Work Text:
Freak.
People always call her that.
Whether it was when she was acting ‘weird’ as a kid, dancing on the playing field and daydreaming and talking about ice skating too much, and the other children would laugh and push her to the back of the lunch queue saying “Wait in line, freakshow.” even though she got there first and things like that. Her autism diagnosis didn’t change this; if anything, they got worse.
Or when she came out as agender and no one believed her. How they called her a freak for being assigned female at birth but wanting to use she/her pronouns, because that obviously meant she wasn’t really agender at all but just a cis girl who wanted to be weird. Even though Yuri wanted top surgery one day, no one cared. Everyone misgendered her. And she hated it.
Or when she came out as asexual and everyone said she was broken, and it was only Victor and Yavok and Mila and the other skaters who supported her. And her grandpa, of course. Yuri could always rely on her grandpa.
Or how the media called her a freak for wanting to skate in the men’s category, even though she was ‘clearly a girl’. Even though Yuri only did so grudgingly and really wished skating could have a third category for nonbinary people so people like her didn’t have to be misgendered.
But by sixteen years old, it barely phases her to be called a freak. She’s just used to it.
But then she starts dating Otabek, and someone on the internet has the nerve to called Otabek a freak for dating Yuri.
“What’s the matter?” Otabek asks, seeing Yuri in a mood.
And Yuri explains her history with the word ‘freak’. Shocked and horrified, he hugs her.