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Phichit glanced out of the window and groaned. The perfect ending to a perfect day. His free skate had not gone well, dropping him from leading at Skate America to finishing third. Bronze wasn’t bad, exactly, but it wasn’t good enough either. He could still make Finals, yes, but it was likely he’d end up missing this year. After all, his second competition, he was up against Plisetsky and Otabek, and while he could beat either of them if he did his best, chances were he was in for another bronze. And now, it was snowing. He'd seen the weather reports, yes, but that didn't mean he had to like that it had decided to snow.
Celestino followed his gaze and smiled. “Come on, Phichit, it’s not that bad. Let’s walk back to the hotel.”
“What.” Phichit can’t have heard that right, and he turned to stare at his coach in bewilderment. Sure, Celestino had always liked snow, but he could not be serious right now. There was no way. His coach had lost his mind. “You want to go out in that? And walk? Instead of taking a nice, warm taxi back?”
“Why not? We knew it was going to be cold so we’re dressed for it.” Celestino zipped up his coat. “Trust me. You’ll enjoy it, and if you don’t, I’ll make it up to you somehow. You can drag me to that BTS concert that I know you got me a ticket to even though I said I didn’t want to go.”
“Well, I got an extra ticket, anyway,” Phichit admitted with a smirk. “I still hadn’t decided if I was going to try to get you to go or try to convince Yuuri to come out for it or just ask one of my other friends.”
“So? Go for a walk and you don’t have to fight me on it.” Celestino headed for the door, pausing to look for Phichit before opening it. Phichit groaned, but followed Celestino out into the snow. He was going to freeze, and he'd just have to hope that it would be worth it when he got to take Celestino to the concert.
A couple blocks from the rink, when the crowd had thinned out and the cold was starting to numb Phichit’s nose, Celestino held out his hand. Phichit stared at it. Their relationship wasn’t exactly a secret or anything, but they tried to keep it low-key where people could see them. “Seriously?”
“Sure.” Celestino smiled as Phichit’s gloved hand tangled with his. “It’s not like we’re hiding or anything, and it’s a beautiful night. You’ve never walked through the snow with a boyfriend before?”
Phichit scoffed, but he was smiling now. “No snow in Thailand, and you know perfectly well that between moving to America and hooking up with you, I was a slut, not a boyfriend. Never really had the opportunity.”
“I suppose not,” Celestino said. “But you could have gone for some romance with your hookups, I don’t know. I usually did.”
“Really? Why? What was the point?”
Celestino shrugged, squeezing Phichit’s hand. “Looking back, I think the point was that I wasn’t really happy living the slut life and kept hoping to meet someone to love like this. At the time, though, I’d have said because it made the sex that much better if we’d made that kind of connection beforehand. Might be different for you, but that’s how it was for me.”
“Hmmmm.” Phichit thought about it. “Well, hard to say from one data point especially given the circumstances of that one data point, but I’ll agree that sex with you is better now than it was that first time we hooked up. Whether that’s because of the real connection on that level between us or because we’re usually not that drunk and I don’t have the little voice of sobriety in the back of my head saying I’m going to regret it.”
Celestino turned his head to look at Phichit, and Phichit almost missed his words because of staring at the snowflakes on his eyelashes. Luckily, Celestino repeated himself. “Do you regret it?”
No hesitation in answering. Phichit considered it one of the best decisions he'd ever made while drunk. “Not a bit. If we hadn’t slept together that night, or under similar circumstances some other time, I still wouldn’t have found the balls to talk to you about things, and you’d still be beating yourself up for your unprofessional and inappropriate feelings. We needed that if we were going to get to this point before I was retired, and I’m glad we didn’t wait that long.”
“Heh.” Celestino fell silent, walking with Phichit through the snow. And, okay, Phichit wasn’t hating this nearly as bad as he’d expected. Celestino looked so happy as he watched the snow fall, and Phichit was almost sorry when the hotel came into view. That meant Celestino would pull away from him. Phichit started to pull his hand back, but Celestino caught it. “Wait, before we go in, come here.”
“Hmm?” Phichit let Celestino pull him close, closing his eyes when he realized what Celestino was after. Kissing under the snow was another new experience for Phichit, one he found he quite enjoyed. Celestino’s lips were cold, but the inside of his mouth was warm, and the contrast was amazing. He was rather sorry when Celestino pulled back.
Celestino noticed. “So I was right? You enjoyed the walk?”
Phichit tilted his head. He really had, but... “I should lie here so you’ll come to BTS with me, shouldn’t I.”
“No, you should tell me the truth. I’m going to BTS with you either way unless you decide you’d rather try to get Yuuri out. It’s your choice, of course.”
Phichit stretched up to kiss Celestino again. “Yes. I did like it, but I’m still freezing. Any chance I can get you to warm me up when we get inside?”
Celestino’s laughter rumbled, and Phichit loved the feel of it as he held on. “You’d have a much harder time keeping me from it, Phichit. Let’s get going, the sooner we get inside the sooner we can get to work on warming up.”