Yuri only looks more uncertain, and Victor can't tell in the dim room if he's blushing or not, but the smart money, he thinks is probably on the former. It's strange to see Yuri go back to being so bewildered, like he's forgotten not only how to speak, but how to even begin to form the thoughts that might become the foundation of sentences. It's almost like his first week in Hasetsu, when Yuri barely spoke and never seemed to be quite on top of what was happening, or those first weeks after Onsen on Ice, when Yuri avoided him because he didn't want Victor to see his short-comings.
As if any flaw he might have had could have changed anything at all by that point. It would have been like a single stone rolling over in the bed of a flooding river.
But now Yuri's looking down, like he's only just remembered that the rest of his body even exists, with a surprised mumble about still wearing his jacket, and Victor shouldn't laugh. Should probably not preen under the satisfaction of having made Yuri entirely forget that he was still wearing his jacket inside, in their perfectly warm room, or let the surprise in Yuri's voice go to his head like a smooth swallow of vodka.
(It does anyway.)
"You should probably take that off."
Spoken before he thinks, because thinking seems to be a few steps behind everything else tonight, and it's his turn to color, faintly, with just a slight sting at the top of his cheeks, but he'd meant it innocently and he clings to what little sense of propriety he has left as a drowning man to a life preserver, lifting his hand finally from Yuri's to press it briefly against his warm cheek, before stepping back. Reaching, unconsciously, for the knot of his tie where it's pressed like a thumb into his windpipe, and loosening it in an attempt to catch his breath. It feels like this collar is strangling him, and he has to work the top button loose, while his mind races. It isn't just warm, it's hot in here, and he's wearing too many layers, but he's also a little leery of what Yuri will think if he starts shedding any of them.
But he needs to cool off. He thinks, fondly and with regret, of the bathroom and its kind faucet and cold water, under which he would greatly love to stick his head. Hadn't he said something about ice, earlier? He can't remember.
It's difficult to think much past the last minutes, let alone focus on anything that isn't how much he wants to get his arms back around Yuri again.
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Date: 2017-04-14 02:08 pm (UTC)As if any flaw he might have had could have changed anything at all by that point. It would have been like a single stone rolling over in the bed of a flooding river.
But now Yuri's looking down, like he's only just remembered that the rest of his body even exists, with a surprised mumble about still wearing his jacket, and Victor shouldn't laugh. Should probably not preen under the satisfaction of having made Yuri entirely forget that he was still wearing his jacket inside, in their perfectly warm room, or let the surprise in Yuri's voice go to his head like a smooth swallow of vodka.
(It does anyway.)
"You should probably take that off."
Spoken before he thinks, because thinking seems to be a few steps behind everything else tonight, and it's his turn to color, faintly, with just a slight sting at the top of his cheeks, but he'd meant it innocently and he clings to what little sense of propriety he has left as a drowning man to a life preserver, lifting his hand finally from Yuri's to press it briefly against his warm cheek, before stepping back. Reaching, unconsciously, for the knot of his tie where it's pressed like a thumb into his windpipe, and loosening it in an attempt to catch his breath. It feels like this collar is strangling him, and he has to work the top button loose, while his mind races. It isn't just warm, it's hot in here, and he's wearing too many layers, but he's also a little leery of what Yuri will think if he starts shedding any of them.
But he needs to cool off. He thinks, fondly and with regret, of the bathroom and its kind faucet and cold water, under which he would greatly love to stick his head. Hadn't he said something about ice, earlier? He can't remember.
It's difficult to think much past the last minutes, let alone focus on anything that isn't how much he wants to get his arms back around Yuri again.