Work Text:
Yuuri Katsuki thinks he’s dying on a Tuesday afternoon at exactly 1:47 PM, after the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen walks into his shop.
Here, Yuuri slouches behind the cashier counter, half eaten chocolate bar in hand. There is likely chocolate on his face and there is a stain on his sweatshirt from where he had spilled a little bit of his food court udon. Because he is Yuuri, and of course he has to face the most attractive man on the face of the Earth looking like a slob.
By his feet, Vicchan sleeps on his dog bed, unbeknownst of Yuuri’s newest crisis. Yuuri brings him to work for emotional support and also because he doesn't like leaving Vicchan alone at home all the time. But Vicchan isn't doing a good job of being emotionally supportive right now, he is dead to the world.
There, stands the man, dressed way too impeccably to be gracing Yuuri’s dusty, crowded, figurine shop in the far back corner of a dying Chinatown mall. He looks like a model, surely one of the aunties who work at the other shops in the mall have already done them all a favour and asked him if he was. Yuuri makes plans to gossip with them later.
For now, Yuuri watches as the man scans the shop with his eyes from the doorway, before he catches Yuuri’s and makes a beeline towards him. His shoes click loudly against the scuffed linoleum tiles. They're so shiny that if Yuuri asked him to hold his shoe up to his face, Yuuri is sure he would be able to see his own reflection staring back at him. He could check if he has any chocolate on his face.
Yuuri doesn't ask him to do that. Even though he’s standing in front of him now, and it would be easy for him to slam his shoe against the counter and let Yuuri take a look at himself in the reflection. He doesn't ask, because that would be weird. And Yuuri is weird but he isn't so socially inept to-
Ack.
When did he get to the counter?
Oh god. Yuuri is going to die. He is going to spontaneously combust and the CCTV footage of him will be released to the public and he is going to become one of the next greatest conspiracy theories on youtube and-
“Ah, excuse me...” the man says, and Yuuri snaps back into himself enough to summon whatever part of his brain that has kept his lifetime of customer service experience into action. He lowers his chocolate bar out of view and slots it into a shelf under the counter for hiding. He’ll eat it later. Along with two more, if he goes into a panic and this interaction goes horribly.
“Hi, how can I help you today?” he responds automatically.
Nice. Very appropriate. Yuuri mentally gives himself a pat on the back.
The man pulls out his phone from his very tight slacks and shows Yuuri the screen. Yuuri leans forward and fidgets with his glasses. A photo of a Mobile Suit Gundam figurine box stares back at him.
“It’s my little cousin’s birthday soon and I’m looking to get this as a gift. Would you happen to know if you have it in stock?”
He does have it in stock, he knows this for sure because it’s one of the most expensive items in the store. He’s never had to restock it because no one was willing to pay $150 for it, no matter how rare it was, and Yuuri was sure nobody even cared for the game anymore.
So he just nods and gestures for the man to follow him. The less he talks, the less of a chance he fucks up this interaction so badly he needs to dig a hole in the ground to bury himself in.
The man lights up, the dull fluorescent lights of Yuuri’s shop aren't enough to keep up with his 600 megawatt smile. Yuuri forces himself to keep moving through the shelves so he doesn’t get distracted by his glossy hair and pearly whites.
“That’s great! I feel like I've been to a dozen figurine shops already and none of them had it! You're a lifesaver...ah?”
“Yuuri,” Yuuri says, and chances a glance over at him before he reaches up to grasp at the box.
He can't reach it.
Yuuri goes on his tiptoes and reaches his arms so far up that his sweatshirt embarrassingly rides up and exposes his belly. His fingers graze against it, but he can't get enough of a grip to pull it down.
Dammit, he should’ve brought his step ladder. But before he can even excuse himself to go retrieve it, the man crowds up behind him and traps him between the wall and his front.
“Here, let me,” the he says, before he reaches above Yuuri and plants his hand next to his head to grip the shelf.
Yuuri is going to die.
Oh god, he is going to die because the most beautiful man is pinning him to a shelf from behind like this is some godforsaken fucking otome game and-
And he’s moving away.
Yuuri is going to end up going into cardiac arrest.
“I’m Victor, by the way.”
Yuuri turns around to look at him, he is met with icy blue eyes that crinkle at the corners when he smiles. Victor sticks out his hand, and when he takes it, Victor rubs circles into the back of his hand with his thumb.
Jesus Mary Joseph.
Yuuri feels his flush go from a 80 percent to a full 100. Yuuri is smart. Yuuri studied abroad on scholarships. Yuuri started his own business at the age of 24. Yet, he cannot seem to manage to speak a full sentence when his hand is in Victor's big, warm one. So he lets go, nods, and leads them over to the counter again.
Vicchan crowds around his ankles when he steps behind the counter again, hyper from his nap. His nails scuttle against the floors and he yips.
Oh, now you wake up. Too late Vicchan. Too late.
Vicchan tries to run from behind the counter out into the main part of the shop, and Yuuri has to stick his foot out to block him
“Vicchan, behave,” he scolds in Japanese, before trying to lightly nudge him back to his dog bed, “Don't embarrass me in front of my handsome customer, please."
“Ah, you have a dog! He’s so cute! What's his name? Can I pet him?” Victor sets down the box on the counter before Yuuri can answer, and crouches down to coo at Vicchan. Yuuri moves his foot and lets Vicchan run to Victor’s outstretched hand.
“His name is Vicchan,” Yuuri watches Victor pick up Vicchan and hold him the way you would with a baby, “He’s a toy poodle.”
“He’s adorable,” Victor snuggles his face into his fur, and Yuuri has to look away and grab the box because he gets overwhelmed. He keys in the needed information into his computer.
“It’ll be a total of $120, is that okay?” a discount, because you're handsome and cute and you like my dog, Yuuri does not say. Plus, he is glad he can finally get rid of that figurine, it's been collecting dust since Yuuri opened his store. A benefit to them both, he supposes.
“Yes, that is okay, card?”
Yuuri nods, sets up the machine. He watches Victor fumble while trying to simultaneously hold Vicchan and dig his wallet out of his pants. He takes mercy eventually, and holds out his arms to take Vicchan behind the counter again. Victor mumbles a thanks. Yuuri thinks he sees the tips of his ears go pink. Yuuri wants to bite them like the pervert he is.
Yuuri sets Vicchan down behind the counter as Victor pays and gives him a treat. Then, he straightens up to bag the figurine, print the receipt, and slip that in the bag too. He hands it to Victor and wills himself to look him in the eyes again.
“Thank you for shopping,” is all he can muster. And really, what else is there for him to say?
“Thank you, Yuuri,” Victor’s eyes crinkle again. Yuuri's head is going to explode.
He watches as Victor walks out the door, watches him some more as he walks down the hallway through the glass wall of his shop. When he disappears from his sight, Yuuri crouches down behind the counter and buries his face into Vicchan’s fur. He grabs blindly for the chocolate bar he hid earlier and shoves the rest of it into his mouth so hard he chokes a little. It’s 1:47PM on a Tuesday afternoon. Yuuri is hacking up half a chocolate so hard his vision goes blurry, and he thinks he is dying.
He’s definitely going to need two more.
Victor comes back next week and buys a Hatsune Miku plush keychain. For his cousin’s second part of his gift, he says. Yuuri can't tell if his cousin is a teenage girl or an incel. This time, Victor brings treats for Vicchan, and Yuuri lets him come behind the counter to play with him.
“Yuuri, Yuuri! Vicchan is so cute! I have a dog too, you know! Her name is Makkachin, she’s also a poodle! Do you wanna see her, I have photos!”
They spend the next few minutes cooing at photos of Makkachin until customers come in. When Victor leaves, he’s covered in dog slobber. Yuuri tries not to look at his butt as he walks out the door.
The auntie who owns the shop across from Yuuri’s sees Victor leave and gives Yuuri a double thumbs up though the glass walls. Yuuri has to resist the urge to crouch down behind the counter again.
Kill me now.
Victor comes back the next week and buys another figurine.
“Yuuri! You're here so often! Do you work here everyday?” Wow, the boss must be a slave driver, huh?”
“Victor, I’m the boss. This is my shop,”
“Wow, really? That’s amazing Yuuri! You're so young! You must be so smart and-”
And the next week.
“Yuuri! You’ll never believe what happened at work yesterday! One of the models accidentally flashed the whole department because his pants ripped! I mean, I guess it was bound to happen, but! he touches his bottom lip with his index finger.
“Model? You work with models, Victor?” he asks as he rings Victor up for another figurine.
“Yuuuuuriii~ I am a model, silly! There's an ad with me downstairs actually!”
Yuuri blinks, “Ah, really?”
“Yes! Let’s go look at it! I see Yuuri at work all the time, it's only fair if you see some of mine! And bring Vicchan too-”
“Yuuri! I’m so hungry today, what do you recommend I eat?”
“Yuuri! Today Makkachin didn't want to eat her food, I’m scared...she’s getting old, you know?”
“Yuuri! One of the ladies downstairs said that this is good for receding hairlines. Is my hairline receding? Yuuri, is it really receding? Am I that old already? Don’t laugh!”
“Yuuri! One day Makka and Vicchan should meet! It’ll be good for Makka to be around a young doggy!”
“Yuuri! My cousin is so mean! You know what he said to me today? He said that wearing sweaters makes me look like a grandpa because of my hair. Yuuri! Do you think I look like a grandpa?”
"Yuuri!"
"Yuuuuuurrriiiiii!!!!"
"Yuuri~"
The aunties in the mall now tease him about Victor whenever they get the opportunity. His weekly gossip intake has decreased abundantly, since half of the gossip is now about him. And Yuuri likes Victor, way too much, he thinks, even for a regular.
He thinks about Victor whenever he eats chocolate now. Or whenever he has nothing to do than to wait for customers to come in. Or whenever he catches sight of the receding hairline treatments downstairs. Sometimes when he sees someone in tight slacks. If he’s being honest, it’s getting out of hand. But he doesn't know what to do about it. And it's not like anyone has to know.
Victor shouldn't go back. He really shouldn't. He is too busy this week to be able to make time to go back to the shop and-
He goes back.
He can’t help himself. Yuuri works there. He doesn’t know anything about anime, quite frankly, and he hopes Yuuri hasn't picked up on that. Victor has no clue what the hell he is buying half the time, he just buys it so he has an excuse to see Yuuri.
There is a growing pile of figure boxes in the corner of his bedroom. Unopened. Whenever Victor sees it he thinks of Yuuri. So he supposes they aren't too useless.
Maybe Victor is being a bit weird. A bit creepy, as his cousin said. But Yuuri just does that to him. Even though Victor barely knows a thing about him. But he desperately wants to know more, he's not ashamed to admit, hence the recurring visits to his shop.
Victor wants to know what his favourite food is. What he does between the hours of 7 PM and 10 PM. Is he a night owl? What colour are his briefs? Does he even wear briefs? Does he wear y-fronts? Boxers? Thongs? The thought of Yuuri in a lacy little thong is going to kill him. So he tries to put that thought out of his mind.
Last time Victor was in the shop, he got to see Yuuri eat a sandwich. He watched Yuuri take a bite from the corner of his eye while he ‘shopped’. Yuuri had gotten mayo on the corner of his mouth and he licked it away, before dabbing at it daintily with a napkin.
Victor couldn't tell if he wanted to be the napkin, or the mayo, or be the one to lick the corner or Yuuri’s mouth. He almost walked into a shelf that day.
Yuuri. The minx. He doesn't know what he does to him.
An old woman from one of the other shops in the mall stops him before he can reach Yuuri’s shop. She takes his arm and pats it. She smells like ginger.
“Yuuri is very shy, you know? He won’t be the one who asks you out. You have to be the one to ask him,” is all she says to him with a sweet smile before walking away. Like she didn't just drop the biggest nuclear bomb upon him. Victor is left standing frozen in the middle of the mall hallway, shell shocked.
A man throws away his trash in the garbage can Victor hadn't realized he was standing beside and he snaps out of it. He walks towards Yuuri’s store, determined, and brainstorms a game plan on how to ask him out on the way.
When he gets there the lights are off and the door is locked shut. On the front, there is printer paper taped on to the door.
‘Closed for the week, sorry!’ in black permanent marker, is all it says. Victor walks dejectedly back to his car.
He tells Yura about it the next week.
“For fucks sake, Victor why the fuck have you not tried asked him out until last week. And you’ve just been coming to his shop to buy shit to talk to him? Do you have any idea how fucking creepy that is? Don’t fucking look at me like that! You’re fucking disgusting. Oh my god.”
“Yura-” Victor pouts before he’s cut off.
“You know what! I’m so sick of hearing about your disgusting little crush. Fucking do something about it! We’re going to the shop today. You’re going to finally fucking ask him out today so I don’t have to keep hearing about your sick shit,” Yuri drags him out of his apartment and into the drivers seat of his car. “What are you waiting for? Go.”
Then he smacks Victor in the arm because he is an angry little kitten.
So Victor drives.
Yuuri is prepared to see Victor walk into his shop that afternoon. Victor always comes on random dates and at random times, so Yuuri has taken it upon himself to keep himself mentally prepared for any sudden appearance.
He is not prepared, however, for the angry blond teen who he brought along with him. He is yelling at both Yuuri and Victor, but Yuuri has long lost the plot of what he’s trying to communicate. Something about perverted cousins and pigs. He really doesn't know.
Yuuri turns to look out his shop window and sees the auntie who runs the shop across from him staring at them through the window.
Great, more gossip about him.
“Hey! Are you even listening to me!”
Yuuri hasn't been, so he evades the question, “You're Victor’s cousin?” So he is not an incel or a teenage girl. Maybe a mix of the two, then?
“Yes! Fuck, and he’s always coming to me to whine and moan about you! Please just fucking ask him out! He’s too much of a pussy to ask you.”
Ask him out? Like on a date? Victor... wants to go on a date with him???
He looks up at Victor, who is looking at him expectantly. His ears and neck are flushed pink.
Is he nervous?
Oh. Oh? He is.
Yuuri was nervous too, but he could be brave for Victor. So he bites his lip and musters up whatever little courage he has.
“Victor, do you want to get dumplings with me? As a date?”
Victor suddenly beams, Yuuri would be shocked by the quick change in demeanour if he and Victor haven't been talking for almost four months. He has gotten accustomed to the sudden mood changes.
Thank god for angry mysterious teenage boys.
“Yuuri! I would love to! Yes, please! Right now?”
“Not right now you fucking idiot, I’m still here!” Victor’s cousin yells.
“Next week,” Yuuri says. “Any day, come here at lunchtime.” There is a good dumpling place just a block down from the mall. Yuuri is not so un-classy to take Victor to the mall food court for their first date.
“Okay, Yuuri!”
Yuuri gets overwhelmed by his face, so he has to look away again. He accidentally meets eyes with the auntie through the glass window. She smiles at him.
God, he’s going to get teased over Victor for the rest of his pathetic life.