Chapter Text

One again Yuuri heard a sigh coming from several steps behind him, it was already the fifth in as many minutes and couldn’t help but shake his head with a fond smile at his friend’s obvious usual irritation. The three of them have been smashing shadows for what felt like hours now and still, they couldn’t seem to get closer to the big castle they could see in the horizon peeking from the trees that they were circling all day. He heard the chuckle from his right side before feeling the friendly hand patting his shoulder and couldn’t help a grateful smile even while thinking that Yurio was probably the one needing it the most.

Him, Phichit and Yurio were obviously tired but the old lady they met earlier had been adamant: a beautiful looking man with silver hair passed through the forest to the castle earlier and Yuuri wouldn’t miss a single chance of seeing Viktor even if he collapsed from exhaustion. He felt his hand tighten on the giant key he was wielding, it had been so long since the last time they met! Yurio suddenly yelled his name and he spared a rapid glance at the royal magician before swinging his keyblade at the Heartless throwing itself at him. More glowing gold eyes appeared before the three men and he heard Phichit moaning at the loss of their short break before the three of them concentrated on the battle at hand.

“Say Katsudon, do you really think the King and your Viktor friend came in this world?”

Yuuri was perched on a tree stump after having defeated all the shadows of the area, trying to see beyond the forest in case he could spot some silver, an old habit he developed during the beginning of their travel, before turning to look at disgruntled face of Yuri and shrugging with a tired sigh and downturn of his eyebrows.

“I don’t know Yurio, but you heard that lady right? She said she saw a man with silver hair and I refuse to think that it wasn’t Viktor! Plus we don’t have any other clue, right?”
“Even if the King isn’t here Yuri, he told us to follow the wielder of the Key and that is Yuuri so wherever he needs to go, we’ll go with him.”

The royal magician frowned and crossed his arms on his chest before giving a petulant sounding “uh” to his fellow royal guard, regarding Phichit with obvious discontentment as was often the case. Yuuri smiled at the both of them, apologetic at his selfishness, he knew that he was too absorbed on his search of Viktor that he usually forgot that the King was also missing but it didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about him too. (“I’m NOT worried!” would scream Yurio, menacing to throw a well-placed blizzard in their faces.) Finally letting his weapon disappear with a flick of the wrist, Yuuri put his hand in one of his pocket to retrieve the snowflake-shaped charm that had become his good luck charm since the beginning of this whole mess. A smiling Yuuko came to his mind, reminding him of their last conversation before he left to get their mutual friend back and he shook his head with a sigh to dispel the memory. There is no way she wasn’t just teasing him… He felt a small blush tinting his cheeks before he closed his eyes to try and remember his silver haired friend’s face and smile in details.

“Yuuko is so mean, saying things like that when it’s not true…”
“Hum? Did you say something Yuuri?”

Jumping at the sudden voice, Yuuri turned to his friends and shook his head gently at Phichit with a smile, not missing the worried look of both his companions. The three of them have been traveling together for so long that he knew a smile wouldn’t be enough to appease them but he also knew that they wouldn’t prod so long as this wasn’t bad enough to put them in danger. His emotions were important and he knew it, after all there was a time where he truly thought he’d die in the gummi ship before he perfected his “travel smile” so Yurio would stop trying to pull on his mouth while yelling at him that the ship worked on smile. (Never admitting that his own “travel smile” was probably the most frightening one known to mankind. “Good!” Yurio would answer in fake pride.)

After some time, they decided that it was time to keep going, wanting to get out of the forest before the sunset, the shadows of the trees already scary enough when the sun shone brightly above them, Heartless probably just waiting for a bit of shade to ambush them in high numbers. Phichit wondered aloud why there was so much around here and like a well-tuned instrument, Yurio jumped on the occasion to yell his usual anger, throwing insults at his colleague that was already used to it and just smiled at him with well-placed nods when Yuri expected answers. Yuuri rolled his eyes fondly and let the magician’s voice guide the long way out of the forest. Soon they could see a castle stand ominously above them like an old haunted mansion you could read of in books. From the corner of his eye, the Keyblade wielder could see Yurio try to hide his sudden gulp before imperceptibly getting closer to Phichit like he always did in situation that made him uncomfortable. Phichit just took everything in stride, smiling excitingly at the building with a glint in his eyes that definitely meant trouble for the poor kitten beside him.

A sudden glimpse of silver at one of the windows made Yuuri whip his head at an uncomfortable speed before he ran toward the ajar door of the castle with a cry of Viktor’s name. Both his companion jumped at the voice before following him in concern, entering the old building without even thinking of checking in anybody lived here. The inside, despite what one would expect from the outside, was well kept and luminous, giving to the place a cozy feeling far from the ghost story like facade. Yuri relaxed at the lack of creepiness before following Yuuri to an immense staircase where the young man was already trying to see where Viktor could have gone to, not able to see the end of the staircase from where he was standing at the moment.

Just when the trio finally decided to go and explore, Yuuri wanted to find Viktor quickly, a sudden feminine voice screaming in fear made them stop before the three of them run toward the source of the yell, praying that nobody got hurt.