Phichit's Dream
"Sà-wàt-dee kâ, Phichit!"
Phichit looked up to see the organiser of the night's event waving at him. He grinned and took a photo of her on his phone. "Sà-wàt-dee, Kala! How is everything?" Though Kala's Thai was decent, she was not a native to Thailand and often mispronounced her words. He greatly appreciated the effort, but he knew she was much more comfortable in English.
Kala smiled. "Everything looks good, Phichit. Mr. Plisetsky keeps asking if he absolutely must wear the costume, but everyone else seems to be taking it in stride."
Phichit laughed. Of all the people he had in his show tonight, he'd suspected it would be the younger Russian who would be the first to question. He didn't mind. He knew Yurio would wear the costume.
"Kala! Kya mien aapki madad kar sakta? Mujhey samajh mein nahi aataa." Phichit didn't speak Hindi and so the request went unknown by him as Kala raced off with a man Phichit hadn't seen until that day. Kala was a big help to him. They'd met back in Detroit when he was still training with Yuuri and kept in touch. When he'd mentioned doing an ice show, Kala had almost jumped for joy and asked if she could help. As a non-skater, Phichit decided she would be best put to work as the manager and she'd done an amazing job. Everything was going well this morning because she was so good at her job.
Heading in the direction of the multi-function room, Phichit could hear the rather loud chattering of his friends as he approached. From the sounds of it, there was some discussion on whether or not Guanghong or Yurio should be in the smaller costume.
"Clearly it should be you, it fits you better!"
"But Leo and I are a pair, we're supposed to be dressed the same."
"Yeah, it'll be silly if they skate together in two totally different outfits."
"This hat makes me look like a douche."
"I don't think it's the hat making you look that way, Yurio."
There was some laughter and a loud bang followed by a weak "ow."
Phichit opened the door to see Yurio standing over Leo, his foot crushing his face into the wood. He grinned at all of them. "It's good to see you all getting along!"
Yuuri waved at him from the back of the room; clearly, he'd tried to stay out of whatever drama was going on.
"Thailand! You have to have the final say! Who's going to be in the smaller outfit, me or Guanghong?"
Phichit shook his head. He couldn't believe he was even being asked such a question. "Guanghong and Leo are going to be shadow skating Yuri, they have to match!"
The look on the Russian's face told Phichit that he'd expected this outcome, but had hoped for a different answer. Phichit quickly pulled out his phone a snapped a cheeky picture of the blonde before tucking his phone away. Yurio was about to comment, but Phichit threw his hands up in defense, "behind the scenes!"
~! #$%^&*()_+
A couple of hours later, around lunchtime, Kala walked into the room with a frown on her face. Phichit looked up from where he was taking promo shots of the group and kept a smile on his face as he asked her what the problem was.
"I'm afraid Mr. Nikiforov won't be able to make it today. He was held up with some visa issues and won't make it. He's stuck at the airport for the next couple of hours."
Phichit looked over to see Yuuri look sad and he took a moment to think before speaking.
"Thanks for letting me know Kala, please tell Viktor that we hope he's able to work through the situation."
Viktor had wanted to be in the show and Phichit had been excited to have the skater with him. He was hoping that with the inclusion of Viktor it would draw an even larger crowd. Though none of them had any one big part, Viktor was supposed to do a rendition of his famous Free Skate with Yuuri, which Phichit had thrown in there more for his friends sake than for anyone else's.
"No worries, Yuuri, we don't need Viktor to do the free skate section!" Phichit tried to cheer up his best friend, but he could tell that Yuuri had really wanted to skate with Viktor. Phichit was at a loss of what to do.
Kala looked at Phichit as he motioned her to go back to organising the rest of the people in the night's show.
"We can always try again next year!" Ever the optimist, Phichit wasn't about to let Yuuri be upset by what was happening. True, it was Yuuri's birthday, but Phichit knew this was going to be the best ice show Thailand had ever seen!
~! #$%^&*()_+
As the hour grew nearer, everyone was dressed and Phichit walked around the room snapping shots of everyone. Yurio and Otabek talking in hushed Russian, Leo and Guanghong giggling together at some music Leo was showing him, Chris posing in a mirror and Yuuri staring at his phone. He was going to have to save these shots for later.
"Hey, Yuuri! Dance with me!" He immediately pulled Yuuri by the arms and swung him around. Though they were roughly the same size, Phichit was used to swinging the older boy around when they would muck about on the ice. He wasn't surprised to see that Yuuri had been managing to keep his weight down in lieu of Viktor keeping him active both on and off the ice. He'd heard about the training sessions every spare moment he'd had.
Yuuri was shocked at first but quickly fell into step with Phichit. They'd danced together often back in Detroit and Phichit was hoping that it would get Yuuri out of his funk, he wanted his friend to dance well on the ice tonight, even if Viktor couldn't be there.
"We haven't danced in a long time, Phichit-kun."
Phichit snapped another photo of their dancing together, "like old times!" he said before posting it to his social media. Maybe it would make Viktor determined enough to break down the door!
"Since Detroit, but I'm really excited to see all of our practice come together, the ice show is partially due to you too, you let me believe I could make this happen, and I did!"
When he'd first brought it up with Yuuri a year ago, he'd never really expected it to happen. He'd remained positive of course, but everyone was so busy, he wasn't sure they'd have time. Yuuri suggested they use their old routines in the show, they just had to tweak them a little, and then they wouldn't have to worry about learning all new routines whilst training for the worlds and the four continents.
"There was always going to be a chance that Viktor wouldn't make it, you know that."
Yuuri sighed, but kept his body close to Phichit's, he didn't really want anyone to hear their conversation.
"I'm worried it's my fault."
"What do you mean?"
Yuuri looked like he was going to change the subject, but Phichit grinned happily at him as they danced, Yuuri thought better of it. "I might have told him he's wrong to be my coach and to skate as well."
"Why? If that was what he wanted to do, why did you say no?"
"He'll overexert himself! You know what he's like!"
Phichit was about to say that, no, he didn't actually know Viktor that well, but Yuuri wasn't finished talking.
"He tries to do everything himself, he's a terrible coach, you should know, completely terrible," Yuuri moved into Japanese and so Phichit struggled to keep up. "Best and at worst," the Japanese appeared again and Phichit simply blinked at his friend. "Choreography."
Phichit blinked at Yuuri. During the course of their conversation, he'd caught almost none of what the older man had tried to say. Phichit knew some basics of Japanese language, but he'd not really had need of it since moving back to Thailand and so his knowledge had feigned a little. "Yuuri, I'm sorry I completely missed all of that."
Yuuri looked mortified and clapped his hands over his mouth. "Phichit-kun, I'm so sorry."
They'd stopped dancing now and the rest of the group was watching them in silence. "Hey, daijoubu, it's all good. Don't worry, you're fine, I'm fine, we're all fine!"
Yuuri laughed a little, though Phichit had a feeling it was more from pent up frustration than from actually feeling like what he'd said was funny, or perhaps it was his pronunciation of Japanese that had set his friend off. Either way, Phichit was just glad to have a smile.
"We'll turn the pair skate into a single for now, you've done both before, if Viktor manages to show up, we can change it back again."
Yuuri nodded to Phichit and, at least for now, everything was fine.
~! #$%^&*()_+
"Phichit, the ice is melting!"
"Phichit, briweṇ thī̀nạ̀ng mī h̄ạk!"
"Phichit!"
The pressure was mounting as they were now an hour away from going out onto the ice. The audience was already starting to be called through and everyone was running through rehearsals for one last time. The show itself went for about forty-five minutes and Phichit was hoping that it would inspire a new generation of Thai skaters. He wanted nothing more than to see how local rink filled with people inspired to pursue a dream they never even thought possible. Phichit himself was a testament to the fact that dreams really could come true. Even if things were going wrong, this time last year he never would have expected to be here today.
45 minutes until the show.
"Phichit, we need you to run through the lighting one more time!"
30 minutes until the show.
"Phichit, Kala needs to know if we have any spare tickets, there's a young girl outside asking."
20 minutes until the show.
"Phichit, Mr. Nikiforov has just arrived, he's headed to the changing room!"
15 minutes until the show.
Phichit walked into the changing room, the excitement around the room was real. In just fifteen minutes, they would make their way out onto the ice and Phichit on Ice would begin. He couldn't believe they were actually here.
Viktor was quickly changing into his outfit, similar to Yuuri's, who looked much happier now Viktor was there. Leo and Guanghong were taking in one final practice. Yurio was stretching. Otabek was casually looking out the window and Chris was arguing with his make up assistant about the way his hair looked.
The scene really brought a tear to Phichit's eye. They were all competitors, each with their own dreams, goals, and motivations. On the ice, they were rivals; off the ice they were friends. However, here, whether on or off the ice, they were his family.
5 minutes until the show.
"I hope you're all ready, the ice show is about to begin!" Kala called into the dressing room as everyone turned around and faced Phichit. He was the captain of the show after all.
He couldn't keep the tears from his eyes as he looked around at the crazy bunch of skaters he'd managed to befriend. "You all are such talented skaters! You've challenged me, each other and the world to show everyone what we can do." He started. "Figure skating isn't just an art form, it's a sport, we're not just skaters, we're dancers!" He threw his hands up in the air. "Let's show all of Thailand what figure skating is really about!"
There was a spattering of applause as the room all dived toward Phichit. "Not until after the show!" he yelled, as they all raced quickly down the halls and towards the rink.
'Yes,' Phichit thought, 'this is what I want. We'll show Thailand and the world what real skating is. We'll show everyone what it means to be a figure skater!'
As they all lined up on the side of the rink, Phichit turned to them all one last time. "This is the most important thing guys, don't forget to have fun!"
The audience applauded and laughed as they each skated out onto the ice in funny poses. Yes, this was the real them. This was what ice-skating was really about!
Hey guys! I'm back! Let me know what you think of this and I may add more. I only recently came across the Yuri! On Ice fandom, so it's been nice to get back into writing again!
Angelycious