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The official hotel of the NHK Trophy caught fire the night before the free skate. Chris stood outside wrapped in his travel blanket and saw it: a very real lick of flame, so far above his head that it measured about a millimeter. “I think that’s the first time I’ve evacuated a building and actually saw it on fire,” Josef said. “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”
The millimeter of flame was just worrisome enough to keep Chris from grumbling about his interrupted sleep. He’d competed on little sleep before—had competed on no sleep, once, struck with nervous insomnia the first time he went to Europeans—and he would probably be all right. At least it was an even playing field. Everyone who would be skating tomorrow was currently standing outside in the plaza below the hotel, staring up at the fire instead of sleeping. Georgi Popovich was over on the other side of the crowd, talking to someone on his cell phone, wearing a pea coat over his pajama pants. Cao Bin and his coach were making their way over to a cluster of hotel employees, who looked just as helplessly dazzled by the fire as everyone else. And on the edge of the crowd, moving in and out of Chris’s vision every few seconds, Yuuri Katsuki was jogging around in a narrow oval, his elbows tucked tightly against his sides. He was in a short-sleeved t-shirt and track pants, no coat.
“I’m going for a walk,” Chris told Josef, and lifted up the edge of his blanket so it wouldn’t drag. He wove through the crowd, feeling a little kingly with all that trailing cloth behind him, until he reached the patch of grass where Yuuri was jogging. Yuuri noticed him and stopped. His breath was faintly visible on every exhale.
“Cold?” Chris asked.
“I thought they would’ve let us back in by now,” Yuuri said. “I didn’t think it would be a real fire.”
From this close, Chris could see the goosebumps prickling Yuuri’s arms. “Would you like half of this?” Chris asked, nodding down at the grand mantle of his blanket. “I promise to be on my best behavior.”
Yuuri hesitated. “Are you sure?”
As if Chris would be inconvenienced by having Yuuri in close physical proximity. “Of course,” he said.
So Yuuri moved in until his shoulder was touching Chris’s, and Chris wrapped half of the blanket around him. It wasn’t quite long enough to fully encircle both of them, but at least it covered Yuuri’s arm in its short sleeve. “I don’t think they’re going to let us back in any time soon,” Yuuri said. “They’ll probably have to send us somewhere else.”
Given that all the local hotels were booked for the competition, that didn’t bode well for the idea of getting back to sleep any time soon. “Maybe we should just curl up here on the grass,” Chris said. “Or go back to the rink and demand they let us sleep in the stands.”
Yuuri sighed. “I probably wasn’t going to be able to sleep tonight anyway,” he said. “But it would be nice to be indoors, at least.”
Chris cast Yuuri a sideways look. “Why wouldn’t you be sleeping tonight? Did you have some sort of tryst planned?”
Yuuri’s brow furrowed. “What’s a tryst?”
Oh, right. Yuuri’s English was quite good, but Chris’s vocabulary did tend to be more flowery than average. He tried to think of synonyms for tryst. “A rendezvous,” he said. “An illicit meeting. A liaison.”
Yuuri just stared blankly at him. “A fuck session,” Chris said.
Yuuri’s expression crinkled delightfully into scandalized amusement. “What happened to being on your best behavior?” he asked.
“Well, none of my euphemisms were working,” Chris said. “And you should know that by best behavior, I only meant I wouldn’t actively try to give you a hickey under the blanket.” He gave Yuuri’s shoulder a gentle push with his own. “So who exactly were you planning to fuck?”
“No one,” Yuuri emphasized. “I just meant that I never sleep well before a free skate. I’m always too nervous.”
Ah. That did seem more in-character for him. “Well, interestingly,” Chris said, “I’ve heard of a wonderful method to calm nervous energy.”
Yuuri gave him a dry look out of the corner of his eye. “Is it a fuck session?”
Chris loved getting Yuuri to talk dirty to him. “Exactly,” Chris said. “It’s so nice that we operate on such similar wavelengths, Yuuri. What do you say? Should we do it right here on the grass, in front of everyone?”
Yuuri bumped his shoulder pointedly against Chris’s.
“All right,” Chris said mildly. “It never hurts to ask, you know. You have a history of saying yes at unexpected times.”
A little flare of color stained Yuuri’s cheek. Yuuri had been the first person Chris ever kissed in Japan—a line he hadn’t thought would work on Yuuri until he tried it. “I've never kissed anyone in Japan before, Yuuri,” he’d said two seasons ago, as the two of them left the NHK Trophy presser after the free skate. “I make it a tradition to kiss someone in every country I visit. Won't you help me?”
And Yuuri—emboldened, perhaps, by the bronze medal on his chest—had stepped forward and given Chris a brisk, determined little kiss, his hands closed into fists, like he considered it a challenge. Then he took a step back, shocked by his own forwardness. “Wait,” Yuuri said, his face burning, “I don’t think I did that very well. Can I try it again?”
As if Chris would be inconvenienced by having Yuuri use him for kissing practice. “By all means,” Chris had said, and happily reaped the unexpected reward of his boldness.
There was a swell of noise in the crowd around them. Chris glanced up at the hotel and saw the millimeter of fire had been joined by a millimeter of water, as thin-looking as a wiggling string. The two faraway filaments struggled against each other. “Well, I suppose that’s a good sign,” Chris said.
Yuuri shivered. Chris glanced at Yuuri’s hand holding the blanket and saw that his forearm still had goosebumps. “Sorry, the blanket’s not quite long enough, is it?” Chris said. “Do you want to move in a little closer, so we overlap more?”
Yuuri took a step over. It was a larger step than Chris was anticipating; it put Yuuri right in front of him. Then Yuuri inched backwards until his back was pressed snugly against Chris’s front, which also meant the firm globes of Yuuri’s ass were pressed right up against Chris’s crotch. Chris had to take a few deep, purposeful breaths to keep an even keel. “Now who’s not on their best behavior?” Chris said.
“I didn’t make any promises,” Yuuri said.
So it was intentional. Chris tried not to smirk too broadly as he wrapped his arms around Yuuri, pulling the blanket tightly around them both. He never knew what to expect when it came to Yuuri—his outer reserve seemed steady and constant, until moments like that when it very suddenly wasn’t. He let his chin sink to rest on Yuuri’s shoulder. “Warmer now?”
“Yes.”
The two of them watched in silence as the lick of flame and the stream of water tussled each other far above their heads. The solid heat of Yuuri’s body against Chris’s was making him feel sleepy and satisfied. Whatever thing he and Yuuri had didn’t have a name, but it gave each competition they shared an appealing flavor, a sparkle of promise. Like an unexpected structure fire, it livened things up.
“Can I ask you something?” Yuuri said suddenly.
“Of course.”
“How did you know I would say yes, that first time?”
“Oh, I was ninety-nine percent sure you’d say no,” Chris said. “But hope springs eternal.”
Yuuri was quiet for another little while. Then: “That was the first time I...”.
He trailed off. Chris felt a momentary pang of alarm. “Kissed someone?”
“Kissed another guy.”
That was only mildly less alarming. “I wish I’d known, “ Chris said, tightening his arms more securely around Yuuri. “I would’ve done it with more panache.”
He felt the faint vibration of Yuuri’s laugh against his chest. “What’s panache?”
“It means...skill, and theatrics,” Chris said. “I would’ve made it memorable.”
“It was still memorable,” Yuuri said. “It...explained some things.”
Given the number of times Yuuri had kissed him in the intervening two years, Chris could only assume it hadn’t been a bad realization. “Did it push you in one direction over another?” Chris asked.
“No,” Yuuri said. “It just opened up the possibilities.” He tilted his head back a little, the side of his cheek brushing against Chris’s. “So thank you.”
If Chris weren’t already warm from Yuuri’s body heat, it might’ve put a blush on his face. “I’m happy I could help,” Chris said. “And of course, you know, if there’s ever anything else you’re curious about, I’m always at your service.”
Yuuri's voice was wry. "Oh, I know."