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As soon as Mickey arrived home from practice, he booted up his laptop. His coach had kept him after practice to discuss some ideas for his new programs for next season, but fortunately, he still had about fifteen minutes until Emil was due to call on FaceTime for their daily chat. Good. That gave him just enough time to hop in the shower and change out of his sweaty practice clothes since he had been in too much of a rush to leave to do it at the gym as usual.
By the time Mickey returned to his desk, freshly showered, a familiar notification had popped up in the upper right-hand corner of his computer screen. He smiled, and after tossing aside the towel he had been using to dry his hair, he clicked on the button to accept the call.
"Hey, sorry I'm late," he said as he maximized the FaceTime interface. "Hope you haven't been waiting around too long. Coach Moretti needed to –"
His chin propped up on his elbow, Emil sighed.
That...was out-of-character. Mickey was used to being welcomed by his boyfriend's eternally beaming, handsome face whenever he signed onto FaceTime. He wasn't even sure if the word "sad" existed in Emil's vocabulary. Was he that annoyed by his tardiness? But Emil wasn't normally the type to be bothered by such things. In fact, more often than not, Mickey was the one left waiting for his calls to be accepted.
"Emil?"
Emil jumped at the sound of his name and straightened his posture. "Oh, hey, Mickey!" he said with false cheer, his missing smile plastered on his face like one of those cutesy stickers from childhood. "What's up?"
"I should be asking you that." Frowning, Mickey leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "What's wrong?"
"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. What makes you say that?"
Mickey resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Emil really was the worst liar. "I don't know… Maybe the fact that your eyes are all red and that smile is faker than Mila's so-called outside edge on her lutz?" He lowered his arms, genuinely worried as he got a better look at Emil's face. "Hey, have you been crying?" he asked in a softer voice.
"It's that obvious?" Sniffling, Emil's smile faded away again. "It's nothing, really," he said, reaching for a tissue from the box off-camera. "Nothing you need to worry about. I'm okay."
"I'm your boyfriend, Emil. Of course I'm going to worry about you. Come on, tell me what's going on."
Emil dabbed at his face, wiping away the last remaining remnants of his tears. "It's my coach," he said, wringing the tissue in his hands. "She's, um, having a baby and getting married."
"Okay…" Mickey blinked, not understanding the issue. "Isn't that happy news? Or…" His heart seized up. "Wait, are you… Are you in love with her?" he asked, well aware that Emil was attracted to both men and women.
"What?" Emil tilted his head to the side. "No, of course not. Jana's nearly twice my age."
"But she is rather attractive…" And it wouldn't be the first time Emil had a crush on an older woman. He always denied it when asked, but Mickey was almost certain Emil used to have a crush on his twin sister, Sara, as well when he was a teenager.
"Mickey, I'm in love with you and no one else."
Mickey exhaled, relieved to hear that. "Then why the tears?"
"Her boyfriend – No, he's her fiancé now, right? Well, he just got a big promotion at work. It's a great opportunity for him, but he's been asked to head up their London office. Jana says they'll be moving at the end of the month."
"Oh."
"She's also decided to retire from coaching. She wants to focus on her family and get a job that doesn't require so much traveling around the world."
"That's understandable." The life of an elite figure skating coach wasn't exactly conducive for raising a family, after all, what with spending long hours at the rink and attending numerous competitions throughout the season. There was a reason why most successful coaches tended to be either single or older people who no longer had kids at home to worry about.
"Yeah… I'm happy for her, I am!" Emil said. "Her fiancé is a good guy, and they seem really excited about the baby. It's just…" He sighed again, his shoulders dropping. "She's the only coach I've ever had. I've been taking from Jana since I was like, five or six? She's almost like my second mother. We've been through everything together… I'm really gonna miss her, you know?"
"I'm sorry, Emil. That's...rough." Mickey didn't really know what else to say, at a loss for words. He had never been particularly close with any of his own coaches over the years, so he couldn't relate much to how Emil must be feeling.
Nevertheless, Emil gave him a smaller, but much more genuine, smile. "Thanks."
"So, what do you plan to do now? You know, about your coaching situation? The season's over, but…"
Shrugging, Emil reached for a nearby bottle of water and took a sip. "I haven't really thought that far ahead yet," he admitted, swiping his arm over his mouth. "There aren't many other high level coaches here. Maybe I'll reach out to the Leroys in Toronto, see if they'll take me on. Everybody always says I need to work more on my presentation, and their skaters are great at blending artistry and athleticism."
Mickey's heart dropped to his stomach. Canada?
In some ways, they were lucky compared to a lot of the other skating couples they knew who dated long-distance. Despite the thousand-odd kilometers between his home in Milan and Emil's home base of Prague, at least their cities were in the same time zone. They never had to worry much about scheduling time for phone calls and video chats. The distance was hard, but through the magic of technology and the occasional weekend visit whenever they could fit it into their busy schedules, they made it work.
If Emil moved to Toronto, though… Not only would he be living halfway around the world, he'd be six hours behind. There would be no more calls out of the blue or spontaneous weekend vacations...
"Or you could just move here?" Mickey found himself suggesting even before he realized what he was saying.
Emil's gray eyes widened. "To Milan?"
"Sure! Matteo just retired, so my coach has a spot open. I'm sure he'd be glad to take you on, and Sara will be happy to have you around, too."
"And you?"
His cheeks warming, Mickey scratched the back of his neck. "Of course I'd be thrilled to have you around, moron," he mumbled, as if that even needed to be stated.
Emil beamed, his smile as bright as the sun. "Moving to Italy, huh?" He leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his hairy chin, thinking it over. "I'd have to brush up on my Italian…"
"Me and Sara can help you study, and Coach Moretti speaks decent enough English, so training shouldn't be too much of a problem," Mickey assured him, growing more excited by the idea by the minute. "You can even stay here with me, if you want."
Emil sucked in a sharp breath. "You want to move in together?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's been kinda lonely here since Sara moved to her own place, and we'll both save on rent if –"
"Okay!"
Mickey blinked. "Okay?" That was it? Emil didn't need more time to think it over, or…? Sure, he suggested the idea in the first place, so he was in no position to talk, but he wasn't the one moving to a foreign country where he barely knew the language. "Are you sure?"
"Let's do it!" Emil said with no trace of hesitation. "If Coach Moretti will accept me as his student, then I'll move to Milan."