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When Victor’s publicist had suggested doing this American TV show to boost the interest in him in the US while he was there doing ice shows in the off season, Victor had not expected to be going through men’s bedrooms. Victor had seen plenty of American movies, but he had not suspected something so strange as a dating show where one were to pick the one they wanted to go on a date with based on the contents of their living space. Perhaps he should have suspected it, since it was called Room Raiders.
Victor put on a brave face, even as he had stepped into the first room, left more untidy than he had ever left his own room, even as a teenager. He had a dog, tidiness was crucial. Seriously, this was a grown man’s bedroom. Could he not bother to put away days worth of dishes? What was he, straight?
As if the dishes weren’t bad enough, there was laundry everywhere, clean, dirty, who knew? It seemed to all be a mess scattered on the floor. He almost had to wade through it to look around. Victor didn’t like throwing rank, but he had two olympic gold medals. He was really better than this.
The second room had at least been clean, but as Victor stepped in he wondered who could live in a space with such atrocious coloring. Neon green and yellow? No. Absolutely not. Victor had no high hopes the coming date would lead to anything lasting, he lived on the other side of the atlantic after all, but he could in no way see himself be brought back to a bedroom like this and be set in any type of sexy mood. God, his complexion must look awful just standing here. He couldn’t imagine wanting to do anything physical at all, staring at the color of these walls.
“Okay, we’re heading to the final bedroom now,” the producer said, popping her chewing gum as they sat back in the car. Victor smiled, strained, pleasant. “It’s in a college dorm at Wayne State, so you might get recognized.”
“Great,” Victor said, thinking about how he could make the promised date as short as possible. “How long until we get there?”
“Just a few minutes,” the producer said, and then she popped her gum again. Victor had never longed more to be anywhere else than in this moment. Yakov’s killer practices were nothing compared to this.
Victor was swiftly moved into the old dorm buildinging, and led up several flights of stairs, before the door to the dorm was opened by one of the crew members. It was a tidy place, seeming to be a joined area of kitchenette, a couch and a sofa. It was clean, with just two cups of tea in the sink. It looked lived in, but not dirty, and Victor said as much, the camera pointed at him.
“His room is the one on the left,” the cameraman said, and Victor took a deep breath, plastered on one of his camera-smiles, and pushed the door open, and then promptly froze.
“Oh my god.”
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“Oh my god,” Yuuri groaned, covering his face with his hands in favour of watching Victor's shocked face as he took in the countless posters of him on Yuuri’s walls.
“Dude,” Chad said next to him, still shirtless, still smelling like sweat, still obnoxious. Sitting next to him in this van had been one of the most horrifying experiences in Yuuri’s life, and it still didn’t come close to seeing Victor look with gaping mouth and wide eyes at Yuuri’s collection of official and fan merch of the man he had idolized since he was a child. Phichit was a dead man for signing Yuuri up for this.
“There were bugs living in your room Chad, you really can’t judge,” Jude said, and Yuuri couldn’t look at them, too occupied with looking through his fingers at Victor pointing out which season he had shot which poster.
“This is- I’ve never seen a collection like this,” he said, tapping his finger to his lips in contemplation. “It’s very flattering.” He moved on from the contents of the walls, stepping over to Yuuri’s closet. He pulled out a few sweaters, roasting Yuuri’s fashion sense, and then found his bag, eyes growing even wider. “Oh, he’s a skater?” Victor commented, and Yuuri wanted to crawl out of his skin from embarrassment. He might have been a skater before, but after this he was never going to compete again. He was moving home to hide, so he never had to be confronted with this again.
Victor reached for one of Yuuri’s garment bags next, opening the zipper, and then his eyes grew even wider, turning to look into the camera with a gleam in his eyes. “I know who’s room this is,” he said, and Yuuri felt as if all the blood in his body drained, leaving him cold with dread. “It’s Yuuri Katsuki’s.”
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“I choose room number three,” Victor said with a grin, looking straight at Yuuri Katsuki who looked like he was about to pass out.
“ What!?” the man in question shrieked, brown eyes wide from behind his blue framed glasses. His face was stained red, his lips parted, and Victor had to punch down his own squeal, because however horrible this day har started, it was ending on a very, very high note - at least as long as Yuuri said yes.
“Yes, it was quite the easy choice,” Victor said with a smile. “We clearly have a lot in common, with skating and being athletes, as well as having extensive collections of each other’s merch. I must admit I’m jealous though. There’s so much more of me, I really can’t get that quantity. Not fair,” Victor pouted then, just a little, and Yuuri went very, very still.
“ What!?” he asked, again, and Victor took a step forward, cupping his cheek. Yuuri blinked up at him with his big brown eyes. God he was so pretty. How could anyone not have a crush on him?
“Would you let me treat you to dinner Yuuri?” he asked, blinking slowly, keeping Yuuri’s gaze. “And then afterwards, I would be honored if you signed one of my posters.”
Yuuri let out a whimper, and for a moment Victor wondered if he was going to faint. Then, Yuuri let out a long breath before he reached up to take Victor’s hand, lacing their fingers together.
Victor’s heart skipped a beat.
“Okay, dinner,” Yuuri agreed, squeezing his hand. “I know a good place that serves Katsudon.”
Victor had never heard that word before in his life, but Yuuri was looking at him with burning determination, and oh it was making his entire body fill with warmth. He was pretty sure he was blushing now too.
“Sounds perfect.”