7. The Kind Old Sun Will Know

Yuuri had his eyes closed, leaning against Viktor's chest. They'd taken a quick shower followed by a soak in the Onsen and he felt just about ready to fall asleep despite the early hour. Gentle fingers were stroking his scalp, and Yuuri wondered what it would be like to have this every day. 'Did you mean it, Viktor? That you'd live here with me?'

The soft caresses stopped and Viktor wrapped his arms around Yuuri from behind. 'Absolutely. I already checked out the small house just across from here. It looks neat.'

'Yeah, it does. I can't afford that. I'd have to take out a loan.'

'No, you don't. I can buy that thing.'

'Viktor …'

'You'll be on the deed. I'm not going to try and get you into some sort of dependency, Yuuri.'

'I know. I mean, as long as I'm successful, I'll make good money, but how the hell did you get that rich?'

Viktor snorted. 'By being born as a stupidly rich oligarch's son who had so much that his two children would still be stupidly rich without any effort.'

'I … guess that makes sense. Have you spoken to the seller?'

'You know me way too well. I managed to beat down the price, too, to something sensible. What he was asking was insane and nowhere near what the place is worth.'

Yuuri laughed and turned to look at Viktor. 'Have you closed the deal, too?'

Viktor looked mildly affronted. 'Of course not. I'd never do that without talking to you first.'

Standing up, Yuuri offered a hand to pull Viktor to his feet. 'Good for you. I'd like to get a look at it first.'

'Wise.' Viktor followed his fiancé out, still buck naked. At this time the place was closed to the public, so they had it to themselves. 'If you prefer, you can take out a loan for half the price of the thing. You can do that without crippling yourself and unless I'm very much mistaken, you'll have it paid off quickly.'

'I'd definitely prefer that.'

'Hey, Yuuri, listen. About that folder …'

Almost slipping on the floor, Yuuri doubled over and laughed. 'I'd thought it would take a little longer than that. You have no self-control.'

Viktor grabbed one of Yuuri's butt cheeks and jiggled it. 'Laugh it up, young man. When I've fully recovered and got rid of the splint, I'm going to make you beg for mercy and show you just how much self-control I have.'

Yuuri spun and grabbed Viktor's shoulders, pushing him back until he was against the wall. Pressing into him, Yuuri kissed him hard. 'That's going to work as long as I want it to. You know I can send you over the edge with a look, my beautiful man.'

Viktor swallowed, noticing that somehow he'd put his hands on Yuuri's hips to keep him close. 'You're right, I'm afraid. I mean, I just had you and I want you again already.'

Yuuri pushed his face into Viktor's neck to hide his smile. 'When you're better, you can show me just what you can do with that beautiful, big dick of yours.' He felt Viktor give a hopeful twitch against him and pulled away to stop him from working himself to full arousal. Taking both of Viktor's hands, Yuuri smiled at him, knowing how he could bring him back down gently before this escalated into something they really shouldn't do in the Onsen – in or out of the water. 'I promise you this is the last time I ask, but … are you really all right with this? All of this? Moving to a different country, giving up your citizenship so you can compete with me rather than against me? It's okay if you get cold feet, this is a lot you're offering here and I don't want you to regret this eventually … to resent me for it.'

Viktor brought Yuuri's hand up to his lips and kissed his ring. 'I wish I'd been half as considerate to you.' He sighed. 'For starters, you are the love of my life and I could never resent you. And … I've been watching you since I've come to find you. I don't know if you realise how different you are here, in a good way, but to me it's glaringly obvious. You were happy when you first came to Russia, but you were clearly missing everything about this place and … some spark in you started to go out. I've been thinking about little else.'

'It's weird, though. It's not as if I'd spent all that much time at home before.'

'No. But the long absence didn't do you any favours then, either.' Viktor brushed his knuckles over Yuuri's cheek and smiled when the younger man leaned into his touch. 'But you always knew that this was your home, and that even if you were away for a long time, you were going to come back. To live here, not as a visitor. And now I've caught myself making plans how and when to have what shipped to Japan, tried to find out if Japan fast tracks citizenship for athletes, …'

'Does it?'

'Not in reality, it doesn't. But if we get married, I'm eligible in three years. And I can't compete for Russia until then because if I do, I open a whole new can of worms if I want to compete for Japan at the next Olympic games.'

'I'm sorry this is so complicated.'

'It's not like it would be so much better vice versa. If we get married soon, it'll help. Not that I'm saying I want to rush our wedding. There's enough time and competing or not, you are the most important thing in my life. I'm not going to hasten through something as life changing for convenience.'

'You could compete in our nationals, Viktor. Wasn't there some American who won them once?'

'Yes, seventy years ago, a Jack Jost or something. And a few more foreigners have competed successfully in pair skating, so that should not be a problem. It would give us more opportunities to compete together.' He stopped and blinked. 'Hold on. Are you saying we're doing this?'

'I … I'd like to try.'

Viktor punched the air and flung himself at Yuuri, pulling him hard against his chest. 'YES!'

'Maybe Linda can write the music for my short program and our shared free program. And Ketty vice versa. And yes. I've been thinking about this a little bit.'

Viktor squeezed him once more before releasing him. 'We'll focus on your single program. And if you're really on board with this, I'll happily participate in the Nationals with you, but you'll have the international stage. And when Olympia comes around, we'll be so used to doing this together we'll be able to do it in our sleep.'

'You don't really doubt that we'll qualify, do you?'

Viktor snorted. 'I don't really doubt that we'll win gold together. Now … if it's all the same to you, I'd like that ugly flyer back. I need to figure out if I want to call the number on it or perform a cremation ritual.'

Ϡ

After their soak in hot water, Viktor had returned to a bunch of unanswered calls. One had been from Yakov, who had growled the contact of a good pair skating coach who would gladly go to Hasetsu for a pair like them onto his voicemail. One was from the police in Saint Petersburg, whom he'd called back. Apparently, they had found a poisoned piece of chocolate in their apartment. That this was seemingly the same chocolate that Yuuri had thought he'd misplaced made him feel ill. This person, whoever they were, might work well enough to evade detection, but they didn't seem to care which one of them died – and they had clearly been in their apartment at least once before. Probably multiple times, considering that there had been several well-hidden cameras. That kind of thing took time. Viktor suspected that they had also been the one going through his closet, which was another horribly intimate invasion.

And the last call had been from the same number as on the flyer but with a different extension. Viktor had gone white as a sheet, staring at it, and Yuuri finally decided to put his foot down. 'Viktor, if someone is harassing you here, I'm going to call the police.'

The Russian swallowed drily. 'Because they sent a slip of colourful paper? Please don't.'

'Someone wants you dead, Viktor. Or me.'

'Not the same person.' He sighed deeply. 'The names on the flyer. Look.'

'Huh? Where?' Viktor pointed at the tiny print declaring the owners and Yuuri looked at him. 'Noda Ren and Anna Dmitrievna? Hold on! Like Viktor Dmitrievich Nikiforov?'

'Exactly like that. Anya is my sister.'

'Noda, though? Seems like she married a Japanese guy.'

'Clearly. But even so … Why she's opening a hotel here is beyond me, why she'd suddenly want to talk to me even mo…' He fell silent and stared at his phone's display.

'Pick up,' Yuuri said. 'Come one, Viktor, talk to her! What's the worst that could happen?'

'I could throw the phone at the wall if I answer this. It isn't going to survive another impact like that.'

'We'll just buy you a new one. This one is in a pitiful state anyway.'

Locking eyes with Yuuri, Viktor picked up. 'Moshi-moshi,' he said, earning a gentle whack on his shoulder. Yuuri didn't hear much from the soft female voice, but he did pick out that she was speaking Japanese after that greeting. 'Viktor? Viktor is here all right,' Viktor said, switching to English for Yuuri's sake. He understood Russian when the conversation stayed normal, but maybe Viktor expected it to get nasty. 'Hold on, I'm putting you on speaker. I don't want to give my fiancé a word for word report after this.'

'I'd rather not.' The woman's voice wasn't angry when Viktor activated the speaker, but decisive.

'Well, then I can just hang up,' Viktor said.

'Don't do that,' Yuuri said quickly. 'I'm sorry. Please be nice to her. She's your sister.'

Viktor offered a dark look. 'I don't want to talk to her in the first place.' He returned his attention back to the phone, which had stayed silent through the brief exchange. 'What did you want?'

'I … hoped you could come to the opening of my hotel, Viktor. I haven't seen you in ages and there is so much, so … sorry.' The sound died but the connection stayed active.

'Anya?' Viktor tried. 'I think she muted me. Why would she do that?'

'What do you think, Viktor?' Yuuri made a face. He felt like an intruder. 'I'm going to leave you to this, it isn't right. She clearly just wants to speak to her brother.' When Viktor was going to protest, he stood. 'Please, I'm not saying that you should make any promises you're not ready for, but she's got to have a reason to reach out to you, and the only one I can think of is that she loves you and misses you. Talk to her. You can still tell her you're not ready later, but let her have this.'

'Thank you, Yuuri, you don't need to leave.' The voice had returned and it sounded nasal, confirming his impression that she'd muted the phone because she was going to cry.

After a moment of hesitation, he settled down again. 'It's nice to meet someone from Viktor's family.' Suddenly, curiosity took over. 'Hey, can you turn on the camera on your phone? I'd like to see you.'

'O-of course.' Her face became visible and Yuuri decided that if he hadn't known who she was, seeing her would have done the trick. She looked almost exactly like Viktor had with his hair long. Maybe her features were slightly softer, maybe she didn't seem entirely as aethereal, but she was nearly as beautiful as him. Her eyes were wide and her nose was red. 'Can I see you, too, Yuuri? Not that I don't know what you look like, but …'

Scowling at Yuuri, Viktor turned on his camera. 'Happy now?' he asked. 'We've all seen each other. That's enough, isn't it?'

'Look.' She steeled herself visibly, her face as readable as a book. 'Our family is trash, for the most part. I … swallowed a lot of lies about you, Viktor, but … the big brother I remember isn't like they said. And I can't reconcile their words with my memories anymore.'

'Am I finally about to learn what I did to deserve all that hate?' The anger had left Viktor's voice, he just sounded tired now.

'I don't know all of it myself, that's just the older generation. Just … please, Viktor. Just one afternoon. It isn't even far from Hasetsu.' There was a soft sniff. 'And bring that lovely gentleman next to you. I'd like to give him a hug for being kind without reason.'

'He is kind,' Viktor said. 'Which is why I can't get angry with him when I clearly should.' He sighed. 'That opening is in three weeks, isn't it? I won't start this weird thing between us by lying to you. We're … not having any plans that can't be delayed, we could come. But I need to think this over. I've spent a long time telling myself none of you cared about me and … honestly, I have a hard time believing you're not doing this out of an ulterior motive.'

'I understand that. Just, let me know a night before? If that's okay?'

Viktor's lip curled in a very slight smile. 'I'll do that, Anya. This I can promise.'

'Thanks.' Anya turned to look at something out of their field of vision. 'Hey, I need to go, Ren is coming home. But … I'm glad we talked even for a bit. Yuuri … I really hope I'll meet you soon. You seem to be a wonderful person. Take care of Viktor, no matter what you decide.'

'I'll do that,' Yuuri said, meaning it. 'See you.'

Viktor ended the call. 'See you? Really?'

'It's just a saying.'

'Mhm.'

Yuuri looked at him. 'Are you mad at me, Viktor?'

The Russian sighed and shook his head. 'No.' He narrowed his eyes. 'Although sometimes I really wish I could be.'

((Viktor's history is accurate, by the way. I had to dig deep for that one. I'm investing as much time for research here as I did for my science fiction series, and I thought that was complicated. At least I entered that with basic knowledge of what I need, way back when.

And Аня- /Anya/ is a diminutive of Anna, obviously (I think).))