Title: Stealing Starlight
Fandom: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Word Count: 778
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Characters: Katsuki Yuuri, Victor Nikiforov
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Angst, Magical Realism, Emotions, Astronomy, Star, Established Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Sad Victor Nikiforov, Anxious Victor Nikiforov, Reassuring Katsuki Yuuri
Preview:
“Yuuri, do you know why the stars are beautiful?”
Yuuri frowned. “Because they shine?”
“Because they dance,” Victor said. “Have you ever seen a star that doesn’t dance?”
Summary:
How does a star retire?
They learn the meaning of life and love, but is it really that easy?
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it depends on who's there to remind you that you're not alone.
Ao3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/13630587
Disclaimer: The art which inspired this fic is amazing and I reblogged it previously but you can find it here! It’s beautiful, please go check out @mixedbird if you haven’t already!!! Big, big thanks to her for the inspiration!
Read the fic under the cut!
The starlight reflected perfectly off of Victor’s hair - too perfectly, maybe, as if the celestial bodies themselves were ready to claim him as their own. From where he stood in the doorway, Yuuri couldn’t tell if Victor wanted to let that happen or not.
“Victor!” Yuuri called out, as if calling him back, and grabbed Victor’s hand, to ground him. His voice sounded too loud in the silence of after midnight and Victor whirled to face him with an alarmed expression. Yuuri didn’t blame him; his own heart was pounding too fast, after all.
“Three a.m. is a dangerous time to stare at the stars all alone,” Yuuri said, by way of explanation. Victor relaxed and turned back to the window, but didn’t pull away.
“They’re beautiful,” Victor said.
“So are you.”
Victor’s laugh was light and Yuuri worried that it would float away and never come back. “Yuuri, do you know why the stars are beautiful?”
Yuuri frowned. “Because they shine?”
“Because they dance,” Victor said. “Have you ever seen a star that doesn’t dance?”
Ah, now Yuuri was starting to get a hint of the reason behind Victor’s sudden insomnia.
“They never stop,” Victor went on wistfully, “for their whole lives. Even thousands of years after their deaths, they still dance for us. Isn’t it amazing?”
Victor let Yuuri pull him off of the couch and away from the window, but Yuuri could tell that his mind remained with the skies. Even while being led around the darkened room in a tiptoeing step sequence, Victor drifted elsewhere.
“They’re so far away,” he said. Yuuri nodded, but he cupped a hand behind Victor’s head and brought it to his shoulder- an attempt to close the gap.
“Too far,” Yuuri whispered. He cherished the way it felt for his body to fit so perfectly with another's, even in oversized pajamas, and hoped that Viktor, distant as he was, was feeling the same.
Victor’s steps slowed, and Yuuri slowed with him to avoid falling out of step. They continued swaying, moving slightly, never coming to a full stop. Fear had had never had the power to stop either of them, but maybe it could still keep them from stopping.
“It’s late,” Victor said, and Yuuri knew he was making his shaky way back to Earth.
"It is," Yuuri said. “Do you want to go to bed?”
Victor shook his head.
“We can dance for as long as you want, Vitya,” Yuuri said. Victor stumbled a bit and started to pull away, just slightly, loosening his grip on Yuuri’s waist and straightening up just a bit. Yuuri cupped Victor’s face in his hands and together they came to a standstill.
“It’s hard to leave the ice, isn’t it?” Yuuri said quietly. Victor’s gaze dropped and Yuuri kissed the top of his head. “It’s okay to be upset,” he whispered, savoring the sensation of star-kissed silver hair against his lips.
Victor hid his face in Yuuri’s shoulder and was motionless for a handful of seconds until Yuuri felt a nod, and then a sob.
“Stars,” Victor sniffled, and for a moment Yuuri thought he’d heard wrong.
“Hm?” He’d thought that they’d moved past the astronomical part of the conversation.
“Stars are only beautiful because they dance, Yuuri,” Victor said, a certain urgency in his voice, evident even beneath the tears. “Do they really keep dancing after they die? Or do they die… because they stop dancing?”
Yuuri chuckled in a low, grounding sort of manner. “I told you, didn’t I?” Yuuri said, pulling them back into motion, still holding Victor as tight as he could. “We can dance forever.”
Victor’s grip around Yuuri tightened, and his voice was significantly muffled by Yuuri’s shirt as he spoke. “But without skating, I’m…”
Victor trailed off and Yuuri realized: he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know what he is without skating.
“Vitya,” Yuuri said suddenly. That was his answer, but Victor was confused, so he went on.
“Without skating, you’re Vitya. And you’re not a star because you’re something better,” Yuuri said. He nuzzled his nose against Victor’s cheek and kissed him. “You’re close enough to me to be imperfect, and Vitya, you’re most beautiful when you’re human.”
“Yuuri…” Victor looked up and there were still tears in his eyes and they fell, and his laugh stayed and was in no danger of flying away. And his lips were rough because they were chapped, because they were always chapped, and he wasn’t perfect but he was here, and Yuuri was here laughing with him.
If there was one thing Yuuri was proud of, it was his ability to steal Victor back from the starlight.
author’s note:
thank you so very much for reading! i hope you enjoyed the fic! if you did, and would like to let me know, please consider leaving some feedback for me. remember: bookmarks, kudos, favorites, and especially comments keep writers going!
i know that leaving comments can be stressful and difficult for a million different reasons, check out this post for some short, copy-and-paste comments which are 110% acceptable to use if you'd like to provide me with some encouragement, but don't have the time or energy to come up with your own!
still don't want to leave a comment? no worries! i hope you enjoyed the story nonetheless!
music: today i wrote during class and, later, while watching the women’s short program skate!
characters: Victor, Yuuri, Makkachin, and Yakov gets mentioned once or twice
favorite lines: Yuuri loves it when Victor pouts. Sure, it’s annoying as hell, but Yuuri loves it.
(context for above lines: these are the first two lines of what i wrote today, and they spurred the whole rest of the fic on. i’m not super happy with how it is at the moment, but then, it is just a first draft after all! and it was fun to write anyway!)
notes: i don’t really have anything else to say about the actual writing today! although to be honest, i didn’t think i would write at all today, so i am pretty proud of myself for that, even if i didn’t write that much and what i did write isn’t the greatest quality!
a soft darkness - a playlist by radhika.sheth on spotify)
Dealer - Foxing
Paranoia - Lee Dewyze
favorite lines (i actually have 2 today!):
14. Victor’s smile on a bad day can scare away even the most tenacious souls (it had taken her years to get past this; she’d made no progress until at the age of 10 she’d grown clever enough to develop the avoidance tactic which she’s been using ever since)
“I’d rather be celebrated for my achievements than for my mother’s ability to eject me from her body”
(context for above lines: the first one is one of a list of things which Mila has observed about Victor over the years. the second is Victor’s reaction to being asked why he cared so little for his birthday. it cause Georgi, who had asked the question, to fall on his ass and then avoid speaking to Victor for weeks)
notes: i’ve been working on a longer fic today, which focuses on Mila’s perspective (because i adore her) of everything that has happened to Victor since he became a four time world champion (and also some things that happened before that). it’s in the form of past-tense narrative broken up by present-tense, numbered observations. it’s a mess at the moment and is only a fraction of the length it will ultimately be (i’m estimating no less than 10,000 words?), but it’s been so much fun to write already!
