actually, what about ushioi ice dancers? decorated olympic skaters, once silver and two-time gold. ushijima is in love, but more than anything oikawa has this dream and he wants him to achieve that, and wants to achieve it with him. nothing beats the exhilaration of storytelling

on the ice. nothing beats him and oikawa getting into character and acting so believably intimate and in love that sometimes ushijima trips over himself in practice before he blinks and remembers otherwise. but this is his passion too, so he returns the lovesick look with as much

fervor, hoping just a little bit oikawa might see it’s real. and if he doesn’t, that’s okay. the crowds love them, the judges love them, and on the rink they are practically wreathed in adoration. as they should be; as oikawa should be, ushijima thinks.

oikawa’s glittering

smiles are a sight to behold always. the way he looks back at ushijima with the trust of a twenty-year-old bond forged on ice skates, after iwaizumi had chosen another hobby. he trusts ushijima’s hands—that they will catch him after a toss. trusts his thighs he has to step on

sometimes for a lift. and ushijima trusts him back, knows no other person could do as well to deliver. oikawa is a menace, but one of grace and keen, wide eyes and happy, heavy breaths when he knows they did well on a routine.

they win. over and over, they win. the ice is a

plateau. they are atop the world and skating.

everyone thinks they’re together. oikawa doesn’t mind. it’s good that they sell it so well. he keeps looking back at ushijima during interviews, a habit now, even when they aren’t dancing.

they dance one last time and retire, high

on victory and more than grateful for twenty years. ushijima goes on to explore a few hobbies, keeping in touch as always, while oikawa spends a bit of his time trying to catch up with iwaizumi there’s a lot to make up for, what with a lifetime of spent beside someone else.

oikawa reminisces a lot about being with ushijima. he talks about their routines and their impeccable connection—how he’d never trade it for anything he’d ever achieved. iwaizumi talks about his own life, how it didn’t change much since he left the ice early. he’s still extremely

fond of godzilla, and he and oikawa still get each other, still possess that silent acknowledgement of how big of a presence they are in each others’ lives.

unbreakable, but not inseparable, so they call off the engagement with only so much an eyeroll and a couple fond laughs.

“i love you, you know,” iwaizumi tells him, bright and cheeky.

“i love you too,” oikawa smiles, and they know.

when oikawa receives one of ushijima’s casual invitations to skate, he does so with the calm of someone who’s done it a thousand times. they skate a familiar routine,

graceful and flowing—in character though out of costume, and breath-taking. oikawa has a spring in his moves as always, and ushijima glides right after him, filling in the spaces where a partner should be. they smile at each other even without an audience, and feel sparks nearly

palpable in the cool air. this is what their partnership was built on—this feeling that they weren’t ever going to get with someone else.

“one more?” oikawa asks, and ushijima will always skate for him.

this one ends in a hug; ends with oikawa hanging off ushijima and

ushijima’s face pressed to his chest. and when oikawa stands he looks at ushijima, kneeling, hands on oikawa’s waist and looking up at him with an eye-crinkled smile.

and for the first time in his skating career, oikawa cups ushijima’s jaw and kisses him first. granted, it’s a

cheek kiss, but ushijima had always done that first. he never expected a reciprocation, if his expression is anything to go by.

ushijima doesn’t let himself think too much. when he and oikawa are one-upping each other with axels, he only thinks about it being nothing but happy.

“oh, it took a while,” ushijima is saying, when the interviewer asks about how they got together. “it was the dancing, yeah, it’s always been the dancing, but tooru’s always been so focused on just that. it happened much after.”

beside him, oikawa looks a little shy.

“what about you, oikawa-san?”

“...well.” ushijima places a reassuring hand on his knee. “well, like he said, i was so focused, i probably didn’t realize that anything i did had any meaning in them too. i just looked at some footage and—oh my god.”

“yeah?” ushijima’s voice is teasing, as it had always been, and the way he looks at his partner—off the rink now, too—is age-old.

oikawa is the same.

the way i changed the ending to truly make it ushioi. feral noises!!!