This chapter has been updated, mainly for fixes in minor grammatical and spelling errors. Thanks!
"Well Mr. Katsuki, you did quite a bit of damage. You've got a few fractured ribs; your arm is broken in three different place, but those were clean breaks so they'll heal nicely; your right leg on the other hand, it was completely shattered in three places. Now it is advisable that we take you in for surgery immediately but there's no guarantee that you will be able to ever walk again," the doctor was saying, but the words reaching Yuuri's ears didn't make any sense.
Damage? Shattered? No guarantee? This couldn't be right, this couldn't be happening.
The doctor took note of the look of panic on the young man's face. Informing a patient of a life changing event such as this was one of his least favorite parts of this job.
"Let me give you some time to think about it," the doctor says softly.
Turning to walk out the door, the doctor wondered what this young man's story was. His passions, the people he loves; how all of that will forever change. No matter how insistently people will claim to treat him the same, the poor young man silently panicking behind him will never be the same person he was before this day. Right before reaching the door, the doctor turns back, as if remembering something he had to say. "There's a silver-haired man with a strange accent in the lobby demanding to see you, would you like for me to let him in?"
Yuuri suddenly remembered that there were other people out there, much like Viktor, who were beside themselves with worry.
"Yes, he's my husband," Yuuri informed the doctor, finally looking at the man for the first time.
The exhausted-looking doctor gave a grim smile before nodding and closing the door behind him.
What felt like not even a second later, the door slammed open against the wall behind it, and a silver blur rushed towards Yuuri's bed.
"Viktor wait!" Yuuri cried, bracing himself for pain on impact. But just at the last second Viktor paused, leaning over the bed, arms stretched out to hug the younger man. When the realization of the state Yuuri was in hit Viktor he jerked his arms back, hugging them against his chest.
"Yuuri," Viktor's voice came out in a harsh whisper, taking in the sight of Yuuri lying in the hospital bed, one arm in a cast from shoulder to wrist, bandages tightly wrapped around his chest, and his foot carefully propped up, looking purple and swollen. "Oh Yuuri." Gently reaching out, Viktor hesitated to find a spot on Yuuri's face to caress that had not been rubbed raw by the earlier face plant with the ice.
Finally giving up, Viktor light placed his hand on the top of Yuuri's head. Yuuri's eyes close for a split second at the comfortable feeling before opening and looking behind Viktor to see eyes watching from the doorway.
"Hey mom, hey dad," Yuuri calls to them with a shaky voice and smile.
At the sound of Yuuri's broken voice, Viktor flinches slightly before straightening up. He raises a hand to wipe what might have been a tear from his cheek before turning with a bright smile on his previously forlorn face to look at his in-laws.
"Maybe we shouldn't overwhelm Yuuri with a bunch of people at one time. For the time being how about only Mama-Katsuki and Papa-Katsuki can see him, and the rest of you can see him after he's rested up a bit," Viktor suggests in choppy Japanese, much to the appreciation of Yuuri and his parents.
Brief well wishes were passed along by a worried Minako and the somber-looking Nishigori's. The small group filed out of the room quietly, leaving the three Katsuki's alone in the room, with only the beep of the heart rate monitor connected to Yuuri making a sound.
Yuuri's parents sat on his left side while Viktor remained on Yuuri's right, holding on to the uninjured hand tightly. In as few words as possible, Yuuri filled the others in on what the doctor had had to say. By the time he finished speaking, Viktor had Yuuri's hand held soundly against his mouth, not moving.
Turning his head to glance at the older man, all Yuuri wanted to do was smooth the lines caused by worry off of Viktor's face. Sparing a moment to give a brief, tired, smile to his parents as they got up to give the two privacy, Yuuri looked at Viktor, waiting for the impending discussion on what would come next.
After a moment of silence that seemed to last forever, Yuuri spoke up.
"Viktor, what are you thinking?"
Jumping at the sound of his name being called, Viktor looked down at Yuuri with wide eyes, looking very vulnerable for just a brief second before he schooled his face into a mask
"I'm thinking that the people of this hospital are not very bright. You should have been taken back to surgery when you first got here. They should have never given you the option. I'm going to make sure that you are the first one to go back tomorrow," Viktor declared with determination in his voice, letting go of Yuuri's hand and jumping up. Taking long strides to reach the door quickly, Viktor paused at the doorway only due to the sound of Yuuri's voice calling for him behind him.
"Viktor!"
Looking back at the raven-haired man, Viktor saw fear flit across the younger man's face.
"There's a chance that it might not work."
Steeling his expression into a mask of bravery for the scared man before him, Viktor responded with "You will walk again. I promise."
The sound of steady beeping welcomed Yuuri as he slowly drifted back into consciousness. Opening his eyes to the dimly lit room, Yuuri was greeted with the sight of a disheveled Viktor sleeping in a chair next to his bed. A small smile flits across Yuuri's face as he reaches out and runs his right hand through Viktor's hair lovingly, incidentally waking up the man in the process.
"Hmmm, Yuuri," Viktor spoke softly, a smile flitting across as his mind slowly woke up, processing the current situation. Yuuri could see the moment that Viktor became fully awake when his eyes opened wide and he jumped up, shouting, "Yuuri," loudly in the quiet room.
Wincing at the volume, Yuuri spared a small smile while putting a single finger to his lip to suggest Viktor lower his voice. Yuuri couldn't help the smile that remained on his lips as he watched the man in front of him. As much of a goof as this man could be in real life, Yuuri wouldn't trade a single moment with him for anything in the world.
"Oh, sorry Love," Viktor whispers, placing a hand over his mouth for a moment, as if that would keep him quiet. Removing the hand from his mouth, Viktor slowly sat back down in his chair, leaning in to look at Yuuri, worry filling his eyes, "How are you feeling?"
"Pretty loopy, to be honest," Yuuri informed him, his head swinging slightly in a way that Viktor could not help but find absolutely adorable.
Smiling, the silver-haired man leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on Yuuri's forehead. Sitting back in his chair, Viktor notices the adorable scowl that overtakes the raven-haired man's face.
"What's the matter, Love?" Viktor asks, picking up Yuuri's uninjured hand and placing a gentle kiss on it.
Yuuri opened and closed his mouth multiple times before finally saying, "You're treating me like I'm porcelain; and you aren't in bed with me, come up here."
Lightly grasping the younger man's shoulders before he could move around too much and do too much more damage, Viktor glared down at Yuuri.
"Yuuri, you've just been through a very extensive surgery to repair some severe damage to your ankle. You shouldn't be moving at all."
Looking down at the mentioned extremity, Yuuri sure enough found his right leg laying propped up, covered in a thick cast. His left arm lay across his stomach gently, in a similar looking cast.
'Is my leg down there? Why can't I feel it? I can't feel my leg!' Yuuri's heart skipped a beat. He turned his head to look back at his husband, revealing the tears slowly filling his eyes.
"Viktor? What happened to me? I can't feel my leg. Viktor, I can't feel my leg. I can't skate if I can't feel my leg. Viktor what happened?"
The walls seem to be moving closer, closing in. A tightness filled his chest as Yuuri began finding it hard to breathe. His career, the reason that he and Viktor had even me, is over. What is he going to do with himself now, how is he going to move on? Viktor would stop loving him because of this, there's no way he could continue to love him when he can't skate anymore. His life is falling apart, everything is falling apart. And it is all his fault. It's always all his fault.
Panic began to set in for both men as Yuuri's heart rate monitor spiked as he continued crying out. Not knowing how to help the broken man before him, Viktor hit the button on the wall to call for the nurses, who rushed in and gave Yuuri an injection, instantly sending him back to the land of sleep.
"We can't keep him on the anesthetics any longer. We have to start weaning him off of them." A quiet voice was saying nearby to Yuuri as he felt himself drifting back into consciousness yet again.
"Please," a familiar heavily accented voice responded, "I need more time to figure this all out. Just, two more days. I'm begging you."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Nikiforov, it's illegal to do that. We have already started the process of waking him up. He should be awake here soon, and we will limit his anesthesia from here on out," the first voice said, almost sounding the slightest bit exasperated.
Yuuri fought the weight of his eye lids to slowly crack them open to find himself still in the hospital. The door to his room was cracked open and two men could be seen standing outside. One quite obviously had the silver hair of his husband, and the other appeared to be a member of the medical staff of the hospital, perhaps a doctor.
Viktor's head was lowered as if in defeat as he said, "Thank you for all you have done for us."
The doctor bowed to Viktor before walking away. Viktor let himself back into Yuuri's room, pausing in shock upon looking at the bed to see the young man finally awake.
A split second, that's all the time Viktor allowed Yuuri to see his true emotions before putting up his mask. But that split second was all Yuuri needed to see all the pain and worry and confusion encompassing Viktor's normally cheerful personality.
'This is all my fault. I'm ruining Viktor's life,' Yuuri thought to himself, trying hard to repress the feeling of worthlessness that bubbled up with the thoughts.
In the moment it took for all that to take place, Viktor had put on a cheery smile and began to walk towards Yuuri's bed.
"Well good morning sleepy head. How do you feel?" the silver-haired man asked, lightly rubbing a hand against Yuuri's cheek.
"Like I've been hit by a train," Yuuri responded, cringing at the sound of his dry throat's attempt to make sound. After a Viktor helped him take a sip of the water that had been sitting on his bedside table, he asked, "How long have I been out?"
Viktor looked down at Yuuri's feet that were hiding under the blanket, and mumbled something that sounded like 'a few days.'
"Viktor," Yuuri said slowly, waiting for the man standing beside his bed to look at him before continuing, "What is today's date?"
Closing his eyes, the older man finally let out in a harsh whisper, "June 15."
Drawing in a breath, it took no time for Yuuri to realize that it had been two weeks since his accident.
"Two weeks, that's such a long time," Yuuri said, not really sure what to think or say at this point.
Finally opening his eyes again, Viktor looked pleadingly at Yuuri, "You were already out for a few days after your initial surgery. But when you woke up and had that freak out, well we thought it best just to let you sleep."
Yuuri thought back to the last time he remembered being awake, when the panic had finally set in about everything that had happened. He could still feel that panic, deep down inside. But for now he kept it buried deep, if not for Viktor's sake, then at least for the sanity of the poor nurses.
"I'm sorry Viktor," Yuuri whispered, not really sure at first what he was apologizing for. Then the silent tears began to drip down his face.
Viktor watched as the tears started rolling down Yuuri's face after he whispered what almost sounded like a confession to him.
'What am I going to do with him?' Viktor thought to himself as he helplessly looked down at his husband. 'He's so broken, and fragile.'
Carefully leaning over the bed, Viktor took Yuuri's face gently between his hands and forced the younger man to look at him through the tears.
"Hey. It's okay, you have nothing to be sorry about. Everything will be okay, I promise," Viktor assured, every bit as much for Yuuri as for himself.
Slowly, he leaned his head forward to rest his forehead against Yuuri's with his eyes close, silently making promises.
We will get through this. Everything will turn out right in the end. I will not abandon you, ever.
Thank you so much for reading!
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