Blue Echo (Yuri On Ice / Victuuri Mermaid AU)

Victor, telling

It was the middle of the night when they left. The nest void of life or noises.

The watchers stood still at the entrance, unmoving forces fulfilling the elder's mandate. Their eyes careful as they saw Takeshi and Yuri approach. Yuri recognize them, they were retired monitors. They knew him and Takeshi well.

A lie got them to pass. It made Yuri feel slightly less insecure about Takeshi's intentions. The chief was risking his position in the nest and the security of his family. Yuri had every reason to trust him, but still a little part of him wondered if his friend was really coming along only to make sure he would return, or would he try to hurt to hurt Victor.

Yuri led the way. Takeshi followed. The conversation between them non-existent.

The silence made Yuri think of things he didn't want to. Of his life after today without Victor. What would it be like? Would he really move on? Will it all become a flicker of memory? Something he remembers once in a while?

Takeshi rose to the surface first. The moon still high in the sky as they reached the island. Yuri hesitated for a minute, listening to the sound of the water crashing into land.

"I'll wait here." Takeshi said. "Go."

Yuri took a deep breath and moved forward, stopping suddenly as his hand was snatched and pulled back.

"Twenty minutes, Yuri," Takeshi warned. The younger natare's eyes widened. Twenty minutes? Only twenty minutes? Why? "Any longer and I will come get you. I will keep our nest's vow if that human sees me."

The threat was clear and it was like Yuri suddenly didn't know this Takeshi. It wasn't the Takeshi that live in the same cluster as him for as long as he could remember. It wasn't the Takeshi that found him crying in one of the cave holes after his family died and hugged him. Nor the Takeshi that promised him he would do everything in his power for him to be a permanent monitor so he wouldn't be forced to be a mater.

No. This Takeshi was a natare Yuri didn't know. A natare that wasn't his friend.

"Ok." Yuri's voice was cold, devoid of anything. He turned around towards the island. "I'll be back in twenty minutes."

----------

Yuri didn't check the seashell. He didn't search frantically.

He knew where Victor was, he could feel it.

The cave was dark. The fire had long since died out.

Victor was sleeping. His chest slowly rising and falling with every breath.

Yuri quietly hopped over the rock barrier and dipped into the cave pool.

He watched — for a minute – and for that minute he considered that perhaps it would be best to disappear without a word. To retain their last moment together as something happy and not broken. He could take the seashell and leave it on the barrier along with the necklace. Victor was smart enough to decipher what that meant. He would know that he would be alone from now on.

Victor took a deep breath and shifted in his sleep.

"Victor," Yuri called. Hand leaving the water and reaching for the human. "Victor wake up."

Blue eyes snapped open. A quick flash of surprise ran across them as they searched in the dark, adjusting and filling with affection as soon as recognition sank in. "Yuri, Yuri," Victor sat up and the natare pushed himself out of the water to sit next to him. "Yuri..." Fingers dipped into the skin of natare's arm, each one igniting the warmth inside him. The warmth now Yuri knew was his body recognizing and bonding with his aman.