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Figure skating was great, and Otabek never regretted choosing it as his sport. It set him apart, gave him the standing of a national hero even if he didn’t have Olympic medals, and it had led him to Yuri. Still, some days, Otabek wished he’d followed a more traditional path and gone into boxing. Even though it didn’t do much to help him with his skating, he devoted several hours a week to the punching bag. It was a good outlet for his aggression, and when he got seriously pissed, he needed the outlet.
Today was one of those days where he needed it. The rumors of Yuri’s infidelity were annoying, but that wasn’t what had him skipping watching the taekwondo matches with Seung Gil to come beat up a punching bag. Of course Yuri had been seen out on the town with Seung Gil, and while Otabek was surprised they’d been seen making out, that was more because Seung Gil hated PDA and normally wouldn’t even hold hands in public.
Yuri was skipping the taekwondo matches too, but he had a better excuse. Seung Gil wanted to know how Otabek ended up with a sasaeng fan, and Otabek had no explanation. Everyone knew about Yuri’s Angels being obsessive, invasive, and over the top, and for a handsome South Korean celebrity like Seung Gil, that kind of thing was an expected downside to achieving fame. For Otabek to have a fan who thought it was a good idea to beat Yuri half to death for any reason was bad enough; for it to be over such a stupid reason was what had Otabek seeing red and pounding a punching bag into submission.
Yuri had gotten hurt for cheating on Otabek, which was stupid, because being with Seung Gil wasn’t cheating. Especially in a situation like this, where the three of them were in the same country at the same time instead of Seung Gil being in Korea on his own and Yuri and Otabek being in Russia, Kazakhstan, or Japan, together or separately. When the three of them were together, Otabek encouraged Yuri to spend as much time as he could get with Seung Gil, or all three of them would hang out. Right now, they had all gathered in Tokyo to support their countries’ Summer Olympics athletes, which is why Seung Gil was at taekwondo right now. A Korean athlete was fighting for a spot in the gold medal match.
Yuri’s fans were well aware that Yuri had two boyfriends. Seung Gil’s fans managed to be aware that his boyfriend had another boyfriend. Why was Otabek the one whose fans had missed the memo?
He had lost track of time, so the hand on his shoulder was a surprise. “Seung Gil? Match over?”
“Match over. She made the championship match tomorrow. Sara texted that Yuri and Viktor are in some huge fight at the hospital, so we might want to get over there.”
Otabek took a deep breath. This could be important, but it could also be a bad idea. He loved Yuri, but Yuri and Viktor could get into the biggest fights over the dumbest shit. “How stupid a fight is it?”
“I don’t know. All Sara said was that there was a fight and I should grab you and get there quick. Mila’s been trying to call you.”
Otabek grabbed a towel to wipe off the sweat he’d worked up, and then dug his phone out of the gym bag and turned it on. Sure enough, five missed calls from Mila and seven texts. “If it’s important enough for Mila to be doing this, then I guess it’s probably important enough for me to go even if I still haven’t worked out all the anger.”
As it turned out? Not all that stupid, at least, not on Yuri’s part. “Beka! Seung Gil! There you guys are. Explain to this idiot that I am not going home.”
Otabek hung back, letting Seung Gil go to Yuri and start petting his hair. “Why do you want Yuri to go home? You know how little time he gets with Seung Gil as it is.”
“If there are other crazy fans out there… he’ll be safer in Hasetsu or Moscow.” Viktor turned to Otabek. “Don’t worry, we’ve got people on this from a publicity standpoint, and no one blames you for any of this. I just want to make sure my skater will be able to skate in October.”
“Which I understand, because I want him on the ice as much as anyone,” Otabek said. “Thing is, here in Tokyo, he’s probably better protected than he would be anywhere else unless we sent him to my grandmother. You and Yuuri are here, Seung Gil and I are here, one of Kazakhstan’s people here has promised to help with security since it was one of ours who did this…”
Seung Gil looked up. “One of my sponsors has promised the same thing since I’m the alleged cause, and you know my people know how to handle these crazy fans.”
Otabek crossed his arms and glared at Viktor. “So here, Yuri’s got family and boyfriends to personally look out for his safety, as well as at least three different organizations promising to help with security. And that’s if Russia doesn’t do anything since he’s here as a spectator instead of an athlete. Send him home, and a lot of that goes away.”
“So quit being an idiot, Viktor. There’s way too much else to watch. As it is I’m pissed because I had to miss the prelims for women’s gymnastics, you know there’s no way I’m missing the finals, not with Marfa competing.” Marfa was Yuri’s half-sister, and while they’d only met as adults, they’d bonded quickly over how awful their father was. “How’d she do, anyway?”
“No one here knows because we’ve all been a little busy,” Viktor said. “Please don’t be an idiot about this.”
“Like Beka said, the only place that would be safer for me right now is if I went to his grandmother, and that would only be safe because she’d lock me up and beat the stuffing out of anyone who got within ten kilometers of her house. I won’t be an idiot. We can change hotels, use a fake name to check in, I won’t go out partying, just go to the events we plan to watch live and find somewhere safe to hang out the rest of the time. I’ll text you and Yuuri regularly. I want to be safe, too, you know.”
Viktor stared down Yuri, then gave a curt nod. “Fine. But if I hear one hint of trouble, you miss one check-in text without a good excuse, and I’m calling Yakov.” He spun and walked out quickly, phone already out as he texted someone.
Yuri rolled his eyes. “Beka, what the hell are you still over there for? If this is about your thing with trying to force balance between you and Seung Gil, you’re an idiot to begin with and you’re a real idiot for thinking it applies to emergency situations like this. If this is about you thinking I’m mad at you or you don’t deserve to be over here because it was your fan who was the asshole who did this to me, then you are a complete fucking moron and need to get over it.”
Put that way, even Otabek found it impossible to believe that Yuri didn’t mean what he was saying with all of his heart. The balance issue was one of the trickiest parts of their relationship – Otabek still felt a little bad about the fact that he got to live with Yuri while Seung Gil didn’t even live in the same country, despite both Yuri and Seung Gil’s repeated assurances that Seung Gil was happier having his own space and his own life. Maybe this would be a good place to start working on shifting things more to what Yuri wanted – if Otabek had gone with them last night, this probably… okay, was less likely to have happened. Yuri kept telling Otabek that while of course he and Seung Gil needed some time just for the two of them, it wasn’t nearly as much as Otabek kept insisting on giving them, and that it would be nice for the three of them to hang out as a group more. “Sorry, Yura. My first crazy fan, you know? You and Seung Gil are a lot more used to this.” He came over and sat on Yuri’s other side, reaching out to stroke his hair as well. “I’m glad you’re all right.”