Description: Cinderella, a tale of falling in love at first sight and fighting for that love.

When Victor’s school puts on Cinderella, a new actor emerges and takes the lead. Maybe Victor’s been in love from the moment he laid eyes on Yuuri, and maybe Yuuri feels the same. It definitely takes them both a while to build up the courage to say so. Maybe it takes a few weeks of acting and texting, but it absolutely does get resolved. Eventually.

>>>>>

Day 1: Auditions. “Alright!”

Ms. Green clapped her hands, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. Victor turned away from Chris to look at her standing on the stage. “I’m so glad to see a lot of students here for our spring production of Cinderella! Now, I know a few of you are returning from last year, but remember; just because you were here last year doesn’t guarantee you a big role this time. I’m sorry, but fair is fair. Now.” She waved a hand out towards the audience and one of the other students stood and joined her on the stage. Ms. Green rested a hand on his shoulder, and he grinned big. “This is Phichit Chulanont. He’s going to be our director this year. Phichit, take it away.”

A few students clapped as Ms. Green descended the stairs, Victor included. He loved that Ms. Green always had a freshman acting as the director of the spring productions, and he remembered his turn in that spot fondly. Directing a bunch of students older than him to act out Romeo and Juliet had been a challenge, but it was fun nonetheless.

“Hi!” Phichit waved. “Like Ms. Green said, I’m Phichit. I hope that I can help all of you reach your fullest potential for our performances! I plan to cast based on talent, and talent alone. I’m very excited to get started, so let’s go!”

After he finished, he called a few people onto the stage and got right to work. As everyone got up, he introduced himself to them each personally and gave them a scene. When Victor went up, Phichit glanced away at someone for a moment before handing him a script.

“Alright, Victor, I want you to act as Cinderella.” Victor nodded, smiling, and walked over to center stage. They were practicing the ball scene, and already they had a the step-sisters and the step-mother.

“Who should be your prince, hm?” Phichit asked coyly, looking around. He seemed to find his target as he smiled brightly. “Yuuri! Would you please play the prince for us?”

There was some grumbling, but eventually another student who must be Yuuri came up the stairs. He had messy black hair and blue-framed glasses on, as well as an over-sized sweater and baggy sweatpants.

Victor tried to keep a smile on his face as he approached.

Then they began the scene, Victor waiting off-stage for his part, listening for his cue and reading along.

“It’s the prince!” Someone yells, Victor has already forgotten her name, but he knows that’s his cue, and he steps on-stage with all the nervous grace he can muster. He watches briefly as Chris and another student tussle around with the Prince before they stop and all eyes are on him. The Prince comes over in the silence and offers him a hand, and in that silence, Victor’s breath stops.

The Prince is panting a little, most likely due to wrestling with Chris, his cheeks flushed a light pink. And Victor notices now his nice, brown eyes blown wide, shining in the stage lights, different shades of brown mixed together.

Oh no.

He begins to reach out for his hand, and then Sara’s voice cuts in, making them both pull away. “It’s time to play ridicule! Everyone! Take sides!”

And they are both whisked away as the scene progresses. The continue for only a little bit longer before Phichit cuts them off, clapping his hands.

“Wonderful! I want to try something, though. Yuuri, Victor, switch roles. Start at the same place as before.”

Victor turned to Chris with a furrowed brow, but his friend only shrugged and moved back to where he had started. Victor moved to his spot, and they started again.

When it came time for Cinderella to enter once again, after Victor fought Chris and whoever else off of himself, he turned to see Yuuri standing on the other side of the stage, fidgeting with his hands. He made his way over, and slowly he reached a hand out to him. Yuuri looked up from the floor, his cheeks once again flushed and his lips parted slightly. Victor smiled, and held his hand flat, waiting. Yuuri reached up to grab it, and once more, before they could touch, Sara cut in.

So they continued to the act, until they had reached the same place as before.

“Okay, I think that’s a good place to end it today!” Phichit called out, climbing back onto the stage and gestured for everyone else to get off. "Ms. Green and I will work on the cast list today, and we should have it finished and posted tomorrow. So I’ll see you all then!“ And then he made a shooing motion with his hand. 

Victor only made it to the car before he broke down.

“CHRIS OH MY GOD.”

“Victor! I’m not deaf, you don’t HAVE to yell at me!”

“Sorry.” Victor rubbed his neck sheepishly as they pulled out of the school.

“It’s just. I think I’m in love. Help meeeee.”

Chris laughed. “Wow? So soon? And who?”

“Yuuri! That last scene just… UGH. He’s so cute, Chris!” Victor whined.

“He was an amazing actor, too! That’s all I need in a man. Handsome, adorable, good actor, he has my heart already.”

Chris shook his head, but he was smiling. “You only just met, Victor. You don’t even know if he’s a good person. You’ve never had a conversation!”

“I don’t care, he’s perfect. God, how am I supposed to survive 11 weeks of practice with his perfection?”

Chris rolled his eyes, but he drove on. Victor knew, though, that he wouldn’t survive to the performances. He could already tell.

Day 2: Casting. “Victor Nikiforov! You will be our Prince Charming.”

Victor smiled at the announcement. Honestly, he loved the role, after spending all night reading the script. Now, if only his Cinderella was….

“Yuuri Katsuki!” Ms. Green’s voice called next. “You will be Cinderella, the star of the show.”

He couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across his face as he glanced out in the crowd of students to find his new crush. There he was, hiding his face in his hands. There was the hint of a smile that Victor could spot, just barely peeking out from behind his hand.

Standing and crossing the room, Victor stopped in front of Yuuri. When the latter moved his hands off his face, Victor grabbed them. They were so soft.

“Yuuri! I’m really excited to work with you as my Cinderella! If you are anywhere near as good as you were during auditions, then I’m sure our performances will be the best production this entire school has ever had.”

Yuuri stared up at him, the blush Victor has already become fond of ever-present on his face. Now that Victor got a better look, he could see how it spread all the way to his ears. Adorable.

“I-I’m not too sure about that…” Yuuri mumbled, his eyes dropping to his lap. “Your performance in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is quite the competitor.”

Victor beamed, fighting a blush of his own. “You saw that?” Yuuri just nodded. “Well, we’ll just have to work extra hard, so we can beat it. That means lots of practice!” Victor sat in the empty seat next to Yuuri, lowering his voice a little so he wouldn’t be shouting anymore. “Can I have your number, so we can meet up for practice and such?”

He caught Chris’ exasperated expression in the corner of his eye, but he ignored it. Victor has never been one for subtle or slick, and he knows it.

“Um, sure?” Yuuri’s shoulders drew up, but he had accepted! Victor finally released one of Yuuri’s hands to reach around to grab his phone. “Here, just put it in.” He pulled up a new contact and passed it to Yuuri, who put his name and his number. “Can I take a picture of you for the icon? It’s okay if not, I just like to have icons because I have a bad memory.” Victor lied through his teeth. He doesn’t have icon pictures for any of his contacts but Chris, and that was just because Chris’ was a dumb picture that he had set to tease Chris.

Yuuri, however, didn’t know he was lying through his teeth. He just blushed, and nodded. “If… If you want to, I guess? But only if I can get one of you for mine.”

“Of course!” Victor pulled up the camera for his phone, taking a quick picture. The lighting was awful, but now he had a cute picture of Yuuri so lighting be damned. He sent Yuuri a text so he’d have his number to add as a contact, and let Yuuri take a picture of him (which he may or may not have winked in).

After that, Phichit called for everyone’s attention, and work began.

Day 11: The dance. It was the 11th day of practice, 6 weeks since auditions, and Victor was living. He and Yuuri had been texting, and before and after each practice they’d been talking. Victor had yet to get Yuuri away from school to… Practice. But he was trying.

But every conversation they had was wonderful. Yuuri was an amazing person, and just as cute as Victor had thought he would be. PLUS he was an amazing actor, and Victor’s crush was just getting bigger and bigger with every message. He’d had to refrain himself from sending hearts the other day. It’s too much.

Of course, it was only going to get worse for his heart today. He had been both dreading and awaiting this day of practice since he realized. He and Yuuri are going to practice the ball dance today. After 6 weeks, he was finally going to get to dance with Yuuri.

So of course Victor had arrived to practice beaming, ready to go. And now Phichit was talking with Ms. Green about the scene in question as Yuuri and he waited on stage. 

“Hey Yuuri, follow my lead?” He whispered, tired of waiting and ready to finally do one of the things he had been anticipating the most in the past few weeks.

Yuuri, of course, gave him a slightly puzzled look, used to Victor’s usual attentive behavior during rehearsals. But he nodded nonetheless, and took Victor’s hand when he offered it. Slowly, Victor pulled him closer until their bodies were almost touching, but not quite. Even with the distance however, they had never been so close before, and Victor reveled in it.

“Dance isn’t something you can discuss.” He whispered into the small space between them. Yuuri nodded, his brows furrowing a little.

“Sometimes you just have to feel it.” Victor smiled, and rested a hand on Yuuri’s waist. Finally, Yuuri seemed to realize what he was doing, a small grin softening his features as he placed a hand gently on Victor’s shoulder.

And they began to dance with no music, and the Victor’s world narrowed to the one point where Yuuri was.

He could hear the music in his head as he took the lead, dancing slowly across the stage with Yuuri. Victor smiled brightly as Yuuri laughed when Victor’s silent instructions hadn’t been enough, resulting in Victor trying to spin Yuuri and ending up being spun himself. They sped up as they danced on, at points Victor giving the control to Yuuri and letting himself be spun and moved, dipped and twirled, then taking it back and lifting Yuuri as they both reached their limits, breaths coming out heavily. Once he set Yuuri down, both of them fell to the floor, leaning on each other and laughing.

Victor felt elated, his hand still tangled with Yuuri’s as they both sat there, trying to catch their breath. They both startled when Phichit’s voice called out.

“That was amazing, you two! Spectacular! Beautiful! Do you think you could do that for the performances?”

Victor rubbed the back of his neck, a slightly embarrassed smile spreading across his face. “I guess? Maybe Yuuri and I could choreograph something for it, do you think, Yuuri?” He turned to him, only to see Yuuri curled in on himself, his breathing as fast as it had been they had stopped dancing, but he should have been able to catch it by now, shouldn’t he? “Yuuri?” He asked, resting a hand gently on Yuuri’s shoulder, which caused Yuuri to flinch. He withdrew, wide eyes looking up at Phichit and Ms. Green in confusion.

“Oh shit.” Phichit breathed out, running up the stairs and over to them. In a very soft voice he asked, “Victor, I need you to scoot back, okay?” Victor just nodded and did as asked, watching as Phichit sat on the floor next to Yuuri, leaning over to whisper something to him without touching him. Yuuri nodded his head slightly, barely visible, and Phicht rested a hand on his shoulder, helping him stand. Victor watched helplessly as Phichit led Yuuri off the stage and to the back of the room. As Ms. Green called for everyone’s attention, telling them to run some lines with others in their scenes, he caught sight of Yuuri’s face, covered in tears, and his whole body shaking as Phichit whispered something to him. 

After a while of running lines with Sara, Ms. Green called out saying that practice was over for the day. Immediately, Victor ran over to Phichit, afraid to go over to Yuuri, who was still sat in the back of the auditorium, legs pulled up to his chest and watching the people on stage.

“Phichit,” Victor said, reaching out a hand to set it on Phichit’s shoulder before pulling back. “Is Yuuri okay?”

Phichit sighed, but nodded. “He is. He was just… a bit overwhelmed. I can’t explain much under best friend law, but he’ll be fine.” He smiled tightly up at Victor. “Don’t worry too much. It wasn’t anything you did, and he’s fine, I promise.”

Victor nodded, looking at the floor before glancing back at Yuuri again. Their eyes met and Victor gave him a small wave, which Yuuri returned, sort of, by lifting his fingers. But Victor smiled at him and went to gather his stuff.

When he got home, he looked at his phone to see a message from Yuuri.

I’m so sorry.

Victor squinted at the screen for a good five minutes, trying to decipher what Yuuri could possibly be sorry for, when another text message popped up, followed by two more.

i… um. ok. this is kind of hard for me to say, but i know you well enough to know you’re blaming yourself for what happened at practice, and i don’t want you to worry or be mad at yourself. 

i suffer from panic attacks sometimes, and that’s what happened earlier. i loved dancing with you, but a combination of breathlessness and the anxiety i get from being seen when i dance resulted in… well. you saw. 

i’m okay now, i promise. i didn’t mean to flinch when you touched me, that’s just kind of reflex. i don’t generally like being touched when i’m having an attack, especially with no warning. if it happens again, just quietly tell me if you’re going to touch me and wait for confirmation, okay?

Victor set his phone down and moved to his computer, immediately googling everything he could about panic attacks. After an hour of research, he picked his phone back up, and typed up a reply.

thank you for explaining. i’m not going to lie when i say i was scared when i saw you were crying and i didn’t know why. i promise if it happens again, i’ll be more careful ^^; i looked up some stuff on panic attacks, so i should have a little better an idea now?? i had never heard of them before…

omg you looked them up?????

of course! i want to be able to help you if it happens again, i don’t want you to be sad or in pain

i’m literally screaming ok thanks

dfghj don’t scream!!

too late.

Victor laughed to himself, glad that Yuuri at least seemed to be feeling better now. 

seriously though, thank you for trusting me enough to explain everything.

… always.

Day 22: Performances!! “Oh my GOD Yuuri! Can you believe that we have a performance TONIGHT?!”

Victor draped himself dramatically over Yuuri’s shoulder, to Yuuri’s apparent amusement. Since the day they danced, the two of them had grown a lot closer. Where before, Yuuri had been hesitant when Victor was near, and pulled away when Victor touched him, now he had grown accustomed to Victor’s casual touches, and his over-dramatic tendencies.

They had spent the last few weeks meeting up every weekend to work on their dance, wanting it to be as beautiful and as freeing as the first. They had both agreed to keep it secret until the performance, wanting to surprise the audience and the other actors and crew members, citing that they wanted the reactions on-stage to be genuine. But really, Victor’s motivation considerably more selfish, wanting to keep the dance Yuuri and he had had to himself for as long as possible.

But today was the day, and in a few hours their dance would be shared with everyone, no longer there for Victor to hoard for himself. That was okay, though. Because today, he had decided, would be the day he asked Yuuri to be his boyfriend. He had planned it all out. After the performance, he’ll grab Yuuri and pull him aside after they get their congratulations from the audience, and he’ll ask him there. And maybe, maybe if he is lucky, he’ll even kiss Yuuri. A real, true kiss.

“Victor get off, Phichit is trying to do my makeup.” Yuuri laughed, shoving his face playfully. “And you need to go get yours, too. There’s only an hour before showtime, you know.” Victor pulled himself off, and grabbed his own makeup, beginning to apply it himself.

“I know, but it feels so surreal! I can’t believe after tonight, you’ll no longer be my Cinderella. What if you find a new Prince Charming?” He half-joked.

“I could never replace you as my Prince, Victor.” Yuuri said quietly, his eyes shut while Phichit applied eyeshadow.

“Oh my God, Yuuri!” Phichit shouted, obviously delighted. “That was so cute!”

“Shut up, Phichit. Finish my makeup so I can get dressed.”

“But-”

“No.”

“Bu-”

“NO.”

Victor laughed at their banter, finishing his own makeup, a much more simple style than Yuuri’s. He grabbed his costume off the rack and went to change.

Then, it was showtime.

The play, for the most part, went off without a hitch. Of course, it was a live performance, so not everything was perfect. Victor almost knocked over a set piece, Sara dropped Yuuri’s glass slipper and almost ‘broke’ it, and someone came on too soon and had to improvise his way through it. But it was wonderful. Every scene Victor saw with Yuuri went wonderfully, even when someone forgot a line, Yuuri helped them get to it and he had his own lines memorized perfectly.

Once the curtains closed after the final scene and the applause sounded throughout the theater, the crew began moving set pieces back for bows, and Yuuri grabbed Victor’s wrist, dragging him to the back where they were to wait until it was their turn to bow, at the end.

“Victor,” Yuuri whispered at the sound of the curtains reopening, and the final song starting to play. “I need to ask you something.”

Now would be JJ, Michele, and Emil coming out to bow first.

“Yes?” Victor asked, furrowing his brow. Yuuri looked at the ground and fidgeted for a second. He reminded Victor of their audition together.

The applause died and began again. Seung-Gil and Sara, now.

“Will… Will you… Would you like to…”

Next was Otabek, another freshman, and Chris.

“Will you be my boyfriend?”

Victor’s heart stopped, his jaw dropping and his eyes widening. This wasn’t happening. Yuuri had beat him to it. He couldn’t help it, he laughed a little.

Unfortunately, Yuuri seemed to take it the wrong way.

“Oh- I’m- I’m sorry, that was so ridiculous of me. Of course you don’t.” He took a step back, taking a shuddering breath.

“No no no.” Victor gasped, reaching out and pulling Yuuri back, pulling him closer than before and leaning down to whisper to him. “You misunderstand, Yuuri. I was going to ask you the same thing after bows.” He smiled.

Yuuri blinked at him, confusion taking over his face before realization beat it out. “Oh my God.” He giggled. “Oh God.”

Victor hugged him. “You beat me to it.” He laughed, squeezing Yuuri tighter when he felt Yuuri returning his hug. “I would love to be your boyfriend, Yuuri, if you will have me.” Yuuri nodded against his chest and they both laughed again.

Victor took a quick glance out to who was bowing now.

Leo and Guang Hong. Only one more group.

“Yuuri, do you trust me?”

Georgi bowed. They were up.

“Of course.”

Victor pulled back and smiled, then they stepped onto the stage.

The lights were blinding, the applause thunderous. But Victor’s attention was on Yuuri, and Yuuri’s on Victor. Yuuri smiled at him, and Victor couldn’t wait another second.

He lifted a hand, placing it gently on Yuuri’s cheek and leaned in. Yuuri’s eyes widened, he took in a deep breath, but then he relaxed, and he met Victor halfway.

Their first kiss was spectacular. Under the warm stage lights, with the crowd in front of them and the rest of the cast behind them, as the last few notes of the song drew the production to a close. When they finally pulled apart, Victor drew Yuuri into a hug, laughing and whispering in his ear, "This was a much better production than ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.“ And Yuuri laughed his bright laughter, as they pulled apart to take a bow with the rest of the cast.