As Victor shot out one idea and, then, quick as it could even appear to be desperately grabbed at, the second, Yuri felt his stomach only tighten as his shoulders tried their hardest to deflate on him. He did his best not to let his posture cave inward under his coat even as he looked away. No Birthday present. No Christmas present. Suddenly, neither of them was appropriate, without overstepping and deliberately ignoring Victor's own culture.

His eyes turning down from Victor and the shops beyond them on either side, toward his shoes. "I see."
Time was sliding away like sand through his fingers and each grasped idea with it.

But that couldn't be the end. Could it? No. No. It couldn't. It couldn't to be.


There had to be something. Someway. That he could find. Do.