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It took him thirty-seven seconds to lose his niece.
It seemed like such an insignificant split-second when he glanced at his watch and looked up at the street signs to confirm that they were going in the right direction. Yuri had been asked by his sister to pick Anya up from school to take her to the hospital where Loi-Loi worked because Yor was working on an emergency task at City Hall, and Loi-Loi, well, the man seemed to have shitty shift rotations so Yuri never really paid attention. There was a time when he thought that his brother-in-law only married his sister for the convenience of free childcare and live-in help since he obviously had a career that didn't permit him to accommodate both, but then Yuri saw just how happy his sister was in this new role of hers. Yuri supposed that marriage simply meant showing up when your partner couldn't. To be fair, Loi-Loi seemed to show up for Yor a lot, too.
Now, Yuri was afraid that both Loi-Loi and Yor would be showing up in the nearest jail cell after they murdered him painfully for losing their child in broad daylight. Yuri's breath caught in his throat as he looked around wildly for his niece's pink head of hair in the rush hour foot traffic.
"Anya? Where are you?" He cried when he failed to spot her. His heart was beating like a war drum beat. They were just steps away from Loi-Loi's hospital. How could he fuck this up so tremendously when the end was so close in sight?
Yuri pressed a clammy palm against his mouth, wicking away the sweat there and trying to calm the trembling of his lips. Fuck. Fuck .
He tried to remember his training. Fear had no place in such precarious situations but in all honesty, Yuri had never experienced this chest-clenching panic before, even as he'd faced an armed political dissenter, or a truck full of explosives running towards him at full speed, so maybe his feelings of fear had no previous opportunities to present themselves and be conquered as of now.
What would he do? How could he face his sister after this? And Loi-Loi, the man he held so little respect for, already a widow once, would lose his child, too. So few cases of missing children ended up with the abductees successfully found and returned. In this political economy after the war, even children were resources for dangerous, desperate people. What would this do to his sister's marriage? There would be an invisible space wedged where Anya used to sit between them, and maybe they would find things to resent about each other, and then fail to show up for each other altogether. Could Yuri live with his sister's unhappiness on top of this, too?
Blood pumped behind his eardrums. Yuri scrambled around, still trying to search for Anya in the vicinity of where they stood together just mere minutes ago. If he had the time and if he had less discipline, Yuri would be bargaining with God right now to have his niece's soft gloved hand in his so he could deliver her to her father.
Just when the madness was slowly taking hold of him, Yuri spotted a blur of just the right shade of pink in his periphery. His eyes quickly scanned for it, and then he saw her without a doubt. He knew that funky hair and cone clips anywhere. Yuri's knees almost buckled in relief as he saw Anya just disappearing inside the lobby of Loi-Loi's hospital, but he willed the last of his strength to go after her, at least to make sure she made it safely to her father's clinic.
Yuri ran into the hospital, a panting, sweaty, crazy-eyed mess who immediately saw his niece surrounded by a group of nurses who clearly adored her, listening to her with rapt attention as she cheerfully told them that her unkie picked her up from school so she could read the latest Spy Wars in her papa's office before they picked her mama up for dinner. Yuri approached, careful to school his features so as to not spook anyone. Soon enough, Anya saw him. Then, her face crumpled from the onset of tears as she ran to her uncle.
Yuri didn't fight the fondness and relief that washed over him. On his unsteady knees, he let Anya blubber into his arms as she told him how people were pushing her and then how scared she was when she couldn't see him anymore. She told him that she tried to look for the police like her parents told her to if she ever got lost, but she saw the sign of the hospital and went inside there instead.
"You did good, chihuahua girl. That's the right thing to do when you get lost." He tried to smile, careful not to let the residue of his panic show lest he upset the girl any more than she already was.
Unknown to him, Loid was just walking to his next meeting with his informant in the basement parking when he happened upon his daughter's reunion with her uncle. He didn't catch much, but he did see a crying Anya being comforted by Yuri. Seeing it made him smile unconsciously, thinking back to the times when Yuri could barely stand to be civil to Anya. The little girl did have a way of endearing herself to everyone, Loid would know of that experience first-hand.
When the nurses were alerted of his approach, Loid greeted them, then his brother-in-law and daughter. Anya detached herself from her uncle and clung to Loid's leg in turn. "Hey, Anya. Are you okay?"
"I got seppy-rated from unkie outside but I went here to find you, but then he found me first. But it was scary because people were pushing me and I couldn't see where I was going." Anya sniffled, smearing snot and tears on Loid's pants.
"Sorry 'bout that," Yuri said. "I swear I just looked away for a second."
"Don't worry about it. I'm glad you found her anyway." Loid flashed him a smile that dentists probably swooned over.
Yuri tried not to act huffy. It wasn't a big deal. He only did it so his sister wouldn't cry. "Yeah, well, next time I won't be so unguarded."
Anya perked up, a sudden 180 from the frightened child clinging to her father. "Will you be picking me up from school more, unkie?"
There was the smallest hint of a smile on Yuri’s lips as he reached down to pat the crown of Anya’s head. “Yeah, maybe I will.”