The faint pink sunrise gleamed bright and beautiful from the plane window as they soared above the clouds, the dull roar of the engines in their ears. They'd gotten up long before the sky was even remotely light, gone to Yūri's doctor appointment, and received a wonderful send-off from Yūri's entire family (blood relatives and otherwise). But Yūri was not a morning person and loved his sleep almost as much as he loved katsudon , so he stumbled through airport security half-awake and barely managed to get himself on the plane. Victor laughed about everything, clearly in good spirits.
"It's good your doctor gave you some emergency suppressants, so you have those at least. But she's probably right: you'll have to wait until you become more regular before you can have monthly pill suppressants." said Victor, shifting in his seat and trying not to hit his knees on the seat in front of him. "Ah, my seat belt is pinching me. I want to at least recline."
"So loosen the belt." Yūri yawned, glancing over. The rosy sunlight played on the side of his face and cast a warm glow. Victor thought it rather pretty. Then again, Yūri always looked pretty to him...
"You know, this is my first time riding in coach, Yūri! Do we have to ask for the champagne, or is it complimentary?"
"Victor, it's morning and we just took off!"
"Hey, there's no set time for drinks, Yūri. You should live a little!" Victor responded brightly.
"Why don't we just get some sleep?" Yūri mumbled, nodding off. He shut the shade on his window. It was quiet on board, considering it was an airplane. His eyelids felt heavy.
"How can I sleep in such a tiny seat? The kiddie rides at the mall have more leg-room. And it's a little chilly in here."
Annoyed and barely awake now, Yūri pulled Victor's arm off of his armrest, causing his head to fall onto Yūri's shoulder. Victor blinked, taken aback.
"Just go to sleep, Victor…" Yūri murmured, barely to be heard over the engines, eyes closed and on the verge of sleep. Victor stared. Wow… Yūri must be really tired to go and do something like that. Well, it was pretty early in the morning, and Yūri's shoulder was surprisingly comfortable.
Victor fluffed out the gray blanket he'd brought on board and covered them both with it. A nap like this next to Yūri, in a tiny seat on a crowded airplane sounds pretty nice after all. Why not? He glanced over at Yūri, who was now sound asleep, his mask around his chin. Why did he wear that, anyway? Was he fearful for his health? Just extremely shy? Didn't want to be recognized? All those were possible, and Victor examined each one at length until he fell asleep on Yūri's warm shoulder, surrounded by his soothing scent and the comfy blanket.
Victor picked the restaurant for dinner after they'd checked in, a hotpot place near the hotel on the main street. Yūri sat across from Victor, who was surrounded by dishes of very raw food and looked like he'd just won the lottery. He was so excited about everything that Yūri didn't have the heart to confess that he never ate anything raw right before a competition . He didn't like raw shrimp at any time anyway.
Victor, shrimp slipping from his chopsticks and falling into the vat of duck blood, noticed Yūri wasn't eating.
"Yūri? Why aren't you eating? Help yourself to whatever you like! Or don't you feel well?" Victor asked, slightly concerned, as he reached across the table ( very carefully ) to try and feel Yūri's forehead. Yūri jumped a little.
"Ah, I'm ok, don't worry. I just don't eat raw food right before a competition. I'll order room service when we get back." said Yūri warmly. Truth be told, he was feeling a little queasy, and he wasn't quite sure if it was just seeing Victor enjoying anything with blood in it (was he part-vampire?), tired or nervous about the competition tomorrow. Maybe it was a bit of everything. That didn't help his nausea at all.
"Yūri!" Yūri came crashing back to reality. Victor was staring at him, more concerned. "Are you sure you're alright? You spaced out."
"Oh! Yes, I'm ok. What were you saying?"
"I was just asking you what you wanted me to order for you. I'm sure there's something that's cooked we can get you. Maybe some chicken and vegetables! And I can order some liquor! I wonder if they have soju* here…"
"Victor, this is a hot pot place in China."
"You never know! Are you sure you're ok, Yūri? Are you still thinking about that press conference earlier this week? I think you're making too much out of it." said Victor, reminding Yūri painfully of his energetic outburst in front of the entire Japanese figure skating division on national television. And he'd just gotten it out of his head, too…
"I wasn't thinking about it, but I am now. I really ran my stupid mouth, didn't I? What's gonna happen if I fail?" Yūri said in a small voice. Victor poured him a shot of soju (they did have it! Who knew?) and passed it to him across the table.
"You're going to be fine. Here, drink some soju and try to calm down. But only a little, you have to compete tomorrow! And make sure you finish your dinner!" Victor said sternly.
"Yūri!" A cheery voice interrupted them. Phichit, dressed all in black and practically radiating sunshine, stood in front of their table. Yūri felt his spirits lift a little at the sight of his best friend.
"Phichit! S̄wạs̄dī*! "
"Oaidekiteureshīdesu!* It's good to see you! Oh, hi Victor, it's nice to meet you!" said Phichit. Victor bowed politely to him before turning back to Yūri. "I was about to text you, actually! Leo and Guang-Hong just texted me too! Maybe they can meet us here! Have you ever met them? They're really nice! Oh! Can I invite Ciao-Ciao? I'm sure he'd want to see you after so long!"
And the anxiety was back.
"Ciao ciao ! Thank you for inviting me! It's good to see you, Yūri! You look like you're doing well. That's good." Celestino said genuinely once he'd arrived, sitting across from Yūri. Victor was almost two bottles of soju in and was getting quite friendly.
"Hi, Coach. Thank you so much, that means a lot..."
"Celestino! Would you like some Drunken Shrimp?" Victor held it out to him. Celestino looked at it the same way Yūri had.
"Ah, no thank you, not right before a--"
"Yūri said that too! But it's so good!" Yep, Victor was definitely drunk. Yūri could see the delicate pink glow in his fair cheeks. "Oh! Coaches should sit with their students! It's important! I'll move next to Yūri so you and Phichit can sit together!" But instead of getting up and going around like a normal human being, Victor chose to crawl under the table and reemerge next to Yūri with a kiss on the cheek.
"Ah! Victor! We're in public! And why didn't you just go around?"
"There's soju here too, Celestino, have some! Drink with me!"
"So, how are you feeling, Yūri? Was your doctor able to help you with your hormones?" said Phichit in a low voice so no one would overhear them. He was always very considerate of everyone. Yūri felt a surge of affection for him.
"Sort of. She gave me more emergency suppressants, but said that I might have to wait until my cycle evens out before we can try pills. It is better than nothing, though."
"That's true! That would be really bad if you went into heat far from home somewhere and…" Phichit paused, embarrassed, as he remembered that that's how they found out Yūri was an Omega in the first place. "Right...sorry…"
"That's OK, don't worry. Thanks for helping me that night, I really owe you one."
"No worries! That's what friends are for!"
By the time Leo and Guang-Hong arrived, Celestino was stone-drunk and snoring at the table and Victor was removing articles of his own clothing and sending them airborne. Yūri kept trying to push Victor off of him (he was currently kissing Yūri's face and neck and trying to put his hands down his sweater). His face burned, and it burned even brighter when he saw them standing there, gaping.
"Uh...did we miss something?" Leo asked, surveying the scene with a mixture of awkwardness and second-hand embarrassment. Normally chill and laid-back, the 19-year-old surveyed the scene like a deer caught in headlights. Phichit was too busy taking pictures of his passed-out coach to notice their arrival right away.
"Wow, Celestino's wasted!" Phichit said, poking his coach and trying to wake him.
"I'm s-sorry about this, Victor's had way too much to drink. He isn't usually like this…" said Yūri to both boys, face beet-red, as Victor draped his arms around his shoulders and nuzzled his neck. Yūri kept buckling under his weight. "Victor, come on, now...stop that, people will stare! Hey--no! Don't bite me! Quit it!"
"I'm not sure I'm old enough to be watching this...should I post pics?" Guang-Hong asked Leo in a quiet voice, face also very red as Victor's underwear came flying at him. He was still snapping pictures though.
"No way, I wouldn't. I'm barely old enough for this. I think it might be time to go…" Leo said, quite mortified, also blushing slightly. He was still taking pictures too.
"Sorry about that...we didn't expect both of them to drink each other under the table, or get naked. So...wanna hang out tomorrow night, maybe? I passed a stand on the way here that had rolled ice cream?" Phichit said to them sheepishly.
"Ah...sure. sounds good…"
They bade goodbye to Phichit, gave Yūri sympathetic looks, and took their leave.
Yūri dragged Victor back to their hotel room (Phichit helped as best he could) and flung him down on one of the beds. His first time meeting new skaters and they saw him and Victor like, well, that. Fabulous. Victor groaned and stretched.
"Awww, is our competition over already? Ne chestno*... Damn. I was having fun too. Kotoryy chas? Did my Yūri win Gold?" Victor slurred, switching between Russian and English.
"I didn't even compete yet. And you're very drunk. You kept nibbling on my neck! That hurt, you know!" Yūri said, slightly annoyed and very hot and flushed as he changed into pajamas quickly. He caught sight of the marks on his neck in the mirror, bright red. He hoped to every god under the sky that his costume covered them up--
"Good! I'm glad I didn't miss Yūri competing. He's worked so hard the last few months, and I know," Victor paused briefly to hiccup, "I know how much it means to him. I need to be there. Ah, it's chilly in here!" Victor said, diving into Yūri's bed and snuggling him. He wrapped himself around him. "Warm me up, please?"
"No! I'm mad at you, Victor! You embarrassed me in front of an entire restaurant, three other pro-skaters and my former coach! Go sleep in your own bed! Ah, don't touch me with your cold feet!"
"Awww why? You're so cute and you smell so good...sweet like candy. And your skin is so soft, plus you're nice and warm, you know? I feel safe in your arms." Victor brushed his neck with a shaking and uncoordinated finger.
Yūri's face flushed even deeper. He could feel his heart hammering in his throat. Victor nuzzled his neck, his fringe tickling him as it brushed his bare skin. He had his arms clasped around his waist. The scent of sandalwood...it was so calming…Yūri felt his anxiety ebb away a little. He barely even remembered he had his first competition of the season tomorrow…
soju: a Korean rice alcohol.
*"S̄wạs̄dī", written as "สวัสดี" is a greeting in Thai.
* "Oaidekiteureshīdesu", written as "お会いできてうれしいです" is Japanese for the equivalent "good to see you!"
* "Ne chestno" ("не честно") is "Not fair." and "Kotoryy chas?" ("Который час?") is "What time is it?", both in Russian.