Hearts as Fragile as Glass

A/N:

Another update! I don't have too much to say except for that I'm grateful that you've read this far. Thanks! Before I forget, if you notice any OOC characters, please tell me! I wanna make sure that they're probably as they would be in high school at least, but if it just seems completely wrong, I'll try to work on it. I dunno why I made it about Clue, but I think it's pretty okay. And, one last thing, I noticed I haven't been expanding the relationship too much so here you go!

Chapter 9

The day had been going surprisingly fine for Yuuri, really, and that was definitely not something he was used he would say something embarrassing at least, but nothing seemed to happen at all! He even passed Viktor in the hallway without getting nervous about something or another…

He wasn't used to his anxiety not being there, and it was starting to make him anxious.

It also was one of the only days of the week he didn't have any after school activities.. After all, Monday Wednesday and Friday were skating days, and Tuesdays were ballet. And, he nearly forgot that he was helping out with Minako-sensei's other ballet club for freshmans and sophomores on Saturdays now. He only had Thursdays and Sundays now… it seemed crazy to him.

Yuuri flopped down onto the couch right as Phichit walked in, coming back from his class which was all the way on the other side of the school.

"Hey," his roommate said quickly, throwing his backpack off his shoulder carelessly. "It's your off-day, isn't it?"

Yuuri nodded, "Yep. No idea what to do today, though."

And he really didn't. After all, his routine consisted of the following:

Get out of class.

Run to after school program.

If ballet, don't zone out. If skating, be very careful around Viktor. You never know when he'll do… whatever it is he does.

Leave as soon as you're allowed to.

It was a schedule he made sure to stick to, no matter how half of his brain was telling him not to be so skeptical of Viktor. But it was hard not to be… everything that senior did just seemed so intentional and planned, it was almost unrealistic.

"Well, I brought some board games from home… We got them back when my family was living in Detroit. I told you about that, right? Of course I did!" Phichit said, all in a matter of seconds.

"American board games? Which do you have?" Yuuri asked.

His roommate stopped to think for a moment. "I've got Sorry, and Monopoly… oh, right, I also have this one called Clue!"

"I've heard about the first two, but what's Clue?"

Instead of answering, Phichit ran to his closet and pulled out a large square box. Yuuri peered over from the couch to see the front, which had "CLUE" in bold letters, and drawings of mysterious-looking people all in front of a large mansion.

"So! Basically, the game is that this big rich man is murdered at a party, and it's up to the players, playing as a house guest to solve the crime. They need to know the weapon, place of murder, and the murderer. Your classic whodunnit." He smiled.

Yuuri didn't exactly follow. "So… a murder mystery dinner kind of thing?"

"Not exactly. There's three cards randomly pulled from the deck, and nobody gets to see them. They're what caused it. Then the rest of the cards are shuffled out to the players, and they have to go along and collect information."

There was a brief silence, before Yuuri finally said, "Sounds complicated. And not two-player."

"Oh, right." Phichit said sadly. "It's one of my favorites, and I haven't played it in a while…"

"You can't be so damn convincing." Yuuri sighed, before standing up. His roommate looked up hopefully. "Let's see if we can find anyone who wants to join us in the hall."

They walked out the door and down the hall. Phichit seemed excited enough to let anybody join, something that Yuuri didn't put much thought into. He wouldn't really enjoy having JJ join them, though. That was where he decided he'd draw the line.

As they approached the corner, they were met with familiar laughter.

"Oh shut up, old man! You're getting wrinkles, they don't look good on you." They could hear someone snap. Oh, not just anyone… Yuuri suddenly thought, That's the other Yuuri.

"Do you WANT me to leave? Because I will." The freshman continued to threaten, and Yuuri could hear his stomps from around the corner.

"Oh, don't be such a drama queen." Said Viktor's voice, seemingly holding back more laughter.

Yuuri could hear the blond explode right as they rounded the corner. There, as seemingly always, were Viktor and his friends. Something made him want to go back, even if he had made the conscious decision to follow Phichit over there, but he figured it was too late to do anything about it.

"Hi!" Phichit waved, walking over to them. Yuuri quickly followed suit. "We were just wondering if you guys would wanna play Clue with us."

How just simple conversing came so easy to his friend, Yuuri would never know. He probably would just walk by if he was on his own. Socializing was definitely not his strong suit.

"Sure!" Viktor said cheerfully, looking over to his friends. Mila and Georgi agreed just as enthusiastically, but Yuri was still sulking and facing away.

There was a lively chat going on as Phichit set up the board and players and explained the rules to the others, in case they didn't know or just forgot. Yuuri, however, wasn't really focused on any of that. He would find himself stealing glances over at Viktor, with his soft-looking silvery hair, and how beautiful but icy his eyes were…

No, you have to stop. That's stupid.

But he still looked over, just hoping that Viktor wouldn't look up at him.

"Okay, you guys ready?" Phichit asked, "Because it's time to pick our characters!"

The roles were quickly assigned. Viktor was Mr. Green, unsurprisingly the green piece. Mila was Miss Scarlet, the red, and Phichit was Colonel Mustard, the yellow one. Georgi rather willingly took Ms. Peacock, and Yuuri quickly took Professor Plum, the purple.

"So you're saying that I'm left with the fucking maid!?" Yuri yelled, looking ready to get up and storm away.

"Mrs. White isn't so bad…" Phichit tried to reassure him, hoping to have a full cast of players. Yuri didn't look so convinced, but sat down regardless.

And thus, the game began. Yuuri looked at his cards. So it isn't Miss Scarlet, the rope, or the kitchen… he thought, thumbing through his small deck. He wrote it down on the small provided notepad. It was a stupid thing to think about, but he was a little disappointed that he didn't know whether or not it was his character. He barely knew anything about this Plum guy, but he was already attached.

He was a bit startled when he heard Georgi shout, "Yuri, stop looking at my cards!" He looked up in surprise, to see that she was talking to the other Yuri. This was becoming a bit inconvenient, something that Viktor seemed to notice also.

"You know, I just had the idea that maybe we should give one of the Yuris a nickname of sorts so we can easily distinguish them."

There was a murmur of agreement from everyone else at the table, as they thought of what could distinguish them.

"Oh, I got it!" Mila piped up excitedly. She pointed to Yuuri. "You stay the same…" and then pointed to Yuri, "and you become Yurio!"

"YURIO?" the freshman yelled, rather aggressively. "Yeah, no, I don't agree with that!"

Viktor seemed to consider for a moment, before saying, "Well, Yurio, I think that's a perfectly reasonable plan."

Yurio's face was burning red, and he promptly stood up. "Y'know, I'd like to make a guess. I think it was me, with an ice skate, in Viktor's eye." Yurio left shoving his chair over as he made his way back to his room.

There was a long silence before anyone spoke again.

"Well, I think we might as well continue." Viktor suggested, picking up the dice. "Oh, nice, a 6!"


Viktor noticed a rather obvious mood change after the whole Yurio accident. Yuuri seemed embarrassed, Phichit a bit disappointed, and Mila and Georgi still in shock. He, however, felt perfectly fine. After all, that was normal Yurio behaviour.

And no, he wasn't prepared to give up on that nickname any time soon.

The game progressed much quicker than he'd expected, and soon it was narrowed down to two suspects… Mr. Green and Professor Plum. They hadn't divided out Yurio's cards, and everyone was sure that the player card must be in there, but they found it much more fun to play a guessing game instead.

Yuuri looked oddly uncomfortable with the fact that his character was possibly the killer, which Viktor found quite amusing, and he couldn't lie, rather endearing. He also couldn't resist commenting on it.

"You seem a bit concerned that Professor Plum is at fault, Yuuri." He smiled.

Yuuri seemed a bit startled… he must have been zoned out. "Huh? Oh… I guess so."

"It's a bit adorable, I have to say." Oh, he really couldn't resist.

He'd been trying to say something for the past week but, for some reason, kept himself in check. After all, he knew it would make Yuuri uncomfortable, but the look on his face, with his cheeks dyed pink, was priceless. And, also, somehow more adorable.

Viktor noticed a held back chuckle from Phichit as he elbowed Yuuri as subtly as he could. He didn't want to over-analyze as he always did, but there was no way that couldn't be a good sign.

"Move your piece already!" Mila complained as Yuuri slumped back further into his seat. Really? Viktor thought, He's barely talked the entire game. It seemed like this would be the perfect opportunity to get to know him more, and then he just keeps quiet? It's going to take more than just a casual board game to get to know him more, is it?

Viktor's player piece reached the kitchen, reminding him of something rather stupid- he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, nearly fifteen hours before. He'd skipped lunch to work more on the skating routine (he was very invested on surprising Yuuri), and his stomach wasn't taking it too well.

"I think I'll go get a snack from my dorm real quick. Would anyone like to join me?" He asked, standing up.

Georgi gave a small mumble, "You really like being unpredictable, huh?" Viktor decided to ignore it, and instead walked over to the door. He turned back quickly in the doorway.

"Yuuri! Do you want to come along?" He tried to make his question seem nonchalant, when really he was internally begging for him to say yes.

Phichit pushed his friend out of the chair, not giving him much of a choice. "Oh- okay."

And down the hallway they went, Viktor determined to make sure that they had some kind of conversation this time.

"Seeing that we're partners, I believe we need to get to know each other more. I'm sure that there's plenty of things I don't know about you, and things that you don't know about me." He said, hoping that Yuuri would get into the conversation as much as he would.

"Uh… okay. What do you want to know?" Well, that wasn't too hard.

Viktor thought for a moment. What could he say to get Yuuri to really open up? The more personal, the better, right?

"Do you have a girlfriend?" He asked a bit eagerly.

Yuuri didn't seem freaked out, something a bit surprising. Instead he just looked downcast, and mumbled, "No."

"Any ex-girlfriends?"

"N-no comment." Now Yuuri was acting differently. He looked up to Viktor, concerned. Okay, I'm getting somewhere… Maybe I should balance it out?

"Okay, let's talk about me!" He said, rather loudly. "My first girlfriend was-"

Yuuri waved his hands in front of Viktor. "Stop!" He was definitely exasperated. Viktor sighed and kept walking casually, but still not hiding his disappointment. He figured it was a lost cause to try to salvage the conversation.

Finding the silence rather boring, he discreetly glanced down to Yuuri. He looked embarrassed with his face flushed. It didn't really occur to him that maybe he'd gone too far.

As he looked up, he realized they'd made it to his dorm. Taking out his keys, he announced, "We're here!"

He didn't notice that Yuuri became more flustered then than he was before.