Work Text:
If asked, Yuuri would point out that the speed dating had most definitely not been his idea.
It had also not been Phichit’s idea, to be fair, but Phichit was the one who had dragged him to it and he wasn’t going to blame the poor girl who had asked Phichit to come with her so she didn’t have to go alone. So Phichit was to blame for all this nonsense.
It was the first round of the night and Yuuri was sitting across from a man wearing an Alpha Sigma Phi sweatshirt.
“Hi Yuuri,” the man (Brad, according to his nametag) said. “Didn’t think a guy like you would have to come to these sort of things. Just coming for fun?”
What.
“Um.” Yuuri was pretty sure he didn’t know this guy, but they clearly went to the same university, so it was possible that he’d met him before. “Phichit dragged me.”
Brad laughed. “That makes sense. Are you coming to the next frat party?”
“Maybe?” Phichit usually dragged Yuuri to various parties on campus. Many of them had been at frat houses. Yuuri remembered almost none of them.
“I hope you do! We always love having you.”
Yuuri was going to kill Phichit.
The timer went off. “Ah, guess I’ll see you around! The party is Saturday!” Yuuri gave Brad an awkward wave as the other man got up and left.
This was going to be a long night. Yuuri downed his glass of wine and asked for another before his next date even had a chance to come over.
---
The speed dating had absolutely been Phichit’s idea.
His and Yuuri’s friend Ketty had a friend named Tulsee who had the biggest crush on Yuuri ever. Well, not ever, since Phichit knew of at least three other people who had crushes on Yuuri. But Ketty had said she and Tulsee were going to some speed dating thing on campus for Valentine’s Day and that fact mixed with the crush fact had driven Phichit to drag Yuuri to the event as well.
It had clearly been a great idea, since there were multiple people in the room that Phichit knew liked Yuuri. It was just a matter of seeing if Yuuri would decide he liked them as well.
Phichit glanced over at Yuuri’s table, just a few down from his own, and saw him talking to one of the boys that always invited them to the frat parties. He then turned back to his own “date”.
“I’m Phichit,” he said. “But I’m sure you can read that on my nametag just fine. What do you study here?”
“Nice to meet you Phichit, I’m Viktor! I’m in the Education department, studying to be a foreign language teacher. What about you?”
“Theatre.”
“Oooh, I love theatre. My Uncle Yakov always said I should just go into that because I’m so dramatic, but I never did. Love to watch performances, though.”
Phichit laughed, but his gaze drifted back to Yuuri. He just wanted to make sure he was having a good time, after all. That was what best friends were for!
Viktor apparently noticed his gaze. “I know I still have a whole minute of this date left with you,” he started. “But who is that you’re looking at?”
“That’s my friend Yuuri.” Phichit looked back at Viktor and couldn’t help but laugh again. The slight flush on his face and the sparkle in his eye let Phichit know that yet another was about to fall victim to Yuuri’s (unknown to Yuuri himself) charms. “He’s a dance student.”
“I love dancing.”
“Just like you love theatre?”
“I actually love both those things, I’m not just saying that!”
“Well that’s good. Make sure you tell Yuuri that when you see him!”
Viktor looked like he was about to say something else, but then the timer went off. “Ah, sorry I talked about your friend for part of this? It was nice to meet you!”
Phichit didn’t mind at all. He just considered it a sort of best friend prescreening before Viktor actually got to talk to Yuuri.
---
Chris had wanted to go speed dating for his birthday and so there he was, sitting across the table from a lovely girl with bright red nail polish and a head of dark, wavy hair.
“So you’re a conservatory student? You’ll have to let me listen to your music sometime.”
Ketty fiddled with her glass of wine. “I could email you links to my YouTube channel, if you really want to hear some.”
“I’d absolutely love to, I’m always looking for good music.”
“Do you play anything?”
Chris shook his head. “I dance.”
“Oh okay. Another friend of mine is in the dance department as well. He was going to use one of my compositions for a performance, but it ended up not working out.”
Chris winked. “Maybe I’ll end up using one of your songs sometime.” Chris was laying it on a bit thick but hey, what was the point of speed dating if you didn’t overdo it a little bit?
Ketty looked like she was enjoying herself regardless, but then the timer went off and Chris had to move on to the next table, which just so happened to be occupied by somebody he already knew.
“Why Yuuri,” he exclaimed, placing a hand over his heart. “After all these years I can’t believe I’ve finally managed to get a date with you!”
---
Viktor hadn’t wanted to go speed dating, not really, but it was Chris’ birthday and he wasn’t going to say no to his friend’s request. At the very least, everyone who was in attendance seemed to be fun. The parties Chris brought Viktor to tended to be hit or miss, but this one was so far turning out to be a hit.
After his conversation with Phichit, Viktor had a lovely conversation with a fashion student named Sara, then ran into his friend Mila at the next table (he made a note to somehow get her Sara’s number, he thought those two would actually hit it off much better with one another than with him), and now he was sitting across from yet another girl.
He was also one table away from Phichit’s cute friend. He was not distracted by that in the slightest.
“You might have to fight a few people if you’re looking to get Yuuri’s number,” Ketty told him. “He’s a hot commodity around here.”
“Very hot,” Viktor found himself saying before he could really think about it.
Ketty snorted with laughter. “Good luck, though. None of us are sure if he actually doesn’t realise when people like him or if he just ignores it to be nice.”
“That’s good to know. Are you a dancer too?”
Viktor made a Very Good Effort at speaking to Ketty about herself, and not about random cute boys he’d never actually spoken to (yet), but as always, the timer went off before they could really delve into an actual conversation.
---
Yuuri hadn’t really liked the idea of speed dating at first. He wasn’t the best at talking to people he didn’t know under normal circumstances, so being on a date with them, even if it was just for three minutes, was nerve-wracking at best.
After a few (or six or eight) glasses of wine, however, Yuuri had warmed up to the idea.
After waving goodbye to Chris, Yuuri ordered another glass of wine before looking over at his next date.
His next date had very nice eyes.
“Wow, thanks,” his date said. “You have very nice eyes too.”
Sober Yuuri would have cared that he apparently had voiced that thought out loud. Drunk Yuuri didn’t mind in the slightest. “I’m Yuuri.”
“So I’ve heard. I’m Viktor.”
“Do you like to dance?” Yuuri asked. He suddenly wanted to dance. Could speed dating be speed dancing instead?
Viktor gave him a most brilliant smile and nodded. “I do like to dance. I’m sure I’m not as good as you, since I don’t study it, but I love it.”
Yuuri, feeling suddenly bold, reached a hand across the table and took Viktor’s. “We should dance sometime, then. I know all the clubs.” Yuuri was not quite drunk enough yet to not be entirely unembarrassed by the things coming out of his mouth, but also he didn’t care.
Yuuri and Viktor chatted about all of the dance clubs in the area, about all of the types of dance they both knew, about how many languages they each spoke (“Japanese, wow! You should teach me sometime, I’ve never studied that before.”)
Unfortunately, that pesky timer went off just as they were both really getting into the conversation.
Viktor made no move to get up. Chris, who was just in the table next to him as he had been all evening, clearly noticed this and motioned for him to move on to the seat he had just vacated. “I don’t want to,” Viktor told him.
Chris rolled his eyes. “If everyone who didn’t want to leave Yuuri’s table stayed there, the whole room would be crowded around it.” Yuuri had no idea what that meant, but he didn’t ask.
“I don’t mind,” Yuuri said. “Actually.” Yuuri stood up and looked around the room before waving over at someone. “Phichit! Can I be done now?”
They were clearly causing a ruckus and interrupting the flow of the event, but Phichit walked over to Yuuri anyway. “I don’t see why not. A couple other people left early too. You want to go home?”
Yuuri shook his head. “We’re going to a dance club.”
“How much wine did you have?”
Yuuri didn’t answer that. Mostly because he had no idea. “Viktor and Chris are coming with us too,” he said instead. “Let’s go.”
---
The next morning, Yuuri woke up in Phichit’s bed with a string of cyrillic and numbers written in Sharpie across his arm. Phichit (who was sitting on Yuuri’s bed, drinking a cup of coffee), just waved at him. “You’re not allowed to tell me my ideas are bad ever again,” Phichit said. “Because last night was awesome .”