Chapter Text
LUSCO-FUSCO: in portuguese, the moment of transition between the day and the night; the evening twilight; the nightfall.
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The freezing wind blew over the street, making Yuuri shiver. His loneliness and desperation clung to him, worsening the fear steadily building inside of his stomach.
It was past 3 am, and not a single soul could be seen on the streets of St. Petersburg. Behind him, Vicchan whined and stopped walking, making his leash sag. His poor dog couldn’t stand to be in the cold anymore and Yuuri took Vicchan in his arms, closing his coat around his furbaby while he continued to walk.
A few blocks later, he found a recessed building entrance with a stairwell protected from the howling wind by the sides of the surrounding walls. They were both tired, neither of them able to continue to fight the cold any longer. Yuuri could barely feel his hands and feet, the duffel bag on his shoulder was hurting his back, and the stairs seemed like a good place to rest for a bit. Yuuri sat on the ice-coated stones of the steps, holding Vicchan close and trying to warm both his dog and his hands now that they were a bit more protected from the wind.
Groaning as he rubbed his sore hands together, Yuuri grumbled about the reason he was in this situation. “Phichit… I swear...:” he gritted his teeth trying to withhold his frustration.
He had scheduled a visit to his best friend weeks ago, but when his plane landed at the airport and he turned on his phone, it immediately chimed with a message from Phichit. Apparently, he had to travel in a hurry because of a family emergency, but Phichit directed Yuuri to stay in his apartment. Sighing, Yuuri had gathered Vicchan into his arms and slipped into the back of a cab, providing Phichit’s address before resting back against the seat.
The key was in the plant vase beside Phichit’s door and as Yuuri dug it out, he talked to Vicchan to calm his nerves. A tactic that was foiled when the key wouldn’t go into the lock. It simply didn’t fit.
Desperately, he tried to call and message Phichit with no response. Maybe Phichit was still in the middle of the flight, maybe he was busy with his family, either way Yuuri was screwed.
He tried hotels, inns and whatever he could find nearby on Google Maps, but the only ones that accepted dogs were completely booked due to the Grand Prix of figure skating and Christmas. During his hasty searches it had grown late, not a single cab on the streets, not a single familiar person in the city besides Phichit, and even finding a motel to spend the night had proven impossible. Without other options, Yuuri found himself locked outside with his bag and his poodle.
Curling his arms around Vicchan’s tiny body, Yuuri contemplated finding a park bench to sleep on. His body could potentially handle spending the night on a bench, but he worried about Vicchan’s ability to survive in the cold. His tiny dog was shaking a lot, and the way Vicchan looked at Yuuri made his heart hurt. Holding his furball closer, Yuuri tried not to think about the possibility of Vicchan getting sick because Yuuri had put him in danger.
Suddenly, the front door of the building opened and a red-haired woman ran out. She seemed very distracted, and only saw Yuuri sitting on the steps when she almost stumbled over him. “Izvinite, izvinite*…” she repeated with a worried expression, and Yuuri guessed she was apologizing although he couldn’t understand the language she was speaking.
When she saw the brown fluff in his arms, she stopped talking. She frowned, making the worry on her face deepen, and leaned down to slowly reach her hand in the direction of Vicchan’s head. She said something that sounded like a question, and Yuuri opened his jacket a little more to let his dog out. The girl petted Vicchan, and he licked her hand and whined.
She smiled fondly, and spoke again. This time, the words sounded vaguely familiar. Yuuri only knew the basics of Russians (enough to be polite or possibly save his life) but couldn’t hold a conversation. “I don’t speak Russian,” he said in careful English, hoping that it might be a language they shared.
Smiling, she nodded, her red hair bobbing with the movement. “Name of dog?” she asked, the depth of her accent making Yuuri struggle to understand her.
“Victor…” he said, petting Vicchan’s head.
She seemed very surprised, widening her blue eyes and laughing a little. Holding a hand out, she grinned wider. “Mila,” she said with a raised eyebrow and an expectant smile.
“Yuuri,” he replied offering his hand to shake hers with his own shy smile. He jumped when Vicchan wiggled from his grasp and threw himself into Mila’s arms.
Mila laughed and held Vicchan, sinking her face into his fur while he sniffed her hair. “Good doggy,” she murmured, raising her eyes to look at Yuuri. “You two very cold!” It wasn’t a question, and Yuuri could practically see her thinking. “Come,” Mila ordered, holding Vicchan in her arms and marching back into the building.
“Wait!” he shouted, grabbing his bag and following her. The moment he crossed the front door was a relief. It was much warmer inside and he could start to feel his limbs again. Mila was hurrying toward the elevators, and he ran to reach her before the doors closed.
Mila spoke quickly in Russian, intermittently switching to terrible English, and never pausing to explain what she was doing. She kept saying the words “Victor away,” “poodles,” “warm inside,” and “love” leaving Yuuri confused as to why she was speaking so fondly of his dog. Assuming that is was simply her love for dogs, Yuuri nodded politely, watching as the numbers on the elevator blinked higher. At the very top floor, the elevator stopped with a soft ping. Muscling through the opening doors, Mila ran to the last apartment door in the corridor, pulling a key out of her pocket as she went. Carefully cradling Vicchan in one arm, Mila made quick work of the lock.
The apartment was really cozy made up of a nice living room with an open kitchen attached to a dining area and some closed doors that he guessed led to the bedrooms and bathrooms, but it seemed empty of people. Mila put Vicchan on the floor and he started exploring the place. Yuuri entered and kept waiting for Mila to take off her coat and hang it on the wall next to the door, but she didn’t.
Yuuri assumed this was her home, and yet she also didn’t offer Vicchan food or water, or even instruct Yuuri to remove his coat. When Yuuri turned to her, questions tumbling uselessly in his mind, he cocked his head to watch her fiddle with the heater. Opening his mouth to speak, Yuuri’s jaw hung open when Mila headed for the door, throwing a friendly wave over her shoulder and saying “stay at will!” before closing the door behind her. Dumbfounded and utterly speechless, Yuuri stood in the middle of the living room and asked “what is happening?” to no one in particular.
He looked at Vicchan, who had already found a spot on the sofa between some fluffy blankets. “You surely know how to make friends, huh buddy?” Vicchan happily barked from his comfy nest.
Yuuri put his bag on the floor and sat beside him, having no idea what to do with himself. Sure, he was in need of a place to stay, but how could he invade the house of a stranger? And possibly not the stranger who had let him in?
What if the owner came back? How would he explain any of this? “Hi! My name is Yuuri, I got locked outside and a crazy red-haired girl put me here to spend the night, since we didn’t want my dog to freeze outside. I think. By the way, what’s your name?” Speaking out loud revealed the panic rising inside of him, evident in every squeak of his hurried rant.
He put his elbows on his knees, sank his face on his hands and sighed out loud. This was not going the way he imagined. He came to St. Petersburg to spend time with Phichit, support him on his second event of The Grand Prix and write an exclusive interview with his best friend to sell to some famous magazine if Phichit won the gold medal. Now, Yuuri had barely entered the country and was already breaking into someone’s home. What a nice way to start a trip, he thought bitterly, groaning as he threw his head back on the couch.
As always, Vicchan felt his angst and snuggled into Yuuri’s lap. For better or for worse, his cute little dog was the reason they found a nice place to stay the night and Yuuri leaned down to press appreciative kisses onto Vicchan’s head. In the morning, they could leave and try to find someplace else, but tonight, they were both exhausted, and Yuuri could only thank his friendly fluff ball’s cuteness for saving them from the cold.
Making himself comfortable on the couch to rest his aching body, Yuuri instantly began to drift toward sleep with Vicchan draped over his chest and snoring softly in time with Yuuri’s slowing breaths.