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crestfallencrest · 6 months

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Freezing

Summary: Yuri never minded the cold. He was usually the type to get through a harsh and cold winter day without much issue. Today, however, was not one of those days.

Prompt: No prompt, just some Duke/Yuri conversations in the discord that left me INSPIRED. Modern AU (Other oneshots can be read here on Ao3! [x] ) Pairings: Duke/Yuri Genre: Fluff Warnings: N/A Word Count: 1,998

Been hit with a tiny writing slump (too many ideas grabbing my attention) but I really really started liking Duke/Yuri lately and I really REALLY wanted to write a winter themed one shot for the Holidays so here I am. Short but sweet! Also, a present for my fellow Yuri/Duke lovers in the discord server I'm in <3

Yuri wasn’t the type of person who got cold easily.

He had always been that way growing up. While Flynn would be bundled up with multiple layers from head to toe, Yuri could usually get by with a simple jacket and gloves. Maybe a scarf if it was a particularly windy day. But regardless, he would usually get through the day without a single complaint. ( “That’s rare, coming from you.” Flynn had said once, to which Yuri promptly told him to shove it and stop being jealous. )

His resistance to the cold seemed to shock his friends whenever it was brought up. Usually the topic would come up whenever one of his more ‘motherly hen’ friends ( coughEstellecough) would exclaim in shock over how little layers Yuri had decided to wear that day and every time, he would have to explain that he simply didn’t mind the cold weather. He moved around too much for it to bother him too much and a lot of his time on the job was usually spent indoors. Plus, growing up in a shoddy apartment without a heating system did wonders in helping Yuri adjust to the wonders of freezing temperatures.

Today, however, was not one of those days where he could simply just shrug off the harsh and bitter winds of that winter afternoon.

He worked as a cook at a small little restaurant on the other side of town and unfortunately, whatever otherworldly being that watched over him had decided that he was looking just a tad too dry when he was working on washing the dishes at the end of his shift. A pipe had burst and Yuri was quickly and completely soaked within seconds. It turned out that his simple afternoon shift had quickly turned into a closing shift as the restaurant had to be shut down early so the plumber could come in and fix the issue.

Unfortunately for Yuri, it wasn’t like he had any spare clothes to change into at the restaurant. He was starting to wonder if maybe some extra layers wasn’t such a bad idea after all but he also couldn’t give his partner and certain other people leverage to say ‘I told you so.’

Not that they could right now, even if they wanted to. The water jet from Hell decided that soaking him to the bone wasn’t enough and that it also had to completely destroy his phone in the process. So calling someone to come and pick him up or bring him some spare clothes was unfortunately out of the question.

So, Yuri decided to just fucking deal with it.

It wasn’t that long of a walk to the bus stop and he’s endured worse before. So all he had to do was make it onto the bus, ignore the sting of his freezing fingers and the shivering of his body, get home, strip and take a very warm shower and hopefully no one would be any the wiser. Gods forbid the scolding he would get if his partner caught him out in freezing temperatures, soaked from head to toe. He could definitely hear his voice now if he saw Yuri at this moment, all huddled over and shivering as if seconds away from freezing to death at any given moment. He’d be concerned, of course, but his deep voice would also have that slight hint of disapproval as he would say–

“You wouldn’t be so cold if you had taken the extra coat like I had asked.”

Yeah, he would say it exactly like that.

Wait.

Aw, fuck.

Yuri momentarily forgot about the winter’s frozen touch slowly creeping through his body just long enough for his body to jolt into a more straightened standing position. He whipped his head around, following the voice’s source and he wasn’t sure if he was cursed or blessed to see the familiar red eyes piercing into his soul with what he could only assume was his stare of judgment that he could only work to perfect the longer they lived together.

Long white strands poked from the red wool knit cap that he wore over his head, with the rest of it being held down by the black and white checkered scarf that was, in Yuri’s opinion, quite horrendous but it had been a gift from Judith when she was last in town so, of course, his partner saw no reason to not use it. Sure enough, Yuri could tell that the man was wearing at least two layers of clothing to combat the cold weather and for once in his life, Yuri was a bit jealous.

“Oh, h-hey Duke.” Yuri greeted with a tiny grin, trying to bite back the shiver in his voice. “What’re you doin’ here?”

Duke quietly moved to stand by him at the bus stop, letting his arm raise a bit to show off the small grocery bag in his hand. “Groceries.” He answered simply before turning his head a bit to face him. “You mentioned needing to make cookies later this week for the holidays, did you not? We were out of sugar and butter.”

“A-Ah…” Yuri nodded quickly, letting his arms wrap around himself. “G-Good catch–”

The words barely left Yuri’s mouth before he realized that Duke was staring him down, eyes narrowed slightly before his free hand reached over to brush against Yuri’s shoulder. Duke was generally a hard person to surprise. In fact, despite Yuri’s life mission to try and startle this man at literally every given opportunity, he was ashamed to admit that he’s only managed to pull it off a handful of times and instead, it seemed to be Duke that would catch Yuri off guard, most days.

(For example, how in the hell was he supposed to expect that Duke Pantarei of all fucking people would confess first?! No one could have possibly expected that! Of course Yuri would be surprised by that!)

However, upon letting his fingers brush against the jacket that was undoubtedly carrying more water than warmth, Yuri was surprised to see Duke’s hand jerk back in surprise. Yuri watched as his eyes widened and his serious expression tightened, frown stretching across his face. He didn’t say anything and instead just stared at Yuri and… ah, yeah, Yuri was fully familiar with that look. He was definitely in trouble.

“I’ve had one hell of a day.” Was all Yuri could offer and that definitely did not seem to quell Duke’s concerns.

“Why are you standing outside in this weather as wet as you are?”

“Man, and it’s not even the fun kind of wet–”

“Yuri.”

Man, he kept hoping that that joke would land. Maybe one day.

Yuri shoved his hands into his pockets, though it didn’t seem to help the impending chill that was quickly returning to his body. “A pipe busted at work and unfortunately, I was right in the line of fire. And I didn’t have a change of clothes.”

Duke’s eyebrows furrowed. “You could have called me.”

“Oh yeah. Might need a new phone. Water got into my current one.” Yuri would have laughed had he not lost maybe two years worth of pictures on that damn brick. Thankfully he shared a lot of the pictures with his friend group and Duke but it would be such a pain to get those pictures back. Ugh.

Duke quietly placed the grocery bag onto the bench and began to pull off his jacket and scarf. “I see…” He mused quietly as he finally looked back at his lover. “Take off your jacket and put this on over your clothes. Along with the scarf.”

“I’m not going to steal your jacket and scarf. Then you’ll be cold!” And the last thing he wanted was Duke to be freezing too.

“Between you and myself, are you really going to argue that I will be the cold one here?” Duke asked, once again holding out the jacket and scarf and… okay, yeah, he maybe had a point.

Slipping out of the soaked jacket was almost torture for Yuri because while he wore a long sleeve shirt to work today, it sure as hell wasn’t built for this weather but sometimes you had to get colder in order to get warmer. He quickly shoved the jacket on and buttoned it up in record time and the warmth of the jacket having been on Duke’s body seemed to creep through Yuri’s body.

Yuri shivered in relief as Duke took his wet jacket and placed it to the side for now before moving to wrap the scarf around Yuri’s neck. Feeling Duke’s warm, gloved fingers brush against the freezing skin of his neck and cheeks had Yuri nearly move to chase after the warmth of his partner as he gently reached behind him to pull his hair out from underneath the scarf. He was still wet underneath the jacket but the warmth of his jacket and scarf was already a major improvement.

“Mm…Feels nice…” Yuri hummed slowly, letting his eyes close as Duke’s fingers once again brushed against his cheek and this time, he couldn’t help himself as he stepped closer.

This seemed to give Duke pause and Yuri cracked an eye open to see those soft red eyes staring down at his own. Duke was hard to read at times and it was a miracle that Yuri had managed to pin down the ability on how to read Duke’s expressions. Which is why he felt his chest light up when he saw his lover staring down at him oh-so-softly.

Yuri was never a big romantic but even that was enough to have his heart doing flips. “You know, that’s usually when you, the boyfriend, would respond with some sort of sappy remark about always keeping me warm or something and then you’d like… do that.” He quickly added in, that teasing smirk making its way onto his face.

“Do that?”

“Yeah. Keeping me warm.”

“Hm. I didn’t realize that I was being held up to a certain standard.” Duke responded as he let his fingers stroke Yuri’s cheek once more before finally allowing himself to cup Yuri’s cold face into his impossibly warm hands.

The shiver of warm relief shot through Yuri once more as he pressed his cheek further into Duke’s touch with a content smile. “We’ll work on it. Should I go jump in the lake down the street so we can try again?”

“I’d much rather we just get you home and warm you up.”

“You’re no fun.” Yuri answered with a click of the tongue.

And then he looked back at Duke, who had the faintest smile on his face as he stared down at Yuri. Yuri could hear the bus make its way down the street, preparing to come and pick them up to take them back to the apartment they shared but before Duke pulled away to prepare to climb onto the bus, he let his thumb brush gently against Yuri’s lip.

“I see the meaning was lost on you.” Duke replied before he finally pulled away (and Yuri will swear to his dying days that he did not whine when the warmth left with him.) “I suppose I’ll have to do better next time.”

As Duke grabbed Yuri’s discarded wet lump of a jacket and the grocery bag, Yuri was left wondering what Duke could have possibly been talking about regarding lost meanings and doing better next time as the bus pulled up next to them, opening the doors to offer them entry. Duke spared him one glance before climbing the steps onto the vehicle, the amused smile still clear as day and Yuri couldn’t help but feel like he had missed a joke somewhere along the way–

Oh.

Oh. That’s what he meant by warming him up.

Cheeks burning from the cold weather and absolutely positively nothing else , Yuri was certain that he had never hopped onto a bus so fast in his life

---

And then they went home and 'warmed up' and Yuri absolutely did not catch the worst case of the sniffles right before the holidays! Thank you for reading!

#tales of vesperia #dukeyuri #yuri lowell #duke pantarei #oneshots #crest fics #holds them in my hand #i think that they're cute #they should kiss

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