Posters

Mrs. Katsuki was walking down the hall clutching some papers to her chest. Then she spotted Viktor.

"Ah Vicchan! I've been looking for you."

"Mrs. Katsuki."

"Come let's talk in your room."

He agreed and as Yuuri doing some independent training (read: burning off anxiety about moving to St. Petersburg) they were free to talk.

"So you're taking my boy away." Mrs. Katsuki twinkled at Viktor.

"I'll take good care of him."

"I know you will…you love him, don't you?" Mrs. Katsuki gave him a penetrating look at him from over her glasses. Viktor didn't hesitate.

"Yes. I love him."

"I thought so." Beamed Mrs. Katsuki.

"Am I so easy to read?" Many people have criticized how he wore his emotions on his sleeve.

"I think most everyone but Yuuri could tell." They stopped in front of his bedroom door. He began to twist his ring. The wise mother heard the story of the rings from Yuuri but she knew Viktor felt the deeper meaning behind them. She felt sorry for him, her son could be so troublesome but somehow he makes you want to cuddle him.

"This is how it is with people who have anxiety. Yuuri recognizes your feelings on one level and denies them on another as self-protection."

The lady slid the door open for Viktor as if she was escorting a guest. Viktor walked in and she closed the door behind her. Viktor asked the question.

"Did Yuuri say he loved me back?"

"Not in so much words…Vicchan, he worships the ground you walk on…he's just afraid of showing it. He said often (before you two met) that you (his prince) would marry a princess like you should."

"A princess? I've had my share of them." Viktor flopped on the foot of the bed and thought of Barcelona. "He thinks I should return to the ice, I should marry a princess, I should win ten golds, I should, I should, I should."

"He has put you on a pedestal." She sat down next to him on the bed and patted his knee. "Even after getting to know the real Viktor Nikiforov, he still clings to his childish ideas of how you should be."

"It gets lonely up there on that pedestal."

Mrs. Katsuki sighed in sympathy.

"If you have any doubts about Yuuri's feelings, look at these."

Mrs. Katsuki revealed the posters she's been clutching. There were so many, they started to place them on the floor. It was an impressive collection. Viktor knew some of them were only available through contests.

"I signed this one." He smiled at the poster with his curvy signature. "To think Yuuri was one of the contest winners. How fate was drawing us together."

"Yuuri won some contest and when he got it in the mail, he showed it to everybody."

"He must have been so cute as a child."

The proud mama merely smiled. "Vicchan, he wrote on this one." One day she happened to notice when the edge came loose as it hung on the wall. The mother pulled out an early one from his junior championship. Viktor couldn't help but smile at his old self in the blue rose wreath. She flipped over the poster and reveled some kanji in a childish hand. Mrs. Katsuki knew Viktor mastered their spoken language (in fact they been speaking in Japanese the whole time) but Viktor barely knew any characters.

"It says: I want to marry him."

Viktor felt all fluttery. Yuuri wrote that when he was only twelve years old.

"There was only one person he wanted from this moment on. I'm sure he never dared to imagine it happening in reality. I think he figured he would die a bachelor because no one could compare. Then you swoop in and busted his fantasies to bits. Vicchan, did you calm his anxiety about your relationship like you did with his skating?" Mother gave him a sharp look. "Or did you continue to act like the playboy he fears?"

Viktor couldn't say anything to that. She started to clean the posters up as she felt guilty. She wanted to put them back under the bed. It was a bit of a shock when she went to his room to drop off a package, when she noticed they were gone. It took all of five seconds to find them under the bed. The lady began to sort through the posters, that's when she saw it.

"He wrote on this one too?"

Viktor and Mrs. Katsuki soon had them all flipped over. Yuuri wrote on the back of each one. Mother translated them. There was many messages from sweet to sexy. They felt a little guilty because it was like reading a diary. She flipped over the most resent poster given to Yuuri in Barcelona. It was of him with his silver medal with Viktor standing slightly behind him. She read the writing on the back:

"I love him." Mrs. Katsuki looked at Viktor from over her glasses. "There you see!" Viktor was speechless and blushing. She continued:

"Viktor likes me, I think. He says such sweet things. I want to believe in him but I'm scared. I don't want to be used up and tossed away before he leaves me. I don't want to start to hate him. Viktor must stay beautiful in my heart."

There was a silence in the room. The mother understood. She suspected her boy felt this way. But for Viktor, it was a revelation. Mrs. Katsuki thought for someone who was supposed to be so experienced, he really was an idiot. She stayed silent as he flipped through the posters. The messages on them reveled Yuuri's true feelings. If only there was a way to reveal Viktor's to Yuuri. Suddenly he knew how, the answer was right there in his hands.

"Mrs. Katsuki, if you could be so good as to return the posters to where they were hid."

"Of course."

"They have given me an idea. But I will need the help from you, your husband and daughter…possibly Yurio and even Makkachin will factor in the plan."

"We will do anything to get our boy the man of his dreams." Viktor couldn't speak for a moment.

"Good…one last thing." Said Viktor. "Do you think it's too early to propose marriage?"

"No. You two have spent more time together than me and Toshiya were together before our marriage and the first year combined."

"Every well…"

Mrs. Katsuki slipped away to return the posters to under the bed. Viktor thought through the plan. There had to be some slight-of-hand involved but with help, he could do it. Viktor planned to write messages on each of the posters on the front in black marker culminating in the proposal. Then hang them in the guestroom at his apartment in St. Petersburg. Since there was nothing more to do until they left Japan, Viktor spent every night composing what to write on each one.

The day of the move came and just as they were about to leave, Viktor pretended to forget something. Yuuri begged him to hurry. The Katsuki family distracted him from the fact that Viktor took his smaller, poster sized suitcase with him. Viktor slipped into Yuuri's bedroom, retrieved the posters. He took a moment to give poster Yuuri a kiss.

"I hope by the end of this long day, we will be engaged to be married."

Viktor tucked them away and step one was completed.

After arrival in St. Petersburg, Yuuri agreed to collect Makkachin from customs. Animals always got inspected for diseases and their papers checked and rechecked. The process will take an hour and then they would meet on the bridge as arranged.

Viktor met Yurio at his apartment.

"Why am I helping you with this foolishness?" Grumped Yurio.

"You should keep the notes, maybe you will borrow the idea and use it on Otabek."

"I will not!" Yurio blushed deeply. There was no way his relationship with Otabek would advance in such a sappy way. "They are such dorks. Notes! Why not just stick your tongue down his throat." Yurio was embarrassed by his thoughts because they haven't gotten to the kissing part yet. Secretly, he admired the adults. Yurio was pining for a boyfriend and sex, marriage was completely off his radar.

In the guestroom, Yurio stuck the posters up as Viktor wrote out the messages. One sentence on each one. Viktor left out the one of Yuuri. If he will let him, Viktor would like to keep it in his room. The marriage proposal was on a new poster. It was one available all over Japan. It was of the two of them during their pair skate. It was a moment when they were looking very much in love and holding hands. Their rings were visible and sparkling in the lights. Only a kiss would've been more romantic. Viktor hung this one himself, behind the door.

Viktor got the text that Makkachin was freed and they were headed their way. The Russians locked up the apartment and left to meet Yuuri on the bridge. Soon the man of Viktor's dreams was running toward him with his beloved poodle. Makkachin jumped on him but his eyes were on Yuuri. His cheeks looked so pretty from the running. They were so locked on each other, you would think they were apart for a day instead of an hour. Yurio cleared his throat. They finally noticed Yurio was there. He rolled his eyes and thought they were saps.

"Right, welcome to St. Petersburg Yuuri."

"Thank you Yurio."

"You can leave off the O. I'm the only Yuri at Yakov's rink. You will be referred as Katsuki. Agreed?!" Snapped Yurio.

"I don't mind."

"Ok. I'm out of here. Don't be late on your first day."

"That's my line." Laughed Viktor.

"Shut up!" Yurio nodded to Yuuri. "Later."

The adults were amused by the sulky kitten. They talked about him and how they started at the rink in two days to give Yuuri time to settle in.

Viktor's heart beat faster as they entered the apartment. Yuuri admired everything. Finally they reached the guestroom. Yuuri opened the door and was struck dumb.

"My posters?!" He didn't know if he should be scared, angry or embarrassed. He went with embarrassed. He wanted to die. Did Viktor see the writing on the back? Did he read them? Could he read them?

A comforting hand was on his shoulder.

"Your mother found them and showed them to me."

"Oh god." Viktor braced him with two hands.

"We discovered the writing on the back and she translated them."

"Oh God!"

Viktor rubbed his cheek on Yuuri's. "It's ok darling. I liked everything you wrote."

"Viktor?"

"Everybody helped to make this happen because they love you and want you to be happy."

"Happy?" Yuuri thought he was going to faint.

"Come read the messages I wrote to you my darling."

Viktor steered Yuuri to the left and he faced the first poster. It was one his favorites and he finally noticed the message in English and permanent marker.

"Read them out loud." Said Viktor.

Yuuri knew he had no choice. He would read them a get it over with. Then they will move on. They had to, how can they not? No matter how sweet Viktor was at the moment, nothing will come of it. His family had to be deluded. He took a deep breath and read as he moved from poster to poster:

"My darling Yuuri…I adore you…how handsome you are…your sweet nature…"

Yuuri was flattered. Viktor could be so kind.

"I love your graceful skating…and your laugh…I want to help you…comfort you when you're sad…I want to spend every day with you…because that is when I feel alive…because I love you."

That last line was whispered. Yuuri looked at Viktor in wonder and confusion. Viktor looked sad and braced for rejection. He whispered:

"Read the next one please."

"How do you feel about me?" Yuuri's voice was barely audible in the quiet room. Viktor looked desperate and world was hushed like it was waiting for Yuuri's answer.

"Say it again." Viktor face cracked into a smile, he looked deeply in Yuuri's eyes to erase all doubt:

"I love you."

Yuuri melted. "I love you too." As if the cosmos was pushing them together, they kissed sweetly. Even though it was a short kiss, the meaning behind it made Viktor's knees wobble and Yuuri to clutch at his shirt. They parted for just a moment to kiss even more passionately. Tears of relief and joy mixed with the kisses. Finally they came into a stillness. Panting Yuuri spoke first.

"I'm so happy, I can forgive my mother for invading my privacy."

They broke out in laughter. After a warm hug, Viktor announced:

"There is one more poster."

"What more can be said?"

Viktor closed the door to revel the final poster of them pair skating.

"You think now that I finally got you to admit to your feelings. That I'll let you get away?"

Yuuri moved to read it.

"Will you marry me?"

Yuuri turned to jump into his arms.

"Yes!"

They hugged, laughed and kissed to seal the deal. Viktor texted the happy news to Yurio who ignored it. And the Katsuki family who was in on the whole deal.

ceo

The posters stayed up in the guestroom even after Yuuri moved into Viktor's room. They remained an inspiration to the couple. A reminder of all that is good and beautiful about the other person. They helped when they had a fight and when Yuuri needed a boost of confidence. But Viktor's strong arm worked as well. Viktor framed the poster of Yuuri and asked him to sign it, saying it was good practice. Yuuri shyly agreed. Viktor wanted to order many more but Yuuri talked him out of it because of the shipping charges. He had his sister buy some and mail them in one package. Yuuri was embarrassed to see himself plastered all over Viktor's room, especially when he started to share it but it made his fiancé happy.

Yuuri ended up winning the Grand Prix. He rode a wave of new found confidence as Viktor Nikiforov's fiancé. He followed up that win with a win in the 2018 Olympics. At the height of his success, he retired. But the best moment of his life was when Viktor placed the gold band on his left ring finger and kissed it. A new poster sized portrait of their wedding day hung over their bed.

ceo

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