Always (Yuri on Ice, Victor)

[HoneyBunny]

They were practicing their exhibition pair skate against Yuuri’s better judgment. Victor had woken up that day with a scratchy throat and a runny nose, which he had initially tried to hide from Yuuri, but once he started sneezing every twenty minutes like clockwork, it became impossible to deny that he had a cold.

 

Still, he had managed to talk Yuuri into going to the rink: “I promise to take it easy – we’ll go home if I get too tired. Besides, our step sequence still needs a lot of work. Your footwork is sloppy.” Of course Yuuri’s competitive nature had made it impossible for him to ignore that remark, and so they found themselves out on the ice before long.

 

~

 

Yuuri looked on worriedly as Victor came to an elegant stop and pulled a crumpled tissue from his pocket. His head tilted back slightly and he fanned his hands in front of his face for a few seconds, trying to coax out the feathery feeling in his sinuses, before cupping the tissue over his nose and mouth and sneezing into it harshly.

 

“Bless you. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?” Yuuri asked.

 

“Don’t worry too much, Yuuri. It’s just a little-hh… hh’ISHew! hah’etsch’ew! Excuse me. Just a little cold.”

 

Victor left Yuuri standing in the middle of the ice dazedly as he skated over to the barrier to where their tissue box was. He disposed of his used tissue, blew his nose softly into a fresh one and stuffed a few more into his pocket, ready for the next fit that was sure to come.

 

They practiced for another hour or so until Yuuri noticed that Victor’s health seemed to be deteriorating. The man who was usually so full of energy moved slowly and sluggishly, stopping dead in his tracks every so often to sneeze or direct a fit of irritated dry coughs into his elbow. He would sniffle almost constantly, and his nose was chapped and had a pink tinge to it from blowing it so much. His cheeks were sporting a red glow that Yuuri thought was quite untypical for Victor - the man usually had great stamina and never so much as broke a sweat, but here he was, looking like he was about to keel over.

 

Yuuri knew that despite Victor having said otherwise earlier, he would never actually admit to how bad he was feeling. The only way to get Victor to take a rest would be to pretend that Yuuri himself was tired. And so, Yuuri found himself intentionally messing up steps and turns that he would normally be able to do in his sleep.

 

“Stop, stop, stop! What’s going on, Yuuri? I know this step sequence is hard, but you can do better than that.”

 

“Sorry. I’m just starting to get exhausted. Can we take a break?”

 

Victor considered Yuuri’s request for a few seconds. His thought process was visible in the movements of his face - Yuuri could tell from his furrowed brow that Victor was tired and desperately needed a rest, but on the other hand his pursed lips indicated that he was too disciplined and too proud to give in to something as simple as a common cold.

 

“Okay. But only fifteen minutes,” Victor said with a resolute sniff.

 

As they were sitting by the side of the rink, wrapped in warm coats and sipping tea from a thermos, Yuuri could tell that Victor really was running out of steam. His normally perfectly upright posture was slumped, and his eyes had lost their excited sparkle. He looked shattered.

 

Still, he wouldn’t just give up. “You really need to work harder on your twizzles, Yuuri. I know they’re not your strong point, but the synch twizzles are the heart of our step sequence.”

 

Yuuri - who actually had always prided himself in the finessed execution of his steps and turns - was glad to hear that despite his cold, Victor hadn’t lost any of his brutal honesty.

 

“Can’t we work on that tomorrow?” Yuuri complained. “We’ve been here for five hours. I’m tired, I want to -- bless you!”

 

Victor had interrupted Yuuri with a wrenching sneeze aimed into his cupped hands. He opened his mouth to thank Yuuri, but instead his breath snagged on an inhale, and before he could stop it, he was pitching forward into his hands again. Yuuri tried to hand him a tissue, but Victor quickly waved him off as if to say, not done yet. His head tilted back, eyes squinted and breath hitching wildly, until … nothing. Victor groaned in frustration at the lost sneeze and viciously rubbed his nose on the back of his hand, coughing lightly. He accepted the tissue from Yuuri and blew his nose with a wet gurgling sound, crumpling the tissue and putting it in his pocket to re-use later.

 

“Okay, I’ll let you up on the twizzles, but let’s practice the dance lift one more time. I promise after that we’ll go home.”

 

Yuuri knew that that was as close to a surrender as he was going to get from Victor, so he quickly agreed to the proposal and tried to keep the worry off his face.

 

They coasted back out onto the ice, preparing for the lift that was going to be the highlight of their exhibition skate. Victor grabbed Yuuri by his waist and lifted him up, while Yuuri held tightly onto Victor’s shoulders before lifting one leg behind his back and settling in the air position.

 

Then, several things happened at once: as Victor was letting Yuuri down out of the lift, Yuuri’s calf muscle shivered with fatigue, his foot slipped out from underneath him and he fell. Victor of course tried to catch him, but in doing that he tripped over Yuuri’s legs that were already sprawled across the ice. He tried to break his fall with his hands and landed on the cold, hard ground with a sickening crack.

 

“Fuck!” Victor shouted. It was probably the first time that Yuuri had heard him curse.

 

“Are you alright?” Yuuri asked, dreading the answer. Yuuri himself had only taken a slight tumble, landing on his backside and sliding a few feet on the ice, but Victor appeared to have not been so lucky.

 

Victor didn’t reply, instead sniffling with tears that were brought to his eyes by sheer pain.

 

Yuuri got up and instinctively reached out for Victor’s hands to help him up, but Victor yelped at the first contact and pulled his hand back like it had touched fire.

 

After Victor had got up - without using his hands - and skated over to the barrier, Yuuri immediately got him two cold packs to ice both of his wrists. They sat at the side of the rink in silence for almost a quarter of an hour until Yuuri spoke up.

 

“We should probably go to the hospital, you know.”

 

“There’s no need, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

 

“Can you move your hands at all?”

 

Victor didn’t reply, but instead looked down at his wrists. One was able to move slightly, but trying to move the other only elicited a whimper of pain from him.

 

Yuuri breathed in sharply. “You’re not fine. We need to get it x-rayed - it might be broken.”

 

 

~

 

 

The taxi ride to the hospital was strangely quiet, both men still in shock from the accident and worried about what the diagnosis would be – a mild sprain would hopefully heal within a few days, whereas a broken wrist would keep Victor off the ice for several weeks, if not months. They had three ice shows coming up over the summer; and he didn’t want to think about how his first competitive season back after the break would turn out if he were to miss multiple competitions – not to mention weeks of practice – right at the beginning of the season.

 

As they were sitting in the waiting area of the emergency room, Victor’s cold symptoms – which had taken a back seat since the accident – came back in full force. They were sat right below the air con, the cool breeze causing his nose to start running like a leaky tap, and he was sniffling wetly on almost every other inhale. He was longing for the wad of tissues that he knew were still in his pocket of his track pants from earlier, but with his hurt wrists he didn’t dare root around for them – even the mere thought of the pain from moving his hands made him shudder.

 

Suddenly a burning tickle formed in his nose.  He pressed his tongue to his palate and held his breath for a few seconds, but the itchy sensation didn’t abate. Before he knew what was happening, he gasped and sneezed harshly, desperately, into the crook of his arm. He sniffled pitifully, the sound not too unlike a clogged drainpipe. His nostrils were glistening slightly with wetness. Now he was really in a dire situation.

 

“Yuuri? Tissues?” he whispered from behind his elbow. Yuuri pulled a pack out of his coat pocket and mindlessly held it out to Victor, waiting for him to take it. After an awkward few seconds they both realized that Victor wouldn’t be able to take a tissue out of the pack, much less use it on his nose.

 

“Oh. Uhh – do you need help?” Yuuri stammered embarrassedly.

 

“Not here. Bathroom,” Victor hissed.

 

As they entered the restroom, Yuuri took a fresh tissue and wiped it gently along the bottom of Victor’s nose, which was chapped already, after only one day of having this cold. Yuuri pinched Victor’s nose through the tissue. “Blow,” he said softly, closing off one nostril at a time. Victor blushed, but obeyed and nuzzled into the tissue. However, the vibrations from blowing his nose only managed to set off a new tickle. Victor pulled back from the tissue Yuuri was holding and turned to the side, covering his face with his arm protectively. “hh … hh’tschiew!”

 

Yuuri blessed him quietly, but Victor shook his head, indicating that he was not done. “Come here,” Yuuri said and held a fresh tissue up to Victor’s nose, despite him trying to turn away. Whether he wanted to or not, Victor was forced to direct his next sneeze into the tissue that Yuuri was cupping over the lower half of his face.

 

“Bless you, honey. Now blow again,” Yuuri whispered. Victor again blushed slightly, but obliged.

 

Once they had gotten back to their seats, they didn’t have to wait for long before Victor was called up. Yuuri got up to walk Victor to the examination room, but he was stopped at the door by a nurse. “Sorry - family and spouses only, I’m afraid.”

 

Yuuri had no choice but to reluctantly go back to the waiting room. Each passing minute made him more anxious, and the only thing stopping him from pacing up and down the corridor was his pronounced sense of embarrassment that he got from drawing too much attention to himself. Instead, Yuuri tried to calm himself down by listing his favourite movies alphabetically in his head -- a trick that Celestino had taught him in order to compose himself before anxiety-inducing competitions.

 

Finally, Victor exited the tinted glass doors to the emergency room. Yuuri noticed right away that one arm was in a solid cast, while he was wearing a removable wrist splint on the other.

 

“The right one is broken.” Victor held up his hand as if it were a trophy. “The left one is only a sprain, thank god.” He sniffled liquidly, once, twice, three times. “Yuuri, do you have any more tissues? My nose is running again.”

 

“Of course! Shall we go to the restroom again?”

 

“Yes, please. Gosh, Yuuri, it was so embarrassing - first I nearly sneezed all over the poor doctor, and then I couldn’t stop coughing, to the point where the nurse had to bring me a glass of water. I was mortified!”

 

“Kind of serves you right, though - I told you this morning you should have just stayed in bed! Then none of all this would’ve happened!” Yuuri had tried to joke with Victor, but he was slightly ashamed at what had come out his mouth. He hadn’t wanted to I-told-you-so Victor or to rub salt into the wound.

 

Luckily, Victor took it all tongue-in-cheek. “Aw, Yuuri, don’t be so harsh on me! I’m hurt -  both literally and metaphorically,” he chuckled. “Anyways, my nose is running really bad now. If you don’t mind?” he added more quietly, obviously still a bit embarrassed.

 

After Yuuri had followed him to the bathroom and helped him blow his nose once more, they left the hospital and hailed a taxi.

 

~

 

At home, Victor went straight to the couch and plopped down unceremoniously. Yuuri got him a blanket and put on a movie.

 

“Okay, I’m making soup. Chicken noodle or borscht?” Yuuri asked.

 

“Chicken noodle, please,” Victor replied, not quite trusting Yuuri’s knowledge of Russian cuisine -- which was fine, since Victor himself barely knew more than how to cook pasta. But borscht was traditionally something that only his grandma made.

 

When the soup was ready, Yuuri set down a big steaming bowl of it in front of Victor. Victor went to take off his wrist splint so he could at least hold the spoon somewhat comfortably, but Yuuri stopped him.

 

“You’re supposed to keep that on at all times, you know,” he scolded.

 

“But how am I supposed to eat?” Victor complained. “I’m not letting you feed me - I’m sorry, but that’s beneath my dignity,” he chuckled, but Yuuri could easily see a bit of truth in Victor’s statement, could see the embarrassment in his eyes.

 

“Dignity? What dignity? I would like to remind you that I’ve blown your nose for you multiple times today,” Yuuri retorted sarcastically.

 

“Touché.” Victor blushed profusely.

 

And so, Victor reluctantly let Yuuri feed him some soup - until the hot, steaming liquid started to make his nose run. He tried sniffling it back, but the movement of congestion inside his nose only created a tickle deep inside his sinuses. He quickly turned away from Yuuri, arm raised to his face. “heh’atshiew! snf … hh’tshew! ‘itschiew!”

 

“Bless you! That didn’t sound too good…”

 

“It’s just a cold, Yuuri. There are worse things. Like this, for example,” Victor sniffled, holding up the hand that was in a plaster cast and laughing humorlessly.

 

“Gosh, Victor, I’m so sorry. I feel guilty - if I hadn’t fallen you wouldn’t have tripped over me.” Yuuri’s voice took on an all-too-familiar anxious tone.

 

“It’s not your fault. I could have swerved around you - besides, I’ve had far worse injuries skating alone. We have no control over these things.”

 

Despite Victor’s assertion, Yuuri started tearing up slightly, wringing his hands nervously.

 

“Come on, honey, don’t cry. It’s all fine, it wasn’t your fault. Come here, okay?”

Victor snuggled up to Yuuri, hugging him and leaning his head on Yuuri’s shoulder. Yuuri hugged him back tightly.

 

They stayed like that for a while, Yuuri slowly calming down. He noticed that Victor’s breaths had evened out and his eyes had fallen shut of their own accord. He looked so young and vulnerable, Yuuri thought. He scooted over to the side, so that Victor was no longer sitting upright, but instead lying down with his head in Yuuri’s lap. He softly carded his fingers through Victor’s platinum hair, relishing the quiet peace of the moment and committing it to memory.

 

The serenity of the situation was only broken when Victor stirred, pawing at his nose with his finger tips that were poking out of the cast. He had barely opened his eyes before his lips parted, breath hitching.

 

“Going to … sneeze-hh …” Victor moaned.

 

He tried to wriggle himself free from Yuuri’s arm that was draped over him, but Yuuri simply grabbed a tissue from the box in front of them and held it to Victor’s face.

 

“It’s fine, go ahead. I don’t mind,” Yuuri said softly.

 

That permission was all that Victor needed to give in to the tickle lingering in his nose. “ehh-heh’TSHuu! hah’ischiew!” The two thick sneezes left Victor sniffling liquidly, his breathing heavy.

 

“Bless you, darling.” Yuuri gently wiped the bottom of Victor’s nose and then discarded the tissue.

 

“Not - hh - done … heh’tsch’ew!”  Victor sneezed into Yuuri’s lap, a fine mist of moisture glistening in the air. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry, Yuuri,” Victor sniffled. “I’m so gross right now.”

 

“Don’t worry, darling, it’s fine. I’m always here for you - in sickness and in health.”

 

“Thank you for taking care of me.”

 

Yuuri pressed a kiss to Victor’s forehead. “Always, Victor, always.”

[Alabaster]

❤️ lovely

[groundcontrol]

Ok this is perfect. Believe me when I say I was just trying to come up with an idea that would involve Victor having a cold but also no use of his hands... and you've done it!! Woohoo :)

[LeapYearKisses]

Awwww, this is so cute!  I really love how you've written they're interactions, even beyond how very nice Viktor's cold symptoms are. They take of each other, but they don't let up.  I think you've captured that perfectly!  I am also, for one, stupidly happy to read more stories where there's a bit of mess and no hands involved.  Well done!

[queenie]

Awwww! There’s such care between them, I love to see fic where they’ve been together a while. 

[Arty]

Omfg!!!!!!! So cute!!!!!!!!!