that they weren't above indiscriminate killing if they found you to be of little use. Yuuri started choking, the restriction on his neck making breathing impossible and his head started to fill with blood from having no flow. He started to kick a little. Yuuri clawed at Emil's arms as the last of his air started to die out.

Then it all returned. In one big gulp, Yuuri sucked in as much air as he could. He was dropped to the ground roughly, but he didn't care. He was out of that death grip on his neck. He coughed heavily as the air was brought in too quickly.

"Emil, that's enough! Let's look at the bright side of all of this." Michele tried to reason with the blonde commander.

"What bright side?" Emil snarled. Yuuri had truly made him angry.

"Yuuri is a good shot. He said before that he has a hard time shooting people, but maybe if he can't see the person he's shooting, he can really do some damage. He'll be a wonder against air attacks like this." He said. Emil nodded almost sarcastically. He walked past Yuuri to start on the next trek.

"You are making the worst enemies, Katsuki. Don't make me one of them." Was all he said before shoving Yuuri to the side..

Yuuri kept his eyes over his shoulder as his squadron walked. They were all disoriented and had nothing but a gun and the clothes on their backs. They were back at square one.

He thought about Semenov and the others that had been picked apart. The bombs had been getting stronger and could kill easily if one got too close. They had been victims of circumstance, ending up stuck under their demise before they even realised what was going on.

He suddenly started feeling sick. What if an air strike happened to go over his family's inn? Everything Yuuri knew would be destroyed. What if it went over Viktor's home? They would be blown to smithereens. That would mean he'd never see Viktor or his family again. That's the worst nightmare he could think up. The grip on his rifle tightened as he felt himself begin to shake. Now was not the time, not after he just got choked for disobeying Emil's orders. Yuuri couldn't find himself thinking Emil was wrong for strangling him. He should've listened. After all, Yuuri's reckless actions truly could have gotten them all killed.

Yuuri wondered how many lives had been snuffed out because of the rifle. Perhaps a few of the deaths were self-inflicted. Yuuri didn't think that it was a crazy thought. Sometimes, a sliver of a thought would creep into his mind and tell him to put a bullet through his skull.

"Yuuri," it would always whisper. "No one needs you here. You know you're never going to see Viktor again, so why don't you just stop trying?"

Yuuri would never listen, but that never made the thought go away for long. It was starting to sound more enticing by the day, which terrified Yuuri. He was still shaking, but harder now. He could feel the tears sting his eyes and his heart start pumping. He didn't want this. He didn't want to panic when he had just acted like he had the guts of a lion tamer.

He started to find it hard to see. The world was spinning violently and he couldn't stand anymore. He fell to the ground in a shivering ball. He pulled his knees up to his chest when he started to cry. He almost felt like he didn't know where he was. There were voices but he couldn't make out what they were saying or who they were. He heart was pounding in his ears like a train on tracks. He tried not scream. He bit his lip hard instead, drawing a little blood. He didn't want to think about blood. He spat out his own lip and began to heave air in quickly.

There was a hand on his back and two on his legs as well another helping to his his front part up. They were trying to get inside the ball he had made. Yuuri tightened around himself in response. They weren't getting in. Not now, not ever. Letting people in just made it hurt more when they were gone.

And then he came back to his senses. Everything was back where it should be. He could hear the voices talking as he slowly untangled his own limbs.

"-lled a panic attack. My dad said that people get them from anxiety," Michele said. Emil shook his head.

"What should we do about it?" He asked.

"We should let pass," Michele concluded.

"Looks like it already did." Leo said, pointing at Yuuri. Michele qnd Emil looked at him and could have sworn he saw relief. They all helped him up, even Leo. He was shocked.

"Why didn't you leave me behind?" Yuuri asked, condused. In another place, he would have been shot square in the face for being weak. Instead, they propped him up against a tree and started trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

"We've already lost too many today. It's just you, me, Leo and Michele now. We might as well start helping each other." Emil said.

"Don't think we're friends, though. I'm doing this to save my own skin." Leo hissed. Yuuri couldn't help it when a small laugh clambered up his throat and past his lips. Michele started laughing a little too. Everyone had needed the relief from the tension. Emil smiled and Leo turned around, but Yuuri was sure that he saw his shoulders shake a little. They each picked up a gun and started to travel.

Eventually, they would reach Italy.

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Woo that took way too long. I am so sorry! I meant to have it out on Wednesday, then I tried to get it out on Friday. Now its Sunday and I'm only now posting it! So sorry! To try and make it better, I made this chapter pretty long and have a lot of stuff happen in it.

There's not much else to say other than I might start changing the update day to Saturday. Thanks for reading!

-MidnightQuestant