[video] Russians and Dogs In Space!

[the_real_sir_prize]

Hellooo Legion of Superheroes!

[The man on the screen is handsome and pale, with silvery hair that falls over one of his stunning blue-green eyes. He looks to be in his mid- to late-twenties, and only a pinched look around his visible eye betrays worry. His mouth is certainly smiling and relaxed, and he's speaking with a pronounced Russian accent. It looks like he's still in the Medbay, but he’s sitting on the edge of his bed there.]

I am Victor Nikiforov! Which means much less here than it does back home, so that's a new and interesting experience for me.

[There's a bark off-screen, and a dog appears at Victor's elbow, clearly sitting on the bed with him. It's fluffy and a little ridiculous looking, probably a standard poodle but without the funny haircut. Victor obligingly moves his arm and adjusts the angle of the camera so that both of them are evenly in the shot.] Makkachin and I are recently arrived, and I’m very grateful that the Legion has been keeping an eye on Phelolu, because I would have been very disappointed if we both died there of poison and cold.

I've been informed that I now have short-term precognition. Either that or people are just repeating things as a funny joke, but that seems a little far-fetched when I'm already in another universe in space! So right now, I'm working on choosing my super hero name. Please, tell me yours, and what you like to do around here in your free time!

Oh, and I was assured that Yuuri Katsuki is already here. If anyone sees him and he's not on his way, could you tell him that his coach and the dog who likes to jump on him in public are here? [Makkachin barks again, and Victor laughs, glancing away from the camera.] Yes, and Makkachin is here too!

Comments

[katsudork]

[Yuuri is glad Makkachin is okay and wants to pet the crap out of him in a moment, but for now he straddles Victor and just clings to him as tightly as humanly possible, as if said hugging is the only thing keeping him from drifting off into orbit.]

[Honestly, that's what it feels like. Yuuri still feels like all of this is a little unreal. Having Viktor here to hold onto is a grounding influence.]

[The funniest part of that is Viktor hardly seems the type to help someone else feel grounded, but Yuuri seems to be a rare exception in a lot of respects.]

[He finally pulls away, but only just enough to hover over him on the bed, and presses his forehead against Viktor's.]

I'm glad Makkachin is okay. I missed you, too.

[The last part is almost a whisper and the look he gives Victor is pure distilled adoration.]

It's not your fault that you missed my free skate, but if you'd missed...whatever all this is, I never would've forgiven you.

[A lie, naturally.]

[That's when Yuuri happens to glance off to the side -- and sees the omnicom is still recording. His face going red and his eyes popping open wide, he lets out a little shriek of mortification, and then fumbles to turn the recording off. It's not really that he's embarrassed to be seen with Viktor so much as embarrassed if anyone sees such a huge and obvious PDA.]

[His head thuds against Victor's shoulder.]

Your omnicom was still recording.

[So he's just going to die now. Sorry for the dead weight, Victor.]

[the_real_sir_prize]

[Victor smiles up at Yuuri through the interplay of their hair, as comfortable as if they did this every day. As calm and careless as he appears on the outside, having Yuuri here -- not just present, but here, close enough to touch, close enough to smell -- makes him feel steadier.]

[It makes this place real too, because if he were hallucinating Yuuri, Yuuri wouldn't look so stressed under the relief on his face, and that's terrifying because that means that this is all actually happening. That Yuuri actually took an oath to be a super hero, that he believes them when they talk about the universe-eating worm thing enough to make room in his life for this. There's still room enough for Victor apparently, but he knows Yuuri, he knows how badly he wants a Grand Prix gold medal. And Yuuri is prepared to risk that dream, and that is terrifying.]

[...Not that he allows that to show on his face or anything. He's Victor Nikiforov, and he's going to stand by Yuuri and support him and not add to his anxiety this time. Instead he raises his eyebrows and his smile gets smirky at the corners.]

Of course I wouldn't miss this. Leaving you in Russia with Yakov was one thing, but letting you go, alone, to another universe? Unacceptable.

[Of course, that's when Yuuri makes a strangled noise and scrabbles at Victor's omnicom before flopping back down and moaning that the device had still been active. It's hard not to laugh, but Victor manages to limit himself to a wide smile.]

I've been recorded doing worse.

[He reaches up and massages the back of Yuuri's neck, and adds softly:] I did watch your free skate.

[Not from the rink side, of course, but on his phone in Japan. He hadn't been able to be there, but he didn't want Yuuri to think for a second that he hadn't been on his mind.]

[katsudork]

[It suddenly occurs to Yuuri that he's still straddling Victor, and red-faced, he climbs off, kneeling next to him -- still close, with a hand resting against Victor's shoulder. But at the mention of his free skate, his face falls. The look he gives Victor is full of gratitude for still following his progress, still trying to be there in spirit, but it's also still slightly miserable.]

It was...bad.

[Yuuri pushes a hand through his hair. And then pets Makkachin, grateful that he can do it at all.]

But I guess...I guess that doesn't matter right now.

[They have bigger things to worry about.]

We're here. And caught up in all this...whatever it is.

[What does the Grand Prix Final matter in the face of superheroics and the end of the world?]

[Everything. It means everything to Yuuri, and he knows that's selfish, and he knows he should just put skating aside and stop thinking about it, but it's all he can think about. He knows what's going to happen if he's stuck here for too long, especially if he's busy fighting...space monsters or something instead of practicing.]

[That's it. His career will be over.]

[the_real_sir_prize]

[Yuuri doesn't have to stop on Victor's account, really.]

[Victor props himself up on his elbows at first, but sits up the rest of the way as Yuuri speaks because he's heard Yuuri's heart break before but this time it sounds like it might splinter into a thousand fatal shards. And...]

[...He doesn't know what to do.]

I saw Yakov start in on one of his lectures at the Kiss and Cry, so I'll spare you what I'm sure is a repeat.

[Makkachin, with his unerring sense for when one of his people is having an emotion, knocks Yuuri's glasses askew in his enthusiasm to lick him all over his face. Victor pushes him back down so that Yuuri can respond to what he's about to say without getting dog tongue in his mouth.]

It still matters.

[Be supportive, Victor! Support, Victor, support!]

I have faith in you, regardless.

[That's what he said he wanted last time, right?]

[katsudork]

[His eyes water a bit at Victor saying he has faith in him but it's not all the bad kind of tears. It's bittersweet instead, the sad mixed with the soothing feeling of being supported that way.]

Some of the people here have been here six months already. I asked. And they have no idea how long all of this will take. We could be stuck here for years. Even if we get sent back to the same moment we got taken, being here for years might mean --

[It might mean that he'll gets too old. It means his joints will start to get less flexible and he'll get injured more easily and he'll start to feel his age. The window he can compete in is so brief. People lasting as long as Victor did -- and staying in their prime -- are a bit of anomaly.]

The schooling for all the superheroing takes up time and the missions take up time, and I'll probably still get to practice sometimes but --

[But he has to choose between helping against something horrible or focusing on his skating and ignoring his conscience eating at him as people get hurt and struggle against a horrible thing that wants to eat his loved ones.]

I tried to get around it in my head. I tried to come up with excuses about how skating is just as important or how I'd be bad at superheroing or how it's not my fight. [He tried to justify why he should stay out of it and focus on his own thing.]

And then I keep thinking of Hasetsu. [His face contorts up into misery.] The Grand Prix Final matters but it doesn't matter as much as that.

[He tries to flatten out his features into something calmer than he feels, but his voice trembles.]

That's okay, though. It's just a medal.

[the_real_sir_prize]

Don't lie to me, Yuuri.

[Whoops, no, that wasn't what he meant to say. Well, it was, but not phrased like that. Victor reaches out to cradle Yuuri's jaw with his fingers and corrects himself:]

You don't have to lie to me. Not about this.

[Not about skating, not about the Grand Prix medals. Not about Yuuri's own soul.]

[Victor nudges Makkachin aside slightly with his knee and holds his arms out to Yuuri, to offer him a hug if he needs it. It's all he can think of to do.]

[katsudork]

[It's a little like before, isn't it? He says the right thing to shatter his heart to pieces like so much glass. But this time he's not trying to do it, and conversely, this time it does actually help instead of making Yuuri more upset. He needs to let this out.]

[For a moment, he kneels there on the bed, fists clenched at his knees, body stiff, but after those words, and that touch, and the way Victor holds out his arms, Yuuri's head hangs, his eyes close tight, and the tears start their silent flow down his face.]

[But it's not like last time. It's not. Because Victor knows now what to do. He knows how to help. His arms are open and waiting for him, and Yuri practically throws himself into them, holding onto Victor tight, as if it will help him still his own body to make sure the sobs never come out.]

[The sobs don't come out, but the shoulder of Victor's patient scrubs starts to get wet anyway. And it helps. It helps for someone to tell him it's okay to be sad and afraid that yes he is possibly giving up his dream and sacrificing something important to him.]

[And he might be sacrificing more. More than just the Grand Prix Final. They'll have extra time here, but --]

[He holds Victor tight, paying attention to the warmth of his body and the smell of his skin, wondering how all this will end. When he'll have to let him go. And Yuuri hopes that if they are stuck in this place long enough for his career to be ruined, if all that gets taken away, that at the very least this situation will bless him with more of Victor's time.]

[That would be one bright spot, one thing that would lessen the disappointment.]

[the_real_sir_prize]

[Holding Yuuri while he cries like he's falling apart is one of the worst things Victor has ever had to do -- not the act of comforting Yuuri of course, never that, but not being able to do anything else. There's nothing he can do to fix this for Yuuri, nothing he can do to make it better besides make him cry and then hold him while he does it. It doesn't feel like it's enough.]

[Makkachin whines and paws at Yuuri, then at Victor when that doesn't seem to work. Victor shushes him and Makkachin lays down on the bed beside them with a soft 'boof' of discontent, which Victor completely empathizes with.]

[He's not like Yuuri, he's already won all the medals he's ever going to win. He's won enough that he got bored with winning and decided to try something new. And he has almost everyone he'd really miss right here with him now. It's not fair that Yuuri has to go through this almost alone.]

[He's been thinking about what he needs to do to be a better coach to Yuuri, but if Yuuri is putting that aside, maybe just for now but maybe entirely, where does that leave him? Where does that leave them? He asked Yuuri months ago what he wanted him to be, and 'just be Victor' was an answer that made sense at the time, but who is Victor to Yuuri if Victor isn't his coach?]

[katsudork]

[Like always, he feels better after letting everything out. It's not the end of the world.]

[Er. Not yet. That's what they're trying to prevent, right? The people here seem to have hope for the future, and there's something he can do to help instead of just sitting on his hands. Being powerless to help and powerless to do anything that might get them home faster would make this even worse.]

[So after having a good cry, Yuuri sniffles a little and pulls back slightly and wipes at his eyes with his sleeve. Whatever happens next will happen and all he can do is still practice when he can and do his best with anything else he tries.]

[But as he pulls back to look at Victor -- still hovering close in his space, still half in his arms -- he wonders the same thing.]

[If skating is possibly taking a back seat, Yuuri won't be much of a skater and that means Victor won't be much of a coach. He'll only be his sometimes-coach. That'll make things different, won't it? And in the face of this superhero thing, they'll both be the students, trying to learn how to do something they have no experience with, having to train and work hard at it.]

[Yuuri takes a few steadying breaths.]

I'll still need you to coach me. Whenever we do have time for it.

[He frowns.]

But we won't have as much time for that, so...mm.

[It's not like they don't spend time with each other off the ice but they do spend hours of their time together on it. So if they're not doing that as much...what now? What happens in that space? What are they?]

[the_real_sir_prize]

Of course.

[It's an easy answer, it leaves his mouth almost before Yuuri's done saying he still wants him as a coach. Of course he's going to keep coaching Yuuri whenever they can fit it in, as long as Yuuri wants him there, he'll be there. But what are they besides that? Yuuri doesn't seem to know how to ask the question, but Victor already has a script for it, prepared months back when he'd come to terms with the fact that they weren't going to talk about what happened at the Grand Prix banquet.]

On the beach that time, when I asked who you wanted me to be as a coach, you said you just wanted me to be 'Victor'. So when I'm not your coach, what do you want me to be to you? A father figure? A brother, a friend?

He's somehow managed to keep a straight face through the speech so far, but he can't quite help quirking an eyebrow before he offers the last option he had the last time.]

Boyfriend?

[katsudork]

[This time he doesn't freak out or shy away when Victor asks that last one. Instead his brows furrow as he gives it thought, his face screwed up like Victor's asking him to decipher a particle physics problem.]

[Even if Victor has the words for the question, Yuuri doesn't know how to find the words for the answer.]

[Part of it's because he's never good at articulating things like this in general. Part of it's because they've managed to communicate things without words so far in their relationship specifically. Yuuri's been able to show his love with his routine -- show it to the entire world even -- and most of what's passed between them has just unfurled in a natural way.]

[They've just let the cards fall where they may. But they can't let everything happen naturally after something so unnatural. With this strange new situation pushing them, they have to decide. They have to pin it down.]

[Yuuri knows what he wants Victor to be and even though Victor's already suggested it, it's still not easy for him to say it. So just like he does out on the ice, he finds a way to show it. It's slow and hesitant and fraught with nervousness, but Yuuri still leans forward and gently kisses Victor on the lips. It's not a particularly deep kiss -- he's still too inexperienced to figure that out and is afraid he'll ruin the moment with too much drool or something. But he still lingers there for a moment, kissing Victor softly and gently, and then pulls back to look him in the eye again, his face flushing.]

Mmm.

[It's not one of his noncommittal "um"s. It's a noise to the affirmative, and the kiss makes it clear it's an affirmative directed at the last option.]

[the_real_sir_prize]

[It's not their first kiss -- no, that one had been on the ice, on international television -- but it's their first kiss in this reality, so Victor supposes that it's a first kiss. Victor closes his eyes and kisses Yuuri back. When he opens them again, Yuuri is blushing and he smiles.]

You do always take my breath away.

[It's not a surprise, but it's an answer he's been waiting for for months.]

[katsudork]

[His words are as flattering as usual, but Yuuri still says dryly:]

That's also probably because you inhaled toxic gas.

[Yuuri knows from experience that waking up on Phelolu is pretty brutal. That's why he pokes at Victor's shoulder to try to get him to recline against the bed. It's in an upright position so he can still sit up, but he wants to get him under a blanket and comfortable.]

You should be resting.

[the_real_sir_prize]

[Victor's only response to the poke is another smile, this one more of a smirk than the last. He barely even moves.]

I am resting. I'm in a bed, aren't I?

[Makkachin sticks his nose in Yuuri's ear and snorts wetly. Yuuri and Victor aren't using their hands on each other anymore, someone should be petting him.]

[katsudork]

[Yuuri gives Makkachin some nice scritchy scratches on the head (because he really is glad Makkachin is okay), but then he turns, tucks his arm under Victor's armpits and bodily lifts him up and puts him down with his back against the raised bed.]

[It's only after he does it that he figures out Victor probably wasn't cooperating because he wanted to get manhandled, but he says nothing of it, and just tugs the blanket over Victor's legs, and settles in to sit next to him shoulder to shoulder, leg against leg.]

[the_real_sir_prize]

[Makkachin thumps the bed with his tail in approval, and Victor looks about as repentant. Yuuri's ability to pick him up isn't surprising in the slightest, he's seen Yuuri lift and hold more weight in a rather spectacular fashion. After a moment, he turns a theatrical pout on the man next to him.]

That's not how I put you to bed when I thought you needed rest.

He'd stripped Yuuri down to his shorts, tossed him under the blankets, and then flopped on top of them to force Yuuri to stay in bed. Though if he's being honest, if Yuuri does that to him, what happens after isn't likely to be particularly restful...]

[katsudork]

[Yuuri just looks at him for a second, then looks down at their legs, lifts the leg closest to Victor and hooks it over Victor's leg, still over the blanket. Then he looks at Victor again with the slightest of smiles, as if to say "See? There. I hooked my leg over your leg, that's the same as a full body cuddle."]

[Makkachin joins in the cuddle after that, flopping over both of their laps and Yuuri's hand settles on his neck, pet-petting away.]

[the_real_sir_prize]

Tch! Cheeky.

[With Makkachin on their laps, Victor can't scoot down far enough in the bed to lean his head against Yuuri's shoulder without bending in ways that will make his back hurt within five minutes. Instead, he wraps his nearer arm around Yuuri's shoulders and gently headbutts him, patting Makkachin's other end with his free hand.]

[katsudork]

[Yuuri leans in, ducking his head against the crook of Victor's neck so that they're all cuddled in close, and pulls out his omnicom. There are things Victor hasn't seen yet that he can't see until he gets out of the Medbay.]

Once you're feeling better, we can go down to Earth and see what's different.

[He pulls up a picture he took from one of the windows, of the lunar debris field.]

Because there's a lot that's different. For instance, this is the moon.

[A pause.]

Also, apparently there are 500 flavors of ice cream? Including made up ones. Everyone keeps telling me to try snozzberry.

Finished

[the_real_sir_prize]

[Victor raises his eyebrows as he leans in to look at the photo.]

That looks like something that inspired a great deal of sad songs and poetry. I can't imagine it's not the same, trying to have a romantic walk in the light of the space station circling overhead. And if everyone is recommending this "snozzberry", then we have to try it.

[He leans back against the padding of the bed, making himself comfortable. There are worse ways to spend your first day in the future than cuddling with your 'Mmm' and your dog.]