If you don't know the plot to The King and The Skater, I'd suggest you read it :) it's quite fun
Even though they now lived together, it didn't feel awfully different from when they did not share living quarters. That was probably due to the fact that Yuuri had Four Continents, the actual Olympics (which he was trying his best to forget both existed and had ever happened) and Worlds, all of which Phichit didn't attend, but then Phichit had some exams, and then Yuuri did, and all in all, they still ended up spending most time together at the rink, since their small home was used for sleeping, eating and studying. Yuuri was only glad that he didn't have to go through the whole 'getting to know a new person' thing when his roommate had moved out, and Phichit was fairly easy to be around. Certainly much easier than Yuuri had expected.
And it was certainly because of this ease that Yuuri was surprised when one evening, only two days after summer vacation had finally hit them and they had both spend their new freedom by sleeping, that Phichit grabbed Yuuri by the elbow, placed him on Phichit's bed, which had been made comfortable with a huge amount of pillows and plushies (mostly hamsters), sat down beside him and opened his laptop. There was also a huge bowl of popcorn, several cans of soda and some chocolate they probably weren't allowed to eat, yet Yuuri was still surprised when Phichit exclaimed: "Movie Night!" and did not look like he would take no for an answer.
Yuuri almost sighed (only almost because actually doing so would be rude), but figured that watching movies all night couldn't hurt them that much. None of them had morning practice the next day, so they could sleep in if they wanted to.
"What do you want to watch?" Yuuri asked, thinking that Phichit already had something in mind, but again, he was wrong.
"Why don't you choose.? I feel like you know more about me than I know about you, so lets watch your favorite movie."
Yuuri looked up in thought for a moment. His favorite movie, huh? Yuuri wasn't much of a movie person. He loved music and if he ever wanted to enjoy a story he usually went for a novel, or back in Japan he would watch anime with Mari. But a favorite movie? Yuuri couldn't really think of one.
"I don't really have one," he said honestly after some time, and Phichit gaped at him.
"You don't have one? How can a person not have a favorite movie? Oh my God, I feel like Arthur, when he found out that the king had never seen snow before!" Phichit moaned, and Yuuri looked at him, confused because he didn't get the reference.
"Who is Arthur?"
Phichit looked at him for a few seconds. Yuuri thought it was the longest they had spent together without Phichit talking (which was ridiculous since they lived together): "Are you, Yuuri Katsuki, a figure skater who has competed at the actual Olympics, a person who is my Friend, capital f, telling me that you have never watched The King and the Skater?"
"Yes?" Yuuri said wearily and Phichit took his head in his hands and fell backwards onto the bed.
"How?!" He groaned, "It should be mandatory for figure skaters to watch this movie!"
"I've listened to some of the songs," Yuuri tried, not mentioning that he only knew two songs and it was only because they were commonly used for figure skating programs.
Phichit shot up from his position on the bed and looked Yuuri in the eyes intensely: "Not. Good. Enough."
He then stood up, walked over to their shared bookcase and pulled out two movies, which were then dumped into Yuuri's lap.
"Highest quality, extended versions of both the original and the sequel, which we are watching right now."
Yuuri blinked at Phichit and examined the dvds. The extended versions were both way past three hours, meaning that they probably wouldn't be done until way into the night. And if Phichit was as enthusiastic about these movies as Yuuri suspected, then they wouldn't go to sleep until the sun rose again. Maybe they should call Celestino and say they had both gotten the flu, because practice the next day seemed unlike at this rate.
But it sounded fun: "I'm in," Yuuri smiled and Phichit put on the first movie.
The plot of the first movie was questionable and somewhat chaotic, but all the catchy songs more than made up for it and the figure skating was pretty amazing for a movie. After Phichit had asked Yuuri a million questions about his thoughts, they watched the second one, which had even more of a messed up plotline than the first one, yet Yuuri weirdly got the appeal of it. And it wasn't like the two of them rarely talked or never had long conversations, but they had never talked like this before.
They didn't realize that the sun had both set and risen during their movie marathon, and Yuuri couldn't even remember when he had last spoken to someone like this. By the end of the second film, they were both equally enthusiastic about the franchise and had deep and heated discussions about the main character and his development throughout the movies.
They even ended up having a long discussion over which song was the best. Yuuri argued for Shall We Skate, as it was the song that wrapped the story up in the first film, and gave a feeling of immense satisfaction. And, of course, it was a great song just by itself.
Phichit argued for Terra Incognita which was one of the climactic songs in the second one, and Yuuri knew he must have thought about it alot when he started analysing every word, note and pause in the song and what they all meant.
It was around noon that Yuuri got a text for Celestino, asking whether he wanted to do jump practice or skating skills today. Usually it was a combination of both, but post-exam Yuuri wasn't always in the mood for jumping, so Celestino usually gave him a choice.
"We have practice in an hour," Yuuri said as he read the message. He wasn't as tired as he probably should have been, but was sure that he would collapse if he went to practice. Phichit looked a little tired himself, but, like usual, his eyes shone brightly as he came up with some idea.
"You remember in the first film," Phichit began excitedly, "Where Arthur has that ice show in the morning that he has to perform for the king's children, but then the night before he has to protect the city from bandits and despite being super tired, he still puts on the show and they all clap because they loved it."
"Yes, I see, so we just have to channel our inner Arthur!" Yuuri exclaimed as he understood. It was likely that he was too tired to fully understand that that was ridiculous, but at the time it made a lot of sense to both of them.
And so, they went to practice, completed half of it without issue, until Yuuri tripped over his own skates once, and then twice, and when it happened the third time within five minutes, Celestino pulled him aside.
"What's going on?" He asked, concerned, and Yuuri's tired mind registered that Celestino was worried for him.
"Um," he said, at this point he couldn't really say that he was tired because him and Phichit had watched movies all night, "My boots are a little soft," he said instead. It wasn't entirely untrue. His boots were getting worn and he would have to replace them soon, but they weren't yet at the state where they were completely useless.
"You shouldn't skate with worn boots," Celestino scolded, "You know that."
"Yes, coach," Yuuri said quickly, "But I thought that since it was just skating skills today, I could keep them for a little while."
Celestino raised an eyebrow. Keeping worn equipment was very unlike Yuuri. He was more known to replace equipment quickly so that he never had to be in a situation where they broke down completely. Yuuri was slightly scared that Celestino would keep asking questions, when Phichit screamed at the other end of the rink after having fallen and then glided straight into another skater.
They both looked over to where Phichit was laying on the ice and rubbing his shoulder that had collided with the other skater. When it was clear that no one was hurt, Celestino merely shook his head in disappointment: "What is happening today?" Yuuri heard him whisper as he circled the rink to get to the others.
When Phichit then travelled so much on a spin that he collided with the barrier, Celestino left to get a coffee.
"Not entirely like Arthur then," Yuuri mused as Celestino left the rink in frustration.
"Practice makes perfect," Phichit said determined, "We still have an hour left of practice and if I can land a triple axel today, I can do it any day!"
"Please lend me some of that energy," Yuuri yawned, but Phichit merely took his arm and dragged him to the center of the rink.
"You can do a triple axel from a standstill, right?"
"Not when I'm this tired," Yuuri said and shook his head, but Phichit kept on pushing.
"Come on Yuuri. If you do this, then what is stopping you from always landing your triple axel?"
Yuuri wondered about that for a bit. It made sense. Yuuri rarely messed up the triple axel anyway, but if he could do it while his mind was clouded and his body felt like lead, then what was stopping him from doing it in competition. And if it didn't work, he could easily blame it on pulling an all-nighter.
"Okay, I'll try," Yuuri smiled, and Phichit took his phone out.
"You're going to record it?"
"Yes, and if you land it, you can put it on your instagram and say you conquered sleep."
Yuuri shook his head. Of course it would all come back to social media in the end. Regardless, Yuuri did the triple axel. It was probably slightly underrotated, but he did it. He landed it, and he didn't fall or land forwards. Yuuri felt validated and Phichit cheered.
Phichit attempted the same as Yuuri but could only manage to do the double. When he got frustrated he then speed up and did a proper triple axel, just as Celestino came back.
"I thought you two said you didn't want to jump today."
"We were just having a bit of fun," Phichit said quickly, but Celestino was having none of it today.
"Is that so," he said slowly, "Well then, Phichit, I would like for you to work on that lutz of yours. If you want to compete with the seniors, you need a triple lutz in the short program." Phichit face slowly grew wary as he realized that Celestino was about to send them through hell.
"And Yuuri," he continued, and Yuuri gulped, "Your triple loop is a disaster. Unless you want to go back to double axels, you need it in the free skate."
"I don't even think I can do a double axel anymore..." Yuuri said quietly so that Celestino couldn't hear him, but that didn't exactly stop Celestino from making them do what felt like a million repetitions of their least favorite jumps. Yuuri was only glad that Celestino didn't make them go through quads.
"How did Arthur do it?" Phichit groaned in the changing rooms after their practice. Yuuri was lying on a bench, his energy all spent up and wondering if he could just take a quick power nap right there.
"He had a magical card game," Yuuri rationalized, "One of them probably had energy revival as a power. That's a thing right?"
"Perhaps," Phichit said, deep in thought, "It would make a lot of sense and explain some of the things in the second movie. I mean, I am pretty sure he didn't get any sleep for at least three days, right?"
"I suppose," Yuuri yawned.
"Why didn't we just do that though?"
"Use magical cards?" Yuuri asked, "Because we don't have any. Unless you are keeping secrets from me."
"I don't, but we have something just as good! Coffee! Energy drinks! That nice and lovely caffeine," Phichit sang, "Should I get you a coffee? You seem like you could need one."
"No thanks," Yuuri said and made a face of disgust, "My anxiety would go crazy."
Phichit merely made a little noise of surprise and Yuuri took a nap.
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