Chapter Four

When Yuuri had been eight years old, he could make a small stone skip fifteen times on the surface of the ocean, no matter how intense the waves could be, just as long as he could trace its pathway with his eyes, half a second faster than the stone itself. A surge of pride sparked with every successful toss and everyone would think it was amazing.

When Yuuri had been ten, he could make the ink dance in his drawings, stick figures twirling and turning as though they were celebrating their last night on earth. And he would smile at the joy found on the page, cheeks flushed with his own brand of happiness at the beauty he saw possible in every impossible way all around him. And everyone would think it was wonderful.

But it was all too soon that kids were taught of being weird.

And all too soon there was no amazement to be found. By the time he was twelve, he was asked to stop. Hide your drawings, stop the skipping, don't make things fly, don't call them here, don't make this move, stop being weird.

If Hasetsu, a town with its few witches well known, would nag at him to hide, to stop, to stop, then Yuuri had learned far too early on in his life that the world didn't like weird.

And when at fifteen, he had read about witchcraft and witch trials, he had understood just how burning the hatred could be for things impossible to be understood. Even if the only thing he couldn't grasp right then, safely tucked into his mother's arms, as she held him close to comfort her lovely child, was how a gift he received from her, could ever be conceived as wrong.

Phichit had been a blessing. A source of the most unadulterated positivity, a ray of sunshine that brought acceptance when he had so desperately needed it. Yuuri, who had been terrified to leave a home that at the very least knew him, even if it didn't particularly want him, and didn't know how to act away from it, found a person willing to guide him in his false normalcy, while embracing everything that made him different. Phichit would warn Yuuri when something gave him away, while at the same time felt at home with the Enchanted World of Yuuri that had become of their dorm.

He didn't blink at mentions of magic, just rolled with it, sometimes slightly in awe.

Still, when Viktor proclaimed his love of this place and the magic it was infused with, the aura he gave off was unlike anything Yuuri had ever encountered.

"I could have sworn it feels like magic."

The statement was sudden enough to warrant a moment of panic, complete with gaping and stammering. Does he- does he know? Did he realize? What did he mean? Why would he say- "Wh-What? How do you- mean?"

Viktor pushed himself up, a hint of green tainting the back of his pants from where he was sitting. A gentle smile, small but inviting graced his lips, as he offered a hand to help his companion stand.

Yuuri had to admit, he did wonder how rude it would be if he got up by himself, before he accepted the offer. The blush on his cheeks went ignored, though he couldn't stop the feel of his hands in his to register in his slowly calming mind. Soft and surprisingly cool.

"Let me explain," Viktor said, and chuckled when their little Guardian joined in as well. Vicchan ran over to them, jumping around at their feet.

Together they walked over to the edge of the lake, the young witch carefully keeping his thoughts blank so he wouldn't have to consider the way their hands were still intertwined, warm and shaking (please, don't let Viktor notice he was shaking) trapped in the other's gentle, cold.

Viktor knelt down, the hold guiding Yuuri with him. And Yuuri followed, until their fingertips brushed over the surface of the ice, only slightly chillier than Viktor himself. For someone like him it wasn't just the cold there to sense, but the underlying buzz of a place enchanted with an innocent kind of magic.

His eyes shifted to his left, where Viktor's smile widened at the touch, even when his brows furrowed with something Yuuri couldn't quite grasp. Whatever it was, it brought a sour taste in his mouth. The frosty white of the ice reflected on the aquamarine of Viktor's eyes, an captivating palette of blues and greens and pure white. It brought a strange desire, as though he could drown in that color, wanted- needed to, yet it remained forever out of reach.

"Do you see here?" Viktor whispered, his voice smooth in its quiet hush. "Do you feel it? It's wonderful."

And Yuuri could feel it, more than anyone else could, for the magic settled like dust on the ice was like a breath of fresh air to the young witch. The real question was, what was it that the other felt so strongly? And most importantly, how did he do it?

"What… What is it?" Yuuri pretended not to understand, eyes wide behind glasses slightly blurred from breaths warm in contrast to the cold.

Vicchan joined them at the edge, stretching forward to take a good look at what the humans were looking at. He lifted a paw to touch the ice. The touch shocked the poor pup, who yipped and slipped and in one swift motion he was lying with his belly on the ice, legs splayed out around him. The whine he left was more frustrated than hurt however, so they wouldn't feel too guilty for laughing at the adorable sight.

Unfortunately, it also distracted Viktor from the original question.

"It's so nice, isn't it?" he cooed to the fallen puppy, scratching his head with a loving smile on his face. "Isn't it, Vicchan?" And Yuuri was struck at how different (precious) the name sounded when it came from his lips.

Ignoring his companion's spluttering at the sudden action, Viktor joined his namesake on the ice, lying on his back on the harsh surface, limbs spread out around him, the poster boy of a kid making a snow angel. "Yuuri, join us."

"You'll catch your death like that," Yuuri commented instead, a hand reaching out, uncertain. "Not to mention you might fall in."

"It's frozen."

"Well, what if it breaks?"

"Yuuri!" he whined, scrunching his nose. How was he not shivering? "It's been frozen for months!"

Yuuri raised his brows at him. "Sure. Don't trust the person who has lived here for years. Not to mention, your tour guide." Never mind how bad of a job he had been doing in that area.

Vicchan barked twice from his spot next to Viktor, jumping to his feet with no warning. He rushed away from the ice, whining incessantly as he buried himself as thoroughly as he could in his owner's thick coat. With one hand on his shivering dog's form, Yuuri reached out to touch the lake that had the poor Guardian so frightened. What-

"Viktor, get off the ice."

"What-"

"Get off the ice now," he snapped. The pang of guilt at the shock in Viktor's expression once he propped himself up on his elbows to gape at him, wasn't enough to overpower his panic. Not when the buzzing of the lake wavered and waned, with a person still lying on top of it.

Manners and shyness be damned, Yuuri stumbled to his feet and grasped a handful of Viktor's coat. With a mighty pull, Viktor slid forward, his feet failing to find good purchase on the frozen ground to stand. It was enough however, to get most of him on steady ground, just as an deafening crack froze them both in place.

The original break came at the very center of the lake and traveled fast, too fast for either of them to have been able to do anything about it, had Vicchan not warned them, towards them. A threatening, chaotic line headed straight to where the two had previously stood.

The pup whined pitifully at the sight and Yuuri bent down to pick him up, hushing him with sweet words and pets, even if he too felt his breath quicken the longer he stared at the wreck in front of him.

What truly hurt him however, twisted his stomach with a frustration founded in his own useless, was the look of utter remorse Viktor gave him. He turned to him his content expression shadowed, his playful pout replaced by a trembling scowl.

"I-I apologize," he muttered, forlorn. "You heard from Yuri yesterday. I'm… I'm more than a little unlucky, it seems."

And maybe it was because this was a problem that Yuuri should have solved already, or at the very least had a clue on how to do so, or because professional relationship or not, Viktor's smile was something to be protected- whichever the case he refused to let the man take the blame for this, regardless of the truth. "Oh, come on," he remarked. "I was the one who jinxed it, wasn't I?"

A bright grin was granted for his attempt, though a hint of pain remained in those eyes. In spite of what Yuuri said, bad things must have happened often enough for Viktor to be unable to do much more than appreciate the gesture.

"I guess we can be unlucky together then." Perhaps play along with it too.

And despite the deep red tint adorning his face, Yuuri couldn't help but smile.

After the initial shock of seeing Yuuri's self-scribbled notes, Phichit demanded he explained everything he could about magic. Which although a reasonable request under the circumstances, was harder than either of them could have imagined. Yuuri had been scared at first, years of being told by normal people just how foreign he was even in his own hometown stitching a fear of being thrown away on his heart.

It took one look at Phichit, laughing openly as he tried to catch a pen currently running away from him for hope to bloom that maybe, just maybe some people could be better than that. The satisfied grin his roommate got when he used Yuuri's notebook as bait to catch the pen henceforth dubbed as Scribs by its captor, allowed him to grant just enough trust to agree to the request. After all, his secret was out, so there wasn't much more damage he could do. (And at the very least perhaps he could get Phichit to like him, before Scribs could have a chance to doodle whiskers on his cheeks to claim vengeance.)

The second he opened his mouth however, he was completely and utterly stumped.

"It's… It's like… Uh…" Phichit's eager smile did not waver when he stammered. Yuuri scratched the back of his neck and fiddled with his shirt, all the while rolling over the words on his tongue that made no sense to himself, much to less to a person who didn't share the experience. "I'm not sure what to tell you. It's not like I've ever been without it to know what the difference is."

His roommate remained undeterred. "That's fair. Maybe one day we'll figure it out!"

To thank him for his unwavering optimism and a faith in him he never would have dared to hope for, Yuuri smirked at the cartoon hamster on his new friend's notebook and watched with delight as Phichit cooed and clapped when the little cute cartoon ran around the pages.

He pondered this, as he and Viktor waited for their food at his favorite cafe. That counted for sightseeing, right? Anyway, if Yuuri couldn't possibly explain magic to his friend, then it was somewhat unreasonable to expect Viktor to be able to properly describe a magic induced feeling. If it was a magic induced feeling in the first place.

Half a day with him later and the only thing he had learned was that the seemingly unluckiest person in the world had pretty eyes.

Useful.

"You've been quiet for bit," said person noted after a while. "What are you thinking about?"

He looked up to find a gaze boring into him, confirming his earlier conclusion. Again- useful.

"Would you…" Yuuri cleared his throat, gaining time to gather his thoughts. "You never told me what was so special about the lake. Apart from the fact that it survived months of being frozen until we got to it."

He scoffed, not unkindly, if the twitch on the corner of his lips was any indication. "I suppose what I did sounded more like 'look, cold!' than a normal explanation, huh?"

"Well you weren't wrong…" Yuuri shrugged and couldn't stop his own smile when Viktor finally laughed.

He ran a hand through silver hair, before it ended up back in front of his face, pausing with one finger perched on his lips. "It's harder to explain in words-"

"Gestures work," he offered, cringing on the inside. Thankfully more laughter followed- he must have thought it was a joke and not Yuuri's desperate attempt to find any sort of useful clue.

Maybe Viktor took him seriously, or maybe there was genuinely no other way to describe a feeling like that, but next time he spoke, his hands waved around wildly, emphasis fully received. "It's just-! Different, you know? I've never felt anything like this from the rest of the town, almost like-" Palms open upwards moved once, twice, as his words got stuck, not quite fitting enough to be used. "An aura, a-"

"Buzzing?" Yuuri finished. Somehow during the conversation he had leaned forward in his seat and the other had mimicked him, until they were both close, too close to each other to-

"Yes…" He whispered, his breath ghosting over Yuuri's face. "A buzzing." And then came the blurted question, killing the moment with deadly precision.

"Viktor, are you magic?"

"What?"

"WHAT?"

Yuuri hit the back of the seat with a loud thump, earning a momentary wince from Viktor before the previous surprise returned. What was he thinking what was he thinking what was he thinking oh my G-

"Yuuri?" the poor, unsuspecting human asked, tilting his head. Yuuri could do nothing but stare, feel the heat rise all the way to his ears. He watched, as Viktor's expression melted into something… something… flirty? "What was it that you said?" He placed an elbow on the table to rest his face against his hand. A smirk brought challenge into his features.

And then Yuuri realized exactly how his words sounded to someone who was unfamiliar with magic.

If Viktor's hand motions were exaggerated before, they had nothing on Yuuri's frantic, flailing arms that accompanied his desperate attempt to explain himself.

"No-no-no! No, I- I meant-" Yeah, there was no good explanation for this. With a deep sigh, he adjusted the glasses on his face. It gave his hands something to do and his mind a moment to settle down from its panic. Vicchan barked at his feet, where he was kept by a leash close to them at the table, once again saving his owner's hide. "Right! Tell me- about Makkachin! When did you get her?"

The question surprised him for half a second before the joy that came with talking about his dog took over and Viktor dove for his phone with a newfound excitement, turning the conversation into a proper presentation with photos to match.

"I found her!" he exclaimed, scrolling to the far end of the folder properly named Makka to click on the very first photo taken. "She was outside my house. Like- like she was just waiting there for me!"

A small Makkachin greeted Yuuri from the photo and he couldn't resist cooing at the sheer cuteness of the little puppy in the snow, all fluffy fur and big eyes and a pink tongue sticking out. She looked clean for a supposed stray- Viktor had no idea how right he was. Of course, his Guardian had been waiting for him and him alone.

Viktor showed him another couple of similar photos, the cute Guardian on her first days with her favorite human. One even had Viktor in it, young, with hair long enough to reach his waist. He looked almost like a different person, with that silver waterfall cascading down his shoulders. Yuuri saved the question behind that for later.

"It was nice of you to keep her." As if you had any choice in the matter.

Viktor hummed. The scrolling between pictures continued, his smile changing forms, from happy to nostalgic to a strained expression fallen deep in thought, which made Yuuri wonder but not brave enough to ask. "My father didn't want me to. He made such a big deal out of it."

He frowned at the thought of Makkachin being rejected this way. "Did you mom let you keep her then?"

It was clear how wrong his words had been, once the fingers on the phone stilled and the device was gently set down on the table, forgotten.

"She had died recently back then," Viktor admitted, looking down as he coughed. When he looked up at Yuuri again, that strained expression from before was back, obvious enough to make him wish he had swallowed his words instead. "But-it was the excuse I used against him, so in a way, I guess she did!" The quiet laugh he gave was hollow.

"Viktor…"

"Makka was… truly a blessing at the time. And she has been ever since. Without fail."

Yuuri withdrew his gaze from him, only so he could share a look with his own Guardian, who looked up immediately at the attention. A pointed tilt of his head towards their new friend later and Vicchan was quick to comply at the silent suggestion. The puppy jumped up, close to Viktor's legs, trying but not quite able to reach his lap without aid he was quickly given by a delighted, laughing human.

"What about this little one then? When did you meet him?"

Relief washed over him at the gentle happiness the two of them showed together. And more than a little satisfaction at having managed to bring him back from those dark thoughts.

"Much like Makkachin, he was a gift from my mother." To protect you, my boy, and so you can see that this world of ours has so much good to give, no matter what they tell you. His lips trembled at the memory.

He didn't understand at first, what the wide eyed stare was from, until Viktor muttered, his face open and vulnerable. "You think Makka was a gift from my mother?"

"I'm certain of it."

And for once-

For the first time-

That was a clue.