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Oikawa finished his short program routine with a flourish, if they had timed it right his allotted rink time should be just about up. As he skated off to the bench he saw the next skater glide off to start their own practice. He plopped down on the bench, rifling through his bag for his phone before he even started to loosen the laces of his skates.
His coach Nadia gave him an unimpressed look: “Notes, Tooru.”
“Just let me check the score. Two seconds!”
She rolled her eyes but let is slide.
He checked the top of the page first – just the score and the current time left in the period: they were leading one to zero with three minutes left in the first period. Good. Then he scrolled down to let the streaming video kick in. His excellent timing was rewarded – Iwa-chan was off the bench and bee-lining to the Sharks zone just in time to catch the puck off a D-man's stick and flick it over to their captain who buried it in the net as the home crowd went crazy.
“Crosby with a beautiful goal, padding the Pens lead with just two left in the first period! That'll be an assist for Iwaizumi – the rookie's third assist in the playoffs so far.”
“Yes!” He allowed himself a moment of celebration before locking his phone and heading over to Nadia. Iwa-chan was doing his job, time for Oikawa to get back to work.
He can't remember whose idea it was to take them ice skating in the first place. Ice rinks were not very common in Japan but they just happened to live near the biggest one in Miyagi. They were quite young the first time but Oikawa remembers it clearly. The ice was so wide and scary until the first moment he got his feet under him and glided properly for five or six whole feet before losing his balance again. But Oikawa was hooked immediately – it felt like flying. When they left that day his first thought had been: again!
Iwa-chan had been a little less enthusiastic at first but gamely followed Oikawa into his new obsession. Luckily for them they both seemed to have a lot of natural skill. Throw in their competitiveness and they were off. Oikawa had known early on that he wanted to be a figure skater, Iwa-chan loyally accompanied him to classes for a few months but he was more interested in seeing how fast he could go. In their first year of lessons, the rink schedule changed and youth hockey practice was moved to the time slot right after theirs. Oikawa couldn't possibly have missed the way Iwa-chan lit up the first time he saw the team take to the rink for scrimmage.
For a while Iwa-chan kept up their shared lessons along with hockey practice but it quickly became clear that he had the chance to be good enough that he needed to focus only on hockey. Oikawa had been a little sad but they could still go to the rink together for practice and go home together after. He definitely thinks Iwa-chan's years of figure skating have improved his game, he's a more nimble skater than many in the league. Oikawa knew he had it a little easier than Iwa-chan. Professional figure skating was a much more established road in Japan than hockey. But he knew Iwa-chan was made to play with the best.
There were so many moments that led them here. Iwa-chan moving to the States to play Junior hockey, his first international competition, Iwa-chan's NHL draft, his first medal. They were both based in the US now – they shared a house in Pittsburgh when they weren't on the road. Their practice and competition schedules overlapped just enough to keep Oikawa from missing Iwa-chan too much, and as Iwa-chan pointed out frequently, he could still annoy him over Skype with the added bonus that Iwa-chan couldn't smack him for it.
Oikawa went through technical notes with his coach and tightened his skates to go back out for open rink practice. He had finally mastered that tricky quad axel into the triple toe loop combo but there was no such thing as too much practice.
He smiled fondly as he squeezed the plush penguin charm Iwa-chan had snuck on his bag last week for luck, emblazoned with Iwaizumi's number 4 and sporting his trademark spiky hair. He would medal at the Worlds and Iwa-chan (and the rest of the Penguins too he supposed) would win the Stanley cup and they would be the best. Just like they planned.