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It was difficult to pull off. Getting everyone together in the same country was impossible unless there was a competition being held in said country. Luck was on his side, though, when the next competition was held in Thailand.
The music was fairly easy to decide on, of course. A happy, upbeat number from The King and The Skater III, the kind of music you could easily warm up to with your rinkmates.
The next step was, well, to convince everyone to wear the hamster hats.
“No,” said Seung-Gil.
“Tigers are cooler,” said Yurio.
“Hmm, I don’t know about this. My sex appeal is going to take a hit,” said Chris.
Guang-Hong’s eyes glowed as soon as the hat was placed in his hands, and he put it on eagerly. He snuck a selfie when he thought no one was looking.
JJ peeled a Canadian flag sticker off of his equipment bag, and stuck it on the hamster, donning it proudly.
The decorations, too, had to be colourful and luxurious. Yuuri would never consider himself an artist, and drawing numerous animals and ice-cream sundaes on giant cardboard made him weary, but Victor gave him words of encouragement over his shoulder even at the wee hours of two in the morning.
The night before the competition, Phichit’s birthday rolled around. Everything was in order, but Yuuri still trembled with nerves. His mind raced with reasons why he should not have done this after all— Phichit had only made an offhand mention of a dream from long ago— it was probably overstepping to take things into his own hands—
Until Phichit stepped onto the rink, and all of his friends (even Seung-Gil and Yurio) greeted him in colourful costumes and hamster hats too big for their heads. When he saw the Phichit on Ice!!! signage, glittering with vibrant colours, he gasped. His eyes grew wide as saucers, and the look of unbridled joy on his face as he covered his mouth with his hands made warmth bloom in Yuuri’s chest. When Phichit tackled Yuuri into a hug, he gratefully accepted, burying his grin into the shoulder of his closest friend.
After all, Phichit was one of the people who made skating fun for Yuuri, both then and now. If Yuuri could even begin to return the favour, then it was all worth it.