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Chapter Text

It was a good thing that they were going to leave Sochi right after this party because Yuuri had just made a complete fool of himself in front of Viktor Nikiforov and he wanted to disappear from Viktor Nikiforov’s life as soon as possible. Forever. Yuuri will never be able to face him ever again. Yuuri might as well stop being a bard and go back to Hasetsu to help his parents manage the inn--

“You just tripped in front of him,” Guang Hong said, trying to comfort Yuuri. “I’m pretty sure people trip in front of Viktor Nikiforov all the time!”

Yuuri wasn’t listening. Unsure of what to do, Guang Hong snagged a flute of champagne from a passing waiter and gave it to Yuuri. Yuuri downed it all in one go.

“Is… Is Yuuri okay?” Leo asked, approaching with caution. Even after adventuring with Yuuri for a year or so, he still found himself at a lost whenever Yuuri started a negative spiral. In fact, out of the four of them, only Phichit really knew how to help Yuuri deal with his emotions and that was only after they spent five years with each other.

Unfortunately, Phichit wasn’t here right now. Instead, he was flitting around the open-air pavilion, talking to anyone and everyone.

Yuuri’s adventuring party, which consisted of Katsuki Yuuri, Phichit Chulanot, Leo de la Iglesia, and Ji Guang Hong, were attending a wedding reception. The wedding was between a famous adventurer, Christophe Giacometti, and his newly-wedded husband, and it had many high-profile guests attending it. One of these guests was Viktor Nikiforov.

Yuuri had idolised Viktor Nikiforov the moment he had first heard him sing. Then Yuuri had seen him dance and he had fallen in love right there and then.

Yuuri downed another flute of champagne. And then another.

“What happened?” Leo asked Guang Hong.

“Yuuri tripped in front of Viktor Nikiforov and then ignored him when he offered a hand to help Yuuri stand up,” Guang Hong said. “Apparently, this means that Yuuri has shamed the entire Katsuki family, and so now he’s pretty determined to pretend he doesn’t exist.”

“Oh.” Leo watched Yuuri down his fifth flute of champagne. It was a little worrying, so he took the sixth flute of champagne out of Yuuri’s reach and steered him away from the buffet table. “Let’s go find Phichit.”

“Nghh,” Yuuri said.

When they finally found Phichit, another five more flutes of champagne had found its way down Yuuri’s throat.

Alarming. Was this normal behavior for Yuuri?

Phichit looked amused with Yuuri’s behavior until Yuuri downed three more flutes. Concern and suspicion slid onto his face. He took the fourth -- fourteenth? -- flute from Yuuri’s hands and passed it to Guang Hong.

“Try to detect if there’s any magic in it,” he said in a low voice. Guang Hong took the flute, concentrated for a moment, and then gasped.

That was the last memory any of them had of the wedding.

-o-

Phichit was dying.

“Can someone turn the light off?” he whined and turned until he was facing the floor.

“That’s the sun,” Guang Hong said. He, too, sounded like he was on death’s door.

“Then we gotta turn off the sun,” Phichit said. “That’s our next quest, guys. We’re going to fight the sun.”

“Does anyone remember what happened?” Leo asked. Phichit heard the shift of clothing and turned his head towards the sound. He opened and eye and immediately shut it again, regretting everything. Why was everything so bright ?

“I remember drinking,” came Yuuri’s soft voice. “I drank a lot.”

“Did we all drink?” Leo sounded incredulous.

“Even if we did, I don’t remember a thing.”

“Crash a wedding, they said,” Phichit grumbled to himself. “It’ll be fun, they said.”

“Phichit, you were the one who suggested that we attended the wedding, uninvited,” Yuuri said.

“And you wholeheartedly supported my decision because you heard Viktor Nikiforov was going to be there!”

“Please stop talking,” Guang Hong whimpered. “Everything hurts.”

“All in favor of continuing to sleep say aye,” Phichit said.

“Aye,” the rest of the party chorused.

-o-

The next time Phichit woke up, he was feeling significantly better. He also saw that he and the rest of his party were, literally, lying in a ditch in the middle of nowhere.

“Oh no,” Phichit heard Yuuri whisper and saw that Yuuri’s violin was damaged beyond repair. It was like someone had grabbed it by the neck and continuously smashed it against something. Panic engulfed Phichit for a moment and he quickly checked his personal belongings. Everything was still there, which was a relief. It also meant that whatever happened last night, it wasn’t a bandit attack.

“I’ll have to buy a new violin,” Yuuri said.

“Mmm,” Guang Hong replied, lifting his hand up into the air to give a thumbs-up. He still hasn’t recovered from the headache.

“We should go back to our inn.” Leo, ever the responsible one, was now awake. “We can freshen up and replenish our supplies before leaving town.” At Leo’s words, Phichit actually looked at everyone and realised that they were all in very, very bad shape. And were those bloodstains he saw on Guang Hong’s hands? Guang Hong was a healer, not a physical fighter.

Seriously, what had they done last night?

-o-

“I heard that Viktor Nikiforov released a new medley,” Leo said. This caused Yuuri’s attention to immediately snap to him.

“Really? I thought he said that he was taking a break because of lack of inspiration!” Yuuri wasn’t going to complain about this development, though. He loved anything Viktor Nikiforov came up with.

“Yeah I thought so too. I wonder what changed.”

“Apparently,” Phichit started, sliding into the seat next to Yuuri. They were currently at a bar, in between jobs. “I heard that he’s found a muse.” A device was placed on the table in front of Yuuri and the strums of a guitar came from it, followed by the melody of a violin.

“Strings?” Yuuri’s eyes widened. “I thought Viktor specialised in oral songs!”

“Rumor has it that his muse played a violin -- well, it’s not really a rumor because Viktor Nikiforov himself confirmed it -- so Viktor specifically learned how to play a violin for this song. It’s called ‘In Regards to Love: Eros’, by the way.” Phichit stole a bite of Yuuri’s food and Yuuri let him, too fascinated by Viktor’s song to register anything else.

“It’s so seductive,” Yuuri said, blushed. “There’s also a story in it, I think.”

“Oh?”

“A story of seduction? A playboy coming to town and charming people left and right.” The more Yuuri talked about the song, the more enthusiastic he got. It was rather endearing to see. “And then he goes for the most beautiful woman in town! But she’s not going to give in because, you see, she knows if she gives in he’ll just leave!! So they engage in a dangerous dance.” Yuuri paused to breathe. “And one day the lady makes a mistake. She gives in and once the playboy has gotten what he wanted, he just casts her aside and disappears without a trace.”

“...”

“...”

“Wow,” Guang Hong said blandly, looking down at his meal. “I wonder what kind of person Viktor’s new muse is.”

-o-

“So here we are again, back in Sochi,” Phichit said.

“If it were up to me, I’d never want to come back here again,” Yuuri muttered.

“Don’t worry too much. There’s little to no chance that Viktor would still be here, let alone remember that you tripped in front of him three months ago,” Leo said, trying to comfort Yuuri.

“I guess.”

“So where shall we go first? To the inn? To the town square? Oh! I remember that there’s this lake that’s been enchanted so that we can skate on it no matter the weather! Let’s go there!”

“Or maybe we should do what we came here for? That is, to deliver the package?” Guang Hong raised said package up in the air to further prove his point. “After we deliver that package, we can go do whatever we want but until then, we’re still on a job.”

“Oh right,” Phichit said sheepishly.

-o-

After skating a few circles around the lake, Leo had an idea.

“Hey Yuuri, why don’t you try skating to ‘In Regards to Love: Eros’?” he suggested. “You’ve already listened to it, like, two hundred and thirty-six times now.”

“I, I can’t,” Yuuri flushed red. “Eros isn’t me. Do I look like a playboy to you?”

“He has a point,” Guang Hong said.

“Thank you, Guang Hong.”

“But you’re trained in performance,” Guang Hong continued. “And isn’t part of performing playing a role? It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“I hate you, Guang Hong.”

Phichit took out the music-playing device and gave Yuuri a cheeky grin. “It’s three against one, Yuuri. You’re out numbered.”

“Fine.” Yuuri grumbled good-naturedly, rolling his eyes, but still skated a little further towards the center of the ice and stopped. He waited for the first chords of the guitar to play before he started to move with the music, improvising on the spot. It was a little strange, his body sometimes moving before his brain caught up, as if it already knew what to do before Yuuri did. As if it had danced a similar dance before and was remembering it instead of improvising something new.

Somewhere in the middle of the song, Yuuri jumped--

And crash landed on the ground, blood rushing to his face and heart pounding wildly in his chest. He kept his eyes on the ice even as he heard the sound of his friends rushing over because he didn’t want to look up to confirm,

“That was quite a fall you had there.” A hand entered his line of sight. “Are you alright?”

Yuuri looked up to see Viktor Nikiforov standing in front of him, a smile on his face and his hand outstretched.

God , this was exactly what happened at the wedding reception.

Yuuri stared at the hand for a while before he took it, allowing Viktor to hoist him up to his feet.

“Yeah, I’m alright,” Yuuri replied, waiting for Viktor to let go of his hand.

“Yuuri!” Phichit skated to a stop beside him. “You okay? Need any healing?” Yuuri was still waiting.

“I’m fine, Phichit. It’s just a light bruise. It’ll go away after a day or two.” Yuuri was still waiting. He pointedly looked at his captive hand, to make a point, but nothing happened.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Viktor said and Yuuri’s heart stopped. Viktor remembered .

“Uh,” Yuuri started. “What?”

“I couldn’t get you out of my head,” Viktor said softly, as if it were a confession. “You left quite a lasting impression on me.”

Yuuri was going to die . Him embarrassing himself in front of Viktor Nikiforov was a lasting impression .

“Oh! Looks like Leo and Guang Hong are yelling at us to get going!” Phichit said, very loudly. On cue, Leo and Guang Hong started shouting Yuuri and Phichit’s name. “Terribly sorry,” Phichit said to Viktor, not sounding sorry at all. “But we have to go now. It was nice meeting you.” Phichit took Yuuri’s non-captive hand and quickly pulled Yuuri away from Viktor.

“Wait--” Viktor’s hand was outstretched and Yuuri, in a lapse of judgement, almost did the same.

“So terribly sorry!” Phichit said again. “We’re awfully busy people. Maybe another time!”

Phichit continued to drag Yuuri until they were thick in the crowd of an open market.

“I think we lost him,” Leo said, looking back for another check.

“I didn’t think he ran after us in the first place,” Guang Hong said.

“Thanks guys,” Yuuri said.

“It’s not problem. Man, I can’t believe Viktor Nikiforov remembered you.” Phichit frowned. “What did you do?”

“I tripped! I just tripped in front of him and brushed him off when he offered to help me stand!” Yuuri would have wailed if they weren’t in the middle of a busy marketplace. “He probably hates me! He probably thinks that I’m a clumsy, incompetent--”

Phichit and Guang Hong’s hands clamped onto Yuuri’s mouth, preventing him from speaking another word.

“He didn’t look like he hated you, if you asked me,” Leo said. “If anything, he looked delighted to see you.”

Yuuri ripped off Phichit and Guang Hong’s hands. “Delighted to see me fall again , like the incom--” The hands were back.

“Shhh,” Phichit said. “Let’s go back to the inn and we can talk this out further, okay?”

A moment passed and Yuuri nodded.

However, they never made it back to the inn.

-o-

“Mind control is very unethical,” Phichit said once the gag was removed from his mouth.

“You do-gooders can keep your opinions to yourself!”

The group of four had been suddenly ambushed by the people in the marketplace, tied up and gagged and delivered to some underground crypt. Those people had a glazed over look in their eyes that could only belong to mind control.

A man stepped out of the shadows. He had a black eyepatch, greying hair, and a beard. Phichit vaguely remembered seeing him on wanted signs before.

“I don’t take well to people who humiliate me,” the man snarled.

“Huh?”

“Three months ago, on this very date, we planned an attack on Nikiforov and his party members during Giacometti’s wedding. But it was foiled! Foiled by the four of you!”

“Huh??”

Phichit had no idea what the man was talking about. There had been an attack during the wedding? The entire night had been a blur and the party had concluded that they had all been blackout drunk. It was the only possibility they could think of.

“Especially you!” The man pointed at Yuuri who squeaked and curled in on himself. “You managed to resist the mind control and break the hold it had on your party members! How is that possible?!”

“I, what?” Yuuri looked at Phichit, eyes wide and full of confusion. He knew as much as Phichit did.

“The champagne was charmed so that once you started drinking, you wouldn’t be able to stop! Alcohol makes you more susceptible to mind control! You drank twenty glasses of champagne , how were you still able to resist it?”

Yuuri opened his mouth. He closed his mouth. He looked at Leo and Leo could only shrug. He looked at Guang Hong and Guang Hong did the same.

Literally nobody knew what was going on.

“Sorry but,” Leo said slowly. “Just what happened at the wedding?”

Before the man could answer, the wall exploded and right there at the sizeable hole was Viktor Nikiforov and his party.

“Seriously,” Guang Hong said. “What is going on?”

-o-

Yuuri was being carried by Viktor Nikiforov in a princess carry. Why was Viktor Nikiforov carrying him? Yuuri could walk perfectly fine on his own.

“It seems like the tables are turned this time,” Viktor said to him fondly, which Yuuri didn’t understand. Why was Viktor fond? What did Viktor mean by tables being turned?

Yuuri remained silent in his confusion.

“What’s your name?” Viktor asked.

“Yuuri Katsuki,” Yuuri replied, a knee-jerk reaction.

“Yuuri Katsuki,” Viktor whispered to himself. His eyes were sparkling. Beside him, a young blonde boy made a face of disgust.

“You don’t have to keep carrying him,” he said. Yuuri took this chance.

“He’s right, I can walk.”

“But I want to carry you!” Viktor pouted. “I have the feeling that if I put you down, you’d just run away again!”

“Uh.” Well, Viktor wasn’t wrong .

As if he could hear Yuuri’s thoughts, Viktor tightened his grip on Yuuri. Yuuri heard Phichit snicker and resolved to kick his ass in the earliest possible opportunity.

“I won’t run, promise,” Yuuri said.

“But can I trust you when you say that? Your track record speaks against you, you know.”

“I said I promise.” Yuuri felt a little annoyed now, which was surprising. Usually, when on the topic of Viktor Nikiforov, he only felt excitement or anxiety. “Do I really seem like the type of person who would break a promise?”

“Well, you did ask me to marry you and then you left without a word, without a way to contact you, without a trace . I was almost convinced that I dreamt you up!”

“What?!” Four different voices yelled at the same time.

“Yuuri, I thought you just tripped in front of him! You didn’t tell me you proposed!” Guang Hong’s eyes were wide. “I didn’t know you were that daring!”

“I didn’t!” Yuuri pulled back to look at Viktor in the face. “I didn’t, did I?” Was this some weird culture clash? Did tripping mean marriage? Yuuri could believe that; he’s read of one country that had a slap on the cheek as a marriage proposal.

“But you did!” Viktor’s tone was sullen now. “You were so passionate about it. Did it mean nothing to you? Was I just another meaningless conquest to you?” Viktor’s grip tightened to the point where it was almost borderline painful.

Everyone in Viktor’s party was looking at Yuuri now. Yuuri could tell that if he gave the wrong answer, they would not hesitate to start fighting.

Yuuri looked at his friends and saw that they were discreetly readying their weapons. This was bad. Yuuri had to defuse the situation.

“I’ve been in love with you the first time I saw you dance,” Yuuri confessed, his face flaming red. “But I didn’t think you would remember me at all. And I, I didn’t feel… worthy? To talk to you? I didn’t really want you to see my shortcomings, my flaws, if that makes any sense.” It was the reason why Yuuri hadn’t accepted Viktor’s offer of help the first time. He had been humiliated, tripping over his own two feet in front of The Viktor Nikiforov, and simply lashed out.

“I see.” Viktor’s grasp loosened. “I, admit, that I had started to doubt your actions at the wedding reception. I thought you were a playboy.”

Yuuri could hear someone choke.

“But if you were serious about this, about us --” Since when was there an ‘us’ in this entire situation?! “--I’m willing to give it a try.”

“We don’t have a place to stay in Sochi,” Phichit quickly interjected. “In fact, we’re doing a delivery job right now, so Yuuri can’t stay with you.”

“That’s not a problem, we’ll just go along with Yuuri!” Viktor said, like it was easy. Like it was every day a big-name party like theirs joined up with a no-name party like Yuuri’s.

“Who would want to accompany their party?” the blonde boy sneered.

“Oh, Yura,” Christophe said with a smirk on his face. “Wasn't it just the other day that you said that you wanted to join their party? What made you change your mind?”

“S-shut up!” The blonde boy’s face was red. Yuuri stared at him. Why in the world would he want to join Yuuri’s party when his party had Viktor Nikiforov . “Look, I’m not the only one okay?” the boy quickly said after he caught Yuuri staring at him. “Nearly everyone wanted to join your party after what you guys did at the wedding.”

“Oh.” Well that cleared up absolutely nothing , and brought up the question that had been going through Yuuri’s head for three months now.

What had they done at the wedding?

Chapter Text

Viktor wonders if this is how one becomes a god.

History had its fair share of heroes, often portrayed larger than life and full of power. Viktor is sure that he’s going to be one of them, judging from the way he is treated by others. A god of song and dance, maybe.

But he isn’t a god.

-o-

When he is nineteen, he has already won his fair share of battles, done many quests, gone where no mortal had ever gone to. He did it all with his party, of course, and he credits his successes to them. He sings of their adventures, he dances, he performs .

When he is nineteen, he is famous, but he isn’t a god. He isn’t all-seeing, he isn’t all-knowing, and he certainly isn’t unbeatable.

-o-

“Don’t worry,” a guard says to another. “Viktor Nikiforov will save us.”

Viktor looks to the sky where around half a dozen dragons are flying in circles, awaiting their prey and thinks, tiredly and somewhat bitterly, ‘But who is going to save me?’

-o-

He wins, of course. After all, he is Viktor Nikiforov.

-o-

By the time he is twenty-five, he forgets what it is like to be considered mortal.

-o-

“I may have taken an arrow to the knee,” Chris jokes, “but this doesn’t mean I’ve stopped being an adventurer.”

Chris, Viktor’s party member, is getting married to the man of his dreams and Viktor is happy for him. He wonders what it would be like to want to spend the rest of your life with someone, to have someone see you for who you are and not be disappointed in your weaknesses. He supposes he will never know.

A man trips in front of him, falling flat on his face. Viktor kneels down and extends a hand to help him up.

“That was quite a fall you had there,” Viktor says. “Are you alright?”

The man stares at his hand but does not take it. He scrambles to his feet and disappears back into the crowd, leaving Viktor somewhat at a loss.

“Wow,” Chris says. “It’s not every day that you see someone snub the great Viktor Nikiforov.”

“He probably has his own reasons,” Viktor says mildly as he stands up. A while later and the incident is already forgotten from his mind.

-o-

“Hey, isn’t that the guy who snubbed you?” Chris asks as he points to a man surrounded by a crowd of people. He is dancing, full of vigour and joy and Viktor can hear his laughter from all the way over here.

The man grabs a random partygoer and spins them around before dipping them.

“Well he certainly is enjoying himself,” Chris comments. The man is making his way through the dance floor, never dancing with the same person twice. Everyone he’s danced with is left flushed, pupils dilated and a dazed expression on their faces, as if he had just blown their mind.

Viktor finds his eyes glued to the man as he goes through dance partners, and his heart speeds up with every step the man takes closer to him.

Finally, finally, the man is in front of him and Viktor can get a good and proper look at him.

There was a drunken flush on the man’s face, his brown eyes slightly glazed over, and his clothes were messy and half undone. His hair was disheveled and there was a tie looped around his head. He looked like a mess and yet Viktor found himself drawn to him.

“Dance with me?” the man asks, his hand outstretched towards Viktor, and Viktor said yes.

-o-

Viktor tries not to feel disappointed when the man eventually leaves him to go dance with someone else. That’s what the man has been doing the entire night, after all, and there’s no reason that he should treat Viktor any differently. Viktor is just another person in a sea of many to the man and they probably will never cross paths ever again.

Viktor tries to forget the way his heart had pounded, the way it soared when he danced with the man. He tries to forget that, outside of battles, this is the first time in years that he’s felt so alive.

-o-

Pure chaos takes over the wedding as guests turn against each other, using makeshift weapons to try and get to Viktor, Chris, and their party members. It doesn’t take long for Viktor to realise that a spell had been cast onto most of the party goers, turning them into puppets with only the desire to destroy.

A sudden melody stabs the air, the strings of a single violin filling the pavilion. Immediately, all eyes snap to the source of the music and Viktor gasps when he recognises the man from earlier that night, standing on top of a table and playing a violin.

One by one, the enchanted party goers are knocked out by, what Viktor assumes to be, the man’s party members. Viktor doesn’t know how they look like, however, as his attention is fixed on the man and the man only. He cannot look away.

It happens quickly and without warning. An knife is thrown towards the man and the man pirouettes out of the way. He ends up falling off the table and the melody stops, breaking the effect it had on the party goers.

The number of enemies had significantly decreased at this point, thanks to the man and his party members, and Viktor’s own party tears through them with ease. Yuri, the newest addition to the party, seems almost delighted to do so and Viktor makes a mental note to talk to him about good-evil alignments later.

Suddenly, Viktor is grabbed and a knife is held to his throat. The enemy drags him to the side and his party immediately stops fighting. They stare at his captor in horror as they, themselves, are taken captive by the party goers.

A man with greying hair and a beard emerges from the crowd and Viktor recognises him as Baron Axotol, a man Viktor’s party had exposed as corrupt lord a few months ago. He quickly fell from grace and disappeared from society after that and Viktor had assumed he died. Apparently that was not the case.

Baron Axotol stands in front of Viktor, sneering.

“Ah yes, the great Viktor Nikiforov,” he says. He doesn’t get to say more because a violin smashes into his head, making him fall to the ground.

Standing before Viktor is the man with the violin, the man that had danced with Viktor, and he is smiling at Viktor.

“I’ll protect you,” he says as his party members quickly neutralise the captors. The man, and a tie is still tied around his head, doesn’t waste any time in disarming Viktor’s own captor and he sweeps Viktor into a, frankly unnecessary but not unwelcome, princess carry as he kicks someone trying to sneak up on him.

From the corner of his eye, Viktor can see a young man with a petite frame punch someone twice his size. His fists come away bloody. It’s actually kind of terrifying.

“I’ll keep you safe, forever, I promise,” the man murmurs. Viktor doesn’t think he’s meant to hear that, but he does and he flushes.

“That sounds like you want to stay with me for the rest of my life,” Viktor jokes. The man looks at him for a prolonged period of time and, with the sounds of fighting and screaming in the background, it shouldn’t be romantic. But it is.

“I’ll stay with you forever,” the man tells him. “Please marry me.”

For the first time in his life, Viktor’s words are stuck in his throat. The man gently sets him on his feet and Viktor already misses him.

“I will get my revenge!” Baron Axotol yells in rage as he suddenly pops up next to Viktor, and the man stabs the Baron in the eye with the bow of his violin.

-o-

The day after the wedding, Viktor obsessively goes through the guest list, trying to find the man from last night. After the battle, the man and his party had mysteriously vanished without a trace and Viktor is determined to find the one who had stolen his heart.

“They were probably uninvited guests,” Chris tells Viktor. “They didn’t look familiar at all but they didn’t seem to be causing any harm so nobody bothered to kick them out.”

“Do you think anyone knows anything about them?” Viktor asks, desperation leaking into his voice.

“Even if they don’t, it won’t be long. With a party like that, with a bard like that, news of their adventures will be spread easily,” Chris says.

-o-

Three whole weeks passes by and Viktor still had no clue as to who that mysterious man was. At times Viktor fears that he merely dreamt the entire thing up and ends up having to asking Chris or Yuri about it, to reaffirm that the man from that night had truly existed, that he was real.

A month passes and Viktor thinks that maybe the man only existed for one night and one night only. Maybe he was a spirit, or a god even, who decided to roam the earth for a day and make false promises before disappearing forever.

If Viktor was a god, he could have found out where the man was.

For first time in years, Viktor feels so mortal and he hates it.

-o-

Three months pass and Viktor writes three songs. ‘In Regards to Love: Eros’ is the first one he releases and, in it, he tells the story of how his heart was stolen by a being so beautiful, he couldn’t possibly be mortal. And, when all was said and done, the being vanishes into obscurity, never to be seen again, and Viktor is just one of the many hearts stolen.

He walks through the streets of Sochi, refusing to leave on the off chance he might meet the man again, when he hears the familiar melody of his song coming from the frozen lake. Thinking that it might take his mind off the man, he walks towards the lake and freezes.

There, in the center of the lake, is the man from the wedding.

He dances to the song Viktor has written about him, his body singing a melody that resonates to Viktor’s melody, and Viktor wants. He wants.

The man locks eyes with him and crashes into the ice and Viktor takes this chance to go up to him and… Viktor doesn’t know what, but he’ll do something. He’ll do anything to keep this man by his side, to make him make good on his promise to stay with Viktor forever. It doesn’t matter if the man promises that to everyone he meets; it’s only mortal to be selfish, to want to keep a god for oneself, and Viktor,

Viktor is only mortal.

So Viktor crouches down in front of the man and puts on his best smile.

“That was quite a fall you had there. Are you alright?”