Blue Echo (Yuri On Ice / Victuuri Mermaid AU)

Yuri, sorry

It was dark when Yuri woke.

The first thing he felt was Victor's arms holding him tight.

The second was a puff of warm breath on the back of his neck.

The third was pure fright when he realized it was probably hours after he had agreed to meet back with Yurio. He hurried to back to the water. Victor's protests calling him back to his arms.

But Yuri had to check on the fingerling. If something happened to him, he would not be able to live with it.

Victor's hand dipped in the water. Yuri reached for it, taking more of the warmth. He pulled the hand close to his cheek and made promises he may not be able to keep.

"I'll come back."

Victor smiled fondly and Yuri started swimming away while hearing replies that urged him to go astray.

"I'll be here waiting."

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The swim back felt eternal. Each swipe of Yuri's tail taking him further and further from Victor.

But he had to check on the fingerling. He'd promise.

Yuri's fear started to become real as he reached the spot where he'd agreed to meet with Yurio and the fingerling was nowhere to be seen.

"Yurio," Yuri called, voice tinted with hesitation. Had something happened to him? Had he tired of waiting and returned to the nest by himself? Should Yuri himself return? What excuse should he use?

Yuri stopped swimming for a moment, trying to decide what to do. The sea quieted around him, except for a small muffled cry. The older natare rushed to the sound near the bottom. Where did it come from? Where did it come from? He heard it again beneath the sand and started taking clumps out.

He touched cold skin four inches in, when he did a petite hand shot up through the earth, trying to scratch him.

"It's me!" Yuri exclaimed at the frightened fingerling that had burrowed himself in the sand. Burrowing was one of the first things a natare would learned as fry. Adult nature are on the top of the food chain by nature. They had the size, speed, and experience to face anything the sea threw at them. Fingerlings didn't have that. They are easy prey for the sharks and meat eaters. How could Yuri have forgotten that?

"It's me," he said again, softer. Yurio was shivering with fright, his eyes searching in alert. It took a moment for him to realized he wasn't in danger anymore. That Yuri wasn't a predator out to tear him apart.

Once the knowledge settled in the fingerling's eyes, he whined, clinging to Yuri like an anchor. "It was scary!" he cried. "It almost ate me." His tail moved slightly and Yuri saw the distinct punctures of teeth on one of the tail fins.

This was his fault. "I'm sorry," he tried to comfort the young natare. Yurio clung to him a little tighter, tiny sobs escaping his lips, his heart thumping rapidly as he hyperventilated. Yuri was still trying to figure out how to calm the fingerling when he suddenly went limp in his arms.

"Yurio?" Yuri asked with fright.

The fingerling's chest rose slowly, his breathing finally eased. Yuri breathe a sigh of relief. It was just another defense mechanism once the young natare had realized there was an older natare there to protect him now.

And Yuri was older. The predators feared him... as long as he was by himself. But in the open with a fingerling to protect he was as much the prey.