Chapter Text
Thick clouds of frozen breath huffed out as he trudged through the heavy layer of snow on the ground, following the long trenches that stretched out before him and disappeared over the hill he was climbing. For the first time ever he cursed the heavy white blanket on the ground, it was only mid shin, but it was still enough to make his trek up the hill a chore, even with the trenches he was following. Even so he pushed through, never slowing, he needed to get over the hill, needed to catch up to the one ahead of him, needed to straighten things out.
“Victor!” he called up the hill. “Victor wait please!”
His lungs felt like they were on fire, the cold air making it hard to breath, but the top of the hill was just ahead, and with any luck Victor would be there. The man could be obnoxiously stubborn when he was upset, but it had never been in his nature to completely ignore Yuri no matter how upset he was. So maybe, just maybe he had heard Yuri calling to him and stopped, was waiting for him just at the top of the hill. That hope was all he needed to push himself forward. His legs felt like lead as he crested the hill, and in spite of his hurry he leaned forward on his knees in an attempt to catch his breath, though he was still gasping as he stood straight again. He looked forward and felt relief wash over him to see the form of the person he had been chasing just ahead of him, he had stopped. They could talk, they really needed to talk, to straighten things out. Yuri’s mind was still reeling a bit from the conversation he and Victor had had before this ridiculous chase began, but he pushed that away for the moment. There would be time to think about that once he reached Victor and got his friend to talk to him.
He took a step forward, but paused when the entirety of the scene before him sunk in. Victor was on his knees, bent forward, with his hands clutching at his chest. In his relief of just seeing that Victor was still there he had completely failed to notice. Forgetting the heaviness in his legs and the burning in his chest he hurried forward, his eyes fixed on his friend.
“Victor!”
Victor didn’t react, as he drew closer he could see the older man’s shoulder shaking, was he crying? A wave of guilt washed over him, and he knew more than ever he needed to fix things. He was only a few feet from him, but still Victor hadn’t moved, hadn’t acknowledged that he had heard Yuri, something was definitely wrong.
“Vic-!”
He was cut off as a powerful wind suddenly slammed into him, nearly knocking him off his feet. Stumbling back, he brought an arm up in an attempt to protect his face from the onslaught of snow that came with the wind, the frozen flakes stinging his skin as they struck. He had never seen a storm like this, if he could even call it a storm. Something just didn’t seem… right about it. Natural. There hadn’t been any warning, no gradual build up, it just suddenly, was. He shook his head and pushed the thought from his mind, the storm wasn’t important, he needed to get to Victor. Squinting he looked forward, but the swirling snow was so thick he couldn’t see a foot in front of him. Keeping his arm raised in front of his face, he stretched the other out to use as a guide and began slowly walking forward again. Victor had been straight ahead of him, so if he kept going just as he was…
“Victor! Victor can you hear me?!”
It was a stupid question, he could barely hear himself over the howling of the wind. Up ahead he thought he saw movement, had Victor heard him after all?
“Victor! Victor answer me! Vic-!”
A hand suddenly clamped onto the wrist of his outstretched hand, causing him to cry out in alarm. The skin under the thick fabric of his coat began to burn, but not from heat, from cold. He cried out again and tried to pull away but the hand held strong. A harsh tug of his arm had him stumbling forward, and he found himself face to face with a being unlike any he had ever seen.
Glowing silvery, blue eyes, fair skin, and long hair the color of the snow swirling around them, he was as stunning as he was terrifying. The figure fixed him with a hard stare, and he felt his breath catch in his throat. It was a look of contempt, disgust, this man this… being that looked as if he shouldn’t exist was looking at him as if he were something vile and disgusting that had no business being there. And Yuri was suddenly very afraid, he wanted to scream for help, to pull away and run like his life depended on it—which it very well might—but he was frozen in place. What did this man want with him? Why was he looking at him with such hate? The man leaned in close to him, and it took everything Yuri had to not instinctively lean away.
“Victor doesn’t need you anymore.“
His voice was like ice, his breath as cold as the wind blowing around them, no, colder. It was as if the bitter of winter itself was coming from the man, and suddenly a story from his childhood came to him. The story told of the Lord of Winter, a fantastical man of ice and snow, who would steal away naughty children to his frozen kingdom. It was a favorite story for parents to tell their children in order to get them to behave, one that he had learned during the first winter after he and his family had moved to town. But it was just that, a story. Yuri had never believed there was actually a Lord of Winter that stole children, what would he want with naughty children anyway? But as he looked into the eyes of the man before him, as he felt the cold burning his skin under the man’s touch, he suddenly believed. The Lord of Winter was very real, he was standing right in front of him, and he very clearly despised Yuri.
His eyes went wide as the realization sunk in and the Lord of Winter smirked, but even as the severity of the situation sank in, even as he knew he was in more danger than he could imagine, his mind was focused on something else entirely. The Lord of Winter had said that Victor didn’t need him anymore, what did he mean by that? Victor was upset with him, there was no doubt about that, but surely he didn’t…
Suddenly another realization came to him, and this one made his panic rise. The Lord of Winter wasn’t there because of him, he was there because of Victor. He didn’t know why, and at the moment he didn’t really care, all that mattered was getting to Victor. Upset or not, he would grab his friend and drag him back to town if he had to. He yanked his arm back, trying to break free of the grip that had a hold of him like a vice.
“L-Let go!” he shouted, the grip on his arm only tightened. “Victor! Victor you have to run!”
He took a chance to look past the Lord of Winter to where he remembered Victor being. The swirling snow had thinned a little and he was just able to see a vaguely human shaped blob still kneeling in the snow, he hadn’t moved. Yuri knew his voice wasn’t reaching him over the wind, but he tried again, practically screaming his voice raw in the attempt to make himself heard.
“Victor please! You have to hear me! You have to run! Victor!”
His arm was yanked roughly into the air, eliciting a yelp of pain and surprise from his lips as he was pulled even closer to the Lord of Winter. He balanced precariously on his tiptoes, his only real support being the hold the other man had on him. Those cold, silver/blue eyes narrowed at him, and Yuri felt what little fight he had in him drain away.
“So annoying…” he drawled. “Why Victor was so attached to a pathetic little wretch like you is beyond me, but it doesn’t matter. As I said, he doesn’t need you anymore.”
And before Yuri could respond, before his mind could even think of a response the Lord of Winter tossed him aside effortlessly as if he were a rag doll. Though the snow cushioned the impact, the wind was still knocked out of him slightly and his glasses went flying. He took half a second to try and catch his breath before rolling over and frantically searching for his glasses. By time he located them and shoved them back on his face the Lord of Winter had moved away from him and was now kneeling in front of Victor. Yuri watched, frozen in place as the Lord of Winter placed a hand under Victor’s chin and lifted his head so that Victor was looking at him. He spoke to him, but Yuri was too far away to hear what was said. It was at that moment Yuri realized that the swirling wind and snow had slowed considerably.
“Victor!” he shouted, breaking free of his stupor, and finally Victor reacted.
It was slight, a barely noticeable inclination of his head in the direction of Yuri’s shout, but it was there. Yuri felt a surge of relief when he saw it, and opened his mouth to shout again, but then the Lord of Winter’s head snapped towards him and fixed him with his cold stare, his eyes flashing. Yuri’s voice caught in his throat, and his chest suddenly felt tight and very cold, so cold that he found he couldn’t breath. It felt as if frozen hands were wrapped around his lungs and squeezing. He wheezed and gasped, trying desperately to draw breath in as his hands clawed uselessly at the snow. Darkness began to creep in at the corners of his eyes and he could feel himself losing strength, was this how he was going to die? With his breath frozen in his chest and his body numb from the cold?
Suddenly the ice wrapped around his lungs lifted and cold air rushed into them, making his head spin. He coughed and gasped, his head falling forward as he relished in the burn in his chest caused by the frigid air. He remained like that until his coughing had subsided, though his breathing was still heavy and raspy. Slowly he lifted his head and once again looked towards Victor and the Lord of Winter, his vision swimming in and out of focus.
The Lord of Winter had stood and had a hand outstretched to Victor, who was gazing up at him. From where he lay Yuri couldn’t see his face, but a bad feeling was forming in the pit of his stomach. He reached a shaking hand towards his friend.
“V… Victor…” he said weakly.
If either of them heard him they didn’t react. Yuri watched as Victor slowly lifted a hand and placed it in the one held out for him. The Lord of Winter helped him to his feet and after a moment brought his free hand up to gently stroke Victor’s cheek, said something that Victor responded to with a nod. The Lord of Winter smiled, then in a sudden rush of wind and snow the two vanished, and the hill fell still and silent once again.
Yuri’s world went black.