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Otabek walked into training camp for the Flying Tigers, an international exhibition Quidditch team he participated in during the off-season. He loved participating – he had a lot of friends who played in the league, and this year, he already knew he was competing with two of the closest. Christophe Giacometti was the captain of the Tigers this year and playing Keeper, while JJ Leroy was one of the Chasers, along with the Crispino twins. Mila Babicheva was Seeker, which was nice. He’d played with her before and she was one of the best. Otabek was playing Beater. He hadn’t heard who his partner was going to be yet, which had him worried. Chemistry was important.
JJ was already there, flying laps around the pitch to get a feel for it. He came to hover in front of Otabek as soon as he spotted him. “Hey! Good to see you! Chris is busy with the meetings and stuff, have you seen anyone else?”
“No, but I talked to Mila yesterday. The Crispinos were told the wrong day to report to camp, somehow. They had something they couldn’t drop today, but they’ll be here tomorrow. Mila’s at the Seeker’s camp for the first week, of course. So it’s just you, me, Chris when he gets here, and whoever the other Beater is. Have you heard anything?”
“What the hell? Leave it to Chris to be that disorganized. I’d much rather be playing for Nikiforov’s team, for all he’s such a drama queen, or Popovich or Cao Bin’s.” JJ shook his head in disgust. “I don’t know either. I know he’s Russian, and this is his first time in the charity league.”
“His name is Yuri Plisetsky and he’s standing right behind you, asshole.”
Otabek jumped and spun around. Sure enough, there was a blond boy standing behind him, glaring. He barely looked old enough to play, and he really didn’t look big enough to be a Beater. More like a Seeker. Otabek was willing to trust that was just a product of his youth and he’d grow, but that wasn’t going to help their team this year.
Then he recognized the name, and he had to get on his broom and fly away. Yuri’s voice followed him. “What’s his problem?”
“He was probably expecting a proper partner like he had last year, not a fairy princess.” That nearly got Otabek to turn around. JJ was a complete ass. “Or maybe he’s worried he’ll get distracted by how cute you are.”
That did get Otabek to turn around. He dove at JJ and would have hit him if it weren’t for the timely arrival of Chris. “HEY! ALTIN! NO KILLING TEAMMATES UNTIL WE CAN DRAFT OUR RESERVES!”
“JJ deserves it, Chris!” But Otabek listened and pulled up, coming in to hover in front of Chris.
Chris got practice started with some basic flying drills, which Otabek found mind-numbing. After the third time a sharp turn resulted in JJ tangled up with Yuri, Chris whistled them down. “Is something going on with the two of you? Do I need to contact Viktor and see if he’s willing to make a trade?”
“No problem, Chris, it’s just Yuri’s first crush and he doesn’t know what to do about it.” JJ winked at Yuri, who nearly flung himself off his broom.
“If you’re going to trade one of them, trade JJ,” Otabek said. Yuri stared at Otabek, eyes wide and jaw hanging open. “I’m not sure how well the Crispinos will handle one of them being an alternate, because two of the slots belong to JJ and his ego.”
Chris snorted. “All right. Come on, JJ, take some shots at me while we let these two get familiar with their balls.”
Otabek rolled his eyes and headed for the box containing the Bludgers. Yuri followed him. “Is he always that big a dick?”
“Which one, Chris, or JJ? Chris will make anything sexual if he possibly can. JJ is…” Otabek shook his head. “He’s actually a friend of mine, normally, but he has his days where he is a total asshole. Today seems to be one of those days.”
“Great. At least the Hag and her girlfriend and her girlfriend’s brother aren’t entirely terrible. What’s your deal?”
Otabek tossed one of the Bludgers to Yuri. “You mean about earlier, when I flew off?”
“Yeah. JJ had a couple theories, which I’m guessing you heard.”
“I needed some time to collect myself. I trained in Russia for a while, and you probably don’t remember, but I trained with you at Feltsman’s Academy for a few months. You’re the reason I switched from Seeker to Beater. My mom was a Seeker for Kazakhstan, the year we made it into the World Cup, and everyone expected me to follow in her footsteps. Everyone always thought I was too small to be a Beater, but then I saw what you were doing at Feltsman’s… if you could do it, so could I. It gave me the confidence to force coaches to give me a chance.”
“I don’t remember that, but the only reason they let me play Beater is that I’m not going to stay small forever. My dad was taller than Nikiforov and I’m probably going to get there, and while I may not have the build most people would expect, I can pack a lot more muscle on than most people give me credit for. I’m not a fairy princess.”
“That was JJ, not me.”
“I know.” Yuri held up the Bludger. “Start with one and then get the other one going when there’s more traffic to dodge?”
“Sounds good. And hey, if you want to ‘accidentally’ knock it into JJ’s head? It’s the first day, your first time in the league… a little nerves are to be expected.”
Yuri chuckled. “JJ’s not worth it. Chris is already considering a trade and I wouldn’t want him to decide to trade me to the old man. As bad as JJ is, being around him and his boyfriend while they’re slobbering all over each other during practice is worse.”
They both turned at a whistle. “You boys aren’t going to be Beating anything but your own meat if you don’t get your asses in the air and flying in five seconds!” Chris shouted.
Otabek was exhausted by the time Chris called an end to practice. “Shame the Crispinos aren’t here, but no reason we can’t still have our team bonding night at the bar, right?”
JJ tilted his head to one side, looking Yuri up and down. “I don’t know, can the ballerina here drink yet?”
“More than you, asshole,” Yuri said. “Let’s go.”
Otabek was the only one not surprised when Chris turned out to be the lightweight. JJ and Yuri both expected it to be the other, Chris expected Yuri. Otabek shook his head at JJ and Chris. “Didn’t you learn from Nikiforov and Babicheva last year? Never go up against a Russian in a drinking contest! It’s right up there with getting into a land war in Asia or going against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”
“You’re not Russian…” Chris slurred.
“I had the sense not to try to outdrink the Russian.” Otabek dropped Chris on his bunk. “Sleep it off. You know the Crispinos are not going to be sympathetic to a hung over Keeper when they didn’t get to come drink with us.”
“I’ll sleep better if you stay with me!” Chris winked at Otabek.
Yuri kicked Chris’s bed. “You’re drunk and gross. Go to sleep, douchebag.”
“You’re invited too, pretty Russian. I always did like pretty Russian boys…”
JJ swatted Chris’s head. “Go to sleep before someone files a sexual harassment charge against you. And don’t even ask me, you know better.” Chris pouted but closed his eyes, and before long, he was snoring. JJ rolled his eyes. “Yuri, Chris is always like this, you’re probably best off to avoid him when he’s drinking this hard. I mean, when he’s sober, he’ll make innuendo out of anything he can, but he knows better than to hit on teammates.”
Yuri scowled. “Hitting on teammates is bad?”
“Me and Beks, no, we know Chris doesn’t mean anything by it and he’ll take no without it affecting our standing on the team. You don’t know Chris at all, do you?”
“I’ve heard about him from Viktor and Baba, but we’ve never actually met.” Yuri started walking to his own bunk.
JJ looked at Otabek, who shrugged, and then JJ’s face lit up. “Yuri! Don’t hit on me, I’m engaged, and don’t hit on Sara or whichever of Michele and Mila is closer will kill you, but if you want to hit on Beks or Chris or Michele or Mila, go for it. I think Beks would love it.”
“Wait, you’re engaged? When did that happen?” Otabek asked so he didn’t have to think about Yuri hitting on him.
“Last night. Isabella and I are getting married when this is over, so we can get the honeymoon done before I have to report to Canadian League training camp.”
“Congratulations, dude.” Otabek hugged JJ. “You finally got the balls to ask. Told you there was nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah. Night, boys. I’m gonna go call Belle before I turn in. Welcome to the league, Yuri!”