This is the end, my friends!
The delay in me producing this chapter mainly had to do with me having a lot to do in school these past few weeks and, y'know, having a birthday (the author of Pushing Platonic is now 18 years old!) (also fun fact I share a birthday with our very own Christophe Giacometti! granted we are 8 years apart ;P) also I think I was pushing this off a bit because I didn't want Push Plat to end, haha
You've all been a wonderful, wonderful reader base and I've had so much fun writing Push Plat. Enjoy the last chapter!
(also, note: Fr. is the 'symbol' [bc there. rly isn't one] for Swiss francs)
(also ALSO chris is on a plane in the first part and therefore the text times r. kinda wonky but just. bear w/ me and we're gonna say they're in central European time)
Chris can feel the way the unassuming, pseudo-time traveling trip from west to east drags at him even as it happens. There was a time when he could hop from place to place, up and down the earth wherever his fancy struck him and took him, seemingly able to live without sleep. Now, 30 and retired from his days of pushing his body to the pinnacle of athleticism, he feels a tangible strain—one that makes him feel his age and more anywhere he's bent, stretched, and broken his skin a few too many times.
In his pocket, his phone buzzes, and neither his aches nor his fatigue matter because his best friend has been texting him pictures of his new baby for the past two weeks.
chris (emojis) [9:32 PM]: I know how much you love her and want to show her to everyone but I'm already on my way to see her!
vic (emojis) [9:32 PM]: I know! my darling baby girl thinks her uncle chris needs to get here faster. use ur Fr. buy better laws of physics
chris (emojis) [9:33 PM]: what?
vic (emojis) [9:34 PM]: i'm a new father, leave me be
Chris smiles at his phone and slips it back into his pocket where it stays quiet—meaning Victor doesn't bother him anymore—for the rest of his flight to Japan. It sometimes goes through his mind that he's going to see Victor's daughter as he bides his time by looking out his window, and he remembers when they met in 2010, neither of them remotely ready to be parents—going to jail, even, because of Victor's bad drunken decisions—and Katsuki Yūri was a teenager watching his future husband from afar through a television screen. Now, Victor and Yūri have been parents for a month, finally loosening their grip enough to let other people come and see their child. (Mari's been saying that she's been reaching up at people's phones, trying to escape her isolation).
Chris calls a taxi to take him to Victor and Yūri's house once he lands but is too busy in his own mind to remember most of the drive. He feels a strange sort of anxiety mixed with anticipation as he rings the doorbell, soon greeted by a mildly disheveled looking Yūri. "Victor's in the nursery," Yūri says instead of offering any sort of greeting, "he wanted to have you 'come in and see him holding our baby—like a real dad'." Yūri fondly rolls his eyes and moves away from the doorway, letting Chris inside.
He can see the typical array of 'new child in the house' paraphernalia all around, blankets and baby clothes strewn across furniture and cleaners and heaters and humidifiers across almost every surface. "Congratulations again," Chris tells Yūri.
"Thank you," Yūri says, smiling in that small, bashful way he's never really lost even after Victor came into his life and leaning up against the staircase, "I thought I was always overflowing with love before, but now…." He trails off, sighing happily. Yūri looks happier—more comfortable—than the last time Chris saw him, but that's been the case since 2016. He taps Chris's shoulder as he brushes by. "Don't keep my husband waiting."
He has to stop right outside of the door to the nursery once he gets up the stairs. This is Victor's life now—and his too, by proxy. What are you supposed to think before meeting your best friend's baby?
Chris decides that he's never been one for philosophizing and opens the door.
His eyes are immediately drawn to Victor and his baby—he can't even take in what the room looks like. Victor has the softest, softest smile on his face, gently rocking his baby girl. He hears Chris step in and turns his head, his smile losing some of its softness but not a bit of its honesty or brightness.
Chris remembers what he said to Victor at a pool in Barcelona back when he and Yūri had first started dating. "Hi, Dad Victor," Chris says in reference to a year long gone, matching his smile.
He watches as plump, happy tears well in Victor's eyes and roll down his cheeks, his lower lip wobbling in the sturdiest smile Chris has ever seen.
"Thank you, Chris," Victor says.
bonus points headcanon: chris and phichit team up to become the ultimate Cool Uncle Duo. chris has the funds and phichit has the Cool Uncle Agenda
This is the end of Push Plat! Thanks so much for sticking around everyone. If I get some more Chris N Vic ideas I might make this a series and take on some oneshots but we'll see