"I have now come to reap your soul."

Between the pulsating pain and the cloudy haze that are occupying his head, Yuuri tries so hard to comprehend the words that just came out from the blonde boy's mouth. He tries so hard, yet the words seem weird and don't make sense to him.

"I'm sorry… but what… do you mean by reaping… my soul?" Yuuri manages to ask. He looks at the teenager who now has moved to kneel beside him. Yuri, was it? He thinks. Isn't he Victor and Chris' colleague? But he's still a kid. Why is he here? So many questions are swirling inside his head, but those thoughts come to a halt when he feels a squeeze from his hand. He steals a glance to his left hand and finds Victor's hand holding his. He then looks up to the silver-haired man's face and he feels his heart breaks.

Victor is crying.

Not that kind of ugly crying with snots and tears running down his face, but his eyes are glassy, and Yuuri can see some liquid pools in the corner of his eyes. Why is he crying?

"Victor, what… why are you crying?" he asks. He tries to lifts his other hand, his bloody hand, but as soon as he does that, another painful jolt sears through his body. He looks down again to his stomach, and then his mind slowly understands the situation he's in.

Oh.

I'm going to die.


Victor has seen countless amount of blood and gore with his own eyes. He has seen some of the worst of humanity. He has been witness to the calamity of war, the devastating scene of famine, and the chaos of plague. He is, after all, a Death God. But nothing can ever prepare him for the thing before him now.

Yuuri is lying on the floor, eyes bleary and dull, breath coming out in short puffs. Blood seeping quickly from his stab wound through his clothes, coating it scarlet. Some of the crimson liquid even drop to the floor, creating a small puddle where Victor can see his own face staring back at him.

Huh? It's weird, Victor thinks.

The face of the man that is reflected there looks very… human, dare he says. Gone are the charisma and beauty that usually grace Victor's face. What graces his face now is a grim expression; a man with teary eyes and anguished look that reminded him of some of the mortals he faces almost every day when he says Your time's up, I've come to reap your soul. He squints his eyes in disgust. Get a hold of yourself, Victor. How come you make the same face like those lowly beings? He closes his eyes, trying to get his bearing back and finally looks at Yuuri.

He hovers over the man, assessing the situation. Yuuri is bleeding profusely, that's for sure, so the first thing that he needs to do is stop the bleeding. His eyes roam his surrounding to find any objects that can be used to apply pressure on the wound, and his eyes land on the towels on one of the racks. He gets up and returns with a few of them. As he tears the plastic packaging quickly, a hand stops him. He lifts up his gaze to the owner of the hand and comes face to face with Yuri.

"What are you doing, Victor?" the blond asks, hand firmly gripping Victor's hand, halting his movement. Victor looks at him with a confused expression.

"I'm trying to apply some pressure to the wound. We need to stop the bleeding, Yuri."

"Are you crazy? You're trying to save him?" Yuri asks disbelievingly. "You're trying to save a human?"

Victor gulps and tries to shake Yuri's grip, but the other Death God only grips his hand more strongly. "Let me go, Yuri. And yes, so what if I'm trying to save Yuuri? He's crucial for my… research." He replies stubbornly. He shakes his hand again, but Yuri still doesn't let go. Since when does this kid become this strong? Victor muses.

"Victor, not only you failed to do your job as my mentor properly, but now you're trying to save a mere mortal from his Fate?" Yuri asks, his gaze is icy cold. "And this human, you say he's the replacement for a Lost Soul, am I correct?" he asks Victor, who can only nod. "Well, I don't know about that in details, but in the end, his name comes up in my list…" Victor looks at Yuri's other hand and sees the list in his hand. The name Katsuki Yuuri is written clearly there, as if mocking Victor. "So it means, I need to reap his soul. And to do that, this Katsuki Yuuri needs to die first."

Victor lets out a groan. "No, please don't do that. You can't do that, Yuri." Yuri only looks at him with his cold gaze. "You are interfering my work, Victor. I can report you to the Council." He gazes at Yuuri, and then back at Victor.

"I don't understand, Victor. I know that you like to observe human, doing your so-called-research and all, but why this human?" He asks Victor, hand still gripping Victor's hand firmly. "What's so special about him? If this human dies, you can easily find another one to be toyed with. It's that simple." He trails off, not breaking eye contact with his silver-haired cousin who says nothing.

"You can't answer me, Victor? Well, let me help you." Yuri takes a step closer to Victor. "Do you want to know the answer?" Another step. The sound seems to echo in the silence of the store. Victor gulps.

"I think…" another step. "You are…" Yuri now stands so close to Victor. Their breath mingled, noses almost touching, and Victor somehow feels something really bad will happen soon. He can feel Yuri takes a wisp of breath, before saying something that takes Victor's breath away.

"In love with this human."


Yuuri can hear voices around him. He tries so hard to keep up with conversation, but he just can't. His brain seems to have turned into a pile of mush because of the pain, not able to function properly. Every small movement he makes will only incite another jolt of pain and he doesn't want that. So he just lies still on the floor, eyes trying to focus on the blurry movements and whispers of voices around him. He catches a glimpse of Victor moving away and reappears with something in his hands. He closes his eyes and hears a tear of plastic wrapper, and assumes Victor is trying to cover his wound with something. He cheers internally at the silver-haired man's quick action. Well, it seems I'm not going to die soon, he thinks.

He braces himself for any pain that comes from Victor tending to his wound, but after a minute or so, nothing happens. He opens his eyes and finds that Victor and the blond teenager, Yuri, seem to be talking to each other. He can see their mouths moving, but he can only catch a few words from the two of them. He closes his eyes again, hoping to ease the pain and trying to focus his mind on the conversation that is happening now. Damn it, he thinks. He can hear their conversation a bit clearly this time, but still, he can't understand a single word they say because they talk in a language that he doesn't know.

He opens his eyes again, trying very hard to focus his gaze through the pain, and find himself looking at Victor and Yuri standing face to face beside him, their noses almost touching. He looks up to see the two's expressions. Yuri has an expression akin to anger, his gaze cold and a sneer paints his face. Yuuri moves his eyes to Victor. Victor's handsome face is now painted with a shocked and disbelief expression. He crunches his eyebrows. This is the first time he sees Victor making that kind of expression. What did he miss? What did the teenager say to make Victor's face become like that?

He opens his mouth to try to call out to Victor, but instead his name, what comes out from his mouth is a painful whine. That seems to snap both Victor and Yuri's attention, because they soon kneel down beside his body. Yuuri now can see that Victor is holding a towel in one hand, while the other hand... is being held by the teenager who is now looking at Yuuri coldly. He shudders. What's wrong with this kid? Did I do something to offend him?

"Yuuri…" he can hear Victor calling him, and he looks at the man. "I'm so sorry this has to happen to you, but no worries, you're going to be fine." He says slowly and calmly. The kid next to him then relinquishes his grip on Victor's hand, but he keeps his eyes trained on Yuuri. Victor then proceeds to put the towel on Yuuri's wound, and press it to stop the bleeding. Yuuri chokes and takes a gulp of breath, trying very hard not to scream. He looks again at Victor and sees the man smiles encouragingly at him. "It's okay, Yuuri. Everything is going to be fine."

Yuuri nods his head. He then looks at the teenager beside Victor. The blond keeps quiet, sharp eyes watching every movement Yuuri makes like a hawk. Yuuri manages to throw a smile at him, and the boy only sneers as a reply.

"You… you are Yuri, right?" Yuuri manages to speak. The boy widens his eyes at the recognition, but he doesn't say anything back. "You said that you came… to reap my soul." Yuuri croaks. Out of all the confusing thing that happened today, this boy is the most intriguing. He appeared suddenly, had an audacity to provoke a knife-wielding man, and now he seems to hate Yuuri to the core, even though Yuuri never sees him before. And to top it off, he then said that he came to reap Yuuri's soul. What the hell?

The blond boy sighs and fixes his posture, then lowers his body to get closer to Yuuri. He speaks softly to the man. "You're right. I came here to reap your soul because as you can see, you're going to die. So yeah, be prepared." He speaks in a calm manner, betraying the thoughts and feelings inside his mind.

Yuuri's eyes widen when he hears that. "So you're saying… you're like a shinigami? Death God?" he asks in disbelief. The boy only nodded his head, his face void of any emotions. Yuuri turns his head to Victor, who keeps silent. He looks at the man pressing his hands to his wound, his eyebrows scrunch in concentration. Yuuri can't understand this. Just a few minutes before, he saw Victor talking to the boy, confirming that they know each other. So if Yuri is really a Death God, then Victor…

Who the hell are you, Victor?

Yuuri's breath is now coming out in puffs, and he starts to see some spots in his vision, but he gathers his energy to talk again, this time to Victor.

"Victor, what is happening?" he asks. The man gulps but doesn't say anything, and he avoids his gaze from Yuuri. Yuuri can feel anger rising up and through gritted teeth, he asks Victor again.

"Victor, what is happening, and how come you know a Death God?" he asks to the silent Victor. Victor turns his gaze back to Yuuri, his handsome face etched in worries and emotions Yuuri doesn't know how to describe. He opens his mouth as if he wants to say something, but he closes it again and closes his eyes while letting out a sad whine.

Yuuri really doesn't understand what is going on right now. First, he got stabbed by a crazy man. Then, a boy barely twenty showed up and said that he's a Death God and came to reap his soul. In addition, his crush seems to know the boy very well. He tries hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation he's in, and the pain from his stab wound is actually doing a great job to prevent that, otherwise he would be rolling on the floor right now, laughing out loud. Yuuri takes a deep breath, and asks Victor again.

"Victor," he says. "Are you… perhaps… a Death God?"

With that question, Victor snaps his head so quick Yuuri afraid he will give himself a whiplash. Victor looks at him sadly, and his mouth opens.

"I… Yuuri, I…" he croaks out. Yuuri keeps silent and holds his gaze to Victor. The handsome features are now marred with an ugly expression, like someone who is caught lying. Yuuri manages a sad smile and tears his eyes from Victor, focusing his gaze on the white ceiling above him instead.

"I see." He says. Even without Victor confirming it, he already knows the answer. Victor's expression says it all.

See, Yuuri might not be a religious person, but he at least believes that there's some unforeseen forces out there that create life and other unexplained things. With it, comes also the force to take life and end everything. He just never expect that those forces come in a form of human-like supernatural beings that suddenly appear before people die.

He takes another deep breath and winces at the pain that comes with the act, and begins to ponder. So, not only that he will die soon, turns out his crush has been lying to him and is a Death God. His mind goes to Chris, and he wonders whether the man is also a Death God, or other being with different purpose. At this point, Yuuri will even believe if Victor and Yuri say that Chris is the God himself.

He stops his pondering when he sees his vision starting to become darker and darker. He also feels that the pain starts to become less and less painful. His breath, which comes out in short intervals before, becomes heavier every time he takes it. He closes his eyes and feels as if his body has become lead and tries to sink onto the floor beneath. He hears someone's voice calling out his name (Victor?) but his eyes feel so heavy that he's struggling just to open them. He tries to open his mouth to speak some words, any words, to call back to that voice, but he just can't.

And then, he feels it.

A cold feeling envelops him quickly, but it soon is replaced by a warmth that spreads to his whole body, as if someone just wraps him in a warm blanket on a cold winter day. He feels so comfortable and sighs. He no longer feels the heavy feeling before, and instead he feels like he's floating. The feeling is so nice to the point he wants to close his eyes forever and never wake up again. He could stay like this forever, he won't mind.

Before he gives in to the feeling, he remembers Victor's words from before.

"Everything is going to be fine."

He smiles bitterly and starts to give in to the warmth that surrounds him.

Even until my last time, you're still lying to me.

And with that, he succumbs to the inevitable.


Victor can't believe his eyes.

No, no, no, it can't be. Yuuri can't die.

He shakes the limp body in front of him, his bloody hands leaving scarlet hand prints on the shirt Yuuri is wearing.

"Yuuri, wake up. Please open your eyes. Can you hear me?" he asks desperately. The bloody man in front of him doesn't respond. Victor tries again calling Yuuri, frantically trying to elicit any forms of responses from the man. So concentrated he is in his act that he doesn't realize Yuri calling his name. Only when the boy screams that finally Victor stops what he is doing and tears his gaze away from Yuuri.

He looks at his cousin who sports a worried expression on his face. Victor is a bit shock to see the boy making such an expression. I must have looked very pathetic right now, to the point he's worried about me, he thinks bitterly. He takes a deep breath and looks again at Yuuri's body. He gathers the body in his arms, embracing Yuuri softly and burrows his head in the crook of Yuuri's neck. He can still feel some warmth left on the thin body.

Just like hugging a warm body of a father who just finished reading his last bedtime story to his son.

He lifts his head from Yuuri's body and gazes at the face of the man he's cherished for the past few months. Yuuri's eyes are closed, his eyelashes fan his cheeks, creating a light shadow beneath them. He looks as if he's just sleeping, but Victor knows better. Victor thinks of the sparks in Yuuri's eyes, the very thing that brings him to this predicament. He curses himself for his curiosity, and for the first time in his long life, he regrets following his own whims. He now no longer can see those same sparks directed at him. When he thinks about that, he feels a foreign feeling bubbling up from inside his chest. He feels as if someone has pushed him into cold water and now he's suffocated. He tries to pinpoint what feeling it is that he's having, but he can't find the answer.

He brings his hand to caress the cheeks that used to be so rosy whenever Victor teases him, or when a cold winter wind blows them. The cheeks feel cold to his touch as he runs his finger on Yuuri's face. He bends down and kisses Yuuri's cheek. He then feel something salty on his mouth, and something wet falls down his cheeks. He brings his hand to his face and looks at his finger. Did I just… cry?

Just like having a tea party with a little girl on her hospital bed, her tears salty as he kissed her cold cheeks.

He unconsciously has shed tears. Sure, he knows how tears taste for Victor has cried before, like when he watches sad movie with Chris or when when he needs to make Yakov forgive him when he made mistakes, but never has he cried because of a human's death. It's always the humans who cry, not the other way around. Never Death God. Never Victor.

The waves of indescribable feeling that he has felt a few moments ago comes back and so he tightens his embrace on Yuuri's body. He no longer feel any warmth radiating from Yuuri's body, and he can feel the body starts to go through the rigor mortis, so he lays Yuuri's body down on the floor. He bends down to do just so, and then straightens up his body, and stands up. Yuri, who keeps silent and only observes, stands up as well. If he thinks Victor's behavior is weird and doesn't make sense, he chooses to keep silent.

The two Death Gods are now standing in front a dead human body, in the middle of the convenience store in Japan, with two other humans lay unconscious behind them. The two humans may wake up anytime, so the Death Gods must work fast. As Victor is not on duty today, he has to let Yuri do the job. He looks at Yuuri's body as he waits for Yuri to start, but the blond suddenly grabs one of Victor's arm.

"Stop it."

Victor looks at Yuri, and a bit surprised to see his cousin's face contorts in anger. Victor thinks that Yuri might be angry at him for shedding tears for a mere human, and has decided to remind him on how a Death God should act. Victor sighs and furrows his eyebrows. He really doesn't need this now.

"Yuri, I know that you're angry, and you think I'm a disgrace to Death Gods, but can you please save your scolding for now and let me be?" he asks tiredly.

To his surprise, his cousin looks offended and shouts at him.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I mean stop interfering and let me do my job." He shouts. "I don't care about your relationship with this human, your feelings toward him or whatever, but I won't let you stop me from doing my job, which is reaping the soul of this human." He points to Yuuri's dead body on the floor. "And regardless of your status as my senior, I won't hesitate to use my power against you to ensure I do my job properly, just like how you're using your power to interfere with my job, right now." He finishes in one breath.

Victor looks at him in confusion. "Yuri, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit! You're preventing the soul of this human to escape from his body, right?" Yuri accuses, now pointing his finger at Victor.

"No, Yuri. Really, I don't know anything you're talking about and one thing for sure, I don't use my power whatsoever to stop you from doing your job. You know it's against the rules, right?" Victor explains patiently as if talking to a five-year-old child.

Yuri snorts. "Since when you obey the rules? I can count the time you did things properly on one hand, and I'm sure I will hardly use all my fingers." He sneers at Victor, who blushes a bit at Yuri's remark, because what the boy is saying is true.

He clears his throat and speaks. "Anyway, that might be true, but I really am not using any of my power right now." He then asks Yuri. "What do you mean by me preventing Yuuri's soul to escape?"

"You know that after a human dies, usually the soul will come out from the body and manifest as a pseudo-body, right?" Victor nods at Yuri's word. "Now, Victor, how many minutes usually it takes for the dead human to do that?"

Victor snorts at Yuri's question. It's a common knowledge for all Death Gods. Usually, it takes about 5 minutes for the soul to come out from the body and manifest as what they call a pseudo-body. The soul will take up their human form, but they are no longer alive. Pseudo-body can wander around for days and sometimes be seen by other humans, too, so Death Gods must reap their real souls and send them to Heaven or Hell quickly. This is the part where usually Victor will ask them of their last wish, and if they have it, he will help them fulfill it by lending some of his power to strengthen the pseudo-body to have a temporary human form for a few hours.

He answers Yuri's question confidently. "It usually takes 5 minutes for the soul to…" And then his eyes widens because he realizes something. He looks back at Yuri, who only nods as if he understands Victor's thought.

"It's been more than 5 minutes, Victor, but the soul hasn't come out."

Victor looks back at Yuuri's body in disbelief. What Yuri has just said is correct. He never encounter something like this. No wonder Yuri just stands beside him and does nothing, because he can't do his job if the soul doesn't come out from the body.

"Are you sure you didn't do anything Victor?" Yuri asks again in frustration. Victor shakes his head, indicating that he really didn't tamper Yuuri's body or soul to cause this. So what's happening, actually?

Victor tears his gaze from Yuuri and looks around at his surroundings. He felt it before, but he shook it off as only a coincidence, but he thinks it's weird how no one comes into the konbini, even though it's in the middle of the afternoon, where everybody is still busy with their activities. He looks out at the people walking past the store, not even sparing a glance at the building.

It's weird.

It seems Yuri feels it also as he sees the boy is now walking toward the entrance to check out the condition outside, to make sure everything is alright. But as he stands in front of the automatic door, the door doesn't open up for him. Maybe something's wrong with the electrical wire? Victor thinks. He sees his cousin reaches out his hand to open the door manually, but when he touches the door, a bright light suddenly strikes where his hand touches the door. Both Victor and Yuri cover their eyes because of the blinding light and step back a few steps. They now look at each other, confusion and worry written clearly on both of their faces,

Suddenly, in the middle of their confusion, they hear footsteps coming from behind them. They turn their back and realize the sound is coming from the staff door. Victor remembers that the manager is out for lunch, so could it be him returning from the back door? Wait, is there even a back door here? He thinks.

The door that leads to the staff room opens slowly, and Victor and Yuri can see some silhouette from behind the small glass on the door. In their mind, they frantically try to find ways to handle the situation, because how can you explain that a man just kill your off-duty employee, and the other one lays unconscious with the killer?

Finally, the silhouette comes out from behind the door, and Victor's blood runs cold.

"Hi, Victor. Nice to see you again!" The man says, smiling brightly as usual as he addresses Victor who just stands in shock.

In front of him and Yuri, stands Yuuri's best friend, Phichit Chulanont.