Sweetness
This was inspired by this lovely and sweet piece of art by @woahcavi. There’s something really sweet and romantic about finding someone to share your life with. Thank you for sharing your art with us.
Viktor idly leafed through a magazine, waiting for the doctors to come and tell him if he could go home today. The regeneration treatment on his fractured hip was working, but the progress was slower than they liked, thanks to all the years he’d spent trying to find the limits of his body. All those jumps had finally caught up with him. He was just thankful that it hadn’t been worse.
It had been such a stupid accident. He’d taken Barcelona out for his evening walk when a squirrel had jumped out of a tree right in front of them. Excited, the dog had given chase, yanking on her leash. Had Viktor not wrapped the strap around his wrist, the leash would have shot out of his hand and he would have had to chase her down again, like he had last week. He was getting too old to go running after an excited puppy. He’d never thought she would be strong enough to pull him down.
He’d known right away that his hip was broken: the sharp, shooting pain could be nothing else. Luckily, he’d had his device on him and had been able to call for help. But in the seemingly long moments before emergency services arrived, when he lay on his side, clutching Barcelona’s leash and unable to move, he had time to consider how much worse it could have been. And the thought that everything could have been over that quickly scared him.
Yuuri got there as they were loading him up in the ambulance and followed them to the hospital. He sat with him as they examined him, held his hand as they imaged his hip and confirmed the break, comforted him until they gave him something for the pain.
Viktor tried to send his husband home, but Yuuri refused, choosing to spend the night in the chair by his bed instead. It upset Viktor. Yuuri was too old and his back was too bad for him to sleep in an uncomfortable hospital room chair, but he did it anyway.
“You know you would do the same thing if I was the one in that bed,” Yuuri fussed as he tried in vain to get comfortable. And he was right: he would have slept by Yuuri’s bedside and nothing would have moved him.
Yuri came that night and took Barcelona home with him. He also brought Yuuri a duffel bag with a few changes of clothes and some toiletries.
“I’d tell you to go home,” Yuri told Yuuri, “but I know it wouldn’t do any good. You’re as stubborn as he is.”
Yuuri spent two days and nights with him, sat with him while they began the treatments to knit his fractured hip, and only left to get them something to eat. There had been vast improvements in medical technology during his lifetime, but hospital food was still terrible.
On the second day, he finally convinced Yuuri to at least go take care of the kids in the rink. There was a competition coming up and they needed the practice. It was bad enough, having one of them out, but both of them? And asking Minami to do double duty and take care of his kids and theirs too? It was too much to ask. He didn’t want to be a burden.
Viktor heard footsteps coming down the hall and put his magazine down, expecting a nurse to come in and check on him, or one of the doctors, hopefully with good news. But instead of a member of the hospital staff, his husband walked in, a bag tucked under his arm.
Even after all these years, after all they’d been through together, the sight of Yuuri always made his heart race and brought a smile to his face. His husband was a little fluffier around the middle and his once black crown of hair was now entirely silver, but he was still his precious Yuuri.
Getting to grow old with Yuuri had been the greatest gift of his life and he was nowhere near ready for it to end.
“Yuuri,” Viktor said, holding out his hand for his husband, “you’re early! I didn’t expect you for several hours.”
“I couldn’t stay away,” Yuuri said, a quiet smile breaking out over his face. He took Viktor’s hand and held it tightly as he sat down in the chair by his bedside.
“Who’s watching the kids?” Viktor asked, momentarily serious. “You didn’t ask Minami to do it again, did you?”
“Yuri’s got them,” Yuuri answered. “They may think you and I are a couple of old demanding grumps and that Minami’s unreasonable, but I think they’re actually scared of Yuri.”
Viktor chuckled, imagining their trainees quaking in their skates as Yuri yelped at them. Out of all of them, he was the one that took the most after Yakov. He would have been so proud…
“Have the doctors come to see you yet?” Yuuri asked as he sat down, never letting go of Viktor’s hand.
“Not yet,” Viktor replied. “I heard you coming down the hall and I was hoping you were one of them. But I’m happier that it was you.” He knew he was smiling like a fool, but he didn’t care. Just having Yuuri here made him feel better.
Yuuri gave his hand a little squeeze, the laugh lines around his eyes crinkling with joy.
“Maybe I should go get them and see what’s taking so long,” Yuuri said. “I’m hoping I can take you home soon.”
“Me too,” Viktor said. “But you can do that in a little while. For now, just sit here with me.”
Yuuri looked down, hiding his embarrassment. It delighted him that he could still make Yuuri blush like a young man newly in love.
“I brought you something,” Yuuri said, gesturing to the bag he’d set down on the table. “I know hospital food is awful. You need some home cooking.”
“Ooh, what’d you make me?” Viktor asked, trying to crane his head so he could see what was in the bag.
“Katsudon pirozhkis,” Yuuri said, opening the bag and extracting a pair of the wonderful treats. “Yuri made them for you. He said I could have one, but not until you’d eaten two.”
“I can’t eat both of those,” Viktor said as he pulled tissues out of the box by his bed. “You have one, too. I promise I won’t tell him.”
They ate together, Yuuri spreading out the pirozhkis in easy reach on Viktor’s blanket like they were having a picnic lunch. Hopefully, they could do that soon, even if they went no further than their back yard.
“Thank you for coming to see me early,” Viktor said, taking Yuuri’s hand again. Even after all these years, Yuuri still stirred his heart. There were more years behind them now than in front of them, and Viktor was grateful for each and every one they’d shared and would share.
“Of course,” Yuuri said, wiping his hands on a tissue as he finished his pirozhki. “Now let me see about going to find one of those doctors for you. I’d really like to take you home today. It just doesn’t feel right in the house without you. Knowing you’re stuck here while they mend your hip…” Yuuri shook his head and gave him a rueful smile. “I swear, when we pick up Barcelona, she’s going straight into obedience training. And I don’t want to hear any arguments, okay? I don’t care if she is just a puppy, she has to learn to behave.”
“No arguments here, my dear,” Viktor said lightly, patting Yuuri’s hand. Yuuri leaned forward and kissed him, a warm a familiar peck on the lips, then got up to go find the doctor. Viktor watched him go. Life was precious and fragile and all too brief, and he wanted to spend whatever time left to them by Yuuri’s side.
