A/N: Aah, what am I doing? I should really be working on though the stars walk backward right now, but here I am posting another oneshot for a totally different fandom. Whoops. Well, this idea just grabbed me and wouldn't let go, so, oh well.
I'm experimenting with a different style and the present tense, inspired by reading Jack_R's Make It Good, Make It Better. Honestly, though, this is just self-indulgent. These are just quick snapshots of Victor's thought processes during the series.
Title is taken from Skillet's Whispers in the Dark.
As always, the summary: Victor falls in love with Katsuki Yuuri at the Sochi banquet. And he thinks Yuuri feels the same, but… Now, he's not sure. (Yuuri gets drunk that night, too nervous and ashamed of his loss and forgets. Victor doesn't.)
(Actually, the summary was a lot longer, but likes to put a 384 character cap, so I had to cut it down. The Ao3 version of this fic has the full summary.)
...
Light the Night With Stars
...
You'll never be alone
When darkness comes, I'll light the night with stars
Hear the whispers in the dark
~ Skillet, "Whispers in the Dark"
Victor Nikiforov falls in love at the Sochi banquet, falls in love with brown eyes and soft smiles, with grace and beauty. He falls in love with shared dances under the moonlight, both of them flushed and tired but bubbling with laughter, swaying to distant strains of music. He falls in love with bright energy and a Japanese accent.
He falls in love with Katsuki Yuuri.
He thinks Yuuri feels the same, had thought the same that night, but—
But.
Now, he's not sure. Because weeks later and Yuuri hasn't called, even though Victor knows he must have his phone number, had scrawled it on his arm with blue-inked pen. He wishes he'd thought to ask for the Japanese skater for his own number; he's tried to find it on his own, but Yuuri has all the social media presence of a ghost.
Yuuri doesn't call, and Victor doesn't know why.
He thinks maybe he should go find Yuuri, but he doesn't show up at Worlds or Four Continents, and Victor doesn't know where he lives. His best bet is the Japanese Nationals, but they're at the same time as the Russian Nationals, and he knows Yakov won't let him go, not when this is potentially one of his last seasons.
He doesn't know where in Japan Yuuri is, and it strikes him that he really doesn't know much about the other skater. He can't find him. He's at a dead end.
Yakov and the rest can sense something is wrong, he knows, but he can't bring himself to care. He finishes the rest of season with three more golds, skating flawless as ever, but all he feels is a numbness he thought Yuuri had finally chased away, and he wonders when skating lost its luster, when winning again and again became a chore.
It's become routine: design new routines, win, make them better next year, beat his own records again, rinse and repeat.
His skating is perfect as ever, but there is something lacking and he knows it.
When he sees the video of Yuuri skating Stammi Vicino, he immediately gets on the first plane to Japan. Hasetsu, that's where Yuuri is.
Yuuri's rendition of Stammi Vicino isn't perfect, but then again, Victor's never skated it perfectly either, no matter what it may appear or what the judges say. Yuuri's downgraded a couple of his jumps, quads replaced with triples, but Victor can't help but think that the Japanese skater's performance is so much better than his own.
The grace and beauty, the feelings with which Yuuri skates; that is what Victor is lacking. Yuuri doesn't dance to the music; he creates it, moves with it, with every little gesture, every shifting facial expression. He makes it his own in a way Victor has never been able to.
Only, when Victor gets to Hasetsu, everything's off. Yuuri is shy and skittish, cautious around him. He hides from him, off the ice. Every friendly overture is rebuffed, and Victor can't get past the walls Yuuri puts up. Yuuri never brings up the banquet, either, and he acts as though they're strangers, as though they have never exchanged more than a handful of words, and that—
That hurts.
He thinks things get better after the Hot Springs on Ice, and, privately, he thanks Yura for that. Yuuri stops avoiding him nearly as much and seems more comfortable letting him in. He doesn't flinch away when Victor hugs him, either, and, well, that's progress.
Victor learns to love the ice again, learns to dance across it the way Yuuri does. He falls in love with Yuuri all over again too, with his beautiful step sequences and the way his eyes light up when he eats katsudon.
He dares to hope that Yuuri starts to fall in love with him too.
Competitions begin, and Victor watches with pride as Yuuri blooms. He doesn't always win gold, but that's okay. Yuuri is so much more than the medals he wins, even if Victor might joke otherwise.
When Yuuri lands the quad flip, Victor doesn't think. He runs and tackles Yuuri, and—
He kisses him. It's not perfect, the impact of the fall making their teeth clack awkwardly against each other, and he has to brace Yuuri's head so that it doesn't crash into the ice, but it's everything he could have wished for because he's kissing Yuuri.
Yuuri kisses him back, and Victor doesn't even care that they're in public, in front of thousands of spectators and dozens of cameras. As far as he's concerned, this is perfect.
Everything snaps into place in Barcelona, when Yuuri laughs and says, "I was too nervous to even talk to Victor," and Victor chokes.
"You mean you don't remember?" he demands, and oh, things suddenly make a lot more sense now. No wonder Yuuri was so skittish at first, if it was the first time they properly met. He suddenly feels a lot lighter, knowing that Yuuri hadn't chosen to reject him back then. He just didn't remember.
Yuuri turns progressively redder as Christophe and Yura chime in, Christophe happily and Yura growling, like an angry little kitten. Victor can't help but find it adorable. Of course, everything Yuuri does is adorable, but still.
"Oh my god," Yuuri groans, dropping his head into his arms. Victor pats his hand sympathetically, though he's not really sure what there is too be embarrassed about; then again, Yuuri gets embarrassed pretty easily.
"I still have videos!" he offers cheerfully.
Yuuri looks even more flustered.
Yuuri wins silver and not gold in the Grand Prix, but that's okay. Victor's sure he'll win gold next season, and he can't wait to compete against him. (Besides, even if Victor hadn't trained Yura, he's proud of how far the other Russian skater has come. He really did skate beautifully.)
They dance together too, once again, only this time, they're on the ice and skating to the song that brought them together.
It's everything Victor could have hoped for.
A/N: Well, there it is. My first foray into the Yuri on Ice fandom. It's kinda short and the style's a bit experimental, so let me know what you think. For my Fairy Tail readers, I'll try to get up the next chapter of though the stars walk backward up by next Wednesday.
As always, please review!
~ Silver Snowblossom