Chapter Text
Yuuri wakes with a yelp when something lands on top of him and stares into the eyes of a dog. The dog, small, chocolate brown, poodle, barks happily and licks his owner in the face. Yuuri groans and smiles, throws a look at the alarm clock and groans even louder.
“Vicchan, we don’t have to be up for at least an hour. It’s only half past five” he chastises the dog as he ruffles the fur behind his ears.
“Woof!” is Vicchan’s reply. Yuuri rolls his eyes and sits up. His room is small but filled to its limits with personal belongings and random knick-knacks and he almost trips on a stuffed dog toy and a big planter with a Chinese palmetto right next to his bed. He pulls on a pair of track trousers over yesterday's underwear, grabs a long sleeved t-shirt and walks into the living room next to his room. Vicchan bounces after him with his tail wagging. He pours himself a glass of milk, grabs the leash and walks to the door. Vicchan barks loudly and Yuuri shushes him.
“C’mon, you know Phichit’s still sleeping” he whispers to the dog and hooks the leash to it’s collar. Vicchan bounces again and licks Yuuri in the face.
“Calm down, it’s just a walk” he smiles and opens the door. Vicchan sprints but comes to a halt when the leash reaches its limit. Vicchan whines as Yuuri closes the door behind them but quickly perks up when they’re moving down the stairwell, through the entry doors and onto the semi-empty street outside. The sun is shining and Vicchan leads them to the dog park. When they arrive inside the chain link fence Yuuri unhooks the dog and watches as he bursts of with a grin. Vicchan may be small, but has the energy of about five dogs and Yuuri thanks his lucky star that they live in pretty close proximity to a decent dog park where the dog can run around without the leash. He sits down at one of the benches, all empty, and watches as Vicchan chases after a pigeon. He pulls out his phone from his pocket and checks for any news but quickly turns his attention to the dog instead. The pigeon is sitting about two meters from Vicchan who stares at it curiously. Then he barks and the bird is fleeing. Vicchan whimpers and trods towards Yuuri.
“Aw, did it not want to play with you?” Yuuri asks and reaches out his hand. Vicchan bumps his palm with his nose and barks again. Yuuri looks around, spots a stick and throws it. Vicchan is off in no time and Yuuri laughs. They play fetch for about twenty minutes before Yuuri decides it’s time to head home.
~~~~~~
Well in the apartment Yuuri takes a shower and makes breakfast. As he’s eating a fried egg and some carrot sticks the door to his roommates room opens. Phichit shuffles out, rubbing his eyes.
“Morning” he yawns and enters the bathroom.
“There’s an egg for you on the stove” Yuuri calls after him and Phichit hums in response. When Phichit reemerges from the bathroom he has transformed into a different person. His skin is glowing, eyeliner on fleek and his hair looks stylishly messy. He grabs the egg from the stove and sits down next to Yuuri.
“When do you leave for work?” he asks and pulls out his phone.
“Same as usual, in about twenty minutes” Yuuri states and glances at the clock on the wall, a quarter past seven. Phichit hums in response and places his phone in front of Yuuri.
“Oh my god, look at this chinchilla!” he exclaims.
“We are not getting a chinchilla” Yuuri says.
“But…”
“No buts, we already have four hamsters, a dog and a guinea pig. We can barely fit in here as it is.”
“Yes butts, they’re the best part of a man” Phichit states and sighs. “It’s just so cuuuute” he whines. Yuuri rolls his eyes.
“I know. Now feed your rodents” he says and raises from the table. When he’s brushed his teeth and packed the lunch box into his totebag he walks over to Vicchan with his leash.
“Alright buddy, let’s go” he says.
“Borf!” Vicchan answers. Phichit waves from the kitchen.
“Sure you don’t want me dropping him off at the daycare? I heard they had a new employee” he asks and Yuuri stops in his tracks. He thinks for a moment.
“No it’s fine. This way I get to spend a little more time with him. I think he’s jealous of the shiba at work”
“Who wouldn’t be jealous of the shiba at your work though? she’s like the happiest and friendliest dog I’ve ever seen. Even I’m jealous of her” Phichit exclaims with a wink.
“No you’re not, sometimes I think she’s just a manifestation of you” Yuuri snickers and Phichit rolls his eyes.
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Now get to work or you’ll be late honey, bye!”
“See you tonight!" Yuuri calls over his shoulder and exits the tiny flat.
~~~~~~
He and Vicchan heads for the doggy daycare, Sobaka, down the street and Phichit was right, they indeed have a new employee. The guy manning the register at Sobaka who Yuuri’s never seen before has dusty blue hair that matches his eyes, a black turtleneck, long fringe tucked behind his ear and an adorable smile. Yuuri notices all this and wills away the blush that’s threatening to emerge.
“Good morning, dropping off or picking up?” the man behind the desk asks before he spots Vicchan.
“Dropping off, I have a regular reservation for him.” Yuuri explains.
“Aha, what’s your name?” the clerk asks and smiles even wider when he turns his attention to Vicchan. “You’re beautiful!” Vicchan barks in response.
“Katsuki. Yuuri Katsuki” Yuuri says and the man’s head snaps towards him.
“Yuuri huh? I have a brother named that” he hums and turns his eyes towards the computer monitor on the desk. “Katsuki, Katsuki…” he mumbles under his breath as he scrolls down. Yuuri absentmindedly pets his dog who is growing impatient being so near his dog friends and big areas to run around in, yet not being able to do so. The blue man scrolls a little bit more before he makes a noise of success.
“Here we go, Yuuri Katsuki and Vicchan, male, toy poodle of four years, no special care needed” he looks up from the monitor, looks at Yuuri.
“Is this information correct?” he asks seriously, blue eyes piercing the very core of Yuuri’s soul. Yuuri has to fight back the instinct to gulp.
“Eh, yes that is correct. Although, if he gets too excited he has a tendency to be very loud” Yuuri blurts out, combing his hair out of his eyes, fixing his glasses. The man is making him nervous with his intense staring.
“Oh that’s fine, things have a tendency to get loud here anyway. With this many dogs at the same place you know” blue man explains and grins. Yuuri gives in and gulps. Thank god it’s not audible. The guy types something on the keyboard and looks at Yuuri again.
“Alright, everything should be in order. No payment needed right now. Shall I take his leash?” he asks and gestures towards Vicchan. Yuuri looks down at his dog, who’s currently straining as far as he can reach. Yuuri squats next to him.
“You be good now, okay Vicchan?” he murmurs. Vicchan licks him in the face and yelps. Yuuri smiles and stands up, stretching the leash towards blue man.
“Here you go, thank you” he says and blue man grins.
“Pleasure’s all mine” he says with a wink and takes the leash and Yuuri’s defenses crumbles as he feels the blush spreading over his cheeks.
“I’ll just… ahem, eh… leave then…” Yuuri regurgitates and quickly retreats.
“Bye!” blue man calls after him as he exits the daycare. Outside Yuuri curses his embarrassing ass and heads to work.
~~~~~~
Yuuri works at a pet shop nearby. Though the job came as a surprise. As he was planning on majoring in biochemistry he accidentally signed up for a biology class instead and the moment he entered the classroom he was hooked. The woman in charge of the program, Minako, heard that he was struggling economically and recommended him to a friend of hers, Celestino, who owned a pet shop and now here he was. Celestino was a very kind and flexible boss and Yuuri was able to both take classes and work at the shop as much as he needed. It was also Celestino who had put him in contact with Phichit, his now roommate as well as best friend.
Yuuri is first in this morning and after he’s shrugged of his thin jacket and put his bag in the break room he starts feeding the small animals. As he puts food in the bowl of a Flemish giant rabbit he had come to refer to as Alexander Minami turns up.
“Morning” he chirps and flashes Yuuri a big grin.
“Hello Minami” Yuuri answers and pats Alexander behind his enormous ears. Minami comes over and takes the big package of rabbit food from between Yuuri’s feet.
“Everything good?” he asks and starts pouring food into the other, much smaller, rabbits' bowl.
“Yeah, woke up very early though. Vicchan’s been up at obscene hours lately” he answers with a yawn. Minami hums.
“Maybe it’s the weather or something” he states and puts the rabbit food down. Yuuri withdraws his hand from behind Alexander’s ears and closes the cage.
“Maybe. How was your date yesterday by the way?”
“Oh they were great. We went to see Beauty and the Beast and they actually cried and I got to hold their hand” MInami beams and claps in excitement. Yuuri smiles.
“And then when we were splitting up they kissed me on the cheek and asked if I’d like to meet them again tomorrow!” by this time Minami is flailing with barely contained glee and Yuuri has to move the rabbit’s food bowl away before Minami accidentally flips it over.
“That’s great, what are you gonna do tomorrow then?” he asks and starts towards the fish tanks.
“Oh I don’t know, we’re having an ongoing discussion about it. I wanted to take them to this really neat sushi-place near my place but they’re allergic to fish, I mean, they can’t even be in a building that has fish in it! can you imagine what that would be like?”
“Pure torture” Yuuri mumbles and Minami nods in agreement.
“Indeed, so I was thinking…”
~~~~~~
At the end of his shift, Yuuri is exhausted. A snake had escaped, an angry older man turned up demanding a refund for a dead fish and then Minami had accidentally blown up an egg in the microwave so they had had to close down the shop for the entire afternoon as they were cleaning and putting out the fire that had started after the microwave drew its final breath. Yuuri is now covered in dust, grime and soot and is slowly making his way towards Sobaka where he left Vicchan previously. What feels like eons ago but in actuality has only been nine hours. When he enters the daycare there’s no one around so he leans on the desk and slumps a little. He remembers that there is a call button and he presses it before he goes back to leaning. The door on the far side of the room flies open and blue man bursts out.
“Oh hi, sorry I wasn’t here when you came in” he says a little out of breath. Yuuri makes an effort not to stare at blue man’s face and ends up staring at his torso instead. Smooth, Katsuki, smooth.
“Yes, ehrm, hello… I’m here to pick up Vicchan?” he tries to sound confident but his statement comes out more like a question.
“Oh, Yuuri right? the brown toy poodle?” blue man asks with a smile Yuuri notices at the corner of his eye as he he is definitely not busying himself with focusing on the door frame behind blue man to not start blushing again.
“Yes, Yuuri with the poodle. Hehe, that rhymes” he says and winces as he thinks that no, that does in fact not rhyme. It wasn’t even funny. Blue man laughs anyway and Yuuri can’t help but look at him. Blue man is even more beautiful when he laughs he realizes.
“I’ll go get him, just wait here” blue man proclaims, tucks his fringe behind his ear and leaves. Yuuri takes a deep breath, holds it for ten seconds and slowly lets it out, just like his therapist in high school taught him. In, hold it, out slowly. He does this until blue man reappears with Vicchan in tow.
“Borf!” Vicchan exclaims and lunges towards Yuuri. Vicchan doesn’t weigh very much and he has made it into an art form to use this fact to his advantage. Yuuri catches him mid-air and cuddles the poodle.
“Hello there, miss me?” he teases and gets a sloppy and wet kiss in return.
“Woof!”
“Yes I agree, let’s go home” Yuuri babbles and looks at blue man who is beaming against them.
“Did he cause any trouble?” Yuuri asks and blue man shakes his head.
“None whatsoever. He was great, even made some new friends” he gesticulates wildly while he speaks and as he does his left sleeve rolls up a little. Yuuri manages to see the edge of an elaborate tattoo before blue man calms down and straightens his shirt.
“Will you be back tomorrow?” blue man asks and becomes very professional suddenly. Yuuri starts.
“Eh, yes, not for as long though, I just have school tomorrow” he babbles and makes a mental note of practicing shutting up when he gets home.
“Alright, see you tomorrow then, Yuuri” blue man says and winks again. Yuuri feels the traitorous blush starting to flare up and exits the shop hurriedly, calling over his shoulder.
“Yes thank you very much, bye!”
He practically runs home, Vicchan barking happily and as soon as he’s inside the apartment he unhooks Vicchan and leans against the door. Yuuri doesn’t like meeting new people, especially when they are as intense as blue man. He never knows what to do with himself and just feels awkward and stupid. Phichit isn’t home yet, so Yuuri starts preparing supper. He fries some fish and boils some rice and as he’s making the table Phichit storms in.
“Honey I’m home” he states and grabs the cutlery from Yuuri’s hands to place it onto the table.
“Hi, how was your day?” Yuuri asks and places the bowl of rice in the middle of the table.
“Long. Very long. I feel like I’d be able to sleep for a week” his roommate sighs and slumps down onto a chair. Yuuri sits down opposite him and scoops some fish onto his plate.
“Same, we had a runaway snake and a microwave fire. Oh, and I met the new guy at Sobaka”
“Cool, how was he?” Phichit asks and sticks his fork into the rice bowl. Yuuri swats at his hand and hands him a ladle instead.
“Blue” Yuuri states and Phichit’s hand stops mid air.
“Blue?” he asks perplexed.
“Blue. His hair was blue and he had blue eyes. Blue” Phichit rolls his eyes.
“Out of everything you could say. Was he cute? attractive? funny? nice? did he have a nice ass? come on, spill the beans! I asked Seung-Gil earlier and all he said was “Loud”” Phichit shakes his head and finally plops the rice down onto his plate.
“Blue” Yuuri says again, hesitantly. Phichit sighs.
“Oh well, blue it is then. What’s his name?”
“Um, I don’t know…”
“You didn’t ask for his name? come on, we’re hanging with the people at Sobaka all the time. That’ll be awkward when we show up to their afterwork”
“Just because you happen to have a crush on Seung-Gil does not mean that I have to hang at the doggy care all the time.”
“But how else will I get inside information? I don’t own a dog Yuuri” Phichit whines dramatically and clutches at his heart. Yuuri is unimpressed and proceeds to eat his dinner. Vicchan bumps his leg under the table and Yuuri looks down on him.
“No, your food is over there” he says and points towards the garish bowl Phichit had bought for the dog when they moved in together three years ago. Vicchan whines and trods over to Phichit instead, who leans down with some rice in his hand. Yuuri gives them both a disapproving look and continues to eat.