Chapter Text
Title: The Beast’s Dying Rose
Summary: Michele is getting used to Emil’s presence might be enough to consider his friend while Emil is dealing his feelings for Michele. A tale of Beast that has yet to learn true love might change his mind.
Rating: T
Summary: Michele is getting used to Emil’s presence might be enough to consider his friend while Emil is dealing his feelings for Michele. A tale of Beast that has yet to learn true love might change his mind.
Rating: T
Emil’s POV
The first time I saw him skate when I was ten years old. I remember his brunette hair, his violet eyes and the light reflecting from his costume as he glides on the ice. Such graceful movements and his gentle smile were enough to send me chills of my spine. From the jumps, transitions, and spins. Someday, I want to skate with him.
That is how I got into figure skating because of him
---
Barcelona Spain after the Grand Prix Final Short Program
After the short program, Like Emil promised him, Mickey and Sara are going to a bar. The bar was packed with people. People are dancing to the music, drinking themselves silly and waiting when the night will take them. Michele noticed that he saw Yuuri’s former coach but now Phichit’s current coach is having drinks with two ladies down at the bar.
Sara’s phone ring and she had to go because she has a girl’s night out with Mila and has to go. Despite his brother’s protest. Emil’s looks at the sulking Italian who was depressed that so much for spending with his sister I guess.
“Common cheer up, Mickey,” Emil petting Mickey’s back. “Sara can take of herself and besides Mila is there so you don’t have to worry about guys hitting on her.” Emil’s words did make a point. He proved it in the Rostelecom Cup in his free skate that he is willing to let her go. Maybe he should at least try to have some fun.
“You’re right Emil, sorry about-”
“No problem Mickey! Let yourself loose from time to time,” Emil slings his arm around Mickey which he usually finds it annoying but after looking at Emil for a bit. He couldn’t help but smile a bit. His cheerful demeanor is kind of cute.
Both men had their fair share of drinks, they were flirted by some ladies and some men and let themselves loose. Well, a little too loose.
After a couple of drinks later, Emil got drunk and was left dragging his drunk ass back to the hotel. Thank god the staff didn’t ask him about the guess otherwise it would be really embarrassing. Upon entering Emil’s room and setting him on the bed.
The Italian felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. It was a message from Sara saying that she is hanging out in Mila’s room. He is relieved to know at least she is safe. When he is leaving the room, he was held with one hand. Michele looks back to find Emil was holding his hand. How is still he awake?
Emil stirs a bit as he opens an eyelid, “Stay with me,” He murmurs as he tightens his grip on Michele’s arm.
“Emil! Let go!” Michele struggles as he uses his hand to remove Emil’s hand off of him. The Czech man is getting impatient as he tugs Michele forward to the bed. He laced his arms around Mickey’s neck and torso.
Mickey was in the bed with Emil. Good thing the mattress was a king sized or they could fall off the bed. “Emil! What are you-” Mickey flabbergasted struggling to get himself free from Emil’s grip.
Emil stuff his face on Michele’s back which made the Italian flinch, “You smell nice…” His nose was tickled with the smell of roses and vanilla.
Michele couldn’t help but blush at the comment, “Well, you smell like alcohol.” Michele countered which made Emil turn him over as their faces are facing each other.
“I went a bit overboard okay? I don’t get drunk too often.” Emil pouts childishly which Michele finds it kind of cute even despite the alcohol breath.
The room was silent which made the two men a bit awkward. Michele didn’t struggle anymore since there was no need for it. Since the bed was comfy, he decided to stay and keep Emil company until he sobers up.
Emil can feel a bit sober and laid down on a soft bed is such a nice feeling.
“Michele, why are you so angry all the time?” Emil asks innocently.
Mickey felt a vein pop from his question, “I’m not…” He paused for a bit and realized something about himself. Whenever he is around with Sara, he goes protective with her. But without Sara around, he is not sure how to feel. Anger slowly dissipates off of him as he took a deep breath and starts talking. “I…don’t really know,” The answer made Emil raised an eyebrow in question. “I’m used to having Sara around me that every time a guy approaches her, I got all protective of her. But now, I don’t know what to feel.”
Emil realizes that Michele is reaching new emotions that he never thought he would reach. “Do you have any friends back home?”
“Mostly enemies. But most of them are guys so…” Michele shrugs it off as if it was nothing.
“If you want, I could be your friend,” Emil offers his friendship to Michele. Just as Michele was about to speak he reaches a hand in front of him, “FYI, I’m not interested in your sister. She is like a sister I never had and I have a crush on someone else,”
A part of Michele is relief that Emil is no longer a threat to his sister, but his curiosity peak when Emil said he had a crush on someone else, “Heh… I never thought you were liking someone before who was it?”
Emil froze when Michele asked about who his crush was. But with good timing, he felt his stomach churned, Emil covered his mouth, jumps out of the bed as he races to the bathroom and throws up on the toilet. Guess that was a good excuse to dodge the question. He flushed the toilet and washed his face a bit. Emil was panting a bit as he felt his heart racing.
‘He must never know,’ He clutches his heart as he can’t help but remember Michele’s scent. The smell was enough to drive him crazy. His thoughts were interrupted when Michele knock on the door.
“Emil, you alright in there?” Michele asked worriedly about his “friend”.
“I’m fine, Michele don’t worry.” Emil grits as he felt getting hard on his pants. He began removing his pants and boxers seeing a hard member and began stroking himself. He had to hold back the moans not wanting to arouse suspicions.
“You sure?”
“Should you get going now? The women’s short program is tomorrow right?”
“Shit!” Michele reaches for his phone electronically reads ‘11:00’ “Thanks for reminding me, I’ll see you at the men’s free?”
Emil was gasping in breaths, “Sure,”
“See you then,” Emil heard the door clicked and the footsteps fading. He let out a loud moan as he spilled himself all over his abdomen. Taking deep breathes he look over his hand that was stained with white fluid. He felt ashamed as he grabs some tissue paper near him and began cleaning himself.
‘I have to control myself,’
---
The next day the men’s free skate. It was one surprise after another; JJ landed his first quadruple loop, Phichit beats his personal best, Yuuri did his first quad flip and broke Nikiforov’s world record for the free skate ever; which everyone gave him a standing ovation for him even made Michele shed a tear on how perfect was his free was, Christophe also had a standing ovation for determination from a single jump into a combination jump, Otabek’s free skate was flawless enough to earn a new personal best, Yuri added a quad jump like Yuuri did and jumps with an arm and both arms raised and to his surprise; Nikiforov is coming back mid-season. Meaning getting that gold medal will be harder than ever. The night after the Grand Prix Final all of them decided to celebrate. Mila and Sara were gonna go clubbing although he was against clubbing, Emil dragged him along with them.
While all of them were having fun, Sara notice Mila was staring at something. She saw her rinkmate being kicked out by the bouncer. They saw Yuri sulking and began spilling his beans for trying to sneak in the club. Apparently, Yuri found out that Otabek was the DJ in a club wanting to go, but the Kazakhstani ditched him he wanted to follow his friend inside but the bouncer kick him out because he was too young to enter.
“I don’t think Barceloneta’s the kind of club you’d find him, it’s more for the hardcore clubbers,” Sara pointed out, Sara puts a hand on Yuri’s head to calm him down.
“We didn’t see him inside,” Mila added that made Yuri angry and but a bit sad at the same time. “Why not just call him? You’re friends aren’t you?”
Only to find Yuri replied, “He is not picking up,”
He was sulking on the ground despite Mila’s invitation to come hang out with them which he declined sharply.
“Don’t you have an exhibition tomorrow? Snot-nosed brats like you should be in bed!” Michele angrily said at the fifteen-year-old.
“Shut up!”
Sara points out why a Grand Prix Final gold medalist acting like a stray cat instead of finding his friend. She also points out not to be rude to his brother nor his friends. Her twin blushed to see that Sara is defending her. She points out that there is a pool, Emil then lifts Yuri for him to see, despite the younger teenager protest to put him down.
Mila suggests that he should give him some space, he was frustrated when his friend beat him at GPF. He probably wants to blow off some steam. But Yuri insisted that he must find him. If he is pissed about losing then he should just say it in his face, not hoarding it in.
“And if I can’t find him, I won’t skate in the exhibition!” Yuri glared at the group with such seriousness.
All of them were taken back by his response and receive different responses. Mila said that is that a way for them to get them to help him find Otabek, Michele was taken back with such threat, Emil compared Yuri’s feisty attitude to a naughty kitten, and Sara is looking at her phone saying that it will be a problem if they didn’t return to the hotel in time.
In the end, the group concede and help the kitten find Otabek. Emil suggests that Leo must know something since Otabek was in Skate America with him. Mila then points at Yuri that he must call them himself and they’ll give Yuri the other skater’s numbers. All of them began exchanging numbers and give their contacts to Yuri. Michele looks at his contacts, he only has Emil’s number and his sister’s. Well, since he was there, he manages to have all the other skater’s contacts. In the end, they manage to help him find Otabek.
They stick around for the exhibition gala and there were constant surprises after another. After JJ’s exhibition was done, Yuuri’s exhibition was Victor’s free skate from the last year’s skating season that turned into a pair skate with Victor. The audience was completely at awe and waving of applauses, fangirl’s screaming, some ladies were crying in happiness; Sara included and Yuri’s exhibition was a big surprise overall, not to mention Otabek was part of it too, turns out that the music Yuri used was his music. The big surprise was when Yuri sticks his finger into Otabek’s mouth, took off the glove with his teeth and does a glide on ice, and the finale when he points Yuri with a finger gun and pretends to shot him ending in lying down on the ice. It may be on par with Yuuri and Victor’s performance.
In summary; in the Grand Prix Final: Yuri won gold, Yuuri won silver and JJ won bronze.
---
After the Grand Prix Final was over, the skaters were given a few days off before going back to their respective countries. Michele decided to go site seeing with Emil. The Czech man was surprised at first but decided to go along with it. Both men were looking over historical sights, trying out some local food and bought some souvenirs for their families.
Both men ended the day with shopping bags in their hands. Although, Michele looks at Emil’s shopping bag was filled with some rope, harnesses and some chains. “What’s in the bag?” He points at Emil’s bag
Emil looks at his bag, “Ah, These. It’s my hobby,”
“Hobby?”
“You see, I actually do extreme sports off season, like rock climbing, snowboarding, sometimes skiing,” Emil told his activities he does during offseason, which made Michele slightly worried. Doing extreme sports offseason? Wouldn’t that risk an injury? “But coach says I should do it only if my rinkmate is with me. Wouldn’t want to risk giving him a heart attack,”
“Clearly,”
Both men laughed a bit as both arrived at the hotel. Emil looks at Michele, “You competing for Four Continents and the Worlds?”
“Just the Worlds there is the European Nationals, You?” Michele nods
“Of course, I still yet to land my free skate cleanly,”
Michele recalled his free skate, “Oh right, you have four quads in your free right? Looks like you’re almost on par with JJ and Yuuri,”
“True, but I don’t have the stamina like Yuuri has and landing four quads don’t matter if you can land them but I’ll have to work on that,” Emil speaks the truth that even with four quads in a program, it would be meaningless if he can’t land all his jumps cleanly.
“At least, you have like three quads, I only have a quad salchow in my quad belt,” Michele says in tired tone if he wants to keep up with the competitors, he needs at least one or two quads. But…
Emil places a hand on Michele’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, even with a quad or two, if you can rack up with the component score you might be able to rack up some score,” Emil made an effort to sound reassuring but Michele raise an eyebrow wondering how would that work, “or so Victor tells a lot,” Emil scratches behind his back embarrassed by that statement.
“I see, I’ll keep that it mind.” Michele makes a note on the component score. Both men walked to the elevator and let the silence do its thing.
Even two quads are enough huh? Michele thought about what Emil said about the component scores. Considering on how the line of figure skating is relying more on the technical score to the point that they're forgetting the component score.
The elevator dinged as both men stepped out of the elevator to their floor, the thing is Michele’s room is to the left while Emil’s is to the right. Michele offered his hand to Emil, making him wonder.
“I’ll see you at the Worlds,” Michele said in confidence with a smile. Even though their friends, they are also rivals.
Emil smiled offering him his determined look, returning him with a firm handshake, “Back at you,”
The moment both men let go of their hands, they retreated to their rooms. Once Emil was in his room, he sets the paper bag down and sat on the bed. Emil stared at the hand he use to shake hand with. He places his hand on his face and inhaled deeply.
Emil can still remember Michele’s scent. Roses and Vanilla.
He remembers his smile when he offers a handshake.
Why is it so hard?