Work Text:
Phichit paused at the entrance of Yuuri’s magic shop. The usual cheerful atmosphere of the place seemed a little bit stiff today. The explanation of such change was in front of Phichit eyes. The bunch of explanations, actually.
The first of all somebody broke two shelves at the pre-ordered potion section. The glass splinters of potion vials covered floor near shelves, potions from it were spilled around, sinking in wooden floor boards and mixing with each other, turning to a strangely smelling smoke. The enchanted broom and rag already started cleaning, but the area near shelves looked dangerous.
The second reason of quite nervous faces of shop patrons could be strange purple bats flying under the ceiling above broken shelves. Bats dived in and out of the smoke clouds and probably were caused by the same accidental potion mix. Phichit shivered, he knew that type of bats. They weren’t alive beings, just results of wrong magic experiments. Yuuri and he spent a lot of time trying to get rid of them during their years in the Magic Academy. That was why Phichit stayed away of potion making, and that was why Yuuri always was so careful when he was working in the shop.
But all those evidence of destruction wasn’t the most unusual thing in the shop. Every customer eyes inevitable trailed to a gigantic toad near broken shelves. The toad was dark green, about half of a meter high with bright blue eyes and the saddest facial expression Phichit had ever seen from a toad or any other living creature at all. Was it even possible for a toad to be sad? And what was a toad doing in the shop? That wasn’t like it was the first time when Yuuri ordered magic animals for his patrons, but usually such animals was in cages or on leashes, not sitting at the middle of the shop.
Phichit darted a look to his friend who was wrapping up a purchase of one of shop patrons. He wasn’t surprised how stiff those several patrons who were in the shop looked like. He was more shocked about how Yuuri, his usually anxious and overreacting friend, looked so calm and unaffected, like nothing special was happening right now, like there wasn’t any enormous toad near his most valuable potions, broken potions.
A frightening thought crossed Phichit’s mind. Perhaps… No, no way. He looked at Yuuri again, and then eyed the toad. Was it possible that the toad was a hallucination? Probably caused by a gas from spilled potion mix? But then again that didn’t explain why patrons didn’t run away terrified. They had to have that hallucination too, right? Or was it a matter of a distance from gas clouds?
“Yuuri, my friend, please, tell me, do you see a toad near potion shelves?” Phichit rushed to the shop owner.
Probably it wasn’t the best way to ask such question, but if Phichit was hallucinating it wasn’t time to be shy. His life was in danger! Probably everyone's life was in danger!
“Yes, I see it,” Yuuri answered in the most unconcerned voice possible.
Okay, so his friend knew about the toad, and thought that it wasn’t something surprising. Okay. Phichit eyes were glued to the toad again. The most intelligent cerulean eyes stared back at him. The toad croaked. Yuuri took payment from a patron, gave him his purchase and turned to the next customer.
“Okay,” Phichit mumbled to himself, trying to calm down. “It’s okay.”
It didn’t work.
“Ummm,” the boy tried to get his friend attention again. “But why there is a toad in your shop?”
Yuuri huffed.
“Why indeed?” he darted a dirty look toad’s direction. Toad’s answering croak sounded guilty. Was a toad capable to look guilty? That one undoubtedly was.
“Don’t worry about it,” Yuuri reassured his friend. “It’s just Victor.”
“You gave a name to a toad?” Phichit was surprised. Yuuri never told that he wanted to get a new pet.
But there was one more important question.
“Wait. Victor like the Victor? Like our prince and your fiancé Victor? Why do you need another Victor? Isn’t Vicchan enough?” Phichit thought that his friend’s strange need to name his pets after Victor would subside after the magic shop owner swept the prince off his feet and the pair announced their engagement. Probably he was wrong.
“It’s not like I named him!” Yuuri blushed. “He is… It’s just Victor.”
The answer didn’t make sense.
“Phichit, this is Victor.” Yuuri pointed at the toad. The toad nervously shifted its weight to other leg. “The prince Victor. M-my Victor.”
“V-Victor?” Phichit repeated uncertain.
The toad sadly croaked.
Phichit took a few steps closer to the toad. He stopped far enough from the strange creature that he could get away from it if it wasn’t real Victor, but just cruel Yuuri’s joke or if his friend answers were a part of hallucination. But after short examination Phichit was sure that the magic shop owner told the truth. He could see toad’s resemblance to Victor so clear! There was that slight silvery glitter at toad’s head, and his eyes definitely had the same unusually green-blue colour as eyes of their prince. Even his face?.. muzzle? - Phichit wasn’t sure how people called toads’ faces - had some similarity with Victor’s facial features.
“Wow! You really are Victor.” The boy looked back at prince’s fiancé. “Why is he like this?”
The toad made another sad sound, but Phichit wasn’t fluent in the toad language, so he expectantly looked at his best friend.
“Because he acted like an idiot,” Yuuri answered dryly.
The prince sent to his fiancé offended look, and Phichit wondered if he becoming better in the toad language or he just knew Victor so good, because a message behind that gaze was obvious.
“Yes, you acted like idiot.” Yuuri definitely could speak the toad language. “Because only idiots acts like this in a magic shop. And only idiots drink unknown potions.”
Yuuri said goodbye to the last leaving patrons and disappeared in a storeroom. The toad worriedly followed the shop owner with his eye. He looked panicking, and Phichit couldn’t take it any longer.
“Aren’t you going to turn him back to a human?” the boy called his friend.
“I don’t know when I can do it.” Yuuri came back from a storeroom holding enormous amount of jars and boxes. “I need to remake several orders because of Victor. I don’t have time to make a potion which breaks the spell.”
The wizard tried to put all brought goods on a table at the same time. Phichit hurried to help him before there would be another catastrophe in the shop.
“But what about the kiss of true love? It’s a magic solution for any curse or potion!” Phichit offered.
For a second toad’s face - because Phichit didn’t want use other words to describe the front of Victor’s head even if he was in animal’s body - became much more cheerful. But it lasted only till Yuuri’s next words.
“I don’t feel like kissing toads.”
Even Phichit didn’t know that his friend could be so cruel. And it was Yuuri who didn’t let the the other wizard bring his hamsters to their magic lessons back at the Academy so they wouldn't be lonely at a dorm. Phichit didn’t want to look at the prince right now.
“I doubt kiss will work, actually,” Yuuri added.
“The true love’s kiss won’t work? Why? How unique was that potion?”
It was shocking and broke all magic laws that Phichit knew.
“I just not sure if I feel enough love right now to make it work,” the other wizard explained.
If his friend wasn’t so purposely concentrated on potion making instead of looking at him or Victor, Phichit would believe those words. But the act was too obvious for anyone who knew Yuuri. To anyone except Yuuri’s fiancé apparently. The toad almost withered on the floor. Its pleading gaze still didn’t leave Yuuri, but eyes shined with a heartbreak. Phichit almost burst into tears himself, but for Yuuri acting so cruelly meant that Victor went overboard. To solve that emotional puzzle Phichit needed to know a whole story.
“So what so awful Victor did?”
It was a perfect day. Victor hurried down a street, ignoring spring sun and windows of variety of shops along his way. If he had ability to teleport, he would be already at a magic shop. All his thoughts were about his fiancé and the owner of that magic shop Yuuri and their upcoming lunch date. Victor looked at capital's main clock tower to check time. He was a little bit too early, but he was sure nobody could blame him about it. After all he didn't see the love of his life in person for two days. The damn royal visit to a neighbour country! Only thanks to short chats with his fiancé through the enchanted communication mirror, which Yuuri specially made for him, Victor barely survived till current moment.
The visit itself wasn't something important. Just a meeting for a resigning of the treaty of alliance between two countries, which happened every five years of the last century, and for discussion of new trading possibilities. Victor wasn't very fond of such visits, but for about ten years his father, the king, became quite eager to make the proper heir of his oldest son, so such trips weren't unknown, just slightly boring responsibilities. Victor was determined to finish the meeting with heirs of Crispino royal family as fast as it was possible. Instead of that he spent one and a half day of the visit convincing prince Michele that he wasn't hitting at his sister, he wasn't interested in her, and no, although she was the most beautiful princess in the world and would be the best possible royal wife, he was already happily in love, engaged and going to marry the love of his life in two months. Only the enormous experience of diplomatic meetings, five daily mirror-calls to his Yuuri, and prince’s previous promise to his uncle Yakov not to start a war this time helped him to make that visit successful.
Unfortunately the moment his carriage arrived back in the capital of his country wasn't the end of Victor's separation with his fiancé. His cruel father took all precautions that Victor reached a palace after his trip, so he could give the king report about the diplomatic meeting the first thing in the morning. And again the only reason that made Victor not to fool bodyguards and leave the carriage or not to run away at the night through one of secret palace's passages was Yuuri's insistence.
“I have two urgent orders and planing to work till morning to make those potions. I won't have time even to cuddle with you,” his fiancé explained softly. “Don't make your father to drag you away from me the first thing in the morning. We can both finish our work in the first half of the day tomorrow and then, starting from lunch, take the rest of the day off to spend it together.”
Victor still could persist to meet his love immediately or flee away and come to Yuuri's house anyway, but the promise of his fiancé to spend the second half of tomorrow together stopped the prince. It was so unusual to Yuuri take even a part of the day off from the shop willingly. Probably the wizard missed his fiancé as much as Victor missed him. Anyway, the prince couldn't lose such opportunity. It still didn't stop the man from leaving the palace as soon as he could.
Victor huffed in annoyance. The road to the magic shop from the palace took for too long. Probably he should take a carriage to reach it faster, but the prince left the palace exactly when he finished his duties, not waiting for a permission from the king, and wasn't sure that guards didn't have an order to stop him. Victor just couldn't wait for so long! He dreamed about the day when he didn't need to part from Yuuri anymore, when he could wake up in the same bed with his love every day and finish every day in his embrace.
An unpleasant thought crossed price's mind. What if Yuuri refused to come leave to the palace? They didn't talk with his fiancé about where would they live after their wedding. Probably the wizard was used to leave in rooms above his shop. The man was devoted to his work and often pulled all-nighters. So it was very convenient to leave near his workplace. Could Victor persuade Yuuri move to the palace, promising him to make there a laboratory for his needs? Or could he move to the shop himself? It was uncommon for princes to leave somewhere except a royal palace, but some traditions were getting old. A confident grin tugged corners of Victor's lips. Yes, definitely he could convince his father and Yakov that there was nothing wrong with a prince living outside a palace.
He was so lost in his thoughts that almost collided with somebody. The prince caught the person in front of him before they fell on the ground and steadied them.
“I'm sorry,” Victor murmured, picking up person's basket from a ground and handing it to them. “Are you okay?”
“Thank you,” the person took the basket. A dark cloak with a hood hid almost all of person's body and the most part of their face except sliver of a long skirt hem and couple of long light strands of hair, so the prince wasn't sure about person's emotions, but they didn't sound pissed with the collision.
“Don't worry about what happened, I'm responsible for this bump even more than you,” the person added, almost answering to Victor's thoughts. “I'd like to compensate to you for inconvenience.”
“You don't need to do anything. I was the one who didn't look at the road!” the prince couldn't accept stranger's offer.
“But I insist,” the mysterious person didn't want to give up. “I'd feel much better if I knew I did something for you. If you don't want anything from me...” The stranger in a hood hesitated for a moment before Victor got a feeling they finally made their mind. “I'm very good in the reading of the future. Can I try to make a small future prediction for you? Nothing major, a small hint of what is waiting for you in the nearest future just for fun.”
It was unexpected. Victor never got such offers and… well… he was intrigued.
“Okay,” the man had agreed even before any decision registered in his mind.
“You are a curious one,” the prince was sure he heard a smirk in mysterious person's voice. “Good.”
The stranger opened the basket, took out a small wooden box and hold it out to Victor.
“Open the box lid, take one of paper pieces from there and read the prediction from it,” was their instruction for the man.
“That's all?” It didn't sound as fascinating as the start of a conversation promised.
“That's all,” the stranger confirmed.
Probably it wasn't the most enthralling way to find the future, but Victor still was curious, so he followed instructions. The box was full of paper slips, rolled in small paper balls, and the prince took his time to choose the one which felt right for him. If he was getting the prediction of his future, the man wanted to do it properly. He unwrapped the ball, flattening it by his hand before reading. Finally he could see a few small dark letters written on a yellowish piece of paper. The prediction consisted of two short sentences.
'Somebody is going to steal your most precious treasure. Be aware!'
Victor's heart stilled. He didn't need to ask the fortune-teller what the prediction meant. He knew pretty well what or rather who was his most precious treasure. What he still wanted to know was how precise and soonish such prediction was. Perhaps the fortune-teller even could give him more details. The prince rose his eyes from the paper with prophecy, considering which question he wanted to ask first, and met an empty street. No, of course, there were still pedestrians on the both sides of the street, but the stranger in a cloak disappeared. Victor looked around in hope to see a familiar shape of his mysterious fortune-teller, but found nobody even slightly alike.
An ominous feeling squeezed prince's heart. He needed to get to Yuuri as fast as it was possible.
A magic shop looked quite lively when Victor got there. The prince leaned to a door frame, probably blocking a way in the shop for patrons, but still not moving. Victor loved to watch how his fiancé manoeuvred among customers, talking with those, who had troubles with their choice, and helping the ones, who wanted to finish their purchase. Those moments Yuuri looked very confident and professional. It was almost an erotic view, and the prince couldn’t take his eyes off the man even if he tried. Not like he wanted to do it.
That didn’t mean that Victor didn’t like when his wizard was shy. Adorable and easily embarrassed Yuuri was no less fascinating. It was just that the prince didn’t have much opportunities to enjoy a view of his fiancé managing the shop. Usually the second Victor came through an entrance, eyes of the wizard were glued to him, like all his senses were tuned to other man’s presence. After that the work of the shop almost stopped. Fortunately usually shop patrons were quite understanding and hurried to finish their purchases as soon as possible.
So today for Victor was a rare chance to observe his fiancé at work, because, strangely, Yuuri still hadn’t looked at him even once. The prince wondered what caused such unusual behaviour. Was his fiancé so busy, was he tired from his potion making all-nighters, or had the prediction started to work? The last possibility made Victor worried, and the man hurried to his love’s side.
“Victor!” the wizard exclaimed when his fiancé arms encircled around man’s waist. “You are already here!”
“I've missed you,” the prince quietly murmured to his soon-to-be husband.
“Oh, Vitya, I've missed you, too.”
Love in Yuuri's eyes was evident, so even if fortune-teller's prediction was true, it hadn't got in its power. The wizard put his arms on other man's shoulders and leaned closer, but if he was going to give Victor a proper kiss or just a light peck on his lips the prince never found out. The moment their lips almost touched the pair heard a quiet cough. Yuuri's head jerked, he became stiff in prince's arms and suddenly took few steps away from him, out of his embrace. His chocolate eyes looked away from Victor, and the prince followed his gaze to find a reason of his suffering. A stern gaze from lady Lilia turned their direction was the answer he was looking for. The prince smirked, his aunt always said that he acted like an immature boy, when Victor refused to follow rules. Such unashamed demonstration of his feelings in public from a view point of lady Lilia was certainly a way to break rules. But he was a prince. He didn't need his aunt's approval. He didn't need anyone's approval. The most important rule of Victor's life nowadays was to demonstrate all the love he had for his fiancé, and he was determined to follow it.
The prince took his fiancé by a hand, pulled him back to an embrace and pressed their lips together. To his joy Yuuri hesitated only for a second before fully answered to a kiss. Man's lips was warm, a little bit chapped, but still soft and so addictive. The moment they touched Victor's mouth, the prince forgot where and why he was. All that existed was the man in his arms, Yuuri's enthralling smell, his intoxicating mouth, the overpowering warmth of his body. Victor was melting in those feelings, melting in the man he loved so much.
He wasn't sure how much time passed before Yuuri pulled away from him again, not too far this time, still staying in prince's arms. Warm chocolate eyes, slightly hazed, stared at Victor. The wizard lightly pecked other man's lips one more time and sighed.
“I really need to go back to work,” he said.
“Yuuuri,” Victor whined, making his best imitation of puppy eyes.
The prince was shocked to see how unimpressed of that attempt his fiancé’s face looked like. Bewildered Victor watched how the love of his live gave him another light kiss and left him to help shop's patrons only with a statement, “I have another forty minutes.”
Only for a moment Victor doubted if his fiancé always was so unfair to him, but he quickly banished that thought. The wizard never was so heartless. Okay, probably Yuuri was cruel enough that one time, when he made the prince go to the most boring diplomatic meeting in his life instead of accepting his invitation to a picnic. Or that time, when the wizard didn't allow Victor to skip discussion about the annual spring ball and didn't let the prince spend whole day in his fiancé’s shop. But that wasn't a point. His Yuuri was responsible and hard working, but he never, never could be purposely merciless to him, especially after not seeing his soon-to-be husband for two longest days in their lives. Today's torture had to be the result of some kind of wily spell or a love potion poured on the wizard while Victor wasn't in the shop to save him. Yes, it had to be it!
The prince attentively looked around the shop, considering all possible suspects. The first possible culprit was a blond-haired girl. She looked so fishy, eyeing Yuuri whole time while he was wrapping lady Lilia's purchases. The prince noted the longing look in girl's eyes, and how she couldn't take her eyes off his fiancé. Of course, he couldn't blame her for it, his Yuuri's beauty was fascinating, but it didn't make her less suspicious.
Victor prepared to approach girl and demand the answer what exactly she used to steal the love of his life when a joyful laugh draw his attention. He could recognise that sound anywhere, he made it the reason of his life to cause that laugh as often as it was possible. And now that laugh was addressed to... The prince turned his head laughing Yuuri's direction to see who made his fiancé so happy. To his confusion the wizard was still talking with Victor's aunt. Lady Lilia, holding part of her purchases, was telling something to the shop owner. Her lips was adored with a light smile, and the prince would be shaken by the discovery that his aunt could smile so fondly if right at that moment his fiancé didn't made another laugh. No, it wasn't even a laugh, it was a light, adorable giggle that made Victor's heart melt every time he heard it. And that special sound was produced in front of a crowd of shop patrons, and the prince even wasn't a reason of it.
Acting of the pure instincts, Victor grabbed the wizard hand and dragged him to a storeroom. He put his hands on other man's shoulders and looked in his eye. Was he too late? Could he save their love before they lost it because of a strange magic lady Lilia used on his Yuuri?
“Victor? What's going on?”
The prince felt the urge to smooth a light frown between his fiancé’s eyebrows. Was a love magic really working right now? How much time was there left? And what could he do to stop it? Victor knew only one person who could help him.
“Yuuri,” the man hopefully looked at his fiancé, “you are the best wizard I know. Can you help me, please? I have to know, how to defeat love magic!”
“A love magic?” Yuuri gave him worried look. “Do you know who did it or what kind of magic was used? Maybe you know a victim?”
Victor always felt strangely weak when he saw the wizard so professionally serious. The sight of self-confident Yuuri cost a fortune, but the prince had to remember himself that he couldn’t afford to waste time right now even for something so hot.
“It’s you, Yuuri. I think, somebody used a love spell or some kind of the love potion on you,” Victor explained.
“On me?” the wizard eyes widened in surprise.
The other man nodded.
The prince hoped that there was an easy way to stop a love spell. The best solution would be if there was some kind of protecting potion which his fiancé could take immediately. Another appreciated way to solve such situation would be if Victor just could call somebody to help the man of his life. Probably, Phichit. But actually the prince was ready to do anything to save their love. Even if he needed to make a potion or a spell by his own. Preferably not, because Victor was sure he and magic were a bad mix, but if it was the only way to save his fiancé, the prince was ready to do even that.
“Vitya, who could cast a love spell on me?” Yuuri's question got the prince back from his thoughts. “And why on earth anybody would do that?”
Why did wizard's voice sound so incredulous? If Victor wasn’t so lucky to be this wonderful man’s fiancé and he knew magic, he would cast a love spell on Yuuri himself. Okay, probably he wouldn’t. He would never take Yuuri’s free will even if it meant he would live without wizard’s love, but not everybody was so decent in their love life.
Anyway ‘why’ wasn’t even an issue in this situation, so the prince concentrated on Yuuri’s first question.
“I think it was lady Lilia,” he said.
It wasn’t like he didn’t expect a disbelief written on other man’s face this time. He either wouldn’t think that the woman could do something like that. But all evidence were there.
“Vitya, your aunt? Really?” the wizard asked sceptically.
“Yuuri, she is a witch. And you know how she admires your magic abilities. She repeats every time how she regrets that she didn’t get you as her pupil when you was a small boy,” Victor rushed to name all his arguments. “Have you ever thought why does she visit your shop so often?”
“Probably, because she needs potions?” his fiancé offered.
“Yuuri, she is the strongest witch in nearest kingdoms! Don’t you think she can make any potion that you sell by herself?”
“Of course, I can,” Victor heard familiar voice from the door to the storeroom, “but potion making skills of your fiancé are not terrible, and I prefer buy all I need in his shop.”
The prince turned around and, of course, was met with a pair of very familiar green eyes. Despite a stern look on Lilia’s face he saw a sparks of something like amusement in her gaze. Victor nervously gulped, his mind tried to figure out if it was possible to grab his fiancé and run away before his aunt used any magic on him.
“I’m sorry, milady,” Yuuri bowed politely. “Victor didn’t meant that.”
“Don’t worry,” Lilia smiled at the wizard. “I’m used to Victor's ridiculousness.”
Victor felt a sting in his heart. Why Yuuri didn’t see how suspicious was her nice attitude? Of course, nobody could be purposely mean to his fiancé, because so enthralling, beautiful and kind person awakened only best feelings in everyone. But his aunt acted so cold and intimidating even when she cared, she couldn’t suddenly become sweet and pleasant. Or could she?
The prince darted his gaze from still smiling lady Lilia to his apologetically looking fiancé and back. Probably he looked too pathetic for his aunt eyes that the woman took a pity on him.
“I come to Yuuri's shop because I don't like to use worms,” lady Lilia said.
The prince stared at his aunt. Her words didn’t make any sense.
“Worms? You mean alive creatures which crawl in earth under our feet?” Victor clarified.
“They are quiet repulsive if you ask me,” was unexpected comment from the woman.
“And they are the main ingredient of a hair growing potion which lady Lilia buys for your uncle,” Yuuri explained.
“What actually you should do by yourself, Vitya,” the witch added flatly. “After all, you are the main reason of his constant balding.”
They didn’t look like they were joking. Yes, his aunt was definitely enjoying that conversation and Victor’s confusion, but the prince knew her for too long to know when she was saying the truth.
“Perhaps now when all was explained, I can pay for my potions?” lady Lilia arched a brow.
“Yes, of course,” Yuuri rushed to shop's counter to finish wrapping of her purchases.
The prince tried to follow him, but stopped when he heard his aunt next words.
“I always said to Yakov that you need a proper education even if you don't have a gift to be a wizard,” the woman quietly said when he passed her.
“What?”
Puzzled, Victor turned back to the aunt.
“If Their Majesties and Yakov gave you full education, I didn't need to be ashamed of you. You knew that no real wizard would try to use any love magic on your fiancé while you are near,” she continued. “And you wouldn't make such ridiculous scene today.”
Lady Lilia looked sour, but the prince couldn't care less. She thought that real wizards weren't dangerous for his Yuuri! He needed to know her reasons.
“They wouldn't?” he asked in disbelief. “Why?”
The woman laughed.
“Vitya, even children know what is the best way to break any effect of any love potion or spell,” the aunt shook her head as if she was shocked about his lack of knowledge.
“Can I use it?” Victor still didn't feel ashamed of how little he knew about magic. All the prince was worried about was if that famous way to defeat a love magic was easy enough for him to use.
“It depends of how much you love your fiancé,” lady Lilia said that like there were any doubts about how devoted to Yuuri her nephew was.
Why Victor had a feeling that the woman enjoyed teasing him? Were there really some mischievous sparkles in her eyes or was his imagination playing tricks on him?
“True love’s kiss,” was woman's answer to Victor's expectant gaze.
“What?”
Lady Lilia sighed. It was that kind of the sight that the prince heard from her husband all the time. Perhaps it was contagious.
“Vitya,” she repeated in a tired voice, “the easiest way erase any type of love magic is true love’s kiss. It destroys any kind of love potions and spells, even the strongest ones. Why don't you know it with your love to romantic stories?”
Was it true? Was it really so easy? Victor's head spun of ideas how he would protect his lovely wizard. He wondered if there was any ratio of complication of the love spell and length or intensity of a kiss. Anyway, the prince knew nothing about magic so he had to make sure that all kisses would be deep enough to break any spell.
“Vitya, please, no more kisses before I leave the shop,” lady Lilia's voice got the man back from images flashing in his head.
Not even slightly abashed at her obvious disapprove Victor flashed his aunt the brightest of his smiles.
“So, after he kissed you in front of shop patrons...” Phichit expectantly looked at his friend.
“Five times, Phichit! Five times!” Yuuri's flushed cheeks became even darker.
The other wizard smirked, and the shop owner hid his face in his palms for a second.
“Of course, I demanded to know what's going on,” Yuuri sighed, looking at the man in front of him again.
“Demanded?”
Phichit doubted that his friend was capable to demand anything from his fiancé. Usually Yuuri was a putty in prince’s hands. All what Victor needed to do was to make those huge puppy dog eyes or slightly pout, and the wizard would forgive him anything. Probably the main Victor’s problem this time was that it was hard to be cute in toad’s body.
“Phichit, he almost pinned me to the wall with a kiss in a middle of my explanation to Mrs. Kanto how to use potion to improve her digestion, because supposedly she tried to hold my hand.”
Yuuri's outburst was accompanied by toad's croak, which sounded almost like Victor's protesting exclamation.
“She is seventy years old, Victor,” the shop owner hissed. “She thinks only about her intestines and her twenty cats.”
Yuuri’s eyes were throwing daggers his fiancé direction. Okay, perhaps Phichit could believe that this time his friend demanded an answer from the prince.
“What was his reasons?” Phichit reminded the other wizard about the main topic.
Yuuri sighed again and pulled out of his pocket a crumpled piece of paper. Phichit took what turned to be a strip of paper. With curiosity he read two strange sentences, written on it with green ink.
“Somebody is going to steal your most precious treasure? Be aware?” Phichit felt confused.
Strange words sounded much like a line, taken from some old-fashioned book of salon fortune-telling for noble women entertainment.
“What's this?” Phichit questioningly tilted his head.
“You are reading the prophecy of Victor's future,” the shop owner solemnly declared. “As you see it's pre-written. And he dragged it out of fortune-teller's box,” he added flatly.
“A prophecy?” Phichit repeated, doubtfully turning back and forth the paper strip in his fingers. “You know that it doesn’t work this way, right?”
“I know,” Yuuri agreed. He still sounded a bit annoyed, and Phichit couldn't blame his friend. “I tried to explain it to Victor. But what can I know about magic prophecies?” the shop owner huffed. “I spent the whole childhood in Yuuko's family mansion. Their library was full of books, written by generations and generations of diviners from her family. How could I have any knowledge about fortune-telling?”
Yuuri looked more pissed with every word. Phichit sent a sympathetic look toad's direction. Wizard's bad mood was totally Victor's fault, but now when the prince looked like kicked puppy or more precisely the most adorable and saddest kicked toad in the world, Phichit couldn't stop to worry about the man.
“So did you turn Victor to a toad as a punishment for all troubles he made?” Phichit asked curiously. Of course, he knew that it couldn't be it, but perhaps Victor needed more reassurance about his fiancé’s feelings right now.
“What? No! Of course not! I wouldn't… I couldn't… I would never!” Yuuri's face was horrified only of the assumption that he could do something like that.
The slight glint of hope appeared in toad's eyes. The prince shifted his weight and made few warily steps Yuuri's direction, but was stopped by wizard's next words.
“Victor did it for himself with his own hands,” the shop owner stated sternly.
The toad pathetically croaked and moved back at its previous place, dodging from one of purple bats, who was taking a dangerous turn above prince's head. Phichit wondered what he could do to get back to Yuuri's smitten-with-Victor side again, because, seriously, the prince looked more and more close to dying from a heartbreak with every minute.
“Yuuri...” Phichit tried to give his friend a hint about it, but the other man was too wrapped in his memories about events which led to current situation.
“Can you imagine?” Yuuri continued the story. “He snatched out a potion from Rob Hutchins’ hands and drank it because he thought what?.. that that was a love potion?.. which Rob was going to shovel in my throat in front of all shop patrons?”
It was obvious that Yuuri still couldn’t believe that all that happened, and by slight red hue on toad’s cheeks Victor too started to wonder why he acted so illogically in that situation.
“Seriously, Victor,” Yuuri sighed and closed the distance between himself and his fiancé, “we should work on your common sense and your knowledge of basic safety regulations.”
The shop owner absentmindedly caressed toad’s head, and the prince almost melted on the floor. Blue eyes started to shine with hope again.
“Who on their right mind drink anything unknown in a magic shop?” Yuuri took his had away and rubbed his own forehead. The second wizard held a snicker when he saw a disappointed look on Victor’s face.
“Yuuri, maybe it's time to...” Phichit waved his hand prince's direction. Certainly Victor had been punished enough, and it was time to get him back to a human form.
“You are right,” Yuuri followed his friend's gaze and nodded, looking resolute.
Did he really need to look like he was going to complete a hard task? His friend definitely kissed the prince more than once.
“It's time to get rid of these bats,” the magic shop owner continued.
Phichit stilled. Had he misheard? Or was the other wizard kidding? Did Yuuri just say something about bats instead of talking about breaking potion's effect or smothering his fiancé with kisses?
But his friend sounded like he really could think only about his shop cleaning.
“Phichit, you will help me, right?” Yuuri asked. “I need to remake some potions and it will be dangerous to do it while these magic exhausts flying around, and you always have been so good at removing this kind of magical mess.”
Phichit noticed a calculative glimpse his friend sent toad's direction. Oh, that was still a part of other wizard's plan! Okay, probably Phichit could be a good friend and let his buddy to enjoy the lesson, he was giving to his fiancé, a little bit longer.
“I was so good only because I caused it more often than anybody else.” Phichit smirked like he was enjoying those memories, but he was more entertained with the miserable look of toad's face.
“Still, you was the best in fights with magic bats in the Academy,” Yuuri reminded him. “So? Can I count on you?”
Phichit wondered if his friend really asked about bats and not about that slight torture of the certain prince.
Suddenly the man got a wonderful idea. Probably he could help Yuuri to make that punishment unforgettable.
“Yuuri, my friend, my brother, of course I'll help you.”
Phichit winked at his friend before making one of the most cruel moves in his live. It was the second most cruel move after a desperate attempt to transform one of his hamsters in a sundial at an exam only because he accidentally had thrown out through the class window the real object for transformation and had nothing else what he could use to pass the exam. The transformation failed, the hamster wasn't harmed, and Phichit swore that he would never do this to his little fellows. But Victor wasn't a hamster, he was a grown man, he was the future ruler of this kingdom, and he needed to learn his lesson in the name of their kingdom's and Yuuri's sanity.
“Before cleaning, can I take some magic portrays? Or, I'm afraid, nobody will believe my story.” Phichit made his move.
Yuuri raised an eyebrow. Certainly he didn't expect that question, but the shop owner always was good in bluffing.
“Sure,” Yuuri shrugged.
Amazed, the other wizard watched how his friend ignored toad’s panicking croak (did he start to understand the toad language better?) and pleading cerulean eyes, and disappeared back to the storeroom. Probably Phichit even heard a muffled chuckle through storeroom’s door, but he had more important task to finish. The man dragged out from his pocket a small glass sphere (his best invention! - the self-made improved version of a common portray-making magic ball), and looked at Victor.
“Say cheese!” he smirked at the huge and certainly terrified toad in front of him.
“And it's done,” Yuuri declared.
Victor could only watch how his fiancé corked the last vial and put it on his laboratory table. The prince wanted to run to the wizard and wrap his arms around the man immediately. This morning he would do exactly that, but now, after all today’s events he wasn't sure what he was allowed to do.
No, Victor didn't doubt that his fiancé loved him. Despite all threats kissing the prince was the first thing Yuuri did right after two wizards finished to chase magic bats, turned them back into a smoke, and the shop owner saw off his friend. Victor's heart still soared every moment he remembered how a chaste press of lips to the toad had become a heated kiss between two humans. And it worked against potion's magic, of course it worked. How could Victor even doubt that it would work? But it didn't stop his fiancé from finishing that kiss too fast, too soon for the prince liking. The man just ordered Victor to stay as far away from his laboratory table as it was possible and to not disturb the wizard from remaking all destroyed orders. Of course, Victor could blame only himself that all those potions were spilled. Still the prince had that slight worry that not finished client orders weren't the only reason why his fiancé was so wrapped into his work. Was he punishing Victor for all troubles he made today? Was he planing to stay away from the prince now, when he finished all work?
Victor hopefully stared at the other man. Yuuri looked tired and a little bit lost. The wizard rubbed his face with hands while his eyes were searching for something in the room.
“What do I have to do next?” the shop owner muttered so quietly that the prince almost missed his words. “Ah, right, dinner,” Yuuri added and met Victor's eye. “Vitya, are you hungry?”
Wizard's voice sounded like all power was drained from him in few last hours. It wasn't the first time the prince saw his fiancé so tired, and he cursed himself that he still hadn't made palace's cooks to teach him to make a simple dish or just didn't take picnic basket before visiting Yuuri. Anyway, it was too late to regret. Victor decided that he just had to send the wizard to a bed while he would went to get something from palace's kitchen.
Victor met other man's exhausted gaze, but prince's intentions to offer help or make his fiancé go to sleep were replaced with sudden persistent need to ask something.
“Can I… Can I hug you?” words slipped out of Victor’s mouth by their on will. It wasn't the exact question torturing his mind, but it still was the way to find out a necessary answer.
Yuuri's eyes widened. He shook his head.
“V-Victor, you can’t seriously… You don't have to ask such things!” the wizard exclaimed.
He crossed a few steps distance between him and Victor and encircled the prince in his arms. Victor felt how previously unnoticed tension left his own body. He was in his fiancé’s embrace now, he still was loved, his Yuuri still cared about him.
“Oh, Vitya, what did make you think that I don't want to hug you?” the shop owner caressed his fiancé's cheek. “I always want to hug you, to kiss you. I always love you.”
Victor's heart missed a beat. Probably it was that moment when it was planning to stop forever. But who cared? Victor covered man's lips with his own.
This time a kiss was much tenderer than previous ones. Yuuri's lips gently brushed his fiancé's lips, repeating their moves so delicately, like the prince could break any moment. And yet it was the kiss that made everything inside Victor burn. He lost a track of time, being aware only about wizard's lips, his arms, circled around Victor’s neck, his fingers, tangled in Victor's hair.
“I’m sorry I made such mess,” the prince whispered when their mouths separated again.
“Huh?” Yuuri’s eyes still looked dazzled with a kiss. Probably he even didn’t hear his fiancé’s words.
“I'm sorry that I've destroyed your potions, scared your customers and made you do all the work for the second time,” Victor said more louder this time, looking down on their pressed bodies, not ready to meet his love's gaze.
“It's okay. Don't worry about it,” the wizard said, pressing his lips to other man's forehead.
“No, Yuuri, it's not okay.” Victor rose his head and looked straight into wizard's eye. His fiancé’s gaze was full of emotions that the prince couldn’t read. “You was mad at me, and I deserved it. You still should be mad at me.”
Yuuri sighed.
“I wasn't mad,” he argued. Victor arched a brow. “Okay, I was a bit frustrated,” the wizard corrected himself, “but I wasn't mad. Never at you anyway. Just worried and scared.”
“Scared?” it was an unexpected choice of words.
“Victor, we are in a magic shop! There are tones of different potions around!” Yuuri stepped from the other man and started to march around the room, nervously gesticulating. “How could you drink unknown potion? It could be anything! Eternal sleep potion. Shoe polishing mixture. A poison!” Yuuri flinched. “How did you even get the idea that you need to drink it?”
“Well, that guy asked you to show how to drink that potion,” the prince explained.
The wizard looked at his fiancé puzzled.
“What do you..?” he started and then suddenly let out a quiet laugh. “Vitya, nobody asks a shop owner to show how to drink anything! Patrons ask to write down instructions what they need to do to use potions effectively.”
“I know what I’ve heard,” Victor muttered.
“Okay, okay.” Yuuri smiled. “But please,” man’s face became serious again, “never do it again. Promise me. Save my sanity. Promise that you’ll never drink anything unknown ever again.” The wizard started cover his fiancé’s face with feather like kisses. “Promise.” The man again and again pressed his lips to Victor’s skin. “Please?”
It was hard to find a voice with how intense and broken Yuuri sounded with every plead. The prince closed eyes, trying to gather back his ability to speak.
“I won’t ever do it again,” he finally managed to say.
“Thank you.”
A very heated kiss followed wizard’s words, and Victor could only obey those persistent lips, answering their moves. Yuuri’s tongue teasingly followed outline of prince’s lower lip. The man couldn’t hold back a moan, giving his fiancé full access to his mouth. Wizard’s fingers in Victor’s hair, man’s lips and tongue, exploring prince’s mouth, made Victor lose his last coherent thoughts.
Suddenly divine lips moved away from him too soon, always too soon. All that the prince could do was to whimper in protest.
“Yuuri,” he pouted.
Corners of his fiancé's mouth quirked up.
“What do you want for a dinner?” the wizard asked like it was the only important topic right now, like they weren’t kissing just a few seconds ago.
“But Yuuri,” Victor slightly whined, dragging syllables of man’s name.
Before Yuuri said anything, prince’s stomach grumbled, and Victor was ready to curse his own betraying body. He was sure, a disappointment was clearly evident on his face. And instead of helping him to survive that treachery the cruel love of his life smirked.
“Don't worry, Vitya, that wasn't our last kiss.” Yuuri took prince's hands in his own and pressed his lips to knuckles of man’s right hand and then to the left ones.
Miraculously Victor wasn’t so disappointed anymore. They had eternity together, he could wait a few minutes to steal several surprise kisses while Yuuri was cooking.
That was much more later when Victor remembered a question that bothered him all this time. The prince was finally at the place where he wished to be for so long. He was side by side in the bed with the love of his life, Victor’s arm was wrapped around man's waist, ear pressed near his fiancé's heart, listening to his heartbeat. Yuuri's fingers were tracing lines on prince's naked skin. It was hard to feel any happier, but still something bugged Victor's mind.
“What was the real effect of that potion that I drank?” the prince asked. “The one that transformed me to a toad,” he clarified.
“M-m-m,” the wizard mumbled, his hand froze on other man’s shoulder. If Victor could see in the darkness of the bedroom he would checked if his fiancé looked as much uncomfortable as he sounded. “It is its real effect?” he finally squeaked, words sounded more like a question.
“You make a potion that turns people into toads?” the prince became stiff. He knew almost nothing about magic, but even he heard that only dark wizards used magic to turn people into animals or objects. His Yuuri couldn’t be a dark wizard!
“It’s not so awful as it sounds,” his fiancé sighed. “It’s just a special order. I know who exactly gets it and how he uses it.”
The words were convincing, but Victor still could remember the sneaky face of that Rob… Rod or… whatever was that guy’s name.
“And how do you know that that guy uses your potion the way he says he does? He looked pretty suspicious to me.”
The wizard giggled. “Yeah, I remember that.”
He resumed the caressing of prince’s arm. Victor wondered if it was all explanation that his fiancé was going to give him.
“This potion… it’s not actually for Rob. It’s for his father,” Yuuri finally said. His hand moved to man’s hip and he began softly draw patterns at a new body part. “And if he turned people into toads in his free time, I would hear something about people disappearance, wouldn’t I?” the wizard pointed out.
“Yes, and you certainly wouldn‘t miss stories about giant toads,” Victor remembered another obvious indicator of bad usage of the potion.
Yuuri giggled again.
“I’m afraid you was the only one person who turned into such big toad,” he said apologetically.
“Huh?”
“Well… You drank the whole bottle. The right dose of the potion is about a teaspoon,” Yuuri still sounded guilty.
Of course! Only he could be so “talented” to turn himself into something hideous! Not a cute little frog with a crown on a head like in a fairy tale, but a giant repulsing monster.
The prince suppressed his annoyance. He could see why Yuuri felt so reluctant to explain how that potion worked.
“So, how does your client use this strange concoction?” Victor asked.
“It’s perfect toad-making potion,” his fiancé noted, obviously offended. The prince often wondered how the love of his life could doubt his own worth so much and be so proud of his work in the same time.
“Mr. Hutchins just have very bad relationship with his mother-in-law,” Yuuri got back to their main topic.
“He turns his mother-in-law into a toad?!” the other man was horrified.
“No, no! He turns himself into a toad!” the wizard paused. “Okay, it’s a long story.”
Victor had never heard about as awful relationships as they were between Mr. Hutchins and his mother-in-law. It seemed that the old woman just hated her son-in-law. Mrs. Hutchins' mother had a need to critique every action of the husband of her daughter (“Do you think, you parents won't like me, too?” the prince was suddenly worried about the upcoming meeting with Yuuri's parents. “Vitya,” tired, but still fond sigh was the only answer.) Also the old woman started a strange tradition every three months to visit Hutchins’ house and stay there for a couple of weeks (“It was the second day of their honeymoon, Victor!” Well, Victor couldn't accept old woman's actions, too.) So, after twenty years that happy in all other aspects marriage every day approached closer to inevitable divorce until unknown (“But very talented,” Victor insisted to add) wizard decided to open his magic shop in the capital.
“Mrs. Hutchins just looked so tired. I had to offer her that potion which gives an energy boost for couple of hours. She asked if I had a potion that could stop somebody from loath other person, because apparently the only thing that her mother hated more than Mr. Hutchins was toads,” Yuuri continued his story.
“I had an accident when I studied at the Magic Academy. One experiment went totally wrong and instead of planned potion I made a potion that turned people into toads.” Only by his fiancé’s voice in the dark room the prince could guess how red man’s cheeks were. “It was in a gift. Chocolates.”
The wizard fell silent, but Victor could imagine consequences of such gift. He would feel more sorry about an unknown chocolates’ recipient if it wasn’t Yuuri who gave it to them.
“Mari for the whole school break refused to take any food that I touched,” the magic shop owner confessed.
Oh. His sister.
The other man felt how all his jealousy evaporated in one second.
“So we came up with a plan. I made the potion for Mr. Hutchins, he took it every morning of his mother-in-law’s visit and spent two weeks like a toad, hopping in their family garden. Mrs. Hutchins made sure that her husband wouldn’t meet anything dangerous, and her mother ran screaming every time she saw the toad in the garden.”
Yuuri smirked. The prince was pretty sure who was the main inventor of such mocking plan. He always was fascinated of how unusually his fiancé’s brains worked.
“So, every three months Mr. Hutchins depends of his wife's love?” Victor clarified.
It sounded so romantic!
“No, not really. The effect of the potion wears off after twenty-four hours,” the wizard corrected him.
Well, probably that was less romantic than Victor hoped.
“But,” Yuuri shyly added, “as I know, Mr. Hutchins never spent all twenty-four hours in toad's body.”
The prince couldn't hold back his wide grin. “You wouldn't make me wait for twenty-four hours, right?”
That question escaped from prince's lips on the spur of the moment, and he regretted it right in the second.
“Well, technically, you used so much potion. It would take about two weeks to wear off the effect.”
Victor didn't know how he would survive that answer if he didn't hear uncovered mischief in his fiancé's voice.
“Yuuri,” the prince whined.
“Don't worry, Vitya. I would make a cleansing potion to break an effect. It takes only a week to make it,” the wizard continued his teasing.
“Yuuri!” Victor made sure that his hurt exclamation sounded as convincing as it was possible.
Yuuri's arms tensed around prince's waist.
“You know that I love you, right?” he asked, obviously worried. “If my kiss didn't work I would drink the same potion and would spend next two weeks hopping as the second giant toad around you.”
Victor saw only a glimpse of his reflection while he was in toad's body, so he didn't have a full picture of how he looked like at that moment, but only idea of two toads in the size of a big dog made him burst in laughing.
“Our poor country, it wouldn't survive two giant toads!” he chuckled. “And if something went wrong and we didn't turn back into humans in two weeks... Can you imagine our wedding?” The prince couldn't stop another round of laugh.
“I would marry you even in toad's body,” the other man promised lovingly.
Victor's cheeks heated. He couldn't imagine more perfect love confession in his life. He couldn't imagine anyone more perfect than his Yuuri.
The prince found lips of his fiancé and captured them in the sweetest, softest and full of love kiss.
Three days later their found out that somebody had broken in one of palace's treasuries. Apparently it was done by infamous thieves that attacked wealthy families of several neighbouring kingdoms, always making kind of prediction to a treasures owner before the day of the burglary.
“I knew it! I knew that it was something familiar!” Phichit exclaimed, fishing out of his pocket crumpled piece of paper with a familiar two sentences in green ink.
Victor couldn’t care less. Of course, it was great to know what that prediction meant. Also it was pretty annoying that after his father and Yakov found out about prince’s interaction with thieves, they insisted that Victor took a guard when he was going anywhere. But his mother didn’t lose any of her jewellery, Yuuri’s future crown and their wedding rings were safe in prince’s chamber. Who did care about some tasteless old fashioned jewels and couple of ancient goblets?
The most pleasant result of that discovery was how furious became Victor’s favourite wizard after he found out that the mystique fortune-teller was a disguised thief. He didn’t only make a potion that allowed palace guards to trace thieves’ smell after a week and catch them, but also demanded that the prince spent every free moment in the magic shop. Victor couldn’t deny something that helped his fiancé feel less worried, could he?
So prince’s life never was better. The only unresolved issue before wedding were Victor’s meeting with his wizard’s family, man's childhood friends and Minako-sensei. But there was nothing that could go wrong, right?