Archive of Our Own

The first thing Yuuri noticed while waking up was that he wasn’t cold anymore and that someone was fumbling in his pants. He did the first thing that most people would do in his situation: he shrieked and hit away the curious hands.

“What are you doing with me?!”

“Shh, it’s okay,” the stranger raised his hands in defence; he spoke the common language with a strong accent but completely understandably. “I found you outside nearly frozen, and I had to take off your clothes so you can warm up. I just examined you. You’re welcome by the way.”

“Thanks for saving me,” Yuuri nodded. “Where am I exactly?”

“On Zima.”

Yuuri trembled a bit when he heard this; he knew stories about this planet, cold and frozen for half a year and impenetrable swamp for the rest of it, but it didn’t really bother the humanoid species, the zimorodoks living here. In the past, when its climate hadn’t been so harsh yet, it was a nice destination for the lovers of winter sports, but since its sun started to die, it became a harsher and harsher place to live. Yuuri was on his way back home when the system of his spaceship crashed and he was forced to land here.

“You had luck, you know,” the zimorodok said, “that you were found. Even we don’t go outside in this weather unless it’s really necessary, but I heard when you crashed. What were you doing landing here?”

“It was an accident.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Well, thanks for saving me, but I need to get back to my ship to repair it,” Yuuri gabbled, trying to get up, but the zimorodok pushed him back on the warm fur he was laying on.

“I don’t recommend it,” he shook his head. “You almost died there, and you’re lucky that you still have your toes and fingers.”

“But… I need to go home.”

“You can go after the winter has ended,” the zimorodok nodded, crossing his arms. “Tell me, what do you know about this planet?”

“It used to be a nice winter destination?” Yuuri tried half-heartedly, and the zimodorok laughed.

“Nice try. It’s mating season here.”

Yuuri froze. Of all the planets he could have crashed at, he must have landed on one with a mating season. At least he was just a plain human, practically like the ones who left Earth many thousand years ago to colonize the galaxy and then the universe.

“I’ll be okay, I’m something you call a beta. An alpha couldn’t do much with me.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” the zimorodok said with a strange gleam in his light coloured eyes. “But it isn’t safe even for you. You were taken away right away.”

“I’ve told you…”

“This planet has almost a hundred percent omega population.”

Yuuri paled and pulled up his legs to his chest. This sounded like even more trouble.

“Most of our alphas died because of the cold a few seasons ago, and our people are desperate to mate,” he said, then he continued when he noticed how defensive Yuuri’s pose looked now. “Don’t worry, I won’t force you to do anything. Though I must tell you that you’re really cute, and I wouldn’t mind mating with you.”

Yuuri gulped and looked the zimorodok up and down. He had long, silver hair that he wore mostly freely, small pearls braided in it. His ice blue eyes gleamed in the semidarkness from his unnaturally pale face, and Yuuri’s cheeks heated up because he found him unbelievably attractive. He came to the conclusion that he was probably the same age as him. The zimorodok stared at him back with a smug smile on his pink lips as if he could read his mind.

“I’m Viktor, but you can call me Vitya if you like. We are closed together now after all.”

Yuuri knew that he was damned – this person was exactly his type.

“So how do you do this?” Yuuri asked as he laid in the nest that Viktor made out of furs and from their clothes in the corner of the cave. It was warm inside, Viktor made sure that Yuuri didn’t catch a cold, and fed the large fire regularly with wood. It was the third day of their meeting when Yuuri finally broke and told Viktor that they can mate to make the time go faster. This was all Viktor needed to launch himself on him, first heavily coating him in his sweet heat scent, marking him as his mate for the season in case another omega would find them.

Viktor giggled. “One would think that you have an idea about this…” he said, throwing a leg over Yuuri’s hips to rub their groins together.

“I mean… do we fit together at all? How do you usually do this?”

Viktor laughed again and pulled his hand to his rear which was leaking from slick – at least Yuuri didn’t have to worry about accidently hurting him. The omega grabbed his cock with a firm grip, and Yuuri moaned as he pumped it to full hardness. He felt Viktor’s erection pocking his thigh and as he touched it gently, he found out that it was smaller and more obsolete than his.

They most likely fitted together.

“You put this beauty in me,” he purred, actually purred like cats do. “We have rather similar biology. You don’t have a knot, but this should still work.”

Yuuri slipped a finger in Viktor, making the omega moan and press closer.

“Have you done this before?” he asked softly, dipping more fingers in him. Thanks to the amount of slick the omega produced, it was an easy slide, and he felt pretty lose.

“I’ve messed around a bit with other omegas,” Viktor said, pressing their foreheads together. “I know the basics.” He tried to climb on Yuuri, but he hold him back before he could rush to sink on his cock.

“Wait a bit… I have a condom in the pocket of my pants, let me grab it.”

“What is that?” Viktor asked curiously and suspiciously, but he let him go to get it; probably only because all of Yuuri’s clothes were in his nest, and he didn’t have to leave him alone. Yuuri handed him the foil package, and Viktor turned it between his fingers, trying to figure out how it works.

“You open it…” Yuuri explained and Viktor did so, making a surprised noise when he felt the lube on the condom. It was written all over his face that he didn’t like the texture of it. “And then you put it on my cock.”

“What? No way,” Viktor stared.

“Give me, and I show you how it works.”

“No!” Viktor shrieked suddenly, throwing it away. “We don’t need it.”

“Hey, what are you doing?” Yuuri yelped, trying to crawl after it, but Viktor pinned him down, seizing him to the furs by his wrists.

“I meant it. We are different species and I’m unmated… and the cold kills any illnesses.”

“Are you sure about that?” Yuuri knitted his brows.

“Yeah,” Viktor nodded, grabbing Yuuri’s cock again. “Or don’t you want me anymore?”

“Of course I want you.”

“Good,” Viktor sighed relieved, climbing on Yuuri and teasing his hole with the tip of his cock which probably increased the production of his slick because Yuuri felt something warm and pleasant running on his erection and thighs.

“Slowly,” Yuuri said, grabbing his hips so that Viktor couldn’t lower himself at one go. The omega gave him a nasty look for it, but he played along, grabbing Yuuri’s shoulder for support.

And it was worth it. Viktor’s body welcomed Yuuri easily, but he still felt his body tremble as he tried to adjust him. He was incredibly warm and wet, his muscles squeezed his cock so much that Yuuri wondered if Viktor lied about being ready and that this hurt him.

Viktor lowered himself on his chest while he tried to relax.

“Wow… this is a lot,” he muttered in Yuuri’s skin.

Yuuri rubbed his back until Viktor started to move his hips – first carefully then more and more eagerly.

Yuuri was far from being a virgin, but he came embarrassingly fast from the sight and feel of Viktor’s beautiful body bouncing on him. Fortunately, Viktor followed him almost right away, flopping on his chest with such filthy moans that Yuuri had never heard before. He pulled his hand to his hole when Yuuri’s softened cock slipped out of him from the change of their positions, and Yuuri understood his silent plead to be filled by his fingers while they recovered, tricking Viktor’s body into thinking that he was knotted. Viktor tucked his face to Yuuri’s neck and started to purr when he stroked his back up and down.

“This was nice,” he sighed, and Yuuri hummed in agreement. “I can see why mated omegas are so obsessed with this.”

Yuuri turned his head to look in his eyes, but their foreheads knocked together which made Viktor chuckle, and Yuuri got an idea.

“Hey… do you kiss on this planet, Viktor?” he asked, but the zimorodok didn’t answer with words, only pressing their lips together. He tasted slightly sweeter and better than Yuuri’s other kisses before, but apart from this there was nothing alien about him.

Yuuri lost count on the days and then weeks that passed since he crashed on Zima. Fortunately, Viktor had stored enough food for both of them to last so they didn’t need to leave his cave in the terrible weather. When they were too tired to mate, but they didn’t want to sleep yet, they talked; Viktor told him that Zima wasn’t always this harsh and hellish place, but some time ago their sun started to die, and now their scientists tried to find a way to save themselves. Viktor assumed that they would have a ship for Yuuri so that he could go home after the mating season had ended.

Yuuri’s heart ached whenever he thought about leaving Viktor, but rationally he knew that he had to get home. Viktor needed him only to ease the pain of a lonely mating season, and once it ended, he would see how plain human being Yuuri was, and he wouldn’t even look back on their time together. Meanwhile Yuuri would keep the memory of their time together fondly in the depth of his heart.

While the weather started to get even for Yuuri noticeably warmer, Viktor stated that the mating season still hadn’t ended, and that it wasn’t safe for Yuuri to leave. And who was Yuuri to say no to have more sex with Viktor? So they mated maybe even more time than before, trying out different positions, while Viktor made such noises that Yuuri knew that he ruined having sex with others for forever.

While they were fucking again – now Viktor on his stomach, his hips lifted in the air by Yuuri while he pounded in him from behind mercilessly –, coming for the umpteenth time together, Yuuri heard a high shriek from the direction of the entrance of the cave. It alerted Viktor too because he threw himself on Yuuri surprisingly fast after all their activities, covering him with his own body.

“What the hell, Viktor?!” the other zimorodok shouted. “Yakov is looking for you everywhere, and you’re still not done fucking?!”

“Go away, Yura, he’s mine,” Viktor hissed.

“I don’t care about him.” Yuuri heard the disgust in the voice of the stranger, and he was glad that Viktor was covering him from him because he felt like dying from embarrassment. “Yakov tells you to get your butt in the city because they want to test the spaceship project.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. Tell him that we’ll be there by the evening,” Viktor said with bored voice.

“I’m not your postman!” the other zimorodok yelled, but he backed off when Viktor actually growled at him. It made Yuuri somehow happy that Viktor was so protective over him.

“So the mating season hasn’t ended, huh?” Yuuri asked with a slightly mocking voice when they were finally left alone.

“Can we finish this round at least?” Viktor begged. “You can shout at me for lying after that.”

After they finished, Viktor melted snow at the fire so that they could clean themselves and he gave Yuuri some of his clothes that were slightly big for him. They were nice warm at least since they were made of leather and furs. Viktor insisted on helping Yuuri to put them on, purring and scenting him for one last time. After all the laying in the nest and mating without thinking, he noticed only now that the omega was somewhat taller than him, with broader shoulders, and that Yuuri actually had to lift his face to look in his eyes.

“Are you one of the scientists working on saving the population?” Yuuri asked when they emerged from the cave. The white landscape had turned into brown and grey as the snow slowly started to melt away, and large puddles and mud were everywhere as far as his eyes could see. It was semidarkness as the sun wasn’t strong enough to shine through the clouds. He had no idea how the zimorodoks moved around in this waste swamp hell.

“Yeah,” Viktor nodded as he pulled him in another cave that hold a large pile of fur.

“And why didn’t you tell me about that?”

“Because then you would have insisted on going in the city right away and I wasn’t lying about it not being safe,” Viktor said as he pulled down the furs from a machine that was most likely for transport. He examined it, probably checking if it still worked after the long winter. “Do you regret mating with me?” he asked then with a serious expression.

“No, of course not!” Yuuri said quickly. “I just wish that you’d been honest with me.”

“And would you have still stayed with me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…” Viktor sighed. “Well… then sorry,” he muttered, climbing on the machine. He pulled his long hair in a messy bun then put on a helmet, handing another to Yuuri. “Hop on behind me and hold on tight.”

Yuuri did so, and when Viktor kicked the machine into life, he prayed for his dear life as it rushed through the fields, levitating. He cling onto Viktor’s slim waist, not even daring to think about letting go of him.

The city of the zimorodoks had seen better days for sure. They built mostly from stone; the harsh winter and the sudden warmer spring took a tool on the buildings, making them break apart so the streets almost looked like an excavation area.

“We don’t even bother with rebuilding them anymore,” Viktor told him when they stopped and jumped off from his machine. “We’ll soon leave this planet anyway.”

Maybe he would have told him more if they weren’t overrun by two other zimorodoks; one of them was remarkably older than Viktor, and the other one was probably who saw them earlier, judging from the nasty look he gave Yuuri.

“I can’t believe that you were fooling around instead of working, Vitya!” he shouted.

“Sorry, Yakov, we lost track of time,” Viktor grinned, hugging Yuuri’s waist. The younger zimorodok made a gagging voice, and Yuuri’s face flamed up while he tried not to meet anybody’s eyes.

Yakov grumbled something unkind under his nose, and Yuuri was sure it was better so that he didn’t understand anything from it because Viktor changed to their native language, sounding offended.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think that’s likely,” Viktor said then, switching back to the common language so that Yuuri wasn’t shut out of the conversation. He still sounded a bit annoyed. “Anyway, I found him almost dead in the snow after landing on our planet, and he needs a ship to get home.”

“We don’t have any left,” Yakov grumbled unkindly.

“I’ll give him mine.”

“Viktor…” Yuuri muttered.

“Shh, I promised that I’ll get you home, my Yuuri,” Viktor smiled at him gently, and this made Yuuri’s heart skip a beat.

So the day had come when they part and Viktor didn’t even try to make him stay. Of course – they agreed on this.

The rest of the day blurred together as he helped Viktor to check the ship if it was fit after the long winter to travel through space while they were interrupted all the time by Viktor’s co-workers who giggled while looking at Yuuri as if they exactly knew what happened between them.

After a while Yuuri got the impression that Viktor might be the leading scientist of the project.

“Hey… when you’re done saving your people, you could come visit me on Hasetsu,” Yuuri said, gently soothing a lose hair strand out of Viktor’s face.

“Oh,” Viktor sighed. “That’s far, far away.”

Yuuri knew from his look that this most likely wouldn’t happen, and he couldn’t blame Viktor for this. He also knew that the hour of their parting had come; they were done checking everything, and Viktor took his hand to lead him in the control room of the ship, showing him all the important parts that might be different.

“I almost forgot to give you this,” Viktor said then suddenly, pulling out a fancy blue crystal on a leather string from under his robe. “So that you remember me.”

“I want to give you something too.”

“You’ve already given me so much,” Viktor smiled, hanging his gift in Yuuri’s neck. “And I still have your clothes in my nest,” he winked, though his eyes gleamed suspiciously as if he was about bursting out in tears. They changed kisses until somebody started to bang on the door, and Viktor had to leave. It was probably better so – one minute more, and Yuuri would have begged Viktor to come with him.

He watched Viktor waving him from the ground, his long hair messy from the wind generated by the starting of the ship. Yuuri waved back. What he couldn’t see though, when he vanished into the clouds, switching to sound speed, was that Viktor buried his face into his hands as violent sobbing started to shake his whole body.

Yuuri himself hadn’t noticed either that there were hot tears running down on his cheeks until they blurred his sight so much that he could barely see where he was heading.

Three years had passed on his planet since Yuuri crashed on Zima, and he still wasn’t over the time he spent with Viktor. Everybody told him to move on, but Yuuri didn’t want to forget him, so he buried himself in his work, trying to distract himself from his aching heart that was screaming for Viktor.

He wondered for a while if he caught something from the omega – but his body was fine. He had simply fallen in love, and there wasn’t any cure for that.

When he wasn’t working, he spent his time in the library, learning more and more about the zimorodoks and their culture, sometimes shaking his head furiously when he stumbled upon wrong informations. The illustrations didn’t give back the eternal beauty of them, and Yuuri really wished he was an artist so that he could capture Viktor’s features on canvas – but he wasn’t. After a while his friends straight out told him that he was obsessed for not letting him go. Planet Zima was frozen into its final winter after all, and the zimorodoks didn’t have any chance for survival if they hadn’t gotten away right after Yuuri did.

Yuuri knew that this was hopeless. Even if they had gotten away, Hasetsu was on the other side of the galaxy, and they surely found a habitable planet closer.

Sometimes, when he felt like that his emotions were too much for him, he took down the crystal Viktor gave him, but he never dared to let it out of his sight. Strangely, the crystal stayed warm whatever happened, and Yuuri had the impression that it was somehow connected to Viktor – and that it was a sign that he was still alive. He picked up the habit of talking to it which earned him even more strange looks, but he didn’t care; this was all he had left from Viktor. He was aware of that a lot of people started to think anyway that he was crazy.

And one day, during work, Yuuri felt the crystal suddenly heating up, and when he grabbed it to take it down for his own safety, a hologram shoot out of it. It showed the control room of a spaceship, and Viktor was sitting in the driver’s seat – he had his hair cut short and dark circles were under his eyes, but it was him without any doubt.

“Hi, my Yuuri, I’ve finally found you.”

All of Yuuri’s research had paid off; when his people panicked because of this foreign species connected them to settle down on Hasetsu, he could explain that they were friendly and that there weren’t too many of them anyway – only one ship made it, an amount of a town and their planet was big enough to take them on.

When the day came to welcome the zimorodoks, Yuuri was in the welcoming committee – nervous but happy to see Viktor again. He wanted to tell him that it was a mistake for them to part, and that he wanted him to stay in his home, together; he already prepared a place for him to sleep.

“I can’t wait to see your boyfriend,” Phichit grinned. “I’m happy for you that he is indeed existing.”

“He is not my boyfriend,” Yuuri blushed. “At least not yet.”

“Suuuure. Didn’t he lie to you about the end of the mating season just to have more sex with you and then called you his Yuuri?”

Yuuri was glad that their conversation became impossible as the spaceship of the zimodoroks started to land, and they couldn’t hear each other anymore. Yuuri shifted his weight impatiently from a leg to the other, while the ship finally settled, and they watched as a stair case landed on the ground from its battle scarred body and when it was safely secured, the zimorodoks started to leave the ship, led by Viktor.

And Yuuri’s heart sunk when he noticed that Viktor was carrying a child in his arms.

He didn’t wait for Yuuri – he got a mate from his own species.

“Phichit, I can’t do this,” he whispered to his friend.

“What?”

“Last time I saw him, he didn’t have a child. He found an alpha…”

“Didn’t you say that they were all dead?”

Yuuri wanted to dissolve into the ground; he hoped pointlessly. Of course the beautiful smart and funny Viktor had found a mate who was fitting for him. He didn’t need Yuuri outside of the mating season after all. He didn’t have time to vanish though because the zimorodoks got closer. The first thing he heard from them was the child’s crying; the landing must have upset her, and Viktor tried to sooth her by bouncing her up and down. Then he looked up and his eyes met Yuuri’s. A wide grin lit up his whole being, as he waved at him with his free hand.

“Yuuri!” he shouted happily, and Yuuri felt awful for not being glad that Viktor could find happiness after him. His feet froze to the ground while his heart raced so fast that he was afraid it would burst out of his chest and run away instead of him. When Viktor saw that Yuuri didn’t approach him, he sped up and threw himself at Yuuri, squeezing the child between them.

“My Yuuri, I’m so happy to see you again!” Viktor said, and Yuuri was so startled that he wasn’t able to return his hug.

“Viktor,” he stuttered his name. His nose and mouth filled with Viktor’s sweet scent while his ears were full of the child’s crying. Viktor must have noticed her distress because he drew apart from him, starting to rock her again while muttering her in their native language. “You… you got a mate.”

“Yeah,” Viktor shoot him a look. “You know we were both there when it happened.” His attention returned to his upset daughter, stroking her hair and back in a hopefully soothing way. “Shh, Sashenka, it’s okay, we’ve arrived.”

“I mean you have a child now,” he blurted out. “And an alpha probably.”

Viktor gasped. “I would never cheat on you!”

Yuuri’s heart seemed to skip a beat. “But how…”

“She is yours,” Viktor said. “Don’t you see?”

Yuuri stared at her – she had long, almost black hair and Viktor’s ice blue irises in Yuuri’s eyes’ shape. She looked like the perfect mix of them; and Yuuri remembered now reading about how zimorodoks never had dark hair.

“We fitted perfectly,” Viktor purred.

Yuuri reached out to her unbelievingly, but she was the one first touching him; she stopped crying as she curiously examined his hand and grabbed his fingers to squeeze them. Her skin was warm and really soft, and Yuuri stared in awe.

“She is so adorable,” Yuuri said when he could finally find the words, and a relieved smile spread out on Viktor’s face. She squirmed and let go of his hand as she buried her face in Viktor’s shoulder.

“Sorry she is a bit shy. And probably cranky from the landing because this is her first time on solid ground,” Viktor explained while Yuuri’s hand came to rest on his arm. “I don’t know if she’ll let you hold her.”

“It’s alright, we’ll have plenty of time for that,” Yuuri said, wrapping his arms around Viktor, tilting his head on his other shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”

They stayed hugging while their species curiously mixed around them; Yuuri listened as Viktor explained something to their daughter in hushed voice, kissing her cheek, and after a while he drew apart.

“She said that she wants to go to you.”

Yuuri accepted her slightly clumsy as it was long ago that he held a small child. Her weight felt almost like nothing at all, and she tapped Yuuri’s clothing interested. They must have been strange for her as all the zimorodoks wore heavy traditional clothes that were fit for the long winter while Yuuri’s people let more skin to see – Hasetsu was a tropical planet after all. Viktor watched them with a fond smile on his face, wrapping an arm around Yuuri’s waist. This was when it hit him that he still didn’t know what she was called.

“What’s your name?” he asked her, and Viktor leaned to her ear, whispering her something.

“Sasha,” she said, and her face lit up when Yuuri repeated it, still trying to process that he had a daughter now. She had the same heart-shaped smile like Viktor.

“Sorry, she doesn’t know the common language yet.”

“It’s okay, she’ll learn it.”

Before Viktor could answer, someone pushed them. “Get out of the way, old man, some people are working here!”

It took a bit to recognize that it was the angry teenager who walked on them while mating because the boy had grown taller and he smelled pretty aggressive. Yuuri also noticed now that the zimorodoks started to unpack their stuff, and when his eyes met Phichit’s who was also helping, he gave him a thumb up, grinning almost as if he was proud of him.

“Do you have anything indispensable on the ship?” Yuuri asked, but Viktor shook his head.

“No, only some of my researches… but I have enough of science for a while.”

“Okay, then I get you home,” Yuuri smiled, taking his hand. “You must be really tired.”

“So we can stay with you?”

“Of course, I meant it.”

Viktor’s smile shone on his face indelibly as they walked to home. Yuuri noted while holding his hand that his finger felt a lot bonier than last time and that his whole figure seemed to be way too slim for his height as if he wasn’t eating properly. Yuuri squeezed his hand as he thought about that he will be the one from now on who would take care of them. Sasha wanted to go back to Viktor after a while, and she fell asleep on his shoulder by the time they got to Yuuri’s house. They tucked her in the bed that was prepared for Viktor, then Viktor pulled Yuuri on the other one, not willing to let go of him. Not that Yuuri minded this – he cuddled close to Viktor who purred delightfully and loudly as Yuuri held him in his arms, bathing in his sweet scent.

“I can’t believe we have a daughter,” Yuuri giggled.

“I would tell you to go and have a look at her again, but I don’t want to let go of you right now.”

“That’s good because me neither.”

They stayed silent for a while, listening to the other’s heartbeat, breathing and to Viktor’s loud purring. Then the omega spoke again.

“Hey… it’s mating season soon… will you spend it with me again?”

“Of course.”

“I’m glad,” he sighed relieved, “the last one was terrible without you.”

Yuuri kissed his hair, and Viktor pressed closer. “I’ll be here for you, you can rest now.”

“I’m still afraid that this is a dream, and you’ll be gone when I wake up.”

Yuuri’s heart ached at this – he couldn’t count on his hands how many times he dreamt of meeting Viktor again just to wake up in tears. He lifted Viktor’s chin to press a long kiss on his lips.

“I feel the same. But we have to believe that this is happening.”

“Okay,” Viktor nodded, laying back his head on Yuuri’s chest. He wrapped his limbs even tighter around Yuuri who enjoyed his possessiveness.

They would need a long talk about their future – but for now, he wanted his newly-found family to rest after the way too long travelling.