Hello at last readers! Here comes the next chapter of Therapy. I had to help my grandmother move into her new house last week so my schedule was bumped around and this chapter came out a little later. I want to stress that though this is a romance fic, the main focus for the first part will be Yuri healing. That means that I have to develop Yuri's relationships with people other than Victor too. This is called Therapy on Ice, he's getting better and I'm so proud of this boy. Usually chapters will have Victor in it, because I love that man.

T Rated Chapter ahead

Warnings: Language, sassy eyebrows, and tender friendships.

"Yuri, I'm going to be honest with you." Phichit's voice followed his live video feed with a little delay. His statement was spoken like the precursor to something off topic and important, cutting through my rant on Victor and my exercise routine abruptly. I set my water beside my laptop's keyboard and waited for his honesty. I knew better than to hold anything liquid when Phichit decided to be honest.

Phichit Chulanont's version of honesty was a kind of blunt, soul-wrenching, embarrassing assumption, which was only sometimes right. Anything that followed a warning like that was bound to be cringe-worthy.

"Like, I'm about to lay some hard truths on you. Are you adequately prepared?" He tacked on another warning with his head tilted.

Oh goody, two verbal caution signs, proceed with care.

I nodded after ensuring there wasn't anything else catastrophic to my computer or health in the immediate area.

"He wants the booty." His deadpan look and serious tone didn't match the ridiculous statement.

"Phichit!" My face flared instantly while I jerked back from the seemingly innocent image of the Thai man on my screen. I stood and leaned down to look for any tell-tale sign, any glimmer of a joke in his eyes. He held the expression strongly, flinching only after hearing the loud bang of my chair hitting the floor.

His poker face was getting good. He usually laughed at his own jokes.

"More specifically, he wants your booty." Phichit winked and smiled mischievously.

"P-p-p-" I couldn't even screech his name before he began defending himself.

"Now come on Yuri, the signs are all there. I know you're dense about anything that even sounds like romance, that's super cute by the way, but that man thirsts for you." The dark haired man slammed his palm against his desk, punctuating the word 'thirsts' perfectly. "I'm over 4,000 kilometers away from the two of you and I can tell."

I stood still, refusing to move out of sheer astonishment from Phichit's assumption. What on earth gave him that idea? I told him about how ridiculous Victor was, about our outings, about how Victor being my friend is helping me to go back to my life. There wasn't anything that was a precursor or a hint to romance, just embarrassment.

"No, no, you don't get to look all offended and shocked when I tell you something you should have known by now. You're a little slow so I'll recap it and put it into terms you can more easily comprehend, since you missed it the first time. Grab your chair and buckle up." He shuffled around and got more comfortable himself. I slowly picked up my swivel chair and sat down all while I kept firm eye contact with Phichit.

I complied if only to hear why he believed that Victor and I were anything but friends. Phichit is my closest friend, and the fact that he believed Victor liked me, scared the hell out of me. Will everyone else think that Victor and I are together when I introduce him? Was I saying it all in a way that made it seem like the Russian man had lecherous intentions? Would Victor be disgusted by everyone's thoughts?

"Okay, so you met this guy, I won't say his name to prevent any immediate bias, by literally running into him. You knock him onto the ground, shouting his name as you take him down. This guy decides to buy you coffee, after YOU ran into HIM, because he totally owes you for you running into him." Phichit looked curiously at me. "Not only that, but he wants to bring your dog something too, ensuring a meeting the next day." My determined friend sat back, breathing heavily after his first wave of exclamations. I had already thought this far and had explanations ready for him.

"I'm the only one who speaks a language he understands, Phichit. Of course he would want to keep meeting with me." I copied my friend's signature, sassy eyebrow lift in an attempt to stop his ridiculous explanations.

None of what we had done sounded anything more than platonic. My friend was just overreacting. I puffed a breath of air to flip the fringe of my hair out of my vision while I squinted at the high definition video of my friend.

"Let me finish, it isn't a love at first sight story, Yuri." The Thai man chided me and scooted closer to his laptop. He wet his lips, preparing for the next long-winded explanation.

"L-love?" Wait. He thinks that Victor could be attracted to me, when did love get involved?

"So you don't show up to the next date because you're nervous, and you don't know what this guy wants. You feel like shit about ignoring him after you realize he's just being friendly, and make him homemade mochi at the end of the day. These sweets are a pain to make, unique to Japan, and specifically made for him; you can't avoid that fact. You try to avoid him again, because you're still nervous or anxiety filled, while still holding onto his gift, and he literally runs into you!"

"P-" Running into him again was just coincidental, how did that support his argument. I know that I made those treats especially for Victor, but I also gave some to Mari for dealing with Vicchan running her all over the park. It wasn't like I gave him homemade chocolates on Valentine's Day. I just wanted to say sorry and I didn't want to just lead with 'hey, I'm sorry I was garbage and ditched you.' A snack seemed like the easiest way.

"Then after that you guys talk at the park for, roughly, five hours you decide you have to see each other again. Even after ditching him and being your anxiety riddled self, he finds you super endearing. You both meet for the next week. Every day. Talking for hours about where you've both been, about the important things and people in your life, and even going into small details like food preference.

"When was the last time that you talked to someone for five hours about anything? He leaned on you and told you about how lonely he used to be, showing you his vulnerabilities. All while unknowingly clearing up your ridiculous suspicion of being like his dog. Then you opened up right on back, like the suave son-of-a-bitch that you are!" His voice crackled through my small speakers, but the sound and volume was nowhere close to as surprising as the words themselves.

"I-I-" I was the farthest thing from suave. I just knew I would have been embarrassed after telling him all about Vicchan, and I didn't want him to worry like I always do. Maybe I assumed too much about how Victor thinks or responds. Again I was cut off as the fast-paced, excited boy in front of me started. His eyes glimmered with mischief and foreboding.

"Oh! You can't forget when he brought you mochi, specifically to thank you for all the effort that you put into your apology gift. He figured you out and got you all flustered from how accurate he was. He read you like a book- Oh! Oh, we can't forget about him 'reading' you, now can we? How exactly does he 'read' you again?" He paused for a dramatic effect, holding his chin inquisitively before answering his own question.

"That's right, he gets inappropriately close and flirts with you until you're in such an adorkable tizzy that you only have the capacity for unfiltered honesty." He nods arrogantly after his statements.

I decide to cross my arms and wait for Phichit to finish his rant. It might have looked like pouting, but it wasn't. I knew that Victor reading me was odd, but I would take an advantage to help me read him. So I didn't think anything else of it. Besides, he didn't always flirt when he read me…

"So you agree to let him read you to earn his forgiveness, practically inviting him to keep touching you. But I'm sure that doesn't mean you like him or anything." I cut Phichit off to clarify my reasons. I didn't just want Victor to touch me. I would have preferred he keeps his distance, but to forgive me he said doing that was a requirement.

"I did not 'agree' to let him read me. It was something I needed to do to get his forgiveness." My hands started to twist around one another, pulling at my fingers and joints as I fidgeted. It sounded weak, and from the raised eyebrow I got in response, Phichit knew it too. It was weak, but it was my reason. I wanted to keep being close to Victor, just not so much physically.

"So his forgiveness is worth getting sexually harassed?" Dark eyes looked deeply at me, his tone mockingly serious once more.

"It's not harassment! He-" I started to instinctively protect Victor. He wasn't a molester or anything like that, just a bit touchy is all. His hands and proximity were never romantic in intention. He also knew when to back off, so it's not harassment. It was just teasing.

"So you like it? You like him touching you, getting you all flustered and giving you his forgiveness, Yuri? Is that what you're telling me?" With each question he turned his head at more of an angle until it was completely sideways.

"Ah…" I opened my mouth to respond instinctually, only to find I didn't quite have a simple answer.

Thinking back on Victor's touches, each made me want to curl up and hide from the world in chagrin. He was gentle with me whenever we came into contact. While we stretch he is a bit firmer, but still it was never painful.

Despite his touches not feeling exactly, really, absolutely unpleasant, I didn't explicitly like them because they made me so uncomfortable around Victor. I'd gotten more used to them, but I know I could never build a true resistance to it all. He was full of too many surprises.

Where the answer became more complicated in my mind was how I would feel if he stopped touching me. It would be so off putting, like he was somehow upset at me or angry with something else. Victor's proximity and touching was such a large part of him that if he stopped it would have to mean something was wrong. The thought of Victor being upset, especially at me, was worse than any level of embarrassment that he could ever dish out. It had me looking down intensely at my still clenching hands. Phichit's voice snapped me back from my reverie.

"Huh, we'll come back to that." He was looking curiously at me, like he was seeing something unexpected. The expression didn't stick when he continued his long-winded explanation. "Now, after you agreed to his terms and conditions, or whatever you called it, he flat out told you that he liked you. Come on. You're killing me Yuri, he literally told you that he likes you." I was quickly back on the defensive.

"As a friend!" I shouted a bit too loudly in response. There was never even a moment that I considered that statement as Victor liking me any more than a person. It made me incredibly happy to know that he liked me and wasn't just desperate for human interaction or using me.

"Did he say 'as a friend'? No, I know he didn't, because he wants the booty!" He stubbornly stated the thesis statement of this five freaking page essay he was giving me on my new friend's supposed attraction to me. I could feel the frustration at the ridiculousness of his words beginning to take a toll on me.

"He does not want me like that." I should have known better than to interrupt him again. I was resolutely ignored and talked over.

"After your romantic little rendezvous started to get stale, he changes the times to one perfect for taking you out to dinner. He takes you to your favorite restaurant that's also close to his apartment. I doubt that its location ever be used as a convenient 'come check out my place' invitation when you start getting more serious. Or that if you ever got so drunk he would have to let you stay over at his place, since it's so close by." He sarcastically remarked and took a breath.

"He changed the time for a job interview." I huffed indignantly. I was acknowledged this time at least.

"Why didn't he go to any job interviews before that Yuri? If you had moved some place completely new, without secure income, your first priority would be getting a job. Day and night you would be out hunting for one." Though many could take my friend's words as hostile, he was simply excited. The shit-eating grin also eliminated any negative connotation the words could have brought.

"He's loaded Phichit, he doesn't really need to work." I smiled back at my friend, refusing to allow his questions to get to me. There were logical explanations for everything, I just didn't know them all yet. His points were valid, all were questions I had asked myself but had not asked Victor. I stopped fearing Victor's answers a while ago.

"Then why would he get a job to tie him to a country whose native language he doesn't even know? If this was just some vacation why doesn't he go back to his real job? What is really tying Victor to Japan? You should ask him on your next jogging date." I fidgeted at his jab. Those are questions I really wanted to know damn it.

I still didn't know his last name. I wonder how either of my friends would respond to that lack of knowledge. I must have made a face because he snapped his fingers to get my attention once more.

"Hey, stop drifting off into la la land; you need to hear all of this." He looked slightly worried, rather than annoyed, before he continued. There wasn't anything for him to worry about. I still felt aggravated, but I would humor him until he finished.

"So you order for him at the ramen stand because you're so stupidly excited that he's going to be staying in Japan that you overstep some mental boundary of yours. I know you and I recognize that for what it was. You know his taste and he's damn well pleased that you do. He invites you out to eat more, but you gain weight easily so you decline. What does he do? He invites you to exercise with him." At some point the dark eyed man had started rubbing his chin and had closed his eyes. He was the poster child of plotting.

I thank every known deity that I hadn't told Phichit about the chopstick lessons. He would have a field day with that one from how he's overanalyzing every interaction so far. Hell, I get myself into a tizzy when I think back on how forward I was that night. I was close enough to smell the cologne on his neck for Christ's sake.

Oh God, if he knew that Victor calls me sensei… I could feel the blood leave my face at the thought.

"Now that you exercise together, you can continue to go out to eat. You exercise in the mornings for two hours, drink tea and chat immediately after for about an hour, sometimes three, and then you go out on dinner dates too! The most bonding you two have is while you jog though, isn't it? I mean, you even stretch together." He stressed 'bonding' by air quoting with his fingers. I rose to his taunt.

"You remember how good stretching after a workout was when we were together in Detroit." We had gone sightseeing in America, and our legs had not been prepared for the miles of walking that were involved. Phichit and I helped each other stretch almost every day and nothing ever came of it. Whenever I stretched at the dance studio Minako wasn't ready to pounce on me.

"Very true, but I didn't want your booty. Yuri, his dick came into literal contact with your ass and you still stretch with him, every day! Since that day, he gave you a new routine and he runs behind you now. Why would he run behind you?" He left his question with a short, rhetorical pause.

"So I don't fall behind or slack off." I jutted my head forward with my response.

"Sure, it's just coincidence that he has a head on view of the booty he wants. Even when you to go up stairs he stays behind you, watching you bounce your way to the top." My friend, now thoroughly winded from his explanation, leaned back. It would seem his assumption was through. Wait.

"I do not bounce!" I could feel blood return to my cheeks. I wasn't so overweight that I bounced when I moved.

"You're right, you don't bounce." He picked up a pencil on his desk and pretended to analyze it. His eyes snapped back to me when he spoke again. "That ass does. Yuri, your butt is its own entity, it has a presence all its own, and it jiggles. It's almost not fair how good it looks." I gawked at my friend.

"Phichit!" I won't even put time into trying to analyze my own ass, or whether or not that observation was true. I doubt my heart could handle much more of my friend today. Surprisingly my exclamation sobered him.

"Beyond all of what you've told me, I'll tell you what I absolutely know. I may be wrong about him lusting after you, but I do know this Yuri: you are happy."

I stared at him with a wide-eyed expression. Did I seem happier? I knew I felt that way around Victor, but I didn't think I had begun to sincerely show it.

"It's not something like you're smiling more, or anything that obvious." His almost black eyes flicked down at the keyboard while he intently thought about his explanation. "You have inflections in your voice again, despite if it's of annoyance or disbelief. Your eyes light up while you listen to people, even when I rant to you about your own love life and you're obviously tired of it. You started talking to me too." He looked back at me with pain obvious in his stare. I felt guilt itch and burn at the back of my eyes.

"Before this week, the last time we had talked was over a month ago, and you weren't really talking to me then. You asked me about the weather, the weather. We've been friends for years, and you talked to me about the weather." He tried to make it sound like he was teasing, but I knew him too well to be fooled by his arsenal of fake smiles.

I wished that he wasn't so far away, that I could apologize in person, because that's what a friend as good as Phichit deserved.

"I'm sorry that I did that to you. I was so wrapped up in…" I didn't have a valid excuse for acting the way I have for this long. When dad died I was a mess, but I'm okay with him being gone now. Everything after that has been entirely selfish and without reason. I was so tired of letting this lack of feeling press pause on my life. Victor was the start of my change for the better, Phichit knew that. I dragged my eyes back to meet almost black irises.

"It's fine now. I got to see you again, not the absent shell you'd been for so long now." I saw his forgiveness, so readily given. He really was a good friend. An exaggerated wink and an ear to ear smile spoke more than his words could to me. "This guy is good for you, and I'm glad that you are starting to feel like yourself again. Even if you don't realize it yet."

I couldn't help but laugh at it all. The Thai man was so good at being sincere without making it awkward, with anyone. He was mistaken though, I realize how good for me Victor was.

"You better not ignore me for a month ever again though. I almost came to Japan a few times." He walked out of the camera's line of sight and spoke louder so that I could still hear him. "Luckily your sister responded to my messages and told me you were alive." When he came back into the frame he was holding a few of his hamsters. He folded his legs and I sat quietly, waiting for him to keep going.

"I might have to come up anyway, the theme of my next film project is 'First Love' and you two could be my muses. I would be there to film your hand holding, your stretching exercises, etc. Of course I'd document all of the firsts: shooting fireworks together, exchanging Christmas gifts, showing him off to your family, and of course the first kiss." He sighed at the prospect of either film or romance. He loved both equally so it was hard to tell.

"We already kissed so that last one's out." I responded, half believing he wouldn't listen and the other half on complete instinct. The silence after was deafening.

Shit.

I looked back up to him. He was eerily serene, eyes closed, hamsters in his lap, like a monk meditating on the meaning of life itself. His hands wrapped around his computer monitor slowly. The screen was suddenly jerked towards him, giving me a dramatic look at half of his face. He inhaled deeply through his nose and his eyes snapped open just before he spoke.

"WHAT?!"

There it is! The long, drawn out dialogue synapse from Phichit is through. I hope that I caught his mannerisms and didn't go too off script from his character, but I couldn't help but make him the interpreter to Yuri's love life with a bit of sass.

Leave a comment or PM me if you liked/loved/hated/didn't care for this chapter. I hope to hear from you guys and I'll see you soon!