Hello, everyone! Wow, it has been a LONG time since I've visited this AU. You may or may not know, I've been working my tail off on another YOI AU called "Cured" (which I highly suggest you read, it's way better than this piece of trash). But, I've had the worst writer's block, and I feel like I'm not going the the direction I wanted to, and it doesn't seem as serious as it would be if this happened in reality. So, I wanted to get away from it all, and that's when I remembered this was still lingering here.

**NOTICE: I can tell you now, this AU won't have much priority to get done as "Cured". I'll update when I'm stuck on "Cured". Also, my writing style has been deteriorating recently, and I have no idea why. Please forgive this trash bag.

If you're looking to critique a work that is worth the trouble to try and improve, I guarantee this is not the place. I just find this idea fun to try and bring to life. If you do actually want to critique my writing style and such, check out my other stories such as 'I'm Begging You' and once again '"Cured"'

Thank you for reading this!

-Mina

Usually, most college students find that going grocery shopping is not their cup of tea. They cram their dorm rooms with instant ramen and bottles of water, and hope to live through their cramming on just that. Yuuri Katsuki, however, finds shopping for food peaceful. The grocery store he goes to is relatively close to his parents' inn in Hasetsu, and not many people lurk there in the morning. It's a safe place to go to to be let alone with his thoughts, if the skating rink or ballet studio weren't available.

Yuuri sweeps over the canned foods aisle, not even bothering to pick something up from there. Yuuri's childhood friend Yuuko had coaxed him into either buying or making something nice for Kubo-sensei for when he arrives to the studio at noon ever since he told her about the email. The only problem Yuuri has is that he has no idea what kind of things she likes. He could go for the box of various cupcakes in the back, but he didn't want to take his chances. What if she's a foodie that's very particular about where the food came from and what the ingredients are? What if she has a whole bunch of allergies? What if she's on a diet? He'd never met Kubo-sensei before, and wouldn't know any of these things.

Suddenly, his eyes catch something bright somewhere in the next aisle, so Yuuri quickly makes his way over there to see what it was. His eyes sweeping over the general area, he finds the item, and lifts it from the shelf to inspect it. It was a bouquet of roses, but not normal roses. The bright color he had seen was the bright red ribbon around the plastic wrap, while inside there were about eight chocolate roses. Hoping Kubo-sensei wasn't lactose intolerant, Yuuri takes the bouquet with him to the self checkout.

After leaving the store, Yuuri pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket and checks the time. It's just hit 11:03, giving him plenty of time to make it to the recording studio by noon. Cradling the chocolate roses to his chest, Yuuri dashes out across the street before the light can change. According to his quick search before coming to the store, the studio is only a mile or so towards the heart of Hasetsu. The idea that she located here just for him pops up, but the young man quickly dismisses it. It was probably cheaper than one in Shinjuku and went with the lesser price, like anyone would.

"Yuu~ri~!"

Out of nowhere, Yuuri is nearly tackled to the ground, thank whatever god exists that put the stop sign right where it was for the poor man to grab onto. A heavy weight jumps up and wraps itself around his waist and shoulders- a forced piggy back ride. Only one person Yuuri knew would ever do such a thing.

"P-Phichit?" Yuuri fixes the glasses that slid halfway off of his face, and tilts his head upwards to be met with a bright smile, and a noogy to the crown of his head, followed by an obnoxiously excited peace sign.

"The one and only~!" The Thai man sings, finally hopping off of Yuuri's back. Phichit pulls him closer to the building beside him to give the pedestrians passing way through, then holds his friend out at an arm's length and does a sweep from head to toe. "Wow, Yuuri, you weren't lying when you said you gain weight easily! Not that you don't look good, you're still sweet enough to eat!"

Yuuri hurriedly slaps a hand over his friends mouth, his cheeks blazing from embarrassment. "I just... Haven't gotten the chance to get out much, okay? Putting that aside, you were also called here by Kubo-sensei for the voice acting thing, right?"

Phichit's head bobs up and down in excitement. "Yup! I'm so stoked for it! I think every kid has a phase where they aspire to be a voice actor, but I'd never thought it'd come true for me! And for an anime about ice skating?! I've been on cloud nine ever since I read her email!"

As Phichit continues to babble on about his adventures back in Thailand with his family, Yuuri pulls him back onto the sidewalk, and the two head towards the recording studio side by side. Yuuri mostly just nods and give short responses and the occasional "Oh really?" to keep him distracted, while with every step closer they take towards where Yuuri knows the studio is, he feels his chest clamp up, and nervous questions run rampantly through his mind faster than he can comprehend them.

What if I screw this up? If I don't make a good first impression, I can be easily dropped for another skater, or an actual professional voice actor. Even if I were to be qualified to be the main character's voice, what about the other skaters? They are all active, professional competitive figure skaters, compared to me who's considering the beginning stages of retirement. One ill word about me from one of them, and I'm booted out the door in an instant with an apology note.

Yuuri finds himself mentally sighing at myself. I can't go in there with this sort of mentality.

"So Yuuri~ You man-eater, who're the roses for?"

The man in question can't help but sputter as soon as he hears the question leave his lips. Yuuri coughs for air, and Phichit hits his fist to Yuuri's chest to help his best friend breathe. Once he gets oxygen safely into his lungs, Yuuri whips his gaze over to the culprit.

"T-These are just for Kubo-sensei! Just... to thank her for choosing me out of all the other skaters there are in the world to voice one of her very special characters. It means a lot to me, to even be considered, even if I end up getting dropped in the end."

Phichit studies Yuuri's face with serious eyes for a split second, then he bellows out a hearty laugh, as if he had told him the funniest joke in the world; not that Yuuri's capable of doing that. "Silly, Yuuri! You're just too silly, and unbearably adorable!" He slaps my shoulder, unable to stifle his giggles. "She couldn't possibly drop you, Yuuri! You're far too cute!"

Yuuri rolls his eyes, knowing there was no end to this. Instead of protesting, he allows Phichit to calm himself, wiping his tears with his forearm while leaning heavily on Yuuri's right shoulder for support. Somehow, Yuuri get the both of them through the rush hour traffic and to the heart of Hasetsu, where the small recording studio is located.

"Phichit, get off of me already." Yuuri shoves his friend off his shoulder, realizing his laughter had come to a stop a while ago.

"Um... Excuse me, Mr. Katsuki? Mr. Chulanont?"

The two men, one of them still recovering from his body-wracking giggles, spin around at the formal greeting from behind them, and nearly stumble back in surprise at the figure barely a foot behind them. It's a woman who looks to be in her thirties, with a dark brown bob underneath a straw floppy hat. She adorns a navy blue cardigan on top of a flowery orange and yellow shirt, a pair of worn black jeans, and a cozy pair of green crocs.

Yuuri, recognizing the woman from her email profile picture, stutters in nervousness.

"K-Kubo-sensei?!"

Damn! This has been sitting for months with me forgetting it existed XD Like I said before, don't expect an update for a little while. I want to try and finish the next chapter of Cured ASAP, and my school work is piling more and more stress onto my shoulders.

Thanks for understanding!

Until next time, my filthy human toilets~!

Mina