"Well, Mr. Katsuki, it's been three weeks since your initial surgery, and you appear to be healing up quiet nicely. I believe that it's now time that I give you the okay to head on home, as long as there is someone to assist you at all times," the doctor was trying to explain, but Yuuri appeared to not be paying attention. "Mr. Katsuki?" the doctor raised an eye brow, attempting to get the young man's attention. "Mr. Katsuki!"
With a jump, Yuuri turns his wide eyes on the doctor, cheeks going slightly red at having been caught spacing out.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" Yuuri asked, still not looking completely focused.
"I was saying," the doctor tried to keep the amusement out of his voice, "That I'm giving you the all clear to go home tomorrow. We can give you until noon, but the sooner you go home the better off you will be."
Yuuri's shoulder's slump slightly, taking away the doctor's happiness with it.
Poor kid. Going home is usually best for patience because the normalcy helps them recover, but nothing is going to be the same when he gets home. The only thing he has left is to hope he can recover from this. But even that is very unlikely with the full extent of his injuries.
The doctor laid his hand on Yuuri's shoulder softly and gave him the warmest smile he could muster up.
"Everything will work out in the end, just you wait and see." Removing his hand from Yuuri's shoulder, the doctor turned to the door with the intent of allowing the Russian fellow passing outside back into the room. As much as I wanted to let the poor man in, he's not on Mr. Katsuki's medical record list, even if he does claim to be Mr. Katsuki's husband, that doesn't change the fact of things.
Upon reaching the door, the doctor opened it and stepped back, having learned the hard way once about getting in the way of the silver-haired man. But the man waiting outside the door was not the usual cheery man waiting to be let back in. This man was different, broken. His head hung low, shoulder's slumped down. When he realized that the door stood open, he instantly perked up and threw a smile on his face, but the doctor could still see the pain hiding behind his eyes.
Lord help these two. They both need each other more than anything at this moment.
Viktor rushed into the room and right up to Yuuri, throwing himself carefully on the younger man for a hug. He no longer had to be as careful as before. While Yuuri still looked fragile, he looked arguably less so with the lack of tubing and bruises covering him.
"We really need to get my name put on your medical list so I don't have to get kicked out like this next time," Viktor jokes, pulling away with a loving look directed towards Yuuri.
The Japanese man frowned at the choice of wording used. "Let's try not to let there be a next time."
Eyes opening wide, the Russian agreed readily, "Of course, of course. That's not what I meant to say at all, I meant in the case of an accident it would be more convenient, not that I think you are going to be in another accident, just that you never know-"
Yuuri put his hand on Viktor's arm to calm him down, and gave him a small smile.
"Well fix the paper work before I leave. And on that note, the doctor said I'm being released tomorrow… I'm finally going home."
Viktor's face widened into his familiar heart shaped smile that Yuuri had begun to miss seeing.
"That's wonderful news, Yuuri! We already have Yu-topia completely ready for you. Everyone will be so excited to finally have you home again!" Viktor began gushing, going off on a tangent, completely oblivious to Yuuri's continuous deflating the more he talked.
"Yeah… so exciting."
"Welcome home Yuuri!" Minako exclaims, holding up a homemade banner with a large grin on her face.
Yuuri could see that the grin did not reach her eyes, but he didn't comment on it.
"Thanks Minako," Yuuri responds with a smile.
Previously he had been sitting in his wheel chair alone outside the doors of Yu-topia. Viktor had been with them up until that point, until a look of realization had come across his face and he had ran inside with Yuuri's bags with a half made excuse flung behind him. A few moments later Minako had slipped outside the door to join him.
"How're you holding up?" Minako asks, no longing pretending for Yuuri's sake to be happy.
A simple shrug of the shoulder was all that could be transpired before Viktor came back out, making sure that the door stayed mostly shut behind him to prevent Yuuri from seeing inside.
"Sorry about that, I forgot to do something," Viktor explained with a sheepish look on his face. "Shall we get you inside and comfortable?"
Yuuri gave Viktor a small smile, the most he could muster at the moment, and nodded his head.
With more care than Yuuri would have thought Viktor possessed, Yuuri was pushed up the newly built ramp that was in place to give him an easier access in and out of the building.
Upon entering Yu-topia, the first thing Yuuri noticed as that they had changed the set up slightly, the previous one not having been ideal for wheel chair access. The second thing he noticed was all the people standing in the raised seating area smiling at him.
"Welcome home," they all shouted.
His parents, Yuuko and Takashi, the triplets, Mari, Minami, and a few of the regular customers whom Yuuri had known since he was a kid. Behind him still stood Viktor and Minako, almost protectively, or it was possible there were there to prevent him from trying to turn around and roll right back out the front door.
The first people to move were his parents. His mom running right up and throwing her arms around him in a hug.
"We missed you so much Yuuri! I'm glad you're finally home!" She said with the largest smile on her face, tears threatening to form in her eyes.
"I missed you too mom," Yuuri said, returning the hug with his one good arm, a lump forming in his throat for reasons he did not know.
"Nice to have you home son," his dad said with a simple pat to his good shoulder, before ushering Yuuri's mom off to let other people say things.
"Yuuri!" Yuuko exclaimed, running up next, with Takashi and the triplets trailing behind her, "I'm so glad you are okay! We tried visiting you, but they had a strict limit on the number of people allowed in your room and I didn't think it fair for any of us to see you without the others."
Yuuko continued rambling on until Takashi came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, calming her down with his presence.
"We really are glad that you're good," he said in one of his rare serious moods, "Please, don't be afraid to reach out to us if you need anything at all."
Before Yuuri could even open his mouth to thank them, he was set upon by the groupies.
"I want to sign your cast, can I sign your cast?"
"Oh, how much do you think we can sell a spot to sign his cast for?"
"Probably a lot of money. Hey Yuuri, can we auction away spots on your cast?"
"Girls!" Yuuko screeched, pulling them away from Yuuri quickly, "Sorry Yuuri!"
Yuuri smiled at the feeling of normalcy that the girls left him with.
The usual customers had moved back to their usual tables, not feeling a need to say anything to Yuuri. His parents had moved to the kitchen to continue work like normal, Mari had drifted away after sending Yuuri a nod of encouragement. The Nishigori's and Minako had decided to head out to give Yuuri space to settle in. That left Yuuri sitting between Viktor and Minami, who looked at a loss for what to say.
"Hello Minami," Viktor said very cordially, as if he knew something Yuuri did not, "How's your training going?"
Minami's eyes flew open at Viktor's words, then slightly hooded over before he said, "Not very good at the moment, to be honest Niki-sama."
"Niki-sama?" Yuuri asked quietly enough that only Viktor could hear him. Shaking his head to clear the thought, Yuuri focused all his attention on the young man in front of him, "Why are things not good? What's wrong?"
It had seemed impossible, but Minami's eyes grew even wider at being addressed by Yuuri.
"My coach retired last season, and I haven't been able to find a good replacement coach yet for this season, Katsuki-san," Minami explained quickly.
"Oh," Yuuri blinked, not used to hearing such a formal title used for him, again he shook his head in an attempt to refocus, "Why don't you have Viktor coach you? He's down one trainee for this season."
Minami wilted slightly at those words, trying too hard to still look as excited as always.
"Actually, Yuuri," Viktor interjected before Minami had a chance to decide, "I've been meaning to tell you for a while that I was wanting to take this season to spend less time working on my job as a coach, and more on myself as a skater. But I do know someone who has a lot of knowledge in skating that would make a perfect coach."
"Who?" Yuuri asked, turning in his seat to look quizzically at husband. He better not be getting Minami's hopes up for nothing.
"You!" Viktor exclaimed, his word falling into the silence that broke out after his utterance.
"What makes you think I'm qualified to be a coach!" Yuuri could feel the beginnings of panic creeping in around the edges.
"Come now Love. I was no more qualified than you are now when I started training you. And besides, I will be by your side every step of the way and can give you pointers when you need them!"
Viktor planned all of this out already. He knew this would happen. And he knows I won't be able to say no when I turn and see Minami's hopeful eyes.
Sure enough, turning to look at Minami, Yuuri saw those eyes gazing back at him, practically begging him.
"Fine," Yuuri hung his head, as if in defeat, "I'll be your coach."
"Yes!" Minami jumped up into the air with a raised fist, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "I won't let you down. I'll be the best student you will ever have, just wait and see!"
Yuuri couldn't help but smile at the excitement on the younger boy, and turned to see the pleased smile on Viktor's face.
After Minami had finally calmed down and agreed to finish discussing the details with them later, Viktor wheeled Yuuri carefully through Yu-topia, back to where their new room would be, their old room having been upstairs and impossible for Yuuri to reach with his wheel chair.
Upon entering the room, Yuuri found it looked pretty much how it looked when upstairs, the only real difference being it's much bigger now, allowing more space for him to move. Looking on the bed, Yuuri was dumb struck to see it completely covered in packages. Their desk sitting nearby was also overflowing with countless letters.
"When word got out you had been injured, these began pouring in like crazy. Our old room upstairs is also filled with them, but I thought you would like to wait until later to look at those, but I still wanted to surprise you with some of them," Viktor explained in a hushed voice, watching Yuuri to gauge his reaction.
"There's… so many," Yuuri whispered.
Moving over to the desk, Viktor picked up a stack of letters that stood out from the rest.
"You can read these while I clear off the bed," Viktor told him, then setting the letter's gently on his lap, he turned away to give him some privacy.
The first letter on top read Christophe Giacometti. A further inspection of the other letters showed that the rest of them were sent by others of their international friends.
Not knowing any better place to start, Yuuri opened up Chris' letter and began reading.
Yuuri~
I can't believe that this has happened to you. It's such a tragedy. I'm still secretly hoping that this is just some big stupid prank that Viktor decided to play on us. But I don't think he would play a prank with this serious of context. This next season will probably be a little tough on you, but just know that I'll be with you on the side lines to cheer Viktor on. Also, please tell Viktor he needs to call me, he's been ignoring my calls and texts recently.
Kisses,
Christophe Giacometti
After relaying the message to Viktor, who could only chuckle quietly while shaking his head, Yuuri moved on to the next letter, this one from Michele Crispino.
Hey Yuuri,
I just heard what happened. That's really tough luck. I didn't really intend to write you this letter since there isn't really much for me to say, but Sara made me do it since she has such a soft spot for you. Oh, she told me to tell you she's really sorry for what happened and that she wishes you a speedy recovery. There isn't much else for me to say, so, just, good luck in your future endeavors in life.
Sincerely,
Michele Crispino
Yuuri let out an exhalation of air out his nose in a laugh at the awkwardness of the letter. Moving on, Yuuri quickly read through the letters from Leo de la Iglesia, Guang-Hong Ji, and Emil Nekola. The next letter had Yuuri pausing to smile at seeing the name, Phitchit Chulanot.
Yuuri!
Celestino just told me that you got hurt! I can't believe it! I tried calling Viktor to find out more, he didn't tell me much, but he did ask me to write a letter for when you get out of the hospital. That was a great idea of his, instead of an overwhelming amount of social media messages you will have to go through later, you could read our words now without any hassle, although international postage costs are nothing to sneeze at. But it's totally worth it to have a chance to talk to you, even if it takes a while to receive a response. I figure that you probably haven't done much since you're supposed to be in a hospital healing, but you need to tell me everything as soon as you can, I'm out of my mind with worry, and it's only the first day. Not much is happening over here in Thailand, just Ciao Ciao doing his usual coaching things. But some good news! After getting bronze at the world cup last year, some big name companies took an interest in me, their going to fund an on ice show for me! It's going to be amazing! This season is going to be my last one, and after it's over I'm going full swing into getting the show ready. I'm so excited! I'll send you and Viktor tickets for the opening night whenever that may be. Ciao Ciao is getting on me to get back to training now. Please, call me as soon as you can.
Wishing for the best!
Pitchit~
Unable to help the smile that had appeared on his face before he even began reading, Yuuri turned to the last of the letters in his hand. The name was unmistakable even through the sloppy scrawl as Yurio. Feeling trepidation towards what the young man wanted to say to him, Yuuri opened the letter slowly and began to read.
Hey Katsudon!
What's this I've heard about you getting injured! What were you thinking? Probably weren't thinking, that's what. Yakov told us what happened, apparently Viktor called to ask him what to do in this kind of situation, as if Yakov has ever had a student stupid enough to get injured like this. And hey, don't let me hear you slacking off, just because you're injured doesn't mean you have any right to give up, you're going to skate again so that I can beat you again and prove how much of a loser you really are.
Oh, and tell Viktor I need the new choreography by next week. He has no excuse to be slacking off either, so don't you dare bring him down.
Yuri Plitsesky
After reading it, Yuuri stared at the words on the page, no longer attempting to process what they were saying.
"Yurio," Yuuri whispered, ignoring the look of worry that flitted across Viktor's face as he made his way across the room to him.
Re-reading the letter once again, Yuuri felt his resolve harden. Unlike everyone else who were pitying Yuuri and dancing around the issue, Yurio did what Yurio always does. Tackle it head on.
Finally looking up into the worried face of Viktor kneeling before him, Yuuri felt his determination fill until he almost couldn't handle it anymore.
"I'm going to walk again," he said, surprising himself with the amount of certainty in his voice, "And I'm going to skate again. I'm not giving up."
A moment passed between the two as Viktor stared at him with wide eyes and open mouth, before closing his mouth and giving the younger man a smile.
Viktor felt immense pride in that moment. There's my husband.
Thank you so much for reading!
This took a bit of time to get out, but it is a slightly longer chapter than normal, so enjoy!
This has not been edited yet, so it is subject to changes.
Please leave a review if you have any ideas for additions to the story!
Have a wonderful day.