Chapter Text
Victor is a Death God.
And as a Death God, he likes to think that he has a fairly normal life.
His day is usually filled with reaping souls and filling out forms. If his work for the day is finished, he usually goes to the cafeteria where he drinks coffee and has a long gossip session with his best friend, another Death God named Chris.
If Chris can't accompany him, Victor will go to the Training Department to oversee the trainees, giving pointers on how to reap souls, although mostly he goes there to annoy Yuri, a soon-to-be Death God in training, who happens to be his cousin. Later, after he receives a good scolding from Yakov, the Head of the Council, he will go back to his home and spend his time reading books or playing with his dog, Makkachin.
So, yeah, life is good.
But sometimes, it can get a little boring.
That's why Victor is walking alone in Shibuya in the middle of summer, his silver hair matted to his forehead, right hand holding a mini fan which he blasts to his face.
He and Chris are having a vacation, and Japan seems to be a good place to unwind. Their colleague, Mila, spent her vacation last year in Japan with her girlfriend Sara, and they sang praises about the country for weeks. Go to Japan, they said. It will be fun, they said. You won’t get bored, they said. So Chris suggested the country to Victor, and off they went to Tokyo.
But there is one thing that they missed.
Mila and Sara went to Japan in April, where spring has just started and flowers blossom everywhere.
Victor and Chris went to Japan in August, where summer is at its peak and cicadas screech all day long.
Victor will murder Chris.
Except Death Gods are immortal beings. So he scratches that option from his mind and proceeds to devise a plan to torture Chris. Death Gods can't die, but they certainly can feel pains, so that's the only option Victor has right now, and he will use it thoroughly.
Talking about Chris, the man himself is nowhere in sight. He left suddenly this morning, saying that Yakov called for an ‘emergency job, can’t say no!’ and disappeared into thin air before Victor could say anything.
Victor will torture him really, really slowly.
---
After Chris dumped him that morning, Victor got out from the hotel to kill some time. He spent his morning looking around the hotel’s perimeter, went to a nearby park to feed the ducks, and proceeded to Shibuya because Chris said ‘Shibuya Scramble is one of the things we must see and experience when we are in Japan!’. It seemed to be a good idea, until the heat hit him in full force. He only lasted for about 30 minutes, stopping by a konbini to buy a mini fan, and decided to go back to the hotel to cool down his body, and mind.
When he goes back to his room, he finds his room still empty. Chris apparently hasn’t come back from his job, which is weird, because Chris is known for reaping souls quickly. Sure, he may look flamboyant and easy going, but Chris is a down-right professional when it comes to his job. Some people even dub him as ‘cold-hearted’ because he never wastes his time to listen to the mortals’ pleads during their final moments; never gives them any kinds of closure to their short, fleeting life. Victor sometimes wonders if Chris has double personalities.
Whereas Chris is a walking poster boy of an excellent Death God, Victor is the complete opposite.
He always drags his time during the reaping process; giving the poor souls a chance to meet their loved ones before they disappear, making the most of their last moments on Earth before they are sent to Heaven, or Hell. He never bothers to check where the souls are sent to because he doesn’t care. He never cares about that, really. ‘Why?’ Chris often asks, and he just chuckles and proceeds to drink his coffee and continues rambling about the latest gossip he gets.
After all, do you really need a reason to have fun?
---
An hour has passed when Chris reappears in their room.
And he looks… tired.
Victor raises an eyebrow. “What’s wrong, Chris? A difficult job?” He asks from his place on the couch.
Difficult job means the souls are resisting to be taken. Some humans just don’t want to accept their deaths and refuse to be taken. Some will surrender with a few reasoning and arguments, but some can be quite stubborn and proceed to run away from Death Gods. It can take hours, even days, if the soul is quite smart in hiding. In the end, though, they are always caught. After all, no one can run away from Death.
Chris sighs and sits on the bed. He runs his hand in his hair, and looks straight in the eyes at Victor.
“It’s Georgi.”
Victor blinks. Chris still looks at him.
“He… You helped him doing his job?” He asks.
Chris snorts. “You know Georgi is more than capable in doing his job.” And then he sighs.
“I reaped his soul.”
Victor gasps. “You did what?!”
“I reaped his soul. You know, took his heart out, and…”
“I know what reaping a soul means, Chris! I mean, how come?”
“Just like what the gossip says. Well, turned out it is true.” Chris answers.
Chris nods. “Yep. He falls in love with a human.”
Georgi is Victor and Chris’ colleague. He’s also Mila’s childhood friend. They graduated from the Training Academy together, and often hang out when they have free time. He is a nice guy to befriend with, although sometimes he can be a little dramatic. Besides, he is a reliable source for gossip.
The past few months, though, Georgi seemed to be a bit busier than usual, even declining the invitation to join their gossip session in the cafeteria.
And then the rumor started.
Georgi fell in love with a human.
A mere mortal.
A girl named Anya, they said, who Georgi happened to meet when he reaped a soul in Russia. A girl that managed to snatch Georgi’s short attention span with her smile and kind heart. And turned out, also took his life as a Death God.
Death Gods are immortal, but there are a few things that can bring their immortality to a stop.
Rule number one: They can’t let their existence as Death Gods be known by humans.
Sure, they can go around, roaming the Earth as they please, even having vacation just like what Victor and Chris are doing right now, but they have to be extra careful. One mistake, and it’s over. You will be stripped down from your soul-reaping powers, and sent to Earth to live your remaining life as a human. These Death Gods are called the Fallen.
Rule number two: They can’t fall in love with humans.
When Victor asked the reason why to Yakov during their trainee days, he said falling in love with human is prohibited because human, after all, are not immortal. Yes, they may be Death Gods, but they can still feel pains, and pains from heartbreak they get from loving a human - something which lasts only few years - can really affect you physically and mentally. Those things will, eventually, affect your job as a Death God. Yakov said the second rule was actually established around two thousand years ago, when a Death God fell in love with a human and turned crazy when the human died.
Ever since then, the Council decides that no Death Gods can fall in love with a human. If they do, however, they can opt for one way out.
Their powers must be taken, and they must spend their life as mortals, just like the punishment for rule number one. However, there is more to it.
The human that they love will have no memories of their relationship.
So, not only the former Death Gods will become mere humans, but they will also need to make the human fall in love with them again.
Victor always shudders when he thinks about that. Sure, he may be a Death God, but having your loved one forgets completely about you is just inhumane (Chris and Mila and Georgi laughed at him when he said that to them after the class ended). He can’t imagine himself having to go through that thing. Yakov said that the punishment was necessary so as ‘to prevent more Death Gods to become humans and keep everything in order.’
And now one of his closest friends happens to choose that path.
Victor gulps. “So, Georgi, huh…”
Chris nods. “Yes, our dear Georgi.”
Victor gets up from the couch and lays down on the bed, next to Chris.
“Did he… hesitate? I mean, did you talk to him in his final moments? Did he say anything?”
Chris lays down beside him and shrugs, “You know I’m not one to drag my time around. I’m not you.”
Victor chuckles. “Yeah, of course. You always finish your job quickly.”
He doesn’t mean to hurt Chris, never, but he unconsciously spits the last word with more bitterness than what he intends to. Chris gets up from his position, sits on the bed and looks down on him, sneering at Victor.
“Really, Victor? Are you mad I didn’t give time to Georgi?”
Victor covers his face with both of his hands and groans. He knows he has no rights to be angry for what happened to Georgi. For what Chris did. He was, after all, just doing his job.
Victor always says that he just wants to have fun when people around him ask why he takes a long time to just reap a soul, when in fact he is interested in humans. He always has. He always listens to their stories, fulfills their last whims on Earth, because he is intrigued. What makes these mortals go so desperate for another chance, when there is another world waiting for them on the other side? Sure, he can’t say the same to those who are doomed to Hell, but it’s still another form of life, right? Maybe just a bit hotter and harder than their life on Earth, but they still can live, so it’s not that bad, really.
So that’s why he is always there: listening to the ringing laughter of a boy who got to ride a roller coaster for the first and the last time in his life, looking at the sparks in a girl’s eyes as she gazed at her boyfriend calling her name in their last date, hugging a warm body of a father who just finished reading his last bedtime story to his son, or having a tea party with a little girl on her hospital bed, her tears salty as he kissed her cold cheeks.
But Chris, he never does that. He is always one for efficiency. That’s what makes him an excellent Death God. And that’s why, Victor thinks, Yakov decided to call Chris and not him. Victor will listen, take his time because he has plenty, and maybe even hesitate to reap Georgi’s soul.
“I’m sorry, Chris. Really. I didn’t mean to.” Victor says. He peeks between his fingers to look at Chris. Chris still sits down beside him, but now the sneer has gone and is replaced by a look of understanding. Victor may never disclose his reasons to reaping souls slowly, but he knows that Chris knows. He always knows. Hell, that’s why they’re best friends; because they understand each other without having to say everything out loud.
“Just... forget it. I can never be mad at you, anyway. And now, as a form of apology, I demand you to accompany me to a bar with me tonight. There’s this interesting bar I found on this brochure…”
---
The rest of the day went pretty well. After ordering room service for lunch (because they can’t stand the summer heat outside) they spent their day resting and surfing TV channels in their room. They stumbled upon a variety show about cafes around Tokyo and made a plan to visit them the next day. After that, they had dinner and went to Shinjuku Ni-chome to go to the interesting bar Chris saw on a brochure.
Turned out, it was a gay bar. How Chris got his hands on a brochure about gay bars in Shinjuku Ni-Chome (or how the hell there’s even a brochure about gay bars in the first place), Victor will never, and don’t want to know. Victor and Chris have no problem going to a gay bar; after all, both of them are gay. So they had a really good time there. They drank and danced a bit, until Chris spotted a pole on the dance floor, and everything went a bit… wild.
A pole, alcohol, and Chris is the worst combination ever. So as Victor looked at Chris pole dancing on the dance floor, he decided to be the wiser one of the two and cut down his alcohol intake for the night, because he knew Chris would never come out from this bar in a sober condition.
---
Victor ends up dragging a very drunk Chris to their hotel room, trying very hard not to mind the stares and giggles from the hotel staff who pass by them.
Victor will torture Chris really, really slowly.
Victor manages to fish out their room key and drags Chris into their room. He miraculously manages to strip Chris from his clothes and dumps him on the bed. He then proceeds to wash up and prepares for the night.
When he gets out from the bathroom, Chris is already curled up on the bed, hogging the blanket to himself. Victor sighs and wonders why they didn’t book two single beds for the two of them. He takes Chris’ clothes from the floor and dumps them into a laundry bag. He’s thinking of going straight to the bed because he is tired, but one look at his best friend on the bed stops him from doing just that. He then takes his wallet and gets out from the room to go to a konbini just right beside the hotel.
One thing that fascinates Victor when he first arrived in Japan was the konbini. There are so many things that you can’t find in other countries’ convenience stores - not to mention the variation of food and drinks they provide. However, this time he goes there to buy aspirin and a few bottles of hangover drinks for Chris. And maybe a few packs of Pocky and some other snacks. Chris, you owe me big time, he thinks, although he knows that if he is in the same situation as Chris is in right now, Chris will do the same thing for him.
When he arrives, the konbini is rather empty. There are only two employees tending the shop; one is standing behind the cashier, the other one is busy stocking one of the empty shelves at the back. After raiding the racks for a few minutes, he brings his purchase to the cashier. The cashier, a man with a mop of black hair and blue-rimmed glasses, greets him and takes his basket. He looks down and starts scanning the things inside mechanically. He then puts them into a plastic bag quickly. Ah, Japanese efficiency. Chris will like it, Victor muses. He rings up the total amount of Victor’s purchase, clutches the plastic bag on one of his hands, and finally looking up at Victor, and freezes.
“You have beautiful eyes.”
The man has said it in Japanese, and Victor is maybe not a Japanese (well, he’s not even human), but one perk of being a Death God is he can understand all languages in the world. That means he understands Japanese. Which means he can understand what the man has said to him just now.
“Why, thank you!” Victor replies in fluent Japanese, smiling widely.
The man blinks once. And blinks again.
And then he screeches.
“Oh my God did I just say it out loud? I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to… Wait, you can speak Japanese? Oh my God, oh my God Phichit help me I don’t know what to do!”
Victor hears laughter from behind him and turns around. He sees the other employee kneeling on the floor, hands clutching his stomach.
“Oh, Yuuri! I- I can’t, I need to breathe-” The man - Phichit, Victor recalls from his friend’s plea just before - is trying to catch his breath, and failing successfully. He proceeds to laugh again, even rolling on the floor.
Victor looks back to the cashier. The man, Yuuri, he notes, is fidgeting and looking around him; at anything but Victor. Victor can see the tips of his ears turning red from embarrassment, and can’t help but think cute.
“It’s okay. Nothing to be embarrassed of.” Victor tries to ease the situation. Well, it can’t be helped. For human standards, Victor is beautiful. And humans like to appreciate beautiful things around them; that’s the reason why there is this thing called art, and Victor sometimes feels amazed at the lengths humans can do to manifest those feelings of awe.
And that’s what happened to Victor so many, many times. When Victor roams the Earth, either for work or pleasure, many people will stare at him in awe, send him glances, or even invite him for a drink or two. He is used to it; to admiration, to praises. Heck, he even basks in it.
However, this is the first time Victor becomes the recipient of such blunt admiration.
The man, Yuuri, is now clutching the plastic bag containing Victor’s purchase. Victor sighs. As much as he likes to stay and see how the situation continues, he really feels tired from all the dancing and dragging Chris, and he just wants to go back to his room and get some sleep. He clears his throat and decides to save the man from his misery; and also his body from the tiredness seeping to his bones.
“Hey, Yuuri, right? It’s okay, really. Now, can I get my things?”
This time, Yuuri stops fidgeting and turns his head to look at Victor. Victor now can get a good look of his face and looks back at Yuuri.
Victor blinks.
And sees them.
The sparks.
It’s there when he looked at a girl’s eyes as she gazed at her boyfriend, calling her name in their last date.
And now he sees them again.
In front of him.
In Yuuri’s eyes.
But Yuuri is not dying. He’s very much alive, indicated by the flush painting his face to his ears and neck. His hands are still clutching the plastic bag and he opens his mouth.
“Thank you for your purchase. Please come again!” he manages to stammer the words. He hands Victor his bag, which Victor takes slowly, eyes not leaving Yuuri’s.
“Thanks. I… I’ll see you soon, Yuuri.”
Victor grabs the plastic bag and walks out from the konbini, not bothering to look back. He walks to his room, and dumps his body on the bed when he gets there. Chris stirs beside him, groans a bit and continues to sleep. He looks at Chris, feels tempted to wake him up but knows that Chris really needs his time to rest. He himself needs rest.
Victor puts away his Pocky and drinks, and lays down on the bed, trying very hard to sleep.
That night, he dreams of a man with warm chocolate eyes, gazing at Victor with sparks in them.
He dreams of a man named Yuuri.