Rewind and Repeat

In which Victor had no choice but to watch it all over again.

There was only one reason why Victor Nikiforov hated the summer heat.

It had always brought bad luck to him. For the past twenty four years, he had seen accidents, been in those, and watched the blood of those once happy fools crawling like a snake on the asphalt road. How many times had he cried during those nights when he'd hear about the lifeless bodies of those he loved? How many times had he bitten his lip and run away upon seeing the corpses that used to have souls? No matter what he did, the nightmares and tragedies continued up until the point that he had no one in the family. Before Yakov adopted him, his parents died from an explosion in their car. Victor, who was around eleven, didn't even care anymore. It was the same old thing for the past five to six years. That's why he willingly let Yakov get him.

But that didn't mean that the trauma faded away just yet.

It was during that time when Victor, in his own words, abandoned the words "life" and "love". What was the point of those anyway if all you're going to do is witness the ones you love leaving you forever? He tried not to get too attached to his coach and his other rinkmates as he did not want them to end up in the same misfortunes his family went through.

He then focused on the next best thing. And that was skating.

And ever since then, no tragedies had ever happened to the people around him. When he realized it, he wanted to burst into tears. For the first time in a long run, nobody died. And Victor was very thankful that his misfortune stopped.

But it came with a price.

As a result, he felt numb. The only thing that drove in his life was become an ice skating legend. His memories of his family disappeared from existence the further he took. And in just a few years, he did, indeed, become a living legend. He was respected by all, and had many friends and lovers wherever he went.

He lived the life. He thought everything became so perfect.

But by the age of twenty seven, he began to think otherwise.

It all started on that fateful night. The sixth placer in the Grand Prix Final, Yuuri Katsuki, got extremely drunk that the banquet became a mess. He challenged everyone to dance-offs, which ended in Yuratchka being humiliated, and his friend pole dancing with him. Definitely, he knew of no one who could make one formal party into a bar for drunkards until that night.

This sparked an interest in Victor and decided to know more about him.

Of course, that led him to another dance-off round that more or less ended up being something that Victor could never ever forget.

"Be my coach, Victor!"

And suddenly, something snapped in him.

It was the feeling of love.

From then on, the one year journey of lifting hopes and creating sparks had begun. For one year, Victor researched and asked about the man that struck his heart. He wanted to meet him again. He wanted to know more about him. And he wanted to explore more of the treacherous yet comfortable feeling that spreaded all around him.

And in the end, he did it. He was going to marry him. He was going to the center of the rest of his life. And Victor couldn't be anymore happier because of that.

But it seemed like he had forgotten why he decided to quit on life and love a long time ago.

And so our story begins in the summer of August.

"Your country is weird."

That caught Yuuri's attention. "Why?"

Victor was still shocked and disgusted as he licked the unforgivable flavor.

"What kind of people make octopus flavored ice cream?!"

It was a very weird story. There was only one ice cream store in all of Hasetsu. It was very hot. And after half a day of practice, the couple decided to spend the rest of it with the two of them walking around Hasetsu. Victor was interested in tasting Japanese ice cream. And so, Yuuri brought him to that ice cream store. When Victor's turn to order came, the news shocked him.

"I'm sorry, sir. We only have takoyaki flavored ice cream left."

And so, he bought it, hoping that it would be as good as the green tea flavored ice cream Yuuri bought for himself.

He was wrong.

"You know we can always swap ice creams-"

"There's no need for that, Yuuri!"Above all, he cared about Yuuri so much. That's why he didn't want to give him something as terrible as his ice cream (despite the Japanese saying mulitple times that he can withstand takoyaki flavored ice cream).

Yuuri sighed. Victor wanted to change topics. "You want to go the seashore?"

The younger of the two smiled. And it somehow lit a fire in the Russian's heart.

"I'd love that."

And so they walked, hand in hand, towards the seashore. They crossed street to street and tree to tree while Victor made sure to keep an eye on his love in case something might happen. And so far, things were good.

Well, until they had to cross the second to the last street.

Victor groaned. "Yuuri, this is taking too long!"

Yuuri sighed. "It's just two more streets, Victor. Calm down."

Victor pouted. "Fine."

Yuuri smirked. "I have an idea. Last one to get to the seashore will pay for the others' dinner tonight!"

This interested Victor. "Oh, you're on!"

"3...2...1...go!"

And both raced, crossing the second to the last street while passing through the playground and trees before finally crossing the last one. The distance, of course, was so long. And because of that afternoon walk, it was more than enough to make Victor exhausted.

But Yuuri did not stop.

Victor gasped for air when he reached the swings and stopped. He looked at the Japanese who was still running (and was still way behind him) and yelled, "Y-Yuuri, shouldn't we take a little break?"

"Nope! I'm not losing this time!"

Victor closed his eyes before opening them after ten seconds. He decided to walk fast to make sure that Yuuri was safe.

Victor then heard the sound of a large engine coming through. His eyes widened as he saw it fast approaching. It was by that time that Yuuri had passed him.

Victor quivered in fear. "Yuuri, a bus is coming!"

"What-"

Crash!

Victor couldn't remember what happened after that. His mind twirled and was dizzy the whole time. It ached at the heat of the sun. But there was one thing that he did know.

Despite the shock and the fear of looking at Yuuri's blood coming out, only one word actually managed to come out of his throat.

"Yuuri!"

And suddenly, his world went black. The last thing he heard were the screams of the passengers and the driver.