Yuuri had gone out for an early morning run, leaving before his fiancé even woke up. The sky was just starting to hint at the blush of dawn as he reached the park near their apartment.
It was still odd for Yuuri to think of the apartment as theirs, a shared item, rather than something that belonged to Victor. Although his fiancé had insisted on putting Yuuri's name on the apartment, it still felt like something that he only had temporary custody of. The whole of St. Petersburg, in fact, still seemed foreign. Yuuri supposed it felt homely enough, but it was homely in the way that Detroit had been when he studied there. He wasn't sure if it would ever feel like home in the same way that Hasetsu had for his whole life.
He mused on these feelings, poking at them like a hangnail as he ran. He ran much farther than he had intended, and by the time he realized the sky was becoming lighter, he had gone into an area that he barely recognized. He turned around, jogging back the way he had come, hoping that his muscle memory would help him retrace his route back.
In this, however, he only had minimal luck. He knew which direction in general he was headed, but the exact path eluded him. He found himself describing what he assumed to be a wide arc in an attempt to find something that he recognized.
Just as he felt panic creeping up on him, Yuuri heard a familiar voice. "Sakharok, is that you?"
He turned around, relief washing over him before his fiancé was even in his sight. "Vitya! It's you!"
Victor laughed brightly as he walked closer. "Of course it's me. And here you are! What are you doing in this area, though? I didn't think you normally ran along this path."
Yuuri hesitated, then shook his head. "I didn't mean to come this far. I got a bit…lost."
"Aah. In that case, let me walk you home!" Victor beamed at Yuuri with his signature heart-shaped grin.
With Victor now directly in front of him, Yuuri's relief quieted enough for him to notice that the other man was heavily weighed down with groceries. He asked, "Were you out shopping, then?"
"Yes. I thought I would try to make breakfast for you as a surprise. But you showing up on the way home is an even better surprise!"
Yuuri felt himself blush a little. To distract from the feeling, he dipped his head down and held out a hand expectantly to take some of the grocery bags.
Eagerly, Victor shuffled all the bags to his opposite side, grabbing Yuuri with his now-free hand and interlacing their fingers. He beamed happily at his fiancé as he started walking again, pulling Yuuri along with him.
Yuuri sputtered, and managed to protest, "Vitya, that's not what I wanted!"
Victor turned his best puppy-dog eyes on. "Yuuuri, you mean you don't want to hold my hand?"
"That's not…I didn't…geez, Vitya, you're impossible!" Swinging the Russian around by their connected hands, Yuuri managed to grab a few of the bags with his empty hand, snatching them away triumphantly. He straightened them both out and continued walking, feeling rather smug.
Victor protested, "Milyy, give those back! You were just out running, I can carry them!"
Yuuri couldn't help but laugh. "But Coach Nikiforov, you're the one who sets my daily training regimen. Don't you think a little extra exercise would be good for me?"
"Hey now, that's not fair! That is that and this is this! Just let me dote on my fiancé a little." Victor pouted, and Yuuri chuckled at the adorable look on his face.
He made a big show of thinking about Victor's words. "Hmm…I'll tell you what, I might let you carry the bags again if you tell me what you called me just now."
Victor blinked. "What did I say? Did I call you something new again?"
"Yes. Twice, in fact."
It was Victor's turn to laugh. "You'll have to remind me what they were. There are so many things I call you, I suspect it'll take a lifetime to get them all out of me." He winked, and Yuuri felt a blush spreading across his cheeks.
Trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach, Yuuri faced forward resolutely and said, "Well, if you can manage not to say any more until we get home at least, I would appreciate it." He stopped at his own words, smiling a little as he realized what he had said. He glanced sideways at the man next to him, and squeezed slightly at the warmth of their connected hands. It seemed he had been worrying earlier for nothing. What really made a place home was this ridiculous, beautiful, wonderful man next to him.
The man who was, in fact, in the middle of a fit of ridiculousness. "Yuuuuriiii, that's not fair! You can't possibly expect me not to call you names for all that way! If you don't like it, you should consider being less adorable!" He huffed in exasperation, and Yuuri burst out laughing, not even caring that he was drawing looks from other pedestrians. Yes, truly, Victor was his home.