Ashes, Blue Skies And Snowflakes

Chapter Two

The feeling that spread throughout Victor's body shocked him. He wasn't ready for it and wanted to let go, yet he couldn't. It was like some sort of drug. He didn't want it, but he got hooked.

The warmth melted his frozen heart, injecting emotions he never experienced before into his near dull life.

This feeling... My... Soul mate...

Victor read about things like this happening, be it works of fiction or real accounts of others' previous experiences. He even experienced it once when he was sixteen. He thought nearly nothing of it back then as he had to focus on his blossoming career, but now...

He chuckled as the feeling dissipated, his heart becoming frozen once more. He didn't know why he chuckled, but he chuckled anyway.

The chuckle soon evolved into tears.

Crying because he thought he's numb. Crying because he neglected life too long. Crying because his soul mate is out there.

When the tears stopped flowing, Victor felt like he was reborn. He felt lighter, wiser, and with a new determination implanted in his thawed heart.

*****

As the feeling faded from his body, Yūri broke out into a full-blown sob. He didn't want to cry, but he cried anyway. Letting out emotions that were long buried within him.

Yūri's mother heard his sobbing and opened the sliding door by a sliver to investigate. From the limited lighting in the room, the shiny hand mirror on Yūri's lap stood out like a sore thumb.

She quietly gasped and closed the sliding door as slowly as possible.

As she walked away, the memories of Yūri's final visit to the doctor fogged her mind.

*****

"I'm sorry to be the one to say this, but your son has only two more weeks to live."

Sensing the tension in the air, the doctor quietly left the room, leaving mother and son to grasp the gravity of the situation.

The mother looked at her son with love in his eyes; the son with desperation in his.

Then he hugged her, spilling his emotions into the small space of the doctor's office. It create a mess that no one can clean.

Usually, with news like that everyone would try to finish off their bucket list. Not Yūri though. His only wish is to skate for the last time at the Ice Castle, yet it is something that he cannot do at all.

Not after the accident.

*****

For some odd reason, Yūri found himself skating. And it's too vivid to be just a dream. Yet the reality of it makes it seem like a dream. But if it really was a dream, might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

As his "dream" self unconsciously danced to a nonexistent music, he realized that he was skating to a routine that he knew very well. He knew how it started, he knew how it should've ended, he knew how it would eventually end.

As he poised into a graceful Ina Bauer, he swiftly skated, gained some speed and soared into the cold atmosphere of the ice rink.

That was the last time Yūri felt happiness in a jump.

He knew what was going to happen. He was anticipating the fall, the feeling of not being in control, the unending throbbing, the lightheadedness. He expected to see the ice tainted in crimson.

Instead, he fell into some sort of abyss, with someone embracing him tightly, afraid that he would disappear if they let go.

Yūri was confused, but he accepted it anyway. Like how he accepted his inability to skate. His inability to live longer than his parents.

*****

Victor woke up, body soaked thorough with sweat. He realized he was hugging Makkachin really tightly and let go.

The platinum Russian just blankly stared at Makkachin and his arms. Arms that were saving someone. In his dream.

He tried to recall what happened in that dream. He was watching someone skate. He heard no music but felt every silent note from the fluid-like movements of the skater. The person attempted his signature move, a quadruple flip. They lost control and he swiftly skated towards the person to save them. How he didn't notice the skates that were on his feet he had no idea.

Suddenly they were free falling in a dark abyss, Victor hugging the person as tightly as ever.

It was only when Makkachin licked his cheeks that Victor realized he was crying.