Chapter 4
“Alright everyone, if you please follow me so we can continue the exploration” Isla announced to the whole room and one by one they filed their way out of the door and began following their tour guide to the next room.
Yuuri let Isla go on ahead and waited by the door for his friends to exit so he could walk with them.
“Did you guys have fun playing with all the toys” He asked with a smirk while they started to walk together.
“Hell yeah, you guys have such up to date tech. It’s actually insane.” Mila said practically fangirling.
“Well, I’m glad you like it” Yuuri said with a laugh.
Mila and Sara started to walk faster talking amongst themselves leaving them in front of Yuuri and Victor. Leading Victor to grab Yuuri’s hand and swing it in-tune with their steps.
“And what did you think of the tech room honey?” Yuuri asked.
“I thought it was very cool. I can’t believe you get to work in such a cool building.”
“Well actually I only really work on the top two levels. So, I don’t really spend much time down here anymore, but I did do my training down here.”
“Really, well I hope I get to see where my amazing husband works.”
“I did not know your husband works here,” Yuuri said with a giggle. “What will he think of you holding my hand?”
Victor gave him a smile “it can be our little secret.”
“For shame Mr Nikiforov” Yuuri said while shaking his head laughing.
“Its actually Mr Katsuki-Nikiforov” Victor said as matter of fact.
Just as Yuuri was going to say his comeback, the group stopped, and the megaphone could be heard. Maybe it was a good idea that she brought that, Yuuri thinks in his head.
“Alrighty, we have arrived at the training facility, this is were all those who join the supernatural sector go through training. Both newbies and those who are just getting in practise come here, but for the sake of reducing embarrassment we will only be walking past the newbie training stations. Any question?”
A couple of hands go flying up much to Isla’s annoyance, the phrase ‘any questions’ is meant to be rhetorical, to her it was.
“Yes, you in the back, the one with the black hair and the badges. What’s your question?”
“Hi, yes um, will we get to try out any of the equipment?” The man asks.
“You will yes, but none of the training equipment the newbies use, lucky for you there in separate sections. Okay, one more question and then we will get going because were on a schedule.”
Isla points to a blond girl standing in the front.
“My question is, how long do the so-called newbies train for?”
“That is a good question” Isla says. “It really depends on what their ability is and how long it takes for them to understand it, you can’t rush practise.”
Isla sees one last hand up, but it unfortunately belongs to that bitchy boy from earlier, so she chooses to ignore it.
And with that she ushers them through the double doors into the facility.
The facility comprises of many rooms joined by a long dimly lit hallway, with each room having a window that sees into the room. Each room varies in size and seems to have its own individual theme, with some having rubber walls and others having full-on climbing equipment.
There's a collective wow that goes through the group as they make their way past all the rooms down to the end of the hallway were huge double doors lay. The unit glances past all those practicing within, it looks like a training montage from a superhero movie. With each room having a person practicing their ability, like breathing fire.
“Hey Yuuri?” Victor whispers as not to disrupt the magic brought on by the rooms. “Which one did you train in?”
“Oh um, this one” Yuuri points out as they are walking past. The room is tall, it looks like the roof goes on and on forever, also peering in Victor sees that the floor is a good 20ft below where the door enters.
“Awesome” Victor says amazed and in disbelief. “I can’t believe my husband is a superhero.”
Before Isla opens the doors, she gives the group a warning.
“When I open these doors, you are welcome to try out some of the equipment, but I ask that you do not interfere with any people who happen to be training. Understand?”
The group lets out a collective yes, all so eager to see what lies behind the gigantic doors.
“You will have around 30 minutes in here before we get lunch” Isla says beginning to open the doors, till a voice speaks up.
It seems to be the same black-haired guy who asked a question before.
“Isn’t it a little early to be getting lunch?” The man asked. “Its only like 10am”.
“Well,” Isla starts “by the time were finished in here it will be around 10:30, and personally I don’t want to cause a lunch rush, so if that means lunch will be that early then so be it. Nobody is forcing you to eat by the way.”
And with that Isla pushes open the double doors and the unit flocks in like little children being let out to the playground for lunch. Even Yuuri urges Victor to go explore with his team, leaving him and Isla alone watching the mess unfold of what are meant to be adults.
“Well, they seem very excited, it makes me think that they do not have any training equipment at their facility?” Isla asks Yuuri, as they both watch from the doorway.
“They do, or there was at least a whole training centre when I was there a year ago. But they only had normal equipment, not any of this complicated stuff that there is here.” Yuuri clarifies.
“Also, I don’t think there are many places that have equipment to train your bite force.”
“That is certainly interesting, I couldn’t even imagine what the room would look like without those so-called weird machines.” Isla responds with a laugh.
“Yeah, it would be very different” Yuuri agrees, while simultaneously taking out a lollipop from his pocket, unwrapping it and putting it in his mouth.
The two fall into comfortable silence. Yuuri’s eyes lock on Victor. He seems to be enjoying himself, which is good, in all honesty he was kind of worried on how this day was going to go. The morning was not a good start to the day thanks to Ben, but it all seems okay now and he prays it stays that way.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask, how did the check up go with your doctor, all good I hope?” Isla turns to him.
“It went okay, I guess,” Yuuri said, taking the lollipop out of his mouth to talk better “Apparently, I’m barely consuming enough sugar and my calorie intake is too low. But I told him that if he expects me to binge on white bread, that I’m more likely to find a way to choke myself with it.”
“Yuuri, you know that there are other foods high in calories and sugar, nobody is saying you only have to eat bread.” Isla comforts him with a laugh.
“Yeah, I know, he actually recommended a bunch of other things as well, but he said that if I don’t get it up by the next appointment, he is going to start prescribing me human blood, because apparently its high in calories.” Yuuri said through clear annoyance.
They both turn back, watching in silence as the group continue to mess around while laughing and having fun.
“How do you feel about that, what he said I mean?” Isla asks. She herself is a vampire but she’s lucky, as she is one of the few that are not restricted to drinking just blood, of course it is a necessity, but she can enjoy other food as well and when she has to drink blood, she prefers animal blood. Which is probably for the best because in today’s society there is such a big stigma around supernatural beings having to drink human blood.
“It’s not what I want. I don’t want to drink any blood let alone human blood. But he said that if I don’t get my intake up, they won’t let me go on missions, he’ll make sure of it, unfortunately.”
“What! That’s so shit, and you can’t just get a new doctor?”
“Nope, I’ve tried. I’m stuck with Dr Fitzgerald. It’s one of the biggest flaws in the system” Yuuri said, crushing his lollipop in his mouth.
“Fuck…I’m so sorry Yuuri. And what does Victor think about the whole blood thing?”
Yuuri doesn’t answer but instead adverts his gaze to the roof.
“You haven’t told him!?” Isla exclaims, lucky she couldn’t be heard by the others, otherwise Yuuri would have punched her out.
“What am I supposed to say?! Hey honey if I don’t start eating more than I already do I’m going to have to drink human blood, but don’t worry it’s not yours, just some randos blood.” Yuuri responded, chewing on the now lolly-less stick.
“I don’t know what you should say, but you should definitely tell him, Yuuri. Besides I doubt it will even be that big of a deal. He loves you and would do anything for you.” Isla comforts in a soft voice.
“Well as long as I increase my intake it will all be fine, and it won't matter that I didn’t say anything.”
“Okay, whatever you say…but if you do tell him and he gives you shit for it, let me know so then I can re-arrange his face.” Isla said with a smile which Yuuri returned.
“Listen up everyone” Isla announced finally with her megaphone “time for lunch”.
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They all exit the training group, slightly less full of energy but still excited to explore.
Victor and Yuuri walk hand in hand much like before towards the back of the group, with Mila and Sara a little ahead of them.
“So did you have fun?” Yuuri asks Victor.
“I did. You guys have so much cool equipment, I’m actually jealous. Plus, there are so many machines I want to watch you work out on.” Victor responds with a smirk.
“That is pervert behavior.” Yuuri says rolling his eyes while trying to fight a smile.
“I’m married to you so therefore, I’m your pervert.”
“I hope you know how wrong that sounds.”
Victor only laughs and Yuuri, well he can’t keep the smile of his face.
Its safe to say that just like the training room, unit 132 is equally as impressed of the food court. Different food stalls outline the back walls of the court, with tables in the center.
“How are we supposed to sit up there?” Ben asks, referring to the tables that are hovering in the sky.
“You don’t” Isla resorts back with an annoyed eye roll.
“And why not?”
“Because you don’t have magic or wings, hence you can’t fly therefore there is no way for you to sit up there.” Isla says in a sarcastic childish tone.
“Well, that is discrimination.”
“No, it’s not, this building isn’t built for humans, like you.”
Just as Isla goes to give instructions to the group, who happened to be watching the whole conversation take place, until Ben speaks up.
“I think it unfair, that people like chicken winged Katsuki over here get to sit on the cool tables while I’m stuck down here.”
The room goes silent. Personally, Yuuri doesn’t know how to feel, he knows he should probably be offended but he just doesn’t have it in him to care what Ben thinks at least not really. Victor however cares very much and Yuuri can see a blow up about to happen. Judging by the vein bulging out the side of his husband’s forehead its going to happen any minute, although he can’t help thinking of little Yuri. Yura would have definitely liked violent Victor, he would have been proud. But the state that the world is in now, he somewhat kind of feels glad Yura wasn’t there to witness it. Same goes for all the other friends and family gone, no matter how mean it sounds.
“WHATS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM!” Victor shouts pushing Ben into one of the pillars in the food court, holding his arm to his neck so that Ben can’t squirm away.
“Nothing, what's your problem?” Ben asks nonchalantly, looking around the room as to demonstrate his disinterest.
“You are my fucking problem!” Victor grumbles pushing his arm harder into Ben's throat.
“Little old me, what ever did I do?” Ben asks, slightly choking, with a fake pout.
Victor goes to punch him and Ben braces for impact, shutting his eyes tight, but before his fist collides with his face, a hand is wrapped around Victor’s hand. Victor looks back, enraged, to see who this person is preventing him from seeking justice. Only to find his husband's beautiful face with a loving smile shaking his head. It's only then when Yuuri takes his hand that he lets go of Ben, causing him to scramble away as fast as possible.
Yuuri pulls Victor in for a tight hug and while doing so makes eye contact with Isla to urge her to continue with what she was going to say.
It was only when Yuuri no longer felt the numerous eyes on him and Victor, did he pull away gently from the hug. He gazed into Victor's eyes lovingly, he could still see the anger his husband held, so he gently grabbed his hand to pull him away from the crowd in a more secluded spot so Victor to cool off.
Yuuri was well aware of his husband’s anger issues, especially when they were directed at anyone or anything who said something even remotely negative towards him. It has gotten better though and Yuuri applauds Victor for that. As he does attend his anger management class and it seems to be working as Ben is still alive. The Victor from after the first war they fought in together would have slit Ben's throat before he could even think of a comeback. But the Victor of today knows how to somewhat control his anger and Yuuri is proud of him for that.
Once they get to the more secluded area Yuuri lets go of Victor's hand and allows him to pace back and forth, letting him punch his anger out on a wall every couple of steps until he falls to the ground.
Yuuri sits next to him on the floor against the wall and grabs his hand to inspect the damage.
“It’s not too bad.” Yuuri says quietly, mainly to comfort himself rather than Victor.
When he first discovered he had rapid healing power, he told Victor to hurt him rather than himself because it would take him less longer to heal. Let’s just say that that suggestion did not go over well.
Victor let's out a large sigh. “I just don’t understand how you can let him speak to you like that”.
“Because I don’t care what he thinks Vitya, I only care about you.” Yuuri responds.
He would have said that he was not worth it and that he wasn’t worth the anger but through spending enough time with Victor, he learnt that his husband does not respond well to people telling him where to put his anger.
“You still should have let me hit him”.
“I know” Yuuri says lightly, pressing a kiss to the back of his hand, being careful of his injuries.
“I love you” Victor says after a beat of silence.
“I love you too, Vitya.” Yuuri says back, while leaning in for a kiss.
As they make their way back to the food court, he’s reminded of how much Victor has changed, he’s no longer the same person that Yuuri fell in love with but somehow, he’s in love with him more, if that’s even possible. Call it selfish but he is the only one that Victor allows in and he can’t help but feel love in that, because he knows no matter what happens Victor will always be his Victor. He also knows that he has changed too, although aside from the wings and powers he does really hope it was for the better.