Hey guys! Sorry about the wait. I wanted to do something with the argument at the beginning of episode 12 but I couldn't really figure out how to word what I wanted without it being super short and not that good in my opinion. So, this one is much more full of angst and sadness and a little bit of what I think could be Viktor's past and family. I don't know how well the flow is from anger to sorrow, so I'm sorry about that. But when I started writing the second half of this, after scrapping the second half I had written entirely in the first place, it just came to me. I hope you enjoy!

It wasn't often that Viktor Nikiforov became truly angry.

Irritated? Annoyed? Agitated? Plenty of times.

Angry? Well…

"I'm mad, okay?" He slapped the younger man's hand away from his face.

"You're the one who said it was only until the Grand Prix Final!" The other defended.

He almost sounded desperate. "I thought you needed my help more."

The younger man was becoming more confused by the second. "Aren't you going to make a comeback? You don't have to worry about me-" he was cut short by the older man sharply grasping his shoulders and yelling.

"How can you tell me to return to the ice while saying you're retiring?!" He was angry.

However, he wasn't just angry.

He was hurt.

He was hurt by the very idea that the man he loved threw away his guidance as if it were a mere tool for his betterment.

In a way, it was.

But it was more than that.

Viktor uprooted his life in pursuing the man sitting in front of him, and the thought that Yuuri casually dismissed his time, life, and love helping him just so he could return stung worse than any fall he had faced.

"I have spent the past nine months by your side. Coaching you, being your friend, becoming your lover, and you want to push those aside just so I can skate?" He laughed. "Please don't think me so shallow as to toss you aside just for one more season competing." His eyes were stinging more. "I can't live without you."

He pushed away, ignoring Yuuri's questioning words of protest, walking into the attached bathroom, and slid down the wall to the floor, head in his hands.

Viktor's tears were flowing harder now, turning the soft tears of anger that one would say were beautiful, to tears of hurt and sorrow that drew snot from his nose and made cheeks and eyes red and puffy.

Viktor never got the privilege to openly cry as he was doing right now. He had a persona to maintain, but he was far too hurt to raise that wall and he trusted Yuuri enough to where the wall simply couldn't be raised anymore, and right now, he wanted that wall up more than anything.

When was the last time he cried so? He racked his brain for an answer.

Oh.

He remembers now.

It was snowing and overcast that morning. Viktor stood in front of the caskets being lowered into the ground, not noticing the people around him and the soft sobs of people he never really knew, never really cared to know.

The only people he needed were his parents.

And they were lying in those boxes, cold.

Hard.

Mauled with burns from the accident that stole their lives.

He stood there, not moving, even long after the priest and guests long left.

"Vitkor." A voice called from behind him.

The young boy turned around and racked his brain for the name of the man who coached his parents during their career as ice dancers. "Yakov."

Yakov nodded at the young boy. "It's time to go." Viktor bristled.

"Go? Go where?" He clenched his small fists tight. "I have nowhere to go now! My parents are dead and everything my family ever owned is now burned to the ground." Vivid memories of that night flashed before his eyes, the fireplace he lit in the living room without his parents' permission while they were asleep and staring at the beautiful flicker of the flame, falling asleep on the couch there, then waking up being carried out his house by his father, calling out to his mother to call the fire department, putting Viktor outside before rushing back into the house.

Calling out for his parents to suddenly hear something collapse.

"The construction of the chimney was faulty" they said.

"The fire spread through the attic without notice" the marshal explained.

"The ceiling collapsed in on them and nothing could be done" Viktor was told.

No. He knew what happened. He killed his family because of his desire to watch a fucking flame burn. Well, he got his wish.

"Viktor!" He was brought out of his memories to notice he was breathing much harder, couldn't see beyond the fat blobs of water his eyes produced, and shaking. Yakov knelt in the snow and held him.

"It is not your fault, Viktor." Yakov cradled the young boy, letting him cry his heart out.

"Yes it is. I killed them. I started that fire even though my parents said the fireplace was broken." He shook his head in Yakov's shirt, clinging to the jacket for dear life.

"No it's not. It was an accident." Yakov tucked the boy into his open jacket and carried him to his car. "Now, let's go home. I promised your parents I would take care of you if anything happened."

"Ok." Viktor murmured.

"Viktor!" He jerked his head up as he looked at Yuuri, who finally found a way into the bathroom Viktor was sure he locked the door to.

"Viktor, what's wrong?" Yuuri knelt in front of Viktor and held him close.

The irony of the moment. The only people who ever saw him like this both knelt to his level and held him, like a broken child.

He guessed he was still broken, never healing from that night.

Viktor nuzzled his face into Yuuri's chest as he sobbed, "Please don't leave me."

Yuuri seemed to deflate at his words, and tears of his own fell onto Viktor's silver hair. He gripped him close. "Let's talk about this tomorrow after the final, ok?"

"Ok."

Sorry about the angst! I just couldn't find it in me to make this chapter fluffy and lovey-dovey when how Yuuri says they'll make their decisions after the final sounds so sad and tense. I don't know when the next chapter will be out, so please be patient with me! Love you all, and thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites, follows, everything. I can't believe I would have something this popular that came off just a whim.

Side note: I added a little bit of personal experience into this. I actually had a fire in my house two years ago because wrapped around the chimney of the fire place was a bird nest the size of a bale of hay. If we hadn't noticed there was a fire in the attic and didn't call the fire department sooner, there was a very large chance my house would be gone.

Until next time!