Work Text:
Almaty is the best place in the world. Not because of the clear sky. Not because of the mountains with the cute white tops in the distance. Not because of the national park just outside the city, or because of the mesmerizing lakes scattered around it like paint splashes of blue and green watercolor. No, Almaty is beautiful for one reason: Otabek Altin. And arriving there makes Yuri’s chest swell with excitement and joy.
It’s a Sunday and Otabek picks him up from the airport and as soon as Yuri catches sight of the purposely tousled black hair and weirdly shaped eyebrows his heartbeat speeds up. He drops his suitcase and jumps at his friend just like he used to do with his grandfather before the man’s back became too bad some time ago. Otabek is young and healthy and strong and he holds Yuri secure, the blonde’s limbs draped around him. He chuckles adorably and Yuri holds him even closer.
“Nice to see you”, he murmurs close to Yuri’s ear and the blonde blushes; Otabek’s breath tickles on his skin.
“Nice to see you, too”, he replies.
Last time they saw each other was a week ago at the Grand Prix Final and it was the longest week of Yuri’s life. He and Otabek became friends there, you know, like, best friends and they had only a few days for it! So when they texted and skyped and sent each other selfies and so on and then Otabek suggested that in that short timespan between New Year and Russian Christmas Yuri could come over to visit him in Almaty, well, Yuri didn’t even have to think twice about it. He booked the first flight in the morning of New Year and the first leaving on the seventh of January and only after that scampered down the old wooden stairs and told Lilia about it. She sighed and cocked one eyebrow because “usually you ask for permission first and book the flight afterwards, Yuri Petrovich”, but filled out the documents that let him leave the country with a thin smile.
So Yuri has one week to be with Otabek, his very best friend, time to hang out and talk and skate and watch netflix and eat pizza together and he’s seriously so fucking excited that he hugs Otabek just a little longer.
It’s very cold in Almaty, of course, and the streets are full of snow, the bus traffic is shit and they really end up in Otabek’s small old flat most of the time, cooking together or watching each other's junior routines or listening to music or playing Otabek’s old videogames and after two days Yuri really gets the hang of Soul Calibur 2. When he wins ten to six with Cervantes and Talim Otabek shakes his hand with a proud smile and it makes something happen in Yuri’s chest.
To be completely honest: this is not the first time it happens. He knows that feeling now, it appeared some days ago when he was texting Otabek and the Kazakh very unexpectedly wrote I miss you a lot . Yuri stared at the message for what felt like a week and then he noticed it: some kind of heat in his chest, and a gentle tug on the inside, like something tickling him from behind his ribs. It was the same feeling he experiences now as he looks at Otabek smiling at him, proud of him for beating him in a stupid videogame. Yuri thinks that it’s a beautiful smile and it suits Otabek who is a beautiful boy.
When he arrived they both thought he’d sleep on the sofa. It’s a great sofa, old and brown and damn comfy and a meter and fifty long. That is the problem, too, because Yuri grew and he’s 1,66 now, almost as tall as his friend. Otabek was confounded but Yuri shrugged it off and suggested he’d just sleep in Otabek’s bed, too. It’s a double bed so there’s no problem other than the fact that Otabek practically passes out as soon as his head is in a 10 centimeter radius of his pillow and Yuri lies awake for some time, bored. When his eyes adjust to the darkness, he turns over to watch Otabek.
Hands down, Otabek is really handsome. He has those high cheekbones and a sharp jaw line that makes him look very masculine. But his lashes are long and black and beautifully curved and his button nose is pointy and cute. His lips are parted slightly and Yuri watches how they sometimes move when Otabek has a dream or is talking in his sleep silently. Even when he’s asleep Otabek frowns sometimes and it’s super sweet. Yuri loves watching Otabek in the almost dark of his bedroom and he does so every night.
In the mornings it’s the other way around. Otabek is always awake when Yuri is still dozing, but he lies perfectly still until Yuri emerges from sleep very slowly. On Monday when he wakes up cuddled up against Otabek he is a little embarrassed, so he chuckles dozily and distances himself from his friend.
“Morning”, he breathes smiling and Otabek smiles back. It’s such a pretty smile, seriously, and for a moment Yuri thinks that he could hug Otabek close and then he’d be so happy. But of course he doesn’t because that’s not what friends do.
On Tuesday it happens again: Yuri wakes up, his messy hair spread on Otabek’s upper arm and shoulder and he really wants to hold onto Otabek. He smells good, Otabek. Like really good. His scent is like a flower bouquet that dried some time ago, the petals different shades of withered away yellow, collecting dust, shimmering in the sunlight. It’s heavy, but nice and it feels like a precious memory. Yuri makes it one, inhaling deeply as soon as he realizes that he is awake then chuckles and pushes back under the shared blanket. “Morning”, he murmurs and Otabek returns the greeting with this wonderful smile.
On Wednesday they watch Terminator because Yuri has never seen it and it’s one of Otabek’s all time favourites. As they are halfway through the DVD Yuri snuggles up against Otabek because - well, to be honest because this feeling in his chest is kind of nice actually and he has it when he’s close to Otabek. Of course he wondered what it means, this feeling. He decided that this is what it feels like to have a friend, because it’s the first time he’s been so happy off the ice and it’s the first time he has a best friend, so that must be it. And when Otabek drapes his arm around Yuri that feeling is there, stronger than ever before and it’s so nice.
They are both pretty focused on the movie when Yuri suddenly realizes the soft fingertips on his skin. His shirt slipped out of position a little so that the skin of Yuri’s waist is exposed. He wouldn’t even notice usually but then, unexpectedly, Otabek draws idle patterns on his skin with the tips of his fingers and it sends a bolt of thunder through Yuri. He blushes, his head whips around so he can look at Otabek, see what it means. This new, little gesture that makes his insides scorch and his ribs tickle from the inside. Otabek looks back at him and his cheeks are caramel tan one moment but peach pink the next and he stares at him for a second then pulls his hand away and presses it on the padding of the sofa. “Sorry”, he says, frowning, clearly embarrassed. “I was distracted. I didn’t mean to…” He’s pretty like that. Very, very pretty. Yuri wants him to be like that forever. Also he wants that feeling in his chest forever and the fingertips that caused it on his skin forever. He reaches around himself and takes Otabek’s hand, intertwines their fingers on the same bare spot of skin of his waist, then without a word snuggles even closer and pretends to focus on the movie again.
Actually he thinks about a lot of things though. He realizes that he might just have fallen in love with Otabek. When it was about that - ‘falling in love’ - Yuri always thought that it’s a process. Like literal falling: You can not stop it and it takes some time and at one point you just realize that somewhere on the way you started loving someone. But this is different. He doesn’t think that he loved Otabek before. He was honest about their friendship, because that is what it was. A friendship. But from the moment on when Yuri saw that blush on Otabek’s pretty face he was in love with him. Just like that. And it’s a wonderful feeling.
So when they are in bed, Otabek drop dead on his back with Yuri next to him in fetal position, the way Yuri watches Otabek is entirely different. Otabek’s scent makes his heart flutter. The shadow of the dark lashes does. The shape of his cute nose does. The movement of his lips does. And in a very brave split second Yuri acts on instinct and reaches out with his hand.
Otabek’s hair is thick and wiry. His skin is soft. Warm. His lips are soft under Yuri’s fingers. So soft. So, so, so soft. Yuri wants to kiss him. He doesn’t dare. Not now. Not tonight.
On Thursday he hugs Otabek. It’s awkward afterwards, but Yuri enjoyed the close proximity and he decides to do it more often. For Otabek they are still best friends, so it’s okay to do that he guesses.
On Friday he kisses Otabek. Not his lips though. And Otabek doesn’t notice it’s a kiss. Yuri covered it up perfectly, he’s a genius.
“What in the name of God are you doing?!”, Otabek says and he sounds shocked in a way. That rarely happens.
Yuri stares at him with glittering eyes, kneeling next to him on his couch, his hands still in Otabek’s hair. His grin is wide and Otabek’s hair is a mess. He loves it. “I always wanted to do that”, he smirks contently and then buries his face in Otabek’s hair. It’s wonderful, this scent and Yuri inhales deeply. And then, in the heat of the moment, he presses a kiss on the crown of Otabek’s disheveled hair, one that Otabek can hardly feel with Yuri’s both hands and most of his face somewhere in the black mess, but Yuri knows it’s there. His exhale is almost a rapt sigh. He’s seriously so in love.
When Yuri backs away eventually and sits on his calves he notices another super sweet frown. Otabek clearly doesn’t know how cute he looks like that. With a laugh Yuri messes Otabek’s hair up even more. “Oh, come on, grumpy cat! I just love your hair and how it smells, don’t look at me like that. It just makes you look even more adorable when you scowl at me like that although I know that you can’t be angry at me for more than two secon- WHA!” He yelps when Otabek jumps at him making a tangled chaos out of Yuri’s own hair. He knows Yuri’s ticklish spots, but he knows no mercy and in the end Yuri begs him to stop almost unable to breathe between laughter. That and his heart is beating so fast!
Yuri never wants to leave Almaty. He never wants to be separated from Otabek.