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Yuuri's alarm went off at 7:30 am. He nearly pressed the snooze button, but luckily his brain worked for once and cut off the impulse before he could carry through with it. He got up, stretching and blinking wearily as the early morning sun started to steam through the window.
He groggily made his way down the hall, away from his and Viktor's bedroom and toward the bathroom.
He didn't realise that said room was very much already occupied until turning the knob failed to open the door. The sound of running water finally registered in his sleep-addled brain and he sighed in frustration.
Viktor had beaten him to the shower again.
---
Yuuri didn't mind showering second. He saw no point in putting up a fuss to be first, in rushing home after practice or in getting up before his early bird fiance.
At least that's what he thought before he realised what a terrible combination showering second, shitty water heaters, and Viktor taking 45 minute showers was.
"Viktor!" he yelled from where he was standing, just outside the freezing cold stream of water. "All the hot water is gone again!"
"Oops?" came the reply from down the hall, almost drowned out by the distance and still running shower. "Maybe the heater is broken?"
Yuuri didn't really want to shower in water that was somehow colder than the winter weather outside, but he was sweaty from practice and had no desire to remain that way for the hour or so it would no doubt take for the water to heat back up. After the most miserable bathing experience of his life, he trudged back into their bedroom, shivering the entire way.
"The water heater is working just fine," Viktor informed him.
"I know that. Somebody just used up all the hot water."
Viktor at least had the decency to look guilty. "Ah well. Get home earlier next time so you can shower first?"
---
Yuuri did get home earlier the next day. He left while Viktor was still at the rink, running through his program with Yakov, and sighed happily as he slipped under the steaming stream of water.
He could understand why Viktor spent so much time showering. It was absolute heaven when the water wasn't reaching arctic temperatures. He refrained from spending almost an hour in there, however, and stepped out 20 minutes later while the water was still running warm.
That was apparently not good enough for Viktor, who arrived home shortly after Yuuri finished getting dressed. 30 minutes or so into his own shower, a shriek echoed throughout the apartment.
"Yuuri!" he whined after he'd quickly cut his shower shorter than usual. "It was so cold! It just suddenly froze and wouldn't heat back up! How long were you in there for?"
"Less time than you usually are."
"Well it was clearly still too long."
"Says the man who spends half the evening doing who knows what in the shower."
And so the battle begun.
---
They didn't shower in the morning on training days (no point, they were just going to get sweaty immediately after), but on non-training days Viktor almost always woke up early enough to get to the shower first and use all the water that had spent the night warming up.
Some days, it wasn't really a problem for Yuuri.
"I'll just wait until it heats back up," Yuuri told him.
"But Yuuri, you said we'd go shopping today. I want to go now! I'm all ready."
Yuuri made no move to eat his kasha any faster than he already was. "You should have thought about that before you used up all the hot water."
Other days, however, it was very much a problem.
"I should have just showered last night," Yuuri mumbled to himself as his teeth chattered. He and Viktor had to be on a train to Moscow for a Skating Gala they were attending that weekend, and there just wasn't time to wait for the water to heat back up. At least they'd be in a hotel for tomorrow's shower.
---
On training days, it was a toss up as to who got home and to the hot water first. Some days, Viktor had his ice time with Yakov first and Yuuri skated when he was finished, but since Viktor was his coach they both typically got home at the same time and usually ended up doing silly things like racing home or playing rock, paper, scissors to decide who got to shower first (Yuuri was thinking about banning that last method of deciding. Viktor always cheated).
On days Yuuri skated first and Viktor had to stay after he was done, he usually got the water first, but as long as Viktor skated for at least a few hours, the water was usually warm again by the time he got to it.
Today was one of those days where they both got home at the same time.
"You got it first yesterday." They were still at the rink. They were both too tired to run home and Yuuri was not sitting through another explanation of why "ice skate" somehow managed to beat rock, paper, and scissors. "And the day before that."
"But you got it first three days in a row."
"And two of those days you didn't end up with cold water. I had to shower to freeze both days you got the shower first."
"You two do realise," Mila cut in. "That you could just shower here? There's a plethora of showers to choose from in the locker rooms."
"They're not warm enough," Viktor and Yuuri said at the same time. They'd already considered that. They both really loved a good, scalding hot shower after a long day of skating on the cold ice and would clearly have to suffer this argument/competition to get to said scalding hot shower first everyday for the rest of their lives.
Mila just shrugged. "Fine then. But just so you know, Yuuri, "volcano" beats "ice skate" every time."
"That's not even part of... whatever. Viktor, just let me shower first. It's my turn."
Viktor had somehow managed to slip out of the building while Yuuri was distracted answering Mila.
They were apparently playing dirty now.
---
"Did you seriously switch our schedules, Viktor? What the hell?"
"Ah, my bad, what a silly accident. I guess I get to go home first!"
Yuuri rolled his eyes. "You're my coach. You have to stay here."
"Oh." Viktor had clearly not considered that when he'd swapped their schedule skating times for the next two weeks. "Right."
---
"Oh, Viktor, Yakov said he needed to speak with you immediately. I'll see you at home!"
Viktor arrived home just as Yuuri was getting into the shower. The blessedly warm spray of water drowned out all Viktor's cries about how Yuuri had tricked him.
---
After a week of increasingly ridiculous attempts to distract the other and get home first (they realised maybe they had a problem when Viktor faked a phone call from Yuuri's mother and Yuuri faked a hurt ankle to try and convince Viktor he needed the hot water more), they tried to compromise and shower together.
The shower was clearly not designed to contain two people. Yuuri slipped and bruised his hip, Viktor banged his forehead trying to help Yuuri up, and they decided they'd had to find a different solution.
---
They eventually stopped being idiots and just bought a new water heater. They could always find something else to have a petty competition over if they really wanted to.