Chapter Text
Once he got into his room, he started wondering if what he was doing made any sense at all. Yuuri might not have access to the castle at all, especially not the royal quarters. Should Viktor have explained to someone that Yuuri was going to be coming to see him? Did they even know he was there? If he was a shapeshifter, they might not even know that he was there. He might be a spy, or an assassin, and Viktor might have invited him to his quarters and –
No. Viktor had to calm down. Yuuri was not a spy or an assassin. Yuuri was someone who clearly worked for the castle, because no one had ever questioned him when they’d been in the gardens before. They were definitely not outside of the public view when they were in the gardens, so it only made sense for him to work in the castle.
Viktor laid on the bed, letting Makkachin curl up against him. He picked up a book to take his mind away from Yuuri. It wasn’t a particularly interesting book, one he’d grabbed about Hasetsu’s history. The country had a long history of magical encounters, which Viktor supposed was suddenly much more relevant to his life, wasn’t it?
It had been hours before there was a knock at his door, hesitant and almost silent. Makkachin barked, jumping up and Viktor shushed her. He’d skipped dinner, so he knew that it had to be late in the night. He could only be expecting one visitor this late in the day. He walked up to the door, reaching his leg out to make sure that Makkachin stayed in his room when the door opened.
His breath vanished.
Yuuri was standing there, his head hung low, totally human but –
He was wearing a crown.
Viktor stood silently in the doorway, staring at the glimmering jewels decorating Yuuri’s headpiece, his mouth opening and closing with a thousand questions. Why was Yuuri wearing a crown? Was he a visiting royal? Had he stolen something from the prince? Was the prince dead, had he killed him? Was he – was he the –
“I should probably come clean about a few things,” Yuuri mumbled without lifting his eyes from his feet. Viktor opened the door wider, letting Yuuri in, still unable to speak. Makkachin ran up to him, licking his hand excitedly. Yuuri smiled a very small smile, leaning down to pat her head before turning to look at Viktor. “Where do you want me to start?”
“Who are you?” Viktor asked, the question blurting from his lips without even thinking about the words. He… had no idea how to even think right now. “I mean – “ He breathed in, sitting down on his bed. He left enough space for Yuuri next to him, wondering if he would take the hint. Yuuri walked over slowly, hesitantly sitting an arm’s width from Viktor. Viktor was partially thankful for the space but also it scared him. All this time he’d been getting to know Yuuri, but who was this?
“Yuuri Katsuki,” he said quietly. Viktor felt his heart pounding, making connections he had already started to realize. “I’m… Hasetsu’s royal family’s second born, Prince Yuuri Katsuki. Your betrothed.” Yuuri looked up at him, nervously, like Viktor would yell, would hurt him for this.
Viktor was hurt, but not because of who Yuuri was, because he hadn’t told him. Viktor had been falling in love with Yuuri this whole time, and learning to hate his fiancé because of it, and now, they’re the same person the whole time. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to be upset. I tried to tell you, the first time we met, but you ran off to go to dinner, and you wouldn’t listen.” Viktor dimly remembered that Yuuri had tried very hard to get him to stay a few more minutes, but he’d thought at that point that he was going to go meet his fiancé and had been too excited to really stick around for long. “After that, I couldn’t find the words. I kept shifting, and my family kept making excuses for me even though they’d seen us together, they knew that I knew you, they knew that we’d met. They were waiting for me to tell you, and I couldn’t.”
“So your ‘illness’?” Viktor pushed. He wanted Yuuri to give him all of this information in his own time, but also he had to know. He had to know everything that had been kept from him the whole time in Hasetsu. This was… this wasn’t okay. His mind was going insane.
“You’ve been reading about Hasetsu’s history,” Yuuri started, indicating the book which Viktor had haphazardly thrown on the bed in his haste to let Yuuri in. “The royal family has a history of magical blood, and it showed up in me, but… not in as good a way as many of us have gotten it.” Yuuri explained, staring at his hands. Viktor couldn’t take it any longer and moved in closer, reaching out to tilt Yuuri’s face up, so they could see eye to eye. A deep red blush covered his cheeks and he sucked in a breath before continuing, “I shapeshift, like you saw today. We can’t find a cure or a real reason, but it acts up the most when I’m nervous about something. The first day, it was because I was meeting you, and I felt like I was completely out of your league and you’d just humor me and leave.”
“I wouldn’t, Yuuri. Even if you made a bad first impression,” Viktor promised, taking Yuuri’s hands. Yuuri looked down at them and sighed.
“I know that now, but I didn’t then. I just heard things about Prince Nikiforov, the most handsome man in St. Petersburg, smart and talented beyond his years. It was intimidating, because I’m just… Yuuri, who sometimes turns into an animal when I’m stressed out.” He wrapped his arms around his chest and Viktor stared, leaning forward.
“You’re not ‘just Yuuri’. You’re brilliant, and I didn’t even know that you had to know all of these things. And you’ve enchanted me to hate a fiancé I didn’t know because I wanted to be able to love you,” Viktor said softly, and Yuuri looked up with a soft, wondrous look in his eyes.
“You love me?” he asked, his voice hesitant. “But that means you also hate me. Which is why I should have told you, but every time I tried to, you had something, or I felt the pull, and I just… I couldn’t.”
“So why did you keep shifting when we had official meetings?” Viktor asked, though he had an idea of what Yuuri might say.
“I didn’t want you to hate me! I love spending time with you, and if you suddenly found out I was the prince? Every time I thought about going and trying to prove myself, I wasn’t human, before I could even warn anyone. Usually we can see when it’s getting that bad, but I was terrified of letting you down.” Yuuri was crying, Viktor realized after a second. Tears were dripping from his eyes onto his hands. Viktor leaned forward, brushing the tears away.
“I’m not happy you didn’t tell me,” Viktor said, because there was no use trying to hide that from Yuuri, that sort of information would only hurt him more. “But I’m happy it’s you. If you’d told me, one of the first times that we met? Yuuri, I told you, I’m falling in love with you. I hated the idea of my fiancé because of you. Knowing it’s you…”
“Oh,” Yuuri said softly, looking up at him. “You surprised me this afternoon, when you kissed me. I was so afraid of what you’d say when you found out that I was… me that I couldn’t help it, I shifted with my first thoughts about it.”
“I surprised myself too,” Viktor laughed, reaching out again to take Yuuri’s hands. Yuuri let him, and this time squeezed softly, holding onto Viktor. “And how do you feel about me? I hope you weren’t hiding it because you also secretly hate me?”
“Of course not,” Yuuri said, rushed. “If anything, I was terrified you were just humoring me because you were bored. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to see me as weak.”
“Yuuri, I could never imagine that you are weak, before or after knowing this.” Viktor cupped Yuuri’s face and Yuuri’s eyes flickered delicately shut. Viktor stared at him, his fiancé, taking in everything about him. Yuuri was beautiful, he’d known that for a long time, but he was fitting for the crown.
The sparkling jewels went perfectly on his head, making him look more regal than he really should. He was… perfect. Even if he hadn’t told Viktor. He trusted Yuuri, despite all of this. Some people, most people, probably wouldn’t, would think he was crazy, but Yuuri had come out with the truth, had reasons that made sense. Viktor couldn’t imagine that he was holding another secret like that, either. Yuuri was… well, Viktor loved him.
“I can’t believe this is what you’re really like,” Yuuri whispered, looking up to meet Viktor’s eyes, a smile on his face. “Everything I was told about you, it made you sound… so different.”
“What did you hear about me?” Viktor didn’t know what Yuuri had learned before their engagement was official, if he had any say in it. Yuuri might have not even wanted this, and might have skewed everything that they said about Viktor to be something much worse.
“I… it wasn’t bad, it was just… it wasn’t you. It was someone I didn’t really want to know. I agreed to marry you because I knew what was best for Hasetsu, but… I didn’t know I’d end up feeling like this about you,” Yuuri said, vaguely. Vaguely implying the thing that Viktor so desperately needed Yuuri to say to him, had needed to hear the entire time that he had been here.
“And what do you think of me?” he pushed, hoping that Yuuri would answer him. It wasn’t too much to ask, was it? It was pretty much obvious through everything that they had said to each other, but it was… it was different, to hear it directly from Yuuri’s mouth. It would be different to see Yuuri say it, to know that Yuuri wasn’t afraid of this, that he actually wanted this.
This wasn’t just a marriage for politics for Viktor any more. Marrying the elusive Prince Katsuki would have been. If the prince wasn’t Yuuri, Viktor didn’t think he would grow to love him. He would give him every chance, and he would be the best friends with him that he possibly could, but his heart had been irrevocably stolen by the man in front of him.
Yuuri had stolen his heart before Viktor knew that he was allowed to have it.
He desperately wanted to hear that Yuuri wanted it.
“You’re so much better than anything I heard about you. I heard about a living legend, someone… untouchable. I was afraid you might be pompous or full of yourself or a dick, but you’re… perfect.” Yuuri stayed silent for a moment before turning up to Viktor, catching their lips, holding him close to himself. “I think that I love you too.”
“Wow,” Viktor whispered before laughing, burying his face against Yuuri’s shoulder. That was definitely not the proper response to a declaration of love, but he couldn’t think anything else. “I’m glad I know now, Yuuri. Don’t keep these things from me.”
He leaned forward, kissing Yuuri again. Yuuri excitedly leaned in, meeting their lips. Viktor happily let his eyes close, holding Yuuri in place and kissing him deeply, letting all of their love flow over them. It was everything that he had been denying himself for weeks because of a fiancé who turned out to be so much of a non-issue that it was laughable.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while,” Yuuri murmured as they pulled away. “But I thought you’d be angry if I did as Yuuri, since you were engaged to… me. And I couldn’t figure out how to explain, since we’d gone on for so long like that.”
“This isn’t exactly the way I would have liked to learn,” Viktor laughed.
“It’s not how I wanted to tell you either, but I couldn’t exactly help what happened.” Yuuri’s cheeks turned red. “And a turtle. I couldn’t have at least turned into something cooler?”
“You don’t pick what you become?” Viktor leaned forward, fascinated. Yuuri shook his head.
“As long as I’m on land, I’ll be something that can survive on land. If I’m in the water, I can be anything. The only real pattern we’ve been able to figure out is that I always shift into something that is mostly a marine animal. I’m a gull fairly often.” He ducked his head down with another blush.
“That was you,” Viktor realized, and Yuuri turned his face away, his blush only deepening. “The first day I was here! I saw a bird, and it had markings like your glasses. And when I was feeding the koi and there was the blue one! And the little puffin that sat on Makkachin’s head! And the seal, that had the blue too. They’re all you. You were always watching me!”
“I couldn’t tell you they were me! I was never human and you kept finding me, even when I was hiding from you. A couple times, like… the first time, yeah, I went looking for you, but it wasn’t every time! I was trying to hide, you weren’t supposed to know that was me.” Yuuri covered his face with his hands, groaning.
“It’s cute. I wish I’d known it was you, I probably wouldn’t have let Makkachin chase you down the beach for so long,” Viktor teased and Yuuri laughed before covering his mouth, hearing creaking above them.
Right. It was late. They couldn’t be too loud.
“Does the rest of the kingdom know what you are?” Viktor asked.
Yuuri shook his head. “My family gives them the same excuse that they gave you, that I’m sick,” he answered. “It’s easier, because it’s been so long since magic showed up in our bloodline, a lot of the commoners think that it’s just a myth now.”
“Mari said there’s no cure,” Viktor murmured, remembering the beach with Yuuri’s sister, at the peak of frustration with the whole situation. “But she said there’s ways to help. You’ll teach me some of that?” Viktor asked, leaning forward. “I want to be able to help you, when I can. We won’t stop it, I guess, but hopefully I can help you manage it.”
“You want that?” Yuuri asked and Viktor nodded immediately. “It’s mostly just breathing exercises and a few ways to distract myself and take my mind off of the things that I can’t stop thinking about. I… I guess you can help.”
The floor above them creaked again and Yuuri frowned, glancing at Viktor. “I should let you get back to your room,” Viktor said after a moment, sighing. “We’ll talk more soon?”
“Nothing left to be afraid of with you, I guess.” Yuuri nodded, leaning forward to kiss Viktor one more time. Viktor held him there for a moment before letting him walk toward the door.
“Prince Katsuki,” Viktor called, his voice teasing, eyes twinkling as he looked up. “Will I be seeing you for breakfast tomorrow? I skipped dinner and I fear I might be famished.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Prince Nikiforov,” Yuuri answered, giving an over the top bow and laughing softly. “I’m supposed to meet my betrothed for the first time tomorrow. I’d better make a good impression, after making him wait this long.”
And he closed the door and left, leaving Viktor on the bed, staring at the now-closed door.
“Makkachin,” he whispered softly, looking over to his dog, who was fast asleep in the bed. “Makkachin, I’m marrying Yuuri.”