Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, the king of the land held a ball in order to find his son a bride.
Blah blah blah pure hearted maiden blah blah fairy godmother blah blah blah midnight curfew. You already know this story, right?
Yeah, so really, it was, once upon a time, there was this shoe. A transparent shoe. Sitting on the palace steps. In the dark.
Yuuri would argue that anyone could have tripped over it. Who just leaves their shoe lying around anyways?! Think of the poor, unsuspecting servants that could stumble on the thing!
But no matter where the fault lay, it didn’t change that fact that the shoe was now shattered into a million pieces. Yuuri had what remained of his lucky stars to thank for avoiding falling into the whole mess and cutting himself up.
Too bad those stars didn’t keep him from tripping on the thing in the first place.
It just wasn’t fair. This was supposed to be his big break after aimlessly wandering the big city like the country bumpkin he was. He hasn’t even had this job a full week yet and he’s already going to be fired.
He stared down morosely at the pieces of glass that will most likely end his career. Maybe he should ask someone where the dustpans were. He could at least save someone from an injured foot or something.
Just as he was motivating himself to move (come on Yuuri, this isn’t the end of the world, you can bounce back from this, it was just working for the palace), he heard loud footsteps and a call from the top of the stairs.
“You there! Boy! Did you see a woman running past?”
He glanced up to see a man barely older than himself in a very...interesting purple and black outfit. (Was this ball a masquerade?)
“Out with it!”
“Eep! I mean, no! No woman. Um, sir.”
The man made an annoyed sound. “What about a shoe? Did you see a shoe laying around?”
“A - A shoe?” Oh no.
He strode closer, the annoyed look fixed on his face. “Yes, a shoe. A woman’s slipper, made of glass.”
No no no no no no no nonono
“Um,” he said and it came out as a squeak.
“Did you find the shoe, Georgi?” boomed a deep, grouchy voice. Someone else had emerged through the regal double doors. A very familiar someone. Where had Yuuri - ?
Oh, sweet merciful Mother. That’s the king. King Yakov, 56th ruler of the kingdom; the man who quelled the Northern rebellion, who was once called The Bear for his fighting skills, who reworked the corrupt justice system he inherited, the one on all the money.
And Yuuri just broke the shoe he was looking for. Oh, god. He would be lucky if he was just fired.
“Your Majesty!” Georgi snapped a sharp salute. “I was just in the process of finding it.” As one, they both turned to look at Yuuri, who stood frozen next to the glass shards like a particularly guilty-looking statue.
“I, um. I-It was dark and I - “ He tried to swallow down the rising fear and panic in his throat but it choked him, making it harder and harder for him to speak.
“You...you broke the shoe?!” Georgi looked incredulous, furious, and horrified all at once, and wow, it went great with his outfit, Yuuri thought hysterically in between the ongoing chant of I’m going to die I’m going to die.
“I-I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t know it was so important - “
“YOU BROKE THE SHOE?!”
“I’m sorry!” Oh, god, he was going to die, this purple man was going to kill him right in front of his king, the king he just let down -
A heavy arm fell across his shoulders and Yuuri started violently. There was a long line of warmth pressed against his left side and wrapped around his upper arms, pulling him into a solid body.
“Georgi! Papa! Calm yourselves and stop terrorizing the staff. It was a perfectly honest mistake to make. I mean, who decides on glass footwear anyways?”
The king snorted in a very unkingly manner. “Bah! Stop pretending to be the knight in shining armor, Vitya. We both know why you’re not particularly upset with this turn of events.”
Regaining the ability to breath whited out the rest of the conversation from Yuuri’s mind. As long as they weren’t discussing ways to punish well-intentioned-but-clumsy servants, he found he didn’t much care what they might be talking about.
It was not quite so easy to ignore the arm still slung over his shoulders. Or the body that went with it, the way it was still pressed against him. He snuck a glance at his savior and lost the breath he had fought so hard to regain.
The person standing next to him was quite possibly the most beautiful man Yuuri had ever laid eyes on, with soft silver hair, glowing blue eyes, and a quick, easy smile that lit up his whole face.
He was also, undoubtedly, Prince Victor, sole heir to the throne and star of tonight’s ball.
Breath, Yuuri, he thought desperately. In and out, in and out. Don’t panic, you can’t panic here, don’t you dare panic.
He panicked.