In times of uncertainty and doubt, there was no one else Victor liked to call on more than Chris, who, at present time, was most likely currently all tucked away nice and snug and warm in his boyfriend's embrace in Switzerland. Although he was hesitant to admit his personality flaws, Victor wasn't really the type to think things through before he acted on them. Chris, on the other hand, was more cautious and cunning, and preferred to orchestrate a devious yet subtle plots to get him what he wanted, the most devious and cunning of which he used on his own manager to turn into his lover. And while Victor was not of the devious and cunning variety – much less, subtle – he had to admire Chris' brilliant mind, which was incredibly adept at thinking ten – no, at least twenty – steps ahead, especially when Victor was most likely to hang around the third step or so.

Which was why, of course, as soon as Victor's bright pools of aquamarine eyes flash open in a jolt from a rather fitful sleep, he wrestles a sleeping Makkachin aside to fumble for his phone, not once bothering to check what the godforsaken time was in Geneva.

"Chris would understand." Victor mutters as he places his phone to his ear. (He wouldn't.)

After the third call, Chris finally picks up with a characteristically very Chris groan. "Please tell me you're dying."

"What a rude thing to say!"

"So you're not? Dying?"

"No!"

"That makes one of us at least." Chris yawns. In the background, Victor hears someone else stir and mumble in incoherent French, to which Chris responds back in equally mumble-y French followed by the sound of a smooch. "This better be good."

"I thought we were friends!"

"We are! But friends let friends sleep when they're not on the cusp of death, my little Russian yam."

Victor didn't think yams were indigenous to Russia, but he doesn't bite and simply just says, "I'm living with Yuuri."

"Your Russian co-worker at the ice rink?" Chris says, which he quickly begins to realize was a huge mistake because not only does Victor say "NO" loudly enough to startle his sleeping boyfriend, but starts to fall all over himself in gushing about "Only the the most adorable policeman in the world!" and horrifyingly starts recounting everything that has happened, involving Yuuri, of course, since he got to Hasetsu.

In astonishingly impressive detail.

At two o'clock in the morning.

For the second time.

Because the first time Victor did this had been just a few days ago when he thought he was going to be slapped with handcuffs because he had unintentionally violated "The purest creature in the world!" which led Chris to thinks that if he should ever have children, their limited Disney-watching privileges would surely be non-negotiable, else they turn into an utter and complete moron like his best friend who apparently turned into a love-addled idiot, currently still waxing poetic about Yuuri's "Big! Brown!" – which had initially sounded very promising but were instead followed disappointingly by – "Eyes!"

Fearing a hand cramp, Chris fishes for a pair of earphones from his bedside drawer and pops them in, only to see on his screen something that closely resembled something like a miniature mountain of undecipherable junk on top of a tiny table. His hands grope in the dark for his glasses, and as he slides them on, he interrupts Victor with a, "Victor, mon cher, what am I looking at, pray tell?"

Victor quickly closes the video. "O-oops. Must've accidentally opened the video."

"That didn't look like your stuff." Chris's radar of suspicion was currently emitting signals that Something Didn't Seem Right, and Victor's very telling stutter hardly helped. "They weren't flashy enough."

"They're just… things laying around the room I cleared away."

"Turn on the video again if it's nothing, Victor."

So Victor does, which makes Chris audibly gasp. "No."

"Okay, okay, I know." Victor begins to wail, clicking the video off again. "I didn't even know I was doing it." Heck, he didn't even know why he showed Chris it. Showing it to someone else made the whole situation seem more real, instead of just a thing that just happened to well, happen, even if that someone else was his best friend.

"How could you not know you were building a shrine, Vitya!" Chris sputters in disbelief.

And because this was Chris he was talking to, despite him sounding surprisingly quite judgmental at the moment, Victor starts to tell him that he had now never went anywhere without something of Yuuri's stashed somewhere on his person. It had started with the gloves ("Because I can pretend that we're holding hands."), and the next had been Yuuri's handkerchief ("Because he never leaves home without one, and I want him to take me where he goes, too.") and the rest snowballed from there; a towel ("Why should his towel get all the fun?"), a sock ("Just the one, so that it wouldn't be too obvious because everyone loses a half of their pair of socks every time.") a box of matches that Yuuri used when he lit a candle, the candle, and his latest–the almost unnoticeable hand soap Yuuri uses that had worn down to a tiny nub, simply because "Yuuri had been touching it for a while now, and it actually smells like the lavender soap I used to buy before it was discontinued."

Apparently, it was not at all difficult not to start collecting items, especially when you shared a house with the man of your dreams.

"You know what you are, don't you?" Chris says with all the graveness one could muster at an unholy hour.

"Vampire?" Victor weakly jokes, the sound of his awkward laughter falling deaf on Chris' ears.

"You're a creepy klepto stalker, Vitya." Chris sighs, "But alors, who am I not to say I did not understand the power of love?"

Renewed, rejuvenated, revived, and bursting with joie de vivre, Victor once again starts up and fills Chris in, and this time, the Swiss starts to listen. He asks questions ("How did he say that you two were 'friends'?" "Makkachin did what, now?" "Tamagotchi? Isn't that the pixilated pet game that was all the craze like, a decade ago? …oh, tomodachi. Sure, I don't know what that means, but okay.") and tries to give his opinions ("Maybe it's because you're missing your family?" "An electric blanket? That sounds genius! Can you send me one?") but it wasn't until Chris asks what Victor's plan was that the Russian grew silent.

"That's just it. I don't have one." Victor confesses.

Chris was quiet. "Did you want me to help you?"

Victor pauses to think. He had less than two weeks left to make Yuuri fall in love with him while he stayed at the inn, because this way, he had more chances and opportunities with him. And while with Chris's help, he might get Yuuri to look at him in a different light, he wasn't so sure he wanted to win Yuuri over with someone else's help because he wanted to earn it all on his lonesome. And if Yuuri decides that he doesn't want any part of Victor's affection, then at least it would've been a battle Victor bravely fought.

St. Petersburg Russia would've said yes immediately; Hasetsu Victor, on the other hand, hedged.

"I think I'm good." Victor slowly says as the realization sinks in. "I guess I just wanted someone to listen. Thanks for that."

Chris grins, pleased at the change he sees in Victor. When the Russian had all but announced that he had spontaneously decided to up and leave Russia and a stable job, Chris thought he had gone crazy. But seeing the new and improved Victor Nikiforov, Chris was very proud. And although it was now almost three in the morning and he had grueling work ahead of him, Chris says, "Anytime." and means it.

"Ittekimaaaasu!" Both Yuuri and Victor say out loud as they finish slipping on their shoes, snug scarves wound tightly around the both of their necks, Makkachin accompanying their words with a "Woof! Woof!" and pawing at the door in his excitement. Over breakfast, Yuuri had asked Victor whether he was free – "Anytime!" bubbled out of Victor's lips, and in a smaller voice and in Russian, he says, "Just for you." – and did he want to go on that patrol Yuuri had promised to take him on – Yuuri hadn't even finished talking when Victor rather too enthusiastically declared that "There's nothing I would love more!" which prompted a grin from Yuuri that had all his insides squirming and tingling.

"Itterasshai!" Mr. Katsuki had gone out for a walk, and Mari was still sleeping, so it was only Mrs. Katsuki who hollers back.

The men – and the dog – set off on their journey, but not without dropping by the koban first to make sure that no one needed Yuuri terribly before they went on patrol. Yuuri holds the door open for Victor as he and Makkachin step inside the koban, the interior looking strangely, more endearing than it was the first time he's seen it, but maybe it was also because Victor hadn't so much given the interiors a good look after he had spied the more beguiling police officer. The orangey-red wood made the interior of the koban look just as charming as it was on the outside, and any and all paperwork seemed to be neatly categorized in files and kept away.

"Are you the only police officer in this koban?" Victor asks.

"I used to have a partner—" Victor bristles at the word 'partner' as Yuuri tilts his head in the direction of the unoccupied desk which was far too close to Yuuri's desk for Victor's liking. Far too close. "—but Minami got transferred to Nagoya and the higher-ups decided that Hasetsu needed just one man for this outpost."

"Did they," Victor innocently says as he brushes his hands over Yuuri's desk, thanking the gods for whatever got or whatever his name was transferred.

As they start to wait for the thirty minutes before they leave for Yuuri's patrol, Victor and Yuuri talk. Yuuri is surprised that Victor is terribly well-versed in jellyfish trivia ("They're sea-dancers, Yuuri. Of course I know all about them!"), a tangent that they had spun off when Yuuri asked Victor if he had caught a glimpse of the sea ("But they're right there, Victor! How could you not have seen them?!" Yuuri was incredulous, to which Victor mutters in Russian under his breath, "Because all I see is you. Miles and oceans and skies of you." which, of course, doesn't escape Yuuri's notice because he begins to ask Victor what he had just said.)

"That's not fair." Yuuri huffs. "I teach you some Japanese."

"Would you like me to teach you some Russian, then?"

I'll let you get to know a whole lot of Russian.

Yuuri seems to think about this very seriously. "Is it very difficult?"

"Maybe for first-timers," Victor says, trying and kind of failing at keeping his voice neutral, because his voice breaks at 'first-timers', "but you look like a quick study."

"And your English is really good." Yuuri hums, still thinking.

That isn't the only thing that I'm good at.

Victor doesn't think he can choke that out without keeping up his façade, so he tries to make do with a half-shrug, half-wave thing with his hands and a very vague, "A-aaaahahahaha." (Whatever that was supposed to mean, aside from a very probable short-circuiting Russian brain from innuendo overload).

"Right, well. Let's go." Yuuri grabs his keys and puts on his coat. "Maybe you can start teaching me on the way."

For something that sounded that sounded terribly romantic in Victor's head, Yuuri's patrol seemed to be anything but. Because while they had left behind the charming little koban and the equally arresting wintry forest which believably looked like it could certainly house fairies and other creatures of the fae, their little world quickly grew to include other characters because Victor had somehow conveniently forgotten that they were not on a date, and that Yuuri was actually on the clock.

Which was how he had somehow gotten himself roped into helping the town florist and her son unload the sacks of fertilizer off the delivery van. (Makkachin was off doing his Best Doggo of The Year impression by keeping the younger kids in the shop entertained.)

"She says she's sorry about your clothes, and that she insists on washing it for you." Yuuri translates for Mrs. Amano, who did indeed look terribly sorry about the stain on Victor's shirt. The older woman bows again, which Victor reciprocates. "Speaking of which, were you going somewhere? I didn't notice before but you're actually dressed up."

"Please tell her it's nothing to worry about. It's just something I threw on." Victor lies. The shirt was one of his best ones, an exquisite Zegna button down specifically tailored for him as a birthday gift from his grandmother. He had worn it because he had always associated it with good memories, and his first time out with Yuuri seemed like a darned good occasion to bust out the Zegna, much to Chris' approval, but it didn't seem right to inconvenience someone over a shirt. "I hope her husband feels better soon."

After they finish hauling the sacks of fertilizer, they had once again set off on their little tour. They stop when fellow residents call out Yuuri's name and curiously inquire after his silver-haired friend ("Watashi wa Victor… desu." He looks over at Yuuri, pleased as punch that he's nailed his self-introduction) , they linger when Makkachin finds More children to play with! and they break into a run when the snow gets heavier inside surprise, surprise, the not-so-super supermarket that had given Victor a rather memorable day confined in his toilet.

Mr. Wakaru seemed to be almost waiting for them – well, Yuuri, to be specific – when they showed up. In his gruff voice, he talks to Yuuri and nods towards the snow. "His cat's missing again." Yuuri murmurs to Victor.

"Poor Dried Squid."

When the snow lightens up, they depart and begin calling out for Maru – which was the cat's actual name. Yuuri leads them to Maru's usual hang-outs but there was no sign of the tabby anywhere, which leads them to drop Makkachin off at Katsuyuki Yutopia first because the cold was starting to bite.

When the snow evolved into a semi-snow storm, they had to call the search off. When they pulled up at the inn, Mrs. Katsuki had all but given them one quick glance, hurried them under the kotatsu, a marvel of Japanese technology that had moved to the Top 3 things Victor loved about Japan, and poured piping hot soup down their throats.

"Hey Makkachin," Victor softly nudges his drowsing dog, who cracks an eye open drowsily as if to say What? "If you were a cat, where would you hide?" Makkachin's response to this was to burrow deeper into Victor's side, seeking the heat his master's body gave off. Because even if Victor wanted nothing more than to sleep, his feet were tired and his body was aching, all he could weirdly think about now was the rather misplaced cat.

Which was strange, not because he had anything against cats – they just didn't take to him; Yuri Plisetsky being a prime example, but because he was thinking that they had just spent hours looking for a cat that maybe, just maybe, didn't want to be found. Maybe there was a higher purpose in being able to go where you wanted when you liked, and maybe Victor had a little of that sense of adventure, what with spontaneously packing up and moving thousands of miles away to a relatively unknown town. Or maybe the cat wasn't exactly Mr. Wakaru's; he just thought it was.

Or maybe Victor was just plain overthinking.

Suddenly overcome with drowsiness, Victor hugs Makkachin closer and drifts to sleep…

…only to jolt awake when a sudden Yeow! and the quick patter of tiny feet resounds on the ceiling overhead.

A/N: We're at Chapter Seven, huzzah! I have so many thanks to give to people who read LF! To the people who just started reading, hello! To the lovelies who's been with LF since Chapter One, I love you~ *heart hands* And to silent readers, I know you're there thank you for reading as well :3

I love comments! I do a little jig when I refresh my email and the notifications pop up, so if you can send me a word, a quick note - I would greatly appreciate it.

Onwards to my replies for last chapter's reviews:

midnightsky0612 - They should, shouldn't they? ;)

foxxygrrl5 - Hello! *frantic waving* Thank you for reading LF! I hope you liked this chapter! :3

CloCloPuff - I don't blame you for rereading! T^T bad author! But yay, the fluffy (?) continues!

v-nikiforovu - AHHHH, that's so nice of you to say! I'm sure this fic's Victor loves it too when people say that they can relate to his lovesickness!

KH Freak 813 - He's working very, very hard! For the glory of love!

ErgoVincent - I'm glad this fic makes you smile :3 Thanks for continuing to support LF!

AiVici - We can all hope! C'mon, Victor, you can do this! Thanks for continuing to support LF~

bitterbeauty813 - Thanks for reading! :D Cute Victor is the best Victor!

Doe - #aintthatthetruth I like that the reviews section is basically everyone rounding up to cheer our Victor on~ Thanks for continuing to support LF!

- I hope you found this chapter just as (better yet, more) adorable than the previous chapter! :3 Thanks for reading LF!