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crippledboyfriend · 7 years

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Trouble in St. Petersburg Part 4

Part 1 (on A03)

Part 2 (on tumblr)

Part 3 (on tumblr)

“Hello?” Hiroko answered. She hadn’t been awake long.

“Hi, Mom,” Yuuri frowned. “It’s good to hear your voice. I need some advice.”

“What’s wrong, Yuuri?”

“It’s Yurio,” said Yuuri. “He’s testing me. He doesn’t appreciate us at all. He just acted like such a brat. He just wanted to see how much trouble he could get in. I thought Viktor was being terrifying, and it literally had to take that to make him stop. We tried so hard to be rational and understanding,”

Yuuri then admitted,

“And Viktor doesn’t feel well today.”

“Yuuri, I’m sorry that Viktor’s been ill lately. That’s really difficult,” Hiroko apologised. “If you lived close, you know I’d help.”

“It’s just a tiny cold and his back injury acting up,” Yuuri explained. “But he was so miserable when we first woke up, and I managed to not even notice he was sick at first. It’s hard to take care of my boys.”

“Does Yurio have a cold, too?”

“Oh, no, he’s perfectly healthy,” said Yuuri. “Thank god. But there’s no exuse for his behaviour.”

“How are you feeling?” asked Hiroko.

“I’m fine, Mom,”

“Are you all nervous?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Did you take your fiancé’s vitals?”

“He’s not running a temperature, we checked,” Yuuri was a bit embarrassed to talk about Viktor’s health around his mother, but he really needed her advice.

“Ah, I love calling him your fiancé,” Hiroko gushed. “Yuuri, I’m so happy for you. You medicated him to shorten how long he has the sniffles, right?”

“Yeah, I loaded him up on meds,” Yuuri promised. “God knows he can’t take care of himself.”

“What’s the weather been like?” asked Hiroko. “Do you think that could be affecting anything?”

“It’s been freezing, so I don’t know, maybe. It still doesn’t kill everything he’s allergic to, though.” said Yuuri. “Sometimes I think we shouldn’t be living here.”

“Oh, Yuuri,” Hiroko sighed. “If you really wanted to come home, you know you’re always welcome.”

“Thanks, Mom, but Yurio’s best living in Russia where he knows the language, and we’ve been watching him a lot lately. We’re not just going to abandon him or make him move so far away,” explained Yuuri. “His grandfather’s only a few hours down from here, and sometimes we fly up there on the weekends with Yurio to visit him in the hospital. If anything happened to Nikolai, we wouldn’t want it to be much farther away. This is already far enough.”

“I know,” said Hiroko. “It’s not easy. But the offer still stands.”

“Thanks. Fortunately, I’m lucky enough that Viktor has the mindset that the world is small and you can go places,” said Yuuri. “And I do think it might be best for Viktor if we came back to Japan, or I don’t know, maybe we could live in America and both be able to speak the language. Or the UK 5 hours over. His immune system has been so overactive since we moved here. It’s just too cold. I feel like I’m always trying to bring his temperature up or down. And I think the cold makes him ache more, but he won’t admit to it.”

“And there’s also reason not to have him anywhere too hot,”

“Yeah, whenever we spent too much time outside in Japan’s summers he ended up getting overheated, feeling ill and throwing up.” Yuri sighed. “But I just hate Russia. I hate pretending we’re something we’re not. I know when his romantic situations have been brought up he’s mentioned his ‘wife’ like I’m a woman. At the store the other day I was trying to figure out what medicine he told me to buy and caught myself explaining that my ‘wife’ was the Russian one when I couldn’t read the bottles.”

“You were always so scared to be open about that to begin with,” said Hiroko. “It’s horrible that now you’re living with real reasons to hide it.”

“I had plenty of reasons in Japan, too,” said Yuuri. “But I love him, and I wish we lived somewhere where I felt comfortable going to the doctor —“ Yuuri’s breathe hitched.

“…with him,” Yuuri started to whine, “I probably shouldn’t go…” Yuuri calmed himself and continued.

“Going and doing intimate things out is too risky. But, I want to know what’s going on with him and be able to hold his hand when they hurt him,” Yuuri explained. “He shouldn’t have me waiting somewhere down the street to coddle him after suffering alone. But, I don’t know how we could possible come up with a better situation here.”

“Yuuri, he has had blood work done recently, correct?”

“Yes…” Yuuri got even more upset. “Yes, mom…he had a doctor’s appointment last week.”

“Oh, Yuuri, don’t cry. You don’t know anything yet, do you?”

“No, Mom, but I know his back looks like it healed and he still can’t move comfortably,” Yuuri sniffled. “When we went in for a blood test they said that he looked healed, even. And it was so hard to convince him to go in. He doesn’t want to feel old. It has to be something bad to keep him from skating, though.” Yuuri took a deep breath.

“Well, that is worrisome. He may be ill.”

“Viktor’s had broken bones before,” Yuuri started to stumble through his explantion. “He didn’t actually skate with broken bones, but he’s skated in pain and with a high fever during a competition once, and while you could tell he was sick and hurting himself, he still did fantastic.”

“He has always seemed to really push himself,”

“And if we could get him medication, what if it takes a while to find what works? There might be all kinds of bad side effects. What if what we try makes him feel crazy or sicker?”

“That happens, Yuuri,” his mother explained. “But you still have to try.”

“Viktor Nikiforov is supposed to be a 5 time gold medalist and I have to pick things up from the floor for him, and he’s fatigued so often. Didn’t he seem to you like he often wasn’t feeling well in Hasetsu?” Yuuri asked.

“Sometimes,” she admitted.

“He doesn’t like to bring up sad stuff like that. We’re just really close now, and if he ever needs pity, he comes to me for it,” Yuuri let out a sad smile. “We tell each other everything.”

“This is all awful, but maybe there are some easier things you could also try to change about your lifestyle at home,” Hiroko suggested. “Viktor drinks so much; that can’t help. He might be more alert in the mornings and have less smaller symptoms if he cuts back.”

“He chooses to spend his money on alcohol, and it’s not a big deal,” Yuuri defended his fiancé. “He needs to take his mind off of…everything.”

“It was just a suggestion,”

“I know, I know,” Yuri felt embarrassed. “But he’s tried a lot of things. Believe me. He’s done his best to get better on his own and followed doctor’s orders after hurting his back. We’ve done everything we can, and if you do have new ideas, that’s wonderful, it’s just that…he should be able to drink….”

“And that’s fine,” Hiroko promised. “I just want to help.”

“Thank you, we need it; he seems so sick,” Yuuri complained. “Sometimes I’ll just come in the room and realise Viktor’s feeling off. And it’s like, oh, whatever’s wrong is clearly a major problem to him right now and neither of us know what to do about it at this second, and he’s just accepting it so he’s not even acknowledging it to me. It happens so often. Sometimes I kind of wish I’d get a bit more complaining because it’s sad to just count that as normal. If he’s in pain I’d like to be in a situation where he could just complain, ‘Yuuri, I feel horrible.’ And then I could help him.”

“Until you hear back from the doctor about where to move forward, I think you just have to treat his symptoms while you try to figure out the cause to treat.”

“Exactly,” said Yuuri. “And I’m always trying to find new details. I’ve been writing down what we eat and Viktor’s symptoms in hopes of finding a correlation.”

Yuuri’s mind drifted off to how Viktor will tell him he “just feels sick” and Yuuri would ask him to try and describe the kind of sick he’s feeling. His fiancé would often give a little smirk and make him blush as Yuuri explains,

“I just want to know what’s going on in your body to try and diagnose you.”

Yuuri could hear Viktor’s voice in his head from the last time he asked the evening before.

“Well, I just had a big twinge of pain in my back and got a bit dizzy,” Viktor explained, lain on the couch. “I lied down and my ears started ringing, but now the feeling of heat and exhaustion aren’t letting up…I feel very fatigued.”

Hiroko started to speak again.

“How long has it been since Viktor thinks he got sick?”

“A bit after his back surgery before his last season,” Yuuri started to tear up again, and changed the subject. His mom didn’t know much of what to say to help him, and he knew it.

“Yurio’s in trouble because he admitted to us that he took a picture drinking underage in America with his friend on a motocycle and put it on Instagram,” Yurio explained. “We tried to be nice about it and explain not to show proof of things like that, and Viktor offered that he can always give rides and that we prefer that. But he just completely went off on us and wanted to fight. Viktor’s inside lecturing him right now.”

“Well, I don’t really understand computers enough to get exactly what he started with doing wrong, but it’s dangerous to do things like that in other countries, and you have to put your foot down if he talks back to you. He is very spoiled, and Viktor encourages it.”

“I just don’t know why he acts like that,” said Yuuri. “Why does he say the things he does? Why be so disrespectful?”

“He doesn’t understand the consequences yet,” Hiroko explained. “He thinks he can get away with it. He’s not meaning to hurt anyone.”

“Why does he have so many tantrums, though?” asked Yuuri. “He won’t stop when he knows he’s in trouble.”

“You have to punish him consistantly and keep up with it,” said Hiroko. “You can’t be lenient until he earns the benefit of the doubt back from you. He’s not afraid of you as is.”

“But, that’s so hard,” complained Yuuri. “There always seem to be situations where we think we should change our minds. He can’t be grounded when we travel, or if Otabek is in town, and I don’t like taking his phone away when he’s anxious. Viktor’s always bad about letting him go out, and I’m always bad about giving him his things back when I’m worried about him.”

“Well, sometimes it would make sense to lighten up,” said Hiroko. “But he still needs you to compensate and ground him at a later time if his friend is there from Kazhakstan.”

“Usually it feels like the time has passed and he’s forgiven, though…” explained Yuuri. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Forgive him. Always forgive him, and as early as you like,” Yuuri’s mother instructed. “But you have to make him learn not to act like that.”

“Alright,” Yuuri heard a small thump in the background on the line.

“I’m very proud that you’re working so hard to take care of Yurio,” Hiroko smiled.

“He needs someone to raise him,” Yuuri blushed. “His grandpa can’t really do that full-time anymore.”

“It sounds like Viktor’s working to be more attentive to him, too.” Hiroko commented.

“Yeah, he is,” Yuuri promised. “He loves kids, it’s just taking time for us to know what to do and when it’s fine to just leave him to his own devices. He is a teenager, after all.”

“I can’t wait to see how much better you two are at this next time you visit,” Hiroko laughed. “Your father and I did nearly everything for Yurio when Viktor first became your coach. It was more like we gained 2 more children with them staying here.”

“Mom,” Yuuri laughed uncomfortably. “I guess you’re right, though…”

Hiroko giggled.

“Viktor didn’t have Yurio over much back then,” said Yuuri. “He didn’t even think to do more than scold him, give unsolicited advice and make sure he goes to sleep and wakes up on time. Thanks for your help.”

“You’re welcome, Yuuri.”

“Now Viktor clearly tries to mimic Lilia for parenting and choreography, and Yakov for coaching.”

“I still haven’t gotten to meet Lilia yet,” said Hiroko. “I don’t know much about her outside of seeing her on TV.”

“Well, she only speaks Russian, and she can be pretty intimidating.”

“Is that so?”

“She seems really strict, but Viktor said she’s really just loud and isn’t actually that scary. Apparently she doesn’t mean much by anything,” said Yuuri. “I wonder if maybe Viktor and I are just way too supportive of Yurio. I mean, he’s supposed to question authority at his age.”

“He is,”

“It could be that he tries to be rebellious, but Viktor supports him anyway, so once he finally pisses Viktor off, things have really gotten out of control,” explained Yuuri. “And I’m glad that he’s made a friend; Viktor says that he’s never had friends before because he’s been sheltered, is shy and so focused on skating, but sometimes he’ll diliberately disobey us when out with Otabek.”

“Do you know if something stressing Yurio could be causing behavioural problems?”

“Definetely,” Yuuri immedietally answered. “He’s one anxious kid. There’s a lot of pressure on him to be the best. And I understand. But Viktor and I think he might have some serious issues…Viktor had some major problems when he was Yurio’s age, and we all-including Yakov and Lilia-think the exact same thing is starting to happen to Yurio.”

“What helped Viktor get passed it?”

“He’s not sure. He said he just kind of grew out of it for the most part,” Yuuri sighed. “Luckily.”

“What exactly did Viktor go through?” asked Hiroko. “Do you know? Would it be alright to tell me?”

“It’s hard to explain. With Yurio, I can tell he just sort of…checks out. Like he’s not even there anymore. Like he’s just watching himself do what he thinks he’s supposed to do.”

“While I still stand by what I said about needing to be strict, you do need to rememeber to be patient and try to help Yurio with his anxieties.”

“Okay. Viktor…He acts like he doesn’t really know what was wrong with him as a teenager. He never got help or anything, and it’s hard for them to put it into words. He’s read a lot about personality disorders,” Yuuri tried to explain. “They don’t trust getting professional help, and I understand.” Yuuri couldn’t help but start to dwell on why he doesn’t get help anymore. After an awful nonvoluntary past hospitalisation that forced him to drop out of a season and mostly quit smoking, he never thought that he could trust anybody like that again. It made it more difficult for him to talk to his family, and he could barely tell Viktor how he feels.

“I’ve read a lot about behavioural problems due to mental illness —“

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri interrupted his mom out of embarrassment. “I caused you a lot of trouble when I was in high school with my attitude problem.”

“Yuuri, it wasn’t your fault, you were going through a lot.”

“Thanks, Mom. You probably need to get to work, right?” Yuuri asked. “I can let you go now. I’ll talk to you again soon.”

“Alright. Goodbye, Yuuri.”

Yuuri hung up and reached into his inner coat pocket for his lighter and pack of cigarettes.

Yuuri lit a cigarette and started smoking. After a few puffs, the door started to open. Yuuri quickly hid his cigarette down between his body and the banister, ready to put it out if it was Yurio at the door.

Viktor closed the door behind him and Yuuri put his cigarette back to his lips. Makkachin begged and barked, looking at them out the window. From inside, they could hear Yurio yell,

“Shut up!”

Viktor stood next to Yuuri, saying nothing while the dog accepted that they weren’t letting her out. Viktor put his hands on the banister and looked out into the distance with his fiancé, who was clearly much more comfortable with not making eye contact and showing him how upset his expression was at the moment.

“I hate having to do that,” Viktor said once they were in silence.

Yuuri didn’t say anything.

“Shotgun it to me,” Viktor requested.

“No, Viktor,” said Yuuri. “You don’t tolerate cigarretes well. They make you ill.”

“But it’ll be hot,”

“No, you already don’t feel well.” Yuuri refused.

“Awwww,” Viktor complained.

Yuuri rubbed his fiancé’s back. He felt Viktor tense up as his breath hitched and he sneezed, his nose irritated by the smoke.

“I’m sorry, I don’t wanna make you-well, I’m not trying to make you have an allergy attack,” Yuuri tried to explain. “Not while we deal with this, and not while you don’t feel well. I just wanted to calm down a little.”

Viktor was silent as Yuuri breathed out more smoke.

“Someone’s starting puberty,” Viktor said as Yuuri inhaled again.

“Yeah,” Yuuri said as he let the smoke out.

“Such a bad kitty today,”

There was another pause while Yuuri smoked, and then Viktor worriedly asked,

“Are you mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?” asked Yuuri.

“Yakov and Lilia always get mad and say it’s my fault when he acts like that,” Viktor frowned. “Apparently I have to punish him. With love. It’s for his own good, apparently. I’m not so sure. It doesn’t seem to hurt anything for me to give in to him. Yurochka’s hormonal!”

“Sometimes I think he has trouble knowing when you’re serious that he needs to shut up,”

“Lilia’s always telling me, ‘I ought to smack you both!’,” said Viktor. “But at least she knows the Katsuki’s taught him a few good habits when he stayed in Hasetsu with you. He does a more thorough job cleaning up after himself when he’s told. Not perfect, but better. And he raises his voice a little less often.”

“Really?” asked Yuuri. “I thought they must hate me like Yurio does.”

“Oh, Yuuri,” Viktor frowned. “First off, Yurio does not hate you.”

“Then why does he treat me like that?”

“He just doesn’t know how to express his feelings. He thinks he needs to be tough,” explained Viktor. “But they all appreciate you being here for us.”

“I guess my family put me on Yakov and Lilia’s good side,”

“They love you!” Viktor insisted. “You take care of us. Although…they didn’t like you at first, and Yurio’s shit talking sure didn’t help.”

“Yeah…”

“But now Yakov’s like, ‘Thank god that Japanese boy is there to wipe Viktor’s nose’.”

“Oh my god,” Yuuri nervously chuckled. “You’re right. Ugh, that sounds so bad.”

“You’re right, that does sound bad,” Viktor laughed. “But he’s actually only mocking me,”

“And I know Yurio’s not a bad kid or anything,” said Yuuri. “I just didn’t think he’d accepted me yet.”

“He’s a good boy,” said Viktor. “He really worried about my health. He’s been showing more and more compassion lately.”

Yuuri nodded as he took another drag.

“Also,” Viktor gave a weak smile. “The sweet kitten already knew that I was ‘old and stiff’ now, but it was in Hasetsu when we bonded with him first showing worry in more than just making a quick expression and looking away.”

Viktor frowned.

“I must’ve kept him up tossing and turning. My back was really bothering me and I kept getting up through the night to try more alcohol to distract me enough to fall asleep. Usually that’s no problem for me!” Viktor turned serious again. “But, I was worried that you didn’t like me anymore, so that was a lot of why I was still up.”

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri apologised. “I didn’t remember. I shouldn’t have drank so much. I know I have a problem.”

“I like drunk Yuuri,” Viktor smiled. “You were just intimidated by me. Now, that night, Yurio slipped out of his ‘room’ and got into bed with me. He sleepily asked if my back hurting was keeping me up and stroked it before falling asleep in my bed next to me. So cute.”

“Adorable,” Yuuri nearly wanted to cry. He felt the urge to go in and make up with Yurio right that instant.

“And please don’t worry about Yakov and Lilia. They adore your parents. Those 2 honestly didn’t think I could take care of myself when alone in a new country, so they credit Yurio and I still being alive to them and you!” Viktor made a dramatic gesture with his hands. “Seriously. I’d had a lovely apartment for years! They underestimate me. I’m not a child anymore. But they keep telling me to be a better parent and get even more annoyed when I explained that ‘I think Yurochka sees me more like an elder brother’,” Viktor smiled. He kept giving light touches to his right nostril with a tissue every now and again, being gentle with his sore nose. It was constantly (but not visibly) leaking.

“Sometimes they think his fits are funny, too,” said Viktor. “They’ll talk about how Yurochka’s partially modeled himself after me and Yakov will say, ’That’s some lip. I wonder where he gets that from’.” Viktor scoffed, and Yuuri let out a small smile. Viktor continued.

“Lilia says, ‘It’s not good for your Yuri’s to let him act like that. Just throw a shoe at him or use your hairbrush if you’re too exhausted’!”

“Are you going to tell on Yuri?”

“God, no,” said Viktor. “But maybe I will suggest to Yakov that it’s getting closer to when he needs to give him a talk about puberty, да?”

Yuuri decided to just say,

“うん,” because he didn’t want to have to give Yurio “the talk” either. They were quiet for a bit, and then Yuuri promised,

“I’m not chain smoking. I talked to my mom for a while first.”

“Did she have any new punishment ideas?”

“She mostly just talked about how to punish him. Being consistant, not giving him a complete free pass when we are lenient for whatever reason, making him still be punished later in another way and whatnot.”

“Hm,” said Viktor. “Well, he has a lot of chores this week until we think he’s had enough, and if he wants his things back before then, he has a lot of homeschool progress to show. So, technically, he’ll have his computer, and we’ll need to look over his shoulder and make sure he’s doing what he’s supposed to.”

“We can go with that this week, but I think that’s the opposite of what she meant. I think we need to have end dates that we stick to on his punishments. And Viktor?” Yuuri looked in his fiancé’s eyes. “I don’t think we should use homework as a punishment.”

“But it’s not really a punishment,” Viktor tried to explain. “He just has to do good on it to get his fancy technology back. How would we get him to do his work otherwise?”

“That’s a problem for another day,” Yuuri breathed out smoke that made Viktor sniffle even more.

“Well, he’s in trouble now. We’re doing good,” Viktor said more to himself than his fiancé. “And I think I upset him trying to talk some sense into him, so I bet he’s in there thinking about what he’s done. Soon he’ll realise how horribly he affects everyone. Even Makkachin whined when seeing us fight.”

“She didn’t need this drama, either,” Yuuri took a drag. “My mom asked if you’d had a blood draw recently.”

Viktor touched Yuuri’s shoulder.

“We already have so many problems,” said Yuuri. “And it’s not just me that’s worried about this. What are we going to do —“

Viktor quickly stroked Yuuri’s cheek and made him turn to him.

“If—“ Yuuri started again, and Viktor thumbed over Yuuri’s bottom lip. Yuuri shuddered.

“ああー”

Viktor passionately kissed his nervous fiancé.

“We’ll deal with it together,” Viktor promised.

Yuuri finished his cigarette with Viktor beside him, trying to breathe through his mouth. Viktor’s nose twitched and he sniffled wetly.

Yuuri put his cigarette out on the banister, and then he reached into his jacket’s outer pocket. He pulled out a packet of tissues and pressed one to Viktor’s nose while feeling his cheek with the back of his other hand.

“Ow, Yuuri, be gentle,” Viktor complained. “My nose hurts. Don’t make me wonder why I convinced you to be comfortable with nose blowing.”

“Blow,” Yuuri instructed, a bit too fed up with the actual child to let Viktor act like one.

“My nose hurts,” Viktor was getting a bit whiny, so Yuuri softly but firmly insisted,

“Blow, I know you get when you sound like that. You get postnasal drip and vomit. It’s much better if you just stop it here.”

Viktor blew his nose into his fiancé’s hand, who shivered and smiled.

“You’re not well,” Yuuri tried to be more comforting and regain his composure from earlier in the day. “Maybe you should go lie down.”

“It’s just a cold,” said Viktor, knowing Yuuri didn’t want him to exaggerate when he was already so upset and stressed out.

“It is just a cold, but you, in general, are not well, and you deserve to take a rest whenever you want to,” Yuuri pouted. “Yurio took the attention from you. Let’s go inside. Being outside with me having a cigarette can’t be good for your allergies.”

The two walked inside, and as they opened the door, Yurio looked back at them over his shoulder while cleaning a stack of dishes.

“How about a drink to take the edge off?” suggested Viktor.

“I can’t daydrink,” Yuuri quietly insisted with a slight laugh. Viktor was a horrible influence on him, but he wasn’t manipulated as easily as he used to be. Phichit almost instantly got Yuuri into drinking in college. It was easy with the added knowledge that his idol, Viktor, posted drunk antics online all the time. It looked so cool and like so much fun.

“Well, I can,” Viktor snuck his hand back to give Yuuri a little grope.

Yuuri squeaked.

“Come. I want you to relax,” Viktor promised. “You play a game in our room, I’ll drink and watch.”

Yuuri covered his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh as Viktor got into the fridge. As Viktor mixed himself a Screw Driver, he whipsered in Yuuri’s ear,

“We’ve got to take our mind off of things and become happy again to be the best parents we can be, да?”

#yoi #yuri on ice #yuuri katsuki #viktor nikiforov #hiroko katsuki #fanfic #//alcohol mention #//smoking mention #//homophobia mention

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