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Yuri and Otabek are in a queerplatonic relationship. Not a lot of people know what this means, but it is actually quite simple. You see, Yuri is aromantic and Otabek is grey-romantic, placing them both firmly on the aro-spectrum. And this means that Yuri never and Otabek rarely experience romantic attraction. What aro people get instead is called a ‘squish’. Yes, it’s a stupid name, Yuri knows that well, but it’s kind of the arospec equivilant of a crush, when your feelings for someone are strongly platonic, or in some way queerplatonic (that is, being something that isn’t romantic but isn’t quite platonic either; it’s hard to understand if you’re not aro). But they have massive squishes on each other, which led them to begin their queerplatonic relationship.
A queerplatonic relationship can be many things, but for Otabek and Yuri it is basically like the deepest friendship you could ever have, except you hold hands a lot and live together (they share a room, but not a bed) and they want to get married and maybe even raise kids one day. Their relationship isn’t romantic in the slightest, but you don’t need romance to love someone; they love each other in their own arospec way.
And they are in a real relationship, despite what people say about queerplatonic relationships. In fact, from the outside, they act just like any other couple. They hold hands, they bicker—
(The bickering is Yuri’s favourite, like the time he got onto the back of Otabek’s motorbike for the 200th time, only to give him a cautious look and say, “Please tell me you know how to drive this thing.”; Otabek didn’t dignify him with a response.)
—The only difference is their lack of romance. But they are valid. And they're in (queerplatonic) love.