Chapter Text
no26 - Goodbye
yuri likes to maintain that with texting and modern technology, goodbyes are pointless, especially since he’s just going to message otabek mere hours—minutes, sometimes—after they part.
no27 - Hide
yuri learned to hide at a young age, yes, but otabek knew him before, knew him and recognized him before yuri could erect four stone walls, and somehow he’s less discomfited by that than he thought he’d be.
no28 - Fortune
“how did you manage to find me?” yuri asks later that night in barcelona, standing at the door of his room.
otabek smiles and says: “just good luck.”
no29 - Safe
yuuri nudges victor’s shoulder and points to where yuri is nestled under otabek’s arm, both of them sound asleep in the backseat, and victor smiles his softest of smiles.
no30 - Ghost
he wakes up the morning after the grand prix final and wonders if he imagined making friends with yuri plisetsky; later that day, yuri sends him a selfie and a message reading only “airports fucking suck,” and he smiles to himself in his cab.
no31 - Book
otabek has never been much of a reader, but when it comes to yuri plisetsky he somehow finds it in himself to be downright studious.
no32 - Eye
“you’ve got—“ and before yuri can even blink otabek is running a thumb along his eyelash and muttering something about snowflakes, which makes breathing something like a herculean effort.
no33 - Never
“you don’t smile like that around other people,” mila says before skating away, and yuri scowls after her.
“you don’t blush like that, either.”
no34 - Sing
usually, otabek prefers having the rink to himself, but lately he’s found he doesn’t mind the sound of another pair of skates on the ice, matching his step for step.
no35 - Sudden
it wasn’t quite love at first sight—otabek had been too young, then, to know what love was, but he thinks that might have been the day he started to fall.
no36 - Stop
“how many?”
“mm, i’m not sure,” yuri says from his place at otabek’s feet, smirking. “i lost count, but twenty more sit-ups can’t hurt.”
no37 - Time
they walk down the seemingly endless promenade, hand-in-hand, and as he takes in the brightness of yuri’s eyes he finds himself wondering if there will ever be enough time.
no38 - Wash
otabek looks at the scarf in his hands that yuri just thrust at him. “i’ll wash it before i give it back—“
“no,” yuri says quickly, and otabek blinks at the pink beginning to take hold on yuri’s cheeks.
no39 - Torn
“you’ve been spending too much time in almaty,” yakov tells yuri one day after he overrotates his lutz for a second time. “your mind is always elsewhere.”
no40 - History
“i broke one record already—i’ll be damned if i don’t break the other,” he says, and when otabek squeezes his shoulder yuri knows that he believes that, too.
no41 - Power
otabek has referred to him as powerful before, yes, but watching otabek skate looks much like a finely tuned engine sounds—a steady purr that radiates a power yuri can feel down to his bones.
no42 - Bother
“i know we just called yesterday but would you maybe—”
“i’d love to.”
no43 - God
“he really does have the body of a god,” phichit says as otabek finishes up his practice, and yuri swallows.
no44 - Wall
the back halls of the 2018 winter olympic games are probably not the best place they could have chosen for a clandestine moment, but with his shoulders against the wall and otabek’s chest under his hands, yuri can’t bring himself to be bothered.
no45 - Naked
“goodnight, yuratchka,” otabek says, and yuri is so caught off-guard he nearly drops his phone.
no46 - Drive
yuri’s trip to almaty is marked not by the days but by yuri’s growing proximity when they go on rides, a shift from hands on hips to arms around otabek’s waist, steady and sure.
no47 - Harm
maybe it’s because he’s looking closer than anyone else, or because he knows where to look, or that he’s just familiar with otabek’s stride and his resting expression—yuri knows something isn’t right the moment otabek steps off the ice.
no48 - Believe
yuri’s hand tightens on his phone and he says, “beka, if you keep assuming that no one believes in you and that no one expects anything from you anymore, i’m going to have to reach through this phone and strangle you.”
no49 - Hunger
as if he could ever want you, yuri thinks to himself after he hangs up one night, cheeks still warm but his heart growing heavy.
no50 - Precious
it occurs to yuri that one reason it all works is because otabek doesn’t treat him like somthing delicate—rather, he treasures yuri in part because he knows he doesn’t have to be careful.