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“Yuuri.”
Yuuri turns his gaze from the blinking clock (12:00 AM, it says) to Viktor, who offers him a soft, affectionate smile the moment their eyes meet. “Yes?” he asks in return, unable to help himself from smiling back when Viktor reaches out to cup his cheek. “You should be asleep,” he adds next, tone mock-reproving.
“So should you,” Viktor teases, smile unwavering as he traces circles on his cheek with his thumb. “But I’m glad you aren’t.”
“Glad you’re not alone?” Yuuri asks.
“Glad that you’re here,” Viktor corrects him, smile widening when his cheeks flush red at the smooth response. Before he can even think up a reply, which he clearly can’t going by his trembling lips and quiet mouth, Viktor goes on to say, “Thank you, Yuuri.”
“I should be the one thanking you,” Yuuri finally manages to say, embarrassed that Viktor could be so sweet at so early in the morning.
“I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to say,” Viktor insists. “I’m glad that you’re…what do they say, in those shows we watch?”
Yuuri blinks, confused. “What shows?”
“Those animated ones…ah.” Viktor’s smile, having faded for a bit as he pursed his lips in thought, came back into brightness like the sun after a rain shower. Yuuri found himself wondering, if only for a moment, just how it is he’s managed to not be blinded by the sheer luminosity of him. That he had this kind of light to himself at all, even in the darkness of midnight…
“I’m glad that I met you,” Viktor says, and Yuuri feels his lungs pause in their breathing. “I’m thankful that you were born, and that our paths met like this. I’m glad that I made the decision to come for you.”
“Viktor,” Yuuri begins, voice shaky. He reaches up to clutch at the hand cupping his cheek, squeezing it hard, but finding himself unable to utter more words to stop Viktor from his- his-
this confession, that Yuuri had never expected he would hear. He had thought that these smiles, these touches, and sweet kisses were enough. He had thought that it- whatever they had, whatever it was- did not need to be said. And yet, Viktor goes on, smile unwavering as he wipes away the tears brimming in brown eyes. “Thank you for loving me,” he says, “and for staying with me. For knowing who I am, for wanting me as I am, and…”
Yuuri chokes back a weak sob, smile shaky but true as Viktor leans in close to press a kiss to his forehead. “For being mine,” he says finally, pulling back to look into Yuuri’s eyes, and smiling when he finds a smile waiting to meet his own.
“Happy birthday, Yuuri,” Viktor says, blue eyes warm as they take him in. “Thank you for being born, and for finding me.”
“Thank y-you,” Yuuri manages to breathe out, chest heaving as he lets Viktor wipe away the tears trickling down his face. He’s a mess, he knows, when Viktor pulls him into his arms, but Viktor hugs him tightly anyway, his lips hot like a brand on the top of his head as Yuuri wraps his own arms around him.
“’ank you,” he says again, the words coming out even more unclear through his crying, but Viktor hums his understanding anyway. With hands and arms warm on his back, around his body, around his heart, Viktor holds him close, and Yuuri knows-
He is loved.
There is no other prize, no other reward, that could be better than this.