Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Viktor awoke to whimpering in the middle of the night at first he thought it was Makkachin, but when he sat up he saw the poodle blinking sleepily at him from the end his bed, confused at being woken up so suddenly. It took a few seconds for him to realise that the whimpering was coming from next door. Yuuri’s room. Viktor’s face flushed when he thought what Yuuri could be doing to make noises like that, but then he heard the fear. Yuuri was distressed. No, he was scared.

Quick as a flash Viktor jumped out of his bed and grabbed a discarded shirt from the floor before running out of his room. He came to a stop in front of Yuuri’s room and listened for a second, before he knocked, for the sake of politeness, then slowly slid the door open and stepped into the bedroom.  He quietly shut the door behind him, and walked over to Yuuri’s bedside before dropping to his knees next to the bed. The younger man was whimpering and crying out in his sleep, and  there were tears on his cheeks.

“Yuuri, Yuuri wake up.” He said softly, gently shaking the younger man. It took a little while but Yuuri finally woke up, his eyes were wide and tears were streaming down he cheeks.

“Viktor?” He asked quietly, sitting up slowly and throwing his arms around Viktor’s neck and burying his face there.

“Shh. I’m here solnyshko, I’m here.” Viktor whispered, stroking Yuuri’s hair. They stayed like that for a while, Yuuri sobbing into Viktor’s neck and the older man softly stroking his hair. Eventually the position got too uncomfortable for Viktor.

“Yuuri.” the older man whispered, “Yuuri let go for a second.”

Yuuri only help on tighter, he whispered something but it was muffled but Viktor’s neck, but it sounded like he’d said “please don’t leave me.”

“Please Yuuri, kneeling down like this is hurting me. I’m not going to leave you I promise. I just need to move.”

Yuuri paused for a second, then released his grip and moved back, giving Viktor enough room to come up onto the bed with him. Viktor climbed up onto the bed, ignoring the sharp pain in his knees as he stood up, and sat on top of the covers and leaned back against the headboard, before opening his arms to the younger man who crawled into his lap and buried his face back into his neck. Viktor wrapped his arms around Yuuri and slowly rubbed his back, speaking softly in a mix of English and Russian into his hair while the younger man sobbed quietly into his neck.

They stayed like that for a long time, even after Yuuri had stopped crying he stayed in Viktor’s lap with his face buried in the older man’s neck. Viktor carried on rubbing Yuuri’s back, softly murmuring into his hair. It took him a while to realise that he’d slipped into his native Russian and the younger man had no clue what he was saying, it didn’t seem to matter though, just being close to him and hearing his voice was enough to calm Yuuri down.

Viktor eventually leaned back to try and get a look at Yuuri

“Are you feeling okay now?” He asked, the younger man nodded but kept his head down, avoiding Viktor’s eyes, “Yuuri, look at me.”

Yuuri lifted his head, but still avoided meeting Viktor’s eyes. His eyes were read and puffy, and his face was blotchy and had dried tear tracks on his cheeks.

“Oh Yuuri,” Viktor whispered softly, and pulled yuuri against his chest again, “What’s made you like this?” He asked, partially to himself. Yuuri just shook his head against Viktor’s chest, he couldn’t answer. Viktor understood.

“Do you need me to get you anything? Some water or..” He tailed off. Yuuri whispered something, but it was muffled

“I didn’t hear you, solnyshko. What did you say?”

The younger man leaned his head back just enough that his voice would be heard.

“Please don’t leave me.” He whispered. Viktor felt his heart break a little at the words. Whatever Yuuri had dreamt about had clearly seriously bothered him.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay.” viktor whispered, gently laying his head on top of Yuuri’s. The  two of them stayed sat like that for a while longer, until Viktor had realised that Yuuri had fallen back to sleep in his arms. He thought about slipping away, back to his own room, but then he noticed Yuuri’s hands balled up in his shirt, holding on to him and not letting him go anywhere. He smiled down at the younger man, and gently moved them so that they were laying down. He pulled the blanket back over them and planted a soft kiss on Yuuri’s head before he slowly drifted off to sleep.

When Yuuri woke up the next morning his first thought was how warm his bed was. He let out a contented sigh as he snuggled deeper into the warmth, only to realise when he hit something solid that the warmth was another person. He froze, panicked and jumped back, away from the warmth , his breath hitching when he felt arms around him. He opened his eyes and relaxed a little when he saw a flash of silver. His heart was still pounding, but he found the knowledge that Viktor was close somehow soothing. He snuggled back closer into Viktor and smiled to himself when arms tightened around his waist and held him closer.