Over a week has passed since Viktor's plane had went down in the waters off the coast of Japan. The crash sight had been scoured over for countless hours, and although the police can confirm they have found all of Viktor's luggage and carry on, they still have yet to find any indication of Viktor himself. Since that day, Yuuri found himself incapable of doing simple tasks, such as eating or even getting out of his bed. The room he shared with Viktor remained dark, with the blinds closed tightly. Yuuri lay on Viktor's side of the bed, hugging the pillow his husband always insisted he had to have in order to sleep. He had thought that after hours of crying, he would be unable to cry any more, but at that moment a wave of emotions overcame the Japanese man, and he buried his face in the pillow as the tears began pouring out again.
A soft knock came from the bedroom door, and Yuuri heard the sound of his mom's gentle voice carry through the door, "Yuuri dear, can I please come in?"
The crying man didn't give a response, but he didn't object at the sound of the door opening and his mother entering the room. She sat down on the side of the bed and began petting his head in a soothing manner, staying quietly by his side. After his tears finally stop, and some time passed in silence, Hiroko finally broached the topic of why she wished to enter the room to begin with.
"Yuuri… there are two officers in the front that wish to speak with you. I came to help get you up. If you don't want me to help, then I can send in Minami instead."
Pushing himself into a sitting position with much effort, Yuuri looked at his mother for the first time in over a week. She tired unsuccessfully to hold in a gasp at the sight of him. His hair a disheveled mess, his face red and puffy. His eyes, dead looking, as if he were the one that was presumed dead.
"Bring me my chair," he said in a gravely voice, made as such by an excessive amount of crying proceeded by a sudden lack of use.
Doing as he asked, Hiroko watched in silent sorrow as her son struggled against his unmoving legs to seat himself in his chair. Once he had himself seated, albeit not very comfortably, his mom silently grabbed the handles and pushed him to the front of the building where two officers stood in forlorn silence.
"Mr. Katsuki," one of them said, removing his hat upon seeing the broken man in the wheel chair, "I am very sorry to be here today and having to say this," the man looked to his partner for encouragement before taking a deep breath and continuing, "We have yet to find any clue as to Mr. Nikiforov's location, however at the current time and findings, we believe it would be best to declare him as deceased."
Yuuri swallowed back the cry threating to rip out of his lungs, and placed a hand over his mouth, closing his eyes as the tears began to well back up.
A substantial silence followed the announcement before the second officer spoke up, slowly at first, "We're, sorry, Mr. Katsuki. Believe us, when we say that, we do not wish to give up on finding any, survivors. However, at this point in time, it seems highly unlike that anyone, could have survived that crash."
Everyone remained frozen in that moment as Yuuri began to fully process the implications of what was happening.
A sudden loud crash broke the silence in the room, and all eyes turned to look at the front doors to see them flung wide open with a man filling the door way. He stood tall, his icy blue eyes scanned the room with an almost wild madness, normally clean shaven looked to have not seen a razor in at least a week, his silvery-white hair hung in greasy tendrils around his face, his clothes looked as if he had slept in them, multiple times. Breathing heavily as if he had been running for a long distance, his eyes finally found Yuuri, and upon seeing the wheel-chair bound man, he flung himself at him. Wrapping his arms around Yuuri's neck, he held on tightly as he began to cry.
"Yuuri," Viktor cried in to his husband's shoulder, "Oh Yuuri, I have missed you!"
Yuuri sat in silence as he and everyone else in the room attempted to process what had just happened.
"V-Viktor?" he asked slowly, afraid this was all just a dream.
"Yes Love, it's me," Viktor pulled back to look at his husband with his signature wide grin on his face.
"Viktor," Yuuri gasped, finally realizing the magnitude of the man kneeling right in front of him. The Japanese man threw himself at his husband, losing his wheel chair in the process and sending them both sprawling on the floor. "Viktor it's you, it's really you!"
"It's me, Yuuri. It's really me. I'm never going to leave your side again."
The officers in the room remained quiet to give the two reunited men some time, however, the second one finally spoke up to finally ask what was on everyone's mind, "Excuse me Mr. Nikiforov, apologies for interrupting this moment. Nevertheless, I must ask, how did you survive the plane crash?"
Viktor looked up at the officer, then back at his husband who was still laying on top of him hugging him tightly. Maneuvering the both of them into a sitting position, with Yuuri on his lap still held tightly in his arms, Viktor explained, "I actually didn't know about the plane crash until this morning when I finally got back into Japan."
The officers looked down at Viktor then looked at Yuuri, who was the one to finally ask, "Viktor, what exactly happened a week ago."
Looking just the slightest bit bashful, Viktor rubbed at the back of his neck as he said, "It's a bit of a story."
"Let's get you some food and allow you to get more comfortable, then you can tell us," Hiroko cut in, the ran off to begin preparing food in celebration of Viktor's return.
After everyone was settled in with Yuuri staying glued to Viktor's side, and the food had been placed in front of them, Viktor began explaining what had happened. "I actually was on that plane, to begin with."
Viktor had been one of the first passengers let on the plane, what with his celebrity status and his ability to pay the speed fee. Putting down his phone from having been texting Yuuri nonstop for the past hour, Viktor rose to check on his overhead luggage when the other passengers began to board the plane. Almost instantly fans began to recognize him, and the dull hum of mingling voices normally heard on a plane quickly increased to a load roar.
"Oh my gosh, that's Viktor Nikiforov," a female voice said.
Turning towards where he heard the voice come from, Viktor put on his best winning smile for his fans, only for the smile to freeze on his face at the sight of two officers pushing through the crowd forming around him.
Reaching the silver-haired skater, one of the officers spoke, "Mr. Nikiforov, we are going to need you to come with us."
"Of course, officer. But, can I ask why?" Viktor asked in a calm voice that did not match the chaos going on inside his head now.
It was the second officer that answered the question, "we received a call that you were disturbing the peace on the plane, if you would come with us quickly and quietly, we will get this all sorted out."
Nodding his head in understanding, Viktor turned to gather up his belongings, only to be stopped by the first officer placing his hand on the skater's shoulder.
"Leave it," he said quietly, "someone will collect it all and bring it to you later."
And with that, the officers escorted Viktor off the then silent plane.
"You really are an idiot," Mila declared as she finished signing Viktor's release forms.
"I don't see why they got so upset with me offering an autograph for my release, that seemed reasonable enough to me," Viktor explained with hunched shoulders, trying not to make eye contact with anyone staring at him in the office.
"You tried to bribe an officer for your release. I approve of their decision to hold you over night," she turned to look at him with her hands on her hips before shaking her head in disappointment and began to walk to the door. "What are you going to do now? They have all of your luggage on the plane and I doubt they will allow you back on one any time soon."
Viktor remained silent as he thought over all his options, then an idea came to him.
"Mila, I need to borrow some money," he began.
Looking skeptical, Mila looked side eyed while asking, "what for?"
"I'm going to be going by train-" Viktor began before being cut off.
"Do you realize how expensive that is? That's going to cost a fortune!" Mila shrieked, drawing the eyes of everyone in the precinct who hadn't already been watching them.
Looking around at all the eyes on them, Viktor grabbed the read head by the top of her arm and quickly pulled her out of the building. He walked them a good distance away into the parking lot before letting his hold on Mila go and turning to look at her dead on.
"I will pay you back double of what it costs to take the trip, just please. I need to get back to Yuuri soon, and we both know the only feasible way at this point is by train. Please Mila, you're the only one that can help me."
Staring at the face of her old rink mate, Mila took her time in deciding whether to help him or not. Letting out a sigh at defeat upon seeing the puppy dog eyes on the older man's face, she finally conceded, "Fine, I'll give you the money for the ticket."
Viktor began jumping up and down and shouting excitedly, but the sound of Mila yelling, "But," drew him up short.
"But," Mila said again, "You're going to need to give me Yuuri's phone number, so I can keep the poor boy posted on your location. Since you don't have your phone at the moment."
A sheepish look took over the happiness on Viktor's face, and he looked down at his feet as he began to awkwardly shuffle them around.
"Bit of a problem with that," he started to explain, "You know that I'm bad at remembering phone numbers, and like you said, my phone is on that plane, and well, Yuuri's number is international, making it all the more difficult to remember…"
Mila shook her head in disappointment, "You can't even remember your own husband's phone number? I can't believe you. Get in my car, we'll get you on the first train leaving the station tonight, hopefully you can get there quick enough that Yuuri doesn't get too worried."
Viktor started jumping up and down again in excitement, then proceeded to run to Mila's car, with said woman trailing behind him.
Viktor sat staring down at the ticket in his hand, ignoring the sight of the Russian country side flying past his train window. Upon arriving at the train station, he and Mila had made the amazing discovery that the closest point to Japan was Vladivostok, which had ships constantly going back and forth across the water between the two countries. However, they were dismayed to discover that there were no trains that went all the way out there form St. Petersburg.
"I can get you a train to Moscow, but from there you will have to take a bus for the remainder of the trip, that will be about a week-long trip," the ticket sales woman had said to them.
Leaning his head back against his chairs head rest, Viktor closed his eyes and attempted to dampen down his emotions. An entire additional week he would be away from his husband, and to add on to it, they had no way of communicating with each other. The only time Viktor could recall they went any extend period of time without talking to each other was before they had even met.
Opening his eyes to stare at the trains ceiling, Viktor quietly made a promise to his love, "I am coming for you Yuuri."
"After arriving in Vladivostok, I hopped on a boat heading to Fushiki. Once I arrived in Japan I jumped on the train and rode it all the way to Hatsetsu," Viktor finished off, shrugging his shoulder as he looked down at his husband leaning against his side.
"You attempted to bribe an officer with your autograph?" Yuuri asked in disbelief.
This shocked Viktor, "of all the things you could have noticed in my tale of cross country travels for you, it's that?"
"I could have also made a comment on the fact that you don't even remember my phone number," Yuuri pointed out.
Viktor ducked his head and looked away, "I'm bad with phone numbers."
Yuuri shook his head in incredulity before wrapping his arms tightly around Viktor's middle. "We'll work on that later, for now. I am never letting you out of my sights again."
"I can live with that," Viktor said as he wrapped his arms tightly around Yuuri.
After the food had been cleared away, and the officers had departed to report all that had happened, Yuuri and Viktor found themselves alone for the first time in forever.
Viktor lifted his arm to place a hand gently on Yuuri's face, only to smell his own body odor, causing him to quickly drop his arm in his lap.
"Yuuri, Love, how are you standing to be so close to me, I smell absolutely terrible. And I don't even want to begin to imagine how terrible I look," Viktor said, looking away from his husband's face.
The Japanese man reached forward and caressed the Russian's face as he said, "Viktor, I've spent the last week in a state of depression at the idea of your possible death. I doubt I look any better than you do."
"You always look amazing to me!" Viktor was quick to say.
Quirking an eyebrow at him, Yuuri waited in silence for Viktor to finally break and admit, "Yeah, we both could do with a good bath though."
Yuuri laughed and pushed himself off Viktor to allow him to stand up. "Come on, let's go take a bath."
"Together?" Viktor asked with a hint of excitement as he picked Yuuri up bridal style.
Giving his husband a look as if to say, 'really?' he responded with, "Didn't I tell you I would never let you out of my sights again?"
Viktor smiled largely, then carried is husband off towards the baths.
Before I say anything else, I just need you to know that I was never actually going to kill Viktor. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did. As soon as I had posted the previous chapter I had began the research to determine the way that Viktor would be able to travel to Japan but not by plane. Let's just say that it took a lot of research to figure it all out.
With that being said, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I made it just a smidge longer than I have been lately to make up for the cliff hanger and the longer (unintentional) break between the chapters.
As always, if you like what I'm writing or if you have any ideas of what I can add to the story, please feel free to leave a comment or PM me, I love when people reach out and interact.
Finals week is this week so I will be attempting to work on a few more chapters in the next month or so of break, maybe start to wrap this story up if no one gives me anymore suggestions.
Thank you all so very much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!