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“Yuuri! Good morning!” Victor barged into the cottage like a gust of wind, not bothering to knock on the door no matter how many times Yuuri had asked him to.
“Hey, Victor,” Yuuri greeted him, distracted, nose buried in a thick spell book as he read the ingredients list for the repellent Mr. Lockwood had requested from him, to help banishing the particularly nasty flesh-eating slugs from his garden. The task would be much easier if there wasn’t a big hole right in the middle of the book, thanks to Victor who had surprised Yuuri with hugging him from behind, making him drop the vial he had been holding, the liquid spilling and the book almost catching on fire. Yuuri made Victor swear to always have at least three metres of space between them when he was working, to prevent any further accidents.
Victor was a kind man, he meant no harm but sometimes his presence was just too much.
Yuuri didn't even know what Victor did when he wasn't harassing him. Did he even have a job? Yuuri had asked that once, quite sourly while he had been overworked himself, but Victor had just looked at him dumbly before changing the subject. Maybe he was wooing witches left and right and let them pay for his expenses. The ladies at the marketplace always seemed to be whispering about him.
“I’m sorry, I overslept today and I have to finish this by noon, so just help yourself and take whatever you’d like for breakfast from the pantry. We can have lunch together later,” Yuuri apologized, having given up on examining the book and started hastily gathering the ingredients from the shelves. He was not sure if he would be able to make the potion from memory only, but if his calculations were correct he shouldn’t use more than six grams of spider legs powder and...
Victor pouted when Yuuri didn’t even look at his way, too absorbed in his work as usual. He made his way to the other side of the cottage and entered the small kitchen.
The dining table was covered in parchments, spell books and half-burned candles. The sink was full of unwashed dishes but it was a good sign, telling Victor that Yuuri had remembered to eat, although more often than not it was Victor who brought him dinner and forced him to take a break.
Among the mess on the table Victor spotted a small, beautifully shaped glass bottle full of pale pink liquid. Yuuri had told him many times not to touch anything, that it could be very dangerous, but it’s not like a pretty little bottle like that would contain some deadly poison! And Victor had learned from his mistakes, he’d never forget the day when he’d purposely made himself completely soaked in cold, rainy winter weather and used needing a hot bath as an excuse to peek at Yuuri’s bathroom. His hair had turned orange after borrowing Yuuri’s shampoo. (‘I told you to use the turquoise bottle, not teal, Victor!’) But Yuuri had fixed it - first his hair had turned black, then back to his natural silver. Victor had even seen Yuuri shirtless as he’d stripped to avoid getting his robes wet, well, for a second, before Victor’s head had been dunked in the sink rather forcibly, if you asked him.
He picked the bottle up, inspecting it closely. It looked just like the perfumes he’d seen at the store on Awington Street. He opened the cap to satisfy his curiosity. Some of the liquid evaporated into a thick white smoke, Victor coughed a little and waved his hand to make it disappear. He brought the bottle closer to his nose and took a whiff.
It smelled heavenly, a sweet fragrance that reminded Victor of cherries and meadow flowers, but after a second it smelled more like the seaside, fresh laundry and Yuuri’s natural scent. Victor was suddenly overcome with the need to taste it, to have another one of his senses experience this symphony of aromas. Before he noticed it, he had already emptied the bottle with one gulp.
Immediately, Victor felt a dizzying sensation going through him, as if his head was suddenly filled with millions of urgent thoughts, and he had to grab the back of a chair for support as his knees buckled.
Oh no, Yuuri will be so mad at me because I touched his stuff again, Victor thought.
Yuuri. Yuuri. Yuuri.
“Yuuri!”
Victor’s call startled Yuuri and he almost dropped his stirring spoon into the cauldron. He should've known this, Victor was like a child - leave him alone for five minutes, and if it became too quiet, it meant that he was probably in trouble. The shampoo incident still haunted him, he couldn’t believe he had fallen victim to Victor’s puppy eyes so much that he had forgotten the order of the bottles in his bathroom.
“What is it?” Yuuri asked when Victor emerged from the kitchen, happy to notice that he looked unharmed, although strangely determined, and that couldn’t be a good thing either.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate-” Victor spoke, and realization hit Yuuri like somebody had dropped a huge dragon egg on his head.
Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no way!
“And summer's lease hath all too short a date-”
“Victor! Did you touch that potion?!”
I wasn’t Yuuri’s fault he had overslept, he had been working on that potion all night. It also wasn’t his fault Mr. Lockwood had been on his doorstep at 8am, demanding the slug-repellent he had been supposed to deliver last week, but that had been when Victor had destroyed his book!
But it was entirely Yuuri’s fault he had forgotten he left the love potion on the kitchen table.
*
Naturally love potions didn’t bring eternal happiness; it was just an aid for those harboring crushes, too scared to approach the one that caught their eye. Yuuri had read about the horrible, illegal potions brewed with dark magic, making their victims starve from lust, or wicked women fooling rich men into marrying them, then vanishing with all the money and gifts they’d acquired. Yuuri would’ve never prepared a potion like that. This commission had been for a girl she knew from the neighborhood, her desperate first love affecting her grades so much her parents were angry at her. She had cried how she only wanted Philip to notice her, talk to her even once before he would be returning to his home kingdom. And Yuuri had pitied her, she was a promising young scholar, so he had agreed to help. He had fixed a light, perfume-like potion that would attract the boy’s attention for a while, make him notice how smart and pretty Bianca really was. After that she would’ve been on her own.
Obviously Victor had skipped the crucial step: shaking the bottle well and making sure the liquid turned purple before opening the cap. And he’d drank it all when you were only supposed to mix it with a glass of water.
Yuuri suddenly wanted the flesh-eating slugs to swallow him whole.
“Have I ever told you how much I love the color of your eyes?” Victor looked at him questioningly, apparently done with poetry for now, disappointed that it didn’t make Yuuri swoon.
“Yes, you might have, but look, we have to get you back to normal,” Yuuri snapped.
Victor blinked.
“They’re like perfect dark chocolate, like the brightest of amber when sunlight catches them, and I love how your laugh makes them sparkle. Yuuri, you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen in my life,” he declared solemnly.
“Victor, please stop!” Yuuri begged, trying to think how to reverse the potion’s effects. When consumed properly, it shouldn’t last longer than few hours, but Yuuri wasn’t just going to sit and wait what would happen, not when Victor was like this. Misusing a potion was always a serious matter!
Victor was kneeling on his feet now, taking a hold of Yuuri’s hand and kissing it. “I never meant to cause you distress, my love. Will you please forgive me?” he breathed, sounding truly ashamed of his actions. Actions he wasn’t even aware of doing, like turning Yuuri’s palm up, kissing all the way up to his wrist before Yuuri managed to pull his hand away.
“Don’t move. Just… Sit here. And don’t talk,” Yuuri ordered, trying not to panic. He could do this, there had to be an antidote or a hex for unwanted suitors, anything to stop Victor from groveling at his feet and looking like a lovestruck fool which, technically, he was.
“Darling, as you wish,” Victor bowed before sitting on a wooden stool in the corner, patiently waiting for Yuuri’s next instruction.
To Yuuri’s amazement, Victor managed to stay still and not utter a word for a solid half an hour, allowing Yuuri to finish brewing the slug repellent right before noon. At 12 o'clock sharp there was a knock on his door.
“That must be Mr. Lockwood. Sorry for making you wait, Victor. After this we can have some lunch.”
“I didn’t know you were seeing other men,” Victor complained, brows furrowed.
Yuuri almost knocked the cauldron over.
“What?! I’m not… seeing anybody! Besides, he is in his late 50’s!”
“Do you like older men, Yuuri? Ah… I’m only four years older than you, but I can act like a gentleman, too, if you’d like.”
There was an another, louder and more urgent knock.
“What are you even talking about!”
“I’m jealous!”
“He’s married! You’re impossible!”
“Yuuri! Stop being so mean to me~!”
“Mr. Katsuki?” a voice from the front door interrupted their yelling. Mr. Lockwood’s enormous moustache twitched in a way that told Yuuri he was very disappointed in him.
“I’m clearly interrupting something in here, but it’s very unprofessional to keep a customer waiting because you two are having a lovers’ spat. I’m here to collect the repellent, it is finally finished?”
“Yes, of course!” Yuuri handed him the bottle and accepted the pouch of gold coins, praying that Mr. Lockwood hadn’t been able to hear what exactly they had fought about through the door. Luckily he just grunted a goodbye and left swiftly. Yuuri sighed in relief when he was gone.
“So, am I your type, Yuuri?” Victor tried again.
*
Yuuri had tried everything. Cinnamon and herbs had only made Victor sneeze, all the antidotes needed expensive ingredients he didn’t have or at least 48 hours of preparation time, and Yuuri really didn’t want to hex Victor when he was already under another spell. He could make Victor’s feet be unable to stop dancing polka but he doubted that would cancel the love potion’s effect. Maybe if he cast a spell that would make him speak backwards it would be more tolerable to listen Victor showering him with praises and compliments. He had a pleasant voice, but his words made Yuuri’s ears burn in embarrassment.
If anything, Victor’s condition was getting worse. When Yuuri had let his guard down for a moment, Victor had pinned him against a wall, arms on the both sides of his head blocking his escape. Yuuri had refused to kiss him once again and Victor had let him go, but had instead started expressing his feelings by howling. His tantrum seemed to be over but he was still sitting on the floor and sniffling, wrapped in a blanket with his legs tucked against his chest. Yuuri had left him there to sulk for a moment, while he had gone to his bedroom and decided to ask for some advice.
“Yurio, are you there?” Yuuri asked from his crystal ball, the image still blurry but sharpening bit by bit.
“For the last time, my name is not Yurio! What do you want, pig?” Yurio’s annoyed voice echoed back, before his face popped into a view.
“It's about Victor... He messed up with my stuff again but this time I don’t know how to fix him,” Yuuri said, sounding upset.
“Look, it’s not my problem if the fucker lost all of his hair this time. He was going bald already anyway...” Yurio snorted, but the joke wasn’t that amusing anymore. “Alright, tell me what’s wrong. You wouldn’t call me without a reason, no matter how dumb it was,” he muttered, seeing the sad look on Yuuri’s face.
“Well… Victor accidentally drank one of my potions. A love potion. And now he won’t shut up. He’s been coming up with names for our future children and what songs to play at our wedding. I don’t know what to do,” Yuuri sighed, burying his face on his hands.
Yurio hissed in annoyance. That was Victor's favorite topic. He’d been forced to listen to Victor’s delusional ramblings about wanting to start a family with Yuuri for months. Yurio knew they hadn’t even gone to a proper date yet because Victor was an idiot. If they had gone on a date Victor would have told him everything, in a great detail.
“When he tried to kiss me and I pushed him away, he started crying!”
“Victor is in love with you,” Yurio explained. And the sky is blue, water is wet etc., he continued in his mind and rolled his eyes, forgetting Yuuri could see him.
“Yes, I know, I must have made the potion too strong, I wasn’t aware it would be that strong when misused, it was meant for a customer but it was my fault for just leaving it there…”
“You really don’t get it, pig, do you?” Yurio interrupted him. God, he hated him. A genius wizard Katsuki, thinking nothing but spells and charms and potions, completely oblivious to the world. “I assume you made some version of ‘Aphrodite's Kiss’? If this circus has been going on since the morning, it shouldn’t be too long until it wears off. Calm down and have a fucking cup of tea or something,” he continued. Yurio was tired of dealing with their shit, why couldn’t one of them just learn telepathy? Maybe that would stop Victor’s gross pining or make the pig pay attention to his surroundings for once.
“You’re probably right. Sorry for bothering you Yurio, I know you’re probably very busy now that you’ve started as Otabek’s apprentice. I’ll call you again later,” Yuuri apologized. He felt a little calmer now.
“Don’t fucking do that,” Yurio growled, and Yuuri’s crystal ball returned to showing him nothing but swirling silvery mist.
*
“Victor, I can’t let you go home like this. You have to spend the night here.”
“If you’ll have me, I’ll always stay by your side and never leave!” Victor answered enthusiastically, his face brightening. Yuuri figured that meant yes.
“As you probably noticed the floor is a bit dirty, but I brought you a spare mattress and some pillows from my bedroom, ok? It’s comfy, shouldn’t be that bad.”
“But I want to sleep with you, Yuuri!” Victor whined.
“You what?!” No. That sounded like…. something Yuuri didn’t even want to think about it. Except that he totally did and blushed bright red.
“I want to share your bed and cuddle with you, sing you a lullaby and caress your hair until you fall asleep. I want to protect you from nightmares. I want to be the first person you see in the morning when you wake up,” Victor confessed, words full of longing.
But you already are because you keep showing up here every morning. And I kind of like it.
Yuuri flushed even worse when he realized what he was thinking. “No. Maybe some other time. When you’re back to normal. I mean, that’s still a no. I guess,” he stammered, refusing to look at Victor into the eyes.
Victor smiled sadly. “Oh, alright… Will you at least give me a goodnight kiss?” he asked in a silent, dejected voice. It sounded like he had finally given up, completely abandoned all hope.
Yuuri was so, so tired.
So he gently brought his hand to touch Victor’s face and pressed a soft, barely even there kiss on his lips.
“Goodnight, Victor.”
He turned on his heels and escaped back to his bedroom as quickly as possible, leaving Victor there stunned in silence.
Just when Yuuri had wrapped himself under the covers he heard a quiet knock and the door creaking open.
“Goodnight, Yuuri. Sweet dreams. I love you”, Victor whispered, before retreating and closing the door behind him.
For a fleeting moment, Yuuri allowed himself to believe that those three words were sincere. A minute later he was already asleep.
*
Next morning, Yuuri woke up to the feeling of Victor shaking his shoulder gently.
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty. I got us breakfast from the bakery down the street. I would have made blueberry pancakes, but last time after I turned your kitchen upside-down you told me to never attempt cooking anything more complicated than boiling water ever again,” Victor chuckled, pressing a kiss in the middle of Yuuri’s messy bed hair.
Yuuri was fully awake instantly. He jumped up from the bed, blanket flying to the floor.
“It’s been 24 hours, how can you still be under the effect of the spell!” he cried out, panicking again. “I’m so sorry Victor; I know you wouldn’t be this affectionate with me if you were in your right mind… It was my fault, I forgot to warn you about the potion.”
“No, Yuuri, my dear, you don’t understand-”
“Shut up, I’m trying to think!” Yuuri was frustrated. He should have enough gold to buy an antidote after today’s commissions, but he’d have to rebrew the potion for Bianca as well, damn, that would already take half a day...
“Yuuri Katsuki! Listen to me!” Victor suddenly yelled from the top of his lungs.
Yuuri was frozen still, staring at Victor with wide eyes. Well, that worked, so Victor decided he might as well keep shouting.
“I’ve been in love with you ever since I saw you dancing at the carnival!”
A carnival. That was almost nine months ago. Oh, Yuuri thought as he realized something important, promptly shocking himself again.
“You kissed me last night. I’m never going to forget that. You can reject me how many times you want, but you can’t take that away from me. I’ll treasure it forever, it was a true love’s kiss,” Victor announced stubbornly.
“A true love’s kiss? That’s… Ridiculous! Victor, we are not in a fairytale, this is… I’m not… And you are… I mean, you really…?" Victor had been in love with him since last summer. Yuuri felt like he was about to faint, his heart beating so fast it was almost painful.
“My love for you is so strong that when I drank the potion, my feelings overwhelmed me and I couldn’t keep them inside anymore. They were just spilling all over. Yesterday, every word, every gesture, it came from my heart, from the depths of my soul. No spell in the world could make me love you any more, any less, than I already do. I want to make you happy. So please, Yuuri, will you accept my love and go out with me?” Victor smiled at Yuuri, relieved that he finally got him to understand.
Yuuri let the tears fall freely. He let himself to be pulled into Victor’s arms, and they embraced each other, lips locking into a deep kiss that was so emotional that by the time they pulled apart, Victor was crying too.
“Yes, yes, of course. I thought you’d never ask," Yuuri answered, and his eyes were sparkling just like Victor had told him they did. He was laughing and crying, and oh so happy.