*picture isn't mine* Enjoy!

I have never been this terrified in my entire life. 

I'm constantly shaking, my heart pounding, my blood running, and I'm jumping at the slightest of sounds. I can't focus on anything besides my daughter.

This is the little girl I watched grow up. I was the one that caught her when she was about to fall while skating. I was the one that she would wake when Santa came. I was the one that held her hand when she was afraid to walk on her own. I caused and caught her tears. I caused and took away her smiles. I gave her every piece of me I could offer, and she took them willingly. 

Anna is wheeled immediately into a room and the doctors told us to stay away. Viktor is holding me as I continue to sob. Yuuko, her whole family, and Mari are sitting in the waiting room-but Viktor and I stand outside her door. I reach out for his hand and squeeze it tight, he squeezes back-a single understanding.

We will not let his end.

After the news the daughter of the two famous skaters had been in an accident, Viktor and I wouldn't stop receiving calls.

"Is she okay?" Phichit asks, his voice breaking. I can hear he is close to tears. "Yuri, please tell me she's okay. I'll come to Hasetsu right away."

"She's...alive." I say, my voice quivering as well. "Yuuko was right, she wasn't breathing and we got her into the hospital right on time. The doctors are already treating her and will run some tests for...something, they didn't want to scare us more. All we're doing is wait."

"I'm coming." Phichit states. "I'm literally packing my bags. I am not missing this. If you can see her, please tell her I'm coming. And that Uncle Phichit loves her."

My heart leaps as I say my goodbyes and the line goes silent. Viktor is talking to Yurio and Otabek over the phone. I can see he's uptight as well, but his voice remains calm as I walk closer to him. He's wearing his long coats he used to wear on our competitions and our hair and clothes are still wet. 

"You don't have to come." Viktor says. God, with Yurio and Otabek, and Phichit and whole hospital would be crowded. "Really, Yurio, you just got out of the hospital yesterday-don't hurry up. Anna will be fine when you come. We got her in the hospital in time. Yes, yes. I know. She's fine. Okay. I hope you feel better. Yes. Okay. Goodbye."

He ends the phone call and sits down next to Mari who's eating her Krispey Kreme doughnuts silently. Viktor sighs and leans his head back. I sit down next to him and reach for his hand again. It's the only anchor I have left to stay in this world. Viktor represents a lot in my life. Not only the whole meaning of it, but the ice. 

"They're coming, aren't they?" I ask and Viktor nods. "Viktor," I say, leaning closer. "I've cried my heart out of the fear. Even Takeshi has tears in his eyes, yet you neglect to even shed a tear."

Viktor cranes his head to my direction. "She's not...she's not going to die."

I blink slowly. Tears starting to rise to my eyelashes again. "We won't let her die."

"I don't even know what happened." Viktor says, his voice turning sad. Sad enough to make thunder boom outside us. His eyes have lost certain light I've observed for all my life. Like the kind that can transport you into a constellation of glinting stars. But sadly, all I see now is a black hole.

"Everything is going to be alright." I say, trying to convince not only Viktor, but myself. Without Anna, it's just me and him and as much as I love Viktor-we need another spark in our lives. And our spark is dying. "She's with the doctors now, nothing can go wrong."

Viktor sighs and starts fidgeting with his hands. "I hate feeling useless. What if she's scared in there? What if she just wants to see us and were not there for her? She's our daughter, Yuri, we should be able to see her."

"The doctors know what they're doing." I say, cupping his face with my cheek and tracing circles with my thumb over his skin. It's like we switched roles. I'm no longer scared that Anna will leave-because she won't. I'm confident tomorrow I will wake up to see my daughter. Viktor is no longer that calm. He's never been this terrified in his life and jumps at the slightest of sounds. "I-we-we won't let Anna leave."

I feel terrible. Lying to Viktor.

23 hours and eighteen minutes later, the doctors finally appear. It took so long, Phichit has already arrived. Otabek and Yurio already bought a plane ticket and will arrive around mid-afternoon. Viktor and I immediately rise to our feet, Mari nearly chokes on her doughnut and Takeshi shakes his family awake. Nobody dares to wake up Minako.

"Mr. Katsuki, Mr. Nikiforov." The doctor says, waving for us to walk into his office. Viktor walks in first and I turn around to face my family before entering.

The doctor, wearing his white coat, sits down on his black, leather chair and leans with his elbows in on his glass table. He looks at the stack of white paper in his hands and drops them in front of us, then readjusts his glasses. Around are pictures of his family and diplomas for all his achievements. He sighs and looks right up at us.

"For how long have you had Anna?" He first asks, scratching his brown beard.

"We had her since she was four. 7 years." I say immediately. The doctor, Doctor Akiyama, jots down what I say into the notepad. "Doctor, what happened to our daughter?"

"Anna, for now, is fine." Doctor Akiyama says. "Have you noticed any type of unusual behavior for the past month?"

I nod. "She would start to bleed in the middle of the night and then she'd sweat to the point of burning fever and then she wouldn't eat at all."

Doctor Akiyama nods and takes off his glasses. He takes out his phone from his pocket, searching for something and flips it around so Viktor and I can see the picture. We both lean in to do so. For me, all I see is red and white, but for the doctor, this means something else. Doctor Akiyama points to the white part of the image. "Those are white blood cells. This is the bone marrow of a normal person. You can see that in at least one cell, there's mostly only two to three white blood cells. Now," He scrolls with his thumb to the left and another image appears. "this is your daughter's bone marrow. You can see that in this cell, she has more than five white blood cells and not so many red blood cells."

I blink slowly, already knowing where this is going.

"Your daughter has leukemia." Doctor Akiyama says and Viktor's hand immediately reaches out to grab mine. Both of our hands are shaking under the table. "Sadly, this is not a severe case. The disease is already spreading and affected her lungs in a quick way. It  explains why the young lady that found her thought she was already dead. Anna is now breathing on her own, but her stomach is also damaged. The kidney, thank God, is fine."

"How long-" I ask, my voice breaking. "How long has she had this?"

"It isn't a matter of how long, but a matter of when did it start to spread." The doctor says and puts on back his glasses and turns off his phone. "From my perspective, I could she's had this since she was six-five maybe, but started spreading since she was nine. She just didn't show the symptoms yet."

"How bad is it?" Viktor asks. "Does she have anything besides leukemia?"

The doctor nods and shows us a couple of more pictures. "Due to the rise of leukemia, Anna has developed anemia and thrombocytopenia which is low levels of red cells and platelets. She has so many white blood cells, there is no room for red blood cells and platelets to create in her blood. We already tried transfusion her blood, it could be the reason why she's breathing on her own right now." 

"By the look of this, we'd need to have at least four transfusions a week." Doctor Akiyama says, scratching his head. "Four and more transfusions a week hint her life is in danger. The immune system is now really weak and she's vulnerable to many infectious diseases. They can be treated with antibiotics but without a functioning immune system, they can't work completely well."

"So, the blood transfusions are what stands in the way of death." I realize and the doctor nods. I lean back of my chair and my hands go straight to cover my mouth as I blink rapidly, trying to diminish the tears. Viktor wraps his arm around me and presses his temple against mine. 

"Last time I checked she was asleep, but she's allowed to have visitors now in her room." Doctor Akiyama says and stands up. "And I'm really, really sorry about your daughter's fate."

Once he leaves, all I can do is cry and all Viktor can do is hold me. 

"Hey, Daddys." Anna says weakly as we're the last to enter her hospital room. Otabek and Yurio have arrived and have shared tears and hugs with us. Now, both of them are collapsed in the corner of the room, snoring and cuddling together in sleep. Mari is still eating her doughnuts, but hovers close to Anna like she wants to say something. Minako still isn't awake. Phichit is the closest to her bed, looking at Anna's weak face and neglecting to cry.

For her sake, we all need to stay strong.

I push Phichit aside and drop to my knees, holding Anna's white, white, white hand in mine. She has tubes injected into the forearm I'm holding, with blood running in and out of her. On the left side of the bed stays the heart monitor, beeping carefully. Anna's never looked that weak and all I want is to hold her and hug her until this sickening diseases leaves her alone.

"Hey, sweetheart." I say, kissing her knuckles and tracing circles on the upper part of her palm. Viktor goes and sits down at the edge of her bed, his eyes swaying from Anna to the floor. Anna cranes her head to lock eyes with me and I can finally spot her neck. I can see the numerous purple spots up and down her neck and collarbone. "That was for the makeup, wasn't it?"

She nods, tears stinging in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Daddy." She says, finally letting the tears spill. The family around us takes that a sign and starts leaving by one. First Mari with her doughnuts, then Minako who has finally woken up. Then Otabek and Yurio, and finally Phichit. Then, we had the room alone. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything. Are you angry with me?"

I blink. Maybe this is just a dream and I'll wake up with Anna giggling at my side and Viktor kissing me good morning. Maybe her radiant smile will wake me up. Maybe his kisses will let me breathe again. Maybe I'm just going mad and this is the consequences of it. Imagining my daughter die.

"Anna, there isn't anything in this world that would made me mad at you." I say and Viktor nods at my side. Both of us are kneeling right next to her, each holding a hand of hers and each looking desperately into her eyes. "We love you, no matter what happens."

"I love you too." She says, more tears leaking out of her face. We both stand up and wrap her pale and spaghetti arms around us. I feel her flickering warmth surround me. Wrapping my arms around her-it's like I'm protecting her. It's almost as if leukemia can't stand in our way. I'm shielding her from whatever danger, and Viktor on the left side is doing the same.

We break apart and I cup her face in my two hands. "Don't feel sorry of what you did. You were scared and didn't know what to do, but you could've talked to us. We could've saved all this pain-my poor girl, you suffered so much-"

"Am I dying?" Anna asks, her eyes flickering to the heart monitor. "It feels like I am."

"We're not letting that happen." Viktor says firmly, wrapping his palm of her hers and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "We will never leave your side."

Anna, looking paler than just a couple of minutes before, takes something out from her pillow and hands it to me. "I wrote something there. It'd be nice if you read it if I'm not...well, if I don't make it."

"Stop saying that, Anna." I say, tears pooling in my eyes until I can't hold them any longer and they spill. "You will survive. This isn't the end of you."

Anna leans back, sighing as something in the depth of her eyes seem to fade. She clutches both of our hands tightly as her head sinks a little bit lower into the pillow. Her skin could easily be snow and her voice would come out as a silent whisper, barely a sound at all. Anna lets out a shaky breath and stares up at us. 

The heart monitor continues. I'll stick to that sound.

"You once told me," Anna starts-saying this to the both of us as she manages a weak smile. A smile through pain. My daughter is in pain and I can't do anything about it. "you-you told me we called everything on ice love. You gave me all the love and compassion a little girl could ask for in seven, amazing years I wouldn't take back."

I start crying again, shaking my head over and over again, squeezing her hand whenever a new wave of sadness would drown me. 

The heart monitor continues. 

"You are the best Daddys I could ever ask for." Anna says, her voice sounding like she was underwater. "And I will always love you for the opportunity you gave me. Out of every girl in the orphanage, you decided to pick me. You decided to take me and make me your daughter. You filled me with love and compassion I could never imagine." 

She squeezes both of our hands back.

Anna continues to squeeze as she lets out another shaky breath. She smiles again weakly to both of us as she says, "See you next level."

Her hand stops squeezing, her head tilts to one side and her chest stops rising and falling. Her eyes gracefully shut, but this time, I know she's never going to open them up again. Anna's arms go limp at her side as the heart monitor indicates Viktor and I have lost our daughter.