Yuuri had not brought it up in any of their training sessions, and neither had Victor despite the fact they both knew. After all, his soul bond had clicked into place the first time he saw the other man’s lithe body skate across the ice on screen. He had been told that it was meant to be a monumental feeling, but instead all Yuuri had felt was clarity. Victor would be a part of his life in one way or another.
It was embarrassing, then, to imagine Victor feeling that same certainty as he watched some stranger performing his own routine back to him online. It had been enough to bring him to Japan though, and yet not enough to broach the subject. Yuuri had felt so certain he would have been more direct about it after baring himself the first time they met and his overt flirtations. There were so many moments Yuuri simply wanted to toss his hands in the air and demand from Victor an explanation of what he wanted from this, whether it was just meant to be a deep friendship or something more.
The final straw was sitting there beside him on the beach, and for a moment it seemed like he could go on without having to actually talk about it until very simply and easily, Victor asked, “Will you tell me, what is it you want me to be to you?”
Yuuri stayed curled in on himself, furrowing and unfurrowing his brow as he debated running just there and then. No, that wouldn’t actually solve anything and Yuuri genuinely enjoyed having Victor around, it made the days brighter somehow. It would be a shame to throw that all away because he couldn’t have an adult conversation about what their bond meant.
“Well, you are my soulmate,” he decided on a purely noncommittal answer.
“So I am,” Victor seemed to chosen the same, though Yuuri could swear there was a hit of wistfulness in his tone.
Nothing but the sounds of the ocean could be heard for a few moments before Yuuri finally spoke again, “What was it you wanted from a soulmate growing up? I mean not me necessarily, you obviously didn’t know it was me but when you thought of your soulmate, what did you want?”
He looked over to see Victor smiling, before the other skater turned to look at him with a wink, teasingly singing out, “I asked you first Yuuri!”
A bit flustered, Yuuri opened his mouth to try and come up with an answer on the spot, but thankfully Victor spoke first, “I suppose I thought my soulmate would be someone who could understand me, someone I wanted to spend a lot of time with and understand them too. I thought it would be very easy to just be with them. I’m glad I was right.”
Looking at him, Yuuri could see a flush across his cheeks—was Victor just as unsure about this conversation? Perhaps he did just need to bite the bullet and actually ask the question. “When you say ‘be with me’, do you mean as more than friends?” He was already embarrassed by the time the question came out, nearly leaping out of his sitting position as he waved his hands around, “Either is okay, I just didn’t want to make any assumptions or—”
“Oh. I thought my flirting was obvious,” Victor looked up at him with a genuine expression of confusion. The pair blinked at each other a few times as Yuuri could feel his face heating up even more.
“You…and….oh,” the younger skater felt incredibly stupid all of a sudden as he the pieces finally clicked into place. Victor hadn’t been overtly flirtatious just because it was his personality towards everyone, but because it had been Yuuri in particular.
A hand came to gently touch Yuuri’s fingertips, “I did not make you uncomfortable did I?”
“No, not at all,” Yuuri curled his fingers around Victor’s as he sat down again, and if he sat down slightly closer to Victor this time, so be it.
Victor properly interlaced their fingers now, giving his hand a squeeze, “So I can keep doing it?”
The bond felt even stronger from the contact, making Yuuri’s heart warm and mind at ease.“Yes, I’d like that. And who knows, you just might get me to flirt back with you too,” he teased back.
“You already have?” Victor asked genuinely. Yuuri had never considered himself a flirtatious person before, but perhaps embodying Eros had done something to him, that had to be what Victor was referencing.
So Yuuri just let his head fall to Victor’s shoulder with a laugh, “Right.”
And perhaps it was as easy as that go from soulmates who had never spoken honestly about that fact to on their way to the beautiful ‘something more’.