"Come on Rei-chan!" Nagisa exclaimed, dragging Rei along down the street with the shops on either side in Hasetsu.
"Wait up, Nagisa-kun!" Rei yelled as he stumbled ahead, behind Nagisa.
They were currently on a trip. Nagisa's parents had arranged it. It was a trip all around Kyushu and Hasetsu was just a stop on the way. They were only staying here for three days. The reason why Rei was with them was because neither of Nagisa's sisters had wanted to come along and so Nagisa's parents had asked if Nagisa knew someone who would come along. Then Nagisa had gone to ask Rei if he wanted to come along, because he thought they got along well and he knew that Rei wasn't going to do anything anyway during the Golden Week. So that was why both Nagisa and Rei were now walking through the streets of Hasetsu.
"Nagisa-kun, isn't that Hasetsu Castle?" Rei asked, directing Nagisa's attention towards a tall, formidable building.
"We are going there tomorrow, Rei-chan, I want to see the actual town today!" Nagisa said.
"Weren't we supposed to go skating tomorrow too?" Rei asked. He remembered this because he had found it odd that Nagisa's parents would want to go skating this late in spring, while it was so hot. It seemed very misplaced to him.
"Yeah, they said that," Nagisa said, smiling. "Mom says the figure skater representing Japan comes from this town." As he explained the dry facts, his voice sounded slightly duller. It didn't really interest him much.
"I don't look very beautiful on skates…" Rei muttered.
"That's why it's going to be a lot of fun, Rei-chan," Nagisa dismissed Rei's small complaint.
As they fell silent, they walked by a foreign guy who was standing in front of a ramen stall and trying to take a selfie in front of it. Just as Nagisa and Rei passed him, he called out to them, to their surprise, he spoke fairly decent Japanese.
"Hey! Does one of you want to take a picture of me with the entire sign?" He asked.
Nagisa turned around. "Rei-chan would love to," he declared. "Can I be on it too?" he asked.
"Wha- Why do I have to take the photo?" Rei asked.
"Because you're Rei-chan," Nagisa reasoned.
While Nagisa and Rei were discussing, the stranger was thinking about if he wanted to have Nagisa on his photo or not. He ended up making up his mind as they were done talking.
"You can be on the photo," he said. "I just want the sign too,"
So Rei ended up taking the photo while Nagisa and the foreign guy stood with an arm wrapped around each other's shoulders, leaving room for the sign.
"Are you here on vacation?" Nagisa asked the stranger once the photo was taken.
"Yeah, I'm visiting a friend who lives here," the foreigner replied. "Do you two live here?"
"No, we're just on a trip, we live further up north," Nagisa answered without bothering to specify the location.
"I'm from Thailand," the foreigner said. "My name is Phichit Chulanont. You just call me Phichit."
"I'm Nagisa and that's Rei," Nagisa introduced himself and Rei, leaving out the –chan, to Rei's huge relief.
"So, you are from Thailand and have a Japanese friend?" Rei asked.
"Yup," Phichit nodded his head, confirming that fact. "Katsuki Yuuri," he said.
Nagisa and Rei exchanged slightly confused looks. From the way Phichit spoke, it felt like they were supposed to know this Katsuki Yuuri.
"Where did you meet him then?" Nagisa asked, slightly curious.
"We're both figure skaters, skating on an international level," Phichit explained.
"So you are figure skaters? Rei-chan and I are swimmers," Nagisa said.
"Do you guys know how to skate?" Phichit asked.
"I used to skate some when I was younger," Nagisa replied. "But back then, I used to slip a lot on the ice, but that was the fun part."
"I don't skate," Rei replied. "To have me on the ice would not be beautiful at all!"
"Everyone starts somewhere," Phichit said.
"But you are competing internationally, so you're really good, right?" Nagisa asked.
"I was the first Thai skater to make it to the Grand Prix Final!" Phichit answered with pride in his voice. "I didn't win; I didn't even make it to the podium. But I don't think I did badly."
"You must be good," Rei concluded.
"Thanks," Phichit smiled. "Want to see?"
"Are you gonna show us?" Nagisa asked, thinking that Phichit would perform for them.
"It's just a video from the Grand Prix final. I think I'd like to show you my free program," Phichit said. "Let's buy some food too."
And so the three of them bought some ramen at the stall and sat down together. Phichit found a video on his phone and handed the object to Rei and Nagisa who both watched the screen closely. It didn't take long for the two to get captivated by the performance
"Beautiful…" Rei mumbled once it was done and he handed the phone back to Phichit.
"Then you should see the others too. Everyone made a performance on that level or higher," Phichit said.
"I want to see your friend then," Nagisa said.
"Yuuri?" Phichit asked before he went to find Yuuri's free program. It wasn't long before Rei and Nagisa sat with Phichit's phone once more, this time watching Yuuri on the ice.
"Rei-chan," Nagisa said once the program had finished and Rei was handing Phichit's phone back. "Don't we have something similar to that in swimming… Figure swimming or something?"
"Synchronized swimming, actually. Why are you suddenly thinking about that?" Rei asked.
"Is that what you do?" Phichit asked.
"No, we just swim normally," Nagisa answered. "I just thought it would be interesting to do a combination of figure skating and swimming, that being figure swimming,"
"Synchronized swimming," Rei corrected.
"That sounds interesting," Phichit said.
"Really?" Nagisa smiled happily. "Want to do it with us?" he asked.
"Us?" Rei asked, confused.
"You're gonna do it with me, Rei-chan," Nagisa explained, causing a reluctant expression to appear on Rei's face. "Anyways, do you want to swim with us?"
Phichit thought. "I have a lot of training to do, but maybe, if we could?"
"But don't we need a choreography and more swimmers?" Rei asked.
Nagisa thought. "We do," he decided. "Phi-chan, do you know someone who can do the choreography?"
"Yuuri's coach might want to," Phichit said with a thoughtful expression. "I could ask?" he suggested.
"Do that," Nagisa said. "How about finding someone who can join us too?"
"Are we seriously doing this?" Rei asked.
"I wanna try it out!" Nagisa declared.
"Me too," Phichit said. "I'll see if I can find a few. How many would we need?" he asked.
"If it's me and Rei-chan, Haru-chan and Mako-chan and…" Nagisa turned to Rei. "Do you think Rin-chan would want to do it too?"
"How would I know?" Rei asked.
"Five swimmers and five figure skaters if possible," Nagisa decided.
"Aren't you being optimistic?" Rei asked. "No one said Haruka-senpai, Makoto-senpai or Rin-san would join."
"It involves water, so Haru-chan will do it and Mako-chan goes wherever Haru-chan goes, and I'm sure we could convince Rin-chan somehow," Nagisa said.
"How do I get other people to join this idea?" Phichit asked.
"I don't know…" Nagisa said. "Use something they like to convince them, that's what I do normally," he smirked as he said this.
Phichit thought. "That might work," he said.
It was then Nagisa's phone started ringing and he answered it. What met him was the sound of his mother's irritated voice. Nagisa and Rei had to come to the hotel because they had to decide where they were gonna go out to eat tonight.
After Nagisa hung up, he quickly exchanged contact information with Phichit and then hurried off, dragging Rei along behind him.
It's been a little while, hasn't it? I'm not about to dive into the hype that has been around YOI if that's what anyone thinks. I just don't find it to be that bad and so my friend and I got the idea of this crossover and yeah... That's nearly four months ago now. This has taken way too long. I was actually planning on publishing it last week, but 1) I forgot and 2) I needed to fix the ending.
Publishing might be a bit slower than usual. Those who have read my works before, while I was publishing, will know that I normally post one chapter per day. However, since I'm graduating from high school in a little less than two months and finals are coming up, I'm studying like crazy (or at least it feels that way) and therefore I might not have that room in my head to remember to publish. I've been so forgetful lately.
Enough for now. Just thank you for reading the first chapter and I hope you'll stay around to read the ones to come.
Jackie
