Archive of Our Own ^beta

"You may now kiss the groom,"

Yuri had kissed Viktor Nikiforov many times over the past year and a half, but none of them had ever been as good as that one

Not that they hadn't all been spectacular, but the sheer specialness of that one kiss was so amazing that he knew, in his last days, on his death bed, he would remember that kiss more than all of the others- that one, and maybe their first kiss as well

The kiss that cemented him as part of Viktor's life, that bound them together for all of eternity

The kiss that sealed his fate

Yuri couldn't have been happier

"Don't forget to smile!!"

Yuri had never liked seeing himself on camera

He had never liked having his picture taken because he hated the way he looked, most of all on film, but he was actually excited for these pictures

He smiled more that day than he could remember ever smiling in the last several years combined

Viktor's arm around his waist was reassuring, the feeling of his lips against Yuri's forehead was comforting, and the sensation of the gold band around his finger was thrilling

He had never been happier

"OOoh look who caught the bouqet!! So Mickey's the next to get married huh?"

"You know just because you married my sister Mila, that doesn't mean we're freinds,"

The reception had been full of rowdy Russians, but Yuri didn't care

They were his family now and that was all that mattered

"You know he'll never be one of us,"

"Ofcourse not Yura, he has a soul,"

Yuri's own family had left the reception hall before Viktor's, with their freinds slowly trailing out as well

Ultimately Viktor had said that his family would take care of the finishing details of the reception and that they should go on and leave

Viktor hadn't told Yuri where they were going for their honeymoon or when they were leaving, but Yuri had a pretty good feeling that they would be heading out sooner rather than later

They had gone straight to Viktor's uncle's house, where Viktor had explained that their bags had been taken from earlier, and as soon as they got inside, Viktor carried him upstairs, covering him in kisses and crashing onto the nearest bed

Yuri was full of giggles and bursting with happiness

He couldn't believe his life was going this well

He couldn't believe he had gotten this lucky

"Your family won't be home for a wile right?" Yuri asked softly, reaching up and gently but firmly wrapping his arms around Viktor's neck, dragging him down closer and practically smothering him in kisses as the silver-haired man chuckled and allowed his husband to tug him onto the bed

But unfortunately, he didn't stay for very much longer, only allowing the sensation to linger for a few short moments before pulling back, clearly reluctant, and staring down pensively at Yuri

"Yuri... my darling, I have to speak with you about something,"

Yuri's eyebrows raised, confused by the serious and almost somber tone that his husband was taking

"What is it?" he asked with concern, slowly sitting up and shifting around on the bed, Viktor moving to sit down next to him

"Yuri.... darling, my family is..... different... I should have told you all of this sooner but.... I was afraid if you knew the truth that you would hate me...."

Feeling his heart sink, Yuri pursed his lips and sat up fully, carefully folding the mounds of tulle underneath him as he nelt on the bed and reached over, gently sweeping a few strands of hair out of Viktor's eyes

"Viktor..... I could never hate you, what's going on?"

Viktor swallowed, pursing his lips as he turned and gently took Yuri's hands in his own

"There are.... well, I actually have.... a few secrets that I need to tell you..."

"A few?" Yuri asked worriedly

"Vitya, how many is 'a few'?"

"....Three?"

"Three?"

Nodding emphatically, Viktor squeezed Yuri's hands, his expression growing increasingly grim

"Listen my darling, I have to be quick about this so please let me speak this through before asking questions, ok?"

Yuri nodded, his full attention on his husband as Viktor started speaking again

"First, you should know that my family is.... well.... most Russians are Catholic Orthodox, but... but my family isn't,"

"Ok...?"

"To be more specific, most of them- myself not included- have been wor-"

"Hey, Viktor!"

The door opened, drawing the attention of both men to the opposite side of the room

"What is it Georgi?"

"Yakov said he wants to see you- now,"

"It can wait," Viktor said firmly, his voice tense and strict

"It really can't," Georgi replied, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at the two of them with an expression that was somehow mixed between sadistically amused and slightly annoyed

Viktor inhaled deeply, then let out a slow breath, his eyes narrow and irritated

"I'm in the middle of a con-"

"Now, Viktor, and we're expecting your bride in the dining room in five minutes,"

Viktor's face paled, as if he had just gotten some sort of horrible news, and he hurried to jump to his feet

"That isn't enough time!!"

"Yakov's orders," Georgi shrugged back

Viktor looked grim, and the more upset his husband looked, the more worried Yuri became

Viktor was typically a pretty hard person to shake, if he was this upset, then the circumstances must be pretty serious

Finally, the Russian turned back to Yuri, his expression utterly wrecked and devastated

"I'm so sorry my beloved, I'll be back as soon as I possibly can,"

Yuri shook his head, sliding off of the bed and taking a step closer

"Can I just come with-"

"No," Georgi interrupted swiftly, earning a menacing glare over his shoulder from Viktor before he turned back to Yuri and slowly shook his head

"I'm so sorry.... I'm so sorry.... but... you must wait here ok? I'll return in just a moment, I swear,"

Viktor gave him a kiss that felt disturbingly like a goodbye, before turning away and heading out of the room

"Be downstairs in the dining room in five minutes," Georgi instructed, smirking and giving Yuri a small wave before shutting the door behind him and leaving Yuri all alone

Yuri swallowed, his heart sinking into his chest

Evidently, the wedding was over

The marriage had clearly begun

~+~

Viktor didn't come back

Five minutes went by, Yuri occupying himself by fixing his make up at the little make up table in the corner, and waiting anxiously for his husband's return

But it didn't come

Instead, after the five minute mark passed by, Mila- one of Viktor's cousins- came to get him

"You're needed downstairs, come on, I'll take you,"

"Where's Viktor?" Yuri frowned pensively, slowly standing up, eyes narrowed

"He's waiting for you downstairs in the dining room,"

Yuri wasn't exactly sure what to make of that, Viktor had said that he'd come to get Yuri himself, Viktor had never broken even the smallest of promises to him before....

Swallowing, Yuri reluctantly rose to his feet, following Mila in silence, down the long winding staircase, through the massive entryway, and finally into the dining room- as ornate and overly luxurious as every other part of the house, and when he got there, standing in front of the giant dining room table, he finally found his husband

"Viktor?"

But Viktor didn't look happy to see him, in fact, he looked nearly devastated, reaching out slowly and taking his hand

"I'm sorry Yuri... that I didn't explain sooner..."

Yuri stared at his groom in confusion, but he didn't get the chance to ask, Georgi had pulled out his chair and "helped" Yuri into it before pushing it up to the dining table

It was only then that Yuri was really getting the picture of just how large Viktor's family was, sure he had noticed it at the wedding, but he had sort of assumed some of these people were just freinds, yet... as he looked around, he easily counted over a dozen people

Why did Viktor never talk about them?

Sure, Yuri knew that he had some... issues... with his family, but did he really have such a strained relationship with all of them...?

"I take it that my nephew didn't inform you of the family traditions," Yakov, Viktor's uncle, said as he placed his hands in front of him on the table, sitting at the end of it, directly in front of Yuri, who only gave his head a small shake

"Ofcourse not," he huffed

"We have a very specific tradition for new members of the family," Lilia, Yakov's wife, mused from beside him, her arms crossed over her chest

"At midnight- in exactly two minutes- you're going to play a game,"

....Was.... that really it?

Was that the big secret Viktor was so stressed over and all this fanfare was about? No, that couldn't be quite right, it couldn't possibly be so simple...

"A... game...? Like... like... checkers?" he asked in disbeleif

"I got chess," Anya, one of Viktor's cousins, mentioned casually

"Tag," commented Sara, Mila's wife

"Poker," added Chris, the most recent married-in member of the family, who winked along with it

"You didn't have to turn it into strip poker," grumbled Yura, Viktor's youngest cousin

"But where would the fun been in that? I-"

"Silence!"

The amusement in the room quickly died, all attention back on Lilia, who looked as gravely serious as an executioner

"You will draw a card from this deck, and whatever game is listed, you will play," she said, setting down what could only loosely be described as a card deck

There were cards alright, but they were in some sort of peculiar looking box, some sort of gadget attached that would automatically draw a card for Yuri with the press of a button

"Um.... ok....?" he mumbled, reaching across the table to pull the cards closer to himself

He glanced at Viktor, who looked like he was barely a moment away from bursting into tears, with a quizzical expression

"Are they serious?" he wispered, earning a grim nod from his husband

"It's tradition," he said vaguely, his voice tight and tense with emotion

"You can't argue with tradition,"

Yuri was quiet for another moment, before licking his lips, pressing the button on the side of the box and watching as a card was suddenly spit out through the front

He pulled it, eyebrows raising at the game listed, and then showed it to everyone else

"Hide And Seek.... are we really going to play this?"

The fact that everyone looked like they had suddenly received news that they were being recruited for war certainly didn't go unnoticed by Yuri, who was just about to ask what was going on when Viktor suddenly spoke- well, more like shouted

"I'm on Yuri's team!" he screamed in desperation, his eyes welled up with tears

"Vitya-!" Yakov began, but Viktor cut him off

"Don't, I'm on Yuri's team, I've made my choice, you won't convince me otherwise so let. me. GO."

Let him go...?

It was only then that Yuri looked down, realizing in terror why Viktor hadn't come to get him earlier

He was tied down

His ankles were locked in with metal cuffs, he couldn't go anywhere if he wanted to....

"What's going on?" Yuri breathed, staring at Viktor breifly, and then the rest of his family

"What-"

"You should get going before we start counting," Yura snipped, an expression of utter contempt curled onto his face

"What-"

"One-hundred,"

"Why is-?!"

"Ninety-nine,"

"Yuri, go!" Viktor insisted

"Ninety-eight,"

Yuri turned to look at his husband, confusion and horror scrawled across his face

"GO!! I'll be right behind you, just GO!!"

Without thinking much further, Yuri bolted, just as he had been instructed to, Yura's counting fading into the distance as he ran

The moment he was gone, Yura stopped counting out loud, instead counting in his head only as Mila reluctantly moved to Viktor's side with the key to his cuffs

"You can't seriously be doing this Vitya," she breathed, crouching down at his side

"What would you do, if it were Sara?" Viktor asked coldly, an eyebrow raised

Mila didn't answer, only slid the key into the lock of his cuffs

"It will be your funeral Vitya," Yakov seethed coldly, earning a glare from his nephew

"No, Uncle, I think it'll be your's,"

The moment the lock clicked out of place, Viktor was on his feet, nearly running over Mila as he sprinted to catch up to Yuri

"Is anyone else foolish enough to join them?" Yakov demanded, rising up from the table, but after receiving no responses, he turned and walked to the secondary exit of the room

"Good, then join me, and let's get started,"

When he pushed the door open, he revealed a massive room of old-fashioned weapons, everything from crossbows to hunting rifles to daggers and even swords, he wasted no time in pulling an elephant rifle from the wall, as well as a belt of ammo

"Are we really going to do this?" Chris asked, alarmed

"Ofcourse," replied his husband, grabbing a rifle of his own

"It's tradition,"

~+~

"Yuri? Yuri!!"

Despite keeping his voice in a wisper, Viktor was "shouting" as hard as he could, his heart skipping a beat with releif when he finally caught sight of his husband

"Viktor-?"

Viktor shushed him quickly, racing down the hall and grabbing Yuri by the arm before dragging him into their room

"Viktor Nikiforov, if you don't tell me what's going on right now-"

"I will, I will, just... we have to hide first," he insisted, dragging Yuri by the wrist as he slid a panel in the wall aside, climbing into it and pulling Yuri with him before shutting the pannel and settling inside the wall, Yuri beside him

"What. The. FUCK. Viktor?" his husband seethed

And honestly, Viktor didn't blame him- he didn't blame Yuri at all

Rather, he gave a shaking breath and pulled his phone out to turn the light on, finally exhaling, atleast for the moment

"My family is trying to kill you,"

A pause, a beat, and then, in a hushed voice- "What?!"

"Shh, we have to keep our voices down," Viktor insisted, watching Yuri's expression flicker breifly to frustration before simmering down a little, his lover's shoulders sagging

"Explain," he demanded lowly

Viktor inhaled through his nose, pushing his hair back with his fingers and staring down listlessly at the wall panel

"It's a very long story-"

"Clearly I have time,"

Nodding, Viktor continued

"My family isn't Catholic like most Russians..... they uh... kind of went the other way, they're devil worshipers,"

Another pause

"Devil worshipers?" Yuri repeated incredulously

"Yeah, and not just your freindly neighborhood Satanists either, they're the human sacrificing kind, I left the 'faith' when I was a teenager and finally ran away from my family a few years later,"

"...Keep going," Yuri insisted quietly, though his voice held much less of an angry edge this time around

"Everytime someone marries into the family, they're forced to play a game at midnight, you know that part, and most of them are completely harmless.... except one,"

"Let me guess, Hide And Seek?" Yuri noted dryly, earning a nod in response

"Unlike normal Hide And Seek, those who seek aim to kill, if you get found by morning they'll sacrifice you to the devil, if you're still alive by sunrise though, everyone in my family will die,"

That brought a flicker of shock and confusion against Yuri's face, his mouth falling slightly open

"....Run that past me again?"

"Well unlike normal Hide And Seek, this version of the game has teams, there's my family's team and then there's your team, the uh... the bride's, and please don't take offense to the gendered title, it's antiquated and-"

"I think at this point I'm more concerned about living than political correctness so go on,"

"Right... well, the goal of my family is to sacrifice the 'bride' before sunrise, but at any point, a family member can ditch out and join the 'bride's' team, their only goal is to stay alive until sunrise when the game ends, no matter wich way it goes, everyone on the losing team is going to die, Yakov never really explained that part well, I mean, he says that the demons will come for the losing team but I don't think I believe in that shit, I think maybe it's just up to the winners to execute the losers, or maybe a rival pakhan comes to wipe out the losing team, I don't know, nor do I care, I just know that it happened once before when Yakov was around my age... anyway-"

"So wait... you joined my team," Yuri said slowly

"So... so if we lose, we die, but if we win, your entire family dies?"

"That's right,"

".....And you still joined my team?"

"Ofcourse," Viktor breathed, wrapping his hand around Yuri's

"How could I not? I love you more than anything Yuri, more than life it's self, certainly more than anyone else... don't get me wrong, it isn't that I hate my family- atleast not most of them- but this entire thing is wrong, even if I didn't love you I don't think I could just stand by and watch an innocent person get murdered.... I can't do this, I can't let them kill my beloved Yuri, I can't... even if it means that they die, I left this family years ago.... I think I've known for a wile now what my decision would be if it ever came to this,"

Yuri was quiet, slowly locking his fingers around Viktor's, before his expression grew angry again

"Wait.... you knew," he said slowly

"You've known about this insanity for years and you STILL married me!? You didn't even tell me!"

"I can explain but please keep your voice down," Viktor urged with a wince

"Yes, I know, not telling you was horrible, but... I was backed into a corner... that sort of leads me to the other secret I've been keeping... my family is a bratva, the-"

"Russian mob," Yuri concluded, unimpressed

"...Right, they've been trying to get me back into the family- and our business- since I left but clearly to no avail, when whoever of their spies found out that I had fallen in love, I received a threatening message from them- they knew I loved you, if I didn't marry you within six months, they would kill you, they'd kill you if we eloped, and even if I tried to break up with you, they left me no choice.... it would have been all too easy, I know, for them to have come through on any and all of those promises, atleast this way you had a chance, no one has drawn that damned card in twenty years, and despite my fears I didn't actually think that you would...."

"...I understand," Yuri said after a beat, much to Viktor's releif

"I understand, just... tell me one thing? ..Did you actually want to marry me?"

Viktor exhaled, albeit a bit shakily

"More than anything in the entire world Yuri,"

That, atleast, brought a slight smile to Yuri's face, as tired and anxious as it was

"How did your family even get wrapped up in all this madness to begin with?"

"Ah... it started generations and generations ago, my great grand-whatever Aleksander had fallen on hard times and was homeless, the pakhan of the time, Illya, found him on the street one day and decided that Aleksander could be usefull to him, so he made him an offer- if he could beat Illya at a game, he would have a spot in the mafia, and that game was-"

"Let me guess, Hide And Seek?"

"Right," Viktor chuckled

"Aleksander won, and was granted a position in the bratva, he was promised that he and his family would always prosper and remain in the bratva for as long as the bloodline continued, so long as-"

"You make a human sacrifice to the devil every so often?"

"You've got it," Viktor sighed softly

"I'm so sorry Yuri.... I swear if there had been any other way, I would have taken it, you mean everything to me and I never would have risked your life if I'd had any other choice,"

"I know," Yuri promised softly, gently squeezing Viktor's hand

"I don't blame you, we just have to get out of here, ok? We can't hide all night, we have to get out,"

"Yes but all of the doors and windows have been automatically locked from the control room-"

"You have a control room?"

Viktor paused, giving a small shrug

"We have security cameras and a very high-end security system so yes,"

Well, Yuri supposed that made sense...

"Anyway, they're all locked automatically, so in order to open anything, we'll have to get to the control room,"

"Not necessarily.... what's the easiest exit to reach?"

"That'd probably be the basement, I don't think they'll be checking down there much, especially so early in the night, as there aren't many places to hide, but the door-"

"I can get it unlocked," Yuri interrupted

"I know it's locked automatically but... just trust me, ok? Let's just say that my family has a few secrets of our own,"

Viktor's eyebrows raised, but he decided not to ask

"Alright, I trust you, let's get to the basement then, once we get out of here we'll spend the night in a public place like a hospital or the airport, they'll be too busy checking hotels to look there first, and they won't be able to get in easily with weapons, much less kill us in front of other people, and if we choose the airport, we can get a flight out of here, we um... have a flight to Hawaii at eight, actually,"

Yuri smiled softly at that, their dream vacation.... some place tropical and warm and full of peacefullness...

"The only problem is our tickets and passports are in our luggage, so it looks like the hospital is our better bet,"

"Except that we don't have our wallets either and there's no way we can walk to the hospital, we'd have to get a cab," Yuri pointed out

"Ah... damn.... you're right..."

"How far are we from your room? If we can get there and get our bag, we'll be able to work this out,"

"We're in Emil's room right now, so mine is next door, there's another panel in my room, if we crawl through that way we should be able to get out, grab our bag, and then come back in this way, there's a dumbwaiter in the hall, if we keep crawling through the walls until we get there then we can discretely get to the basement and enact whatever plan you have,"

"Alright, got it," Yuri confirmed with a nod, shifting onto his hands and nees to start crawling in the direction of Viktor's room, only for his husband to place a hand on his shoulder, stopping him

"Yuri... I know now is probably not the best time but... do you still.... want to be my husband?"

Yuri glanced over his shoulder, smiling sincerely at his partner

"Absolutely,"

With releif clear on his face, Viktor smiled, shifting as well to follow Yuri through the walls, guiding him the appropriate amount of paces until they reached the panel to his room

He was glad that he had spent so much time as a kid sneaking around and scoping out the inner workings of the house, he hadn't known then if it would ever come in handy, but it was certainly clear now that it had

"Right here," he instructed quietly, shifting again and carefully pushing the panel out and aside, slipping out.... just in time to come face to face with one of his family members and a gun

"Got you," the Cao Bin chuckled, raising his rifle, and wrapping his finger around the trigger

Before Viktor could do much of anything, Yuri was behind him, his hands out in front of him, making a shifting motion with his fingers

At first he had no idea what his husband was doing, but then he saw it

In fascination and just a little bit of horror, he watched as Cao shakily shifted the rifle, positioning it under his chin, the entire time starting to scream, begging to know what was happening, what was going on, until... *BANG*

Slowly, Viktor turned his attention to Yuri, completely stunned

"What... was that..... did you do that...?"

"I told you, my family has some secrets of our own," he explained, slipping out of the wall himself and hurrying to the bed

There were footsteps and hushed murmuring closing in on them, they didn't have time to waste

"What secrets? That you're-?"

"Witches," Yuri concluded, grabbing their overnight bag from where it lay next to the bed

"I told you, remember?"

"I just... always thought you were like... Wiccan witches or something..."

"Well, we're sort of both but... look I'll explain later ok? Right now we have bigger problems,"

Viktor glanced at the open entrance of the room, at the shadows that were quickly appearing on the wall outside, and nodded hurriedly, reaching out to grab Yuri by the arm and rush him back into the walls

"I couldn't agree more,"

~+~

"So what's the gimmick here?"

"Gimmick?"

"Yeah, you know, I get it, pretending to hunt down Viktor and his lovely husband with fake weapons, giving them a little scare, I think it's a bit early for Halloween but-"

"This isn't fake, Christophe,"

Chris paused, his expression immediately turning from casual to concerned

Masumi had used his full name... that only happened when he was absolutely dead serious....

"...Excuse me...?"

"This isn't fake," Masumi repeated, his expression grim and serious

"I told you about this after we got married Chris-"

"I thought you were joking!"

Masumi only looked away, clearly ashamed

"Masumi... you can't seriously be telling me that you intend to kill an innocent person..."

"No ofcourse not, I would just... turn him over to Feltsman...."

"So that he can kill him?!"

"It isn't like this is some kind of joke, it's our lives or their's, I told you what would happen if Yuri Katsuki lives to see the sunrise,"

"And you... actually believe that nonsense?!"

Masumi sighed, rubbing his face tiredly

"I'm not saying that, but I am saying that I know for a fact that losing teams end up dead, that's what happened to my father, maybe it isn't demons, but they get killed by someone, I don't know who it is but it happens everytime and I'm not going to let that happen to you, Christophe, I'm not going to let you get hurt,"

"Well I'm not going to let an innocent person get killed," Chris insisted with utter seriousness, his eyes narrowed and his face scrunched up with clear displeasure

Masumi swallowed, tense as a harp string, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple

"Then... what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I want to switch teams,"

"Even if it would mean my death?"

"Darling.... come with me," Chris insisted softly, gently wrapping his hands around his husband's and giving them a squeeze

"You can switch teams too, right?"

"And what would happen if I did? Either we would die... or my entire family would die,"

"A family you don't even know," Chris pointed out

"A family you've said yourself that you try to stay distant from, that you never even see except for occasions like this one, that you were raised to be wary of, you told me that your mother raised you in Japan to keep you away from them so why would you kill an innocent person to keep them alive? To let this horror go on again next time? And the time after that, and the time after that?"

"It isn't that simple," Masumi insisted, averting his eyes from Chris's intense gaze

"It would be four against a dozen, you can't actually think we would make it out of that alive,"

"Isn't it worth it to try?" Chris said softly, gently squeezing his husband's hand

"I'm not.... Masumi.... my darling, I love you so much... but I can't just let an innocent person die for some.... bullshit like this,"

"Chris-"

"What if it had been me?" Chris interrupted

"What if I had drawn that card on our wedding night? Would you have killed me too?"

"Ofcourse not,"

"Then how can you be ok with doing this to someone else? How can you take from Viktor what you would have never allowed to be taken from you?"

Masumi was quiet for a long moment, before finally taking a deep breath, his expression just as grim as before

"There's no talking you out of this, is there?"

"I'm afraid not, cheri,"

"Then..... let's go find Viktor and his husband, see if we can help them,"

Chris smiled with releif, pulling Masumi closer and giving him a deep kiss

"I knew I married you for a reason,"

~+~

*BANG!!*

"Goddammit Georgi!!"

The man was pale, watching as the figure before him slowly fell to the floor, a massive hole dripping with blood and grey matter marring the once pretty face

"I... I thought it was Katsuki..." he mumbled, yelping as his wife swatted him on the back of the head

"You shot the maid dumbass! Did she look like she was wearing a suit to you!?"

"Well they're both black and white!"

"And you wonder why I want a divorce," Anya muttered under her breath, huffing and putting her hands on her hips, the sound of shuffling footsteps echoing closer, prompting her to glance up

"What was that? What happened? Did you-.... what happened to Masha?"

"Georgi made a 'mistake'," Anya huffed back irritably, watching her uncle-in-law's face turn from concerned to annoyed rather quickly

"Really Georgi? You shot the maid?"

"I thought she was Katsuki!" Georgi cried again, gesturing wildly to the corpse on the ground

"Damn, and she was my favorite," Lilia sighed with irritation, shaking her head and glaring up at Georgi

"After the ritual, you're going to clean this up,"

"Y-Yes Ma'am..." Georgi squeaked, rubbing the back of his neck as Yakov shook his head

"Well, we're wasting time discussing it, you two go down the west end, we'll take east,"

"Yes Sir," Anya affirmed seriously, dragging Georgi down the correct direction

"Don't worry," Yakov mused as he walked towards the corpse, bending down and taking the handgun she had been carrying- for self-defense, ofcourse

"We have two others,"

"Yes," Lilia said with a small huff

"Two far less competent others,"

"Well, we'll hire another on Monday," Yakov sighed, standing up and nodding for Lilia to follow him down the other direction

A few moments passed wherein the hall was relatively quiet, and as the minutes ticked by, the panel in the wall slowly slid open, Viktor peeking out to make sure that all was clear before carefully slipping out of the wall, helping Yuri out as well, his husband adjusting the evening purse he'd stuffed their most important information into

Carrying around a cumbersome duffle bag wile trying to get away from these lunatics was likely not the best idea, so Yuri found himself more and more greatfull as the moments passed by that he'd had the forethought to bring an evening purse with him

"The dumbwaiter is right here," Viktor explained under his breath, shifting another panel aside and cursing when he realized that the thing was already on the floor below

He leaned over, pressing the button for it to rise back up to this floor

Yuri, meanwile, was standing watch, tensing immediately when he caught sight of a couple of shadows moving around the corner

"Honestly Georgi, you're useless..." Anya muttered as she revealed herself, Georgi right behind her

Yuri and Anya locked eyes for a moment- just a breif moment- before Anya raised her crossbow and fired

Yuri gasped, holding his hands up as the arrow suddenly froze in midair

Anya looked appropriately perplexed, but fired another arrow all the same, wich Yuri also managed to freeze

"What... what the fuck!?"

Yuri swallowed, his heart racing as he watched Georgi hurriedly load his gun, albeit with some difficulty

"Viktor... Viktor hurry!" Yuri hissed, trying not to raise his voice, but apparently that was the wrong choice, as Anya immediately caught on and foiled his plan

"WE'VE GOT THEM!!!" she shouted loudly

"THEY'RE IN THE HALL!!"

"Shit!"

Viktor decided that there was no time to waste and grabbed Yuri by the wrist, wich was enough to startle the magic out of place, the arrows dropping to the floor with a clatter as footsteps and voices began to close in around them, just as Georgi cocked his gun into place and aimed

Cursing, Yuri only saw one way out of this, and with all of his energy, summoned fire to his hands, and snapped his fingers, the flames catching on the tail of Anya's dress and sending it into a firey blaze, drawing a scream out of the woman and, thankfully, distracting Georgi long enough for the two of them to get away, Yuri's fingers hooking around an arrow just long enough to grab it and take it with them

"This way!" Viktor shouted, hurrying towards the nearest bedroom as the footsteps of the others closed in around them, hurrying to slide under the bed and drag Yuri down underneath it with him

"V-Viktor... I-I need... bathroom..." Yuri mumbled, gagging slightly and covering his hand over his mouth

"Shit.. ok... alright.. just.. can you hang on for just a few minutes? Just until they scatter?"

Yuri nodded weakly, eyes closing for just a moment as Viktor held him close

Please he thought desperately

Just hold on a moment longer...

~+~

"What do you mean he was using magic?"

"I mean he was using magic!! My arrows froze in mid-air! And he caught my dress on fire!" Anya shouted

"That doesn't mean he was using magic," Yura argued with an annoyed huff, tying his long blonde hair up and pinning it into a messy bun

"In case you're new to planet Earth, magic isn't real,"

"Don't you think I know that!?" Anya screamed, groaning as she stared down at the charred remains of her dress

"This was Valentino!"

"I'll buy you another one," Georgi comforted quickly, earning a glare from his wife

"I would have preferred you get me their heads!"

"Y-You were on fire my love!"

"Can we get back to the magic for a sec?" JJ asked, one hand on his hip, eyebrows raised

"It could have been an illusion," Isabella suggested, tapping her chin

"Oh trust me Bella, those flames were very real!" Anya huffed, glaring down at the burnt tufts of chiffon

"That isn't what I meant, I'm saying.... they killed Cao Bin, he was a smoker wasn't he?"

The group nodded confirmatively

"So then he probably had a pack of matches on him, Katsuki could have struck one without you noticing it, amidst the chaos, and tossed it on you,"

"And the arrows?" Anya challenged

"Wires," Otabek offered with a small shrug

"There are papper flowers strung up in every hallway for the wedding celebration, he could have used the wires somehow to ensnare the arrows,"

"That's my Beka, so fucking smart," Yura purred, a grin on his face as he leaned into his husband's side

Anya seemed uconvinced, but did little to actually object

"Interesting tactic, trying to fool us rather than hide or fight directly," Isabella mused

"Yeah, real 'interesting', personally I don't give a fuck what his tactics are, let's just catch him already," Yura huffed, shifting his rifle over his shoulder

"Beka and I will go downstairs in case they're heading that way, you four split up up here,"

Earning nods from the others, the group broke apart, Yura taking Otabek's hand and dragging him back towards the stairs

"Yura... I don't know about all of this," he said after a beat, earning a raised brow from the other man

"Hm? What'd'ya' mean?"

"I mean I'm... I'm not sure how I feel about hunting down an innocent person like an animal and murdering them,"

"Don't worry about that," Yura shrugged casually

"You joined the bratva long before you met me ya' know, you've killed people before,"

"But not innocent ones, and not like this,"

"Are you really so sure that they've all been innocent?" Yura asked, eyebrows raised

"I mean let's be totally honest here Beka, our kill list isn't exactly small, and you've never really asked any of them if they were innocent or not,"

Otabek frowned, but he didn't argue any further, rather, letting Yura drag him along downstairs, although his expression was still uncertain

He couldn't quite put it into words, Yura was right, but.... this was still somehow just.... different

And he absolutely hated it

~+~

"That's it Yuri, it's ok,"

Yuri dry-heaved one more time, panting with desperation as he slumped against the toilet, his body shaking

He hadn't thrown up, but he sure as hell felt like he was going to

"I understand now, we really can't rely on your magic for everything hm?"

Yuri shook his head slowly, just relieved that the nausea was starting to pass

He had explained to Viktor as his husband helped him to the bathroom that his magic wasn't some miracle cure-all, they couldn't rely on it for everything at all times, as most magic relied in specific spellwork and rituals, what he could pull out of the palm of his hand- literally- was limited and based only on energy magic, wich was exceedingly draining and overuse could make Yuri sick or even kill him if he wasn't carefull

Using four powerfull spells in less than half an hour hadn't really been his brightest moment, and now he was paying for it

"I'm sorry for pushing you Yuri..."

"No, really it's-.... you didn't push me, we had no choice... I'm just sorry I can't be stronger..."

"Stop that, you're the last person who should ever apologize for anything, least of all for strength, you're the strongest person I know," Viktor insisted seriously

Yuri only gave a half shrug, taking another shaky breath and resting his forehead against the cool porcelain, barely noticing when Viktor stood up to fetch a cloth for his head, the water running from the sink catching his ear, but he couldn't pay much attention to it

"Have you ever.... participated in this... before?" he asked quietly, voice barely loud enough for Viktor to hear

"...No," his husband replied after a beat, wringing the wet cloth free of excess water before returning to Yuri's side and settling next to him again, gently helping him up and pressing the cold cloth against his head

"I was too young, the last time it happened, but I.... I.... heard it... happening, from upstairs... I um.... I snuck out of my room to.... I wanted to see what was going on and I... saw more than I bargained for, to be honest it was so shocking that for years I just thought it was a nightmare... I.. was too afraid to even ask my mother about it but... well, when I became a teenager I got 'the talk', most fifteen-year-old boys having 'the talk' have to learn about condoms and pregnancy, I had to learn about human sacrifice and elephant rifles,"

Yuri gave a single, humorless laugh, his lips curving into a slight grin

"Well it's always nice to know you aren't the only one who had an awkward 'talk' as a kid,"

"Whatever awkwardness you went through Yuri, I think I'd rather switch places with you," Viktor snorted, his arm wrapping gently around his husband as Yuri sat up fully

"Mm.. mine was at thirteen, I heard the 'this is why you shouldn't have unprotected sex unless you want a baby' speech and the 'this is why you shouldn't use a love potion unless you want to unleash holy terror on the world' speech in the same hour, both delivered by my instructor, who knew I was bi almost before I did, and decided to throw in the 'by the way this is why lube is important' speech right alongside them,"

"Progressive, my uncle refused to ever talk to me about sex- especially as I came out when I was incredibly young... seven maybe? Six? I don't know... anyway, his sex talk to me was 'you're resourcefull enough to use the internet' and that was about it,"

"Sounds like a class act,"

"Mmm, not for the first time I feel blessed that I'm gay, I shudder to think what he would have said if there were any chance of my sleeping with women, there's some sort of irony, I think, that the only times he's ever had to be saddled with giving 'the talk', they were both to his gay nephews,"

"That's not 'irony', that's 'the universe making a point'," Yuri snorted, glancing up at Viktor with a small frown when he realized his husband wasn't chuckling with him

"Viktor?" he asked softly, taking note of the solemn expression on his face

"You know.... Yura and I were always the closest of everyone in this God-foresaken family, growing up that is.... when I left Satanism, he got angry, got worried for my soul, but when I left the family.... well he started to absolutely despise me then, I never held it against him, and now...... now the next time I see him, he'll either be aiming a gun at my head or-...."

Yuri's lips pursed, gently curling his fingers around Viktor's hand and giving it a squeeze

"I'm sorry,"

"No... really, stop apologizing my love... you're the last person in this house who should ever apologize for anything..."

With that, Viktor paused, clearing his throat and forcing a smile

"So, love potions huh? That's a thing?"

"A dangerous thing," Yuri corrected, carefully rising to his feet, Viktor following suit a second later

"Love potions are the worst kind of consent-taker, they not only take your physical and mental consent away, they take away your emotional consent, and people who are on them will stop at nothing to obtain or please the object of their affection, they're well known for making people do crazy things, they're illegal, but like all illegal substances there's always someone out there somewhere brewing and selling them," he explained, adjusting his purse as he moved towards the door

"And do you know how to brew one?" Viktor asked curiously

"No, and even if I did, I wo-"

*BANG!*

There was a hole in the door now, only inches away from where Yuri was standing

The bullet had barely missed him

"You know, for people who are supposed to be hiding, you aren't very quiet!" Georgi shouted through the door, loading another shot into the gun

"It's almost as though you aren't taking this seriously!"

Silently, Viktor took Yuri by the hand, pushing him to the floor and moving to stand in the corner by the edge of the door, pressing himself flush against the wall and grabbing the arrow he had taken from the hall earlier, holding it tightly and squeezing his eyes shut as another shot plowed through the door

"I have to wonder if you even locked the door! Is this gun even necessary!?"

As Georgi loaded another shot, Viktor took that opportunity to unlock the door, as silently as possible, but the sound of the chambers turning was still enough to catch Georgi's attention

"Ha! You think doing it now will save you!?" he cackled, turning the handle down

Perfect

"You can't even turn the lock the right way, are you that nervous Vitya!?" Georgi howled as he pushed the door open, just in time for Viktor to swing forward and thrust the arrow through Georgi's eye, a scream leaving his cousin as he dropped his rifle and stumbled backwards

"Georgi!?" Anya shouted, growling in irritation as she spun on her heel and aimed her crossbow

"Viktor, duck!" Yuri shouted, luckily Viktor's reflexes were fast enough to listen, as he wasted no time hitting the floor, a gust of fire suddenly rushing above him and encasing both Anya and Georgi in flames

Screams of agony echoed around them, Yuri dropping the can of hairspray he had gotten from the cabinet as a makeshift flame thrower

With the help of the hairspray, he hadn't needed to do more than summon a small spark of flames to his fingertips to get them out of this mess, but...

"Yuri!"

Viktor had his hand in a second, pulling him past the two quickly burning bodies and reaching down to get Georgi's rifle, though there was no saving the crossbow

"Are you alright?" he asked urgently as they rushed out of the room they'd been hiding in

"I think I need food..." Yuri panted softly, another wave of nausea hitting him

"Too much magic... not enough energy...."

"Alright," Viktor nodded, leading him to the door and peering out to quickly scan the hallway

Empty, thank goodness

"The kitchen has an exit, we'll use that one instead of the basement and grab an apple or something on the way out, will that suffice?"

With a quick nod of confirmation from Yuri, Viktor exhaled, his grip tightening on his husband's hand

"Good, our next stop will be the weapons room then, just in case, after that, kitchen,"

Without another word, the two finally sprinted into the hall, moving as quickly and quietly as they could

~+~

"Hey there all you hunter enthusiasts out there, I'm Dave Campbell and this is- Getting To Know Your Crossbow,"

"Mickey, is that really necessary?" Sara sighed, tilting her head back and crossing one leg over the other

"Ofcourse it is, I don't know how to work this thing! I don't think anyone in this century does,"

"Actually, crossbows are still pretty popular weaponry," Mila commented casually

"Then why don't we switch? I'll take the axe and you take this thing," Michele suggested sourly, earning a laugh from Mila

"I said they're popular, not that I know how to use them, I called dibs, I'm keeping the labrys,"

"You know, technically, labrys are a symbol of lesbianism, not bisexuality, so shouldn't Sara have the labrys?" Emil suggested as he leaned boredly against the back of the couch

"No thanks, I'm happy with my pistol," Sara said quickly, shaking off the notion

"Honestly, all of this is a little too violent for my taste anyway,"

"Coming from a mafia princess? You have to admit, that's kind of funny darling," Mila chuckled

"But I just work the books! I've never done any of the bloody work," Sara insisted with a pout

"Well then, I guess tonight will be a night of firsts for several of us, what with-"

"HEY!!"

The four looked up simultaneously, meeting eyes with a furious Yura

"Is there a reason you four are sitting around on your asses instead of working like you should be!?"

"Yakov said we should guard the weapons room, since they're likely to stop here first if they come downstairs," Mila explained casually, biting into a cookie from the snack plate on the table

"First of all, that doesn't take four people hag! Just two of you lazy fucks! And second of all, 'guarding' isn't what you're doing, you're fucking lazing around! Now get the fuck up and actually DO something or I'll shoot your asses myself! FUCK!"

"Jeez, aren't you taking this a little too seriously?" Mila huffed, a pout marring her face

"Too seriously?" Yura growled, voice low and dangerous, his eyes narrowing and his nose wrinkling

"Do you have any idea who we're up against? Viktor Nikiforov is the most dangerous person in this house other than me, he took out the entire Gorokhov family when he was seventeen, and he didn't even have anything he wanted to protect back then! Now though?"

He paused, taking a step closer to Mila, growling lowly

"Now, he'll stop at nothing to protect that... that... sacrificial PIG he married, though come to think of it... you don't know what lead him to finally leaving this family, do you Mila?"

Now considerably less amused, Mila swallowed, shaking her head slowly

"Well he was considering it for years, don't get me wrong, but the incident that pushed him over the edge? Somebody shot his dog, she survived mind you, but do you know what happened to the unlucky bastard who pulled the trigger?"

Again, Mila shook her head, fear starting to creep into her formerly relaxed expression

"Viktor tore him to peices, with nothing but cutlery, make no mistake, Viktor Nikiforov is a fucking madman, and if you don't start taking this seriously? He'll rip you to shreds too! He tore out someone's eyeballs with a fucking soup spoon over a dog, I can only fathom what he would do if somebody shot his bride,"

~+~

"I'm sorry Yuri, I'd give you the rifle but I'm afraid the kickback is more than you can handle, even experienced shooters have a hard time with these things," Viktor frowned worriedly

"Don't worry about it, I still have my magic, you need the gun more than I do,"

Viktor seemed considerably less convinced, with how much using magic like this tended to take out of Yuri, he was worried about what would happen the next time he had to use it in an emergency, and they still needed to conserve some of his energy to get the doors unlocked too, although Yuri had assured him that was a much simpler spell than things like summoning fire or manipulating someone else's body...

But he still worried

"I did want to ask you something though," the witch noted, peering out behind a corner

No one seemed to be waiting on them....

"Oh?"

"Mm, how often has the uh... 'bride's' team won this game? Just... from what you know?"

"From what I know... it's happened once," Viktor answered, following behind his husband, at this point they were actually rather close to the dumbwaiter again, it was putting Yuri's health at risk, but if they could get in it and head to the basement, they could definitely get out of the house more easily than going through the kitchen...

"How many people were on the bride's team?"

"Hm... five or six? I do remember hearing it was the biggest bridal team to ever exist and that was why they won, typically no one joins the bridal team, for... semi-obvious reasons, even the groom, ofcourse in all fairness this game isn't played often either,"

Yuri hummed softly in consideration of that, feeling a slight wave of releif when he approached the hall with the dumbwaiter, the other fallen arrow from Anya's attempt on his life laying haphazardly on the floor

"Found a weapon," he smirked, bending down to pick it up

However, as he did so, the panel to the dumbwaiter opened, revealing one of the other maids, the man's face streaked with tears and his hands slowly raising in surrender

"I-I don't know what's going on, what the hell is happening?! Has everybody lost their minds!?"

"It's a long story, but don't worry, no one is after you," Yuri promised quickly, offering his hand out to the stranger, who hesitated for a breif moment before taking Yuri's hand and greatfully sliding out of the dumbwaiter

"What's going on?" the maid insisted a second time

"Like I said, it's a long-"

*BANG*

Before Yuri even had the chance to finish his sentence, there was a hole in the maid's head, the man sliding down to the floor with a *thump* as the witch quickly turned his attention back to the figures who had just arrived in the hall

"Oooh JJ you did it!!"

"Yeah!!"

"You realize, ofcourse, that you shot one of the maids," Viktor noted with only mild irritation, his gun already aimed, finger resting over the trigger

That seemed to wipe the amusement off of the faces of JJ and his wife, who exchanged glances breifly before JJ raised his gun again

Too bad for him that Viktor had a much quicker trigger finger, firing the gun and blowing a hole through JJ's head

Isabella screamed, dropping her weapon and collapsing to the ground, shaking her husband and shouting for him to wake up

Viktor used the opportunity to help Yuri into the dumbwaiter, but before he could get in himself, Isabella was firing her gun, forcing him to duck

"Get to the door," he ordered, crouching down and pressing the button for the dumbwaiter

"V-Viktor!?"

"Get out of here Yuri, go!!"

"VIKTOR!!!"

Before Yuri had any chances of getting out, the dumbwaiter was shut and going down, and even if Yuri could have used his magic to stop the dumbwaiter and open it again, he needed to conserve his energy as much as possible

He huffed, clearly irritated as the dumbwaiter continued to lower, he was going to have some serious words for Viktor the next time they saw eachother...

Meanwile, it didn't actually take much effort for Viktor to kill Isabella, she was inexperienced and a terrible shot, having shot the only round in his rifle, he had only needed to hurry over to JJ's gun, pick it up, and fire, for the chaos to be- atleast momentarily- over

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the craziness to pick up again, Viktor had only just managed to get Isabella out of his way before the sound of footsteps echoed around him, the familiar faces of his uncle and aunt appeared around the corner

"Vitya... where is he?" Yakov growled, anger clear on his face as he took a step forward, albeit hesitant, Viktor had his gun raised after all

"Do you really think I'm going to tell you?" Viktor snorted with fake amusement

"Dammit Vitya, stop acting like a child! Do you think this is some sort of game!?"

"Ofcourse I do, hide and seek, right?" Viktor answered casually, only earning another growl of irritation from his uncle

"I wish I could find it hard to believe that you're abandoning your family for some random boy you met in Japan, but actually that's very in charector for you, I just wish I knew where I went wrong raising you that made you this way!"

"Where you went wrong!?" Viktor huffed in disbeleif, barking a laugh

"I think training me as an assassin from childhood and making me sacrifice a goat to fucking SATAN when I was twelve were pretty big indicators of going wrong Yakov!!"

"Well when would you have started inducting a child to Satanic sacrifices then!?"

"I wouldn't have!" Viktor screamed back

"You never could see the bigger picture Viktor, you take after your mother that way,"

"DON'T!" Viktor snarled, firing the gun with a loud *BANG!*

"Don't ever talk about my mother.... ever...."

~+~

Yuri was not going anywhere without Viktor- that much was a predetermined fact, wich meant that when he landed in the basement, he had no intention of taking the exit

He did, however, make the decision to go ahead and unlock the door ahead of time, before going back upstairs to claim Viktor, having even that small amount of preparedness already out of the way could be the difference between life and death if they were being chased and shot at when they got to the basement the second time around

So he stood in front of the door, his hand positioned in front of it, and with a simple jerk of his hand, the nob twisted, and the lock came undone

Good...

With that finished, he decided it would probably be best to go back to the dumbwaiter and go back upstairs, Viktor couldn't have gone too far in such a short amount of time after all, and it would certainly be a better option than going back up via the stairs, especially without knowing where exactly he was, and certainly hadn't memorized the layout of the house well enough- or at all- to figure out how to get around the various twists and turns of the mansion

However, upon turning around, he did pause for a moment, feeling a cold sense of dread start to sink into the pit of his stomach

This so-called "basement" was quite a bit different than he had first imagined

It wasn't a simple storage space or even a finished out den, it looked alot more like a... morgue...

Ofcourse he supposed that wasn't too surprising, considering Viktor's family was in the mafia, but he was startled all the same

His nose wrinkled slightly, biting slowly into his lower lip as he looked around the space

It was cold and clinical, with a big metal table near the center, and various peices of medical supplies laying about on trays and counter tops

Part of Yuri wondered if this was a sort of makeshift clinic, or more of a... dismemberment center....

Maybe it doubled as both

Oh well, he couldn't afford to get squeamish, he was being handed potential weapons on a plate here, he couldn't get picky about what they were or where they came from, so he hurried over to one of the metal trays and immediately grabbed a scalpel, as well as a pair of surgical scissors

He was in the middle of reaching for an electric bone saw when he startled, hearing a noise behind him

Turning slowly, his stomach sank again, taking note of the two who had entered the room

"I thought I heard something down here," noted the brunette, a man Yuri vaguely remembered overhearing at the ceremony earlier

"OOoh look who caught the bouquet!! So Mickey's the next to get married huh?"

"You know just because you married my sister Mila, that doesn't mean we're freinds,"

Mickey....

Right, Yuri remembered him, and that meant that the blonde next to him was his boyfriend, Emil

"If this doesn't cement us as part of the family Mickey, nothing will," Emil grinned, giving the handle of his ax a hefty pat against his palm

Yuri felt a bead of sweat trickle down his temple, gritting his teeth

He was dangerously low on energy at this point, he didn't know if he could take the two of them on with just his magic, but he didn't think he had enough weapons on him to take them out without it either

"For once I agree with you, and even better, it'll impress Sara so much! She won't have to get her hands dirty at all, wich will make me her knight in shining armor!! Meaning that this was a very appropriate choice in weapon," Michele chuckled, giving his sword a fancy flick as he took a step closer to Yuri

But Yuri didn't step back, as a matter of fact, he forced himself to stand his ground, maybe he could get in something sneaky...

"What's the deal with you and your sister anyway?" he asked, distracting Michele for atleast a moment

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you talk about her more like she's your girlfreind than your sister,"

"What?! How dare you ever suggest that I would have such terrible thoughts about my little sister you perverted little man!!!"

"I'm just saying, I have a sister too, but I'd never talk about her like that,"

"You have no right to talk about my feelings for Sara!!"

For once it seemed that Yuri's sass was actually doing him a favor rather than getting him into trouble, and as Michele charged at him, he dropped down, swiping the scalpel against the other man's ankle and drawing a scream from him as the skin sliced open, probably cutting through a tendon if the way he crumpled to the ground was any indication

"MICKEY!" Emil shouted, charging forward with the axe, but Yuri had the advantage of a few extra seconds this time around, snatching the bone saw from the table and turning it on just as Emil swung towards him, screams leaving the blonde as the saw cut through him, the axe easily missing it's mark now that there was a blade cutting through Emil's arm

Yuri sensed movement behind him, turning just as Michele rose up with his sword, aiming it towards Yuri's neck--...

*Thuck*

Yuri exhaled shakily, watching as the arrow jammed it's self into Michele's forehead, the man falling backwards, a shouted "MICKEY!" coming from Emil, but before he could mourn for long, another arrow shot through his throat, successfully quieting him, other than a few stray gurggles of blood, that is

Yuri panted out a few more breaths, turning the saw off and jerking his head up

"Vikt-?! ......You're not Viktor...."

"No, I'd say not, mon cher,"

Yuri gritted his teeth, turning the saw back on as he slowly rose to his feet

"Relax darling, we're on your side," Chris promised, holding his hands up in surrender

"As evidenced by the fact that two of my freinds are now dead," added his husband as Masumi slid his bow back over his shoulder

"Freinds huh?"

"Well... Michele is family by technicality, Emil is- was- future family,"

Slowly, Yuri turned the saw off again, confident that if he absolutely had to, he could atleast use enough magic to stun the two of them and run off

"We're on your team," Chris repeated, taking a cautious step closer and holding his hand out for Yuri

"....Why?" Yuri asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed

"Fair question," Chris chuckled

"I can't live with the idea of murdering an innocent person for some rediculous ritual, or for any reason really, I told Masumi that I wasn't going to let you die, and Masumi loves me so very much that he joined me,"

"...You can do that?"

"Well sure, I suppose Viktor didn't quite explain that part to you?"

Yuri slowly shook his head, but ultimately decided to take Chris's hand, letting the blonde pull him forward

"Come then, let's find your husband, I'll explain along the way,"

~+~

Dammit, Viktor never should have separated himself from Yuri...

He could only hope that his husband had already gotten out of the house, but he somehow felt that he hadn't

Oh well, atleast Yuri would be safe in the basement, and Viktor himself had snatched Yakov's gun and Lilia's sword after he incapacitated them both

They were both passed out now, tied up and locked in separate rooms, and Viktor looked like he was half-risen from the grave, his clothes disheveled, his hair completely wrecked, and a bleeding wound in his shoulder thanks to Lilia's sword, a gash seeping blood down his leg from where Yakov's bullet had grazed him

He knew, logically, that he should have killed them both, but....

He shook his head, biting his lip as he forced himself down the stairs, he was too far away from the dumbwaiter now to go back safely, he was pretty sure he had heard people coming up behind him anyway, so the stairs it was

Unfortunately, however, he barely got to the bottom of them before he was faced with yet another gun barrel

Damn....

"Where are you going, 'Cous?" Yura sneered, his eyes narrowed

"Yura... don't-"

"Don't what?" he snipped back

"And where's your little pet piggy?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you," Viktor huffed, swallowing as Yura cocked his gun

"No ofcourse not, because you chose his side, fucking traitor,"

"Call me whatever you want Yura, I'm never going to feel ok with you- or any of the others- trying to kill Yuri, I'm never going to be ok with this... this... INSANITY you all believe in!"

"Goddamn heretic," Yura sneered, taking a step closer

"I'll rid this family of the fucking smear you've left on our name, I'll make Le Bail happy with us and earn his favor,"

Viktor's expression shifted slightly, from on guard, to simply.... sad, his shoulders sagging and his frown turning down even further

"Oh Yura... you really believe in all this nonsense don't you? Surely you must know that..."

"SHUT UP!" Yura shouted, jamming his gun forward and forcing Viktor backwards a step, nearly causing him to stumble

"You don't know a damn thing!! And how would you? You ran from this family like a fucking coward years ago, no wonder Le Bail wants to get rid of you and that little pig you married!"

Viktor gritted his teeth, but before he could possibly respond, the sound of a scream echoed through the hall, managing to catch the attention of both men

"Goddammit Sara!" Yura growled irritably as he glared down at the fresh body on the floor

The body of the last maid

"I'm sorry!! I didn't mean to shoot!" she cried, dropping her gun

Yura growled out a few insults, but by the time he turned his attention back to Viktor-

"HEY!!"

The older man had jumped over the banister, rushing off down the hall in the opposite direction

Yura snarled and shot after him, but unfortunately missed, the bullet going into the wall instead of the back of Viktor's head as his cousin disappeared around a corner

"DAMMIT SARA!!"

~+~

"So people can switch teams as long as they do so before the one-hour-till-sunrise mark?"

"Right, to keep it from being one of those things where someone sees that their team is about to completely lose and switch at the last minute, atleast there's premeditation at this point, and to be completely fair, you actually can still switch after the one hour mark... but only if you kill one of your former teammates to prove your loyalty,"

"Who came up with these asinine rules?" Yuri sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and earning a small shrug from Chris in response

"The supposed demon I'm guessing,"

"I'm guessing," Yuri muttered back, taking a shaky breath as he pressed his hand against the wall, trying to keep himself up

"You ok?" Masumi frowned worriedly, stopping right behind Yuri

"Yeah, just um.... low blood sugar," he lied smoothly, eyebrows raising a little when Masumi started to fish through his pocket, pulling out an energy bar a moment later and offering it to him

"I'm diabetic, so.. always be prepared right? Please, take it,"

"O-Oh no.. I real-"

"Seriously, it's the least I can do for... momentarily trying to hunt you down for sport,"

Yuri laughed nervously, smiling a little as he accepted the food and eagerly unwrapped it, instantly feeling releif settle over him when he sank his teeth into the granola

Sure, it was just a psychological response to the promise of food, but he'd take it eagerly

"Thanks," he mumbled, straightening up a little as he walked

"Sure thing," Masumi smiled back, shifting his quiver of arrows

Yuri was quiet for a moment, before deciding that, if he was going to be putting his life in the hands of these two, he might as well get to know them a bit better

"How did you get involved in all of this anyway? I'm sorry for being blunt but it's just... you seem so... nice,"

"Thanks," Masumi chuckled back

"I was born into it, I'm not part of the bratva, my mom made sure of that when she and I moved to Japan, I was raised there, I only come back here for family occasions like this, mostly under thinly veiled threats,"

"Ah..." Yuri mumbled

"Chris isn't involved either, he just had the misfortune of marrying me,"

"I'm really more of a pacifist, I've never even killed a bug," Chris shrugged, earning a genuine smile from Yuri, it was nice to find someone else who wasn't as prone to violence in this crazy family

"Oh Yuri!! There you are!!"

Instantly, Masumi had an arrow drawn and Chris was aiming his pistol, though Yuri didn't know if he could actually pull the trigger, it was still a nice sentiment

For what little it was worth, Yuri had his bone saw turned on as well

"Woah woah, hey guys... I'm on your side," Mila laughed nervously, slowly putting her hands in the air, her axe strapped to her back and a gun holstered at her side... but... she did seem considerably less intimidating than the others...

"Why should we trust you?" Masumi asked suspiciously

"Um, because I'm not a total maniac?" she replied with another laugh

"Look, I was just playing along- Sara and I both- with Yakov and Lilia's crazy plans, but... they've both lost it, I never do any of the killing around here anyway, I'm basically just a secretary,"

When none of the weapons lowered, Mila sighed, her expression turning down a fair bit

"I can prove it to you if you need me to, just tell me what to do? Mostly though... I just really want to find Sara, have any of you seen her? I lost track of her a wile ago and I'm starting to get pretty scared,"

Masumi and Chris exchanged a look that Yuri couldn't quite read, before slowly lowering their weapons, prompting Yuri to do the same

"We haven't seen her, no," Chris replied, putting his gun away

"I see.... well, thank you anyway, and thanks for trusting me," Mila smiled softly, walking towards them with a relieved sigh

"Where's Viktor? Wasn't he with you before Yuri?"

"Yeah, we got separated when JJ and Isabella attacked us upstairs,"

"Oh my.... well, I never could say I cared much for JJ anyhow, but I liked Isabella, what a shame,"

Yuri swallowed, nose wrinkling a bit, that was an awfully cavalier way to respond to the news of what Yuri assumed to be their deaths- Mila certainly didn't seem concerned for Viktor's safety after all- but... then again, she was part of a mob family, maybe they were all like this...

"What's the escape plan boys?"

"Kitchen, we're going to wait on Viktor there, and there should be enough weapons available to parlay if we need to," Chris replied, earning a nod from Mila

"Good idea, then-"

The sound of a scream caught their attention, genuine panic striking across Mila's face

"Sara!"

"We'll go," Masumi volunteered immediately

"You two should still get to the kitchen,"

"Ofcourse, getting Yuri out of here is the priority, he's the one they want after all," Mila agreed, placing her hands gently on Yuri's shoulders

"We'll meet you in the kitchen," Chris nodded, he and his husband taking off a second later and leaving Mila and Yuri alone

"Could you give me one of your weapons Mila? So I can defend myself?" Yuri asked as Mila removed her hand from his shoulder, presumably to get her gun

"I can protect you just fine you know, I am one of the top assassins in the world,"

"..What..?"

But... hadn't she just said-?"

Before Yuri could inquire further, there was a cloth over his nose and mouth, his eyes widening in panic as he started to fight back against her, despite her constant shushing sounds, he didn't have the time to fight back fully though, the chloroform soaking the cloth went to work right away, and he slouched in Mila's arms a moment later

~+~

'Please God...' Viktor begged as he crept along the wall

'Please bring my Yuri back to me safe and sound... please let me find him safe... please...'

Viktor had never been a religious man

As a child he had only ever gone along with what his family wanted, as a teenager he grew uncomfortable with their faith and quit, and as a young adult he had been agnostic, not sure what he believed in and reluctant to explore it

But then he met Yuri

Beautifull, wonderfull Yuri, who seemed to be a gift from the heavens

Yuri's family, like Viktor's, was very devout in their religion, but instead of praying to The Dark Lord and sacrificing animals a few times a year, Yuri's family spoke to the moon and left milk and honey out for their deities

Viktor could so vividly remember the first time a prayer to God slipped from his lips, one night beneath a full moon, gasped out with his fingers woven into Yuri's hair and his back arched, skin prickling with the chill of night air blending with the body heat of his partner

Yuri's laughter had rung out like church bells, and when his fingers carefully dragged Viktor's hand away from his hair and laced along with his, it felt like a binding

Viktor's first ritual after he left Satanism, and it was binding his very soul to another's

Irony tasted like honey and sweat and crisp spring air

Ever since, Viktor had become very devout to Yuri's gods and goddesses, but much more so to Yuri himself

"I don't know if I believe in the devil," he had said one night, after Yuri himself casually bucked the very idea of any such creature

"I find it so hard to believe that a god could have created something so evil, when the gods created something so good, when the gods created you,"

Viktor meant every cheesy word

He had been damned into this family of power-hungry lunatics, managed to claw his way out of it and wandered the streets like a ghost for a few years, unsure of where he belonged in the world

But Yuri was his salvation

Not just Yuri himself either, but his entirely family, his faith, his work, his home, his simple pleasures of laying in bed with Viktor on a Saturday night eating ice cream and bantering over cereal mascots...

Things his family had lead him to believe he would never have, things that the devil would never let him keep

So Viktor prayed to God in the house of the devil because God had brought him Yuri to begin with, surely he- or she- would bring Yuri back to him, if he prayed hard enough

'Please...'

"Viktor!"

Swirving on his heel, Viktor immediately raised his gun, eyes narrowed at the men behind- well, now in front of- him

"Relax, we're on your side!" Chris insisted in a hissed wisper

"How can I possibly trust that?" Viktor spat

"We can take you to Yuri," he promised, holding his hands up placatingly

"We left him with Mila, but they-"

"You left him with Mila!?" Viktor sneered, anger and panic bleeding into his vision

"Yes... why-?"

"Mila will kill him! She doesn't just kill as a work hazard, she LIKES it!"

That was clearly news to Chris and Masumi, who both went as pale as ghosts

"She said she was mostly just a secretary..."

Viktor tossed his head back, gun lowering as his free hand moved up to scrub tiredly over his face

"Well congratulations boys, you've been bamboozled," he grumbled, jerking his gun over his shoulder and marching to the doorway, past the married couple before him

"If you really are on my side then hurry up, he'll last about as long with Mila as a mouse would in a room full of cats,"

~+~

When Yuri woke, it was slow and groggy, he could equate it to the feeling of coming out of anesthesia after he had his wisdom teeth removed

It wasn't remarkably pleasant

"-and hurry back, he's waking up,"

Yuri, instinctively, tried to sit up as he watched a blur of a dress move out of the room, but he didn't get very far

He found with slowly increasing horror that he was tied down to a large table, his arms and legs spread out like a starfish, and Mila standing casually in the corner filing her nails

"Welcome back," she smiled sweetly, blowing the particles off of her nails

"You know it's a shame all this, I really do like you Yuri,"

"Then why are you trying to kill me?" Yuri hissed back

"Oh I'm not trying to kill you, we are going to sacrifice you to Le Bail, but it's nothing personal, he chose you, that's all,"

"You realize that none of this makes any sense, right?" Yuri huffed

"It's all completely crazy! You can't seriously tell me that you believe some demon is going to kill you all unless you kill me!"

"Well, no, I can't say that I believe that," she relented, leaning back against the wall, her hands folded neatly over the center of her labrys as she rested her arms over it

"But I do believe that if we don't follow through, we'll end up dead by some means or another, I just don't know wich means,"

Yuri gritted his teeth, tugging a little at his restraints

They were tight... but nothing a little magic couldn't fix

The problem was going to be getting them undone quickly enough, as he was still rather low on energy and even if he had more of it to go around, he would still have to undo each individual binding one at a time

Oh well... might as well get started

He took in a deep breath, starting to focus on the leather strap around his right wrist

"What would you have done if it were your wife?" he asked quietly, deciding to keep Mila distracted so she wouldn't notice the leather starting to twitch to life

"What if Sara had drawn this card when you two got married?"

"Hm... I never really considered it," Mila shrugged honestly, rocking a little on her feet

"I guess I don't know, I'd probably have done what Viktor did I suppose, I do love her more than anyone else, but... I also am not much of a gambler, if I were really put in that situation, I'm not sure if I'd be able to reason the odds with myself,"

"But you understand what that kind of love feels like, and you know that Chris and Masumi are on our side.... we've already taken out atleast three or four people, come on... at this point it's four against.. what? Six? If you came over to our side, you'd tip the scale in our favor, the odds would be on your side,"

"Mm... but the odds are already on my side now," she argued thoughtfully, tapping the the top of the axe

"And if I side with you I go against Le Bail, and that would mean that if we won, he wouldn't continue to bless us with our place in the world of organized crime and that would just cause more problems,"

The first strap was almost done, just a little longer....

"Did you ever even consider joining my team?" he asked with a soft sigh

"Well, actually-"

*Bang!*

Yuri lost his concentration, startled, as he looked up at the figure standing behind Mila

He was expecting Viktor or Chris or Masumi, but instead who he got was--...

A complete stranger...

"Oh my god, are you ok!?"

Yuri didn't even remember this guy from the wedding... but here he was, rushing to Yuri's side and helping him out of his restraints

"I... I'm fine..." he mumbled with uncertainty, earning a breath of releif from the other man

"Ah that's good, you had me worried,"

"Um... not to be rude but.... who are you...?"

"OH! Sorry, I must be freaking you out huh? Phichit Chulanont, I'm a private detective,"

"Private detective...?" Yuri echoed in surprise, blinking and tilting his head

"Yeah, I've been investigating this family of weirdos disguised as a handyman for weeks now, I was working in the ballroom- wich is, ya' know, a totally normal room for people to have in their house- when all of this started, come on, I'm getting you out of here,"

Having few other choices, Yuri nodded as Phichit helped him to his feet, draping one of Yuri's arms over his shoulders

"Wich way?"

"Kitchen, please, I'm going to wait on my husband there,"

Phichit frowned, but before he could protest, Yuri pleaded with him again

"Please,"

"....Ok," Phichit relented a moment later

"Kitchen it is,"

~+~

"I'm surprised he only tied you up, isn't Viktor supposed to be really ruthless?" Sara mused as she finished undoing the ropes around Lilia's arms

"Vitya's constitution is week, has been ever since he was a child, when he can veiw people as resources he's fine, but he gets attached too easily and he's so emotional that he could never be trusted to do what needs to be done if he has an attachment to someone," Yakov explained, brushing any stray fibers off of his suit jacket as Sara helped Lilia to her feet

"That's where Yura differs from his cousin, he's emotional too unfortunately, but on the other end of the spectrum, a type of emotional that can be usefull if it's honed correctly,"

"What do you mean?" Sara asked curiously

She never had understood the mind of a killer very well, despite the fact that both her twin brother and her wife where of that variety, she just never had the stomach for it, so she was curious to hear any details she could get her hands on

"Vitya is hard to anger, but he gets attached to people too easily, on the plus side, his difficulty to anger makes him a very calculated killer, he's ruthless yes, but he knows what he's doing and executes it well, the downside is that he gets attached to people and foregoes his better judgement if someone he cares for is at stake, Yura has the opposite qualities, he's a hot-head who has little control over his anger wich leaves him prone to easy mistakes and a lacking of clean execution, but on the bright side, he never makes the mistake of getting attached, I have no doubts that if Yurochka were in this position, he would have pulled the trigger," Yakov noted proudly

"Ofcourse, he never would have been in this position to begin with, as Yura knows better than to go against the family just over some newlywed fantasy of love," Lilia added proudly

Sara was quiet, pursing her lips

She wasn't so sure about their determination, she saw the way Yura looked at Otabek, she listened to the two of them talk and the way Yura smiled at his husband was so pure and beautifull that it rivaled any peice of artwork

Sara would go to war for Mila, but the way Yuri Plisetsky looked at his husband made her feel like her own love couldn't even stack up to his

Would he really toss aside Otabek so callously for family that he often times barely tolerated? She wasn't nearly as certain as his pseudo parents were

No matter though, it wasn't her place to think about, much less have an opinion on, so she slid her little dagger back in it's proper place at her side and made her way towards the door, only to pause at the soft thumping sound coming from the wall next door

Exchanging looks with the couple behind her, she stepped aside immediately, allowing Yakov and Lilia to make their way out, throwing open the door across the hall with silent grace, and... oddly, not moving forward

"Let me guess, Vitya?" Yakov grumbled with distaste, perking Sara's curiosity as she quietly stepped behind them to observe what they had found

Otabek, who was tied up and gagged just as the older couple had been, gave a quick, affirmative, jerk of his head, prompting Yakov to roll his eyes as he took Sara's blade from her side

"See what I mean? The boy barely knows this one and yet he can't find it in himself to actually finish the job, it's a wonder he was ever good at this to begin with,"

As the older man sliced through the ropes, Sara observed Lilia in silence, watched the way her face pinched, her eyes narrowing slightly, her nose developing the slightest wrinkle, as though she were seriously contemplating something

She must have an equal distaste for Viktor at this point, Sara thought, why else would she be staring at Otabek that way?

~+~

"You said you were a private investigator, what are your investigating?"

Now that they were in the kitchen, wich was- thankfully- empty, Yuri felt a little more free to talk to his savior, who was currently making some tea

Yuri honestly wasn't sure what to do with that information, either Phichit was counting on Viktor taking a wile to find them and actually planned to camp out in this mad house until then, or he didn't care how long Viktor took to find them and was willing to take even a single sip of tea just to quench his thirst

In either case, Yuri felt strangely akin to him in that moment, and outstandingly greatfull for his existance

"Murder," Phichit replied casually, setting the kettle on the stove

"My ex-girlfreind's family was slaughtered about a decade ago, she only survived because she was away at college, the police refused to do anything about it and after she did a little digging of her own she realized it was a mob hit- turns out her dad had gotten into some bad investments and... well, tldr he owed alot of money to some guys with alot of guns, I'm sure you can figure out how this ends, she wants to know wich family is responsible for it, sooooo after some digging of my own, I landed here, gotta say, I wasn't expecting to end up in a campy horror movie,"

"...You think this is campy?" Yuri huffed judgementally, finishing the apple he had been eating and reaching into the fruit bowl on the counter for a bannana

Anything to fill his belly and refuel his magical energy...

"Well, not Rocky Horror campy, like, I don't think it's gonna be a gay classic or anything, but it's got sorta that You're Next type of vibe? I'm waiting on some asshole named Crispin to pop out of a corner complaining about his Valentino bag or some shit,"

Yuri snorted, taking a bite out of his fruit and mulling the idea over for a moment

"I guess this insanity does have a certain comedic flavor to it, from an outsider's perspective,"

"Sure, a Russian mafia who worships the devil and commits human sacrifices once every so often, using their own family's new brides and grooms as the sacrifice? It could be a musical,"

Yuri snorted again, eyes rolling, though he didn't necessarily disagree

He'd heard of weirder musicals...

"So do you think it's real?" Phichit asked a second later, grabbing two mugs from the cabinet above him

"What? The curse of.... what's his name? Belzebub?"

"I think it was Beil or something, like, Jennifer Beil from Flashdance,"

Yuri couldn't help smiling a little at that, amazed at just how easily conversation flowed with Phichit, he wasn't really a social person and he didn't connect with people easily, so this almost felt like a win

It probably would have felt like alot more of one if he wasn't currently in a fucked up game for his life and ready to pass out with worry for his husband but.... semantics

"I don't think it's real, no, I think it sounds like something that was crafted decades ago as a device to keep family members in line when they started getting a little too free-thinking, and ofcourse it took on a life of it's own when the original perpetuators of the myth died, with each generation since, the veil between reality and fiction with this... murderous bedtime story has just gotten thinner and thinner until no one is sure anymore, but people who are superstitous can't be swayed away from it,"

"Kinda like that M. Night Shamalyn movie with the monsters in the woods, good movie, not campy though,"

Throwing the bannana peel away, Yuri grabbed another a tangerine, dissappointed that it was the last thing in the bowl

Had the contents always been that sparse, or had he just eaten more than he was aware of..?

"You know what's good campy gay horror?" he asked absently, sliding his fingernail underneath the tangerine peel, eyes flicking up to meet Phichit's

"Sleepaway Camp,"

The smile that spread over Phichit's face could have lit up a Christmas tree, stars practically sparkling in his eyes

"You are my new best freind," he proclaimed, setting the mugs- now with a tea bag in each- on the counter in front of Yuri

Yuri couldn't help feeling the sentiment was the same, sure there was a huge likelihood that when this hell night was over, he and Phichit would never see eachother again, but.... he hoped not

It would be nice to have a freind like Phichit

"So, ex-girlfreind huh?" he hummed, expression brightening as Phichit reached into another cabinet and pulled out a box of cookies, shimmying them at Yuri as if he'd just hit paydirt

Truly, this was the beginning of a beautifull freindship

"Yeah, no hard feelings or anything, we just weren't compatible, and I'd already agreed to this job when we were together so..."

"Mm," Yuri hummed, tossing the tangerine peel, but as he averted his eyes from Phichit, even for just that moment--...

"BEHIND YOU!"

Phichit turned around, ducking quickly and narrowly avoiding the sword that had come towards his throat

Yuri recognized the culprit easily this time, Seung-Gil wasn't actually a member of the family, he had appeared to be a butler earlier, but maybe that had just been a guise to keep Yuri's guard down in the event of something like this

Yuri didn't have alot of time to think about it, he jumped down from his barstool quickly and rushed behind Phichit as the investigator picked up the tea kettle and smashed it over Seung-Gil's head, the man screaming in agony as the boiling water burned his skin

Yuri supposed this was one of those rare moments when the richness and luxury of Viktor's family worked in his favor, it meant that their kettle was an ornate, highly decorated, glass kettle, rather than a more practical metal one

Seung-Gil had dropped one hand from his sword when the glass shattered over his head, his free hand reaching up to pick a peice of broken glass from his eye

Yuri didn't hesitate, using the opportunity to yank the rolling pin decoratively displayed on the counter from it's perch and step in front of Phichit, who was- assumedly- searching the drawer next to him for a nife

Effortlessly, he pulled his arms back and swung the rolling pin hard against Seung-Gil's head, a sickening *CRACK* resounding through the kitchen as the man fell backwards, sword leaving his hand

Yuri wasn't done though, he had seen enough horror movies to know better than to leave a body twitching

He brought the pin down again and again and again over Seung-Gil's head, only stopping when he felt a hand on his shoulder, spinning around quickly to meet with Phichit's rather concerned expression

"I uh... I'm pretty sure he's gone Yuri," he said softly, very gently taking the bloody pin away from the groom and setting it aside, his hands moving down to grip Yuri's

"I guess it's pointless to ask if you're ok?"

Yuri pursed his lips, shaking his head a little

"Sorry... just... trying to avoid some kind of Micheal Meyers moment I guess,"

"Yeah, no worries, I get it," Phichit promised with a smile of his own, albeit still a concerned one

"Woah*clink* of the lock undoing hit his ears

Unfortunately, however, it wasn't the only sound entering his ears at about that time, a loud *BANG!* sounding off not far behind him

"MASUMI!"

Yuri turned, watching in what felt like slow motion as Masumi fell to the ground, blood seeping from his chest

Sara stood in the doorway of the kitchen, her face painted with agony and her gun shaking her hands, tears pouring down her cheeks

"You killed Mickey..." she rasped

"My brother.... he had an arrow in his head, Yura said he-!"

She didn't even have time to finish her sentence, Chris had drawn his gun a moment later and shot her right between the eyes, her body hitting the ground with a *thud*, followed by the sound of Chris dropping his gun, his hands shaking as he dropped to the ground and took hold of Masumi's hand, wispering his name oover and over again

"I thought you'd never even killed a bug..." Yuri said quietly, swallowing hard

"I haven't," Chris sniffed back, tears clogging his throat

"Masumi insisted I learn how to shoot though, for self-defense... I never believed I would need it but I learned anyway, he never asked much of me so...."

He paused, shaking his head and moving to stand up

"We need to hurry, if we're going to get him to a hospital-"

"I don't think that will help," Viktor, who had moved closer now, interrupted, crouching down to get a better look at Masumi

"Or better phrased, I... think it's too late, I'm sorry Christophe, really, but we live fifteen minutes from the nearest hospital, and judging from the placement of the bullet he'll bleed out in-"

"Don't tell me that!" Chris insisted, moving to lift Masumi up half-way

"He's going to live, I won't let him die, goddammit, I won't!"

"Chris-"

"I can heal him," Yuri interrupted suddenly, silencing the room

"....Excuse me?" Chris said quietly, turning his attention to the witch

"I.. I can heal him, I have... training, I can do it here, just... I need everyone to follow my instructions to the letter, ok?"

Eager for anything that would save his husband, Chris nodded like a bobblehead, gently setting Masumi back down

"Good, I need candles, a lighter, and something to draw with like chalk or a marker,"

Chris didn't even ask, he was instantly running out of the kitchen, and Yuri was climbing onto the counter to reach the top miniature cabinet over the stove, betting that it was the spice cabinet

Luckily he was right

"Yuri, would blood work? For the drawing utensil, I mean?" Viktor called, streaking his shoe lazily through the blood that was still steadily pouring from Sara's head

"That should be fine yes," Yuri agreed, hurrying to gather as many herbs from the cabinet as he could, thankfull that herbs were such a commonly found kitchen item, and that his husband's family was so well stocked on them too

"Um.... Yuri? Not to question you or anything, buuuut... I'm totally questioning you right now, what are you doing?"

"It's a long story," Yuri replied, hopping down from the counter and grabbing a cereal bowl out of the cabinet

This would help, he may not have the crystals he needed to channel his magic properly, nor the candles needed to get assistance from the spiritual realm, but atleast the herbs would make this spell possible

"I've got the candles and the lighter!" Chris called as he hurried into the room, setting both on the counter

"Good, then light them and put them on the floor for me?"

Chris gave a silent nod, getting to work immediately as Yuri finished blending the herbs and rushed to start drawing sigils and runes in Sara's blood

"What the hell are you doing in here? You're going to get yourselves discovered and murdered,"

Yuri didn't even bother looking up when Otabek spoke, the sound of Viktor's gun cocking was the only assurance he needed as he worked

"Relax, I'm on your side," Otabek insisted with a frown

"Oh? Prove it," Viktor huffed, eyes narrowed

Otabek sighed, but slowly drew his weapons out, placing each one delicately on the counter in front of him before holding his hands up in surrender

"Do you need to search me?"

"No.... but I still don't trust you, you and Yura are as loyal to eachother as Yuri and I are, and I know he didn't sanction this, why would you go behind his back and come to our side? It makes no sense,"

"Don't get me wrong, if Yura's life is threatened by any of you I won't hesitate to turn on you, but.... I can't agree with any of this, murdering an innocent person for some rediculous superstition? I barely stomach it sometimes when it's a mob hit but then atleast there's logical sense to be made of it, this though... this is just madness... and Yura.... Yura is in so deep... but I know when the sun rises and he sees it's all been a hoax... if he killed you, Viktor, he would never let himself live it down, to find out he did so for no reason... he'd torment himself for the rest of his life,"

"I see, so it really isn't my Yuri you're trying to save, it's your own," Viktor sighed, slowly lowering his gun

"Just so we're clear, I still don't trust you, and I'm not putting my gun down, but.... if you want to help, stand guard, you weren't wrong about us getting discovered, if Sara found us in here then Mila will surely be right on her tail,"

"Mila's the redhead right?" Phichit chimed in

"I uh... already shot her, actually,"

"...........Oh,"

"Well she had Yuri!"

"I mean I'm not complaining, I'm just-"

"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on in here?" Otabek sighed with exasperation, his eyes trained on Yuri as the witch hurriedly put the last sigil in place

"I'd like to know that myself," Chris frowned

"You're about to find out," Yuri muttered, rising to his feet and carefully dragging Masumi closer, fingers slipping down to check his pulse, just to be sure

It was weak, barely there, but atleast hadn't fizzled out completely yet

With a deep breath, he settled in front of the bloody sigils, the candles burning at his side as he sprinkled the herbal mixture into the flames, a gust of fire erupting from the candles before Yuri started to spread the herbs along the bloody symbols, topping them off with fire from the candles

Once the symbols were alight, he began, focusing all of his energy on healing Masumi's wound, on transferring his own life force to the other man's

"He can't be serious," Phichit mumbled under his breath

"I know what this looks like, but please, give him a chance," Viktor insisted softly

For a few moments, just a few precious moments, all was quiet

The chaos of the evening seemed to be on pause, it was almost as if the gods themselves were trying to give Yuri room and space to work

And then, after a tension filled few moments that felt like hours, Masumi gasped, his body arching before sitting straight up

"Masumi!" Chris shouted, running towards his husband and hugging him tightly, nearly nocking Yuri over in the process, but that was alright, Viktor was there to catch his partner

"Ah, glad I could help...." Yuri smiled weakly, allowing Viktor to help him to his feet

"Yeah but... how did you help?" Phichit asked, completely amazed

"In short? I'm a witch,"

"Thank you," Chris wisered, turning his attention to Yuri again

"Thank you... thank you..."

"Don't mention it, but now that the crisis is averted, can we please get out of here?"

"Not just yet,"

The sound of a new voice caught everyone's attention, the group turning towards the doorway, where a very displeased looking Yura was currently standing, his gun aimed at Yuri's head

"You know, you guys really suck at Hide And Seek, you can't hide for shit," he noted casually

"Yura.... don't-"

"Don't start with me Viktor, you're the last fucking person I'm going to listen to about jack shit,"

"Then maybe you'll listen to me," Otabek reasoned carefully, earning a glare from his husband, a true rarity in their relationship

"I am so pissed at Sara," he huffed, gun still aimed at Yuri, even though his eyes were now on his husband

"I'm so pissed that she let you go, got you involved in all this fucking shit.... if she weren't already dead, I'd kill her myself over it,"

"Yura I've switched sides," Otabek finally blurted out

For a moment, things passed in silence, and no one really knew what reaction Yura was going to have

But that moment was short lived, before long Yura's face was twisting with upset, grimmacing and cringing, his hand starting to shake, the gun gripped tightly between his fingers rattling as he trembled

"No.... Beka.... Beka please... please tell me you're joking...."

"I'm sorry, but-"

"WHY!?" Yura screamed suddenly

"Why would you do that?! Why would you betray me!?"

"I'm not betraying you Yura, I'm preventing you from making a horrible mistake," Otabek insisted, taking a step closer and gently placing his hand on Yura's upper arm

"The only mistake being made is not killing that fucking pig!" Yura shreiked

"Yura, this isn't real, all of this curse bullshit.... it's bullshit, it isn't real, you're going to kill Viktor for no reason and then you're going to regret it, please believe me about that,"

As the couple argued, the others began slowly making their way to the door, Phichit's hand sliding against the handle and pushing down

There was a small breeze of fresh early morning air, and it felt incredible

Freedom was just around the corner now

"Fucking bastard, you have NO IDEA what you've done!" Yura screamed as Viktor fished his keys out of his pocket and silently placed them in Phichit's waiting hand, the investigator's free arm wrapped around Masumi as he and Chris began helping the still weakened man outside

They were so close, so close.... but before Chris could even get fully out of the house, the sound of a gun firing went off, startling Yuri and Viktor, prompting them to turn around, eyes wide and bewildered as they caught sight of the new body on the floor

"I thought Phichit killed her," Viktor said slowly, eyebrow raising as blood began to pour from Mila's head, slowly making it's way towards the puddle formed by Sara's

"I... guess he just grazed her..." Yuri muttered

"Why did you do that?" Otabek breathed, clearly even more startled than the other two

"What choice did I have?" Yura spat

"There's less than an hour till sunrise now, if I didn't kill one of my family members, I wouldn't be able to switch sides, and then... we'd be on different teams and one of us would die..."

"You're not listening to me," Otabek sighed with frustration, but Viktor and Yuri didn't stick around to listen to any more of the argument, Yuri turned his attention back to the door, giving Viktor a small tug to get his attention and hurrying outside

The sky was still completely dark, but it had never been more beautifull to him, releif pouring over him for just a moment as they started to run towards the car

Unfortunately, they didn't get very far, they only managed to get a few steps away before--

*BANG!*

Yuri screamed, agony rushing through his veins as he hit the ground, his hands shaking as blood poured out of his leg, Viktor's screaming of his name was almost muted as his brain tried to process the shock of the injury

The leg..... just... the leg...?

Right, he remembered belatedly that they needed him alive, they had to sacrifice him in a ritual, they couldn't just kill him outright...

He was actually kind of relieved by that

"Vitya, I won't-"

*BANG!*

Yuri looked up slowly, watching as Viktor fired his own gun, Yakov being forced to lower his rifle as he clutched his injured shoulder, but Viktor wasn't slowing down just because the man was injured

At some point he had acquired a sword, Yuri certainly couldn't be bothered to remember when- if he even knew at all- and he was now putting it to good use

Yuri watched as Viktor thrust the sword through Yakov's gut, only to yank it out a second later and bring the blade against his uncle's arm

Yuri gagged as the sickening sounds of screams and a blade cutting through flesh echoed through the night sky, blood was everywhere and he... he couldn't keep watching....

"You shot my husband...." Viktor growled, his voice so low and raspy that it barely registered as human anymore

"You shot my Yuri!" he screamed

When the screams of pain stopped, they were quickly followed by a soft *thud*, Yuri didn't want to turn around, he didn't want to confirm what he was sure had just happened, he didn't want to see a person's head laying detached from their body, even if that person had been intent on killing Yuri himself

"Yakov!!" Yura screamed, finally catching Yuri's attention again as the brunette glanced up, watching sadly as the blonde rushed out of the house, only for Otabek to hurry behind him and wrap his arms around his husband, hugging Yura to his chest and trying to sheild his eyes

"Did you really have to be that brutal?" Otabek hissed as Viktor flicked the blood from his sword

"What, and let down my uncle's expectations of the butcher he raised?" Viktor hummed back, slicking a blood covered hand slowly through his hair to push his bangs from his eye

His voice was the most sickening mixture of casuality and malice, it made Yuri shake, not out of fear- he could never be afraid of Viktor- but simply from the coldness of it

"He shot Yuri," Viktor clarified a second later, slowly making his way back towards his lover, his expression warming more and more, and growing increasingly concerned, the closer he grew

"You of all people should understand the severity of such a sin,"

Otabek didn't respond verbally, but he did start to lead Yura out of the house fully, still holding the other man tightly as they moved, as Viktor approached Yuri and gently helped him up, wincing as car headlights flashed in front of them

"Ah, the calvalry has arrived," Viktor hummed, picking up Yuri with minor difficulty

Yuri would have to remember to take a full assessment of his husband's injuries at some point, usually lifting him up was no problem for Viktor, so if he was struggling--

"Yuri Katsuki,"

As Viktor hurried to the car, Yuri peered over his husband's shoulder, catching sight of Lilia as she picked up Yakov's fallen rifle

By the grace of the gods though, Viktor had managed to get the back door open and shove Yuri inside, crawling in beside him and slamming the door shut

Lilia fired, but it only dinged the door, and Phichit was quick to speed out of the area

"Wait," Yuri insisted as Viktor carefully helped him lay across the seat, to the best of his abilities atleast, without completely invading Chris and Masumi's space

Viktor himself was on his way to wedging himself into the front seat, no easy task from this position but certainly not for a tall person

"Phichit, wait!" Yuri shouted, and much to his releif, the car paused, Phichit turning to look over his shoulder at the groom

"What? Yuri-"

"We have to go back,"

"Are you CRAZY?"

"Otabek and Yura... they're on our team-"

"Reluctantly," Viktor pointed out

"I don't care, we can't just leave them there!"

"Lilia won't hurt them, she loves Yura like a son," Chris insisted, checking Masumi's pulse for what may have been the thirtieth time since getting in the car, his husband passed out beside him, but still alive all the same

"We don't know that for sure, and even so... what, do we just leave the two of them there in a house of massacre until sunrise?"

"Yes," Chris and Phichit replied in unison

"After what they did to my husband, I'm not exactly feeling the warmest to that damn family, present company excluded," Chris insisted with a huff

"Yeaaaaaah and they are mobsters? I'm pretty sure they slaughtered my ex's family too," Phichit added

"It isn't as though they don't have a way to get out Yuri," Viktor pointed out

"They do have their own car, and neither of them are injured,"

"Unlike us, who are almost all in need of a hospital visit," Chris concluded

"Please," Yuri begged with near desperation

"Please, I can't just leave them there, they put their necks on the line for me, no matter what the reason was or how reluctant they were, they still did it, I can't.... please?"

"Yuri.... it's a good thing I like you," Phichit sighed, reluctantly turning around

"Wait, are you serious?" Chris frowned, clearly shocked at the idea

"Yeah, but I don't know how you're planning to squeeze two more people in a four-seater Yuri,"

"We'll make it work," Yuri insisted

"We have to..."

In the mean time, Otabek and Yura were dealing with their own internal conflict, or perhaps more specifically, Yura was

"You've done so well all night Yurochka," Lilia said softly, gently stroking her fingers through Yura's hair

The blonde was nearly asleep from it, the feeling of motherly attention- something he had craved so much in his life and yet always gotten so little of- was incomparable to anything else and driving him to a state of relaxation he could rarely ever acheive

"You've been so steadfast in your faith, and haven't let your feelings get in the way, that hasn't changed, has it?"

Yura was quiet for a few moments, not knowing how to respond

"I.... I'm sorry.... I'm sorry.... but Beka... Beka switched teams and I can't-... I can't just.... I can't leave him like this...."

"I understand, you love him," Lilia promised with a slow nod, continuing to drag her fingers through Yura's long blonde hair, her nails scratching gently at his scalp

"I loved my first husband too,"

That successfully pulled Yura's attention away from the situation at hand, a look of confusion on his face

"You mean... you were married before Yakov...?"

"That's right," Lilia nodded

"I played this game too, when I married my first husband, Aleksi, I loved him too, and I didn't want to participate in the game, but.... my mother was a good woman, and she forced me to, for the family's sake as well as mine, she knew that I needed to take that step in order to become the matriarch of the family, and when I die, Yurochka, you will be the patriarch, our family is all but gone now, but.... we can rebuild things, together, just you and I,"

"You... and I...?" Yura mumbled back,

"That's right," Lilia nodded

"It isn't too late, just help me, help me catch the other Yuri, the lesser Yuri, and we can rebuild this family stronger than it's ever been,"

"I..... I would like that," Yura promised quietly, slowly pulling back from Lilia, just enough to stare up at her face

"But I can't leave Otabek, I won't, I love you Lilia... but I love Beka more,"

Lilia took a deep breath, slowly exhaling, but she didn't look angry

"To be honest Yurochka, I had a feeling you would say that,"

That sentence was punctuated by the sickening squealch of a blade peircing through skin, Yura choking on a breath as Lilia shoved her dagger through his belly

"Ma....ma....?" Yura mumbled, the light starting to fade from his eyes as Lilia coldly pulled the blade back out, the blonde collapsing to the ground before her

"YURA!!!"

Lilia was fully prepared to fight off Otabek, she was already pulling her axe from where she had strapped it to her back, but what she wasn't prepared for was the car pulling up behind her and Viktor leaning out the window with his own gun

A few shots later, and Lilia was just as dead as her husband

"Um guys? I hate to sound like an alarmist, but-"

"Yura..." Viktor breathed, cutting Phichit off as he stumbled out of the car, Yuri wanted to follow, but that was easier said than done thanks to his leg

Otabek was already on the ground, holding Yura close and hugging him as tightly as he could

"Yura... Yura please.... please wake up.... Yuri... please..."

Viktor pursed his lips, his hands clenching at his side

He and his cousin had always had a complicated relationship, and for years he had felt guilty over running from the family and leaving Yura there to tough it out alone, but....

Now there was nothing he could do about it, nothing he could do to make up for it or apologize or.....

Viktor could feel his eyes stinging with tears, but he wouldn't let them fall, not yet, not until he was alone, or atleast alone with Yuri...

"Yuri..." Otabek breathed, though it sounded less like he was mourning now and more like he was having some sort of revelation

"Yuri... Yuri can help..."

It was then, as Otabek rose to his feet with his husband's limp body in his hands, that Viktor realized Otabek was talking about his Yuri, the one in the car, the one who had been the centerpeice to this entire torturous evening

"Yuri brought Masumi back, he can bring Yura back too,"

"Wait a minute," Viktor warned, his expression turning to a grimmace

"Yuri is badly injured, he can't-"

"We can wait,"

Before Viktor could make any effort to argue further, Otabek was rushing to the car, the other man right on his heels

Otabek hurried to the car, Yura supported carefully in one arm as he started rapping on Yuri's window, stepping back as Yuri opened the door, presumably to let them in

"Is he-?"

"Dead," Otabek replied bluntly

Yuri swallowed tightly, his face scrunched up with greif

He may not have known Yura, he couldn't say that he was personally saddened by the loss, but seeing anyone lose their spouse was always especially hard on him

"Oh Otabek.... I'm so sorry..."

"You can heal him, can't you?" Otabek interrupted, clearly not in the mourning mindset at the current moment

"I.... I'm sorry but... I can't," Yuri said softly

"Can't or won't?" Otabek frowned, turning to Viktor as the other man finally caught up and carefully but quickly handing Yura's body over to his bewildered cousin

"Can't, I want to help, I really do, but I'm a witch, not a necromancer,"

"Then take me to one," Otabek demanded

"I can't! I'm in Russia, I don't know anyone here besides Viktor! Besides, even if I did, you wouldn't want to bring Yura back that way, he wouldn't be himself, he would just be a zombie, you can't-"

Yuri stopped dead in his tracks, sucking in a sharp breath as he stared down the barrel of a gun for what felt like the millionth time that night

"I don't care, that's for me to decide, now... get out of the car, I'll drive,"

"Wait a minute, you can't just-"

Chris bit back any further comment when Otabek clicked the safety off of his gun, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple

"I can,"

"It's ok guys," Yuri said softly, carefully moving out of the car

"Please just... get to the hospital, we'll be fine,"

"Yuri-" Phichit wimpered

"Please, Masumi still needs a hosptial so.... please,"

Phichit was clearly still reluctant, but couldn't argue further, and as soon as Yuri shut the door, he drove away

"I can't walk like this," Yuri noted, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the gun

"That's fine,"

Turning to Viktor, Otabek carefully took Yura back, juggling him in one arm as he pressed the gun to Yuri's head

"Viktor,"

Sneering in Otabek's direction, Viktor picked up his husband, eyes on the other man the entire time as Otabek rounded behind them, his weapon now aimed at Viktor instead as he nudged him to walk

"What's your plan?" Yuri asked after a beat

"I don't know anyone here, the magical community is a tightly closed circuit, I can't just.... Google it,"

"You'll take me back to Japan, you must know someone there, and if you don't, you atleast must know how to find someone, otherwise why would you have specified that you couldn't find anyone in Russia?"

Dammit, he had a point

"And how do you plan on getting through the airport like this? With a gun drawn and a dead body? Not to mention two people who have bullets currently lodged in their bodies,"

"I'll take you two to a doctor I know, he'll patch you up and take care of Yura until we get back with a necromancer, we'll work out the hostage situation there as well,"

Viktor grumbled something under his breath, but neither of the others could make out what it was

"We're the black car in the center, the Jaguar,"

"Ofcourse you are, a Jaguar, that.... figures," Viktor muttered quietly, his voice more sad than angry, Yuri wasn't sure what exactly he meant by that either, but Otabek seemed to know

Their teammate-turned-captor took his keys from his pocket carefully, unlocking the car via remote as Viktor carefully slid Yuri in the back seat, watching with an expression of agony as Otabek slid Yura's limp body in beside the other Yuri

Viktor was shuffled into the passenger's seat then, before Otabek climbed into the driver's seat

By now, the sky was lightening, the sun would be rising soon

The first few moments of the drive were silent, until finally, Otabek decided to speak again

"You're a witch, you say," he noted, catching Yuri's attention, albeit barely, Yuri was so exhausted and sore and had lost enough blood now that he really was ready to pass out

"Yes,"

"Then you should know.... the curse, was it real?"

"Honestly? I haven't the foggiest," Yuri replied tiredly, shifting to lean against the window, peering outside as the first rays of sunlight began to creep through the window

"You don't know? Then.... there's as much chance of it being real as not being, I suppose, if magic and witches are real, demons could be too,"

"Oh demons are real," Yuri shrugged back casually

"But I don't know if your family is really cursed, it still sounds pretty sketchy to me,"

"But all night, weren't you saying that it was bullshit too?"

"And I think it probably is, but really, what else would I have said? 'Oh it's probably real so I guess I'll let you kill me'? Real, fake... it wouldn't have changed anything anyway, and it doesn't matter now,"

"No... it still matters," Otabek replied, the sun cresting over the hills and prompting Yuri to shift a little more, trying to sheild his eyes

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I never killed anyone,"

"..What?" Viktor asked slowly

"In order to switch teams, you have to do it before the final hour or kill someone on your ex-team, but I never did either of those things, so technically, even though I'm on your side, I never officially switched teams,"

For a moment- a very long moment, everything was quiet

Almost eerily quiet, the sun rising higher in the sky, the light beaming down on the car, and with an exhale, Yuri started to realize that it really had been fake, there was no curse, there never had been

"A-Ahh... f-fuck..."

"What's wrong?" Yuri frowned, turning his attention to Otabek, and before he could ask anything further, blood errupted from the other man's body, an explosion causing the car to suddenly swirve off track, and even though Viktor leaned over to grab the weel, it was too late to prevent the cadillac from slamming into a tree

~+~

"Now boarding, Flight 127 to Kauai,"

Walking through the airport felt oddly similar to dragging himself across the floor, but Yuri didn't care

He was exhausted, he was injured- the stitches from the hospital weren't exactly happy with his insistance on walking, but luckily he'd had just enough magic to heal the wound a little better, after he got some food from a vending machine there

Or more accurately, once Viktor got some food for him

His husband's grip on his hand was firm, and Viktor was ready to catch him if he should happen to stumble, and that kind of made it all worth it

All of the carnage, the death, and the pain.... even with all of it, he would still marry Viktor Nikiforov over and over and over again

"First class," Viktor noted charmingly to the bewildered flight attendant as the two of them- looking like they had probably just walked off the set of a horror movie, wich, if anything, was likely the best allibi they could come up with- stepped onto the plane

The attendant only nodded nervously, guiding them to their seats

"And.. if I can bother you for something?" Yuri said as Viktor helped him into his seat, the flight attendant, again, nodding slowly, clearly unsure of what to make of this situation

And really, Yuri could definitely relate to that

"Is it too early to get some of those roasted peanuts? You have no. idea. how hungry I am,"