Throwing in a ship that I'm not totally sure why it's a thing :D hope you enjoy

The man from the bar, Seung-gil, is nice. He seems quite reserved but that doesn't really bother Phichit. He's good conversation, he's quite attractive to boot and he seems like a genuinely sweet person. Granted Phichit's only had one conversation with him but going out on dates is how you get to know people, right? So when he asks Phichit if he wants to go to dinner the following evening Phichit says yes. When Seung-gil kisses him it's a little unexpected but not unwelcome; he's a good kisser (not as good as some people Phichit can think of but he's desperately trying not to compare the two).

It's strange though, when he leaves Seung-gil Chris is nowhere in sight. Maybe he thought I was doing okay on my own and left... After a bit of searching Phichit eventually finds him outside having and animated phone conversation in French. I didn't know he could speak French... When Chris finally realises that he's there he gets off the phone and asks Phichit about how his conquest was. It feels like any other conversation the two of them have had before but it feels as if something is different. It feels more strained on Chris' part and Phichit doesn't know whether he's imagining it or not.

During the next day Phichit tries to put Chris out of his mind. For one thing he's going on a date with another man for crying out loud but he knows that he shouldn't be thinking about him because it was doomed from the start. The two of them were never going to be anything more than what they are so there's no point worrying about it. Instead he tries to focus on how to deal with the first date he's been on in a good few years.

It's quite daunting and more than once he thinks about texting Chris to ask for advise but there's always something stopping him. Normally he would text Yuuri under these circumstances but he knows that Yuuri's at work and can't have his phone on him. Instead he settles for talking out loud to the hamsters, none of whom are listening and only start paying attention to him when he gets out their food. He guesses he deserves this, who asks their hamsters about their love life problems?

By the time he's standing outside the restaurant to meet Seung-gil he has gone over every scenario that he possibly can in his head and worried about it a thousand times over. Then he remembers Chris' advise from the night before. All he needs to do is just be himself (and not reference any weird nineties TV shows apparently) and it worked the night before so why wouldn't it work again.

"Phichit," Seung-gil's deep voice breaks him out of his thoughts.

"Hi," Phichit smiles warmly.

"You look amazing," Seung-gil says and Phichit can feel a heat creeping up the back of his neck. He's not overly sure whether that's from the layers upon layers of clothing or the compliment but he's going to pretend that it's the compliment. Thankfully Seung-gil has forgone the sparkly tie this evening. Even Phichit had thought it looked a bit silly so he can't imagine what Chris must have thought if he had seen it.

"Thank you," he says with a smile. "So do you."

"I've been looking forward to this all day," Seung-gil says as the two of them enter the restaurant.

"Same," Phichit says. "I've been thinking about this literally since this morning." That part isn't a lie at least. He has been looking forward to it but also worry about it and being filled with trepidation and confusion about so many other things as well. "Mostly worrying about what I was going to wear."

Seung-gil smiles. "You needn't have worried," he says. "Like I said, you look amazing."

"Thank you."

They get seated surprisingly quickly for a Saturday night and, once the waitress has taken their order they're just left to their own devises. It suddenly occurs to Phichit that he was so much more confident last night when he had the safety net of having Chris sitting over the other side of the bar, ready to sweep in if things went badly. Now he's flying by the seat of his pants and he doesn't really know how to start up a conversation.

"So," he begins, finally taking the plunge, "what do you do for a living?"

"I'm an accountant," Seung-gil replies.

Oh Christ... even I know that's boring as hell...

Phichit plasters a smile on his face. "Oh really, that sounds interesting."

"It is," Seung-gil says and proceeds to tell Phichit all about his job.

Phichit listens dutifully, occasionally asking questions before he can stop himself, just to seem polite and, before he knows what's happened he's already through the first glass of wine of the evening. The aim isn't to get drunk (that would be a really bad idea) the idea is to make listening to an accountant talking about accounting marginally more interesting. He can already hear Chris' voice in his head saying that there isn't enough booze in the word to make that conversation interesting.

Chris...

Like iron filings to a magnet his thoughts are automatically on Chris, what he would be saying if he had to sit through a talk on accounting. He can even guess some of the jokes he would be cracking like whether or not he should be taking notes and he has to try to stop himself from laughing. He knows he shouldn't be doing this, he shouldn't be comparing the two of them when they're such different people. Seung-gil is incredibly nice... he's just very boring and he's not Chris, which really shouldn't be as much of a problem as it's turning out to be. Phichit tries to ignore it and pours himself another glass of wine.

By the time they are done with dinner and are outside trying to flag a taxi Phichit is pleasantly buzzed but still entirely too sober to know quite as much about accounting as he now does. It doesn't matter, he thinks to himself, if the sex can at least be interesting then I'll take the accountant talk.

"So," Seung-gil says as a taxi pulls up by the side of the kerb next to them, "your place or mine?"

Okay so he clearly thinks he's getting some... bit presumptuous.

"Yours," Phichit smiles. At least then he won't know where I live if I decide never to see him again.

"Okay," Seung-gil nods and holds the door open for Phichit.

The taxi ride is incredibly awkward. No one says anything, the driver – a bald Russian man in his late fifties – clearly knows why he's taking the two of them to one address and obviously doesn't want to make any kind of comment, Seung-gil doesn't say anything and Phichit fights his usual compulsion to fill the awkward silence with mindless chatter. Once again Chris starts to creep into his mind as he would be making jokes about the atmosphere, talking to the driver and, more than likely, whispering something filthy in Phichit's ear. There's none of that from Seung-gil and Phichit begins to wonder how on earth he worked up the balls to ask him if he wanted a drink last night, never mind to actually kiss him.

That must have been a wicked case of Dutch Courage...

Seung-gil's place is minimalistic in design – a lot of furniture that looks straight from Ikea and virtually no photos up on the walls at all – and is a clear reflection of what Phichit has gotten himself into for the night. In fact he's a lot more excited to see the Siberian Husky that trots over to them as soon as the door is closed than he is about the prospect of having sex.

Eventually the two of them make it through to Seung-gil's bedroom (which is about as decorated as the rest of the house) and it's still just as awkward so Phichit decides to take matters into his own hands. He takes hold of Seung-gil's face and kisses him. It is long and slow and Phichit swipes his tongue over Seung-gil's bottom lip to elicit some kind of reaction from him. He does earn himself a gasp and that gives him the opportunity to take this further and slip his tongue into Seung-gil's mouth.

Whether he just needed a little encouragement or he's finally comfortable enough now that they're at his Seung-gil seems to slip back into how he was last night. He takes hold of the back of Phichit's head while the other arm slips around his waist to pull him close. Phichit feels himself melting into the kiss, it's nice that Seung-gil is taller than him but he's not reaching up as much as he would like... not as much as he would be with Chris...

Phichit pulls back from the kiss suddenly. Where did that come from? He blinks in surprise, that was most definitely unexpected. He shouldn't be thinking about Chris at a time like this! He should be thinking about Seung-gil and all the things that they're going to do. He knows that he needs to hop off this train of thought immediately otherwise he'll land himself in no end of trouble if it continues.

"You okay?" Seung-gil asks.

"Yeah," Phichit lies, smiling. "Thought I was going to sneeze that's all."

"Ah right," Seung-gil says. "You okay now?"

"Yeah."

"So..." Seung-gil begins a little awkwardly, "are you more a top or a bottom?" It's a perfectly valid question but the delivery makes it sound so much more awkward than it actually needs to be.

"I'm easy," Phichit says, "but I do prefer bottoming." The way his knees still tremble sometimes when he thinks about the way Chris fucked him last time he came over... and his thoughts are right back on Chris again. Fuck!

"Okay," Seung-gil nods and leans in to kiss Phichit again.

Phichit is quite happy with the level of kissing – if their mouths are occupied he doesn't have to think about any potential awkward silences. He can feel Seung-gil's fingers slipping under the hem of his clothes and tracing lazy patterns at the base of his spine. Allowing himself to relax into it a soft groan escapes his lips and he reaches up to begin undoing the buttons on Seung-gil's shirt, after opening his tie.

It seems to take forever for the both of them to get down to skin and Phichit's going to blame that on the ridiculous number of layers he's wearing. Having said that by the time he's finished ridding himself of them he realises how cold it is. A part of him knows that if he voiced this while with Chris he would make some kind of inappropriate joke about warming him up... and he really needs to stop doing this.

Seung-gil gets him on his hands and knees so it feels very reminiscent of the first time he and Chris had sex (he is trying not to think about him... really... totes...) and is very clinical with the foreplay as he opens Phichit up. Maybe having Chris for a first time for both topping and bottoming was a bad idea. He's so unlike anyone Phichit ever met before and he knows what he's doing, not everyone has that level of experience and it's abundantly clear that Seung-gil doesn't.

The sex isn't bad, not by a long shot, in fact it's very nice but that's all it is: nice. For Phichit anyway the earth doesn't move, there's a lot of awkward fumbling and he has to jerk off pretty much the entire way through in order to get himself off. He also indulges himself, stops fighting it and thinks about Chris, thankfully stopping himself before moaning his name aloud (that would have gone down fantastically). After Seung-gil cums he practically collapses on Phichit and he has to admit it's not overly comfortable despite how skinny Seung-gil is.

The awkward atmosphere sets in again almost as soon as Seung-gil pulls out so Phichit excuses himself to the bathroom, sneaking his phone with him. Once he's in the bathroom and has locked the door behind him he types out a quick text to Yuuri.

[9:59pm] FROM ME: Hey, I know you're either at work or with hot guy from the rink but I'm on a kind of disaster date and I need an excuse to leave, can you bail me out? X

It's probably way too much of an ask (plus he knows it's a bit mean but he can't think of a good enough excuse on his own). He's not expecting a reply immediately so he heads back out to Seung-gil's bedroom where he has already re-dressed. Phichit follows suit and begins to collect his fallen clothes. All he can think about is how much less awkward this bit was when he was with Chris. Discounting the first time where he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to be doing Chris always had this way of making him feel at ease.

The more he thinks about it and the more the wine tells him that he is totally right he can't help but think that this is all Chris' fault. If he hadn't been the one to suggest having sex in the first place then Phichit could have quite happily continued not knowing what he's been missing. Instead he has to live with the fact that no one else might measure up to this ideal version he has in his head.

He's about to start making polite conversation when his phone begins to ring in his hand. He sees Yuuri's name light up the screen and thanks every deity he can think of that his best friend is the absolute best person in the world.

"Sorry," he says, flashing Seung-gil what he hopes is an apologetic smile, "it's my friend, he doesn't normally call, I think I need to take this."

"Go ahead," Seung-gil says.

Phichit presses the answer button and holds the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Phichit," Yuuri says and his voice sounds thick and strange.

"Yuuri? You okay?" He's never heard Yuuri sound like this down the phone before – he's always so cheerful – and now Phichit is filled with actual genuine worry. What happened? Did he even see my text, is this an actual emergency?

"Jerry left me," Yuuri says, his voice still thick with emotion. If it wasn't for the fact that he needs to sound concerned he could laugh.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," Yuuri continues, still sounding like he's on the verge of tears, "I didn't mean to call, I know you're busy tonight, I just don't think I can be on my own right now."

"Are you at home?" Phichti asks.

"Yeah," Yuuri says. "He came over and told me and I don't know what to do now."

"Stay where you are, I'll come to you," Phichit says. "I'll be ten minutes."

"Okay," Yuuri sniffs. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be silly," Phichit tells him. "I'll be with you soon, okay?"

"Okay."

Phicht hangs up the phone and turn to Seung-gil apologetically. "I'm sorry about that," he says.

"Is everything okay?"

"Not really," Phichit sighs and thanks his lucky stars that he decided to be part of the drama society in college otherwise this would never be in any way convincing. "It's my friend, his partner's just left him and they've been together for years."

"Oh my god."

"Yeah, he really needs a friend right now and I can't leave him on his own," Phichit says. He feel a little guilty but he also feels he should be nominated for an Academy Award with all the acting he's had to do tonight.

"No of course, I completely understand," Seung-gil says and the guilt only tries to worm its way in further but Phichit is staying resolute with this one. He's started so he might as well roll with it.

"I'll call you," he says and he actually will, once he's figured out where his head is and what he actually wants to do about the Chris problem he's facing. He leans forward and presses a kiss to Seung-gil lips before grabbing his shoes and darting for the front door (he does however stop to give the husky a quick stroke on the way out).

He waits until he's out on the street and far enough away around the corner that he won't be heard even if Seung-gil sticks his head out of the window and watches him leave before dialling Yuuri's number.

"Hello?" Yuuri says when he picks up.

"And the Oscar goes to," Phichit laughs.

"Well it sounded like you were in a bit of a bind and I thought I'd help you out," Yuuri chuckles softly. "Was it really that bad?"

"He was very nice, he was just also really boring," Phichit replies.

"How boring?"

"Like excruciating levels of boring," Phichit tells him. "He's an accountant who thinks accountancy is interesting."

"Oh dear..."

"Yeah," Phichit says. "I feel awful because the entire time I was out with him I couldn't stop comparing him to Chris and thinking about how much more fun I would be having if I was with Chris."

"I take it you didn't talk to him about your feeling and just let it fester because you're a complete idiot," Yuuri says.

"No I did not and yes I am," Phichit says. "It's just that he seemed content to carry on as normal and I couldn't face him telling me that he doesn't feel the same way so I just left it because I am a stupid person."

"No arguments there," Yuuri teases and Phichti can practically hear him rolling his eye and judging him.

"Are you at home right now?" Phichit asks.

"Er... no actually," Yuuri says. "I'm at Viktor's."

"And who, pray tell, is Viktor," Phichit asks. "Is this skating rink bae?"

"Skating rink bae?" Yuuri asks incredulously.

"Yes; skating rink bae."

"Yes it is," Yuuri replies. "He came to see me at work and we decided to go for coffee afterwards."

"Was that regular world coffee or coffee at his place with raised eyebrows?" Phichit asks, a wicked grin spreading over his face.

"What do you think?" Yuuri asks. "You know where I am."

"Dirty stop out."

"What about you?" Yuuri asks. "What are you going to do now?"

"I have no idea," Phichit replies with a sigh. "I mean I know what I should do but I don't know if I'm brave enough to actually go through with that."

"You should go and talk to Chris," Yuuri tells him. "You need to go and talk to him about this otherwise you're just going to be wondering about it until you do."

"Or I could go to a Seven Eleven and get another bottle of wine," Phichit offers as he stops in front of the familiar green neon lights.

"Phichit no!" Yuuri chides.

"Phichit yes!"

"Oh my god, you are a walking disaster!" Yuuri tells him.

"I know."

"You know my thoughts but it's up to you," Yuuri says.

"I know," Phichit replies. "Have a good night with skating bae."

Yuuri chuckles. "I will thank you."

Phichit hangs up the phone and stops for a minute to think. He knows he should go and talk to Chris but he also knows that he's not going to be able to do it without having a little more of that courage that was fuelling him earlier. He pockets his phone and heads inside. He knows that Yuuri would be judging him if he knew and in reality he's judging himself as he heads straight to the wine aisle.