A flashback fic showing the establishment and first few months of the Law Firm of Katsuki, Nikiforov, and Chulanont. Three partners establishing a law firm on the foundation of friendship and shared humor (and maybe some law skills). And of course sexual tension building and boiling between Victor and Yuuri.

This is a prequel to Law Firm of Katsuki, Nikiforov, and Chulanont if you want to see what happens when that sexual tension hits a breaking point, this is the fic to read (explicit)

Their firm was exactly one week old. Boxes had been unpacked, hours of sweaty labor had been put in to rearrange furniture and arguments over who got which office had been resolved by a game of flip cup, played across the conference room table. The letters were finally stenciled on the door and everyone had agreed to Yuuri's thoroughly structured filing system. They were officially the Law Firm of Katsuki, Nikiforov, and Chulanont, attorneys at law, friends in sarcasm.

The concept had been simple. Three friends, all the experienced attorneys, going out on their own to build a firm based on their combined knowledge and skills. Victor and Phichit would be in charge of networking and bringing in new cases, while Yuuri provided the initial clientele, stealing the majority of his previous clients from the public defender's office. Reduced rates would be offered to each of these clients, with continued offers for reductions for every client they referred. Phichit was convinced that they would easily be making sustainable money long before their individual savings accounts ran out.

Yuuri had been the most hesitant, although a few drinks and hours of delicious food prepared by the husbands Chulanont had brought him on board. His paycheck from the State was a steady one, but it came with its own negatives and the positives of the new firm outweighed everything his current employer could offer him. At the top of the positive list was the open policy on bringing all of their pets to the office. The idea of having Vicchan circling his feet while working had put Yuuri solidly in the yes column.

So the firm of Katsuki, Nikiforov and Chulanont was born, an infant firm with three incredibly good-looking partners determined to make a name for themselves in the midst of the polluted market of legal counsel.

It was Phichit's well-intentioned idea that they celebrate their new partnership with the ridiculous concept of team building. Yuuri had googled the phrase, finding workshops and campsites that encouraged it and had immediately shut Phichit down on the potential list of activities. In response, Phichit had volunteered another idea: bowling.

That's how they all found themselves strapped into Velcro rental shoes, surrounded by loud music and flashing neon lights late on a Friday night. The idea of rock-n-bowl hadn't appealed to Yuuri since their drunken college days, but he found himself having fun nonetheless. Until Victor had leaned over the back of his chair and laid down a challenge.

"I'm better than you," Victor taunted, tugging on the back of Yuuri's hair and making him twist around in his seat. "How about if I win, you have to set up my computer." The signature smirk was painted over Victor's face and Yuuri felt the distinct need to wipe it clean off.

"Fine," Yuuri said, standing to take his turn. "If I win," Yuuri lifted his ball, eying Victor over the top of it, "you have to build the TV stand that is sitting in my living room." Turning, Yuuri bent his knees and released his ball. When it struck the pins they shouted in protest, diving for the ground in a pile of ten. Yuuri shot his own smirk at Victor. "Beat that… partner." The last word had a bite to it, daring Victor to retaliate.

The challenge burned through Victor's chest and he hopped off the small step, moving directly into Yuuri's space. "You're on, counselor." He flicked Yuuri's nose before dancing toward the lane to retrieve his own ball.

"The fun has just been sucked out of this activity," Seung-gil stated, arm slung over his husband's shoulders as Phichit snorted. Seung-gil wasn't a part of the firm, but he was Phichit's husband and therefore invited anywhere they went as a group.

"Let them fight it out," Phichit watched as the teasing continued, Yuuri mercilessly attempting to distract Victor during his attempt to pick up a spare. The result being a slight wrestling match at the front of the lane, making Phichit chuckle and Seung-gil snort. "They have to get all that tension out somehow!" The pair was now tickling each other, firing off insults in rapid witty bullets.

"Side bet," Seung-gil turned to look at Phichit instead of the ridiculous ball of sexual tension wrestling fifteen feet away from them. "I say they are together within the year."

Phichit laughed, loudly and accompanied with a slap to his knee. "Those two?" He threw his head back with unexplained humor. "Oh my gosh, honey, they are so dumb. They have at least another five years of bickering to go before they realize how much they love each other!" Putting out his hand, Phichit shook his husband's with a cocky smile. "You're on, sweetheart. And if I win you're mine for the day."

"I'm yours every day," Seung-gil purposefully avoided his husband's innuendo, smiling when Phichit huffed at him.

"You know what I mean," Phichit leaned in, running his tongue over Seung-gil's ear. His husband blushed a fierce red and Phichit sat back triumphantly, eyes traveling back to the struggling mass that was his law partners. The two idiots were now crumpled on the floor alternating pinches and tickles in a fruitless fight for control.

It took them until the lights were being turned on to bowl the final frame of their first game, their progress dramatically slowed by Yuuri and Victor's insistence on physically fighting between every turn. In the end, Victor beat them all by over forty points and Yuuri spent Saturday afternoon assembling his partner's computer while Victor gloated from across the desk.

"What is that?" Yuuri leaned on Victor's office door frame. In their first month they had made enough money to pay their rent and take home a little money for each of them. The flow of clients wasn't yet constant so they all had time to tweak their offices to their liking. Currently, Victor was hanging a large chalkboard in his office.

"My win board," Victor said, speaking around the nail that was braced between his lips.

It was a softball, lobbed beautifully into the air and Yuuri couldn't resist the easy shot. "Why is it so big?" He snickered when Victor glared over his shoulder. "I believe my win-to-loss record is still better than yours." Yuuri ducked when Victor threw a nail in his direction. "Your aim is as good as your defense work."

Victor calmly hung his chalkboard over the nail, unwilling to ruin his hard work to pummel Yuuri. As soon as it hung in perfect balance, Victor laid the hammer on his desk and spun to face his best friend. "You better run, counselor." He laughed as Yuuri yipped and took off running down the hallway. Taking pursuit, Victor could feel the laughter bubbling up. He snagged Yuuri halfway down the hall, bringing them down into a pile of laughter and cursing.

They hadn't made record-breaking money, but the relief that they hadn't fallen flat on their faces had kept Victor in an elevated mood. Using the exhilarated feeling, Victor let himself slip back into his younger self, wrestling with Yuuri in the slender hallway, uncaring about the wrinkles taking over his shirt and his one shoe which was lying a foot away from them.

Above them the distinct click of a cell phone camera broke through their physical altercation. Freezing, they both slowly turned toward their third partner seeing the smug smile planted on Phichit's face. "I'm going to post this to the firm's Instagram," Phichit teased, waving his phone in the air.

Making eye contact, Victor dropped Yuuri's wrists as they both screamed, "get him!" Scrambling from the floor, they chased the laughing Phichit through their small office.

Three days later there were chalkboards hanging in both Yuuri's and Phichit's offices, lovingly hung by Victor, despite each of the new boards being half the size of his own.

"Mini golf," Phichit text to their group chat with a number of emojis that Yuuri didn't even try to understand.

"Why," Seung-gil text back without punctuation. Yuuri snorted at Seung-gil's ability to be deadpan even in text.

"Sounds fun," Victor responded, the three little dots appearing underneath it. "Katsuki, wanna bet I kick your ass again?"

Yuuri's eyes narrowed at his screen. Victor had won in bowling, but there was no way he would win in mini-golf. "Nikiforov, last time we played mini-golf you lost three balls in the water and threw your club at the clown hole."

"Yuuri, you be in charge of Victor's balls then so he doesn't lose them," Phichit added fifteen winking faces and laughed when Yuuri responded with all of the available weapon emojis.

"Ignoring you," Yuuri responded, taking a second to structure his response, "Ok Mr.-I-can't-handle-my-own-balls, you're on. Name your terms."

"I do just fine with my balls!" Victor's text appeared so quickly it was as if he had anticipated Yuuri's joke. "I win, you vacuum the office for a month." The office cleaning was a set of chores which were divvied each week to avoid the cost of a cleaning service. Victor had pulled vacuuming which wasn't the worst chore, but was a chore nonetheless.

"You're on," Yuuri replied, "and if I win, we switch chalkboards, since I need the bigger one anyway."

"Over-compensating?" Victor shot back attaching eggplant emojis to his text.

"Who bought it in the first place?" Yuuri sent his message while snickering into the bag of his hand.

"Again, I ask…. Why." Seung-gil's text had Yuuri fully laughing at his desk as they continued to argue back and forth to set times for their next round of team building.

When Saturday afternoon rolled around, the four of them stood in the middle of the mini-golf course, surrounded by little kids, frustrated parents, and annoying teenagers. They had already been scolded twice for their inappropriate language and Victor was on his second ball.

"What's the score?" Yuuri asked, lining up his shot on the ninth hole, wiggling his ass for comic effect.

"You are winning," Victor huffed, arms crossed over his chest. "Cheaters never prosper, Yuuri." Proving his own point, Victor kicked Yuuri in the foot and tripped backwards being caught by a giggling Phichit.

"Is that so?" Yuuri tossed back nonchalantly. Staring straight at Victor, Yuuri swung his club and sunk his ball into the hole in one shot.

"For fuck's sake!" Victor exclaimed, tossing his own club onto the ground.

Yuuri won by 14 strokes, they almost got kicked out twice, and Victor relinquished his larger chalkboard after three solid days of whining about his loss.

Yuuri was sitting behind a stack of files, feeling overwhelmed as he delved into the detailed word of personal injury. He had signed up for a conference taking place later in the year and hoped he could fake it until he received the training and continuing education that the conference would provide. Sighing again, his head snapped up as Phichit knocked on his open door.

"I acquired two interns," Phichit leaned against the door with his arms folded over his chest.

"Acquired? Phichit it sounds like you fucking bought them!" Yuuri shook his head as Phichit howled with laughter.

"Of course not! Only you, Yuuri!" Phichit laughed again. Composing himself, Phichit cleared his throat. "They are ending their first year of law school so they need experience and are happily working with us without pay. I'm trading them conference room access and studying assistance." Yuuri hummed in response, not particularly caring as long as he didn't need to be involved in the process. "You know what this means, right?"

Glancing up at Phichit's excited face, Yuuri moaned and banged his head on his desk. "Phichit, no!"

"Phichit, yes!" his law partner yelled, pumping a fist in the air. "Team building, here we come!"

Which is how they found themselves, along with their two interns who looked bewildered, strapped into laser tag gear at ten p.m. on a Thursday night. Phichit attempted to sacrifice himself to the team he deemed the "intern team," leaving Victor, Yuuri, and Seung-gil on the same team.

"Nah uh," Victor declared loudly, "I can't be on the same team as Katuski. Bets don't work if we are on the same team."

"No bets!" Seung-gil and Phichit yelled in unison, making the interns, Yuri and Otabek jump. "We are here for fun, you two!" Phichit eyed them carefully, flicking a finger between them. "This is an activity to make us a better team."

"Besides," Yuri added, glaring at Victor, "you are the tallest, so you are an easy target, I don't want you on my team." Yuuri roared with laughter until Victor shoved him into a wall. Kicking his foot out, Yuuri caught Victor behind the back of the knee, dumping his best friend on the ground. "On second thought," Yuri shoved Phichit into Seung-gil's arms and yanked Yuuri to the side with himself and Otabek. "We'll take him."

Victor pouted from the ground, his acceptance of Yuuri's offered hand filled with grumpy salt. Leaning over Yuuri, Victor narrowed his eyes. "If we win, I want my chalkboard back."

Yuuri laughed, stepping back to stand with Yuri and Otabek. "If we win, I get the couch."

A shocked look appeared on Victor's face. "You wouldn't!" He placed a hand over his heart, mockingly acting as if he had been mortally wounded. "That couch has sentimental value to both of us!"

Rolling his eyes, Yuuri stuck his hand out. "Take it or leave it, Nikiforov." Smirking when Victor grabbed his hand, Yuuri quirked an eyebrow in his direction. "May the best man win!"

"I intend to," Seung-gil added, smiling slightly before dragging Phichit away to their base.

In the end, Yuri was a ringer no one saw coming, mercilessly killing off the other team with repeated and skilled fire. His score was so high that it left the other members of the firm staring at the scoreboard in disbelief. Yuuri's team easily won and he silently gloated through dinner about his future use and possession of the worn blue couch that had once existed in his shared apartment with Victor.

Victor refused to get off of the couch while Yuuri and Phichit attempted to move it from his office the next day, resulting in them giving up and calling him a baby. "A baby with a couch!" Victor yelled triumphantly from his office, dodging the handfuls of the firm's pens as they were launched at him by his partners.

The war of thrown office supplies, spurred on by Victor's retaliation for being bombarded with pens, left their office a complete disaster and the three partners a flushed, humor exhausted mess. Sinking back into his chair, smirking at the pile of disorganized supplies scattered through his personal office, Yuuri decided that joining his friends in this adventure was the best decision he had made in his life.

And thus through humor, friendship, and curse-laden sarcasm, the Law Firm of Katsuki, Nikiforov, and Chulanont came to be.