Chapter Text
It doesn’t happen too often. At least, not often enough that he wants a big deal to be made out of it. Although… maybe storming out like that doesn’t help matters. If he really thinks back to the conversation, they were both pretty wrong, but Victor is stubborn and he isn’t going to back down now.
At the same time though…
He breathes out heavily and shoves his hands in his pockets. It’s only a few hours till midnight, the street lights are dim, and it’s a bit more on the colder side than he expects. He could go to Yakov’s, it's not like he would ever turn him away. But, then a big deal would be made out of it and so he crosses that option out.
Chris? No, because again, a big deal is gonna be made out of it and he just… doesn’t want to talk about it.
He stands alone on the street corner and… he can’t even really think because who else is there? Chris is his only real friend and he’s certainly not going to turn up on the doorstep of an acquaintance without rhyme or reason even if he’s confident enough to charm his way in. Then there’s the problem with Makkachin…
Victor looks down at his ever-loyal pup sitting on the pavement next to him. His tail wagging and waiting for their next move.
Who’s gonna let not only him, but his dog into their home for… hopefully just the night, but that’s a problem to deal with in the morning.
Victor sighs. He really didn't think this out. He was too caught up in his emotions and now he's in a bit of a situation. Ahh… he’s gonna end up sleeping on a park bench like some kind of vagabond blowing into town on his way to the next adventure. Oh cruel, fate! To spurn someone so young to a life of destitution and uncertainty!
Makkachin yaps at him and brings him out of his dramatic thoughts. It works, he ends up more focused on the well-being of his dog and less on himself.
“But I have no idea where to go though…” he mutters.
A blast of cold air whips around him and it makes him scrunch into himself. He needs to get moving to warm up if he’s not going to actually be somewhere warm…
Warm…
Yuuri!
Oh… but would that be fair?l
“I don’t care, I want to see him,” Victor says and calls for Makkachin to follow him. He’s made up his mind, they’re going to Yuuri’s house.
It’s not too far of a walk, Yuuri only lives a neighborhood or so away. It’s only something like a twenty minute walk before he finally finds himself in front of a familiar two story house and his spirits start to lift just a little bit. Although, he makes it that far before he realizes that he has no idea just which window leads to Yuuri’s bedroom. It’s pretty late, and he doesn’t want to catch anyone else’s attention just in case they have questions he doesn’t want to give answers to. Well, all of them except one is shut off upstairs and if he knows Yuuri half as well as he likes to think he does, he should be watching videos on his laptop by now.
Makkachin bounces around as Victor scours the ground for tiny rocks or pebbles to throw at the window. He collects just enough and starts to toss each one against the glass to catch Yuuri’s attention. Oh, he can picture it now! Yuuri will come to the window and see Victor waving at him from the lawn. He’ll be so surprised and flustered to be caught in his pajamas but he’ll open the window anyway because he won’t just leave Victor outside alone like that!
And Victor will call up to him, and Yuuri will look down with a soft gaze as yellow light spills out from behind him in a manner most fitting for such a precious angel–
The window slams open and it’s not Yuuri.
“I don’t know who you think you are,” his sister starts to shout from the window, “but this ain’t cute, and it’s not–!”
She spots Victor staring up at her with the blankest expression and in mid-throw and she loses all of her hostility. If anything, now she just looks amused.
“Oh… hey, you’re Yuuri’s boyfriend, right?!” she calls out to him.
“His- No! We’re not dating!” Victor tells her.
“Yeah, okay,” she laughs and brushes off his denial with a wave of her hand. “His room is the next one. Remember that for future romantic stunts like this.”
Well… Victor can’t tell her any different there when this whole scenario is something out of a cliched 80's romcom. He just shrugs up at her. Mari laughs agan, and it's in a way that’s similar to Yuuri, he thinks when she leaves her window and disappears back into her room, but it’s just not as enchanting. Not that he's biased or anything.
He’s about ready to start throwing the small rocks again, but then the light in what he now knows is Yuuri’s room turns on and it gives him a reason to stand still until finally Yuuri comes over to his window and opens it up to look down at Victor with a question on his face. His hair is sticking up in the back and the shirt he wears has a neckline large enough for it to slip over one of his shoulders. Not that he's staring or anything.
“Hi, Yuuri!” Victor waves up at him as his stomach does a weird flip.
“What are you doing here?” Yuuri asks before anything else.
“I’m hurt! I travel all this way to see you and I don’t even get a hello!”
“Yeah, Yuuri, you should be nicer to your boyfriend.”
His sister shows up back in her window with a cigarette in between her fingers. That has Victor looking back at her, is she even old enough to smoke? He has no idea... In any case, she’s smirking like no one’s business and even laughs at her brother’s growing red face.
“He’s not– Go back inside!” Yuuri yells at her.
“Can’t do that when I’m smoking,” she says. “House rules, you know that.”
“Mari!”
Yuuri glares at her a little before giving his attention back to Victor. He shrugs down at him and says, “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”
“I’m not really sure,” Victor tells him honestly. “Just wanted to see what you were up to– “
“He was jerkin’ it,” Mari says.
“No, I wasn’t!”
“-and I just really wanted to see your face!”
“Wow,” comes from Mari. “That’s sappy.”
Victor laughs, because boy, is she right! Yuuri's blush just continues to grow deeper.
“Go back into your room!”
“Still smoking!”
“And I wasn’t doing that,” Yuuri turns away from her to look back at Victor. His face isn’t completely red but his cheeks are very visible from where Victor stands and that’s adorable enough. “I was just watching anime.”
“Oh! Which one?!”
“The ballroom one.”
“Without me?! Yuuri! That’s our thing!”
“None of the episodes we haven’t seen together, just the older ones! You know I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Wooow," comes from Mari once more, "that's super–“
“Go back in your room!”
"Make me."
“Mari, leave your brother alone!”
Somewhere in between the sibling bickering and Victor being too busy appreciating Yuuri’s face while it happened, the downstairs window had opened and Yuuri’s mother had popped out to join the conversation. She's hanging out much like her children are, except twisted about so that she has a better way to look up at both of them.
“Hi, Mrs Katsuki!” Victor greets and waves.
“Hello, Victor,” she smiles at him. “Cute puppy!”
Makkachin barks like he knows he’s being talked about.
“You brought Makkachin?” Yuuri asks and leans out a little further. “Oh, hi, Makkachin!”
“The dog gets a hi and your boyfriend doesn’t?” Mari asks him. “That’s kind of messed up.”
“I’m ignoring you.”
As entertaining as all of this is, Victor really just wants some alone time with Yuuri. Maybe if he can get him away from the house, he can get just that.
“You wanna take him out for a walk with me?” Victor calls up to him.
“It’s the middle of the night?” Yuuri sounds totally uncertain.
“We can still go somewhere,” he shrugs.
“Where?”
“You can go to the pharmacy!”
The other downstairs window is opened now, and Victor is not at all surprised to see that Yuuri’s father has now joined the conversation. He's hanging out of his own window much like his wife is, with a smile that says he is just as entertained with all of this just like everyone else. Victor briefly wonders what the neighbors think of this family…
“Dad!" Yuuri calls down to him. "Why?!”
"Because it's opened 24 hours and only four blocks away."
"No, I mean why?!"
Yuuri doesn't even say what he means, he just gestures at the way his father has shoved himself out of a downstairs window backwards to yell up at him. Mr Katsuki only laughs a little and gives his son a shrug.
“Everyone else was doing it!”
“We can do that!” Victor cuts in to bring the conversation back. “We can get some ice cream and just walk around ‘till Makkachin gets tired!”
“Is that why you’re out? Cos it is really late-“
“Oh my, god, Yuuri," Mari drawls. "Your boy is trying to be romantic, just go out with him.”
“He’s not my–“
“Oh, do you remember our first late night ice cream trip?” Yuuri’s mother asks his father. They’re not even paying attention to their children anymore, now they’re suddenly lost in memory lane. "When Hizaki-san used to stay open late in the plaza?"
“I was so embarrassed not being able to buy your own cone!” Mr Katsuki says. “I can’t believe I had left my wallet on the bus like that!”
“But it was fine, sharing the one just gave us an excuse to cuddle up and eat together!”
"We sat on the balcony outside of Oiwake and listened to all the people drinking and doing karaoke!"
"Do you remember how you said you were going to show them all up by dedicating a song to me?"
From upstairs both children groan and gag. Mari puts her cigarette out without a word and retreats back into her room and Yuuri has the most uncomfortable expression on his face.
“Okay!" he shouts. "Okay, I’m getting dressed just so I don’t have to hear this!”
The window slams shut and Victor is just left with both Katsuki parents. It leaves him sweating a bit. He knows the family is easy going, but are they really okay with Yuuri going out this late at night so randomly?
“Just try to bring him home before one,” Mrs Katsuki tells him like she knows what he's thinking. “It’s not a big deal if it’s later than that, but we would just rest easier.”
Victor gives her the most sincere smile he can muster up and promises to have him home by one. She smiles back at him, and tells him that she trusts him because she knows he’s a good boy, and Victor is so happy that Yuuri has this family.
When Yuuri does make his way out of the house, both parents are still hanging out of the window and call out for the both of them to be safe and to have fun. Yuuri only looks mildly embarrassed now, but he ends up going full red when his father says something to him in Japanese. Victor doesn't even have a chance to ask for a translation because Yuuri grabs at his hand and nearly runs in the direction of the pharmacy and calls out for Makkachin to follow them. Victor just laughs as he's pulled along.
They eventually start walking at a more normal pace and the normal kind of conversation comes up. Things like school work, what classes are more redundant over the years, their best friends, the new shows they’ve started watching, music they want to share with each other, how Makkachin has been doing since Victor adopted him.
Neither one has let go of the other’s hand.
They don’t really notice or question it even as they enter the pharmacy and make it to the ice cream bar. They technically don’t even notice it then; they pick out the flavors they want, size and all, and it's not until Victor has to pay that they even realize what they've been doing. They don't make it a big deal as their hands let go of each other and Victor fishes his wallet out. The only reaction out of it is how Yuuri just flushes a light pink and Victor feels the bridge of his nose heat up a little.
The cashier looks like she hates her job and wants to be anywhere but here at the moment and probably doesn’t even notice any of this happening.
She hands over their ice cream cups and Victor’s change and they walk out. There’s a park across the street that Yuuri suggests they go to. He looks down at Makkachin and asks him if he wants to go to the park in the cutest baby voice Victor has ever heard.
They cross the street, and Makkachin automatically starts bouncing around. For awhile Yuuri entertains him with a small enough stick they can play a game of fetch with. The two of them wander around until they hit the playground.
“Should we sit on a bench to eat?” Yuuri asks. “Will Makkachin still be willing to play is we did that?”
“Probably, but why the bench? I wanna swing!”
“You can’t swing and eat out of the cup at the same time.”
“Um, I’m pretty sure I can. I am amazing, after all.”
“Victor…”
And of course, Victor doesn’t listen. He sweeps right past Yuuri and aims for the swing set. Oh, hey, a tire swing! He’s done this before, he knows he can jump on that! That’ll show Yuuri just how amazing he is.
Victor takes a running start and jumps up high.
Now, the last time Victor did this and succeeded he was with Chris. Chris, who had been on the other side to hold it still, and he had access to both hands. That he used to hold himself steady while spinning around. He doesn’t take any of this into account, he only has one goal: impress Yuuri, and look good while doing it.
He's able to grab onto a chain with one hand, and tries to plant his feet on the swinging mass of rubber that is now flying out of control.
He ends up falling over backwards and lands with an ugly sounding thud where his head hits the ground.
His eyes are scrunched closed and he does his best to fight through the pounding sensation in his head. There are wood chips digging into his back, and he vaguely hears Yuuri shouting and doesn’t even really register him until he’s on his knees right by his side.
“Are you okay?!” he cries out and puts Victor’s head into his lap.
Victor feels him running his hands everywhere to check for injuries. That’s so nice.
“I think I hurt myself,” Victor groans and acts a little more dramatically than needed. “Yuuri, help me.”
“How? Victor, what hurts?!”
“My face… kiss it better?”
He’s suddenly no longer in Yuuri’s as the other boy stands up. Victor isn’t even mad though, he starts laughing and end up rolling over onto the nearby grass. The pounding has dulled down some, but there might be some of those wood chips caught in his hair. All the same, he thinks he’ll be okay.
“I was seriously worried, y’know,” Yuuri says without an ounce of sounding amused.
“I know, and I’m seriously hurt. Not too badly though…. Help me up?”
“I really shouldn’t,” Yuuri says, but he’s only teasing now if that soft, little smile is anything to go by. He holds out his hand and helps Victor back up. “And here I am, ready to share my ice cream with you, and you start playing around like that...”
Victor blinks. That’s so sweet! But then he looks down and sees that Yuuri is still holding onto him… with both hands.
“Where is your ice cream?”
Now Yuuri blinks. He looks down to see nothing but a handful of Victor and then looks around in a rush.
Just a few feet away from Victor’s over turned ice cream cup is Yuuri’s, flung off to the side and spilling out everywhere. He must have dropped it when he ran over to check on Victor. They stare at each other, and it’s not clear who starts laughing, but they do.
And then promptly stop because Makkachin starts sniffing at Yuuri’s spilled cup and they run over to him. Trust a dog to always go for chocolate...
They end up leaving the park after clearing it from their mess and walk back across the street to the pharmacy. The cashier stares at them and raises an eyebrow, but it’s most likely because she’s seeing them again for a second time that night and not at the fact that they had ended up holding hands again.
They don’t go back to the park, Makkachin looks like he’s had enough of that and frankly, so have they. They end up sitting outside the pharmacy, just on some random curb with their knees knocking into each other’s and Makkachin settling down for a nap next to Victor.
“Well, that was a thing that happened,” Yuuri says and digs into his new cup.
“I know.. And to think we could’ve shared an ice cream like your parents did, that would’ve been cute to share with them.”
“Oh, my god, shut up!”
"Maybe we can find a karaoke place to let us in and I'll dedicate a song to you!"
"I'm going to shove this spoon down your throat."
They do end up eating out of each other’s cups and finishing their treats together, but that’s not something they find too important at the moment.
The outing ends with Victor walking Yuuri back home and then hugging him good night. Yuuri goes back inside and Victor hangs around the porch before he realizes he can’t do that anymore and starts to walk off.
(He actually doesn’t get very far, he sits out on the curb trying to figure out what to do next when Mari opens her window again and they have another shouty conversation that wakes up Yuuri’s parents and before he knows it he’s being dragged into their home and into Yuuri’s room.)
(They get one warning joke about no hanky panky that turns them both red and yet somehow they end up sharing Yuuri’s twin bed with Makkachin curled up at their feet.)
(All in all, the whole start of the night is worth waking up to Yuuri cuddling into chest and wow he wants to wake up like this every morning.)