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Looking down at the rented football pitch, Vik was glad he wasn’t asked to be on one of these teams. None of the guys were particularly great at it, but they were all leagues better than Vik was, as they (especially Simon) loved to remind him at every opportunity.
The only annoying thing about it was needing to sit around until the mini match was done because he was slated to be in the next shoot.
“You ready for the match next week?”
Vik glanced up in the direction of the voice that had interrupted his thoughts.
“Tobi? I thought you were playing?” He glanced from Tobi back to the field to see that most of the players had left it.
Tobi chuckled. “I see you've been paying attention. Water break. I came to make sure you were alright.”
That was sweet of him. Tobi was always so sweet.
“Thanks,” Vik replied, trying not to sound as shy as he felt.
“You didn't answer my question,” Tobi pointed out. It took Vik a second to remember what the question had been.
“Oh,” he said. “Yeah, I can't wait.”
“You don't sound that excited about it,” Tobi said.
“No, I am,” Vik said ununconvincingly.
Tobi sat down next to him, pressing one knee against his. Vik felt comforted just by the warmth and closeness. “What's up?” Tobi asked him.
Vik shrugged. “I dunno. I'm out of shape, I guess. I feel like people are expecting so much from me and I don't think I can deliver.”
Tobi wrapped an arm around him and hugged him tightly. “Hey, now, don't think that way. You're gonna do great, I know it.”
Vik felt Tobi's knee press against his again and realized that he was shaking his leg. He tried to calm it, embarassed. “I dunno,” he admitted quietly. “I just don't want to let everyone down again.”
“Vik,” Tobi said softly.
“Don't,” he replied immediately.
Tobi squeezed his shoulder. “Remember the first charity match? How we trained at the sidemen house?”
Vik nodded. “I really liked that.”
“What if we do that again? I've got a little pitch at my place.”
Vik glanced up at him. “Yeah?”
“Of course.”
_
Vik didn't know why he was nervous as he walked up to Tobi's front door. If anything, he was excited to spend some time with Tobi again. Even if it probably meant humiliating himself with his lack of football skills. Besides, Tobi had never made him feel humiliated about it. It was just himself that did that.
But then Tobi greeted him with a hug and all of Vik's anxiety melted away in his arms.
“Thanks for doing this,” he said, scratching the back of his head as he looked over at Tobi.
“Of course,” Tobi answered, draping one arm across his narrow shoulders and leading him out to the back garden. “We're gonna get you excited for the match, Vik.”
It felt familiar, as Vik started kicking and passing drills under Tobi's instruction. He still sometimes thought about the first time they'd done this. The way Tobi had been so gentle, and encouraging, and proud.
“That's my guy. My guy,” still played in his head sometimes, late at night, when he was tired and alone and a little bit drunk. He only remembered it because it had made him feel close to his friend, he rationalized. Surely that was all.
The drills felt more advanced than the last time they'd trained together like this. Maybe partly because Tobi's pitch and goal, while smaller than regulation, were much larger than the tiny setup they'd had at the sidemen house so long ago. This meant that Tobi could stand in goal and make him practice trying to get the ball past him.
He even succeeded a couple of times. A couple.
They didn't wrap up until the sun was starting to go down and Vik was trying not to admit that he was exhausted. Even Tobi was a bit out of breath when he jogged over to Vik and pulled him into a sweaty hug.
“Great job today, Vik. You're still my guy, y'know.”
Vik felt his heart quicken an embarrassing amount. Why did hearing Tobi say that get to him so much? It was a sweet thing, but Tobi was always sweet. He just didn’t understand why that phrase in particular made him so happy.
“Thanks,” he said, realizing suddenly that he'd been silent for an awkward amount of time. “Y'know, for helping me.”
Tobi chuckled. “Just look for me after you score at the match, yeah? I want to be one of the first people to hug you.”
And, true to his word, that was exactly what he did.
Vik curled up in the locker room after the match, scrolling on his phone and decompressing from the match. It had gone surprisingly well. He'd scored, which was about the most he could have asked for. Tobi had hugged him so tightly he almost hadn’t wanted to be hoisted into the air away from the embrace.
The locker room was mostly empty other than crew. Simon and JJ had gone together to one of their houses. Most of their guests had gone their separate ways, except for the few that had gone with Josh, Tobi, Ethan, and Harry to go celebrate Josh's first charity match goal at the club.
So Vik was surprised when Tobi sank down into the seat next to him, looking as tired as Vik felt. “Surprised you're not headed home already,” he said.
“I thought you went with Josh and them,” Vik replied, setting his phone down on his lap.
“I'm meeting them,” Tobi said, pulling his jersey away from his chest. “I need a shower in a bad way. You should come, y'know.”
Vik froze. “I mean, out with us,” Tobi clarified.
Somewhere inside Vik he had the quickly-buried thought that he'd kinda wished Tobi had meant it the other way.
“M-maybe,” he said, inwardly admonishing himself for being so obviously flustered.
Tobi smirked at him. “C'mon, it'll be fun. Whatcha doing right now, anyway?”
“I'm looking up hotels. I want to go on holiday, just relax and get away for a few days.” Vik shrugged and picked up his phone again, showing Tobi the list he'd been scrolling.
“You deserve it,” Tobi replied immediately, bringing a soft smile to Vik's face.
“So do you,” He said shyly, rushing the words out before his tired brain could catch up and stop him. “d'you wanna come with me?”
Somewhat to his surprise, Tobi's face brightened. “Yeah, I'd like that.” And then, after a moment, he added “that means you have to come out with us, though. It’s only fair.”
Vik chuckled, this time. “Alright, deal.”
_
Knowing that Tobi was joining him, Vik had stepped up his search for hotels. The room he booked for them wasn't nearly as lavish as they would book for a holiday video, but it was supposed to be really nice and the hotel had great amenities.
The room was supposed to have two full size beds.
So Vik, for one, was surprised and embarrassed to see one king sized bed in the middle of the room.
“I, uh. There were supposed to be two beds,” he said awkwardly. “I'm sorry, let me call the front desk.”
He wasn't as disappointed as he probably should have been to be told by the front desk that they couldn't fix it until tomorrow. He just hoped Tobi wouldn’t be mad.
But Tobi just shrugged and set his bag down in the entryway. “I don't really care either way,” he said as casually as if he was talking about the weather.
Vik looked over at him. “Really?” He asked.
Tobi shrugged. “We're small people, Vik. It's practically like having two beds anyway. And it's only for one night.”
“Oh. Well, cool, then.”
Vik laid down on one side of the bed and kicked his shoes off into a messy heap across the room.
“You wanna go out to a club tonight?” Tobi asked him, taking off his shoes much more neatly before climbing up onto the other side.
“Absolutely,” Vik said. “I looked up a couple of places that might be your vibe.” He rolled over so he could see Tobi, making sure to keep some distance between them. “And, tomorrow, if you're up for it, uh, there's a pretty cool looking ski place not far from here.”
Tobi laughed. “A bit warm around here for skiing, isn't it?”
“Well, it's indoors,” Vik explained. “I thought it sounded cool.”
Tobi shrugged. “I'm not very good at skiing. But I'm down. It might be fun.”
Vik tried his best not to give too goofy of a smile at that. Tobi playfully batted his shoulder. “You wearing that out tonight?” He asked.
Vik glanced down at his hoodie and sweatpants from the flight. “Are you saying something's wrong with my outfit?” He teased.
Tobi rolled his eyes in response. “I'm not going out with you looking like that. I have extra clothes you can borrow if you don’t have anything.”
Vik just chuckled. Something about that idea felt… kind of nice.
_
He woke the next day comfortably warm in a bed, with very little memory of the night before. He knew he'd gotten a little more drunk than he'd planned - a product of overexcitement and small stature. But he'd been with Tobi, so he knew he'd been safe.
He shifted a little bit as he started to wake up, and he noticed that the warmth was mostly coming from another person, whose chest he was nestled against and whose arm was wrapped around his shoulders.
He jumped out of his skin when he realized it was Tobi he was all snuggled up to.
He did his best to scoot away from Tobi without waking him, hoping he would wake up none the wiser.
But Tobi stirred as soon as he started to move, and Vik felt his arm wrap a little tighter around his shoulders. And so he stayed like that until he felt Tobi wake up.
Before he could come up with an apology or an excuse, Tobi said softly “hey, nothing happened last night. You were a really cuddly drunk, though.”
Vik could feel himself blushing. “Sorry,” he said. “I dunno what came over me.”
Tobi laughed. “It's fine. I didn't mind.”
Vik tried his best not to think too much into Tobi's response, and then subsequently tried not to think too much about why Tobi's response mattered to him so much.
_
“I did not dress warm enough for this,” Tobi said as they walked up into the indoor ski resort. Vik laughed. “These kind of places usually have gear you can rent, if you want.”
They both ended up renting full sets of gear. Vik set himself up easily, but he noticed that Tobi took a little longer. He tried his best to avert his eyes from him in the locker room space they'd been provided. He really didn't need to unpack the psychology behind why he wanted to look at Tobi shirtless.
“Let's get going,” he said as soon as Tobi was ready, stubbornly avoiding looking at him in an effort to hide the redness of his cheeks.
It was a surprisingly large place for being indoors. There was a bunny slope on one end, but it was very obviously overshadowed by the main slope, which was much taller than Vik had expected, with two levels of steepness. He was excited just looking at it.
“I dunno if I can do this, Vik,” Tobi said. “I haven't been skiing in ages, and this hill is kinda steep.”
“Sure you can,” Vik said cheerfully. “Remember SpongeBob?”
He tipped his toes inward to point his skis together. “Pizza.” Then he turned his feet outward to click the backs of his skis together. “French Fries.”
Tobi burst out laughing. “Shut up, I can't believe you just had that ready to go.”
“It's easy to remember,” Vik defended. “And like, it's not wrong. Point your skis together to go faster, turn them out if you need to slow down. Don't go too slow down the slope or you'll sink. Also it's less fun that way.”
Tobi still looked unsure. “You wanna warm up on the short slope?” He asked. Tobi nodded, and Vik gestured toward the bunny slope.
Tobi still seemed nervous as they rode the much smaller lift up to the top of the little slope. Vik offered him a smile. “It's gonna be fun, yeah? Watch.”
He pushed off with his poles and skied easily down the slope, unable to go as fast as he liked because of the short length. He was hoping it was enough to show Tobi that everything would be fine.
Tobi didn't start to follow him until Vik had gotten to the bottom of the hill and turned around. He went much slower than Vik had, clearly unsteady and nervous on the skis. He seemed to pick up a bit of confidence toward the end of the slope, and he almost slid right past where Vik stood at the bottom.
“That was great!” Vik said cheerfully. “Try going faster this time. I'll wait here at the bottom,” he added. “Ski down to me. You'll do fine.”
“Kinda like the tables have turned, y'know,” Tobi said with a chuckle. Vik cocked his head in confusion, and Tobi clarified “y'know, first football, now this.”
Vik laughed. “You are not nearly as hopeless at this as I am at football, though.”
“Sorry, who scored us a massive goal in the match?” Tobi teased.
“Josh,” Vik replied with a smirk.
Tobi rolled his eyes. “You just gotta be difficult,” he said, though he was laughing as he did. He turned around and grabbed one of the handles to head back up, and despite all his talk, this time he moved down the hill a bit faster and a bit more confidently. Vik felt weirdly proud.
“Ready to try the real deal?” He asked.
“I guess so,” Tobi said.
But Vik could feel that Tobi was nervous when they got up to the top. He wasn't quite used to a nervous Tobi. It was almost cute. (Where the fuck had that thought come from?)
“Want me to go first?” He asked. Tobi shrugged. “Yeah, sure,” he said semi-casually.
Vik chuckled, and queued up at the steep slope. If Tobi saw him do fine down this one, surely his nerves would go away.
He was laughing as he started down the slope. He hadn't been skiing in ages, and it was easy to forget the rush of adrenaline and how good it made him feel to go fast.
He probably should have slowed down a little bit. But he couldn’t resist the feeling of zipping down that steep slope as fast as he could. And, maybe he wanted to show off a little for Tobi. Feel like the competent one, for a change.
He felt one of his skis slide, and he started to wobble.
That wasn't good.
He leaned toward his right, and his skis slid out from under him, dropping him embarrassingly on his ass. So much for looking cool. At least, since his ski accident, he'd learned how to fall in a more controlled way so that he didn't get hurt.
He turned around so that he could signal to Tobi that he was fine, feeling a bit guilty that his attempt at making the slope look fun had ended so abruptly. But he didn't see the shape of Tobi's ski wear at the top of the hill anymore.
When he looked around, he realized Tobi was hurtling down the hill toward him.
He skidded when he got close, nearly falling himself, but making his way clumsily over to Vik. “Vik,” he said, his voice almost panicked. “Are you alright?”
“It's okay, Tobi, I'm fine, I-”
Tobi interrupted him with a kiss, hard and long and desperate. Vik froze. He had to be imagining it. Maybe he'd hit his head. Maybe he was more hurt than he thought.
He kissed back, leaning up against Tobi, breathless and aching.
Fuck. He really did feel a way about him.
“Shit, Vik,” Tobi breathed when he pulled away. “You could have got hurt.”
“I-I'm fine,” he sputtered, trying to regain control of his brain. “I swear. It looked a lot worse than it felt, I promise.” He let Tobi pull him to his feet, and then was pulled directly into a tight hug. He could feel Tobi's heart pounding against him.
“Sorry, I got carried away trying to look cool,” he said with a chuckle.
“Don't scare me like that, yeah?”
“Sorry,” Vik said again.
It took only a moment of silence before Vik asked “did that really just happen?”
“You fell? Yes.”
“No,” Vik rolled his eyes. “I mean. Did you- did we just…”
Tobi kissed him again. This one was shorter, softer. Vik didn't want to pull away when Tobi did.
“Yes,” he said.
Fuck.
Someone zipped narrowly by them, bringing Vik crashing back to reality. “Come on,” he said, grabbing Tobi's arm. “We're in the way, we have to go to the bottom.”
Tobi just nodded at him, and followed behind him seemingly without a second thought. Vik went a little bit slower this time. Just a little bit.
When they reached the bottom, it was Vik's turn to kiss Tobi, and Tobi's turn to kiss him back. And then kiss him. And kiss him. And kiss him.
“Is this real?” Vik asked when he pulled away. “Do you really-”
“Since forever,” Tobi said before he could even finish the question. “You?”
“About the same.”
They kissed again like they were starved for each other. In a way, they were.
“Get a room,” someone scoffed at them.
Tobi laughed a breathy, adrenaline-laced laugh, and replied “Thanks, mate, we've got one.” He wrapped an arm around Vik's shoulders as if to prove some kind of point.
Vik laughed at that. They weren’t going to have to change their hotel room after all, he supposed.
“Y'know,” Vik said, still chuckling to himself, “You came down that slope pretty naturally for someone who doesn’t ski.”
Tobi flushed red underneath his goggles. “Well, y'know, I had a good teacher.”
Vik found himself laughing even more at that. “Good enough that you want to go again?” He asked.
Tobi nodded. “But only if you don't fall this time. I don't want you all banged up for later.”
Vik quirked an eyebrow at him that he knew Tobi couldn’t see under his goggles. “What's later?” He asked.
Tobi smirked. “You'll see.”
Vik couldn’t wait.