Blue Echo (Yuri On Ice / Victuuri Mermaid AU)

Victor, the human

Humans were heavy.

By the time Yuri had reached the island in his monitoring zone, he was exhausted, starving, and his entire body ached.

The human hadn't awoken since he started carrying it, and a few times Yuri thought the male had succumbed to the environment, until he felt the warmth of its breath against his neck which it made him swim faster.

The little island was surrounded by rocks and Yuri had some difficulty getting close to the land. His body squeezing past tight spots and sharp corners. More than once he felt the edges of rocks scraping his fin and arms and to make it worst the water here was impure.

By the time he had pushed the human atop one a large rock, the sun was already out and its warmth was dissipating the cold of the night. The human still slept, shivering in the remaining cold, so Yuri removed its top coverings hoping his skin would warm quicker.

Yuri stared at the human for the next few minutes, wondering why it still hadn't awoken. He even went as far as to give it some of the impure water and squishing some bugs between his fingers to feed it.

Yet none of this woke the human up.

Yuri sighed. He'd done all he could and he could no longer linger here, he had to return. He could try sneaking away tomorrow to see if the human had survived or not.

Yuri started heading back, squeezing through the same path he came, but soon realized the rocks felt closer to his body than before, even without the human.

The low tide. He'd miscalculated.

Yuri bit his lip and struggled back to the area where he'd left the human. The impure water wasn't going to kill him after all, getting stuck could.

Yuri rested his body next to the rock where the human was. He'd had to wait half a day for the tide to rise back up. He mushed more of the bugs crawling around and chewed some of them as well. It wasn't his ideal food, but it would have to do.

The sun was higher now, his skin should feel warmer, but the impure water wasn't letting his body adapt. His hunger was slightly abated, but he was starting to feel listless. He just hoped Takeshi wouldn't feel like checking on him today, if he did he would know Yuri wasn't where he was supposed to be. If that happened he'd have to lie, and he disliked lying.

Yuri kept thinking about everything that could happen. Thought by thought piling one on top of the other until their weight felt like a physical thing.

What had he been thinking rescuing a human? He'd risk his life for this human. Why? Why...

Yuri felt a warm brush of fingers against his ear and he turned quickly to blue eyes staring at him.

"You're real," the human said. "I thought I was hallucinating."

Yuri backed away, but his body hit rock. There was nowhere for him to go.

The human reached out again. "You look pale. Why are you in the water?" Yuri closed his eyes as fingers brushed against his neck and shoulder. "You're freezing! Get out of the water!" Yuri opened his eyes in time to see the human's arms reaching for him, without thinking Yuri grabbed both wrists, stopping the human and pushing him away.

The water sloshed around him with the movement. Yuri stilled. The silence stretched until the water calmed once again. "I can't," Yuri said weakly. That was a lie. He could handle being out of the water, it was one of the things they taught him in case of emergencies.

The human pouted then moved closer, reaching out for Yuri again. "You probably have hypothermia, you're not thinking straight." His warm hands grabbed Yuri's shoulders and pulled him forward.