p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"AN:/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Disclaimer: I do not own Yuri! On Ice./span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"You were all supportive and kind, even though I know this story isn't the embest/em thing in the world… I love you all bunches, thanks for all your support but, I have to be honest, it's a relief to be done with this story. I really enjoyed making it, but there's something great about finishing it./span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Love always,/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Eb/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"CH 16— Try Again/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I can't."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You have to."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I can't."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"When are you going to do it, then?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I don't know."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"So, we do it today," Mari said rolling onto her stomach at the end of Yuri's bed. "Go talk to your boyfriend."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Mari," Yuri whined, dropping his head against the headboard of his bed. "He's not… I jus—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri, I emknow/em."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"But how—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I don't emknow/em."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"emMari/em—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"emYuri."/em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri glared at his sister./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri," Mari said patiently. "You need to talk to him. It's been emdays/em."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I know," Yuri said petulantly. "Hey, who are you texting? Your typing is a little aggressive."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanMari held her phone out so Yuri could read the conversation she was apparently having with Victor. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You've got to be kidding me," Yuri said, betrayed but not surprised./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You've been moping around for days," Mari said, hauling herself off the bed and standing with her hip cocked. "When's the last time you left your room?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"It's not that I don't want to talk to him," Yuri admitted. "I just don't know… I don't know, I just don't know emhow/em."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Very coherent of you," Mari said flatly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Yuri glared at her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Don't look at me like that. You know you'll figure it out. And remember what I said: don't let him get away with it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri grumbled under his breath while his sister teasingly gave him a two-fingered peace sign over her shoulder and dashed out of the room./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I'm running away," Yuri groaned, flopping back on his bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 3.75pt 0in 3.75pt 0in;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: normal; margin: 3.75pt 0in 3.75pt 0in;" align="center"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"~/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 3.75pt 0in 3.75pt 0in;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 3.75pt 0in 3.75pt 0in;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor heard his phone go off while he was lounging across his couch, with one arm buried in a bowl of buttery popcorn and the other around Yurio's shoulders. Yurio huffed and grabbed the phone off the coffee table, unlocking it without taking his eyes off the TV. He looked down long enough to read the first text and made a face./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What?" Victor asked, looking down at his phone, which Yurio held up for him to see./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri's big sis needs you," Yurio said/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Mari (12:58)/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHey Victor/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Mari (12:59)/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHey/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Mari (1:00)/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanDon't ignore me/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Mari (1:02)/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanPick up your phone/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Mari (1:02)/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanI need a favour/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Mari (1:03)/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanIt's not a big one don't freak/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Mari (1:03)/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanI lied it's a big one/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"emspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What do you think she wants?" Yurio asked curiously, scrolling through the texts. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor shrugged./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I guess I'll just have to—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Oh look, she responded."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Responded?" Victor repeated, glancing down at his screen. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanThere was a single blue bubble amidst the many yellow bubbles from Mari, implying that he had texted Mari back. Which he did not. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You responded to her for me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Don't look so miffed," Yurio said, rolling his eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What does she need? And would it be wrong if I didn't help her?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"She's Yuri's sister. She's an extension of Yuri. You'd help Yuri if emhe/em texted you, wouldn't you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What does she want?" Victor asked with sigh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Okay, she saysemYuri is still crying over your situation—"/em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Crying?" Victor perked up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Um…. Blah, blah, blah, emcan't get him to chill out, he's complaining all the time…/em Basically, she can't get him to get over you and she needs you to do her dirty work for her."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri is not emdirty/em work," Victor muttered, making a face when Yurio laughed at style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Shut up. What else did she say? Why is Yuri crying?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"So demanding," Yuri muttered under his breath. "Let's see… yikes, so Yuri told Mari that you hate him. And that you yelled at him and kicked him out of your place and…. Yeah, he's a little messed up about, you know, everything. She wants you to fix what you broke."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Wha—I don't hate him," Victor said. "I'm just… thinking about his best interests. Which aren't me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yeah, yeah, you're a martyr, whatever," Yurio said, rolling his eyes and looking back down at the phone. "Are you going to help Yuri, or not? Big sis needs an answer."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I don't know, I mean… we didn't exactly leave on good terms, last time," Victor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYurio gave him an unimpressed look./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Get over yourself and fix whatever it is you and Yuri are," Yurio ordered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yeah, yeah," Victor said. "I don't think he'll want to see me, but I'll go."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Of course, he wants to see you, you're his friend or whatever. Now go save your damsel before he does something stupid, again," Yurio said, pulling the bowl of popcorn onto his chest and turning sideways so he could lay down and see the TV and eat at the same time./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You're so supportive, Yurio, did I ever tell you that?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"No."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor grabbed his phone back from Yurio and headed down the hall towards the front door. He slipped into his jacket, wrapped a grey woolen scarf around his neck and stepped into his shoes, locking the suit behind him when he left./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Here goes nothing," he muttered under his breath, not feeling too optimistic. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor stepped outside, stuffing his hands deep into his pockets to protect from the freezing air. The view was breathtaking. The sun was a little golden ball in the clear sky, the snow glittered like diamonds, but got greyer the closer he got to the city. It was satisfying it is to be the first one to leave a mark in the snow, even if it was like wet ash./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanSooner than he expected, Victor found himself to be at the bottom of the long flight of steps that lead up to the Katsuki hot springs and home. The distance between his apartment and the Katsuki home seemed to shrink every day./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHot dread rolled in Victor's stomach as he hiked up the stairs. Mari sounded like she expected him to fix this. Whatever "this" was and however he was supposed to "fix" it. But so much was wrong that Victor had completely lost track of what all had gone wrong./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanVictor hissed, realizing he was already at the front door to Yuri's home. He still hadn't even finalized his plan for what he was going to say, how he was going to apologize. Victor paced back and forth in front of the door as he considered his options./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"He could comfort Yuri, which was easy enough, if Victor managed to keep from yelling again. He could most definitely apologize for emeverything/em. Absolutely. But "fixing?" What did that even mean?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor groaned, burying his face in his hands. He vaguely heard the front door swing open, but was too focused on his dilemma because Yuri probably hated him because he had been a complete jerk to Yuri and now he was he supposed to fix everything and Victor was the emleast/em handy person he knew—/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Vic, calm down."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor looked up to see Yuri standing in the doorway in a huge sweater and a horrible combination of mismatched socks and his father's sandals, which weren't even latched. He probably threw on the nearest shoes and ran right out into the snow. Victor's heart ached./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Y-Yuri?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Uh, yes, yeah, I'm here," Yuri said, looking surprised that Victor was talking to him. "No reason to panic."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Oh, uh, I'm not," Victor said sheepishly. "Just… just nervous."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Oh. That's good. That you're not panicking, not that you're nervous."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor laughed awkwardly, hands lacing and unlacing spasmodically./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Are you still with me?" Yuri asked, coming closer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor nodded, not meeting Yuri's eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Thank God," Yuri said with a relieved sigh. "I thought you were having a panic attack and you know I have emno/em idea how to help someone with those, so you were going to be on your own with that. You'd think that since I, you know, have those sometimes, that I'd be better at helping other people with them, but…. Yeah, no. I suck at it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanIn the middle of Yuri's anxious babbling, Victor finally took his gaze off of his shoes and looked up at Yuri. He stopped breathing when he saw how wet Yuri's eyes were. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Oh, sorry," Yuri said, rubbing at his eyes with balled fists. "I just… it's upsetting. You know, to see someone having…. It kind of freaked me out. Is it, um, is it that scary for you when I…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yeah, it's… yeah," Victor said lamely./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri took a shuddery breath, hands disappearing into his sweater sleeves./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I don't think I thanked you. For those times you helped me through, you know, emthat/em."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You don't have to thank me," Victor said quietly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"It freaked you out, but you pushed that away so you could help me. That deserves thanking," Yuri countered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You're a really good guy, Yuri," Victor said with a watery smile./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Aw, Vic." Yuri's voice warbled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHope blossoming in his chest, Victor reached out. His arms slid around Yuri's shoulders and he melted to fit against his best friend. He sighed and buried his face in the soft, warm wool of Yuri's sweater./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Um, can you…" Yuri said tightly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanThat was when Victor realized Yuri's arms weren't wrapping around him. That his hug was one-sided and Yuri's hands were trembling in the air, spread a bit like he was surrendering./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What?" Victor asked, pulling back a bit. "What's wrong?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanThe moment there was a centimeter of space between them, Yuri backpedaled into the wall of his house. A clump of snow fell from the roof and landed on his shoulder./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Don't… you…" Yuri clenched his jaw and brought a fist up to cover his mouth. "Don't do that."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor took a step back, arms up and mimicking Yuri's surrendering pose./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What… what do you mean?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Don't touch me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanThe command felt like a slap to the face. The fact that Yuri's hands shook like he was being electrocuted, but he still kept his voice calm and steady only fortified his words. Victor was a bit thrown off. He was used to a shy, soft-spoken Yuri that had trouble standing up for himself and telling others "no." This was a sharp contrast./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Wh— why?" Victor cringed when he heard his own voice crack./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Just don't."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri, please. Just tell me why you—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Because anytime we share anything—even if it's just a hug, or you telling me something about you that I don't know—you freak and yell and push me away and I'm sick of it," Yuri said sharply./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor felt something cold grab his heart as he watched Yuri swipe at his eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri, I… I'm sorry," he said lamely. "I can't even imagine… I was so wrapped up in myself that I couldn't… I didn't…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yeah. You didn't," Yuri said, voice a bit softer. "Let's go in. It's freezing out."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri stepped inside without looking back to see if Victor was following. Feeling strikingly unwelcome, Victor stumbled inside and watched as Yuri began rummaging around, pulling out mugs, heating up water, and hunting down tea leaves. The cheerful, soothing sounds of a domestic chore made the atmosphere feel a bit familiar, but Victor still felt out of place./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"So, Mari texted you," Yuri said with his back to Victor./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Um… yes," Victor mumbled, awkwardly standing in the middle of the kitchen as Yuri compared the benefits and soothing qualities of each kind of tea in his mother's collection. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor felt uneasy. He never expected to be allowed back into the Katsuki home. Yuri's parents made it pretty clear that they didn't want Victor hanging around, and part of him was just waiting for Mrs. Katsuki to jump out of a closet and beat him with a wooden spoon until he left./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"She texted you to come snap me out of my little pity party?" Yuri asked after a minute, snapping Victor out of his thoughts./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"She wanted me to help you." Victor felt himself slipping into that polite tone he reserved for strangers. "I want to help. If you'll let me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Then we're going to talk about this. And you aren't going to run away or yell at me anymore," Yuri said, avoiding Victor's eyes as he poured the tea./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHe handed Victor a teacup and hopped up on the counter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Okay. I want to help," Victor said seriously. "I'm not running."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHe took a sip of his tea. At the same time he let out a powerful sneeze, making his tea splatter onto his pants. Yuri snorted into his teacup and Victor couldn't help but feel a tentative warmth and pride and getting his friend to laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I hear laughter!" sang a familiar voice. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor startled when Mari popped out of the hallway and into the kitchen. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Oh, you made me tea, how lovely," she said, stealing Yuri's cup./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanShe took a sip and grimaced, handing the cup back to Yuri, who glared at her and clutched his tea to his chest protectively./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"How much sugar did you add, anyways?" Mari choked out./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Six tablespoons," Victor answered for Yuri./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"It wasn't six! Maybe, four," Yuri defended himself./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanMari laughed, earning an elbow to the side from Yuri. She squawked and poked him back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Hey!" Yuri complained./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor couldn't help but grin. He missed this./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Don't you have to go to work?" Yuri pointed out./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Don't remind me," Mari grunted. "Being a barista is a lot tougher than I thought it'd be. Not the most glamorous job, either, but rent doesn't pay itself."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You don't live here anymore?" Victor asked, wondering just how much change he'd missed out on./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I mean, I still come around, obviously, but it's nice to not live with your parents, you know? Plus, I get free coffee, so it's a win-win," Mari said with a grin./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I hadn't even thought about moving out," Yuri admitted, looking into his cup. "But I guess that's going to come up eventually. I can't live with my parents for the rest of my life. But owning my own house sounds… scary."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You can crash at my place, as long as you do some chores," Mari offered. "I'm not letting you freeload."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Wouldn't dream of it," Yuri said, grinning into his tea./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Speaking of moving out, how long is Yurio going to keep living with you?" Mari asked, turning her attention to Victor./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I have no idea," he said honestly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Well, he has to move out at some point, right?" Mari asked like it was obvious./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHer statement was met with silence./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yikes. Okay, then, you guys can contemplate emthat/em great mystery while I go make 780 yen an hour. See you later," Mari saluted as she backed out the door. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanThe door slammed behind her, bringing with it a gust of chilly air. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal; background: white;" align="center"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"~/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanAfter Mari left, Victor laughed softly and shook his head./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What's so funny?" Yuri asked, watching through the window as his sister slipped on a patch of ice near the stairs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHe sighed in relief when she caught herself on the handrail and turned to stare down at the ground, looking as if she was talking to the ice— mostly likely scolding it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I just…" Victor shrugged hiding his face back in his teacup. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri frowned, pulling the cup back down./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Tell me," Yuri said softly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor whipped his head up to stare at him, obviously surprised. A small part of Yuri felt guilty for being… sharp, before. Then the bigger part of Yuri reminded the naïve, little part that, if he didn't put his foot down, then the whole "yelling at Yuri and kicking him out" thing would probably continue until it spiraled out of control and—/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I missed this," Victor said suddenly, ducking his head like he was too shy to meet Yuri's eyes. "It's been a week and I miss this so much already. I mean, you and Mari. It's like…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Like what?" Yuri asked curiously./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I— look, I don't have any siblings," Victor announced suddenly. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri blinked, desperately trying to hold onto that part of him that was mature and responsible and mad and not about to let Victor get away with being an arse because he was lonely and sad and struggling./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"My mother hates me. I haven't seen my father in…. well, he died, so I guess that's not his fault," Victor laughed awkwardly. "You guys and Yurio are all I have." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Your mom…" Yuri said hesitantly, curiosity and tact warring. "Why is she…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Out for my moneyem?"/em Victor said darkly. "Never around?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri swallowed hard and nodded guiltily./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"She married my father for his money. She and I were never really close because—" Victor cut himself off, shaking his head. "Anyways, when I see you and Mari… you're a packaged deal. And I kind of have that with Yurio a bit, with emyou/em— well I did, anyways. I… I guess I'm just glad to have you and her in my, um, family… you could say."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Even though you can be a complete jerk," Yuri said, watching Victor look away. "I consider you and Yurio to be family, too. I bet Mari feels the same way."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor looked back at him with hopeful eyes. He stepped hesitantly towards the counter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"For a while, my family just myself," he said. "It doesn't feel like that anymore."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri smiled as Victor leaned against the counter at the opposite end that Yuri sat on./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You don't have to, you know, stand a mile away," Yuri said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Victor smiled back and inched closer until his shoulder could just brush against Yuri's leg, which dangled over the edge of the counter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You know, in elementary school, I thought a lot about who I was going to marry," Yuri said abruptly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Victor looked up at him with a confused expression./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I'd seen my parents kiss and hold hands, and I wanted that… that sense of belonging, I guess. Belonging was… important to me," Yuri smiled wistfully. "I'm pretty similar to my parents, and they managed to find someone to love, so I thought maybe I could, too. I guess I thought that if they got teased and never had many friends, but still found someone who would love them… span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanthen maybe I could too. And now…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Now I don't know," Yuri admitted. "I thought, at some point, that I had what they had. But I think I was just fooling myself."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri stared out the window, unable to see his sister anymore. She was on her way to a brightly lit, bustling coffeehouse full of happy, busy people living happy, busy lives with their friends and family at their side. Yuri envied them. His house was out of coffee./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri shuddered and sniffled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri, you can have what your parents have, Victor said, voice still gentle. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri barked out a laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I don't know." He tapped the side of his empty cup. It made an empty, hollow sound. "I'm average, uninteresting. I have a knack for befriending people who are worth ten thousand of me and..." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri felt white-hot fury rising in him, but he welcomed it over that chilly ache in his chest. He knew it was dramatic, but he felt like he was spiraling. Like the future was this big, terrifying thing and he had no one on his side to get through it, like there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide—/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Victor said. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri sigh as part of him said "oh, this again," and began planning an escape route./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I came to emhelp/em you. To emfix/em us. But we never will—" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri turned his face away, clenching his jaw. He didn't want to hear this, didn't need to hear this, didn't know if he could take hearing this./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"— unless emyou/em want that." Victor set his cup on the counter and moved to stand in front of Yuri. "You said it yourself. We need to talk. We haven't even done that, and you're already giving up on us and I— I want to fix this. Because I emhate/em what I've done to you. But we can't do anything if you don't want it, too."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I want this. I just…" Yuri sighed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"You look like you're getting better," Victor admitted. "But I know you're not. And… and I'm scared of what might happen if you keep looking like you're getting better instead of actually getting better. You'll be getting worse, inside, and no one will see, and…" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"And I know…. I emknow/em you think there's no way that someone could love you," Victor whispered, voice thick. "I know what that's like, and I know that I had a part in making you feel that way— a big part. I just want you to know that…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor sighed heavily. Yuri could see the tears starting to well up in his coach's eyes. He could see worry lines lightly creasing around Victor's eyes and across his forehead. Yuri could see everything. And that only meant that Victor could see everything, too./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanThe kitchen felt very warm, probably from the stove he heated the water for the tea on, but it felt emreally/em hot. Also, it felt oddly intimate with Yuri sitting on the counter and Victor standing between his legs, staring into his soul and emseeing/em him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I want you to know that I'm so sorry. And I wanted you to know it's easy to love you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri choked, coughing harshly into the crook of his elbow./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri?" Victor said, hands hovering in the air around Yuri's shoulders./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Hu— wha?" Yuri asked articulately, reintroducing his body to breathing./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Are you okay?" Victor asked, hands clenched together in front of his chest./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri leaned back against the wall mounted cupboards./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Ah, yeah— I'm just, yeah," Yuri said. "But, uh did you… What did you mean by… emthat/em?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri, I bought us rings, I would've thought you'd catch on by now," Victor said with an exasperated smile. "Would've thought emI/em would've caught on by now."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri's heart was bursting from his chest, dancing around in its little bone cage. And then it started going too fast and his thoughts swirled to catch up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Victor, I don't…" Yuri trailed off. "I think, maybe one day… one day we could, you know, but… but not now," Yuri explained, something in him cracking./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor's expression shuttered. Yuri felt guilt well up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I figured you'd say something like that. I just wanted… wanted to put it out there, I guess," Victor said, a hand ruffling through his hair nervously./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"I just… there's a lot that needs to be said before we…" Yuri trailed off with a vague hand gesture./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I know, I know."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I mean, it's not that I don't want to, just… I'm not ready to. Yet."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I don't think either of us are, honestly," Victor said, tugging at his sleeve. "Let's just… try to be friends again."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yeah. That'd be good," Yuri said, breathing a sigh of relief./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"So, if you would ever want to come over— not to, you know," Victor said quickly, face turning bright red. "Just to… hang out," /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I know what you meant," Yuri said, hiding a grin behind his cup./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Oh. Okay. Um, Yurio will be there too, and you can bring Mari. Or anyone you want," Victor continued. "I just, uh, last time you were in my home, we made bad memories. I made us bad memories. And I want to fix that. I want to fill my home with good memories. Of us, our family."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri gnawed on his lip, mind racing. He caught Victor's eyes. This is what he wanted to see every day. Those eyes. That smile. That person./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"O-okay," Yuri whispered, elation and apprehension welling up. "Someday. If you're sure."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I'm sure," Victor said earnestly. "And if there's anything else I could do to… I just want you to feel safe."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I don't… I don't emnot/em feel safe around you. I just… don't feel welcome, I guess. I kind of feel like you're going to yell at me because you're stressed about something else, and every time we're doing fine we'll suddenly not be fine, and you'll kick me out if…" Yuri sighed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Yuri, that's the definition of not feeling safe," Victor said firmly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"No, I know you aren't going to hit me or anything," Yuri scoffed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"That's not— Yuri, hitting isn't the only way someone can hurt someone else."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"But I've been dealing with people saying mean things since the beginning of time. It's not a big deal," Yuri said with a shrug./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"It's…. Yuri, it's bullying," Victor said firmly. "If not abuse, it's at least bullying."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Wha— you never abused me!" Yuri countered. "You weren't always the friendliest, but I wouldn't in a millions years ever call that abuse. It happened two times. Maybe three."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Once is too much," Victor said seriously. "Once is enough to break someone's trust and hurt them. And I'm sorry I did it at all, let alone more than once."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Okay," Yuri agreed, relaxing at the honesty in Victor's eye. "Are you— you're crying!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"What? No!" Victor exclaimed, all previous confidence vanishing as he rubbed his eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Stop that, you'll irritated them," Yuri chastised, pulling on Victor's arms. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanWith gentle fingers, he rubbed across Victor's eyelids, soothing the irritated skin. Victor sighed, leaning into the touch./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"There. All better," Yuri grinned sweetly. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanVictor caught Yuri's hands again and placed them on his own shoulders, his own arms going to wrap around Yuri's waist for a loose hug./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Um, what are you doing?" Yuri asked, squeezing the fabric of Victor's shirt./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Breath, breath. It's okay. Nothing you don't want to happen will happen," Victor said, loose grip getting even looser. "Just say the word and I'll back off."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanYuri felt himself instantly relax at those words. Hesitantly he rested his head against Victor's chest. He felt wetness against his shoulder and realized that Victor was crying into his sweater./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"It's been a hell of a year, huh?" Yuri said quietly, catching a glimpse of his wrist over Victor's shoulder./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"Y-yeah," Victor said, taking a deep breath./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"It's okay. I… I've got you," Yuri said, holding just a bit tighter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal; background: white;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Dubai Light',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"I've got you, too."/span/p