katzuyas:

it’s not a rare thing to see a dead squirrel or a pigeon by the roadside in a small seaside town like hasetsu, so while sad, yuuri is fairly used to it. what he is not used to, however, is seeing victor stop dead in his tracks and cover his mouth with his hand while big fat tears fill his blue eyes and begin rolling down his cheeks.

“what? what’s wrong, victor? are you okay? did you hurt yourself somehow?” there are no words to describe the panic that yuuri feels in that moment as he checks victor over from head to toe and finds nothing wrong with him. “victor, please talk to me? you’re scaring me…”

only then does victor take a shaky breath to reply, “I’m sorry, yuuri, I didn’t mean to. I just… look, there.”

he points at the side of the road where a little something is lying against the curb of the sidewalk. yuuri doesn’t need to look hard to know it must be another roadkill, but as he looks closer he sees that it’s a small marten that must have curled up on itself after it has been hit.

“poor thing,” victor says, sounding choked. “what monster would do this…”

before yuuri can even say anything back, victor walks past him to the dead animal and crouches as if to touch it. he hesitates at the last moment and brings his tear-filled eyes back to yuuri.

“can we bury it somewhere?” he asks. “I, I’d hate to leave it here like this, it feels so heartless…”

and as fresh tears flow down victor’s cheeks in precious pearls, there is nothing in the world that yuuri would be able to deny him, so he nods and helps victor gather the poor marten onto his jacket, which they then take into the forest outside the town and give the little animal a burial that victor sniffles through until the very end.

once all is done, however, he wipes his eyes gently and gives yuuri a smile so sweet and tender that yuuri feels like he’s ascended to heaven along with their new furry friend.

“thank you,” victor says, and – speechless, awed, starstruck – yuuri can only nod back, because life with victor is a never ending chain of surprises that yuuri is never ready for, but has learned to welcome with his arms and mind wide open.