CHAPTER SIX HUNDRED TEN

For only having skated for less than an hour, Yuri was soaked near to the bone. It took Viktor nearly as long to get him peeled out of his wet practice clothes as it did to get him up to their bedroom in the first place, but he got the man there eventually. A quick dunk in the shower, and Yuri was ready for bed. Whether it was just for a nap, or a coma that included most of the afternoon and evening as well as the overnight, was yet to be decided.

"...I'm not setting an alarm." Viktor contested, which just made Yuri frown as he stared up at the ceiling, "It's best to just let your body figure out how much sleep it needs."

"But it isn't even dinner yet." Yuri whined, crossing his arms over where the edge of the blankets covered his chest, "I need to eat, too, don't you think?"

"Sleep first, food after." The silver stated, coming around to his husband's side of the bed, and sat on the edge of it by his waist. He set his hands over where Yuri's arms crossed, and held there gently, "If you end up waking in an hour, or five, or at four in the morning...we'll get you something to eat then. You need to regain your strength. I can't hold you up when you're skating for real."

Yuri just groaned and shook his head, "Unbelievable. Of all the things I could've done while sleepwalking, why oh why did I have to go outside in the freezing rain?" He asked to no one in particular, though Viktor did offer a sympathetic smile, "And why didn't you get sick? You had to bring me back in."

"And went back out looking for Jiro, before finding him in the closet instead." The silver corrected, "And I don't know, my love. Maybe I just got lucky."

He fell silent for a moment with a reluctant nod, but just before Yuri pulled the nightmask down over his eyes, he gave his partner a ponderous look, "So what are you going to do while I'm sleeping?"

"I hadn't entirely thought about it, but...probably think about my Exhibition some more." Viktor answered, and reached up to pull the mask down, pinching the end of his beloved's nose for good measure as he pulled his hand back again, "Don't you worry about it. If you wake up and I'm not beside you, I've probably gone to hang out with Mimi and the others downstairs."

"You probably think I'm paranoid." Yuri huffed. He could feel the mattress move though as Viktor stood up again, and the blankets moved under his arms soon after as the Russian made to tuck him in.

"Only as much as is deserved." Viktor answered, waiting for those thin arms to go under the covers, and he set the edge back down just under his beloved's chin, "But there's nothing going on now, and we have so much to look forward to." He said, and offered a quiet laugh, "I'm actually grateful that you being sick is the worst thing happening to us right now."

"Hopefully that sticks. ...Erm, not the 'being sick' part, but the severity of the problems we have."

"Get some rest now, my love." He added, reaching down to pluck Jiro off the floor, and plunked him down on the blankets. Makkachin was already half-snoozing nearby, and Ghost was on the floor with her beef-knuckle, keeping a dutiful watch over her human as his human finished tucking him in. Viktor leaned in from where he stood and offered a quick kiss before he moved off, "I'm just going to go shower. I can use your MacBook later?"

"Mhmm..." Yuri mumbled, already half-succumbed to slumber.

Viktor smiled, and stepped around the Ovcharka carefully, then made his way across the room. His shower was quick and simple, and he threw on a cozy set of flannel pajamas; dark blue with black interwoven stripes, and a thread of orange here and there for contrast. He tied the bathrobe around himself and went quietly with slippers to check on Yuri again before departing. Makkachin was quick to notice though, and in a breath-stopping sudden burst of the zoomies, the poodle was off the bed like a shot and wormed through the gap in the door right before it could close. Viktor's heart was in his throat for a moment, and he let the light go into the room from the hall, just to see if his husband had woken up... Thankfully, it seemed Yuri was catatonic, and Makkachin's sudden movement hadn't bothered him at all. The door clicked closed very gently, and Viktor inhaled, then scolded his pup.

"You could've woken Yuri up! You should be more careffuuulllll!" He fussed, squishing the poodle's cheeks up and down. Makkachin just panted happily, and Viktor eventually let go and stood up again, hands on his hips instead, "...Alright...you win this time. I'm certain you feel very bad about what you almost did."

More panting, and a few sweeping tail-wags.

Viktor seemed satisfied, and he slid off casually down the long corridor with his pup at his heels. His craving for some apple cider was eagerly satisfied by the on-hand kitchen staff, and just as he was about to head back upstairs, he heard the sound of the front door opening and a cacophony of noise followed. He slipped down towards the commotion, and leaned against the corner-edge of a wall with cider in-hand as he watched the Rozovsky clan disassemble from their day trip. They sounded tired but thrilled, and Viktor cast his eyes onto Yurio in particular, knowing the teen hadn't noticed him watching yet.

He's really come out of his shell since getting conscripted into this little family. If this thing with the Russia ban falls through, he's at least in the best possible place to deal with it.

"Hey Viktor," Mikhail's voice came, drawing up those focused blue eyes, "How'd it go at the rink?"

He held up his cider in a toasting gesture, took a sip, and smiled, "Yuri made it 45 minutes and can almost land a double."

"Progress is progress."

"He progressed straight to bed," The silver mused, "I'm mentally preparing the pre-SP speech where I try to convince him not to bother with triples or quads. He said the other day that he's already accepted that he probably wouldn't be getting on the podium though...so maybe it won't take so much convincing."

"Maybe not beforehand, but after..."

Viktor nodded into his hot drink, and took another sip, "I think he'll be okay. I'm not feeling the same kind of nervous air about him as I normally do. He's feeling a bit dubious, but I think it's just disappointment in advance."

"You seem oddly okay with that." The elder commented, helping Minako slide out of her jacket.

"There's no reason beating ourselves up over being sick. No coach in the world can make an athlete go under these circumstances." Viktor explained, "I'll just make sure Yuri doesn't go sleepwalking into freezing rain again before the Games. There'll be a Nikiforov on the top of the podium either way, even if it isn't him. I'll make sure of that."

"Ugh, Viktor, you're so annoying when you think you're right." Yurio scoffed, handing his own jacket off to Mikhail, since the man was standing closer to the closet than he himself had been, "What if Otabek wins?"

"It's an uphill battle. But, if I get hit in the head, maybe he has a hope of getting Gold in my place."

"You should be more careful what you say, Viktor. You have a habit of saying things that come true." Mikhail warned, "Now I'm going to be paranoid that you need to wear a helmet. Don't need this to be Detroit 2.0."

Viktor's eyes widened for a moment, and he blinked and shook his head, "No, no, I don't mean like that...! I take it back!"

"I don't think it works like that, prophet boy." Yurio taunted, and tapped his knuckles against the side of the taller Russian's arm as he moved by towards the kitchen, "Smells good. Cider?"

.

Whether it was dawn or midnight or somewhere in between, when Yuri roused, he had no idea. He wasn't even totally sure why he woke up; his phone was silent, the room was silent. For a split second, he wondered if even the dogs were still there, since he couldn't feel any of them...until he could. The blankets wouldn't move quite right without rolling a pup away from their warm spot. He could feel where Jiro was pressed against his back, and Ghost had curled-up in the crook of his bent legs, head near his heels. Curious as to what the rest of the bed looked like, Yuri reached up to lift the edge of his night-mask, and got his first look around the room.

It was nearly black, but for the soft, blue-white glow from a laptop screen somewhere behind him. He twisted in place as well as he could, and craned his head over a shoulder, but still couldn't quite see. He whispered an apology to the dogs and wiggled onto his back, then pushed up to sit against the pillows stacked at the base of the headboard. He saw two beady black eyes shining in the dark that he hadn't seen before; Makkachin was staring at him from the other side of the bed. Finally though, Yuri found Viktor, asleep at the wheel, as it were. He had a huge pile of pillows stacked behind himself, making himself far too comfortable to get anything meaningful done, if he'd planned on it. The MacBook had gone into screensaver mode ages ago, displaying a slowly-scrolling set of nature and space photos.

Viktor himself had sunk into the pillow pile, head cocked-back on the curve. He still managed to perch the laptop on his lap despite being asleep, but Yuri was quick to lift if away, lest it overheat on the blankets. Feeling the bed move under him was enough to finally wake the Russian up, and he blinked slowly, looking blearily around the room. In the pitch-black dark though, it was impossible to see anything, and he pawed around in confusion, "Yuri...? Are you awake...?" He mumbled, hand sliding into the warmth of empty hubby-territory.

"Yeah, I'm up...sorry." The younger answered, and pawed his way back up the side of the bed until he could get back in. Jiro whimper-grumbled a bit, but moved off to plop down between Ghost and Makkachin instead, and Yuri crawled back into bed, "I just popped awake for no reason. I thought I could get away with putting the MacBook away without waking you up, too, but...no dice, it seems."

"It's okay." Viktor answered, happy to feel the mattress move under his partner's return, and he let himself stretch out. Legs straightened under the blankets, and arms went up, propped against the headboard as the Russian grunted a breath, then relaxed again, "I needed a break anyway."

"A break? Haven't you been taking one?" Yuri teased, trying to imagine his partner's features in the dark, and felt around with one hand until he was sure he found a leg somewhere, and gave it a pat, "You were out."

"I was just resting my eyes."

"A likely story."

Viktor huffed a laugh, which quickly morphed into a yawn, and he brought one of his arms down to lazily cover his mouth. That same arm flopped beside him as he relaxed, and his eyes closed, tempting the haze of sleep once more. A bit more movement in the bed caught his attention though, and while he couldn't see what was going out, he was as clear as anything that Yuri had reached an arm across his stomach, and leaned against his waist, looking towards him in the black. Viktor cracked one eye open despite the futility of it, and smiled as he felt a hot velvet-soft hand press to the skin of his chest, "Trying to find your way?"

"Getting a mental picture of you by feel... I saw it in a movie once, of a blind lady touching a man's face to figure out what he looked like. ...Not that he let her."

"He wouldn't? Why?"

"Scar on his lip, if I remember right..."

"My love, are you talking about 'Red Dragon'?"

Yuri squinted his eyes in thought, "...Mmmmmmaybe?"

"It has to be... It was a hair lip. He was the Red Dragon, and the blind lady was his Woman Clothed with the Sun."

"Viktor, how do you know this random stuff? How."

The silver just laughed, and finagled his arms down so he could return the gesture, pawing at his beloved's bare frame in the dark, "Among other things, I am an encyclopedia of useless stuff. Also, I liked the movie."

"It's probably been years since you've seen it last." Yuri suggested, bringing his free hand up to help guide the one moving up his neck, "I've only seen it once...and it was the edited version shown on television."

"The edited version of a Hannibal Lecter movie? Was there any movie left to see?"

"Some." He answered, feeling fingers deftly and softly trace around the contours of his jaw and cheek, and he curled his own fingers around it, kissing the back of that hand, "I saw slightly more than I can see right now."

Viktor huffed another quiet laugh, "Come here," He said, and reached to slide his arms over his partner's shoulders as Yuri slid in closer over his chest. He felt the kisses on his chest and collarbone, neck, jaw, and the tip of his nose, no doubt to help Yuri find his way without bonking anyone along the way, but it was a pleasant tease anyway. To his surprise though, one Yuri had gotten his fill of kisses, he went back down to nibble on his neck a little. Viktor leaned his head back into the pillows to give his beloved all the access he wanted.

"I can see why you like doing this so much," Yuri whispered between nibbles, "I should do this more often."

"My neck is available 24/7." The silver mused, bringing one hand back to stroke gently down his partner's head, threading his fingers through raven hair, "The rest of me is, too."

"I'm going to have to start reminding myself of that fact. I feel like I've been missing out."

"A little."

"That's going to change."

"Oohhh~ I'm looking forward to it."

"I'm starting to get a craving for now though..."

"Tell me more." Viktor asked, hoping that his own craving aligned with Yuri's. That hope was answered to rather quickly, as Yuri moved the blankets up and slid a leg over his hips. Viktor eagerly slid his hands over that mostly-naked frame; over the shoulders, down the front of Yuri's chest, around his waist and lower back, then settled on the thighs that parted around him. He nosed upward gently against his partner's lips, "One could be forgiven for thinking your libido is catching up to mine, my love."

"...Maybe it's just gotten more comfortable outing itself." Yuri corrected quietly, "It's a bit weird, thinking back...I couldn't even imagine being with you like this before, and it was terrifying being close to you. Now I can't imagine being with anyone else. It's like...the idea of it goes against the laws of nature and reality as we know it."

"I can relate. I know you don't like hearing about it, but...there's something particularly different and unique about us. A feeling I get that wasn't there with anyone else."

"...Really?" Yuri wondered, pushing up against his partner's chest, 'looking' for the figure in his mind's eye, "...What is it?"

"It's hard to describe...but I guess, it's a sense of permanence?" Viktor suggested, thinking it sounded incoherent, "With the others, it just felt like a temporary situation. I never really thought too far ahead on any of them. With you though...I worry there's not enough time. We'll be a hundred years old tomorrow, and we won't know where the time went."

Yuri deadpanned, "Thinking about us being a hundred years old isn't very sexy, Viktor."

The silver just laughed at that, "I know, I know...I'm sorry. Let's think about right now then. Our last night before competition starts in earnest, and I'll finally get to show my love to the whole world. It won't just be some weird spectacle; a Russian and Japanese skater. We're both on the same team now. And our team accepts us exactly as we are. I feel like I have a whole new energy because of it, something I haven't felt in a long time. Something beyond inspiration."

"I'm going to need you to share a bit of it," Yuri said, leaning forward again, carefully pressing his elbows down into the pillows just above his husband's shoulders, and spoke the words against those soft lips as his fingers played in unseen silver hair, "Just enough so I'm not an embarrassment on the ice."

Viktor huffled a laugh at that and hummed into a kiss, "Just skate for fun, my love. Don't worry about the score at all. I want you to enjoy yourself."

"Like right now?"

"Exactly like right now."