Spice [NaNoWriMo 2023 Winner]

Pirouette

The next morning had both Chris and Victor out of bed and barely awake enough to even consider breakfast, but Victor was determined to not keep Yuuri waiting anymore. They dressed casually and fell out of the door in a mess of barely awake toddles.

"Why must we drink every time we see each other?" Victor muttered as they collapsed into a taxi and Chris spoke to the driver.

"Because why not?" Chris asked with a giggle, the two of them resting against the seats in silence, the promise of coffee and food was enough to keep them awake.

They managed to get to the café without trouble and Victor gave a squeal as Yuuri waved at them from inside. Two women were with him, one with thick two tones hair piled up in a hairband and a slender brunette with a stern face. Both brightened exponentially when the two of them approached, matching brown eyes filled with girlish excitement when they walked in.

"Sorry in advance?" Victor snickered as Chris put on his charm. He didn't mind his fans and while both women made a sound that Victor was sure Makkachin could hear from back at the hotel, they were incredibly polite. Yuuri stood up and greeted Victor with a tight hug, the two of them smiling and finding a seat side by side, leaving Chris to sit between Minako and Mari in the booth.

"So you are the man my best friend has been bragging about," Chris started, giving a yelp when Victor kicked his shins, "I need those!"

"Then stop it," Victor hissed, pouting when Mari laughed,

"Yuuri brags too, don't worry about it," She said and tucked her own legs under the booth chairs to dodge Chris's fate. Victor beamed at Yuuri's flushed face and the group settled into conversation. Chris casually signed a small picture of himself that both Minako and Mari brought, and told Minako to meet him on the boards for the gift she had for him. He would make a show of it for her and she practically vibrated out of her seat.

"So, I wanted to apologize for the interrogation, Roswell has been stalking Yuuri and some of the other top designers, I think she's finally realized she's out of style," Mari drawled with a sigh, "I didn't mean to be so crude."

"Don't mention it, as soon as Yuuri told me what was happening, I went right to Lilia and Yakov," Victor explained, "I don't know what she's planning, but she can't spread rumors if nothing is a lie."

"Who's this Roswell person?" Chris asked, startled when Victor barked a laugh,

"I'm sorry, Chris is all about fashion and high end clothes, so the fact that he doesn't know Roswell is funny," Victor snorted. "She's a designer too, like Yuuri, but her designs are bland and very...cookie cutter...she has very straight lines and Lilia said she's conservative with her outfits and it shows...badly. All her models looked starved."

"They probably were," Minako said, "She follows the fashion, not the trends, so she's known for ripping off everyone she comes in contact with. She tried to rip off Yuuri's colour palette last year, she tried to take Pitchit's Thai inspired designs a few months ago and last month she attempted to go after Mitchel's entire line."

"Oh, so she's gotten worse," Yuuri muttered, "You can explain away a colour palette as inspiration, but an entire cultural design and a full line of copy pasted clothes, that's just bad."

"Exactly," Mari said, "She's old and desperate so everyone is just going to let her burn herself down."

"Really, how?" Chris asked,

"By letting her copy us, she will either have a bad copy of an original design or people will notice the theft and she will be thrown out," Yuuri said with a shrug. "People get inspired by each other all the time in my industry, it's no secret about that. The issue is when you flat out take something and claim it as your own. Pitchit and I have bounced ideas off each other for years but we have always, always credited it."