Old fill from a kink meme on Springkink. The prompt was Yuri/Alice, combing out her hair in the bath. Probably counts as AU, because... well.

It wouldn't be a lie to say that Yuri is good with his hands, but it probably would be if one purposely extended that to include anything requiring more finesse than punching things until they explode.

Which is not to say that Yuri isn't very good at punching things until they explode, it's just that Alice sometimes wishes that she had never asked him to comb out her hair. Or let him give it a second try after the initial disaster. Or a third, or tenth, or long after she stopped counting, until it became something of a ritual between them.

But then she catches a glimpse of him in the mirror and sees the look of peaceful concentration on his face, and knows that she doesn't have the heart to ask him to stop. Sometimes you have to endure a little suffering in the name of love, and he is... making some progress. Probably. Even though she still has to spend a few minutes by herself every day, working out the tangles he missed, and the new ones he somehow made.

This time they are sitting in a large, ornate bathtub, in a room they share - which is still somewhat new and exciting and just a little bit embarrassing - in a hotel she doesn't know the name of, in a small town she does know but can't pronounce the name of, somewhere in eastern Europe. She made the mistake of letting Yuri fill the tub, which means the temperature is something he might call "lukewarm" but she would rather describe as "scalding", but it's actually kind of nice since it's cold and snowing outside and the water is quickly chasing the chill from her bones.

The temperature of the bath water is one of those things they can never agree on, and she doesn't expect that to change. The only easy solution would be to stop bathing together, and neither of them wants that. She's just a little curious as to whether it's a result of Yuri's powers or if his skin is just naturally heat-proof, but she only got a shrug and a kiss when she asked. Which was nice, even if it didn't answer her question. She gets the feeling he doesn't know either, and it doesn't really matter.

...then again, most things don't really seem to matter when they're together like this.

Time passes in comfortable silence, only broken when Yuri finally seems satisfied with the state of her hair and lets it spill across her shoulders into the steaming water; tosses the comb on the floor and wraps his arms around her, quite deliberately laying his hands over her breasts. She doesn't make what he refers to as 'that cute little squeaking sound' this time, because she was fully expecting that, but simply lets out a small sigh of contentment as she leans back against his chest and sinks a little deeper in the tub.

Yuri's fingers are a little rough against her skin in the too-hot water, but that's just him being Yuri, and she wouldn't change him for the world.