Chapter Text
“Hello again, little one”
Viktor smiled, Vander…. Therapy? Rehabilitation? Cure? Whatever you wanna call it, was doing wonders. So little time had passed in the outside world, but here, inside Vanders soul, it felt like a lifetime.
“I already told you my name, why do you keep calling me that?”
He was once again touching the form of the man and a beast combined, Vander itself was there, but the animal Singed tried to create had touched his essence deeply, making it hard for one to exist without the other. Viktor himself wasn’t sure if he could make him a full human again, but he would keep trying.
“You do look really small”
He did, especially there, on that sea of white and nothing. Vander looked like a mountain of a man while Viktor was in a smaller form, touching him here and there evaluating the damage done and where he could be more useful. Sky was nowhere to be seen, doing her own research somewhere else in the big universe that Vander was.
“Maybe you are the one who is too big”
Vander laughed, it was the first time Viktor heard the sound. It was beautiful. His whole body trembled with the action, making small butterflies take flight from inside his soul.
“That’s true”
The smaller man watched them fly, curious if they would go back inside the other man or if they would disappear in the distance.
“I didn’t had the opportunity to thank you”
Vander spoke again, his eyes focused on the small figure reclined against himself.
“Not needed, thank your daughters for bringing you to me”
Viktor on the other hand kept looking at the butterflies, to his surprise they flew for a while without a destination but ended up landing next to him.
“I missed them so much, I wish I could talk to them like I talk with you. There’s so much I want to say to the both of them…”
The wolf parts that formed Vanders body made noises like growls, they were small but if Viktor didn’t interfere he knew they would only grow bigger and stronger.
“You will have the opportunity. Be patient, alright?”
The bigger man took a long breath, making the noises subside and die. Vanders emotions were something Viktor tried to tend with care, they were volatile and fragile. His emotions controlled the scenery around them and made the beast inside the man anxious or angry.
The silence between them grew. It was good, silence was a great sign, meaning that Vanders soul was at peace. Looking at the butterflies, Viktor reluctantly touched one of them, one that had white and purple colors in its wings.
“Haha, that tickles”
The butterflies flew again, once again following Vanders' laugh. Fascinating.
“Does it always tickle when I touch you?”
“No, not always. Only in some places”
“Where?”
A big hand, big enough to crush Viktors body, raised from the ground. It stopped mid air as if Vander wasn’t sure how to answer the question. But in the end he touched the part of his body that would be a chest in a human body.
“It feels warm as well”
Viktor himself didn’t feel cold or warmth there, sensations he didn’t quite experienced since his ‘evolution’ in the outside world as well.
“May I?”
Vander didn’t answer but that was normal, he probably felt ashamed or afraid of what it could do to him. He was an interesting patient, never saying ‘no’ to Viktors experiments. Clearly trying to go back to his daughters the faster he could.
Vander chest was a big blue stain, a wolf's mouth always open, ready to devour both men if the beast were to be awakened again. Honoring Vanders bravery, Viktor climbed on his chest, sitting above the place his heart was supposed to be, right in the center of the wolf’s mouth.
He touched what was supposed to be skin or even fur below himself. The young man himself didn’t feel anything, but Vanders' laugh filling the void again meant he was telling the truth.
The laugh made his chest shake, and that was something Viktor could feel, a strange but nice sensation. So nice that even Viktor started to laugh as well. A warmth born between the two, it started as a shy flame but it quickly grew surrounding them and making the scenery receive a pinkish and orangey hue.
He felt as if he spent a whole year just laughing without any break. Feeling exhausted Viktor decided to lay above Vander’s chest, feeling his breathing against his skin. They both didn’t had the need to breathe there, but it was a human habit hard to kill.
A large hand very carefully rested above his body, so delicate as if afraid to crush him. He probably could, Viktor would be physically fine with it but it would also expel him from that space and from Vanders soul.
“Thank you”
The older man's voice filled the air, the warmth between them growing again, it was so comfortable, comfortable enough to make them both close their eyes, entering a strange dream filled with the smell of alcohol and the sound of an old record player playing in the background…