Hey guys, just another fun little chapter for you, can you guess what one of my other favourite pairings from this show is XD hope you enjoy
"Yuuri!" Phichit cried happily as he ran to me across the arrivals department. People were staring, he looked as if he were about to jump on me and I was very aware of the two steaming cups of coffee I was holding.
"Wait I'm holding coffee!" I yelped as he got closer.
To his credit he didn't jump and make me catch him. Instead he flung his arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. "I missed you so much!" he said happily, burring his face in my neck.
"I missed you too," I said and my heart clenched. It wasn't as if Phichit and I had lost touch since Viktor and I had gotten together but we definitely didn't text or Skype as much as we had done before and I felt quite guilty about that.
Phichit pulled away from the hug, holding me at arm's length so he could look me up and down. "Looking good stud," he observed. "What have you been up to?"
"Trying to keep up with a bunch of Russians," I replied truthfully. Even though my stamina was pretty good for someone my age (inhuman as most people liked to put it) both Mila and Yuri had youth on their side.
"Fair," Phichit said.
I handed him one of the cups of coffee. "Do you want to go get some lunch?" I asked. "There's a nice little café about twenty minutes away from here."
"Yeah that sounds awesome," Phichit said. "I woke up ridiculously early and then there was traffic so I didn't have time to grab something for on the plane."
"You haven't come from home, have you?" I asked as we left the airport, vaguely remembering that he had said he was coming from somewhere else.
"No," he replied, flushing slightly. "No, I haven't."
"Where have you come from?"
"Switzerland."
"Switzerland?" I asked, perplexed. "What were you doing in Switzerland?"
"Training," he replied.
"In Switzerland?" I couldn't quite wrap my head around that. Out of everywhere in the world the last place I imagined Celestino saying 'hey let's go train here' was Switzerland.
"Yeah," Phichit replied, a little too hurriedly.
"Okay." He was hiding something. That much was painfully obvious but if he didn't want to tell me then I was going to pressure him. He'd tell me when he was ready.
"Okay I wasn't just there for training," Phichit told me after the waiter had taken our order and left. It didn't take him long to crack at all.
"Well that much was obvious," I said, rolling my eyes. "You're a terrible liar Phichit, don't ever kill someone."
"I was in Switzerland because I'm seeing someone," he said.
"Like professional help?" I teased.
"Like romantically," he said, not rising to it.
"Oh okay." That surprised me a little as through all the time I'd known Phichit he barely mentioned anything about any kind of sexual preference at all but obviously he had found someone that he was interested in. "And they live in Switzerland."
"Yeah," he replied, suddenly becoming very interested in the hideous floral pattern on the linoleum tablecloth.
"How did you meet them?" I asked.
"He's a skater," Phichit replied. "A good one as well."
"Wow, really? Anyone I know?"
Phichit finally looked up at me and shook his head. "Christ you're oblivious sometimes, it's Chris."
"Oh..."
"Yeah..."
"So how long has this been going on?" I asked after a pause. Chris and Phichit seemed like a bit of an odd couple to me – I never would have though Phichit would have been interested in someone like Chris (then again I didn't really think Phichit was interested in anyone) – but the way Phichit was smiling fondly spoke volumes.
"About three months, give or take," he replied. "I mean there was a spark in China but I sort of ignored it until we were in Barcelona. I thought it was just Chris being Chris, all flirty with everyone and all the rest of it but we kept talking after Barcelona. Then a little while ago he came to Thailand on holiday, we met up and we kissed."
"Wow three months," I said, amazed that I hadn't seen this plastered all over Instagram (although I'd been avoiding it like the plague aside from looking at the pictures and videos Mila had been tagging me in). "You kept that one quiet."
"Well we sort of thought that we would," he said. "Just see how it goes for a bit longer before we announce it to the world. Plus I think if Chao Chao found out he's have a fit and give Chris 'the talk'."
"Sensible," I said, knowing exactly how over protective Celestino could be. "I just can't believe you kept it from me."
"Well obviously you saw right through me as soon as we met face to face," he said. "I didn't say anything beforehand because you've got your own shit going on and I didn't want to bother you with this."
"No, bother me, please," I chuckled. "Stuff like this is what's keeping me going right now. I need to be distracted and not think about my own shit situation."
"How are you doing?" Phichit asked, placing his hand on top of mine.
I sighed. "Some days are better than others," I said. "I can get through most of the time without feeling like I'm dying but sometimes, even after a good few months, it will still hit me and I'll feel like crying."
"Oh Yuuri," he said and reached over the table to give me a slightly awkward hug. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," I said as he sat back down. "I'm okay, I'm getting through it. Yurio's been a great help."
"The little grumpy one?" Phichit asked, clearly unable to believe that we were talking about the same Yuri Plisetsky.
"Yeah," I nodded. "He basically lives with me now so I've slotted into the role of pseudo older brother, pseudo dad."
"Cute," Phichit chuckled.
"You won't think it's cute when you have to tell him to go to sleep earlier if he's going to get up at three AM to Skype Kazakhstan."
"What?" Phichit asked, brows furrowing in confusion.
"And you say I'm oblivious," I chuckled. "So how was Switzerland with Bae?"
"You joke that's what his cat's called," Phichit said.
"That sounds like Chris," I said, shaking my head.
"Actually I saw Viktor in Switzerland," Phichit said. Clearly he had been holding onto that particular bomb for a while, waiting for the best time to drop it.
"Oh?"
"He's been staying there for a while," Phichit said.
"Oh..."
"He looked awful."
"How awful are we talking?" I asked after a pause wondering just how Viktor could possibly look awful.
"Well there was one day when we were at the rink and he flubbed every single jump he tried to do."
"Wow..."
"I know."
"Well it's nice to know that he's having as bad a time as I am," I chuckled. It was oddly comforting to know that Viktor was struggling with this. If I had found out that he was fine and already had someone else that he was pursuing I don't know how I would have reacted. ...Probably with vodka.
"He should have a bad time, he's the one who left you." That was unusually harsh for Phichit but I could see where he was coming from.
"Did he say anything about me?" I asked after another short pause.
"He wanted to," Phichit said. "He so obviously wanted to but the first time he tried I made a point of telling him that I wasn't going to talk about you to him."
"You didn't have to do that," I said.
"Yuuri you're my best friend, I'm hardly going to be getting all pally with the guy that broke your heart," Phichit said as if that should have been obvious. "You know I've always got your back."
"Thank you," I said, giving him a small smile.
"To be perfectly honest I don't think Chris was super happy with him about the whole thing either," he said. "He didn't say anything but it was kind of tense, you know? And not just because I didn't really talk to him unless I absolutely had to."
"Yeah I can't imagine that would have been a fun atmosphere."
Phichit shrugged. "Chris and I still managed to have a good time."
"Okay you need to tell me everything," I said as the waiter appeared beside us with a plate full of dumplings for the both of us to share.
"Everything?" Phichit asked incredulously. "I'm dating Chris here remember."
"Everything."
"Phichit stayed in Russia for about a week before he went back to Thailand," Yuuri says, smiling wistfully at the memory.
"Must have been nice, having him there," I say.
"It was," he says. "I was really sad when he left. Yurio and the others were great about everything and they looked after me like family but having Phichit with me, even if it was only for a little while, just made me think of being back in Detroit with him again."
"So," I press after I allow him a moment to reflect, "we're getting up to the start of the season now." He's told me about the break up, now I need to hear about the fall out. I need the inside perspective on the fall out. Finally I'm going to have answers to the questions everyone's been asking for years.
"And what a season that was," he chuckles.
